Use Lots of Red at Di's Digis

Soooo, it looks like this year is following the same pattern as last year; it's HURTLING by!!  Time (already) for a new challenge at Di's Digis, the theme this time around is to Use Lots of Red.  I decided (sticking, for the time being at least with my New Year's Resolution/promise to self to make a Christmas card, here it is!

The cutest of cute images is called Believe in the Magic (which incidentally I DO... I LOVE Christmas!!) and it's available here.  I coloured with Copics and added some highlights with Prismacolor pencils.  I used E000 and E0000 for the shading around the image, I'm finding I like the warm glow it gives pics like this where blue sky isn't really appropriate and grey just looks dull.

I added Sparkly Fluff to the fur trim and embossed the snow with white Embossing Powder mixed with Cosmic Shimmer Glitter Jewels in Iced Snow flavour (actually I did the fur trim in that first and it just didn't look right, it needed to have less shine than the snow, the Sparkly Fluff really did the trick, though it did like to spread itself around, lol, I was brushing it off for ages!)  

I embossed the trees, cut with Couture Creations dies (Intricutz Merry Little Christmas Collection), with the white EP/Glittery flakes combo too, nice and sparkly IRL.  I had the trees in front of the image panel but they were a bit overpowering, I tucked them behind and then didn't have the effect I wanted of the line the little cuties are on to be suspended between trees... so I cut the trees on their sides  and tucked most of them behind the image panel (which is elevated on foam dots) and had just one branch twisting on to the front to look like it's holding the line... it  looks better in real lie than in the pics... honest!
The papers are from Basic Grey's Jovial Collection; the pad's nearly gone now - I'll have to try and find it again, love it!  The sentiment is called 'Tis the Season and you can get it here from Pink Gem Designs, I just checked out the site to get the link... and now I'm going to have to go and grab some of the latest sentiments, me likey!!

As usual I've finished the inside of the card with elements from the front... I don't overdo the inside of Christmas cards as a rule, but that might be because I'm usually hammering them out the week before Christmas; that excuse isn't going to wash when you're on your third Christmas card and it's still January, lol, so I may just get a bit more elaborate with the inside of the next one.... maybe!
In all there's "Lots of Red" on this card, it's not crazy bright over the top but definitely fits the bill... so you can see how easy it is to make something to join in the challenge - I hope you do.  You can pop over to the Challenge blog and see plenty of red, great inspiration... and of course that special February day is coming up where red can really come into it's own... so what are you waiting for? Here's a link to make it easy for you.  
There's a great prize on offer as always, this time around it's from Your Next Stamp, and as an added bonus they're offering a 20% discount for the duration of this challenge, just use the code "DDDC20" at checkout.  Don't forget too that if you use one of Di's gorgeous images there's extra opportunities to win.
Today's card will be entered in the following challenges:

Tuesday Morning Sketch

Tuesday Morning Sketches Sketch, (optional Winter Theme)

As You Like It One or Multi-Layer (I Love "One" but find them quite hard… and I also Love "Multi-Layer" so I'm going for that - coz they're easier, lol)

Moving Along With The Times Embossing

Hanna and Friends Die Cuts

Crafty Cardmakers Die Cuts and/or Punches (I've used both; the sentiment is cut using a Fiskars punch)

The Crazy Challenge Ribbon (Ho Ho Ho!)
Cuttlebug Mania Baby it's Cold Outside

Fab'n'funky Challenges Christmas

Crafty Hazlenut's Christmas Extra Challenge Anything Christmas Goes

Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge Frame It (I did, lol)
Jingle Belles Bling on the Holidays

Aud Sentiments Anything with a Sentiment Goes

Tuesday Throwdown Anything Goes

Craft Your Passion Anything Goes

Through the Craftroom Door Anything Goes

Simon Says Challenge Anything Goes

Simply Papercrafts Anything Goes

Crafting With Friends Anything Goes

Art by Miran Anything Goes

Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends Anything Goes

That Craft Place Anything Goes

Little Miss Muffet Anything Goes

I'll be back on Monday with a card for the Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper challenge... which is monthly and just goes to show just HOW fast this year's zipping by!!  Until then Happy Crafting, Donna

