A Sparkly Process

Today the Guardian of Glitter was in the lab experimenting with the new sparkle flakes the Lady Commander of Copics and I had recently harvested. She was working on a more stable form of glitter bomb powder...one that wouldn’t explode everywhere with each use. Despite the Lady Commander’s protests that it wasn’t an issue to be finding various flecks of glitter in everything for the next 16 months after using the stuff, I was adamant that a new formula be created. Upon hearing a loud explosion which rocked the entire Guild Hall, I rushed upstairs to ensure the Guardian of Glitter was intact. As I carefully cracked open the lab door, a puff of pink glitter emerged from within. Nikki stood in the middle of the room, her scarf in tatters and hair askew. “Eureka!” she exclaimed, holding up her beaker.  

This was created for the Creative Card Crew’s “Sun Moon or Stars” challenge that is happening now! Create a project using a sun, moon or stars and you could win a $15 gift voucher to Scrapping Center!

 

I started this card by stamping Amelia from The Greeting Farm’s “Fuzzy Wuzzy” set and colouring her with Prismacolor pencils. I then cut the letters out using the Winter Woodland cartridge. The stars I cut using a border off the Artbooking cartridge and chopping it in half so that both halves of the border were bursting out behind the image panel. 

I then cast a spell of +88 sparkle, adding glitter to all the stars on the project. Even the background paper has glittery pink stars on it. (Click the picture to see all the glittery goodness).

On the inside I used the Lawn Fawn “Cozy Christmas” set to stamp the sentiment and added some snowflakes with the “Frosty Friends” set. 

The envelope also got the pink and teal snowflake treatment, leaving some space to write the address in the middle. This holiday card earned me +999 non traditional exp points for not using any red or green, which allowed me to level up (in a non traditional manner of course)!

This Christmas card will sparkle in the following challenges:

Challenges 4 Everybody #31: Anything Goes

Pennyblack and More October Challenge: Anything Goes

My Creative Moments Saturday Word Play October Challenge: Anything

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Use a Rubber or Clear Stamp

Brown Sugar Challenge #63: Anything Goes

CHNC Challenge #146: Make it Square

CHNC Challenge Extra For October

Christmas Stampin’ All Year Long Challenge #37: Simply Christmas

One Stitch at a Time Challenge #185: Winter Wonderland

Allsorts Challenge #228: Use Your ABCs

2 Sisters Challenge #165: Anything Goes

Little Scrap Pieces Fun Friday Linky Party

Jingle Belles: Pink Christmas for the Cure

Craftitude Challenge #50: Anything Goes/Things Beginning With “S” (stars)

Using the sparkle flakes we had acquired from the cavern in Oakmont Glade, the Guardian of Glitter was able to create some new forms of glitter powder bombs as well as some nifty weapon enhancements. I was eager to try them out and not have to worry about having my lungs coated with glitter.

~ Guild Master Crystal ~

Living in a Dream World

Well it certainly has been an exciting week here at the Guild Hall. I have managed to gain enough experience to level up again and have added a new class to my title - Just Some Lines Design Team Member! I will have an abundance of crafty quests to partake in! As I was snuggled amongst my furs in my sleeping chamber, thinking of all the crafts I was eager to create, the room was suddenly illuminated with an iridescent light. I sat up in bed, alarmed at the suddenly change. A shimmering silver beam shone through the open window and from the light a dream bear emerged. I was shocked, as I had never seen a dream bear with mine own eyes; they were a thing of fairy tales. The fluffy creature fluttered over to me, landing gently on my furs. The corner of his mouth tugged up into a half smile as he raised his paw and a shower of sparkling flakes rained down over me. I fell into a deep sleep - dreaming the strangest things.

This card was created for the Just Some Lines “Fairies” challenge - my first one as a design team member! Pop on over to Just Some Lines to participate in the challenge and you can win some images from the Just Some Lines Shop!

From a different angle without the shine

I started this card by printing the “Fae Bear” image from Just Some Lines twice - once on the measured piece of cardstock for my card, and once on a piece of cardstock where I coloured him with Primsacolors and cut him out. It would be impossible to cut out his antenna, so by doing it this way, I could cut close around him once he was coloured and glue him down after the background was finished, thus keeping his antenna intact. I then coloured the white cardstock using Distress Inks using the same colour scheme I had done on a Christmas card last year. I liked it so much and thought of it immediately upon seeing the Fae Bear image. I used Perfect Pearls mist and the Dylusions “Luscious Leaves” stencil to create the shimmery pattern, earning me +104 glitter exp points. I used a stamp from the Dylusions “Bordering on the Edge” set to create the border. The word I cut out using the Winter Woodlands cartridge. I added some silver gems, stars and shimmery ribbon to complete the front. 

