Pop-Up Reindeer

I've been on a bit of a Lawn Fawn streak lately. I just can't resist those cute little critters and lovely dies! I dug out my Stitched Hillside Pop-Up die and made a few cards and I thought I might as well make a Christmas card as well while I'm at it. So I got out a few sets with reindeers and a Christmas card, added some ornaments and presents and there we have it. Although to create the background, I adhered small scraps of yellow card behind every star cut - let me tell you, if you need to some work-out for your patience muscles, this is what you should be doing. But I got them all done in the end.  

I had such a blast creating the background using Distress Inks and water splattering and colouring the little critters. I also used Distress Inks to colour the Christmas tree as I have learned from past experimenting that colouring the large tree with Copics just ends up looking streaky and weird, but sponging Distress Inks and adding some water splatters ends up with a much cooler look (just a hint in case you are having trouble colouring large areas with Copics - just switch to Distress inks!).

I'm linking up with Lawn Fawnatics where the challenge is Happy Little Critters, Make My Monday where the theme is Animal Antics, Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the theme is Christmas and Crimbo Crackers where the theme is Reindeer.

Card: 300 gsm white card, Neenah Solar white card, scraps of yellow card
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters In The Snow, Critters In The Forest, Toboggan Together, Joy to the Woods and matching dies
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Broken China, Blueprint Sketch, Chipped Sapphire, Black Soot, Copics
Dies: Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Pop-Up, Stitched Rectangle Nesting dies, Snowy Backdrop, Forest Border die, Scripty Merry die

Let it snow in the woods

It's grey and pouring with rain outside. Yesterday was gloriously hot, sunny and wonderful. It was still warm late in the evening when I went out in the pitch black night to get something from the garage. We also finally made good on our promise to buy another tennis racket so we could go playing tennis. There is a free council tennis court about a 30 second walk from our back yard. I can't believe it has taken us two whole years to actually get around to trying it out. But better late than never I guess. I'm quite clearly the worse tennis player, but at least we are having fun and getting a bit of exercise at the same time. 

In addition to a very bad game of tennis, I also had time to put together this card. I stamped the scene using the Joy to the Woods stamp set. I used my Faber Castell watercolour pencils to colour the scene and added some snow using a white gel pen and dotted some Ranger Ice Stickles. I then cut the panel using a Stitched Rectangle die. I embossed the dark blue card with a swirly embossing folder and added the wintery scene. I created the snowflake embellishment using the Stitched Snowflakes dies and added some Ice Stickles. Last, I heat embossed the sentiment from Critters in the Arctic in white onto a purple banner.

The layout of the card was inspired by the current CAS(E) this Sketch challenge. I am also linking up with the Lawnscaping "Embossing" challenge. I would also like to link up with Addicted to Stamps where the challenge this week is "Holiday" and Sparkles Christmas Challenge where the theme is "No designer paper".

Card: Coloured 240 gsm kraft card navy, Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour paper, 300 gsm white linen textured card, scrap of purple card

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods, Critters in the Arctic

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Staz-on, Versamark, Faber Castell watercolour pencils, Signo white gel pen

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Stitched Snowflake dies, Ranger Ice Stickles, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, Sizzix embossing folder swirls

Party night in the woods

It has been the most amazing weekend. I didn't have anything exciting planned, but my sister turned up at my doorstep on Saturday morning, complete surprise. Apparently she had been plotting with the Culinary Consultant to surprise me and have a pre-birthday celebration (my birthday is on the upcoming Wednesday). And she did not turn up empty handed, but with a huge chocolate cake. And I dare say the day got even better from there as my birthday surprise was a visit to Hamerton Zoo Park, a huge zoo park less than half an hours drive from our home. I had no idea the place even existed, and we had a great day seeing all the animals, from birds and primates to the big cats and everything in between. And my special birthday treat didn't end there, my dear Culinary Consultant really did spoil me with a special experience where I got to go into one of the enclosures and meet the lemurs and feed them their dinner. I had lemurs crawling up in my lap and on my shoulders, and they let me stroke them. It was such a memorable experience and I am over the moon about it all.