The Ghost of Christmas Past

Well I thought it was time, REALLY time that I got the last of my Christmas 2014 cards out of my draft folder... so here they are!!  Very simple they are too; they were  made on the "Last" day of pre-Christmas cardmaking, err, make that Christmas Eve, so it was a case of needs-must :-))

For the first card I used one of Bugaboo's cute Fancy Sunbonnet images.... this one is "Fancy Sunbonnet Present", you can get it at here.  I coloured with Copics and added some details with Prismacolor pencils, I also added gloss to the holly berries and glitter to the dots on the parcel.

The card itself is Kraft and the papers are from Kaisercraft, the Christmas Carol collection and, mmmm, another pad I can't remember the name of. The green matting was from my stash.  The "jingle" was cut in corrugated gold foil card with one of the Sizzix Thinlits Holiday Words set by Tim Holt - or is that "one of Tim Holtz Holiday Words set by Sizzix"...? I dunno!!  I added a gold flat back as the dot on the "i"... but I forgot to add one to the "j".... in fact I didn't even think about it until I just looked at the pic :-) 

I never do much on the inside of my Christmas cards... and when you make them on Christmas Eve at about 6pm, they REALLY don't get much; just my all time favourite Christmas sentiment (from a now unavailable Tickled Pink Stamps set) stamped in green Staz On ink and backed up with a red mat (stash again)

My second card looked much nicer in real life than it does in the pics - the other thing about finishing one of your neighbour's Christmas cards about 30 seconds before you take it and their gift over is that you don't get a lot of time to take decent pictures of it, lol.

 

I used Versa Linen card as the card base and for the image... which is a digi from Doodle Pantry, The Merry Deer set (which is fabulous value; outline and coloured images of several different deer, papers and sentiments - all for $2.25); having just visited the site I see that you can get matching SVG files... might just have to go back and grab those :-)

I coloured with Copics and used a Versamark pen to go over the snowflake then embossed it with Bridal Tinsel Embossing powder... it looks white in the pic, but was very glittery in reality.  The gold card I used for matting was from my stash as was the sentiment - which were from my embarrassingly large sticker (or peel offs) collection.I used another favourite stamp for the inside, my sister gave me this stamp and all I can say about it is that it's one of the three wood mounted stamps I own, I've had it for years and Fiona had it for years before that... sorry that doesn't help if you like it and want to get one of your own, lol.

Picture Inspiration, Catch the Bug Challenge

One or other of these cards fit the following challenges: 

Hiding in my Craft Room Any Holiday

Crafty Hazlenut's Christmas Extra Challenge Christmas

Hanna and Friends Die Cuts

Cutie Pie Challenge Krafty Cuties

Catch The Bug Picture (reindeer)

Creatalicious Challenges Snowflakes

Simon Says Challenge Critters

Moving Along With The Times Embossing

Pixies Snippets Playground Use Snippets (polka dot strip, matting)

That Craft Place Anything Goes

Inky Chicks Anything Goes

Simply Papercrafts Anything Goes

Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends Anything Goes

Crafting With Friends Anything Goes

Art by Miran Anything Goes

Craft Your Passion Anything Goes

Through the Craftroom Door Anything Goes

That's it for today.  We've had the family over today as it is Australia Day and therefore a Public Holiday.  

We celebrate by having breakfast... which we do for a lot of family events.... we used to have a Barbecue brekkie, but for the last ten years or so since we built the pizza oven it's been Breakfast Pizzas (we still have the snaggers or sausages, though now they're cooked in the pizza oven: This tradition nearly came to an end in 2013 when the swallowing of a piece of said sausage WITH FORK ATTACHED came close to costing our little Rocky dog his life, and DID involve costing us thousands of dollars and a lot of stress... if you want to read about it here's the original post... the start of the saga at least!)  But the yumminess prevailed so we still do the brekkie pizza thing at a lot of our family get togethers... especially when we have a swim after, as we did today.

