Christmas Joy, I believe

I have a couple of Christmas cards today, though they are so similar you'd be forgiven for thinking they are the same card, lol. 

 Both cards use paper from Kaisercraft, the green panel raised up on foam dots, all matted on gold foil card.
The "white" paper isn't white, it has almost a self-pattern on it, very nice IRL.  The border die is "Poinsettia Edger" from Creative Expressions, the "Joy" is a die I got from Aliexpress, cuts really nicely - which isn't always the case with gold card :-)
I popped the word up on more foam dots, well cut up bits of foam dots, lol
This pic gives a better idea of just how golden this card was.
As I said the other card I have for today is exactly the same... but different :-)
The "believe" came from Aliexpress too, it was a bit more "fiddly" than the smaller word, so the bits of foam dots were really fiddly... and I forgot the dot on the "i", oops

I'd like to enter my card(s) in the following challenges:

Little Red Wagon and Crimbo Crackers Have: Christmas

The Creative Confetti Challenge over at Power Poppy and Crazy 4 Challenges Have: Christmas in July

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge Wants us to: Use Patterned Paper
Creatalicious Challenges Has: Anything Goes, Opt: Use 2+ Patterned Paper... I've used 3 here

Digi Choosday, Polkadoodles, Through the Craftroom Door,  Crafty  Creations, Crafting From the Heart (#247), Creative Fingers, Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends, A Perfect Time to Craft, Crafting With Attitude Die Cut Divas and Corrosive Challenge All Have: Anything Goes

That's it for today.  I'll be back, well I'll be back :-)  Hope everyone is ticking along okay, until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

The Last of The Foiled Brigade

Hi I'm back with the last of the cards I made for Christmas 2017... finally and hooray I hear you say.  

The first one today uses a lovely background die cut. 
I cannot remember the name or supplier of it... I have had it for a few years and this is the first time I've ever used it (unfortunately it is no orphan in that department!); if you know the supplier let me know and I'll note it on the cover sheet of my die storage

I used gold foiled card as a background and mat for the image and gold Deco Foil to foil the image... which is a sentiment :-)  Again I've included a pic for shine demonstration purposes, lol
I popped the centre panel up on foam dots for a bit of dimension

The very last card of this batch is one I was quite pleased with... especially considering how quickly it came together!

The patterned paper is a scrap from a really old pad, Basic Grey "Jovial", the red mat was cut with Nestabliities Scalloped Ovals, the "image" (again doing double duty as the sentiment) was yet another fabulous freebie from the equally fabulous Paulette at Create with TLC  printed on linen card
I added the shadow to the words (so easily done using Word) and foiled with Gold Deco Foil - the shadow doesn't "grab" the foil, so the sentiment looks pretty clean.... that said I sponged some ink around the edge of the image panel to help it tie in with the grungy style of the patterned paper.  I added dimension by once again layering the oval on some foam dots
... and that is IT for 2017's Christmas cards, promise!
I won't put up a Christmas card for a while, and I won't leave it until more than a year after the event either!  At least that way we won't get Christmas card overload :-)
I am entering these cards in the following challenges:

The Paper Shelter Dies and/or Punches

Pixies Snippets Playground Snippets (that Basic Gray paper, sadly now all gone, sob)

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge Use Patterned Paper

Jingle Belles Look What Santa Brought Me - Use New Stash (the snowflake background die is on its first outing)

Winter Wonderland Snowtime (Snowmen or Snowflakes)

Sweet Stampin' Christmas and Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge have Anything Christmas, Aud Sentiments has Anything (plus a sentiment) Goes and Tuesday Throwdown, Gem of a Challenge, Through the Craftroom Door,Digi Choosday,  Crafty  Creations, Crafting With Friends  Challenge #78, Creative Fingers, Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends, Polkadoodles, Creatalicious Challenges and Corrosive Challenge All have Anything Goes

 I will - if I stick to the "plan" - be back in a few days.  The "plan" is to post at least once a week.  Of course, I've already fallen behind, and there are no excuses as I have over a year's worth of projects on hand ALREADY - AND I had this post typed up and ready to go weeks ago, sigh.  
I am also spending a bit of time at the vet... Rocky has had his ACL surgery and is doing really quite well - with his general health taken into consideration... of course, because of the medications he is on for his doggy-lupus he has developed alopecia... with all the shaved spots from various tests, infusions and surgeries now not growing back the poor little chap looks like a very boring, very low-quality quilt!  and now he has developed yet another problem (ruptured anal gland) so he's on MORE medications, such a sweet little boy he really doesn't deserve any of this, and he takes it all with such good grace, still happily wagging to greet us
Anyways, until I do get back, Happy Crafting, Donna

Happy New Year

So.... here we are in another New Year!
I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year - who can believe it's 2019 already?!  This is one of those "zero" years for me... I turn the Big 6Zero in April ... so "already" really does have extra significance for me this time around!
I thought I'd share the last of my 2017 Christmas cards as I did get a few Christmas cards made this year (woops, last year, in 2018!) and those, added to the "unblogged" projects I made through the year add up nearly 60 projects still to share from my drafts -so time to get 2017 out of the equation :-)

They are mostly foiled cards as they were definitely "Flavour of the Month" for December 17.  

