Number 20!

Hello and happy weekend! Sharing a Christmas card today...this is number 20 so far this year...which is definitely a record for me! I was determined not to have a last minute panic...still loads to go but at least I feel as if I've tried :)
The image is a cute little House Mouse stamp which I've coloured with copics, papers from a pad which was a gift from my lovely sister. The dark red paper is embossed with stars, don't know the make of the e.f. Die cuts are Sizzix Tim Holtz. The tiny stars are mdf. It was a quick and easy make!
Thanks for calling by today, hope you're enjoying the weekend!
Chris
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Challenges entered:
Rudolph days  July
citycrafter. #372 something beginning with s (stars, string, Santa Mouse)
hollyandivy #11
cardz4galz. #52
cutecardthursday #488
craftingbydesigns Christmas
watercooler wednesday  Christmas
housemouse-challenge. #246

Flower Power

Good morning.
It's time for a new challenge at Southern Girls,  sponsored this fortnight  by Krafters Cart , it's Team Trace's turn to play.We  have the lovely theme of  'Flower Power'.
I recently bought a set of gorgeous daisy stamps with matching dies from Polkadoodles and this seemed like a good opportunity to try them out! I stamped the daisy head and stem onto a piece of watercolour paper (didn't use the dies!). I then used Zig Clean Colour pens and water to colour, again a new acquisition (ok I've been extravagant!) and unused before! As the stamp is quite large I kept the design very CAS just adding a stamped greeting.
Thanks for visiting, be sure to hop over to Southern Girls Challenges  to check out the lovely floral creations from my fabulous teamies!
Chris
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Challenges entered:
Addicted to stamps  #252
daisychain #10
happylittlestampers July CAS

Summer fun at Creative Moments

Good morning!

The optional theme for this fortnight's challenge at Creative Moments is 'summer fun'...with an added twist of using punches or dies...or of course 'anything goes'!

We have 2 great sponsors this time, Sparkle N Sprinkle and Scribbles. I was given  this fab tropical drink image to use, coloured with copics and added glossy accents all over the glass. The little cocktail glasses are cut with a punch my daughter gave me years ago when I first started crafting, I punched them from white cardstock and coloured them with copics to match the colours in the main image, again i covered them with glossy accents. The papers were a magazine freebie.  I followed athis sketch from Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2.

Summer seems to have deserted us here right now, can't complain as we've had some wonderful weather so far this year, just seems a shame that as soon as school's out the weather changes! Hopefully the sun will reappear soon!

Thanks for visiting!

Chris

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Challenges entered:

sweetsketchwednesday2 #117
cardmania #94 summer fun
creatalicious #119

A bit of time to play...

I had a very quiet weekend...lovely and peaceful, with time to read and play! Weather a bit unsettled (well a lot unsettled yesterday!) so the craft room was a good place to be. I didn't feel like making cards so I dug out my art journal and made a new page.
I used acrylic paint to paint the page matt black then stencilled some cogs onto it using Starlights metallic paint, then stamped and gold embossed more cogs... didn't come out very well as the page is not flat for stamping, but as it was an effect I was aiming for it didn't really matter!
 I cut the clock from DP and stuck it roughly in the middle. The beautiful , but creepy, girl is an Aurora Wings image I was lucky enough to win recently, coloured with copics (boy, those frills were challenging!), tiny real feathers added to her hat. The gorgeous steampunk owls are also Aurora Wings,  I used copics and and a gold gel pen to colour and then painted over their wings with sparkle pens. I added some die cut and embossed cogs, a metal owl charm (difficult to see...he's in the bottom left hand corner) more stamping and a bit of doodling. It was a lovely relaxing way to spend a dull damp Sunday!
Thanks for looking, I hope you like my page!
Chris
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Challenges
Aurora Wings #54
welove2create #16
throughthepurplehaze #129
ainkymess  #12
crafterscafe  #177
happylittlestampers July mixed media

Cake!

