Just Ducky!

We have a thing about ducks in my house, started by my hubby when the kids were young, they have to be yellow and fluffy and are usually called Billy (don't ask me why), it's carried on through to the grandchildren as well. You may have noticed that my watermark has a duck in it, I also have a Links bracelet and one of the charms is a little yellow duck, so when I saw the super cute Quacky images over at Digistamp Boutique I just had to have them and am already planning hubby's birthday card with the one holding the gift.

In the meantime I have coloured up this little cutie called For You Quacky and made quite a simple card, although I did go a bit wild with the ribbon as I am always trying to find different things to do with it and after playing around a bit came up with this idea. I think it looks OK, although if I do it again I think I would use a coloured piece of card rather than white, I'm thinking that a nice Spring green would have worked well with the yellow and orange combo.

Digital stamp - For You Quacky - Digistamp Boutique

Ribbons and gems - Meiflower

I am entering these challenges with this card.

Fan-Tastic Tuesday -  Must Be Square #30 Anything Goes

Sweet Stamps  - # 164 Easter

Top Tip Tuesday  - #124 Cute

Artistic Inspirations - Anything Goes / Easter Animal

Craft Your Passion - No Designer Papers

Digi Makeover Challenge - must use digi - Anything Goes + DT Call
DigiStamp boutique - April customer competition

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look,

hugs,

Colette xx

Butterfly and flower cards

I'm a little late with this post as I meant to do it last night, but time just ran away with me and I never got around to it, then this morning I have been very busy helping hubby dismantle my craft room - awwww! ready for a re-vamp - hooray! The room used to be my grandsons bedroom so at the moment I have one red wall with spaceships and astronauts all over it, but by the end of the week the red will be gone and the wall will be a lovely bright blue, although you won't see much of it as it will be covered with cupboards, a worktop and shelving. I'm also having the carpet taken up and a new floor laid so I will be able to whizz backwards and forwards in my chair, from my work desk to the worktop which will hold my die-cutting machines and guillotine.

Sooo looking forward to it all being finished, as I am temporarily working on a table in the living room, and it is not the same as having everything to hand.

Today I have a couple of birthday cards to show you, both made with papers from the First Love Ultimate kit from Paper Creator.

Papers - First Love Ultimate Kit - Paper Creator

Lifestyle - Nesting Doily Circle

Memory box - Darla and Vivienne Butterfly dies, Chesapeake scrollwork

Ribbon, pearls and gems - Meiflower

Silver Angel hair paper.

The top and bottom borders are the waste from the scalloped punch and the bow is a triple loop bow.

Papers - as above

X cut - scalloped border punch

X-cut palm punch large heart and circle

Tonic layering circles die

Couture Creations Tied together embossing folder

Die-namics heart doily

Ribbon and pearls - Meiflower

I am entering my cards into the following challenges

Jo's Scrap Shack - Anything Goes

Sister Act Card Challenge - 47 - Anything Goes

That's Crafty! Challenge Blog  - Anything Goes

4 Krafty Girlz - # 13 Anything Goes

Crafty Ribbons - Anything Goes with Ribbon

Thanks for dropping in and taking a look,

have a lovely weekend,

hugs,

Colette xx

Art Deco Roaring Twenties Birthday Card

If you are a regular visitor here, then you had better make sure you are sitting down before you read this next statement as believe it or not today's card is totally non-digi!!! 

The image is actually stamped with a rubber stamp! - the stamp came in a DoCrafts goody bag and as I loved it and really wanted to use it I bought the matching paper pack too, oooh no, stamping and proper paper what is the world coming to LOL!

I dusted off a distress ink pad in Peacock Feathers and set too, using the same pad  pressed onto a cellophane bag (just what was to hand at the time) to paint parts of the image.

I was soooo pleased with the finished result I immediately made it up into a card for my friend Karen's birthday (she's a huge Art Deco fan so I knew it would be perfect).