The first uses yet another as yet unused digital image I can't even remember getting, never mind where from, foiled with gold Deco Foil (I know, hard to see in the pic, the small pic is for foil-showing purposes, lol) The sentiment is computer generated and foiled using the laminator the same way as the image.  I love this paper, it's from Wild Rose Studio "Annabelle's Christmas" pad, it is quite lightweight but as long as you use a nice sharp blade it's nice to use.  I used MFT Stitched Circle dies to cut the image panel and mat and Paper Roses Scalloped Squares to cut the large red mat... I actually cut it as a frame, leaving a white border around the patterned paper... I used the centre cut out part as a red mat on another card.

The second card uses the same image, but this time I foiled the bauble in red and the string in gold, I foiled the sentiment in the red Deco Foil too.  No patterned paper on this one, just kraft card and gold foil matting.

Third one for the day is the simplest of all... though really quite effective in real life.  Another lovely digital image - whose pedigree I cannot recall - Foiled in green Deco Foil with red gems in various sizes representing baubles, I didn't even add a sentiment to the front of this card, only the inside.

That's it for this post... I have another post written up with the (very) last of this batch of cards... honestly... that I'll share in a day or so.   In the meantime I'd like to enter these cards in the following challenges:

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge Use Patterned Paper

Tuesday Throwdown Winter Sparkles (They're Christmas cards and sparkly gems)

Crazy 4 Challenges Tree-mendous

Christmas with the Cuties Carols or Songs (Oh Christmas Tree)

Sweet Stampin', Die Cut Divas, My Time to Craft and Simon Says Challenge, Something New (all the images are newbies to me)

Cutie Pie Challenge Add Some Sparkle… those gems again :-)

Sasayaki Glitter Happy Holidays

The Paper Shelter, Sweet Stampin' Christmas, Winter Wonderland, Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Christmas
As You Like It,  Cute Card Thursday, Through the Craftroom Door, Digi Choosday, Crafty  Creations, Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends, Polkadoodles, Creatalicious Challenges, Crafting With Attitude, and Corrosive Challenge Anything Goes

That's it for today... I'll be back in a few days with those last few Chrissie cards.  I have to take my poor darling Rocky to the vet tomorrow, he has "done" his other knee now and has to have it reconstructed.  Of course it happened after hours and we had to take him to the Emergency Vet ($224 thanks very much!) and now nearly $2k for surgery!!  It was a tough decision to make whether to put him through it, he is not as happy a little dog as he was before he went blind and it is quite a tough recovery, but after discussing with the vet it has been decided that it is worth a try for him... he can't NOT have it done as the recovery to a reasonable state of movement without intervention would take too long (mainly because of the medication he is on for his Lupus) and he is pretty miserable being unable to see and barely able to move.  
The only option is to put him to sleep.  If he was not such a sloth of a dog anyway I don't think we would be going down this route, and euthanasia would be the only option, but he spends his time just layin' around and has for years... he's not "missing out" on a lot of activities so much as being spared them!
Of course, the alternative is so unpalatable for US... it is hard, we want to do the right thing by him and not keep him going for us, with scant regard for his well being but don't want to "end his suffering" if he's not suffering but just chilling.  My last little darling boy did the right thing by us and died after climbing onto my lap after going for his daily walk - heartbreaking but at least we weren't forced into that pet-owners Sophies Choice.  We'll see how it all goes
Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna x

Foiled Again

Well I can't believe it's over THREE WEEKS since I posted on my blog... 'Tis the Season and all that - and it certainly IS the season if you live in Western Australia and work in the swimming pool industry; EVERYONE wants their pool in and looking shcmicko for The Big Day, and they don't mind if you run yourself into the ground to achieve it!!  Ah well, the joys of Self Employment :-) 
Anyways, I'm here today with a few Christmas cards from my stash.  They are very simple cards, always best for the overstressed crafter at this time of year ;-)

