Spot The Difference?

 

Nope, neither do I!!

Flocking

I’ve made six Christmas cards this week, and for some reason I’ve yet to fathom, they all contain robins!  I really don’t know why, it just happened.  Here’s the last batch, four of them, hence the “Flocking” post title.  All the same, just a little different, and all are replicas of the Paint The Town Red card that I posted on Sunday.  Only this time I sliced the die cut evenly in half.

 

The robin stamp is from the Penny Black clear set Jolly Friends, and he was coloured with Prisma pencils and Stickles.  The papers all came from the scrap box.  The one on the left is glittery MME, the other three are DCWV.

The die is Spellbinders Labels Five, sliced in half with Crystal Stickles added to the embossed edge.  The sentiments are all Penny Black too, from the clear sets The Wonder and Holly Jolly and from the cling set Caroling Penguins.  Inks used were ColourBox Wicked Black and Sapphire Silk,  Memento Cottage Ivy, Rhubarb Stalk & Bahama Blue.

The snowflake die is Memory Box Precious Snowflakes, the one with the bow on top; I just positioned it on the card scraps to cut the snowflake part only.  I added a few gems from Michaels to finish it off.

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Challenges:

Rudolph Day ~ Make Two (or more) Christmas cards

Pixies Snippets Playground ~ Use Up Your Scraps

Completely Christmas ~ Anything Goes

Crafty Hazel’s Christmas Extra Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Crafty Hazel’s Patterned Paper Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Sister Act Card Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Christmas Card Challenges ~ Anything Goes

Crimbo Crackers ~ Anything Goes Christmas

Fab n Funky ~ Christmas

Alphabet Challenge ~ D For Diecuts

What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday 251

Back again for the weekly desk hop with Julia.

I’m deep in the throws of Christmas cardage yet again this week, batch making a few cards to catch up with my lazy February!  I’ve also got a card for a guest design team position on there but I’ve rather strategically placed some white card over it!

I’ve got another desk  this week too, I set up a little table to my left at the weekend and it had my laptop on it, I was working from a sketch and also looking for colouring tips for the Prisma pencils.

Right now it’s holding my current knitting project, the green socks I showed you a couple of weeks ago, they’re on the homeward stretch now.  They’re sitting on top of a small pile of knitting magazines that just arrived from Ebay, they were practically being given away.  The box on the left hold scraps of Christmas DP, I always dig about in here before cutting in to a new sheet of paper.  And yes, in case you;re wondering, there’s quite a lot in there!

So that’s me for this week, I’ve shown you mine, will you show me yours???!

Festive Foliage

I was looking through my unused digi’s on the computer at the weekend and came across this lovely one with Robins on a branch.  I seem to have had a birdy fixation going on without actually realising it!  Perhaps because they were signing so loudly outside my craft room window.  No doubt they were complaining about the bitter cold we’re having again.

Anyway, my digi is from Just Inklined and it’s called Four Robins, I got it for free when it was first introduced a couple of years ago, you can still get it, but now it’s $5.00.  I wanted to make a card specifically for the current Jingle Belles challenge of The Holly and the Ivy, I do love Festive Foliage, especially the traditional greens.

I coloured the image with Prisma Pencils and added Glossy Accents to the holly berries, Crystal Stickles to the holly leaves and Frosted Lace Stickles to the branch in a couple of places too but you can’t see it!  It was cut out and embossed with a Spellbinders Labels Five and edged with more Crystal Stickles (my new favourite thing to do!).

I took a piece of green card from DCWV and stamped the Stampendous Pine Branch on it with Versamark ink before embossing it with Gold EP from JoAnn’s.  The sentiment is also from Stampendous and was also embossed with the Gold EP, it was then edged with Memento Cottage Ivly ink.  The two little gems are from BoBunny and are actually faceted green.

I like how it turned out, very much, I think it’s very effective in a traditional way.  Can’t beat red, green and gold in my opinion!

