Last Rudolph Days Of 2020

Well it's been a funny year, but one thing that did remain the same was the Rudolph Days Challenge and today it's time for the last one of the year. Just one month to go before Christmas Day and although they have announced that families will be able to get together this year after all I wonder how many be planning a very different Christmas than normal. Anyway onto the challenge this month, Maureen as a choice of two wonderful prizes over on the blog. The winner is chosen at random so you have nothing to lose by entering a card into the challenge. It's not my turn to be on the design team this month so I can enter a card into the challenge too. My entry this month is a beautiful cover- a card stamp (like my previous card) from Chocolate Baroque, only this time it's the wonderful holly stamp I've used. Stamped and embossed using gold embossing powder and then coloured using Spectrum Noir pens from Crafters Companion and a sentiment stamped and embossed onto vellum. I'm hoping that I am somewhere near the end of my card making for this year but I still have some presents that I'm in the middle of making to get finished in time.

 

I'm also entering this card into the Stamping Sensation Challenge this month which is Christmas Flowers, wreath or Garland. Holly is very often found in the wreaths or Garlands even if it's not a flower, so hoping that this is acceptable.

Thank you for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue
 

Create A Card

This month the challenge over on the We Love Chocolate Baroque blog is Christmas. Now you don't need to use Chocolate Baroque stamps for the challenge but as I own rather a lot of Chocolate Baroque stamps it would have been rude not to have used one for this challenge. I knew that in my stash I had this beautiful big bold background stamp (in fact I have several different one's) but this is one of my favourites. First I stamped and embossed with gold embossing powder before colouring with my Spectrum Noir pens before mounting onto some matching card stock then onto a 7x7 card blank. The sentiment was stamped and embossed onto vellum and I wrapped it around one of the layers so it was not stuck down on the front. I was colouring this in as my husband went and collected our 5 year old grandson from school. Colouring with expensive alcohol pens is not the thing to be doing with 5 year olds around, so I'm not quite sure what I was thinking while sitting there enjoying myself. As soon as he came through the door it was Nanny can I do colouring with those nice pens please. I managed to find some promarkers I didn't mind him using and we had a very quiet little boy for the next 2 hours as he coloured in the others that I had stamped and embossed ready for more cards. He took his lovely coloured pictures home to show his mummy.

 Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

New Challenge Blog - Let's Squash It

 Let's Squash It is a great new challenge blog just started this month. It's is encouraging you to get those under used Embossing Folders out and use them to make a card. As I have shed loads of these pushed away in a cupboard I thought what a great idea to get them out and play. The first challenge is Geometric and Metal so this diamond shaped trellis design should fit the bill perfectly, I ran the mirri card through the embossing folder, added a little ribbon to the middle, a Heartfelt Creations flower that I already had made. I then popped onto some matching card, the sentiment was already made using the same card that I mounted onto, I had used some holographic mirri card for the It's your Birthday. Although silver it's picked up the colour of the matting giving it a bluey/lilac colour. While making this I suddenly remembered a Birthday that I had forgotten, so now this card is winging its way through the post.

 

 Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Celebration Time

Bet you don't believe this, twice in two days. Will she be able to keep it up? I hear you saying.  This week the challenge over on the Allsorts Blog is Celebration Time. The other week I showed you a Golden Wedding card that I made for my S-I-L & Hubby at the time I told you that I had to make more than one for this event, this card is the one that I made for my Mum to give to them. I used Tattered Lace dies and charisma from the Peaceful Picture Decoupage collection for this card along with All Occasions Dies for the sentiment.

 Thank you for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

October Rudolph Days

Wow I can't believe that we are almost at the end of October, but as it's the 25th it's time for this month's Rudolph Days Challenge. I'm so glad for this challenge as I now have quite a stash of cards ready for Christmas. This month I've used a beautiful stencil made by Sweet Poppy Stencils here in the UK and a small stamp from Inkylicious also here in the UK. I'm not going to bore you with how I inked it as there is a fantastic video on YouTube that will show you how made by the fabulous Eileen Godwin, just click on her name and it will take you there. I used various shades of blue distress inks for my blending and then I stamped using Memento London Fog. I do hope that you can come and join in the fun this month. As usual Maureen has the choice of two fantastic prizes on offer to be picked by the winner who will be chosen at random at the end of the month.

