Christmas Card Club - Poinsettias

I've been so busy with classes and stampin' parties this past fortnight I completely lost track of our next Christmas Card Club Challenge set by our lovely organiser Margaret. Margaret is a big fan of Poinsettias and she asked us to use them on our card in whatever colour combo we wanted. I'm a bit traditional with them and so I've stuck with gorgeous shades of red using my cherry cobbler blendabitlities to colour my flowers and also the holly berries along with the rich golden centres that Poinsettias have in daffodil delight and old olive for the  holly leaves.  I also covered a couple of the blooms with Versamark and embossed the surface with clear embossing powder to give some more depth.

I started out stamping the holly onto very vanilla card stock and coloured it in. I carefully cut out the image, but inevitably the stems were thin and weak and there was a substantial amount of vanilla showing. So  I thought about how I could have the holly without the vanilla and decided to stamp in Staz On ink on window sheet and colour on the back again with my blendies! I cut the window sheet to fit the flap I created with my Stampin' Up! trimmer.  The card base came to me from Sue who was at my class last week. She'd made some super cards using this type of card base.

My sentiment is 'large' and is from Seasonally Scattered a stamp set that was in the Autumn/Winter Stampin' Up! UK catalogue.  It too is stamped in Staz On.

Now I hope you'll visit the other ladies in the Club who are detailed in my side panel.  I've visited most of them already and I have to say they've done a fantastic job with Margaret's challenge and you will be inspired by how many different and stunning ways you can feature Poinsettias on your Christmas cards.

Back with more soon. Zx

Challenges
CHNC - Anything goes
Sweet Stampin' - All or nothing

Christmas Card Club–Poinsettias

Don't panic it isn't a fortnight since our last Christmas Card Club challenge, only a week has past, but to ensure the challenges fall right nearer to Christmas an extra one has been popped in here!!! The challenge to incorporate Poinsettias was set by Karen B. Thanks for a lovely traditional challenge.            . 

I've fallen back on my trusty favourite Christmas set of Watercolour Winter.  It's a retired set and I nearly sold it to a customer, but I'm so pleased she changed her mind as I really value it and love what you can create with it!  I'm hoping something similar, but different arrives in the next seasonal Stampin' Up! UK catalogue in September. 

I've stamped my Poinsettias with Versamark onto vellum card stock  and then added gold embossing powder, heated it and then flipped over the image to colour the reverse with cherry cobbler marker pen.  I also found that if I used my blender pen it was easier to add more colour and make sure it didn't look blotchy.  I carefully cut out the flowers and also the centre of one to add some depth on my front flower.  I didn't colour the flower centres, but used some pearls which I coloured with my gold pen (I'm hoping these come back again too Stampin' Up! UK please!)  to keep the golden theme.  The greenery is also from Watercolour Winter which is stamped in always artichoke, soft suede and early espresso.  It's a two-step stamp set so you get to highlight the images if you wish which I've done in the case of the pine cones. 

A cherry cobbler sentiment from Christmas Messages and a very gentle 'smudge' around the edge of my whisper white card stock base in crumb cake finishes off what I hope you agree is an elegant Christmas card!

Enjoy your bank holiday weekend.

Zx

Challenges
Crafty Hazelnut's Extra Christmas Challenge - Anything goes
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Something beginning with b - bling, bauble.... Pearls!?!
Completely Christmas - Anything Goes
Speedy Fox and Friends - Flowers

Christmas Card Club with Stampin’ Up! UK Christmas Card

It's time again for the Christmas Card Club Challenge, set this time by  Asha. Her challenge is to make a card featuring something that gives Christmas light! Her words were

Streets, shops, homes, trees ... everything looks so enchanting at Christmas. From twinkling fairy lights to flickering candlelight, from brilliant stars scintillating in the night sky to the faint glimmer of lamps and lanterns - lights transform the mundane into something quite magical.

It's a lovely challenge and one I've really enjoyed working on not least because Asha has dedicated this challenge to the memory of her dog Snoopy who she sadly lost a year ago today. Those of you who are pet owners know that pain and tragedy when you lose a beloved pet.  

It's also given me an opportunity to tell you about Ben, our crazy made Border Collie.  He's a rescue dog from the RSPCA and we've had him for about 18 months now and I think he's finally settled with us, but for those of you who know him already you'll know he's quite a character and very mischievious! 

