Bah Humbug! Challenge 45

For our challenge at Bah! Humbug! this week, we're looking for you to share some gift wrapping ideas, and we'd like to see how creative you can be making your presents look extra specially pretty.
I decided to keep things cheap'n'cheerful by recycling a card sent to us last year to make a gift box.   It's a really simple idea that works with virtually any card size but more importantly in these cash-strapped times ... it's "cheap as chips!"

Firstly remove the front portion of the card with the image you want to use and then cut a matching piece of plain card for the base, which you need to trim so it's slightly smaller all round ... just trim a smigeon so it will fit snugly together when assembled.

Score a line on all four sides of both card pieces, making sure your score line is the same distance from each edge, and then trim the corners to make tabs.

Glue the four corner tabs in place, allow to dry and VOILA ... you have a cheap yet pretty little gift box which has cost nothing! 
This is a great way of using up all those beautiful images on cards that you've received but can't bear to throw away ... OH YES!  I know you have them too!
Recycling at it's best.
Our Guest Designer Colleen and Humbugger Ann have their own cool projects to show you so hop over to Humbug Hall for a quick peek before you get to work on your own ideas.

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

Bah Humbug! Challenge 37

Don't know why I always seem to be chasing my tail these days, but here at last, is my DT offering for our Bah! Humbug! Challenge 37 - Flourishes and Swirls.

Although it's another simple design using panels of Kanban mirrored foiled card adhered to a black tri-fold card blank, with an embossed panel matted onto black overlapping the fold, the finished result looks kind've good ... in fact I would even go so far as to say they're verging on elegant.

Last year I remember using this same design idea for my Mother-in-Law's personalised Xmas cards, making a batch of gold designs and a batch of silver and they proved to be quite popular, so I may be making some for myself to send this year.

Gold Collection 2010

Silver Collection 2010

Our Guest Designer Barb has Flourishes and Swirls galore on her project this week, so I suggest you take a peek before heading off to make your own fantastic flourishy creation for our challenge HERE. 
Go on now - run along and see for yourself if you don't believe me and enjoy the remainder of your weekend ... wherever you are and whatever you are doing.

Bah! Humbug Challenge 36

Whoops ... forgot to take this post out of draft - silly me!
Our challenge at Humbug Hall this week is to use Paper Weaving in our projects, so armed with 2 complimentary sheets of paper from Dovecraft Fancy Pants pack, I cut narrow strips and wove them together.  
Taking a DL card blank and one of the Shapeabilities Nested Pine Trees, I ran them through the Cuttlebug to create an aperture and then placed some of my paper weaving behind it. 

The parcel above the peel off greeting was another section of the woven paper, placed onto the card front with double sided tape with a pretty matching ribbon bow glued on top.  

That left a touch too much white space for my liking, so using up the last remnants of woven paper, I cut the ends at an angle and filled the gap.    JOB DONE and another card for the Christmas box.
Hop over to Humbug Hall to take a gander at the lovely card our Guest Designer Barb created for this challenge where she mastered a new technique beautifully.

Enjoy your weekend ... wherever you are and whatever you are doing.

Bah! Humbug! Challenge 35

This time last week my daughter was in Dublin competing as part of the U.19's Scotland Squad in her first Junior Ten Pin Bowling Triple Crown.  I'm delighted to say that the team did themselves proud, returning home to Scotland with 35 medals in all!  WHOO HOO!

CONGRATULATIONS EVERYONE.  

Naomi is now the proud owner of a silver and a bronze medal - not bad "at all ... at all!" ... and is looking forward to Triple Crown 2012 when Wales will be the host nation and she will hopefully be there with her teammates if selected to join the squad again of course.  Thank you for all the kind messages of support and positive thoughts which helped tremendously I'm sure.
In the meantime ... back to reality and Bah! Humbug! Challenges.  This week we have a brand new Guest Designer in the spotlight at Humbug Hall who has created a beautiful card to tickle your arty-farty tastebuds for our Christmas Sentiment/ Text Challenge.  My offering is somewhat less detailed ... actually it's embarrassingly so ... but hopefully will provide a teeny touch of inspiration for those who're short of time and 'crafting on the run' as I always seem to be these days.
It needs no explanation as there's nothing complicated about sticking stickers onto a blank card which is basically all I did.

