Closing For Christmas

My card making Craft Room is officially closed for Christmas, I made a couple of DT cards and made the decision since I was suffering from Sinusitis and got so stressed over last minute Christmas cards, I needed a break.

I finally finished my Not so Ugly Sweater Cal which I enjoyed receiving a part of the pattern each week till it was finished and unfortunately mine finished on the small size. Had to add some more candy stripes and another cross stitch band. I also personalised it with the year.

It was all made with Stylecraft Special DK on a 3 1/2 hook, the colours are Lincoln, Cypress, Lipstick and Cream.

Below are the cards I made and was disappointed in, don't worry they didn't go in the bin I had no choice but to send them.

I wanted to use the glitter card to see how the snowman looked, he turned out fine but I do wish the card wasn't so plain.

Another card I felt I cheated on but the two snowflake die from Simon says Stamp that was release this year worked better together than using a large one already in your collection. You can see in the example below thank goodness you never can have enough snowflakes.

I don't particularly like the yellow star a nice white one would've have been better but I had already made the star bauble and I couldn't afford to bin it.

I made the one above months ago and then I saw that a Christmas Card Class had made one similar so even though I made it weeks before the class I felt it wasn't my idea especially as theirs was better than mine. I cut out a circle mask to blend the colour in so it lacked spontaneous colour.

I felt I cheated here using it the same dies with penguins and then using a snowflake die.

If I don't get onto the PC I want to wish everyone a

 Happy Christmas 

and 

Merry New Year. 

If you don't celebrate Christmas I hope you get time to spend with your families.

Katie and Bear

Another one of Mo's new images this one is called Katie and Bear and another quick and easy card. The pretty snowflake paper had to be used but I needed to give Katie something to look at which is why I cut out the Memory Box Stars out of glitter card.

I needed some colour to help her stand out from the snowflakes which is why I used a border of pretty check paper.

A very short post from me still under the weather with Sinusitis and it making me feel miserable.

Stampin Up Nativity

When I was at the retreat someone was using this fabulous Stampin Up set and I loved how easy it was to make a striking card and managed to get a set.

I cut the each die once in white and navy blue, stamped Mary and Joseph and cut out with the matching die. It was quite easy to do and so a few were made.

I'm struggling with a dodgy throat and sinus, have discovered that the microscopic fibres from the wool I'm crocheting it with is making it worse. Which in turn is making me feel quite miserable and want to head straight to the food cupboard to eat my body weight in comfort food. I have 1 1/2lb to lose to get my 3 1/2 stone for Christmas, only two days to weigh in.

I have those Dies

I'm a bit cross that I didn't pin the card with this fabulous Impression Obsession tree die, they had used Simon says Stamp Stitched Slopes and Hills die and I thought it was brilliant. Doubly brilliant was that I had those dies.

I have used different coloured green card out of my scrap box and after cutting the white with the slopes and hills I used the tree die again to make my snow.

In the back of my mind I was thinking of this sketch on Freshly Made sketch. The graduated stripes I used a Simon says Stamp Sentiment Labels, Ok I had to trim one edge but I love how this turned out.

Just needed a sentiment which I used the Simon says Stamp Tiny Words Christmas.

I didn't add the snow on this one because I had used scraps of patterned paper and I also used patterned paper for the stripes. Also the sentiment is stamped and embossed in white.

I've nearly finished my Not so Ugly Sweater Cal, the extra rows took a bit longer than I hoped and once done I going straight into my Santa Cushion a pattern from Crochet Now.

Fa La La La Laaa

Last week was a quiet on the craft front but I finally got to play with Mo's New Christmas images, the first one to use is Falalala.

The Mojo Monday sketch blogger is now putting on sketches once a fortnight at her own blog Poetic Artistry  which where I go this sketch and I've used my favourite patterned card company Doodlebug.

My stitched holly are made with a Memory Box die and I used a white pen for the snowflakes on his clothes but coloured the other snow with a shimmer pen.

I'm down to four Christmas to card to make and I've promised myself I'm not leaving it this late ever again. I do say that every year but honestly it's been so hard this year making them.

A Christmas Challenge

Hi all and welcome to another week on the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge
Thank you for joining us for the Wrap It Up Challenge and we hope you will all join us again this week too.

This week the challenge is

Christmas

Christmas will soon be here so lets try to get everything we need to make covered this week!