The first one is a kraft card base, the white card is embossed with a Darice embossing folder (Snowflake Swirl).  The image panel was linen card cut with MFT Stitched Circles and the kraft mat was cut with Spellbinders Lacey Circles, popped up on foam dots to add some dimension.  I used the rather elegant Snowflake Reindeer Silhouette (digi) from Bugaboo Stamps, printed with my laser printer and foiled (using a laminator) with Rose Gold Deco Foil... it goes really well with the Kraft card, I fussy cut the feet to go outside the circle, it gave a sense of movement.  When I printed the image I added a shadow (just done in Word... very simple to do and it really gives the image depth, it looks as if the whole reindeer has been fussy cut, without the work!)  The sentiment is a digi from Pink Petticoat, given the same laser/laminator foil treatment, raised on more foam dots to add more dimension.
The second card for the day is from the same "set" (as in I set up the laser printer and laminator and did a whole bunch of these cards, lol) as the first

I covered the whole front of this card in patterned paper (from Kaisercraft as far as I can recall... the bottom piece was from my scraps folder so I can't be certain).  
I printed the digital image (can't remember the source) on linen card as I like the effect of the foil on the textured paper... I rubbed a little Ranger Archival ink in Coffee colour around the edge to soften it.  I used green foil (obviously) and it matched the green foiled card I got from the $2 shop ages ago... I wish I could find it again, it's absolutely brilliant - shiny and smooth and cuts really well.  I used word to make the simple sentiment and foiled that to match, popping the image and the sentiment up on foam dots
This card goes so well with the sketch (#366) from Freshly Made Sketches you can use any shape but I have the tree anyway
The last one I'm going to share today is a little different only in that I used a different foil... I think it was Deco Foil Opal... that has an iridescent effect.  

The first pic shows how it looks basically silver grey in one light, but the second pic shows it's "true colours".  It is VERY striking IRL

The image is another I have had for years and unfortunately didn't label, I got it back in the days when I somewhat ignorantly - and it would seem wistfully, lol -  thought that I would only ever use one or two tree images, so I labelled it "Swirly Tree 2" and didn't note the source) 
I sprayed glue over a piece of black card and stuck the same Opal foil to it to make the matting behind the image. It didn't end up with a really smooth finish, but the texture actually adds something.
The purple background paper is Kaiser... I think, but don't hold me to it as it's ancient and the label is long gone
That's it for today (well it's tonight here, and well and truly bed time for me, lol)  I have another four of this style of card left in my drafts, they'll pop up soon I'm sure 
I would like to enter (at least one of) these cards in the following challenges: all three cards fit most of their themes but Double D Challenge has Run, Run Rudolph (Use a deer image) and As You Like It has Favourite Christmas Animal… and why, so obviously the first card is for those challenges, (oh, and the "why" deer are my favourite Christmas animal is that there are so many great deer images and dies available, ranging from cute to sophisticated, and deer seem slightly less incongruous to Aussie Christmas cards than penguins or polar bears... though "favourite" is probably pushing it - one of my favourites would be more accurate as I love the cuteness of penguins and bears too) Crazy 4 Challenges has Tree-mendous… use a tree... and  Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge Use Patterned Paper - so the second card fits these challenges.  For the rest... pick a card, any card :-))

Hiding in- my Craft Room has Christmas Colours 

Sasayaki Glitter has Happy Holidays

Die Cut Divas has Winter Holidays

Card Mania Challenges , Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge, Moving Along With The Times, Crimbo Crackers, Jingle Belles, Sweet Stampin' Christmas, Winter Wonderland All have Anything (Christmas) Goes

Aud Sentiments has Anything Goes plus a Sentiment
Creatalicious Challenges, Cute Card Thursday, Catch The Bug, Little Miss Muffet, Animal Friends, Through the Craftroom Door, Corrosive Challenge, Digi Choosday, Crafting With Attitude, Crafty  Creations, Creative Fingers, Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends, Polkadoodles, A Perfect Time to Craft, 4 Crafty Chicks and Tuesday Throwdown All have Anything Goes 

Thanks for visiting my little blog, I'll be back soon (I REALLY will!!) Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna 

White (and Gold) Christmas

Well, I finally got back on to my blog... I have a couple of very simple Christmas cards to share today, with the common theme of being Gold and White - and being from last year. 

