The Christmas Kickstart Challenge #27 - Penguin Parade

It's mid-month reminder time over at The Christmas Kickstart for Challenge #27 - Penguin Parade.

I broke out this adorable set from Mama Elephant (Cool Penguins) to create this cute, CAS card. The patterned layer is a beautiful background stamp from Simon Says Stamp called Kaleidoscope Leaves Background.  

The challenge runs until Monday 3rd February. You can join the fun by heading here.

I'm also linking this card to the challenge over at Creative With Stamps. My former teamies have a challenge on called Scarf, so I think this card fits the bill quite nicely!

I'm also linking to a new Christmas Challenge which I've spotted, run by Jacqueline and Mynn.

Good luck with your new venture, ladies, and thanks for a fun Anything Goes Challenge.

Have a happy, crafty Sunday, peeps.

Gangnam Style!

The school at which I work is still closed due to the weather, so I'm forced to stay in the warm and make Christmas cards! Such a hard life!

Having said that, this is a card which has hopefully reached it's intended recipient by now; weather permitting that is!

I spotted this fabulous Katzelkraft stamp on their website a few weeks ago and knew it was a 'must-have'. I kept everything pretty simple and used some pretty leftover pieces of DP to frame the image.

I'm delighted to be playing along with my Creative with Stamps buddies again as their current challenge is Reindeer!

Happy crafting everyone!

Creative With Stamps Challenge #19 - Shoes

I think I should actually title this post something like: 'In praise of MISTIs, Monika and Shoes', as these things all figure in today's blog entry!

I'm proud to be a former member of the Creative With Stamps team. Monika invited me to join a while back when the blog started, and I just knew I wanted to get involved. If you ever get the call from Lilian and Monika just say 'yes' without having to think about it - these guys seriously rock!

The current challenge is shoes, and so I decided to break-out my MISTI and attempt a card I'd had in my head for a while. I used a circular die as a template and then placed the shoes around it at equal intervals. I then removed the die and placed the sentiment in the centre of the circle of shoes. So, so easy!

Sadly, my card hasn't photographed very well, but it does look very pretty IRL, as the shoes are embossed to give some subtle dimension and added interest. I swiped a Distress Ink pad around the edges of the topper and let it drift a little onto the image. Again, this looks a wee bit odd on the picture, but is very nice in the flesh!

Edited to add:
OK, so I revisited this card today (Saturday) and knew immediately what was required to give some necessary ooomph!

I added some pink dots with a much loved Hero Arts stamp. The new photographs still aren't great, but I hope you'll agree that all the masking of the individual pairs of shoes was worth it to achieve a much more visually pleasing card.