Snowflakes

 Hello! This card was inspired by some challenges. 

The first is the As You See It Challenge where the theme is 'In the Air'. I have gone with snowflakes.

The next challenge is Happy Little Stampers 

The dies I have used are from SU's Snowfall Thinlits,

Then there is the challenge from Beyond the Blue where the theme is 'Let it Shimmer'.

Last but not least, over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown there is a colour challenge

My small Christmas card pile is gradually growing! How about yours?

Happy Crafting!

April xxx

Ruby's Memory Card

Hello! Here is my card for the challenge dedicated to the memory of the beautiful Ruby over at Pixie's Snippets Playground,

It didn't start off quite like this...

As you can see, I managed to drop the pen that I was drawing the holly berries on with! A couple of tastefully positioned snippets of Funky Fossil patterned paper came to the rescue. The stamps are the very cute small Pippin from Lavinia, along with Fir Cone Branch and Fir Tree 1. The holly leaves are a Cardio stamp - the Holly and the Ivy. The holly berries are my own...artistic creation. Actually I like it better with the strange improvised snippet corners, so it was all good in the end!

Happy Crafting!

April xxx

 

Christmas Sketch Challenge

 

My Christmas card making is moving on! This latest card is inspired by the sketch challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown 

Stamps: SU Peaceful Boughs, Bohemian Borders

Dies: SU Tasteful Labels, Beautiful Boughs

Inks: Twisted Citron and Ground Espresso Distress Inks, Tea Dye Distress Oxide, Memento New Sprout, Bamboo Leaves, Desert Sand and Rhubarb Stalk. Tarnished Brass Distress Stain spray.

A Clarity sentiment sticker and some Glimmer Paper stars to finish up with.

It was a great sketch for using some older stamps and messing around with inks! Another card to add to the pile.

Happy crafting!

April xxx

Christmas Stencilling

 

Hello! Another long lapse between posting!

First of all, the star in the corner is meant to be a handy 'decorative' item to usefully hold down the edge of a bendy card. In real life it is an attractive sparkly wooden star from some Christmas pot-pourri (so it smells nice too). On my phone, this is what it looks like. Blown up on my laptop it looks like a mouldy old sponge extracted from the sink... so apologies for that!

The card was made using Funky Fossil's Nordic Noel stamp set and a holly leaf stencil that was also from Funky Fossil.

All the pieces of card are snippets and there is a tiny snippet of cork paper that was a snippety gift from a crafty friend. The stencilled background was made with distress inks and I decided to keep the lovely reindeer very simple with just a touch of Copic colouring.

I am sending my card to Di, Dudley and Parsnip at Pixie's Snippets Playground - I have been away for so long and have very much missed 'playgrounding'.

I am also taking part in the current challenge over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown

Happy Crafting!

April xxx

First Christmas Cards

 

Poor neglected blog. I haven't posted this year - where does the time go?? I can't even blame the soap making, as I haven't been able to face re-doing all the paper work to put my soaps on the new UK portal. A herniated disc earlier in the year did make all soap-making and papercrafting out of the question. Since then I haven't really managed to get back into it at all.

I have felt strangely Christmassy the last day or so. I think it is because we had an amazing thunder storm yesterday with very dark skies and heavy downpours of hail. There was another roll of thunder earlier, but it hasn't come to anything.

The card above is snippety as it uses left-over pieces of Whisper White card for the mat and the fussy-cut stocking. It is kind of snippety in spirit as well because I tend to buy stamping magazines and then never use the stamps that come with them... I do like this Christmas stocking though. It is from an old issue of 'Creative Stamping'. I stamped it with a mixture of Distress Inks - Blueprint and Wilted Violet. The branch was stamped in Rustic Wilderness and the little spots are Tumbled Glass. It's a simple card and one I'd like to repeat in different colours.

I am sending it along to Di and Dudley (for a virtual stocking chew) at Pixie's Snippets Playground I very much like the idea of Dudley in his bathtime burrito.

I made two more cards using various bits of old SU kits. This brings my Christmas card total to three!

Happy crafting!

April xxx

Snippets Card

 

Hello! I haven't been blogging here for quite a long while. Although this strange year has dragged in many respects, time seems to dash away too. I seem to take lots of photos, but I don't seem to do anything with them!

 I hope that you are keeping well and happy. Here is my snippets card for Pixie's Snippets Playground

It really is a very snippety card, as you can see! I found an example on Pinterest that uses the old SU word window punch. Such a good idea for tackling Paper Mountain. Some of these bits of paper have been hanging around for a LONG time! 

Here are some other recent makes -

 

 

 

 

I'm pretty pleased with how the house turned out. It's made using Tim Holtz's Paper Village dies - very cute! The base is chopped off the Christmas tree and it has been covered with gesso, True Snow and a fine glitter. The trees were coloured with Speckled Egg Distress Oxide spray. It was a lot of fun to make!

More cards...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 And finally, a soapy make which had its moments, as soap making often does!!

 

If I don't get back here soon, I hope that you have a very Merry Christmas and a better New Year!

Happy crafting, April xxx

Tasteful Touches

 

 

 



Just that really! Saying hello after about two months - I really am hopeless with my blog!

 

I have used Stampin' Up's Tasteful Touches to make this skinny card. All the leaves and flowers are snippets left over from another card. The flowers were colouring failures that needed going over again with the blender pen and the Wink of Stella. They very nearly ended up in the bin in an overdue fit of tidying, but I'm glad I made them into a new card instead.

 

We stayed in a lovely cottage in Lancashire as a welcome change of scenery. It was greatly needed after my husband working from home (he has gone back now)  and my daughter trying to teach herself A' Levels. It felt wonderful to clamber up Pendle Hill and walk along the river. That will be it on the holiday front. I certainly wouldn't want to attempt going abroad!

Here is a rather dark photo of the river that ran alongside our cottage.

Here's a better photo!

And here is a Pendle witch wearing her mask!

I'm sending my skinny card along to Di at Pixie's Snippets Playground where a certain somebody has been a very sweet Birthday Boy recently!

Happy Crafting! April xxx