Cream, green & blue Christmas?

Well these are not conventional Christmas colours, I'll admit, but in a funny kind of way they work really well together. Even the delightfully summery Basic Grey Wisteria papers manage to look festive here. Sort of. Maybe?

I've combined Basic Grey's recipe of 4 different embellishments (gold ribbon, gold mesh, white brads and white snowflakes), 3 patterned papers, 2 images (Stampington's Holiday Cube: Santa and the gold lettering background) and 2 sentiments (from Studio G), with Simon Says Stamp's "let it snow" and Stampin' for the Weekend's "winter", Colour Create's "robin egg blue, sea foam green and cream, and winter", and this sketch from Creatalicious Challenges which should also include distressing:

So what do you think? Is it Christmassy enough?

All pink!

Oh this is pink. This is VERY pink. Sometimes I get the urge to make something impossibly girlie and frilly - not often, but when I do I seem to go a bit overboard. But you can be over the top with a card for a brand new, precious baby girl, can't you?

My challenges are Bizzy Bec's with "cute and sweet", Charisma Cardz with "babies", Quixotic with "no square or rectangle", Simon Says with "sparkle" and Stampavie with "monochrome".

Wow. All that sugariness is furring my teeth up just looking at it. It's doilies and brads from Bizzy Bec's Store, vellum and my Paisley and baby stamp Cuttlebug embossing folders, Stickles (of course!) and my butterfly punch from a Hong Kong flea market. Not forgetting some bits of ribbon from my stash, Smooch ink, Nestabilities oval die and a sentiment stamp from LotV.

I'm off to brush my teeth.

Scrap Whispers Challenge #83 - It's a summary

This week, the Scrap Whispers Design Team challenges you to create a "Summary" layout. We want to see a summary of your year, a month, a comparison or an event....

I chose a calendar of my November which is completely packed with stuff. I found it interesting to scrap a month out of my life, because one day I know I'll look back at that and wonder whatever it all meant! The other day I was looking back at a diary from years ago and wondering what all the abbreviations meant. At the time, I was convinced I'd always remember - hehee.

This is just Bo Bunny paper, hand-cut vellum and ribbon and brads from my stash.

So what will you come up with?

Scrap Whispers November Blog Hop

It's the 15th again, and that means... our monthly blog hop over at Scrap Whispers. This month our lovely leader Georgina has come up with such a beautifully complicated-looking card, but it really isn't! It's very simple, but it is definitely designed to impress, and you could win a fabby prize just for entering.

Here's what you have to do:

• Check out the Scrap Whispers blog site for the tutorial
• Create your own inspired version and link it up
• Hop through all the blogs, and leave a comment on each of them

There's no particular running order this time around - just drop in on all the DT's blogs. Here they all are:

• Kelly
• Helen
• Nilsa
• Georgina

I enjoyed making this card so much that I made two! AND I have a little pile of bits on my table for another one - which has NOTHING whatsoever to do with my measuring wrongly, nothing at all.... {whistle} I'm planning on going through my scraps and finding random rectangles for yet more, because I think it's another superb way of using up scraps. Don't you?

Scrap Whispers #82 - Scary movie

I finally found a way of doing a Hallowe'en LO without actually celebrating Hallowe'en. I've been looking at all this beautiful paper in my favourite greens, purples and oranges, and haven't had a way to use it - until now! This is from Basic Grey's Green at Heart collection, with shapes cut using my Silhouette, American Crafts lettering, and lots and lots of white and silver pen. And I have to say, it's one of my current favourites.

So your Scrap Whispers challenge is to scrap about a scary movie, or something that scares you. Over to you!

All white?

A quick card for today: for Simon Says (white), Cute Card Thursday (tissue paper), Sketch Saturday (sketch), A Spoonful of Sugar (snow/snowflakes), Stampavie (tag). Good mileage on this one!

I had my usual struggles photographing white, and it's raining today. Perth's reservoirs are only at 34% so we need it goodness knows, but I wish it could have waited about another half an hour!

Anyway, we have my Paisley embossing folder from Cuttlebug, much-scrunched tissue paper saved from the house move, the image is from Edupics coloured with Copics and Stickles Star Dust. The snowflakes are from my stash - I think they came from Paperchase - and the sentiment is a Studio G one. Brads from American Crafts and ribbon saved from a box of card blanks, and everything is inked with Platinum Dew Drop. Cute huh?

ETA: And now the Stickles is dry - and my snowman's mouth has all smudged! That's a lesson for me. Stickles on HP printer ink doesn't work. Ah well, you live and learn. He's still smiling, but only just!

Scrap Whispers Challenge #81 - bright colours

This week Scrap Whispers is back with a new game, but we're losing one of our DT members. Leah has decided that juggling a new baby and DT work is just too demanding (I don't blame her) and has reluctantly stood down. Leah, THANK YOU for all your hard work, and we hope you'll still come back and play when you can.

Georgina's LO is, as usual, a special one. Beyond that I'm telling you nothing about it, hehee. It will get scrap-lifted on down the list of team members, with each person keeping secret her LO and the one she lifted. At the end, just before Christmas, the development of each team's designs will be judged and prizes awarded. It's always so interesting to see how the changes flow.

Meanwhile, we're having our usual weekly challenges with a fabby monthly prize. And this week's challenge is simply to create a card or LO with bright colours. There, that's an easy one to get you started on the new game.

Have a look on the Scrap Whispers blog to see what the DT have come up with?

Pretty bright, don't you think? Now these challenges can be combined with others (except the main game of course!) so this is also for Sketch Saturday, A Spoon Full of Sugar (embellish), Whiff of Joy, Charisma Cardz (Christmas), and Stampavie (orange - great fun, I'm certain I never made an orange Christmas card in my life!)

Card-stock = DCWV, paper = Basic Grey's Green at Heart, Whiff of Joy's Willow coloured with Copics, sentiment = Inkadinkado, snowflakes = Studio G, Diamond Stickles, and gems and ribbon from stash.

Transparent

I enjoyed this "transparent" challenge from Cute Card Thursday, even though all I did was a plain window. I combined it with this lovely sketch by Heather at Basic Grey Challenges.

to make this:

It's all Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses again, with Stickles and Artnic Dusky Rose ink. The image is Miss Claus from Sugar Nellie, coloured with Copics and Stickles, and I stamped on the window with a Studio G Christmas greeting in Staz-On ink. There's another semi-circle on the other side of the window as well.

Oh and while you're over at Basic Grey Challenges, check out last week's winner {doing a little dance around the table}! I can't wait to pick out my selections from Simon Says Stamp!

Punches, pearls, petals and pins

I'm still working on my Christmas cards. I actually have enough for this year, but I set myself a very public challenge in January not to buy any more Christmas stash until I'd made 50 cards {hits forehead with hand}. Yup, I probably should have counted up first {sigh}. But it's kind of nice working on these at my leisure, knowing that I'm not under pressure, and I have enough Christmas stash to keep me going for several years yet. It's surprising how far a few sheets of paper go when you're making cards.

Here are my challenges for this card. Stampavie are asking for Christmas, a Spoon Full of Sugar, Simon Says and Creative Card Crew all want punches this week, Charisma Cardz say "matching pair" and Truly Scrumptious request pearls, pins and petals as well as this sketch:

My card and matching envelope:

White on white is a beast to photograph, so please excuse how rubbish these shots are. I've used Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses papers and scraps for the snowflakes, the image is Sugar Nellie "Winter Wonderland" coloured in Copics, the snowflakes and stars are die-cut using my Cuttlebug and pearlised (honest) with Adirondack pearl ink by Tim Holtz from Ranger. The stamped snowflakes and the fur trim is Sticklesed with Frost. All edges have been inked with a Platinum pearlised ink, the brad is a pink pearl and the pin has a pearl tip too. I didn't add any petals but the scarf and umbrella have flowers on so I hope that counts. Phew!

You'll have to take my word for this, but they're a lot prettier in real life than on these photos.