NOEL

Well, these cards are not exactly how I intended to make them, I had a number of embellishments to add, but once I'd attached the glittered NOEL to the front, adding anything else seemed like overkill.



Two colourways, one red, one green, both going really well with the chosen background.








This was a Kay & Co vellum I bought quite a few years ago now, I think it was being retired- don't you just love how 'retired' has replaced 'discontinued'? Anyway, it's a very thick embossed vellum, and is gorgeous. I think I bought half a dozen sheets and decided it was about time I used some, instead of hoarding it. Isn't it funny how we do that? Buy something really nice, then save it 'for a special project'.

This is what it looks like as a full sheet, the NOEL and the reindeer are embossed, as well as the holly and a few other bits.







The NOEL die cuts I did from chipboard weight cardboard,this was covered in PVA glue and sprinkled with glitter. I gave the glitter plenty of time to settle, then patted it down well.

They were left to dry thoroughly for a few days, then I covered the fronts of four  6"x6" card bases with the embossed vellum.

I sponged some Walnut Stain DI around the edges, and built it up a little in the corners.

 To attach the NOEL to the card front I used foam dots.

 


 This was the point I realised adding anything else in the way of embellishments was going to go horribly wrong, but I realised it did still need something, just not too much.




For the greeting, I turned again to my Peel-offs, and coloured two with a red marker, and two green.

I had a browse in my ribbons, and sure enough, there was a green that matched nicely, with some gold woven through it. So, the peel off went on the right hand side, and the ribbon was wrapped around the front next to the spine, and the ends overlapped inside with a glue dot.
 By some stroke of luck, and I'm guessing I bought these ribbons with Christmas in mind, I had a red ribbon of the same pattern.

So, job done.

Red Inks

Well, this is a novelty- two posts in the same week! I showed a new inkpad on my blog, the Ranger line that will be replacing the Adirondacks. I bought the Red Cherry, to see how it compared to the Red Pepper Adirondack, although I have managed to get re-inkers for pretty much all of them now, and as I've had them a few years yet without re-inking, I'm probably not going to run out in this lifetime.

So this is the old and the new, and there are re-inkers for the new ones too, and Susan over at Countryview Crafts has both on her site, she's also the wonderful stockist who has managed to order all the Adirondack re-inkers for me, so if you want the most fantastic customer service, as well as free postage, you know where to go! Anyway, back to the subject. I was curious to see how Red this one was going to be, and a few of you commented on the post you'd be interested to see what I thought of it.The packaging looks like a nice strong red, but then again so does the Red Pepper. But as that's not always a good guide to reality, I ink up my own narrow labels to put on the ends.

I sorted out some red inkpads, and a handful of cosmetic sponges, so I could use a fresh one for each colour, not getting any colour contamination.




I went and found a few other reds after, a  Brilliance pearlescent, as well as a couple of others I have in Dewdrop size.




So here is what they all look like, sponged out.

Now how these look will differ from monitor to monitor, I know, but I think the basic shades/tones should show up ok. The three Adirondacks at the start are the ones I see as being in the red range, although the Watermelon probably veers more towards Carmine. Next up is the new Classic Cherry, and I was surprised that it is much redder than the Red Pepper, which almost looks orangey by comparison.The Versafine Crimson Red looks more like Distress Aged Mahogany than anything else, and that (The DI), also looks like it need inking! Festive Berries seems to me to be the truer red of the Distress inks, Barn Door and Fired Brick have definite orange tones to them. The Docrafts Palette inkpad, which is a pearlescent ink, to me looks more of a Carmine, than red. The Brilliance Pearlescent Poppy is quite dark, I'd have expected a Poppy colour to be brighter. The two Marvy inkpads next up both seem like good reds, the trouble is that Marvy have discontinued the Inkpads, and I can't find anyone in the UK with re-inkers either! Which is a shame,as I'd like to get some for those two shades. Memento's Rhubarb Stalk looks very similar to the Pearlescent Poppy/Versafine Crimson Red. The Ink It Up pad on the left end, I've had for ages, I don't even know if they are still about. That's a pigment inkpad, and not a bad red, to be fair. The bottom two Dew Drop pads I bought recently. The Versamagic is a chalk ink, and I think veers off towards orange again. The Memento Lady Bug is a nice strong red, and to be honest is probably my favourite for a good clear red. So I may well be upgrading that colour to a full sized pad- easier for brayering from.
 Right, onto actual use:

