Set of Penguin Cards

Hey stampers, Anni here!

Time is running! It is Christmas in just over three weeks. And I still need some more Christmas cards. So I decided to make a set of three small cards. Small cards are perfect for those people in your life who you don't know much to write to, you know what I mean?

I chose the super cute set Polar Playtime by Avery Elle. It is a small set so you can get it to a really good price point but it also has so many cute critters in it. I couldn't decide which one to use so the idea of a set was born.

I stamped all the critters on watercolour cardstock with a water-resistant ink (Versafine Onyx Black). For the colouring I chose Distress Ink reinker and added shadows with coloured pencils.
For cutting out the images there are coodinating dies available.

For the panel I die cut My Favorite Things' Stitched Mini Scallop Squares, three times from white cradstock and one time from a piece of patterend paper. To two of the white ones I added a ground for the critters to be placed on with alcohol markers. The third one I free handcut to a snowy hill.
Than I chose two more patterend papers form my stash and added them to the cardbases.
The one panel that had already patterend paper on it I adhered to a white cardbase.

The sentiment on two of the cards came from the Polar Playtime set. I stamped it directly on the panel. For the third one I chose a sentiment from Mama Elephant's Holiday Messages. I stamped it on a piece of red cardstock and die cut it using Neat & Tangled's Skinny Strips.

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty weekend.
Anni

      

Found on Friday November

It's time for our November edition of Found on Friday where I feature the projects that caught my eye over in our VIP's group on Facebook where our customers share their makes and chat crafty stuff.

First up, Vanessa used one of my favourite Christmas sets from this year - the fabulous Polar Playtime set from Avery Elle and in this gorgeous creation Vanessa has really shown how much fun they're having!

Lorraine also looks like she's been having lots of fun making this adorable kitty treat boxes using Lawn Fawn's Tiny Gift Box dies and the Cat Add On Dies.   I really like the festive addition of the tiny hat too!

This adorable CAS card from Sophie Marsden really spoke to me  - the cool colours match the cool sentiment and the yeti delivering presents by snowboard is super fun!   She used Yeti or Not by Lawn Fawn.

Christiane Wo also shared a fabulous yeti - this time using Stamping Bella's Yeti and Santa set - I really loved the fur she coloured on her Yeti it made me want to cuddle him!

Sticking with the chilly winter theme, I wanted to share this adorable card by Linda - I really liked the birds perched on the sentiment as it adds great balance to the design and the bold sky really makes the penguins pop!   She used Mama Elephant's Fuzzy Hugs.

Sue's card also gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling - the hugging foxes from Lawn Fawn's Winter Skies and I just love how she popped them with their tails hanging down from her circular sky background.  Adorable!

And talking of warm winter feelings - what could be better on a snowy day than a steaming mug of marshmallow topped hot chocolate and a pile of Christmas cookies?   Well Kimberley's version is calorie free but no less delicious!   She used Wplus9's Cookies and Cocoa set.

Felix had a great idea for batch producing her Christmas cards - a textured white background decorated with fabulous sparkly baubles using the fabulous layering set from Altenew - Brilliant Baubles.  Adding gold embossed details on the final layer is a fabulous way to make them pop.

Anne Marie Wilson also had a really great way to make interesting baubles - she's cut baubles from card she's stamped with festive florals using the Mama Elephant's Pine and Posy set.  Really elegant and beautiful!

It's not entirely been Christmas projects that were shared this month though - Katya shared this adorable gate fold card using Wplus9's Modern Peonies for the focal image as well as MFT's Snowfall Background stamp on the front and Hero Arts Infinity Heart dies.  Love the belly-band sentiment to keep it closed too!

Kate Orme is new to cardmaking and this is one of her first cards - we think you've found your perfect hobby Kate!   Picking the colours for her images from the rainbow backing papers shows she has a great eye for colour and the different shaped elements are a great design!  She used the Sweet Birthday Wishes set from MFT stamps.

Finally in this issue we'll finish with this fabulous floral design from Helen Bates.  Helen used the Build-a-Flower Fuchsia set from Altenew and framed it to perfection using their Frilly Frame die in her tone-on-tone background.

Hope you've been inspired by our customers fabulous makes - and if you want to be featured in December then pop on over to the group and share your makes - please leave a note of what sets you used in the comments on your photo to make it easier for me to share your makes and link to the products in store.   https://www.facebook.com/groups/shcvips/

I'll be back on Sunday with my make.

Tara

Let it Snow!

Hey!

It's Bev here today. I can't believe I have done two months of DT posts here and that we are less than a month away till the BIG day! Who else is on full on Christmas mode? Mild panic is starting to set in with all the cards I still need to make and all the other Christmas creativity ;)

So, I'm back today with some more Christmas cards to share with you. You've probably got to know me a little by now and some of my favourite things. 

Snowflakes! I love snow flakes and all things snow. They make me so happy and inspire me to create, especially when I feel under pressure or my mojo is lacking a little. Do you have a theme or something that inspires you?

For my snowflake duo I used Flora & Fauna Mini Snowflakes, this cute set is a bargain at £3.95 and my favourite Altenew ink colour collection, Sweet Dreams. 

For this first card I wanted to replicate a snowflake flurry and used the three lightest shade of inks to stamp the snowflakes. The sentiment is from another of my current favourite sentiment stamp sets, Concord & 9th Mistletoe Messages.

You can just about see that I added a little detail to the snowflakes using a white gel pen. It wasn't particularly necessary, but I was inspired to do it! 

For my second card I was inspired by the current sketch over at CAS Colours & Sketches seen HERE and below.

This time I used all the stamps from the Flora & Fauna Mini Snowflakes clear stamp set, even the cute little 'let it snow' sentiment.

As I already had the colours out on my desk, it seemed practical to use them again on this second card. I used some foam adhesive to raise the sentiment panel up and create more of a focal point.

That's all I have to share with you today. I hope I have given you a little more inspiration with your Christmas card making. 

Happy Thanksgiving to all our American friends & those who celebrate.

Have a wonderful day & see you back here next week!

Crafty Hugs 

Bev

Colouring Christmas Cards: Avery Elle Christmas Kids

Hello, crafters. Tallie here and I'm back with a simple design for those last minute Christmas cards. Just in case anyone is panicking that we have less than a month till Santa! Stamps like the Avery Elle Christmas Kids set are perfect for these type of scene cards. I have two versions of this card with slightly different backgrounds for you, depending on how much effort you want to put into the colouring.

I started out by stamping the large stamp from the Avery Elle Christmas Kids set onto some blending card stock using some MFT Extreme Black ink. I stamped the corresponding sentiment underneath the scene at the same time, though depending on how much of a scene you want to do, you may want to stamp this towards the end as sometimes the ink can smudge if you're using markers with lots of colourless blender in them.

I then took out my alcohol markers and coloured the scene in. I stuck to bright, Christmassy colours as I knew the background would be lighter.

For the backgrounds, the first I simply created some ground and shadows using a couple of light blue markers. For the second, I added a sky as well as the ground, using a colourless blender marker to fade the marker into the white card panel. A little white gel pen adds the finishing touch of snow!

This type of design is perfect for stamping out a bunch and then sitting in front of the TV and just colouring away!

Thanks for reading, catch you next week!

Tallie

Ho, Ho, Ho - Merry Christmas!

Hey!

It's Bev here today. I am really getting into the Christmas spirit now and I have a trio of Christmas cards to share with you using the recently released Winter Stencil Strips from MFT.

I didn't think I would really get into using stencils, but they are really good fun and there are so many techniques you can use them with. Plus they are really good value too, especially this one at £5.50 and a choice of 4 designs in one!

For my first card today, I couldn't wait to try out the MFT Merry Christmas Blend stamp and give it a rainbow look! 

Choosing to stamp it in a rainbow of colours was quite time consuming and required some masking while inking up. But with the use of a stamping tool it was pretty easy and straight forward. I used Altenew inks in Ruby Red, Orange Cream, Fresh Lemon, Parrot, Ultramarine, Azurite & Ultraviolet.

After I had stamped the sentiment, I went and added the snowflake stencil in Altenew Silver Lake ink and added some sparkly liquid adhesive to the snowflake centres. With the stencil having four designs in one, you need to use a scrap piece of paper to mask the designs off that you don't want to ink!

Next I used the same snowflake design to create a lovely background using Altenew Dew Drop ink.

I added gloss white liquid adhesive to the snowflake centres and this time finished the design with a trio of snowflakes and the 'Let it Snow' banner sentiment from Concord & 9th Mistletoe Messages Stamp Set.

The sentiment and snowflakes are adhered to the card using foam adhesive so that they stand out from the background. I used Altenew Aqualicious and Teal Cave ink colours.

Lastly for today I have a super quick clean and simple card using the HO, HO, HO design on the stencil.

I used Altenew Ruby Red ink for the stencilling and I added the 'Believe' sentiment, also from Concord & 9th Mistletoe Messages stamped in VersaFine Onyx Black ink onto a scrap of white card & adhered using foam adhesive.

So much fun with one stencil and a couple of stamp sets. I hope I have inspired your Christmas card making a little. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Bev 

Altenew Ink colours used can be found HERE in the Seven Hills Crafts Store and all the colour families I have used are currently in stock :)

Lapis Lazuli 

Enchanted Garden

Gentlemans Gray

Sweet Dreams

Pocketful of Sunshine

Tropical Forest

Warm & Cozy

Red Cosmos

Advent Boxes

It's just a week to go before the opening of advent calendars gets underway and this is 

one I made last year actually, using the Triangle Box die from Neat and Tangled. 

I think the die sold out quickly last year before I could share it so I'm getting it ready 

for Sunday and thought I'd show you...

I used an old 12 x 12 Christmas Paper collection to cut 25 boxes from, that way I knew they'd 

all look pleasing together. The boxes come together quite quickly and then I used double sided

 tape to assemble them into the triangle shape....

I have used a wide strip of jute to wrap around the whole triangle shape which adds to 

stability and also gives a lovely finish. I used the small triangles in the set to cut card and 

vellum which are layered for the numbers..... the numbers are heat embossed in gold or 

white using the Lawn Fawn Celebration Countdown Stamp set.

The boxes either open up or down and are a perfect size for a small chocolate.

I used a small loop of twine attached behind the numbers to help opening the doors, 

I also had to add a loop of twine to the top so I could hang it up which helps

 with stability when fully laden! 😉

Now I best getting adding the chocolates!!

 

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

The first ice of the season

Sorry the blog is late today - I started my card before breakfast and then came back an ruined it so had to start again.   Today was one of those days where what was in my head did not want to appear on the paper!

So here is version 2.0 of my card featuring penguins playing on the first frozen lake of the season up in the mountains.

I started with a piece of 300gsm white card stock and the new mountain stencil from Newton's Nook - this is mighty little stencil that performs beyond it's 3inches!   I just started at the top with my oxide ink pads and used both edges of the stencil to layer in the mountains and hills.   When I got to the bottom I just blended blue into the green to create my lake area just using vertical strokes with my blending tool to keep the ice looking frosty.

Next I added my pine trees using the smaller tree in the new Plentiful Pine stamp from Altenew which features 2 sizes of trees with 4 layers to build up easy and realistic looking trees with simple to line up stamping.   I used the second generation image from each layer to add a reflection into the water too.

 I added some swipes of versamark and some sparkling embossing powder to the lake to make it look solid enough to pop my pile of penguins onto.   The penguins are also by Newton's Nook - Penguin Pile - and the sentiment comes from that set too.   I coloured them with Altenew markers and then cut them out by hand as I wanted them to sit in the scene and the white edge from the die would distract from the realism here.

I added some grassy details with a few flicks from some pencils and finished by adding the snowy caps to the mountains simply by spreading embossing paste through the middle of the stencil.

It would have been quite a quick make if I hadn't had to do it twice!

NEWS FROM THE STORE

We have a shipment coming from Neat & Tangled which has their last couple of releases - as they now only have about 3 items a release we will order them every other month and get both at that time to make it cost effective for importing as we don't always have enough with restocks and just 3 new items to meet minimum requirements.

We have some new items from Echo Park/Carta Bella which will be in store this week too.

Otherwise it will be a quieter week but there will be new releases to order for December.  This is generally a quieter month but there are a couple of major releases including the new Lawn Fawn release on the 12th December.

Laters

Tara