Christmas CAES-ing Kez - #1

Not that long ago I was privileged enough to be involved in another session of Cards For The Troops with Kerry Bunting. Between all of us we mastered about 250 cards in under 4 hours. The mood was jolly and light and many laughs were had. You can see the cards we made on Kerry's blog HERE. To save confusion, This is the card I worked on at the session and consequently also CASEd.

I certainly got a crash course in sponging on that day....mind you....I could have had to cut out 50 of the doves....hee hee hee. I loved the tones in this card and they had a real classic, vintage feel to them. This is my version......



For the version above, I cut out the Crumb cake layer all together. I added the Dazzling Diamonds to the dove and randomly to the main image. I am not usually a fan of sparkle, but it did add something very special to the card. Here is the dove close up....

Thanks so much Kez for providing me with the inspiration for such a fantastic card. I love it to bits. Belated thanks for allowing me to be a part of cards For the troops again. It is such a rollicking afternoon for a brilliant cause.

Thanks for dropping by.

Stuff used:

CS: (SU) Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla

Ink: (SU) Crumb Cake, Soft Suede

Stamps: SU A Wish For Peace (ret), Kaiser Clear Christmas Greetings Stamps

Other Bits: SU Dazzling Diamonds, Nestabilities Classic Ovals, Sponges, Dimsnsionals

Lynda xx

Teacher's Presents - #1

Hi all,

Thanks again for stopping by and thanks also for your patience with the time between posts. In the lead up to Christmas I kinda over extended myself and was left finishing gifts til 1.15AM Christmas AM!!!

I have so much Christmas stuff to show you, I will bundle some,  bit I also hope you'll indulge the speccy ones that need posts of their own. This is one.

I had a request to make a gift for the teacher of a girl that my daughter dances with. Being male, her mum was struggling for an idea of what to get. She often sees me crafting at dancing and she asked if I had something perhaps suitable....yeah sure....AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!

So I went through my male "things" and came up with the following set. Here it is all together.

I will feature the card in an upcoming post. The box is the same type that I featured in a previous post here. I 'bloked it up" by keeping embellishments to a minimum, but did put his initials on the box.

I was pretty happy that I got ribbon on all 3 bits of the gift!!!

The desk caddy was so much fun. I had found paper blocks (4" x 4") at the Reject Shop for $1 and based the whole project around this. It had a simple easel top and a 2012 mini calendar to keep it open.

All parties were very happy with the gift. The teacher even pulled me aside on the last day of school and thanked me (which I thought was lovely). He admitted the chocolates did not last very long and has discarded the base and is using it as a trinket box on his dresser.

Thanks for popping by. I will post (hopefully) slightly more frequently in the weeks to come.

Stuff used:
CS: (SU) Chocolate Chip, Riding Hood Red, Very Vanilla, Whisper White (card) and KO Verbena Brown - Dots and Floral DP
Ink: (SU) Choc Chip
Stamps: (SU) Dasher, Occasional Greetings
Other Bits: Nestabilities Labels One, SU 1 1/4" Real red striped ribbon, Carla Craft CP2 Sparkles punch

Christmas CASE - #3

Good Morning all!!

Is anyone else feeling the impending time and pressure of Christmas? I must admit this year I am feeling it terribly!!!

This is the 2nd card I turned out from the visit to my friend's place. It is based on a tag that I saw on SCS here. I expanded and added a little to make it into a cute and a little bit of a cheeky Christmas card.

I will admit to a small squeal of delight escaping when the final piece was placed on this card. The Santa vest was achieved by stamping the Santa tag from the Tags 'Til Christmas set and then punching it out in the Owl Punch. Add some Summer Sun SWM for the belt.....and Santa was complete. The hat is a Carla Craft CP2 Heart with a small trim of a Word Window Punch for the trim.

Finished off with  the Scallop Square punch and the sentiment.....

I have since made a couple of more versions of this card, but have not yet photographed them.

Thanks for popping by. I hope I am not boring you with all of this CASE-ing.