The first one is using an image I got from the internet, printed on linen card using a laser printer then foiled using Deco Foil and a laminator.  Matted onto gold card and mounted on foam dots.  I used a digital sentiment from (the now sadly defunct, sob) Digistamp Boutique and gave it the same foiling treatment, again matted on gold card and popped up on foam dots, two layers for the sentiment panel

The second card uses plain white card, the background is embossed with two embossing folders; the bottom with a freebie I got in a magazine, the top with a Couture Creations folder (Tied Together) - It looks a bit unfinished in the photo, but it looked better IRL.   I cut the gold card circle with a L'il Inkers Stitched Circle Die - It's actually the "negative" of the circle I cut for this card... the great things about these dies is there are stitches on both side of the cut line, so both "inside" and "outside are usable.  The white Merry Christmas die with the snowflakes I've had for ages, can't remember where I got it.

The third card incorporates elements of both the first two cards, this time I used a kraft card base and plain white cardstock.  

I used the same image (foiled using the laminator) mounted this time on a kraft mat cut and embossed using a Spellbinders Scalloped Oval die (the image panel was cut with a Spellbinders Classic Oval die, and embossed the whole background panel using the Sizzix folder, I added gold "pearls"... well, flatback thingys :-) from my stash to the intersections of the diamonds.  The sentiment, a digi, is from Pink Petticoat, their Traditional Christmas Greetings 1 set (I think it's no longer available) was given the foil treatment... not that it shows in the pic, lol

That's it for my three cards.  I would like to enter in the following challenges:

Crazy 4 Challenges has "Make a Card", Fab'n'Funky Challenges has Christmas, Merry Christmas Challenge , Crimbo Crackers, Sweet Stampin' Christmas and Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge have "Anything Christmas" as always, and Through the Craftroom Door, Digi Choosday, Crafty  Creations, 4 Crafty Chicks, Creative Fingers, Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends,  Polkadoodles, Creatalicious Challenges and Crafting With Attitude all have Anything Goes challenges

I am super busy (what's new?) at the moment, making a couple of cakes for my lovely neighbour... she is 90 and so "together", I just love her :-)  I will try and get back soon to get some of my drafts stuff... well OUT of Drafts :-))
Until Then, Happy Crafting, Donna

Oh "Deer", More Christmas Cards

Yup, it's another simple Christmas card (or two) from me today.  I will blog something different next time... promise!  These were made for this Christmas (2017); you can tell by their simplicity, lol.  They did look pretty nice IRL, truly :-)
The first is a scene that I made using inspiration from Pinterest
 
I embossed the base of the card with a really nice snowflake embossing folder from Die'sire (I think)... unfortunately it's a bit "munted" along one edge where I forced it through my Big Shot (causing some damage to that too, sigh) in a moment best described as, umm, tantrum!  I was tired, it wasn't going through - so I made it, I'm not proud, lol... and I have to try and replace the folder!  I cut the circle out of the gold foiled card with a Stitched Circle die set from Li'l Inkers that I've had for ages and hardly used, though I LOVE it.  I sponged in some sky, with a masked off moon, with pigment ink.  The snowbanks were cut from glittery fun foam using Stitched Hillside Border dies from Lawn Fawn... again I've hardly used them despite loving them!

The deer are Cottage Cutz, I used a snippet of gold-glittery card - it really WAS a snippet; I actually didn't have enough to do a complete deer, so Mr Deer has had a foot amputated... that's why it's tucked behind the frame :-)  Pixies Snippets Playground Snippets is well covered here, as is Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge: Anything Christmas, Option- Upcycle or use something old... that glitter paper is ANCIENT :-) 
The deer are popped up on foam dots, the hills are on different layers and the whole gold piece is up higher on more foam dots.  Tuesday Throwdown has "Layer It Up" as it's challenge theme, I think this qualifies, lol.  The snowflake dies were from a set of four on eBay... they were technically "for Christmas", but as I bought "a few" dies as my Christmas gift from hubby, I was able to filter out the ones I could use BEFORE Christmas - these cut beautifully and I have found that the fun foam is SO much sturdier than card, especially glittery card; this cut cleanly and you could really tug it out of the dies, be slapdash with the glue and position them more than once - try THAT with card, lol.  A few flat back pearls in the centres helped break it up.  Jingle Belles has "Look What Santa Brought Me" as their challenge theme, Santa was busy so I brought me with these dies - so I'm in, lol, Allsorts Challenges wants to see Something New as does Cute Card Thursday and 4 Crafty Chicks has Anything Goes with a "Use Dies or Punches" twist... in there too.
The second card is even more simple: I had the scalloped-edged card in my stash, I embossed it with a Couture Creations folder "Sugarplum Ball"... what a lovely crisp finish it gives!  
The image is from the net, I used my laser printer to print on linen card and laminator to add the foil... the sentiment is from Pink Petticoat, it doesn't show in the pics but that is gold foil too.  I just tied it on to the gold cord wrapped around the flap of the card. Done.  Card Mania Challenges has a Monochromatic theme, this should do, and The Crazy Challenge has Winter Wonderland - I think either card will do there, and either will do in these "Anything Goes" or "Anything Christmas" challenges:

As You Like It, Catch The Bug, Little Miss Muffet, Through the Craftroom Door, Digi Choosday, Crafty  Creations, Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends, Polkadoodles, Creatalicious Challenges, Crafting With Attitude, Paper Creator Crafts, Corrosive Challenge, A Snowflakes Promise, and  12 Months of Christmas all have Anything Goes or Anything Christmas Goes themes

Like I said I'll bring something better to the table next time... or at least it won't be Christmas!  Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna

Simple Tidings

Firstly I hope you had a lovely Christmas, we did and as all the "duty" things are now out of the way I can relax a bit - may even have time to use some of the new goodies I got from the man in the red suit :-)
I have a "Twofer" today; for those non-Australians that is "Two for the Price of One"... both are really simple cards and I didn't think they (one in particular) merited their own post so, "Twofer" it is!!
Firstly I have one I made for Christmas this year; I bought a laser printer recently (and had a laminator) to get into the foil embossing "thang" that's going around, and BOY have I got into it :-)  This is the one of 19 I made using the technique somewhere on it this year!

Of course, I have now discovered that foiling is even harder to capture in a photo than glitter!
I used background paper that has foil strips on it; it was originally a 12" piece bought years ago.. I've slowly whittled it down and now have a very small snippet left, off this snippet, so I'm entering Pixies Snippets Playground challenge to use Snippets
I have a few pics here, not to show details; just to try and capture the shiny goodness of this foil
The sentiment is a freebie I got from the generous Paulette at Create with TLC, I added a shadow using Word - sometimes that just adds a shadow around the "outside" of the whole image, sometimes (like in this case) it adds it to each word.  Printed it using my laser printer then obviously then ran it through the laminator with Gold Deco Foil.  Ribbon from stash.

The second card is one I made for Christmas 2015 (I didn't make any last year) and was a bit embarrassed to "blog", it's so straightforward - I would like to say the biggest problem with this card was the photography - it looks so much better in real life.  I used Versa Linen card, edged with Gold ink.
I can't remember the source of the embossing folder, could be Sizzix, the snowflake border is a die from Memory box, as is the Candles (named, unsurprisingly "Memory Box Candles"), I inked those up after cutting too.  "Joy" is either a Sizzix or Memory Box die, I think Sizzix, cut from gold card
The sentiment on the inside is from the now-defunct Tickled Pink Stamps, the frame is from the same set: I love this stamp set, use it soooo much :-)
So that's it!  I am entering one or other of these cards in the following challenges, you pick which one :-)) Well, Cutie Pie Challenge  has "Stars and/or Snowflakes" as their theme, so that would be the second card with the embossing folder snowflakes (as well as the snowflake border) and Pile It On has "Non-Traditional Christmas Colours" as their theme so the first one with it's pink/peach/coral colour is the one for there... with the same card being for Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge (as it's the only one using patterned paper!),but all these other challenges apply to either card:
Sweet Stampin' Last Minute/ CAS Christmas

Paper Creator Crafts, My Time to Craft, Sweet Stampin' Christmas, Winter Wonderland, Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Extra Challenge, Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge, 12 Months of Christmas All have "Christmas" challenges and

Tuesday Throwdown, Simon Says Challenge, Cute As A Button, Little Miss Muffet, Through the Craftroom Door, Crafty  Creations, Crafting With Friends  Challenge #57, Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends, Polkadoodles, Create and Inspire, Creatalicious Challenges, Simply Papercrafts, Crafting With Attitude and Corrosive Challenge All have "Anything Goes" themes

So that's all for today, I am going to go and get dressed now... it's 2pm and I'm still in my PJs, as is hubby; which is something we NEVER do, in fact I think this is a first - really enjoyed it tbh :-)  We have to go out in a while, we're having a few friends over to bring in the New Year and really should get the ingredients together for the promised "Pizza night".  The weather is great, not too hot but warm enough for a midnight swim if you feel like it (though as we've got older we all are less prepared to mess up our hair/makeup than we were when we were younger, lol.  One couple that are coming we've known for 25 years, we don't care with them and they us, lol, but some of the others haven't seen us at our "glorious best", so we may not want to dispel the myth, haha.

If I don't get back, enjoy your New Year Celebrations and I'll see you in 2018.  Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna