Christmas Kickstart Challenge - Reminder post for Challenge #67

It's Reminder time over at Christmas Kickstart and this month we have a fabulous guest and a fabulous theme as we play...

in the company of the lovely Janet from Swanlady - Impressions.

Janet created a gorgeous card to kickstart our challenge, which you can see by clicking here. 

For my inspired by card I hunted through my stash and found a Woodware Poinsettia background to work with. Janet's cards are beautifully CAS and I loved how she had so much white space on each design. I 'borrowed' the black sentiment on a white space and surrounded the central design with the background. The card just didn't look right until I stamped, coloured, fussy cut and added two additional poinsettias to soften the centre of the card. Again, I was inspired to do this because of the dimension Janet had achieved with her cards. 

This is so different to my usual style, but I enjoyed the challenge of working with a stamp set that wouldn't otherwise have seen the light of day. 

There are currently twenty-three amazing cards in the gallery. If you haven't got a poinsettia stamp then any Christmas florals will be just fine and Janet and I look forward to seeing yet more beautiful flowery creations before the challenge closes at the end of the month.

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #67 - Poinsettias and Posies

Happy October, everyone! The Festive Season is getting closer and no mistake.

It's time for the Christmas Kickstart October Challenge and I'm thrilled to be joined by the very talented Janet from Swanlady - Impressions. 

Our theme, chosen by Janet, is Challenge #67 - Poinsettias and Posies and I know you'll love what Janet has created to inspire us this month.

Here's my take on the challenge - a little embossing folder fun and some heat embossing in copper. This folder comes in two different sizes, so it's best to check the measurements before ordering.

While I quite like my first card, the jury is still out on this one:

This large bauble stamp is by Woodware and the sentiments are included in the set. 

I can honestly say that this challenge really hauled me out of my comfort zone and no mistake, but then isn't that why we all love challenges? I'm very grateful to Janet for picking such a fab theme.

The handsome Rudolph has chosen a great little prize for his Randon Raffle this month.

I hope you'll head on over to Christmas Kickstart and come join the fun!

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #66 - Reminder

 

It's Reminder time over at Christmas Kickstart - doesn't time fly when you're making cards!

Our elfin guest this month is the lovely Tina from Slovenia. 

and she picked a super theme for our September challenge...

Making an 'Inspired by...' card wasn't going to be easy as there's so much to delight and inspire in Tina's creation, but here's what I came up with:

I borrowed some of Tina's colour palette, and also the gorgeous deer to create something very CAS. As always, this card looks so much better IRL and please excuse the shadow at the side of the picture - it's from some plants in the garden which were closer than I thought. 

The sweet little houses are from MFT Our Town, the deer are Sizzix Thinlets Darling Deer and the sentiment is from a Woodware set called Across the Miles. 

Rudolph has a super, fun prize on offer for his Random Raffle this month, why not come and join the fun over at Christmas Kickstart this month???

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #25 - The Christmas Story

Amazingly it's Challenge #25 over at The Christmas Kickstart! Not long now until the big day is finally here - thank goodness we've all been making Christmas cards for so long! Just need the time to write them now...

This is a very special challenge; first of all I'm delighted to welcome back the lovely Janis from Her Peaceful Garden who was my very first elf all the way back in January.

 

The second reason this feels special is because of the theme:

Challenge #25 - The Christmas Story

What better challenge as we count down to that most special of days and remember the reason for the season and celebrate the birth of that very special baby.

Janis has created a showstopper of a card for this challenge, so please head over to Christmas Kickstart and take a look.

My first card is a deceptively simple, layered creation using beautiful dies from MFT. The set includes everything you'll need to make your own little town of Bethlehem. The layering took a little 'jiggling' to get it to look right. I had fun creating the night sky and splattering some stars with white paint and a toothbrush.

My second card is a little fancier. Can you spot where the sentiment for card #1 came from? Sooo much masking was required, but it was worth the effort. I used a gorgeous Woodware stamp that just begged to be embossed on cream with gold. I added gold braid and some extra background embossing to finish things.

There's a sponsor for this challenge, and Rudolph is beside himself with joy!

Yes, the lovely Jane from Jane's Doodles is offering a $25.00 voucher for Rudolph's Random Raffle. Jane has a gorgeous range of stamps, including some beautiful Christmas images and I'm very grateful that she's agreed to sponsor Challenge #25. BTW, she has a Christmas stamp sale taking place right now!

Hope you will join us, and play along! We'd love to see your Stars, Wise Men, donkeys, shepherds, angels, cribs and anything that links to the Christmas story. 

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #22 - Jingle all the Way!

It's time for another fun theme over at The Christmas Kickstart Challenge. 

I'm delighted to welcome a new elf for this challenge - it's my lovely long-term blogging buddy Dawn from Dawn's World! 

Our theme for this challenge is

Jingle All the Way!

So please break out them bells and come jingle along with us.

My first card features an adorable feline friend in a Santa hat, wearing the biggest kitty bell I've ever seen! I can just imagine my cat wearing this - he'd never get his head off the floor! 

I'm linking this card to Janis's Cat Lovers Blog Hop which started yesterday. If you've never played along why not take a look as it's great cardmaking fun.

My next card is also a cute one. The stamp is called Reindeer Bells  from Woodware. The sentiment has lost it's packaging so I'm not sure where it's from. I've added Wink of Stella to the snowflakes and the collar.

Rudolph has a gorgeous Random Raffle Prize for this month.

It's a two-fer of sweet Lawn Fawn stamp sets up for grabs!

Hope you can come and play along!

2018 Cats Lovers Hop

I'm dropping by to share a kitty card made for Janis's Cat Lovers Hop 2018.

I did a little masking on a Woodware Magic stamp (Les Chats) so that I ended up with this cute little duo. This was quite a quick card to make as I went for simple colouring and layering style.

The hop finishes today, so I'm going to grab a cuppa and wander over to take a look at the gallery! I played along last year and am delighted to find that Janis has once again bagged some brilliant sponsors and done a great job of whipping-up some fabulous feline fun.

A purrfect way to say thank you!

Before I share my card I just want to take a moment to send my love and sympathy to the people of Norway following the tragic events that took place yesterday. It never fails to sadden me that we live in a world where such things are possible.

I made this card to say thank you to a dear friend, who never forgets a birthday or an anniversary.
Once again I've used Forbes and friends from Woodware. I coloured one cat as my sweet lad Custard and the other kitten as the late, great Cleo who shared my life for 18 treasured years. I also picked this couple as the tall cat reminds me of my hubby and the rather plump one reminds me of ME!
I think the papers are Cosmo Cricket Early Bird, but I'll correct this if anyone tells me otherwise as they came from my scraps box! And thanks to my wonderful hubby I was able to add stitching to this card. Bless him for mending my sewing machine!

Hugs to you all!

Furry Friday!

So tell me, which is your favourite cat?
Obviously in real life my answer would always be the adorable Mr Custard, but I'm rather taken with that big furrball guy on the left with the sweet pink nose!
Don't you just love, love, LOVE these cute feline buddies from Woodware?

My hubby bought this stamp set from eBay a very long time ago and now I've inked it up I cannot understand how or why I left it unused for soooooooo long. The set is called Forbes and friends and the thing I love is that you can group the cats together, stamp them singly or in any combination you want. You also get lot's of little extras in the set which are great for creating scenes or decorating the inside. I've never used Woodware Clear stamps before and am very impressed with the crispness of the image. I can see this set coming in very useful for a whole range of cards from birthdays to anniversaries...
This card is to say a very heartfelt 'thank you' to my ICS coach Vikki. I really couldn't have achieved my award without her and it's been fun getting to know such a bright and sparky gal!
I'm sorry that the picture of this card is a little dull but the sun is refusing to come out from behind some pretty dark clouds right now.
Have a great weekend everyone, happy crafting!