Another Day, another Christmas card.

Well, as you can see, I went for an easel style with these. They use a Sweet Poppy Stencil, called Snowflake Bauble, with Stencil Paste and glitter.



After the stencil paste was added, I sprinkled each of the three baubles with a different colour glitter. It's reasonably easy to do, just make sure you tip the excess in each colour away from the other designs.

When I'd completed them all, they were put aside to dry overnight.

I decided they needed a bit more sparkle, so added toning  acrylic gems to each bauble.

This Crafts Too embossing folder,- which appears to be discontinued, as I just tried a search, but it's 'currently unavailable' everywhere- has a variety of Christmas Greetings, some Embossed, some debossed. You could use it whole, or as I have here, and cut the greetings into strips.


They've been matted onto black, and a very thin border left, then mounted with foam pads to make the 'stopper' for the easel card.

The base paper I used is from the reduced packs I bought in Hobbycraft recently. See post here.

One last card made with the Baubles stencil.

Wedding & Anniversary Cards

 Two cards made this week, the front Easel card for a Ruby Wedding Anniversary, and the Silver & White at the back for a Wedding Acceptance. Not something I've been asked to make before.
 The Wedding Acceptance uses the Memory Box dies La Rue heart, and the matching Grand Heart for the backing. I die cut the Grand Heart from white pearl card, and the La Rue overlay from a silvery paper. A few silver & white flowers were made using the Tim Holtz strip die, Tattered Flower Garland. I used a mix of silver, white & vellum for those and filled the centres with seed beads.The Bride & Groom are the Stampendous stamp, At the Altar, stamped once onto black card for the groom, then onto white pearl card for the bride, and finally onto vellum to cut out the overdress. I added a little Diamond Stickles to give her dress a bit of sparkle.
The Lattice background is a Quickutz folder, Diamonds & Dots.

 The Easel Anniversary card uses the same folder, and hearts. The flowers on here are a mix of Tims Tattered Florals Movers & Shapers, and Tattered Florals Bigz die. I like that you can mix all these flower dies together and get an endless variety of flower shapes & sizes. Dark Red ribbon was wrapped around the Lattice before matting onto dark red card, and the sentiment was computer printed and cut out with Nesties Labels 4. I had one set of these, the large, but ended up eventually getting the small set too, which gives less of a margin between the layers. Sometimes I felt the gap was too big between the layers on the single set.

Christmas cards from 2012

Going to try getting back to some crafting this week, but I thought I'd post up the Christmas cards I was working on before I fractured my shoulder. I realised I hadn't actually put them up yet, as I didn't get them finished.

These three all feature a stamp called Angel Chorus Collage,by Rubber Stampede. I've used this stamp and technique here, its a technique I remembered seeing in a magazine a few years ago, but I really can't remember which magazine, nor the persons name.
The image was stamped first on cream card, in gold, and heat embossed with gold powder. I repeated this onto plain vellum.

The cream card was sponged with Antique Linen and Old Paper Distress inks, just on the musical score section.
Last time I used this image, I coloured the angels on the card,this time I used Promarkers to colour the Angels just on the vellum. I did this by flipping them over and colouring on the reverse of the image.Promarkers don't blend on vellum in the same way as on paper, as the ink stays quite wet, but this doesn't matter as you are colouring the reverse. Doing it this way gives you a nice 'soft' feel to the image, and you don't have to be over fussy with your colouring. You could also use oil pastels, like for Pergamano work, or H2O's.
When the angels were coloured, I carefully tore around them, and matted them, right way up now, on the card image. I used Pinflair gel glue for this, as it didn't show through the vellum.



 
  I trimmed up the edges to match and matted onto gold card. The image was then added to the front panel for Easel cards. I've used a random selection of backing papers for the cards- I have so much Christmas paper from years gone by, so I'm not getting any more till I've used this stuff up!



The Layered Poinsettia is from the Nestabilities range- I cut the petals out of red & green paper that had a speckled effect. The only part of the die I didn't use was the centres- I used some gold beads for these, as I  didn't like the flat effect from the die cut. You can see Tim Holtz Rosettes on the top left one, and the one above has Tim's Snowflake rosette on.
                      






The white flowers are a mix of small punches, and flowers from the Tattered Florals strip die. The gold flourish on the left, I can't remember whose die it is, sorry, the one on the lower right is a Cheery Lyn, Joycraft die.

