The most famous reindeer of all

I have a cute Christmas card to share today featuring Little Christmas Girl 1 from All Dressed Up.

With this card I have successfully made a Christmas card a week in January ~ whoo hoo!  Not sure if this will last through February but it’s way better than I was last year.  I am really loving the prompts at the various Christmas card challenges I’ve started following.  This card was inspired firstly by Christmas with the Cuties where the prompt is Christmas carols and songs.  No prizes for guessing my song is Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer, this little cutie literally sang “pick me” (see what I did there with the sing reference?!) out of my Christmas files to be used on this card.

I’ve also used the inspiration photo at Merry Monday to help design my card.  The picture included white iced biscuits with little balls for decoration.  I’ve picked that up in my background paper by adding bitty pearls over the embossed dots on the cardstock.  I’ve also used the hot chocolate as the cue for my brown cardstock and the splashes of red and green are brought in with the side panels, I’ve just toned the colours down to more muted ones.

To make up my card I’ve followed the current sketch at Sketch Saturday, I just rotated the centre element to allow for my image.  Because this is the year of the shaker card I’ve turned the two rectangular elements into shakers.

Given this card features a cute Christmas image I am also entering it in the something cute challenge over at Crimbo Crackers.  Sweet Stampin’ Christmas has gone anything goes so I am linking my card there too.

Ingredients:

Copics

Skin E000, E00, E11, E21 (E02 cheeks)

Mouth E02

Hair E41, W1, W3

Outfit E23, E25, E27, E30, E31, E33, G21, G24, G94, G99, R0000, R00, R01, R24, R29, R46, R59

Book E40, E41, E42

Chalks & Powders etc

Stampendous! Fran-tage Embossing Enamel ~ Chunky White

Embellishments

Close To My Heart Bitty Pearls ~ Pearl

Little Things from Lucy’s Cards Shaker Selections ~ Rainforest & Reindeer Games

Inks & Paints etc

Tim Holtz Adirondack Alcohol Ink ~ Alcohol Blending Solution, Caramel, Gold Mixative, Lettuce, Mushroom & Red Pepper

Tim Holtz Distress Ink ~ Aged Mahogany & Forest Moss

Papers

Bazzill Criss Cross Cardstock ~ Lily White

Bazzill Smoothie Cardstock ~ Milkshake

Creative Memories ~ Embossed White Cardstock

Curious Metallics Iridescent Cardstock ~ Cryogen White

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Paper Stash ~ Yuletide

Yupo ~ 200gsm White

Stamps

All Dressed Up ~ Little Christmas Girl 1 (part of the 3 Little Christmas Girls set)

Challenges

Christmas with the Cuties #2 ~ Christmas Carols and Songs

Crimbo Crackers #125 ~ Something Cute

Merry Monday #232 ~ {Inspiration Photo}

Sketch Saturday ~ Sketch #448

Sweet Stampin’ Christmas ~ January Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!

I think they’re divine on older women…

I’m sharing a card today featuring Best Friends  from The Paper Shelter.

The image choice was inspired by the current theme at CASology of glisten.  It’s a word that brings to mind, for me, snowflakes and diamonds.  I’ve had a run of Christmas cards with snowflakes so decided to go with the diamonds on this card.  I didn’t have quite the right sentiment although shine and glisten are synonyms so it’s not a bad substitute and it does go well with the image.  To help with the glisten theme I also coloured my image on Cryogen White, which has a lovely sparkle to it.  Finally I added in some eye shadow in PanPastel Light Gold and blush with Pebbles pearlescent chalk, it’s subtle but does give an added bit of sparkle.

My colours are from the current palette at Color Throwdown, which worked perfectly with the image I chose.  I picked up the aqua in the diamonds, it shows more on the paper one but I also coloured the rhinestone so it has a lovely aqua hue.  Aqua also frames the entire card to add a bit of interest and to complement that I also edged the sentiment stickers in aqua.  It’s hard to see the alcohol ink background behind the shaker panel but that has aqua, pink, gold and silver hues to it.  I didn’t have any mint alcohol ink so I added in aqua sequins to the shaker and framed the shaker panel in mint also.  Marilyn wore a pink dress for that famous diamond inspired song so that’s what I coloured the dress of the image in.

