A Leaving Card

I hope everyone had/is having/has had a lovely Christmas/Festive Season. We had our three offspring home, although two have already left. And now we're in the last couple of days of 2013, with the new year looming. Am I the only person who thinks January is the most depressing month of the year? After all the hype and preparation for Christmas, January just seems like an unending wasteland with nothing positive to look forward to. But enough of that. On to the crafting!

One of my colleagues is leaving next month, something we only discovered just before we broke up. And with everyone home, it's not been possible to do much crafting, so I set to with my laptop and prepared what I could. Then, with the house to myself for a chunk of yesterday, I got something finished.

I used an image and paper from the Josephine Wall collection on the Enchanted Dreams CDRom. (It's on sale now on the Joanna Sheen website if you're interested ...) The recipient is a big fan of pink, but it's surprising just how little pink there is on that CDRom - at least in terms of images that seemed appropriate. (I don't think she'd like fairies/angels etc.) So, I went with this one, sizing everything for an 8 by 8 card, then used a lilac/pink for matting and some flowers. I made all the flowers using a combination of punches, Susan's Garden dies and Cheery Lynn dies. I used my newly acquired (Christmas present) Pan Pastels to shade the flowers.

I adapted the backing paper for the inside; this is the left hand side of the insert.

The right hand side is a mirror image with a sentiment added. Since my printer only goes up to A4 size, I can't print a single insert for this size of card.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Crafty Girls where anything goes,
Charisma Cards where anything goes,
Crafts 4 Eternity where the theme is 'something new' (my Pan Pastels),
Digitally Sweet where anything goes,
Sister Act where anything goes,
Challenges 4 Everybody where anything goes,
That Craft Place where anything goes,
The Squirrel and the Fox where anything goes,
Crafty Creations where anything goes,
The Paper Shelter where anything goes.

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 194 Continues!

Don't forget the five week long challenge over at One Stitch at a Time which is continuing!

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 194 Continues ...

Don't forget the five week long challenge over at One Stitch at a Time which is continuing!

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 194

This is the last One Stitch at a Time challenge of 2013, so it's an 'anything goes'! And, it's going to last for five weeks, so you've got loads of time to enter.

Our sponsor is Stitchy Bear Digital Outlet

This week, I got to work with an image from Cootsy Creations. I went to the shop, looking for a Christmas image because, well, it's that time of year! But I spotted this image, called Mehendi Peacock, and I couldn't click away. I love peacocks anyway - it's the colours! And the papers included in this image are absolutely gorgeous. Anyway, enough of that. This is what I came up with.

As usual, I coloured the image with Promarkers. I loved the papers so much, all I did after that was use some gold mirror card for matting and left it at that! The image matt uses a Spellbinders Grand die.

I hope you can join us some time over the five weeks of this challenge!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Artistic Impressions where the theme is anything goes/favourite colours,
Digistamps 4 Joy where anything goes,
Divas by Design where anything goes,
The Stamping Chef where anything goes,
DRS Designs where anything goes,
Card Crafters' Circle where they want to see 'gold',
Crafty Catz where anything goes,
Polkadoodles where anything goes,
Sister Act where anything goes,

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 106

This time at Crafty Cardmakers, the challenge is set by my team mate Marie who wants us to create something depicting 'winter fun' without being Christmas or New Year based.

Our sponsors this time are

and

See the challenge blog (link in my sidebar) for further details.

This time, I got to work with a beautiful image from our sponsor, Paper Shelter. I chose to work with the ready-coloured image and paper supplied.

I added the sentiment in Photoshop Elements before printing the image onto photo paper. I cut it with a Nestibility and matted using gun metal mirror card cut using a Grand Nestibility. I completed the card with snowflakes cut from the same card using a Cuttlebug die.

I hope you can join us this time, and don't forget to come back in the new year for more Crafty Cardmaker challenges!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Everybody Art where the theme is 'winter',
Papertake Weekly where anything goes,
Crafty Girls where anything goes,
Shelley's Images where the theme is 'welcome winter',
Crafty Hands where the theme is 'winter',
Sister Act where anything goes,
Sweet Pea Stampers where the theme is 'It's Cold Outside',
A Gem of a Challenge where anything goes,

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 193

This week at One Stitch at a Time, the challenge is 'Seeing Red' - that's it. We want something with red in it. Simple!

Our sponsor is

who are offering the winner three Promarkers! And you can never have too many of those ...

This week, I chose an image from Hope Jacare called Holly which is available from the Stitchy Bear shop - see the sidebar for a link.

I cut the image and mat using my Nestibilities, and coloured with Promarkers. The fancy die cut is from Sizzix. I recently treated myself to a few bits from their sale, and this was one of them. Unfortunately, it's a Sizzlits style die - which means it's got foam backing. Despite having a Sizzix die cutter (Big Shot Pro), I don't have a lot of luck with these dies, and this was no exception. It took multiple passes to cut, and the problem with that foam backing is that it seems to stretch the card, so it's not possible to get the cut lines lined up exactly for multiple passes. I've found something that works, but it's more effort than it should be. I finished with some sticky gems that I coloured with Promarkers, and the paper is from my collection - a pad I bought a couple of years ago, I think.

I hope you can join us this week.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

LEJ Designs where the theme is 'Christmas is Coming',
Papertake Weekly where anything goes,

Sweet Stamps where the theme is 'Red and Green',
Crafty Girls where anything goes,

C.R.A.F.T. where the theme is 'Christmas',

Digi Haven where the theme is 'Christmas',
Patti's Creations where the theme is 'Christmas',
Sister Act where anything goes,
A Gem of a Challenge where anything goes,

One Stitch at a Time Challenge 192

This week at One Stitch at a Time, our challenge is to use a digi - so off you go!

The image for this challenge was chosen by my team mate, Shell. It's Olyvia from Delicious Doodles which is available from the Stitchy Bear shop - like in my sidebar.

I coloured the image with Promarkers, die cut and matted using Spellbinders dies. The paper is from Kate Knight, and I finished with flowers made using a punch and a Susan's Garden die set from Sizzix.

I hope you can join us this week.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Party Time Tuesdays where anything goes,
Sister Act where anything goes,
Crafty Girls where anything goes,
Crafters' Cafe where anything goes,
I Love Promarkers where anything goes,