Cherry Nest - Ho Ho Ho

Hello!

I hope you had a great time yesterday! We had a great family Christmas lunch, with amazing dishes prepared by two sisters (my mother and my aunt) and amazing deserts prepared by two other sisters (my two cousins). I ate so much that I skipped dinner - I was still full! You may have noticed I didn't mention me cooking anything... that's because my kitchen and I are not the best of friends ;o)

There is a habit of mine that I have to change. I give my presents the first of January rather than Christmas. There are two reasons for this: first, a practical one. I always get the week between Christmas and New Years Eve off work, so it is easier for me to do the final presents shopping then, when things are more relaxed. On the other hand, when I was a child the "Greek Santa Claus" called "Ai Vassilis" was visiting our house the first of January (which is the name day for Saint Vassilis). But the last few years I find myself in a position of receiving presents on Christmas and giving my presents the first of January, so I have to change my habit. Starting from next year ;o)

Which means that I still have time for some Christmas cards! I made the following one for Cherry Nest a few days ago:

The Cherry Nest papers I used are:

This time I didn't actually do any particular technique. The one thing that was a bit complicated was to glue the ribbon on the craft cardstock. At the end it seems that Glue Dots did the job, but I'm not sure how long they will last. Do you have any ideas what to use? What do you usually use to glue ribbon?

I hope you like it!

Supplies:

Merry Christmas everyone!

So, my last post before Christmas... with what else? A Christmas card, this time based on acetate:

The base of the card is made of acetate... Very easy to make, difficult to photograph! I don't like very much the background I have used, but nothing else I tried would work.

I heat embossed both the tree and the ornaments with Silver Pearl Embossing and then I used Perfect Pearls on the tree. The star is made of wood and I coloured it with Pearl Dauber. Full of pearl!

I hope you like it!

I wish to all of us Merry Christmas and to have a great time with our families and friends...

Love and health to all of us!

Hugs,
Anastasia

Supplies:

Scrapbook*Life*Journal 2012 with Stephanie Ackerman

Hello - Hello!

Today I wanted to share with you something different. Yes, not a card for a change!

Lately I wanted to start a kind of journal... Mainly to record my thoughts, ideas and sayings that I hear/read and I like, souvenirs... you know what I mean. The issue was that I didn't want to do it alone. I thought it would be much better if I could do it with others, to encourage them and be encouraged, to share what we make...

In the meantime, about a month ago I ordered some stamps that I've been wanted for some time now, from Stephanie Ackerman. After I made the order, I looked for her blog to see what else she makes. This lady is making some amazing doodles that I just adore! I keep thinking "I wish I could do this!"

So reading her blog I found out that in January she starts an online class called Scrapbook*Life*Journal. It is a 12 month basic, easy, no stress "follow along" class... exactly what I was looking for! It includes a weekly journal prompt posted to a closed facebook page, a monthly pdf printable calendar, a monthly pdf printable doodle to color and embellish based on that month's theme, a pdf of journal prompts, quotes and verses based on the monthly subjects, techniques.

Well, didn't think much about it and I signed up.

My first NO-STRESS assignment was to prepare our folder for the year. For this we had to use about 56 papers, one for each month and week of the year. The only condition was to do it without stress, something she keeps reminding us. And we shouldn't think too much what kind of papers we would use, whatever we have will do, no matter how much we like them.

Let me tell you, it was therapeutic to finally use all those papers that in one way or another have been accumulating in a pile and I knew that I wasn't going to use! Satisfaction, even happiness and freedom each time I was cutting a paper to use for the folder, especially when it had colours and motifs that I new I would probably never use.

That's what I wanted to share with you today, and some photos of the folder that I made. If you want more details on the course, you can visit here.

Apologies for the quality of the photos but it was the best I could do. Weather is really crappy and there is no natural light...

Hugs,
Anastasia

Cherry Nest - Christmas CAS cards

Hello!

Today I want to share with you a few Christmas cards I made for Cherry Nest:

I liked the Cherry Nest Christmas papers so much that I wanted to make them pop in a way. So I decided to prepare a few CAS cards.

The papers I used are the following:



For the card I did reverse die cutting:  I used the Spellbinders 2010 Christmas Tree dies on the white card and put the Christmas papers below. I stamped the sentiment, added the green-white twine and the cards were ready.

I hope you like them!

Supplies:

Very, very happy "Get Creative" news...

Hello!

2011 might have been a difficult year for my family and myself, but the end of the year is bringing me some very happy news...

Irini asked me to become a member of Get Creative Creative Team!!! :D :D :D I can't begin to explain how happy I am! I've been following the blog for more than a year now, and I participate in the card challenges because the inspiration provided by the creative team has always given me ideas to make cards! I am really very happy!

My first card as the creative team member is for the sketch challenge for December 20th - you can see the challenge here:

The card that I made is the following:

If you want to get super-duper inspiration, you can visit the Get Creative blog here to see the Creative Team's creations...

And remember, the sponsor for this month is Unity Stamps with their wonderful stamps! Seriously now, just a few days ago I found in a store in Madrid Unity Stamps and I just couldn't resist, I bought (another) one. I will make something soon.

For a chance to win, you can make a card until December 28th!

And a few words for the card...

There are only 5 days left till Christmas, but what I wanted to make was a thank you card dedicated to Irini and the Get Creative creative team for their very warm welcome!

I wanted to make something different than a rectangle, so I used the Nestabilities Wonky Rectangles to make the card base. To make the background for the front of the card and give it some dimension, I used the Dots Embossing Folder by Sizzix.

The background of the green part of the card is made with stamp and pearlised water. This is what I did: First I coloured the white cardstock with Distress Ink. Then I sprayed the Vine Background stamp by Hero Arts and Basic Grey with pearlised water that I prepared with water and Perfect Pearl. I stamped my green cardstock with the stamp and since distress inks reacts to water, I got the result you can see on the photo. What you cannot see is that there is a pearlised effect on the vines...

If you have any queries regarding the technique I tried to describe, just ask me and I will reply to you.

I hope you like it!

Supplies:

Cherry Nest - Happiness is being owned by a cat (or two... or three...)

Hello!

In case you didn't know... I'm crazy about cats! Have been since I remember myself and I can't quite know why, since we didn't have any pets when I was growing up. Well, not until I was 14 years old when my mother was tired of me asking for a cat all those years and allowed me to get one :D

Anyway... given my love for cats, I was sooo happy when I saw the "Niaou" bingo cards by Cherry Nest - "Niaou" being the Greek cats' "Meow", lol!

And of course I didn't miss the opportunity to make a card:

I enjoyed it so much! Finally I got to use my stamp with the phrase "happiness is being owned by a cat" (so I have three sources of happiness in my home now!), paws everywhere, this sweet cat I cut with Silhouette... And of course the sweetest paper for the cat, Hot Pink Polka Dots.

The Cherry Nest papers I used this time are the following:


The card has quite a lot of dimension as I used a number of foam adhesive layers, but unfortunately you cannot see it on the photo.

I hope you like it!

And remember to visit the Cherry Nest blog for lots and lots of inspiration by the super-talented design team!

Supplies: (apologies, but the stamps that I have used where the very first I ever bought and since I haven't kept the package, I don't know the stamp company to share it with you :S)

Lawn Fawn Christmas tags

Hello!

I had some fun yesterday playing with my new Ornate Ornaments stamp set by Lawn Fawn and prepared (many of) the tags for my Christmas presents:

I prepared a different colour for each one, so it will be even easier for me to recognise the present... and more fun to create, lol!

I used a number of paper scraps and distress inks, so I won't be listing them in the supplies, as the list would become way too long. If you want any information, please let me know and I'll tell you!

Another idea that I had and I really loved was to use Silver Embossing Powder not only on the ornaments, but also around the tags. I experimented with the first one and I liked it so much that I did the same to all the tags. Here is a close-up:

I will submit the tags for the following challenges:

- Lawnscaping challenge #23: Tags or Treat Bags

- Wee Memories #78 - Free for all

I hope you like it!

Supplies:

Cherry Nest - Hourglass

A kind of different card today for Cherry Nest. The main idea was to use the tags as an hourglass. So, I made a shaker card:

The Cherry Nest papers I used are the following:


This time I printed the tags in a scale bigger than the normal, so that the tag would become big enough to be used as an hourglass. On the other hand, I printed the flowery number tags in a smaller scale so that they could fit in the card.

I have the sentiment inside... but forgot to take it a photo!

I hope you like it!

Supplies:

Lawn Fawn Christmas tag

Hello!

Here is a tag for Christmas presents that I prepared yesterday:

Actually, I thought I could use it as a tag, but I have it on my wall right now, as part of the Christmas decorations ;o)

For some reason this weekend I couldn't get any inspiration... I was looking at sketch challenges, colour challenges, and although there were many interesting ones, I still couldn't make them work for me. "Inspiration blockage". I started a couple of projects and I didn't like them, so I didn't finish them. Then I decided to organise the "I might need them later on" box...

... and I found these cuties (ie the tree, the fox and the mushrooms) that I had prepared for another card which I didn't finish a few weeks ago (yes, another inspiration blockage). And that was it. I selected papers from the 12 days of Christmas paper pad, put everything together, added some finishing touches with Diamond Stickles, and Antique Linen Distress Stickles for the star, and there it was! The end of inspiration blockage ;o)

While looking for inspiration, I saw that two of my favourite challenge blogs have an open theme challenge this week. So the tag will be submitted to the following challenges:

- Wee Memories #78: Free for all

- Lawnscaping #23: Tags or Treat Bags (ooops, I had forgotten to add it to this challenge, thank you Vera for reminding me!!!)

- Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes



I hope you like it! You can see the list of supplies below.



Supplies:

Owl Miss You

Hello!

Today I have to share with you a cute owl:

Lately I'm falling in love (again!) with my Silhouette SD. Inspired by Wee Memories challenge that asks to have woodland animals on our cards and Lily Pad Cards that asks to have buttons, the idea of an owl with buttons as eyes came to me. I looked at the Silhouette online shop and found this cute owl.

I didn't have button in the size and the colour that I wanted. So I used the Buttons die cut from My Favorite Things to cut two buttons, I coloured them with Antique Linen Distress Ink and then heat embossed it with Versamark and clear embossing powder three times to give them dimension.

So, the card is for the following challenges:

- Lily Pad Cards: Simon Says Stamp Button Challenge

- Wee Memories #77 - Woodland Animals

- Young Crafters Unite #4: Use dies (my second entry)

I hope you like it!

Supplies: