Vintage Christmas

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These are the Christmas cards I made for 2014.  They were all made using papers and card printed from the Crafter's Companion Vintage Christmas CD Rom, and coordinating embossing folders.  I started with white 7" square cards and blended a little Distress ink around the edges.  I cut the backing papers to fit the front of the cards and leave a small border, and edged the papers with ink.   I used a Quickie Glue pen to add glitter highlights.  I printed some card with the patterns that coordinate with the embossing folders then embossed them through a machine.  On one of the cards I embossed a piece of kraft card and added glitter highlights to that as well.  All the panels were die cut, and the printed ones had gilding wax added to the raised images.  Distress Ink was blended around the edges.  I cut ribbons from other pieces of backing papers, and wrapped them around the panels. The toppers, focal embellishments and sentiment panels were printed and cut out, glittered  and added to the card fronts.  I love the vintage old fashioned  feel to this set, it reminds me of my gran's old Christmas decorations!  I was very behind with my Christmas cards this year and using this set from Crafter's Companion enabled me to get them all done in time! 

Contemporary Christmas Canvass

This is another entry to the Chocolate Baroque challenge  http://chocolatebaroquechallenge.blogspot.co.uk/, a canvass this time.   The stamps used are from CB Christmas Flourish set; the inks used are Brilliance Pearlescent Jade and Purple and Versafine Blue Lagoon.  I made the colours for the background by mixing acrylic paints titanium white, phthalo blue and rose madder. I also used texture paste, sparkle paste, Starry Night stickles;Treasure Silver gilding wax; Midnight Teal Obsidian embossing powder; ribbons; papers from the Artylicious CD Rom; gems.  The canvass was already coated with gesso, so I added some texture paste through a stencil and left it to dry.  I mixed some pink paint and started in  a top corner, adding more red to deepen the shade and blue to graduate into purple, making it really dark  as it gets to the other side.  When the canvass was dry I mixed some more paint and stamped a corner image in the top and bottom corners on one side.  I then stamped a tree image 3 times along the bottom of the canvass in Jade ink and heat embossed them with clear embossing powder to help define them and add texture.  I rubbed silver gilding wax over the texture paste  area, then added Cosmic Shimmer Silver Pearl sparkle paste through the same stencil.  While that was drying I stamped the large holly swirl image from the set onto heat resistant acetate, using Versafine ink and then heat embossed it with coloured powder.  I added stickles to the berries on all the holly swirl images, and tiny gems on top.  I put larger gems on the tree tops, and cut out the embossed image from the acetate.  I stamped some Christmas text randomly over the canvass in jade ink, then I wrapped strips of ribbon, lace and fibre around the canvass, securing them with double sided tape.  Next I used dimensional glue to attach the acetate topper to the ribbons.  I die cut some flowers of various sizes out of papers from the Season's Greetings CD rom, edged the petals with purple ink, then layered them up.  I attached the flowers to the canvass with dimensional glue and added gems to their centres.  A Christmas canvass in contemporary colours that I really enjoyed making!    

Summer Thistles

This is a card I've made for the latest Chocolate Baroque challenge  http://chocolatebaroquechallenge.blogspot.co.uk/  using their chosen colour pallet. The stamps used are from the CB Thistle Butterfly set.  I have used Distress Inks Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick, and Dusty Concord; Versafine ink Blue Lagoon; Cosmic Shimmer mister spray Purple Violet; H2O paints  Luv-u-Pink, Moonbeams, Mediterranean Blue, Courageous Rose, and Twilight; Starry night Stickles, white acrylic paint and a white watercolour pencil.  I took some smooth white card and blended the DIs, then I sprayed it with the Cosmic Shimmer mist.  When it was dry I stamped the large image from the set centrally on the panel using Versafine ink.  I then stamped the smaller thistle image several times along the bottom of the panel.  I used a brush and some water to faux bleach the stamped images, then coloured them with H2O paints.  They give the images a lovely pearlescent sheen.  The thistle stamens looked a bit dull so I added dots of Moonbeams paint and Stickles.  I drew around the outline of the images with a white watercolour pencil, and added white dots to the butterflies with acrylic paint to make them pop.   I stamped a separate butterfly on white card, heat embossed and coloured it as before.  Then I cut it out and shaped it.  I layered the panel onto some purple card and attached the butterfly with dimensional glue.  It reminds me of a hot, hazy, summers evening, and I think this design is a good worker card.     

