Christmas Down Under

Hello!

Are you starting to feel festive yet?  I put my Christmas tree and decorations up yesterday so I hope it does the trick with me!  I'm hoping to get my cards finished off this week and get my last couple of presents so I can get them wrapped next weekend and then I can enjoy the holidays!  I wonder how well that plan will pan out!  I really feel like Christmas has snuck up on me this year!

But anyway, it's that time of the week again when there's a new challenge at Eclectic Ellapu and I'm so excited cos it's my turn to host!  So that means it's a Pink week!

The theme I have chosen (which will hopefully inspire some of you for those last minute Christmas makes) is...

Jolly & Bright!

Easy peasy!

I wanted to send a Christmas card all the way to the other side of the world to the lovely people who let us stay with them and made us feel so welcome when we were over earlier this year, so when I saw these images I knew they'd be perfect!
Here's my card:

 It's an Oz Claus (or Santa ClOz!)!  The images are "Aussie Santa" and "Aussie Chrissie Tree" by Make It Crafty (also printed onto Make It Crafty card!) and I coloured him with the following copics: Skin: E21,13,00,0000,R20. Vest/tinsel etc;R29,27,24. Shorts etc;YG17,13,11. Beard;C2,1. Hat/Tree;E49,39,37,35,33. Tinnies;BG49,45,18. Sand;Y19,15,11. Sky;B01,00,0000.

The papers are from the Christmas Carnival Collection by Kaiser Craft and the paper just behind the image was, erm, put on upside-down on purpose, erm, cos they are in Oz! lol! (Hopefully they'll not notice!)
The sentiment is by Circa design stamped with memento ink and gone over with Sakura clear stardust pen.  I thought the image looked like a holiday pic so I tried to make it like a polaroid picture.  I also used a Sakura clear glaze pen on Santa's sunglasses and the holly berries and the stardust pen on the tinsel.
The loopy trim is from the Ribbon Girl.

The inside has another Make It Crafty image on it.  I thought it would be a good idea to cut around some of the kangaroo but I'm not too fussed on it - I hadn't time to change it as it was being made on the last posting day for Oz!  The same papers are used as are on the front of the card and I added some faux stitching around the message panel.

I used the following copics to colour "Red Nose Roo": E39,37,35,33,R29,27,24,YG17,13,11.  Some clear stardust pen was used on their noses for a bit of extra sparkle.

So that's my card, I hope you find it both jolly and bright!  You'll find lot's more fantastic inspiration from the rest of the DT over on the Eclectic Ellapu blog - I'm looking forward to seeing what you create to join us for this week!

I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges:

Bearly Mine Challenges; Santa is on his way
CRAFT Challenge; Christmas
Dream Valley Challenges; Christmas
Fab n Funky Challenge; Not a traditional Christmas card
Fussy & Fancy; I love Christmas
Jacksons Digital Expressions; Inks & such
Joanna Sheen Challenge Blog; With love at Christmas
Love To Create Challenge Blog; Holiday cheer
One Stop Craft Challenge; Christmas friends
Paperplay Challenges; Christmas is coming
The Ribbon Girl Challenge; Hohoho
The Squirrel & The Fox; Summer or Winter (I think I've covered both!)
Top Tip Tuesday; Christmas
Whimsy Stamps Inspirations Challenges; Anything goes as long as it's festive

Thanks for looking!
 

I'm Not The Best Cook!

Hi everyone!

Hasn't it gotten so cold!!  The past couple of day have been freezing and I'm convinced I saw snow yesterday!  Hopefully it's just a little blip and will warm up a bit again, but I'm not holding my breath!  (cos it makes fog! lol)

I had my first physio appointment on Thursday which went well.  I've been officially diagnosed with whiplash in my neck and back and my spine has locked itself into protective mode!  She told me it could take two years before I'm back to normal! :(  Although she said that hopefully some physio will speed things up a bit. :)  She started some massage on the left side of my neck and back and my left shoulder which she said was very tight and boy did it hurt!  It definitely wasn't what I'd call a relaxing massage!  She also asked me if I felt anxious about being in cars since the accident, I said I am a bit but am getting better, she told me that she knows of some people who were in less serious accidents and wouldn't get back into a car - just saying that actually made me feel a bit better!
My Dad drove me to the appointment and on the way home he had to stand on the brakes which made me jolt forward and into the seat belt which hurt like hell!  I tried not to make him feel too bad though as what he did was probably better than running into the car in front when it braked hard!  It didn't help with the pain or the anxiousness about being in a car though!

Anyway, back to the cooking :)
It's time for the third challenge at Eclectic Ellapu - the second challenge for the Pink DT!  And it's the lovely NanaConnie's turn to host and the challenge she chose for this week is...

Recipe! - 1 Digi/Stamped image, 2 Patterned papers and 3 embellishments of the same kind!

As I said, I'm not a great cook and I usually always stray off a recipe and add a few other bits and pieces!  But, I tried to be good and this is what I did...

