Whimsical Christmas Card

Hello

Today's card is the third in my week of Christmas Cards.  It is a fairly simple card that uses a dry embossed background and a homemade patterned paper to draw attention to the sentiment.

Materials used:

• White and Navy card
• Christmas themed embossing folder (Couture Creations)
• Distress ink in salty ocean, peacock feathers and antique linen
• Sliver pearlised spray
• Peace on Earth sentiment stamp
• Versamark ink
• Sliver embossing powder (Ranger)
• Swirl stamp
• Blue and sliver gems

I began by creating the embossed background using the white card and the embossing folder and I trimmed the piece down to the edge of the embossing.

Next I created the blue handmade patterned paper.  I started by using a clean brush to wet the piece of card with the pearlised water and then picked up the colours and dotted them around allowing them to mix and blend together.  To get the intensity I wanted I added a few layers of colour.  Once the piece was dry I stamped the swirl stamp several times using the salty ocean distress ink.  I then trimmed the piece down and created a banner end.
I stamped and embossed the sentiment on to a piece of navy card then trimmed it to size.  I adhered the embossed background and the blue swirl piece flat while the sentiment was adhered using foam tape.  For a final touch I added the gems.

If you were wanting to make several cards like this then creating a large sheet of the patterned paper would be the best way to do it.

See you tomorrow!
Stacey

PS. this card has been added to the Christmas/holiday challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog.

Modern Christmas Card

Hello!

Welcome back, today is the second day in my week of Christmas Cards.  Today's card is in a more modern style but with traditional Christmas colours.

Materials used:

• Red and green patterned paper (Rosie's Studio)
• White with silver foil paper
• A wreath die cut and a joy die cut (Rosie's Studio)
• Red glitter glue

This card is really very simple and mass producing it will be easy.  I started by creating a curved edge on the silver foil paper but ultimately most of it is covered so it's not really required that it has a curve.  I then cut out a few circles in different sizes from the patterned paper.  After deciding upon the layout I adhered all the pieces to the card using foam tape behind the top green circle, the wreath and the sentiment.  Finally I added some glitter glue to the wreath.

I love how easy this card is and how well it turned out.  Even if you don't have the pre-made die cut images making a wreath isn't very hard.

Come back tomorrow for another Christmas Card!
Stacey

PS. This card has been added to the Christmas/Holiday Card Challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

Hanging Ornaments Christmas Cards

Hello,

Christmas is fast approaching so this week I will be posting a new Christmas card everyday for the next five days.  Next week I'm planing on posting some decorations alongside my final Christmas card for the year.

Today I've got a Christmas card that has three hanging ornaments.  I've made two versions, one with the ornaments embossed in gold and the other simply stamped in black.

Materials used:

• White card bases (Trophee, 240gsm, white linen)
• Red, green, white, pink and two shades of purple, subtle patterned paper and a pale yellow paper
• Gold embossing powder (Ranger)
• Versamark ink, Stazon black ink, gold (MSC) and purple ink (Rosie's studio)
• Ornaments stamps, star cluster stamp and 'Deck the Halls' sentiment stamp
• Gold and silver string
• Silver gel pen

I began by stamping my ornaments on to the various patterned papers and cut them out with scissors.  For the background panel I stamped the stars across the pale yellow paper after I trimmed it to the right size.  I then cut two strips from one of the papers used for the ornaments and adhered them and the star piece to the card front.

To add some sparkle to the ornaments that were stamped in black I used a silver gel pen to add some detail.  Before I added the ornaments I created a hole at the top of each of them for the thread to loop through.  The ornament with the sentiment was adhered with dimensional foam tape while the other two were adhered flat.

That's it for today's post, see you tomorrow for another Christmas card!
Stacey

Joy to the World Christmas Cards

Hello,

Today I have two cards which use the sentiment as the main focus with an embossed vellum overlay for interest.  I've always been a fan of Christmas cards that aren't too in-your-face Christmas-y and these certainly fit that description.

Materials used:

• Blue and red card bases
• Vellum, black and white card
• Silver and gold embossing powders (Ranger)
• Versamark ink
• Various snowflake stamps
• 'Joy to the World' sentiment stamp (Teresa Collins)
• Silver and gold gel pens

For the vellum piece, I used the edge of a stencil to trace the scallop shape along one side with a pencil. Flipping the piece over I began to stamp the snowflakes starting with the largest and progressing to the smallest.  After each stamp I applied the embossing powder so I could see where I had stamped so I wouldn't accidentally overlap any.  Once I had heat set the powder I turned the piece over again and used scissors to cut along the scalloped line and used an eraser to take away any left over pencil marks.

The sentiment was stamped and embossed on a tag shaped which I got by tracing a die cut and trimming out with scissors.  Using the black gel pen I created a dash line border around the sentiment.  For contrast I used a 2cm wide strip of black paper with dash lines along each edge.

The stamping of the snowflakes did take a while but if mass production is your aim then stamping a larger sheet of vellum and embossing before cutting it down would be your best option.  I quite like the simple nature of this card, all the focus is directed to the sentiment and then you notice the pretty snowflakes in the background.

Til next time
Stacey

Trio of Christmas Trees Card

Hello,

I decided to do something I've never done before this week, I used Kraft coloured card.  Not being a big fan of Kraft meant that I actually don't own any so I had to go out and buy some, and I eventually settled on pre-made square card bases with matching envelopes.  This particular card is really quite simple and will be easy to mass produce.

Materials used:

• Kraft card base (Creativ)
• Four shades of green patterned paper and a star patterned paper
• Christmas tree die (Couture Creations)
• Gold embossing powder (Ranger)
• Versamark ink
• 'Merry Christmas' sentiment die cut

I began by using the die as a template for the trees, cutting out triangles from three of the four green patterned papers.  The fourth green paper was cut with the die.  I used the die cut to draw a star on to some white card and embossed the opposite side before trimming out the shape with my scissors.  I used the embossing powder also on the ornaments of the die cut.  Then I adhered the die cut and the star to one of the trees.

