Silhouettes for Christmas at Dream Valley :)

Hello everyone!! :)


I’m excited today to be sharing my first DT card for Dream Valley Challenges... I’m excited in advance, though, writing this post early and scheduling it (which will hopefully work this time!!lol) as it’s actually my birthday and I’m not sure I’ll get chance to get on the computer as I think I’ll need all the little energy I have left after struggling with a cold all week to cope with my lovely birthday visitors!! :) But, to get back to the point... lol...

We have a wonderfully easy challenge for you at Dream Valley this time (which is just what we need in this the ‘headless-chicken season’ as I tend to think of it!!lol) and we'd simply like to see your 'Christmas' creations... told you it was easy!! :) As this is such a hectic time of year for us all, this challenge is going to run for four weeks which will see us well into the New Year, ‘til January the 8th to be exact, so plenty of time to share those last Christmas cards after the event if you don't get chance before!! :) We have several sponsors for this challenge, too, including One Stop Card Crafts... pop over to the Dream Valley blog for all the details!! :)

Now, I haven't really been well enough due to the cold bug in my system to spend any time at my desk- or even try my usual trick for those bad times of crafting in bed!lol- but luckily I had a card just waiting to be shared with you and hope I'll be forgiven for not making a new one specially... so here it is...

I fancied getting inky and doing something a bit different the night I made this and so a play with some of my fab new stamps from Inkylicious was called for!! :) I started off trying to create the sky with my (barely been out of the drawer since I got it! :S) brayer a la Barbara Gray... not sure if it was the ink (I had to use DI as that was the only dye ink I had in the right shade and I've never seen Barbara use those) or just that I need a lot more practise, but it was very hard going for my arms after the first couple of tries and I really wanted to get a card made so I reverted to the old faithful Cut'n'Dry!! I kept the rest of it really simple to let the scene take centre stage :)

The beautiful images are ones I've had my eye on for a while and they're stamped in VersaFine (they stamped perfectly first time, too despite the town one being so big! :) ) and the panel then matted and edged with Stickles as it all looked a bit dark. I also used a waterbrush to paint a subtle shimmer of Clear Stardust over the moon (which I'd masked with a random Nestie circle I found in my desk... might have been a shade too big?!lol) but it's not showing well in the pics... v pretty in the flesh, though!! :)

I tied a double bow with two colours of seam binding and then stitched- yes, me, stitched... and stabbed myself, of course, trying to tie the knots, as my illness-addled co-ordination really seems to hate me trying to use a needle and thread for some reason!! :S lol - the little jingle bell to the back of the knot... I was trying to make a fairly flat card to start with but I seem to be unable to resist bows, and multi ones at that, at the mo' and there really had to be a bell on this card of all cards, didn't there!?! :)

And to finish it off, I added one of the gorgeous sentiments from the fab Waltzingmouse Compliments of the Season set again... they are all so lovely but this one really seemed perfect for this scene... and everytime I catch sight of it I start singing 'Walking in a Winter Wonderland' to myself- one of my fav Xmas songs!! :)


The List:

• 6"x6 Sq. Scalloped In The Edge card blank
• White card
• Scrap circle shape for masking
• Distress Inks: Stormy Sky and Dusty Concorde
• Stamps: Silhouette Town and Sleigh from Inkylicious; 'Sleigh Bells Ring' from Waltzingmouse Stamps' Compliments of the Season set
• VersaFine Onyx Black ink pad
• White paper coloured with Black PM for mat layer
• Sakura Clear Stardust pen
• Stickles: Frosted Lace
• Seam Binding: Lady Lavender and White (coloured with Midnight Blue PM) from The Ribbon Girl
• Jingle Bells
• Clear Gems

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges (which I'll link up as soon as I have chance to get online!): CES – A Traditional Christmas :) ; Joanna Sheen - Christmas Wishes :) ; My Mum's Craft Shop - Traditional Christmas :) ; SecretCrafter - All Creatures Great and Small :) ; Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes with the option of something dangly :) ; Pollycraft - Christmas Fun :) ; Stampin' For The Weekend - Christmas :) ; Sarah Hurley - Christmas (whoops- missed this one!! :( ) ; Little Claire's - Family Christmas :)



Well, that's my first card for Dream Valley- I'm still v excited and really looking forward to being on this lovely team... thanks, Melly!! :) Thanks for stopping by and I hope you like it!! :) Please pop over to the Dream Valley blog to see the fabulous work from the rest of my new teamies... there's lots of lovely inspiration for you!! :)


Not sure when I'll be back as I've got a fair few cards still need making after losing last week to this cold... think it's going to be quick and simple ideas all the way from this stage... thankfully, I have all but two of the special family ones sorted already, thanks to DT projects inspiring me earlier than usual!!lol Hope you are all keeping well, warm, dry and as little blown about as possible!! :)

It’s All Christmas-sy at Forever Friends!! :)

Hello again Bloggers!! :)

I'm back again as promised- if slightly later in the day than intended!!lol As it is now officially December- how!!??!! O_o - it is time for our next Monthly Challenge over at Forever Friends & Co. And it's an incredibly easy one for you as 'It’s All Christmas!!' is our theme and, if you're anything like me at least, then all you'll have the time to think about is getting those Christmas cards, tags and gift ideas made!!lol We are being sponsored by the lovely Di's Digi Designs for this challenge so come along and join in the fun!! :)

I went all vintage-y with this one, inspired by this lovely FF stamp and some new acquisitions from the amazing Waltzingmouse Stamps- their gorgeous Festive Foliage set to be precise!! :) - and made my own background paper by stamping on parcel paper... then I got out a host of Tim Holtz's Distress fabulousness and let myself play with DIs on the edges of everything and the absolutely indispensible Antique Linen Stickles on all the corners- in my usual 'spread it around with my fingers' style of application!! :) 

I must say that, despite spending ages fiddling with this pic in two different photo editing programs, it still looks a bit more green around the gills than it really is irl- the other pics probably show the colour better but this was the best I could do!! :S

I coloured on Kraft with my Prismas- my first attempt at colouring these lovely bears with pencils on any kind of card and it’s not great but I'm reasonably happy for a first attempt!!lol

The largest snowflake is another MS punch- which I got for just over a fiver in the sales last year!! :) - and the others are Make it Crafty Chippies which I inked with DIs, then covered with Distress Crackle Paint... I actually used White Picket Fence- thought I had some Antique Linen but apparently the day I remember putting that in my basket while shopping online was one of the rare occasions I managed to rein in my stash-addict tendencies!!lol But it didn't matter as it took on the colour from the inks anyway... so no need to buy any other colours after all!! :) I also added some Stickles to them after the paint was dry, too- that I really must get some more of!!lol

The lovely sentiment is from the WMS Compliments of the Season set- another stunning set!! :)

The List:

• 5"x7" Kraft card blank plus another to cut up for the image
• Image - Forever Friends wooden stamp from Docrafts, stamped in Memento and coloured with Prismacolor pencils, OMS and paper stumps
• Cream cardstock
• Martha Stewart PATP Cherish punches
• Kraft parcel paper
• Festive Foliage and Compliments of the Season stamp sets from Waltzingmouse Stamps
• Versafine ink pads in Olympia Green and Vintage Sepia
• Distress Inks- Vintage Photo and Peeled Paint
• Make it Crafty Chippies snowflakes
• Distress Crackle Paint- White Picket Fence
• Distress Stickles- Antique Linen
• Mink Flat-backed Pearls from Crafty Emma's
• Natural Jute Twine from The Ribbon Girl
• Sakura Clear Stardust pen (just a teeny bit on the hats) 

I'd like to enter this in the following challenges: Cupcake Crafts - Colour on Kraft :) ; Ready Teddy Go - Anything Goes :) ; Joanna Sheen (the first ever challenge!! :) ) - Christmas :) ;  Anything Goes - Cutting Corners (if the corner punches used for my image mat are enough and second entries are okay?) :) ; Pollycraft - Christmas fun :) ; Fab 'n' Funky - Anything Goes :) ; Divas by Design - Anything Goes :) ; Sweet Stampin' - Punches and Dies :)

Please pop over to the Forever Friends & Co. blog for a look at the gorgeous cards my teammates have created- we have some fab and talented new ladies joining us on the DT for this challenge, too!! :) - and we'd love to see you joining in with your FF images... or if you don't have any at the mo' then any animal on your card will do so long as you follow the theme!! :)

Thanks for stopping by my little corner of Blogland today- hope you'll pop back soon!! :) I have plenty of things just waiting to be posted so I'll try and be back soon... but I really do need to get a wriggle on with the ol' Christmas cards so need to spend some time crafting as well as posting!!lol I had some good news this week as I've been asked by the lovely Melly to join the team at Dream Valley- I'm really looking forward to my first challenge with them in a week or so- on my birthday in fact!! :) Thanks for all your comments on my card yesterday, too- I really do appreciate them all and am doing my best to make it round to a few people at a time whenever I can manage it myself as I know it's been far too long in most cases!! :)