I just tested the Classic Cherry for print quality against a couple of the other dye inks, and the print is perfectly good. The smudges were ink off the side of my fingers!
Its funny, I'd always thought the Red Pepper was a good red, but up against the new one, and the Memento Ladybug, not so much. All this testing was just done on a bog-standard piece of white cardstock, nothing fancy, so results might vary a little when its used on say, Neenah cardstock, or glossy coated. And if anyone ever asks why we need so many inkpads, you can quote this test of 17 red pads, and no two are exactly the same! Similar, but not identical.Actually, that's quite scary. I had no idea I had that many reds. And  I do know that I have a bigger selection of blue pads and green. I'm not even going to count those!
 So, the biggest surprise for me was the Red Pepper inkpad- clearly not as Red as I'd always thought. One thing I want to mention, I was sat down doing this, so when I picked the inkpad up to take the lid off, I did notice a very slight solventy smell to the new Ranger one. Nowhere near as strong as Staz-on, which always reminds me of almond marzipan, and if you take the lid off while the pads down on the desk, I didn't notice it at all. But it definitely smells different to most dye pads. On a side note, does anyone else find this same problem with Red lipsticks? They nearly always veer towards orange, or start to turn orangey when you've had them on for a while?

Anniversary & New Baby

Two cards here, I pictured them side by side as its not easy to tell the size of the baby card without something to compare it to. The Anniversary card is a standard A4 sheet of card folded. The Anniversary & new baby were not for the same person, by the way!

    
The New Baby was for a work colleague leaving to have her first baby, so I made an A4 sized card, which gives plenty of room for everyone to sign. I buy a pack of A3 card from Staples for doing these. Its not particularly thick, so I add a sheet of A4 card to the back, and by the time it has papers etc on the front, it is perfectly sturdy. The punched panel uses vellum punched with two different X-cut border punches, Looped Fringe & Doily Dots.                           
 I'm actually very impressed with these border punches, they give a nice crisp cut and are really easy to line up, although I always do this by flipping it over to double check. I used a pale blue, a blue gingham and then a darker blue vellum, and added a knotted ribbon over the top. The decoupage teddy is matted onto Nesties Labels 8, and the sentiment was computer printed onto vellum and then heat embossed with silver powder. I matted that onto a piece of white card overstamped in Brilliance Pearlescent Blue with 'Precious Baby ' a u/m word collage stamp from Artifacts (The Stamp Bug). Finally added a few punched & layered flowers, with Stickles centres.


The Anniversary card also has a panel punched with the Doily Dots border punch, and is wrapped with black & red ribbon. The background paper is from a Dovecraft pad,called Charcoal Prints. The Rose Heart stamp is from Chocolate Baroque, stamped and embossed in Gold, and coloured with H2o's. I added a clump of paper roses and red and blck feathers, and secured it with silicone glue. The sentiment was stamped and embossed in gold again, onto a small tag and tied onto the ribbon with some red cord.

Oriental Poppy in Red & Blue

 Another Oriental Poppy card using the Hampton Arts stamp, this time on a background brayered in  Adirondack reds, Watermelon, Red Pepper & Cranberry. Again the post it note Sun mask was added after the first colour was brayered. This one is also heat embossed, and matted onto black cardstock. I used a blue & gold washi paper for the card base here, as all the red papers are very heavily patterned, and the result was just too busy. I also stamped  a kanji  letter, onto a piece of card coloured with red ink, then triple embossed and the letter stamped in Black into the last layer.  A coin and a piece of knotted blue ribbon finish it off.

