Christmas ATC

I belong to 2 ATC swaps - one which I run myself. A recent theme was 'Christmas' and I made this ATC:

It was designed in Serif Craft Artist. The Santa topper is from a digikit called Letters to Santa. He had a tartan background behind the red but I trimmed it off and added him to white card before sticking him on the new background. The background is from Bearly Mine Designs - Christmas Frolics (sadly this company has closed down.) I then went crazy with a Sakura glitter pen adding it to the string of Christmas lights, Santa's beard and every word on the background! If you click on the picture I think the glitter shows better on the larger image.

That makes 4 entries into the CD Sunday Challenge - a record for me! I've also entered well before the cut off time of 1pm today!

Cool Yule - CD Sunday

I made three Christmas cards that I think will fit the theme at CD Sunday - Cool Yule.

All of them are designs from the Greeting Card Factory.

The first one was edited on screen and printed directly onto card similar to Centura Pearl. I then added peel-offs and Tonic Glitter Drops to the snowman's buttons, eyes and mouth, berries and to the snow fall.

This image I turned into a topper matted onto red mirror card and attached to a gold card I'd embossed using an embossing folder. A sentiment was die cut from the same red mirror card and layered onto gold then red mirror card.

For this card I printed the background straight onto card. The snow people were printed onto card and turned into a topper with a blue gloss card layer behind it. Peel-offs were added to the corners and a die cut sentiment matted and layered onto white and blue card finished the card off.

Gingerbread Man

Who can resist the image of a Gingerbread man? Not me! I think they are so cute! So when Tonic brought out a Gingerbread Man die I had to buy him. Yesterday I was trying to come up with a design for some Christmas cards (yes, I'm still making mine) and cut some gingerbread men out. I then filled most of the cut outs with various colours of Tonic crystal drops. I left them over night to dry and here's one of them:
  

The theme at CD Sunday this time is 'Colours of Autumn'. To me that's reds, greens, yellows, oranges and browns so my little chap fits right in!

The backing paper is from a pad free with a magazine but I've coloured it with Scattered Straw Distress Ink as it was white and too bright. The mat was cut using a Tonic Elegant Oval die and the Merry Christmas from a die that was free in a magazine.

By now the CD Sunday design team are probably thinking 'Come on Pamela, you know the rules. Where's an item from a craft CD?' Well I've used a paper from a Funky Hand CD called twelve Crafters Crafting and printed it onto cream card stock that has a gold shimmer (like Centura Pearl). The mat and sentiment were cut from this card. I know lots of crafters like to stamp images and colour them in and then use a matching backing paper. There's lots of CDs out there that only have backing papers and you're bound to find one to suit your stamped image. Hopefully this shows people that you can use a craft CD without having to use a topper or a busy backing paper from the CD. 

I came joint first with this card.

A Sprinkle of Snowflakes

I love snowflakes and have lots of them in my stash - stamps, papers, dies, punches and peel offs. So it was a certainty that I would be entering CD Sunday's latest challenge.  

I used an old cd from Funky Hand called Twelve Crafters Crafting as I wanted a blue to show off the snowflakes.

I used 3 Martha Stewart punches to create the centre snowflake mat. I think it took 3 attempts to get the corner and border dies to match up. The corner snowflakes are peel offs that I've had some time and I've used white Tonic Crystal drops on them as well as blue on some of the other snowflakes. I'm not sure I like the die cut 'Let it Snow' but it's stuck down now so will have to stay.

 

I came second with this card.

Something beginning with H......

I decided it was time to attempt to make some Christmas cards.................and managed one LOL! I made it to fit the theme at CD Sunday which is 'Something beginning with H....' and I chose Ho! Ho! HO!

I turned to Serif's Craft Artist and chose a ready made Christmas card. It's from a digi kit by Hearts Designs called Hearts and Roses. I love the cheery Santa and the floral frame he's in. But the back ground paper was awful - it had text on it and large green spots. So I trawled my digi kits until I found one that I liked In Victoria Nelson's Christmas Bouquet. I thought the colours in this paper matched the central topper better with the pinks and greens. But when I put it together on the screen the topper 'disappeared' into the backing paper as there was no backing behind it.So I had to then find a cream material to layer behind it. I printed the BP onto paper and the topper onto thin card so that I could raise it up on foam tape. I was then determined to use my Nuvo crystal drops from Tonic so all the red berries got coated and the corners had a pink 'pearl' added. I finished off by colouring every fruit with a Sakura gelly roll pen. I also went around the frame on the topper. Now everything sparkles just as it should for Christmas LOL!