Good morning and happy weekend. There's a new Challenge starting today at Sweet Stampin' with the fabulous theme of 'Cake'! I thought I'd share the photos of the exploding box  card I made for my son and daughter in law last December.  First of all I'd like to apologise for the terrible quality of these photos! I made this  card in the deep dark days of winter and could never get any decent light to take photos! The colours are actually a very deep blue and a creamy white to match the wedding colours. The card I used had a beautiful shimmer too, which also is not apparent here!

The cake is constructed from card with liquid pearl icing, decorated with satin ribbon, cream and dark blue rosebuds and die cut ivy and silver hearts. The large hearts are die cut as is the lettering.

Here's the top of the box when closed...

and here's the inside of the lid, with a stamped and embossed message, and a small pocket for a personal message to the happy couple! Not a lot of stamping this week , but it is there! Again the colours are weird, the embossing is definitely silver not gold!

I did enjoy constructing this card, quite a challenge as it's a 6 inch cube...my lovely new daughter-in-law absolutely loved it (it's still on display now!)

Thanks for visiting today...for more inspiration  please click here to see some yummy treats from my lovely teamies! Then it's your turn to make our mouths water...just remember to stamp something on your entries!

Have a great weekend

Chris

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Challenges entered:

emeraldcity #1

fussyandfancy #192

reallyreasonableribbon #168

simplycreatetoo #129

happylittlestampers atg with dies

allsorts #425 fancy folds

Reminder post for Crafty Calendar July Challenge

Good morning and happy weekend! A quick post from me as I've a busy day ahead...food to prepare for a family get together to celebrate my lovely Mum's 82nd birthday...and two granddaughters to look after...don't think I'm going to be watching much tennis today!

I'm here to remind you that there's still plenty of time to enter our July Challenge over at Crafty Calendar...and it's 'anything goes' .To make my card I've used an adorable image from Bugaboo, available here .

Our sponsors this month are

Bugaboo

and Stamping Studio

Just click here to join the fun!

Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend.

Chris

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Challenges entered:

yournextstamp #68 (colours)

creativeknockouts summer fun

hanna and friends birthday

watercooler wednesday #127 birthday

cardsundmore #188

Just Dance

My third and last card today...promise! 

 It's the start of a new challenge at Fab 'N' Funky, this week our lovely host is Ginny and she's chosen the theme of 'Shaped Cards'. Our sponsor for this is Digital Delights

I chose to use Ballerina Bobbie, isn't she cute? My youngest granddaughter, Emily, aged 3 is desperate to start ballet lessons...she wants to be a 'ballelina'! Not long now until September!

I coloured the image with copics and added a scrap of tulle over her tutu. I created the circular card using my Crealies Modern Patchwork die set. The papers are from a 2010 Prima paper stack called Jack 'n' Jill. I added a bow made from green and blue tulle.

Well, thank you so much for taking the time to stop by my blog ....just scroll down if you're interested in looking at my earlier posts today.

Enjoy your day!

Chris

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Challenges:
diesrus #76
papercrafthappy. #2
cutiepie #113
scrapbookstampsociety #120
alohafriday #98
makingmemoriescrafting. #7

Still Christmas in July!

Hi again! This is my DT card for July's Challenge at Christmas at Sweet Stampin', as always our theme is 'Anything Christmas Goes'. This card was so quick and easy to make...mainly because I cheated! The image is recycled from a 'bought' card I received last year, it was too lovely to throw away! I just added a touch of glitter to the base of the tree, the gems were already there. The rest of the design speaks for itself. 

Please click here to visit the Challenge Blog, my lovely teamies have created some beautiful cards to inspire you and I know they would appreciate a visit too! It would be great to have you play along with us this month...and after all, we're all (or most of us!) going to need Christmas cards!

Chris

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Challenges:
sunsationalstamps Christmas in July
christmascardchallenges #16
dragonflyjourneys  #96
mytimetocraft #349
pdelinkyparty #181
abcchristmas...old image (recycled!)