Oriental Poppy #2 Tag

The Oriental Poppy & Script image is clearly very popular, and this is a different take on the theme. I finally found out where I got this from- it was featured recently in Craft Stamper Magazine. It is Aspects of Design, Floral 01, from The Stampman. Here it is stamped on an alcohol ink background, in Black & heat embossed. I cut this into a tag, and cut a slightly larger tag from black glitter paper to matt it on to. I added a chinese coin, and the two little black sticks are cut down cocktail sticks, rolled on an embossing pad and dipped into black embossing powder, then heated! I tied a little red raffia around them, and attached them and the coin with a dab of silicone glue.A few strands of red & black fibres finished off the tag. The paper that covers the base was part of a roll I bought years ago one Christmas at the Hobbycrafts show at the NEC. I added three small coins, which have a little hanging loop at the top, so I secured them with a little bronze coloured brad. A narrow black ribbon was tied in a knot on the left side.
                        I often use a knotted ribbon when I am making a card with no particular person or occasion in mind. I think that knotted ribbon works o.k. on mens cards, whereas a bow is definitely more female. It just means I have a little more flexibility with who I can send it to. That is also why a lot of my cards have no sentiment on them- I add that when I need it.
  I seem to have my mojo back, I have been struggling to make enough time to get into my cards lately, and trying to squeeze them in just hasn't been working for me.

Happy Valentines Day

I'm still with the easel cards, lol. I think I've got stuck here. Its nice to have more than one surface to adorn, though.This is todays Valentines card, using one of the Elusive Images Rose plates  from my desk a couple of weeks ago.Matted onto black & Burgundy card and tied with ribbon. A sheet of rose patterned paper was used to cover the card front.

  The triple embossed hearts were made by inking first with a mix of Fired Brick, Barn Door and Aged Mahogany Distress ink, then a few were stamped with a word stamp 'LOVE' before covering with Clear embossing ink.

 Sprinkled with UTEE, 3 layers, then some were overstamped with a swirl stamp and Gold Encore Ink.The INK IT UP Pad is my clear Embossing pad- It picked up red ink the first time I used it for this, so I keep it for Reds. These pads are really cheap- only a couple of pounds, so its no loss. The Really Useful Box with the spoon in it is my UTEE- I bought it off e-bay, loose in a bag- much cheaper than buying a branded jar.
They were attached with a few dabs of silicone glue.

For the base, I covered it in a pale gold paper stamped with a lovely Baroque style stamp, by Magenta, 26019-R.

This is the stamp, and this is what it looks like when stamped a number of times to make a larger sheet. Stamped in Gold Encore, and heat embossed with Gold detail powder.

The stopper part of the card was made by cutting a band of black paper which was punched along both sides with the Martha Stewart 'String Lace' Border punch, then a panel of cream card that had been stamped with Hero Arts 'Italian Poetry' , S1832, in Gold and heat embossed. The Valentine greeting was stamped & heat embossed  in Gold again on plain vellum, then matted onto black then burgundy card, held together with a gold heart brad either end.The panel was attached with foam pads.

As I had a few images, and quite a lot of hearts, I made up some more panels, as I think this will come in handy for Weddings/Engagements/Anniversaries.

Easel Card 1

This is the first of the Easel cards made with some of the stuff off my desk for WOYWW this week. I thought I would have a go at easels, and they are really very easy & effective. I have put a short tutorial on a page HERE for the folds and construction. The stamped panel was brayered with Adirondack Sandal, Lemonade and Citrus then left to dry. The image is called Aspire by Penny Black, and was stamped three times across the panel. I inked up the stems using Distress Forest Moss, and added the flower colour using Cats Eye Terracotta then the flowers had sparkly embossing powder added and heated. The panel was then cut into three, with the centre one being slightly larger, and matted onto dark red card. I cut my base card to the width of my stamped image, then scored and folded to create the easel.The part the card will stand on was covered in a dark green paper. I trimmed down the offcut from my card to make the panel that is the stopper.A piece of clear vellum was embossed with the D'vine Swirls Embossing Folder, cut down to slightly larger than the card panel, then edge punched with a Fiskars Heart Border punch. I added this to the panel with a small piece of DST in the centre only, where it will be hidden by the sentiment.The sentiment was stamped & heat embossed onto an offcut of the red card, then onto an offcut of the dark green paper. A silver Heart brad was added at either end. The lacy panel was adhered to the card base with foam pads, then the sentiment added to this with silicone glue, so I could angle it upwards slightly. The image panel was then added to the card 'front' with DST, and a butterfly made from Fusible Fibres was stuck down with silicone glue.

