A lilac christmas card and matching gift box

I've noticed that most of my cards recently have been in traditional colours and so I'm taking a break from those again - back to the purples today.

I made a little triangle box suitable for hanging on the tree, to match the card.

Recipe

Stamp set: Scandinavian Season, Punches Three

Cardstock: Lovely Lilac, Almost Amethyst, Whisper White

Ink: Versamark, SU Markers

DSP: Tea Party

Punches: Eyelet Border, Scallop Square

Other: Dazzling Diamonds, Silver Brads, Silver EP

I used a strip of DSP to decorate the front of the card and again on the inside to highlight the decorative edge. The corners with the inset brads were punched off with the corner of the Scallop Square.

Recipe

Stamp set: Scandinavian Season

Cardstock: Lovely Lilac, Whisper White

Ink: Versamark, SU Markers

Narrow Grosgrain Ribbon: Whisper White

Other: Dazzling Diamonds, Silver Brads, Silver EP

The snowflake background to the box is stamped with Versamark.

Off now to the theatre - Dreamboats and Petticoats tonight.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sara xx

Challenge no. 3 - Secret Crafter

Last one today. This one is for the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge which is on the theme of:

Christmas Trees

Again I've stuck to the same stamp set and colours that I used earlier:

Recipe

Stamp set: Season of Joy

Cardstock: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Very Vanilla

DSP: Christmas Jingle Simply Scrappin' Kit

Ink: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Real Red

Punches: Eyelet Edge, Scallop Oval, Large Oval

Narrow Grosgrain Ribbon: Real Red

Other: Fine Galaxy Glitter

Non-SU: Nestabilities

An easel card for my last one today and I used the Fine Galaxy Glitter to trim my tree and finish my poinsettias.

Sorry for the poor colours on today's cards. It's been dismal weather today and I still haven't figured out the best way to shoot indoors. I'll keep trying.

Please remember to stop back on Tuesday for my blogoversary candy.

Sara xx

Challenge no. 2 - Sweet Stampin

For my second challenge today I went over to the Colour Challenge at Sweet Stampin.

These are the colours to use (which I'm using for all my cards today):

This is the card I made with them:

Recipe

Stamp set: Season of Joy

Cardstock: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Very Vanilla

DSP: I Wish Simply Scrappin' Kit (retired)

Ink: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Real Red

Punches: Eyelet Edge, Scallop Oval, Large Oval

Non-SU: Nestabilities

I edged the inside of the card with Real Red to show off the lacy edge.

See you later.

Sara xx

A crafting day to complete some challenges - sketch saturday

There's no new challenge today over at Stamp With Us, instead there's an extra week to complete last week's challenge and enter the DT call.

I'm using my time today to enter some other challenges and stock up some more christmas cards. For each challenge I'll stick to the same colours and the same stamp set.

My first stop is Sketch Saturday and this is the sketch:

I've turned it on it's side:

Recipe

Stamp Set: Season of Joy

Cardstock: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Very Vanilla

DSP: I Wish Simply Scrappin' Kit (retired)

Ink: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Real Red

Punches: Scallop Edge, Corner Rounder, 1/4" Circle

I'll post the others as I get them done.

Guess I may have to fit in a little housework in between ;-)

Hope you're having a good weekend.

Sara xx

Ribbon weaving to create a holiday wreath

I got my parcel from my neighbour yesterday teatime, so sweet of her to take it it in for me. I'm now the proud owner of a full set of SU punches, I have every one now. I also got some more ribbons to add to my collection and I've used some of them on this project here.

Recipe

Stamp set: Punches 3 (hostess level 1)

Cardstock: Old Olive, Real Red, Whisper White

DSP: I Wish Simply Scrappin' Kit (retired)

Ink: Old Olive, Real Red

Narrow Grosgrain Ribbon: Always Artichoke, Real Red

Punches: Square Scallop, Corner Rounder

Other: Bold Brights Brads

I found the instructions for the wreath here. To make this one, which is approx. 6cm across, I used 1.5m of the Artichoke ribbon and I was left with a 20cm piece at one of the ends afterwards.