 

 Hope this finds everyone keeping safe and well.

 Thank you for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Birthday Book

Well more of an Album than a book. Earlier this year just before lockdown I was honoured to be chosen to be on the new My Creative Spirit Design Team. Although this was announced on the My Creative Spirit blog we went into lockdown and everything sort of went on hold. Now things are slowly getting back to normal and my first DT project went live on the blog yesterday. This is a photo of the completed Album but if you want to see how I made it and for a tutorial please do pop over to the My Creative Spirit blog where you will find all the details of what I used and how to make the Album. I would love for you to leave me a comment and let me know what you think and if you decide you to make one I would love to see your photos to.

 

 

 

Thank you for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

 

Sue 

Time Flies

Time Flies, that's what I've called this post. I don't know where that last week or so has gone and I'm off out again in a short while. I'm meeting my Sister and Mum's as we are still sorting a lifetime of saved stuff. Last Saturday we spent sorting out files and files of saved paperwork (please let me just say to all of you who save years worth of receipts - you may be keeping them just a little bit too long), which we then bought home to sort through properly. My shredder has been workong overtime this week. 

 

Anyway onto my card and the reason that I called this post Time Flies. In September my Sister-in-law celebrated her 50th Wedding Anniversay and I had to make 3 cards for the event. Here is the one that I made that was from Hubby and myself. It was a beautiful day and we managed to have a very small select gathering in her back garden, not the way she had planned to spend the day celebrating but  in the current situation it was a great day. I used  Tattered Lace Dies and USB (for the background) from the Vintage Picture Decoupage collection. I cut the flowers out in gold mirri card and then used glue gel to layer it together. The sentiment was printed on my PC and I centered the die over the top and cut out.

 

 Well I must go now as I'm meeting my sister in10 minutes and I might be slightly late.

Thank you for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Take care and stay safe

Sue

The Great Outdoors

OK so this is strange, so far I've avoided the new blogger but today it seems like I'm stuck with it. Sorry that I have been absent for a long time but as you will have read in my last post my Mum had a fall and went into hospital. From being able to get about (I say that in the loosest of terms as it was agony for her to walk)  with the aid of a walker, she can now no longer walk. My Sister and I with her best interests at heart have been trying to talk her into going into a care home for some time now. This has now been taken out of our hands and three weeks ago Mum went into a care home from the Hospital. This has taken a lot of the worry away from us as we now know that she is getting proper care 24 hours a day, rather than 2 times a day morning and evening. However it does mean that we have to sort her house out and sell it. Something were not looking forward to. I was 8 years old and my sister was 4 when we moved into the house as children, we have so many happy memories there.

Anyway onto my card for today which is The Great Outdoors, just what is being asked for by the Stamping Sensations Challenge blog this month. I was lucky to get my order in for Sheen Douglas's first USB earlier this month and so I have use an image from that for this card, which is for a friends Birthday today. We have just had a few days away in the Lake District and I've tried to colour the mountains how they look at the moment up there, with the bracken turning to a lovely rust colour, with a bit of green showing through (I might have more green than rust). I used my Spectrum Noir Coloursoft pencils to colour the image. I have also decided not to use a sentiment on the front of the card too.

Well I'm off now to get this posted before they shut the door and it's to late to enter the challenge this month. Thank you to everyone for their kind comments on my last post regarding my Mum.

 Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

 Sue

 

 

 

August Rudolph Days

Another month has flown by and it's time again for another Rudolph Days Challenge. I'm glad to say that I started making these cards with plenty of time to spare, as my mother had a fall and has had to go into hospital. If I had not already started these cards I doubt that they would have been made. I've used a new stamp from Pink Ink for my cards this month, the sentiment came from a set that I have in my cupboard but can't remember where I got them from.  I coloured the image using Colour Blend pencils from Spectrum Noir and then went around the edges with distress ink - Salty Ocean. I do hope that you have time to join in the fun over on the Rudolph Days Blog, there is always a lovely prize for the winner who is chosen at random.

 Another eight cards to add to my collection.

I hope that you are all keeping well and staying safe.
Thank you for taking the time to look and your kind commetns which are always appreciated.

Sue

Birthday Dragon

I can't believe how time flies, this card was what I made for my youngest who celebrated his 34th Birthday on Saturday. I used Pink Inks Dragon which I stamped onto plain white card and coloured using Spectrum Noir pens, I then fussy cut around the outside and set to one side. I took a background that I made by spraying inks onto card, I think they were Sprinky inks from Inkylicious. The swirls that have been added were from the stamp sheet that the Dragon came on . I then stamped the Dragon onto the background and placed the fussy cut image over the top. This Birthday came just in time for me to pop along to the Allsorts Challenge which this week is Make it Masculine.

Hope that you are all staying safe and keeping well.
Thank you for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Album Workshop Number 5

Just to warn you that this post is photo heavy. So by now you will know that once every two weeks I attend a virtual workshop in the form of Facebook live with Clare Charvill from My Creative Spirit. Although we have just had Workshop 7, I'm only just getting around to showing you the pictures of Album number 5. This was The Dorothy Box And Album. I used papers from The Portrait Of A Lady by Graphic 45 to decoate this project. I'm not going to waffle on I'll let the photos do the talking today, I'm off to brave shopping with a face mask.

Hope you are all keeping well.

Thanks for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

July Rudolph Days

Wow I can't believe that it's time for the Rudolph Days Challenge again. The time is certainly rushing by even though we've been in lockdown. I'm a little late joining in this month, but with the rules on social distancing relaxing a little, this weekend I had a couple of my Crafting friends around for a bit of a catch up and craft. We sat a distance around a large table. It was so good to see them again after so long. Anyway onto my cards. I found some backgrounds sitting on my worktop the other day and used these to make my cards this month. Two were blended inks, Prisma by Hunkydory and the other three were Spectrum Noir sparkle pens that were blended on the paper with a wet brush. I over stamp onto these using  this gorgeous stag by Studio Light. As there is a verse of "Chestnuts Roasting" running through the middle of the stag I decided not to add a sentiment at this stage, who knows I might at a later date. As normal Maureen has a fantastic prize for the person who is picked at random at the end of the month, I do hope that you can join in the fun.

Hope you are all keeping well.

Thank you for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always apprciated.

Sue xx

Thank You

This is a card that I made for a very special friend who very kindly went and searched for a collection that I had tried to buy (unfortunatly Create and Craft failed me) but never received. Thanks to her hard work and effort I now have the collection that I was trying to buy. You know who you are if your reading this, I can't thank you enough. I made the card using Pink Ink's Hare stamp, first by making a background using Picked Raspberry in Distress Oxides and Tim Holtz Stencil. I then inked in some hills and using small stamps from the set in the background made a scene. I then stamped the hare onto the scene and also stamped it onto a piece of white card, after using very pale pink alcohol pens and a blending pen on the hare I fussy cut it out and stuck over the one on the scene. I'm going to enter this card into the months challenge over on the Stamping Sensations Challenge blog as this month their theme is All Creatures Great and Small.

I hope that you are all keeping safe and well

Thank you for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Album Workshop Number 4

I've got a bit behind with showing the Albums that I've been making on Clare Charvil (My Creative Spirit) Facebook live workshops. This one is number 4 The Polly Pocket Album which was made 4 weeks ago now. I ended up with quite a lot of photos on my camera that need to be downloaded and edited. For this Album I printed my own papers from a Tattered Lace USB in My Craft Studio called Picture Postcards. The papers on this USB are gorgeous and the A4 full sized papers lent themselves to being shrunk down to postcard size and used as ephemera cards in the album. Needless to say this is quite photo heavy.

