Another card

This time of year, I'm finding it so hard to fit in crafting time.  But I still managed to make one more Christmas card for C.R.A.F.T. Challenge.  The theme is "Christmas card with removeable item".  I made a double pocket card and added some flavoured teabags, for my husband's aunt: 



Our sponsor this week is Bows and Berries, and I used the adorable Warm Penguin image.  I also used:  Fancy Pants patterned paper, Echo Park patterned paper (for the paper piecing) and Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type alphabet stickers.

To make the card, I followed this tutorial at Splitcoast Stampers.

I'm submitting my card at:
# My Mum's Craft Shop ~ Cute and funky Christmas
# Paper Sundaes ~ Anything Christmas

A card sketch

This week at C.R.A.F.T. Challenge we have a sketch.  We have two wonderful sponsors and so I've made two different cards.

The first card uses 'Funky Flower' from Floppy Latte Designs:



What I did:
1> I resized the image to create several different sized flowers.
2> I printed the flowers onto patterned paper (Echo Park 'Victoria Gardens')
3> I cut out the flowers, crumpled them, then layered them.
4> I secured the centres - a Basic Grey brad for the big one, and a button for the smaller one.


The next card uses 'Asia' from Glitterbabe:



What I did:
1> I printed one image onto cardstock, and fussy cut around the edges.
2> I printed a second copy of the image onto patterned paper.
3> I cut out the patterned image and paper-pieced the kimono onto the first image.
4> I added some extra colour with gel pens, then assembled the card with embellishments.

I used: Scenic Route paper, Limetree Creations doily, Kaisercraft tiny alphabet stickers, and my own fabric yo-yo flowers.

I'm submitting this card at:
# Crazy Challenge ~ Anything goes

Guest designing

I'm guest designing over at ARTastic this month, and I'm also providing a RAK prize for one of the winners.

The December challenge is inspired by Thomas Kincade's painting 'A Blessing of Christmas'. The other criteria are: include a snowman, include a Christmas tree, include 'Christmas' in the title.

I have to say, I did find this quite challenging on a number of levels. First, I have hardly any Christmas photographs remaining unscrapped. Next, we don't have snow at Christmas in Australia, so combining the criteria was a little tricky!


Click to enlarge

I took inspiration from the soft lighting in the painting, which gives a kind of ethereal 'blurry' effect. I chose a blurry Christmas photograph from last year, and some dark papers. No snowmen for me, but I thought that the white spotty patterned paper did give a kind of 'snowy' effect... maybe? And the Christmas trees - I made them myself from some offcuts and added a little machine stitching and pearls:



I used papers from 7 Gypsies and Bo Bunny 'Mamarazzi', Lily Bee Designs alpha stickers, lace, Kaisercraft pearls, and some upcycled product tags from a recent shopping trip.

Something different

This week at C.R.A.F.T. Challenge our theme is 'Christmas Present' - perfect timing for sharing our Christmas gift crafting projects!  One of things I love about the C.R.A.F.T. Challenge blog is that any project is okay - it can be a card, layout, or any kind of hand crafted item.  We encourage young crafters to join in too - everyone is welcome.

I made something a bit different - it's a beaded bookmark:

Not so easy to photograph - in real life it looks pretty cool :)  This is how it's used:





The pictured book is How to Guzzle Your Garden - a non-fiction children's book by Australian author Jackie French.