Sparkles Monthly Challenge ~ Use Your Favourite Christmas Colours

Hello All – Back again with the December edition of Sparkles Monthly Challenge and this time we’d like to see you use your favourite Christmas colours.

We have two sponsors again this month, first up is a bundle of digi stamps from DeeDee’s Designs

And we also have a stamp set from

My favourite colours for Christmas cards are red and turquoise, but oddly enough, you won’t find anything in this colour scheme in my house at any time of the year, and I’m very traditional when it comes to my Christmas decorations too.  But I do love this combo, especially on a card.

I used a LOTV stamp called Squirrel Snack, I got it last Christmas but this is it’s first outing!  I coloured it with Prisma pencils and added Stickles Crystal Glitter to the snowbank, coloured the sock, blue spruce branches, hair bow and stripey mitts with a Sakura Gelly Roll glitter pen; and finally, added Glossy Accents to her glasses.  That all shows up better in the next photo.

The papers are offcuts of digi papers, the stamping card is from GinaK, the blue backing card is from the scrap box and everything was edged with Tim Holtz ink in Festive Berries.

The die is Memory Box and it was also cut out of scrap card.  The sentiment was free with a UK card magazine eons ago, it was stamped in Versmagic Red Magic ink and cut out.  The little bow came form a package of stationery and there is one tiny red gem on the sentiment to make it look like a tag.

So, only 10 days til the big day, are you ready??!

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Crafty Hazel’s Mid-Month Reminder – December

So, here we are, the last mid month reminder for this year for Crafty Hazel’s Christmas Extra Challenge, and also my last post for Hazel as a DT member.  I’ve had a brilliant year playing with the fantastic images from Bugaboo and proved to myself that I can colour in digi images printed on an inkjet printer with Prismacolor pencils and blending fluid.

Anyway, mid December, and I hope you’re over the panic and making things for the box for next year now. No?  Well, better crack on then!  As always we’re generously sponsored by Jodi at Bugaboo Stamps.

I chose the funny Make It Snappy – Merry Christmoose for this card.  It’s easy to colour, very funny and co-ordinates with lots of different papers.  It’s a great choice for quick cards or a production run of cards.

The paper is old school DCWV, the snowflake was in an old pack of embellishments from Michaels from years ago and the blue backing card came out of the scrapbox.  I coloured the image with Prisma pencils and covered the Christmas lights with Glossy Accents.  After this pic was taken I also covered the eyes too because they just look so crazy and goggle-eyed.  I wish I’d thought of doing that before I took the pic!

Sparkles Christmas Challenge ~ Use Die Cuts

Morning All – Well, December is finally here and we have the last challenge of the year at Sparkles Christmas and it’s sure to be a popular one.  Before we get to my project there’s some housekeeping to be done, as always, the winners and Top3 of our last challenge have been posted at the blog; and we have two fantastic sponsors again for this month:

A $10 voucher from Di

And a wonderful stamp set from

I used a lot of freebies on my project this month.  Both the embossing folder and the Partridge In A Pear Tree die were free with UK craft magazines.  The Joy text die is from Memory Box.

Another very flat project from me, it’s a pity that we have to think about such things really.  The pale blue is Bazzil card and I have to say I was very impressed with the way the free folder embossed, the detail is really good.  The Partridge die was cut out twice and offset, and again the quality is much higher than I was expecting, the gold cut is particularly impressive as it’s on thicker mirri card.

This is our last challenge now until the New Year so I hope you’ve been playing along with us, and other challenges, to get all your cards made in time.  Getting them written and in the post though is something that we can’t help you with, lol, and I could do with a bit of help in that direction too! Chin, chin.

Sparkles Christmas Challenge ~ Christmas Decorations

Hello again peeps, November!!  EEEEEEKKKKKKKK!!!  Well, if you haven’t made your Christmas cards yet, I have bad news for you, it’s November!  Yikes.  Moving swiftly on, we have a new challenge at Sparkles Christmas starting today. We have the wonderfully simple theme of Christmas Decorations, lots of choice for you there so we expect to see lots of great entries again!

We are lucky to be sponsored by two fantastic sponsors this time round, and they are:

Who are offering a $25 voucher and

Who are offering a 10 pound voucher.

 

I used a really cute stamp that just doesn’t get enough love, this is Fluffy’s Garland from Stampendous, and as usual, Fluffy is getting into all kinds of trouble!

I used Christmas paper from DCWV, all from the scrap box and mounted it on to green card.  Fluffy was stamped and coloured with Prisma pencils and the baubles were covered with Stickles glitter glue and then Glossy Accents when the glitter had dried, so they’re incredibly sparkly and shiny in real life.  The die cut is from Memory Box and I added some red and gold pearls and gems to finish it off.  Nice and simple this month from me!

I hop you have time to join in with us again, please pop over to the main blog to see more wonderful inspiration from my team mates.

Crafty Hazel’s Christmas Extra Challenge

Hello All – Yes, it’s November, can’t quite believe that myself, yet here we are!  Time for a new challenge at Crafty Hazel’s Christmas Extra.  As always we are sponsored by

And the DT get to use some of the fun stamps on our projects, this month I chose “Sign It North Pole”

I used some DP from DCWV and added extra sparkle to the image with Yellow and Waterfall Stickles.

You can enter any project as long as it’s Christmas themed and also enter as many times as you’d like too.  After all, Christmas is right around the corner!