He steals anything from brooms to wellies to itsy bitsy knickers including lacy numbers that my daughter will murder me for saying!!!! He has worked his magic on us so well that we are all besotted with him and can't imagine life without him.  Our pets are such an important part of our lives not only for the fun and cuddles, but also for the friendship they offer, the stress busting skills they have and for the unconditional love they give from the moment you walk through the front door. 
Asha I hope the wonderful memories you have of your adorable Snoopy will bring smiles rather than sadness to you today. 

Card Recipe
Candles - Fancy Foil Designer Vellum and Silver Foil Sheet
Holly - stamp set Watercolour Winter (retired)
Sentiment - stamp set Christmas Messages
Tools - Decorative Label Punch, Simply Scored Scoring Tool, heat gun, Embossing powder
Ink - Metallic Encore Pad silver, marvellous markers real red and gumball green
Adhesives - dimensionals, mini glue dots

Challenges
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Anything goes
Completely Christmas Challenge - Anything goes

Christmas Card Club - Vintage theme

On time today, what I shock, I know.  Lizzie has set this challenge and the theme is Vintage.  I've used a retired set for the carol singers and a set that is in pending at the moment and I'm hoping comes back in our new catalogue;  Watercolour Winter.  My sentiment is from Curly Cute.

 

To give the 'vintage' look I've used neutrals with a splash of cherry cobbler ribbon and using my blender pen and ink in the lid of the pad I've just highlighted the holly berries.  Using daubers you can age your cardstock by gently building up colour 'smudging' around the edges.

 

I'll be back soon to share with you my weekend in The Netherlands with Olivia and my dutch downlines. 

 

Happy day

Zx

Christmas Card Club Challenge

Our friendly club challenge is set by Clare and she has asked us to use Kraft card stock on our card somewhere.  At Stampin' Up! we now call Kraft ,  Crumb Cake, but it's the same thing!  I've used it for my base card and also to stamp these these lovely images from Watercolour Winter that you may remember was in our AW12 collection and I'm sincerely hoping it will reappear in our new annual catalogue in July.  Fingers crossed.......  The two images on the left are stamped and in the case of the top one coloured in using my inkpad lids as a resevoir for colour from the inkpad and my trusty blender pen.  The poinsettia image was heat embossed with early espresso embossing powder and also coloured in with the blender pen.  You might just spot a touch of French Foliage on a couple of the images and also the left two have been spritzed with a sparkly glow using rubbing alcohol with a mix of water and champagne shimmer paint.  A gold embossed sentiment from Greetings of the Season, another set I'm hoping reappears and a couple of vintage trinket button brads just finish it off.   The colours used are cherry cobbler, always artichoke, soft suede, crumb cake and early espresso. 

Off to visit the others in the club now so why don't you join me.  Their blogs are listed in my sidebar. 

Keep warm and safe.
Zx

Christmas Card Club - Stampin' Up! More Merry Messages

Stampin' Up! More Merry Messages

 Whoohoooo I'm on time at last for our fortnightly Christmas Card Club Challenge and the task this time is for a card with words as the main focus set by Dawn alias Crafty Kitten.  Challenging challenge Dawn, but  was quite timely as my lovely Mum ordered the stamp set More Merry Messages to be in time for this Christmas...!!!!, but she hasn't collected it from me yet and so I cheekily borrowed it to make this card.  Some time ago I made a card using the Scallop Square Die and kept the offcut/aperture made in the cutting process as it seemed such a shame to waste it and after all like all good crafters I just can't throw anything away!!! 

 

I've bent the rules slightly for this challenge by stamping my own patterned paper background using Watercolour Winter which was in our AW12 collection and have layered it with early espresso card stock and then my 'words' are stamped onto very vanilla and again using the new Stampin' Up! Ovals Collection framelits.

 

Do go visit the other lovely ladies in our little club as they are all very talented with different styles and ideas.  Of course if you'd like to join the club then please do let me know and I'll point you in the right direction. There's no pressure and if you miss a week it really doesn't matter.  It's just for fun and friendship.

 

This is also entered in

 Crafty Hazelnut's Extra Christmas Challenge - Anything goes

Sparkles Christmas Challenge - Anything goes

Christmas Card Challenges - Scallops

Back soon.

Zx