Cricut - Create a Critter - Reindeer

As I cut out a number of these little reindeers I thought I would use this chap on a Cottage Cutz Wagon.  The snow around the top of the wagon is from a Martha Stewart border punch and I used Distress ink for the shading inside the wagon.

The reindeer is 3" and his face was altered by using Peachy Keen Everyday Character Face Parts and More PK 494.  I stamped the eyes seperately otherwise they would not have slotted over the holes made by the Cricut.  The little tuft between his antlers is from a SU punch set called Punch Pack.

The blue background paper is from Creative Memories, the white paper has been embossed with a Cuttlebug folder called Swiss Dots and the sentiment is from Lili of the Valley - Christmas Circular Sentiments.  Again I used the Spellbinders Pinking Circles for the sentiment.

CottageCutz - Jolly Elf

Doesn't this little elf just want to make you smile ??  He fitted together really well and I used the normal scraps from my stash to assemble him.  The gold buttons on the jacket and skates are made with Ranger's Butterscotch Dimensional Pearls.

The Spellbinders die used is called Lattice Rectangles and I sponged Faded Jeans Distress Ink on the top part.  The blue paper behind the die is from Creative Memories and I am not sure where the circle paper came from.  The sentiment is from a Kaszazz set called Mini Messages - Christmas.

Lili of the Valley - Feathered Friends

I keep on asking myself why I am attracted to images with lots of colouring in especially when I struggle to match colours.  Anyway, I stamped this dear LOTV image onto watercolour paper and used a combination of Aquamarkers, Marvy Le Plume II, Stampin Up and Tombow makers plus a SU blender pen.  I also used Copics (very carefully) for the faces and little girl's legs.  I find if I stamp the image and leave it for a couple of days it is easier to use the Copics.

The Spellbinders die used to frame the stamp is Wonky Rectangles edged with Antique Linen Distress ink.  It is a new die for me and I think one which I will get a lot of use out of.  Behind that is a Spellbinders Fleur de Lis Rectangle matted on Xmas paper.  The Poinsettia is a Magnolia die on which I edged the petals with a gold pen and the leaves are from a Cottage Cutz die called Holly Berry Mini.  The sentiment is from a Clear Dollar set called Charlie Reindeer Games and it was stamped onto a Go Kreate Concentric Tag. 

Punch Art - Reindeer Trio

These delightful reindeers were cased from Kim Score at Paper Punch Addiction.  I had to alter a number of the punches as I did not have them plus I was rather puzzled by the reindeer's ears.  Kim punched them from a SU heart punch but that did not look right on my faces.  Please note I am totally clueless when it comes to reindeers.  I can describe the ears of lions, tigers, cheetahs, pumas, jaguars, leopards, wild dogs, hyenas etc as I have seen them all but I have yet to see a live reindeer.  One day, maybe ...

Anyway, the punches / dies used are as follows :
Heads   -    SU Owl body used upside down
Ears      -    Cuttlebug die - 6 petal flower
Muzzles -    Cuttlebug Alphabet die - this one had tags and the oval I used was a thow away middle part
Antlers   -    Cottage Cutz Festive Deer
Nose     -    ½" circle  - red
Hooves  -    ½" circles - black
Faces    -     Stamp - Peachy Keen Tear Bear Faces Parts PK 139

The "wall" in front of the reindeers is a Go Kreate die and I used a Martha Stewart border punch for the snow.

CottageCutz - Festive Deer

Again another easy CottageCutz die to make up.  This is one I could do a lot of cards with as it is quick and easy to put together.

The embossing folder is a Sizzix one, the sentiment is from Lily of the Valley and I used (again) Spellbinders Pinking Circles for sentiment.  I have had the large and small pinking circles in my collection for a long time and cannot recall a time when I used them.  All of a sudden they are my circle of choice.  It goes to show, don't get rid of any craft items, you never know when you might need them !

Cricut - Life's a Party - Halloween Coffin (larger)

This is the second coffin I cut out using the Cricut Life's a Party cartridge but this time I made the size 5".  Again I used Pumice Stone Distress Ink around the edges, stamped images from the SU Wicked Cool set and then popped a house from the Spellbinders die called Halloween Fence.

This box is also very shallow and is limiting with the amount of sweets it can hold.  I suppose parents would say that is a good thing !

CottageCutz - Santa Mouse

As I am rather partial to CottageCutz dies and as I have been able to locate a couple of the older ones locally I thought I would make a few of Xmas cards this week with them. 

This mouse was fun and easy to make and did not take a lot of time to fathom out.  I used a square card as the made up die is quite broad.  Underneath the blue snowflake paper, which I found in my stash, on both of the vertical sides I slipped in a border punch design by MS.  I added a piece of white paper embossed with CB Swiss Dots, distress inked the edges of the blue paper and the card was done.

Cricut - Life's a Party - Halloween Coffin

This is the first time I have made a coffin and did think it would be a bit deeper.  A friend came up with the idea of putting a sucker in it - might just have to do that and give a bag of sweets on the side.

Using my Cricut and the Life's a Party cartridge I cut out this 3" coffin in grey cardstock.  After scoring all the folds (with my Scor-It) I used Pumice Distress Ink around all the edges.  I flattened the box out again and stamped bats and spider webs from the Stampin Up set called Wicked Cool.  The sentiment is also from a SU set called Batty for You and I matted it on a Nestabilities Pinking Circle.  I affixed the circles to the box using SU dimensionals.

Christmas Card - Cricut Create a Critter Reindeer

Every now and again I haul out the Cricut and set it up.  I was cutting out a couple of Halloween items this past weekend and found this dear little reindeer on the Create a Critter cartridge.  I cut four of him out as this year I am going to have to do multiple cards of each design I create otherwise I will not get finished in time.

The reindeer was cut at 3" with a dark brown cardstock underneath and a coral colour on top.  I did not have the correct colour for the top and sponged on Antique Linen Distress ink to change it into the colour I wanted.  The mouth was DH's idea and I used Peachy Keen's Funshine Face Assortment ⅝" - I blocked out the rest of the stamp and used just the mouth.

The embossing folder is one from Sizzix and I used Chipped Sapphire Distress ink for the top of the card.  The sentiment is from Lily of the Valley in the UK - Set 5 Christmas Circular Sentiments.  I matted the sentiment on a Nestabilities pinking circle which was the only circle I had which fit the odd size of this stamp.

Halloween Witches Hat

There have been a couple of witches hats on the craft blogs and I decided to combine a few of the designs. 

The tall cone of the hat was made using the SU Petal Cone die cut out twice.  Of the four flaps on the die I cut off three.  I also cut out a band of the patterned black and white paper using the die. The brim is made with 2 Nestabilities Grand Circles.  I used a distress tool around the top brim to give it a slightly ragged look.  You might ask why 2 brims, well, firstly, it gives a bit of strength to the hat and secondly it hides the elastic I used to close the hat.

As you can see the cone part lifts up to allow sweets to be popped in.  I used a button to hook the elastic over.  This was not my idea as I saw it on a blog but cannot for the life of me remember where.
To decorate the hat I used the larger of the Tim Holtz Rosette dies with a Nestabilities Pinking Circle in the middle.  The stamp is from a SU set called Wicked Cool.  I used Distress Ink around the outside and coloured the socks in with a Spica pen.

Impression Obsession - Shuttered Window Box

This is another image I spent quite a while colouring in.  It is not that I colour in slowly, I just have a hard time deciding what colours to use.  It would help if I laid them all out beforehand but I seldom do that preferring to make it up as I go along.

The window box was stamped using black Archival ink onto watercolour paper - my normal one this time which made it a lot easier to use blender pens.  I coloured in using Letraset Aqua Markers and then cut out the image.  The background paper was one I had laying around on my desk and I cannot remember where it came from - the joys of getting old !!  The sentiment is from an Art Impressions Doorways set called Cafe and I used coffee Archival Ink to stamp it onto a beige coloured card stock.  I then cut it out and cut out one of the flowers in the flower box so I could hang the sign over it.

Stampscapes - Water Mill

Not sure if I have the name of this stamp correct but I bought it at a craft show and there was not even a company's name on the packaging let alone a stamp name.  Not the best way to sell your product !

I thought this would make a quick and easy sympathy card.  Using Archival Sepia I stamped the image onto a beige colour paper, used Nestabilites Labels Seventeen to frame it and Distress inked the edges with Antique Linen.  The sentiment is from SU and die used to cut it out is a new one for me - Spellbinders Blossom Tags and Accents.  The background paper is from Creative Memories.

Stamparvie - A Christmas Delivery

This cute Laurence Collection image from Stamparvie took me around 3 evenings to complete the colouring in.  I used Hero Arts watercolour paper for the first time and found it hard going (near impossible in fact) to use a blender pen on it.  I ended up using a combination of Stampin Up, Marvy Le Plume and Aquamarkers plus Spica Pens to add a bit of glitz to the presents.

The dies used to frame the image are new from Sizzix - this one is called Tags Rounded and I think it will be one I get a lot of use out of.  The green dotted paper was sourced locally at Simply Creative and the yellow brick effect came from an unnamed Stamposaurus stencil.  I picked up a number of stencils from the craft show I recently attended in England.  I had never really used them before but after seeing a demonstration of Distress inks and stencils, I bought the correct set of brushes and was happy with the effect for my first effort.  The red flower was made from a Marianne D design called Poinsettia Miniature.  The leaves are Spellbinders and from a punch.