Due to all the animal antics, there wasn't any room for crafty time yesterday. Today after a full day of shopping I did mange to put together a very animal inspired card (wonder where I got that idea from...). Apart from the animal inspiration, I was also inspired by the awesome sketch over at CAS(E) this sketch and ColourQ. I am also linking up with Lawnscaping challenge where the theme is "Try a new technique". For this card, my new technique was to try the new vellum adhesive I ordered the other day. I am always trying to find good ways of adhering vellum, as the ones I have tried so far have not been as invisible as I have wanted them to be. After trawling the interwebs for hints, I came across a crafting forum where I found a recommendation for Vellum glue dots, and ordered a pack. Looking at this card, they seemed to do the trick and I'm quite pleased with them as you really can't see where the adhesive is on the vellum (I put some in all corners of the vellum, and it does indeed seem to be invisible). So this was a great new technique to try!

 

Card: 300 gsm white card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, coloured 240 gsm kraft card pink

Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka Mon Amie 

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Joy To The Woods and matching dies

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black

Colouring: Copics C1, C3, R43, RV19, YR04, Y23, Y15, Y19

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle and Hello dies 

Happy New Home from the Woods

Today I tried again to tackle an idea that ended up in the bin yesterday. I'm glad I tried again with a slightly different angle as this card made the cut for me.

The card is inspired by the sketch over at My Favourite Things, which like quite a few other participants, I also flipped to it's side. I used the bright colour scheme from Colour Me...!. I'm also linking up at Simon Says Stamp Monday and Wednesday challenges as well as The Pink Elephant where Anything Goes, and at PDE Linky Party where the theme is Any Animal. 

Card: Stampin' Up Tempting Turquoise, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, scraps of Stampin' Up Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight and Strawberry Slush, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods and matching dies, Stampin' Up Good Greetings
Colouring: Stampin' Up Blendabilities Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, Calypso Coral
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black and StazOn Jet Black
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangles dies, Cole's ABCs 

Rocky and Bullwinkle

I was going to post this yesterday but life interfered. I left work really early to have some crafting time but there was a massive accident on the A14, and I had to make my way home by alternative routes, which of course were totally blocked up. In the end it took me an hour and a half instead of 35 minutes to get home. Sigh. So I didn't quite manage to finish the card yesterday. But it's all done and dusted now, and that's all that matters.

The day after I published my wintery Lawn Fawn card, the Lawnscaping challenge published the inspiration photo below. I immediately wanted to create something similar for the challenge using the photo, so I played some more with the lovely Critters in the Arctic and Joy to the Woods stamp sets. I'm also entering the card over at Daring Cardmakers where the challenge is to be inspired by another card you have made and over at STAMPlorations where the January challenge theme is Stamps and Inks. Last but not least I'm linking up at Love to Create where Anything goes.

I started by stamping and colouring Moose, Squirrel and their Robin friend. I die cut them, and the snowy hills and the journalling card. I used Versamark to ink the snowy hills and added Holographic embossing powder to them. It doesn't show very well on the photo but it's really nice and sparkly. I stamped snowflakes onto the background using Versamark and embossed them using holographic embossing powder, before inking with distress ink. For the background, I used the hardwood stamp and then embossed the sentiment in white.

Card: Hobbycraft 160 gsm cream card, kraft card

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods, Critters in the Arctic, Stampin' Up Hardwood

Dies: Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Borders, Joy to the Woods, Critters in the Arctic, Stitched Journaling Card

Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz distress inks Chipped Sapphire, Broken China, Dusty Concord, Stampin' Up Crumb Cake

Colouring: Copics E09, E29, E34, E39, R24, R46

Other: Papermania Holographic embossing powder

Light winter

Sunday is my crafting time. I love getting into my craft room first thing in the morning. Usually it's been cleaned during the weekend so it's a clean table and a clean slate. I am all for a creative mess but sometimes you need to clean everything out to clear your mind and get creative again. 

