Kadoodle and A spoon full of sugar challenge 71

Hi everyone! A card today for A spoon full of sugar where this time the challenge is a Christmas Creation so I thought I'd show this card which I haven't had a chance to upload. I've used my new holly swirls stamp from the Joie de noel set for Kadoodle at the Craft Barn as the focal image in dark green Ancient Page ink and also to stamp all the background papers throughout the Tri Shutter Card with a brilliance gold pearlescent ink. It's a very easy card to make, it just takes a long time to cut all the panels :D. There's a great tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers which shows how to make it. I used Oval nestabilities, a craftwork cards die cut greeting, some green ribbon, punched snowflakes, gems, pearls and red flower to finish.

Ally Pally and Embellish

Hi everyone, I hope you've all had a good weekend. I had a brilliant time on Saturday at the Big Stamp and Scrapbooking Show at Alexandra Palace in London and met up with my blog friends Jo, Kim and Kim for the first time. What a treat it was to meet them, such lovely ladies, we had a great time and it was a day to remember! I'm looking forward to the next one! I bought a few things and nothing cute at all, mostly arty stuff so I'll be giving the grunge paper a whirl soon!  Jo kindly sent me some of the photo's that were taken on her camera as I'd forgotten to put the memory card back in mine and here we all are below

fltr Jo (Boots Blogspot), Kim Costello (Paper Babe), me, Kim Dellow (Crafty Makes)

A nice coffee break mid afternoon and it was such a great pleasure to meet Jacqui (Cats whiskers) (my right) for the first time as we've been in touch since I started blogging and never managed to get together. We also met Debbie (debbie4000) (standing behind me) just before she left which was a lovely surprise.

It was great to meet Bev at last who was demonstrating and able to take a minute for a few pictures :). I can't believe I didn't manage to be in this picture!!! And here we also bumped into the lovelies Marlene and Caz. Sadly we missed Rach who was there but we didn't see.

A big hello to you all girls and thanks for making Saturday a very special day!

Here's a card I made today for the challenge on Embellish. The colours are turquoise, kraft, red and brown and it must also include twine. Now that I read it again I think these are the only elements allowed apart from any stamps used and I realise I've added ribbon which isn't in the list, whoops, looks like I've failed on this one! I've made a flower loosely based on a tutorial that Kim sent me the link to and the roses are so pretty but use stamps I don't have so my flower is very different as it had nine petals instead of the six it's meant to have but I'm pleased with how it came out. The card blank and matting layers are all Bazzil turquoise card and the Bazzil Kraft card including the kraft card for the flower has been stamped randomly with Artistic Stamper background stamps: dotty background and houndstooth background with Fired Brick and Broken China distress ink. I've sponged the edges with vintage photo and made up the little tags from the same card. The sentiment is from Family Greetings by Elzybells. Have a good Monday. Chris x

Dare U 2 Digi Stamp Challenge 22 - Punched Shapes or Die Cuts

Hi everyone hope you're all looking forward to the weekend and we're nearly there!!! Here's my card for DU2DS where the challenge this time is Punched Shapes or Die Cuts, so there are many possibilities including punches, nestabilities, dies, pre-cut chipboard etc. I've punched some snowflakes for my card from my background paper which is by K&Co and the name escapes me at the moment but I'll update when I check. I've used my new digi image 'Christmas Card Crisis' and watercoloured with distress inks then added stickles, sparkle glaze pen and silver glitter pen which hardly shoes up at! A straightforward card design as I wanted the image to be the main focus. To finish off I tied a red ribbon at the top and added some gems to the centres of the snowflakes.

If anyone is going to Ally Pally on Saturday I hope you'll shout as I'm going too and meeting up with some of my blogging friends for the first time which is brilliant. Have a great weekend. Chris x

Colour Create 29 - Hot pink, Dusky Pink, Iced Chocolate

Hi everyone, another Colour Create Challenge card today and this time our colours are chosen by our very talented Di and are a gorgeous combo of hot pink, dusky pink and iced chocolate, so thanks Di, I loved working with them. The optional extras are pearls and swirls but as always these aren't compulsary. Our sponsor this time is Simon Says Stamp so you know that there'll be a great prize up for grabs too. Hope you can join us, there's some fantastic inspiration from my DT friends with these gorgeous colours as always.

