The Night Before Christmas

Hello everyone,

Just a quick post for me today, but first I want to welcome my blog's newest follower.  Thanks for joining me; I'm so glad to have you along!

I was inspired to play along with the challenge at Scrapbooker's Paradise, and there is still a few hours to play along :)  This week, the challenge is to CASE yourself (and try to improve on your design).  I made this card last year  (post here) and I knew at the time that I wanted to revisit it.  Well, let me tell you, my current card has cured me of that!

 Here is what I came up with this time:

Not too sure it is an improvement!  I wanted to try making it into a shaker card, but unfortunately, the snow glitter I used had a bad case of static and clung to the acetate and to the image.  A little bit of a mess and it really dulls the colouring :(  I do like the new colour, the new ornaments are pretty and I like that I used white + glitter for the stamp on the frame, so that detail pops now.  I stamped all my background papers and used tonnes of glitter.  Here is a shot showing some of the shimmer from the glitter and in the papers.  However, with the light reflecting, the colours no longer show true.

Recipe

Image - House Mouse coloured with Distress inks
Baubles - I created the frame in SCAL2, all others are Stampin' Up
Stamps - Impression Obsession & Tim Holtz (backgrounds stamped with embossing ink), Stampin' Up (baubles stamped with Stormy Sky DI), Close to my Heart (flourish border on frame stamped with embossing ink)  Everything has been embossed with either opaque white or iridescent ice (or both) embossing powders
Paper - pearlescent white and shimmery Bazzill card
Other- ribbon from stash, pearls, MS border punch

This card is for the following challenges:

Scrapbooker's Paradise (Playing in Paradise) - CASE yourself
Fashionista Challenge - Blue Christmas
Hanna and Friends - Animals
One Stop Craft Challenge - monochrome
Papertake Weekly - Ribbons and pearls
Sparkles Christmas Challenge - Contemporary Colours
Stamptacular Sunday Challenge - Recipe (I've got ribbon, pearls and a MS edge punch)
Winter Wonderland - Oh baubles

Thanks for popping by and for taking the time to leave a comment.  I love reading them and having the chance to visit you too.

Have a great weekend!

Hugs,

Dawn

Hanging the Christmas Carrots

Hello everyone,

I hope you all had a great week and have wonderful things planned for the weekend.  This weekend is supposed to be 'warm' (somewhere around zero degrees) so I will have to get out and enjoy it before it gets cold next week.  Guess it's just that time of the year.... and only 37 days left before Christmas if I can still count!  Yikes!!  So, I have made another Christmas card, this time using a cute Happy Hoppers stamp.  I just love this image to bits.

Recipe:

Image - Happy Hoppers Carrot Tree stamped with black Stazon and coloured with Distress inks (antique linen, frayed burlap, tattered rose, peeled paint, forest moss, walnut stain, rusty hinge)
Sentiment - Stampin' Up from the Bells and Boughs set
Papers - Stampin' Up and My Mind's eye - all the edges were inked with DI frayed burlap
Other - TH tattered pine cone inked with walnut stain, dabbed with white acrylic paint and then dabbed with rock candy stickles; crinkly ribbon; McGill pine branch punch inked with frayed burlap; brown wire dipped in gold embossable ink and embossed with gold tinsel (glittery) powder; creamy coloured berries (from Michael's floral department); light green rhinestones.

This card is for the following challenges:

House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge - getting ready for Christmas
Hanna and Friends - a fantastic sketch
Jingle Bells - Christmas feast (a holiday card which has some sort of food on it).  Ok, so carrots are not standard holiday treats, but if you're a rabbit, then they are a must!  :o)
Sparkles Monthly Challenge - Christmas is coming

Thanks for popping in and for taking the time to leave a comment!  I love reading them and it gives me the chance to pop in to see your wonderful creations too.  Last, but not least, a big thank you and welcome to my blog's newest follower, Sandra.

Have a great weekend!

Hugs,

Dawn

A Creatalicious Winter

Hello everyone,

and welcome to my blog's newest followers!  I am so very happy that you've decided to join me on my crafting journey!!

In my neck of the woods, it has been frosty and white for a couple of weeks now, which is just perfect for exercising those shovelling muscles :( and, more importantly, staying inside and crafting :).  I find a fresh snowfall is such a great source of inspiration for creating winter projects, which is also just perfect because that's the theme for this month's challenge over at Creatalicious Challenges.

Our sponsor this month is Stamp Fairy, who have generously provided the team with a choice of digital images.  For my card, I chose Barry Winter 2.  He's super cute and was really fun to colour.

Recipe:

Image - Barry Winter 2 from Stamp Fairy, coloured with Prisma pencils blended with Sansodor.  I added Stampin' Up dazzling diamonds for the snow, rock candy stickles to the hat and the snow on the birdhouse was made with liquid applique which was also covered with dazzling diamonds before puffing it up with a heat tool.  I love the dimensional sparkly look this gives.

Paper - Stampin' Up card base and Bo Bunny from the Snowfall collection.  The edges were distressed, torn  and inked with DI before applying bits of picket fence crackle paint.

Sentiment - Amy R Snowman Sayings

Other - lace for framing the image; Stampin' Up snowflake die cut out from card layered with a sheet of adhesive and then glittered with transparent glitter; TH banner die inked with DI before applying picket fence crackle paint along the top for a snowy look; large glittery snowflake was from Michael's in the Christmas section.