Card Recipe:

• Card: Blank from Michael’s ~ Green Card from DCWV Matstack ~ GinaK Pure Luxury White
• Stamps: Just Inklined Four Robins ~ Stampendous Pine Branch & Seasons Greetings
• Ink: Versamark ~ Memento Cottage Ivy
• Embellies: Glossy Accents ~ Crystal & Frosted Lace Stickles ~ Gold EP ~ BoBunny Gems
• Tools: Computer & Printer ~ Spellbinders Labels Five Die ~ Heat Gun

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Challenges:

Jingle Belles ~ The Holly and the Ivy

Crafty Hazel’s Christmas Extra Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Christmas at Sweet Stampin’ ~ Brr, It’s Cold Outside

Pixies Snippets Playground ~ Use Up Your Scraps (The white stamping card)

Sister Act Card Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Completely Christmas ~ Anything Goes

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge ~ Glitter It

Christmas Fun Challenge ~ Green Trees

Christmas Card Challenges ~ Anything Goes

Cute Card Thursday ~ It’s A Wild World

Paint The Town Red

I do so love this little Robin from the Penny Black clear set Jolly Friends.  He’s so tiny and so sweet I keep finding myself wanting to make miniature cards just so I can use him!  He lends himself very well to the clean and simple style, so when I saw that Winter Wonderland want us to use the colour red this week, I knew I was going to ink him up.  I also love the colour red for Christmas cards, so bright and festive, and I also love the country/Scandinavian feel of it too.

This is a smallish card at 5.5″ x 4″, and I started out by covering it with a piece of DCWV gingham paper from the scrap box.  I then cut a Spellbinders Labels Five die from GinaK white card and decided that I needed a little more that half of it for the image.  The Robin was stamped, coloured with Prisma pencils and then I added Stickles to his hat trim and the branch.  I also edged the piece with more Stickles.  I had intended to just stamp the sentiment on to a strip of white card, but I liked the look of the not quite half of the die cut and decided to use that instead.  I know that it’s a bit smaller than the top piece and therefore a bit top heavy, but I like it anyhow.

The sentiment was from the $ bin at Michael’s a couple of years ago, it’s by StudioG and it stamps perfectly every single time.  I also edged it with Stickles and added a few red pearls.  Finally, I cut a couple of Memory Box Precious Snowflakes and added a small gold pearl to each centre.

I kept the inside very simple with some of the paper and a Stampin’ Up sentiment.

Card Recipe:

• Card: Blank from Michael’s ~ GinaK Pure Luxury White Stamping card
• DP: DCWV
• Stamps: Penny Black ~ Stampin’ Up ~ Studio G
• Ink: ColorBox Wicked Black ~ Versamagic Red Magic
• Embellies: Frosted Lace & Crystal Stickles ~ Red & Gold Pearls from Michael’s
• Tools: Cuttlebug ~ Spellbinders Labels Five Die ~ Memory Box Precious Snowflakes Die

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Winter Wonderland ~ Paint The Town Red

Christmas Stampin’ All Year Long ~ Favourite Colour Combo

Crafty Hazel’s Christmas Extra Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Crafty Hazel’s Patterned Paper Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Pixies Snippets Playground ~ Use Up Your Scraps (all of it!)

Penny Black & More @ Allsorts ~ So Sweet

Sister Act Card Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Completely Christmas ~ Anything Goes

Christmas At Sweet Stampin’ ~ Brr It’s Cold Outside

Crimbo Crackers ~ Cute!

Crafty Calendar Challenge ~ Animal Antics

Very Merry

With the emphasis on just how very merry that merry is!  I almost posted this card on Monday for St Patrick’s Day, because my Merry is more than a little Merry, it’s three sheets to the wind if you ask me!  And as America has a wonderful habit of turning any country’s ethnic holiday into a drinking day, it did seem rather apt, but the green of Monday won out in the end, as it should.

So, after I’d completed this card I thought the blue glitter letters needed a bit of oomph to make them stand out, so I edged them, badly, with a red ink pen.  I’d wanted to use red glitter letters from the start but didn’t have enough of the same size or font to spell out anything, so resorted to the blue ones.  I didn’t even notice how wonky the “merry” was until I outlined it and made it stand out!  Never mind, it’s a pretty funky card anyway.

The image is from Molly Blooms, coloured with Prisma pencils and Stickles, plus a bit more of that Liquid Pearls White Opal as it was still on my desk.  The card is a centre step card, I had it ready made in my scrap paper box, it was actually the prototype for my first card of this type that I made in January.  The papers are from the Christmas scrap box too and are both DCWV and the red card is a bit from The Paper Company.

The die is Memory Box, sent by a pal of mine (thank you!).  I did receive this die for Christmas recently so I can now cut my own when I need too, but she really helped me out with her kindness last year.

Card Recipe:

• Card: Blank cut from blue card from the UK ~ The Paper Company ~ GinaK Pure Luxury White
• DP: DCWV
• Stamp: Molly Blooms
• Ink: Veramagic Red Magic ~ ColorBox Wicked Black
• Embelles: Liquid Pearls White Opal ~ Eucalyptus, Yellow and Crystal Stickles ~ Making Memories Glitter Letters ~ Whispers Red Ink Pen ~ Memory Box die “Frostyville”

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Challenges:

Christmas Cards All Year Round ~ Make A Step Card

Crafty Hazel’s Christmas Challenge ~ A Little or a Lot of Green

Crafty Hazel’s Christmas Extra Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Crafty Hazel’s Patterned Paper Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Sister Act Card Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Winter Wonderland ~ Girls, Girls, Girls

Pixies Snippets Playground ~ Use Up Your Scraps

Completely Christmas ~ Anything Goes

What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday ~ 250

Wow, where did the week go.  ****Stop Press**** It’s raining!  Ya know what that means???  It’s not snowing!!!

My desk this week looks scarily tidy but I’ve been busy beavering away and got a few cards made since your last visit,but it doesn’t look like it at all.  I’ve pulled out some sequin waste to try and think about a birthday card for a 19yr old young man, but that’s as far as it’s got.  I was thinking about using it as a template for a rainbow swirl kind of thing with a number of brightly coloured inks.

I’ve actually put the three cards I’ve made recently on the desk for a bit of interest!!  As always, Julia has all the details about this wonderful weekly desk hop.

Green For St. Patrick’s Day

You know what they say… If you’re lucky enough to be Irish, then you’re lucky enough!  I’m not Irish, not one little drop, but green is my favourite colour (and yes, I’m wearing green today in honour of St. Pat!), and there are a lot of challenges that have a green theme this week.

I gave one of my two Kraftin’ Kimmie stamps her first outing.  Her name is Piper, and let me tell you, I was sorely tempted to somehow change that mug of cocoa in her hands to a mug of beer for the occasion!!!  But I didn’t!  I mean, how am I going to explain that when I send this card to someone next Christmas!  I did give her a nice green dress though and there’s glitter in her hair, so maybe she’s been out partying after all!

I coloured Piper with Prisma pencils and added Eucalyptus stickles to her hat, Crystal Stickles to her hair and dots of snow with Opal White Liquid Pearls.  She was distressed with a bit of DI Antique Linen, edged with Tea Dye and matted on to green card.  All of the papers came from the scrap box and they’re all DCWV from the various 12″x12″ stacks that I’ve bought over the years, they were also edged with the DI Tea Dye.  The pine branch is a Marianne Designs die and the Poinsettia and leaves are from Prima, I added a gold gem to the centre.  The snowflake is a Martha Stewart die and the Hampton Art sentiment was stamped in Brilliance Cottage Ivy.

I’ve been making inserts as I go along from the scraps of white/cream card that I have and snips of the DP paper, not sure how long I’ll keep doing this for, but I have a LOT of these pieces to use up.

The inside sentiment is from Studio G, and was also stamped in the Brilliance Cottage Ivy ink.

Card Recipe:

• Card: Blank from Michaels ~ The Paper Company green and cream ~ GinaK Pure Luxury White
• DP: DCWV Christmas Stacks
• Stamps: Kraftin’ Kimmie “Piper” ~ Hampton Art “The Beauty of the Season ~ Studio G $1 find
• Ink: ColorBox Wicked Black ~ Distress Ink Antique Linen & Tea Dye ~ Brilliance Cottage Ivy
• Embellies: Liquid Pearls White Opal ~ Stickles Crystal & Eucalyptus ~ Gold Gem from Michaels ~ Prima Flower and Leaves
• Tools: Cuttlebug ~ Marianne Designs Pine Branch die ~ Martha Stewart Snowflake Punch ~ EKSuccess 1″ Circle Punch

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Challenges:

Sketch Saturday ~ Current LO

Crafty Hazel’s Christmas Challenge ~ Going Green

Crafty Hazel’s Christmas Extra Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Crafty Hazel’s Patterned Paper Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Winter Wonderland & Cute Card Thursday ~ Girls, Girls, Girls

Jingle Belles ~ The Holly and the Ivy

Kraftin’ Kimmie Wednesday Share ~ Anything Goes

Sister Act Card Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Pixies Snippets Playground ~ Use Up Your Scraps

Completely Christmas ~ Anything Goes

Christmas Fun ~ Green Christmas Trees or Anything Goes

The Glory of Christmas Challenge ~ Cocoa/Hot Drinks

Crimbo Crackers ~ Cute Christmas

Christmas Stampin’ All Year ~ Sparkle & Shine

Crafty Sentiments ~ Lots of Green

Inky Impressions ~ Go Green

Delightful Challenges ~ The Wearing of the Green

Cheescake Party

And who doesn’t like cake?  These cute little Penny Black mice certainly look happy to be tucking in!  I made this card for my niece for her birthday in early May, pink is her favourite colour so this should go down well.