I've used a sweet Hanglar girl for my card and she's water coloured and then cut out. The card blank is in the darker coloured pink and I've used a layer of brown swirl patterned paper by Pebbles next which I've edge distressed and then a layer of paler pink card which I've cut on the diagonal this is mounted with dimension tape. This is where I did more of the swirls element by stamping in chocolate ink around the edges with a couple of Personal Impressions swirl stamps and added a sentiment by Elzybells in the same ink. I added the pearls to some of the swirls and then finished off with some little bows that I made and some flowers which were white but I coloured with copics to match the paper. Hope you can bear with my while I'm changing my blog a bit and I hope everything is working ok, more work to do which I hope will be sorted soon. Have a good Thursday. Chris x

Kadoodle Boules de Noel Stamps - Christmas Stampin' All Year Round

Hi everyone, hope you're week is going well so far. A card today for Christmas Stampin' All Year Round Challenge where this time there has to be a colour combo with non traditional colours i.e. no red, green or blue. I made my card in white and gold and so it should be ok for the challenge, there's also a sketch you can follow if you wish. I've used my new stamp designs for Kadoodle which are 'Boules de Noel' available from the Craft Barn. I stamped them in versamark ink on white card and then heat embossed them with gold powder. After that I cut them all out and attached to the card blank which is embossed with the CB snowfall folder. I cut the front of the card blank shorter so that I could make this a kick stand card. I took another piece of white card and edge punched it with the MS snowflake punch and then mounted this piece with dimension tape and with a wide gold ribbon tied under and over it. I think I might make a few more of these for my Christmas card stash as I like the gold and white combo and it was fairly quick to make.. Take care, Chris x

BasicGrey Challenges 4 - Embossing

Hi everyone, hope you're off to a good start with the weekend, we have a bit of sun here so I'm happy! A card today for BasicGrey Challenges where this time it's the lucky draw challenge and the theme picked is embossing which can be dry or heat embossing or both and the project must contain at least one BG product. I've chosen dry embossing for my card and I've embossed the BG Boxer background paper with a CB Argyle folder, I also embossed a panel of the Kraft card. The image is a Gorjuss Girl from Sugar Nellie water coloured with distress inks and I've added some stickles here and there and sponged the edges of the image with peeled paint distress ink. The BG paper is edged distressed with scissors and I've added some doodling with a white gel pen. It's all finished off with a pretty flower that I got from the Craft Barn, gems, punched leaves and a rust coloured satin bow. I hope you can join us this time and there's some wonderful inspiration from my DT friends to start it off. Enjoy your Saturday, Chris x

Kadoodle - Country Pub

Hi everyone, hope you're all well and also I hope you can excuse my lack of blog hopping lately, I hope to catch up as soon as I can. This is another of my new Kadoodle stamps, 'Country Pub' which is available at The Craft Barn shop and will soon be available online too. I've coloured it with Copic markers and added lots of glamour dust for a nice wintery effect. I made the background paper using my new holly stamp design from the 'Joie de noel' set also from The Craft Barn. To make the paper I inked up the stamp with pine needle and peeled paint distress ink so that there was some of each colour around the stamp and then stamped randomly onto white card. I then overstamped with some metallic gold ink, distressed and sponged the edges. The card blank and matting layer are gold metallic card and I've finished off with a wide green satin ribbon. TFL. Chris x

Kadoodle Church

Hi everyone, hope you had a good weekend. I have a card today that I showed at the Craft Barn Extravaganza using my new Kadoodle Church stamp and also my Kadoodle swirly stamp available now in the shop and soon online. For this card I've used the Church to make a wedding card, I also made another where I've used the same stamp for a Christmas card and I'll post that one later on. The church stamp is water coloured with distress inks with a bit of stickles added for some sparkle. I stamped the background paper with the swirly stamp from one of the sets of images in versamark ink and then applied some gold perfect pearls powder. The card blank is cut from gold pearlescent card and the layers applied with some dimension tape. I added some flowers, distressed the paper edges and finished off with a cream bow and a doodlebug rub on.

I had a great time at the weekend at the Craft Barn extravaganza, it was lovely to meet everyone and chat and I know that some of you are readers of my blog, so a big hello and thank you for spending some of your time with me. Debby (debby 4000) and Julie (julie's inkspot) it was a great pleasure to meet for the first time and it was lovely to see my DU DT friend Kim (Simplyfairies) again. I also met Fiona who might have a blog very soon and who I've been in touch with by email, it was great to see you all.

As you can see from the photo above we had a laugh at the end after clearing up, my lovely friend Sandra and the gorgeous Paula Pascal who is so sweet and funny and who make the events very special. Stamping Caz was also demonstrating and it was the first I'd met her, a lovely lady who very kindly took this photo of us. I got to see Isabelle Norris very briefly who came over from Canada for the event so that was lovely. I did get a very special photo of Paula but have been banned from blogging it :) and also a good one of Leandra from Paper Artsy but I forgot to ask her if I could blog it so I haven't. Hello to you all girls, thanks for making the weekend a very good one. Thanks also to Sandy and the team at the CB for an enjoyable time and sweets to eat too! OK, enough :) . TFL. Chris x

Kadoodle - Christmas robin

Hi everyone, hope you're enjoying the weekend so far. Today's card is my first Christmas card this year and is using one of my new Kadoodle stamps for the Craft Barn. The Christmas robin is inspired by my friend Dawn who, loving robins at Christmas suggested I draw a 'fat robin', hope it's fat enough for you Dawn :D and that you like it and no doubt you'll let me know when I phone you after the weekend :)! So, this weekend, I'm demonstrating water colouring at the Craft Barn Extravaganza weekend and I'm very much looking forward to it, it's always a great event and there are some amazingly talented demonstrators attending and lots of classes. If you're in the area and able to pop in I hope you'll come and say hello :)

I've watercoloured the robin and postbox image with distress inks and then added some glamour dust for sparkle. It's mounted onto the step card I made from gold pearlescent card and the borders are all punched with an MS snowflake punch. To finish off I added a red velvet ribbon and bow and I made a big snowflake cut out from acetate with a sizzix snowflake die, spinkled with chunky glitter and completed with a large red gem. The sentiment is a Doodlebug rub on. There are quite a few photo's of this one, I took a few close ups and couldn't decide which ones to use so you're getting them all :). Enjoy your Saturday. TFL, Chris x

Colour Create 27 - Neon Green and Black

Hi everyone, a card today for Colour Create Challenge and a lovely combination chosen by Jo of Neon Green and Black with an option of leaves. Thanks Jo, I love these colours and enjoyed working with them. I have to own up to forgetting our option this time which is leaves but I'm hoping that the fleur de lis looks enough like leaves to get away with it :D. My DT friends have come up with some amazing projects with these colours, I just love them all and I hope you can join us this time.

My card is made using a nestability fleur de lis shapeabilities die and I've cut them in alternate pieces of black and green bazzil card then layered them up on mounting foam. The edges of the card blank are sponged with black distress ink and I've added some black half pearls and some green ones that I coloured with a copic marker. There's a little black wire and chiffon butterfly as the last layer which you might be able to see if you click on the picture, it hasn't come out too clearly. TFL and see you tomorrow with my DU card. Chris x

What's on your desk, Wednesday

Hi everyone, hope you're all well and having a good week. I'm very much lacking in posting at the moment I'm afraid after having been away and various other things going on so, apologies as I haven't been able to reply to comments. I thought I'd enter the photo above into What's on your desk Wednesday challenge which I found on Julia's blog and which made me smile and I think is a bit of fun more than a challenge. As you can see I work on the dining table and am now down to zero space to work in so will have to have a mega clean up. I'm very messy, this is after the makings of three cards and the table is quite a good size :D . I don't know why there's a piece of orange card in there either, I haven't made an orange card! See you tomorrow with my Colour Create card. Chris x

BasicGrey Challenges 3 - Inspiration Challenge

Hi everyone, hope you're all well and have had a good week. A card today for BasicGrey Challenges where this week we have an inspiration photograph for you. There are gorgeous creations from my DT friends who've come up with some wonderful interpretations of the photo. I hope you can join us again this time and of course there's a fantastic new monthly prize on offer which is very kindly sponsored by Simon Says Stamp, as long as there is a BG product used somewhere on your creation you'll automatically be entered.

For my card I used the colours in the bed quilt as my starting point and made a four and a quarter inch gatefold card. I've used gold Bazzil card for the card blank, aqua for the matting layers and PP from BG Porcelain pad then inked the edges with distress ink. I've used a Tilda from the Autumn kit and also the two pears and the rolling pin accessory stamps which have all been coloured with markers, cut out and layered on the card. I hand wrote a sentiment on the label on the rolling pin, added some stickles and a pretty shot silk ribbon to finish. Hope you have a great weekend. Chris x