Once I had all the pieces made I could adhere them all to the card.  The background paper and the two non-decorated trees are adhered with double sided tape while the decorated tree, star and sentiment are adhered with dimensional foam tape.

As I said earlier this card would be easy to mass produce as there is no stamping involved (unless you decide to stamp the sentiment rather than using a pre-made one) and all that is required is some basic cutting and die cutting.

Till next time,
Stacey

This card has been submitted into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - 'We're seeing stars'.
http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge/

Die-cut inlay Christmas Cards

Hello,

So I've been neglectful again, my bad.  I'm still working out a new lifestyle and this blog has really slipped down the list of priorities.  Anyway, I'm back now and hopefully *fingers crossed* I keep it up this time.

It is now November so it's time for Christmas again.  This year I've started off the festivities with a set of sparkly die-cut inlay cards.  Initially I created two water colour background pieces for two cards but ended up making four cards.

The first card with a complete die-cut inlay

Materials used:

• Card bases, two white A2 sized, one purple and one white 10.5cm x 10.5cm.
• White linen 240gsm card (Trophee), pearlised paper (Creativ), sliver and white glitter paper.
• Distress mini ink pads in seedless preserves, salty ocean and picked raspberry.
• Pearl-ex powder.
• Silver embossing powder (Ranger) and embossing ink (Versamark).
• 'Merry Christmas' stamp.
• Snowflake die (Couture Creations).
• A selection of self-adhesive pearls and gems.

The second card with a partial die-cut inlay

I began by making the two background pieces with the distress ink, water and pearl-ex powder.  Once they were dry I ran them through my Cuttlebug with the snowflake die reserving all the small pieces that were cut out.  Both the smaller 10.5cm x 10.5cm cards have the water coloured die-cut snowflakes while the two bigger cards have glitter paper die cuts.

The fist smaller card

The partial die-cut inlay card has just the glitter die-cut inlaid with pearlised paper behind the top half, while the fully inlaid card also has the small pieces from inside the snowflake adhered back into place (though two pieces have annoyingly fallen out somehow).  The sentiments on both of these cards were embossed in silver and gems were added to both the snowflakes.

The second of the smaller cards

For the two smaller square cards, only the water coloured die-cuts with gems/pearls are on the front.  For the first card I added more of the distress inks + water to the card base so when I layered the pearlised paper over it there was a border that matched the snowflake.  The second card has a purple card base as the snowflake is mostly purple in colour.

These cards are likely to be the most 'wintery' Christmas cards I will make, as it is summer at Christmas here in NZ.  I tend to make cards that reflect that or don't suggest any particular season.  I just have a strong connection between summer and Christmas (don't hate me, it's just super unlikely that it will be cold here in December).

Till next time,

Stacey

Mixed Media 1 - Music is the voice of the soul

Hello

To begin I must apologize for being so absent over the past month and a half.  Many things happened to me during this time and as a consequence my life has changed a bit.  My crafting took a bit of a hit as well as inspiration was lacking and there were other things to be dealt with.  Today however, I have something different to share.  I've been steadily gaining interest in mixed media projects and have created one of my own during the last couple of weeks.

Music is the voice of the soul

I'm not going to list all the products I've used because a lot of it was just pulled out of my stash or made.  The gold embossed notes (Ranger Queen's Gold embossing powder) and glittered hearts were chipboard pieces that came from a card magazine I got ages ago and altered for the project.  I used sticky embossing powder (Ranger) to hold the glitter (American Crafts Taffy) on and a layer of clear embossing powder (Ranger) over the top to make sure the glitter couldn't escape.  The violin was also part of the set as a 2D chipboard piece, but I created a back for it and joined it together with a strip of paper to make it 3D along with adding the strings using gold thread and two pieces of dimensional foam tape.

Close up of the violin

I made the majority of the flowers using dies to cut out the flower shapes (Couture Creations Daisy Nesting Dies) and adhering them together with hot glue.  The carnation looking flowers were created from circles that I sprayed with water, crinkled up, left to dry, then stacked them together and pushed a brad through to hold them in place and fluffed up the petals.

The bottom right corner where most of the flowers are.

I used a couple of my flourish type dies (Couture Creations) to create some greenery for the flowers and the gold embossed decal at the bottom by gluing several of the die cuts together and embossing it.  I've added a few gems and pearls to the flower centers and dotted around the place to add a bit of bling.  My distress inks (Mowed Lawn, Picked Raspberry, Antique Linen, Walnut Stain, Vintage Photo, Seedless Preserves) got a bit of a workout during this project, they were used to age the edges of the main background, add stenciled images (Rosie's Studio) on the background.  They were also used to define the edges of the flowers and to colour and stencil (Memory Box) the violin.  I used some pearlised paint and pearl-ex powders (Interference Gold, Interference Violet) mixed with water to provide shimmer on some of the flowers and areas on the background.

Bottom left corner; featuring a glittered heart and a faux metal embellishment.

There are also a couple of paper doilies that I coloured with distress ink and some die cut borders from a magazine gift that I used along with a couple of pre-made flowers.  I did do a small amoun of stamping on the background with a dotty stamp and a swirl stamp using the Picked Raspberry distress ink and Stazon Jet Black ink.  Finally the sentiment was added with some black alphabet stickers.

I hope you like it, this is my second attempt at a mixed media project and I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I learnt quite a few things while I was creating this and have many things to work on for my next attempt such as preventing warping.  I'm going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog, go check it out.  This weeks challenge is "Anything Goes".

Till next time,
Stacey.