Thanks CD Sunday - I really enjoyed making this card.

I came joint second with this card.

CD Sunday - Pearls and Lace.

I was hoping to spend time today making a card to enter the CD Sunday Challenge this time but woke up feeling unwell. I've managed to make a simple card using Craft Artist and Crafters' Companions Frou Frou - Elegance digikit. I've 'drawn' the pearl necklace around her neck using the brushes tool, it took me ages to do as my hands were shaking and it kept going wonky.

Bear With Me 3!

When I made the previous card I printed out another image of Popcorn the Bear and couldn't bear (excuse the pun!) to leave him all lonely on my desk. So here's card number 3! The die cut card is cream Centura Pearl, cut with a Tonic Die. The daises have cream Nuvo Crystal Drops in their centres. I've made the base card from the same card as the mat.

The card is for the CD Sunday challenge - Bear With Me.

Bear With Me 2.

I've surprised myself this week as I've managed to make a second card for the CD Sunday challenge!
And even more surprising it's a Christmas card - I don't normally make them until the last minute!
I've used a topper from a Crafter's Companion CD called Popcorn the Bear. I opened it in My Craft Studio and resized it.

The white mat is cut using a Tonic die called Trellis Square. The backing paper is from the same CD but it was meant to go with another topper. I didn't like the matching paper for this topper as it was very busy (lots of repeats of the teddy image). I finished off with some snowflake peel-offs and dotted Tonic's Nuvo Crystal Drops in wedgewood blue on the centres of the snowflakes. I also used the drops in white on the snowflakes in the backing paper.

Bear With Me 1.

Design team member Sue has chosen a lovely theme this time at CD Sunday. It's 'Bear With Me' and I'm sure there'll be more people entering this time as everyone loves a bear don't they?
I've made a very quick card using an old CD from a company called CardzCardzCard - long gone now! The Cd is called Everyday 2 Pyramidz & InVertz. I've used this teddy image before for a previous CD Sunday. Click here to see the other card.

I opened the image in My Craft Studio, resized and cropped it. Then all I've added is a brown mat and a bow made from the same card. The bow is cut using a Sue Wilson die. The card is finished off with some Tonic Nuvo Crystal Drops in wedgewood blue.

CD Sunday - photo inspiration

For the theme this time CD Sunday have chosen 'photo inspiration'. This is the photo:

As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to use the photo on a card and not just the colours as inspiration. I opened the photo in Dazzling Reflections which is an application used to turn photos into kaleidoscopes. I bought it many years ago and love making pretty pictures from it but don't often actually use them in my card-making! 

So next I needed a card design to show the picture at it's best. I was flicking through issue 142 of Quick Cards Made Easy magazine and found the perfect card design. It's called a cathedral window card and uses a design from patchwork quilts.

The mats and bow are made from papers off my favourite 'go to' CD Rom - Creative Crafting World's Perfect Paper Crafting Companions. I chose peach and opal to bring out the colours of the original photo.

I've used circle and square dies from Tonic and the bow is a Sue Wilson die. The card is finished off with navy blue gems again picking up the colour from the photo. You can't see from this photo of the card but there's tiny navy gems in the centre of each patterned square.

I haven't put a sentiment on it yet but some of my work colleagues are being made redundant so the card may be given to one of them.

I've enjoyed this challenge - thanks for picking it Jocelyn!

I came first with the above card.