Christmas in July

Good morning, Creative Moments are back today with a new challenge for you...as always anything goes...the optional theme for this fortnight is 'Christmas'. We have two sponsors for this challenge,

 Eureka Stamps

                                                                  and Polkadoodles

I was given this sweet image, Winnie Winterland, thank you Polkadoodles!

I've used copics to colour and added a touch of glitter here and there. I  used A Tim Holtz snowglobe die set to cut the aperture in the black card, placed my coloured image and a piece of 'snowy' acetate underneath it, the die cut trees are stuck on top of the acetate. Sorry doesn't really photograph that well!

Thanks for visiting, it's going to be a post -heavy day from me as I've 3 cards to share..!

Click here for Creative Moments Challenge blog...we'd love to have you join us this fortnight!

Chris

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Challenges:
inkychicks  #85
retarte #101
hollyandivy #10
unicorn #23
digichoosday #28
christmascardsallyearround July Challenge
creativecraftcottage #91
polkadoodle #26

Photo Inspiration Challenge at Sweet Stampin'

Good morning! It's been a bit quiet on my blog this week...it's Wimbledon fortnight and everything else has to take a back seat while my eyes are fixed firmly on the TV screen! Went through agonies yesterday willing Andy Murray to win his match...and YAY! he did it! And I'm so delighted to see Johanna Konta win her match....and Rafa  Nadal too!  I'm definitely not a sport or TV addict...apart from Wimbledon fortnight!

Anyway back to the card... It's for this week's challenge at Sweet Stampin' and we have an Inspiration Photo for you-

I struggled a bit with this one, but in the end I went for balloons, pastel colours and chevrons...the image is an LOTV digi coloured with copics and the chevrons are stenciled.

Thanks for visiting today...and for any other Wimbledon fans out there...enjoy!

Chris

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 Challenges entered:

audsentiments #183

throughthepurplehaze #128

Double D  pastels

thepapershelter #301

incywincydesigns friends forever

papercrafthappy. #2

So sweet!

Good morning, there's a lovely new challenge starting today at Fab N Funky, it's actually Team Fab's turn this week...but I decided to gatecrash! The theme, chosen by our lovely Monika is 'little boys and girls'. Our sponsor this week is Pink Gem Designs

I was given this sweet image to play with, Poppy in Onesie..she looks just like my eldest granddaughter! She's coloured with copics and added to my tent shaped card blank. Papers, ribbon and buttons from stash. Stamped sentiment (magazine freebie!)

Thanks for visiting today, please hop over here to see what the lovely ladies from Team Fab have been up to this week, and of course we'd love to have you join us in this lovely challenge.

Have a good day!

Chris

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Challenges entered:

thesisterhoodofcrafters- buttons
thepapershelter #301
craftycardmakers #192 (centre column vertical)
alohafriday #98 girly
audsentiments #183

This is a hug

It's the weekend...and it's July! Time for a new challenge at Crafty Calendar. This month the theme is 'Anything Goes' and we have two fabulous sponsors:

The Stamping Studio

and Bugaboo stamps

The DT were lucky enough to receive some lovely images to play with, my card was made using a little cutie from The Stamping Studio, he's called Little Bear - This is a Hug and he's available here. 

I printed him onto kraft card and then stamped and embossed the 'hugs' script. I printed him again, twice, onto gingham patterned paper, cut him out and stuck him over the image on the kraft, then cut just the arms from the second gingham image, shaped them slightly with a ball tool and then fixed them in place with Pinflair glue. The tiny blue hearts are made with Nuvo Drops.

Why not hop over to Crafty Calendar now and see what the rest of the DT have been up to.

Thanks for visiting today, have a lovely weekend.

Chris

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Challenges entered:
craftycatz #377 emboss
thatscrafty keep it simple
cutecardthursday #484