Christmas Card Club # 25 - Silver Bells

Good morning to all my friends and regular visitors, as well as anybody who is just dropping by.  If you leave a comment I will return the compliment and visit you in return.  I also see that I have some new followers and you are very welcome.

Well this is the penultimate card for our little Christmas Card Club.  The Big Day is creeping (rushing!!!) towards us so we will have a week or two break after the next post beginning all over again in 2015.  This card is not actually due until Sunday but since I have a DT card due then, and another on Monday, I decided to post earlier.  I don't post often enough to put more than one up on the same day!

Today it is the lovely Asha's turn to choose and her theme is Silver Bells.

My Card

Recipe

7" x 5" card base

Digi image - found on the internet

Silver mirri from stash

Purple Cracked Ice pearlescent card stock - Pennies Worth

Lavender paper - scrap of LOTV Snow Princess

Labels 4 and Elegant Labels 4 - Spellbinders

Pearls - Hobby House

Promarkers

Sentiment - Computer generated.

Unfortunately my card is a very last minute make!  Not that I forgot - I actually had my card made quite early in the week and was just checking on the CCC blog  - and shock! horror! I had made my  card using the wrong theme!! At first I thought I must have looked at the challenge rota for 2015 so I double checked and the challenge theme I thought was there doesn't even exist!!  I think I must be going mad!

Anyway I then had to put my thinking cap on because I don't have any stamps or toppers with bells.  I trawled the internet late yesterday  and found this digi image. I'm sorry Asha, my layout etc is not very imaginative but it was the best I could do at such short notice!  It has an old fashioned, traditional look to it I think. Different to the usual for me. Had to use flash because the day is so dull but as usual the flash is bouncing off the mirror card. Sorry about that.

Hope you have something nice planned for the weekend.

Young At Heart

Good morning to you all. This card is for my brother. I don't think these images need to be kept for children but can be used for the young at heart too, and he is certainly that!

My Card

click on image  to enlarge picture

My base card is 6" x 6" and matted with a dark red paper from my bits box, as is the stripy paper.  The image is from LOTV Art Pad Vintage Boys.  The sentiment circle and the mini candi are from Craftwork Cards.  The Papermania Chronology Cogs dies were at the top of the box, since I used them on my last card, so I popped a few onto this card too.  The sentiment circle and the cogs and sprockets are all silver, although the top ones look more like gold.  I have some tiny peel off letters and numbers so after I had taken the picture I used them to put his number plate on the front of the car.

Entered into :

http://4kraftygirlzchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/challenge-13.html

http://audsentimentschallengeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/challenge-102-anything-goes.html

http://craftyourpassionchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/challenge-204-young-at-heart.html

Happy Birthday

Good morning friends and fellow bloggers.  I have scheduled this post because I am off to the NEC today and didn't want the hassle before I left.

My Card

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This is a very simple card for Sébastien, my nephew's little boy. It is 7 x 5 inches made from white card stock. The backing papers are digi papers from Cuddly Buddly Portfolio Papers in brown. They come in other colours too. The image is from LOTV Art Pads Set 1 Vintage Boys. The sentiment label and the card candi in the corners is from Craftwork Cards.

Just a quick post today. If anybody is off to the NEC this week then I hope you have fun - and spend lots! I shall be meeting up with Mrs Duck and our Scottish friends. Should be fun!

Another Candle

Good morning friends. Well we are having a pretty mixed bag of weather but it sounds as if early tomorrow morning is going to be the big storm.  We were hit pretty badly back in 1987 so I'm really hoping it will not be so bad.  John was actually working away and I was here on my own which was pretty terrifying. Let's hope and pray that it turns out to be not as bad as predicted and that no lives are lost. I think I had better go out and pick the rest of my Bramleys from the tree before they are blown off and damaged.That will keep me occupied wrapping them for storage over the next couple of months.

My Project

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I thought I would try another candle - just to make sure last time wasn't a fluke! But it was still just as easy. This time I stamped LOTV Angelic Lute onto  tissue paper and again coloured with Promarkers. Once the image was on the candle I used gold stickles on her wings and the stars. I cut two borders with SB Parisian Accents in red card stock and attached top and bottom which seemed to finish it off nicely.  Don't worry, I won't be inundating you with candles, but I did want to be sure it was as easy as I remembered.

Edit: This stamp is actually LOTV Angelic Candle! It was a toss up between which stamp to use which is how I made the error in the name. Sorry about that.