The layout of the card is also challenge inspired, coming from the current sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch.  I got into CAS in a big way last year and I really love the style now.  Even with my shaker element and the colouring this card was quick to put together but still looks elegant and you’ve got to love that.

Ingredients:

Copics

Skin E000, E00, E11, E21 (E02 cheeks)

Lips E04, R56, R59

Hair Y21, Y26, Y28, YR 27

Outfit R83, R85, RV11, RV32

Diamond BG0000, BG000, C00, 0

Pearls C00, C0, C1

Chalks & Powders etc

PanPastel ~ Light Gold

Pebbles Chalk Pearlescent ~ Pale Pink

Embellishments

Little Things from Lucy’s Cards Shaker Selections ~ Caribbean Dream & Reindeer Games

Multicraft Crystal ~ Multi Mix

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Stickers ~ Small Talk

Inks & Paints etc

Ranger ~ Glossy Accents

Tim Holtz Adirondack Alcohol Ink ~ Gold Mixative, Mermaid, Shell Pink & Silver Mixative

Tim Holtz Distress Ink ~ Peacock Feathers

Papers

Bazzill Criss Cross Cardstock ~ Lily White

Close To My Heart Cardstock ~ Avonlea Paper Pack (retired)

Stampin’ Up! Cardstock ~ Mint Macaron

Yupo  ~ 200gsm White

Stamps

The Paper Shelter ~ Best Friends

Challenges

CAS(E) this Sketch ~ Sketch #206

CASology #233 ~ Glisten

Color Throwdown #427 ~ Aqua, Mint Green & Pink

Thanks for stopping by!

So just dance, dance, dance, come on

I’m sharing a birthday card I did up using Feel the Music Rio from Simply B Stamps.

My card design follows the current sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  I ended up going with the circles in the sketch as I couldn’t size a music note to fit, mostly because I wanted them to be a shaker element and you need a somewhat reasonable sized object to create one.

It was still a bit of a struggle to get the shaker element in and I almost gave up on the sketch to do it but I don’t step away from a challenge.  It just wouldn’t be a challenge otherwise, right?  I mean I could have just scattered the sequins around and still linked this up over at City Crafter for their confetti challenge but I wanted those shakers.  We just won’t talk about how long it took to add foam tape round those small circles or indeed get the backing off said foam tape!

For my colour scheme I’ve gone with the palette from Paper Craft Crew, where I’ve used all four colours.  Love to layer my cardstock, the weight it gives a card is part of what says to me it is handmade (worth every cent of the extra $5 it cost to post!), and it’s a great way to bring in colour without adding designer paper.  This card is going out to a grungy girlie girl (hence the pink eye shadow and Frankenstein shirt) and the colours worked really well for that.

Ingredients:

Copics

Skin E000, E00, E11, E21 (E02 cheeks)

Lips & Mouth E04, R01, R02, R56, R59

Hair E42, E44, E47, E49

Eye shadow RV00, RV11, RV32

Outfit FYG1, N6, N8, N10, V91, V93, V95, V99, YG01, YG03, YG05

Music Player BG000

Dies, SVGs & Templates etc

Spellbinders Nestabilities Dies ~ S4-116 Standard Circles Small & S4-114 Standard Circles Large

Embellishments

Little Things from Lucy’s Cards Shaker Mix ~ Rose Gold

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Stickers ~ Small Talk Occasions

Inks & Paints etc

Ranger Archival Ink Dina Wakley Media ~ Ruby

Tim Holtz Distress Marker ~ Wilted Violet

Papers

Bazzill Criss Cross Cardstock ~ Lily White

Core’dinations Tim Holtz Collection Kraft-Core Metallic ~ Silver

Stampin’ Up! Cardstock ~ Cherry Cobbler & Perfect Plum

Stamps

Darkroom Door ~ DDTS023 Sheet Music

Simply B Stamps ~ Feel the Music Rio

Challenges

City Crafter #346 ~ Celebrate with Confetti

Freshly Made Sketches #272 ~ A Sketch by Cécile

Paper Craft Crew #228 ~ Colour

Thanks for stopping by!

