Thank You Cards!

 At last I have found time for a little crafting, its been such a busy few weeks, I have missed having some me time in the craft room!!  Here are a couple of Thank you cards I have been working on.  The top one is using the Hero Arts Butterfly Thank You from the Greetings set placed on the Newspaper background.  I have stamped the butterfly again and coloured with Distress Inks before coating with Glossy Accents and adhering   with glue just down the butterflies body so the wings can be raised.  I have also added a strip if Washi Tape part of my win from Tones blog!!

The second card was inspired by the stamped hexagon image that Linda sent to me, I decided to make a hexagon shaped card, to do this I got the shape from Google images and cut to the size I wanted.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and wishing you a Happy New Year.  As you know I work in a school so I don't go back till 7th January, another weeks holiday is just what I need and I hope to find time for more crafting!!

Merry Christmas to all my followers!!

I have not had much time to make any cards lately so I thought I would post a photo of my tree with some gingerbread decorations I have been busy making.  This is the first time I have made these and they taste yummy, I just need to practice ,my icing skills!!

I also want to take this opportunity to thank all my followers for spending time visiting my blog and leaving such lovely comments. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Hugs to you all

Its that cute snowman again!!!

Here is another quick, flat card that I made to post out this Christmas.  I have used that cute HA snowman again and just placed him on the Merry Background.  His scarf is very glittery which doesn't really show in the photo.

I have been a really bad blogger recently as so many things to do both at home and work.  Thank you to all my lovely followers who take time to leave a comment, I really appreciate it.  I hope to get back to normal with both blogging and visiting blogs very soon.

Simple Christmas Cards!!

I was lucky enough to win the Merry Background stamp from Hero Arts and when it arrived I couldn't wait to ink it up.  I need to make quite a few more cards and this stamp lends itself to quick easy cards.  I love it matched with the gingham (my favourite red)ribbon.  I have made two cards so far one in Pool ink and one in Wet Cement.

There is a new challenge over at the "The Ribbon Girl Blog" and as the gingham ribbon is the focal point on my card I am adding these to the challenge.
 One of our flickr group members the lovely Barb is also running a little card challenge so I will add these to the group.

Here is another quick card I have made using the gorgeous Hero Arts Holly stamp.  I really must crack on now, I am so behind making my cards this year!!!

A Blog Named Hero Guest spot!!

Over at A Blog Named Hero they are running a Christmas-travaganza in the lead up to Christmas,  everyday it features something for you to craft to help with your Christmas preparations.

Today I am featured on the blog, there is a sneak peek above!!! I have made some place cards that open to reveal some mint chocolates.
Please visit the blog and check it out as there are prizes to be won.

A Trio of Snowmen!

I have been playing with the cute new snowman and die cut from Hero Arts, here are three more cards for the current "Bring on the Bling" challenge at the Hero Arts blog.  Here I have stamped the snowman with the Merry Christmas message from the Holiday Messages set, before colouring with copics and adding a paper pieced scarf and hat band.

 For this version I have watercoloured with Distress Markers using a brown palette only for a vintage feel.

With the last card I added an acetate window stamped with snowflakes and added a large snowflake attached with an acetate strip so it moves.

Hope you all have a great week.

24 hour scramble!!

 On Friday and Saturday one of our Hero Arts Flickr group members Hannah organised a special challenge!  A whole 24hours of scramble challenges.  I think I have mentioned these before, we are given 90 minutes to make a card using a specific theme.  Usually I find it difficult to enter these as most of the hostesses live in the USA and so timing is an issue, but with it spanning 24 hours I was able to have a go at three of the challenges set.

The first challenge was number 7 set by Linda and was to use the same stamp in the foreground and background of your card.  I made this card using the "Etched Flower" cling, first stamping in Faded Jeans ink and making a mask so that I could repeat stamp in Broken China.

Challenge 8 was set by Cat and was to make a shaped card using no white at all, unfortunately in my haste I overlooked the shaped card bit and made this card in black and silver.  After seeing the other creations I quickly found time to make another entry.

 I made this in 20 minutes, not my best attempt but it is shaped.!!!

Challenge 9 was set by Lucille and was to make a card incorporating an animal or bird that is coloured in an unusual colour. I only had a little time for this one as I had the tea to cook so I quickly paper pieced the little deer, stamped the trees and added some glitter.

I really had fun with these, its so good to challenge yourself especially when its out of your comfort zone.

A Trio of Snowmen!!

I have been having more fun with this new Hero Arts stamp and die,  this snowman is so cute!!!

I had three images stamped, paper pieced , coloured and glittered up so decided to make a tri-fold card.

I have stamped and embossed the background with the "Magical Background" stamp and Silver Pearls embossing powder.  I have then added lots of glitter to the top of the card and the snowy mounds. This is another entry for this months Hero Arts "Bring on the Bling" challenge.

I have had a lot of trouble getting a good photo but the glitter is still hard to see.

Hope you are having a good week.

Snowmen!!

