Christmas roses

A simple card this week, this lovely image from Chocolate Baroque doesn't need anything else IMHO - and lack of time has nothing to do with it!  The image was stamped in black versafine and clear embossed before colouring  - the foliage with pencils, and the flowers with H2Os . I cut the image out and mounted it  with foam pads onto a piece of white card that had gone through a cuttlebug folder, and rounded the edges. The two smaller mats were a bit of paper from a bagful of bits I was given, torn and embossed round the edges with a mix of EPs ( black twinkle and golden ocean) , the second was a bit of core-denations  card that went through the same cuttlebug folder before being sanded back and the edges distressed. The main backing sheet was most of my last sheet of a greeny gold paper bought from a show ages ago - am hoping I can find some more this year!

This card is for 3 challenges - am not usually that lucky.....

52cct - theme 1 - flowers

make my Monday 33- flowers and leaves

moving along with the times 133 - blooming marvellous

gift tag

Another challenge site that I haven't  been to for a long time is Moving along with the times - this week their challenge is food and drink. I couldn't find the original stamp I had intended to use, but did find this Christmas pudding from Chocolate Baroque, and decided to turn it into a gift tag to go with one of the Christmas cakes that I have started to bake.
The tag was stamped with a pine needle stamp from Tim Holtz using forest moss DI, then stippled and sponged with antique lined, shabby shutters and fired brick DI in a random way. once it was dry, the needles were stamped and embossed in gold round the edges, edges distressed and gold embossed as well.
Pud was embossed in gold on white card, then again with the image coloured in inks applied over versamark with cotton buds then clear embossed. It didn't work as well as I had hoped, so after cutting the pud out, I added more brown inks to the pud again with cotton buds. I cut the image out with an Xcut die, then sponged antique linen and shabby shutters round the edges, ran a versamark pen round the edges and gold embossed them. The coloured pud was decoupaged onto the original gold image, which was then added to the tag, with red and gold ribbon to finish.

vintage glassine

I really didn't need to add another challenge blog to the hopeful-to-do list, but I discovered Make my Monday through Val's blog, and as the theme is vintage, it fit in quite well with my current fixations on using the Tim Holtz kraft glassine aand making flowers! As MAWTT is also on the list, I decided to try a vintage style Christmas card - I stamped the angel from Elusive Images (now Chocolate Baroque) onto the glassine using Stampin Up  chocolate chip ink, heat dried it, then carefully scratched the flower detail and the edges of the wing feathers. The image was torn out, mounted onto a beige card embossed with a Provocraft houndstooth embossing folder which was then rubbed over with another SU ink, creamy caramel - I used to be rubbish at inking embossing, but have found that the mini pads seem to work better, probably because I can't be as heavy-handed with them. The edges of the embossed bit and the base card were sponged with  brushed corduroy distress ink. The flowers were made using the TH tattered florals die and old brown paper envelopes, with a quick spritz of copper glimmer mist to cover the different browns - gold leaves from an EK punch.

penguins

The challenge for bah humbug 25  is to use penguins - as I live in a penguin-free zone, my friend Moira lent me her Wendie Rhodes stamps, and the lovely swirly  penguins come from the winter wonderland collection. As soon as I saw them I thought they would fit with the Less is more challenge sketch, so long as I used squares for circles. The backing paper is from the Echoes of Italy set by Glenda Waterworth - it just looked iceberg-y to me- and the penguins were stamped with black memento ink. Base card is white pearlescent 8x8, and got the sides trimmed slightly on the scan.
Am also entering this for the MAWTT challenge 104, clean and simple - you could hardly have anything simpler!- and for Crafty Hazelnut's challenge 26, anything goes.

2B's

The challenge this week on MAWTT is 2B's - or more! I had this unused stamp that was a magazine freebie, and immediately thought of this, as there are 3 B's just in the stamp - boy, balloon and baseball cap - so that gave me a headstart! I stamped him in black memento ink, coloured with promarkers, with blue jeans and brown shoes and hair just to add a few more Bs. Don't think I can count the Bigshot I used to cut the oval shape out with - I cut the mat oval out with some fancy scissors, mounted everything onto a card covered with dp from an old K&co pad, and added a bit of green ribbon (with a flat bow thanks to a lot of dst) and then some buttons - I know the ribbon bow and buttons are not normal for me, but sometimes needs must!

calorie-free!

 The challenge from Moving Along with The Times this week was 'have some cake'  - no problem there, well, not once I had found my cupcake stamp by Carrie Dennison for Elusive Images.
I stamped three times using vintage photo DI, using a mask over the centre cupcake - had to be brown to be my favourite coffee ones! The images were coloured with promarkers and I added glossy accents onto the chocolate decorations. The glittery stuff  over the icing is stellar flash from Crafty Notions.
The easel card was covered with paper from a Laura Ashley pack I

picked up in a bargain tub somewhere, and I used the same paper inside too - I thought it looked like wallpaper. The cupcakes are mounted onto a silver oval for a tray, with a strip of punched paper behind them as I couldn't find a small enough doily.

green,grey, orange

the original plan was to make one card, using the colour scheme from Playdate 65 of green,grey and orange, and the sketch from Moving along with the times 82 which also needed a flower image.

The rose image is from Elusive Images (yes, I do have an awful lot of their stamps) stamped in smoky grey versafine, coloured with pencils- torn our, matted onto dark green paper. Base card is Stamping up, and the cuttlebugged panel was glimmermisted..This is the one I prefer, and is for the Playdate challenge.

The second card -well,actually it was the first- is for MAWTT - uses the same image, this time with the edges sponged with spiced marmalade DI. The grey panel is embossed using a Tim Holtz music folder, rubbed over with bundled sage DI; the ribbon was coloured with pear green promarker; flowers from a woodware pack. Sorry, the scan isn't too good, will try to get a photo tomorrow