Things That Go Bump In The Night

This card was made using Hallowe'en themed stamps from Elusive Images.  The the toadstools, the spider web on the corners and the greeting all came from the Halloween Candle Themeplate.

To make the card I stamped the toadstools onto white card using black Adirondack Dye Ink.  Next I added spots over the tops of the toadstools using a Versamark Pen, then sprinkled clear embossing powder over the image and heated it.  With the spots of clear embossing in place I coloured the image using Copic markers then coloured over the whole image with the Versmark pen, coated the image with clear embossing powder and heated it up.  The clear embossing was to provide a resist so I could ink the background around the toadstools. 

The background was inked first with Pine Needles Distress Ink, blended right up to and over the image.  Next I blende some Dusty Concord around the outer edges of the image, then wiped the ink away from the clear embossed area.    I stamped the branches of one of the trees from the Arboretum Design-A-Tree themeplate around the edges and inked up just the spider dangling from it's web on the large Candle stamp in the Hallow'en Candle set and stamped it in to look like it was dangling from one of the tree branches.

I made a card blank from some black card and added mats and layers in orange and purple card. On the purple layer I blended Dusty Concord and Black Soot Distress Inks around the edges and stamped and embossed the greeting with black embossing powder.  The corners were cut from some of the orange card and stamped with the spiders's web stamp.  Finally I added some Black Diamond Stickles Glitter Glue around the corners and around the edges of the mat and some black brads.

A Birthday Card

Pink 'n' Girly without being saccharin sweet, or at least that's what I was aiming for when I made this a while back for a friend's Birthday. The card base is some ice blue pearlesenct card - chosen because it would look well with the silver embossing I planned to do. The papers are from an Artylicious CD - "Decadent Brocade" . I addes some shimmer to them by spritzing with Glimmer Mists, blended a little ink round the edges then embossed the big swirl stamp in silver at two opposing corners.

The flowers were embossed in silver onto more of the same pattern paper. I spread a thin layer of Stickles Stardust glitter then cut them out. The large Birthday greeting stamp is from an A6 plate by Elusive Images. It was also stamped onto the printed paper and heat embossed in silver, then matted onto some of the same ice blue card I have used for the main card.

The flowers and swirl stamps are by Sheena Douglass.

Apologies and a Tiddley card

I just want to say sorry to friends who's blogs I have not been visiting a lot recently. My old 'puter was getting very wobbly, dying on it's feet actually. Anyhow I had to nurse it along and avoid having it turned on for too long as it was running too hot and getting ready to fry itself. Thankfully the guys in my local computer shop are very cool guys, they kept my old 'puter running for about a year longer than I had expected and they have now built me a nice new one for not too large a number of pennies. Well not too large in the scale of 'puter stuff, but enough pennies to buy rather a lot of rubber stamps with if I hadn't needed the new 'puter.

Anyhow here is a "tiddly" card I made for a swap on Craft Telly Forum recently - the swap theme was to make a small card.. The card is what we refer to in the UK as A7 size - I know I have some American freinds who drop by occasionally so for you guys the card size is close to 1/4 of your American Letter size card which has then been folded in half to make a little card.

The whole thing was made from a piece of lovely pearlescent Moondust card - the butterfly was cut and embossed from some of the Moondust card with my Cuttlebug using one of those dies that has a matching embossing folder. I brayered some ink over the embossed butterfly using a Kaliedacolor ink pad - Calypso if I remember correctly - and finished by adding some sparkle with Stickles glitter glue.

The layer underneath the butterfly was stamped with a small text stamp which I had inked using the same Kaleidacolor pad and the daisy border at the bottom was stamped and embossed with gold EP then painted with Twinking H2Os. I can't recall who made the littel set of text stamps, but the border comes from a set made by Crafty Secrets. The other matting layer was simply another piece of the moondust card which I had coloured with the brayer in the same way as I coloured the butterfly. I did find it was best to give the ink a gentle heat set on this kind of card.

Shirley Poppys

This card came about after something I read made me Google Shirley Poppys, the flowers in this variety of Poppy are a pretty shade of pale pink. It's also another of those cards made for a March Birthday.

The stamp is from Elusive Images and is part of the Flora and Fauna Themeplate. I stamped and heat embossed it with Silver EP, then painted it with Twinkling H2Os. The greetings are also stamps by Elusive Images and were part of a Graphicus Guild Member's Limited Edition stamp plate. The frame is one stamp and there is a selection of greetings that are all made to fit inside the frame.

The image is layerd onto black card and I added some black Stickles glitter to give some more sparkle. The decorative corners were were cut from white card with my Cuttlebug and then painted with the same shade of green paint I had used on the poppy flowers. I am not sure if the end result is a good representation of the real flowers but I like to think that it's just as pretty as the photos I found in Google of the real thing.

Christmas Left Overs - Not More Turkey!