Now all I have to do is find my stamp and die again!! I  have obviously put them down somewhere but for the life of me I don't know where. I guess I laid them down in an unlikely place and I'll come across them eventually.

Hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Christmas Candle

Good afternoon.  Hope this finds everybody well and keeping dry.  We have been having very heavy rain and last night a bad storm.  I was sitting at the kitchen table when there was such a noise I thought the window blinds or the window frame was about to land on me.  I actually jumped a few inches! The noise of the rain was bad enough but the thunder seemed to be bouncing off the roof!

My Project

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I have wanted to do one of these candles for ages but I thought it would be quite difficult so I kept putting it off.  I came across this small pillar candle at the back of the candle drawer in the kitchen (my emergency supplies in case of power cut) so thought it would be a good one to attempt this technique.  My goodness, this is so easy it's untrue!  I can't believe just how quick and easy! I just popped it onto a little silver candle dish and draped a string of silver pearls round in order to take the picture. They are not fastened on in any way which is why they look messy, but obviously I will decorate it too.  I will certainly doing more of these. I think they will make lovely little gifts.  The image I used is "Little Ivy" from LOTV  and I just coloured it with Promarkers. She is so pretty.

Well that's it for today. I think I'd better start thinking about lunch!

Tea For Two

Hi everybody.  Hope this finds you all well. Thanks for paying me a visit. I really look forward to reading all the comments that are left. Today is my elder sister's birthday and also her wedding anniversary - Happy birthday Judith and happy anniversary.
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Today's card is one I made for my sister Jeanie, which I left with a little gift for her. We certainly did some - lots!! - of sipping tea and gossiping!  We also allowed  ourselves a few treats (well, it was a holiday!) but despite that I came home having lost 1½ lbs! She has a little miniature Yorkshire terrier, Molly, who loves her walks. Despite being very small she sets a fabulous pace. It certainly isn't a stroll I can tell you. Twice a day dog walking  was just the thing to work off those extra pounds I would otherwise have stored up! Roll on next time!

My Card

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This is a 5 x 7 inch tent fold card. The blue striped backing paper is a digi paper which I have had for many years. I bought it from LOTV when they were doing digi papers, but they didn't do it for very long. The image is a topper, also from LOTV . This is another one I have had for what seems like forever, but it seemed to be very appropriate. The roses are WOC and the teapot charm is from the Ribbon Girl. Then I just added some ribbon and pearls. Nice and easy card.

Just before I left to go to my sister's I received an email which put a virus onto my computer. Poor John spent most of the week trying to sort it out. It seemed to attach itself itself to my photo editing software programme Microsoft Picture It and the firewall, or anti-virus stuff, or whatever it is, (you can just tell how technical I am can't you?)  isolated it and quarantined it and it was impossible to reinstall. While I was away John downloaded a free version of Gimp but I really liked my Picture It software, so my lovely man bought me a new version of the software, much more up to date, ( Version 7 whereas mine was so old it was Version 2!) and installed it for me. Obviously it is a bit different which is why yesterday's picture did not enlarge properly. I think I have sussed that part out now so it should work properly now! I have my fingers crossed as I type this - not a very easy thing to do let me tell you! ROFL! I'll also have to check out Gimp when I get chance.

Well that's it from me for today.  Take care and enjoy your day.

Love and hugs from Christine xx

Blue Is The Colour........

......... and it certainly is blue! Perhaps a little too blue, methinks.  The other thing I have just realised is that this is my third blue card in a row! I must be in a blue phase and not know it! Actually, with this lovely weather we have been having I am feeling far from blue!

My Card

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Side View

I started out with a piece of blue pearlescent card stock 11 x 5½ inches and cut it into a centre step card. I die cut the second largest die from SB Decorative Lables 8 in a darker blue pearlescent blue card. Then came the second size in Floral Ovals. I cut two of SB Scalloped Circles in the same size in both shades of the blue and off set them slightly, having first stamped the pale blue  one with an LOTV sentiment circle  in ultramarine ink.  I used Memory Box Tessatina Border down both sides. The flowers are WOC and the leaf sprigs are Cheery Lynne Wreath Strip. ( Not sure why it is called a strip because the leaves are individual.). I used a white rose and die cut the leaves in white too to off set some of the blueness. I then just finished it with some blue pearls from my stash and the lovely blue satin ribbon is from the candy I won from Patricia a long time ago.