Stuff Used:

CS: (SU) Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, Jolly Holiday DSP (ret), Soft Suede, Basic Black, Only Orange, Old Olive

Ink: (SU) Cherry Cobbler

Stamps: (SU) Tags 'Til Christmas

Punches: (SU) Owl Punch, Scallop Border Punch, 1 1/4 Square Punch, Scallop Square Punch, XL Bird Punch

Other Bits: Dimensionals, Cuttlebug Christmas Holly Leaf and Berry Embossing Folder

Lynda xx

Christmas CASE - #2

A couple of weeks back I landed over at my friend's place with the soul intention of making Christmas Cards. I would like the record to reflect that I made 6 and she got 1 done, but in her defence, she did make a lot of owls too!!!

I think I am a SUCKER for Christmas stamp sets, due to the fact that when I packed up my stamps to go to her place, I actually had to leave SOME behind. One set I did take was "Tags Til Christmas". I got the inspiration for my card from this one on SCS.

Now still feeding my overwhelming desire to have no 2 cards the same, these are similar in very subtle ways.

The original card I found a bit plain, so I dry embossed the tops of the cards for a small bit of interest.

and also used the border punches to flair things up a bit....

The best thing about this card is that it went up very quickly, thus easy to mass produce of so desired.

Thanks for popping by again.

Stuff used:

CS: (SU) Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler, Jolly Holiday DSP (ret)

Ink: (SU) Old Olive

Stamps: (SU) Tags 'Til Christmas

Punches: (SU) Decorative Label Punch, Scallop Trim Border, Pinking Hearts Border

Other Bits: Cuttlebug "Just My Type" embossing borders, Dimensionals

Lynda xx

Christmas CASE - #1

Once again....sincere apologies for time between posts. My intention was to post my Christmas cards fairly regularly, but you know what they say about the best laid plans!!!

This year for Christmas, I have found that a lot of my cards have gone down the "non traditional" colours route. I also have CASE'd a lot of my card ideas....and put my own little twist on them. This is the 1st of my Christmas CASEs.

In 2010 I was privileged enough to be involved with Kerry Bunting and her enclave of crafters in Cards For The Troops. We have since done a couple of Christmas sessions and even a round for Mother's Day. The designs Kerry comes up with are simple, elegant and VERY reproducible. I used her card from 2010 here (scroll down to the third picture). It used the set "A Wish for Peace" which is sadly now retired. I made a few versions, with the variance being the edge of the border.

Scallop Trim Border

Pinking Hearts Border

And lastly I used the flower from the Bouquet Blossom Triple Layer Punch

I also tried to "age" this one up a bit by sponging the edges in Tim Holtz "Tea Dye" Distress Ink. Seen slightly better here....

Thanks Kerry for providing the inspiration for this lovely Chrissy card. I will be back later (and hopefully soon) with other Christmas CASE'd cards.

Thanks for popping by.

Stuff Used:

CS: (SU) Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Always Artichoke

Ink: (SU) Always Artichoke, SWMs in Crumb Cake and Always Artichoke, Tim Holtz "Tea Dye" Distress Ink

Stamps: (SU) A Wish For Peace (ret)

Punches: (SU) Scallop Trim Border Punch, Pinking Hearts Border Punch, Bouquet Blossom Triple Layer Punch

Lynda xx

Christmas - Dasher #1

Hi all,

Is anyone else scratching their head and wondering where the time is evaporating??? Every year I get 'organised' earlier and the time vanishes quicker....AAARRRGGGHHHHH!!!!

....and breathe......

My Dasher stamp has come in for a bit of a work oer this Christmas. It started here!!! Over at Inkspirations4U for the Christmas session, we were thrown this colour challenge....

For some reason it jumped out at me. I was inspired by this card on SCS, but I wished to keep it very much more simple. This was my version.....

I made an edge for the circle with the Scallop Trim Border Punch and nipped and eased it onto the circle. The edge on the Decorative Label punch was done by punching another 2 labels from Razz and cutting then in half, one lengthwise, one vertically and placed them to the depth of border required.

I am very happy with the finished product. I hope all of you creative souls out there are "on top" of your Christmas mountains!! Stay sane and I hope to be back soon with some more Christmas fun.

Stuff Used:

CS: (SU) Sahara Sand, Rich Razzleberry, Very Vanilla

Ink: (SU) Always Artichoke, Sahara Sand

Stamps: (SU) Dasher, Contempo Christmas, Weathered BGS

Punches/Dies: SU Scallop Ribbon Border Punch, Decorative Label Punch, Nestabilities Classic Circle dies

Lynda xx