Christmas Cards Challenge # 49 - Anything Goes.

Welcome to a new Christmas Cards Challenge!

 

 

The theme this week is Anything Goes and this is my card:

 

This adorable dog is Odd Dog - Mug of Tea from  Lili of the Valley.

I had just bought this cutie and I wanted to use it immediately so I used red and green to make it more Christmassy. Background papers are from My Mind's Eye.

 

If you need some inspiration, check here my teamies creations or go to our individual blogs:

Alanna    Carol    Donna     Gail    Heather     Jessica     JoAnn     Margo     Marsha     Monica     Shirley Anne     Tenia

 

Don't forget that we have a DT Call going on! If you want to join an amazing team, click here to read everything about the call!

 

I'd like to enter the following challenges:

ABC Christmas Challenge: V is for Very Cute

Cute Card Thursday Challenge # 398: Food and/or Drink

Papertake Weekly Challenge: Anything Goes

Scrapping4fun Challenge # 53: Non Traditional Christmas Colors

Stampart Papel Challenge # 64: Anything Goes

Christmas Card Challenge # 18 - Favourite Coloring Medium

Good afternoon!

So sorry I'm late today for my weekly card for our Christmas Card Challenges!

Here's my card:

The theme is "Use Your Favorite Coloring Medium" and mine is, of course, Copic markers!

The image is a sweet stamp from Lili of the Valley and I wanted it to pop out of the card so I kept the background papers quite neutral.

Have a look at the cards made by my teamies, they are great!!

Alanna

Anne C

Heather

Jenn

Jovita

Karen

Margo

I'd like to enter the following challenges:
Crimbo Crackers Challenge # 61: Anything Goes (Christmas)
Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge: Bingo (Red-Free-Ribbon)
Christmas at Sweet Stampin' Challenge: Brrr...It's Cold Outside
Completely Christmas Challenge # 5: Anything Goes

How Cute is this Dog?

A while ago I treated myself with a new stamp from Lili of the Valley called Pup with Stocking but I didn't have time to make a card with it until today!

This time, I've used more traditional colors, reds and greens:

On a cream card, I've used DCWV papers, dark green satin ribbon and the stamped dog, colored with Copics and glitter.

Isn't it sweet?

This card is for the following challenges:

Lili's Little Fairies Challenge: Something New (the stamp)

and

Here Come the Boys Challenge # 42: Anything Goes Christmas

One of my Favorites...

So far, maybe this card is one of my favorites amongst the ones I've made for this Christmas:

I love the green card, the background paper (I don't know where it's from) the stamp (Feathered Friends from Lili of the Valley), the bell... everything! Although I'm not too fond of traditional Christmas colors like red & green, I love them! I added lots of glitter and rhinestones to make it shine and look as festive as possible.
I made three samples: one for my mom, the others for my Etsy shop. She'll love it. I'm planning to send her many cards this year (ehmm.. I always plan to do so but I rarely manage to...) during the countdown to Christmas: she displays every card she receives on her door and they look wonderful all together!

This card is perfect for the following challenge:

Lili of the Valley Challenge # 121: a Christmas card for someone special
and
Digi Doodle Shop Challenge # 83: red & green

Bright and Sparkly!

Christmas in pink: I love it! It's girly, it's sweet, it's festive with a touch of green and red and of course... with lots of GLITTER!!!

I put all of them in this card:

I used a distressed patterned paper from Basic Grey with purple, pink and light blue holly, a striped paper, a pink bow, four pink pearls and... an adorable stamp from Lili of the Valley - Make It Festive. I added tons of glitter: in her apron and dress, in the ornaments, in the holly on the table...

I love it! i love the way it shines according on how the light touches it!

This is one of the first cards I've colored with Copics: such detailed stamps are often difficult to color with watercolor pencils for ink sometimes bleed while Copics are just perfect!

I'm going to enter this card into:

Lili of the Valley Challenge # 119 - Bright and Sparkly
and
Cute Card Thursday Challenge # 189 - Baby You're a Firework!

I've just received a new stamp I want to use for Christmas cards... I'd better go and stamp!!

Aqua, White and Glitter... Wonderful!!!

Ohhh... I'm SO happy!

During the summer I spent many pleasant early morning hours sipping coffee and reading a lovely inspiring blog: Mish Mash. It had been pinned among my favorites for a while but I decided to read it more carefully and I discovered great tricks and techniques, inspiring photos and yummy recipes, tips and crafting projects.

One of the things which inspired me most was what she calls "Mass Production": make several pieces of the same card/tag/project. I never thought I could do that, mainly because I do not have friends or relatives I can sell my cards to, so I don't need to pile up. I don't even send cards so I don't need them for myself, even if I sometimes need a card and don't have one made by myself.

But... I decided I had to try. First of all, I have to let my papers go: I'm always afraid to finish that perfect sheet of paper and avoid using too much BUT, as Michelle says, they keep on selling papers, I can eventually buy some more if I need it. Second, I have to trust myself and be positive I will sell more than one card.

The other day I decided to make a card with a lovely stamped image I had colored few days before: I chose the card, the paper, added glitter, found the sentiment and the embellishment. It was quite easy to finish it and I found it so lovely I decided to make two more. I had stamped several copies of the same image and it was so easy to color them following the finished card. I cut the paper which was still on my table, add sentiments which I had in some copies and punched the snowflake... et voilà, three cards made so easily and quickly!

This lovely stamp is from Lili of the Valley and I colored it with watercolor pencils and added tons of glitter to the igloo to make it shine like snow.

The dotted paper is from Dovecraft (Christmas Fancy Collection) and the wonderful aqua card was bought in Paris: it's such a lovely color! It was hard to use three of them but I love so much the finished card that I think it was worth the effort!

When I saw the three cards on my table I felt so proud of myself and it was really rewarding.

Well, maybe three cards are not properly a "Mass Production" but it's certainly more than one...

I'll enter this card in Lili of the Valley Challenge # 113 which says "Aqua, White and Glitter". What lovely combination!

I enjoyed myself so much in mass producing that I'm still in that mode...

Animal Antics.

A few days ago I decided to make something different out of one of my favourite stamps and opted for a small recipe notebook.

Here's what I created:

A sweet little spiral notebook with this adorable stamp from Lili of the Valley, sweet papers and lots of ribbons!

It's not the first time I color this stamp and I'm still in love with it, it's so sweet and the faces of these two little animals are so cute!

I decided to enter this creation in Lili of the Valley Challenge # 95 where the theme is "Animal Antics".

I should make one of these notebooks for my recipes, maybe I'd cook with a bit more enthusiasm...

Relax...

One of my recent passions are stamps from Lili of the Valley. In particular, I love their bears and I treated myself with two stamps just before Christmas.

They are ADORABLE, the image is perfect once stamped, with many details, big enough for a card...

And I couldn't help but treating myself with another couple of stamps...

In particular, the one I'm about to show you has a long story.

I first saw it on a lovely card sold by an Etsy seller: I loved the little bear and how the card was made and I decided to buy it (well, yes, strange enough for someone who makes cards... but I love to send cards to my mom and I often buy them around the world).

Several months later, I decided that I had to have that stamp and here's my card:

Of course, I'm entering this card in the Lili of the Valley Challenge # 88.

They gave us this sketch to follow:

I'd really love to have time to sit down and relax like this bear is doing...

Some Sweetness...

This afternoon I'm having a couple of hours "just for me" and Custom orders being in stan-by, I've decided to make a card with a sweet image I painted some time ago.

This is the card:

This lovely little bear is a stamp from Lili of the Valley: I stamped it with black ink onto ivory paper decorated with light blue dots. As usual, I colored her with watercolor pencils and - stange enough for me and for such a girly card - I did not use glitter on her.

As for the papers, the little rose paper is a digi file Ive just bought from a lovely Etsy shop: MariekeVDesign, the other papers are from DCWV (the blue one is glittered!!!) and the gingham paper is from Wild Rose Studio.

The lovely rose... well, I don't know, I've just found a box full of flowers, saved from very old projects or from... who remembers? But I love to be able to find something old, unused but useful!

Of course, this is a sketch card. Here's the sketch:

It's from my beloved Sweet Sketch Challenge # 91 and I'm so happy I've managed to enter: last week I missed it and I was really sad. Although their sketches are really challenging, I love to enter a card and I have so much fun while trying the best matches to be used on my card.

I'm also entering this card to another lovely challenge: Incy Wincy Designs Challenge # 84: they ask for pastel colors, so I think this card is just perfect!

Well, my "just for me" time is over, time to be a mom again...

One of the things I love when I decide to take part in a challenge is that I have to "think outside the box" and make something which is in the mind of someone else. It's a bit like commission work, I have to do something different from what I usually do.

That's the reason why I decided to start entering challenges: I still make cards with the images I love but I have to work with sketches or colors or themes.

One of the treats I gave myslef last Christmas was a couple of stamps from Lili of the Valley and yesterday one of my dreams came through: I painted one stamp and mounted it on a card! I love it!!

The aim was to take part in a Lili of the Valley challenge: they gave a sketch to follow to make a card with one of their stamps.

http://liliofthevalleythursdaychallenge.blogspot.com/2011/01/challenge-81-sketch-by-dawny-p.html

Here's the sketch:

And here's my card:

I wish I could receive this card for my birthday!

I used my watercolor pencils as usual and some papers from Wild Rose Studio and Die Cuts with a View, a new cherry red satin ribbon, some pearls and - of course - some glitter in the apron.

I love this image, this little bear is so sweet... and her cat too!!