Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone, hope that yours will  be  all you could wish!
Bah humbug was my salvation last year - I actually ended up with a few spare cards, almost unheard-of before, although I have to admit to buying some charity ones for general use. Unfortunately for me, Ann and Max have decided to have a well-deserved break - then (thanks to Val) I discovered a similar new blog here, so I shall still have something to push me into making Christmas cards...............
Anyhow, this was using up one of the housemouse images I had already cut out but not used -  otherwise I would only lose the bits! I thought that this would also make a nice New Year card. Very simply matted onto green and gold, then onto a card blank covered with holly paper from the Artylicious Seasons greetings cd (from Chocolate Baroque)- and a new year resolution is to buy a new blade for the paper trimmer, as the current one seems to be catching................

Christmas housemouse

Way back in the summer, I used part of a gift voucher to get a set of Christmas housemouse decoupage from the wobbly shelves- I used one image, carefully stashed the rest away - they surfaced last week, so I thought I ought to use some more! As luck would have it (it has to work sometimes!) , several challenge blogs all have themes that would fit these little meece, so this is for the last Bah Humbug of the year (cute critters), CD Sunday (things with whiskers), Make my Monday (seasonal glitter) and the new Joanna Sheen challenge (Christmas).

I spent a happy afternoon at the weekend watching tv and cutting out meeces, finally deciding to use this pic of two snoozing  meece. I matted it onto some green glitter card, added a bit of glitter to the snow on the roof, mounted it onto a square card over a square of snowflake paper from the Artylicious Seasons Greetings cd (from  Chocolate Baroque, there may still be some in stock). The snowflakes were from a Sizzix die, cut from white card (wouldn't you know I didn't have any white glitter card ?) then glittered with Art institute crystal glitter - I now have a glittered carpet as well after dropping the tidy tray I was using ............and will probably soon have a glittery cat, as there is bound to be some I missed still there.
Now to start using up the others I have cut out................

fabric flower

This is a rather late entry for Bah humbug, where Ann and Max wanted something using fabric  - I thought I had some glittery fabric, couldn't find it, so dug out the felt and net I bought ages ago to try out with the tattered florals die. I cut one layer in felt, several layers in different nets - afraid they all look the same colour in the shot, but there are actually 4 different shades in there somewhere - and layered them up, adding a chipboard circle triple embossed and stamped with a poinsettia stamp from an old Elusive Images set. Leaves are paper from the tattered leaves die, and all mounted on a box created from the Sizzix  top note die from Stampin up
Am also linking this to the craftroom challenge, for flowers,  thanks to Kate !

Bah Humbug boxes

The latest Bah Humbug challenge 45 is for a gift box - so I used my Sizzix pillowbox die from Stampin Up. This is  a disappointingly small die - ok for jewellery, but too small for the mini chocolate bars I wanted to use.  I did try folding the card before cutting it to get a longer box, then decided it was far easier to just cut 2 out of different cards and put them together. I trimmed the flaps from the red card, and cut the gold one in half before glueing the halves  behind the red one. The greeting from Chocolate Baroque was stamped on white card with black memento ink, coloured with promarkers  - the extra fine tip was a great help - cut out and glued on top.
 The second  pic shows 2 more pillow boxes, the smaller one is the original size, stamped with a lovely flowery pear stamp by Artemio and embossed with detail gold EP - I went over the design on the par with a white gel pen, as I didn't think it stood out enough - next time, I will stamp onto white card and cut it out! The second box is another extended one, with a flower made from glassine and baking parchment using the Tim Holtz tattered florals die - the leaves were punched using an EK punch.
The bottom pic is what I call a cheese slice box, made from 1/3 A4 piece of card. The reindeer was from a die - Marianne?- cut from white card, glittered and a gem on his nose. The trees are from a chocolate Baroque stamp.