Crafty Hazel’s Christmas Extra Challenge ~ Mid Month Reminder

It’s the middle of October and here’s my card for the mid month reminder at Crafty Hazel’s Christmas Extra Challenge.

As always we have the wonderful Bugaboo as a sponsor and I used their image “Stocking Mouse’ for my card.

I also used a Memory Box die, a Martha Stewart snowflake punch, a Lily of the Valley sentiment and some gems from my stash.

Sparkles Christmas Challenge ~ Distress It

I’m running a bit late here due to a very busy September at work.  We have a new Sparkles Christmas Challenge for you for the month of October and our lovely team mate Debs, wants to see all your distressed looking cards and projects.  I know a lot of you like the Vintage/Distressed look so we expect a good number of entries.

We have two wonderful sponsors this month

A gift voucher from Fantastic Ribbons

And a lovely Christmas themed stamp and die from Marianne

For my card I used a tried and true method to make things look a bit distressed and that involves my Tim Holtz paper distressing tool, embossing powder and Distress Ink!

I started with a 5″ x 6.5″ card blank and added the brown card to it.  The sheet of vintage looking DP is from a Michaels own brand pack and I used the Distress Tool around all the edges and then edged with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  I randomly dropped some Frantage Aged Gold EP and heated form below. I edged with Versamark Embossing Ink, making sure some went over the card face, and then put some Michael’s Opaque Sparkle EP onto a piece of scrap paper and dipped the inked card into it and then heat embossed that!

The music is from a free download I found on Flikr and I distressed it with the TH tool, tore it, curled it up, crumpled it all up and then inked with Vintage Photo DI, I think it looks suitably aged now!  The image is from Inkadinkado, called Holiday Words and it’s embossed in Burgundy, edged with Vintage Photo, cut out and mounted on to brown card.

I added some green ribbon and some Wild Orchid roses in cream and red.  The roses are pretty small so the card is still mostly flat for posting.

I hope you can join us this month, as it’s now October (how did that happen??) there really aren’t that many days left until Christmas!  And that’s a scary thought indeed!

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Challenges:

Papertake Weekly ~ Take Your Pick (Distress Inks)

Crafty Hazel’s Christmas Extra ~ Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp ~ Anything Goes

Fab ‘n’ Funky ~ Anything Christmas

Oh Christmas Tree At Sparkles Christmas Challenge

Whoosh, here we are again, back at the first of the month. And September too, Summer is all but over, the kids are back at school and the snow will soon be flying!

So it’s time to get organised with those Christmas cards and Sparkles Christmas is here to help you do just that. The winners and Top 5 of the last challenge have been posted and Caz is challenging us this month to show off our Christmas Trees this time around. Sounds like a nice, easy theme for you all.

We have two great sponsors again in Bugaboo Stamps and Di’s Digi Stamps who are each offering vouchers to their stores.

For my card this month I went with some tree themed but non-Christmas paper from Memory Box from the Brioche pack.  I LOVE Memory Box papers but they don’t seem to do their 6×6 packs anymore which is a shame.

As you can see, it’s a but non-traditional but I just love the colours.  The stamp is from Penny Black, coloured with Prisma pencils and copious amounts of glitter added to the tree, the ground, the little bird and the mouse’s hat and scarf.  None of which you can see of course!  I also added some Perfect Pearls and a snowflake gem.

The sentiment die cut is also from Memory Box and I put sparkly red gems in the corners of the card.  Very simple, flat for posting and a bit funky too!

Please pop over to the main Sparkles Christmas blog and see the beautiful inspiration we have for you this month, and I hope to see you there.

September At Crafty Hazel’s Christmas Extra

It’s September people, how did that happen?  Time to get a jump on all those Christmas cards.

 

As always we have the fantastic Jodi from Bugaboo Stamps sponsoring the challenge and the DT get to use her wonderful images for our cards.  I’ve used the super cute Deer Duo this month, but I’ve gone all dark and woodsy on you this time!

I used a white card blank with brown mounting card and paper from a free Raspberry Road pack.  I coloured the image with Prisma pencils and Stickles glitter and embossed the Fiskars sentiment in black, directly on to the paper.  A couple of chocolate coloured gems were the only other embellishment here.  I seem to have a thing for simple cards lately!

CHNC2 is an anything goes as long as it’s Christmas challenge so get linking those cards up, we love to see them all.

Sparkles Christmas Challenge ~ Ditch The Design Papers

We have a new challenge at Sparkles Christmas for you and it’s just started (I’m a couple of days late with my post).  I chose the theme this time round and I’d like to see you really challenge yourself and Ditch Those DP’s!  This is easier than it sounds because I’m not necessarily talking about Clean & Simple.  You can go inky and grungy, lots of layers, lots of embossing, lots of details and embellishments if you like, so just think outside the box!

We have two fantastic sponsors too:

Who have a ten pound voucher for you to spend, and

A prize of three digis from:

I went the grungy route for my card this month.  I stamped the snowflakes in Versmark ink and heat embossed some with clear embossing powder and the bigger ones with Tim Holtz Holographic EP.

The inks are TH Distress Inks with Evergreen Bough and Peacock Feathers coming to the fore, although there were others used.  The panel was mounted on to navy card and added to a plain white card base.  The sentiment is from Fiskars and it was stamped and embossed on Vellum and then roughly torn to fit.  A few lilac pearls finished it off.

That’s it from me, I hope you have time to join in the fun this month.  Chin chin!

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Challenges:

Christmas Cards All Year Round ~ Snowflakes

ABC Christmas Challenge ~ Off The Edge