Christmas Card Number One

Yes I am ashamed to say this is the first Christmas card that I have made this year in spite of my intentions to start earlier. So now as usual I will be rushing to get them all finished in time. The challenge this month at St. Luke's Charity Cards Challenge is for a CAS Christmas card, and I made up my mind to enter as it's ages since I have taken part, but here it is almost the end of the month again and I've only just about made it in time.
Here is the card I made, it is only small, about 4 x 4,5 inches, so not a lot of room for much white space, but the design is quite simple so I hope that it fits the challenge.I stamped the main image onto the card with Memento tuxedo black and onto some spare card with Memento rich cocoa. I coloured the trees with a green coloursoft pencil and the white distress marker.This turned out to be a bit tricky as the pen tip kept picking up the green and I had to keep cleaning it on a piece of kitchen paper. I was going to use a glue pen to add glitter to the snowy bits but my pen seems to have run out or dried up so I used white Liquid Pearls instead and some ultra fine crystal glitter. I stamped the star above the trees with Brilliance galaxy gold ink and embossed it with WOW clear gold highlights EP. I then cut out the little deer from the brown stamped image and used silicon glue to to stick him over the black one to give just a little dimension, and then stamped the greeting at the top. All the stamps used are from Chocolate  Baroque, the main image is from a set called Christmas Creatures, the star and greeting came from other sets.                                              
I am also going to enter this at Crafty Ann's- Christmas in October.
and Stampin' for the Weekend - Anything Goes.
Thank you for taking a look and for your comments, I really appreciate them all.  Jean.

U and V Alphatags

 Another month has passed so quick and it is time to show my tags for the Chocolate Baroque Alphatag Swap. We are nearing the end of our year long task and almost every one who started is still in, but with some very difficult letters all together at the end it doesn't get any easier to come up with ideas. Both of mine have a vintage feel to them this time which I didn't really plan but I struggled with finding stamps to match my ideas.

U is for Undergarments

For this one I covered my tag with some very pale pink backing paper from a Papermania pad and inked around the edge with Victorian Velvet distress ink.The background image is a crafty Individuals stamp, stamped straight onto the tag and coloured with pencils.The back dress form and the front stand were also stamped onto the tag,and the front dress
                                                form and all the corsets were stamped onto spare card and coloured with
 pencils and then cut out. I used an off cut from the backing paper to make a kind of pelmet at the top of the tag. I stamped the piece with a texture stamp and Victorian Velvet ink and used more of the same ink to shade around the edge. I used an edge punch to make a fancy edge along the bottom and then fixed it above the sign.I fixed a length of lace down each side tied with tiny ribbon bows to represent curtains and then fixed all the corsets in place, and added some little roses and a bit of ribbon for embellishment.The stamps are from Crafty Individuals and Chocolate Baroque, and all the main stamping was done with Memento Rich Cocoa ink.

V is for Victorian Valentine.

I took my inspiration for this one from the backing paper which is from crafty Individuals shades of Summer pad. It is full of lovely romantic images of roses and birds in pretty colours. I chose this one because I liked the birds and thought they looked just right for carrying a valentine greeting.The paper is 6x6 so wasn't quite long enough to cover the tag, so I found some matching braid and stuck it to the top to cover the gap and then added another piece at the bottom.I inked all the edges with Broken China distress ink. The large heart is a Chocolate Baroque stamp and was stamped onto the tag with Verasfine Majestic Blue which was really a bit too dark so I embossed it with WOW white pearl EP to tone it down a bit and also to give a nice lustre, which doesn't  really show in the photo. The top bird was cut out from the piece of paper left over from covering the tag and fixed using foam pads.The two tiny hearts are part of another CB stamp and were stamped onto spare card and embossed in the same way as the large one. I cut them out and fixed them to look as if the birds were carrying them as well as the flowers. I used a blue ink pad to add some colour to the roses from my stash and a little blue stickles  glitter and fixed them together with a piece of  lace to the bottom corner. The words were printed onto Saffmat using the computer, and some blue gems added for decoration.

Thank you for looking, your comments a re much appreciated.

Birthday Greetings

I need several cards for the men in my family during this and next month and I never find them too easy to do. However Chocolate Baroque have recently brought out a range of clear stamps to run alongside their excellent rubber ones, and when I saw this beautiful crane in the Oriental Crane set, I thought it would be ideal for some of them.
I first stamped the crane onto white card with Tuxedo Black memento ink and coloured it with colour soft pencils. I trimmed it down and used broken China distress ink to shade around the edges. I mounted it onto blue and then grey card and fixed it to a square white card blank. The grasses are from CB eastern grasses set and I stamped it once with memento London Fog and once with Versafine Olympian Green.
the greeting is stamped with the London Fog also.

I am entering this at The Stamp Man, Birds, Butterflies and Bees.
Make It Monday, Always Anything Goes.
Crafty Bloggers Network, Anything Goes.

Thank you for visiting, I really appreciate your comments.  Jean