bah humbug 44

Bah humbug 44 challenge is to use a snowman - took me quite a while to remember that I had this Tim Holtz stamp, which had never seen ink before today. I made a tag, using DIs in antique linen, tattered rose, milled lavender, shabby shutters and tumbled glass for the background, and chipped sapphire round the edges. I ran the tag though the big shot with a snowflake embossing folder - no name on it though - brushed shimmer paint over the snowflakes and glued some snowflakes cut from glitter card with a Martha Stewart punch over some of them.
the snowman was stamped in chipped sapphire, and embossed with a holographic EP, then stuck on top - ribbon is a bit of shiny pale blue organza that was lurking in the bottom of the drawer

flower die

  I have not been able to keep up with all the challenges that I would have liked, and this is the first one for Playdate that I have managed for quite some time. The colour scheme was kraft, flesh and pale blue for challenge 105, and I thought that would do nicely for a Christmas card that would also fit Bah humbug 43, to use die cuts - also a chance to play with my new stamps from Chocolate Baroque! I started with a kraft card blank, cut down from A4, and stamped the image from the Christmas cheer plate in bashful blue ink - so far, so good - problem was matching the blue ink with card to make the flowers, almost had to resort to colouring white card with the ink ( can quite see the attraction of stampin up's colour co-ordination now!) I used a Marianne die to cut the flowers, and a top note die to cut the backing shape from glitter card, the nearest I could find to a flesh colour. I partially decoupaged the trees and tree trunks in the front of the image, cut it out and glued it over the die cut before adding the flowers. I added some shimmer paint round the edges of the petals, and a quick squirt of silver spray as well.                                                              The second card will also qualify for Bah humbug, as I used the same dies. the stamp is from the Peace on earth plate, embossed with copper EP onto white card. The card was then brayered over using the waterfall big'n'juicy pad, before using night of navy ink to darken the sky immediately round the star, then chipped sapphire DI over the rest of the card. Cut out, mounted onto a thin layer of copper card, then onto a piece printed from the peacock summer party cd (also chocolate baroque) before adding to an A5 card in dark blue. Copper card for the marianne die flowers, with the leaves from an EK punch in green.

nativity

The challenge at Bah humbug this week was 'nativity' - an ideal chance to try out my new stamps from Lindsay Mason! A very simple card, as I was short of time this week -stable  image stamped in memento, masked then the palm trees added. The town image is an old stamp from All night media. I stick down a post-it circle for the moon, covered the ground with a piece of ripped paper, brayed over the sky using a big'n'juicy waterfall pad, then went over it again with stampin'up night of navy ink. I dragged some of the darker ink over the moon after taking off the post-it as it looked a little too bright. I then used the bit of torn paper to mask the sky of and sponged stampin' up inks in creamy caramel and really rust to create the sand in several layers.

swirl 2

Found this stamp after moving piles of craft stuff to get at the Christmas stamp drawer - think it is by Creative Expressions, called fairy tree - another one which has not seen much use. Thought I may as well try it out as an extra for LIM, (who were up to 450 when I just checked, so a way to go yet!) also for Bah Humbug 37. Had to give it a red background to get it to scan, card is just white with silver embossing.

swirls

Ann and Max at Bah Humbug this week ask for swirls - I got this Papermania stamp just before Christmas last year, and it has not seen much use, though it came in very handy for very last-minute cards then. I dug it out quickly to do an equally last-minute entry for the challenge - just stamped with versamark and embossed in sterling silver EP (would have been better with detail silve, but couldn't find that after clearing up to allow visitors to stay!
This also fits with the LIM challenge 33, for anything goes, off there now to see how close to their target of 1000 entries (Blogger permitting) they are getting this week -

bah humbug 33

Bah Humbug 33 is to use something new - the stamp by Wendie Rhodes is new to me, it was part of the set of stamps I borrowed to use for challenge 25, penguins - I quite liked this scene, so stamped a few images before returning the stamp set to Moira. The one that made it to the card was rhe 3rd attempt, so I may be asking to borrow it again!   I coloured the image with promarkers, then covered it with versamark and clear embossed it. The background was brayered and masked. The sky began with  the waterfall big n'juicy pad, then stampin up night of navy over the top - I found that the waterfall on its own was too bright, and the navy too dull, but both together was fine! The sand dunes in front were done with stampin up crumb cake ink.

