A Nordic Christmas

It's the very lovely Fran's turn to dare us this week at Daring Cardmakers and she has chosen this beautiful photograph to inspire us all;



This is my card;




Made with Lots of yummy new October Afternoon, Ribbon Girl flower, twine and ribbon, Kraft cardstock, Nesties, inking and handstitching.

TFL!

Last cards of 2010 and Ribbon Girl news.

I hope everybody had a very Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year!

These are the last couple of cards from 2010, the first made for the Christmas card challeges over at 2Peas, and the second made using products from The Ribbon Girl;




and I had a fantastic email from Mary at The Ribbon Girl to say that seam binding is back in stock, pop over and have a look as it is fantastically lush!

Will be back tomorrow with a sponsored dare from Daring Cardmakers.

TFL!

Christmas Greetings

I made card based on CPS' sketch 184;



I used;
MME Colo(u)rful Christmas papers and chipboard
Kraft cardstock
Tim Holtz embossing folder
and Ribbon from The Ribbon Girl

TFL!

Say it in Sepia

The lovely Lynda's turn to dare this week, with a fantastic dare to help get us all prepared for the after Christmas thank you cards;

I've been sorting through some "Old" family photographs with the intention of Scrapbooking them and I just love the Sepia ones. So I thought it would be nice to see a "Thank You" card made using "sepia" tones. So that's just brown/white or brown/cream depending on your card base colour. . We will all be needing "Thank You" cards after Christmas so that's why I chose that sentiment just to help us all get started.

I made this;


I used;
Papers and digi stamp from 2peas
Prima flower
Old Accucut die for the stem and leaf
Basic Grey letters
Stitching and inking.

The DCM DT have made beautiful cards using Sepia, you can check them all out here.
Today's Christmas card;


I used;
Cosmo Cricket papers
Basic Grey buttons
Paperchase stickers
October Afternoon rub ons
Tigerfrogg Image

TFL!

A few cards...

and a *few* days since I have last blogged!

The first is for this week's fabulous Sparkle and Bling DCM dare, sponsored by the wonderful Louise - Designer of the marvelous Dottie and George images.

Dottie and George Reindeer image, Sweet Shoppe designs papers, inking faux stitches and Poundland bling, sparkle added with embossing around the edge of the papers.

A card made for Sue's fabulous 'Forever Autumn' Dare...

October Afternoon papers, Sizzix Owl, Sassafras Lass chipboard, Prima flower, Ikea String, Printed Sentiment, inking and faux stitching.

And finally today, my card for DCM's Paint the Town Dare...

Scenic Route papers, Docrafts metallic paint - for the background and heart, Melissa Frances rub on, inking and faux stitching.

TFL!

More October Afternoon...

Can you tell that I am loving it!!

October Afternoon Detours Gazebo paper and Shapes, Prima Flowers, Bazzil and Basic Grey Brads , Ikea paper string, Melissa Frances Vintage Transfers,Papermania Eyelets

October Afternoon Daydream papers, Prima Flower, Basic Grey button and brad, Ikea paper string, Stemma rub on

TFL :)

(5-1) *grins*

Christmas in June

Aha! my turn to set the dare this week and I decided to go all festive and set a nice Christmas themed dare (yup I know 'tis only June...)



Basic Grey Sultry, Cuttlebug embossing, Doodles, Hobbycraft ribbon, Printed '{Proper Chrimbo}' sentiment.

and this was my little extra this week - using the theme of wood...



Wood effect paper, Doodlebug card and flowers, printed sentiment.

and finally, a card made with Doodley Dillon...



The doodles are not mine - but I do know the person that made them.... :) Scenic Route Papers, Doodlebug ric rac and brad.