Stamp - Papermania Tall urban stamps Flapper

Paper - Papermania A4 Art Deco foiled paper pack

Tim Holtz distress ink pad - Peacock Feathers 

Frame die -bought at local Carole's Crafts

Amira Flourish die - Memory Box

X cut square palm punch Medium and small

 Papermania die cut sentiments - Art Deco - Foiled

Black iridescent Papermania Adhesive Gems

Cats eye  and round dazzlers - Meiflower

Feather from stash

I cut a rectangle of black card and deco paper and cut the corners off with  a square punch lined up with the edges. The Amira Flouish was cut in half, stuck onto silver mirri card and then cut around leaving a small border, the silver glittery section in the middle of the flourish is waste from another one I had cut from silver glitter card. The headband decoration is the waste from a hole punch in the same silver glitter card.

It may be a while until you see another proper stamped image on my blog, although saying that the new Bellisima range from Papermania has a rather pretty dress stamp that may tempt me to dust off the stamping supplies again!

I am entering this card into the following challenges -

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Through The Craft Room Door  - Always Anything Goes

Artistic Inspirations  - Anything Goes / Sparkles

Crafting from the Heart -  Anything Goes / Use Dies

Eureka Stamps - Anything Goes

613 Avenue Create - #60 Anything Goes w/Optional Twist: Use your Stash

Fashionable Stamping Challenges - no digi allowed - Challenge #67 Anything Goes

Thanks for dropping in and taking a look,

hugs,

Colette xx

Birdbrain friends!

I was at the Craft show at Event City Manchester yesterday and you'll never guess what I bought? (If you're a regular visitor then you probably will LOL!)  Yes, I bought more dies hehe! After watching a couple of demo's I 'really needed' them, so look out for roses and fuchsia's on upcoming cards - providing I can remember how to make them LOL!

I've got a card to show you today using the I {heart} card sketches sketch no.52.

 I had bought some digi stamps from {From the heart stamps} earlier in the week and because I spent over $10 and entered the code from the blog I got the Stamp of the Month set for free. They have a monthly challenge where you have to use the stamp of the month , but if you enter, you get the following month's stamp of the month for free - just for playing along - so I thought I would give it a go. My card is made and ready to post, but before I had chance to blog it I noticed the sketch challenge, which only runs for a week, and decided to play along with that too, mainly because the circles in the centre of the grey panel, which I don't think are there other than for decoration, caught my imagination and an idea popped into my head straight away, once again using the Stamp of the Month set, so I made up the card and here it is!

Digital Stamp (inc sentiment) - From the Heart Stamps - Birthday Candle Birdbrain

Papers - Tweet Tweet - Just So Scrappy (only $0.75 in outlet store and contains 42 papers!)

Tonic Circle layering dies

Die-namics Photo corners dies

Stick on Gems - Meiflower

The stamp of the month challenge card will be following in a few days.

I am entering the following challenges

I {heart} Sketches Challenges - Sketch

Love to Create - Birthday / Anniversary

Delightful Challenges - Anything Goes

Crafty Creations -  for the birds

Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge - #15 Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look, 

Have a lovely Sunday,

hugs,

Colette xx

Another sneak peek - First Love Ultimate Kit

I have a huge collection of dies, and when I say huge, I mean HUGE! I have hundreds and any of my friends who have been in my craft room can vouch for that fact LOL!

I have so many that half of them (probably more) have never been used, so my New Years resolution for this year is to use as many as I can, and I've made a start with today's card.

I've used the image, papers, scalloped topper and sentiment circle from Paper Creators First Love Ultimate kit - (which should be in store very soon).

I've re-sized the image (included in kit) to fit on to the sentiment circle.

Papers, Image, Sentiment, scalloped circle - First Love Ultimate Kit - Paper Creator

White Linen card - Papermill Direct

Embossing Folder - A4 Cascading hearts

Lifestyle nesting circles die

Spellbinders Borderabilities - A2 scalloped borders 1

Butterflies - CC Cutters die

X-cut palm punch - Pointed Butterfly large

Ribbon and gems - Meiflower

Woohoo! four different dies used, I'm off to a good start, I've got a couple more cards made using the papers in this kit with some more of my dies, so I'm on a roll, hehe!

