New Year card

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and you got some lovely crafting goodies - which I did.......... my DH bought me a huge stash of Stampin Up stamp sets and lots of other SU goodies which I am dying to use.

When we got back from Christmas we found a bottle of bubbly on our front door step and a card through the door which was most unexpected - luckily we live in a very rural area otherwise I don't think the bubbly would still have been there!!!

As a thank you I made this New Year card for them using a Thomas Kinkade stamp which I love. I stamped it with black StazOn onto acetate, made sure it was dry and then ran it through my Xyron 510 to put adhesive on the back and then put copper gilding flakes on the back of the acetate. This was then mounted onto black card and some copper mirri card. I used some lovely Graphicus paper as the base of the card, tied some black and copper ribbon across and typed a computer generated greeting which was then matted and layered using my nesties. A bow and some black pearls and the card was finished. Hope they like it. Think I will save the bubbly until New Year's Eve................

Thanks for looking.

Fun card

This is my very last post before Christmas as we are off to Portsmouth in a little while to spend Christmas with the family.

It was my brother-in-law's birthday on the 21st December and it's always very difficult to find something suitable for men but several months ago I found a free download of a glass of Guinness and, being Irish, Jim absolutely loves his Guinness, and his red wine, and his Cointreau......... well, you get the message!!!! lol





This card needed a bit of work in a graphics package but I really had fun in making it - normally the last image of the glass is the one most seen in Jim's hand!

Happy Christmas to everyone and a peaceful New Year.

Reflections

Well, I know I said I probably wouldn't post again this side of Christmas but I have been playing with stamping reflections this afternoon trying to get ahead as it's one of the projects we are doing with our craft club in January.

I used two methods - using the brayer on the tree scene and using acetate on the boy fishing. I must admit I definitely prefer using the brayer as you get a much better image.

For the tree scene I inked up the stamp, which was in my stash and I can't remember where it came from (!!!!), and then ran the brayer up the inked stamp. I then rolled the brayer to the bottom of the image and rolled it over my coated cardstock and voila you get your reflected image. I then turned round the cardstock, inked up my stamp again and lined up the image with the reflection and stamped. The water was created by inking up the brayer and then running it over a crumped piece of copy paper. I used a mask for the sun and brayered over it and then removed it and then stamped my cloudy sun image (Clarity Stamps) over.


The boy fishing image was made in the same way except that you ink your stamp and then stamp the image onto acetate which is then placed over your cardstock, laid down and lightly rubbed over. I think there is a problem with this stamp as it wouldn't ink properly but is borrowed from a friend so I will ask her about it.

A quick tip - the Stampin Scrub from Stampin Up is amazing to clean your brayer on as it's a perfect size.

Thanks for looking.

Happy Christmas to everyone

This will be my last post before Christmas and I wanted to take the opportunity of wishing everyone a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

I have totally finished making all things Christmassy and have put all my stamps, cards, paper and embellishments away and cleared the decks to start again in January. I have promised myself that I will try and make a few Christmas cards each month so things are not quite as hectic next year but your guess is as good as mine as to whether that will get done!!!! lol

Just thought I'd post a photo of the Christmas cake I have just finished decorating this morning. Normally my sister Val and I take turns in hosting Christmas but this year my youngest nephew, Keir, who got married last year has invited us all down to Portsmouth to celebrate Christmas with him and his wife Lara in their new home. Where ever we are I always make the cake and as none of us like marzipan (yeuck!!!!) I decorate the top with nuts or fruit and this year got some lovely glace fruits. Hopefully it will taste as good as it looks as I've fed it enough brandy to sink the proverbial battle ship................ just joking, but it has had some over the last few months.

Thanks for looking.

Gift bags

Taaa daaaa!!!! All things Christmassy now finished - yippee!!!! lol Hopefully I've now finished everything; apart from this morning I had to make a really quick card for someone I forgot - whoops.

Last night I finished making three gift bags from white paper carriers cut down and decorated with SU card and, of course, Silent Night SU stamps. I got the inspiration from our lovely SU demonstrator Jenny when she did a workshop with us last month. I think these will make really nice and different wrappings for Christmas presents - and if the recipients are careful they can keep the bags after! The handles are made using the SU scalloped oval punch.

Thanks for looking.

Marathon finished............

At last I've just managed to finish off all my Christmas cards and ended with these three.

These first two cards use sets of clear Creative Expressions Christmas stamps which fit my nesties perfectly. The first card is made up with a base card of black stamped randomly with snowflakes; a white card border clear embossed with the swirly border stamp; the main image matted and layered onto silver mirri and black card and the same with the greeting.

The second card uses Papermania Signature linen paper, some white and silver sparkle paper, ribbon, gems and stickles. The main image is clear embossed and matted and layered using nesties. The greeting is the same border stamp used in the black and white card.