We are showcasing Creative Expressions Products this week. You don't have to use them to join in but if you have some we would love to see them used

The lovely folks over at Simon Says Stamp are generously giving away a FABULOUS $50 voucher to shop at the  Simon Says Stamp Store! All you have to do is take out your crafty supplies, make something following this week’s prompt, and add a link in the Inlinkz at the bottom of this post! You can join 5 times so you could have 5 chances to win! How AWESOME is that!! All winners are chosen randomly, so everyone has an equal chance to win! Woo Hoo!! Good Luck to everyone! The Design Team is looking forward to seeing your crafty makes and will pop around to visit you ASAP!

I decided to use Creative Expression Noel Tree and it is a busy tree because of this I left my card quite plain. I cut the tree in several colours so I could snip off various parcels, bell and to insert some colour to it.

The streamers across the tree I used Nuvo Shimmer pen and what I now called Yana'ed coloured them in with the pen. There's a lovely shimmer but unfortunately the camera doesn't pick up.

It just needed a sentiment which I used Simon says Stamp Tiny Words Christmas and it is straight just the weird angle of the tree, couldn't take it again I've already posted to someone!

The lovely folk at Simon says Stamp sent me a stamp set for this fabulous new release but it arrived on release day after I quickly made an order since it the ones I want fly out of the door. Simon says Stamp and I have great taste because the stamp is one I've ordered so when it arrives I think a little blog give away will be coming up so watch this space. (Do remember I'm in the UK and are Christmas Post is already struggling).

Do you use Instagram ?  If so please add  #ssswchallenge to your challenge entry uploads so we can see them on there too.

James and a Star

I actually used Splitcoast Stampers Card Sketch SC724 for this LOTV James the bear. The usual crafty things were used to make this card.

Spellbinders Circle Nestabilities and some old Doodblebug Christmas papers, the snowflakes are Lawn Fawn Mini Snowflakes dies cut in fun foam.

The sentiment is from a Simon says Stamp retired Christmas Toys stamp set, using a square punch to make my fishtails. To make my glittery star I used Glossy Accent and sprinkle some glitter on it before leaving it to dry.

Lastly I used Fun Flock and Flowersoft mixture for his hat and bobble.

Mouse with Present

I can't remember where I got the sketch from but I do know I've used Penny Black Birthday Critters and I've coloured his parcel in Christmas colours. Just love a stamp set I can use all the year round.

My papers are Doodlebug Christmas Town and I used Simon says Stamp Stitched Circles to make circle frame and round my mouse. I really love the small Noel that can be found with the Simon says Stamp Christmas Icon dies.

My holly is using Simon says Stamp Holly fanfare, I cut them a couple of times in the green so I could use the small holly leaves. Finally I used Simon says Stamp Stitched Banners for my Tiny Words Christmas sentiment.

I did manage a few more Christmas cards on Saturday, helped by having a few gold and glittered snowflakes left over from other projects.

No cards made on Sunday had a marvellous Christmas Tea with all my Brothers and Sister also as many of my nephews, nieces, gt nephews and gt nieces that were available to come. My Sister and her Hubby made a wonderful Christmas spread, even though I know it was hard work it was such a lovely afternoon that she wants to repeat it in the Summer. We all got to met Thomas the latest addition to our family, no photo since I don't have their permission.

It was absolutely delightful to see all the Great Nephews and Nieces playing so well together. Starting to feel Christmassy now.

Snowflake strip

I actually made these cards a few weeks ago inspired by a Sketch Saturday sketch at the time.

I blending some colour across the card front and then added some snowflakes. The ones I've used are Simon says Stamp Stitched Snowflakes and the large one is their Rina Snowflake.

The sentiment to finish came from Simon says Stamp Retro Christmas stamped in the same colour.

It was a very busy weekend followed by a couple of busy days and its left me feeling tired and aching. I'm still a few Christmas cards to do which I hope this weekend and a quieter next week means I will have finished them.

My Not so Ugly Sweater Cal is nearly finished I had to add several rows to make it larger but I'm on the border and then its just some finishing touches.

Advent

Hi all and welcome to another week on the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge
Thank you for joining us for the Anything Goes Challenge and we hope you will all join us again this week too.

This week the challenge is

Wrap it Up 

think Tags, Bags, Boxes etc any sort of packaging will do!