Thanks for dropping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Sympathy - tree and wreath

Sympathy cards are not always the easiest things to have to make, and even more so if you are making them to give to family or friends who have recently lost loved ones. For this reason I like to make a couple when I  don't really have to and then put them away until they are needed.

Today I have two to show you, both inspired by shop bought cards - it's amazing how inspiration strikes when you least expect it - I was looking at cards we had been given after the loss of my father-in-law and two of them caught my attention, both of them because the designs on the cards reminded me of dies I had in my collection and had never used and so an idea was born.

I loved the symbolism of this card, the single leaf gently falling to the ground,which to me represented the deceased family member gently taking leave of the family.

Die - Tree with w/hearts and leaves - Cottage Cutz (retired)

Digital papers - Petal Fresh - Nitwit Collections

Silver mirri card

X-cut butterfly punch

Pearl and silver card stock

Sentiment computer generated and printed onto pearl paper - Anna Marie

Die - Catalina Wreath - Memory Box

Gems - Meiflower

Thanks for dropping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Oh Baby!

Just a quick post today to show you a baby card I made using the fab Digi Darla image Blessings of Heaven 5. When I made this card HERE I printed the image out in two different sizes and used the larger image on the other card, so I put this card together with the smaller image and the left over papers, usisng the same layout but decorating it differently.

Digital Stamp - Blessings of Heaven 5 - Digi Darla (coloured in Photoshop)

Digital Papers - Bedtime Stories Girl - Crazy 4 Monograms

Lifestyle Alphabet Die - Lemon Drop - Maddy Lisa Crafts

X-cut heart punches large and small

Gingham ribbon, satin rosebud trio, polka dot buttons and heart dazzlers - Meiflower

I am entering the following challenges with this card -

Digi Darla- ABC challenge - (B is for Baby)

Fan-Tastic Tuesday - Must Be Square #19 Make It Feminine - It's got a baby girl, there's pink on it, a bow, flowers and bling so hopefully it counts as feminine?

Papertake Weekly W- Add A Bow & Use A Die

Party Time Tuesdays - #156 Use Ribbon

Through The Craft Room Door - Always Anything Goes

Thanks for dropping in and taking a look

hugs,

Colette xx

Welcome Baby

I seem to be going through a phase of using Kraft card for my card bases at the moment, I hadn't even realised I was doing it until my daughter was looking at today's card and said to me - you seem very fond of that brown stuff (non-crafter LOL!), you're using it a lot lately.

So here's the card she was looking at, it's a baby boy card using Jolly the Jiraffe from Teddy Bo and some of that brown stuff hehe!

Image - JOLLY_001 - Coloured in Photoshop

Papers - Baby Mine Boy digital scrap kit - Just so Scrappy outlet store

X-cut Scalloped Rectangle die

X-cut Border Punch - Scallops

X-cut palm punch - circle large

Ribbon, dummy, polka dot buttons and pearls - Meiflower

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Love is in the air!

This post should have been done on Saturday but for the last couple of days I have had the stinking cold that is going around at the moment, today is the first day that I haven't been aching all over, it's also the first day that I have lost my voice too - made Eric's day LOL! Both Eric and Meg had it first, and then, as usual, once I've looked after them and got them better I come down with it -Eric is back in work, Meg still needs looking after and I've got my youngest grandson Charlie nearly every day this week, so no rest for me.

I have to admit that I've also been distracted by the darts on the telly - the first couple of weeks of the year when the BDO World Darts Championship is shown from the Lakeside Country Club is one of the things I most look forward to after the Christmas break, and have really enjoyed it once again this year.

Anyway back to the cards and with Christmas out of the way, the next big occasion, for us card makers is Valentine's day, and with that in mind I'm giving you a sneak peek at two of  the new Sassy Cheryl illustrations - First love and Smitten - which will be available shortly at Paper Creator.

