Variations on a Theme and a Green Challenge

I needed a last minute Christmas card on Christmas Eve and as luck would have it I had one already partially made. As I had been rather pleased at how dimentional the first folded Tea Bag Tree card I had made looked I had made a few more in other colours - red, blue and green. For the first one, which I previoiusly posted about, I had used golden yellow papers. By Christmas Eve however the green tree was still not mounted on a card and wasn't really destined for anyone, so when I realised that I did need one more card and pretty quickly too, it was the obvious solution as the tree was all ready, the backing paper printed and it just needed to be assembled into a finished card. As the challenge on My Time To Craft is the colour green I guess my green tea bag tree fits the bill for that too!






Anyhow here is my little paper forest, green card first - all the trees and backing papers are from the Artylicious Season's Greetings CD, the variations are mainly in colours and card the way the card is folded, oriented and embellished. The blue card was made with a male recipient in mind - seemed a more appropriate colour for a man. The golden yellow one can be seen in an earlier post.

Poinsettia

This card was made for a swap and as it's now in the possession of the recipient I can share a pic here. Unfortunately my camera was not behaving - someone had left the auto focus function off but I didn't realise it so the picture is not as clear as it could be.

I used a stamp from Elusive Images to create my poinsettia, it's from the Poinsettia Script themeplate. First I created a background by blending Ranger's Distress Inks in Shabby Shutters and Peeled paint with some Cut N Dry Foam. This was edged it with some Aged Mahogany Distress Ink. Next I used some more of the Peeled Paint to stamp the image onto the background. I then stamped the image 2 more times onto white card using Versamark and embossed them with gold EP. The embossed images of the Poinsettia were painted with Twinkling H2O's and a tiny amount of gold Stickles glitter used on the centre of the flower, then cut out and decoupaged onto the background. This was mounted onto mats of green and red foiled card. For the main card I used some red card stock and covered it with some lovely paper I had printed from the Artylicious Season's Greetings CD. I edged my paper with a gold Sakura Pentouch pen. Finally I added a the red ribbon bow and some red cabochon gems.

Christmas Mouse

I love those House Mouse stamps and invested in a couple recently. This is a Christmas card I made with one of them - isn't that lil' mouse sweet! Due to unforeseen events that kept me from stamping much for about 3 weeks the last week has been pretty hectic trying to finish off cards for Christmas and this card was really quite simple and fast to make - just what I needed!

I cut a label shape from some white card with a Nestabilities die then stamped the image with gray Versafine ink and coloured it with Twinkling H20s. This was then layerd onto the next size up of lable in the Nestabilities set which had been cut from red foiled card. Finally I attached some ribbon with a brad. The card itself is just some red card stock to which I applied a white panel which I had embossed in the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and then stamped a little greeting on the bottom edge which I had deliberatly left unembossed to take the greeting. I added a border of red Stickles Glitter where the white panel meets the red card and then adhered my mouse tag with foam pads.

Simply Santa

I guess we all have our own ideas about how Santa should look, well for me this stamp from Rubber Stampede is more or less my "perfect santa", wrinkled and weather-beaten from riding that sleigh throught the night in the dead of winter, but with a twinkle in his eyes and the hint of magic surrounding him!

The image was stamped with Adirondack Dye Ink (Red Pepper) onto white card. I trimmed away all white edges from the image then mounted it onto red foiled card, layered that onto more white card that had been embossed through the Cuttlebug and then on to silver foiled card. I added just a little more sparkle with some stickles glitter and then applied the whole thing to some red card stock.

Tea Bag Tree and a beautiful swap.

I got the idea for this Tea Bag Folding Christmas Tree from Shirley's Blog - I know she got the idea from an online tutorial and there is a link on her blog if you want some instructions for how to make this folded tree.

For my version I used papers from the Artylicious Season's Greetings CD. I used the same design from the CD to cut my squares for the Tea Bag folding and for the background. I added a tiny peel off star to the top of my tree and some sparkle with gold Stickles Glitter. This is actually quite an easy card to make but gives a lovely dimentional effect.