I coloured them with Prisma pencils as always, adding a little bit of Stickles and gems to the frosting, Glossy Accents to the candle wax, Stickles to the candle flame and Liquid Pearls to the dots on the kerchiefs around their necks!

The greeny backing paper is from Melissa Frances the flowery paper is MME from the Summer pack that free with a UK card magazine, and the darker green for the lace trim and the leaf is from a DCWV Christmas Stack, they were all edged with Memento Angel Pink ink.  I based my LO on the current sketch at Sketch and Stash, but I rotated it to better suit the rectangular image.

I have to say, I’ve always thought that sweet little mouse at the back looks a bit concerned that he’s about to have that candle flame blown into  his face!!  I also used a Martha Stewart Lace Punch and a Memory Box leaf die, some little pink flowers from Making Memories.  My sentiment on the front and the decoration on the inside are all from a clear Inkadinkado set called Birthday Cupcakes, haven’t used that set in such a long time!  I used Memento Rosebud and ColorBox Wicked Black for the stamping.

Card Recipe:

• Card: Blank from Michaels ~ The Paper Company Pink & Green scraps ~ GinaK Pure Luxury White Scraps
• DP: Melissa Frances Kitchsy Kitchen~ My Minds Eye (scraps)
• Stamps: Penny Black Cheesecake Party ~ Inkadinkado Birthday Cupcake
• Ink: ColorBox Wicked Black ~ Memento Angel Pink & Rose Bud
• Embellies: Glossy Accents ~ Stickles Cotton Candy & Fruit Punch ~ Liquid Pearls White Opal ~ Making Memories Flowers ~ Gems from Michael’s
• Tools: Cuttlebug ~ Memory Box Fancy Flourish Die ~ Martha Stewart Lace Punch

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Challenges:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge ~ Lace & Pearls (I used a lace punch)

Penny Black @ Allsorts ~ So Sweet

Sketch & Stash ~ Current sketch plus first inking of PB stamps, old Inkadinkdo set, scraps of DP

Pixies Crafty Snippets ~ Use Up Your Scraps (MME paper, pink & green card, stamping card)

Hazel’s Patterned Paper Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Sister Act Card Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Stampin’ For The Weekend ~ Anything Goes

LadyBug Crafts ~ Spring Is Here

My Mum’s Craft Store ~ Spring/Easter

Crafty Calenday Challenge ~ Animal Antics

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge ~ Mother’s Day/Special Girl (Card is for my niece)

Cute Card Thursday ~ Girls, Girls, Girls

Stamp & Create ~ Ready For Spring

Sweet Stampin’ ~ Mother’s Day or a Special Lady (Card is for my niece)

Simply Create Too ~ Animals

Sparkles Monthly Challenge ~ Easter Parade

Hello All and welcome to a fun new challenge at Sparkles Monthly Challenges.  15th of March already!  Where is this year going!

Shaz choose a great theme to get you all in a Spring mood and that’s Easter Parade. So we’d like to see Easter related cards or pastels, chocolate, chicks, eggs etc.  Here in Michigan it’s definitely all green, the problem is, it’s still hidden under a blanket of white, lol!  But I hope not for much longer.  Making my card for this month certainly put me in a bright and happy mood.

I used a sweet little image and sentiment from Toodles & Binks (couldn’t leave out the chocolate either!) that I coloured with Prisma pencils and added some stamped “grass” fronds to.  I picked some pretty papers from my stash, all loose bits collected from various places over the years, mostly freebies from magazines.  I also added some punched leaves, pearls, flowers, faux stitching and a Martha Stewart border punch.

We hope you have time to join in with us this month.  We have the wonderful Marianne Designs sponsoring us again this month and you can win this fantastic stamp and die set.

Don’t forget to pop over to the main Sparkles blog to see the wonderful inspiration from my teamies, hope to see you there.

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Challenges:

Jellypark ~ Pretty Pastels

Stampin’ For The Weekend ~ Anything Goes

Pile It On ~ Easter Joys

Sister Act Card Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Crafty Hazel’s Patterned Paper Challenge ~ Anything Goes

My Mum’s Craft Shop ~ Spring/Easter

Lady Bug Crafts ~ Spring Is Here