Well my"roofing expert" - aka John - has finished his job and the scaffolding has been dismantled. I now don't have to worry if it rains. However, he discovered that wasps were nesting in the wall next to the window so he had to sort that out too. There's always something isn't there?  I have only ever been stung once but it wasn't a pleasant experience. John had to be very careful because he reacts very badly to wasp stings and last summer he disturbed a wasps nest in our little wood when he was sawing  branches off some of the trees. He was stung about 11 times and was quite poorly. It could have been much worse though because he was using a chain saw at the time! I had the antihistamine pills at the ready this time - just in case!! (You'll notice I didn't offer to do it myself!)

Well, I hope you all have a great day!

Love and hugs from Christine xx

Daisy Chain

Hi Everybody! What happened to spring? The last few days here have been awful. There have been some sunny intervals but on the whole very chilly, blustery and overcast. There is no way I have been able to cycle because the it has been just far too windy.

My Card

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Well this takes me back! Do you remember the little daisy chain crowns we used make? Ah, those were the days. We used to have  four distinct seasons then - now we can have all four of those seasons in one 24 hour period!

The image is an LOTV topper and the backing papers are Ditsy Rose Papers  from Digi Stamp Boutique. The flower is Fabulous Phlox from Memory Box  and the corners are Cheery Lynne Decor Lace Corners. A few pearls and dots of stickles and it was done. I have admired the Fabulous Phlox for so long so in the end I just had to have it! Well you cannot fight it forever can you?

Here we are in yet another weekend. Either there are less hours in the day, or fewer days in the week because it cannot possibly be Saturday again already! Anyway, I hope everybody has a great weekend!

Love and hugs from Christine xx

With Much Love

Good afternoon my friends and fellow bloggers, and it's another cold and wet one too. When I got up the sun was shining and I was getting quite hopeful - but it wasn't to be!

My Card

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This is an A5 size card. I used SB M-Bossabilities Dainty Dots for the background. The Cheery Lynn French Pastry doily and the SB Damask long motifs (or accents, whichever!) were cut from very pale aqua pearlescent cardstock. The Lili of the Valley sentiment was stamped and diecut with the largest SB Damask motif. Pale aqua ribbon, aqua pearls and a Wild Orchid Crafts rose finished it off. I think it might have been better to have raised the centre motif with foam pads because it is disappearing into the background. I might try and fix it if I can remove it without damage.

Well, I hope you are enjoying your weekend, especially you ladies who work!

Love and hugs from Christine xx

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Good morning everybody. Well this is the very last Christmas card I will be showing. I was asked yesterday to make a card for a little girl.

Click on image to enlarge picture.

It was needed quickly and was to go in the post so for speed I used an LOTV die cut topper, Millie Winter Window, and kept it quite flat. The little girl loves cats and purple (sounds like my great niece!) so this die cut fitted the bill perfectly. I'm sure I've probably got some purple Christmas backing papers but I couldn't actually lay my hands on them - so very plain I'm afraid. I diecut it with Labels 16. The Snowflake Corner is Memory Box, the snowflake is Spellbinders Create-A-Flake 4 & the sentiment is Little Claire Designs Christmas Sentiments matted  onto a Spellbinders Lacey Circle. I just added a few lilac gems.

I've no doubt I will be doing something else Christmas-y, but that's it for the cards. Thank goodness!

I hope you all have a good day. Love and hugs from Christine.

A Time For Giving

Hi, another Christmas card today. This time I have used an LOTV die cut topper.

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This is a terrible picture but I can't seem to do any better with it I'm afraid.

Background papers are HOTP , the sentiment is Little Claire Designs Christmas Sentiments, Spellbinders Lacy Circles and Lacy Squares and Wild Orchid Crafts poinsettias.  I used Glamour Dust on the bunny's outfit and Diamond Dust on the roof  of the bird table. It looks better in real life, but seems a bit dull to me. Ah well, you can't win them all. After I took the picture I realised I had intended to colour the ribbons on the sentiment circle which I have now done and they are red, which lifts that corner a bit.

Well, have a good day - and keep warm!!!

Love from Christine xx

Christmas Accordion Book

Hi everyone, sorry I've been away for a couple of days. We've been quite busy and I was working on a project which took a little time to sort out  in my head. I saw a similar project being made at the NEC and managed to get the measurements so I was able to create my own. Today's post is very picture-heavy but it's the only way I can do the book/card justice.

Click on image to enlarge pictures.

