Christmas Joy

Hello folks - hope you're all OK out there and keeping safe, warm and dry in this weather. 

I know that it's only been 2½ weeks since Christmas, but another one of my New Year goals is to try and make a Christmas card every couple of weeks. As with most things here at Casa Mia there is a story behind this. For the last couple of years, my youngest has helped me run a "Teddy Tombola" at our Church Summer Fete. Last year, we held a Christmas Fayre for the first time and the organiser phoned me and said "Right then Helen, what are you going to do?". I tentatively mentioned that I make cards at which point she nearly snapped my hand off down the phone and that was that ... I was running a hand-made card stall. I nervously went with a very small number of cards that were mostly made from CD-Roms as I didn't want to invest heavily in my time if my cards didn't sell. Well, I needn't have worried ... after a slightly shaky start, I had sold all the cards I took within the first hour! 

So, I'm thinking ahead here as I guess I'll be asked to do this again and it would be good to have slightly more stock to sell. Here is my first offering:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base -  is made using Kraft Cardstock to make a 10.5 cm square card.  My TIP for Top Tip Tuesday is that using this size of card base means that it will fit opened and flat in a regular DL sized envelope. This avoids extra thickness in the envelope and (depending on how heavily you embellish your card) a chance that you will avoid punitive postal costs.
• Image - is a sadly now retired stamp from the Humphrey's Corner Collection called "At
  
  Christmas". I think I got this stamp as part of a bundle during Crafter's Companion Birthday week a couple of years ago and, shame on me, this is the first time it's been inked up! I stamped Humphrey and his friends directly onto the Kraft cardstock using Black Memento Ink before bringing them to life with my Spectrum Noir Pencils (enjoying their third outing!) in the following shades:
• Humphrey's Hide - 001, 112, 117
• Duffle Coat - 024, 027, 033
• Scarf & Mittens - 058, 047, 084, 107
• Clothes - 096, 104, 117, 119
• Reindeer Sledge - 024, 027, 033, 088, 085, 008, 095, 104, 058, 047, 084, 107, 012, 014
• Snow - 001, White Gel Pen
• Sentiment - is from another stamp that I got as part of the Humphrey's Corner Collection bundle; this one is called "Christmas Joy" and I also stamped this directly onto the cardstock with Black Memento Ink. 
• Faux Stitching - Black Gel Pen

This is the first time I've used the pencil blending solution with my pencils and I'm pretty sure that I have never made a card by stamping/printing and then colouring directly onto the cardstock from which my card is made. A lot of firsts ... :o)


I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

• Keep it Simple at Top Tip Tuesday - second entry
• A is for Anything Goes (with the optional extra of Antlers) at ABC Christmas
• Challenge #130 - Something Old, Something New at Crafty Cardmakers - Old is my Kraft cardstock which I've had since June 2014 and New is a new technique to me of stamping and colouring directly on kraft cardstock.
• January Challenge - Anything Goes at Spectrum Noir Facebook Page

I may be back to share another card a little later as I'm hoping to have a crafty afternoon. In the meantime, hope you have a great day!

Hugs, Helen x

Wake Up and Smell the Coffee!

Good afternoon everyone and "Happy Hump Day"! We're over Wednesday lunchtime, which means it's downhill to the weekend ...... wheeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

I know I don't usually do mid-week posts (unless I'm GDTing) but I'd been toying with this card in my mind. And then yesterday, a whole host of challenges popped up in my blog reader and crystallised my thoughts. So this morning I went for a run (OK, if you'd seen me it was more of a waddle ... and then I bumped into 2 students from school, waiting to be picked up to go to their college course; I was looking puce and sweating buckets! Heaven only knows how many sniggers and giggles I'll face tomorrow!) and then went to my yoga class. Came back at lunchtime, knuckled down ... and here's the result of this afternoon's labours:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - pre-made Kraft Card Blank in A6 size
• Design Papers - are from a kit called Comforts of Home by Summer at Summertime Designs.  (I think that's quite appropriate given the image and sentiment don't you!) The bottom layer is called Large Dots Paper and the top layer is called Red Chevron Paper. 
• Image - this lovely image was a digi freebie on The Alley Way Stamps Blog in November 2012
  
  (unfortunately it is no longer available) and I believe it was drawn by Alison Spelman - can't you just smell the coffee? I looks like it probably is now part of a stamp set called Breakfast Club. I die cut around the digi using an oval die before paper piecing it - my TOP TIP here is to make sure your scissors don't have any sticky residue on them which could wreck your fiddly cutting, give them a clean ... I find that a bit of cotton wool soaked in nail polish remover does the trick (and it doesn't involve rummaging in "himself's" shed for the white spirit either!!!!!) The bottom layer and handle are from Small Dots Paper (Comforts of Home kit), the band reminded me of a wrapper you get with a take-away coffee so I paper pieced this from a sheet of Kraft Card and then the heart shape was printed on Red Dots Paper (Comforts of Home kit) - once the heart was stuck on the other layers, I gave it a slick of Glossy Accents to highlight it. I finished the oval off by hand drawing some faux stitching in my metallic Bronze Gel Pen.
• Sentiment -  is by one of my favourite "sentimentalists" and that is Paulette from Create with TLC. This was a recent freebie on her blog ... thank you Paulette. I have put the sentiment into a speech bubble from the Speech Bubbles set, a freebie from Squigglefly. Again, this came under the spell of my trust metallic Bronze pen, and came out the other side with some faux stitching on!
• Ribbon Slider - is made from a length of satin ribbon in sage green and a faux button. This was made from 4 circles punched from Kraft card using my 1.5 cm circle punch which were stuck together, had 2 holes punched through and then slicked with glossy accents which was allowed to dry before threading my ribbon through.

So there you have it - and I'm quite pleased with this afternoon's work! Now I've just got to put the shopping away and cook tea, oh and hide the evidence of this afternoon's crafting session and pretend I've been doing housework :o) !!!!!!!!!

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

• Be Inspired #41 at The Alley Way Stamps
• Challenge #114 - Borrowed Sketch at Top Tip Tuesday - my TOP TIP is above 
• Challenge #73 - Seeing Dots at Little Miss Muffet Challenges
• Get Krafty - Use Kraft Cardstock at Ladybug Crafts Ink
• SFC4513 - Polka Dots at Squigglefly
• Challenge #188 - Add Some Doodling at Craft Your Passion
• #104 - Paper Piecing at Crafty Cardmakers
• Stitching - real or faux at Just Inspirational Challenges
• Challenge #65 - Stitching - real/faux at Crafting for All Seasons

Whatever you're doing this afternoon/evening, have fun!

Hugs, Helen x