Silver Christmas

 I  love the lacy, gossamer effect of Stampin' Up's Metallic Mesh Ribbon, and so enjoyed using it in CAS(E) this Sketch's challenge #395. I've ensured this is a 'CAS' card by keeping to silver and white - a challenge for someone who loves colour!

Ingredients: Stampin' Up card (Whisper White, Thick Whisper White, Silver), Beauty and Joy stamp (sentiment), dies, (Pointsettia, Painted Labels, Stitched Shapes) Quilt Top embossing folder, Metallic Mesh ribbon.

Other: Memento Tuxedo Black ink

Quilty Christmas

For this card, made in response to The Paper Players' Sketch PP465 (see below for sketch itself), i turned to my favourite bundle from the 2017 Christmas Stampin' Up! catalogue: Quilted Christmas. Previously, I'd mainly made lovely quilted paper objects using the dies, so I explored the DSP a bit more this time.

Ingredients: Stampin' Up! paper and card, (Quilted Christmas DSP, Garden Green, Real Red, Whisper White, gold foil), Versamark watermark ink, Shimmering White embossing powder, Christmas Quilt dies, Itty Bitty Christmas stamps, Quilt Top embossing folder

Dad's Christmas Cards

As I said a couple of posts ago, I've used the lovely Perfectly Plaid bundle from Stampin' Up!'s 2019 Holiday Catalogue to make a set of six Christmas cards for my bagpipe playing, all-things-Scottish-loving father. I used Sunday Stamp's great sketch from challenge SSC212 for this last card.
I used the same stamp to add small trees in the masked and stamped background, and then as the punched out main image. On this main tree, I added some accents with both gold and red Wink of Stella.

Once I completed the six cards, I made a gift box for them. Here's the complete set, with the box. I hope Dad likes them! 

Ingredients for this card:

Stampin' Up! card, (Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White), Perfectly Plaid stamps and DSP, Pine tree punch, gold star, Itty Bitty Christmas, Layering Circles dies, Tin Tile embossing folder.

Other: Memento Black ink, Wink of Stella in gold and red. 

Perfectly Plaid again

I've worked with this perfectly delicious bundle from Stampin' Up! a few times now, and still love using it. The 2019 Holiday Catalogue is now live, so everyone can enjoy it as much as I am!
Here, I'm using a great idea from Less Is More's #403: Metallics. Im my last post, I talked about how pleased I was with the result of double heat embossing the tree/leaves stamps in Perfectly Plaid, and I did the same thing again here. I've given them a very simple setting so they can shine.

Ingredients:
Stampin Up Thick Whisper White card, Gold embossing powder, Perfectly Plaid stamps and DSP.
Other: Memento Black Ink, American Craft Zing! green glitter embossing powder, Versamark watermark ink.

Plaid Christmas 1

I just LOVE the Perfectly Plaid Bundle in the upcoming Stampin' Up! 2019 Holiday Catalogue. My father has played the bagpipes for 70 years, (very well, I might add - it's no hardship to hear him!), and loves all things Scottish. He's also a great believer in Christmas cards, carefully handwriting messages to friends near and far. I've decided to use the bundle to make him a set of cards to send - and because he likes to get them sent early (as in the end of October!), I've started making them now, using challenges as inspiration.
All that is by way of introduction to this card, which is a response to Freshly Made Sketches 400th (Congratulations, by the way!) challenge sketch:

a satisfyingly symmetrical and appealing starting point. 

I'm super pleased with how my experiment in double heat embossing turned out - the tree in the middle's branches were embossed in gold, then leaves in green. 

The card:

Ingredients:
Stampin' Up! card (Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler, gold foil), ink, (Soft Suede, Shaded Spruce), Perfectly Plaid stamps, punch and DSP, Itty Bitty Christmas stamps, gold embossing powder.
Other: Versamark Watermark ink, American Crafts 'Zing!' glitter embossing powder in green

Stitched Stars Preview

I found The Paper Players' challenge  PP456 really... challenging! I couldn't seem to balance all the elements. Still, it gave me a chance to make lots and lots of lovely cut outs with the 'Stitched Stars' dies from the upcoming Stampin' Up! 2019 Holiday Catalogue. The focal star uses one of the stamps, as well. Gorgeous!

