HoHoHo! Merry Christmas!

It's time for the final challenge of the year over at the Paper Shelter, as we are off on our Christmas break for the next three weeks, and because everyone will be busy shopping, cooking and celebrating, the challenge theme couldn't be anything other than the super easy...

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 will win three digis of your choice.

To find my winner of the birthday blog hop Paper Shelter image, I asked my grandson Will to pick a number between 1 and 22 (the amount of comments that were left), he chose...
 number 11
I counted down the names until I reached 11 to find the winners name

Christine L

Please visit the Paper Shelter challenge blog to find out how to claim your prize.

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

I decided to do something different for this challenge and made a Christmas decoration instead of the usual card. I found an 8 inch square canvas box frame amongst my craft stuff, so I gave it a coat of red paint and then decorated it up with digital papers,topped it off with the fabulous Santa Family Selfie pre-coloured image from The Paper Shelter and added some lights by making holes around the image and pushing a set of LED lights through from the back.

TA DAH!!!

Santa Family Selfie - The Paper Shelter

Papers - Believe Nitwits Collection

Sizzix die- Hearts

Crafters Companion Sara Davies Signature collection - Festive Greetings

Sue Wilson - Filigree Holly

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

Also I would like to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you

a very merry Christmas

and a happy New Year.

Take care,

hugs,

Colette xx

Intricut

Hobbycraft have brought out their own range of dies, I believe there are about 48 altogether and there are some really fabulous filigree designs.

For the latest issue of Die-cutting essentials I made some cards for children using just a few of them.

Check out the magazine for lots more die-cutting inspiration and a fabulous free gift.

Thanks for stopping by

hugs,

Colette xx

Happy!

Papercraft Essentials 141 is on the shelves today and I was commissioned to make half a dozen cards using a gorgeous Nitwits Collection called Happy. It has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas but is all about pretty pinks and flowers.

Here are a few of the cards I made for the magazine.

Although the photos don't show it very well all the images on the cards are decoupaged and finished off with gems and glitter.

Check out the magazine for lots of fabulous inspiration and a brilliant free gift containing number dies and birthday sentiment stamps.

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Happy Feetzies

We are halfway through the month, already! the days are just flying by, so time for a quick reminder that we are also halfway through the Paper Creator Christmas challenge, I wanted to share a quick card I made using one of the fabulous Sassy Cheryl illustrations from the store. I just had to use this image because I love penguins and these three are really cute.

Happy Feetzies coloured image - Sassy Cheryl at Paper Creator

Papers - Winter whimsy - no longer available

JoyCrafts - Winter wishes - Ice Crystal 1

X-cut scallop border punch

X-cut medium and large snowflake punches

Charm - stash

Ribbon and gems - Meiflower

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look,

hugs,

Colette xx

Happy Birthday to us!

Woohoo! Happy 6th birthday to the Paper Shelter, and of course you can't have a birthday without a challenge, a blog hop and some fabulous prizes, so what are we waiting for? let's get on with it and give you all the important details.

Good Morning fellow crafters and welcome to The Paper Shelter Blog Hop and this is in celebration of their reaching their 6th Birthday on December 8th. It will be a two week Challenge and both Design Teams are taking part.

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

"A Special Birthday"

If you have landed here from Pauline'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'll not 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 Store and each blog on the hop is offering one lucky commenter a digi of their choice. There is also a fabulous main prize, details of which are on The Paper Shelter Challenge Blogspot.

Give me a kiss digital stamp (only used part of image) The Paper Shelter

Paper from my scrap box

Silver glitter card - local Pound world

X-cut Alphabet - Alice 

Ribbon - Meiflower

From here you will need to hop on over to Vannessa's blog, but before you hop off don't forget to leave your comment for a chance of winning your choice of one of the fab digis available in store.

.

Keep on hopping!

Have fun and good luck!

Colette xx

24 sleeps to go!

Yaaay! only 24 more sleeps to go before Santa turns up, my youngest grandson is super excited, we've been counting sleeps for months LOL! and it's so much easier to count now we are actually in December.

