Merry Christmas at Lexi's Creations....

Hi Susan here...

How are you all? Busy getting ready for Christmas, have you made all your Christmas cards yet?
If not why don't you join with us in the new challenge over at Lexi's Creations.
It's a great one for this time of year...

'Christmas'

Open for anything you want to make as long as it has a Christmas theme going through it.
There is lots of inspiration from my design team, it always amazes me that the same image can be used by a few people and their creations are so totally different. Come along and take a look and why not make a card and join in with us.

Now for my card....

Now you all know me by now about how I love making Christmas cards....this one I just wanted to use a traditional colour and make in monochromatic.

I was quite pleased with the effect.

The ribbon is from my local market.

The backing paper in red with white spots in from my stash, had it for ages, this is just a small piece.

The gorgeous red ribbed card and the main deep red cardstock is from Paper Mill Direct, it is well worth a look at this store, their cardstock is amazing and well worth buying. The ribbed card comes in 12x12 size pieces of card and you get 10 sheets per pack.

The large snowflakes are a die, I have used plain white card and then added Stickles all over the surface.

The cute little image is called Sammie Snowman, available from the Fairy Dust Crafts Store, designed by Lexi Lee.

The tickets are from Fairy Dust Crafts, I blanked out the centre and replaced with my own sentiments.

Stickles has been added to the edge of the topper and around the edges of the tickets.

Thank you for taking the time to look and please try and join in the challenge with us.
Love and hugs
Susan xxx

Something totally different from me....

Hi Susan here...

Yes I know, it's more Christmas cards, but in a totally different style, especially for me.

I am not one normally to make simplistic cards, simple and clean is a very hard concept for me to follow, but I had a brainwave for these cards and so I thought I would show you what I came up with.

The card itself is made using a beautiful textured card from Paper Mill Direct. This is really good quality card, love using their card stock.

The snowflake trim is from an edge die from Tim Holtz, I cut it out of a piece of 6x6 scrapbooking paper with snowflakes in relief all over it, if you look closely you can see them, it was calling out to be used for this. The colour was just right for what I wanted and it had a white haze all over it so it looked really magical. I added stickles to the edges of the snowflakes to add a bit of sparkle.

The cute little stockings are a stamp from Molly Bloom, it was a freebie on the front of a magazine, I stamped the image three times and coloured them with promarkers, I then added stickles here and there and cut out one of the stamped images completely, on top of this layer I cut out two more layers of just the stockings and layered them up 3D.

The Noel was cut out using a die from Tim Holtz and some fabulous ridged card from Paper Mill Direct in a bright red.

Not overly simplistic I know, I could have left out the stockings but well they wanted to be on this card!! I know looking at the card now, it would have looked just as effective without the stockings, and at a later date I may remake the card leaving these off I think, but hey I still like the look of the card.

My next card was a real inspiration...

This one has been made using a backing card in Kraft from Paper Mill Direct which has a ridged effect.

I cut a piece of red ribbed card from Paper Mill Direct that I had left over from the card above, then tore the bottom edge .

The plain white card on the top I stamped with a text stamp and tore the bottom edge so that the two just fitted into each other nicely.

I cut out using a die the gorgeous snowflake and added some stickles to make it sparkle.

The letters are cut out using a die from Tim Holtz using the red ribbed card.

The ribbon is from our local market.

Well what do you think, different for me, but I am so pleased with them. I am definitely going to make some more in this vein, but maybe not just yet even though they were super quick to make!!

Thanks for taking the time to look and for your fabulous comments

Love and hugs

Susan xxx

Christmas is coming....

Hi Susan here....

I have a few more Christmas cards to show you that I have been working on...hope you like them.

I have tried to use a few different shapes for my cards this time, as I usually make my cards square, but couldn't resist having a change. So for this particular card I have used a 5x7 inch size which I think best suited the images and layout.

I have used a set of stamps from Chocolate Baroque for this one. I inked around the edges of the squares after trimming them with Tim Holtz distressing inks in sage green and then slightly inked the birds breasts.

The beautiful swirls are a die from Marianne Designs. 

I have used base card from Paper Mill Direct.

The flowers in this most gorgeous deep red colour are from Hobby Craft.

The magical sentiment is a stamp from Prima, I love this text stamp.

My backing paper is from my stash, it is originally from a 12x12 scrapbooking pad.

I have grouped a few cards for you to see on this post, so for my second card I have used a 4x8 inch size of card and set it up in a traditional tent style.

My backing paper was from an 8x10 scrapbooking/cardmaking pad from Papermania, it already had a fabulous design of baubles, snowflakes and the sentiment so I didn't want to cover this too much.

The flowers and berries matched my colour scheme really well, these are from Hobby Craft. I didn't want to use a solid block of colour for the flowers this time with the backing paper being really strong, these flowers matched perfectly and seemed to lighten the whole thing.

I have used an old favourite punch, for my snowflakes I have had this little punch for such a long time and use it such a lot that if it had a name on it well it isn't there now, so sorry I can't tell you who the maker is, I have used Tim Holtz distressing inks called china blue and then added some stickles and a tiny blue gem in the centre.