It doesn't even qualify as a 'Bish ... Bash ... Bosh!' effort ... but if I get a chance over the weekend then I may make something a little more interesting ... maybe using stamps, ink and paper.   Oooooo'errrrr missus!  That'll be exciting ... well for me anyway LOL!
If you skip over to Humbug Hall then you can check out the other DT ideas and also get a wee peek at this week's crafty prize.  
WHOA! ... steady ... there's no need to push lol!   See you there xxx

Whoops'a'Daisy

Have had a busy weekend and didn't realise that Mr. Blogger hadn't shown my latest Bah! Humbug! card ... maybe he thought it just wasn't worth the effort, but I'm going to defy him and show you anyway lol!
The theme this week is 'Beads' and to be honest they're not something I use often, if at all, so this was a tricky week for me ... I wasn't even sure I had any of the pesky little blighters in my stash.  However, as I've discovered many times in the past, if you look long enough and hard enough then eventually you will find and I was lucky to come across these silver stars complete with beads in a little craft box tucked away at the back of a shelf.   I think they were actually salvaged from a Christmas Cracker many moons ago ... a perfect example of why you should NEVER throw anything away!

Then it was a simple case of glueing them in a curve onto a white linen card, adding a peel off greeting and a stamped silhouette reindeer decorated with sparkly gems and trimmed with deckle-edged scissors.   

Another easy peasy card which came together really quickly once I eventually had all the bits'n'pieces together ... handy when you're in 'chasing your tail' mode!
Fellow Humbugger Ann and our Guest Designers Abi and Kathy K have been much more inventive than I have, so take a look and then tootle off to do your own thing with beads.  Have fun!

Bah Humbug! Challenge 27

Sometimes I just wish the world would slow down a wee bit ... or at least wait for me to catch up lol!  It's been another busy week with lots happening and I thought that as the schools are on holiday there would be a little more R+R time ... but I was mistaken.  It seems Time and Bah! Humbug! wait for no one so there was  nothing else for it but to knuckle down and get busy with our latest challenge and this week we're creating with 'critters' ... specifically Mice.

I started with a 6" x 6" card blank and decorated it with a small panel of the most gorgeous double-sided paper from g.c.d studios paper stack Joyful Peace  ... which was very difficult to cut into let me tell you!  It's just too fabulous for words but fortunately there are 4 sheets of 12 different designs so I still have plenty left to stroke lol!  Some red funky fibres add some decoration and make a nice change from ribbon.

I stamped the cute mouse holding a heart twice and coloured with Promarkers, before adding a foil snowflake and some gold stickles to the hearts.  The sentiment was then stamped and matted onto gold mirri card before attaching with foam pads between these two happy chappies.  
All the products used here were purchases made from Kitty Krafts where Louise and Ross welcomed me with open arms, as always.  They then plied me with coffee and the most amazing Coffee Tower cream cake before letting me loose on their stock - which is extensive in anyone's crafty eyes.  Whilst I don't manage to visit them as often as I'd like ... I ALWAYS make sure it's worth making the 60'ish mile round trip ... and this week's visit was no exception so their stock is now minus several gorgeous items - because I have them lol!
Humbugger Ann and our Guest Designers Abi and Kathy K. have been busy wee critters over at Humbug Hall and have some super-dooper cute cards to show you so please do yourself a favour and go for a peek ... then if you have some wee meeces who'd like to come out and play with ours, why not join in with our challenge?
Am off to try to catch up with my tail ... which I've been chasing all week ... so see you all soon.