Ingredients:
Stampin' Up! card, (Night Of Navy, Whisper White), Night of Navy ink, silver embossing powder, Stitched Stars and Layering Circles dies, So Many Stars and Itty Bitty Christmas stamps, Twinkly Twinkle DSP.
Other: Versamark ink

Christmas Wave

For this Christmas card, I've used the delightful 'Perfectly Plaid' DSP from the upcoming Stampin' Up! 2019 Holiday Catalogue. I've used two of the 'B' sides (for those of you old enough or cool enough to know about records/LP's) of the papers, which is why there's only one actual plaid pattern.
I was intrigued by both challenges I've used here: the colours in Hand Stamped Sentiment's #321 - Cherry Cobbler, Pretty Peacock and Soft Suede - and the sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch's #335:

Ingredients:

Stampin' Up card, (Whisper White, Pretty Peacock), ink, (Soft Suede, Pretty Peacock), DSP (Perfectly Plaid), spots embossing folder, and stamps, (Merry Mistletoe, Itty Bitty Christmas)

Other products: Die-namics Stitched Edges dies. 

First Christmas Card of the Year

I can't believe it's already time to have a play with Christmas cards, but when you get hold of Stampin' Up's new Wrapped in Plaid Suite, what else can you do? The paper is fab, and got to show off a bit in CAS Colours and Sketch's challenge #334:

The result:

Ingredients:

Stampin' Up card, (Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler), ink (Shaded Spruce), gold embossing powder, Wrapped in Plaid stamps, punch and DSP. Also used Versamark ink

Best Sentiment for Christmas

The sentiment on this card is one I wholeheartedly agree with - and I indulge in a kind of wistful imagining (what if this WAS the year where these qualities were in evidence everywhere?) whenever I use it.
In this case, I've used Global Design Project's sketch #166  as a basis for the card.
I was pleased with the background stars - I tried using the embossing powder while the sponging wasn't 100% dry in the hopes that there'd be a background 'shimmer' of stars and (in a way that doesn't often happen) it turned out the way I'd imagined!

Ingredients:

Stampin' Up card, (Whisper White, Shimmery White, Marina Mist, Night of Navy), ink, (Soft Sky, Marina Mist, Night Of Navy), Stamps (Musical Season, Christmas Pines), dies (Petals & More), silver embossing powder, Subtle embossing folder

Other products: Kaisercraft Moonstars dies, Fiskar circle punch, Fynmark vellum

Christmas baubles

I loved Fab Friday's sketch challenge #151 and, as is my habit at the moment, made a Christmas card in response. Happily, an embossing folder I got a couple of years ago marries nicely with Stampin' Up's 'Beautiful Baubles'. The handy stitched embossing die in Sweetly Stitched Framelits proved a subtle way to add the final embellishment.

Ingredients:

Stampin' Up! card (Whisper White, Shaded Spruce, Soft Suede), ink (Basic Black), watercolour pencil (Cherry Cobbler), gold embossing powder,  Beautiful Baubles stamps, Detailed Baubles framelits

Other products: Craft Creations Kiwiana Christmas series - embossing folder, Derwent Inktense Teal Green watercolour pencil

Christmas Pressies

Paper Player's challenge #420 was an interesting study in verticals. I'm just getting my head around Stampin' Up!'s 'Nothing Sweeter' stamps and dies, so decided to interpret the sketch using them. Thank goodness for the Stamparatus, which was a boon for this card.

Ingredients:
Stampin' Up! card (Blueberry Bushel, Whisper White), DSP (In-colour 2018-2020), ink (BAsic Blac, Lovely Lipstick, Pool Party), stamps (Nothing Sweeter), framelits (Sweetly Stitched).
Other products: Zing! (American Craft) embossing powder in green glitter finish; francheville rhinestone.