Sassy Cheryl illustrations First Love and Smitten - Paper Creator

Papers - Lovebirds digital scrapbook kit - Just so Scrappy

Sizzix Hearts dies

X cut heart punch

Sentiment - Computer Generated

Ribbons and gems - Meiflower

If you like to match your papers to the colours in your image, you should check out the First Love ultimate kit from Paper Creator when it becomes available, as well as the image it  also contains papers, a build a topper set, a ready to print card, sentiments and decoupage.

For this card I used the image and a couple of the papers. The card base was made by printing both sides of  A4 Linen card from Papermill Direct with one of the plain papers from the kit, before cutting to size and folding to make a square card.

The card is a sample for Meiflower which is why it is bedecked in pearls and gems, plus I love a bit of bling on a card and couldn't resist encrusting the die cut heart frame with all things sparkly!

Image and Papers - First Love Ultimate kit - Paper Creator

Sizzix Heart dies

X-cut heart punch

Sentiment - Computer Generated

Stick on gems and pearls in various sizes and colours - Meiflower

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Sunglasses Alert!

If you are a regular visitor to my blog you will know that I don't really do soft muted colours, I would love to, I always think they look so classy whenever I see them used by other people, but my brain just doesn't seem to work like that and no matter how hard I try I always seem to end up with bright colourful cards.

Today my colours are so vivid, you may need to pop on a pair of sunglasses before viewing,

(I will not be held responsible for any damage to your peepers from viewing my card without taking the proper precautions LOL! You have been warned!) 

I had some really bright neon coloured ribbons and wanted to match the papers and my colouring to them, then I matted everything onto black card which really made the colours pop.

Digital stamp - Deidre Mosher at Etsy - Coloured in Photoshop

Digital Papers - Girls Just Wanna Have Fun digital scrap kit - Crazy 4 Monograms

Senitment - Computer Generated

X-cut border punch - Scallops

Lin and Lene  Designs corner die - 1201/0012 (cut down)

Neon coloured satin ribbons and stick on gems - Meiflower 

I printed the image twice, cut the cake from the second print and layered it onto the first with foam pads. The corner die was a lot larger, but I trimmed away the parts I didn't want to make it the right size for my project.

I love that image, they look like they really can't wait to get stuck into that cake.

Thanks for popping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Happy New Year!

The days nearly over, but managed to just slip in LOL!, hope you had a good one, and 2014 brings you, health, wealth and happiness along with all the things you wished for.

Unfortunately Christmas and New Year haven't been too happy for us this time around - my Father-in-law passed away on the 22nd December, and because of the Christmas holidays, his funeral won't take place until the 6th January (the family were offered the 5th January at first, but that's his birthday and nobody wanted that), so the 6th it is. Hopefully once the funeral is over we can start to move on and work towards getting things back to normal.

I had my daughter and grandchildren around for dinner on Christmas Day and we were determined to make it a happy day for the younger family members, which hopefully we managed to do, especially as the jokes in the crackers were pretty good this year LOL!
As well as the sadness of  my father-in-laws passing we had the joy of a new baby, as my friend Donna's third grandchild, (but first granddaughter) Lucia Rose, was born just before 1am on Christmas Day. She kept us all on tenterhooks as her mum was in slow labour for a couple of days - thanks to text messaging I was getting regular updates of how the labour was going (almost felt like I was there LOL!) all day on Christmas Eve and as midnight approached we waited with bated breath, would she be a Christmas eve or Christmas day baby? but she managed to hang in there for a bit longer and Christmas day it was! What a fabulous present for Donna and her family.

and here she is

Lucia Rose with her auntie Chloe.

I made this card for the proud Grandparents.

Digital Stamp - Blessings of Heaven 5 (coloured in Photoshop) - Digi Darla

Digital papers - Bedtime Girl - Crazy 4 Monograms

Sizzix Framelits - Hearts

Spellbinders Mirror die

Gingham Ribbon, satin rosebud trio, waxed cord and pink gems - Meiflower

I scanned the dies into Photoshop and then used them as a guide for the size of the writing. After printing it was just a case of positioning the die correctly over the wording before running through the machine.