Bah Humbug! Challenge 26

Blimey Oh Riley!  Can it possibly be 1st July already?  Apparently so ... and that means that the school holidays will officially start at lunchtime today HOORAY!  It'll be nice to relax the routine for a few weeks ... we just need to hope for some sunshine so we can actually ENJOY lazy Summer days, rather than just dreaming of them lol!
Over at Bah! Humbug! though, there are no thoughts of sunshine as we're still concentrating on building up a decent stock of Christmas cards and for our challenge this week, we'd like to see how creative you can be with Acetate.  Now I admit that I'm not particularly confident when using this product so to keep out of trouble I opted to do an easy peasy lemon squeezy card using the simplest of ideas ... do you likee?  

Using an A5 piece of patterned card folded in half as a base card, I positioned a fancy-pantsy adhesive sticker on the front ... isn't it gorgeous? ... and then simply folded an identical sized piece of acetate to create a jacket cover over the top.   

This is held in place with narrow gold ribbon tied in a bow and a small peel off greeting was added to the bottom corner.   
TA DA!  Job done in 5 minutes!    
My fellow Humbugger Ann and our brand new July Guest Designers, Abi and Kathy K, have put a lot more effort into their projects and I recommend that you take a look ... and then if you want to play along this week, there's a super wee prize up for grabs for one lucky random entry as it's the 1st challenge of the month.   Feel free to be as creative as you like ... or you can play safe like me ... tee hee.
Enjoy your Summer ... wherever you are and whatever you are doing.  Ciao for now! xxx

Bah! Humbug! Challenge 25

Apologies for my recent absence but unfortunately I suffered a rather nasty bout of "Barf Humbug" ... more commonly known as Gastroenteritis ... and blogging was the last thing I thought about.  Am feeling much better now though and was able to join Ann, Wendy and Christine for this week's Bah! Humbug! Penguin Challenge.

This cute trio was stamped with black ink and embossed before colouring with Promarkers and matting onto burgundy card.    I then hand embossed some random snowflakes and used the cuttlebug to emboss the sentiment before colouring it with vivid green Promarker.
Green stripey paper and a panel of green mirri card decorated with knotted ribbon provide a colourful backdrop with some Diamond Stickles adding some sparkle to the image.

You really must check out Bah! Humbug! to see for yourself the super offerings by my fellow Humbugger Ann and our Guest Designers, Wendy and Christine who will sadly be leaving us this week.

Bah! Humbug! 23 ... "Whateva!"

Anyone with a teenager in the family will be all too familiar with THAT word ... and also the many and varied meanings it has depending on the tone used to deliver it!

Our Bah! Humbug! Challenge this week is to make a card For A Teenager which turned out to be not as easy as first thought.  
Looking through my stash I discovered plenty of lovely supplies but they were either too cutsie or too traditional.  Time was running away in what was already a busy week, so at the last minute I opted for something cool ... or rather KOOL!

The snowman and penguin image was hiding in my PSP (Paint Shop Pro) folders and I added the text before printing it off and using some Stickles for a touch of sparkle.  The gorgeous self-adhesive sparkle paper was matted onto silver mirri and the beauty of this stuff is that it is super smooth so doesn't shed glitter everywhere.  A strip of blue tartan ribbon tied in a knot across a panel of dotty mirri card helps to decorate the large open space.  I toyed with the idea of adding some silver snowflakes and then immediately discounted it as being too fussy.  So that's really all there was to it and I'm left wondering why on earth something so easy took me so long to make lol!
Over at Humbug Hall there are other great ideas to see from Ann, Wendy and Christine.   I'm confident that when you've seen them you'll realise that making something suitable for a KOOL DUDE doesn't have to be difficult.

Bah! Humbug! Challenge 22

It's 'Flaming June' and the sun is shining on this beautiful Friday morning. Over at Bah! Humbug! Challenges it's always Christmas and we have another terrific theme this week - Surprise! Surprise!!  

For my DT submission I decided to attempt an Easel Card with Drawer to create a card and gift in one fell swoop!  I found video instructions HERE and set to work with gusto ... well ... I set to work at least lol!
I made up the easel card using Smirk Christmas papers, which were already glittered and good old reliable silver mirri card for matting. 

