Satsuma?????

Satsuma?? Never heard of that colour but I hope I am right in assuming that it is a kind of orange colour. It's one of the colours in this week's Winter Wonderland challenge. The others are chocolate and gold. The theme is "Christmas Stocking". You can do either or both. I did both.
Here is my entry.....it is a gift card holder that was designed by Claire in Ireland (Waltzingmouse makes). I found the template for it on SCS when it was the Technique Lovers Challenge #248 . You can find the link here
I wanted to make one last christmas ...but you know how it is....just never got around to it! So thanks WW girls for the inspiration to finally making one!

Candy Cane Christmas

The theme at WW this week is "Candy Cane" so we have been challenged to use just red and white on a Christmas Card. (Hope they don't notice my tiny bit of silver bling!!) The other stipulation was that to be eligble for the blog candy we were not allowed to combine their challenge with any other challenges. Well looks like I have blown that one too because I have combined my candy cane card with this week's Clean and simple challenge on SCS (#52 )which was to case this cute layout from. kmahany. Oh well!...don't seem to be very good at winning blog candy anyway ..( my rather depressing score is ZILCH!). Anyway hope you like my card. It uses SU Riding Hood Red Cardstock and ribbon, Big W DSP, Small star punch from Lincraft and sequins from the bling set I bought at my local newsagent which seems to have been a very good buy as I am using it heaps!. Once again I wish you could see the IRL sparkle!

CASEing Sharonlovestostamp

I came across this card by Sharonlovestostamp on SCS this week and liked it so much that I made a version of it straight away. I had seen ornament cards like this before but I liked the way she had hung the ornaments down from the scalloped border. Again, since I did not have the stamps she had used I had to get creative and improvise with what I had . First I stamped my background of swirls (from Season of Joy) in Versamark on Whisper White. Then I made the baubles from one of the Circle Circus images which were stamped and then embossed with silver . The hangers were made with half a word window punch with a small hole using the cropadile. Then I threaded through silver cord and attached it under the border ( See it's useful as well as attractive!)
The sentiment is from Season of Joy too but I am not happy with it- I wish I had a more swirly elegant one for cards like this- Maybe Santa will bring me one!!

Delicious Divas Challenge #1

Well here finally is a card! A pretty plain one I guess but at least its a start and made in my new "studio in a cupboard"! (Scroll down to the last post if you don't know what I am talking about) The sketch is the #1 challenge sketch from a new challenge blog site created by Kellie and Kristy called " Delicious Divas" (which is a pretty appropriate name you will know if you have ever met these 2 lovely ladies!)I really needed to catch up on some Christmas cards as I am now 2 weeks behind what with my trip to Sydney and then my cupboard cleaning frenzy!! I have just realised that I forgot to add the 3 brads at the bottom right corner- and I also didn't notice there was stitching around the image- oh dear I am pretty rusty!! Sorry I'll do better next time I promise! The DSP is Garden Green print from the Level 1 Hostess gift pack, the cardstock and ink is garden green with clear embossing and the ribbon is non SU from my stash.

Winter Wonderland #3

Week #3 already! I'm keeping up so far! Even managed to have it done early this week but couldn't get it posted because it was hard to get a good pic. I know I keep saying it but the card does look better IRL when you can see the shininess of the silver embossing .The theme for this week is "Let it Snow". Usually at Christmas it is very hot in Australia so I don't make many "snowy" Christmas cards! But right now it is pretty cold here in Melbourne so it was easy to get in the mood ! The tiny snowflake on the top section is from Short & Sweet and the larger one and sentiment from Season of Joy.The cardstock is the beautiful Sage Shadow ( I don't usually like green but I love this shade!). The DSP is Wintergreen (retired) and the ribbon from my stash. (I think from "The Warehouse" for Aussie readers)

Winter Wonderland #2

This week's challenge was to make a card inspired by a Christmas Carol. The carol I chose was "Deck the Halls" ! I have wanted to make a "wreath" card for ages but never thought that I had the right stamps to do the job. Then one night, lying awake in bed,thinking about stamping (LOL as you do!!) I suddenly thought of using Trendy trees! Do not ask me why!! (Lol ...Who can cure us of this terrible addiction????) Anyway the next day I tried it and it actually worked-well I am pretty pleased with it anyway. (The card does look better IRL)The berries are made using "Autumn Flair" and I have put some "sparkles" on some of them. The cardstock is Kiwi Kiss and Riding Hood Red and the ink is Encore silver. Please tell me I am not the only one who lies in bed thinking about my next creation!!!

