Christmas Crafting! Challenge: Traditional Colours

We're back!  We took a break for a month at Christmas Crafting!, but now with September here I have already seen fruit mince pies in the grocery stores which means the wind up for Christmas is beginning.

Our sponsors this month are Lilly Of The Valley, who make the most adorable rubber stamps.  They were kind enough to provide the design team with a few images to work with, and our challenge this month was to use traditional Christmas colours.  

I love projects that are quick and that use up my scraps, and this fit into both categories!  The images are coloured with copics and then cut out by hand.  I used a circle punch and some nesties to create the backing out of Kaisercraft papers.  The whole thing is then taped to the candy cane using tissue tape.  It came together in a snap and would make a great project for kids.

Thanks for looking, and if you haven't done so yet now is a great time to start your Christmas projects.  Before you know it we will be wondering where the time has gone and be rushing around trying to get everything done in time!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Card

This project is a one 'page' layout from a cook book I am making for my girls.  The project was inspired by a Youtube video created by My Scrap World.  You can watch her easy to follow tutorial here.  It's constructed entirely out of manila folders and presents loads of creative options, and if you have time to watch the video you will get an idea of how this one layout will be made into a recipe folio.

The recipe card itself is created with a Mo Manning digital stamp called Bronte and Loius.  Such a cutie! The theme this week at Mo Manning's Challenge Blog is "Friends", and there are no greater friends in the world than a boy and his dog.  The recipe and image are printed on Kraft and coloured with Lyra pencils.

This is a view of the file folder when open, eventually several of these will be be adhered together to create one big recipe file.  The front flap that has the recipe card adhered to it drops down to reveal a recipe for hot fudge sundae cookie cups, as well as a photo of the chocolate chip cookies that I made using this recipe.  Personally I am very visually motivated when it comes to recipes, so I felt it was really important to include photos of what the food actually looks like!

The paper is from a stack called Country Basics by Crafter's Choice, together with regular old manila card files inked with Faded Jeans Distress Ink. 

Thanks for looking, I hope you are having an awesome day! :o)

Postage Stamp Card

 

I finally have my camera back and can start blogging about the new things I have been making since getting my Cricut.  I love having a digital die cutting machine, and am already looking at purchasing another with a larger mat and greater functionality.  So far I am leaning towards the Silhouette Cameo as it is compatible with programmes like SCUT, doesn't require cartridges, and Silhouette have a massive online store with thousands of individual svg files for purchase.

First up is a sweet little card with a postage stamp edge that I created to be suitable for either male or females.  Myy partner is from the States and I thought this would make a good general themed card for him to send back home for various occasions. 

The postage stamp edge is a file that comes from SVGCuts and is part of the Santa's Visit SVG Kit.

 

The card is created from plain white card to emulate a regular postage stamp, and the I aged the edges inside and out with Antique Linen Distress Ink.  The postcards are taken from a paper by Kaisercraft which have been roughed up with a paper distressing tool, and the sweet little bear is from Teddy Bo, and he has been coloured with Copic pens. 

I am entering this into the Teddy Bo Challenge this fortnight, the theme of which is 'distress it'.

Live Out Loud

Hello again!

I think as crafters we go through creativity spurts where we find our passions ignited by various ideas.  For me, at the moment, it is mini albums.

I followed a pattern by Kathy Orta at Paper Phenomenom.  The pattern was very easy to follow, step by step photos and very clear instructions, I'll definitely be trying a few more from her store.  This is one of the more grandiose projects I have tried and it was quite difficult to photograph well due to the scale, but I hope you get the idea.

The album itself is constructed from chipboard which I covered with manila folders.

The front has a simple but elegant gold clasp to hold it closed, and a small spray of flowers and a pearl bling, both by Kaisercraft.

The edges have all been inked with Tea Stain Distress Ink and all the designer papers come from the Sweet Nothings collection by Kaisercraft.  This side on view shows you the depth of the album.  It's quite slimline, but as you will see shortly there is still a lot of space for displaying photos.

When you open up the sides the first thing you see is a flip style arrangement of three panels.  Each one is 6" x 4" and can easily hold a photo.  Each is also a pocket so small keepsakes can be stored within.

This is the view when the album is open.  Isn't that paper line just gorgeous, I love the colours, which is unusual, orange is not usually my thing!

On the inside sleeve are more pockets for photo mats, the photo above I have removed them so you can see the sleeves, the photo below you can see the mats inserted into the sleeves.

 

When you open up the flip sleeves you see behind the centrepiece of the album, the main photo mat.

 

On the feature mat you can see one of Mo Manning's beautiful images, called Mummu.   I have used a Sizzix die to create the strip of music, which acts as a catch for the photo mat and the coloured image.  The rubber stamp says "'If you ask me what I came to do in this world I will answer you: I am here to live out loud."  I have stamped this onto a clear acetate overlay, so a photo can be placed underneath.

But wait, there's more!  The main photo mat lifts back to reveal...

Tucked away behind the main mat are more 6 x 4 photo mats tucked into sleeves.   The album has a 2 photo mats on each sleeve, and 4 behind the centre piece, for a total of 8 removable photo mats.

 
 

This was the very first stamped image I coloured, digital or otherwise. I did this over a year ago and put it away in a safe place waiting for just the right project.  It's not perfect, but I love it, and it reminds me of my mother, who also is not perfect but I love her too.  I created this is album for her 60th birthday.

 

I am entering this into the following challenges:

 

Mo's Challenge Blog - Singing and Dancing

Make it Monday - Anything Goes

Before I let you go, if you haven't heard yet, Christmas Crafting is celebrating it's first birthday, which is being extended, there's a blog hop and prizes so head on over!

Gingerbread Recipe Card

This project is one 'page' layout from a cook book I am making for my girls.  The project was inspired by a Youtube video created by My Scrap World.  You can watch her easy to follow tutorial here.  It's constructed entirely out of manila folders and presents loads of creative options, and if you have time to watch the video you will get an idea of how this one layout will be made into a recipe folio.

The recipe card itself is created with a Mo Manning digital stamp called Witches Trick.  Isn't she fabulous! I have coloured her with Lyra pencils on Kraft card.

This is a view of the file folder when open, eventually several of these will be be adhered together to create one big recipe file.  The front flap that has the recipe card adhered to it drops down to reveal a recipe for royal icing, as well as a photo of little gingerbread boys that I made using this recipe.

The right pocket holds a tag which will be used for writing notes.  As this is being handed down to my children I felt it was important that it had my handwriting somewhere, so I will jot down a few notes about the recipe for them.

The paper is from a stack called Country Basics by Crafter's Choice, together with regular old manila card files inked with Weathered Wood Distress Ink.  The stamps "Cooking Together" and "A Tasty Tradition" is from a set called Let's Eat by TPC Studio.  The "Baked Fresh" embellishment is from the Nan's Kitchen collection by Kaisercraft.

Gingerbread clones!  I sent my son to school with a bag of these and some cheese sticks to use at light sabers so he could have gingerbread clone wars :o)

I am entering this project into the following challenges:

Mo's Digital Challenge - Anything Goes w/Mo Image
City Crafter Challenge Blog -  Recipe Card
Make It Monday - Anything Goes

Happy First Birthday Christmas Crafting!

This month we are celebrating our first birthday over at Christmas Crafting-where has the time gone! Thanks to all of you who have taken part in the last 12 months and we hope we can count on you for your continued support. As part of our celebrations we have decided to have a blog hop around our very talented Design Team! We have four prizes up for grabs so definitely worth taking part! If you have arrived here from Debbie's blog then you are hopping in the right direction. If not then please return to the Christmas Crafting blog to start again.

All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning one of these fabulous prizes is to visit each blog in order, leaving a comment as you go, and then returning to the Christmas Crafting Challenge blog and leaving a final comment letting us know what you love about Christmas. On 1st August we will randomly draw four comments to win the prizes.

To continue with the hop, you now need to visit Darcy's blog.

Good luck and thanks for joining us at Christmas Crafting this month.

Exciting isn't it!  The cool colors and frosty theme I have used in my card this month seemed very fitting considering how cold it is here in South Australia!  The gorgeous little fairy is by Mo Manning, the papers are by Kaisercraft and the image has been colored with a combination of Lyra and Prismacolor pencils on Kraft card and it's been put together using a "Joy" fold technique I found on Split Coast Stampers.

My apologies to Arline and all for being a few hours late with my post, hubby went walkabout with the camera and I was hoping I could just scoot in under the deadline but I hope it was worth the wait!

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Anything Goes 
Totally Gorjuss - Sweet and Simple
Totally Papercrafts Friday Challenge - Can You Digi It?
Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge - Fancy Folds
The Kraft Journal - Anything Goes

Purple Christmas Card

 

Hi again! It's challenge time once again at Christmas Crafting, and this month the theme we were asked to work with was purple.  Our adorable digi's were kindly supplied by Sassy Studio's Digital Stamps, and this lovely lady is called First Snow.

I have to admit this is probably the most challenging month for me to date, I went through my stash and realized I didn't have one - not one - purple piece of designer paper, Gah!  So I worked with what I had and created a clean and simple design, I hope you like :o)   

I have used the Nestabilities Heirloom Die (2011) to create the frame around the digi, which has been coloured with a combination of both Copics and Prismacolor pencils, and finished with a little embossing and a sprinkle of Stickles.

Maisie Caroling

 

This week was my birthday and I received a long admired set of Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor pencils, and I have been having a blast experimenting with them. They are oil based, whereas Prismacolor pencils are wax based, as such they have a harder core. They feel very different to use, and I have found a much lighter touch is required than with the Prismacolor. The only complaint I have about them so far is the limited colour range, 72 in the Rembrandt range versus 120 in the Prismacolor range, with the most lacking gap being the brown palette.

  

As well as the pencils I also bought a few tools that I have been pining over for a while. I got a Crop-o-dile edge cropper, and a few dies by Tim Holtz. I have also used the Tim Holtz Tattered Flower Garland strip die for the flowers, and the juniper sprigs are from the Tattered Pinecone die.

I've used the small easel die to create a stand alone picture rather than a card, and I have a feeling this is one die I will use a lot :o)

I am entering this into Mo's Digital Challenge, the theme this week is Anything Goes.

Twas The Night Before Christmas

... when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

It was my turn to choose the theme this month at Christmas Crafting! and I chose the poem Twas The Night Before Christmas.  

I tried a new technique with this project.  The stamp is from Magnolia, and I stamped that onto Bristol Board using black Stayz On ink.  I then used Distress Inks and a water brush to colour the main parts of the image.  Once completely dry, I used Prismacolor pencils to deepen the shadows and put in any fine work such as the berries.

I used Bristol Board rather than watercolour paper because it's intended for multimedia, and it takes the addition of the coloured pencils better than traditional watercolour paper does.  I can see where a few watermarks have been left, but overall I was happy with this as a first attempt and can see the potential for a lot of creativity, and I feel I had a lot more control of the inks using the Bristol Board.

The box that I chose to decorate is an upcycled box from Domino's Pizza, they use these for their dippers and sweets.  The manager of my local store was kind enough to give me some brand new ones to play with.

 

These little boxes are great for altering.  They have a lovely parchment colour as the base, the commercial branding is easily covered with paper, and the inside is wax coated, making it ideal for giving food treats.

I hope I have given you some inspiration this month, why not try altering or upcycling a project! 

Gingham Christmas

It's the first day of a new month and that means Christmas Crafting challenge time!  This month we were challenged with using gingham on our project.  When I think of gingham I think country kitchen, jam jar covers, tea towels, aprons etc.  So for this project I decided to revisit a sketch I did earlier this year.

The first version can be found here.  I loved the concept so much I have several I am going to make over the coming months, and being directed to use gingham was just the excuse I needed to make another!

I've used Kraft card for the base, sweet Tilda has been stamped using Stayzon.  I first started stamping about a year ago, and back then I was warned away from Stayzon as being too difficult to use and clean up, but I have to say it gives the crispest most defined images from every type of stamp.  Little Tilda has been coloured with Prismacolor pencils, which I love using on the Kraft.  The Christmas patterned papers are from Kaisercraft, and the gingham paper is the reverse side of a Graphic 45 paper.

The recipe card is removable, with the gingham strip across the bottom acting as a sleeve for the card.  If you are interested in my recipe I posted it back in December last year, you can find it here.  The sentiment is a free download from the Shabby Princess, it came as part of a holiday recipe kit.

I hope you have been inspired to go forth and create your own gingham Christmas creation!

Christmas Cookies

Hello again!  Welcome to another challenge with Christmas Crafting!  This month's challenge was set by Arline, and she asked us to use an ordinary image to make a Christmas themed project.  The little cutie I used is called Christie Angel, and was generously provided for us to play with by Robyn's Fetish. 

The primitive style of this image is very cute, and very country, which led me to thoughts of my kitchen and from there I decided that she would be perfect for a tag giving a gift from my kitchen.  I'd seen cookie mixes in jars before and always thought they looked so lovely and rustic, so I set my hand at creating one of my own.

The tag is made using two Kaisercraft papers from the December 25th collection, and sweet little Christie is coloured with Prismacolors.  The sentiment is also a stamp from Kaisercraft.  The tag is cut using a Tim Holtz die, tied around the neck of the jar with a bit of raffia.

If you'd like to make your own 'cookie jar', below is the recipe I used.

This recipe is enough to fill a jar designed to hold 500g (17.6oz) of coffee. Place the following ingredients into a jar in the order listed.

2 cups plain (all purpose) flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups quick cook oats

1 cup chocolate chips

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 white sugar

1 cup dried sultanas (or any other dried fruit/nut combo you prefer)

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 180C (350F). Pour dry ingredients into a large bowl and add: 3/4 cup butter (almost melted), one lightly beaten egg and one teaspoon vanilla essence. Mix thoroughly and roll into 1 1/2 inch sized balls. Bake for 10 minutes.

Yields approximately 40 cookies.