I'm hoping to drop the card off at the weekend, but I'm sure Donna will probably see it on here before I get it to her, hope she likes it!

Posting will probably be a bit hit and miss for the next couple of weeks, but hopefully normal service will resume shortly!

Thanks for dropping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Admiring the Star

I have scheduled this post to show you one of my favourite cards. The card is made using a pre-coloured Sassy Cheryl illustration called - Admiring the Star - which is available at Paper Creator. I printed him out several times and then decoupaged him with foam pads onto a snowy background, dangling the star over the front of the card on a piece of acetate, and adding tiny crystals from Meiflower, to the centres of some of the snowflakes. The sentiment is die-cut.

I love the simplicity of the design which is why it is one of my favourites, and it was so quick and easy to put together too.

Thanks for dropping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Bauble card with template

Phew! what a busy week it's been and now a busy weekend too. Our car was returned to us Thursday afternoon all fixed and ready to go, which has put a smile back on Meg's face because we can get her out and about again now.

We are off to see Boyzone on Sunday evening so it's a relief to have the car back and know we don't have to mess around with taxi's (which Meg isn't too keen on)

Today is the start of our last Paper Creator challenge of the year and this time around the theme is

Shaped Cards

Just pop over to the challenge blog and link up your shaped cards to be in with the chance of winning a £10 voucher to spend in store - you don't need to use Paper Creator products but if you do you get two entries into the draw.

I decided to make a bauble shaped card using one of the new Sassy Cheryl illustrations, Snowmen in Love, from Paper Creator. For my shaped card I made myself a template in Photoshop which you can snag from further down the page if you want it.

Image - Snowmen in Love - Sassy Cheryl at Paper Creator

Background paper - Winter Whimsy - Just so Scrappy, Crazy 4 Monograms collab

Glitter card - local Range store

Lifestyle nesting circles dies and nesting lace circles die

Joy crafts Winter wishes Ice Crystal dies 1, 2 and 3

X-cut palm punch Snow Crystals punches large and medium

Sentiment - Cuddly Buddly freebie

Ribbons, jingle bells, white metallic cord and stick on gems - Meiflower

I printed the template out onto the reverse of an A4 piece of vintage gold card, given to me by my friend Karen, I was originally going to use Kraft card and when I came across the vintage gold in my stash thought that it was very similar to Kraft in colour, but with a pearly metallic finish.

I cut out the bauble shapes scored along the top of the circle and used double sided tape to stick the top sections together giving me a bauble shaped tent card.

If you trim a small piece from the back of the card it should stand up.

Here's the template, just left click to make larger and then right click and save as

Don't forget to pop over to the Paper Creator Challenge blog and check out the fabulous inspiration from the rest of my teamies.

Thanks for dropping in,

have a lovely weekend,

hugs,

Colette xx

Scalloped rocker! and tag cards

A couple of weeks ago we had some devastating news when we found out my 82 year old Father-in-law has cancer, after going backward and forward to doctors and hospitals for weeks because he was in a lot of pain and being told it was just an existing condition (he has polymyalgia) and him insisting it was more than that, they finally did a body scan which showed up shadows on his liver and in his bones. He had a biopsy last week and they are doing a second biopsy this Thursday before they start him on any treatment. Although the cancer is widespread and they have told him they can't cure it, they seem to think it can be managed for now with treatment.

He has just received a rheumatology appointment  through the post for May 2014, which he has taken as a positive sign, laughing that they must think he will still be here by then LOL!

Today I have the last of the cards I made with the Paper Creator Joy Ultimate kit. I made a scalloped rocker, which because of the scallops doesn't actually rock, so I think I need a more suitable name for it LOL! and used the tags in the kit to make a couple of tag shaped cards!

