This is the second sympathy card I’ve made recently and came about because someone passed away in our close knit community and two of our neighbours are affected. It is a sad loss and of course harder somehow because of the time of year.

I’ve never contributed to this website: Challenge #836 – Sad Songs (Say So Much) but the challenge is about sympathy so I am adding it there.

To make it, I used an unbranded die set and cut the layers and on the topmost layer I used an old Tim Holtz set. I backed this with a scrap piece of shimmery lavender paper. Then I used another unbranded poppy die cut once in white and a second time in the lavender. I cut some of the flowers so I could add the colour over the white base.

The ribbon is so old I have no idea where I got it from and the sentiment is from an MFT set I think. Embellishments from my stash.

Normally I share Christmas cards with these two families, but now I’m not sure that I should do so. They are struggling to come to terms with their loss and it feels intrusive to give them a seasonal card.

Thanks for stopping by, your time is appreciated.

My second card for today and this one is intended for the challenge at https://aaacards.blogspot.com/ which is a sketch CAS design.

I wanted to use a new folder by Catherine Pooler/Sizzix so I cut a piece of CS from some shimmer white and embossed it. I then added this layer to the card front using the same CS. The bigger snowflake is from Hero Arts and the other two are from GKD cut from silver CS. I added them as you see and placed some Trinity Stamps silver embellishments into their centers. I heat embossed the sentiment in silver and this came from a Crafters Companion set.

A truly simple card to make and for a change even the die cutting was quick and easy to get out of the dies. It does look a lot prettier in reality than in the photo.

Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate your time and any comments you may leave.

It has been so busy recently that I’ve not had a lot of time to create or to enter my usual challenges. Today I rectified this by making two cards. This one is for Double D and fits their current Christmas Wrappings Challenge.

I’ve had this die from Kokorosa for a while now and I’ve not used it often. It works perfectly for a challenge such as this. I die cut two, one from silver and one from sparkly gold and fit them together. Using some old PP from a few years ago I added the ribbon strips and cut the piece down slightly smaller than the card front before adhering it. The snowflake is from Hero Arts, the tag is from a gifted set but so long ago I don’t have the information on it, the foliage is from a set by Waffle Flower, the heart is from a small set by Mariannedesign.nl and the stamps are from a set by GKD.

I’m quite happy with how this one turned out and it helped me use up some old PP. I’d say this is a perfect challenge for this time of year.

Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate you, your time and any comments you may leave for me.

I honestly didn’t think I would have time for this challenge, and I just realized I missed the last one somehow. That made me more determined to try to get this one done.

Its the dreaded speed challenge time at As You See It, and this one is all about apples. This took me 8 mins and 30 seconds to make. When sorting through some scraps yesterday I tried die cutting a few things to see how they would look so my background pieces were sitting on my desk. As well the heat embossed and fussy cut tree was a leftover from a project I did a long time ago and never used.

My local craft store order arrived mid week and these little Hero Arts clay apples were a gift inside. It’s almost as if the universe was expecting me to create this card. The little tree is from an old stamp set by Kitchen Sink or Inspired by Stamping but I’ve temporarily misplaced the set and can’t check.

Putting it together was a breeze. All I had to do was ensure the tree and the apples were properly adhered and because the top panel is actually a photographic canvas I had to double ensure it would stick and stay. That is what took the time. I added some sparkle to ground the tree at the bottom. I haven’t decided on a sentiment for this yet so am not adding anything for now. I do, however, like how it turned out, which is always a bonus.

Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate you and your time.

This is being entered into Challenge #361 – An Accelerated Apple a Day

In my recent splurge on sale items I acquired this die set from Crafters Companion called Rays of Light. Then I saw a card example by Natasha Foote showing what she called a stepped up version of white on white and it triggered an idea. This is what I came up with. The Poinsettia is another new die by Waffle Flower, the word die is from Scrapbook.com and the tiny bird in the O is from Poppy Stamps.

I cut all the pieces and slowly assembled them by paper piecing the fallout layers back into the frame. Then the stitched die cuts were backed with foam tape and added on top. After attaching the Poinsettia I carefully added the word at the bottom. To make this fit into the challenge over at ABC Christmas I added the tiny bird. Initially I cut him in silver but it disappeared so I added a white layer on top. I’m quite pleased with how this turned out and because I am giving it to the recipient I didn’t have to consider size, weight or postage. The recipient loves the cards I make and apparently keeps them for posterity.

Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate you, your time and any comments you leave for me.

ABC Christmas Challenge – W & X are for? Wings – tiny bird, X is for stitching.