Emily's ready for the pool

Nathan and his Grandad... my hubby!!

The bigger they are.... the bigger the spash!

The kids get a lot out of the pool now, they are going to be real fish, lol.  

Glass cleaning comin' up

Here's a couple of pics of them ready to swim and of MY kids doing bombies (they're big kids now, so they got to clean the glass fence of all the KERSPLASH they managed to create, lol) also one of Emily doing her "Geronimo" into the pool... they simply have no fear!

GERONIMO

I'll be back on the weekend with a couple of DT cards, Until then Happy Crafting, Donna

S"now Challenge at all!!

Well do you like my Post title??  Corny huh? :-)  The new challenge starting today at Di's Digis has the theme.... can you guess?.... Snow or Snowflake(s). I have used the opportunity to make a TRULY early start on my 2016 Christmas cards!  This one has an acetate front; the one thing that's even harder to capture in a photograph than glitter is acetate... so it is a picture-heavy post - and loooooooong ... warned ya!!

It looks like the image (the cuter than cute The Magic of Christmas available here)is stuck to the inside of the acetate but it's not; I wanted it to "hang" from the inside of the card rather than be back on an angle, as it would be if stuck to the "inside" of the card, so I worked out a system.  I'm sure it's not original, but I haven't seen this exact way of doing it before so I'm claiming it, lol.  

Well to be honest "system" is putting it a bit strongly, all I did was fold a small tab of the (very thick) acetate I used on the front of the card and stick it behind the image; when you push the card closed it flattens the tab down and the card is perfect for posting, when you pull the tab so it's 90 degrees to the back panel it holds the image panel out from the back panel meaning it's easier to see with the card standing "open".... I think you've probably worked out from all that "verbage" why there's a lot of pics, them speaking a thousand words and all -)) 

Straight out of the envelope :-)

Flattened for posting

With the acetate "tab" opened out

Here's the  "apparatus"... alias "bit of acetate", lol, and how the card looks when ready for posting as well as what it looks like when it first comes out of the envelope!

The panels at the top and bottom of the acetate front are embossed with Darice embossing folders... they are two of a set of three in the Seasonal Theme Embossing Folders set... I made sure I used the snowflake one to fit the theme, heat embossed with Ranger Bridal Tinsel EP... I know, it doesn't show in the pic, sigh.  A sliver of gold card adds a touch of elegance, I think :-) Paper Smooches Dots and Dashes dies were used to cut the edges of the embossed panels, it just finished them off somehow.  

I used a Joycraft Snowflake die to cut a gold snowflake (just to make EXTRA sure I had the theme covered, lol) and added a rhinestone and pearl embellishment from my stash to the centre to finish it off.
The "inside" of the card (which of course you can see most of from the outside) had a strip of paper from the same pack as the background (Wild Rose Studio's Annabelle's Xmas Pack) and a Memory Box Ivy Tendril die cut in gold to add interest, and to tie in the gold mat behind the image.

I coloured the image with Copics, and used the snowy sky paper I created before Christmas as a background (it's available in two colours on my freebies page, here, if you're interested) I added some Ice Stickles to the fur trim and snow on the image, it's pleasingly sparkly IRL :-))
I was going to use the back of the image panel as a jotting space, but decided the recipient may never find it!  So I added a panel to the rear of the card for that purpose and stamped a sentiment - my favourite Christmas sentiment, from (the sadly now defunct)  Tickled Pink Stamps - using Memento ink and my stamp-a-ma-jig... I LOVE that thing, it's made the world of difference to how often I'm prepared to use a rubber stamp;

I always botched it before I got this brilliant tool, not anymore :-
That's it for today's card, it's really very simple, just difficult to describe!  I hope you get a chance to pop over to the challenge blog and have a look at all the snowy wonderfulness there... and that you get a chance to enter the challenge too; great prize on offer as always, and if you use one of Di's cute images (digi or a Candibean rubber stamp) there's extra opportunities, WooHoo!!
I am SERIOUSLY going to be back in a few days, I even have the post ready.... well almost, rofl. In the meantime I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

As You Like It Favourite: Paper or Non Paper (paper…. At the moment, I love all crafts so it IS a "movable feast", lol

Pile It On Your First Initial … D = (Di's) Digis, Darice embossing folders… and of course a Duo of Darling mice!!

