Joyful tree

Hello, crafting friends!

 

There's a new board at Tic Tac Toe Challenge today and I've had the privilege of putting it together!

 

 

I do hope you'll find some ideas to inspire you here - especially if (like me) you have lots more festive cards to make! I've come up with a CAS design using a layered tree die  - not sure who makes this but any tree die would work.

 

I cut the layers from offcuts of white card and sponged them with inks in three shades of green. To these I added white kraft ink to the edges, glued them together and decorated the tree with gold glitter glue 'lights'.

 

For the background, I masked off a crisp diagonal on the front of a thick card base and used Salty Ocean distress oxide ink and a sponge dauber above it to create an organic shape representing an evening sky. I dotted this liberally with my Posca white acrylic paint pen to conjure up a nice wintery snow storm. The tree was glued to the background and a sparkly punched star added to its top. The card was finished with a sentiment from Hobbycraft, die cut from a tiny snippet of red card.

 

Okay, it's over to you! First, hop over to the Tic Tac Toe Challenge blog and check out the beautiful cards the design team have made to inspire you; Next, choose a column, row or diagonal from the board and use the ideas to create your own card; Finally, use the blue Linky button at the bottom of the challenge post to link up your creation with us - we can't wait to see what you make!

 

CHALLENGES

I'm off to the Snippets Playground with this snippety card; I'm also linking up at Inkspirational where the challenge is Layer It and I'm hoping my layered tree die cut counts :)

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I am delighted that one of our favourite walks has become available again after the farmer has moved his livestock.  The golden girls are fans because there are different terrains: a wooded area for hunting squirrels, a lane for sniffing in the hedgerows, fields for playing chase and having zoomies in, AND (drum roll!) not only a river to swim in, but also a stream to splash about in chasing sticks! Pupperino Paradise! I am keen because there is often a lot of mud around at this time of year and the rivers and stream come in very handy to turn a duo of muddy vagabonds into a pair of demure blonde princesses, albeit rather damp ones! 

 

Here's an exhausted Lulu, arranged on a sofa, having been dried off and plied with Choice Viands! Look at the crossed paws!! A princess indeed!

Sending hugs,

A masculine 18th birthday

Hello, crafting friends!

 

The birthdays are coming up fast in our family, including those masculine ones that are a bit more challenging to create cards for. I am always very grateful for challenges that inspire me for those!

 

This card features a background made with an off-cut of green/blue card overstamped with Stampin' Up's retired Hardwood stamp using a darker green/blue ink. I trimmed it to size with a Heffy Doodle Stitched Rectangle die, then gave it a bit of interest by cutting it in three with Lawn Fawn's Stitched Hillside border dies and then glueing it all back together on a card front.

 

The popped-up focal tag was cut from a snippet of white card using a Heffy Doodle Stitched Rectangle die. I used some washi tape to mask off two horizontal lines and then sponged the rest with red ink. I loved the way it showed off the stitched framing. The number 18 was die cut from a tiny snippet of navy card, and I punched the star from it too. The Stampin' Up sentiment is a very handy one that is a gazillion years old (give or take a few years!)

CHALLENGES

All of this card was made with snippets except the card base, so I shall skip over to The Snippets Playground with my homework. No need for a brolly of course because the sun ALWAYS shines there!! The card was heavily inspired by the challenge Inspired By, where they always have the most amazing photos to get our creative juices flowing. I also took inspiration from Inkspirational where the word prompt is Frame - I have the stitched frame on the focal tag and the background acts as a frame too. I shall also link up with Ellie and Pauline's I Spy With My Little Eye challenge where the theme is Something for Boys or Men.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

My eldest son lives locally and often pops by to say hello. Today he came bearing a box of chocolate truffles he'd found at Marks & Spencer. "I've brought you some essentials," he said.

 

Then he added: "I don't know who this Marc fellah is but I hope they'll be nice!"

We opened them up to check and can reveal that they are very tasty indeed! 10 out of 10, would recommend!

Sending hugs,

Celebration in the playground!

Hello, crafting friends!

 

There's a new challenge starting in The Snippets Playground today - and it's a special one: Miss Di has been mistress of the playground for 12 jolly years! To celebrate her amazing milestone, Head Prefect Sarn would like to see us submit homework using snippets as usual but with an extra theme this time of Celebration.

 

Well that's easy - who better to celebrate than Miss Di herself and how better to celebrate than with a card made just with dies?! We all know that Miss loves the colour pink so I had a rummage through my pink snippets folder and brought out a new die, Woven Cane from The Greetery. I don't know what got into me getting this folder as I'm not blessed with a great deal of patience and of course it needed all the little bits poking out, not to mention trimming to size as it's designed for an American A2 card size - AND I couldn't find any double sided adhesive sheets so had to use glue!! I do love the look of it in pale pink layered over a darker pink though and am already thinking of other colour combinations :)

 

Then came more die cutting and a bit of punching! I'd saved a piece of gold foil gift wrap from Christmas which I glued to a snippet of white card. From this gold piece, I cut the letters to spell 'celebrate' using The Greetery's Slim Alphabet dies and some stars using a retired Stampin' Up punch. I punched more stars out of a dark pink snippet, as well as a die cut 'you', and finally cut a stitched label out of another white snippet. Once everything was cut, I arranged everything on the label and attached it to the background with dimensional pads.

