One Martini, Two Martini...

Cheers, everyone!  It's that time of year, so it's inevitable that we have drinkie challenges, and I'm always up for a drinkie challenge!  I was relieved of driving duties on Christmas Day so I took full advantage and drank champagne all day.  Which may be why you haven't heard from me for a few days...

One Layer Wednesday, hosted by Karen, is

Cheers -create a card with some kind of drink on it.

Less is More is DRINKS.

CAS-ual Fridays have teamed up with 10 Minute Craft Dash holidays theme

Time taken?  Just less than a minute.  It took me longer to get a usable photo, and even then, it's not brill (and that's after editing!)

Christmas Thank You

This is my second post today.  Click here or scroll down for Gingerbread Star.

The challenge at Paper Smooches SPARKS is to use these colours, so I thought I'd make this deconstructed poinsettia thank you card.

Paper Smooches Reflections and Sentiment Sampler.

Edited after Maria's comment to add: I used Brilliance Rocket Red, Versacolor Split Pea and Dauber Duos in Canary.  (And Versafine Onyx Black for the outlines and sentiment.)

Gingerbread Star

I've had this stamp for years, and never used it, but it's perfect for these challenges, so it just goes to show - never get rid of any of your stamps :)

The cue word for the challenge at CASology is STAR:

The colour challenge at colourQ is:

And this month's theme at The Ribbon Carousel is:

The Holidays

Not easy to tell in this photo, but the red on the gingerbread is a different shade to the red heart.  Image stamp is from Anita's and the sentiment is from Penny Black.  The icing is coloured with a white gel pen.

Christmas Cake, Anyone?

I made this card a few days ago when I was in border-doodling mode.  It's a great way of tying images and sentiments together, especially on a one-layer card.  And I like how the image and the sentiment can overlap the frame, which isn't as easy to do if you are matting layers of card.

The codeword for Addicted to CAS is Sweet:

And the challenge at Simon Says is:

MERRY CHRISTMAS !! :-)

Anything Christmassy :-)

The sentiment is from Paper Salon, and the Christmas Cake stamp is from Stamposaurus Stamps.

Celebrate With a Glass or Two

I love using this image stamp for engagement, wedding or anniversary cards, and appropriately the challenge at Less is More is for anniversary cards (which don't need to feature the word anniversary on the front.  Phew.)

I usually do it in silver, but the challenge at Dynamic Duos is Gold and Black with a music option.

The image is from Judikins Wedding Cube, gold-emgossed onto black card, and the sentiment is from Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler.

Christmas Snowflakes

I do enjoy making one layer cards.  This week's One Layer Wednesday, hosted by Cheryl, is to create a  card or tag using snowflakes.

The challenge at The Paper Players is to make a clean and simple card with snowflakes.

And over at Lawnscaping they want us to Make It Shine.

I cut a square out of a sheet of paper and used the negative mask to sponge Distress Inks.  Flicked some water over it and blotted it off, then stamped the snowflakes (hero Arts) with Memento London Fog, and treated them to some Stickles and gems.  Stamped the greeting (Clearly Besotted) in Brilliance Rocket Red to overhang the frame.

Sparkly Baubles

This set of bauble stamps from Blonde Moments as been languishing in my stash for a couple of years, so I thought I'd give it an airing.

The sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch is ideal for baubles:

The challenge at CASual Fridays is

CFC82: Create a CAS project that features scoring...
and no, the fold on your card does not count *wink*

The sentiment is from Hero Arts LL039 Holiday Word Borders.  I smudged it a bit when I stamped it, so I overwrote it with a blue Tombow pen and added (lots of) Stickles!

DeNami Christmas

While I had the red and green pens out, I made this card for the DeNami Celebrations challenge:

using the colour scheme from ColourQ:

Short and sweet!

Sparkly Tree Gift

This is a loose translation of the challenge at CASology:

I used the colours from The Play Date Cafe of

Evergreen

Gumdrop

Candy Cane Red

The challenge at Simon Says this week is 

WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE ?

My favourite stamps are Penny Black, and this image is one of my favourites.  Also, my (current) favourite technique is drawing frames around cards, ever since I saw Jen's second inspiration card for last week's Less is More.

I added a second layer to the girl's dress for a bit of dimension, and some Stickles on top of the tree - check out that sparkle on the main photo!

Snowmen In a Row

A third post from me today!  I'm sorry, I'll stop pestering you for the rest of the night.

It's one layer week at Less Is More, and the theme is:

IN A ROW

My snowmen in a row are from the Judikins Retro Snowman cube.

Don't Take It Seriously!