I guess you'll have to wait and see what else I got in my order, lol.

Next week is my first blogoversary (gosh a whole year blogging already) and in time honoured tradition I'll be offering candy, so please stop by again soon.

Have a great weekend.

Sara xx

Exams are over so I'm into guilt free crafting time

Well this morning's exam went a little better than Tuesday's. I (think I've) answered 2 questions well, 1 question OK and 2 questions not very well but hopefully that will be enough to get me a pass and after Tuesday's fiasco I'd be happy with that.

Thanks for all your kind comments. They really cheered me up when I was at a low ebb.

Anyway what this all means for me now is that I can put the study books away until January (when I have to start on the next couple of subjects) and enjoy weeks of guilt free crafting (forgetting all the housework of course, lol). I placed another SU order for myself at the weekend so that it would be delivered today. Unfortunately it was delivered whilst I was at the exam, a kind neighbour has taken it for me and is now out herself. So now I'm itching to get at my new goodies and having to content myself with what I've already got (I'm so hard done to you know, lol).

Recipe:

Stamp sets: Tree Trimmings. Autumn Days, Occasional Greetings

Cardstock: Old Olive, Whisper White

DSP: I Wish Simply Scrappin' Kit (retired)

Ink: Real Red, Old Olive, SU Markers

Punches: Corner Rounder, Eyelet Border

Narrow Grosgrain Ribbon: Real Red

I used the stamp-a-ma-jig to position the sprigs of fir tree in the top corners, the baubles below them and the sentiment. The middle bauble is raised on dimensionals.

Now I'm going to have a play at a new technique (if it works then I'll show you the results tomorrow) and then it's off to the vets for Bess's stitches taken out.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sara xx

A black and white card for a black mood

No, your monitor hasn't gone wrong. I just decided to make a black and white card to match my mood. I sat my exam this morning, took one look at the questions and could see that half the syllabus was missing from the question paper - the half that I had revised and knew pretty well. So many of the questions (we only had to answer 5 after all) were from the same area. Not fair! OK - sulk over, rant over. Here's the quick card I made to calm myself down again. Good I think for a man's card?

Recipe

Stamp sets: Scandinavian Season, Spotlight on Christmas

Cardstock: Basic Black, Whisper White

Ink: Versamark

Punches: Tag, Small Tag

Striped Grosgrain Ribbon: Basic Black

Other: White EP, Hodgepodge brads

Now back to hit the books ready for Thursday.

Hope your week's turning out better than mine. :-)

Sara xx

Stamp with us DT call and news of other changes

First, today's Stamp With Us challenge. This week it's a recipe:

• 3 brads
• 2 patterned papers
• 1 stamp

What - only 1 stamp! I figured I'd better make it count so I went for the Deck the Halls one from Season of Joy.

Recipe

Stamp set: Season of Joy

Cardstock: Old Olive, Real Red, Whisper White

DSP: Old Olive Patterns

Ink: Old Olive, Real Red, Craft White

Brads: Rich Regals

Punches: Scallop Edge, 1/2" Circle

Other: Mat pack, Piercing tool, Crop-a-dile

The 2 patterned papers were used to create the background panels. After stamping the full stamp in Old Olive, I stamped the little flowers again in Real Red and used my 3 brads to attach them to the main panel. I stamped the central portion of the stamp onto Old Olive card using Craft White and then cut out the accents and popped them up on dimensionals. The red mat was punched, pierced and finally embossed using my Crop-a-dile to create the spots in each scallop.

And now for some news ...

As you may have already spotted, the lovely Steph has unfortunately had to drop out of the DT and this means we have a spot open. If you'd like to join me and the others on the Stamp With Us Design Team then you need to enter this challenge and put DT after your name when you upload your entry via Mr Linky. The winner will be announced on Sunday 6 December so you have extended time for this.