This card was brewing in my mind for a few days after I saw several inspirational challenges. Then it all came out today in one go. Quick and easy, and I think it turned out really nice. The card was heavily inspired by the Winter Wonder image over at Curtain Call and the cue card over at CASology, which was Light. The snowflake ornament was inspired by the image over at the Friday Mashup where the challenge is to use a snowflake or create a winter theme card, or both. I loosely used the sketch over at Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge. I'm also linking up over at Just us Girls where the theme is Winter and Frosted Designs where the theme is "White as a snowflake".

I started by die cutting the snow using the Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside borders and cut the whole scene using the Stitched Journaling Card. Then I stamped and die cut the tree from the Joy to the Woods set. The bunny from the Critters in the Arctic was stamped in Versamark and heat embossed in white, as was the bird from Joy to the Woods. The sky looked a bit empty so I stamped a few snow flakes and heat embossed in glittery embossing powder. They don't show very well in the main picture, they show a bit better in the picture below. I stamped the sentiment from the Stampin' Up set Good Greetings. I used watercolour paper for the card base, as my white cardstock seemed too white, and cream cardstock made it all look too bland. I do love the texture of the watercolour paper, it adds a really great extra touch.

I created the snowflake ornament by die cutting all the snowflakes using the Lawn Fawn Stitched Snowflakes die. I heat embossed each snowflake using a clear, glittery embossing powder. I assembled the snowflake flower using glue dots, and added a pearl to the centre.

Card: Daler & Rowney 300 gsm watercolour paper, Hobbycraft 160 gsm cream card, coloured 240 gsm kraft card beige
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods, Critters in the Arctic, Stampin' Up Good Greetings
Ink: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake, Tsukineko Versamark
Dies: Lawn Fawn Stitched Snowflakes, Stitched Journaling Card, Stitched Hillside Borders, Joy to the Woods, Critters in the Arctic
Other: Papermania embossing powder white and holographic, Stampin' Up basic pearls

Brown and turquoise moose

Today's card is inspired by the lovely image over at House of Cards. I knew exactly in my head what card I wanted to do. I know I have a reindeer stamp, it came free with a crafting magazine and I have made cards with it here. But despite turning my crafting room upside down, I just couldn't find it. So I had to rethink my plan. And as I have lately, I just gravitated towards the cute little Lawn Fawn critters once again. I was inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) this sketch, although I took some liberties in the interpretation of the sketch. I'm also entering the card over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the theme is Bling it On.

I embossed the card and added ice stickles to the swirls. I used two star dies to cut the star shaped frame. I stamped the cuuuuute moose and Coloured him with Copics and used the matching die. Last I stamped the sentiment in Chocolate Chip and cut the banner ends. I also stamped inside the card.

Card: Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip, Tempting Turquoise

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters in the Arctic and matching dies, Joy to the Woods

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black

Colouring: Copics E29, E34, E39, Stampin' Write markers Tempting Turquoise, Bermuda Bay, Chocolate Chip

Other: Ranger Ice Stickles Mint Ice, Xcut star dies

Home Sweet Home

I was asked to make a "Happy New Home" card, and first I thought what on earth am I going to come up with as I didn't think I had any suitable stamps. However, the super versatile Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods came to the rescue once again. It's such a great set, so far I have used it for fall cards, Christmas cards, cute critter cards and now also for this new home card. The little bird's nests are absolutely adorable. 

For this card, I was inspired mainly by two challenges, the sketch over at CAS(E) this Sketch and the colours at Color Throwdown. I'm also entering the card in this week's CASology where the theme is very appropriately "Home". I'm also submitting to Stampin' Royalty where Anything Goes.