We are showcasing Tim Holtz Products this week. You don't have to use them to join in but if you have some we would love to see them used

The lovely folks over at Simon Says Stamp are generously giving away a FABULOUS $50 voucher to shop at the  Simon Says Stamp Store! All you have to do is take out your crafty supplies, make something following this week’s prompt, and add a link in the Inlinkz at the bottom of this post! You can join 5 times so you could have 5 chances to win! How AWESOME is that!! All winners are chosen randomly, so everyone has an equal chance to win! Woo Hoo!! Good Luck to everyone! The Design Team is looking forward to seeing your crafty makes and will pop around to visit you ASAP!

Now where to start, I wanted to make a Advent Calendar using some match boxes but could only find really large ones at my supermarket and I had left it too late to find some cheaper so I brought four for Advent Sunday.

I laid them so I could open each drawer and I cover with some white card for a bit extra strength before covering the sides and drawer fronts.

I used Tim Holtz Idea-ology Countdown Brads for my drawers in hindsight they needed a bit of thread wrapped round them to help pull the drawers out.

The papers are Tim Holtz 8 by 8 card pack and I also used Tim Holtz Tree Line die for around the background.
I didn't pay much attention to what size my large Woodland Trees when I ordered them and decided to use one but in the end I used all three. Although the camera didn't pick it up I used Dreamweaver White Embossing Paste and flicked some over the trees to look like snow and layered some to make snow on the ground and fixed my trees and snowman in.

My Tim Holtz Idea-ology Salvaged Snowmen I coloured with copics but it did take a couple of layers.

I brought the The Christmas Chips because I knew if I didn't use them I could use them on a scrapbook page but I did in the end use a few.

Finally because of all the empty spaces I used Simon Says Stamp Glitter Card and some of their Snowflake dies Rina Kadyn and the dots are left over from the Christmas Icon snowflake.

Penguin Joy

Since I have all three Simon says Stamp Picture Book Penguins Happy, Secret and Hugging from last years Diecember and the card I made for this years turned into a much needed Birthday card for a Boy but need to make sure it turned up to the recipient first.

So I made these three cards very simply using the Simon says Stamp Big Joy die removing the O and placing a penguin in its placed. When I made these cards the Joy was in stock but its sods law that its out of stock today.

The hearts are cut out using the Simon says Stamp Large Holiday Shapes now I need to work out what paper I used. The first one Reverse Confetti Warm Heart, second one Carta Bella Santa's Workshop and finally Lawn Fawn Really Rainbow Christmas

To totally finish I added the season's greetings from Simon says Stamp Tiny Words Christmas. Thats another three quick cards done.

Meowy Cat

I do find animals a bit of challenge which is why they are coloured very similar, I did try with this Meowy Cat from Mo Manning to make him a bit of a ginger cat, almost worked bit more practice.

The papers I have used, I have know idea they are obviously left overs from an old paper pack. The centre of the chevron paper is missing underneath the road sheet to paper piece my bauble.

Since the papers are quite busy I just added a flat bow and a sentiment using Tiny Words Christmas from Simon says Stamps.

Struggling a bit this week not helping since I seriously don't have enough cards yet.

Little Robin

Hi all and welcome to another week on the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge
Thank you for joining us for the Baby It's Cold Challenge and we hope you will all join us again this week too.

This week the challenge is to make whatever takes your fancy!

Anything Goes 

We are showcasing Wild Rose Studio Products this week. You don't have to use them to join in but if you have some we would love to see them used

The lovely folks over at Simon Says Stamp are generously giving away a FABULOUS $50 voucher to shop at the  Simon Says Stamp Store! 
All you have to do is take out your crafty supplies, make something following this week’s prompt, and add a link in the Inlinkz at the bottom of this post!
You can join 5 times so you could have 5 chances to win! How AWESOME is that!!
All winners are chosen randomly, so everyone has an equal chance to win! Woo Hoo!! Good Luck to everyone! The Design Team is looking forward to seeing your crafty makes and will pop around to visit you ASAP!

The idea was good but not sure my Wild Rose Little Robin is pleased to encircle in a wreath. I fussy cut and layered him and I used Fun Flock on the brim and bobble of his hat.

My wreath is using the Simon says Stamp Pine Needle Wreath and their Holly Fanfare, I cut them in different colours to help them show up.

The papers are Carta Bella Santa's Workshop and the sentiment is made with Simon says Stamp Stitched banners and their Tiny Words Christmas.

Do you use Instagram ?  If so please add  #ssswchallenge to your challenge entry uploads so we can see them on there too.