The drawer was super easy to make and I even wrapped pretty purple ribbon around it before securing with a brad.  This not only looks nice but has the added advantage of holding it together if you're not too confident that your glue will stick ... tee hee.  

Then, I got into a bit of a guddle making the wraparound base.  UH OH!  Due to 'user error' rather than inadequate instructions, I hasten to add, as everyone knows that concentration is not my strong point.   Anyway, I managed to make it all fit eventually and have convinced myself that no one will notice the teeth marks unless they look closely.  *snigger*
So there you are ... FINISHED!    JOB DONE!

You'll be pleased to hear that we have 2 surprise new Guest Designers staying with us at Humbug Hall but I can't tell you who they are ... it's a SURPRISE!   Hahahahaha!   They have created fantastic projects to show off for this week's challenge so I suggest you hotfoot it over there PDQ.  
There's also a fabby-licious Prize up for grabs for one lucky randomly selected entry, to mark the 1st challenge of a new month and you definitely wouldn't want to miss out, so grab your bits'n'bobs and head over for a looksee before joining in the fun.  G'aaaaannnnn ... You know you want to!

Bah! Humbug! #20

Another Friday ... another Bah! Humbug! Challenge and this time we're raising the bar a little and asking for Kinetic creations.   Sounds impressive I know, but the dictionary definition of kinetic is quite simply " ... relating to or resulting from motion" so all we want is some kind of movement.   Fortunately, there are plenty of wonderful ways to get action into your cards and a gazzillion online tutorials which show us how ... so there's no excuse not to join in!
I opted to make a Penny Spinner card using only an A4 sheet of mega-shiny card for decoration, black cardstock for the base, a few adhesive gems and some silver peel offs ... you wanna' see?

Okay here you go ... TA DAH!

So NOW you want to know what it does ... right?  
Watch carefully ...

Flower on the right.

Flower on the left 

Isn't it cool? 
I have a pirouetting poinsettia which spins from side to side ... and you wouldn't believe how easy it was to make.  There is a link to the tutorial over at Bah! Humbug! along with other fabulous ideas for Kinetic Cards from Ann, Karen and Clare, so shake your booty over there and check them all out.  

Bah! Humbug! #19

Well naughty Mr. Blogger managed to send everyone into a tail spin over the last couple of days when he decided to have a major hissy fit and lock us all out of blogland!  Kind've makes you wonder what we did with our lives before blogging came along because there were plenty of people who were totally lost for the last 2 days without it lol?
Hopefully he has been sorted out now and we'll have no more silly nonsense ... but just in case ... I'd better show my latest challenge offering for Bah! Humbug! pretty darn quick.

This week we're looking for cards and projects following the theme of Snowflakes and the focal image on my card was something I had a bash at when my Humbugger Buddy Ann came to stay and kindly introduced me to the delights of using embossing paste with brass stencils and then colouring by blending with inks.   What inky fun we had that day!
I trimmed the panel and matted it onto pale blue glitter card, before placing it, off centre, on top of a panel of Debbie Moore text foil paper which was also matted, firstly onto black and then onto more of the blue glitter card.  

Ice blue sparkly ribbon is knotted and trimmed to add a little interest.  The fancy peel off snowflakes are already decorated with tiny clear gemstones and provide a touch more sparkle ... just in case it was needed. 
Check out what Ann and our Guest Designers have been up to at Humbug Hall and then join in with our challenge to show us what fabulous ideas you can come up with using snowflakes.  
Reckon it's almost time for la-la-land ... but before I go let me show you the beautiful azalea bush that is blooming beside the garage. 

Stunning ... or what?

 After the rain ...

A beautiful sight to see every morning ... but such a shame that the flowers are so shortlived and will only last a couple of weeks.
Enjoy your weekend ... wherever you are and whatever you are doing.

Bah! Humbug! #18

The challenge theme at Bah! Humbug! is 'Going Green' and this can be interpreted to mean either 'Recycling' or alternatively,  it's most literal sense, where the colour Green is used.  If you prefer you can even do both!  
Whatever you decide, we are really looking forward to seeing some super projects again this week ... talking of which, you should check out what the new Guest Designers and Humbugger Ann have been up to!     
Hang on ... HANG ON!  Before you disappear let me give you a quick rundown of how my card came to be.

