And now for something completely different... for me, anyway

Hello there!

Nearly Christmas and I'm so excited at the thought of having the Boy Wonder home from Glasgow for a wee while.  I've still got the best part of 2 weeks at work but I'm counting down the days to the holidays.

I thought I'd try something a bit different for my DT card for Christmas at Sweet Stampin' this month.  I've been inspired by some of the designs I've seen online using coloured pencils on dark cardstock so I thought I'd give it a try.

The baubles are from a Magnolia stamp set that I've had for years. I stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with gold embossing powder before colouring in the images with my Prisma pencils.  The sentiment is by Wplus9 and again I stamped and gold heat embossed, this time on vellum.

We'd love you to join in with us this month at Christmas at Sweet Stampin'.  Our theme is always Anything Goes at Christmas so pretty much whatever your Christmas project, you can enter our challenge.

Really wintry weather has hit the UK recently but wherever you are and whatever you're doing, stay warm and safe.

Tracey xx

Countdown to Christmas!

It's less than 50 days to Christmas - can you believe it?  I'd better get a wiggle on with the presents shopping and card making, I think!

We have a new challenge starting at Christmas at Sweet Stampin' today.  As always our theme is Anything Goes at Christmas and for my DT card I just had to case the lovely Francine Vuilleme's MFT design from September, which you can find here.  Here's my attempt

The trees are from the MFT set released in September this year.  I love them as they're so versatile.  I stamped two trees in black over an ink blended background having masked off the bottom part of the card and a die cut circle for the moon.  I flicked on some watered down acrylic paint to create the falling snow and stamped my sentiment using Wplus9 and Simon Says Stamp's Stamptember collaboration set called Holiday Trimmings.  I cut the panel down and added it to a navy card base before deciding to add some snow to the branches with a white gel pen.

I hope you'll be able to play along with us at Christmas at Sweet Stampin' this month.  The CaSSettes have some gorgeous projects to inspire you, so do grab a cuppa and check them out here.

Thank you for stopping by!

Tracey xx

Christmas Poinsettia

I can't believe it's October already!  This time next week it will be the half term holiday and this is usually my time for making the Christmas pud, cake and mincemeat, something that's guaranteed either to make me feel very Christmassy or to put me in a panic because I haven't started the Christmas shopping.

At least I'll have a few Christmas cards done - making my monthly DT cards for Christmas at Sweet Stampin' helps me to fill up the Christmas card box a wee bit.

Speaking of CaSS, we have a new challenge starting today.  As always, the theme is Anything Goes at Christmas - what could be easier?

The poinsettia stamp is from Ellen Hutson and the sentiment is from a Wplus9 Christmas set.  The image was coloured with Copics and I added some glitter pen and glossy accents to the centre.  I also gave the petals a bit of extra sparkle by giving them a very light coat of clear Wink of Stella.

Hope you can play along with us this month.  You'll find all the details here along with the inspiration projects my lovely teamies have made to inspire you.

Thanks for stopping by.

Tracey xx

Countdown to Christmas

It's September, it's rainy and chilly here and the leaves are already falling off the trees.  My coal order has arrived and we've already had to light the fire at night. And Strictly has started!  Now if that isn't a combination of signs that Christmas is coming, I don't know what is!

Thank goodness, then, for Christmas at Sweet Stampin', where we try to inspire you to get ahead with your Christmas cardmaking projects.  Our theme is always Anything Goes and our September challenge starts today!

I adapted a My Favourite Things non-Christmas stamp by using traditional colours (no surprises there) and combined it with a Christmas tree from Purple Onion stamps:

Everything was coloured with Copics in my favourite reds (R32, 35, 37 & 39) and greens (G82, 94 & 99). I used a mixture of red Nuvo Drops and Glossy Accents to create some dimension on the baubles and a gold Sakura pen added some sparkle to the star.

I hope you can join in with us this month. You can see the challenge details and check out the inspiration projects that the lovely CaSSettes have made here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tracey xx

About time...

Thought it was about time I put something on my blog!  It's been a very busy few weeks, with the Boy Wonder heading off to college in Glasgow and me trying to deal with empty nest syndrome by keeping myself busy every waking hour.

Fortunately the BW seems to have settled in to college life very well and, most importantly, sounds very happy.  That, of course, has helped me hugely although my heart aches every time I walk past his room.

Summer is well and truly over here. We've been harvesting our fruit and veg from the garden - lots of potatoes, beans and peas and enough tomatoes from the greenhouse to keep us in pasta sauce for months!  Sadly the bloody birds have had all of my damsons (well, actually they left me 3 over 3 trees, what use is that?) and they've been at the apples as well.  Still, we've managed to save enough for some apple pies and apple sauce, so all isn't lost.

All this autumnal activity prompted me to get the orange and brown Copics out and do a little colouring.

