Ready for this months Festive Challenge ......

Hello .... me again .....

It's time to launch another challenge for the month of March ...... and this time it's a Christmas one. Time to get all festive for the Happy Little Stampers Christmas challenge ..... Ho! Ho! Ho!

This month we'd like to see .......

SHAPED CARDS

Hmmm ..... I don't really do shaped cards, I'm much more of a traditional straight edge sort of gal!!! But hey ..... I'm always up for a challenge!

When I say I don't do 'shaped cards' I don't like anything too fancy.  In the past I've made easel cards, I suppose they could be classed as shaped.  I do like to make tag shaped cards and another of my favourites is this cute little circle card,  made using the Spellbinders Nestabilities Circle dies and the matching Scalloped Circles ....... what do you think ..... cute or what?

It's fairly simple to create .... just a bit of matting and layering and can be used for any occasion depending on how you decorate it.  For this one I simply inked the centre circle using Distress Inks, spritzed with a little water and then stamped some pretty snowflakes over the top and embossed them with a white detail powder

A few dots of glitter here and there add a little extra sparkle.

Now for the card ....... fold a piece of white cardstock (not too thick a card, remember the die has to cut through two layers)  Take the largest die from the Large Circles Nestabilities and place it over your folded card making sure that one part of the circle is actually OVER the fold ....... so that it doesn't cut

Run it through your die-cutting machine and you'll end up with this ......

Next cut the layers for the outside ....... another large circle (to ink and stamp your design on) and a matching scalloped circle.  Layer these up and attach to the front of the card.

Cut two slightly smaller circles to layer and fit on the inside of your card

Because my actual card blank was cut from thinner cardstock than I usually use, these extra layers give the finished card more stability.

For a little more embellishment I added some sparkly snowflakes, punched from glitter card

And finished off with a festive greeting and a couple of pearls in the centre of some of the snowflakes

As I said, this design can be used for any occasion .... here's a blast from the past, a pretty floral design .....

Not exactly festive ..... but it could be. Use poinsettias or holly maybe ..... just a thought!
What shape will you create?  I'm looking forward to seeing this months entries.

It's Friday evening ..... and my birthday celebrations are about to start.  I know it's not until tomorrow (Saturday) but, we've been invited out for a few drinks so it's a good excuse.  We're off out for cocktails down at the Bath & Bottle.  Should I stick with my usual Bellini (so nice) or try something new seeing as it's my birthday ...... hmmm ..... a Hemingway Daiquiri maybe (sounds nice) or a Dark and Stormy ..... bit like the weather here!!!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day and have a great weekend ..... looks like I'm going to ..... Cheers!

(picture from the B&B)

Till next time ......

xx

It's good to be back!

Hi everyone,
What another glorious day it is here in the Isle of Man.  We still have lovely blue skies however there are a few fluffy white clouds about today.  Hope it's still sunny where you are.
It's so nice to be getting back into the routine of things.  Finally, everything is settling down now after the move, and I'm getting back to normal.
After doing Tim's Tag at the weekend it's got me in the mood to start doing some Blog challenges again.  I've really missed doing these -  3 weeks I've been gone. Have you missed me?!  Well, I'm back!

First up is  ........

 It's Week 69 over at Less is More, and it's a 'Recipe' LIM  This is the challenge ......

We have a very simple recipe this week and that is simply to make a card which is

NOT A SQUARE

nor a rectangle for that matter.

What we're really trying to say is that we want a shaped card.

Here's my entry and it's definitely not a square.  It is however a little 'more' that I normally do for this challenge, I hope it's ok.    

I must say I tried a few different shapes but I wasn't happy with any of them.  Things just weren't going according to plan this morning.  Then I remembered that I'd seen a card in the Gallery on the Craftwork Cards Website  take a look here  I spotted it some time ago and loved the design, so here's my version.

definitely not a square

I cut the card blank using the largest of my circle Nestabilities.  Take a piece of folded cardstock, not too thick or you won't get a clean cut.  Lay the nestie with one edge just over the fold, so that it won't cut this bit, and put through your die-cutting machine as normal.   You can do this with most of the Nestie shapes and you'll end up with a lovely shaped card blank.  Even better if you have the Grand Nesties and the Grand Calibur machine (I don't unfortunately), because then you can do large shaped cards.  For this one though I like the smaller size, at the tallest point it's just over 41/2  inches - cute or what! It makes a change for me too, as I don't usually do small cards.  It does fit nicely into a 5x5 envelope, so no problem posting it.

I cut a large scalloped circle in deep pink Bazzill cardstock and mat another white cirlce on top, this hopefully gives me enough white space.  I attached this to the front of my card and it hides the straight bit on the fold.  I trimmed a little off the bottom to give a straight edge so that the card would stand up. 

The sentiment is from a well used Penny Black clear set, and I did a little bit of faux stitching around the edge, and some white dots on the scallops.

The flowers were cut from scraps of paper I found in my bit box, using 2 different sizes of the EK Success Retro Flower punch.  I love these punches, it's such a pretty, simple flower shape that you can layer up if you want to, or just use the one as I have done.  And the punches will cut through card too - bonus!!  I cut double the amount of flowers and stuck 2 together to make them a little stronger so that I could curl the edges over.  I added a piece of card candi to the centres then attached them to the card with a dot of silicone glue.  You can see I placed some of them over the edge to change the shape of the card a little.  The little leaves are cut with a Martha Stewart punch.

I enjoyed this challenge once everything came together.  I should do more shaped cards I think, they make a nice change. 

Thank you for popping by.  I hope to be back again before the weeks out.  I have something that I'm itching to start on.  Here's a sneak peek .........

It's something I found when we were looking around the garden centre at the weekend, it just needs altering a little???  I'll keep you posted.

Bye for now

Linda

x