The base card is an A4 sheet of foiled cardstock from Kanban - where else? - folded in half ... nothing complicated about that.   The cute puppies were salvaged from a card received last Christmas which I couldn't bear to throw out and the gorgeous, scrumptious, fabby-licious ribbon was 'reclaimed' from a Christmas parcel and was originally intended for last week's 'Pleats and Ruffles' challenge ... but ... ahem ... never quite got there.  Actually 'reclaimed' is a polite way of saying 'snatched back' ... *blush*.   I was so quick that the ribbon had hardly been unwrapped before it was back in my sticky little paws whilst the poor unsuspecting recipient was still faffing with the sellotape  lol!    
 Just couldn't help myself!

Anyway ... that's it!  Told you I'd be quick!  
A good example of a Bish ... Bash ... Bosh kinda' card.   If you'd like to see something more elaborate then I suggest you head over to Humbug Hall where there's been some super recycling happening and what's more there's a prize up for grabs again this week!   
Are we good to you or what? 

Apologies

Unfortunately, despite all my best efforts to juggle the calender over the last few weeks, I was forced to admit defeat ... and reluctantly had to send our apologies to Will and Kate explaining that we're unable to attend their wedding today.
Obviously, they're absolutely gutted but understand that Naomi's ten pin bowling tournament in Inverness this weekend had to take priority.   With the best will in the world, we simply couldn't be in two places, at opposite ends of the country, at the same time.   I just HATE disappointing people - don't you?  LOL!
Talking of disappointing! 
Well ... that just about sums up my efforts (or lack of!) for this week's Bah! Humbug! Challenge as I haven't finished my DT example.  Shocking I know!
Obviously my head's been somewhere it probably shouldn't have been ... and the week just ran away, leaving me behind!  So sincere apologies to Ann, Kelly and Veronica who have thankfully been far more concientious and produced some lovely projects for our Pleats and Ruffles Challenge.   Why don't you pop over to take a peek? ... and while you're there check out the surprise we have on offer to celebrate the Royal Wedding!   
*Really wish we could've been there but ... SIGH.*   Hopefully the hat will come in handy for another occasion ... maybe Lizzies' Summer Garden Party at Bucks Pally lol!
OK - Back to reality lol!
We're still enjoying some gorgeous sunshiney weather and it's lovely to see the garden coming alive again although there's some serious tidying up needing done out there.  Unfortunately the heavy snow we had over the winter caused devastation to the yucca that I had been bragging about last Summer when it was in full flower and looking very impressive SEE HERE.   As there doesn't appear to be any sign of life, (despite all my pleading with it), I fear hubby is going to have to set about it with a chainsaw to remove it.   That'll be a sad day as it's been there a long time and will leave a huge gap in the garden.   We'll check it for any vital signs when we return from Inverness ... but at the moment it's not looking promising at all.
Righty-O ... I'm late for an appointment with my pillow so will toddle off for now and see you on Sunday sometime.
Take care and enjoy the weekend, wherever you are and whatever you are doing.    
MWAH xxx

2011 Bah! Humbug! # 1

The Bah! Humbug! Christmas Challenges are back! WHOO HOO!
The theme for our first challenge for 2011 is  

Holly and/or Fairies

... and there is a fabulous prize on offer for one lucky random entry so it's got to be worth having a go hasn't it?    We also have a brand new Guest designer who has 2 beautiful cards to share and although I know you're just dying to know who it is, I'm not telling you ... you'll have to go and see!  
Our fellow Humbugger Irene is unwell at the moment so she's sadly unable to join in this time,  but Ann and I hope she will be back with us very soon 'cos it's just not the same without her work up there too.
Anyway ... getting back to challenge #1
I chose the Holly theme and created this card using some gorgeous gold foiled card from Kanban which was layered with some rich green textured card matted onto gold mirri card for a classy look.

