Sending Wishes For A Merry Christmas....

Hello there!

I thought I'd join in the Allsorts challenge this week of "Christmas".

I do make 5 Christmas cards a month throughout the year so I am always more or less ready for Christmas when it arrives!  This card I have chosen to give to my Mum this year.

I have used an assortment of stamps from Stamps By Chloe for this one with just the fir trees on that back mat being from Clarity.

Using a mixture of vellum and heat resistant acetate I produced the flowers and foliage with some Wow embossing powder and finished it off with some Salted Caramel glitter.

This is a real sparkler but that's so hard to catch on camera!

I felt that this was very classy (my kind of Christmas card) and being all on the black card stock it sparkles beautifully! - perfect for my Mum.

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xxxx

I would like to enter this in to this weeks challenge at Allsorts:-

http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.com/2018/10/week-489-christmas.html

All is Calm, All is Bright - Merry Christmas my friends!

Good morning!

From my family here at home to you, my crafting family all over the world.

May I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a safe, healthy and happy new year!

My very best wishes for all of your crafting journeys in 2018.

Leanne xxxxx

Five Christmas Cards For June!

Good morning!!!!

Well, we are half way through the year and yes, the "C" word is getting closer!!!!

As promised, here is my offering of five Christmas cards for June as part of my New Years Resolution.

Here they all are so that you can take a closer look.

Again, all similar but all slightly different.  I enjoyed messing around with this adorable stamp by Impression Obsession.

The horses have been stamped using distress oxide inks - I must admit to completely experimenting here.  Some of them I left them at that, others I have spritzed and let the oxides move a bit - loved all the results so kept the lot!!!

The backgrounds are distress ink mixed with a little bit of glycerine to make a nice blend of the ink.

Peace on Earth is a stamp from Clarity Stamp - it's one of their word chains.

Mat and layered on mirri and white card.

I must admit, I particularly like the two that have been sprayed with water, I think they look beautiful and ghostly.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed your visit today, soon be Christmas!!!!!!

Month 6 - mission complete.

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne x

Five Christmas cards for April............

Good morning!

Well, as promised here are my five Christmas cards made in April for my new years resolution of five Christmas cards a month for 2017!

These are a little different but hey, that's me right? I like to be a little different in what I do and bring you.

OK, as usual, they are a batch make all similar but not identical so I've taken some photo's to break them up a bit for you.

All of the cards have been made in a similar way so I'll talk you through this one, the others have been done similarly using slightly different colours etc.

I started off with Sheena Stamping card and I have had some fun using spray inks on the background.  I have stamped my Santa on each card and the lovely wording from "Twas the night before Christmas".  Some cards were stamped and embossed with Merry Christmas as well.

Now, I had to make Father Christmas the magical man that he is so I have used some Indigoblu super thick slap it on on his beards and have pressed in some super chunky glitter all around the beards and his hairline - that looks better!!!!!

The mat behind has been silver embossed with snow flakes on some and simply stamped with blue on others.

This card had some die cuts added, others have been finished with different pens to outline.

A bit of a break from the "traditional" style of Christmas card but I like to be different!

There, month four, mission complete!

Thanks for stopping by today,

Leanne xx

My five Christmas cards for March!

Good morning to you!

Well, here I am, right on form with my offering of my five Christmas cards for March!  

My news years resolution was to complete five Christmas cards every month through the year and so far, I'm right on track!

Again, just like any batch make, the cards are similar but not identical so I've taken photo's of all five so that you can take a closer peak:-

These have all been made using my gelli plate, I have stamped the trees straight on to the gelli plate (I think that these are Clarity Stamp) and also the snowflakes but they were stamped WITHOUT INK so that they actually picked the ink back off of the gelli plate (so that you can see white snowflakes in the background).

Now, I've done all sorts of different things with the trees! Some I've enhanced a bit with my polychromo pencils, others I have coloured in with the some Momento pear tart ink pad but all I have covered in the most gorgeous chunky glitter!  My beautiful stag (Inkylicious) has been stamped in versafine ink and a tiny bit of soft charcoal pencil applied to the ground where he is standing to ground him.  More snowflakes were stamped directly on to the finished artwork and again, directly on to the 7 x 7 card - I thought that looked quite pretty when all layered up - well, I say layered up, I've not actually layered anything!!!!! I've used a black alcohol pen and edged around the artwork so that it looks like I've used a black mat!!! - saved on the black card stock!!!

There, month three, mission complete!!!!!

Hope you liked your visit today and picked up some new techniques,

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xx

Five Christmas cards for February!!

Good morning to you!

Well, keeping with my New Years Resolution of 5 Christmas cards a month - as promised, here is February's offering!

Now, although each of these cards is slightly different, in order for me to churn out five cards each month they do have to be pretty much a batch make so I'm happy that although they are very similar, each one is very slightly different.

I can't really do a step by step covering all five cards so I've taken individual photo's for you of each of them below:-

The adorable little robin on his branch and the sentiment are by Sheena Douglass and I've added some snow on to that branch for him to sit in. All cards have been coloured with the help of Aqua Markers and distress ink and matted and layered in various coordinating coloured card stock.

There, that's 10 done now - Month 2 - mission complete!!!

I'll be back towards the end of next month with my offering of Christmas card makes for March.

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne x

Five Christmas Cards for January!!!!!!!

Good morning!

Look at me!!! I'm off to a wonderful start with my new years resolution of 5 Christmas cards a month for 2017!!!!

As promised, I will share on one blog each month my 5 Christmas cards for each month and here we are with January's makes.

I haven't got a step by step on these but I have taken individual photo's of each one for you so that you get a closer look at each of them.

Each card being slightly different I shall try to explain the basics to these.  

I have really enjoyed playing with lace through 2016 so I thought it would be super to start my Christmas card adventure using some lace - not very Christmassy? - that depends on how you use it! I believe that most things can become Christmassy if you put your mind to it!

These cards started with a piece of lace being placed over my Sheena Stamping card and sponging through some distress ink.  I didn't stick the lace down, if you are careful you can just hold it and dab gently for a lovely loose effect.  I then used a Woodware poinsettia stamp, some of these are stamped with Archival watering can and others have been embossed with clear embossing powder over it (where I was going to use water colour within the image). I have added some foliage from Clarity Stamp too.

The sentiment is from Clarity Stamp.

OK, let me see if I can tell you one by one how I've coloured the Poinsettias:-

Water coloured with Inktense pencils and die cut into and layered on a fibre mat. Finished with sparkle pens.

Intense pencils here but using them as colouring pencils without water this time and matted on to plain card stock, finished with sparkle pens.

Inktense water colour pencils here and die cut into with bright red mat.  Finished with sparkle pens.

Inktense water colour pencils, bright red mat, no die cutting this time and finished with sparkle pens.

Oh yes, my favourite! Good old Polychromo pencils, look at the intensity of colour that builds up here.  Matted on to a fibre mat and finished with sparkle pens.

I know that the sparkle pens can't be seen on the photo's but look - a super close up shot - it's there..... honest!!!!!

So, there you go, month 1 - mission complete!

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xx