I stamped the trees onto the backgorund cardstock and coloured the outlines using a Tim Holtz Distress Marker in Antique Linen. I stamped the adrable little bird's houses onto another piece of cardstock, coloured them with Stampin' Up Blendabilities in Old Olive and Daffodil Delight and Copic R24 - Prawn. I die cut them with the Joy to the Woods die set. I printed the sentiment and matted everything onto Stampin' Up Summer Starfruit cardstock. For some finishing bling I added a bit of Tim Holtz distress stikcles in Mustard seed to the hearts in the birdhouses and a rhinestone to the sentiment.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Stampin Up Summer Starfruit
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black
Colouring: Tim Holtz Distress Markers Antique Linen, Stampin' Up Blendabilities Daffodil Delight and Old Olive, Copic R24 - Prawn
Other: Tim Holtz Distress Stickles Mustard Seed, Papermania adhesive gems Capsule Sunshine, Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods matchin die set

Gorgeous Christmas colours

Sorry for being so late with the post today. To be honest, the reason is all the cards I have made recently were so horrible I couldn't post them. Which got me into a slight panic about what I would post today. Then I sat down and took a deep breath and told myself it's perfectly ok if I don't post anything. Cardmaking is my hobby, and it's supposed to be fun, not a pressure to produce a card per day just to have something to put on the blog. It's ok to make cards and then toss them without never showing them to anyone if they are bad. 

So I walked away from crafting for a while and cleaned out the horrible mess my craft room had become instead. Then I took a browse around the blogosphere to see *if* there was something that would inspire me, not to force myself to make a card. And I found the amazing colour challenge on The Christmas Card Challenges which immediately made me reach for my Copics. With a colour combo like that, who could fail at creating a great card? I was also inspired by this week's Viva La Verve sketch, which I already tried to tackle earlier but failed miserably. I guess the clean craft room inspired me to do a clean and simple design, which involved a lot of masking while stamping, and required a few tries to get right. I'm also participating in The Pink Elephant Challenge where the theme is to use pink and Addicted To Stamps and More where Anything Goes this week.

I used a circular mask to stamp the main image. I made it by die cutting a circle from paper. I started by stamping the bird and the squirrel, then masking them and stamping the trees through the circular mask. I found it helpful to stamp on a test paper first, to see whereabouts I wanted everything to go before doing the "real deal". I used Copics to colour the image. I then stamped the ornaments on another piece of paper, coloured and die cut them. I used a gold sharpie to draw the thread they are hanging from. Last, I heat embossed the sentiment onto beige cardstock in gold and added the die cut holly as a finishing touch. Job done, clean and simple, and finally a card I can publish!

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm card, coloured 240 gsm craft card beige
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark
Coulouring: Copics C3, E34, E39, R43, RV29, RV34, V04, V09, YG13, YG17, Gold Sharpie
Other: Gold embossing powder, Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods dies

Nontraditional Christmas Colours

Yes, it's another Christmas card post. I was asked to make some Christmas cards with Finnish and Swedish sentiments, so who am I to argue. This card was inspired by CAS(E) this Sketch. For the first card I used the colour combo from CAS - Colours and Sketches. For the second card, I picked the colour combination myself. 

I really like the Clean and Simple look of these cards. Unfortunately the colours don't show in the photos quite as nicely as they do in real life, but you should be able to get an idea. 

I also stamped a few Christmas ornaments inside the card for a finishing touch.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm card, Coloured 240 gsm kraft card Teal, silvery grey card from my stash

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Joy to the woods

Ink: Stampin' Up Bermuda Bay, Basic Grey, Crumb Cakem Pear Pizzazz, Soft Sky and Wisteria Wonder, Hobbycraft pigment ink silver

Other: Stampin Up Island Indigo ribbon, grey ribbon from my stash, Stampin' Up basic adhesive gems 

Joy to the sketch

I guess by now you all wish I had never bought the Joy to the Woods stamp set and are bored to death seeing it so many times here on the blog recently. But every time I see a vertical element in a sketch my thoughts turn to those tree trunks... So once more, some cute critters and very straight tree trunks as inspired by this week's CAS(E) this Sketch. I'm also entering over at Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge where the theme is Finishing touches. My finishing touch to this card was the red bird sitting on the banner, as the card looked like it needed a final touch before I added the bird. Last but not least I'm entering over at the ABC Christmas Challenge where T is for Tree Ornament.