The inside shape was cut from the Winter Woodlands cartridge. The sentiments I stamped using the Tim Holtz “Odds and Ends” set and the My Pink Stamper “Birthday Crazy” set.

I used the same border stamp on the envelope then stamped some stars all over it using the same Distress Ink colours as the background of the card.

This dream will be slumbering in the following challenges:
Pile It On Challenge #9: Happy Birthday
Love To Create Challenge #55: Pick 2 Items to Use on Your Card (die cuts & ribbon)
Cupcake Craft Challenge #232: Sparkle
Love To Scrap! Challenge #1: Anything Goes
Challenge 4 Everybody #15: Anything Goes
Paper Playtime Challenge #5: Anything Goes
The Corrosive Challenge #169: All That Glitters
CTV Stamps DT Challenge #26: “It’s So You”
One Crazy Stamper March “Anything Goes” Challenge
Spark Your Creativity Now! Challenge #7: Anything Goes

I dreamt I was sitting in a saddle atop a giant yellow butterfly, soaring through the skies. I was on my way to a distant town to compete in a baking competition for a large purse of gold coins. I awoke from my dream with sunlight streaming across the floor of my sleeping chambers, the dream bear gone. Now that I was awake, I’m not even certain I had encountered the fabled creature, or if it was all a dream.

~ Guild Master Crystal ~

Maxwell's Big Win

Today the Lady Commander of Copics left to Mount Moonstar to ride a snow plank down the side of the mountain...for fun. I told her there wasn’t time to be endangering her life for fun when there were so many quests to be completed - she could endanger her life completing them! She said it was a dual purpose trip as she was aiding the Moonstar Mice prepare for their annual Winter Games event that is held on the mountain. I chuckled to myself picturing the little guys riding down the hills on tiny little snow planks. Then I decided to turn that idle thought into a card.

I started by stamping the “Maxwell Snowboarding” Kraftin’ Kimmie image and colouring him with Prismacolors. I set him aside and started working on the background. I had an idea to try after watching my lord husband airbrush a background using a stencil and thought I could apply the same technique using Distress Inks and the blending tool.

I started by cutting a tag shape from the Winter Woodland cartridge that reminded me of clouds. Then I used my newly created “stencil” and Weathered Wood Distress Ink to make the cloud/snow puffs. I was pleased with how it looked and saved the “stencil” for use in future projects. I earned +150 technique exp points for successfully trying something new. Using the Winter Woodland cartridge I also cut out the sentiment and the snowflake for the front of the card, adding some glitter to the snowflake to sparkle up the front.

Ooooooo....sparkly :D

On the inside I cut out another tag shape from the Winter Woodland cartridge and stamped the sentiment using the BugBites “Mistletoe” set and the Echo Park “Holly Jolly Christmas” set.

I liked how the clouds/snow puffs looked so much, I did it on the envelope too to make it match the card.

This little guy will snowboard into the following challenges:
Kraftin’ Kimmie Challenge: Anything Goes
CHNC Challenge #107: Rudolph is Resting
Fairy tale Challenge #58: Animals & Pets
Love to Create Challenge #48: Sparkle & Snowflakes
Creative Card Crew Challenge #27: Snow and Ice
Paper Playtime Challenge #1: Pets
ABC Christmas Challenge: A for Animal
Christmas Cards All Year ‘Round: Anything Goes Christmas
Spark Your Creativity Now! Challenge #5: Anything Goes
CHNC Challenge Extra: January

With the Lady Commander’s help, the Moonstar Mice Winter Games went off without a hitch. She ended up judging the snow plank competition and awarding the winning mouse, Maxwell, with a shiny medal and an invite to visit us at the Guild Hall whenever he was in our end of the realm.

~ Guild Master Crystal ~

A Gauntlet in Every Colour

In an effort to keep things tidy around the Guild Hall, I decided to go through our winter armour and see if there was any we could get rid of. To my surprise, I found piles and piles of gauntlets in various colours and materials. I hailed the Lady Commander of Copics and asked her why we had such a collection of fur-lined winter gauntlets. She shrugged and said she needed a pair to match each winter cloak. If she wanted to match all her outerwear I suggested she just get mittens, which was much more cost effective than purchasing a new piece of armour each time. Rolling her eyes she said, “Mittens? How much will those increase my defense? +2 AT MOST? I need gauntlets!” And with that she stormed off, her rainbow scarf trailing behind her. I shook my head and began packing up the multi-coloured gauntlets. 