 

I added one more touch: a jade green enamel heart, as a disruptor colour, but also as a nod to our lovely Jules who ran the playground before Di, and who always incorporates a heart in her designs!

 

Here are the snippets I used this time - gold foil gift wrap, a spoilt card base, pink snippets :)

CHALLENGES

I'm off to the Snippets Playground with some champagne and my homework; I'm also dropping in on Darnell at the NBUS Challange as my Greetery die is Never Before Used Schtuff.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

There are so many bugs going around at the moment and I'm sad to say my Dogmobile has succumbed! I tried to start it last week and there was a lot of coughing and spluttering but not a great deal of action, so it had to be sent off to the garage to be fitted with a new battery! But MUCH worse is this little poorly pudding:

 

Poor Lulu has cut one of her pads. She keeps telling me she's PERFECTLY okay and is there any chance of going out hunting rabbits? But I'm afraid she has to be rested and the paw bandaged for protection. She can go out for very short walks, but only on soft grass, and must be kept on lead so she doesn't rampage about. It's been a week so far and it's probably going to take at least another week to heal. She hates being left at home when I walk Eva but I am playing games and doing loads of training with her so she doesn't go completely crazy.

 

Hope your 2024 has kicked off better than ours!

 

Sending hugs,

The stars are brightly shining

Hello, crafting friends!

 

I thought I'd have heaps of time to craft now that I'm hunkering down with my golden girls and letting Lulu relax, feel safe and really learn about the life of a dog in our family. But it's like having a young pup again and we're doing lots of stress-busting walking, so I'm only crafting in short bursts! Today I managed to complete this simple Christmas card:

 

I found the starry sky paper pad in The Works about a month ago and thought it would make great Christmas card backgrounds. It's 6"x6" so I fell at the first hurdle as I'd selected a slimline card base! But I cut two short pieces the same width and joined them in the centre, mounting that on two vertical strips of fabulous gold washi tape that came in a prize I was lucky enough to win at ABC Christmas Challenge - thank you ladies!

 

To conceal the join, I cut a musical stave using The Greetery's Noted die set and, before attaching it to the card front, stamped the sentiments in Versamark and heat embossing them in gold. The 'Oh holy night' part is from Reverse Confetti's Greatest Gift of All, and the lovely curvy line from the song under the musical stave is from The Greetery's Sing a Song of Christmas. I finished the card with a little star punched out of gold foil card.

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at ABC Christmas where V is for Vertical and U is for Use it Up - and I did use up a snippet of white card stock and a tiny piece of gold foil card! I'm also joining in with Rudolph Days, where each month on the 25th we make a festive card for the stash; and am choosing the Anything Goes option at Peace on Earth Christmas and Happy Little Stampers Christmas.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

No time to stay and chat as it's late and I'm off out into the real life starry night with two golden girls before bed!

Sending hugs,

The Return of the Merry Snowflakes

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Last week I posted THIS snowflake card. The colour combination was inspired by Nancy's palette at CAS Colours and Sketches but I felt my card wasn't clean and simple enough for that challenge. So I made another one today :)

 

This one uses the same snowflakes (from Dies by Chloe) and stars (from the retired Stampin' Up Twinkle punch) but there's no stenciling, I used only one of the Nordic Frames (from the Greetery) and the sentiment is much smaller.

 

I heat embossed the sentiment in silver, cut it out with the small frame die, and attached it to a card base. The snowflakes and stars were arranged above and below the sentiment and I added a few drops of silver liquid pearls to link them.

CHALLENGES

Just squeaking in at CAS Colours and Sketches colour challenge *waves to my former teamies there* ; I'm also linking up with Perfectly CAS where the current challenge is Festive - and as always we are asked to use up to a third of the card front.

 

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Today's card would make a perfect note card for this weather if only I had a sentiment that said 'Sending Cooling Wishes'! After I press send on this post, I'm off to the supermarkety; I don't actually need anything - I just want to hang out in the freezer aisle!

Sending hugs,

Starry starry wreath

Hello, crafting friends!

Welcome to another fun challenge at Tic Tac Toe :) LeAnne has come up with a wonderful board to inspire your creativity this week and there are lots of different options!

I've opted to make a festive card using the bottom row, Green/Holly/Star. I started by sponging green ink into the Holly Wreath stencil by Funky Fossil. There are holly berries on this stencil but I inked the whole thing in green and then went over the berries with gold stickles. I left this to dry overnight.

The card front was covered with one of the beautiful (retired) Plaid Tidings papers by Stampin' Up and I offset the panel, trimmed with a stitched rectangle die by Heffy Doodle.