This last one used a panel I had created before, using a Papermania 'Baubles' embossing folder, and the image stamped onto Acetate is from Butterfly Kisses,Saint Nick, available now through HobbyArt.
 After I stamped it onto acetate ( I actually use Transparency Film) with Black Staz-on, I covered the back of the image with double sided adhesive film, then sprinkled Crystal glitter over it.
 See here, if you want to see how I altered the folder so I could emboss in this direction.

Long Time No See

Been quite a while since I last posted, but life kept getting in the way! I'll post some pictures another time of the stuff thats been going on in the house, which is gradually getting sorted. But I thought I'd post a few pictures of stuff I've been doing over the last few months, and apologies to everyone who has kept up visiting, only to find nothing new.

These two cards were for the same wedding- always a problem making cards to go to the same people! Both of the people who ordered them wanted Easel cards.
 The flowers on both are the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals- I got the large & small versions,( Alterations & Movers & Shapers) which gives me even more adaptability when building up flowers. In the Gold card, I used a Celtic Horseshoe stamp. I think this came from the Aspects Of Design range, quite a few years ago, and I am pretty sure it is discontinued, which is a shame. Also used Tims Flourish die, and Nesties Labels 7. The centres of the flowers were filled with Glossy Accents and seed beads. The large Congratulations was cut out with the Silhouette.

The Black & White card has flowers cut from vellums and black & white pearl paper, triple embossed hearts in black & silver and Nesties Labels 4. I used black & white seed beads for the centres of the flowers again.

I'm also discovering that Blogger has changed a little while I've been gone!  I am not having any trouble posting any more, which is good, but I really don't like the changes they have made to the 'Labels' section. Maximum number of labels, ok, I was getting my head around that, learning to be brief, then I discover its a maximum number of characters too. What on earth is that all about? Its our blog, why does it matter how many tags we put on a post, or how many characters it uses? Not a happy bunny. Going to try another post using Livewriter and see if it applies through that too. I suspect it will, as its a Blogger rule. Off over to Blogger to find out what they are playing at, lol.

Winter Moon Post-it note Holder

 This months challenge was all about Silhouettes, and for my second piece, I used a stamp from Non Sequiteur, from the plate 71c, Winter Solstice.









First I stamped  in Distress Black Soot onto a piece of White Pearlescent card. I then stamped the image onto  a couple of joined together post-it notes, and cut out the moon to use as a mask while I sponged on the colour.I used Sailboat Blue, Stream & Denim, then added some Eggplant round the edges. I also masked off the lower half of the image while I did this, again using post-its.

Now I switched over the post-its, and sponged the bottom of the image with Sunshine Yellow, Sunset Orange, Butterscotch and Rust.

This is the finished image with all the post-its removed. Using a white pearl card as a base gives the Moon a nice sheen.

Trimmed down to size, and ready for mounting,which I did onto dark blue card.I cut a base card to the same size as the mounted image, and folded it Easel style.On the bottom I added a strip of the dark blue card that I ran through my 'bug in a Lattice folder, then mounted a pad of Post-it notes with DST.

A really useful and quick to make pressie for someones desk, and you could swap the stamped image for a photo- or a little frame so the photo could be changed.

Ruby Anniversary Easel card

Had some some fun playing with new dies I bought this week: the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals,Movers & Shapers Tattered Florals,Elegant Flourish, and Memory Box La Rue Heart.  I had seen so many good things done with the Tim Holtz dies, and they are so much fun to work with.
 The Lattice 40 was a design I found on UKScrappers, for the Silhouette, posted by a lady called Neries, and her name links to the page it is posted on. I cut it from dark red paper, than layered it onto a pale gold paper.
 The Gold Anniversary backing paper, and the White Congratulations paper are both by Craft Creations, and come in a range of colours with gold or silver foiled print.
  The La Rue heart was cut from the same pale gold paper, and matted onto a heart cut from the dark red paper. I loved the elegant filigree design of the heart, and there is also a heart die that cuts out the block shape. I didn't get that one, I just cut around the outside of the filigree design when it was stuck down, but the die would be useful, I think. I mounted the heart with sticky tabs, using one layer at the front and two layers at the back to give it a little dimension.

I cut out a selection of flowers and flourishes in various card and paper , and curled the petals with the handle of a small paintbrush, then used an embossing stylus in the centres to give them all some shape.

 The layers of petals were stacked up using silicone glue.
The addition of same small seed beads to the centres, with Glossy Accents, finished them off nicely.
 The 40 was added with sticky pads, and then some Burgundy acrylic hearts on to this with a tiny spot of silicone glue. I used silicone glue again to mount the flowers, along with some short pieces of gold & burgundy ribbon. I tucked the two Elegant Flourishes in behind the flowers.

