Mistletoe and Holly.

Its a gorgeous day here in London. Sunny, fresh and with frost on the grass. I love weather like this.
When we are blessed with a day like this it is best to get outside and enjoy it. I am therefore going to make this quick!

I am trying to crack on with my calendar and today I have my December topper to share with you. The initial inspiration for this came from this photo I spotted at Inspired By

I liked the idea of the hanging wreaths but altered mine to be mistletoe after I saw Virginia's card here on the Cas-ual Friday Flickr group. I just loved Virginia's card and had to 'case' it, adding another mistletoe bunch, some ivy and changing the colour scheme but you can still see how much Virginia's card inspired me!

I am also going to enter this into the 'red and green' challenge at Speedy Fox and Friends.

5 months left to do!!

Merry-Kiss-Mas Hubby

Happy Sunday Crafting chums,

Today I had everything ready to decorate the tree and house for Xmas. Yesterday we got the tree, I spray painted wood branches, cones and basically anything I could get my hands on. Callum-my hubby-had to keep moving otherwise he would now be a metallic silver!).
But then last night I was ill and my plans were not looking like they would go ahead. Callum did a fab job, ironing, getting dinner prepared, buying new Xmas lights and starting the decorating. Finally after I had slept all day I got up, put my new Michael Buble Xmas c.d on and tried to get creative. Between the two of us we got it done and we are super happy with the end result.
Callum is now having a Whiskey Mac cocktail whilst I came up and suddenly had an idea for his Xmas card.

I was inspired by the 'nice and knotty' challenge at Cas-ual Friday and the Xmas colour combo of Black, white and metallic at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown Challenge. This combo seemed ideal for a guy but I really hadn't meant it to me for Callum but when an idea pops in my head I have to go with it. And here we are:

Now, I know, you may be thinking a bow for a guy?? But believe me, he has seen me pull my hair out trying to make so many bows, that he will appreciate this one.......plus to make it into a knot only took me a few hours more!
I used my new Cas-ual Friday stamps for the sentiment. I so love the CAS look of this, although it has the super over sized bow, it still looks CAS to me.
Well I am off to give this to him now so I am hoping it will make him smile and realise how blessed I feel to have him as hubby-in sickness and in health!!

Summer Chill.

Today I decided I needed a break from the Christmas Theme. I went as far away as possible and had some inky fun in the sun!
I am making a few calendars for gifts and need to do a different topper for each month. Today I went for August. The idea for this came from this photo from the challenge at Runway Inspired:

As soon as I saw this photo I knew I had to join in with this challenge. I just loved the bright orange and was struck by the winter mix and summer colours, her flippers (they are flippers aren't they?), goggles and it looks like she has a sun on her head. So there was quite a lot here for me to play with....well in my mind anyway!!

I also had wanted to play along with the 'make you mark' challenge at Addicted to Stamps basically because I haven't done any colouring for ages and I do find it relaxing when I have a go. Plus I was struck to see a 'Endless Summer' theme challenge at Southern Girls-forgetting that a lot of you crafters are in the middle of Summer. 

So there was a lot that was drawing me towards getting down to my 'Summer Fun' August calendar topper and here we are:

I used promakers to colour the image. The stamps are from verve and Little Claire Designs.

6 more months to do before Xmas, yes I know I need to get a move on!!

Thanks for popping by and have a chilled Saturday night x

Happy Holly Days!

Today I am celebrating the arrival of my new CAS-ual Friday 'Merry-Kiss-Mas stamp set. I have been waiting for this to arrive and when Mr. Posty popped it through my letter box yesterday I got inky straight away!
I have been admiring all the CAS cards I have seen using this set and this is what I came up with:

As I was super excited I stamped the inside:

I just love how this card turned out.

You can't see the gems on the mistletoe so well but they are there and really do sparkle! I am going to enter it into the 'sparkle' challenge at Casology and the 'sparkliscious' challenge at Ladybug Crafts Ink
And my very traditional colours were inspired by the 'red and green' challenge at Less is More

Now you go and celebrate Friday!!

CAS-Colours and Sketches Challenge #2

Today is our second challenge at CAS-Colour and Sketches and, as it is the first week of the month, we have a colour challenge for you.

Here are this week's colours:



Remember if you don't have the exact colours just use a colour as close to these as possible. I have used light green twine as I don't have 'lucky lemonade'-but it is pretty close!
I decided to go all Christmassy this week and keep it traditional.

I used a Green Grass rubber bow stamp for this. First I stamped it and cut it out. I then stamped it directly onto the card stock after stamping once on scrap, to give this faded look. The solid, cut out bow, I have raised on foam pads, although it is hard to see from this photo. And to finish up a little green button and twine bow.
So, a pretty traditional Xmas card to add to my stash.

All the DT have made great cards so why not pop over to their blogs and get some inspiration. Please leave us a comment, we love to hear from you.

Kylie
Louise
Jacqueline

I can't wait to see what you create. Happy Stamping!

Time to use my stash!

The first week of December begins and the countdown to Christmas is now on!

I am nearly done with the Christmas cards. I am beginning to write them out to see how many are left to make. But I still need to make 2 calendars-a bit of a task as I do a different topper for each month and so far only about 4 months done!
CAS-ual Fridays 'tag' challenge this week enthused me to get going with all the pressie tags I need to make.

I decided to raid my stash of ribbons, card from last years Xmas cards, that I die cut into shapes and a bit of stamping! The tags are actually luggage tags from the pound shop! Pretty resourceful! And as I had one pressie to wrap for my Aunt I am seeing today I decided to match it to this.

First, here is the pressie with one of the tags:

I think I have to thank Lynn for sending me a video of how to tie ribbon bows as I am getting so much better (yes, I say this myself!!).

And as I was making this tag, I decided to get on with a few more. The stamp actually says 'you made the nice list' but difficult to see here.
I think the next lot of tags I make will be more stamping but these were fun to make and it is nice to do something a bit different now and then!

I will also enter them into the 'Anything Christmassy but a card' challenge at Totally Paper Crafts and  the ribbon challenge at Crafts and Me

Thanks for popping by x

A funky CASE of me!

Happy Sunday,

Today I have a card that is based on this sketch from this week challenge at CAS(E) the Sketch



When I saw this sketch I immediately liked it and I was making this card and decided to case myself. I wanted to make a funky version of it and went with the animal print on the handbags. I embossed the card stock using the wrong side of it to make it look like animal stripes rather than wood grain-what do you think, does it work??

I added some sparkle which doesn't look too sparkly here but IRL it does!

I am also going to enter it into the 'girly' challenged at Digital Tuesday and Paper Pretties

Have a relaxing Sunday x