Christmas Catch-Up, part 2

Well, what to do with this nice new Bigshot, all the papers, CDROMs, embossing folders, dies... Make cards, of course! Lots of cards! Just in time for Christmas!

A few samples of this year's Christmas cards:

CDROMs used were PollyAnna Pickering's Christmas Moments and Magical Christmas Moments from Creative Crafting World. They have other lovely CDROMs and DVDs too - check them out! Especially their series Paws For Thoughts are favorites of mine. Only wish there was a larger selection of breeds available.

Embossingfolders and dies from Joanna Sheen - don't miss out on the ivy dies, especially the mirrored pairs - gorgeous and so fitting for all occasions - and of course the usual selection of satin ribbons, liquid pearls (gold) and poinsettia Christmas flowers. I used a few metal charms as well, lovely but took some glue to make them stay in place.

 The birds on the following two cards are from a coloured art pad by Lily Of The Valley.

Great value for money!!
Such adorable pictures and often available at special prices. They had some great offers before Christmas so I treated myself to lots and lots of art pads....

Thought I'd try making a white card too, embossing folder and poinsettia die. Not too bad.

Christmas Catch-Up, part 1

Having thought about it for a year or so I finally treated myself to a Sizzix Bigshot a few months ago!

We've had a lot of fun since, even though it makes this hobby even more expensive as there are plenty of Must-Have dies and embossing folders.. 

I've also bought a lot of CDRoms, most of them from Joanna Sheen. The combination made for rather quick Christmas cards (apart from the usual paper-matching-selecting agony), quick but still rather nice if you ask me...

Twisted easel cards, my favorite variety and oh so easy to make - instead of scoring straight at 3" to make a regular easel card, score vertically.

Here's a good tutorial on twisted easel cards from youtube..

Thought I'd share two examples of Christmas cards using Joanna Sheen's House Mouse Christmas CDROM, two of the sweetest pictures with several decoupage layers, decorated with liquid pearls, satin ribbons and poinsettia christmas flowers.

Here is a list of all Joannas CDROMs - they're too lovely to only link to House Mouse.

By now I think I've bought them all. Oooops..

"All you need is LOVE ..and some chocolate..."

I received quite a lot of scrapbooking material for Christmas and among the papers some with a chocolate theme. Very handy for chocolate fanatics (and who isn't...).

Not much of a LO, but .. regular light beige cardstock with two different chocolate papers (one of them cut with a new die, Lifestyle Crafts Cutting Dies Nesting Eyelet Squares) a doily, a blue ribbon, a tag and some golden decorations made with my pearl maker. The topper chocolate paper has some nice glitter effects hard to make justice in photos.

Getting back into blogging..

Well, well, how time flies! Not that I've laid of scrapbooking (much) but this poor blog has been severely neglected. Time to remedy that.
First of all, how about a look at this gorgeous flower arrangement by my dear friend Marlina:

Looks a bit bridal, you say? And oh so rightly ... Yes we're married! We were married in late October 2013 and a wonderful day it was. An outdoor wedding close to the rapids in the national park at Gysinge, with the sweetest priest and his wife the cantor (very handy, that).
The weather in Sweden isn't exactly cooperative that time of year, but it made an exception for us..

Of course we received some beautiful cards and there were plenty of photos taken. Some day they will make it into a very hefty album.

Merrily crafting away

..still no snow, but plenty of fun challenges out there so here's another Christmas card. This time my favorite angel from Whiff of Joy (isn't she adorable?!), in blue,pink & yellow promarkers, white silk ribbons and some pretty flowers. Based on the sketch from the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #129 (MMSC129) where this is entered.

It's often a help to have a sketch when you're not very good at deciding what to craft. Perhaps the options are a tad too many... have done a bit of shopping lately, both from Joanna Sheen and from House Mouse (eek! incidentally one of the sponsors for the MMSC). SO many lovely things, so little time..
Now a blueberry pie is calling me so off to colour myself in other shades of blue.. and cream.

Let it snow with Whiff Of Joy ......

.. after weeks of very foggy and bone-chillingly humid weather we're actually looking forward to the first snow, to Advent and the coming Christmas (decorations just waiting to be put up everywhere).
While waiting, what better to do than a bit of card making.
This is one of the cute girls from Whiff of Joy, coloured with promarkers as usual (a variety of the blues, yellows and warm greys) with paper "snow much fun" (I didn't name it, honestly), a cute floral decoration, some ribbon and plenty of green stickles & golden pearl maker.

Entering this in the Whiff of Joy Challenge #117 "Let it snow.

Happy Father's Day!

On Sunday November 13th it's Father's Day in Sweden. Happy Father's Day, everyone!
 Best way to celebrate? Why, to send a card of course! Everyone likes to get a card... or they had better like it anyway...
No stamping this time, just two envelope-and-card-in-one cards with gingham background and tools-n-stuff decorations from a neat "male-type" old cardstock (name forgotten) and some colour-coordinated stickles. Oh, and tried out my latest Punch Bunch punch, 'apple'.

Now I'll get back to the Christmas cards. They're slightly on hold while waiting for the latest bargains from Joanna Sheen (bestest shopping place on the web for craft goods, outside the US!) - ultra fine white Flowersoft and a fluffly snow pen ... but soon it's time to Go Wild in White.

Christmas time is HouseMouse time

'Tis the season .. to start making Christmas cards. At least if you're kinda indecisive when it comes to choosing and (the horror!) cutting paper. So, time to get going. And what card making session would be complete without the adorable House Mice (commonly known as Meeces)? Plus it's an excellent opportunity to try out a brand new stamp from House-Mouse.com.
This is a stepper card using Kraft paper, green cardstock, some cute text scraps from Bella BLVD "December details" mainly in green, green stickles and the cutest mistletoe House Mice coloured with promarkers (of course, I love my promarkers) - blush, sandstone, cocoa, brown grey 1-3 with a little poppy red and apple+meadow green for the mistletoe. Now to find someone to send a mistletoe date to ...

Entering this in the Passion for Promarkers challenge #125 , Papertake Weekly's First Christmas and in Craft your passion's Anything Goes+Brown just for the fun of it.