Here Comes Christmas with Penny Black :)

Good morning! It's Christmas week, agghhhh!! Can't believe how close it is :) Woohoo :)

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This week's challenge is Here Comes Christmas with Through the Purple Haze Challenges and we are sponsored by the amazing Penny Black Stamps.

Penny Black Facebook Page

One lucky winner will receive these 3 stamp sets - how beautiful.

This week I choose to do a layout, again I'm using a 8" x 8" layout.

I used a doily stamp to add a bit of colour to my white 8" x 8" sheet. As this was a pigment ink, I heat embossed it to seal it in. (Can you guess the embossing powder used?!!) I embossed a strip of paper with a circles folder. I haven't dry embossed in ages, and forgot how lovely it looks after embossed. I will make sure in future to do more embossing!!

I stamped the cute little hedgehogs onto a bauble in black ink, that I hand cut out slightly smaller than the die. With some mirrored card I cut out the bauble and layered them. I used a combo of watercolour paints and some fine nibbed markers to colour them in.

I used some green snowflake paper, and real doily to layer my frame. I die cut the 'garden trellis' in grey board to make the frame. I sprayed it with some Rangers ink, and then put lots of glitter glue on it. I used some washi tape and buttons, and star charms to finish off the layout.

I put a photo of one my little elves in it!! :)

The photo does the layout no justice! Just can't get the light right in these short dark days. Over Christmas I have great hopes to make a light tent, and hopefully my problems with light will be gone :D 
I hope wherever you are, you are enjoying the second last Monday before Christmas. What crafty stuff are you up to?
I hope to enter this in a few challenges. Why not pop over and enter the Through the Purple Haze Challenges. Have a brilliant Monday and week.
Eithne

It's beginning to look alot like...

CHRISTMAS!!

Hello and happy Monday! Hope you all survived the second weekend of Advent. I hope I'm not the only one with Christmas cards left to make?! I can't make Christmas cards in November, and then before I know it, it's December with nothing made! Agghhhh!! Have to get my skates on and get more made, before I run out of Christmas supplies ;)

  

This week over at Through the Purple Haze Challenges, the theme is favourite Christmas colours, so it's perfect to get me making Christmas cards!! The sponsor this week is Digital Delights, offering a $5 coupon :)

Back in October my kind friend gave me some embossing powders. I wasn't aware of how many are out there! My most favourite of all is the Kaleidoscope embossing powder. It gives such a beautiful twist to the stamped image. This week, for possibly the fourth week running I used it!! :D

Here is my Christmassy card:

I made a DL cream card, using one of my favourite colours combo - red and cream. I photographed the card in the afternoon, and the light does no justice to it! I will try and get a better one while it's bright this morning.

I stamped the red panel with a snowflake stamp in white ink and then heat embossed over it. At the angle the photo above is taken, you can't really see the affect. Here is a close up:

I had a 'tag' cut out from some gold card that I layered it up with some printed paper, and placed the cute little reindeer on it. 

I used some printed paper with the sentiment "Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year" repeated over and over on it, as the background.

Hope you enjoyed looking at my card. Why not give the challenge a go?

I have to get back to the craft table here, my little elves have taken over making cards - this is their favourite past-time:

I shouldn't worry about being short on Christmas cards this year!! EVERYTHING is being used!!! :D :D

Hope you have a wonderful Monday :)

I hope to enter this card into a few challenges.
Anonymous Stamp Challenge - December Challenge
C is for Challenge - Traditional Colours
Craft your Passion - Let it Snow
Sparkle n Sprinkle - Anything Goes - use glitter, embossing powder and/or flocking
Melonheadz Friends - Christmas Challenge

Eithne

Christmas is coming...

Hello, can you believe it is December? Where has that year gone! I best get started on my Christmas cards! ;-)

This week over at Through the Purple Haze Challenges, the theme is Christmas is coming. We are sponsored by Kenny K.

Here is the creation I made with my lovely digi 'On Vixen': -

I made a wall hanging for Christmas.

I used some foamboard, covered with a 12x12" paper.

I used some washi tape, and some nested stars. For the sentiment, I just typed it out on the computer to fit my nested dies.

I did a combo of mediums to colour this lady; watercolour paints, markers, glitter and embossing powder.

I also cut out a doily in some silver paper, and used some outline stickers for the corners. I added as much glitter as I could to jazz it up for Christmas.

Thanks for stopping by, why not take part in the challenge.
I hope to enter this in a few challenges.
Have a great Monday,
Eithne

Gerlinde - up close and personal ;o)

Hello and happy Friday! I am back this week with the step by step, as I mentioned in my previous post. I had aimed for Wednesday to have this out, only that morning I reversed into my gate :( Thankfully nobody was harmed, my car got dented and lights broken, but it took the wind out of me for a few days! I still can't believe how stupid I was!! Anyway... :)

A while back I noticed on Ebay someone was selling a few Martha Stewart punches and We R Memories punches. I have often longingly looked at these, but could never afford them. So my luck was in, when I won the lot. I longed to use them on my projects so I tried my best to use as many as possible this time ;-)

This is the 6 inch scallop punch. 

When all 8 punches are complete, this is the result.

I have a bigz Die that I've looked at for a long time, trying to think what I could use it for. With a bit of foam board I cut out the frame, and thought it would work well for a layout/wall hanging piece. So thus my idea was planted in my head what I was going to do!

This is the foam frame covered in some magenta paper from a pack that I have since I started paper crafting. It fitted in perfectly with the challenge at

Through the Purple Haze Challenges - Use up your stash.

 This is the beautiful Gerlinde from Encino Stamps, our sponsor this week. I am not a colouring artist by any stretch, and usually struggle with digi's only this beautiful image had no skin tones!! So I could work a little loosely with colours. I usually colour any digi's with watercolour paints, and this one was no exception. I added some glitter to the eye, just for a little sparkle.

