De-Stress with Distress

I just had to play along with this week's Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge, where the inspiration is this fabulous reflected sunset:

I love sunsets.  Love' em.  Whenever I see a fabulous sunset (which isn't all that often in the UK!) I have to take a photo.  Or two.  Three maybe.

I made this sunset by dusting Distress Inks (Wild Honey, Scattered Straw and a bit of Dried Marigold) onto my card piece with Inkylicious duster brushes.  You get a really light finish with them.  Then I masked the horizon and added a narrow strip of Walnut Stain Distress Ink with blending foam, and added more in the foreground where the tree would go. Used Paper Smooches Bold Blooms for the tree, and added a sentiment from Sentiment Sampler.

I'm also entering it into Simon Says Wednesday Challenge, where Anything Goes.

A Little Bird. Or Two.

Just a quickie.  The challenge at Less is More is to make a Christmas card featuring a bird.

These two robins are inseparable.  I've coloured them loosely with a little white showing, to match the loose illustration.

I'm also entering it into Simon Says Wednesday Challenge, Anything Goes.

Magenta Autumn

I'm playing along with Magenta for their November challenge, which is Autumn Colours.

I had a leftover piece of distress-inked paper from when I did Tim Holtz' Creative Chemistry classes, so I stamped one of the panels from Nature Silhouettes 41.001.Q.  I love how the autumn colours are on the background instead of the image.

Advent Village

In this month's edition of Craft Stamper there was an advent village by Gail Milburn which I was quite taken with so I decided to have a go.  It was a long slog cutting out 48 chipboard shapes (24 fronts, 24 backs), then covering them with paper.  The example in the magazine used Christmas papers in reds/greens, and that's what I started with.  But halfway through, I decided I would make it a reversible village, so one side has a red/green theme and the other side has a blue/white theme.  Just in case I get bored looking at it.

No. 15 in the village is the only house to have sequins, and as it also has a stamped image on it, I'm entering it into the Stamplorations challenge Stamps & Sequins:

Here's the red/green view of the village:

And here's a view of the blue/white reverse:

Conveniently, Simon Says Monday Challenge is Countdown to the Holidays:

Here's a close-up of the first few houses:

I'll post close-ups of the individual houses in December.

Holly Sprig

So yesterday I made this card for Cheryl's One Layer Wednesday Challenge.  As I started to write my post I re-read Cheryl's challenge - it was for a one layer Christmas TAG.  Oops!  But all is not lost, because this week's One Layer Wednesday, hosted by Heather, is Just Add Water.  I'd coloured the image stamp with markers then spritzed it with water, so I get to join One Layer Wednesday after all.

CAS-ual Fridays and Curtain Call are having a joint CAS-ual Christmas bash, so I'm joining the party there:

Nonni's other Christmas challenge on her blog Korttikarkuri is Stamp A Happy Christmas.

And finally, the challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More is 

MAKE YOUR MARK!

Snowflakes and Scraps

I've finally finished hopping my way round the mega Moxie Fab flash mob blog hop for Cath, which started ten days ago - but there were 285 stops along the way.  And I've nearly finished making an advent village, which has taken a few weeks but I've really enjoyed doing it.  I got the idea from this month's edition of Craft Stamper, so if you're a Craft Stamper reader, you'll get an idea of what I've been up to, but I've added a bit of a twist.  I'll post some pics in December.

In the meantime, I've made this card for several challenges:

The colour scheme comes from Dynamic Duos, and I couldn't turn down the dessert option!

The challenge at Less is More is to use designer paper in a CAS way.

I've used the sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch:

And Nonni from Korttikarkuri is having a couple of Christmas challenges (with prizes).  This challenge is to use scraps or old stash on your Christmas cards.  Both challenges are open until Christmas Eve.  Pop over and take a look - better still, join in!

When I was photographing the card, the sunlight was catching the Stickles on the snowflakes beautifully, but unfortunately the camera doesn't capture it.  Just use your imagination.

Stamp: Inkadinkado

The Master Builder

I'm playing along with Muse, which closes in a couple of hours.  Here's Therese's beautiful snowflake card:

I kept with the colour scheme and the theme of snowflakes, although mine are smaller, and I used sequins to mimic the flow of the images across the card.

And because I used stamps and sequins, I can also enter it into the current Stamplorations challenge which is:

Stamp: Inkadinkado 9462X
Sequins: Neat & Tangled, & stash

This Ol' House

So I've been seeing things again with Neat & Tangled Stamps.  I thought the positive and negative presents from this set would make excellent windows and doors, and there just happened to be a little roof tile stamp in there too.  And a straight line which did nicely for the chimney.

