Golden Valentine

Another quick Valentines Card - for a bloke who doesn't like all that soppy pink hearts and red roses nonsense!

Valentines Day is not far off!

So I have started to making a few cards ready for family and friends

 All these have been made by cannibalising parts of old cards!

A Kaleidoscope of Butterflies!

Yes, a group of butterflies are known as a Kaleidoscope! Seems very appropriate for such a beautiful and colourful creature.

I seem to have found room for a butterfly or two on many of my most recent makes, they are such a versatile embellishment!

Bits & Pieces

I'm sure we all have a pile of odd bits and pieces left over from our craft and card making- in fact I have drawers full!

So, I challenged myself to use up some some of the smaller pieces that have been hanging around for ages and make some Artist Trading Cards (ATC's)

I manager to come up with these 7, but it really hasn't made much of an impression on my pile of stash!

Cards for the Men

I picked up a Docrafts Goodie bag from The Range that had been reduced from £15 to only £5. It has lots of male themed papers and embellishments, so I've got stuck in to make some much needed masculine cards for my card box!

Cards with Gilding Flakes

Whilst I enjoy the effect gilding flakes have on the cards - the whole stamping procedure is a bit of a faff!

   You have to be organised, with a bowl of warm water ready to immerse the stamps in as soon as you have finished - cos you must get all the flitterglu off asap

Also the flakes float around all over the place and are hard to keep in their containers and the buffing makes so much dust!

So, I really have to be in the mood for a session with gilding flakes 

These cards are made with both by Indigo Blu and Cosmic Shimmer flakes.

A Few Christmas ATC's

Although I enjoy swapping ATC's on Docrafts and Trimcraft forums, there seem to be less people joining in over the years. 

Perhaps they are going out of fashion a bit, but I still like making the small 3.5 x 2.5" Artist Trading Cards and doing things on a smaller scale than birthday cards!

Anyway - these are the Christmas ATC's that have been sent to me from other crafters this year and are on display in the lounge

Beautiful Christmas Cards

Today I have decided to showcase the lovely hand made cards I have received from other crafters.

made by Lorna, Wendy, Maureen and Lyn

I love getting cards like these and appreciate the time and care that is put into them.

Made by Sandra, Kathy and Di

These cards have come from across Great Britain and also USA & New Zealand! I've also received some great Christmas atcs and might put them in the next post

Christmas for Pagans

 This year I had done quite well selling non-Christmas cards for those who don't celebrate Christmas. 

They have proved popular with Pagans who send Yule or Winter Solstice cards. 

I have used stages heads, reindeer, mistletoe and woodland scenes and each one has been a unique, one of a kind card! 

A Little Bit Fed Up With Making Christmas Cards!

You can have too much of a good thing, so I decided to pack away all the red, green, glitter, gold, reindeers and snowmen and make a few men's cards for a change.

Hopefully I will get back into the Christmas card production mood soon, as I still have loads and loads of Xmas stash to use up!

Let It Snow

Yes, it's another Christmas card featuring a reindeer I'm afraid. I have used this die a lot this year! 

Plus I have added a small black cat padding through the snow

Just a starter

These are my first  attempts at playing with my freebie Forest Magic stamps (see previous post). 

Just a Reindeer Christmas card and 2 seasonal ATC's.

Next I want to make something that features the cute little sitting rabbit stamp.

My Kinda Stamps

Isn't this Forest Magic stamp set from Papercraft Inspirations magazine just fabulous?

I hope I can mix the stags, foxes and rabbits together with the tree silhouettes and hopefully make some moonlight winter scenes!

I've just put the stamps away in the craft room, as I'm doing a table top sale tomorrow morning and am getting everything ready for that.Plus I have a commission for a birthday card I must make tomorrow - so reluctantly I have put them to one side for now!

A Sloth of Polar Bears

Who knew a group of Polar Bears is called a Sloth? Not me until I googled it!

This weeks group of Christmas cards all feature Polar bears of one sort or another.

More Holly !

 A few more Christmas cards featuring  my cute little sprigs of holly. 

I've now made around 50 Xmas cards, but still lots more needed!

A Sprig of Holly

One of my favourite embellishments at the moment is a little felt sprig of holly - I have bought 2 packets so far from Hobbycraft. 

They seem to fill up an empty space or add a bit of texture and dimension to many different styles of Christmas cards.

A Herd of Reindeer

 Now that the Christmas Card production line line is in full swing, I've made sure that a few of them feature a reindeer.

I love seeing them in a snowy scene and have several reindeer and stag ornaments that I bring out every year

What's your favourite Christmas character?

One Christmas Stamp - Several Colourways!

I've got a bit carried away with this oval sentiment stamp that was part of a set from this months Creative Stamping Magazine.

I stamped it out in many different coloured inks and tried it out with different background papers.

Now I've got to try out the other

stamps in the set!

Cat Number 3

No time to make cards this week as we have a new addition to our household - Jinny!

She is 6 or 7 months old and we have adopted her from Suffolk Animal Rescue after her previous owner died.

She is lively, friendly and very inquisitive.

Our other two cats are getting used to her - but Jinny is quite feisty and will hiss and bat them if they get too close.