The talented team has created some amazing projects, so for more inspiration, be sure to pop over to Creatalicious Challenges and follow the links to their personal blogs for their project details.  I hope you will join in with us - you have a month to link up your creations.  One lucky winner will receive a $10 gift voucher to StampFairy.com.  I can't wait to see what you make!!  

I would like to enter my card in these fun challenges:

Fab 'n' Funky - let's see those bears

One Stop Craft Challenge - anything goes

My Mums Craft Shop - winter wonderland

Crazy 4 Challenges - inspired by one of your fave Christmas songs (Let it Snow)

Divas by Design - anything goes

Thanks for popping in and for taking the time to leave a comment.  I love reading them and it gives me the chance to catch up with you too!

Big hugs,

Dawn

Karate boy

Hello everyone,

I hope you all had a great weekend with lots of time for creativity and crafting.  Before I get to my latest card, I want to send out a big hello and welcome to all of my blog's newest followers.  I'm so glad to have you along and really appreciate your support!!

Today's card is one that I made very quickly in a race against the clock (though it did take longer than 10 minutes :) ).  Luckily, there was lots of white in the image :).  I made this one on request for a young man's 7th birthday.  He is taking karate, so hopefully he will like it.

I coloured the little Karate Boy with Prismas as quickly as I possibly could, so there isn't as much depth and shading as I would have liked, but I think he still looks cute.

I also decorated the inside to match:

The Japanese writing says 'happy birthday' - I hope!  I found it on the internet so I am trusting that is what it actually says.  If it isn't, it is too late to do anything about it, so I don't want to know :)  Or maybe I do so I don't use it again...

Recipe:

Image - Mo Manning Karate Boy coloured with Prisma pencils
Paper - card from Stampin' Up and Bazzill, DP is My Mind's Eye - Meadowlark
Other - brads and ribbon from my stash, the numeral 7 is an Amy Tangerine Thicker which I embossed to make it black

And I think that is all.  I wanted to make it a little fancier, but ran out of time :(

With this card, I would like to enter the following challenges:

Mo's DP2 Challenge - anything goes
Allsorts - for men only
Anything goes Challenge - anything goes

Thanks for taking a peek and for taking the time to leave a comment.  I love reading them and visiting you to see what you have been up to too!

Have a great week!

Hugs,

Dawn

House Mouse and Friends Spooky, Sweet and Colourful Blog Hop!

Hello Peeps!

I hope your weekend was wonderful!  Welcome to my blog's newest followers - so glad to have you!!

Today is a fun day for me as I get to take part in my first blog hop ever!  I was over the moon when I was invited to guest design for the month of October at House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge, but never imagined that I would be invited to be on the roster for one of their fantastic blog hops!  So a huge thank you to all of the gals at HM&FMC and an extra thank you to Christine for taking the time to coordinate everything!!

Onto the challenge - this fortnight we are looking for your Spooky, Sweet and Colourful creations.  Include the colours purple, black, orange and lime green.  Your creation does not have to be for Halloween.  I hope you'll have time to join in and I am looking forward to seeing all of your creations!

For this challenge I decided to create a little Halloween decoration:

So, evidently, I am not big on orange and lime green though technically that little pumpkin stem does count :) I also don't usually make Halloween stuff - I thought I only had one Halloween stamp but the deeper I dug into my stash the more stuff I found.

Supplies:

Stamps - House Mouse Scaredy Cat (I masked the little mouse out of this one, just keeping the cat) and Hay Day (from which I cut out the little mouse wearing the pumpkin)

Paper - Assorted black card, retired Stampin' Up (blue) and gcd studios from the Sweet Surrender collection (purple), 300g hot pressed watercolour paper, white card for the banner (coloured with DI weathered wood and milled lavender, edges inked with black soot)

Punches and dies - Stampin' Up bat punch, TH tattered banners, TH Alphabetical, Cricut - Elegant Edges for the two base shapes, Ribbons & Rosettes for the fence, spider and web, and the tree is an SVG file from My Scrap Chick (Bella and Baxter Trick or Treating)

Ink/colouring - Cat stamped with jet black Archival ink and coloured with DI black soot and faded jeans, background scene painted with DI squeezed lemonade, scattered straw, black soot, weathered wood and milled lavender.  Mouse stamped with rich cocoa Momento ink and coloured with Prismas blended with Sansador because the watercolour paper is quite thick, so this made the fussy cutting less challenging.

Other - black hemp twine, black mini eyelets, skewer stick (painted black with acrylic paint), shiny black fibers glued on the spider.

Blog Hop Details:

If you are taking part in the blog hop, you should have arrived here from the talented Christine's blog.  If this happens to be your first stop, pop over to House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge for the complete blog hop order and to start at the beginning.  

The next stop along the hop is the talented Dorte's blog.

To be in for a chance to win one of the awesome prizes, make sure to follow the blog hop and challenge rules:

- Enter the current challenge by linking up a new project following the theme and using a House Mouse, Happy Hoppers or Gruffies stamp

- Leave a comment at every stop of the blog hop and on the HM&FMC blog

- Be or become a follower of the HM&FMC blog

I would like to enter my decoration into the following fun challenges:

Alphabet Challenge - S for skeletons, spiders and anything spooky

Anything but a Card - fall or Halloween or fall colours

Crafty Catz - Halloween 

Crazy 4 Challenges - orange, black & purple

Divas by Design - something spooky

No Matter Which Challenges - Halloween creations or Halloween colours

Papertake Weekly - fright night!

Simon Says Stamp - Joy's Eerie Inspiration (photo)

Sweet Stampin' Challenge - Halloween

Thanks for taking a peek and have a great week!

Hugs, 

Dawn