Today is also the start of  a new Paper Creator challenge and this time around the theme is..... aww go on, I bet you can't guess what it is.... mmmm, what could it be now that we are in December ?, Valentines day? Easter ? or could it be...

Christmas

The winner will receive a £10 store credit to spend in the Paper Creator store.

Paper Creator products are not essential, but you will gain an extra entry into the random draw if using them. The challenge runs for the whole of the month and the winner is announced at the start of the next month's challenge.

I made two cards for today's challenge, using both the pink and blue versions of Candy Star Ted Ultimate kits.

For the blue version I made an offset gate fold card and decorated it with papers, a topper and sentiment from the kit. I added blue and brown glitter to some of the elements and a punched gold star to the topper. The candy cane is glittered and I added polar white flower soft to his hat brim, pompom and coat hem, all finished off with a brown gingham bow.

With the pink kit I made a circle card using a Spellbinders Grand circle die, I cut a frame from silver glitter card, using the same die as for the card with a Lifestyle inverted scallop die in the centre. I did the same on a smaller scale for the sentiment. The paper, image and sentiment all came from the kit and the image was decorated in the same way as the blue one, and once again I finished it all off with gingham bows.

Don't forget to pop over to the challenge blog and check out the amazing creations from my fabulous teamies.

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Bingo!

The new challenge over at the Paper Shelter this week is Bingo, just pick a line in any direction from the board and use those items on your creation.

Bingo

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 will win three digis of your choice.

I coloured up the Christmas Shopping digital stamp and used papers and embellishments from a Nitwits kit to make a stepper card. No measuring and fiddling about to make the stepper card though, Craft Creations sell ready to fold stepper card blanks in a variety of colours and designs, making this type of card so much easier.

Digital Stamp - Christmas Shopping - The Paper Shelter

Papers, presents and heart - Nitwits Mr and Mrs Collection

Sentiment - Happy Christmas/birthday small font word set - Britannia dies

Black side stepper card blank - Craft Creations

X-cut Holly punch

Ribbons, gems and pearls - Meiflower

Don't forget to pop over to the challenge blog and check out all the fabulous inspiration from the rest of my teamies,

Thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Brink on the cake! part 2

Here are the other three cards from the Papercraft Essentials issue 140 commission using the fabulous Kate Hadfield collection Bring on the cake and the papers that I made to go with the kit, don't forget it you want the papers you can download them for free from HERE.

All images are from the pre-coloured Bring on the Cake collection, although a digital stamp kit of the images is also available, the papers are from the free download, all gems, ribbons and pearls are from Meiflower. The stepper card blank is available from Craft Creations, the flowers are X-cut punches and the Happy Birthday die set is from Robert Addams.

Check out the magazine for lots more fabulous inspiration and a gorgeous free gift containing an igloo embossing folder and sweet animal stamps.

Thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Bring on the cake! part 1

If you've got the latest edition of the Papercraft Essentials magazine, then you will already have seen these cards, but I thought I would pop them on the blog too.

I was lucky enough to be given a fabulous Kate Hadfield collection of digi images and stamps to play with called Bring on the Cake and was commissioned to make seven cards. Here are a few of them the rest will follow in a few days.

I love her images, they are always so bright and colourful. I decided to design my own papers to go with the images, there are 10 plain and 12 patterned and if you like the look of them you can download them for free from HERE.

The Bring on the cake collection comes in either a pre-coloured version or a digital stamp version, the top two cards use pre-coloured images and the bottom one is a digi-stamp. The papers are all from the free download, lace is from stash, flowers are made with X-cut punches and all the ribbons and gems are from Meiflower.

If you don't have the magazine then check it out, it has lots of fabulous inspiration and comes with a free gift of a gorgeous igloo embossing folder and some seriously cute stamps of penguins, a polar bear and a seal, as well as some extra items to dress them up and create scenes.