 The Holly, berries and wreath shape were cut using a Marianne Creatables die set and some pretty green and gold ribbon adds a little more luxury to the inside back panel of gold mirri card.  If you'd like a closer look at the fabulous foiling, then just click the images.

If you fancy the idea of having a ready stash of Christmas cards in 2011 without any last minute running around like a headless chicken, then join in with our Bah! Humbug! Challenges every week and you'll see just how easily that can be achieved.  
Look forward to seeing you there!

Bah Humbug Blues

Over at Bah! Humbug Challenges, the DT have set the final challenge for this year and are preparing to wind down for Christmas ... unlike everywhere else in blogland where they are winding things up as the magic month approaches.
We will really miss our Friday get-togethers with the loyal friends who have supported us throughout our debut year and "Humbugger Hall" will seem very cold and lonely without them. So it is fitting that this week our challenge theme is "Feeling The Blues" 
Icy blue card and pretty snowflake paper, combined with silver mirri card provide a perfect base for this beautiful large white snowflake, which is from a set of tree decorations I spied in Asda.  I just lurrrrve the texture and hint of sparkle but if you are tempted to get some yourself, then take the precaution of opening the packet in a shoebox or something similar and spray both sides with cheap hairspray before use to help reduce the 'shedding' of bits.

Silver snowflakes and some ice blue glitter ribbon were added to embellish the greeting which was stamped with a Pearlescent Blue Dew Drop ink pad and cut with a scalloped punch, before being popped on with silicon glue.

Inside was decorated with a leftover strip of mirri card which had been diecut with Marianne Snowflake for another project and was conveniently lying on the desk, along with a sparkly peel off greeting matted onto mirri card.

A couple of blue star gems are the final finishing touch to the snowflakes.
I will be entering my card into Simon Says Stamp Challenge -Let It Snow which qualifies me for entry to Lorraine's sponsored Blog Candy for the chance to win an adorable House Mouse stamp.  Am also joining in with Wild Rose Studio's Blog Hop as the layout follows Dawny P's sketch ... if you turn it 90 degrees. There's a fantastic prize on offer and all the DT members have a stamp to give away, so plenty of chances to win.

There's lots still to do at Humbugger Hall before we close and padlock the huge iron gates for the last time and settle down to hibernate with the dust and cobwebs. Including the announcement of our Special Prize Draw winners next week, which will be very exciting, so don't miss it.
Meanwhile there's a challenge for you to be getting on with ... so GET ON WITH IT!   Remember to leave us a link or we may be forced to let the Humbug Hounds out ... and you wouldn't want us to do that as they haven't been fed since .... ermmmm ... January!

Bah! Humbug! 45

Our Bah! Humbug! Challenge this week is a colour theme and we want you to pick through your 'purples' and show us some Lilac.
I have been itching to ink up the new November release Waltzing Mouse Stamps that arrived earlier this week and, (as time has once again been my enemy), I opted to keep things as simple as possible. 
I chose to stamp this holly, from 'Around Christmastime' set, onto some lavender card and then heat embossed with silver powder, before cutting out with a scalloped circle punch and adding some purple adhesive pearls. 
Then I found some lilac card and dragged out the Cuttlebug and a couple of Christmassy embossing folders for the next stage.  

First I used the 'Mistletoe' folder on a square of lilac card, and matted it to silver mirri with double-sided tape, before adding a few random pearls.  Then, on an identical square, I decided to use only part of the 'Snowflake Frame' folder on opposite edges.  
To do this, you place the card into the folder as normal, place your 2nd 'B' plate over the portion you want embossed and then roll the sandwich through the cuttlebug, making sure you hit reverse when you reach the edge of that 2nd 'B' plate.  Do this on both edges and remember  YOU MUSTN'T GO ALL THE WAY!  
(Hmmm ... that phrase sounds very familiar but can't recall for the life of me where I've heard it before ... )  Ahem .... *snigger*
Now there's every chance that my rather inadequate instructions have totally confused you ... actually I think I've confused myself and I know that I know what I mean!  However, I'm sure you will understand once you try it for yourself and if not then I'll find a link to a tutorial for you.
OK ... back to the card ... 

