Cards for my baking presents!!

Hi everybody, its been crazy busy around here (mainly for me) and I can't believe there is only just over a week till Christmas. I still haven't finished my shopping and I have to work every day this coming week, so thank goodness for late night shopping times!!

I realised the other day that I was short around 20 cards to go with all my baking gifts. Every year I bake around 20 dozen of my world famous 'Christmas Cowpat Cookies'. They are triple chocolate/macadamia and so good I only make them once a year on purpose!! 

I wanted to take some to friends and gardening clients, so I needed a card I could repeat easily but still look pretty:

I knew my new Neat and Tangled 'Holiday Baking' stamp set would be perfect for these cards. Its such a sweet set and I love all the little images included. Can imagine I will be using this a lot for all sorts of cards during the year!!

I grabbed my MISTI and set up the stamps around the middle sentiment stamp. I removed the middle stamp and stamped all the cards using black ink. Once the ink was dry I went back and heat embossed the sentiment with Ranger 'Queens Gold' embossing powder. Over the last few days, whenever I had a few spare moments, I've been colouring them all with my pencils, not the whole image but just enough to make it colourful. I decided not to add any sequins and just keep them simple.

I'm going to link this to the Uniko Challenge # 44 where their theme is 'Christmas'.

Will also link to the Simon Says Stamp - Monday Challenge where their theme is 'Christmas/Winter Holidays'.

And I'm also going to link to the CAS on Friday Challenge # 123 where their theme is 'Christmas'.

I better get back to my cookies. I'm making my fourth batch this week and each batch makes 4 dozen so maybe one more batch to go. Dave and Phoebe went to Auckland on Thursday so its just me and Max at home. Its extremely quiet and Max is exhausted from his last week at school, so he's chilling and I'm baking, making cards and gardening in the sun, with the odd moment every now and then of double-bounching Max on the trampoline. Its a wonderful day!!

Take care
Shona
 

Reminder: TIME OUT Challenge # 98

Hi there everyone!! I'm just popping in with a quick reminder about our current TIME OUT challenge:

We have this inspiration photo for you which should be a great help for ideas with those last-minute Christmas cards. You might do a green/red/white card or maybe something with woodgrain....its totally up to you!!

Our Sponsor for this challenge is Uniko and they will be giving a gift voucher to the challenge winner!!

My eyes were immediately drawn to the wood with white silhouettes, so I thought I could use that for the base of my card with red and green highlights:

Instead of doing a white image on wood I flipped that idea and used some woodgrain paper (from Echo Park 'Everyday Eclectic') with a wreath die from Couture Creations. This was simply glued to the card front.

I have so many friends to send cards to that are on the otherside of the world, so I think this stamp (from Mama Elephant 'Puffy Holiday Greetings') will be used alot!! I stamped it 3x using my MISTI to get good coverage, fussy cut it out and popped on foam tape. I then glued on some green and red sequins from Neat and Tangled for a bit more bling. Nice and simple!!

I'm going to link this to the Simon Says Stamp - Monday Challenge where their theme is 'Christmas/Winter Holidays'.

I'll also link to the Uniko Challenge #44 where their theme is:

You have until Wednesday 20th December to link your projects to the TIME OUT  challenge. And if your struggling with ideas, pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team and our fabulous Guest Designer Sarah of Funky Fossil Designs have created to inspire you. Look forward to seeing you in the Gallery!!

Take care
Shona
 

CAS-ual Fridays Stamps - Hanukkah Inspiration

Hello there!! Can you believe there are only 11 days till Christmas?? Its just crazy, I haven't even had a chance yet to do my Christmas shopping so I'm starting to panic a little. And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one!!

We are celebrating 'Hanukkah' on the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Blog this week and each of the Girl Friday's will be showing you some inspiration for Hanukkah themed projects. 

For my card I really wanted to include lots of celebratory colour and gold:

I started off by cutting a panel of watercolour CS the same size as my card front. Using the Star of David stamp set, I stamped and heat embossed the  star images with Ranger 'Queens Gold' embossing powder, stamping them randomly across the panel. Once I was happy with the placement I used different Distress Ink colours and some mini-blending tool pads (I don't have any daubers....) scrunched up to colour only over each star. 

Once I had finished colouring, the panel was adhered to the card front. I die-cut a circle (using the Ornament Tag Fri-Dies) from some watercolour CS and heat embossed the sentiment (from the same 'Star of David' stamp set) with the same embossing powder. To help the die-cut fit in with the coloured background, I used the mini-blending tool to put Distress Ink 'Picked Raspberry' around the edge. It was then put on some foam tape, and I also glued on some sequins from Neat and Tangled.

All of the 'Hanukkah' products are on sale this week and if you use my 'Girl Friday' code you can save yourself another 15%!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope I've given you some ideas for your Hanukkah projects. Don't forget to visit the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Blog again this week to see even more Hanukkah ideas!

Take care
Shona
 

CAS-ual Fridays Stamps - Christmas card idea

Hi everyone and Merry Christmas from New Zealand!! We are extremely lucky to be the very first country in the world to see in a new day, so that means we get to have Christmas first too!! So I can imagine in a few hours there will be wrapping paper everywhere and hopefully very happy children!!!

I'm up on the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Blog today with a last minute Christmas card idea. It came to me while I was making another card and I had a whole lot of left-over die pieces, which I thought would make a great Christmas tree!!

This of course was super simple to make (which is good for a last-minute design...) and I thought the tree looked so pretty against the blue background!!

I started off by using my mini-blending tool and Distress Ink 'Mermaid Lagoon' to create the background colour. To add some sparkle and some interest I sprayed the card front with some Imagine Crafts 'Sheer Shimmer Sparkle Spritz', doing it close up to form lots of droplets. I let it sit for a few seconds and then dabbed the droplets with tissues.

After working out where the tree would sit, I glued on the snowflakes. They were die-cut using the Funky Flake Fri-Dies set. To finish off I stamped the sentiment from Snowy Sayings and added some blue and clear sequins from Neat and Tangled.

If your wanting to stock up on these products to use on next years Christmas cards, don't forget to use my special 'Girl Friday' code to save yourself 15%!!

Thanks so much for stopping by, as I'm sure if your on the otherside of the world your still rushing around getting everything ready for the big day. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and happy, healthy and crafty 2018!!!

Take care
Shona
 

Little Tangles Challenge # 87

Hi everybody and welcome to the last Little Tangles challenge for 2017 and we have a very handy theme for this time of year:

With lots of gifts to be wrapped and tagged this month, its a great way to use your Neat and Tangled products to decorate them. So show us your 'gift wrapping' ways!!

For my gifts I used some stamps to decorate boxes for cookies that I baked:

 
 I purchased these kraft gift boxes from Rosies Studio a while ago. They are completely blank and I was going to use some patterned paper to dress them up a bit. However, I realised that I could do that with some stamps instead!!

I measured two sides of the boxes (front and back) and cut out cardstock pieces to fit. I arranged the present stamps on my MISTI and stamped away making two panels for each box (I actually have six boxes so the MISTI was brilliant for this!). I used present stamps from Fa La Llama, Merry Little Christmas and Santas Ride.

I wanted to keep the colours simple and love light blue/red and white for a combo. I coloured the box ribbons red with pencils and then stamped the stars from 'Fa La Llama' in light blue ink. These were adhered to the box sides with double-sided tape.

I don't own any Neat and Tangled tag dies, so I simply cut rectangles from white CS and snipped the corners off to shape them. I also used a hole punch at the top. I stamped the dog and snowman from Get Yeti and coloured them with pencils. I suddenly realised I had coloured the wrong piece of the snowman's hat red but oh well, that's the joy of handmade!! I stamped the stars again in the same blue ink and attached to the gift boxes with silver twine.

I'm so happy with how these turned out. It took longer than using patterned paper but looks better I think because the pattern is exactly what I like and its more personal. I'm sure my gardening clients will love them!!

I'm going to link this to the Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge where their theme is 'Gift It'.

You have until Thursday 28th December to link your projects to the Little Tangles challenge and don't forget to take a peek at the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have created to inspire you. I can't wait to see your gift giving ideas, I need as many as I can get for this Christmas!!

Take care
Shona
 

The Flower Challenge # 15

Hi everybody and welcome to our last challenge at The Flower Challenge for 2017!!! And we have a doozy for you this month:

That's right, you can create anything you like with a floral design but it can't be a card!!  This one stumped me for a bit but I suddenly realised it was a good chance to create some Christmas tags:

I wanted to have a design that wouldn't take too long to replicate but still looked pretty. So of course I turned to heat embossing!!

I die-cut tags from pink, blue, red and watercolour CS using a tag from CAS-ual Fridays Stamps 'Tag Buddies Fri-Dies'. I then stamped and heat embossed a poinsettia image from Rosies Studio 'Nature's Noel' using Ranger Embossing Powder in Queens Gold. I then used my Wink of Stella to add shimmer to the open petals for a bit of bling. 

The sentiment was also heat embossed with the same Queens Gold powder, using a stamp from Neat and Tangled 'Santa's Ride'. Most of these were put on strips of white CS with one being on red because of the tag colour. I put these on foam tape, along with some co-ordinating sequins also from Neat and Tangled. Lastly I added some gold thread from Value Craft and they were done!!

You have until Monday 25th December (Christmas Day) to link your projects to The Flower Challenge and if your trying to find ideas, pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have created for you. And we will be back for a quick reminder on the 15th of this month!

Take care
Shona
 

Happy Little Stampers - Watercolour Challenge - December

Hi there and welcome to the final Happy Little Stampers - Watercolour Challenge  of 2017!! This month we have an optional twist to help with your Christmas card stash:

You don't have to create a Christmas project but if your still struggling with enough cards for everyone, this is the perfect opportunity to create some more!! And you also have the chance to win a $15 gift certificate to the Happy Little Stampers Shop so that's even better!!

I've been trying to make some quick and easy Christmas cards of late so haven't been watercolouring very much (I paint very slowly.....) so this was a great chance to concentrate on one design for a while and enjoy the process:

I found this cool wreath die for $10 (from Couture Creations) at The Warehouse and loved all the bauble details. I thought this would look fantastic in rainbow colours.

I die-cut the wreath from some water colour CS and then coloured each bauble using Kuretake Gansai Tambi Pearl Colors and Starry Colors, not being fussed about whether the colours mixed at the edges. After one layer I dried it off and painted another to make the shimmer and colour stand out, couldn't be more happier with the result!!

It was going to be hard to put this on foam tape so I die-cut the wreath three more times from black CS and glued them all together for dimension. I then glued it to the card front. I kept the sentiment simple, heat embossing this one from Neat and Tangled 'Santas Ride' in gold and putting it on foam tape. And of course I had to add some Neat and Tangled sequins for a bit more bling!!

I'm going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge where their theme is 'Anything Goes'.

Will also add to the Uniko Challenge # 44 where their theme is 'Christmas'.

You have the whole month of December to link your projects to the Happy Little Stampers - Watercolour Challenge and don't forget to pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the talented Design Team have created to inspire you.

This will also be my last post as part of the Watercolour DT, its been a wonderful year and I appreciate Kylie allowing me to be a part of her HLS family for the past two years. Thank you Kylie!!!!xxx

Take care
Shona 

Reminder: TIME OUT Challenge # 97

Hello there!! I hope your well and had a good week. Its the 1st of December tomorrow and I can't wait for it to arrive so I can put up all my Christmas decorations and lights!!  I'm just popping in with a quick reminder about our current TIME OUT  challenge.

We have this phrase to inspire you for this challenge. You could use just one word, one part of the sentence or maybe be inspired by the whole meaning...its totally up to you!! I really love the part that talks about celebrating all that is good, as I feel that if you think good thoughts and good things about other people, they will (hopefully) treat you the same:

I think the colour 'mint' is so pretty, in whatever shade and decided to celebrate it by using just mint and white on my card.

I started off by die-cutting two different sized hearts from white CS (unfortunately the dies were purchased second hand and I don't know what company they are from...). On the smaller heart I stamped the 'good vibes' words from Neat and Tangled 'Good Vibes' stamp set. I also used the 'sending' from Neat and Tangled 'Better Together'. I stamped these using Waffle Flower Ink 'New Fish in Pond'.

I then went thru my paint chips and found different shades of mint. I used  these with the Neat and Tangled 'Medallion Flower Builder' dies and arranged and glued them behind the smaller heart. The large heart was adhered to the card front and the smaller one popped up on foam tape. And of course I had to add some clear sequins from Neat and Tangled as well.

I'm going to link this to the Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge where their theme is 'Anything Goes'.

 

You have until Wednesday 6th December to link your projects to the TIME OUT  challenge and if your needing any ideas, pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team and our amazing Guest Designer Izzy of Izzy Scrap have designed for you. Can't wait to see you in the Gallery!!

Take care
Shona
 

CAS-ual Fridays Stamps - Snowflake Inspiration

Hi there everyone, I hope you've had or are having a fantastic weekend. And for all of you in the U.S. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends. And I'm looking forward to seeing all your shopping hauls from your Black Friday spending!!

I'm up on the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Blog today with some 'Snowflake' inspired cards:

I started out making one card but it turned into two, so that's a bonus for my Christmas card stash!!

For this first card I cut a panel of white CS slightly smaller than my card front and die-cut the snowflake from Funky Flakes Fri-Dies across the panel. I then decided that it needed some colour so I used my mini-blending tool and Distress Ink 'Picked Raspberry' to colour it. I added lots of foam tape to the back and put on the card front. 

The sentiment from Noel Fri-Dies was die-cut from silver CS and glued to some white CS which I then fussy cut and popped on foam tape. To finish off I glued on some sequins from the Sistahood Sparkle Sequin Mix.

When I was blending the die-cut panel for the first card, I had some white paper underneath and when I lifted it up it had left behind the coolest pink stencil snowflakes, so that inspired this card!!

I cut a panel of white CS slightly smaller than the card front and before I put the first card together, I put the die-cut snowflake panel over top and blended the same Distress Ink over top. I popped the panel up on foam tape over the card front, die-cut another word from the Noel Fri-Dies with silver CS, glued it on to some white CS and fussy cut it out. This was put on foam tape along with some more of the same sequins. Nothing better than a 'two for one' deal!!

All of the products I used for these cards are actually on sale at the moment. And using my special Girl Friday Code you can save yourself another 15% on top of that!!!

I hope this has given you some ideas to try with your Christmas cards. Thanks so much for stopping by and I'll see you again next month on the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Blog!!

Take care
Shona
 

Honey I Shrunk the Kit - November 2017

I can't believe its time again for another Honey I Shrunk the Kit!! Feels like I just made the last ones, has this year flown by for you too??

Basically we are five crafty girls from the UK, New Zealand and Australia and every two months one of us makes up a kit of card making goodies that will fit in an envelope and sends it out to us. We then have time to create as many cards as we like and all post on our blogs at the same time to see what we all made with the same products. Its so much fun and hard to believe we started doing this back in April 2015!!!!!

This 'Sugar Fix' kit was created by the fabulous Sarah P of Sazzle Dazzle Crafts. The envelope was bursting with goodies as you can see by the photo:

It included:

 

Stamps:
Reverse Confetti: Donut You Know (plus donut die)
Neat & Tangled: Say Yes to Donuts
Avery Elle: Pick N Mix (plus dies)
Mama Elephant: Carnival Cupcakes (plus dies)
Other Dies:
L’il Inker: Smile
Mama Elephant: Columbus Circle
Neat & Tangled: Hooray word dies
Other Items:
Hobbycraft Basics: patterned paper
Action Wobbler
Doodlebug: bakers twine
Anita’s: half cut pearls

I was most excited about the action wobbler as have never tried one of those before and the blue/pink colour combo was delicious!!

For my first card I used a MFT die (from Blueprints 27) to die-cut the background paper and adhere to the card front. I also glued on the circle die-cut. I coloured the bear and cupcake with pencils and popped them up on foam tape, using the pink pearls for sprinkles.  I cut out the sentiment, put it on foam tape and tied the pink/white twine around it into a bow at the top. Its so cute!!

For my second card I was lucky enough to have the Neat and Tangled 'Say Yes to Donuts' set and coloured the girl from the kit and two others with pencils. I painted the 'hooray' word die using Kuretake Gansai Tambi 'Pearl Colors' in Pink. The background of the word die was covered all over with Versamark ink and heat embossed with my new Altenew 'Golden Peach' Metallic embossing powder. I glued the word in place, adhered the kids to the back and put it all on foam tape. I cut out the sentiment, put that on foam tape too and added some sequins from Neat and Tangled.

For my third card I used an oval die from Studio Katia to cut out the background paper and adhered to the card front. I coloured all the lollies with pencils, glued them on top of the bag and put it on foam tape, adding a twine bow around the top. The 'smile' die-cut was coloured again with the same pink pearl color and glued in place. I cut out the sentiment, tucked it under the bag with foam tape to support it and glued on some of the pearls.

For my final card I just had to use the action wobbler!! I adhered the paper to the whole of the card front and glued the white die-cut piece (from inside the circle die) in place. The donut boy was coloured with pencils, fussy cut out and put on the wobbler. I cut out the sentiment, put it on foam tape and tied the blue/white twine around it. And I finished off with some blue and grey pearls from the kit. I don't often make cards for boys so this is a bonus!!

Thank you so much Sarah for a most incredible kit, I could have carried on creating, it had so much included!!

Now you've seen what I made, you (and I) can pop over to see what the other girls made:

Sarah G - Funky Fossil Designs 

Sandie - London Days 

Anita - Neet and Crafty 

Hazel - Hazels Paper Designs 

Thanks so much for stopping by and hope your having a fantastic weekend too!!

Take care
Shona
 

Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge

Its been another whirlwind of a weekend. Luckily the kids have a 'Teachers Only Day' tomorrow so I've got an extra day to catch up with myself. I desperately need to work out how many Christmas cards I have and how many more I need to make before I run out of time. There is so much to do in the next five weeks, its mind boggling!!

Earlier this week I had a chance to play with a new stamp set from Neat and Tangled 'Get Yeti' and I thought the sweet Yeti would be perfect to create a card for the Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge where their theme is 'Furry Friends':

There is so much glittery shimmer on this card but I couldn't capture it with my camera. I need to work out how to do that as it really makes the card shine!!

I don't create card 'scenes' very often as I don't think I'm very good at it but practice makes perfect right??  I started off by stamping the images on some white CS, colouring with pencils and then fussy cutting out. I used two stitched-curve/hill dies (I purchased them second-hand and don't know what company they are from I'm afraid...) to cut two panels of white CS, one shorter than the other. Once I knew where they would sit on the card I used my mini-distress tool and Distress Ink 'Salty Ocean' to colour the card front for the sky. I then adhered the snowy hills over top.

The mountains were tucked behind the hill, the log cabin glued in place and the snowman and yeti put on foam tape. I heat embossed the sentiment in silver and put that on foam tape as well. And of course I added some Neat and Tangled sequins for more shine.

When I photographed the card I realised that it was looking very 'blah', so I covered the body of the snowman in Wink of Stella and also along the stitched lines of the hills. I used Nuvo Crystal Drops in White to add dimension to the snow on the mountains and the snowman's hat. Once that had dried I added Wink of Stella on top of it as well. For the sky I very carefully put droplets of water from a tiny brush on to it and dabbed with a tissue to make it look like it was snowing....much better!!

Since I don't have to go to bed too early tonight I must attack my Christmas card list and also work out how many cookies I need to make to deliver to friends etc. I also need to work out when I have time to make a few hundred cookies.....it was all so much easier when I wasn't working!!

Take care
Shona
 

 

AAA Card Challenge # 103

Its finally Friday afternoon....yippee!! I'm so ready for the weekend as its been a very busy week gardening. Spring weather is fabulous but boy do the weeds and hedges enjoy it a bit too much, spent today trimming huge hedges for 5.5 hrs!! Was a lovely hot day though so I can't complain.

The current theme at the AAA Card Challenge is 'Celebrate'. I managed to squeeze in some card time this week and play around again with the my new Neat and Tangled 'Falling Circles Cover Plate', using it slightly differently again:

Its not very often I make more than one card at a time but I had all my paint chips out so I couldn't help myself!!

These cards were definitely time consuming but I'm really happy with the final result!

Firstly I grabbed some big square paint chips in two tones of blue and pink and die-cut them with the cover plate. I also cut two panels of white and black CS and die-cut them with the cover plate as well. I put the two paint chips together with one slightly higher. I then did the same with the white panel and then the black panel, using double-sided tape to keep them together. I then finished them off with a panel of black CS behind. This was then adhered to the card front.

Next I die-cut the Neat and Tangled 'Celebrate' die from a similar blue and pink paint chip and the back part of the die in white CS. These were glued together and then put on foam tape. I stamped sentiments from Neat and Tangled 'Say yes to Donuts' on strips of white CS, popped on foam tape and also glued on some Neat and Tangled sequins to co-ordinate.

Love the hint of colours with the circles and the black on top really pops against the white!

Dave will be home from work soon so I better prepare myself to take Bella for a walk. Since its Friday we will probably have pizza for tea. I so don't have the energy to whip up a meal, so I'm very grateful to Pizza Hut!!

Take care
Shona
 

 

Reminder: Time Out Challenge # 96

Hello there!! Warm weather has finally returned here today and its been glorious gardening in the hot sun. It definitely gives me a bit of a skip in my step as I love when its warm and Summery!!

I wanted to remind you all about our current TIME OUT  challenge where we have this fantastic CAS designed card for you to CASE. It was created by one of my favourite people in blogland, Michele of I Card Everyone!! She is as sweet as can be and is a fellow horror movie fan, so of course I love her to bits!!

CASE stands for 'Copy and Share Everyone' and basically means your inspired by that card. You could copy it 100% or go with the colours, maybe use flowers on your card.....its totally up to you!!

This challenge is Sponsored by Happy Little Stampers and they are giving a $15 gift voucher to the winner!!

I love everything about Michele's card, especially the die-cutting so definitely had to incorporate that into my card:

I don't think I've ever created a card without the sentiment being straight across, so this was a nice change of pace!

I started by cutting a panel of white CS and put a strip of washi tape from corner to corner. Using Distress Ink 'Picked Raspberry' and a mini-blending tool I made half of the panel as pink as I could. With the washi tape still on I grabbed a background stamp by My Favourite Things 'Floral Fantasy', inked it up with Hero Arts 'Bubblegum' ink and stamped it over the pink area.

After drying the panel with my heat gun I die-cut the My Favourite Things 'Hello' right across the middle of the card, along with two more from white CS. I adhered a piece of white CS behind the die-cut area and inlaid two white 'hello' die-cuts on top of each other and then the pink one on top. The rest of the sentiment (from MFT 'Beary Special Birthday') was simply stamped in black on a strip of white CS and adhered under the die-cut. All I had to do then was stick the panel on the card front and add some pink and clear sequins from Neat and Tangled.

You have until Wednesday 22nd November to link your project to the TIME OUT challenge. And if you don't have any ideas or need help with CASEing, pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team and our absolutely spectacular Guest Designer Bobby of Bits and Pieces have created for you. Can't wait to see you in the Gallery!!

Take care
Shona