After I had finished the colouring, I thought that my new top note die would go well with the oriental image, so cut it out, with fingers firmly crossed that the cut would be in the right place! (I did mark the die first with white marker so I had a fighting chance of getting it right). The matting layers were cut freehand, 2 in linen-effect silver and one from paper from the Artylicious decadent brocade cd (from Chocolate Baroque) and mounted onto an A5 dark blue card.

Have reloaded the photo, hope the zoom works now - Blogger was playing up when I did the original post, and didn't want to load the photo at all

                                                                                          

kiss-mass

This week's Bah humbug challenge is Kiss-mass - and I immediately thought of the unopened pack of housemouse decoupage that I had had for some time, and this image seemed perfect.
I did decide that I should have chosen something else once I started cutting the bits out though............definitely fiddly, and this was the time my knife blade decided to get blunt .................I gave up a few layers short, matted it onto gold mirri card and onto a card blank covered with paper from the Seasons Greetings cd from Chocolate Baroque.

When I was trying to get a decent photo, my own mog decided to supervise the strange activity, so I aimed the camera at her as well - which was when she decided to go all bashful! This was the best shot I could get as she wanted to roll around my feet instead of posing prettily at a decent distance.

white on white

White on white was this weeks' challenge 32 from Bah humbug - the second unstated challenge was to get a picture of the card. The best photo I could get was a delicate shade of blue, so in desperation I scanned it - I did have to put a sheet of snowflake paper from the Artylicious Seasons Greetings cd behind it to get it to show up at all, but it was a far better image!
I used one if my favourite angel stamps from Stampendous, stamped in Versamark onto vellum and embossed in detail white EP. I ripped this out, then mounted it using pinflair glue gel behind the embossing onto a similarly ripped piece of white card that had been embossed round the torn edges with a  white puff twinkle EP from Wow that was a regretted  impulse buy last year - must admit it came out ok this time though! Background pearlescent panel was run through a provocraft snowflake embossing folder a couple ot times, then mounted onto a pearlescent white base card.

Also on a Christmas theme was this little gift box made at a Stampin  Up evening last night - you can't really tell from the pic but there is a little drawer that will take chocs,(or mini soaps if you are malicious!)  and the lid opens like a card. Hard to explain, but easy to do - hopefully Lisa will put better photos on her blog at some point. It measures 3" square, and 1" deep when done, so definitely small, but on the plus side doesn't take much card...................can see me doing plainer ones with cash inside for family...........

bah humbug shape

bah humbug want a shaped card this week - I ended up with this one after trying to make a rocker card with an oval die and failing miserably (well, I did end up with an ok one, but it was sooo small...........). Mind you, this one isn't too wonderful - the faulty cutting really showed up on the scan, so obviously I should have measured it rather than just cutting round the original shape!
The stamp is by Stampin-up (assume it is an old one) , and came in a batch of Christmassy stamps from ebay - this and a santa were the ones that caught my eye originally, although I started out looking for more angel stamps.............. Anyhow, it was coloured with watercolour pencils after stamping with black memento ink before being cut out and matted onto white glitter card

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.

bah humbug22

this challenge theme was 'surprise' - and I have to admit that I surprised myself by actually doing it! My mojo had totally gone, and my first thought of a shaker card was that it was hardly a surprise, and the next ideas were dismissed as too complicated for the time available. My clearout produced remnants of an ancient Christmas-themed goody bag - complete with unused paper and reindeer stamp - and with time running out I decided to go dead simple and wrap a chocolate bar. Having forgotten then to buy a decent choc bar to wrap, I had to use a cheapo supermarket bar from the baking stock, so hope it fits a better bar later on. Just a  piece of paper wrapped round the bar, with the reindeer stamped onto a nestie shape and coloured with promarkers and stuck on top - sorry the scan is a bit squiffy, and cropped a bit tight as well.............. must do better next time!