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Figure eight style

We are just about halfway through our Anything Goes challenge over at Paper Creator, so I thought I would pop in with a quick reminder. I have another card to show you that is almost the same as my card at the start of the challenge (cos' I am loving this design at the moment and Paper Creator have so many Sassy Cheryl illustrations that are perfect for it, expect at least another one before Christmas LOL!)

 I like to make them so that when the card is folded the skater hangs over the edge slightly, so although the card is square I have to put it in an A5 envelope. As in the previous card HERE, the bottom strip is covered in glitter, unfortunately it is very difficult to get it to show up in a photo.

Figure eight style illustration - Sassy Cheryl at Paper Creator

Papers - Up on the housetop - Just So Scrappy

Marianne Creatables LR0191 lamp and sign 

Wreath and snow on lamp post  are from X-cut Gingerbread House die set 

X-cut large and medium snowflake punch

Ribbon and gems - Meiflower

There is still a couple of weeks to get your entry in for our anything goes challenge and with the £10 gift voucher prize you could purchase quite a few of these Sassy Cheryl images and make your own cards..

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Santa Selfie

We have a new challenge starting today over at The Paper Shelter and it's super easy too, our theme is

Christmas is Coming

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 will win three digis of your choice.

I thought that the Santa Selfie image would be the perfect choice for today's tech savvy youngsters.

I kept the card quite simple making the image the main focus.

After colouring the image I added glitter to Rudolph's nose and Santa's bobble and buckle. I made the  sentiment using different fonts and some embellishments from a Nitwits kit, I also added a sprig of holly from the kit to Santa's hat before printing, a couple of  glitter card photo corners and a gingham bow finished the card.

Digital Stamp - Santa Selfie - The Paper Shelter

Sentiment - computer generated

Nitwits HoHoHo collection - images in sentiment and Santa's hat holly

Landscape red card blank - Craft Creations

Glitters - HunkyDory

Die-namics Photo Corners

Gingham ribbon - Meiflower

Check out the fabulous inspiration from the rest of my teamies at The Paper Shelter challenge blog, 

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Snow much fun!

Oh my goodness! November already, there's only 55 days until Christmas, 55 days!!! think I need to start getting some presents bought, not that I'm one of those people that leaves everything until the last minute or anything (guilty as charged LOL!)

As it is the first of the month it's time for a new challenge at Paper Creator and this time around it is the amazingly simple

Anything Goes

The winner will receive a £10 store credit to spend in the Paper Creator store.

Paper Creator products are not essential, but you will gain an extra entry into the random draw if using them. The challenge runs for the whole of the month and the winner is announced at the start of the next month's challenge.

I decided to combine a couple of Sassy Cheryl illustrations and a fun fold to make my card. The strip across the bottom is decorated with glitter to make it look icy, but unfortunately it doesn't show up too well in the photo. The images are fussy cut and arranged to look like they are ice-skating, which is why I chose to use this fold, I actually love the way it works out and have made a few more versions of this card which will be popping up over the next couple of weeks,

Wind in my hair and Penguin panache digital illustrations - Sassy Cheryl at Paper Creator

Papers - Nitwits Great White North Collection

Sentiment - Computer Generated

Joanna Sheen Signature die - Classic Christmas tree

Tonic circle and scallop circle layering dies

X-cut medium and large snowflake punches

Stick on gems - Meiflower

Thanks for dropping by to take a look, pop over to the Paper Creator challenge blog and check out the fabulous inspiration from my teamies.

hugs,

Colette xx

Dear Santa

Here's a couple more cards I made for the Papercraft Essentials August issue.