I re-sized the topper base (from the make me a topper set included in the kit) to fit the 8 inch width of an A4 piece of card, then printed it out directly onto Papermill Direct Linen Card, scored through the middle and folded to make a scalloped circle tent card. I re-sized another make me a topper set to fit on to this base and  once again printed it and a couple of paper designs onto more A4 Linen card. I used circle dies to cut out my papers and matted them onto the scallop base, then added the topper and layers with foam pads. The sentiment is also included in the kit. I finished off with lots of glitter, punched snowflakes and ribbon and crystals from Meiflower.

Included in the extras section of the Joy ultimate kit is two tags, one with the snowman and the other with the swirly design across the bottom. I took one of each into my graphics program, rotated one 180 degrees and then lined the two tags up with their tops just touching. I then re-sized the whole thing to fit the long length of an A4 sheet. I copied this to make a second card base as two fitted nicely on one sheet of card. After printing directly onto Papermill Direct linen card, I scored and folded to make two card bases and then printed a sentiment and make me a topper set from the kit and used some off cuts from the previous cards for matting to build up a design on each card front, finishing off once again with punched snowflakes and some ribbons, gems and a couple of jingle bells from Meiflower.

Enjoy what's left of the weekend

see you Tuesday,

hugs,

Colette xx

Ultimate kit part 2

Following on from Sundays post, here are a couple more cards made with the Joy ultimate kit.

This time around I made up the ready to print easel card that's included in the kit and a square card using the topper sheet.

I made an easel card base from white linen card to fit the ready to print kit, made up the card adding the decoupage layers provided to the snowman and finished off by adding a couple of ready made bows and some punched snowflakes

For this card I used a 6 inch square scalloped card base and printed out a paper and topper sheet from the kit. I cut a piece of the paper to fit the card front, rounding the corners before sticking on, then cut out the scalloped topper leaving a white border all around, which I glittered. I die cut a scalloped circle from the remainder of the paper and then used circle dies to cut out the snowman image and the centre from the scalloped circle to make a frame. I added the scalloped topper to the card front with foam pads and then layered up the image and scalloped frame again with foam pads, finishing off with an organza bow with diamante ribbon slider and punched snowflakes.

Joy Ultimate kit - Paper Creator

Lifestyle circle dies 

Sizzix framelits scallop circles die

X cut palm punch snow crystal - large and medium

Organza ribbon, ready made gingham bows, diamante ribbon slider and stick on gems - Meiflower

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Ultimate Kits

Hi there, this week Paper Creator is introducing it's new Ultimate kits, these kits are great value for money, containing a Sassy Cheryl illustration, a selection of colour matched papers, a ready to print easel card, a fancy layered topper which comes in two sizes, and a couple of extras too and all for only £3 - the topper is designed to be used with dies and the sheet tells you which die to use. If you don't have the correct dies then that's no problem either as the shapes can easily be hand cut which is what I did as I didn't have the matching die.

I was lucky enough to get a chance to play with some of the kits before their release this weekend and to show how versatile they are I decided to make a collection of cards all from one kit.

Today I will show you a group photo of the cards I made and one of the cards with some quick instructions for making up, and then during the week I will show the other cards individually.

I used the Joy Ultimate Kit for all these cards.

First up is the bow front card.

For this card I started with a white 6 x 6 inch square gate fold card.

I covered the front panels with swirly paper from the kit.

Next I cut out the scalloped topper base, then with the card closed, I laid the scalloped base centrally across the "doors" of the card, drew around the shape with a pencil and cut out.

I fixed striped paper from the kit to the inside of the card and then with the "doors" closed, added the topper to the striped paper, through the closed doors to match the shape. I used a circle die to cut a mat and  fixed the topper layers into place using foam pads.

I cut a piece of acetate the same height as the card but 2cms wider than the card base then put double sided tape around the inside of each door and fixed the acetate inside the card - this makes the bowed front.

I punched two borders from another paper from the kit, trimmed to length and added to the top and bottom of the card, fixing ribbon across one piece before attaching to card.

To finish off I added a bow, word art from the kit, some die cut hearts and a punched snowflake.

This picture shows a better view of the bowed shape.