The second card I wan't to share is a beautiful Christmas Swap I received from a fellow Graphicus Guild Member. Thank you Val, the card is gorgeous. The stamp is, if my memory serves me correctly, the very first Graphicus Guild Members' Limited Edition stamp. Val has not only embossed the stamp with gold EP as her main image, but has also used it to create a gorgeous background by overstamping it onto colour washed paper in red, magenta and metallic gold.

Holly Swirl

Well I forced myself to break the block and finish one of my "bits". I have loads of Christmas "bits" that need to be turned into card but couldn't decide on what to do with them. This one is a lovely Holly Flourish stamp by Elusive Images. It can be found on the Christmas Flourish themeplate.

I made the background with Distress Inks, blending Shabby Shutters and Worn Lipstick then spritzing this with water and letting it dry. Once dry I stamped over it with a script stamp from The Artistic Stamper and more of the Shabby Shutters Distress ink then blended a little Aged Mahogany Distress ink round the edges. Next I stamped the holly flourish with Versmark and heat embossed it with Gold EP and then ran the edge of of the card round the Versmark pad and edged it with more gold EP. I can't resist sparkle so some Burgundy Stickles Glitter glue added a touch of sparkle to the holly berries. This was matted onto red foiled card and adhered to some pale green pearlescent card with foam pads. Some gold peel-off corners and a greeting finished off the card.

Christmas Wish List .....

.. aimed at Ranger...

T’was the night before Christmas when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse

The stamps were inked up with infinite care
Embossing powders ready, laid out by my chair

With a flick of my wrist I sprinkled powders with glee
My card would be perfect, so beautiful to see

When up in the craft room there arose such a clatter
The family sprang from their beds to see what was the matter

My dreadful heat tool, the source of the noise
Had woken my hubby and both of our boys

Away up the stairs father ran like a flash
He entered my craft room all of a dash

The moon thru the window threw down it’s pure light
As father beheld the most terrible sight,

Surrounded by powders, all blasted and dusty
I sat in the chaos, my embossing was crusty

“Oh why must you use that”, hubby growled and frowned
It shatters our peace, and blows powder around.

The answer is simple, said I with a sigh
Here in the UK there’s no Ranger heat tool to buy!

If you are a UK crafter who wishes the Ranger Heat tool was once again available to buy here in the UK, why not e-mail Ranger - the addy is info@rangerink.com. I sent them my poem. Why not put something on your blog too - let Ranger know that there are deprived crafters here who would like to buy their product!

Round Robin - Part 1

Annette, one the Elusive Images DT came up with the idea of a Christmas Round Robin which people who follow the EI Blog might like to take part in. The idea is that we make a card and decorate part of it then pass it on to the next person to do the next bit. There are 4 of us taking part so the instructions were to divide our card into 4 and decorate one quarter of it then send it on to the next person. I decided the easiest way to do this was to make a concertina card from and A4 sheet of card. So here is my first "quarter" for the card I started off. I will have 3 more "quarters" to do and pass on as the Round Robin continues.

The backing paper is from the Artylicious Season's Greetings CD. The stamped image, which is an Elusive Images one, comes from the Snow Is Falling themeplate and was inked up using Petal Point Chalk inks which I blended on the stamp then embossed with a clear holographic sparkle glitter, cut out and matted onto some dark blue Bazill card stock. Interestingly the lighter blue ink I used over the houses seemed to darken once heat embossed.

Cute Snowmen

Wow, I have not blogged for ages, my mojo has been AWOL for a week or so, but here's a cute Christmas card I made yesterday - I just hope I can get back into the groove now cuz I still have some Christmas projects to do!

The stamp is from Penny Black and was coloured with Derwent Inktense Pencils then I added some Stickles glitter glue and stamped the message with one of those little text stamps I have which is a set hubby bought for me - might be a Woodware set but I am not sure. This was then mounted onto some light turquoise card and some glitter card and adhered to my card with foam pads. The paper on the main card is from a Crafter' Companion CD and I added some glitter to the the snowflakes just cuz I can... OK so I am addicted to sparkle!