The wreath was decorated with stars punched from card stock I'd sponged orange ink over - a technique which makes them all different shades! I added a die cut bow from MFT's Birthday Cocktail die set and finished with a block sentiment from Uniko.

Now it's over to you! Which row or column will you choose? Or will you take one of the diagonals on the board? Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe challenge site and enjoy the inspiration from the design team. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post so that you can link up your own creation.  I can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Chrizstmas Kickstart where the theme is Make One For A Loved One. I have deliberately used the 'Happy Christmas' sentiment  as opposed to 'Merry Christmas' as some members of my extended family associate 'Merry' with an ungodly drunkenness!! So this card is destined for one of them :) I'm also joining in with Merry Little Christmas where Anything Goes. (I know, it's ironic isn't it!)

AND IN OTHER NEWS

All the cards I've been blogging recently were made and scheduled in advance as I am very busy with the dogs at the moment. I'm getting terrible crafting withdrawal symptoms! Does anyone know of a 'clinic' to treat people that are seriously craft-deprived? Help!!

On the other hand, how cute are these two?!

Sending hugs,

My sun and my moon and my stars

Hello, crafting friends!

At CAS Colours and Sketches we have a brand new challenge starting today, and it's a sketch from this month's host YoonYoung!

Isn't it great?! I was intrigued by that crescent shape and my thoughts went straight to a moon and stars. I thought it would be the perfect motif to celebrate the arrival of a new baby.

I wanted a sky full of moon and stars so I opted to keep my panel small to keep plenty of nice clean space. To create the background, I painted a pale blue wash on watercolour paper, fading out towards the top of the panel.

The moon and the stars were cut out of watercolour paper too, using the Twinkle punch by Stampin' Up. I watercoloured my moon with yellow ink and left it to dry, then coloured the stars with wet blue ink and pressed them onto my background, creating a faint watercolour impression.

Once everything was dry, I glued the moon and stars to the panel,  mounted it on a scalloped mat in a slightly darker blue and added a sentiment from Clearly Besotted's Simply Said in grey ink. The card base was made out of the same watercolour paper.

So now it's over to you! My team mates and our guest designer PJ have some amazing inspiration for you HERE over at the CAS Colours and Sketches blog. We're all looking forward to seeing what you come up with - but please, don't forget that all important clear space on your design!

CHALLENGES

The technique for this card came from the CAS Mix Up challenge, which is celebrating its 5th birthday with fun and prizes! I'm linking up there; I'm also joining in at Color Hues where the colour combo is Blue and Yellow; and also at Happy Little Stampers Watercolour challenge where Anything Goes. The theme at Less Is More this fortnight is Baby, so I'm linking up there too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

It was mild today and the sun was trying to come out as I set off on a walk with Eva. We headed off on one of our usual walks out into the countryside, following a disused railway line, and it was so pleasant that I decided to extend our walk a little and do a larger loop back into my little market town. Except I couldn't find the path that leads back and there wasn't a soul to ask! In the end, we had to make our way home the long way round using a back road I knew, and oh my goodness my legs ache! Eva seems pleased with me though. She's probably thinking 'At last, the human seems to have understood the level of exercise a wild huntress needs!'

Sending hugs,

A bit of caterwauling

Hello, crafting friends!

Caterwauling is not a new technique, just a word that means, according to the Oxford Dictionary, 'a shrill howling or wailing noise like that of a cat'. 

These little angels don't look as if they're capable of such a racket do they, but I'm inclined to think their singing is a tad imperfect! They come from Clearly Besotted's Sing it's Christmas and I've stamped them in neutral ink and then coloured them using coloured pencils.

I thought I'd put them in church, so I positioned the Arched Window stencil by Funky Fossil over a card panel and sponged blue ink through it. To create the falling snow, I wet my hands and clapped above the window a few times. Once the panel was dry, I trimmed it with a stitched rectangle die by Heffy Doodle.

Finally, I added one of the sentiments from Sing It's Christmas, attached the cats to the bottom of the window and embellished with a tiny punched star. I suspect a silent night is what many of the congregation are hoping for!!

CHALLENGES

I've been wanting to join in at The Paper Players this week where LeAnne's theme is to use a feline on our cards so I'm hoping I can just squeak in; I'm joining in at Watercooler Wednesday too, where Marsha is hosting the Occasions challenge. I'm also linking up with some Christmas challenges: the new-to-me Christmas 24 challenge, where the theme is Cute Animals (It's run by my friend Jacqueline, so do go and check it out and show her some love!); the Christmas Crafts All Year Round Challenge, where the theme is Something Beginning With C or D; and The Ruldolph Day challenge where we make Christmas cards on the 25th of every month.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Would you believe that after announcing that Mr Mojo had come back with a vengeance, he thumbed his nose at me and went AWOL for the last couple of days! I made a real effort to make something but only succeeded in making a mess! Eventually I gave up and did some gardening instead as it's still unseasonably warm here.

I was of course aided eagerly by my fluffy little helper who took all my prunings from the tarpaulin where I'd neatly placed them and examined them before spreading them around the garden.

Sending hugs,