Joy Ultimate kit - Paper Creator

Lifestyle nesting circle dies

Memory box Precious Hearts dies

Tonic geared border punch - Diamond swing border

X-cut palm punch snow crystal - large

Metallic edged ribbon and stick on gems - Meiflower

See you in the week with another card from the collection

hugs,

Colette xx

Satin ribbon flower tree and wreath

A while ago I made some Christmas samples for Meiflower to take around the craft shows and one of the things she asked me to use were the satin ribbon flowers. I ended up putting two cards together to show off the flowers, arranging some to make a Christmas tree and others to decorate a wreath.

Satin ribbon flowers and gems - Meiflower

Precious Snowflakes - Memory box die

Peel off wording

Papers and image- Fizzy moon Festive Fun Designer Paper Pack

Go Kreate - scalloped circles large frames dies

Lifestyle Nesting circles die

Universal embossing folder - Happy Holly

Die-namics - Photo corners die

Satin ribbon flowers, Ribbon, cats eye dazzlers and diamante embellishement - Meiflower

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Rosebud tree and tag cards

This is the third of the three Christmas tree card samples I made for Meiflower, (another of the ones that was printed while the yellow ink nozzle was blocked, so yet again the colours aren't quite right, ) this time using her Satin ribbon rosebud trios. 

The papers and tree came from a Nitwits kit and the tree decoration was actually inspired by a Nitwits tree graphic in a different kit (it's amazing how something can suddenly fire up the imagination). After decoupaging the tree, I decorated it with little groups of rosebuds, bows and punched holly leaves, then dotted crystals around the tree in groups of three. 

Papers and tree - Heart of Christmas - Nitwit Collections

Rosebud trios, gems and silver ready made bows - Meiflower

X-cut holly punch

Talking about where inspiration comes from - when I was adding the tag to the card above I suddenly thought to myself - that would make a nice shaped card base -so after doing a head clean on the printer and playing around in Photoshop to enlarge the tag to the right size and make some decoupage layers for the toppers, I  made these two cards, which are the proper colours that the card above should be.

Card base and toppers - Heart of Christmas - Nitwit collections

Ribbon and Diamante and pearl ribbon slider - Meiflower

Side view to show decoupaged toppers.

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Icy Christmas greetings!

When I saw this Sassy Cheryl illustration of Maddie ice skating over at Paper Creator, the idea for this card immediately sprang to mind, I wanted it to look like she had written the greeting in the ice with her skates and then was just skating off.
To get the length I needed I decided to make a DL landscape card by cutting two pieces of card each
21 cms long by 10.5 cms wide, then scoring one piece from top to bottom 2cms in from a short edge, applying double sided tape to the 2cm section and fixing the two pieces together lining up the edges to make the DL landscape card base. I used my quickie glue pen to trace over the wording and then applied liberal amounts of glamour dust to give the impression of sparkling ice crystals.

Image - Figure eight style - Sassy Cheryl at Paper Creator

White Linen card and red card - Papermill Direct

X-cut palm punch - Snow Crystal medium

Ribbon and gems - Meiflower

Thanks for looking,

hugs,

Colette xx

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree.....

...how blingy are your branches! Haha!

Here's a quick and easy card made using a freebie digi stamp of a simple stick Christmas tree, which has been covered with crystals and pearls.

This is one of three Christmas tree cards I made, which were all printed out together, only for me to discover once they were printed, that the yellow ink wasn't working, so they all came out slightly different colours to what they were supposed to be. On this one the colours should be more muted, but I liked the way they looked so used them anyway.

Stick Christmas tree freebie digistamp - Bird's cards

Papers - It's Snow Fun - Just So Scrappy

Bubblegum pink organza ribbon, stick on gems and pearls and diamante ribbon slider (used underneath a large stick on pearl to make the tree topper) - Meiflower

 I thought this card would be perfect for the following challenge

A Gem of a Challenge - #105 Gems, Gems, Gems

Thanks for popping in and taking a look,

hugs,

Colette xx