The Memories Die is from Tonic

Pocket on the Front for tags.

Pocket and box pocket on the inside front , enough room for ephemera cards and a tall wallet.

 

The open wallet.

   

Wallet in the box pocket.

  

First page with the front flap lifted showing the pocket on the inside as well as the outside.

The centre of the album, I've added a frame to each page here made from a Crafters Companion die.

The forth page and the back with the pockets filled with tags, ephemera cards and a short wallet.

This photo shows more pockets on the inside fold outs and also the bottom box pocket.

 The short wallet ties with a robbon.

The back.

I've already completed Album Number 5 and have the instructions for number 6, however I am playing catch up on that one. We changed our internet provider on friday and while everything went fairly smoothly I didn't have internet on Friday evening so could not craft along.

Thank you for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Keep safe and stay well.

Sue 

June Rudolph Days

Time once again for another Rudolph Days Challenge, they seem to be coming around really quickly even though we've been in lockdown. I must say I'm sorry for not having this posted earlier, normally I schedule my post the night before. But I'm having a few issues with my Mum at the moment and completely forgot to do it last night. Once this is live I'll will be off to see her again today. Anyway onto my card. I've been having a bit of a sort out during the last couple of weeks and I found a box of stamps and dies that I'm ashamed to say had never been used. They are by Sheena Douglas and from a Christmas Collection that she bought out in 2018 (No longer available). I used the Snowflake corner die and silver Mirri card and one of the stamps from the set. First I inked around the four sides of my card base and then added the sentiment with Archival Watering Can. Next I added the Snowflake corners and added some gems to each snowflake. Finally I added small fairies from Lavinia Stamps again using Archival Watering Can ink. I do hope that you can join in the fun this month, as always Maureen has a wonderful prize that some lucky person will win after being chosen at random.

I made five cards in total, three cards with a turquiose blue and two with shaded lilac DI.

Hope that this finds you all well and staying safe.

Thank you for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

New Home

Just before lockdown started I had a Crafty Friend who moved to Australia. After living with her Daughter during the lockdown downunder she has recently moved into a new home there. I made this card and sent. I know it's been received now so I'm safe to post it here. I used a stamp from Chocolate Baroque designed by Kim Moody and Called Poppy Cottage. I stamped onto water colour card and used my new water colour pens from Phil Martin.

Hoping this finds everyone well and keeping safe.

Thank you for taking the time to look and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue

Album Workshop Number 3

I'm just popping in today to show you the results of the last Facebook live workshop with Clare Charvill (My Creative Spirit) just over a week ago. I enjoyed making this so much I made a second straight away. You might find this post a little photo heavy.

My first make used papers from Crafters Companion's Downton Abbey which was bought out a few years ago now. I decided that it was time to use these gorgeous papers.

As well as making the box with a sunken top for showing thing off in we made two brag books to go inside.

One was landscape and one protrait, both held together with ribbons.

As you can see for the photos I've left the pages very bare in this version, just right for placing photos onto them.

As these books were concertina style I used the same papers on both sides.

For my second make I used Graphic 45's Midnight Masquarade collection. I've had this in my stash for sometime but until had not used it. 

The sunken top with a tiny pair of binoculars in along with a framed picture.

The brag books inside the box.

Unlike the last box and books I decorated the inside pages of these two with bands and small pockets.

I love the gorgeous papers in this collection, the colours are so vibrant.

I'm now getting ready the workshop 4 which is this coming Friday and Saturday evening between 6 - 8 pm where we will be making a beautiful Polly Pocket Album. If any of you are interested here is the link to the project and instructions of what you will have to do, If you can't make the times it will be live you can still do the project as the video stays on the Facebook group page so you can access anytime you wish to.

Hope that you are all staying safe and keeping well.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and your kind comments which are always appreciated.

Sue