TFL :)

Nigella's Fudge

I saw a fantastic recipe for fudge on the telebox - made by Nigella the domestic goddess and decided to make a load with the boys to give to their teachers and teaching assistants - between them they have nine! After the shock of both boys deciding that they wanted to make all the cards for their friends... ( we did go for the simple option of punched shapes and sizzix trees :))

We made lots of fudge, this is the recipe;

12oz dark chocolate, at least 70 per cent cocoa solids, chopped
1 x 14oz can condensed milk
1oz butter
pinch salt
5¼oz unsalted pistachios, shells removed

Method
1. Place the chopped chocolate, condensed milk, butter and salt into a heavy-based pan over a low heat and stir until melted and well combined.
2. Place the nuts into a freezer bag and bash them with a rolling pin, until broken up into some large and some small pieces.
3. Add the nuts to the melted chocolate mixture and stir well.
4. Pour the mixture into a 23cm/9in square tray, smoothing the top with a wet palette knife.
5. Let the fudge cool, then refrigerate until set.
6. Cut into small pieces approximately 3cm x 2cm/1¼in x ¾in. Cutting 7 x 7 lines in the tin to give 64 pieces best achieves this.
7. Once cut, the fudge can be kept in the freezer - there's no need to thaw, just eat straight away.
We adapted it to and made milk chocolate fudge with cherries...

and I made some headers for it with the help of some fonts, doodling and photoshop. Hopefully, nine happy teachers :)

I'm Free!

Daring Cardmakers have a team dare this week...
'Now, on to this weeks dare. Christmas is an expensive time of year (although every day of the year can be potentially expensive to us Crafters ! ;) Anyway, we thought it would be a good idea to run a dare that was 'inexpensive'..This week, we the DCM team, would like you to design a card using a magazine 'freebie' . Either a craft magazine freebie, or indeed any other magazine freebie, papers, embellishments, tools, etc. anything really, as long as it came from a magazine. '

I think that little fingers have left prints on the camera lens judging by the blurry bits - sorry! I use the free papers that you can download from Papercraft Inspirations and a bit of doodling :)

Questions....

Found this whilst blog hopping here :)

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? wrapping paper – Deffo the paper - takes ages but I love adding little bows and curled ribbon to the presents
2. Real tree or Artificial? I prefer real trees and Josh was insistant that we had a real tree this year - not a fan of all the dropped needles though...
3. When do you put up the tree? The weekend after my Birthday so around the 15th
4. When do you take the tree down? Probably Boxing Day this year at the rate it is shedding needles...
5. Do you like eggnog? Never tried it but it sounds pretty grim
6. Favourite gift received as a child? Don't know really, I remember getting a Paul Daniels magic set that was pretty cool at the time and I played with alot.
7. Do you have a nativity scene? No
8. Hardest person to buy for? My Mum
9. Easiest person to buy for? The boys
10. Worst Christmas gift ever received? Not had anything really bad
11. Mail or email Christmas card? Post but the boys did write to Santa via email
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Gremlins or Die Hard 2
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? At some point in December!
14. Have you ever recycled/regifted a Christmas present? No
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Everything!
16. Favorite Christmas song? Last Christmas
17. Travel at Christmas or stay home? This year travel - but not too far :)
18. Can you name Santa's reindeer? Dasher,Dancer,Prancer,Vixen,Comet,Cupid,Donner and Blitzen
19. Do you have an Angel on top of the tree or a star? A big shiny silver star
20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas Day in the morning - although when I was little Dad insisted that they were not opened until after lunch which was really hard.
21. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Supermarket shopping
22. Best thing about Christmas? Seeing how excited the boys are.
So if you like the look of this, cut and paste and add it to your blog. x

Finally finished all the cards this week- just a few to hand deliver - phew! (and a huge thank you to Mrs B for her help :))

This is the photo of the boys for this year;

and here a few of the ones that we didn't use :)...

Charley says....

Still catching up.... I made this card a while ago and did not manage to upload it... Lythan set such a wonderful dare a while back to make a card portraying a song without using the actual song on the card- and here is mine :)

It is of course based on the song 'Charley Says' by the Prodigy - which I would link to but am really not sure if there are any dodgy words in it. The song was in turn based upon the rather fab series of 70's Public Service Information adverts. There are loads on youtube but my most favouritist has to be the one warning you not to play with teapots...

