Cookie Cutter Christmas Sneak Peek

Yesterday evening, after a busy day in the garden, I decided to have a play with
the Cookie Cutter Builder Punch (available from the Autumn/Winter catalogue
on Thursday 1st September) and built a snowman!
Then I found some retired Christmas DSP to create the snowy sky,
added some Thoughtful Branches trees , inked a few snowy hills
and stamped Merry Christmas from the Snow Place stamp set.

I do think he looks cute - what do you reckon?

More of Kate's Christmas Crafting with Chris

I said last week that I would do a regular weekly post of the Christmas projects that Chris and I do on a Wednesday afternoon, so here is one of this weeks cards.

Cased from the blog of Leena Girsa with a little bit of  tweaking.

card open, front view showing double Z fold.

Card fully open showing all three panels

Card closed and folded flat for posting.

A simple colour combo of Night of Navy, White and Silver Glimmer Paper.

Stamp set is Flurry of Wishes  used with matching snowflake punch.

CIrcle Frames dies used for the sentiment and scalloped mat.

Thoughtful Branches dies used for trees in White and Silver.

Woodgrain Embossing folder used for bottom Z strip and shaped slightly to resemble fallen snow.

Do pop  round and take a look at more of Leena's projects.

Another Thoughtful Branches card

At Julies on Saturday I spotted the card that I have cased today, with a little tweaking.

You can see Julie's version on her blog  HERE

And this is mine

I have stamped the leaf from Thoughful Branches in Crumb Cake, Sahara Sand, Smoky Slate

and Peekaboo Peach to form the background pattern.

I stamped the greeting from Confetti Celebration in Versamark and heat embossed 

with Copper embossing powder. 

I cut the circle out using the Circle Framelits, then stamped and heat embossed in copper

embossing powder, eight leaves, then cut them out and arranged them around the circle.

I coloured in the embossed Happy Birthday using a Crumb Cake Stampin Write Marker pen.

I used the Peekaboo Peach 3/8" Ruched Ribbon under the flower shaped greeting, glued onto the stamped patterned card , and matted and layered first onto Peekaboo Peach card, 

then onto a White 7" X 5" base card.

I am really pleased with the finished effect, and this will be another card for my workshop.

Thoughtful Branches

I am planning a half day workshop using the Thoughtful Branches bundle.

I'm not sure how long some of the cards will take to do, but I do want to make as many cards as possible in the time allowed. So far I have made 3 designs which we did at monthly training and three more cards inspired by Julie and others, plus a carrier bag to take all the projects, the stamp set and dies home in.

This card was inspired by one of Julie's Congrats cards, 

I have altered it slightly and made it into a Happy Anniversary card.

Here's my version.

A colour combo of Silver, Smoky Slate and White.

The tree and branches are die cut in Smoky Slate,

the first leaf canopy is die cut in Silver foiled card.

The top layer is die cut in Whisper white, stamped with Versamark,

then heat embossed with Silver embossing powder.

A simple bow is fastened round the tree trunk with Silver Cording Trim (retired)

The greeting is matted onto Silver foiled card.

Here's Julie's version

Her card was to congratulate Sam on achieving Silver status.

Julie has used 1/8" Silver ribbon on her card.

Kate Christmas crafting and crafternoon tea!

Today I have been to a Social Stamping Day at the Paper Haven with Julie and three other Jems.

We celebrated Allie's birthday, did some really relaxing crafting and Julie surprised us all

by treating us to a crafternoon tea. The scones were absolutely scrumptious!,

So all in all a great day out, with super company and a few more Christmas cards made.

Here's one of the cards I made, using the fabulous Cookie Cutter Christmas stamp set,

the matching punch, and thanks to Allie, for letting me punch these great little hats

complete with a little pom -pom using her Jolly Hat builder punch.

Colour combo of Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla.

The papers are the This Christmas Speciality DSP - an absolute bargain at £11.75 for 24 sheets!

The sentiment is from the Snow Place stamp set.

......and here's a photo of the yummy crafternoon tea that Julie set up for us.

The Raspberry Lemonade was lovely and refreshing.

Thanks for a super day Julie xx

Catherine's birthday

Catherine's birthday was on the 13th - here's the card I made for her.

It's a stepped up version of one that we made at monthly training with Julie the other month

And I thought that Catherine would like this.

Christmas crafting with Chris - again

I have decided to make a weekly feature of the Christmas cards 

that Chris and I make on Wednesdays when we get together.

Here's one that I made at Chris's recently.

This card features the fabulous embossing folder Woodland with the In the Meadow stamp set

and a simple colour combo of Soft Sky, Pear Pizzazz, White and Night of Navy.

I have showed my ladies the  technique of brayering and stamping on the embossing folder

to get the effect above and they love it - must say that I like the technique too!

Paul and Cheryl's Anniversay

As well as the 12th August being Barry's birthday it is the wedding anniversary of a lovely couple who we met on a Nile Cruise a good many years ago, who we still keep in touch with.

Here's the card that I made for them

the stamp set is the Hostess set "Love you Lots" and I have just loved colouring in 

these two cute little hedgehogs - aren't they adorable!

The background papers are the Pop of Pink DSP - one of my favourite colour combos.

Hope that you both had a lovely Anniversary !!

And Denise's Birthday......

I did say that there were loads of birthdays last week didn't I!

Barry shares his birthday with one of my good friends Denise.  

Don't see a lot of her these days, but we exchange birthday cards and Christmas cards.

Here's the one that I made for her.

It's quite a simple card, but I think that these beautiful papers from the Blooms and Bliss suite are so beautiful you could just use the paper on a card with a simple greeting.

