Phew that's better!

 

 My second posting today is a Less is More card that I'm much happier with.  This is a mixture of stamps:  Bethleham is an Art Impressions stamp I've had for some years, my Wise Men are from Stamp Addicts and the hillside is a Hobby Art from one of the Scene-It sets.  Oh and the sentiment is Kaisercraft.  I tried inking my desert and didn't like the look, so I stamped just the village onto my card and then put it again onto textured sandy-brown paper, adding the dunes and the wise men.  Cut it and and stuck it down, trimmed the card and added some gold glitter to the star.  Not quite a one layer card but still not going to need more than a standard stamp, another Christmas card done:).

I'm also entering the Simon Says - anything goes challenge.

Through the garden gate

Through the garden gate is the name of this week's Stamps R Us Challenge and I've taken it literally with this new stamp of a gateway from Stamp Addicts, I've a few scenes waiting to be made into cards using this stamp, which may just be my absolute favourite rubber stamp at the moment:).  I've brayered and spritzed the background, adding a pale moon.  The other stamps are a dotty Stamp Addicts background, Clarity tree, and Hobby Art birds and branches.  I've mounted it onto some Artylicious paper and simply added a ribbon.
My card is for the following challenges:
Stamps R Us - through the garden gate
Little Claire - things with wings
By the Cute & Girly - things with wings
The Craft Garden - use a bird
Art Impressions Stamps - show me the bird
Paper Play - things with wings
Simon Says - anything  goes

Last minute card

A quick, clean and simple card for one of DH's friends - last minute  - but I'm quite pleased with it.  Art Impressions stamp, Distress Inked background and used my Swirls embossing folder twice on the card.
Card is for the following challenges:
Cards for Men - Christmas
Allsorts - anything goes
Fussy & Fancy Friday - show us some snow
Stamptacular Sunday - Tree-mendous

Friday Sketchers #43 & Sugar Bowl Challenge 6

The latest Sugar Bowl Challenge is to make a card that doesn't have to be a Mother's Day card, but is something a mother would love. I don't want to post a Mother's Day card on here until it's been received :), so here I've tried to make an elegant, monochromatic card that I hope would be well received. I've used the latest Friday Sketcher's sketch, by Carol, which is a really nice one that was very easy to use.

The Gorjuss Girl and bird are coloured with watercolour pencils; to be monochromatic she really should have had dark hair but I think she looks great as a redhead :).

The tree is an Art Impressions stamp that I use a lot, paper from the Stamp Attic, printed butterfly sentiment, ribbon and faux brads from Craftwork Cards.

Can't see the wood for the trees

A set of ATCs for the UKATC group's swap. The theme is Trees, which just leaves me with the tricky problem of which of my (too many) tree images to use :)

This is an Art Impressions stamp, used on a Glimmer Misted background, with some snow added to the branches with a white opaque pen. I've tried to add some hill/landscape detail with chalk inks. The ginger card used to mount the trees was part of the packaging for my Sugar Nellie stamp order the other day - waste not want not!

Dogs, dogs, dogs - and a birthday

Dogs, dogs, dogs is a swap at ATCsForAll.com. I've used Glimmer Misted backgrounds and images from

Lisa's Altered Images. Encourage uses Inkadinkado inchies in the background, Smile has an Elzybells sentiment, Art Impressions tree and Stamps by Judith flowers. True Friends has a metal charm wired on and background stamps from Craftwork Cards. Puppy Love has the tree, grass stamp from Stamps by Judith and a Dovecraft sentiment stamp.

The final ATC is for a UKATC birthday and uses Lisa's images again.

Monochrome Madness

http://papertakeweekly.blogspot.com/ Papertake's Challenge this week is Monochrome Madness, this card fits the bill :).

I was trying out an idea I've had where three scenes are stamped at different angles and then placed on the card so they form one line of trees. It needs matting AFTER trimming down, not before! Also the scenes need to be trimmed tighter to the image, but I like the Glimmer Misted background and it was hard to take any of it off. The Glimmer Mist matches the Artylicious paper (from Seasons Greetings cd) better in real life than in the scan... Art Impressions tree stamp used.

Landscape in need of...?

I've been brayering, after demoing it at Stamp Attic last week, using Art Impressions trees reflected in "water". The images are ok, but they are not really inspiring. I know it will look better matted up and on a card, but I feel it needs a bit more... it's too wishy-washy just now. Does anyone have any suggestions please?

Happy Birthday Mum

This is the only card I've made this week, it was my Mum's birthday yesterday. I didn't want to put the card on here until I was sure she had it, Mum is not computer literate but Dad is!

The stamping is all embossed in bronze for a change, on a Glimmer Mist background. I've used my Art Impressions tree stamp, the owl is from Elusive Image's Wise Owl themplate. The background paper is from the Graphicus Guild's papers and the ribbon came from a chocolate box, it worked well with the rest of the card.

Quickie Christmas Cards

I've made a couple of quick Christmas cards. Both use free papers that came with a magazine. The first one uses the Penny Black stamp I bought, with Stickles on the berries. The second uses an Art Impressions watercolour stamp that I bought last year. They're both quickie cards, to add to to not-very-big pile of cards that are ready :)

SBS25 Challenge #5 & Papertake's Simply Sparkling

I keep missing the deadlines for our group of stamping bloggers. Janet sets the Challenges and this week I was determined to take part. There could be no excuses as she set a nice easy challenge: two different printed papers and some glitter. I'm also submitting my card for Papertake's Challenge, which this week is Simply Sparkling http://papertakeweekly.blogspot.com/2008/11/simply-sparkling.html

The papers and the sentiment are free ones that came with a magazine (can't remember which!). The sparkle and glitter are on the narrow ribbon. Also I've used glitter for snow on the trees and on the foreground of the stamped scene, and around the edge of the sentiment. It doesn't show up very well, if you enlarge the photo you can see it a bit more. The lovely, lovely tree stamp is an Art Impressions one that I bought from Sir Stampalot at Ally Pally last month.