Lexi's Creations....Christmas in July

Hi Susan here....

Today over at Lexi's Creations we are starting a new challenge....the theme for this new challenge is

'Christmas in July'

A really nice easy challenge for this time of the year when we are all thinking of making cards for family, friends and to sell.....you can make anything for this challenge not just cards, but ATC's, bookmarks, tags, 3D item, scrapbook pages, altered items, you decide it's quite an open challenge as long as the Christmas theme is carried on your project. You can find full details on the challenge blog, plus some fabulous inspiration from my design team.

Here is my card....

I love making Christmas cards, great fun!

My backing papers for this were from Nitwits, all the edges have been distressed with inks and glittered with stickles.

The large gingerbreadman is a bigz die from Sizzix. Don't you just love gingerbreadmen, they are such jolly little fellas!

The gorgeous ribbon is from our local market.

The calendar is one of my own designs

This is such a cute digi image, designed by our own Lexi Lee called 'Gingerbread House' and available from Fairy Dust Crafts

I have used promarkers for the colouring and distress inks for the edging. Stickles here there and everywhere to make it glitter.

Thank you for taking the time to look and for your wonderful comments

Love and hugs

Susan xxx

Love at Christmas Time

Hi Susan here....

I had some spare time on my hands this last week and decided to make a Christmas card that was different than anything I usually make.

Hope you like it!.....

I had some gorgeous brown silk finish card from Paper Mill Direct, this is a lovely weight of card and has a gorgeous sheen that makes it feel and look very special.

I used a new stamp set from Chocolate Baroque these beautiful trees are so different and I found my mind working in overtime with ideas of how to use them. I stamped them using Tim Holtz Distress Inks, I used the ink in different colours for the shading and then I added glitter to the tops.

I used an edge die from .....for the pale green card and added distress inks and glitter to make it extra special.

The sentiment is one of my own, and cut out using a Nestabilitie Die, then distressed with inks.

The brown satin ribbon is from our local market.

I used a stamp for the leaves, I stamped the design onto a brown card then used distress inks after I had embossed the veins, the little red berries are from Hobby Craft.

The paper lace down the side I have had in my stash for ages, I only use it every so often because I love it and I only have a small amount.

Hope you like the effect as much as I do!

Thank you for taking the time to look and for all your lovely comments

Love and hugs

Susan xxx

Lexi's Creations....For a friend

Hi Susan here...

We are having a lovely challenge starting today at Lexi's Creations...the theme is

'For a Friend'

I love making cards for my friends and seeing their faces when they open up the card box.
You can see full details of the challenge and our wonderful sponsor at Lexi's Creations Challenge Blog.
If you're in need of some inspiration for this challenge then look no further than the display of talent from my design team...amazing work as always.

Now onto my card....

You always need Birthday cards I think, and I love to make them special for my family and friends, I got this design in my head just as I was falling asleep a few nights ago and I just had to make it to see how it looked!

The background papers are from my stash, these were loose 12x12 papers I bought one year on holiday in USA. I only have a few small pieces left now but I love them, the designs were really nice.

I have aged all the edges using Tim Holtz distress inks.

The beautiful woven ribbon is from East of India collection, love this range, I can never resist buying something from it everytime we go to John Lewis's Craft Department.

The sentiment is a rubber stamp.

This is such a gorgeous little digi image, designed by Lexi Lee and available from Fairy Dust Crafts Store, it is called 'Ladybug Flower'.

I have used promarkers to colour and shade the image, then I decoupaged the flower head cutting out different layers of petals and glued micro beads to the centre of the flower head. Up close and personal it is quite effective. I have aged the plaque with distress inks.

This is one of the gorgeous fimo birds that I made a while ago using Emma's cake decorating moulds, I love them. I have slightly inked it using distress inks to take away the starkness of the white fimo, I'm going to try making some more using different colours of fimo.

Thank you so much for taking the time to look and for your wonderful comments

Love and hugs

Susan xxx

A fun commission.....

Hi Susan here.....

Just recently I was asked to make a notebook by my boss at work....she was giving it to a friend for her birthday, it was to be a kind of diary that her friend would keep and write what happened to her each day going one way in the book, then at Christmas she would give it back to my boss, who would turn the book over and put six months of her own diary keeping into it. My boss is then going to give it back to her friend for her to have as a keepsake about what happened to each of them over the last 12 months. They will be able to put all sorts of memorabilia into the book including photos over the time each of them has the book. It all sounded very intriguing, and fun, and knowing how funny my boss is there will be some funny reading at the end.....

Anyway here it is....

This view is just to show you how thick the book ended up. There is a lot of writing to be done in this!!

I decided that as her friends birthday is in the summer her front cover should represent summer so I made it using bright cheery colours with butterflies and flowers and birthday bunting.

The initial of her friends name was made the main thing on the cover, overstamped with text, and adding lots of glitter. I tried to keep the book as flat as I could.

The butterflies are made using a punch with pearls and glitter added. The flowers are Prima. The background papers are from my stash.

This is to show you how the two 'fronts' were finished.....so that the front for each person was the right side up I had to put one upsidedown when making the book up.

This is the front for my boss, as she was being given the book back at Christmas I decided that her front had to represent Christmas and winter.

Both were very pleased with the book....I can't wait to see what's been written at the end of the 12 months.

Thank you all for looking and for your wonderful comments

Love and hugs

Susan xxx