Uniko Challenge - #44 Christmas

It's time for a new challenge over at Uniko. And it's such an obvious and really useful theme - CHRISTMAS. No excuses not to get your Christmas card stash enlarged then!

I seem to be forever using non-traditional colours on my cards this year and today's is all about the chill of Christmas and uses blues and white.

I used the newly released polka dot stencil and some very old chalky white ink lurking in my stash to create a bit of a snow storm on some dark blue card. I stamped the Uniko rustic tree in dark blue and hand cut it before popping it up on pads for dimension.

The greeting was stamped on top of the die cut snowy hill to finish off my card.

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Rustic Christmas
Inks: SU, night of navy; VersaMagic, chalk white
Die: MFT Die-namics, stitched basic edges
Stencil: Uniko, scattered polka dots

So over to you now.  If you're still needing more Christmas inspiration go and check out the Uniko DT creations HERE and then get crafting and linking up. Looking forward to seeing what you make!

Thanks for your time today, it was fun having you drop by my blog.  And keep crafting!

Thursday Thoughts

I couldn't resist the challenge at Less is More this week - it's to CASE the most adorable card by their DT member Susan.

 

And I do have that very same stamp set, but in the end I decided to go with a stamp from another set by MFT.

This was such an easy card to make! I simply stamped, coloured and hand cut the dog, mounted him on pads and stamped the greeting underneath.

I finished it all off by placing two trios of red gems.

Supplies:
Stamps: MFT, Happy Pawlidays
Ink: Memento, tuxedo black
Pens: Copic, W1, W3, W5, R24, R29; Gelly roll, silver
Embellishments: Bling Bling, red gems 

And so another card goes into my Christmas stash. I'm doing really well this year, how about you?

Enormous thanks to you for visiting my blog today, it's always fabulous to have you drop by.  And keep crafting!

Wednesday Words

I've another Christmas card added to my stash and I'm sharing it here today.  And as it uses die cuts I'm entering it into the STAMPlorations Cutplorations challenge.

Here's my card:

I picked up on the colours from the inspiration photo using the biscuit colour for the gifts, the purple for the ribbons, the grey napkin colour for the sleigh and a trio of red gems to represent the red berries.

Supplies:
Stamps: STAMPlorations, Warm Hands, Warm Hearts
Ink: Memento, tuxedo black
Pens: cpic, V15, V17, N1, BV11, E50, E55
Dies: MFT Die-namics, double stitched rectangles & double stitched circles
Embellishments: Blin Bling, red gems

So pleased to have you drop by today, huge thanks for your time.  and keep crafting!

Uniko - 25 Days of Christmas Tags

Today I'm here sharing a Christmas tag I made using Uniko products as they are sponsoring Tracey McNeely's 25 Days of Christmas Tags challenge today.

I decided to go with the traditional Christmas reds and greens for my colour scheme - and one big bonus of creating tags is that you get to use up all those left over pieces of card from other projects.

I stamped and coloured Uniko's wonky stripes and then die cut it into the tag shape. This was matted onto plain red cardstock. Next I stamped and hand cut the tree and popped it on top of a die cut wreath.

I finished off with a heat embossed greeting on a banner, some red twine and sparkling red gems.


Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Festive Sentiments, Background Blocks Wonky Outline Stripes, Christmas Pop 
Inks: Memento, tuxedo black; SU, garden green; Versamark clear + Ranger superfine white
Pens: Copic R29
Embellishments: Bling Bling red gems

You can check out the rest of the Uniko DT creations at Tracey McNeely's challenge here. Have fun and enjoy!

Thanks for your time today, I really appreciate your visit to my blog.  And keep crafting!

Monday Moments

Today I'm sharing a tag I started to make at the craft retreat I recently attended. I was inspired by Visible Image DT member Sharon and decided it was time to start giving my Visible Image stash a bit more love. Their challenge runs on facebook and the theme for November is to make a tag

Here's my tag:

I started by stamping and heat embossing the flower and then adding purple distress ink all over.  Loving how shiny the flower was looking I also heat embossed the quote, then die cut it into a tag.

Next I popped on some Lustre Luxe in green and inked up the edges with black soot distress ink. The addition of some black and purple messy ribbons finished it all off.

Supplies:
Stamps: Visible Image, Flower Inkcognito & Take Chances
Inks: Versafine, clear + Ranger superfine black embossing powder; Ranger distress, wilted violet, black soot; Lustre Luxe, sea gren
Die: MFT Die-anamics, stitched traditional tags 
Thread from staRibbons from my stash

Thanks for looking today, it's been great having your company for a while.  And keep crafting!

Sunday Stuff

I'm going to share a little more about my upcoming December album today.

This year I'm taking it really easy and not even going to try to add something for every day. In fact I'm calling it my Christmas 2017 album and not a December Daily. And I will be starting it before December as we have a trip to Edinburgh coming up and I'm hoping to catch some early Christmas vibes there.

So far I've bought the album with 8" x 8" page protectors and plan to create entirely digitally as it's so much quicker and easier than paper crafting. Not sure I'll manage to keep my hands off those papers though, but we'll see how it all pans out.

I've chosen very neutral colours this year - greys and beiges and am considering using black and white photos - just an idea at the moment.

Spurred on my Australian penpal Helen I've prepared my title/intentions page. Here it is:

Quite spectacular isn't it? See I can say that as most of it consists of a bought layout from Designer Digitals with just a little tweaking of the colours and the addition of my words.  Here's how it started:

So I simply changed the green elements to beige brown shades and chose some favourite fonts for the text.

And in keeping with my need to simplify things this year my intentions are really simple too. I'm hoping they'll help me to balance out that rush and intense 'there's still so much to do' feeling I always get in December.

I've also created my planner for the season. I had so much fun choosing papers and elements, all from Designer Digitals.

And so it's begun! As I'm no longer on the DT for Let's December Daily I'll be sharing lots more of my Christmas album here on my blog this year, so I hope you'll join me in my journey. I'll still be linking up with Let's December Daily though and maybe you'll find time to go take a peek at their projects - they really know how to craft and play and create with all things artsy and inky and papery.

Thanks for looking today, I've loved having your company.  And keep crafting!

Saturday Slot

I'm playing at the MFT Sketch Challenge again this week. I do love the simplicity of their sketches - really suits my CAS style.

Today it's a Christmas card using a new to me MFT stamp and some of their dies too.

I decided to go with some chilly colours for this card and paired the greys and blues up with some sparkly silver cardstock.

The stocking and hat trims also got the sparkle treatment with a Sakura gelly roll pen.

Supplies:
Stamps: MFT, Happy Pawlidays; Uniko, Festive Sentiments
Ink: Memento, tuxedo black
Die: MFT Die-namics, stitched fishtail flag stax
Pens: Copics, Y18, Y35, YR15, W1, W3, W5, B00, B02, B04; Sakura gelly roll, clear star

I've been experimenting with my photo layouts for today's post, trying to make them more interesting and arty. I had fun with this but think I need a quick trip to The Range to snap up some cheap and cheerful items for future photos.

Thanks for your time today, I really appreciate your visit.  And keep crafting!