Pearlescent lavender ink was roughly rubbed over the embossed snowflakes and this square was cut diagonally.  The triangle edges were then heat embossed with silver and matted onto a slightly larger triangle of lavender card before attaching on top of the embossed square.   

All that remained to do now was add the punched holly circle, stamp and emboss the fabby sentiment, which is from the WMS 'Festive Foliage' set, and add a lilac bow.
At first I thought the 'mistletoe' embossing looked a bit boring and I was tempted to add some sparkle.  However, I've decided I quite like the contrast between the matt look and the pearlescent sheen of both panels so am going to leave it be for now.
Incidently, I used the remaining triangular section to decorate inside but forgot to take a photo.

Bah! Humbug! Challenge 43

It's the final month of challenges for 2010 over at Bah! Humbug! and we have a brand new Guest Designer Pat of Pip's Pastimes joining us.  So if you haven't already made a start on your Christmas cards this year ... and if not then WHY not? ... then you might benefit from checking out our projects this week to get you in the mood.
My Fancy Fold offering is quite simply an ordinary gatefold card with a couple of extra folds thrown in on the front panels for added interest.    

The fabulous green and gold Christmas tree paper is from Dovecraft Vintage Christmas Collection and is matted onto gold mirri card to really bring out the warm tones.   

After cutting the main piece for the back panel, I cut one of the trees from the remains to pop onto the front for some added dimension.  I can't decide whether to add some adhesive gems or not - what do you think?

The large snowflakes are a Marianne die cut from gold mirri card and the tiny ones are made with a small snowflake punch.   The stamped greeting has been heat embossed with gold on black card and is one of the messages from a Buzzcraft Christmas set - a recent sale bargain.
My fellow Bah! Humbuggers are waiting to show you their projects too and if you need any further persuasion to get out your Christmas stash and join in then we have a wee prize up for grabs this week for one lucky random entry.

Bah! Humbug! 42

Okay - Hands Up - Who stole the week?  
Sheeesh ... Fridays seem to come around so quickly these days.   But the good thing is that  
Friday = Bah! Humbug! Challenge Day - YAHAY!
This week the team are looking for Presents.   
Now when I say that I don't mean literally ... we don't want you to send us presents ... EEEK! ... How outrageous would that be?   Such bad manners!  Shameless!  Unthinkable!    No, no, NO!   
What I ACTUALLY mean is that we'd like you to follow our theme of Presents on your projects.  YES!  That's what I mean ... well ... I think it is  LOL!
Easel cards have exploded into the crafty community and are now a firm favourite with crafters worldwide because they are so easy to make.  

The cute teddy is a from a Kanban stamp set which I bought at Kitty Krafts when I visited and this is it's first outing.  Isn't he adorable?
He was coloured with Promarkers and then cut out before adding Star Dust Stickles to the furry trim and Black Stickles to his nose.  Click the Pic for a close up.

I'd originally planned to create my trio of gifts from patterned papers but I discovered a stash of square fabric samples which were much more 'touchy-feely' and made a really good alternative.  I added ribbons, bows and a pretty star embellishment before arranging them on some gold mirri card and sitting ted on top.  I then cut around the outline, leaving a narrow border and used foam pads to adhere it to the base card, which had already been decorated with snowflake paper matted onto blue textured card. 

The greeting is another Kanban stamp, which was cut around and mounted onto layers of red mirri card cut with Nestabilities, pink glitter card and blue card cut with deckle edged scissors, all raised up with silicon glue to create the stop strip.
My fellow Humbuggers and Guest Designer Jenny also have some fabulous present projects to show you so pop over and take a peek, before hurrying off to make your own.  Don't forget to come back though and leave us a link so we can come and admire your gift ideas.  
OH and if anyone is feeling particularly generous and should want my address then ..... tee hee hee xxx ... just kidding!