I started this card by stamping one of the images from The Greeting Farm’s “Miss Anya Scarves” set (which is brand spanking new!) onto watercolour paper. I coloured her with Distress Markers and my legendary Hydra Brush. I wasn’t super pleased with the finished colouring job; I find it easier to watercolour larger images and she is smaller than the “regular” Anyas. The background paper I used from a pack of Michaels Christmas paper that I’ve had since forever! The brads are also from my older stash, having purchased them at a craft fair in 2011. I stamped a banner from Lawn Fawn’s “Bannerific” set and then the sentiment from the BugBites “Mistletoe” set inside. I cut the snowflakes using the Winter Woodland cartridge, adhered them together and added some glitter to match the sparkly ribbon.

The inside shape was also cut from the Winter Woodland cartridge as well as the small snowflake. The inside sentiment is also from the BugBites “Mistletoe” set. Love me some puns. In fact, between this card and the other pun-filled card I made today, I gained +100 bonus punny exp points.

I decorated the envelope using some Recollections brand snowflake stamps. Overall I wasn’t super happy with this card. I wish I’d made it A2 rather than A6 because Miss Anya Scarves is so small (I didn’t realize this before I’d cut all the papers). I always default to the A6 size because I don’t have any A2 envelopes, so I end up having to make one (which uses up paper when I have a ginormous box of A6 envelopes). Oh well...hopefully the sparkles will blind people from realizing my blunder. 

**Sparkle ATTACK**

This wintery card will be blustering into the following challenges:
The Perfect Sentiment Challenge #61: Winter Wonderland
Pixie Dust Studio: Winter Challenge
Jingle Belles Challenge: Look What Santa Brought Me (Miss Anya Scarves!)
Cute Card Thursday Challenge #251: Beat the Blues
Simply Create Too Challenge #28: Let It Snow
CHNC Challenge #107: Rudolph is Resting
Little Scrap Pieces Fun Friday “Winter Blues” Challenge
Love To Create Challenge #48: Sparkle & Snowflakes
Creative Card Crew Challenge #27: Snow and Ice
Pause Dream Enjoy Challenge #1: Use Ribbon
Anyone for Anya: Snowflakes
Crafting For All Seasons Challenge #43: Something New (Miss Anya Scarves stamps is new!)
Christmas Cards All Year ‘Round January Challenge: Anything Goes Christmas
Spark Your Creativity Now! Challenge #5: Anything Goes
CHNC Challenge Extra: January

I sent a raven to Mikal, who owns the armour shop in the village, telling him to freeze the Lady Commander’s tab there. I’ll not have her spending the Guild Hall’s hard earned coins on any more pieces of coordinating armour. Sheesh!

~ Guild Master Crystal ~

Let's Go For a Skate

Today we received a message from the Rainbow Glitter Cavern workers asking us for help. It seems someone has been sneaking into the caverns and stealing the glitter plants. The Guardian of Glitter was outraged and was not about to let such an transgression go unpunished. The fastest way to Rainbow Glitter Cavern in the winter is to cross the Lake of Mirrors which is frozen solid during these frigid months. We donned our new Glide Boots and started the journey across the frozen water. To my surprise, the Guardian of Glitter was a natural in the Glide Boots! She sped across the ice never stumbling or slipping once. The Lady Commander of Copics and I followed shakily behind her, clutching each other for support.

I started by stamping Kraftin’ Kimmie’s “Antoinette” and colouring her up using Prismacolors. I added some glitter to the white portions of her dress to make it all glisteny and sparkly. [side note: I find it perfectly acceptable to turn any noun or verb into an adjective by adding a “y”. Lol...ok...carrying on]. After that was done, I went searching my stash for some background paper to use. I was delighted to come across a sheet of 4x6 Christmas journaling cards that had one that matched my image perfectly and had the perfect blank rectangle for her to go in! I totally forgot I had bought that paper! Jackpot! I then cut out a banner from Art Philosophy and stamped the sentiment on it. I decided it still looked a little plain, so I cut some snowflakes from the Winter Woodlands cartridge and glittered the heck out of them, earning myself +692 sparkle exp points!! Level up time!

The inside sentiment came from the My Pink Stamper “Biggie Christmas Sentiments” set. The pink holly was stamped from the Tim Holtz “Christmas Memories” set.

I also stamped some more pink holly on the envelope I made using my Scoring Board Of +70 Creasiness.

This glistening glittery wonder will be entered into the following challenges:
Kraftin’ Kimmie Challenge #157: Baby, It’s Cold Outside
Cute Card Thursday Challenge #245: Snowflakes!
Pause Dream Enjoy Challenge #48: Forgotten Stash
Cardz TV Stamps DT Challenge #20: To Die For
Speedy Fox and Friends Challenge #136: Christmas with no red or green
CHNC Challenge #101: Make It Girlie
Simon Says Stamp Challenge: Anything Goes
Fantabulous Cricut Challenge #140: Snow
Sparkles Christmas Challenge #23: Button or Bow
Jingle Belles: December to Remember
Hooked On Craft Challenge #27: Christmas
Penny Black Allsorts December Challenge: It’s Your Choice
One Crazy Stamper December Sketch or Holiday Card
Tammy’s Scrapin Corner Challenge #39: Anything Christmas

We finally reached the Rainbow Glitter Caverns and I was happy to get those Glide Boots off my feet! After some investigating we came across a couple footprints next to one of the missing glitter plants. Judging from the shape of the print, this could only be the work of the Cloven Sisters. They’ve been trying to get their hooves on some glitter plants to use in their ominous experiments for some time now. Looks like that was our next stop.