Dovecraft Dear Santa Decoupage pad

Dovecraft Dear Santa 12 x 12 paper pack

Dovecraft Dear Santa 6 x 6 paper pack

Wild Orchid Crafts mixed doilies pack

Hobbycraft Red mini wooden craft pegs

Spellbinders Shapeabilities Holiday Sentiments dies

 Dovecraft Dear Santa decoupage pack

Dovecraft 6 x 6 paper pack

Dovecraft Dear Santa 1m ribbon pack

Dovecraft Back to Basics Christmas Twine

Marianne Craftables Mini Alphabet and garland CR1281

X-cut large snowflake punch

Red lace – stash

Meiflower diamante Ribbon Slider 

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Winter Princess

It's time for a team B challenge at Paper Shelter this week and our theme is 

Pearls and/or gems

simple enough, just make sure you have some pearls on your card.

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 will win three digis of your choice.

Now, I have to admit that the challenge had changed from what I originally had down on my list, and I hadn't realised this, so I made my card for a completely different challenge, luckily for me though it just happened to have some pearls on it, not as many as it would have had if I had discovered that the challenge had changed sooner, but hopefully enough to qualify (there is 10).

Digital stamp - Winter Princess - The Paper Shelter

Digital Paper - Nitwits Snowfolk collection

JoyCrafts Winter wishes - Ice Crystal 1

JoyCrafts Winter Wishes - Ice Crystal border

X-cut medium snowflake punch

X-cut border bunch - Sparkler

Stick on gems and pearls - Meiflower

Hunkydory diamond sparkles glitter - Silver Sparkle

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

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Helloooo!

I'm back! back to blogging that is, been sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo (yes - really - that much) busy since I got back from my hols that I haven't had a chance to get any blogging done, even had to miss some of my DT posts this month.

Had a fabulous holiday in Italy, met some lovely people who we are still in touch with and all hoping to go away together next year.

Came home to 3 magazine commissions, two had their deadline extended so that I could do them when I got home and then the third one came in after being home about a week, so they have kept me really busy, on top of that we have had some problems with my mother-in-law and the best news of all, my grandson Will managed to get himself a small part in a play at the Liverpool Playhouse theatre called The Rivals, he did really well at the audition and was thrilled when he got the part, but he needed a chaperone with him at each performance so we all had to muck in to make sure he was chaperoned and there was someone available to look after Charlie as well which again took up a lot of time, the play still has a week to run, so still a bit tied up with that.

Here he is all dressed up and ready to go on.

While we were away Will was also made head boy and was given the lead role in Macbeth at school, which they are performing at a small local theatre, Sooo proud of the him.

I do actually have a couple of cards to show you, part of a magazine commission for the August edition of Papercraft Essentials.

Dovecraft Dear Santa Decoupage pad

Dovecraft Dear Santa 6 x 6 paper pack

Sue Wilson Festive Collection Frosty mini background

Spellbinders Holiday sentiments S2-118

X-cut scalloped border punch

X-cut small corner rounder punch

X-cut large snowflake die and medium heart die

Meiflower mixed size pack of stick on gems

Dovecraft Dear Santa 6 x 6 paper pack

Dovecraft Dear Santa Decoupage pad

Dovecraft Dear Santa 1m Ribbon pack

Green 6 x 6 square scalloped card blank – The Range

Meiflower mixed size pack of green stick on pearls

Wooden stars, small and large – The Range

I made 7 cards altogether so will have more to show during the week.

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Sunshine!

Which is hopefully what I will be soaking up on the last day of my Italian holiday, but in the meantime, it's the second challenge of September for The Paper Shelter B team and our theme is...

Blooming days

(Card must contain flowers of some sort)

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 will win three digis of your choice.

I have used the beautiful Sunshine digital stamp from The Paper Shelter, (I love their girly images they have such pretty faces) and I have teamed it up with a fab Crafters companion Edge'ables die to make a double fold back card. I made up three flowers using an X-cut punch and inked them with a Memento Summer Sky ink pad, then used chipped sapphire distress ink to paint the die-cut flowers down the sides.

Digital stamp - Sunshine - TPS

Papers - Nitwits Petal Fresh collection

Die'sire Edge'ables Floral Dance

Cheery Lynn - Olive branches B147 die

X-cut large daisy punch

GoKreate scalloped ovals large frames

Tonic Plain and scallop mixed ovals layering die set

Tonic Plain and Scallop circles layering die sets

Sentiment - Computer generated

AB and blue stick on gems - Meiflower

and don't forget to pop over to The Paper Shelter challenge blog and check out the blooming deliciousness from the rest of my teamies.