Hiding in my Craft Room Embossing

Clear It Out Theme: Winter Stash: Add a Snowflake

The Crazy Challenge Celebration

Creatalicious Challenges Something Old (Snowflake die, acetate- which is recycled packaging) Something New (Image, Embossing folders, edge dies)

Winter Wonderland Glitter and Shine

Crafty Hazlenuts Christmas Challenge Cute or Anything Christmas

Crafty Hazlenut's Christmas Extra Challenge Anything Goes (Christmas)

ABC Christmas Challenge A for Anything Goes

Craft Your Passion Anything Goes

Through the Craftroom Door Anything Goes

Crafting With Friends Anything Goes

Art by Miran Anything Goes

That Craft Place Anything Goes

Inky Chicks Anything Goes

Little Miss Muffet Anything Goes

Despite my post title it WAS something of a challenge for me to "think snow"... in fact I thought I'd share a pic or two of the reason I have posted this a little late: it's been really hot here and as it was still over 30C at 8 pm I was having a bit of R&R and a "quick" dip in the pool that ended up involving a cheeky chardonnay and some particularly nice gorgonzola, yum yum.  

I especially love the pool in the evenings, the frangipanis we've planted have started to bloom and the fragrance in the balmy evenings is really quite gorgeous.  Now we've finally got around to putting the lighting in it's very nice out there at night. Snow wasn't really on my mind, but I DID remember to get this post out, so here it is :-))  Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

New Year... New Challenge, theme: "New to You"

I'm ba-ack :-))  Today marks the beginning of a new challenge at Di's Digis... the theme - in keeping with the New Year - is "New to You".  I made a card for a new baby; the last of the three grandsons my husband's cousin and his wife had in the last six weeks.  It's a tri shutter card, I like them because they fold flat and are therefore great for posting... and they are "interesting" to look at -  of course they're hard to photograph, but  here goes

 I used one of Di's new images (Bubble Baby, available here)... I just LOVE it, as soon as I saw it I just had to have it :-)  I coloured it in quite pastel tones, using Prismacolor pencils (no Copics this time!) to suit the GORGEOUS vintage style paper I treated myself to on my last trip to my LSS.  It's from Cavania of London, called (rather unoriginally, lol) "It's a Boy",its thick, embossed, foiled glittered and just LUSH.... and there's three sheets of each print so I used two sheets of the one print split up over two layers and lined up the pictures so that it looks like one complete sheet when the card is closed.
All the papers are from the same pad, as are the embellishment stickers

 I typed the "Ten Little Fingers" sentiment on the computer, cut blue scrolls using a Memory Box Ivy Tendril die and cut them into pieces to add to some of the plain panels. The "It's a Boy" and "Bundle of Joy" die cuts were from another of the sheets in the pad, I used a Lifestyle Crafts circle die to cut the Bundle of Joy sentiment and the mat for it.  The pearls on the image panel were originally white, I coloured them with Copics to match in.
There's quite a bit of subtle glitter on the paper, but I coloured one of the letters on the image a bit dark so they all ended up getting a good lashing of white glitter embossing -)  These photos are a bit darker than real life... it's the "only" way to get the glitter to show.  I decided to not add gloss to the balloons... which I always do.... to keep the overall soft feel.
I've added a few pics from different angles.  I'm really happy with this card, it looks lovely in real life... so sorry about all the pics, like I said I like my card :-)
Pop over to the blog and check out the rest of the team's inspiration it's worth the visit :-) I hope you get a chance to enter the challenge this time around, there's a great prize on offer (isn't there always?) and don't forget if you use one of Di's images - a digi or a Candibean rubber stamp - you get extra opportunities to win, yay!!
Here's the challenges I'm entering my card in.Allsorts Challenges New (New baby)

