Six Cards on The 6th (October)

October's "Six on the 6th" went live on the S J Crafts blog earlier today here!

Did you know it's only 80 days until Christmas??!!

So, yes - it's definitely time to get started on those cards, if you haven't already. 

Even if you only join in with "Six on the 6th" for October, November and December you'll still have 18 cards all made and ready to send!

For my six cards this month I chose to use some Echo Park papers and stickers from the "Reflections Christmas" collection that I had won in an EP Facebook competition recently and teamed them up with a Glitz Designs "Hello December" 6" x 6" Pad. I started by taking some 12" x 12" sheets of Bazzill card in White, Stonehenge and Maraschino and cutting, scoring and folding them to make 5" square card blanks. 

I decided on a red/grey/white colour (with a tiny bit of green!) scheme for this month's six cards.

I made each card in a similar way, layering up the background papers (lightly inking the edges with grey ink) and adding doilies and stickers.

I love this red woodgrain paper from the Hello December pad.

I added wood veneer snowflakes, pearls and "splattered" a little white Mister Huey on some of the cards.

One of the Echo park sheets of papers was little vintage postcards and another was little bingo cards so I cut these up into small panels that I could use as embellishments.

On some of my cards I stamped a greeting and added twine to this one:

and a strip of red glitter tape to this one:

I made this one last and I think it's probably my favourite .... I like the simplicity of it!

Here's some detail/close ups for you:

So what are you waiting for??  

Grab some supplies and make your 6 cards!!

Even though the S J Crafts Design Team reveal their cards on the 6th of each month, you have all month (until 5th November) to link up your cards using the Linky tool at the bottom of this post. Each month you join in and link up also gives you another entry into the draw to win a box of crafty stash!!

Have you started your Christmas crafting yet?

Oh hello Blog! ..... And WOYWW 226

Oh hello my poor, sadly neglected blog!!

I had a conversation yesterday over a cuppa and biccies with Jennifer about my blog and the fact that I hadn't blogged for ages. It made realise that I do miss blogging and that I really should find 10 - 15 minutes a few times a week to write a post. So here I am!!

And what better way to get things started again than with a post to join in with What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday (the biggest world wide "snoop" at craft desks!!)

So here is my desk table this morning!

Messy?  Or not too bad??

I'm in the middle of making my 4th card for my set of 6 Christmas Cards for "Six on the 6th"!!

I have discovered this morning that my box of washi (which you can see bottom right of pic) is sadly lacking in festive tape!!!  Note to self .... need more tape!

On another note .... I have started a sort out of my craft shelves/storage!

I had a BIG clear out a couple of weeks ago and sold or gave away a ton of stuff! But now I need to reorganise what's left so I can actually find and use my stash!

I have a tall Ikea Expedit unit and two smaller units beside it. I have a bad habit of just returning from a crop and dumping my craft boxes on the top rather than put them away properly. I want to sort through the boxes and store them better.

This is some of my 12 x 12 papers in need of a good sort out!

It's a slow job .... I'll do a little bit each day!

Right, time to make another cuppa and then take a wander around some WOYWW desks ... then back to those Christmas cards!

Thanks for stopping by today! xx

Six Cards on the 6th!

Hello!

Goodness, has it really been 2 months?!!  What a bad blogger I've been!

Over on the S J Crafts Blog a brand new series has started today!

"Six cards on the 6th" is all about getting organised for the festive season!

I always end up making my Christmas cards at the last minute and even some years I've had to resort to sending shop bought cards! So this new series is perfect for me. If I make 6 cards on the 6th of each month between now and December, I'll have a lovely pile of cards ready to write and post! No last minute rush!

Jennifer is encouraging us to use a "kit" to make our 6 cards each month as this saves on the decision making and constantly getting up to search for supplies. As the new Christmas collections are only just released, for my first batch of cards I rummaged through my stash and pulled out some of last years left over scraps of papers and stickers to make up my kit.

I also added a set of dies, a few stamps, ink pads, red embossing powder, red twine, red glitter tape, plain cardstock and some gems to my kit. I decided to keep to a traditional red/green/kraft colour scheme for my set of cards. I also pulled out some card blanks, my heat tool and 3d foam pads (not in the photo). Having a kit to work with certainly helped me work quicker as I didn't keep stopping to search out my supplies.

So here's my finished set of 6 cards:

 

As I used just one set of dies and limited myself to two stamps, my cards are all quite similar but I don't think that matters as they will all be sent to different people. I added one or two extra embellishments such as the little green chipboard stars but in the main I kept to my kit.

 

These three were all stamped with the "dashing reindeer" stamp.

 

 

 I think this one is probably one of my favourites from the set. I heat embossed the stamped tree image, mounted on the die cut layers, with a strip of glitter tape and 3 gems to finish. Simple!

If you want to kickstart your Christmas crafting why not join in with "Six cards on the 6th" .... pop over here for all the info and there's some great inspiration from DT member Jennifer and you can link up your set of cards over there too!

Christmas is coming!

Every year, about now, once the new school term is in full swing and the darker evenings are here my thoughts begin to turn to Christmas. I don't mean I rush out and shop for gifts and wrap (oh no, I tend to leave that until at least the end of November!) but I do like to really get "stuck into" my christmas cards. Most years I'm still making cards 2 days before the 25th even though I start early.

I have already made a couple a few weeks ago but today I realised I really do need to start making cards in serious numbers if I'm to have any chance of having enough cards made in time this year.

So today I made these two:

The patterned paper is MME It's the season paper and the stamps are from the Oh Christmas Tree clear stamps set.

For the first card I heat embossed the image with silver silver sparkle embossing powder, then mounted it onto some red cardstock. I made the background with more of the red and a piece of the MME Paper, knotting green ribbon around it before mounting it to the square card blank. I used mounting foam tape to raise the stamped image up a little and finished off with some little gem stones. Quick and easy!!

I used promarkers to colour the stamped images for this one, then cut them out, and put glossy accents on them which when dry made them look lovely and shiny. The little trees are then mounted on a piece of kraft and red cardstock and then using foam tape to stick them to the background which is made from a square of the patterned paper and more Kraft. I then popped a green candi in each corner to finish. Again very quick and easy (apart from the glossy accents drying time!!)

Have you started Christmas cards yet?

* I made cards this morning! *

What's a girl to do on a rainy, dull morning??

Shopping? (Maybe!).... Housework? (NOOooooo not if i can help it!) .... Craft? .... Yeahhhh, of course!!

So, this morning I have been making cards with one of the gorgeous MME LimeTwist 6" X 6" Paper Pads

This first one is very simple. Background paper is from the Lime Twist Life of the party pad and some kraft cardstock (I use kraft loads and I'm almost completely out of it so must remember to get some more!). I have inked the kraft with distress ink. The cute butterflys are punched with my Martha Stewart Punch and attached with a spot of Glossy Accents so that their wings are left free and a stamped greeting, Craftwork Cards candi and gems to finish.

The second card is pink bazzill for the background, to which I've mounted a piece of green spotty paper to the top half and flower paper to the lower half (both from the Lime Twist Life of the party pad ) with all the corners rounded and the edges inked with distress ink. I cut a strip of brown Lime Twist paper and punched the edge with my Fiskars border punch and added it across the join. I tied a piece of grosgrain ribbon before attaching the whole piece to a white scalloped card blank and embellishing with a chipboard flower and finishing with craftwork cards candi and a greeting attached with 3d foam tape.

I haven't made cards in ages but I really enjoyed making these two. I really should make cards more often but when I sit down to craft I tend to always reach for my photos and scrapbook!!

Right, I'm off to watch "The Apprentice" on TV .... have a great evening!