The Christmas post

My lovely new little Claire's stamps arrived this week and so it only seemed right that I should take the opportunity to enter in to their monthly competition!

Ingredients for this card;
Little Claire's dinky post box stamp
Card-io Christmas sentiment stamp
Stickles frosted lace
Kan ban snowflake sparkles paper
Pro markers and copics
White pearly satin ribbon

I would like to enter this card in to...
Little Claire's Christmas in white
Crafty ribbons cultural Christmas - what could signify British culture at Christmas more than a red post box?!
Stamping sensations anything stamped with ribbon
My time to craft- Christmas animals - the robins are my animals

Paper folding gift bag

This week I've had a go at following Neil's tutorial from the craft barn blog here. It is surprisingly quick and easy to do and now that I've done this one I reckon there'll be plenty more to follow!

This one was made with a paper from my stash. I added extra white brilliance ink to the to followed by some liquid pearls to make icicles. I made holes in the top with a little woodware star punch and tied silver ribbon on for handles.

I'd like to enter this in to this week's Craft barn challenge.

The Christmas rush

I've used these little fellas lots of times for birthday cards but I think this is the first Christmas card I've made with them. I stamped and coloured the penny black hedgehogs first and coloured with promarkers. Next I drew in the tree and inked the sky. I die cut the snowflake and used the negative as a mask and inked the snowflakes in to the sky. I die cut the lettering and finished it all off with some liquid pearls and glossy accents.

I would like to enter the following challenges with this card;
My time to craft - let it snow
Penny black Saturday - dies out punches
Penny black at allsorts - anything Christmas

Winter flurry

This is a bit of a last minute entry for this weeks Freshly made sketches challenge.
The sketch is this one
I've gone for a fairly straight forward take on it. I smooshed a bit of tumbled glass distress ink on my craft mat, sprayed it with water and pressed the card in to it. I then stamped card-io winter flurry snowflakes in to the ink. I cut the banner and stamped hero arts Christmas greetings in versa colour Neptune. The snowflake is a crafters companion die. I stuck both on with 3D foam pads and finished with a sequin and some gems.

Bubbles, rain or the spotlight?

I have made no less than five of these cards trying to get one that I was absolutely 100% happy with. This is number five and I'm still not content but have given up as I'm running out of time to enter the Clarity stamps challenge. This week it is 'clean and simple' using their own stamps. I picked out the little duck silhouette.  I masked and inked the circles using a variety of blue versa colour inks, spritzed with smooch spritz and added the duck and clarity 'thank you' sentiment. I haven't quite decided whether he's in a bubble, the rain or the spot light, but I guess that's up to the recipient to decide.

Owl always love Christmas!

I made this wintery card using the new tree set from card-io. The trees are stamped in versa colour châteaux grey. I added a little more of the ink to create shadows at the bottom on the trees. I used a memory box die to cut the curved piece at the front and covered it in ultra fine glitter. Finally I added the owl (also from card-io) in black to make him really stand out and spattered a little frosted lace stickles down the side of the trees. I have debated adding a message several times but can't quite decide!

I would like to enter this card in to the following challenges;
Casology - owl
My time to craft
The craft barn- snowflakes

Lavinia stamps Christmas challenge

I've been eagerly watching the Lavinia stamps blog for a while note hoping you enter but as the rules state that the only stamps to be used are Lavinia's I was struggling as I only had two! This week I rectified that situation and armed with a little selection of exciting new Lavinia stamps I checked back on the blog. Doh, hadn't realised it was a Christmas challenge this time. I had ponies, lavender, autumn vine, fairies, stars and a bumble bee with which to create my Christmas entry!
Time to get a little inventive! I masked and inked a triangle shape and with the mask still in place repeatedly stamped the stars then sprayed with smooch spritz. I inked part of the autumn vine and placed it to look like the fairies were decorating with it.

I inked all round the edges with distress ink and stamped more of the vine coming off the page. Finally I used bits of the lavender stamp to add an undergrowth effect at the bottom of the card. A bit of obligatory stickles and some garnet liquid pearls and I was there!

This is a closed up of the Christmas tree to show some of the details

Take a look at the Lavinia stamps blog here.