Christmas Card Club 2020- #2 Holly and/or Ivy

This fortnights challenge has been chosen by Elizabeth, and she'd like to see Holly and/or Ivy on our cards. We also are welcoming a new member to the group, Linda, so we are all looking forward to seeing what she creates.
I've made 4 cards for this challenge, all pretty much identical.
I've taken Holly as my theme. The holly background in 3 of them is a Sweet Poppy Large background stencil, and I covered the paste in glitter while it was wet. The two on the left are two-tone, top one a mix of green & silver, the bottom one copper and green.  On the right, the top one is green glitter, and the bottom one is stamped with a 'cover a card' stamp from Impression Obsession.

 Here you can see the details of them a little better.


I matted them onto dark green card, then mounted them onto my card base, which are just under 6" square.

Next I stamped an old Chocolate Baroque stamp, Holly Script, in gold and heat embossed with Gold detail powder, then cut them down to a tag shape. I cut the same size tags in dark red, and ran through an Embossing Folder from Creative Expressions, called Festive Greetings. I layered them together, slightly offset, and added a small ribbon detail.
 I mounted them to the card front with some foam tape, for a little dimension.

The final addition was a glittered holly bough, taken from the CB stamp. I'd stamped onto acetate, then glittered and finally cut out. A few small spots of silicone glue adhered them over the holly image on the tags.

A peel off sentiment finished them off. I only wanted a small sentiment, and this helps use up some of my peel off mountain! I stuck the peel off onto scraps of the green card, then matted onto scraps of the red.

Lots of quick die cut cards!

Right, lots of cards here, all using die cuts, some as a frame, some as the main focal point.
 The top three use frame dies, and a Happy Birthday sentiment die from Quietfire/ Creative Expressions.They're all backed onto glitter cardstock, and the sentiment layered with black craft foam.

These four used up some scenic stamping images I'd done in the past that were in my UFO box,
The leaf shape is a Sizzix Framelits die called Birch Leaf.
 The star is from a set I think I picked up in The Works.
 The circle one is a die that was gifted to me, so I'm not sure exactly what it is. The die is white in colour, and I'm afraid I don't know who makes those, if anyone does, I'd love to know.

 All the cards use a C5 card base.


The embossing folders I used are ( far left) Ocean Waves, Creative Expressions, and on the right, Swallow Pattern, from X-Cut.
























These use a die by Memory Box, called Large Circle Burst.
 In each case I've backed them with glitter card, and then added a
Tim Holtz Butterfly die cut.
 I'll leave adding sentiments to these, so I can use them for many different occasions.

Not sure where the medallion die came from, may have been gifted. It's backed with a glitter paper with a shiny coating.

These use the Circle burst die again, and a die cut birthday sentiment.  The card bases are 5" square.

 The tree outline die I think came from Aliexpress, as I was trying to find the Memory Box version, but it seems to have been discontinued.
 The Chinese Lanterns is a stencil by Sweet Poppy, and was done in Bronze stencil paste.





Again, leaving the sentiment until I need them for something.

One of the cards from the first picture, the die is from Paper Trey Ink, called Quatrefoil.
 I matted it onto some rainbow glitter card, then added the sentiment layering it with black craft foam for dimension.

Here I've used a sable brown glitter card for the top one, and gold for the bottom. The sentiment done the same as before.I think a lot of these would make great cards for men, even with the glitter!

Final card is for a relatives birthday in December .

 I cut the panel from some metallic blue cardstock, and then cut the number from another scrap of it. It's backed with blue glitter paper. The TODAY word is a die I was gifted, and I think it was from a Stephanie Weightman set.

    

WOYWW #411

Nearly missed another weeks WOYWW- just realised in time what day it actually is! Where we work, we have Monday and Tuesday holiday for Easter, as we only work half a day on Friday anyway, and I only just realised today is Tuesday, so I need to get my post sorted out.  Regulars will know that Julia, over at The Stamping Ground is our weekly host for this blogfest.
Sorting out Christmas images for the Christmas Card Club post, and came across these, which mostly just need some colour adding to make them usable.

Had another bunch of images I decided to cut into tags, using the Sizzix Thinlits Tags die set.
 No idea where I'm going with these yet, they will probably end up back in the poly envelope until inspiration strikes.
 I think the first batch will get some colour using the Starlights paints from Imagination crafts, so that will most likely keep me occupied this evening. Some may just get some dye inks sponged on, we shall see.
 All of these have been lying around for a few years now- I tend to stamp up a number of any image while I have the stuff out!
 Short and sweet this week, so I'll see you later.

Simple stencilled Christmas Cards.

 A total of 9 new cards, using two different stencils, and one Greeting stamp.