Ciao for now,

hugs,

Colette xx

Joy!

As you are reading this Eric and I will be heading to the beautiful Lake Como in Italy for a much needed break, I will be thinking of you all as I am sipping a nice glass of vino and enjoying the view across the lake.

I thought I would give you a quick reminder for the Paper Creator Christmas challenge as you have right up until the end of the month to get your entries in.

I used a Sassy Cheryl pre-coloured image (there is a large selection available to choose from in the Paper Creator store) and a paper from the Snow much Joy Ultimate kit. The font for the sentiment is called glitter font 

I die cut a corner from the paper and added a die cut snowflake border, cut from glitter card, behind it before fixing to my card blank and then finished off by adding glitter to the swirly pattern in the paper and fixing some stick on gems to the sentiment.

Image - Fa-la-la-la-la Snowman - Sassy Cheryl @ Paper Creator

Paper - Snow much Joy Ultimate kit - Paper Creator

Spellbinders A2 curved borders 1

Snowflake border - Joy! Winter wishes Ice Crystal border die

Glitter Font - dafont

glitter - stash

Stick on gems - Meiflower

Thanks for dropping in,

Caio for now,

hugs,

Colette xx

Tulips

It's time for a new team B challenge over at The Paper Shelter and this time around our theme is...

Add a Number

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 will win three digis of your choice.

I used the gorgeous Tulips Paper Shelter digital stamp and my number is actually part of my sentiment - "Happy Birthday 2 U" I added some glitter to the 2 and the U although it doesn't show up very well in the photograph.

Digital Stamp - Tulips - The Paper Shelter

Papers - Nitwits Just Ducky Collection

Lace and button - Stash

Tonic Geared punch - scalloped diamond border

Sentiment - Freebie - Birds cards (it's a cutting file but I took the .pdf file into Photoshop and made a printable version)

Ribbon - Meiflower

Remember to pop over to The Paper Shelter challenge blog and check out the fabulous inspiration from the rest of my teamies.

thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Christmas Countdown

There are now only 114 days until Christmas and with this in mind the theme for this month's challenge over at Paper Creator is

Christmas

The winner will receive a £10 store credit to spend in the Paper Creator store.

Paper Creator products are not essential, but you will gain an extra entry into the random draw if using them. The challenge runs for the whole of the month and the winner is announced at the start of the next month's challenge.

I decided to make a card from the Christmas Countdown Stepper Card Bundle, which at only £3 for 10 card kits is an absolute bargain! and each kit comes with matching envelopes and boxes.

I printed a few extra layers of decoupage, then decorated the card with lots of glitter, snowflakes punched from glitter card, a couple of buttons and Meiflower stick on gems, I also made up the matching box.

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

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Charming!

It's time for a new team B challenge over at the Paper Shelter and this time around our theme is

Make it Digital

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 will win three digis of your choice.

Now, I don't know if you know this, but when you buy a Paper Shelter digital stamp you not only get the black and white outline, but you also get a pre-coloured version of the digi, a background and a composition (character on  background, ready to use), so for our make it digital challenge I thought that for a change I would use the composition and turn it into a card topper. I resized it in Photoshop and then layered it onto card adding a glitter border before using foam pads to fix it onto my decorated card blank.

Digital topper - Snake Charmer - The Paper Shelter

Papers - Shabtastic digital scrapbooking kit - Just So Scrappy

Copper blaze shimmer card - Limetree crafts (picked up at Sincerely yours show)

Tonic geared punch - scalloped diamond border

Gold ochre glitter on double sided tape

Sentiment - computer generated

Pop over to the Challenge blog and check out the fabulous digital inspiration from my teamies.

Thanks for calling in,

hugs,

Colette xx