Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge #85 - Mostly white or ivory.

I know I say every week the cards in the challenge were outstanding, but seriously, between us, the DT wanted to give nearly every card in last weeks challenge an honorable mention. Nice work Merry Mondayers!!

This weeks Merry Monday challenge is to use white or ivory on a card base. You can add Kraft accents.

See the complete instructions on the image below and on Lesley's blog Always Playing With Paper, home of the Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge.

I decided that to get differentiation between items I would need to use layers and different whites. The see-through Trellis, raised on Foam squares, gives shadowing in behind. I really like this extra dimension.

Stamps: Hero Arts Sentiments

Dies: Dee's Distinctively WREATH BUILDER Die Holly leaves, Spellbinders Fancy Lattice, Cropadile Corner Rounder.

Ink: Versafine Brown

Other: Thickers, Alphabet, buttons, pearls and twine. Bobble edging.

I made the card below before the one above. I used organza behind the tree and raised the layer on foam squares. I thought it was a bit tame.

Check out the cards from the other DT members. Their amazing creations will inspire you.

That's it from me this week.

Have fun.

Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge #84 - Use a tree and some bling on your card.

The colours for last week's challenge certainly brought out some gorgeous designs. I love how Challenges focus you on using just a few items or colours for a card. Seeing how you all interpret the theme each week is a real treat.   

In this week's Merry Monday Challenge, we are asked to use a Christmas tree on our card, and a bit of bling. The trees in the inspiration image are fabulous.

 Once again I found myself without a suitable image so I resorted to creating a wee tree in my graphics program.  The die cut 'celebrate' with added glitter is the bling on my card. I do love these soft versions of traditional Christmas colours.

Stamps: Hero Arts Sentiments

Dies: MFT 'Celebrate' Accent it dies, Lawn Fawn Stitched leaves, Spellbinders labels 17 and eyelet circles, Dee's Distinctively WREATH BUILDER Die Holly leaves

Ink: Versafine Black, and red, Distress ink edges. Perfect pearls on tree

Other: Glitter Donna Salazar, buttons, pearls, seam binding, twine, starDigital: Own design tree.

Drop by the other design team members blogs to see their fabulous cards. These can be accessed from Lesley's blog, Always Playing With Paper

See you here next week....Christmas is just a squeek away so get those Christmas cards finished!

The Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge # 83 - Use Stripes, Red, Chocolate and Stars or Hearts on your card.

Eeeek!! I am running late. Posting is at 2am New Zealand time now. I was engrossed in work and wasn't watching the time. Sorry! Thank goodness the post was mostly written.

The cards for the last challenge were all totally amazing. You really are a talented bunch.

I have to say, Lesley has been providing the best inspiration photos, and this weeks Merry Monday Challenge image is gorgeous as well. The whitewashed dresser made the image look french country to me.............

.................... and this is what it immediately brought to mind. Hanging dried flowers! I do not come up with an idea that fast EVER!! 

Now in the instructions it definitely tells you to use stripes, a piece of information I seemed to have overlooked when I first made the card. When I was writing the heading for this post this morning (err, yesterday morning now) I realized my mistake. Luckily, the stripes just slipped in, even though they do make the card a little more 'grunty'. (see the original card below)

The instructions do say 'stars or hearts', but the end of the wood rail was just asking for some wee hearts, I did try other things, including wee stars, and leaving it bare.

Stamps: PTI Larger than Life Dies and Stamps, Hero Arts Sentiment
Dies: PTI and Clearly besotted Flowers, Stars and hearts SSS
Ink: Versafine Black, brown and red, Distress ink edges.
Other: Glitter Donna Salazar, white gel pen Stitching line, twine, pearls buttons.

Here's the card before the stripes were added. I do love this version too.

Thanks for dropping by....see you next week.

Karen

The Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge # 82 - Use the colours red, white and aqua, and circles on your card

Last week's challenge produced so many Santa cards, from modern and cute, to traditional and vintage.

All were accompanied by lots of wonderful details, and again it was so hard to choose just one as a favorite.

Here we have this weeks image. I had to keep reminding myself to concentrate on the colours for inspiration and not hanker after the cupcakes!! Cup cakes, plain maderia with scrummy icing are a real weakness.

Join in this weeks challenge at Merry Monday. I am dying to see what you all do with these lovely colours.

My card is very CAS. I embossed the background with my large dots folder. Die cut the scallop circle with edge circles detail, and used a plain white circle for the sentiment and embellishment. Originally I had a couple more pearls on the card but I kept returning to the card thinking something wasn't quite right. When I took them off  the card, I didn't miss them. Decision made.

Dies: Spellbinders Scalloped and plain circle, MFT High-rise alphabet and Die-namics Fishtail Flags , 3 different punches for the flower, Cuttlebug embossing folder - Seeing Spots
  
Paper: Neenah White, red Kaiserkraft, bella paper

Drop by the other team members blogs to see what they have created for  Merry Monday.

See you here next week for another Merry Monday Challenge.
Karen

Seize the birthday - 'Anything Goes'

 This is a new Challenge for me, Seize the Birthday. It's another Lesley Croghan creation. Such a great idea, who doesn't need birthday cards through the year.

For this card I have used the very versatile Fresh Cut Florals stamps and dies from WPlus9.

To anchor the floral pieces to the card background I have used a 'paint swipe' stamp from MFT Abstract Art Clear stamp set. 

Stamps: WPlus9 Fresh Cut Florals, MFT Abstract Art

Dies: WPlus9 Fresh Cut Florals, Crop-a-dile corner rounder

Card: Kaisercraft, Neenah White

Ink: Hero Arts, Versafine black

Off to join the 78 gorgeous cards already linked, and there is still 31/2 days to go!!

Happy creating.

Karen