bah humbug bells

Challenge 21 from bah humbug is to include bells - I was getting worried ,then I unearthed this stained glass image from Funstamps when doing some much-needed clearing up (I am one of those people who would never dare to put a pic of my desk on the blog, 'cos I can very rarely actually see the desk!), partly driven by having to find the bed for my daughter's threatened visit and also by a clearance sale at the local Focus store.
Anyhow, I stamped the bells with black memento ink, coloured them in with promarkers, cut them out and glued them onto a kraft card also found during the mammoth event. The wallstones were hand-drawn with sandstone promarker, deliberately squiffy to look ancient, and heavily smudged with blender pen.

penny slider card

Challenge 20 on Bah humbug is to make a kinetic card - I thought this would be a doddle as I made several of these penny slider cards last year............. First problem was to find an image - the santa I used last year was borrowed, and no way was I going to drive around 30 miles to borrow it again, so I thought I would use a diecut snowflake - the penny was larget than the centre of the snowflake, so I had to add a smaller one behind the big one to hide the penny - then I absentmindedly glued the bit with the slider slot in it to the blue card - before I had cut the matching hole in the blue card. As I had used the strong red dst, no way was it going to come off, so I had to operate with a pokey tool, and the smallest scissors I had (plus a few choice words) and eventually managed to hack a hole - fortunately it doesn't show from the front! The dp is from the Seasons greetings cd from Chocolate Baroque, on both the top and base blue card, so it shows through the slot in the front.

snowflakes

this is a very quick and easy card for challenge 19 on Bah humbug - the dp covering the card blank is from the Artylicious Season's Greetings cd, and it printed out a little paler than I remembered - could be something to do with my printer being short of ink! The snowflakes were cut from white glitter card using a borrowed spellbinders die set the other week - one got accidentally sprayed with blue glimmer mist, but I thought that a white one got lost in the bottom corner, while 3 blue ones would have been a bit much.

'green' blue card

not amused by having to redo this post thanks (?) to Blogger having a major hissy fit, especially after having to have several goes to load it the first time . due to another hissy fit.................at least, thanks to Blogger, the deadline has been extended for bah humbug 18, so I can actually redo it.

The challenge was to use green or a recycled element - I am totally out of green card, so it had to be recycled, and the image came from a card I received last year which had fortunately escaped the recycling bin! I dotted cutout snowflakes onto a blue base card, and sprayed it with sapphire glimmermist - it doesn't show up too well on the scan, so will try to get a photo this weekend if the weather stays camera-friendly . I trimmed the image down, rounded the corners, and matted it onto gold card, also with rounded corners, then onto the base card. very simple - had to be, I ran out of time this week!

photo now added, snowflakes show up better here - sorry for gravel background!

bah humbug 17

The challenge this week was to use pleats or ruffles - I did wonder if I could get away with just using this image from Elusive Images (now Chocolate Baroque), which is on the same plate as the stocking I used for an earlier challenge. I think I did this the wrong way round - pleating that is - as I stuck a strip of dst on the card and then pleated the paper strip onto it - in hindsight, would have been far better to have pleated the paper first, then stuck it down! (I might also have got it straight that way!- well, it is straight, just not straight on the card, if you see what I mean)
The backing paper is from an old pad of Christmas papers by DCWV, which is coming in very useful after being liberated from the bottom of a heap - it fell over, no tidying involved - image stamped with an Adirondack pad in raisin onto white card. After tearing the image out, the paper was sponged with DIs in old paper, wild honey and rusty hinge, trying my best to avoid the cook's apron. I did use a waterbrush to spread a little ink onto the ribbons and ruffled edge of the apron and to add a bit of shading to the face, hands and head.
Thank you to Ann and Max for letting me play with Bah Humbug this month, have really enjoyed my DT month, and my best wishes for an equally happy time to the new DT team for May