This time I used Tim Holtz distress markers to colour the critters, and die cut them using the matching die set. I used a snowflake from another Lawn Fawn stamp set to stamp the snow in the background. I love the slightly untraditional look of the Christmas cards created with this set, but it also makes such a great autumn set and probably in the summer I will be inspired to make cards with the critters frolicking around in a green forest landscape instead. I also stamped some Christmas decorations inside the card and coloured in the same colour scheme as the front of the card.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods, Critters in the Arctic

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Soft Sky

Colouring: Tim Holtz distress markes in Ripe Persimmon, Barn Door, Broken China, Tea Dye and Stampin' Write marker in Chocolate Chip and Smoky Slate

Other: Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods Die

Autumnal critters in the woods

I can't believe I missed the momentous milestone of 5000 page views on the blog. I have been looking out for it for a few days, and then life happened and it was really hectic and I forgot all about it and then we were up at 5093 already. Hopefully a bit more when you get to read this. Thank you all dear wonderful amazing people who keep checking out my blog. I would think it's pretty much my Mum, Sis, few select friends and all you DT members dutifully writing your inspiring comments. Thank you! 

Then on to my self control issue. I have no self control when it comes to the cute Lawn Fawn critter stamp sets. And when I say no self control, I mean "my credit card is hiding from me and wincing in pain" type of no self control. I might just have gotten myself another "early Christmas present". But seriously who could resist those adorable little happy faces? And if you get the stamp set, you might as well get the matching dies, because we get plenty of fussy cutting with those stamp sets that don't have matching dies, don't we? Am I right or am I right? Oh come on, indulge me here and say there's nothing wrong with spending money you don't have as long as it's on crafting gear. They will last me my whole life, right? Right? She said with a look of desperation on here face. Let's just all admit to it together. My name is [insert name here] and I'm an addict...

Expect to see plenty of cute critters in the near and distant future, because these babies are constantly on my crafting desk. It's a slippery slope though, because now I have realised I need much more Copics as well. I was watching a Youtube video of a lady who had bought herself the full set of all colours, and she made a video where she opened the shipment with the markers. And oh boy was I jealous, I would love to have all those little babies. But I think I have to settle for very slowly building my stash, one or two markers a month. So in 10 years or so I should have them all!!

Back to today's card. I used the Joy to the Woods stamp set and matching dies. When I saw the sketch over at My Favourite Things I immediately saw the vertical lines as the trees from the stamp set. Maybe because I was staring at the stamp set on my desk. Anyhow... I took a liberal approach to the sketch, so you can see the general elements, but it's not a very literal interpretation. Let's call it artistic freedom. I absolutely loved, loved, loved the colours over at Colour Me...! this week. I love the combo of the yellow, orange and red grass that I cut using the Lawn Fawn Grassy border die. Funnily enough, I don't like the colour of any of those papers when I look at them alone (particularly the yellow) but somehow they look so great together. I'm also entering the Make My Monday challenge where the theme is Fall/Autumn Colours.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Coloured 240 gsm cardstock Pillarbox Red, Hobbycraft 160 gsm three shades of Yellow, orange cardstock from my stash, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods, Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Real Red (for the sentiment), Tim Holtz distress ink Spiced Marmelade (for the fox footprints) Stampin' Write Smoky Slate and Pumpkin Pie marker, Copic Y19, R24 and E34 for colouring the trees and critters
Other: Lawn Fawn dies Joy to the Woods, Grassy border