 Just to show how the accordian resembles the pages of a book

 Showing the spine of the book

 The open book

 Close up of the LOTV image

I computer generated the book title for the front page and diecut it using  Marvellous Squares. I added WOC flowers and Marianne flourishes, with some pearls. I again computer generated the book title for the spine. The small flowers are actually snowflakes from Create a Flake 4 and I added a pearl in the centres. ( I have now adjusted the top pearl - didn't realise it had slipped till I saw the pic!)

Inside - at the left side I made a pocket , decorated the edge with Venetian Accents and used a  Marianne Creatables die as a tag so that  my friend can write her own message inside for her first grand daughter. At the right side I used LOTV Angels With Crib stamp,  coloured with promarkers and added lots of glitter - which doesn't show in the picture. I again used Venetian Accents to make a frame . The book is fastened with pink organza ribbon. It was so dark all day that not only did I need to use flash,  I also needed the overhead lights on. I ended up taking the photographs in the kitchen because it was the least shadowy there.

 I have yet to make the box, but I'll save that for another day in case you've all fallen asleep! Sorry this has been such  a long post!!!

Well I hope today is better than yesterday. It poured with rain all night and all day and the road was quite badly flooded yesterday when John drove to the next village to see his GP.

Have a good day everyone! Love and hugs from Christine xx

Joy To The World

Good morning blog friends. Todays card is another LOTV image called the Little Trumpet.  Sorry for so many Christmas cards but I really have so many to do that I'm trying to forge ahead.

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This is a simple little image and easily coloured.  I'm not sure what happened to the lighting on the picture but the skin tone in real life does not look as dark as it does in the picture. I used Spellbinders standard circles to cut the image and petite scalloped circles to diecut the matt from lilac Bazill Basics. The backing papers are once again Papermania Contemporary Christmas. I really like these, and best of all I am using up a lot of my old stash which has got to be good.  The lilac and greys tone so well that I coloured the angel's robe with cool greys and lavender.  The corners are from the Marvellous Squares set. I computer generated the sentiment and a  few purple Papermania Shimmer dots finished  it off.

Well I hope you have a good day today.

Love from Christine xx

Festive Robins

Good morning friends. Today's card is an LOTV die cut.

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The grey backing papers were pieces from my bits box and I'm sure they are Papermania's Contemporary Christmas. Everything was matted onto red cardstock. The sentiment is from Little Claires Christmas Sentiments and matted onto a red Spellbinders Lacy Circle. Some poinsettias and a few gems finished off a quick and easy card. It was late by the time I got round to taking a picture so it's rather shadowy I'm afraid.  If I get chance I will take another picture and then edit it .

Here is the template for the exploding cracker from yesterday's post.

My writing is atrocious so I hope you can read the measurements. I think if you click on the image and then  open the link in a new tab you can  save the picture and then print it off. If that doesn't work then I can always email it to you. The two base squares are for added strength if you need it. I've sometimes used the layering templates but not often.This was in the days before all these lovely Spellbinders were available. If anybody knows of an easy way of adding something like this I would be grateful for the advice.

Well that's me for today. Hope you all have a good day.

With love from Christine xx



Love Came Down

Good morning fellow bloggers. For today's card I have used the Three Little Angels stamp from LOTV.

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 I cur the cardstock to 5 x 7. After stamping the image I diecut it with Spellbinders Marvellous Squares. I coloured it with Promarkers and then added some stickles to the dresses. I computer generated the sentiment and diecut it with the smallest of the Resplendant Rectangles dies. The poinsettias are Marianne Creatables. I need to do something about the glitter. It looks better in real life but could be better. The backing papers are from my stash from years ago (I am determined that I will use my old stuff as much as possible) and the ribbon and gems are from my stash.

Well that's another one down, only about eighty to go!!

Have a great day everybody.  Love and hugs from Christine x

My Stocking's Already Full!

Hi  everybody, another Christmas card today.  Help!! I am starting to panic!! 

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Another of these really cute LOTV images which I just love! Diecut with Spellbinders standard circles and scalloped circles, coloured with promarkers, glitter to the stocking tops and hat bobbles and dotted with liquid pearls for snow. I used a glitter glue pen on the actual stocking but it looks more effective in real life than in the picture. Once again I removed the yellow centres from the poinsettias and replaced them with a glittered sun punch out. The sentiment stamp was a magazine freebie and the background papers are Papermania Home For Christmas.  Red pearls are from Hobbycrafts. Quite a simple, clean-looking card really.

Well as you can see I am back into my crafting again. Let's hope nothing crops up over the next few days and I can get some Christmas cards made.

Have a good day everybody.

Love from Christine x

The Happy Couple

As I said, I have been so busy and not much time to craft  - sob! sob!  I made this card a couple of months ago but haven't shown it so I thought this was a good opportunity.

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It is actually a stepper card but unfortunately I had to scan it rather than photograph it so you cannot see the step effect. I used white card stock to cut the stepper base using my hougie board, and matted it with pink pearlescent paper. The pink backing papers are from a  wedding scrapbook pad, which I think might be Hot Off The Press. There are some very pretty green papers in it which I will be using at some stage because they don't look like wedding papers. The image is an LOTV topper with some glitter added to the flowers and the brides gown, although not visible, Spellbinders lacy circle and two layers of pink pearlescent card using Martha Stewart  double loop punch. The flowers, pearls and ribbon are from my stash.

My new printer came yesterday so it is all set up and ready to go. Here's hoping that it serves me as well as my last one which I had for eleven years with no problems at all. Mind you, nothing is made to last these days so it's doubtful!

Well have a good day everyone.  Christine xx

All The presents

Good morning fellow bloggers. Well, I can't believe it but today we have no fog!!! First time for about a  week. It was very cold but I have been wanting to clean my windows so I now feel very virtuous - and flipping cold too!

Christmas is creeping ever nearer so I'm afraid you might be seeing quite a few Christmas cards finding their way onto my blog. Every year I say I'm going to cut   back - but I never do! Still, I enjoy making them and sending them, so that's the main thing.



Click on image to enlarge picture

Today's card uses an LOTV diecut topper with just a little glitter added to the puppy's Santa hat. The backing papers and labels are from Hot Off The Press "Forever Christmas" which was a free pad  in a magazine. Then I just added some gems to lighten it a bit because the papers are a bit dark.

Well I hope you all have a good day. We will be having a busy day! By the time most of you read this we will be driving up to Lancashire to collect something for John, so we thought we might pop into a National Trust property on the way home and make the trip worthwhile for me too.

Love from Christine xx

Thank you for visiting my blog and leaving your comments. I read them all and appreciate

each and every one of them!

Christmas Baubles

Good morning friends, I hope you are all well. Yesterday was such a dreadful day, the fog just didn't lift at all. Makes you feel so miserable doesn't it? Anyway fortunately I didn't have to go out and there was plenty of wood to keep the woodburner working all day long. The guy from Autoglass came to repair my windscreen because there was a chip in it. It was extremely small but I'm sure that would have changed once the really freezing weather started. The good news was they were giving  free set of wiper blades with each windscreen repair  and this was the last day of the promotion.

Anyway, enough of the waffle, let's get onto my card.

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Had to use flash I'm afraid because it was just so dark the entire day.

I have made another Christmas card using LOTV diecuts so it was quick and simple. The papers are another very old set. They are the same Papermania range as yesterday but this time from the Traditional, rather than the Contemporary, set. I used the Memory Box Frosty Border and  Marianne Creatables Swedish Snowflakes.

Well let's hope the weather improves today and I hope you all have a good day.

Love from Christine xx

I am entering this card in http://abcchristmaschallenge.blogspot.ca/2012/10/u-for-up-to-you.html

Peace On Earth

Good morning dear blog friends, we had a very foggy start to the day yesterday and it didn't clear until about lunchtime so let's hope it's better today!

Today my card uses Peace On Earth from Lily Of The Valley, such a sweet little image.

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The papers are Contemporary Christmas from Papermania which I have had in my stash for many years. I'm trying to keep  my promise to myself to use up as much of my old stock as I can rather than just buying new because I like it.  I'm trying to be good. LOL! There are some  really pretty papers in this pack so I will definitely be using them again. I used the flourishes from Jewel Flowers and Flourishes simply because they were still on my desk from yesterday. The poinsettias were some I won from Hazel Conboy but  I didn't like the yellow centres, so I removed them and replaced them with  some little suns I punched  out of the backing paper and used some pink glitter on them. I dusted the angel's wings and halo with white glitter and added some Papermania Shimmer Dots.

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend and managing to craft.

Love from Christine xx

I am entering this in http://abcchristmaschallenge.blogspot.ca/2012/10/u-for-up-to-you.html

Thank you for visiting  my blog and for the comments you leave. I really do appreciate each and every one   of them.