'Throw a curve'

This uses downloads from http://www.pinkpetticoat.co.uk/ to create a card for the This Thursday challenge. Crafters were asked to 'throw a curve' and as I tend to use straight lines for quickness it was quite an adventure for me! I cut away the front edge of the card and doodled a black and white border on white card, which I cut out and stuck on. I added a Christmas tree made from my own template, with beaded trim and gem flowers. The inside of the card is lined in another Pink Petticoat paper.

1950s layout

This is a picture of my mother as a girl in a very posh frock. She told me the original was a turquoise shade so I altered it in Photoshop to tint the dress. The papers are from the EK Success 'Life' range, which I though toned very well.

New baby card

This is a Hampton Art Stamps image, no 1223, 'A Star is Born', which I was sent as a freebie a while back. I kept to a rainbow pastel palette as I wanted a card suitable for either sex, and used gold embossing powder for a touch of sparkle. The watercolouring was actually done with felt pens and a waterbrush, and I added little touches of gold and pale green glitter so as not to overwhelm the delicate image. A quick rummage through my button jar produced the pastel and star buttons, and a similar rummage through my ribbon jar got me the sheer purple and green gingham ribbons. I added some Christmas jingle bells I bought in Lakeland a few years ago just to make it a bit more fun.

Scrap Christmas cards

As I'm reluctant to throw anything out, I find Christmas is an excellent time to use up all my little bits of paper I thought might come in handy. Long thin strips, trimmed from larger sheets, make up the background to this card, and a tiny tree cut from silver Bazzill Bling is decorated with some little gems. None of the material is specifically for Christmas, but it comes together to make quite a funky card.

Rainbow Christmas

This is the time of year when I really step up production of my Christmas cards - I send out over 200 each year, so many of them are done quite quickly. This is a great design for mass production, as the stamping is done in just one colour at a time, and the pieces can be cut and arranged quite quickly. I love rainbows and I always like finding ways to incorporate them into my crafting even at Christmas. This stamp from Kirsten Lapping Designs (http://www.kirstenlappingdesigns.com/) has been stamped in seven colours of ink onto seven shades of card to make a rainbow, on a black card base. I singled out one of the little trees on the green line to be glittered, to give the design a focus - I love glitter too, and it's a necessity at Christmas!