Here are all three elements so far, on my 8 x 8" layout. I loved the vibrant colours of the pack, and I am delighted I could copy the colours on Gerlinde.

Some more colours from the paper pack, trying to bring in as much colour as possible :)

 With one of the blue strips I got the Martha Stewart border punch and gave the strip a lace effect.

 This acted beautifully as a border and layer for the green flower strip.

 Me playing around with the layout.

 On the frame I stamped in magenta ink, one of my favourite stamps "LOVE LOVE LOVE" (I am a huge Beatles fan, so I especially love using this one!) Although the ink looked beautiful, it is a pigment ink and never dries. So I decided to heat emboss it. I used a Kaleidoscope Transparent embossing powder. It must have been the foam board, because when it heated up, it began to curl a bit but also the colour was awful.

 The pink went a bit luminous :(

So I cut out some white card, stamped it, embossed it and this time it turned out better!

.I put a glitter border around the heart to hide the join.

As the frame is thick and Gerlinde was going to be 'resting' on it, I decided to attach her with foam pads. I created an outline with a grey marker to create a shadow.

 I found some buttons to tone in with the other colours, and loosely arranged them to create a corner.

I stuck a piece of washi tape down (I can never resist!!) With some hearts placed, I decided to jazz them up a little and used some glitter. (it was perfect for hiding a slight blemish on the biggest one!)

And finally the finished layout. Excuse my crazy desk behind!!! ;-)

Thanks for stopping by and hope you enjoyed the step by step.

Why not head over and check out all the other beautiful projects at Through the Purple Haze Challenges?
Eithne :)

Use your craft stash

Good morning, and happy Monday to you! Hope everyone survived the weekend ok :)

This week over at Through the Purple Haze Challenges, we have a new challenge 'Use your craft stash'. This week we have two kind sponsors - Encino Stamps kindly sponsoring digi stamps for first, second and third and My Mums Craft Shop sponsoring a £10 gift voucher for in store.

We got to work with some beautiful digis this week from Encino Stamps. Here is what I made with mine:-

As per usual, I didn't have a photo to fit the Love Love Love frame! This 8 x 8" layout is for my two little girls bedroom, so I'm going to get a lovely photo of the two of them and frame it.

 This paper pack I bought when I first fell in love with paper ;) I LOVE the colours, but I am sometimes afraid to use it!! Last year a good friend of mine gave me another pack of the paper, so I am trying to use it, because the patterns and bold colours are a joy to use!

 

Here's the beautiful Gerlinde painted and ready to work with.

Here is the beginning of the layout.

 I have some silver glitter glue since the beginning of time!! I normally don't have the patience to use it as it is quite thick and takes a while to dry. As the frame was separate from the layout, it allowed me to continue working, without destroying the glue (as per usual, I quickly forget it's still wet!)

Some lovely bright coloured buttons to complement the rest of the layout.

 This hearts I have quite some time. The biggest one had a slight blemish on it, so I decided to use pink glitter glue this time.

I decided to keep with lovely fresh, bright colours and love how all the colours work well, although conventionally I wouldn't use them together. From now on, for kiddies projects I'll definitely combine this colour palette. I think it lends itself and is beautifully bright!

I am in the process of doing a step by step of how I made this project, so please call back on Wednesday to see it :)  (If I'm really adventurous I might even make a small video save having a 40 photo post!!! )

I hope to enter this into some challenges.
1) Anyting but a card - Craft my Life
Why not give Through the Purple Haze Challenge a go? Great prizes up for grabs :)

Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a wonderful day.
Eithne

Anything Goes with Delicious Doodles

Hello, happy Monday! Hope you had a wonderful weekend :) Well November is certainly pushing us nicely into winter, can't believe how cold it suddenly has become!

This week over at Through the Purple Haze Challenges, the theme is "Winter Scenes with animals or people". Our sponsor this week is Delicious Doodles, kindly giving 4 digi's to the challenge winner.

Here is the card I made for this challenge:

I got the beautiful Angelique to play with :)
I used a mixture of watercolour paints, pro markers and embossing powder to colour in this lady.

I decided to go with a blue and silver look, to portray the ice and snowflakes. I cut out a blue 'doily' with my bigz die, put an outline sticker on it and placed it slightly off the card to the top.

 I used some stripy blue paper as the background, and then layered up the centre with ribbon and a silver paper. I used another outline sticker to 'even off' the card.

I printed out Angelique onto a heavier card in my local print shop, but as usual did the wrong size! I had the card in my head and didn't work in the size dies I had. The only die that would fit her, was the largest banners die. I had no way to layer the image, as the smaller banner die cut off too much of the image. So I cut both the silver backing board and image at the same size, and then got my fabric scissors at the image to make it slightly smaller.

As it was a snowflake/icy image, I wanted to try and portray that on the card. I used some Kaleidoscope Transparent embossing powder on her wings, and used a silver embossing powder around the trim of her top. I love how the finish comes up on the wings!

To give the snowflake a bit of depth, I cut out a second one, heat embossed it, placed a gem in the middle and layered it with foam pads.

Thanks for stopping by, why not give the challenge a go?

I hope to enter this card in some challenges.

Artistic Inspirations Challenges - Use a Sentiment/Anything Goes (closed)

The Cheerful Stamp Pad - Angel Wings

Creative Creations Challenges - Sparkle and Shine

Lady Anne's 8th Challenge - More than one layer

Smudgy Antics - Fire and Ice

Sparkle n Sprinkle Creative Challenges - Anything goes with Glitter, Embossing Powder and/or Flocking

The Paper Girls Challenge - Cut it Out

Paper Playful - Sparkle

Have a great Monday :)

Eithne