I haven't done anything with my Hanglar & Stanglar stamps in way too long and they are so lovely to colour.  I used Versamark ink to create the tone on tone background on the orange card base and kept everything else really CAS.  Just a touch of Diamond Dust for some sparkle on her wings to give the whole thing a bit of a lift.

I really should try to get back into this blogging lark a bit more regularly.  Think I'll enter this in Simon Say's Stamp's Wednesday challenge which is Stamp It!

Thanks for stopping by.

Tracey xxx

CaSS August Challenge

Hi everyone

I can't believe that we're already in August, although given the weather you could be forgiven for thinking that it's actually October.  Only a week left of the summer holidays here and just a couple of weeks before the Boy Wonder heads off to start his studies in Glasgow.  Where does the time go?

The end of the holidays also brings the realisation that Christmas isn't too far away (seriously) and that the Christmas card pile is in need of some attention if I'm going to avoid giving my money to Mr John Lewis again!  Fortunately over at Christmas at Sweet Stampin' we can help by giving you a little nudge in the crafting direction by way of our monthly challenge.

For my DT card this month I opted to focus on die cutting rather than stamping:

I took my inspiration from a Jennifer McGuire tutorial on Youtube (here's the link) on using layered die cuts, including this Simon Says Stamp Corbel Wreath die.  I can waste spend hours watching Jennifer's videos and I always feel I learn something from them.

So what did I learn from this?

1.  I'm not Jennifer McGuire.

2. Although Jennifer gives helpful hints and tips, you need lots of patience to glue down all those little pieces and stack those little suckers on top of each other (and make sure they stay stuck).

3. Stray pieces stick not only to your socks but to those of other family members.  Those family members may not be inclined to put said pieces in the bin, but may, for reasons best known to themselves, decide to deposit them on the arm of the sofa/windowsill/top of the boiler or in a plant pot on the patio (oh, yes, 'tis true).  This will frequently result in exclamations such as "How on earth did that get there?"*

[*Language may have been modified for the sake of decency]

Having said all that, I found the process strangely addictive and made a few more cards using this technique before accepting that the imposition of a regime of twice-daily sock inspections isn't a healthy way to go.

I hope you can play along with us this month.  The theme is always Anything Goes and the Christmas stamps and dies are starting to appear in the online stores, but if you need a bit of inspiration you can check out the fabby designs created by the CaSSettes here.

Tracey xx

Anything Goes at Christmas (in July)

Good morning!  It's the summer holidays at last!  One of the things I try to do in the holidays is get on with making some of my Christmas cards - or at least, that's the plan!  After all, we're over half-way through the year...

At Christmas at Sweet Stampin' we try to give you a little incentive to push ahead with those festive cards and to make it a bit easier we now have an "anything goes" theme each month.  For our July challenge I decided to revisit an older Lili of the Valley stamp:

I went for neutral tones using soft grey paper and cardstock and coloured the image with Copics.  I added some detail to the garland with my Sakura glitter pens and covered her wings with Glamour Dust.

I hope you can play along with us this month.  The CaSSettes have made some beautiful projects to help give your mojo a boost, so why not check them out here?

Hope the sun shines on you this summer.

Tracey x

Countdown to Christmas!

Well, we are nearly half-way through the year!  I'm just 3 weeks away from the start of the school holidays and about 10 weeks away from the Boy Wonder heading off to Glasgow - trying not to dwell on that one too much, though.

Although I haven't been able to blog as much as I'd like, I have managed to get ahead with my Christmas cards, largely due to Christmas at Sweet Stampin'.  Our monthly challenge is always Anything Goes at Christmas so you can enter any of your Christmas makes.

Here's my DT card for June

I used a Wplus9 background stamp which I inked in 3 shades of lilac to get an ombre look.  The MFT skater was coloured with Copics and adhered to the card base with foam tape.

And look, no red and green!

If anyone has any tips for taking photos of cards with mostly white card bases please could you let me know?  I just can't seem to get it right.

If it's a bit too early for you to think about making a start on your cards, why not check out the challenge blog here and the lovely inspiration projects the CaSSettes have made?

Hope you can join in the fun with us this month.

Tracey xx

Anything Christmas at CaSS

It's May - I can hardly believe it!  It's exam time for us and in just a few days the Boy Wonder will be leaving school.  As for the thought of him heading off to college/uni later this year, well, let's just say I am nowhere near ready.

On the subject of being ready, over at Christmas at Sweet Stampin' we have a new challenge to encourage you to get ahead with your Christmas cards.  Our theme is always Anything Goes (nice and easy).

My DT card for this month uses a cute Stamping Bella image but once again I've lapsed into my red/white/green colour habit.  Must try harder!

The CaSSettes, as always, have made the most lovely inspiration cards which you can check out here.
Hope you can play along!