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My First Advent Calendar

This is a lovely project that I recently made for my youngest grandson, who was a year old in October.  I have never made an Advent Calendar before, I love decorating MDF and wooden home decor products so I thought I'd have a go.  I'm really pleased with the way it turned out, and my grandson loves it!  The Advent Calendar is from Hobbycraft, as are the papers used to decorate the drawers,and the wooden numbers.   I have used acrylic paints - blue, red, silver and white; Brilliance inks sky blue and rocket red; assorted stamps from Crafters Companion, Sheena Douglass, Inky Doodles and some free stamps that came with a magazine.  I also used snowflake dies from Xcut and Memory Box with pearlescent papers.  I used Pro Markers to colour some images and silver gilding wax to finish off the drawers.  So to begin with I painted the whole thing with a couple of coats of white Gesso, to seal the MDF and give a smooth base to work on.  I then painted the house white and  the roof blue.  I painted the chimney red and put 'cement' seams on in white paint, giving the impression of bricks.  I painted the drawers white and blue alternately.  Next I cut the Christmas papers to fit the front of the drawers.  I stuck them on with Pinflair Book Binder glue, and painted the handles with silver acrylic paint.  I edged the drawers with silver gilding wax.  Lastly I put the wooden numbers on to the drawers.  I stamped some reindeer images onto smooth white card using blue ink and heat embossed them with clear powder, then cut them out.  I did the same with the other images, colouring the gingerbread men and Father Christmas images with Pro markers.  I stamped some border images onto the back of the house in blue and red Brilliance ink.  I die cut several snowflake shapes of various sizes out of glitter and pearlescent papers.  I then added all the stamped images and snowflakes to decorate and embellish the house.  I absolutely loved making this project, and I will certainly be making more!

Good News!

I have been lucky enough to make the top three in the Chocolate Baroque Challenge!!  I am so excited!  My winning entry is the 'Gothic Tag', which I entered for challenge number 4.  I am having difficulty loading the badge onto my blog, so this post will have to do for now.  I have been away for a few weeks but I have several projects to add so watch this space!! 

The Missing Card Mystery

This is a card I made for a young friend who started his first job recently.  I was a bit late with the card so these stamps and the sentiment were perfect!  I have used these images for a 'New Job' card before, but I've used a few different techniques and colours for this one.  The stamps used are from Sheena Douglass's a little bit sketchy range 'Mystery Author', 'Ageing Beautifully and 'I Say', plus a 'Congratulations' stamp by Chocolate Baroque.  The inks used are Distress Inks - Black Soot, Broken China, Dusty Concorde, and Versafine Black Onyx.  The base card is plain white card that I have edged with Dusty Concorde.  The background panel is smooth white card onto which I have blended three DI's.  Then I flicked drops of water over the panel and blotted it with paper towel.  This is faux bleaching.  When dry I over stamped the bleached areas with images of 'Ink blots' using blue ink.  I then stamped some text and a question mark using the same inks randomly over the panel.  I blended black soot around the edges of the panel and matted it on to black card.  Next I stamped the typewriter and sentiment onto smooth white card in black ink, then heat embossed them with black powder.  I stamped and embossed the magnifying glass in the same way onto acetate, and the question mark onto a piece of the background card.   I stamped a small sentiment onto the typewriter paper.  Then I die cut the sentiment and edged the panel with black ink, cut the question mark out in a circle, and cut the magnifying  glass out of the acetate.   I faux bleached the question mark and edged the circle with black ink.   I water coloured the typewriter with DI.  I layered the background panel onto the base card, and attached the sentiment and embellishments with dimensional glue. 

New Home Chic

This is a lovely card I made as a 'New Home' card.  I am still really into the vintage/shabby chic style and wanted to use it in my design featuring the key to a new home and the start of a new chapter in life.   The stamps I have used are from Chocolate Baroque's 'Key to my Dreams', and 'Mini Scripts sets.  The inks used are Stormy Skies, Broken China, Dusty Concord and black Soot DI's.  I started by creating the background panel, blending the blue and purple inks on to smooth white card, and shaped the panel by die cutting.  I then splattered water randomly all over the panel and blotted it with kitchen paper, as a faux -  bleaching effect.  Next I stamped some script randomly over the panel in Broken China  ink, and then stamped a crackle pattern around the edge in second generation black ink.  I embossed a key pattern on to the panel using a folder through a machine, then blended black ink around the edges.  I had decided to make a shaped card so I used a coordinating blue card and die cut it the same shape as the panel.   Then I did the same with another piece of blue card, making the front and back.I stamped the same script randomly over the front blue panel and edged with black ink.  I scored the back blue panel  about 1cm from the top, folding it both ways to make a hinge for the card.  I attached the front to the back with some strong double sided tape,then I attached the background panel to the front of the card.   Using the same coloured card as the background I stamped the key and the lock images in black ink and heat embossed them with black powder.  Next I cut them out and shaped them with a ball tool, then attached them to the card with dimensional glue.  I had already threaded some fibres through the top of the key.  I had also already made the flowers for a previous project but not used them, ( Autumn Butterfly) and they were perfect for this card.  They are made from individual die cut flowers that I have stamped and layered up, using a self adhesive pearl for the centers. I attached them with dimensional glue.  I then cut the sentiment out of the same card as the background using dies, and edged the words in black.  I attached them with strong glue to the card. This is a lovely design and I think it would be suitable as an 18th or 21st birthday card as well, for male or female.