Twinkle all the way

I live in Australia.  Christmas is usually hot.  That doesn't mean I don't love making Christmas cards with beautiful blues (my favourite colour) and sparkling snowflakes.  (I tend to send these cards to friends in the northern hemisphere, anyway!)

The snowflake dies are  from Simon Says Stamp, cut from American Crafts glitter paper.  The sentiment is from Mama Elephant "Merry Greetings".  The background is Distress Ink, in Blueprint Sketch, Salty Ocean and Tumbled Glass.

Thanks for visiting :)

From simple to not so simple

A friend of mine needed some Christmas wreaths stamped and die cut for a class she's taking, so I got out my Stampin' Up Wondrous Wreath set and some inks and got stamping.
But then I thought I'd make myself some Christmas cards while I was at it.  I thought I'd try to make three similar cards, but vary the complexity - starting with simple and ending up with more layers and components.

So, here's card 1:

I used the Stampin' Up "Wondrous Wreath" stamp set, along with some Hero Arts shadow inks (Green Hills, Red Royal, and Ombre - Lime to Forever Green), and a sentiment from Hero Arts "Joy to the World".  A touch of Wink of Stella finished the card.

 Here's card 2:

 For this one, I die cut the wreath and popped it up on dimensional adhesive.   I also stamped and die cut the bow.  A touch of Wink of Stella finished the card.

Here's card 3:

For this one, I used an ink blending tool to colour the card base in Green Hills ink, and then die cut a white stitched square panel using a Lil' Inkers Designs die.  The wreath is the same as the 2nd card, but I added some of the little red flowers as well.  For the sentiment, I die cut the Merry using the die from the Hero Arts "Merry Stamp & Cut" set. I stamped the word "Christmas" from the same set onto some vellum in black Versafine ink, and clear embossed it before wrapping the vellum around the entire panel with the wreath, and gluing the Merry on top. A touch of Wink of Stella on the flowers, berries, and darker leaves finished the card.  

Thanks for visiting :)

Fusion Blue Christmas

Welcome to another Fusion challenge!  I went with a fusion of the photo and the sketch today:

I used snowflake stamps from Hero Arts "Decorate your Holidays" and a little snowflake from Stampin' Up.  I blended in some Distress Inks in Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean and Blueprint sketch, and added the ckoloured panel with dimensional adhesive.  The sentiment is also from Hero Arts - the 'Merry' from "Holly Jolly" and the '&bright' from "Merry stamp & cut.

I hope you can come and join in our challenge at Fusion - thanks for visiting :)

A little bit of kindness

Jennifer McGuire.  Seriously people. 

Her Share Handmade Kindness challenge is in its 4th week - and this week, we're sharing with strangers.  I'm going to make a bunch of these and  have them on hand to give to whomever I think needs a bit of cheer.

I used the "A Bit of Kindness" stamp from Hero Arts (that was in my little package of awesomeness that I received from Jennifer on Monday), which I heat embossed with Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder.  I then added some flowers from Hero Arts "Night and Day Flowers" in Soft Pool and Tide Pool inks from Hero Arts (I think the colour scheme from Jennifer's box of happy might have influenced me!)  A touch of Wink of Stella was the final touch. 

 I encourage you to join in with Jennifer's challenge and spread some kindness. Everyone needs some random kindness once in a while.

Thanks for visiting :)

Fingerprints!

A friend of mine showed me a card she made the other day with Miss 3 - Miss 3 provided the fingerprint, my friend did the rest. I thought I've give the idea a go!

Thanks for visiting :)

Kindness is goodness is magic!

I am such a lucky lady!  I received a package in the mail today from Jennifer McGuire! A little parcel of happiness, with some handmade foiled cards, a stamp from Hero Arts, washi tape, temporary tattoos, stickers, the list goes on!
I decided to take one of her foiled cards and decorate it.  This required some cutting down (eek! I actually cut a card made by Jennifer McGuire! I'm not quite over the shock of my bald-faced guts!)

I started with some white cardstock from Papertrey Ink.  I added the fairy-tale castle from a Disney Princess stamp set from EK Success. I then cut masks with the Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Borders die, and added some Hero Arts shadow ink in Green Hills and Soft Pool, using a Ranger ink blending tool over the masks.  I put some of the washi tape from Jennifer on the left of the card, then popped up the foiled sentiment on some foam tape.  A sprinkling of sequins from Simon Says Stamp, and I'm done!

The foiling is just so shiny - I've never done foiling, and I've never actually seen the results of foiling with a Minc machine up until today. I'll have to put it on my wish list for next year (I've already getting something else from my crafty wish list for Christmas - can you say MISTI?!)

Thanks for visiting :)  

Variation on a theme

I made a couple of cards that were posted on A Blog Named Hero a couple of weeks ago, using the Hero Arts Peace Poinsettia stamp set, and some Distress Markers.  I decided to make a few more using the same products and layout, but I changed the colours a bit, and used different glitter paper, and a variety of sentiments. This is one way I can stop myself going crazy with boredom making dozens of the same card - just vary them a bit. The sentiments are from Simon Says Stamp "Big Scripty Greetings Holiday" and Hero Arts "Joy to the World".