85th Birthday

The lady who ordered the Ruby Anniversary card, also wanted a card for her Mothers 85th Birthday, and again I went with an easel design. The base and face of the easel were covered in a rose print paper, and both edged with a silver peeloff border and corners. as the lady seems to be wearing a pale lilac and silver dress, I went with these colours for the card. I cut silver & lilac paper with a deckle edge blade on three sides, then punched a fancy border on the last side. These were layered up, then the photo matted on top. I wrapped White & lilac ribbon around the front and tied in a bow before I mounted it onto the easel. A triple embossed heart in White & silver finished the front. The base uses Nesties Petite scalloped rectangles, again in Silver & lilac with white/lilac roses (Craft Creations) in the corners.The word MOM was cut out with a Quickutz squeeze and Alphabet die. Its been a very long time since I last used that- I'm not even sure if they are still making them! I bought it very early in my crafting, to add names, ages etc to cards, then got annoyed at not having any real choice in size of letters, and that I would constantly have to buy new Alpha sets if I wanted a different style, and still not have much of a size range. So I ended up buying a Silhouette digital cutter- I found them on a really good promotion, loved the fact that I could cut any font on my PC, in any size I wanted. I have had it now for about 7 years, and I have to say it was the best money ever spent, when you consider the cost of Alphabet sets/shape dies for manual machines.

Happy Birthday Marg

This card couldn't be posted until today, as it was for my co- Mother-in-Laws birthday, known to all of you as Silvercrafter.  The Crafty Individuals 4 Birds stamp was stamped onto an alcohol inked background, made using Lettuce,Meadow & Espresso ink. The larger panel was sponged with a variety of inks, then overstamped with a selection of grasses stamps. Then I ran it through the Cuttlebug in the Birds & Swirls folder. Both pieces were matted onto dark Burgundy card. The backing paper is a Kay & co one I have had for a long time, a 12x12 piece which features the meaning of flowers.The base was covered with a word printed vellum, and a label cut from Nesties has a stamped sentiment. I added three flowers, together with a couple of skeleton leaves.

WOYWW #102

Happy WOYWW to all, lets hope that Blogger decides to let us play this week! I shall try to get around everyone over the next few days- overtime at work, so I am up at 5.00am, not getting home till 4.30 pm, then shower, do lunches, cook dinner, collapse! Anyway, here is my offering for the weekly stalk, lol.

This is what was on my desk this week- a 75th Birthday card for a work colleagues Mom.

  This is how it came together- some gold paper overstamped with an ornate background stamp for the bottom, and some gorgeous embossed vellum by K & Co to 
go on the main panel.

 

 Harlequin Rose panel, Elusive Images, was matted onto Gold card embossed with a Cuttlebug and Forest Branches folder.I wrapped a band of gold organza ribbon round this, then knotted some cream ribbon over it.

Then mounted it onto the front panel.

  I added some triple embossed hearts.

   

   

Then the numbers 75, cut from gold card on my Silhouette, and embossed with the Swiss Dots folder.

My Silhouette.

The finished card, with sentiment cut out with the Silhouette, along with a matt for it. 

Simple Easel

The background here is brayered using only Adirondack Pool. The Penny Black Aspire is stamped in Ancient Page Flannel Grey, 3 times with a first generation image and once with a second generation.It was trimmed and matted onto black card. I embossed a sheet of white card and a sheet of black card using the Cuttlebug folder 'Swiss Dots'. The card was cut to the length of the folder, and twice as wide, then it was was run through sideways to be able to emboss a piece big enough for the card. Any dots that were flattened were just re-embossed using a stylus with the card placed on the folder. The image was matted onto the white card, and the black piece was used for the base. Offcuts of both were used to make the matts for the sentiment, cut out with Nesties Long Classic Rectangles Small. The piece for the sentiment was also cut out with the same set, but from a plain piece of card. 4 pieces of ribbon in Black & Teal were tied in a bow and added to the corner.

Friends are Like Angels....