The image is a digi from Saturated Canary called Christmas Angel.  I coloured her with the following copics: Skin;E21,13,00,0000,R20. Dress;V12,06,04,0000,YG17,13,11. Wings;BG02,000,0000. Eyes;YG95. Hair;E49,39,35,31. Lips;RV34,32. Background;G21,20,C4,2. And some black prisma pencil.
I coated her wings with glossy accents and glamour dust so they're super extra sparkly!  I also used some decoart glistening snow writer to make little dots around the image.

The papers are Kaiser Craft; Christmas Carnival Collection.  I used Go Kreate large circle dies to cut the card base and layers and then I used Spellbinders circles, large scallop circles and Heirloom ornaments for the other elements.  My three embellishments are some really cheap Christmas decorations that I got years ago and have been lying in my stash all this time feeling sorry for themselves and thinking they'll never be used, but everything will get used sometime!  (Yeah right!)
The sentiment panel came out of the same paper pad and I used a CC Designs sentiment stamp with Lilac Posies Memento ink.

The inside uses up a scrap of the paper and a smaller size of the die with a wood mounted Papermania sentiment.

So pop over to the Eclectic Ellapu challenge blog to see the rest of the DT's fantabulous pieces of inspiration and join in the fun!

I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges:

Charisma Cardz; Don't be square
Crafty Ribbons; Christmas
Fashionista Challenge; Anything goes
A Gem of a Challenge; Polka dots/spots
Ladybug Crafts Ink Challenge Blog; I need a P!  I've used a pinky purple - does that count as 2 P's? lol!
Make It Monday; Always anything goes
Papertake Weekly; Fireworks (glitter)
Stampin for the Weekend; Anything goes
Whimsy Stamps Inspirations Challenges; All things sparkly
Saturated Canary Challenge Blog; Shaped card

Thanks for looking and a big hello and wave to my new followers!
 

Christmas Is Coming!

Morning!

What a fantastic month and a bit of sport we've had!  I was really sad to see the end of the Paralympics as I enjoyed it all so much!  I've still got a few programs recorded on my sky box so I'll be able to ease myself away from it by watching a few wee bits here and there!  I'm really gonna miss all the fantastic action of every event.  All I can say is ROLL ON RIO!!
And just to end the week off nicely there was a fantastic F1 race in Italy - I wasn't fussed on the winner, but loved seeing Fernando getting a podium place in his Ferrari.  Love it!

But, now that all the sport is over (well, the motorsport isn't yet!) it means there's lots of fab programs to watch on the telly!  I caught the first episode of the return of Dallas last week and am looking forward to the next installment.  I'm also so excited about the return of True Blood - we're only going to get to see series 5 now, even though the series finale was on in the States a while ago.  And the first episode of Strictly is on on Saturday night - right up our street with all that glitter!  Fab-u-lous!  Time to get the exercise bike parked in front of the box me thinks!

Anyway, time for another challenge from the Creative Card Crew!  Our challenge for the next fortnight is...

Trees!

This time we are sponsored by the fabulous Simon Says Stamps with a fantastic prize of $20 to spend in their shop!

I decided to stick to a Christmas theme for my card, and as I regularly do, I made a selection of similar cards:

No colouring on these ones, so they were quite quick to make  I used a selection of papers from the Kaiser Craft Christmas Carnival collection.  Kaiser Craft papers are available at Simon Says Stamp.

I used the Stampin' Up! pennants punch and turned them upside-down to make little Christmas trees!  I added some coloured Swarovski crystals as baubles.

The corners are Spellbinder dies from the Floral Accents set.  A large selection of Spellbinders is available at Simon Says Stamp.

The sentiment is from CC Designs, Christmas Words and is completed on the inside of the card with "Peace & happiness at Christmas and throughout the new year" (I didn't take a pic as it's plain apart form the sentiment).  I used another Stampin' Up! punch for the sentiment and my ribbon is from my stash.

So go and have a wee look at the fab inspiration from the rest of my teamies on the Creative Card Crew blog and have a go yourself!

I'd like to enter these in the following challenges:

Anything Goes Challenge Blog; Early Christmas
Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge; Christmas
Joanna Sheen Challenge Blog; Going dotty
No Matter Which Challenge Blog; Die cuts and/or punches
Stampin For The Weekend; Start Christmas early
ABC Challenges; W for wishes
The Squirrel & The Fox; Anything goes
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge; For a child
Sparkle's Christmas Challenge; Sparkle & Bling

Thanks for looking and a big hello and wave to my new followers!


 

Photo Overload Alert!

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope you all brought 2012 in with a bang!

On the MAC forum we had a Christmas card swap so I had 8 cards to make.  These are my last Christmas cards as I just didn't have time to make any more.
I decided to do the cards the same, but different!  I thought that stamping and colouring would take too long so I decided to do somthing similar that I did on a card last year and cut 3 different sized circles 8 times and build snowmen out of them!  It still took bliming ages!

