Penguin Party!

This is my final blog post of the year as I am having a little break over Christmas, and today I have a card and a couple of Christmas cushions to show you. 

I love penguins and have a big collection of penguin digi-stamps, but I don't colour them up very often as I always struggle with black/grey, it's either too dark or not dark enough, but I soooo wanted to use this adorable image that I decided to bite the bullet and go for it.

Please excuse the pics, as it is very dark and dismal and I've had to use my daylight lamp.

Image - Penguin Party - Sugar Nellie at Funky Kits

Papers - Warm Hearts - Just So Scrappy
Sentiment - Christmas Scriptalicious sentiments - Pink Petticoat

Tonic geared border punch - Gothic border

Lawn Cuts - Stitched snowflakes

Ribbon, gems and diamanté buckle - Meiflower

I am entering my card into the following challenges

The Sugar Bowl Challenge - anything goes with a Sugar Nellie image

Card Mania -  Christmas

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here are a couple of cushions I made, once again using patterns and instructions from the

Cards and Crafts for Christmas Magazine.

As I've said previously, it's been a long time since I used a sewing machine, the angel and snowman are stitched on by hand and the cushion covers are simple envelope backs, so I only had to use the machine to stitch around the edges.

I am entering the cushions in this challenge

All Crafts Challenge - Anything goes, but NO Cards

I would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to everyone who has left a comment throughout the year, they really make my day and encourage me to keep on doing what I do, so thank you very much.

Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year to you all,

hugs,

Colette xx

Merry Christmas Tree

Not long to go now to the big day, are you ready for it? I still have a few pressies to wrap, my meat hamper will be ready to pick up from the butcher tomorrow and on Christmas Eve hubby and I head off to the local farm shop for our Christmas veg, and then that's it, I'm done, unless something unexpected crops up, which is usually what happens LOL!

Here's a quick card I made using a Bugaboo Christmas tree digi-stamp.

Digi-stamp - Merry Christmas Tree - Bugaboo

Papers - Santa's Helper - Just So Scrappy

String of lights, and holly bauble- Little B's cutting dies Holiday 

Gingham Ribbon and metallic cord - Meiflower

I am entering my card into these challenges

Bugaboo Christmas Bingo - (Bugaboo image, Glitter - on bauble, Players choice(ribbon))

Holly Jolly Christmas - Anything goes

Penny's Challenges - Anything goes

Thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Shaped Christmas Cards

Have you managed to get all your Christmas cards ready in time? if you still need a few more and don't have a lot of time, then look no further than the new Christmas shaped cards Mega Bundle in the Paper Creator store.

The bundle contains 10 shaped cards, with decoupage layers, matching inserts and envelopes and is on offer at the moment for only £5.

I managed to put together the three below in less than an hour (without envelopes). You can dress them up as much as you like or leave them as they come.

Lace - Stash

Ready made bow and red pearls - Meiflower

Lawn Fawn - Stitched Snowflakes

Flower soft on ear muffs

Charm and dazzler - Stash

Sentiment added to label before printing

Large Jingle Bells and Gold lurex ribbon - Meiflower

Thanks for popping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

A gift for Nan

I'm off to see Aladdin at the Liverpool Empire tomorrow with Meg and Will, we go to the panto every year, (it's a bit of a Christmas tradition), and they are always fabulous. One of the things I love about the Empire panto is that they always have local celebrities playing the main parts so I'm looking forward to seeing Ray Quinn as Aladdin and Claire Sweeney as the genie.

Once again today I have something that is not a card to show you - a couple of weeks ago my daughter Stacy asked me if I could do "one of those pictures with all the words mixed up"(her words exactly), as she wanted me to make one for my mum (her Nan) for Christmas, containing all the names of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren along with a few other words, including Sunday dinner, as Stacy and the boys, go to my mum's every Sunday for lunch.