~ Guild Master Crystal ~

The adventure continues in Mr. Snow the Soul Stealer...

Outfitting the Animals

As the temperatures outside have continued to drop, the wild animals have started taking shelter in our stables and barn. The Lady Commander of Copics has taken pity on a few of the smaller ones that don’t have fur and started making tiny little winter clothes for them to wear. At first I thought she was crazy, but after I saw the first bird outfitted in its new winter gear, I had to admit it was pretty cute.

The bird was cut out from the 3 Birds On Parade cartridge, whereas the phrase came from the Winter Woodland cartridge. The Brrrr and pieces of the bird’s clothes were embossed using the Cuttlebug for some extra texture. I also sponged some white ink onto the bird’s clothes to make it look “frosty”. The background paper is from some old Recollections paper pack from Michaels. I added the snowflake ribbon and called it done.

The inside was stamped with a sentiment from the My Pink Stamper “Christmas Wishes” set. I added the “warm” using an alphabet set.

This tweet card will be entered into the following challenges:
Cricut Cardz Challenge #121: Speaking of Christmas
Creative Card Crew Challenge #24: Anything Goes
Christmas Stampin’ All Year Long Challenge #37: To Die 4
Pause Dream Enjoy Challenge #47: Anything Goes
Paper Playtime Challenge #89: Anything Goes
The Corrosive Challenge ##162: Flutter By
Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge: Three R’s (ribbon, red, Recollections paper)

Although it looked extremely cute, the little guy couldn’t really fly in his winter outfit, resorting to just hopping around. It could be my imagination, but I’m fairly certain I heard him let out a long sigh after numerous attempts.

~ Guild Master Crystal ~

Thanks Snow Much, Neighbour

Last week we were hit by a rather intense blizzard, receiving more than a foot of snow in less than 12 hours. It came to pass that in his wrath, Count Vicarian had hired an evil mage to bring down this storm upon the realm as the princess had refused his hand in marriage. Unharvested crops were ruined and people were left stranded far from their homes. I hooked up my direwolf to his sleigh and set out to rescue some of the stranded people while my lord husband worked on removing the snow from the entrance to the Guild Hall. All he had to work with was a crude spade and the going was slow. It was then he noticed a man in the neighbouring property clearing the snow with ease using a whirring magical machine. Seeing my lord husband struggling with his spade, the kind man offered to let him use his machine to rid our property of the white flakes that had amassed. To express our gratitude, I retrieved a bottle of wine from the cellars and crafted a tag for it to give to the kind man.

The tag I cut out using the Art Philosophy cartridge. I inked the edges with Distress ink then gave the tag a quick spritz with Dylusions spray ink. I then used the Dylusions Luscious Leaves stencil and Perfect Pearls Mist to spray the icy pattern on the tag, earning me +103 ice elemental magic exp points. 

I cut the word snow from the Winter Woodlands cartridge and stamped the thanks and much using Lawn Fawn’s “Jessie’s ABCs”. I dug into my hoard and found some blue baker’s twine I had purchased at the market about six months ago and have yet to use once. I used it to tie a bow and attach the tag to a bottle of wine to present to our neighbour.

This icy thank you will be entered into the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Challenge: Thanksgiving/Thank You  
Shopping Our Stash Challenge #77: Thank You or Thanksgiving   
Pixie Dust Studio Challenge: Thanksgiving or Thank You
Charisma Cardz Challenges #45: Keep Your Cool!
4 Crafty Chicks Challenge #116: Winter (I’m from Edmonton, AB so I feel your pain)
Creative Card Crew Challenge #23: Silver and Blue
Pause Dream Enjoy Challenge #46: Thank You Projects
Tammy’s Scrapin Corner Challenge #36: Anything Goes
Use It Tuesday Challenge #43: Be Thankful (blue twine)

Once we had rescued the stranded people and rid the entrance of the snow, it was time to formulate a plan to bring down the Count. I sent out ravens to the Guardian of Glitter, Lady Commander of Copics, Guild Apprentice Lindsay, and even though she is expensive, Kimberley the Mercenary. We were going to need all the help we could get.

~ Guild Master Crystal ~