PC Problems

I think I should have stayed in bed this morning! I intended making a card in order to enter the CD Sunday Challenge which has a theme of Rock Star. I found a great card on Greeting Card Factory Deluxe 10 with a funny insert as well. First of all I couldn't get the backing off my double sided tape, then it tore as I peeled it off the topper and I had to try and get my pokey tool under the topper to get at the remainder of the tape. Then when I opened the card I'd stuck the topper on the back of the card!  I then put the computer on and had just started writing this post when there was a loud BANG from outside. Hubby was cutting the grass with the electric mower (he usually uses a petrol one) and had run over the wire. Luckily he uses a current breaker so he wasn't hurt. So now thinking all my problems were sorted I turned the PC back on and tried to scan the card. It's the first time I've used the scanner since upgrading to Windows 10 and I was told the drivers needed to be installed. So I took photos of the card and inserted the SD card into the PC. The program I use to upload my photos is called Clear.fi and came preinstalled on the computer (it's an Acer product). Clear.fi isn't compatable with Windows 10! I also can't use Internet Explorer to upload photos to my blog so clicked on the Google icon........and nothing happened. I've had to uninstall and reinstall Google and it's taken me 4 hours to get this far. So I'm sorry CD Sunday ladies but I'm VERY late in entering this challenge.

Here's the card:

And the insert:

I now need to go for a lie down in a darkened room LOL!

Christine's - add a stamped image.

I'm very late entering the CD Sunday challenge this time. I've even had to scan the card as I didn't have time to set up my photograph studio light box.

The cameo stamp was free with Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine. This was stamped onto cream card and die cut using the Elegant Oval Layering dies A second mat was die cut from black card. The pale yellow paper was printed using Creative Crafting World's Perfect Papercrafting Companion disc 2. I then run it through an embossing folder (also free with the cameo stamp) that I'd inked up. I used the deboss side of the folder and then layered it onto another black piece of card.

Four legs and a Tail!

A very short blog post as I have to go shopping for a wedding outfit. The wedding is 2 weeks time in Aberdeen and they're not having much summer weather at the moment (are any of us?) so I'm in a quandary as to what to buy.
This card is for one of my brothers' birthdays at the end of July so thanks to CD Sunday I've actually made it well in advance. Their theme is 4 legs and a tail but my card is 20 legs and 5 tails LOL!

The dragon is from a ribbon and tends to fray on the ends when cut so I've added peel offs to hide the edges. The 2 backing papers are from a Creative Crafting World CD called Perfect Papercrafting Companions. I like these papers as there's a 'texture' effect which the photo doesn't show very well. I've finished the card with sheep from a Tattered Lace border die which I've cut the individual sheep out and used as corners.

I came first with the above card.

Purple Crazy

CD Sunday  are running a challenge in memory of Wendy who passed away recently. Wendy was a design team member who loved purple and her blogger name was Purple Crazy.
I'm in the process of making cards to fill a box as a present for an aunt and she too loves purple/lilac. Here are 3 of the cards I've made:

I've used Craft Artist for all 3 and the digikit is Darling Buds - Pansies.

I keep forgetting that Blogger won't let me upload photos in IE. I've had to start the post again in Google which is why it's short and sweet and very late!

Floral wedding anniversary card.

I was asked by a friend in work to make a card for her Aunt and Uncle's 60th wedding anniversary. When I asked her if there was anything they particularly liked I was told yellow or lemon roses, that they were 'something high up in church' and they were very special people - no pressure there then LOL!

I searched through my CDs and found the perfect backing paper on a Joanna Sheen CD called 'The Cardmaker's Year'. I also found a design I liked for the card base in a craft magazine. I used Kraft card for the base and 2 BPs - the JS one mentioned above and a textured effect one on a really old JS CD called 'Secret Garden'. I searched through my dies and found a Tattered Lace rose die and sentiments dies, a church die from Marianne Designs, some flower and leaf dies from Sue Wilson and number dies from Xcut. I also decorated the back with the same papers and printed a verse I found on the internet. The card is tied closed with 2 coordinating ribbons from American Crafts (a bargain buy from TK Maxx).

I've taken several photos as the card is awkward to photograph. The first photo is of the card opened.

 
Inside of the card.

The back showing the verse.

The card closed and the 2 ribbons closed.

I even decorated inside the envelope.

My friend was thrilled with the card and is confident her aunt and uncle will love it.

I'm entering the card into the following challenges:
CD Sunday Challenge - the theme is Floral Frenzy,
Cute Card Thursday  - the theme is Floral Delight,
Miriam's Crafting Blog - the theme is Romance,
Crafting for the Craic - the theme is Birthday or Anniversary.