I chose to use the papers with the sentiment from Vertical Greetings - so useful!

Barry's birthday card.

Friday was hubby's birthday, and to celebrate he went on a lads golf away day, 

so I didn't see him until late! He had a good day and won £20 for scoring a two.

Here's the card I made for him.

The background paper was from the Serene Scenery DSP Stack.

The waves were cut using the Swirly Scribbles Thinlits dies and overstamped with a swirl stamp from the matching Swirly Bird stamp set - the same stamp was used for the background stamping on the base card, using Dapper Denim and Emerald Envy ink.  The little boat was stamped and then die cut using this bundle.

The greeting is the Stylised Birthday stamp. It's a good size for when you need a large greeting.

I am really pleased with this card, which I believe was inspired by the lovely Amanda Bates.

Amy's card

Here's the card that I made for Amy, I used the same design as the one I made for Lucas,

 but used different papers  - from the Pop of Pink suite.

 The colour combo. Melon Mambo, Black and White, which I really like.

The same stamp and dies were used as on Lucas's card.

Lucas's birthday card

Here's the card I made for our Grandson Lucas who was 13 last Wednesday.

Thought this would be suitable for him now that he is a teenager.

I used the retired Its my Party DSP for the background and the retired Little Letters 

and Little Numbers  dies for his name and the 13. 

They are just the right size for this A6 size card.

The greeting is the Stylized Birthday stamp It's a lovely large greeting,

just the right size for this too.

Whoops where did last week go?

Well it was a fast and furious week last week.  Birthdays  - .Carol and Julie on the 8th,

Lucas on the 10th, Amy on the 11th, Barry and Denise on the 12th (as well as Paul and Cheryl's Wedding Anniversary), Catherine on the 13th and now I can make something just for me and have a play with my Stampin' Up Christmas Pre-0rder  - yippee!!

Meantime I'll show you the cards that I made last week.

This is the card that I made for Julie H, I made the original one at monthly Julies' Jems training 

and fell in love with the stamp set, so I just had to have it!!

(you may have spotted that there are nearly as many Julies in my circle of friends as there are Chris's)

This card uses the Jar of Love stamp set and matching Framelits 

and has a colour combo of Pool Party, Flirty Flamingo, Blushing Bride and White.

Don't  you just love that matching ribbon?  I do - it's fabulous.

I can't find a photo of Carol's card just now, if I find it later I will add it on to this post.

Jems August Blog Hop - Boxes/Bags/Packaging

Well doesn't time fly - I can't believe that another month has passed by and that the time has come

for our next monthly Jems Blog Hop - where our theme is Boxes/Bags and Packaging.

Here's what I have made using the Perfectly wrapped Project Kit

Front view

Top view

Angled view

This kit was only delivered yesterday, so I have only had chance to make this box,

but here's what you can make with this kit.

---------------------------

My second project is one of the Petite Cafe Gift bags,
to which I have simply added a tag and a Gold Binder Clip

Apologies for the poor quality of this picture, but I think that you can see from this

that the bag has a tin tie closure at the top and the bag is food safe.

------------------------------

My third project is a little box which I have made year in, year out ,

it measures 5 cm square by 3cm deep, it's very useful for small pieces 

of jewellery, earrings etc.

Box closed front view

Box closed top view

Box open

Box open view 2

The colour combination is Melon Mambo, Black and White.

Punches used - Scalloped Tag Topper, Pansy and Petite Petals.

Paper is Pop Of Pink Speciality DSP.

Basic Black solid Baker's Twine

and  a single Basic Rhinestone embellishment.

Hope that you have enjoyed seeing my selection of projects,

so now please hop along to see what Linda has to show us
by clicking on the picture below

OR

If you want to go back and see what Karen has made and the ones before her 

click on the picture below

Enjoy!!

More Christmas crafting with Chris

Here's another Christmas card that I made with Chris the other week, when we had our 

weekly Crafting get together.

Viewed flat ready for posting.

Angled view showing card stood up.

We made this stepper card using the Snow Place stamp set with the matching

Snow Friends Framelts die.

Colour combo is Cherry Cobbler, Black andWhite.

We used the Brick embossing folder for the background and Dazzling Diamonds 

glimmer paper for the fallen snow.

We are getting serious about our Christmas card making now!!

PLEASE CALL ROUND TOMORROW TO SEE
THE JEMS MONTHLY BLOG HOP

Feel better soon!

Here's another card featuring the Pretty Kitty stamp set.

It's for a friend of mine who has been feeling a little low, 

so it's to let her know she's in our thoughts and hoping that

she feels better soon.

I am really enjoying colouring these images in - takes me back to my childhood.

No sarcastic remarks about how long ago that was if you please!

Sam's birthday card

Today is the birthday of my Stampin Up great grand-daughter Sam.

Here's the card I've made for her

The stamp set used is Pretty Kitty, and I think it's really cute.

The sentiment is from Birthday Blooms, and the colour combo is Soft Sky and White.

The banner has been punched using the triple banner punch with paper from the Subtles DSP stack.

The ribbon is Pool Party 3/8" Stitched Satin ribbon wound round with Silver Metallic thread.

Have a great day Sam, happy birthday!

Christmas crafting at Tuesday Class.

Having made the Christmas stepper card at Chris's the other week, and thinking of other designs

 that would work, Janet and I planned this card, and she made it this afternoon.

This still uses the Snow Pals stamp set and matching Framelits, but this time the colour combo

is Soft Sky, Black and White. The paper is from the Subtles DSP stack and the igloo is made 

using the Brick embossing folder.