Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge blog - Anything Goes - with the optional twist of Santa Claus is coming to Town

Hello my Crafty Blog Friends

How is has your week been?  I hope you have something nice planned for the weekend. Tomorrow we are going to a Christmas choir rehearsal in the morning. Then there will be some things to sort out for Christmas. On Sunday the choir will be singing in the Sunday Service. We will be doing four songs. It should be good our choir master is very talented.

This is the last challenge of 2017 for the Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge Blog.  This is challenge is number 397 the theme is Anything Goes and the optional twist is Santa Clause is coming to Town.  There is also a Guest Design Team call for January. The sponsor this time is Digital Paper Craft. The Design Team used their own images for this challenge.

This is a tiny A6 card. I wanted to make  some more small cards. Because I made a rosette with my Hougie Board it is a bit dimensional for posting. My husband gave them to people at work when they were at their Christmas meal last Monday. 

There are lots of exciting things in the store if you click on the logo you will be taken there. 

The Santa from the Christmas Cookie-Cutter stamp set was stamped with Archival ink onto Neenah card and coloured with Promakers. He was cut out with the matching punch. 

The sentiment comes from the same set. 

I made four cards like this and they have all been given out. I do like that cute Santa. 

The Crafty Catz next challenge starts on January 5th 2018. 

Enjoy your weekend. 

I would like to enter challenge 99 at the Sparkles Monthly Challenge blog . challenge 57 at the Crafting with Friends Challenge Blog , challenge 58 at the A Bit More Time to Craft Challenge blog , challenge 47 at the Merry Christmas Challenge Blog and the Christmas Challenge at Moo Mania & More. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Cookie Cutter Christmas Santa

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends

How has your week started? Yesterday I walked to our local Next it took me an hour there and back with some shopping time included. It is quite a nice walk I think I will be doing it again. Today I have a crafty day planned. My husband will be home early he has a dentist appointment. We are hoping to be able to go back to the shop where we ordered our new oven as we haven't heard anything since last week - watch this space.

My husband commented the other day that I know you like making my large cards but they aren't so practical for posting. So I decided to make a few more smaller ones.

I found a pack of smaller card blanks with matching envelopes in my stash. I cut all the mats and layers with my guillotine. I have stopped using my rotary trimmer in favour of the guillotine as I think the cut is better.  I am quite surprised. 

I stamped eight of these cute Santas with the Cookie- Cutter Christmas stamp set from Stampin Up. Four of them were used for these cards. They were cut out with the matching punch.  I used some scalloped circle dies to cut the circles behind the Rustic Twig Wreath from Creative Expressions. 

The sentiment was cut with a Signature die. 

I had cut all of the bits for the cards. When I came to make them I decided to swap the elements around. They should be okay for posting. 

You will see what happened to the other four Santas sometime soon. 

Happy Crafting

I would like to enter the November Christmas Challenge at Beccy's Place Challenge blog and challenge 266 at the Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge Blog. 

Hugs Jackie

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Christmas Frame - Santa and his Sleigh

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope you had a good weekend. Both me and my husband have been suffering with sore throats and coughs which seem to be worse at night. During the day it doesn't stop you doing much. On Saturday we ordered a cooker to replace our part broken one. We also made a start on our Christmas shopping, at last. On Sunday we worked in the garden there is a lot to clear up after the drive being done. In the evening we went to Christmas choir practice. It is nice to do something a bit different. Unfortunately today I have woken up with a bad headache which is making it a bit hard to get going.

I went to a craft day at the end of October and one of the things we made was a Christmas frame. Using the Stampin Up Santa's Sleigh stamp set with the matching dies. The frame itself came from the well known Scandinavian store.

We made most of the frame design at the workshop. I did tweek it a bit when I got home. Isn't it hard photographing shiny surfaces? 

I added a Santa that I made with the Cookie Cutter Christmas Stamp set with the matching punch. He was coloured with Promarkers. 

This wonderful sleigh was made with the dies at the craft day. I added the presents later. 

Reindeers stamped and cut out with the dies. I was given the stamps in the craft day goody bag but I couldn't justify buying the dies,  now I am not working. I do like sets that match, so that was a hard decision to make. 

My friend was struggling to fill a stall at a Christmas Craft sale and I offered a few items, one of which was the frame, to help her out. You can see it on display in the window It is my first try at trying to sell some things. 

I hope you have a good week. There is so much I want to do I hope this headache goes. 

I would like to enter the Snow Fun Challenge on the Make My Monday Challenge blog ,Challenge 143 at the Crafting from the Heart Challenge blog and the November Challenge at Beccy's Challenges. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Quick Cards Made Easy magazine issue 172 Bonus Papers

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends

How is your week going? It is lovely and sunny here today and I have been helping at another felting workshop. I know enough about it now that I can actually help people. I will be helping at another workshop on Friday.

A little while back I responded to a request on Facebook for people to apply to be on the Readers's Design team for issue 172 of Quick Cards Made Easy Magazine. I was one of ten selected I printed off the papers, made a card and sent it in. I was thrilled to see my card in print on page 40 when I bought the magazine today.

The card has to be square and not measure more than 15cm x 15cm. I started with a Craft Card blank. I used coloured card that matched the papers to make the mats and layers. The dotty paper I used to make a snowflake border with Sue Wilson's Snowflake border die. 

There are various sentiments to use that come with the bonus papers. 

I just love the Cookie Cutter Christmas Stamp set from Stampin Up that comes with a matching punch. Now I have a stamping platform I stamped lots of these and I have used them on a few project. The bow is in the set too. Isn't great that depending where you put the bow they look like a boy or a girl. 

I have a Sizzix candy cane die. I inked the edges so they they showed up against the background. 

Here it is in all its glory in the magazine. 

I did like these paper a lot and the free gift is some pop-up box cards with cute characters I will definitely be making those. 

Enjoy the rest of the week. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Simple Gingerbread Man Christmas Card

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends

How was your weekend? I hope it was a good one. We had a lovely day on Saturday that started with breakfast out and ended with us receiving the bunnies so our daughter and her new husband can go on Honeymoon. They are booked to go Florida and we all know about the weather there at the moment we will just have to wait and see what happens. At least being here they are safe. My back is continuing to improve.

On Sunday I actually had some craft time. My husband decided he wanted work on his tax form. I set up a meal to cook in the slow cooker that left me free to craft. I have a mixed media project that I am working on  that has to be done is stages. Once I had got as far as I could I made a few simple Christmas cards to the same design. My husband finished the tax form which is good. He is very organised this year.

I really did use a lot of scraps. I found some A5 card blanks with envelopes (which I am going to stamp) and the papers came from my scrap pile as well as the black and gold card. 

This is a stamp from Sizzix and it comes with a matching die. 

I just love this gingerbread man stamp from the Cookie-Cutter stamp set from Stampin Up I have the matching punch. I used my Tim Holtz stamping platform and this is the first time that I have got such a good impression from the stamp. I do like to do a lot of stamping in one go when I have the stamping platform out. 

Meet the bunnies they are staying with us for about four weeks. The house already smells of hay. 

There are five of these cards. They are ideal being small enough and flat enough to post.

I would like to enter Weeks 297 and 298 at Pixie's Snippets Playground. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Christmas Reindeer

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

Well that was a busy weekend. Ally Pally was fab on Saturday and we had a lovely meal with our family on Sunday. My husband has a few days back at work and then he has about a week's leave. I do need his help with some of the wedding makes.

Believe it or not I have been making Christmas cards again I made 12 of these. I have had the design going round my head for ages so I just had to make it.

This is an A6 card and I made them with my husband's work team in mind. I will be decorating the envelopes too. Last year I decorated some envelopes and not others and there were complaints. So that isn't happening this year. Both of the papers I used are from Stampin Up. 

The reindeer is one of the stamps in the Stampin Up Cookie-Cutter Christmas stamp set. He was stamped onto water colour card and coloured with my Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens. I do have the matching punch to cut him out. In the background you can see the Rustic Twig Wreath from Creative Expressions. The scalloped squares were cut with a Spellbinders die. 

The Happy Christmas was cut with the Contemporary  Happy Christmas by Creative Expressions. 

At Ally Pally we sat in the audience and watched Barbara Grey demonstrate live on TV and the same with Julia Watts. Every so often they would turn the camera on the audience I had to keep waking my husband up. We saw John Lockwood demonstrate the new Glitter Kiss products. The last picture is of my stash. I did succumb to two of the Glitter Kiss colours. I will let you know how I get on.  

I think these cards are quite jolly. 

I would like to enter challenge 10 at the Christmas Card Challenge blog and Challenge 55 at the Crafty Friends Challenge blog. 

Enjoy your week. 

Happy Crafting 

Hugs Jackie

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Alphabet Challenge Blog - Letter U - Use Something Red

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

Friday is here! The weekend has nearly started. Our plan is to get all the Christmas cards and presents sorted. The following weekend we are really busy and so it has to be this weekend.

The last challenge of the Alphabet Challenge Blog this year starts today the new letter is U and the theme is Use Something Red.

When I went to a  Stampin Up charity craft event, back in October, I was given the Cookie-Cutter Christmas stamp set in the goodie bag. I did purchase the matching punch. The papers I used are from Stampin Up too. 

From the set I stamped the Gingbread man onto kraft card. I stamped the bow onto white paper. Both can be cut out with the punch.  You can make the cookies male or female depending on where you place the bow. 

I cut the Happy Christmas die from Creative Expressions in gold. I do like that I don't have worry about the dot on the i with this die. 

I did enjoy using this stamp set with the matching punch. I do hope they create some other stamp sets that can be used with the punch. 

I would like to enter challenge 228 at the Brown Sugar Challenge Blog and the Christmas Time challenge at the Creative Corner Challenge Blog. 

Enjoy your day. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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