In the final run up to Christmas I made some cards using Joanna Sheen's Enchanted Christmas CD. As I was in a hurry at the last minute I didn't mess about printing only the bits I wanted, so this left me with some pages of partly used toppers and bits and bobs of co-ordinated backing papers piling up in my craft room. It seemed like a good idea to use them up and get a head start on my cards for 2009. In fact I have promised myself faithfully that for Christmas 2009 I will be ready with plenty of cards made well before any deadlines for mailing them out come around. That way it won't matter if my mojo does it's now annual trick of heading off to warmer climes for a December vacation leaving me stuck at home with no creativity! Anyhow here are a couple of cards made with my "leftovers".

For the first card I simply added red and green Stickles Glitter glue to the Poinsettia and also traced the sentiment with gold Stickles. The image and the co-ordinating backing papers were matted and layered onto gold foil card and I added a pretty bow as a finishing touch.

For the second I matted and layerd the image and backing paper onto dark blue card and, using my favorite Stardust Stickles, added lots of sparkle to the snowy scene in the main image and traced a fine line of glitter round the edges of the mats. The sentiment is a silver peel-off sticker. I still have more unused bits - seems a shame to waste them so if I find I am still in Christmas mode I may put together a few more cards in the next few days.

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.

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!

Frosty Holly

Another Christmas card made using stamps from Elusive Images. This time I used the beautiful large Holly Flourish stamp and the co-ordinating Holly Flourish corner stamp, both from the Christmas Flourish themeplate.

To make the card I first created a background on some gold foil card using red and green alcohol inks and some alcohol ink blending fluid. With this was done I stamped the large holly flourish by first inking up my stamp with Versamark then White Brilliance ink then tossed on some white embossing powder and set with a heat gun. To be honest I am not sure if the Versamark was necessary, but I wanted to make sure I had enough time to get the EP to stick and I was not certain if the Brilliance inks allow enough drying time for this. I think I may have mentioned before that I am addicted to glitter, and I decided I wanted more sparkle so I used some Stickles Star Dust glitter glue to trace over the holly image all the flourishes, I think the result of that looks rather yummy. This was mounted onto some dark green card stock.

To mount this I thought that white card stock would be best, but a little plain, so I used the same process (versamark and white brilliance ink) to emboss the holly corner stamp onto my card and once again traced over the image with more of the Stickles glitter glue. Finally I attached my large holly topper with some red brads.

I had been planning on added a red bow somewhere, but I think it might unbalance the card and just be one thing to many, what do you think?

Two Projects - "Christmas" and "Something Funny"

The 25th of September marked the start of another month in the countdown to Christmas and time once again for Fab's Big Christmas Challenge. This month the nutter's challenge would be to make nine Christmas cards. I might even make that many but most of them will be quickie cards with using stuff like, dare I say it "peel-offs" I doubt if I will be adding them to my blog or to the challenge. Whew, OK I hope nobody noticed that shame-faced admission! Anyhow here is my entry for the September's challenge, but who knows, I might manage to make another 8 cards worth blogging about before the 25th of October comes around.

This one was stamped using a lovely Christmas Wreath stamp from Hearth and Home themeplate by Elusive Images. I stamped and embossed the wreath in gold, painted it with Twinkling H2Os, added a touch of red Stickles Glitter on the holly berries and some red Sakura Glaze pen over the bow to change the colour and texture of the bow when compared to the colour of the poinsettia leaves. With my wreath all coloured I decided it would be nict to cut it out. This was mounted onto a circle of gold mirror card with foam pads and then that was mounted onto my card. The card itself is a from some cream pearlised card I bought in the Paper Mill Shop and cut to a 5 inch square card. I covered this with a lovely paper from the Artylicious Season's Greetings CD leaving just a border of the cream card showing and then added some gold strip peel-off borders round the edges of the paper. More foam pads were used to mount the gold circle of card onto this for more dimension and as a finishing touch added a narrow bow of red organza ribbon to provide more contrast with the green design on the paper.

My other project was to make "Something Funny" for Florries Weekly ATC challenge on Craft Swap forum. I have a small set of mini clear stamps by Inkadinkadoo which are definately meant to be humourous so I thought this was the ideal project for giving these stamps and outing. The actual text on the stamps says "I gave up coffee, sex and chocolate" but as I had decided to make a chocolate bar for my background I only stamped the bit about chocolate.

The chocolate bar was made by inking a white ATC size piece of card with some brown ink from a Petal Point ink pad then I used the box making side of my score board to score grooves into the card to form a grid. I used the edge of the same ink pad to darken the brown colour in the grooves so as to create the appearance of more depth and a chunkier bar of chocolate. The stamps were just stamped onto some pink card with Adirondack dye in (Espresso), cut out and adhered to the chocolate bar background with foam pads.

Edit : Perhaps I ough to own up and say my comments about peel-offs were meant to be rather toungue in cheek. I do use them, mostly I use borders and/or corners, also sentiements. There are infact both a gold border peel-offs and a "Merry Christmas" sentiment on the Christmas Wreath card.