Christmas Card Challenge

Yep, I know it is a bit early - even for me - to be making Christmas cards but nothing like a blog challenge to get you all inspired :>

Over at Keryn's Card there is a weekly NZ challenge to make a Christmas card inspired by one that she creates and this week it is a quilted top note card.  Seeing as I've never actually made one of these 'quilted' cards I thought I'd just do a very similar one to the one Keryn made.  I managed to find three pieces of Christmas paper in my stash and as I don't have a square punch I cut them into 1-inch pieces.  I also felt I needed a bit more variety so made up my own 'pretty paper' with some vanilla cardstock and Old Olive and Cherry Cobbler ink.

In hindsight I shouldn't have run it through with the embossing folder as it opened up the 'seams' a little, but nothing a bit of ribbon won't cover!

I am also entering this card in a couple of other challenges:
365 Cards which asked for a colour combo of green, dark red and dark purple (which I have not used - sorry!)
Charisma Cardz Challenges - Anything goes.

Remember to click on a photo if you want a closeup view.

And after I finished the card the kids and I went out for a walk, enjoying the lovely weather we had today!

Another Christmas medallion

I was tidying up my craft desk this afternoon and I finally found the front picture I had cut out ages ago so thought I'd better 'make hay while the sun shines' as they say!  The frill is the crepe paper I had cut out for this challenge but then didn't like it so it has finally found a fitting place.  I quite like how it turned out, it is rather large though, but is the best [ie most even] of the three medallions I've made this year.  They are still hanging on the Christmas tree as I write this, I think the tree will be coming down in the next couple of years - back in the attic it will go.

Another go at recycling, the image was cut from a card my aunt and uncle sent me for Christmas 2001!

This is the one I made today

This was the one I made a while ago.

Put on your sunglasses!

Well, this must be one of the brightest cards I've ever made!  The background paper came in a magazine I bought a couple of weeks ago and it is rather bright, but nice I think.

I wanted to try making an angel out of punched shapes again and here is the result.  I haven't put a greeting on it as it struck me it wasn't necessarily for Christmas, could be a birthday card too.

I made this for a couple of challenges:

365 Cards - "Touchy Feely"use three textures:  corrugated cardboard, rhinestones and ribbon
Flutterby Wednesday - open challenge as long as it has an angel, a fairy or a butterfly.

Not so sure about this one...

The challenge over at 365 Cards was to make your own flower.... sounds easy enough and after trying to make one out of crepe paper and failing dismally I should have taken the easy way out and punched out some shapes and got it done but NO!  I had to decide to be different and make a ribbon flower, something I've never attempted before.  And in retrospect if I hadn't chosen GOLD ric rac to make my 'flower' I would have probably had more options as far as cards go - so another Christmas card it is then - with a very shiny gold flower for a tree topper.

A Christmas Present card

{Woohoo!  I have one follower - how cool is that!}

Still have a few cards to make and enjoying every creative moment of it!

This one here will be going to Dunedin to Sister Mary - hope she enjoys it.  (not a very religious card but I'm banking on her crafty side to enjoy this one hehehe!)

The challenge at 365 Cards was to 'change the base' in other words bypass the usual cardstock.  Now I have to admit there is some cardstock in this card hidden away, otherwise the whole thing would colapse!

But I covered some 'you-know-what' in fabric, added the ribbons and sewed all round the edge to make it nice and secure.  I'm very happy with how it turned out though it took me all morning to make, what with setting up the ironing board, getting the sewing machine set up, etc etc....And I love how the 'tag' turned out all glittery and gold - indulging my taste for glitter once again.

And on the subject of red and shiny, here is a pic of my little boy dressed up for his Christmas party yesterday, I made his kings' cape with shiny red satin and gold ric-rac ribbon - there was some leftover too so no doubt you'll see some gold ric-rac in a card soon.

Some Christmas Medallion fun..

The other day I found myself down in our local library looking for some "War of Thrones" books and ended up coming out with a couple of Christmas crafts books instead - isn't that always the case hehehe!

The one that really caught my eye was a Vintage Christmas book and I was fascinated by a medallion in it and thought I'd try to recreate it.  I tend to keep the Christmas cards we receive year after year and thought this was the perfect project to use some of them.

These are the two that I made today.

The book that inspired me!

Project in the book

My first attempt - see how uneven the frill is!!??

