Simply a Christmas tree

The challenge for April on Christmas cards all year round was to use this photo as inspiration:

I printed out some of this pattern and then cut our the tree shape with a nestability, mounting on to gold mirror card and cutting round leaving an edge.

I've used the sketch for Papertake 67:

Papers are from my Christmas offcuts box - the far background was free with a magazine, the next paper is MME lost and found and I've also used a piece of gold foiled embossed card with holly etc. So this is another card for Pixie's crafty snippets 18.

It's also for:

Deep ocean 24: use punches/dies
Paper pretties 203: clean and simple
Phindy's Friday 103: clean & simple
Tuesday throwdown 95: use some sparkle (difficult to see, but as well as the foiled/mirror card the red stars are glittered
4 crafty chicks 87: no stamping zone
Amusing challenges (Stamped blessings): anything goes
Lollipop crafts 78: anything goes
Paper playtime 73: anything goes
Creative Mondays (always crafting) 7: anything goes
Simon says: anything goes
Make it Monday 87
Inspire me Fridays 56
52 card pickup 17

Suzie's 365 photos day 121: dessert

If I go out for a meal I have to admit that I can give in to the temptation of a delicious dessert, but when I'm at home I really don't bother, except yoghurt. However, this is more my kind of dessert:

Day 121: dessert

When Santa got stuck up the chimney

The theme for facebook's Sunday's with Santa today is 'humour' so I reached for one of my favourite Anita Santa stamps - just coloured the chimney with a copic. I found a freebie clipart scroll on the internet, played around with it digitally to include the words of the song.

This is also another card for my own CHNC challenge 70 - to include a sentiment without the word 'Christmas'.

The background paper is an offcut, so this is my first visit of the week into the playground at Pixie's crafty snippets 18 - I certainly needed my wellies on and I didn't want to get a wet bottom on the swings! The little shiny Ho Ho Hos have been in my Christmas stash for ages (haven't a clue where they came from originally).

I stuck to a black and white theme with just a bit of red for 2 sisters 89: colour challenge - black and white with only a hint of 1 other colour.

For some reason the white here looks a shade of pink - IRL it is definitely WHITE.

This is also for:

Desert island crafts 29: I chose - no flowers, red and black and favourite song
Clear it out: based on a song - paper, stamp and Ho Ho Ho are old and needed to be used
Dare to be sassy 122: Christmas card with a sentiment
Christmas stampin all year long 8: anything goes
Sparkles forum Christmas challenge 15: colour me happy - I love black and white with a touch of red
Sentimental Sundays 100: cards for kids
Twisted Tuesday 4: for the funny kiddos
Aud Sentiments: anything goes
Let's craft and create 43: sentiments - main focal point (hope the song counts as a sentiment)
Victorine 32: anything goes
Simon says: anything goes
Inspire me Fridays 56
52 card pickup 17

Suzie's 365 photos 120: lights

I can't quite believe that already we're up to day 120 on Suzie's 365 photos - it doesn't seem possible that every soon we'll be into the month of May.

Anyway, back to day 120 and this is my 'lights' photo:

Ooops, need to replace a bulb!

Commissioned wedding card

Why is it that sometimes it takes ages to make a card and it still doesn't seem right? I was asked to make a Wedding Day card - and I need to give it to the person tomorrow, so needed to get it done today. Anyway, whatever I thought of and tried just didn't seem to work.

So this is what I've settled for in the end. The background paper is Papermania - it has the look of being dusted with gold although that isn't obvious here. It was for that reason that I decided to stamp with versamark and heat emboss with detail gold, but on reflection I wonder whether it would have been better to have embossed with copper, but it's done now and I'm not starting all over again!

The inner piece of paper is from a K & Co La Boutique pad which I've had for ages. It actually had a border around it with a repeated wedding sentiment, but it included 'our wedding' which wasn't appropriate for someone else to give, so I cut it off. I stamped and embossed the image before I decided to print the sentiments directly to that piece of paper - I managed after trial and error on ordinary paper to get the sentiments in the right places, but in the process I got some printer ink smudged at the bottom - which is why I had to put the string of gems there and some more at the top to counterbalance.

The flowers are Martha Stewart - I very gently distressed the edges with fired brick DI to give a deeper pink and did the same around the outside of the card. Why is it that colours don't always look right on the photo (made worse I suppose by the poor light of a rainy day which resulted in using flash). The little punched hearts filled a space that looked odd without them.

I'm linking this for the following challenges:

Everybody art 190: wedding
Soartful: wedding/anniversary
Ruby's rainbow 27: brown & pink
Make all with love 27: celebration/party
Fashionable stamping 20: embossing
Kaboodle 116: emboss it
Crafts and me 81: embossing
Pixie dust studio 124: embossing
Deep ocean 24: use punches/dies
Truly scrumptious 79: distressing & die cuts/punches
Whimsy 36: distressing
The stamp man: show us your shabby chic or distressed style