This is my second post of the day - click here or scroll down for my Sending Christmas Joy post.

One thing you can't take seriously is this inspiration photo from Runway Inspired Challenge!

I must admit, the inspiration wasn't coming with this one, until I saw this fabulous stamp set by Creative Expressions.  It was love at first sight.

And so it was that I made this frivolous card, which fits quite nicely with the inspiration image!

I used orange, blue and yellow highlighters to colour the details, and sprayed a swoosh of Cosmic Glimmer Mist across the middle of the card.

I'm off out to a Christmas "do" tonight - just need to find my tutu and flippers ...

Snowy Trees

I've been playing with my Distress Inks and Inkylicious duster brushes to make this card for this week's CAS(E) This Sketch challenge:

I dusted Faded Jeans onto the card, then stamped the tree three times with Pine Needles without re-inking, then flicked some water onto the card and blotted it with a tissue, which lifted the colour so that it looks like it's snowing.

Speaking of snow, Susan's One Layer Wednesday challenge is still open, so I'll link it to that as well.

All stamps are by Penny Black.

Sparkly Snowflake

I bought a batch of snowflakes in a post-Christmas sale a couple of years ago.  They were part of a supermarket cardmaking kit.  I only wanted the snowflakes out of the kit and I think I threw the other components away.  'Nuff said.

The challenge at Simon Says is SNOWFLAKES ! :-)

And, seeing as CASology's current challenge of Sparkle is still open, I'll add it to that as well.

The mouse stamp is Penny Black 1873H Xmouse Ornament and the sentiment is from Clearly Besotted.

I'm off to the village Christmas Fair, see you later!

All Is Calm

This week's One Layer Wednesday challenge, hosted by Susan, is to add some fake snow to your one layer card.  I think I need to study Heather's sponging techniques a little closer, as my snow looks more like cloud!

The colour scheme at ColourQ is

The shades aren't exact, but they're close (enough).  If you look closely, there are two shades of blue on the tree baubles (as well as turquoise Stickles).

The tree stamp and sentiment are both from Penny Black.

Kraft Snowman

Just a quick post for The Paper Players challenge:

The snowman stamp is Penny Black 3771K stamped in Brilliance Moonlight White on kraft, and the sentiment is from CL630 Hero Arts.

Sparkly Christmas

I told you I'd probably be back with more sparkle!  I found these little wooden tree ornaments (now these really are ornaments, not baubles!) in Tesco and thought they would go just as well on cards as on trees.  After adding a bow to the top, I really couldn't think of anything to add to the card, so that's all there is!

The colour scheme is from Dynamic Duos:

And the sparkle is for CASology:

Merry Baubles

I'm getting way behind on making Christmas cards but, fortunately today's challenges easily fit with the Christmas card theme.  All the bauble elements are separate stamps: the hanging garland, the bauble tops, the double ring and the different inserts, so there are endless possibilities.  They could be making a return appearance very soon!

The codeword for the second challenge at Addicted to CAS is:

The challenge at ColourQ is to use these colours:

And Simon Says Anything Goes!

Merry Christmas stamp is from Hero Arts
Bauble stamps are from Paula Pascual.

Pillar Box Tag

This is my second post today.  Click here for Winnie The Pooh!

The challenges that I participate in regularly are starting to gain on me, and I've found some new ones to enter, so a double post is in order today.

I've been bursting to use the pillar box stamp from my blog candy winnings from Jen at The Tiny Blue Butterfly (thanks again, Jen!).  Jen has come to Chrissie's rescue at Less is More while Mandi is busy with her new venture.  Coincidentally, I bought this tree stamp set from Mandi when she was having a purge of her stash.

The first challenge to prompt this tag was One Layer Wednesday, hosted this week by Karen at Snippets.  The challenge is:

Scene It....create a scene on your card 

Or tag, in my case, because the challenge at CAS-ual Fridays is to create a clean and simple gift tag.

The colour scheme is from The Play Date Cafe (although my pillar box isn't looking quite so dark as this).

And I'm also entering it into The Ribbon Girl December challenge, which is Ho Ho Ho! 

Postbox from Little Claire Designs

Trees from Words Like Honey

Happy Christmas from Dovecraft

Time for a Smackeral of Something

I used to love reading Winnie The Pooh to my kids when they were young.  Sometimes I'd just read it for my own enjoyment if they'd had enough.  And I love the original drawings by E H Shepard.

The challenge at CASology this week is TIME.

And the challenge at Simon Says is Anything Goes.

The stamp is from All Night Media, coloured with Tombows, with a little Broken China distress ink dusted around the edges of the panel.