Tracey xx

Anything goes at CaSS - April

Me again with this month's DT card for Christmas at Sweet Stampin'.  Our theme is always "Anything Goes at Christmas" so you can play along using whatever image/technique you like.

I'm trying to push myself out of my colouring comfort zone (red and white or red/white/green for Christmas cards) so it took a while to decide on a colour combo for this image.

Although it looks black in the photo the card base is actually purple Bazzill and overall I'm quite pleased with the way the purple/green combo has turned out.  Both the image and the sentiment are from Lili of the Valley - I'm really enjoying revisiting these images after neglecting them for a while.

Do pop over to CaSS to check out the inspiration projects my lovely teamies have made.  Hope you can play along with us this month!

Tracey xx

Inspired by Sandy Allnock

Hi there.  At the risk of stating the obvious, it's good to be on holiday 😊.  It's also good that today is pretty cold, too cold in fact for me to be doing what I ought to be doing, which is working in the garden.  So for now I'm trying not to look at the mess outside and instead I'm treating myself to a little long overdue crafty time.

I'm a huge fan of Sandy Allnock and while I certainly don't have her artistic talent, I find her videos so helpful.  I was bowled over by her "Winter Whites" treatment of a beautiful Concord & 9th stamp and decided that I would have a try at creating something similar.

With the exception of colouring hair and sometimes fur, my really light E number Copics are rarely used, so colouring an image with just those markers was quite a challenge!  Sandy's video here shows you how it's done and there are tons of inspirational ideas to be found on her website.

I'll be back mid-week with the next CaSS DT card.  In the meantime enjoy the rest of your weekend and the week ahead.

Tracey xx

Anything Goes at Christmas CaSS

Hellooo!

Time is flying by but I'm so glad to see longer days and lighter evenings, even if it is really cold!  The daffs are starting to come up now, always a cheery sight.

I'm here to let you know that the March challenge over at Christmas at Sweet Stampin' is starting today.  It's a Just for Fun challenge and our theme is always the easiest one - Anything Goes at Christmas.

I made a real effort to avoid my usual red/white or red/white/green go-to colour combo this month.

I dug out a Simon Says Stamp die from a couple of years back and cut out the image from some Bazzill cardstock.  I couldn't resist the temptation to add just a little red, so I cut the image again from some red metallic card to make the bows.  I used foam tape to give the panel some dimension and with some Simon Says Stamp sequins to add a little sparkle it was all done.  I'll add a sentiment when I know who is going to be getting this card.

I do hope you can play along with us this month.  Why not grab a cuppa and check out the lovely inspiration designs my lovely teamies have made?

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Tracey xx

Christmas Anything Goes at CaSS - February

Another month has gone by and although I'm still not able to spend as much time as I would like on my hobby, I have managed to make a few cards to keep me going for the next couple of challenges over at Christmas at Sweet Stampin'.  Which is fortunate as today sees the start of a new Anything Goes at Christmas challenge!

I fell happily back into my comfort zone of colouring with Copic reds for this one!

This Mo Manning cutie has been sitting in my "waiting to colour" box for so long and I thought she was calling out for bright colours, so I went to work with my favourite red combination of R24, 27 and 29 with a combination of YGs (sorry, forgot to write the colours down) to get a contrasting lime green.  Lots of Glamour Dust was used in this card, although it's not so easy to see in the photo.  I decided that less is more so avoided any embellies, instead mounting the image on a plain red square.

I do hope you can play along with us at Christmas at Sweet Stampin' this month.  The talented CaSSettes have made  the most gorgeous inspiration cards, so do check them out here if you're not quite feeling the need to get back to making Christmas cards just yet!

Hugs

Tracey xx

Anything Goes at CaSS - January

Eek!  Have just discovered that my scheduled post... didn't post!  Sorry!


Happy New Year everyone!  It's time for the first challenge of 2017 at Christmas at Sweet Stampin'.

We've decided to make our challenges "just for fun" as so many prizes weren't being claimed and the number of potential sponsors is significantly lower than in previous years.  However, there will still be a Top 3 and a winner's badge.  The CaSSettes have also taken the decision to have a general "Anything Goes at Christmas" theme to run throughout the year. So, from now on no matter what you have been making as part of your Christmas preparations you can enter the challenge without having to think about whether or not your creation fits our theme.

I've had this Mo Manning image for soooo long and finally got round to making it into a card.  I used my Copics to colour the sweet little trio and added plenty of sparkle with Glamour Dust and Rock Candy glitter.  The papers are from Maja Designs and have a lovely grungy look.

You'll get all the challenge details at Christmas at Sweet Stampin' as well as a look at the gorgeous inspiration projects my talented teamies have created.

Hope you can play along with us this month.

Hugs

Tracey xx