I used 2 different snowflake embossing folders on the circles and then coated the middle sized circle with glossy accents and a sprinkling of glamour dust so as you could still see the embossing under the glossy accents.  I cut eight squares and small rectangles (longer than the squares) out of black card, coated them in glossy accents and black glitter.  Once all was dry I assembled into snowmen and added the glitter hat, two black swarovski's for eyes and a carrot nose made out of orange card.  I coloured 8 toothpicks with my burnt sienna promarker and stuck to the back of the snowman with glue and covered it with another die-cut circle to both hide the toothpick and for stability.

I cut 8 doo-hickey fences and attched them with short lengths of card to the front panel of the easel card to hold the front up.  When the card is closed the fence lies flat.

The sentiment is from Waltzing Mouse stamps and cut out with a spellbinders fancy tag.  The snow flurry behind the snowman is a memory box die.

Everything is distressed with various distress inks and my clear stardust pen and glamour dust have been extensively used too.  The papers are from Crate Paper's Snowy Day Collection, Prima's North Country Collection, DCWV's Rose Tinted Christmas multi stack and Kaiser Craft's Christmas Carnival Collection.

I'd like to enter these in the following challenges:

Craft Your Days Away; Snowmen
Crafts And Me Challenges; Anything goes
Creative Card Crew; Snow Day
Diva's By Design; Merry Christmas
Dream Valley Challenges; Christmas
I Love Promarkers; Anything goes - I admit that my use of promarkers here was very limited so if you think I haven't used enough then please remove me from the draw. x
My Mum's Craft Shop; Anything goes
One Stop Craft Challenge; Winter Wishes
Paperplay Challenges; Christmas
Papertake Weekly; Anything goes
The Poodles Parlour; Song Titles - "Let it Snow" or "The Snowman"
Saturday Challenge; Anything goes
Simon Says; Anything goes
The Pink Elephant; Anything goes
Top Tip Tuesday; Anything goes
ABC Christmas Challenge; Z is for zingy colours
Christmas Cards All Year Round; Non traditional colours

Phew, that's quite a list!
Thanks for stopping by!
 

Completely Crackers!

Hi everyone!
Now that the wedding is over and I'm still going to be on holiday for a few more days I thought I'd better get caught up on all the cards that I haven't had the time to blog over the past few months.
So, just to get them out of the way I thought I'd show the few Christmas cards that I made first - it won't take long, I didn't make very many!

To start with here's the one (or two?) that I made for my wee niece and nephew.  I'll show you the rest in a couple of days.
I had the idea months ago but thought I wasn't going to have time to get it made before the big day, so I got stuck in and got it made quicker than I thought I would - I suppose that's what happens on the rare occasion that you know what you're doing and what you want! lol

In the words of the great Frank Carson..."It's a cracker!"  I made it out of an A3 sheet of card and I measured and cut the zig-zig split but I didn't cut the points the whole way through at the back so it stayed together until it was opened and then they pulled it apart like a real cracker and each side was a separate card.

Here's what I did with the 2 separate cards

I used some Magnolia stamps - a mixture of new and old ones - and masked them off to stamp a seat under them.  I added facial features which I've never done before but I saw it on some other blogs and although I love Magnolia's as they are, I thought that for Ryan & Holly, they needed faces.  The one of Holly actually bears a slight resemblance to her! lol - she's so cute!
I coloured them with copics and cut them out.

I used some Tim Holtz grunge-board die-cut letters and coated them with glossy accents and then smothered them with different coloured glitters.

The papers are from the Christmas Carnival Collection from Kaisercraft.  I used a Stampin' Up! edge punch for the backing papers and curled them up from the split in the cracker.  I cut out some baubles and decorated around the figures and then I used a couple of the die-cuts from the back of the paper pad for the ends of the cracker.  A wee bit of ribbon and a few jingle bells finishes it off.

The inside is fairly plain due to time and the fact that it was hard to keep the card open to decorate it! lol

It was a fun card to make and the recipients had fun opening it so it all worked out ok!
Tip: I had to be imaginative with the envelope as I didn't have any to fit so I took 2 A5 envelopes and laid them side by side and slit down the 2 middle edges and stuck them together.

This card fits the following challenges (there's loads of them!):

4 Crafty Chicks; Something New (new style of card)
Bling It On; Christmas
Crafts & Me; Anything Goes
Creative Inspirations; Anything Goes
Daring Cardmakers; Spots & Stripes
Diva's By Design; Merry Christmas
Dream Valley Challenges; Christmas
My Mom's Craft Shop Challenges; Anything Goes
One Stop Craft Challenges; Winter Wishes
Paper Play Challenges; Christmas
Paper Sundae's; Celebrate
Saturday Challenge: Anything Goes
Simon Says; Anything Goes
Stamp, Scrap and Doodle Saturdays; Bells
Top Tip Tuesday; Anything Goes
Totally Gorjuss; Happy

So I'll take this oppurtunity to wish everyone a really happy new year.  I hope 2012 holds all you wish for and more!

See you next year with more catch-ups!

Thanks for looking! xx