The next one uses the Crafters' Companion Cute Companions Winter Tales CD and stamp set. This is not my usual style but the set was given to me by my friend Dee so I thought I would use them to make her Christmas card to show how much I appreciated the gift. Although it looks pretty simple there was an awful lot of cutting out for the decoupaged elements - the swags especially were rather a trial but the finished card looks pretty good and I hope she likes it.

Some more Christmas cards

Well, I've nearly finished off my Christmas cards - only another couple to make.


This card, which I made for Jill, uses Alison Yeates' embossing grid which is lovely and worked even better when I realised I needed to put the parchment on top rather than the other way round - wondered why I couldn't find an embossing tool small enough................... lol Mind you it wasn't only me who thought the same way as some of the other girls said "I'm glad you asked that question"............ make a fool of myself? Never.........!


Seemingly I was extremely lucky to get my hands on a Papermania stamp "Bauble Decoration" which is part of their A Christmas Carol series. I first saw it on the DoCraft website and loved it immediately but had trouble finding it. Eventually a lovely man at Emerald Crafts ordered one for me. I was amazed at the size of the stamp - it's about 6 1/4" by 4 1/2" - and only cost £6.99. Some of my friends have since tried to buy it but they can't be had for love nor money - well saying that a couple have been auctioned on eBay and gone for over £30 seemingly. For some reason Papermania aren't going to be making any more until next year. I made a couple of cards for Anne and Jan which were inked using the Kaleidacolor Autumn Leaves ink and clear embossed. I then sprayed with Stick & Stay from Crafters Companion and covered with glamour dust. They were then matted and mounted on an A5 card using gorgeous cardstock from My Mind's Eye Christmas Glitter Book, I added some gems and ribbon and then had to have a shower as I was absolutely covered in glamour dust..................

This card was made in virtually the same way except I stamped it in green StazOn onto parchment and I then embossed it and pricked out certain parts of the baubles. This was mounted onto gold mirri card and finished off in a similar way to the other two. This one's for Tony my hubby - hope he likes it.

Thanks for looking.

Birthday cards

As well as it being my sister Val's birthday at the beginning of December it was also Anne's birthday whilst we were away in Paignton on the parchment weekend.

For my sister's card I have used a lovely little stamp set from Craftwork Cards called "Shaken not Stirred". Val loves her cocktails and I thought this was so appropriate for her. I stamped the image of the cocktail glass three times and matted and layered onto red cardstock. I stamped the cherry image into each of the glasses in red ink and then used Diamond Glaze over the top of them. I stamped the cherry image on the card base using first, second and third impressions. Used a lovely piece of foiled black/silver card and placed my three glasses on top. I then used my nesties for the greeting.

The card for Anne used the cupcakes stamp set from Creative Expressions which was then matted and layered using my nesties. I used an impressabilities for the background piece of card which had been inked with VersaMark so after I had run it through my Big Shot I then dusted it with embossing powder which gives a really nice effect. I used a Martha Stewart lace border punch ontop of the background card and also on the greeting.

Emerging from the chaos of my workroom!!!

Can't believe it's over two weeks since I posted but apart from having an absolutely fantastic long weekend in Paignton with Christine Coleman, Alison Yeates and Anne, Jan & Jill, I then had a couple of days up in London and have been trying to catch up ever since.

We had a great weekend of parching with lots of laughs and some serious hard work. I haven't done that much parchment crafting, especially grid/lace work so when we were faced with our first challenge I nearly went home!!! lol It was the most beautiful rose surrounded with two frames and lace work.

We settled down to doing the outer and inner frames and then were asked to do the rose next - terrified I was going to mess up big time I decided, along with the other girls, to do a "practice" piece which actually turned out nicely. Trouble is when you've done it once and are pleased with it you are a bit loathe to try it again.............. still we did and luckily that turned out okay as well. Then came the terrifying job of the lace work.

By now it was about 11pm on the Saturday night and I started confidently enough - but unfortunately a bit too confidently! I had nearly finished the gridwork and found that I had made a mistake right at the top of the piece of work.......... won't tell you what I said. Anyway Janet said we could rectify it but without going into too much detail that went wrong as well. But I have saved the piece by pricking out the rose and two frames and I am going to have a go at the lace work now I have some time to spare. Hopefully the rose can then be mounted on top of the lace work in a 3D manner.

These are photos of my practice piece with the single frame and the main piece with the double frame. I know I shouldn't say it myself but I was really pleased with the roses as I think white work looks stunning when it's done properly.


The other photo is of Anne and Jan working hard although it looks like Jan was tearing her hair out............ probably because of me!!!! lol