Poinsettia and tinsel....

after a wonderful few days last week firstly at my Nephews wedding and what a wonderful day it was, in a stately home hotel which we had all to ourselves...amazing! Followed by some time catching up with family (sadly only 1 Aunty and 2 Uncles now) and a bit of Christmas shopping in Leamington Spa and Stratford upon Avon.  And some grandchildren sleepovers this week as it's half term..a fun filled time all round!

My card for this week is for a couple of challenges simply using a poinsettia stamp I bought last year to make my Christmas cards,

 I love simple elegant (well I try!! Haha) cards so I stamped the poinsettia on a scrap of Acetate with versamark, sprinkled and heat embossed with my new wow touch of midas (so sparkly and not quite gold or silver just simply gorgeous), a computer generated sentiment and a tiny little red robin to finish it off it et voila... I hope you can see that beautiful subtle sparkle (there are quite large pieces of sparkle in this wow embossing powder which subtly
sparkle in the light..)

I have already made about 36 Christmas cards to date before thinking of this design, but funnily enough they also use my favourite vellum as a pink snowflake in the background and my beautiful leaping reindeer and the little red robin to finish.....I have attached a little photo of them too as this is also a simple idea..

Challenge; Less is More, recipe to use Acetate or Vellum
I found this Christmas challenge by accident: october -rudolph-days-challenge
And this one is soft and subtle...so The bits I have chosen to interpret are the banner (side on instead) & just one glorious flower Fusion soft and subtle

Dreams...

I've not posted a card for a while but nonetheless have been busy crafting, a Pom Pom wreath for Christmas in creams, latte and few tiny red pom-poms...this led me onto making a pompom garland in pink grey and white for a friends new granddaughter and of course Christmas cards..I'm made 30 to date...amongst other projects I'm determined to finish such as binding my daughters king size quilt and my grandaughters double size quilt....a bit daunting and I keep putting it off!

My card this time is for the Less is more challenge DREAMS one layer and also ties in nicely with the AAA card challenge - photo inspiration  I decided to use bright colours as the card is for a niece who is starting out at university...and the sentiment 'Wish upon a star and follow your dreams'  is a mixture of creative license on my PC together with an old Pink Petticoat sentiment (unfortunately PP has closed, but I'm sure a lot of people still remember them)...

The stars are actually snow crystals, I only found these lovely stamps recently  At stamps by Chloe and thought they were so pretty and will be a classic for years to come. Enjoy

Peacocks........

Such beautiful birds when their plumage is on full show,apparently it's all down to pigment and light causing those beautiful iridescent Jewel colours.....which gave me the idea for my card....Here's A close up of a peacock feather showing the beautiful copper and blue tones;-
For my card, I cut a square one, the sparkle and shine sentiment in gold embossing powder seemed so made for this card, and of course glitter and alcohol inks are always fun to play with......

I covered the sentiment and added lines of double sided tape around the sentiment which I covered in some copper glitter I found in my stash, and using some scraps of acetate coloured them with alcohol ink in blues and pool shades and cut thin strips to adhere in between a couple of the glittered lines.......and nooooo the bird in the photo isn't a peacock we bought it in South Africa loved the shape and colour .....and it's a  Guineafowl!

Entering this card into Less is more colour challenge, Peacock feather  and Pixies Snippets playground

All squared up...

Just back from a River Cruise on the Douro in Portugal and oh my goodness was it hot....41 degrees! Beautiful interesting trip though, good company, lots of wine and port and far too much wonderful food and those Portugese tiles are gorgeous, and a stunning sunset we saw and that's the inspiration for my card this week...a tile and frame card.....

and it fits in nicely with a couple of challenges... I embossed some card and cut a square to use as a central tiled piece - using the de-bossed side. Found some old square peel off stickers to use as little borders for my tiles (probably bought them for the grandchildren to use). For a translucent look I coloured a piece of acetate with sunset shades of 2  pinks and a lemonade colour - alcohol inks..Still being new to these inks it's a bit of trial and error at the moment... Using stickers on one of my cards is also a first (I have never liked the idea of them, but think they are easy for children) then carefully cut out the squares and played around till came up with a layout I was happy with..hope you enjoy as much as I enjoyed making this one....

Less is more Recipe Challenge is here...use stickers or peel offs

Cards in Envy...Hip to be Square challenge is here

AAA challenge...New to You is here

Scraps of anything challenge here



Stickers and inked acetate scraps

Beautiful butterfly....

Well that's my grandaughters opinion....I blended some inks on a sheet of acetate in blues and a touch of brown and blended a mix of some ink and paint on card ...cut out two butterfly's placing the acetate one on top for a bit of flutter and shine, heat embossed the words celebrate the joys of life which the butterfly certainly does..in platinum and added a couple of clear sequins....enjoy.

I am entering this card in AAA cards challenge ....blending

Christmas in August....

  The LiM challenge this week is use something  tactile .  AAA. Cards want some stitching And this is what popped into my mind for my first Christmas card  of the year.......using faux stitched rectangles and curled silver shimmer thread for my black and white with a touch of silver tactile stitched card....

Roses are red...

 And they are one of my favourite flowers, not particularly long lasting but so beautiful especially the older fragrant roses. Let's face it I love flowers...and propped my finished card by some beautiful red gladioli that we picked out of the garden this week.....



 I decided to use one of my favourite Altenew stamps inked up in red paint rather than an ink pad and a repetition of stripes using a thin black and white washi tape I had in my stash......I wanted to keep it simple ......enjoy

That's my offering on this beautiful hot summers day. I've got three of the grandchildren for a few hours, some water and ice creams and they're as happy as can be and grandad will be BBQing the tea...

I'm entering this card into The Less is More Challenge repetition and AAA one stash favourite challenge and case this sketch