This is the reverse side with a punched stocking decorating it.

Second attempt, frill much more even this time :>

I used the inside of the card for the backing so I still know who sent it originally.

Just for the fun of it - a bush Christmas!

When I cut out the base tag for this project I didn't realise that there were two pieces of cardstock stuck together so there I was, with two tag bases when I only really needed the one...

I also had the green paper diecut sitting on my desk and it all started from there really!  The paper is of the New Zealand Ferntree, a great dinosaur of a thing, when I first saw them almost 30 years ago I was spellbound by their beauty, it was like being transported into the past....

This is when the kiwi theme started, the vehicle out in the bush, with a big fern frond on the back, the red diecuts reminded me a little of Maori carvings - it was so much fun to put together.  Of course I couldn't have an empty vehicle so rummaged around 'till I found a suitable photo of my little boy - he was tickled pink when I showed him the finished tag and told him he was driving a pick-up truck!

A real fern tree [in the grounds of Newlands College]

Baby wipe background technique - what fun!

I've been meaning to try the 'baby wipe' technique that can create such lovely backgrounds.  I had found a piece of card that looked semi-glossy to me so thought I'd give it a try - I used a couple of Stampin' Up! reinkers in Riding Hood Red and Chocolate Chip and my white card turned into a sunset...

Added Dasher looking over his shoulder at the silver comet, he looks rather peaceful just standing there which was the cue for my sentiment!

I also wanted to play along with the latest sketch at 365 Cards and I found it sooo hard!  So when the inspiration of a upwards tail added to the star finally struck I was on my way LOL!

Keeping it simple

I think I may have used a little too much on my card now that I've checked back with 365 Cards - if you consider the 'sentiment' to be the whole thing not just the words then I'm okay!

Another Christmas card!

I keep thinking I must do a tally of all the Christmas cards I've made so far... last year I sent out around 50 so I'd better get crafting!

This is for the 365 Cards Technique Challenge - to Spotlight one part of your card.  I chose to colour in the scarf and hat of one of the wee snowmen, my son thought it looked rather cute.

For the first time in years I feel it is OKAY to have snowmen on my cards after the 3 days of snow we had in August - yeah!!

With a bit of masking, and bit of glitter and a spot of sponging this card came together last night.

14th August 2011 - SNOW!!!!!!!!!!

The 3 Rs - Ric-Rac, Rhinestones + R of choice

For once I'm up to date with the challenges :>

Today's 365 Cards challenge was 3 Rs: ric-rac, rhinestones plus R of choice which turned out to be ribbon or Rudolph, this card came together really easily for a change!

Not finding much room for sentiments at the moment, but this one is pretty obvious hehehe!

Frosty the Snowman

Made this little card [A7 size if that actually exists] for the 3 Fs challenge over at 365 Cards - Fussy Cutting, Fringe and and F of choice - in my case Frosty!

I added glitter to the snowman image by stamping it all over with a Versamark Watermark pad, then sprinkled a teeny bit of glitter over it followed by some clear embossing powder - it worked quite well but you do need just a pinch of glitter otherwise the excess will end up back in your clear embossing powder jar!

The three Ts - non-traditional colours for a Christmas card

Over at 365 Cards the challenge was to make a card with 3 T's:  Teal, Trinket and a T of your choice.

I don't usually add 3D items to my cards for ease of posting but rummaging through my stash I did manage to find some metal butterflies I purchased sometime ago.  Of course when I decided to go the Christmas way the butterflies were no longer an option, and that's when I decided to use the little bell - not sure if they are a trinket but that's the best I could come up with.

And the third T??  It ended up being TWINE after many other options were considered: trees, twigs, triple [something], trimmings, etc...

What I used:

Baja Breeze and Chocolate Chip card, Chocolate Chip Ink, Martha Stewart edge punch, Kaisercraft Prairie Lane Collection paper, Bakers Twine, Dasher and sentiment stamps from SU, Fiskars corner rounder punch. SU Large Oval punch, SU Scalloped Oval punch.

White space - or pale green in this case

365 Cards is asking for us to leave some white space on our cards for this particular challenge - I flipped the sketch so I hope this is okay!

For this card I used a couple of Stampin' Up! stamp sets, the paper is from Basic Grey and can't quite remember where I got the felt scroll from!