Bah Humbug Challenge 10

My pile of Christmas cards is growing steadily thanks to the Bah Humbug challenge and this week they are asking for apertures.  I know I have some ready cut aperture cards lurking somewhere but thought instead of searching for them I would first have a go at cutting an aperture on the front of a card using  a Nestability die and it seems to have worked out OK. I embossed the aperture using an embossing tool - an idea I picked up from Ikki's blog - thanks for that.  I cut a piece of card to fit the inside and then stamped a winter scene to be viewed through the aperture. I used Tim Holtz trees and a Papermania flying reindeer (the TH one was too big for this card); I added a glitter snowflake to the outside (Marianne die) and a stamped word.

Forgotten Friday 8

I can hardly believe it is Friday again already but it is so here is my card for Judith's Forgotten Friday challenge. This time the forgotten element is some watercolour paper which I inherited and my Prismalo watercolour pencils which haven't been used for a while either.  This paper is very thick and heavily textured and I wasn't sure how it would stamp but it seems to have taken the impression well enough.  I originally stamped it and started colouring with Polychromos pencils but I found the result too patchy due to the texture of the paper so I stamped the image again and tried with the watercolour pencils which seem to have worked better.  The stamp is a Forever Friends from Papermania and the background paper is some which I had printed ages ago so I'm afraid I can't remember the source but I knew it was somewhere in my stash and thought it would go well with this image.  I added a piece of kraft card which has been embossed using a Cuttlebug folder and inked to bring out the pattern. Do pop over to Judith's blog to see her work - she is also guest designer for the Bah Humbug challenge this week and working on that one is my next task.

Bird Cage

Last year a friend bought one of my cards with wording on to send to one of her friends and this year asked for something similar but with a different verse so I stamped off all my suitable words and let her choose.  This Elusive Images stamp was her choice and I used backing paper from Artylicious Echoes of Italy collection, overstamped around the edges with some swirls (also EI stamp).  The birdcage and bird were stamps from Papermania from a set called Tweet which is being sold with a donation of £2 per sale going to Cancer Research UK.  The addition of some cream lace and a computer greeting complete this card - I do hope she likes it!!

Get Funky Monthly challenge

The monthly Get funky Challenge is all about hearts and I've used papers and a digi image from their Craft The Year Away CD.  The background papers came from the CD and were printed on  pearlised paper; the text used the Hobo font. The colours made me think of chocolate so I added wording to the heart and used some card candy in matching colours to finish the card. The sentiment was cut out with a Nestabilities die.

Less is More Week 5

This minimal card style seems to be catching on and this week the challenge at Less is More is to use pastel colours but still leaving 'white space'.  This week I've chosen to use another of the Pampered Pets stamps by Papermania - well they were on a 'three for two offer' so who could resist??  The chic poodle has been coloured a delicate shade of pink using coloured pencil and simply cut out using a Nestability die, embossed and sponged in a matching pink.  The sentiment was stamped directly onto the hammered cream card.

Bah Humbug Challenge 9

The challenge this week over at Bah Humbug is embossing and the main decision to make was which type of embossing to use.  I eventually settled on spraying some card with Glimmer Mist and then embossing in the Big Shot using Cuttlebug snowflakes folder and using a Crafts Too embossing folder for the greeting.  I resorted to using my favourite snowman stamp (Funstamps), some background paper from my stash and a few die cut snowflakes using a Cuttlebug die and glitter card.