Which brings me to the next change over at Stamp With Us. The challenges are going fortnightly. This gives the DT and you, more time to join in. Of course, if you have enough time, you could always enter twice!

And finally, on changes, we will be dropping the Recipe challenge after the DT call. Instead we will rotate the Sketch, Theme and Colour challenges every 6 weeks. The recipe challenge seems to have been the hardest for everyone and so following the vote with your feet, we're getting rid.

Please go check out the designs by the rest of the Design Team and I look forward to seeing all your entries, whether for the DT call or not.

A quick update now on classes. Yesterday's Creative Christmas class was a real giggle. Thanks ladies - I had a blast. Unfortunately we got so engrossed that I forgot to take pix to show here. It's funny though how no-one reminded me after I had mentioned it ... lol (I think they may be a bit camera shy).

We made four different colour versions of the Silent Night card here and we also made an easel card, a triangle box and a tri-shutter card. One of the ladies hadn't crafted before but she completed the whole lot with totally professional results. I think I've got another crafting convert!

Next classes will be in the new year. I'll post dates soon but email me if you have a preference over dates or what you'd like to try and I'll see if I can work it into the schedule.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Sara xx

Gold and silver trees suitable for mens christmas cards

At the craft fair on Saturday I sold all but two of my christmas cards and now I've realised that I've got a whole bunch more that I need to make to give to friends and family next month, lol. For today's post I've made two similar christmas cards, one silver, one gold. I think that they'll make good men's cards. What do you think? Are they too blingy for men?

Recipe

Stamp set: Scandinavian Season

Cardstock: Basic Black, Tempting Turquoise

Ink: Versamark

Other: Silver EP, Silver Brads, Silver Elastic Cord, Fine Cosmo Glitter, Circle Ice Rhinestone Brad

The tree is stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with silver powder. I used the 2-way glue pen to pick out part of the design and covered with the Turquoise glitter from the Fine Cosmo set. Silver elastic cord was wrapped around the lower portion of the mat for added interest and to balance the layout.

Recipe

Stamp sets: Scandinavian Wheel, Season of Joy

Cardstock: Whisper White

Ink: Not Quite Navy

To provide some white space to write the card, I added an insert to the back page.

Recipe

Stamp set: Scandinavian Season

Cardstock: Basic Black

Ink: Versamark

Other: Gold EP, Gold Brads, Gold Elastic Cord

Punch: Corner Rounder

Non-SU: Gold Mirri Card

The only variation here in addition to the colours is that I left off any glitter and rounded all the corners.

Recipe

Stamp sets: Scandinavian Wheel, Season of Joy

Cardstock: Whisper White

Ink: Versamark

Other: Gold EP

Punch: Corner Rounder

Well, that's another two down but quite a ways to go yet. Are you bored with all the Christmas cards? Let me know if you'd like to see something different for a change.

Sara xx

Tree gifts or table favours for Christmas

I only had time to make a few of these for the craft fair on Saturday and they all got snapped up early on but I think I need to make a few more to set out as table favours at our own Christmas dinner. Each of these holds 3 wrapped chocolates.

The design for them is from a tutorial over at Splitcoaststampers.

Recipe

Stamp sets: Season of Joy, Tree Trimmings

Cardstock: Old Olive, Real Red, Whisper White

Ink: Real Red, Craft White

DSP: Ski Slope (retired)

Punches: 5-petal flower, 1/2" Circle, Tag, Small Tag, Crop-a-dile

Other: Gold Elastic Cord

The only stamp I used from the Season of Joy set was the very dinky flower for the centre of my punched ones. I used the new Craft White ink to stamp the little bauble on the tag. I recommend cleaning your stamp as soon as you've used it, otherwise I found that my inkpad went a little pink when I stamped again. The Small Tag punched from Whisper White is on the reverse of the tag to allow for a message or place name if using as table favours.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sara xx