I made the Word Cloud in a heart shape and then printed it out, added an outline of glitter around the word Nanny and put it into a box frame from Ikea, (Eric had re-sized the mount board first), then I finished it off with some lace, die-cut rolled roses, leaf flourishes and a pretty heart embellishment I found in my stash.

Frame - Ribba - Ikea

Rolled Roses - Marianne creatables

Petite Vinery die - Sue Wilson

Lace and wire hearts embellishment - Stash

Stacy was really pleased with it so she's asked me to make a couple more, in pink, for her neices.

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Snowflakes and poinsettia cards

Just a quick note to let you know that Bad Kitty was my randomly selected commenter from the Paper Shelter blog hop, and you can find all the details you need to claim your digi image HERE

I have two cards to show you today which I made in early September as samples for Meiflower.

For the first card I die cut lots of snowflakes from glitter card and dotted them randomly over the bottom two thirds of the card front, trimming off the overlap. I added blue gingham ribbon, tying two bows and overlapping one over the other, then added a die-cut circle of glitter card and a diamanté snowflake embellishment. I also die-cut the sentiment from glitter card.

Snowflake die - Ice Crystal 3 - JoyCraft 6002/2020

Wording - Whimsy Shapeology Collection - Holiday sentimentables

Small scalloped circle - Tonic layering dies scalloped circles

Gingham ribbon and diamanté snowflake - Meiflower

This is a very simple card, just an embossed background, (the card is a beautiful colour in real life, photo doesn't do it justice), wrapped with organza ribbon and then a die cut white poinsettia, all finished off with lots of pearls

Silver Stardream card - Craft Creations

Tied Together A4 embossing folder - Couture Creations

Die-namics Poinsettia die

Organza ribbon and pearls - Meiflower

Thanks for popping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Anything Goes at The Paper Shelter

It's the final challenge of the year over at the Paper Shelter today, as we are going on our Christmas Break, and as it's the last challenge of the year both design teams are joining in, so double the inspiration over on the challenge blog.

The challenge will run for three weeks and we are leaving you with the easy peasy challenge theme of

Anything Goes

There are great prizes up for grabs!

If you are our randomly selected winner and play with a TPS image then you have a chance of winning a $30 gift certificate, any other image and you could win three digis of your choice.

Here's my card

Image - The Most Adorable Snowmen - The Paper Shelter

Landscape A5 Creative Linen card blank - Craft Creations

Embossalicious Let It Snow A4 embossing folder - Crafters Companion

Striped Ribbon - The Ribbon Girl

Flower soft - Polar White

Snowflake cut on my silhouette

Charm and large dazzler from my friend Donna

Pop over to the challenge blog and check out the fabulous inspiration from both teams, (there is lots of lusciousness to look at) and don't forget you have three weeks to enter our anything goes challenge.

We'll be back in the New Year with lots more fab challenges.

Thanks for dropping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

and now for something completely different!

A few months ago I bought the Cards and Crafts for Christmas magazine, and after flicking through the pages decided I would like to have a go at making a stag's head decoration and a couple of cushions. I decided to do the stag's head first.
It's been a long time since I did any sewing and I don't even own a machine any more, but luckily my daughters boyfriends mum had one she doesn't use, so let me borrow it, and even more luckily, most of the stag's head is hand stitched, I only needed the machine to do the antlers.

I was really pleased with the way it turned out, and after laughing her head off when I told her what I was making, my daughter now wants me to make one for her!

I am entering this into the following challenge

All Crafts Challenge --- Anything Goes, but no cards

Thanks for popping in and taking a look
hugs,
Colette xx

Let It Snow!

For some reason on Tuesday a little box started to appear at the bottom of my pop-up comments window which said - please "prove you are not a robot" and asked you to type a number into a box - this was nothing to do with me! - I have always had comment moderation turned off, - I went in to my set-up and checked and it was definitely turned off. I went around visiting friends blogs and noticed that those that had a pop-up window for comments (like me) had the message and those who had their comment box as part of their page didn't, so I went into my set-up, changed my comments to embedded and voila! problem solved. I much prefer the pop-up window, so I hope blogger gets it sorted so that I can go back to using it.

