Christmas Kickstart Challenge #16

This time around the Christmas Kickstart challenge is down to the Queen of 'Twofers' (the lovely Darnell) so of course you can guess what the idea is.  The theme is 'trees' but we are asked to produce two cards using the same stamp/die set or what have you but in different styles.  Take a look at their blog and you will see some examples for inspiration.

 For my first card I've stamped and cut out three trees from a Stampin' Up set of stamps from a few years ago.  I seem to recall that there was a matching punch but I've cut out my trees using scissors and added gold punched stars.  These have been layered onto a strip of red card with a scalloped white layer behind.  Background paper is from my stash and I die cut a greeting using white card.

For the second one I stamped and cut two trees; banners in white and red; two circles and a lace border.  The white banner was embossed with 'falling snow' dots and a greeting and tiny bird were stamped onto the white circle. Background paper was from my stash of last year's seasonal papers.

Here is a picture of the two cards together as is usual with twofer challenges.

Tree Stamps - Stampin' Up Festival of Trees (little bird from same set)

Sentiment - Contempo Christmas SU

Scallop edge die -My Favourite Things

Lace, Banners and Circles - Sizzix dies

Sentiment Die - Britannia

Dragonfly

I'm sharing a card today which is made using mainly bits and pieces of card which I found during a recent sort out.  I used some mauve pearl card trimmed to slightly smaller than the base.  This piece was die cut using a shaped die which leaves a stitched effect on the aperture rather than the cut out piece.  There is a circle die in the same set which also leaves the stitches detail on the frame and this was used to cut a circle from a piece of embossed purple card and some card coloured with inks was placed behind this.  These pieces were each only just about the right size so I had to be careful with the lining up.  The remaining scraps were used to die cut the two layer dragonfly and the words - finally I had just enough of the pearl card to die cut four fancy corners.

Stitched Effect dies - die set from The Works (also included the greeting dies)
Dragonfly die - also from The Works
Corners - die I've had for many years - Leabilities I believe

Cactus

I reckon this cactus should feel at home with the high temperatures today - ought not to complain but I'm not a fan of extreme heat I must say.  However I've managed to make a card this morning even though it seemed to take me forever with breaks to cool my sticky hands!  The stamp and die set I've used was one of my magazine freebies from quite a while ago and to my shame the pack hasn't been opened until today.  I stamped a cactus onto a piece of white card and coloured using watercolour markers before die cutting a banner shape.  The teacup, flower and heart tag were all part of the die set and these were cut using a few scraps.  I managed to find some suitable designer paper and a piece of pink card which I embossed before assembling things for the completed card.

Cactus and sentiment stamps - magazine freebies
Teacup, flower and heart tag - matching dies which came with the stamps
Designer paper and card - from my stash
Banner - Sue Wilson die

Snippets Playground # 357

If you follow the lovely Di on her Snippets Playground Challenge you will have heard lovely stories about her adorable dog called Dudley and the super card she has made this time is made using the prize which one lucky winner will be able to own.  This set of stamps could have been made just for Dudley - Happy Birthday Dudley - he is a year old tomorrow.

I was going through some boxes of miscellaneous papers in an effort to prune them down somewhat because there are far more than I will ever use, all collected over the years.  I found lots of snippets in the boxes too - mostly part sheets of images which I'd printed from various CD's and part sheets of matching (sometimes) backing paper so I decided to use one such find for my Snippets card this time.  The image and background paper are from a Joanna Sheen CD which from memory has mainly silhouette images although I can't remember the title and it must be buried deep in a cupboard because I've not used it for years.  The paper was trimmed to fit a card blank and the image mounted onto a snippet of black card.  I then used the remaining scraps of the paper ( fairly heavy pearlised cream) to stamp some flowers on the reverse - these were then punched out.  The sentiment was printed onto a snippet of cream pearl card and cut out with a banner die and finally a couple of fern leaves die cut from a tiny scrap of black.

Image and Background - Joanna Sheen CD from way back
Sentiment - freebie sentiment set of stamps
Large Flower - Flower Shop stamp and punch from Stampin' Up
Small Flowers - Petite Petals stamp and punch from Stampin' Up
Banner and leaves -  dies from Sue Wilson

Festive Things with Wings

Things with wings is the theme for this month on the Christmas Kickstart Challenge blog and this time I've used a seasonal CD to make my card.  I started by composing the picture within the software before separating all the elements onto an A4 sheet to print.  The background was trimmed to fit my card and all the other pieces were fussy cut with scissors before re-assembling the composition and sticking them into place.  I've not added a greeting because I felt it would detract from the scene and it is pretty obvious that this is another Christmas card to add to the pile.  There are some great ideas on their blog for inspiration so it is worth taking a look and maybe taking part.

Card composed using 'All Sewn Up for Christmas' CD from Dolly Dimples

Baby Elephant

My friend Anne recently posted a baby card using a super giraffe die - not the same giraffe as I have but quite similar.  You can see it on her blog.  My die came with an elephant one as well and I've CASE'd her card to make one in a similar design using the elephant instead of a giraffe but I have used some die cut bunting which is what a liked about her card.  I found some pretty floral paper, die cut the ovals, the bunting and of course the elephant which was cut in two shades of pink so that I  could mix and match the tiny pieces.  I now have another one in the reverse colours to use on another card at some point.  The border was punched and the words stamped onto the bunting using a set of tiny alphabet stamps.  Two small flowers were punched from scraps of the pink card.

Scalloped oval die - Tonic
Decorative Oval - Spellbinders die
Elephant -  Sweet Dixie die
Bunting - unbranded die

Another Male Card

Here is another of the male birthday cards which I need for this month - fairly quick and simple once I'd decided on an image to use.  Image was printed using Craft Artist, then die cut using an oval die with a larger oval layer behind.  I found some designer paper which picked out some of the colours within the picture and simply added a banner with a printed birthday message.

Image - Craft Artist Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl
Ovals- Tonic dies
Banner - Creative Expressions die
Greeting - computer generated punched out using SU small oval