Just a quick post today with a couple of tags made with my new Hero Arts Snowman stamp set and die.  I have been after this set for ages after seeing all the fabulous creations on the HA flickr site.  Its been really hard to find both the stamps and the die in the UK but at last the lovely lady at my local Stamp Shop managed to source them for me.  These sweet tags are the first inkings of my stamp and I am thrilled with them.  I have paper pieced the scarf and hat bands and added lots of glitter,  The hat has been coloured with a Sakura Glaze pen for added shine and I have added Glossy Accents to the eyes and nose.

I am off to play some more,  hope you have a fabulous weekend and thanks for looking!!

Winter Town!!

 I really love my Winter Town stamp from Hero Arts and have made quite a few different cards with it this year.  I decided to ink it up again at the weekend and make a couple of cards for the new Hero Arts challenge "Bring on the Bling".  My bling is very subtle, just some glitter for the snow but I love the effect it has even on a fairly simple card.

This card is also for the challenge at A Blog Named Hero which is to use punched or die cut shapes.

Here is my second card with just a ring of glitter round the central oval.  This town stamp really is so versatile and I now have two more flat cards to post!!!

Take one stamp!!!

I treated myself to a new Christmas stamp last week and set myself a challenge to make five different cards that were also flat enough to post without having to pay extra for bulk.  The first is also a shaped card so I am entering it in the current Simon Says Challenge.  I have stamped the image and then coloured with my distress markers, I have also stamped the image again and cut out some of the leaves to layer up.  The berries are coated in Glossy Accent for a little shine.

 With this card I have stamped the image in Toffee Memento and coloured the berries with copics before coating the whole image with Glossy Accent.  When dry I over stamped with Music background and distressed in Peeled Paint.

 For this one I stamped the Italian  Poetry and stamped the Holly over the top and coloured with Distress Markers.

 This one has the Musical Collage as a background and is also coloured with Distress Markers.

Lastly another card with the holly covered with Glossy Accents to form a resist when stamping the Music Background.  Another 5 cards down on my Christmas Card list, I still have quite a few more to make!!

Its the end of my half term holiday from school and I did manage to get most of my jobs done, Its a beautiful but cold day here so I am off for a walk, love these autumnal days.  Have a good weekend where you are.

Christmas Wine Labels

I paid a visit to my local craft store today and bought myself a new Christmas stamp, I decided on this Classic Holly stamp, as this year to save money on postage I want to create lots of one layer cards.  Here is my first little experiment using it, and some of the gorgeous wine labels that Jacqueline sent me in the summer. I have been saving a few of them especially for my Christmas cards.  As you can see the Winter Town stamp is still a feature in my designs, I love the versatility of that stamp!!!

Another wine label card, not so pleased with this one as the poinsettia image wouldn't stamp cleanly, I decided to smudge the images with a wet cloth to make them less defined.

Its the start of a week of work for scghool half term and I have lots of things planned, the first job is to tidy up my garden for the winter.  I have done some this morning but its so cold outside that I have given up today and am now going to play with my new stamp.

Hope you have a fun weekend and thanks for stopping by.

More of my Blue phase

 I have been trying to find different ways to use the Hero Arts Winter Town stamp, here is a CAS card using the scene cut into rounds and then stuck to Die-Namics die cut doilies.  I have added some glittery highlights to the roofs of the houses for a bit of sparkle!!

Here is a little close up.

This card is for the current challenge at A Blog Named Hero which is to make a Clean and Simple card.

I am struggling at the moment with my Christmas cards, I think I need to buy some new stamps as the Winter Town is my only new Christmas stamp for quite a while .  I think I need to get myself some new inspiration. (Any excuse for a bit of shopping lol).

Hope you have had a great weekend, I have one more week and its the half term holidays, this term has flown by!

My Blue Phase

I had a little spare time yesterday, so I created another Christmas card using the lovely Winter Town stamp from Hero Arts.  I have stuck to the blue theme again and this time I have framed the image with my Simple Frame stamp.  The town has also been sprayed with shimmer mist so it has a lovely sparkle.  Another flat card so cheaper to post!!!

Published in PaperCrafts!!!!

After months of trying I have at last got a card published in the Nov/Dec PaperCrafts magazine and I am thrilled.  I guess now that it has been published I am allowed to show you my card.  PaperCrafts is impossible to get in the UK unless you subscribe so this is for my UK visitors.

The HA Leaf and Floral background has been embossed in gold before adding my poinsettia flower which has been dry embossed using a herringbone folder.  Quite a simple card but quite a thick one to post ,  to cut my postage down this year I am trying to make as many flat cards as I can.  Here is one using the Winter Town a favourite of mine.

Here is another using the same stamp I love the water colour effect you get when spritzing the (Distressed) inked stamp with water.

There seems to be a bit of a blue theme going on at the moment with my Christmas cards.,

Hope you are having a great weekend, we are having the perfect Autumnal day here at the moment, blue sky but chilly, I love days like this. Hubby and I have been for a long walk over the common, just perfect..