Wednesday, 28 September 2016

Merry...Wednesday :)

Happy hump-day, crafty peeps!
Just three more sleeps until World Card-Making Day!
Which is also the launch of this year's Caring Hearts Card Drive.  More details on that on Saturday.
In the meantime, I'm adding to the Christmas card stash, playing along with this week's Merry Monday challenge:
using the non-traditional colours of dark & light pink and grey or silver.
I used a cut-away card design I say on Stamp Nation's latest blog hop, by  Ingrid Blackburn.
A portion of the card is cut-away, and the top and bottom parts are connected by some silvery snowflakes.  The pink watercolour dot paper is from the new Close to My Heart Whimsy Fundamentals paper pack. I thought it looked like softly falling pink snow! The card base is Raspberry cardstock. Snow flake dies by My Favorite Things.
Inside message appropriately sparkly, from Winter Greetings stamp set by Lil'Inker Designs.

Still lots of time to link up with the Merry Monday Challenge #215
See you there,
Caroline


Sunday, 25 September 2016

FMS #255



Post #2 for today.

It's been quite awhile since I played along with any challenges. 

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch #255, to consume some more supplies for ever-growing stack of Christmas cards.

The big rectangle in the sketch seemed perfect for some festive plaid paper (old SU), and I've been wanting to play with those cute little gingerbread people (Lil' Inker Designs) for quite some time. Adding a little Copic marker around the edge of the kraft paper made them nice and "crispy."
Finding a font which would fit between the parts of the sentiment (also LID, currently on sale!)) was tricky. The word JOY was cut with an old set of Sizzix alphabet dies. Their wonky angles inspired the cart-wheeling gingerbread men.
There's still a few hours to play along with FMS this week!
Caroline

Supplies:
All cardstock: Close to My Heart
Patterned Paper: Stampin' Up
Die and stamp set: Lil' Inker Designs
Liquid Pearls, Wink of Stella Pen, Versamark & white embossing powder, Copic markers 

It's beginning to look a lot like...



Hello crafty peeps!
It's been a long while since I shared anything, although I have done some scrap-booking, card-making and sewing in the past few months, along with a lot of browsing of internet crafting blogs... Just no time to photograph and write about my own creations.
But all that is about to change, because the advent of fall means that a cause near and dear to my heart is about to begin again.
The Caring Hearts Card Drive is about to start its seventh year :) 
This "sharing of kindness" was begun by Vera Wirianta Yates in Texas. She began sending hand-made Christmas cards to nursing home residents, to brighten their holiday season. Many cards (22,000 in 2015), volunteers and years later, the movement has spread from the US to Canada, Australia, and now through the UK, to Europe.
The drive begins officially October 1st (also World Card-Making Day!) and runs through November 25th.  I will be sharing sneak peeks of cards I've been working on leading up to the launch next weekend. I will also share the complete list of details on how to participate. You are welcome to make cards, as well as to help in their distribution.

I like to start the Christmas card-making season by clearing up my desk and using up supplies (yup, not allowed to buy anything new until I've made a couple dozen cards with the goodies on hand).
This year I began with a partly-used kit from 2010 by Paper Wishes.  One of their specialty items is a line of stickers called Dazzles. You might think, they don't look like TOO much on the sticker sheet, but once you begin backing them with patterned paper, colouring them in with Copics or Distress inks, altering them with embossing powder or alcohol inks, they look AWESOME! I feel every holiday card needs a little sparkle, and the foiling on Dazzles does just that.
Here's a couple of examples from that kit:

See what I mean by creating a scene, colouring in the Dazzles, and adding some extra glitz with sequins, Liquid Pearls and Stickles?

 The snowflake holographic paper from Paper Wishes sets off those snow-peeps perfectly. And check out the (craft-foam) "snow," for some tactile fun.

Off to do some Sunday stuff; stayed tuned for more on the Caring Hearts Card Drive.

Caroline