The stamp is from Honey Doo crafts, called Mini Happy Christmas. It measures 2 1/4" x 4", so it's actually quite a good size.

The two stencils are ST Poinsettia Multi from Imagination Crafts, and one called Snow Flurry by That Special Touch,from Creative Expressions.

 Both measure approximately 6" square.





I stamped up a batch of the greetings, to give me some choice, using a Clear Embossing pad, and an assortment of WOW! embossing powders I bought from Chloes Creative Cards at the Happy Stampers last week. Looking at the labels, it says they are inspired by Chloe Endean, and the set is called Festive Collection. I also used a couple of my own mix of sparkly embossing powders.
It's simple to mix your own, just remember to have more EP than glitter in your mix, I'd say no more than a quarter glitter to EP.

These little boxes of tiny tubs are ideal for doing this and storing them in- from E-bay, they are empty nail art pots.
So, on to the cards.







This one with the blue snowflakes, I'd done in White Stencil Paste, then sprinkled with a blue glitter before it dried.
It's matted onto some shiny textured blue paper I had. As the paper was quite thin, I mounted it onto some spare cardstock first, then trimmed it down to size.
 The greeting for this one was embossed with an EP called 'Arctic Blue'. I matted the greeting onto the same paper, and as it was being attached to a glittery and uneven surface, I used Pinflair Glue to do this.
Just a few blobs is all you need.







I debated whether to put it straight, or at an angle. The angle won!
All the cards use a 7"x7" square card base.

This gold one had one of my own mix EP's on it. It's a mix of gold Ultrafine Glitter & Stampendous Embossing Powder in Gold Detail.
 The Poinsettia  background was done with Gold Sparkle Stencil paste this time.

Silver Sparkle Stencil paste used here, and my own Silver Glitter embossing powder.

Silver Paste again, and the same Embossing powder. Just silver ultrafine glitter and Stampendous Silver Detail EP.

This one had white Stencil Paste sprinkled with Crystal glitter, and the EP is called  'Jingle Bells'.

Three red Poinsettia stencils, two done with Red Sparkle stencil paste, and one with white paste, sprinkled with red glitter. The EP is called 'Sparkling Poinsettia'.
 They are backed onto gold glitter card, as I discovered I had no red glitter card at all.

Final card is using Green Sparkle Stencil Paste, and the Greeting is embossed with 'Golden Pine' EP.

Final touch was to add some acrylic gems to the centre of the snowflakes, and on the dot above the 'i' in Christmas.

   The same thing with the centre of the poinsettias, two have clear gems, and one has red ones.

Red gems used on the silver, gold and green ones.

WOYWW #338

Hello again, and here we are, all linking up with Julia at The Stamping Ground, to continue our weekly round of desk surfing around the world. As we are almost at the end of November, I think it is now acceptable to talk about Christmas cards in polite company. At the NEC a few weeks ago, I saw a great card, made with the stamp on the right of this picture, called Pear Square.
It was heat embossed in gold on black card, then matted onto white, then black, and finally onto a white card base. Looked lovely. So hence I bought the stamp. And beloved Hubby liked the other one, so got that as well.

So out came the black card I ordered last week. Along with a Gold Encore Pigment pad,last used back at the dawn of time, and amazingly, still nice and juicy, although I do have a re-inker, it wasn't needed. Gold detail embossing powder, and a little anti static thingy supposed to help the EP to only stick where its supposed to.

I've only got one stamped, as I wanted to make sure it was going to stamp and emboss nice and clearly, especially the script detail. But it's looking good, so tomorrow I will matt it all up, and see if I still like it.I hope I do, as I haven't actually got a plan B organised yet.
 So, fairly short and sweet for once- have I been swapped by body snatchers, I wonder. Unlikely, nobody would want this particular body, I'm pretty sure, lol. Have a lovely Wednesday everyone, I'll be round to visit in a while.

WOYWW #336- The Nec Edition

Yes indeed, it is the NEC edition, linking up with Julia at The Stamping Ground. First thing I will say is that very early on- the second aisle to be precise,- I admitted defeat and let Hubby go and get a wheelchair to push me round in. We'd started down the first aisle, and halfway down was Inkylicious, so we stopped to shop there. By the time I was paying for what we'd chosen, I felt like I was going to faint. So we headed back to the entrance, and I sat on a chair for a while.
 When I felt ok, we resumed where we left off, and finished aisle one, and got halfway up aisle two, as far as Visible Image. Same thing happened again, and I paid for my stamps and we went back to the entrance so I could sit down. At this point I had to admit that there was no way on earth I was going to be able to walk the whole show, and let Hubby go off to get a wheelchair, as they hire them out, as well as mobility scooters.He came back with a mobility scooter, as they had no wheelchairs left. I hadn't wanted one of those, as being a non driver, I had expectations of destroying stands and displays all round the hall.It turned out to actually be very easy to use, and made the world of difference for me.So, on to the spoils of my rampage around the show:

A small selection from Inkylicious, and some from Lavinia stamps- most of the stamps bought today were a joint choice, my Enabler was very restrained this time, I have to admit. Can't remember where I got the little Gorjuss stamps from, but they were only £1.75 each.

On to Visible Image, the site of my second almost faint, sorry, Mark & Helen! I bought a few stamps that time, and went back a little later and got the others I wanted.

Some more stamps from Cardio, loved the penguins and snowmen! The two Creative Expressions stamps came from The Art of Craft, after I saw some stunning samples done with them.

Could not resist these when I spotted them, I remember reading somewhere that they were not going to be made available over here, so grabbed them while I had the chance.It's the stamp and die set of accessories for the Crazy Bird stamps. The Crazy Words stamp was Hubbies choice.

 A cardstock selection- some Lavinia Stamps scenescapes, some Lavinia Matt cardstock, a few sheets of embossed card in black, and some card blanks. I really do like the square format, I think it's my favourite base.

Some dies and stencils- Sweet Poppy metal stencils, and a variety of plastic ones.The dies were a couple of Happy Birthday ones, including the large one at the front, which will make a card on it's own, layered up. I think this pic contains most of Hubbies enabling, lol.



 

  The square Dylusions journal was a surprise to come across, I've only ever seen the A4 & A5 version. A Tim Holtz spray bottle, and a couple of sheets of chipboard letters & numbers, along with a sheet of Cut n Dry. Can never have too much of that stuff.

Finally, the odds and ends. I visited the Powertex stand, as I'd seen the Buddha heads on Kylas blog earlier in the week, and I've wanted some for ages. I also came across a lovely Green Lady, and a pack with two Native American casts in, so was very pleased.The packs of craft bottles were in a £1 bargain bin,there are two rolls of ribbon with a golden Bee on, from the same place, I spotted the box of wooden cogs on another stall, and finally, 3 rolls of masking tape!
 Thanks to having the mobility scooter, I got to really enjoy the day, and could take my time browsing. Which may account for spending so much, lol.
 But, I can now get up and down to my craft room unsupervised, which means I can spend some time crafting, instead of reading or just surfing the net. First job, however , will be to get this lot loaded into Evernote!  
I will do some extra posts showing the stamps and stuff completely, as in these pics they are lay atop each other, but that's for another day. I'll be visiting later, have a nice Wednesday everyone.

First Holy Communion

 On my WOYWW post, I had a part made card in the background, which used one of those glittered medallion crosses I'd made. The Stamp is by Creative Expressions, called Large Kildare Cross, and it was stamped onto Transparency film using Black Staz-on. I'd stamped out four, and one was glittered in pinks, one blues, and two in whites/silvers, as I expected to use them mainly for Christening cards. However, the white ones became the perfect idea for this Holy Communion card.









I had to wait till today to post this, as the girl it is made for is the daughter of a couple we work with, and they were returning to Poland last night, ready for their daughters First Holy Communion next Sunday.
I stuck to a completely white on white theme, using two shades of pearl white card, one for the base card & embossed panels, and one for the matting layer between them. The matting layer was cut slightly smaller than the base card, and the two embossed panels were trimmed down to also leave a border on the panel.These were stuck to the matting layer with DST and I made the embossed pieces roughly 2/3 and 1/3- it seemed to give a better balance than half & half. The join was covered with a wide layer of white organza ribbon, topped with a band of narrower silky ribbon, then topped with a bow from the organza ribbon.
 This whole panel was added to the front of the card with DST again, then I positioned the cross using blobs of silicone glue, which gave a little dimension, as well as gripping the glittered surface well.
 After the cross had stuck properly, I added the flatback pearls on all the visible 'dots' of the folder design.
 The sentiment panel is using Nesties Labels 4, large & small. The words are computer printed onto some white gloss embossing paper I bought a long time ago, and am coming to the end of. I've never been able to get it again, which is a shame. It means you can print onto it via a computer & printer, then heat emboss it.
 I added a few white flowers, just constructed by using assorted small flower punches.

This is the detail from a card I posted a while ago, and shows how the Medallion Cross can look layered up.This one was stamped In Pearlescent Brilliance inks, onto Pearl card.


 A slight change to how I post today, I think. Instead of adding links to what I've used throughout the post, I thought I'd try doing a list, with links at the end. So here goes:

  Creative Expressions, Large Kildare Cross.
  PDA Card & Paper,White Pearl Card.
  Flatback Pearls ( this lady has masses of colours & sizes, as well as acrylic gemstones.)
 Quickutz Diamond Dots folder ( I can only find it on Amazon .com)