Hubby is recovering nicely from his eye op, when he removed his eye patch 24 hours after surgery he could already see sooo much better, the big problem is that he can't drive or go to work for a week even though he feels and looks perfectly well, so I am stuck with him here, and by Monday lunch time he was already getting on my nerves. His outpatient appointment is Saturday and we both have everything crossed that he can return to work on Monday LOL!

My card for today uses a gorgeous image from Sassy Studio Designs called Let It Go Sassy.

I wanted to add lots of glitter and bling to the card, so I covered a 4 cm wide strip of card with strips of double sided tape all butted up against each other, added pearls, gems and dazzlers and then covered the whole thing with glitter, pressing the glitter into the sticky tape.

I also punched out some snowflakes from the white background circle before I layered it onto the blue, do that the background would show through, and then glittered the snowflakes and dotted them around the card, adding AB gems to the centres, and finally I added glitter to the cloak of the image.

Digital stamp - Let it Go Sassy - Sassy Studio Designs

Digital papers - Frozen Winter papers -  The Art Box Designs

Tonic Layering dies - Scalloped circles , Plain circles

X-cut border punch

X-cut palm punch - Snow Crystal, medium and large

Gems, pearls and small dazzles - Meiflower

Large dazzles from my friend Donna

Alphabet for sentiment - Tama Cube - dafont

I wish you could see how sparkly it is in real life.

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Baubles, snowflakes and a gift bag

A couple more creations today from the Sarah Paris Complete Cardmaking commission, this time around I have a couple of cards and a gift bag to show you.

The baubles and snowflake digital stamps, sentiments and papers all came on the Free CD included with the magazine.

 I made an easel card, colouring the baubles to match the background paper and using one of the sentiments for the stopper.

For this card I printed the sentiment onto the paper arranging the snowflakes around it randomly and colouring the word Celebrate and parts of the snowflakes red, to finish off I added a crystal gem to the centre of each snowflake

I used a brown paper lunch bag and made a lid, which slides over the handles, from Kraft. I coloured up the sentiment and snowflakes, die cut the sentiment and cut around the snowflakes before adding them to the front of the bag which I had already decorated with papers from the collection.

Nellie Snellen Pine branch die used on easel card

All ribbons and gems- Meiflower

Digital stamps and papers are available to buy from the Sarah Paris online store.

Thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Winter Mittens!

My hubby is at the hospital this morning having a cataract removed, luckily for him, he only needs one eye done as his cataract isn't age related, which usually involves needing to have both eyes done, but, according to the hospital, due to an injury to the eye. The only problem is he doesn't remember injuring it! but never mind at, least he doesn't have to go through it all again in a few weeks.

Here's a quick card I made using an image from another one of the Sassy Cheryl accessory sets over at Paper Creator.

Mittens - Deck out the tree accessory set - Sassy Cheryl at Paper Creator

Paper - Snowfall for him freebie - Eve Recinella (no longer available)

 Cardstock - Buff - Papermill direct

Lawn Fawn Stitched Snowflakes die

Ribbon, button and metallic cord - Meiflower

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

The Paper Shelter 4th Birthday Blog Hop

Woohoo! The Paper Shelter is four years old on December 8th and to celebrate we are having a Blog Hop and Challenge, it will run for two weeks with both Design Teams taking part, and if that's not exciting enough, each blog on the hop is offering one lucky commenter a TPS digi of their choice.

The Hop is our way of inviting you to join in with us and the challenge theme is

"A Special Celebration"

If you have just arrived from Gail's blog, then you're heading in the right direction - if not then you'll want to head on back to The Paper Shelter Challenge Blog to start again, as you won't want to miss out on this one!

Our Design Teams have worked very hard and are showcasing the gorgeous images available from The Paper Shelter Website.

 Check out The Paper Shelter Challenge Blog for all the details of the hop, the challenge and the prizes



Digital Stamp - Faery Emma - The Paper Shelter
Papers - Little Lady - Just So Scrappy
EK Success border punch
Dragonfly charm - Stash
Ribbon and Gems - Meiflower

From here you will need to hop over to Eva's blog..

 Before you go, don't forget to leave a comment for a chance of winning your choice of one of the fab digis available in store.

Hop! Hop! Hop!

Good luck and hope you're enjoying is so far

Hugs,
Colette xx

A couple of Christmas cards

Today I have a couple of Christmas cards to show you which were part of my commission for the September edition of Complete Cardmaking magazine.

I was given a Sarah Paris kit to play with which contained several papers and a good selection of bauble, snowflake and sentiment digi stamps.

For the first card I merged together the snowflake string and the bauble in Photoshop before colouring to match the background paper I was using. The right hand side of the card front is acetate, and the bauble is fixed to this so that when the card is open the bauble looks like it is dangling. I coloured the "Merry" of the sentiment to match the bauble.

digital stamps and paper - Sarah Paris - Free CD Complete Cardmaking Magazine issue 52

Embossalicious A4 Let it Snow embossing folder

Die-namics pierced fishtail flags die

Gold ribbon and gems - Meiflower

Papers, snowflake and Joy digital image - Sarah Paris - Free CD Complete Cardmaking Magazine issue 52

Scalloped and plain oval - Tonic layering dies scallop and plain oval set

Ribbon - Meiflower

Papers and digital stamps are also available to buy at the Sarah Paris online store

Thanks for stopping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

All about Christmas!

It's time for our last challenge before our Christmas break over at The Paper Creator challenge blog today so the theme is obviously...

All About Christmas

you don't have to use Paper Creator products to play along, but if you do you get a second entry into the random draw for a £10 gift certificate to spend in store.

Here's my card using one of the new Sassy Cheryl digi sets.

The little snowman is supposed to look like he is holding onto the large snowflake and floating down into the arms of the big snowman.

Images- Flurry of fun set - Sassy Cheryl at Paper Creator

Lawn Fawn Stitched Snowflakes Die set

X-cut palm punch Snow Crystal large and medium.

Sentiment - Snowy day sentiments - Pink Petticoat

Small dazzlers and gems - Meiflower

Pop over to the Paper Creator challenge blog and check out the fabulous inspiration from the rest of my teamies.

Thanks for calling,

have a lovely weekend,

hugs,

Colette xx

Metal

Team B are hosting the challenge over at The Paper Shelter today and this time around the theme is

Metal

(use metal somewhere on your project and tell us what you've used)

There are great prizes up for grabs! If you are our randomly selected winner and play along with a TPS image then you have a chance of winning a $30 gift certificate, any other image and you could win three digis of your choice.

I have used a metal filigree corner and fan charm on my card. I used embroidery thread and a small bead to make the tassel for the fan.

Digital stamp - Cute Japanese Doll - The Paper Shelter

Papers - From Laughter to Memories - Nitwit Collections

Large Swirl punch  - EK Success

Tonic Layering dies - Circles

Lace border - IO Border duo 1

Metal filigree corner - Wild Orchid Crafts

Fan charm - Stash

Gems - Meiflower

I am entering the following challenges with this card.

Card Mania -  Use a Digi

Party Time Tuesdays - #191 - Anything Goes

The Pink Elephant Monday Card Challenge  - Anything Goes

Through the Purple Haze  - Anything Goes

Pop over to the Challenge blog and check out the fabulous inspiration from my teamies and make sure you join us next week for our fabulous fourth birthday blog hop.

Thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Spots and Stripes

It's time for a new challenge over at Teddy Bo and this time the theme is

Spots and Stripes

the spots and stripes can be from background papers, ribbons, or even part of your image, as long as there are spots and stripes somewhere on your creation we'll be happy.

You must use a Teddy Bo and Co image (doesn't have to be the bears) to take part, and the winner, chosen by the DT, gets to choose 10 digital images of their choice from the Teddy Bo and Co store.

Here's my card

Image - TEDDYBO_259

Papers - Jolly Days adn Extra papers pack - Just So Scrappy

White creative linen A5 landscape card blank - Craft Creations

Lawn Fawn Stitched Snowflakes Die

Gingham ribbon and dazzler - Meiflower

I am entering this card into the following challenges

Clear It Out  - Winter Wishes and Stash: Use a Snowflake

Creative Card Crew  - #75 Stripes
Just Inspirational Challenges  – Winter

Cutie Pie Challenge -  must be "cute" -  Festive Furry Friends

Check out all the new releases here

and don't forget to pop over to the challenge blog to see what my fabulous teamies have done with them.

Thanks for calling,

enjoy your day,

hugs,

Colette xx

Warm and cozy

Paper Creator has some new Sassy Cheryl images in and included in the new release are some accessory sets, which contain bits and pieces you can use to dress up other images. 

I decided to make a couple of cards using the accessories on their own and here is the first.

The image is from the Warm and Cozy accessory set, and the papers are from my scrap box. Although you can't tell from the photo, I printed the mug out several times and layered it up using foam pads, I also cut a small piece from the waste of the circle frame and used it in the top corner.

Warm and Cosy accessory set - Sassy Cheryl at Paper Creator

Sweet Dixie - Dotted Doily Circle Frame

Tonic Layering dies -Scalloped Squares

Sentiment - computer generated

Papers from my scrap box

X-cut palm punch - Snow Crystal large

Ribbon - Ribbon Girl

Gems - Meiflower

Thanks for popping in,

have a good day,

hugs,

Colette xx

Festive Fashions

Here's a card I made recently using the Festive Fashions CD, which came as the third disc in Katy Sue's Fabulous Giftware CD set. I wanted to make a Christmas card for a friend who loves clothes and fashion and this CD was just perfect.

I printed out a decoupage sheet for the main panel and added all the layers which unfortunately don't show up in this photo, but look fab in real life.

I did take a close up photo which will hopefully give you some idea of how it looks.

The only other things I used on the card was metallic edged ribbon and stick on gems from Meiflower, which I used in the centres of the flowers, as holly berries on the dress top and buttons on the boot, and lots of glitter.

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Snowflakes

It's time for another challenge over at The Paper Shelter and this time around the theme is

Snowflakes

There are great prizes up for grabs! If you are our randomly selected winner and play with a TPS image then you have a chance of winning a $30 gift certificate, any other image and you could win three digis of your choice.

I made an acetate front tent card, die cut an aperture, ran glossy accents around the edge and covered with glitter to make it look icy. I then decorated the acetate with lots of die-cut and punched snowflakes, cut from glitter card.

Digital stamp - Winter Princess - The Paper Shelter

Papers - Snow Friends - lliella and KMiller - Sweet Shoppe Designs

Spellbinders Labels 11

JoyCrafts - Ice crystal 2 and Ice crystal 3

Various snowflake punches

Sentiment - Snowy day sentiments - Pink Petticoat

Sakura quickie glue pen, glamour dust, glossy accents, acetate and Glitter card - Stash

I am entering my card into the following challenges

Going Grey With Scrap-Creations - Make It Sparkle

Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge #217 - Holiday

Party Time Tuesdays -  #189 - Anything Goes

Through The Craft Room Door  - Always Anything Goes

Card Mania -  Dies 

Dream Valley Challenges - Christmas
Completely Christmas Anything Goes with twist - Use Some Blue

Moving along with the Times: Sparkle and/or Shine

Papertake Weekly - 2 or 4 legs

Pop over to the challenge blog and check out the fabulous inspiration from the rest of my teamies, 

thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

OOPS!

It's time for a new challenge over at Paper Creator today and some nincompoop (me) had forgotten all about it, luckily I realised before the day was over, so am just about getting in by the skin of my teeth.

This time around the theme is super-easy

Anything Goes

You do not need to use Paper Creator products to enter, but if you do, you get a second entry into the draw for the fabulous prize of a £10 certificate to spend in store.

Here's my card

14.4cm square deckled edge card blank - Craft Creations

 Decked out for the Holiday illustration - Sassy Cheryl at Paper Creator
Background paper - Winter Whimsy - Crazy Scrap Chicks
Memory Box- PreciousSnowflakes
Stampin Up - Adorning Accents edgelits
Lawn Fawn - Lawn Cuts - Stitched Scallop borders
Ribbon and gems - Meiflower

Pop over to the Paper Creator challenge blog and check out the fabulous inspiration from the rest of my teamies, and don't forget our Anything goes challenge, you've got to be in it to win it!

Thanks for stopping by,
have a lovely weekend,
hugs,
Colette xx

Curious George

It's Charlie's birthday today, happy birthday Charlie Chops!!! 

In my last Teddy Bo post I showed you the card I had made for him with the red mini, (the only thing he wants for his birthday), well he is also a big fan of Curious George, so I thought I would make him a card with George on it from Meg. I found a printable colouring page on Google, coloured it up and turned it into a card, I only had to add the sentiment to finish it off when Stacy saw it and claimed it for herself, so I had to reprint the sentiment with Son instead of Nephew.

Image - Colouring page - Google

Tonic Layering dies - Circles

Papers - Jungle Fun - Nitwit collection

Lawn Fawn - Stitched scallop border dies

Lawn Fawn - Finley's 123's dies

Ribbon - Meiflower 

Thanks for dropping in,
hugs,
Colette xx

A couple of Christmas cards...

... made with a sheet of toppers I printed out twice by mistake.

On my Paper Creator post last weekend, where I made the Christmas pop-up box, I mentioned that somehow or other I had managed to print out the topper sheet twice, well it seemed such a shame not to use it, so I made a couple of Christmas cards with it.

The circles came from the toppers for the box flaps, I used a die to cut them out and was originally planning to make 3 small cards with a topper on each, but then changed my mind and added them all to the same card. For the second card I made a theatre card?!?!?! and used all the bits that would normally pop out of the box to build up the scene.

Paper creator Christmas Pop-up Box Mega Bundle

Spellbinders Grand Labels 4

Tonic Layering dies - Plain Circles and Scalloped Circles

Crafters Companion Embossalicious Let it Snow 6 x 6 folder

Stocking bunting die - Joanna Sheen

Ribbon, bow, bells, Pearl - Meiflower

Sleigh charm and papers - Stash

Thanks for dropping in,

have a lovely weekend,

hugs,

Colette xx

Is it too early for Christmas?!?!

That's the theme of our challenge over at The Paper Shelter this week, personally, I think it is never too early for Christmas LOL!

Is it too early for Christmas?

You don't have to use a Paper Shelter image to join in with our challenge, but if you do and are the randomly chosen winner then you get a fabulous $30 gift certificate to spend in store, if you use any other image you will win 3 digi images of your choice.

For my card I have used the very cute Are You Ready My Friend? digi stamp

Image - Are You Ready My Friend? - The Paper Shelter

Papers - Tis the Season - Just So Scrappy

Reindeer charm - Stash

Snowflake - Joy Crafts Ice Crystal 6002/2018 and 6002/2019

Grosgrain ribbon - Meiflower

Pop over to the challenge blog and check out the merry and bright inspiration from my teamies, and don't forget to play along with our challenge to be in with a chance of winning a fab prize.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look,

hugs,

Colette xx