And what about that little splatter top right in this set?  Don't you think it could pass as a flower?  I did, especially with the long splat inked up as a stalk and a sequin added to the centre.

So I had all the images for a little house, and it just so happens I had a shaped card in the form of a quirky house, so I'm entering into the Little Tangles Shaped Card challenge.

And this ol' house as a triangular roof, so I'm entering it into CASology where the cue word is, yup, triangle.

It's also a one layer card, so I'm entering it into CAS on Sunday, where the theme is one layer CAS cards.

ETA: I've realised it's also eligible for the Stamps and Sequins challenge over at Stamplorations:

Stamps: Neat & Tangled Just for You, Ink Splash
Sequins: Neat & Tangled

Birthday Bag

I've been busy hopping my way through the Moxie Fab Blog Hop in honour of Cath - only 82 hops to go!

The challenge at Little Tangles is to make a shaped card.  I've had some handbag card blanks for a while so I thought I'd use one for this challenge.  I stamped the flowers and sentiment in Versamark and gold embossed them, then used Distress Inks and a water brush to add colour.

And because I've used Distress Inks, I'm also entering it into Simon Says Monday Challenge, Got Ink?:

Neat & Tangled: Fresh Blooms, Everyday Circles, sequins

Moxie Fab Thanks!

Hello, and welcome to next stop on the most ginormous flashmob/bloghop ever!  And it's in honour of the most Moxie Fab person ever!  You should have arrived here from Gretchen's blog.  If you started at the beginning of the hop on the Moxie Fab World site and have stopped off at every blog so far, well it must be at least next year by now.  Or maybe 2015.  There are so many of us, I don't think anyone will ever get through from start to finish. (Now that IS a challenge!)

Which just goes to show how many people wanted to pay tribute to Cath and her endless enthusiasm and inspiration to those of us who live in crafting blogland.  Moxie Fab World was a unique and much-loved blogstop for all of us, and we will miss Cath's gloriously uplifting posts.  I'll keep it short and sweet, otherwise you'll never get any sleep, particularly if you want to stop at all the hops.

So here's my card for you, Cath.  I think the sentiments on the card say it all -

Now hop along to Julia Stainton's blog for the next stage of the hop!  If you get lost, click here for the full list of hoppers.

Mother of Pearl Welcome Wreath

I enjoyed making the background for yesterday's card so much, I had another go.  Mainly because I saw this inspiration photo on City Crafter Challenge blog:

See those shabby shutters?  Just crying out for some Tim Holtz Shabby Shutters Distress ink.  See those plates on the wall?  They look like mother of pearl buttons to me.  So I made a mother of pearl wreath by threading buttons onto baker's twine.  The square buttons were rescued from a roller blind that I was replacing.  I knew they'd come in for something!

The trend watch challenge at Paper Smooches SPARKS this week is to use STRIPES.  Hope my planks count as stripes!

And I had to enter it into Curtain Call Welcome Home challenge (my second entry, but what an inspiration photo!):

And I'm also entering it into CAS-ual Fridays embossing challenge, again my second entry:

CFC119: Use dry or heat embossing on your Clean And Simple project.

And last but not least, Simon Says Wednesday Challenge Keep It Clean and Simple.  I can do that!

KEEP IT CLEAN AND SIMPLE

Stamp: Paper Smooches Simply Said

Christmas Wreath

I've just added another Christmas card to my collection - yay!  This one is inspired by this fabulous image at Curtain Call:

I found the instructions for making the background from visiting Benzi's blog (check out her gorgeous card!) where she refers to this tutorial on Splitcoaststampers.  I was really pleased with how easy it was to create, and I love the result.  I scored the card to make planks before I started swooshing the inks - that way, the gaps stay clean.  I made the wreath by stamping the pine boughs, then cutting them out and adhering them to a ring made from card.  The berries are done with Liquid Pearls.

I've used the colour scheme from Dynamic Duos:

ETA: In between starting and finishing this post, a friend called, a bottle of wine was opened, and Dynamic Duos closed.  C'est la vie!

The challenge at CAS-ual Fridays is embossing:

CFC119: Use dry or heat embossing on your Clean And Simple project.

And the challenge at Simon Says Wednesday challenge is

KEEP IT CLEAN AND SIMPLE

Stamp: Stampendous Retro Ornament Set

Ribbon: stash

Sentiment bar: stash