Christmas with beach colours

I'm just squeaking in under the wire to get this card entered, so I'll be brief: the colour palette for Sunday Stamper's challenge SSC91 was beautiful - we were challenged to use at least three of these colours:

Since I'm currently on my yearly mission to make southern hemisphere Christmas cards, I seized the day:

Pretty tricky colours to match from what I had, so this is as close as I could get!

Ingredients:

Stampin' Up card (Marina Mist, Whisper White, Crumb Cake), ink (Crumb Cake, Dapper Denim), Stamp and Dies (Beautiful Baubles), watercolour pencil (Balmy Blue)

Other: Water colour pencils (Faber Castel's Raw Umber and Cream, Derwent Inktense Deep Indigo)

Speedy Red!

I was pretty impressed with how efficiently I made this card for As You See It's 'Vitesse Rouge' Challenge #188 - which required a card using red and taking less than 10 minutes. I ended up taking 6:38 minutes - though as you can see, I followed their advice to keep 'it simple'!
(By the way, the background is white - it just came out funny in the photo because I was hurrying to get it in on time!)

Card ingredients:

Stampin' Up! dies (Detailed Baubles), stamps (Beautiful Baubles), card (whisper white, real red) and left over glitter paper from when my daughter crafted (that is, at least 10 years ago!)

Framed Christmas

This week's challenge from Sunday Stamps was an interesting sketch made up of frames:

I went back to my absolute favourite set from last year's Stampin' Up Christmas Catalogue - the Quilt set. I ended up not using the stamps, but the dies and paper instead, to make this card:

Ingredients: Stampin' Up card (Blushing Bride, Garden Green, Real Red, Pool Party, Whisper White) Quilt DSP, Quilt Builder framelits, Quilt Top embossing folder.

Other products: Crafter's Choice 'New Traditions' stamps, Rosie's glitter dots. 

Musical Christmas

I loved Just Add Ink's sketch challenge #431:

I especially loved that I thought of a way to use the Musical Season stamps and dies - I think they're great, but I haven't had much success with them. (Until now!)

Ingredients:
Stampin' Up card (Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler), water colour pencils (Garden Green, Cherry Cobbler, Gorgeous Grape) stamps (Musical Seasons), dies (Musical Instruments), gold embossing powder, Botanical Gardens vellum
Other Products: Stazon Black ink, gold card

Simple Christmas

I'm trying to make some Christmas cards, this year, that don't assume the recipients will be filled with nothing but joy. Perhaps it's because I'm getting older, but I think Christmas can become overwhelming, particularly if you're grappling with loss or sadness. I used Freshly Made Sketches sketch challenge #359 as a starting point for this card:

Ingredients:

Stampin' Up card (Whisper White, Island Indigo, Gorgeous Grape, Elegant Eggplant) ink (Elegant Eggplant, Island Indigo) Quilt Top embossing folder, Quilt Builder framelits, Pretty Label punch, 

Christmas Pines stamps for sentiment.

Other: gold card, Recollections 'Northern Lights' DSP, Rosie's glitter dots. 

CAS Christmas

I'm clearly in a CAS mood at the moment! I'm making and (gathering up ones I've already made) cards to send to my daughter, who is now working for a charity and asked if I had some to donate for sale. I leapt at the chance - now I can feel virtuous about time spent in the craft room (aka her bedroom, but she left home years ago, so I think it's fair to re-purpose it!)
Anyway, personally, I like Christmas cards that don't evoke winter, since we're on the way to a summer Christmas in NZ. This one, in response to CAS Colors and Sketches #294: Blushing Bride, Soft Suede and Berry Burst (a delicious combination!)  isn't particularly summery, but I wouldn't call it a winter card either.

Ingredients:

Stampin' Up card, (Berry Burst, Whisper White, Soft Suede), ink (Basic Black, Berry Burst, Soft Suede, Blushing Bride), stamps (Festival of Trees, and Christmas Pines for the sentiment) and punch (the one that goes with the Festival of Trees!)