   TIP: to emboss vellum successfully in a cuttlebug folder, either use a very thick vellum, as it is available in different weights just like card/paper, and PDA card & paper (link in the sidebar) do a nice thick one that works well, OR if your vellum is thinner, use two/three sheets in the folder at the same time- this helps prevent the vellum from tearing, as it does not stretch in the same way card or paper will.

Christmas 2010

These are the cards I have been working on lately. My mass produced batch for friends, workmates & my Beloved Husbands forum friends.The Stamp used is Santa Collage, by Rubber Stampede,3408F, and the vellums were stamped with a large u/m snowflakes stamp,origin unknown, sorry.It was stamped in clear embossing ink then embossed with Stampendous 'Stardust' powder.I used a mix of inks to stamp with: Encore silver, gold & metallic blue and Distress Cracked Sapphire, Aged Mahogany and Forest Moss.Each image was matted onto a matching foil paper, then onto white card embossed with the Snowflake Cuttlebug folder, then onto foil paper again. A matching narrow ribbon was wrapped around this, then a bow added.The sentiment was stamped in matching colours and matted onto foil.  All elements were stuck down with silicone glue, due to the glittery vellum. Normal tabs don't always hold very well on this surface, but silicone glue will.

  I trimmed the card front with a fancy edged blade, then stuck a matching strip of foil onto the rear of the card with DST.       

                     The insert is from a CD, called Thomas Kinkade, from Joanna Sheen  

 

                                                                                    

       I will be posting some pictures on how to batch-produce cards on my Tips & Techniques page during the Christmas break.     

Kanji strip

For the card on the left I took a strip of thick card and coloured it with red dye ink. This was then triple embossed.The Kanji letters were inked up with Gold Encore ink and pressed into the final embossing. When cold I gently bent the card to get the cracked effect.Edged with gold Krylon pen. I scored a box, slightly larger than my stamped panel, in the centre front of the base card. The panel was mounted with DST, and a gold & Red cord wrapped around the fold. The Kanji stamps are by Stamp & Go .com  and come as a set of 13, plus a pair of koi carp. Item Number SIEWKFS01B.
The card on the right used black dye ink on the panel instead of red.

Oriental

A black base card, with a panel of gold washi paper from Hobbycrafts.The stamp is an unmounted rubber, but I can't remember where I bought it from. Its stamped onto an alcohol ink background using Cranberry, Red Pepper & Raisin, with a little Gold Mixative. The image is matted onto black, then gold, then Black card.I mounted this at an angle, and framed two corners with a peel off corner & straight line, leaving one gold and colouring the other with a black peeloff pen. The mizhuiki knot is formed from 1 gold, 2 black and 2 red cords.This was attached with a few dabs of silicone glue.

Waste Nothing,or Serendipity in action!

Just to prove that there really is no such thing as scrap to a crafter. All of these images were stamped onto 'waste' paper that I was rolling off excess ink from my brayer onto.The purple one was a sheet I had started to make a background on, then didn't like, hence the pale 'moon' , so I had put it in my scrap paper pile. When I bought this owl stamp (Crafty Individuals) ,and the treeline stamp, (Crafty Individuals) they seemed like the perfect partners to these.I probably couldn't have made more perfect backgrounds for these stamps if I had been trying.Needless to say, I now look at my sheet I'm rolling off onto as a potential new background and change to a new one before I turn it muddy!