I used Charlie and Lola printables from the cbeebies website and made the sentiment with trust this one and courier fonts.

Made this one too for the festive season...


and... have been super busy with knitting sticks (as Jared calls them) to make a few scarves - and created some little funky labels with Pink Petticoat papers and the help of Photoshop to add the writing...



TFL :)

Another Christmas Card

I made this one a while back...

Papers are Love Elsie, CI brad and spriral clip, Paperchase Ribbon, and a handmade bauble.

TFL :)

I am still here :)

Just been super duper busy - tis that mad season of the year lol! I had this brilliant plan to blog much more during December then we all got one of those bugs and so my master plan got waylaid....

This week's little extra is Tag Time....

I used Pink Petticoat papers, Queen and Co and Prima flowers and lots of doodling... :)

I also made a matching bow

- and here is how I made it (I know that I am not the first to do this but this is the way that I set about it :)

Take some papers - I use Pink Petticoat...

Cut 8 strips to measure 2.5 cm by 15 cm and 4 strips to measure 2.5 cm by 12.5 cm.

Doodle 8 stripey bits on some paper...

Curl each strip around on itself and adhere with DST

Add a doodled strip and adhere with more DST - you can use this to stick them all together later on :)

Stick all of the strips together...

Adhere four pieces in to a star shape...

Assemble the remaining strips and add little strips of paper...

Layer the 2 big stars together...

Add the final star shape...

Add a little flower in the centre....et voila :)


And a couple of cards - this first I made for Rhi's fabulous birdy dare...

And a Stripey one for Saffa's dare...


TFL :)

Getting Corrugated...

Hi all :) My turn to set this week's dare...

I seem to have developed a little bit of a fixation with old cardboard boxes....! My dare this week is to use some corrugated card on your card - it could be corrugated craft card or an old box etc. taken to pieces :) You could make the card blank from it or die cut shapes etc...

When you've finished your cardboard card creations, leave a comment with a link to your blog post on the DCM blog and we'll come and see. You can also take part even if you dont have a blog by emailing a photo or scan to daringcardmakers@hotmail.co.uk and we'll add it to our gallery. The design team, as always have a fantastic array of cards to get the inspiration flowing....

I used this corrugated cupholder from Starbucks...

and made this...


The cup holder actually says that it is made from recycled 'fiber' - I presume they mean fibres... so it is now doubly recycled :)
I punched circles from the snowflake bits and attached them with brads and punched stars from the reverse.
I also used...
Scenic Route Papers
A Paperchase Monster
Inking
Doodling
and Poundland bargainarific Gems

TFL :)

Playing catch up...

Josh was star of the day again yesterday :) Being Star of the Day meant that he got to look after Sam for the evening and also complete details of his stay in the book that accompianies him. Not too sure why as to me, this equates to extra homework when perhaps the Star should be let off homework for the evening :)
Actually we did not have much time to complete it as we whizzed of to Nan's new home where they were putting on a firework spectactular. The fireworks were pretty fab, and went on for aaages - brilliant! We also went at the weekend to the big display at our nearby park but I think that the ones last night were just as good.

The boys both had swords on Sat that light up...

but if you take piccies without a flash or a posh camera you get this...

or this lol!

I much refer Bonfire night to Halloween but I did relent a little this year and we had our first ever pumpkin...

No where near as intricate as lots of others that I have seen on the internet but the boys liked it :)

and... this week's Little Extra...

...is Snowmen and Snowflakes.

I used;
QVC stickers bought ages ago.
Heidi Swapp chipboard letters - you know the ones that are supposed to be self adhesive but don't actually do what it says on the tin...
Hand cut and coloured Snowman
Doodling + Inking
Snowflake brads from stash
Papers were made by Jase :) Once I work out a way, I will share them with you :)

TFL :)