Leap of Joy....non-traditional colours

Hello everyone, I'm here with a couple of cards today, they form my DT project for this month at Sundays With Crissy. This time, we'd like to see a Christmas card in non-traditional colours, so any colour other than red or green. I've used a tiny bit of red and green in my colouring, but there wasn't really any other colour I can do berries and holly.

I chose to make a non-traditional blue, white & silver card and a pink, white & silver one, using Crissy's image Leap of Joy in both - being a digi I was able to print the gorgeous reindeer at 2 different sizes. Colouring was done with copics, and I over-coloured with pencils to modify the shades and also add a little texture to the reindeer, as the colouring was too smooth with just the copics. In both cases I cut the image out with a nestie shape using the 'outside the box' technique so that the hind feet overhang the nestie. 

The blue card measures 15x15cm and is made using a piece of very shiny foiled Kanban cardstock in blue and silver, to which I added a square doily and a wide strip of blue and silver Christmas ribbon. Although it looks as if the background is uncoloured, it's actually a pale blue. A white poinsettia made with Marianne dies and a foiled 'With Love' sentiment finish it off. 

Cardstock is really very shiny and reflective!

The pink card is a book-fold C6 size, and made using paper from the very first designer paper pack I ever bought (5 years ago and still going strong....it was a BIG Papermania pack!).  The ribbon is a nice shiny silver one, and I made another white poinsettia to embellish.  I finished it off with a Papermania sentiment, stamped in grey.


I bet those carefully shaped poinsettia petals will get flattened in the post!

I'd like to enter these 2 cards in these challenges:

2 Sisters Challenge - Ribbon

ABC DT Challenge - Christmas card challenge

Cardmakin Mamas - Cut it out (nestie shapes round the images, and poinsettia die cuts)

Crafty Ribbons - Bingo (punch/dies - flowers - ribbon)

Papertake Weekly - Anything goes

And I'd like to enter the blue card only in these challenges:

Crafty Purple Frog - Sparkle

Secret Crafter - Flowers ribbon lace

Truly Scrumptious - Bingo time (lace - flowers - ribbon)

I hope you like my cards. The SWC Design Team upload their projects every few days, so keep checking out the challenge blog to see more non-traditional Christmas colours. You have till the end of the month to enter and be in with a chance to win 5 of Crissy's images.

Happy crafting!

Beer mat gift box

No, not a gift box for beer mats, silly! A box MADE using a couple of cardboard beer coasters that were headed for the recycling bin. Unused ones, I hasten to add, he hee.

I wanted to make a gift box just big enough to hold a few chocolates to give a very special person, and this is what I came up with. There was a tune going round my head at the time, a Billy Joel song called You're My Home, and there's a nice line in it which goes "Home is just another word for you" which seemed very appropriate for the person I was thinking of, so it became a sentiment on the box lid.

The lid and base are made from 2 beer mats which I covered both sides with brown dogtooth-checked paper, sanded a little around the edges. I made a small box from cream card using a box-maker and adhered one beer mat to the top of the lid and the other to the bottom of the base.  This is what the beer mats looked like before they were repurposed:

To decorate, I first used a lacy doily on top of the paper-covered beer mat, then I took a square of paper and made a background by aging it around the edges, crinkling it up and running a distress ink pad over it to highlight the creases. Then I added an epoxy flower embellishment, some roses, a die-cut gingham heart and some pearls.

The ribbon wrapped around the box is a beautiful patterned white ribbon from my good blogging friend, Kevin.

Background is made from some pale pink backing paper which I aged and distressed a little, then I scrunched it up and wiped a distress ink pad over the flattened out paper to show up the creases.

I'm entering this is these challenges:
2 Sisters Challenge - Ribbon (round the sides of the box)
Bearly Mine - Anything but a card
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Lace it up
Cooking It Up With Katie - Anything but a card
Crafts & Me - Let the music move you
Crafty Cardmakers - pink, brown and cream
Crafty Emma's Store - Entertain us, song- or film-inspired
Lollipop Crafts - Anything goes
Secret Crafter - Flowers, ribbon, lace
Southern Girls - Can you hear the music?
Sugar Creek Hollow - Trash to Treasure vintage
Top Tip Tuesday - Make your own background
Truly Scrumptious - Bingo time (Gems-Flowers-Diecuts line, I used pearl gems, roses and a diecut heart)

Have a good weekend all.