This one uses the Penny Black stamp Aspire, and it was stamped using Forest Moss distress ink on the stems, and Colorbox Cats Eye Terracotta on the flowers.The background was brayered with Adirondack Lemonade/ Sunshine Yellow/Butterscotch. The image was stamped 3 times at various heights, then cut into 3 panels, the centre one wider than the outer ones.They were matted onto a dark orange piece of card.I used the Quickutz embossing folder, Diamonds & Dots to emboss a sheet of white card, cut it to the length of the folder and twice as wide. The phrase, Friends are like angels, Hobby Art GR1353DD, was stamped in Butterscotch onto a similar piece of brayered card as the one I used for the image.This was cut out with a large Nestie Petite scalloped oval, and a matt cut out in dark brown with the largest die.The base of the card was covered in a matching sheet of paper, Papermania Earthtones pack. A butterfly brad was added to the panel before it was stuck in place.

Fairy Easel

This card uses all Lavinia Stamps-Dandelions, 3 small dancing Fairies and Fairy dust is like love phrase. The background was brayered with Adirondack Sandal & Latte on the bottom and Cool Peri on the top, with a Post-it note mask. The dandelions stamps has three different flowerheads, and I just used one, stamped three times at varying heights. I stamped in Versafine black, and added a little sparkly embossing powder to the heads. The top part of the moon also has a sparkle, and this was completely accidental! When I tipped off the embossing powder, some of it stuck to the area the post-its glue strip had been.One of the three dancing fairies was also stamped in black, then I used Stickles 'Crystal' to add to her wings and for 'fairy dust' she is sprinkling on the flower heads. The image was trimmed and matted onto a pearlescent blue card.
The phrase was stamped onto an offcut from the image, and also matted onto blue card.
 I used a Quickutz embossing folder,Diamonds & Dots, to emboss a piece of white card which I added to the card base. The stamped phrase was added with a little silicone glue, then a matching silver/blue ribbon wrapped around with a folded bow on top.

Stampscapes Easel

Background brayered in Adirondack Sandal & Latte, with a post-it note mask for the sun.Stampscapes  Pine Row,150E, and Single Pine, 196F, both from the same U/m Nature sheet as the next card, were stamped in Distress ink Forest Moss. The flight of ducks,(Lavinia Stamps) and sentiment, (Butterfly Kisses Art Collage clear stamp set) were stamped in Adirondack Espresso. The image was trimmed and matted onto dark green, dark brown, then a steel grey card. For the base of the easel, I punched a strip with an X-Cut Fleur Di Lis punch, then added a strip of the grey card. A wide green ribbon was wrapped around, and a folded bow added to the top with glue dots.

Easel Card 2

A piece of white card was brayered with Adirondack Shell pink, then left to dry completely. The Penny Black stamp 'Aspire' 3381K, was stamped 3 times across the panel in Ancient Page Flannel, which is a dark grey, then the flowers only had a little sparkly embossing powder added to them and heated. I cut the image into three panels, with the centre one being wider than the two outer ones and matted them onto a piece of pale mauve card.This was trimmed to leave a narrow border, and a length of dotted mauve ribbon wrapped around and secured on the back with DST. A small bow was made and added with a glue dot.
My base card was cut down to the width of my stamped panel, scored and folded.The part of the card that will form the base it stands on was covered in a Purple lined paper, again adhered with DST.
To make the 'stopper', I cut a panel of silver card, and punched two strips of dark purple vellum to make the lacy edge. This was done with a fancy corner punch with the guides removed. The vellum strips were attached either side of the silver panel  with DST. I punched another strip of the purple vellum with a butterflies punch, from X-Cut, and stuck this along the centre of the silver card then edged with silver peeloff border. The whole thing was then trimmed to size and mounted to the base with foam pads. A sentiment was stamped and heat embossed, then cut out using a petite scalloped oval Nestie die. A hole was punched either end, and a small piece of the dotted ribbon threaded through, and mounted with silicone glue.

Easel card 3

This card uses a stamp called Flying Stars, Penny Black 3636K. I stamped in black Versafine twice  onto card that had been brayered with Adirondack Shell Pink, just using one colour to build up over the card. I added an acrylic gem to the centre of each flower, and a small padded butterfly to the top of the image.This was then matted onto black card and trimmed. The actual card was cut to the width of the stamped panel and scored & folded. For the base of the card, I cut a panel of pink flowery vellum, and edged it with a pink peel-off border.To make up the base 'stopper', I cut a small panel from the offcut of the base card, and added a punched border  made from white paper using a Dovecraft border punch.I wrapped a length of pink organza ribbon around this then added  a stamped sentiment using an offcut from the brayered pink card. Two Nesties from the Long Classic Scalloped Rectangles Small set were used to cut this out & matt onto black card .Silicone glue was used to adhere this over the ribbon, then three acrylic heart gems added to the panel, also with silicone glue.Once the base was complete, I stuck the image to the easel with DST.