TREES, CLARITY CHALLENGE

       I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas, gosh all that preparation and it is all over so quickly. There was even a little bit of snow on Boxing Day which added to the atmosphere.  We had a great time, thankfully my son had recovered from a nasty bout of flu in time to enjoy the festivities. I really have eaten too many rich things so it will be back on the diet next week. 
      I would like to share with you probably the last Christmas card I made this year.  Claritystamps have set a challenge for December under the theme of TREES, so I am entering this card. I have always enjoyed Iris Folding so I combined that technique with the stamps and stencils from Clarity. The stencil that came with the Clarity Design Club this month was perfect. A little fiddly to cut out but that was ok. 
    
     Firstly I drew round the stencil in pencil onto some 7x7 Gelli card  then cut out the inside of the tree. On the other side I stamped my background design, I did this after the cutting out just in case I spoilt the design.

   
     Then it was just a question of choosing some papers for the tree design. Some gems were added to finished picture to look like lights twinkling on the tree and a little star at the top.

Closer view of Iris Folded design

   All I needed to do then was double mount it onto some blue then silver card  and  then onto an 8x8 card base. 

Completed card

   Stamps I have used are:  NDC  pine forest 
                                                 Santa and sleigh from Christmas remountable set
                                                 Small deer from Remountable Woodland Animals set
                                                 NDC tree stencil

      Hope you all like this card  and I look forward to seeing what the new challenge will be for January. I would also like to say Happy New Year to you all.

 
    

BEADED SNOWFLAKES

      Hello, thankyou for taking time to visit my blog during what is one of the busiest times of the year. I am sure everyone is getting in the festive spirit now. I do enjoy Christmas and have just been to a lovely Carol service. It was great to join in with all the favourite Carols. We just needed some snow to complete the atmosphere, which brings me onto the theme of my card. 
      I enjoyed making this card, it was very relaxing to sit and sew the beads on. Firstly I  pricked the pattern of the snowflake onto a piece of card cut into a tag shape. The pattern I used on this card was taken from a magazine by Crafter's Companion. Next I sewed the beads into place.

       For the base card I stencilled some snowflakes onto plain card using a lovely stencil from Clarity. I used a matching colour of ink to the tag.

    Adding some gems , flowers, sparkly reindeer and a ribbon bow completed the sparkle.  

Completed card with the addition of die cut snowflakes and a greeting.

  I also made one in red as well.  Very festive.

Red version

    These were special cards for my family but I am also entering the Aqua coloured one into the challenge at Fussy and Fancy. I hope you all enjoy yourselves in the next couple of weeks and have a Happy New Year as well. 

CHRISTMAS CARDS

    Only two weeks and the big day will be here,then we will all be able to take a deep breath and relax and enjoy ourselves. We love Christmas in our family and all try to get together at some point. There are quite a few of us, so sometimes this can be difficult, Nevertheless we eat too much and play silly games. I am on a diet at the moment and have done quite well in the last few months with weight loss, so I am going to be sensible about my food choices. Will have a few small treats though.
     Anyway I have been busy in the last few weeks trying to get my cards completed, all good intentions of being organised did not happen. I have hurt my knee which has slowed me down immensely also we are in the process of having our en-suite and downstairs cloakroom replaced. We are in one big mess at the moment. Should be finished by next week. I have made a selection of cards just a few special ones to finish.

    I made this one using the lovely stencil that was sent from Clarity last month. I am a member of their stencil club and we receive a new stencil every month . Using some black mirri board, I just dragged some glitter paste through the stencil. Quick, easy and effective. I was also able to make quite a few cards in a short time.





The following cards were just made using some pretty papers that I had in my stash.

This would have been a favourite with my dad, he loved robins.

                                 

I have a few more I am making but nearly done now, have even got the ones ready to post. Hope you are all getting on ok with your Christmas crafting and are enjoying the build up to the main event.