Sweet Stampin' Something New (New image)

Creatalicious Challenges Something Old (card, pearls) Something New (image and paper)

Simon Says Challenge Any Celebration

The Crazy Challenge Celebrations and 

Through the Craftroom Door, Crafty Creations, 4 Crafty Chicks, As You Like It, Cute Card Thursday, Art by Miran, Polkadoodles, Catch The Bug and That Craft Place all with Anything Goes Challenges

I'll be back in a day or so with another make, until then Happy Crafting, Donna

Happy New Year... and a new Challenge at Crafty Hazelnut's

Happy New Year to you all... Followers and Visitors... I hope 2016 brings all that you wish for.  

Being the first of the month... even though it's also a New Year... means a new challenge has started over at Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge, where the always-easy "theme" is to use Patterned Paper on your creation.  I have a Christmas card to show you as my DT inspiration, but the truth is it is one out of my drafts from last year; no, not 2015... 2014!!  My New Year's Resolution is - you guessed it - to get my projects out of my Draft pile within a month of being made.  We'll see how THAT one goes, though if my bitten nails and unused stash are anything to go by Resolutions aren't worth the mental paper they're written on, lol

Not only is this a card from my Drafts, it's a Christmas card, which you're all probably heartily sick of by now... and a very basic one at that; oh well, it DOES show off that lovely paper from Basic Grey's Jovial collection nicely.  The image is from Bugaboo; it comes with or without the sentiment - see if you can guess which way I went, lol.  I coloured with Copics and Prismacolor pencils (as usual) and added lashings of Ranger's Glossy Accents (it really is the best!) to the eyes, noses and hooves.  I also added Stickles (Spruce) to the ornaments and stars (Stardust)... it helped tie in the super glittery red ribbon from my stash; super glittery ribbon that liked to share its "super-glitteriness" EVERYWHERE I might add!

I finished the inside of the card in very simple fashion, always a good idea with Christmas cards when there's so much time pressure... not THIS year though, I'm starting them in January... another New Year Resolution (you can stop laughing now, hehe)
The sentiment is a freebie from the fabulous Paulette at Create With TLC, at least I think it was a freebie, it may have been in one of the sets I purchased, but Paulette does offer a LOT of freebies (she's such a sweetie) so the chances are it WAS a freebie :-)
That's it for my card, embarrassingly simple really.  I'd like to enter it in the following challenges:

Gem of a Challenge Anything Christmas

Pile It On Anything Christmas or Winter

The Crazy Challenge Celebrations

Pixies Snippets Playground Use Snippets

OSAAT Anything Goes with the Colour Red

Bunny Zoes Crafts Sparkle

Sparkles Monthly Challenge Favourite Christmas Colours

Crafty Hazlenuts Christmas Challenge Anything Christmas

Crafty Hazlenut's Christmas Extra Challenge Anything Christmas

Tuesday Morning Sketches Anything Goes

Tuesday Throwdown Anything Goes

Through the Craftroom Door Anything Goes

Crafty Creations Anything Goes

The Paper Shelter Anything Goes

4 Crafty Chicks Anything Goes

As You Like It Anything Goes

Cute Card Thursday Anything Goes

Outlawz Friday Colouring Challenge Anything Goes

Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends Anything Goes

Hiding in my Craft Room Freestyle

I hope you get a chance to pop over to the blog and see the rest of the team's inspiration... they've all pretty much managed to avoid the ol' Christmas cards unlike me!  Don't forget all you have to do to enter the challenge is to use some patterned paper somewhere on your project, there's a great prize on offer as always so it's well worth entering
I'll be back tomorrow with my DT make for Di's Digis Challenge Blog... at least that's a new card, and a bit more complex than this one - AND I only made it yesterday so I'm managing to stick with my New Year Resolution so far; what do you mean it's only been one day? lol
Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna