Louise Sims Papercrafter

I am so in love with the Festive Christmas soup kit and think I have used it on every Christmas card I have made so far. So versatile and allows you to get all inky and creative ... Here's my latest project for the PolkaDoodles Challenge "Anything Goes" ... I have used the "O Christmas Tree" stamp set to create my background and the wonderful poinsettia. There is the most cute script stamp that when continually used creates a detailed background. I've used distress inks and that helps create a vintage/shabby chic (sort of) background. I stamped the poinsettia leaves and embossed with gold powder, colouring them also with distress inks. After cutting them out, I made my huge flower, finishing with a glass gem. I also coloured the lace to match the leaves and tie all the elements in. I now need to find a way to make some quicker Christmas cards using these stamps but oh I do so struggle with CAS cards. Who knows .... one day ... Lou x x x

Another project from me using the Winnie Winterland collection but this time I have played with the "Fitting Room" section of the CD/download. Did you know about the fitting room in this collection? No ... well it's an absolutely fabulous section as all the images have been sized perfectly to work along side the NEW die sets .... oh yeah, how cool is that? Here's my card using the flowers from the "Fitting Room" which match perfectly with the Bubbleicious Frame die set ... I have used the main frame from the set to create my centre panel. This has then been mounted on to red and white layers, (using 3D foam). The oval is from the same die collection and again, this has been raised with 3D foam. I printed the sentiment and cut it out and layered it with 3D foam. Using the trees from the Cherry Blossom die set, I created 2 branches and placed then in to two of the corners. Next it was time to add the die cut flowers. In the "Fitting Room"

It's new release day over at Polkadoodles and the wonderful character Winnie has now got her own Christmas collection - Winnie Winterland. For my second project, I have again made the main focus the embellishments, tags and flowers from the collection. I have also sneaked in a few die cuts too from the Polkadoodles Craft Die range. I have used one of the plain tags from the collection as my starting point and then decorated it with lots of embellishments. My main image was the ice skates and I have cut round them using the oval frame from the Bubbleicious Frames die set. I then cut another oval in plain card, cut it in half and then placed these around the skates oval, to look as if I had a larger matching matting die. Using a selection of the foliage and flowers, I decorated the oval adding gold glitter stickles as an accent. The extra leaves were die cut using the leaf die from the Bubbleicious Frame set. I also decorated the bottom of the tag the same way. I

... using the NEW Polka Doodles Winnie Winterland collection. I have decided to make my project using the plethora of embellishments, sentiments and papers you have in the collection, on top of the wonderful Winnie images. Firstly using one of the many adorable background papers, I then began layering up my images. The trees were cut out and layered on top of each other to create my forest. Well the reindeer do need somewhere to live you know (hee, hee, hee). Next I added the reindeer, adding 3D foam to create height and definition between the two. They have been finished off with a few flowers from the collection. The sentiment is from the collection and I have manipulated it to fit inside a circle, so that the beautiful wreath could be added on top. There are several wreaths in the collection and they are fast becoming on of my favourite embellishments. The wreath has been cut out to create a frame for the sentiment. Hubby not too happy with me though ... he bought a

This week is definitely Christmas week for me as I have another Christmas themed card to share with you. This time I have used the 'Ribbon Gift Frame & Corners' die set to create my card base on top of an acetate base. I created an acetate card base and added the ribbon frame die cut to both the front and back of my card. On the inside, I have also added an additional frame to hide all my gluing. Using a piece of snowflake paper from the Festive Christmas CD, I decorated the middle of the frame. Then came the fun part ... adding all the elements. Stamping and colouring the tree from the 'O Christmas Tree' stamp set, I placed this in the corner of my card adding a die cut lamp and fence (from the Elegant Lamplight & Gate die set). I cut these in both white and black, layering one on top of each other. Next I stamped the leaves from the same set and coloured them. These have been placed along the bottom of my card and as a finishing touch, I added a

Can you guess that I am in full Christmas mode this week ...!?!?! Would like to say that this must make me ubber organised but alas no. I still do the 'post on the last day thing', buying 'bits" and wrapping presents on Christmas Eve, so although I will have some cards ready, I won't have as many as I need. Who knows, one year, I'll crack it .... well I'm 50 now and it hasn't worked so far, so don't think this year will be the year of change. However, it's great that I still have a dream ... I have been having a play with the smaller stamps from the 'O' Christmas Tree' and 'Red, Red, Robin' stamp sets from Polka Doodles and instead of making my snowflakes blue or white, went for a different colour ... The snowflakes are made by using the smaller stamps and expanding the design. I have created several different designs and then layered up on each other, finishing with a gem. The flower petal were stamped 'in tw