Condensing

I suppose I could, (or possibly even should), apologise yet again for my recent lack of blogging prowess ... for not visiting all the beautiful blogs on my favourites list ... for not being able to admire and drool over the eye candy on show ... for not leaving as many comments as I wanted to ... BUT to be honest, the simple fact is that I just haven't got the same time to devote to blogging as I used to and that's just how it is!   
So rather than apologising for circumstances beyond my control ... for being too busy and my general lack of spare time, (which would be a waste of both my limited time and yours), I shall just condense my recent Bah! Humbug! DT examples into one single post, hope that someone will pop by to read what I've hurriedly written and leave it at that.  Take a deep breath and run with me.
READY?  LET'S GO!
Challenge 38 asked for a familiar favourite of crafters worldwide, in the form of Rudolph/Reindeer.   I opted for a simple gatefold card decorated with a lovely paper from my stash, (which I think was a Dovecraft pack from a couple of years ago), and tied with a length of silver ribbon.

Challenge 39 involved incorporating Nativity into our projects and surprisingly, the DT came up with similar ideas, but the end results were all completely different.  Take a look HERE and you'll see what I mean.
I stamped a silhouette image and mounted it onto a larger panel of black card, tied a wide satin ribbon and diamante clasp on the right and then adhered the whole thing to a white DL card blank.

Challenge 40  which is our current challenge, has been extremely popular, with oodles of entries sprinkling Christmas sparkle everywhere after we asked for Glitz and Glitter ... although I suspect the super prize on offer spurred many into joining in.   Whatever the reason for the extra numbers this week, my DT example is beginning to look rather insipid by comparison to some of the fabulous creations I've seen so far. 

But despite this, I stand by my decision to use pink teamed with black and silver on the basis that it has a fairly modern look, coupled with plenty of sparkle which is almost considered essential for Christmas by most of us crafty critters.

Hmmmmm ... looking back there's not a lot of condensing happening is there lol? ... but it's time for me to cut'n'run as there's the small matter of work to get up for tomorrow morning and sleeping in is NOT an option!
Nighty-night ... sleep tight ... and enjoy the rest of your week, wherever you are and whatever you are doing.

PS: Thanks for visiting ... and please don't worry or feel guilty if you haven't got time to leave a message ... I absolutely understand. xxx

Pink Wedding

Had time for a quick browse after Naomi and I returned from bowling and happened to notice I'd almost missed Paperplay Challenges deadline - which simply wouldn't do at all, especially as I made this easel card especially to join in.

The image is from a Debbi Moore wedding silhouette stamp set which was embossed with silver embossing powder and die cut with the cuttlebug using Nestabilities Labels One.  
I randomly stamped a leafy swirl around the edge, (whilst it was still in the die cut frame), silver embossed it and then swept over it all with a Pearlescent Pink Brilliance Dew Drop ink pad, before polishing off the excess to reveal the embossed image again.  This was then matted onto a larger die cut from silver mirri card.

Using A4 white linen effect cardstock I scored and folded an easel card before decorating with pink heart patterned paper from Papermania - Scrumptious pack, some white organza ribbon and a few feathers.  

The greeting is one of my recent purchases from Waltzing Mouse Stamps (who coincidentally are sponsoring this challenge), and as you see Claire has designed it to perfectly complement the Spellbinders Fancy Tags Shape-abilities.   Brilliant!   Can't quite make up my mind whether to add flowers or not.  Will sleep on it.  Right - off to beddy-byes now ... Sweet Dreams All.

Springtime Has Sprung ...

... or so we are reliably informed by the weather forecasters and if today was anything to go by then they may be right ... for once.  We certainly had a good dose of sunshine today with only one brief shower and the temperature reached double figures so it's all good.
I spent this afternoon making a couple of cards for birthdays which are looming on the horizon. 

The first one for my eldest brother, used the lovely bird silhouette again from My Graphico but this time I wanted a more masculine look so it was printed onto plain white card and then matted with black.  I cut away a portion of the base card front, trimmed it slightly and then mounted it onto a slightly larger piece of black card before re-attaching it onto the back panel of the base card. 

Another strip of black card was embossed with my Cuttlebug Birthday embossing folder and this was then layered on top with some knotted silver/black checked ribbon for decoration.
Daring Cardmakers Challenge "Tweetie pie" asks that we use birds on our creations this week so I'm entering this card.

My daughter's friend celebrates her 15th birthday tomorrow and as she is allegedly a 'Cupcake Queen' it was the obvious choice to make her a cupcake card.  

I matted a strip of embossed lilac card onto silver mirri card and then laid it across the pretty floral patterned paper.  White satin ribbon, overlaid with some narrow pink velvet ribbon - very tactile - was wrapped around the embossed panel before adding the cupcake and frame which were freebies from a magazine last year. 
Hopefully this card is ok for Charisma Cardz Challenge "Something For The Kids" - (not sure the young lady it is intended for will appreciate being referred to as a kid but hey ho!) - and the current Kaboodle Doodles Challenge is "Happy Birthday" so I can sneak in there too.

Finally, I'd like to show a wee card I made whilst in York - can't believe that was a whole month ago!
Irene brought her cute Cuddly Buddly rainbear stamp with her and was giving us a tutorial on how to use poly pencils and she also allowed us to play with her Nellie Snellen multiframe dies (which seem to be all the rage at the moment) - please note that the blotchy fur look was intentional LOL! 

The bright blue and yellow papers just shout 'Spring' to me so I'm entering this card into the following challenges:
The Pink Elephant Challenge #58. 
Crazy 4 Challenge - C4C29
Lots To Do Challenge #11
The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #75
Rosie-D's Challenge #66
Allsorts Challenge #44 

I overlaid the blue negative from the die cut frame onto a yellow square of paper to decorate inside the card - waste not ... want not.