And calmly fell our Christmas-eve

I’m sharing another Christmas card and this one features a coloured image too, Snowfall Kaylee from Some Odd Girl to be precise.

I didn’t really make a resolution to be more organised with my Christmas cards but the Christmas card mojo has just sort of taken hold.  I suspect it might be the fun themes at some of the Christmas themed challenge blogs.  Like the current one at Christmas Card Throwdown, which was a colour combo that I have to say I just loved!  There was a real challenge to it though as you were only allowed to use the three colours, cream, aqua and brown.  So I changed up my skin tone combo to a more cream one and pulled out all of the cream and brown and aqua stuff I could find that was somewhat Christmassy.

To make it even harder I also wanted to play along at Jingle Belles where they were looking for stickers, mostly because I love their clever challenge titles!  Now don’t get me wrong, I have a ton of stickers and they were easier to look through now I’ve sorted them into neat little pouches.  But that really didn’t help the situation when I was short on stickers in those colours and almost completely lacking in Christmas stickers.  So I improvised and picked up the cream border bit from an old Carta Bella Alpha sheet and hit gold, um, well, aqua, with a sticker sheet from an Oh Deer Me kit, I’ve not subscribed for years so this has been a long stashed item.  I had to cut these stickers down though as they were really big rectangles and the sentiment wouldn’t have fit.  I’m also claiming my Doodlebug sprinkles as stickers, they are self-adhesive and embellies so really they meet the main criteria of a sticker.

Edna is asking you to dig through your stash and find those items you look at and ask “why did I buy that?”.  You really have to go check out the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers if for no other reason but to discover they really do make poo emoji dies, yes, yes, they really do!  Now I don’t have anything like that in my stash but I do have an enormous amount of BoBunny Snowfall papers, like a good 25 each of three different designs.  Yep, 25 each of those gorgeous papers.  Why do I ask myself “why did you buy that?” when they are so gorgeous?  Well, because I live in Australia, near Sydney, basically in a place where if it ever snows I’ll be in my own Ice Age movie.  I’ve seen snow fall once in my life and been to the snowfields maybe three times (we’re talking when I was a kid a good 30 years ago).  So how much snowflake paper can a person who lives nowhere near snow need?  I can tell you a good 74 pages less than I have (now I’ve used one on this card).  I loved the stuff, the glittery snowflakes on one side and the colours so I bought it and I put it in my stash and every time I sorted my papers I thought, what the heck am I ever going to do with this stuff?  Well now I know why I bought, just so I could meet Edna’s challenge and because it was the perfect colour for the colour combo over at Christmas Card Throwdown.  You really don’t get the crafty stars aligning like that too often; I’d call it a Christmas miracle alongside me having three Christmas cards down and it being only the third week in January! 

Ingredients:

Copics

Skin E42, E50, E51, E53 (E11 cheeks)

Eyes E30, E33, E35, E37, 0

Mouth E11

Hair E25, E27, E29, E93, E95

Outfit BG09, BG11, BG13, BG15, BG32, BG49, E30, E31, E34, E35, E57, E70, E71, E74, E77, E79

Embellishments

Carta Bella Beautiful Moments ~ Alpha Stickers

CraftMedley Cup Sequins Pailettes ~ Dazzling Metallics

Doodlebug Design Inc Sprinkles ~ Bon Bon & Swimming Pool

Freckled Fawn ~ April 2014 Oh Deer Me Kit Alpha Stickers

Little Things from Lucy’s Cards Shaker Selections ~ Caribbean Dream & Falling Snow

Inks & Paints etc

Tim Holtz Distress Ink ~ Walnut Stain

Papers

Bazzill Smoothie Cardstock ~ Milkshake & Waterfall

BoBunny Snowfall ~ Flakes

Couture Creations ~ Acetate Sheet

Pion Design Palette ~ Pion White II

Stamps

Some Odd Girl ~ Snowfall Kaylee (retired)

Challenges

Christmas Card Throwdown #02 ~ Colours (Cream, Aqua and Brown)

Jingle Belles ~ STICK-y & Sweet

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #76 ~ Y is for Why Did I Buy That?

Thanks for stopping by!