 I found that it was quicker to wet the watercolour cardstock and then paint on Distress Inks, rather than use the technique I used before, which was to draw colour on with Distress Markers, and then spray on lots of water, then dry and repeat.  Slightly different results, but as I am running behind in my Christmas card making, I went with the faster technique!

I'll be sharing these at CAS on Sunday challenge - Christmas.  

 Thanks for visiting :)

22 again?

My friend, Janet, had her birthday a couple of weeks ago.  When asked what she wanted for her birthday, she replied "to be 22 again". So I made this:

I used stamps from Mama Elephant "Up and Away", and Lawn Fawn "Quinn's 123s" and "Hello Baby", plus a sentiment from Hambo Stamps. Inside the card I stamped the matching sentiment, which says "Didn't you just have one LAST year?" The patterned paper at the bottom is cut with a Lawn Fawn die from Stitched Hillside Borders, and the paper is Lawn Fawn, too.

Thanks for visiting :)

Minion!

This is my 2nd post today, having made two cards for Jennifer McGuire's Share Handmade Kindness card shower - this one is for young Xander, whose photo on Jennifer's blog has him holding a Minion toy.  I assumed he must like Minions (who doesn't?), so I made this:

I used the circle card Thinlit die from Stampin' Up. 

Now, this was not my idea!! I know I saw someone out in blogland make something similar to this, but when I went searching so I could give credit for the original idea, I found HEAPS of cards like this! So unfortunately, I'm not sure who to give credit to! However, I suggest you do a Pinterest search of "Minion" and either "card" or "papercraft" or similar, and you will get a heap off inspiration!

 Thanks for visiting :)

Pink princess

I'm sharing handmade kindness today - Jennifer McGuire posted information about a card shower on her blog today, and I decided to make some time today to make a card for little Emily, who is battling Neuroblastoma.  Seeing as Emily loves pink, I pulled out one of my Disney Princess stamps from EK Success and some pink Copic markers. 

I stamped the Hero Arts magical background stamp over a white card base, and used another Hero Arts stamp for the sentiment (from "messages with flourish").  I coloured Princess Aurora with pink Copics, and then added some Wink of Stella over her dress, her necklace and her tiara.

I'll be sharing this card at the Share Handmade Kindness week 3 challenge: Kids, and will be posting them to Jennifer McGuire to pass on to little Emily, to give her a smile :)

Thanks for visiting :)

Hero Arts Blog Hop

Welcome to the Hero Arts Blog Hop!

The design team at A Blog Named Hero have teamed up with the design team from Hero Arts to bring you this blog hop, full of holiday crafty inspiration!
I hope you have arrived from Suzanne Dahlberg's very awesome blog, Freshly Noted. 
For my card today, I used some of my favourites from this year's Hero Arts holiday catalogue - the "Holly Jolly" stamp set, and the "Merry Stamp and Cut" set, along with the Lime to Forever Green Ombre Ink, and Red Royal shadow ink.

I've also got a video to share with you today:

Now, I couldn't leave it there - I had to make another card, using the same two stamp sets, and the same two dies! I added some American Crafts gold glitter paper this time, and a bunch of Hero Hues dots from my stash (but Hero Arts colored gems in red would also look fabulous!)

Your next step on the hop is Bhavana Kesarkar  - I'm sure she has something lovely to share with you! Here's the entire hop list, too:

Hero Arts 

Linda Trace 

Libby Hickson 

Lisa Stein 

Niki Garcia  

Amy Tsuruta 

Jessica Frost-Ballas 

Mateja Povse  

Suzanne Dahlberg 

Michelle Lupton  That's me! 

Bhavana Kesarkar 

Mariana Grigsby  

Chitra Menon  

Gayatri Murali 

Isabel Rivera Ruiz  

Clare Prezzia

If you happen to find a link that doesn't work, you can hop back to the Hero Arts Blog for a list of direct links to all the blogs in today's hop.

Now, what's a blog hop without a giveaway? Hero Arts have stashed away THREE of the November 2015 My Monthly Hero kits to giveaway to readers of this hop. The winners will be randomly chosen from all of the blog hop comments, across all blogs, received by 11:59pm PST on Sunday, November 22nd. Check the Hero Arts blog for the announcement of the winner on Tuesday, November 24th.

Thanks for visiting :)

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

Zig Zag Christmas Tree

I have a quick Christmas card to share today.

I made this Christmas tree by masking off a triangle, then stamping the Hero Arts Zig Zag background stamp in Pine Needles Distress ink, then blending Mowed Lawn Distress Ink over the top.  I added a quick sentiment from Stamp It, half of a glittery star (American Crafts Christmas Glitter paper, die cut with a Sizzix die), and some red enamel dots. 

Thanks for visiting :)

Fusion - Warm Welcome

Welcome to another FUSION challenge!

 Please come over to the Fusion blog to check out the other Design Team members' cards - there's lots of gorgeous inspiration to be had!

Thanks for visiting :)