Winter Wonderland #1

Don't mean to alarm you... but.....I've started to make Christmas cards! And so have lots of other stampers at a very new blog called "Winter Wonderland" Each week this site will gently encourage stampers with a challenge so that by the time Christmas gets here- you are well on the way to having those cards done! Week 1's challenge was called "O Christmas Tree" and it was simply just that- make a card with a Christmas tree. - not too hard so far! Mine uses a layout from the Clean and Simple stamping blog- it is one of their "10 minute Monday" cards.
I have used Always Artichoke and Purely Pomegranate (retired) cardstock, and Holiday Harmony DSP(retired) The background snow flakes are stamped in silver ink using a stamp from the " short and sweet" set. The sentiment is also from that set. To make the decorations for the trees I punched small holes with my cropadile and added a purely pomegranate scrap behind so that it shows through the holes. A star brad on top and a sprinkling of dazzling diamonds give them that Christmas sparkle! Hope to see you at "Winter Wonderland" next week!

Easy Post Christmas Cards

Well I have my first paying customer ! Who is it ? Why, My Mum of course!!! She ordered 10 handmade Christmas cards - but they had to be bright reds- No fancy shmanzy Purely Pomegranate and Always Artichoke for this lady!-even if they are the colours of choice for this year! Also they had to be FLAT cards so that she could post them easily to her friends overseas.
So these are the first 5 designs that I came up with- I didn't know her feelings about bling (Hey you bling addicts out there- not EVERYBODY likes it!!) so I have done some with and some without and I am waiting to hear which ones have passed the test!! All the cards use different combinations of Whisper White/ Real Red and Old Olive Cardstock. Real Red and Old Olive ink and "Dashing" DSP. They use the "Season of Joy" stamp set (Hope you got yours- the Spring Mini ends Nov 30th!!)

Midnight Madness Challenge # 1 !!!

What a great name for a challenge ! Paula over at http://preciosodesigns.blogspot.com/

called it that because she says that she always discovers the challenges at the last minute and then she is up past midnight making, photographing and entering it! Can't say that I do that but anyway I think it is a great name! Now this challenge interested me when I found it in my blogsurfing because not only is there a cute little bird stamp up for grabs but the winner gets to display a special midnight madness trophy on their blog ! Woo Hoo I would like that !! So anyway here is my entry for the challenge. It had to be a Christmas Card using Close to Cocoa/Silver/White/ and one other colour of your choice! Phew ! Again quite a challenge ! I chose Bravo Burgundy for my extra colour and I used my Mostly Flowers and Baroque Motifs stamp sets. The square motif and the sentiment have been embossed with silver embossing powder and the silver cord to finish it off is non SU.

Keesha's Challenge/ Double Deal 2

Today I set out to make a card for Keesh's Challenge. The challenge was to CASE the card on page 85 of the "catty". There were several entries already posted but no-one had done a Christmas card so I decided to do that using what seems to be the "in" colours for Christmas this year- Purely Pomegranate/River Rock /Always Artichoke. But 2 cards evolved from my stamping- one elegant and traditional and the other with a more contemporary feel! So I have decided to make this another entry for my "Double Deals" blog feature ! This time the colours and layout are exactly the same- only the stamp set has changed to give 2 very different styles of card!( Seasons of Joy for #1 and Baroque motifs/Mostly flowers for #2) Which one do you prefer? Vote by leaving a message!!!