All Shopped Out...well, ‘til my next LOTV order anyway!! ;)

Hello again!! :)

I’m back with my second and third Christmas cards and my first with my new Lili of the Valley Xmas stamps :D :D I think I may have alluded to the fact that I bought rather more of these little cuties than I had intended to...but I just couldn’t resist!!! And I love them all so much!!! :) The biggest problem I had was knowing where to start playing!!

One of the reasons- aside from their utter gorgeousness that is!!- that I love these bears so much is because of a decoupage card kit I got from C&C a couple of years ago; before that I’d never bought a decoupage kit as I’ve always loved stamping too much but I loved the little bears so much that I had to have it!! I made all my Christmas cards from it that year, loving every minute of working with the gorgeous bears, and, when I went back to the remains of the kit last year to make up a card as a request from a friend, I found myself smiling from ear to ear all over again :) And so when I saw the LOTV James and Jenny bears, which are the same adorable characters, I was so happy that I went all mushy again and lost all restraint- well, not quite true I didn’t buy all of them...yet... ;)

I loved the look of my last monochrome card and the paper I used so much, and the paper was perfect for the LOTV Challenge, so I used it again for these cards :) I cut half the front off the base cards (I’m still trying to make two cards the same or similar whenever possible to build up my stocks- a particularly good idea with any Xmas cards I manage to make, I think) and then cut a square of dotty paper slightly smaller than the base cards and cut it half diagonally, too, to line both cards.

This image wasn’t the first I stamped or even coloured, but as soon as I had the stamps, I wanted to enter the LOTV challenge and the idea for this card just popped into my head so I inked her up :) The bears from the C&C kit were in black and white with just a little colour in their hats etc. and that was the look I was trying to recreate for myself. I had to wait for the Cool Greys Promarker pack I’d ordered in readiness to arrive, but then I got going :) Jenny is coloured using Cool Greys 1, 2, 3 & 4 and for her hat, scarf and shopping bags I used Slate (one of my new colours which I love :) ), Lavender and Rose Pink, all of which were blended out with the Blender Pen :) I was so worried I wouldn’t be able to get this look right as I wanted to so much but, although I know my colouring’s still far from perfect, I’m really pleased with how it came out- and better still, it came out right first time!! :) I used circle and scalloped Nesties to cut her out and then added plenty of Crystal Stickles to her hat, the ground and all around the edge for some Xmas sparkle!! :)

The sentiments and snowflake rounds are more of the ones I’ve been designing whilst playing around with the new graphics program I downloaded- I still can’t quite believe a technophobe like me could do that but I think the key to any improvement I may have made with computers is the development of a ‘dog with a bone’ mentality of just not giving up ‘til I get the (d**m!) thing to do what I want it to!! lol – printed out and cut with Nesties (I sized them to fit first) and matted on Nestie Blossoms cut from glittery black card :) The snowflake is from a free font I found online :) I also used more of the fab hat pins from Crafty Emma's :)

And this pic is just to show the circles in the paper and pearls- I promise I’ll stop taking pics of pearls soon, I just love the way they look- and it is relevant to the challenge as they're circles!! ;)

A pic of both cards together :) I love these so much that I think I’ll save one of them to be my sister’s Xmas Card and change the sentiment to include the word ‘Sister’- one of the great things about being able to make them myself!! :) But I may change my mind if I make something I think she’ll like even more so I’ll leave doing that till nearer the time!! :D

So, firstly, I’d like to enter this in the Lili of the Valley Challenge – Go Dotty for Circles :) My first of many entries I hope!! :) And I’d also like to enter it in the following: Winter Wonderland – All I Want For Christmas :) ; Wild Orchid Crafts – Make It Sparkle :) ; Paper Sundaes – Christmas in August :) ; Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight – Glitter and Sparkle :) ; Creative Inspirations – Christmas in August :) ; CES – Anything Goes :) ; and Passion For ProMarkers - Teddy Bears' Picnic :)

Wow- now I just have to go and link all those up...!! ;) Thank you to all the people who’ve left such lovely comments on my last cards- it really does make such a difference to me as I’m not usually able to be with people when they open my cards and it’s great to hear what people think of them :) :) Hope you’re all having a good week!! :) I’m off for a much needed rest then back to work later on my next big project- my Aunty’s 60th card- a learning curve for sure!! :)

hugs,