The beautiful china house button I bought on a trip to USA, I treasure these little china gems, I love them so much, I have tied some silk ribbon into the buttonholes.

This stamp is so adorable, it is from and I love it.

I have used chalks to colour it, then I added stickles to the dress shoes and wand, well you can't have a Christmas card without glitter can you.

The little gems falling from her wand are from my local market. I bought a little box of them, all different colours, they are a pain to work with because of their size but well worth the effort.

My next and last card for this particular post is again using this rectangular shape.

I had a lot of fun making this one, I have used several dies.

The backing paper is from a set of papers that was free on a magazine and the sad thing about this is I only have a small amount of this left over, I love the way it looks like traditional tartan fabric with stitches going through it, I have used a base Kraft card from Paper Mill Direct.

The snowman is from Tim Holtz, I used his distressing inks all around the edges using sage green and tea dye,  I stamped all over the die cut shape using tea dye distressing ink and one of my favourite text stamps.

The flowers are from Hobby Craft.

The beautiful ivy leaves are an embossing die from Marianne Designs, I have added glitter to the veins to give a bit of sparkle.

The snowflakes are a beautiful die from Memory Box, after cutting this out I glittered the whole thing using stickles.

I recently bought some small wooden embellishments and this little house was one of them, I painted it using white acrylic paints and distressed the edges with a tea dye distressing ink, then added stickles here and there.

The fence is a die from Marianne Designs I cut two of these out of Kraft card and joined them in the centre, using white acrylic paint I painted 'snow' onto the fence then added stickles to make snow glitter.

Well that's it, I hope you have enjoyed looking at my cards as much as I had making them. Funny thing about making Christmas cards, once I start I can't seem to stop, I think it has something to do with it being one of my favourite times of the year and I love to give everyone I know a card to celebrate. Now you know why I have to make so many!!

Anyway thank you so much for taking this time to look and if you would like to leave any comments I appreciate it very much.

Love and hugs

Susan xxx

Thanks/Thanksgiving at LC's....

Hi Susan here...

We have started a new challenge today at Lexi's Creations and in keeping with the time of year our theme is...
'Thanks/Thanksgiving'
For full details of this challenge and our sponsor please call across to LC's Challenge Blog and join in with us, there is some absolutely fabulous inspiration from my design team to check out.

Now for my card...

I started off by using some Kraft card as the base for the card and then used some oddments of backing papers in the colours of golden yellow and burgundy, these papers have been in my bit box for ages and were originally from 12x12 and 6x6 scrapbooking pads.

The beautiful tree is a die from Arboscello Designs, I have enhanced it by using Tim Holtz distressing inks and adding some tiny gems on the leaves.

The fence was made using a die from Marianne Designs and using the same Kraft card as the base card and edged with Tim Holtz distressing inks. The flowers are from Hobby Craft and the leaves are a punch I then shaped the leaves with a ball tool.

The sentiment is my own generated on the computer, the die for the topper is from Marianne Designs.

The bird is a favourite of mine, I made it using a mould and some white fimo, once the bird had gone cold I used some distressing inks to bring out the embossing.

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

Love and hugs

Susan 

xxx

A few simple notebook presents....

Hi Susan here...

I have made a few more notebooks and thought you would like to see them. Keeping my notebooks very simple this year was hard, I usually do very fancy over the top ones, but I found the more I made of these simple ones the more I liked them. I hope my daughters will like them at Christmas time.

This is the side view of my first notebook.....I have used similar colours for the notepaper as I did for the cover. I like to do this then the notebook looks more finished off and professional.

This is the notebook cover....I used a new method for constructing the notebook, I have glued the backing paper onto the stiff card then distressed the edges with a pair of scissors. This made the book covers really easy to make. I of course cover the inside of the covers as well as the front, they look quite good, but I did have to make sure that the covers were glued right to the very edges or the paper started to lift.

My backing paper is from a 12x12 scrapbooking pad that I have had for ages. It is two sided and I have used both sides of the paper for this book.

The lace and fine Georgette ribbon is from our local market.

The lettering 'EM' is a die cut from an old Sizzix die, I then coloured the letters with Promarkers and then added stickles. You can tell this notebook is for my daughter Emma!

This is a closeup of the beautiful stamp set from Chocolate Baroque. I have used Promarkers to colour the images, I cut very close to the image for the tulip bunch before sticking it in place.

My second notebook  was made very simply, using one of Emma's favourite owl stamps.

I took the colours from the backing paper on this notebook to determine what colours I should use for the notepaper.

The backing paper was from a 12x12 scrapbooking pad that has been in my stash for ages.

The lettering for the word 'Notes' is a die cut from Tim Holtz.

I added Glossy Accents to the paper after I had cut the letters out.

The ribbon is from the East of India Collection.

This little stamp of an owl is an old wooden stamp that has been in our stash for ages...The name of the manufacturer of the stamp is Funstamps, it was designed by Lindsay Mason and is called Fluffy Owl.

The leaves are also a wooden stamp that I cut close to the stamped image and then coloured with Distress Inks.

I hope you have enjoyed looking and many thanks for your comments

Love and hugs

Susan xxx