Christmas Charms

Charms is the theme over at Bah Humbug this week so I set about hunting through my stash for a Christmas charm but couldn't find anything suitable so I thought I'd turn my hand to using some shrink plastic.

The main card is a square cream blank covered with paper from Papermania Silent Night pack.  I then stamped and embossed the bauble image onto gold glitter card (stamp is from Papermania).  This was then cut and matted onto some matching cardstock.  For the earrings I stamped the bauble image twice onto clear shrink plastic, cut out and remembered to make a hole for the jump rings, and then used my heat gun to shrink them down.  I added some jump rings and ear wires.  These were mounted onto the same gold glitter and matching card after I'd punched small holes for the ear wires to go through.  I used a double layer of sticky pads at the back so the ear wires didn't get squashed.  I stamped and embossed the sentiment and used my SU oval and scalloped oval punches.  The finishing touch was a matching ribbon.  For some reason although I've used the same ink throughout the earrings look a slightly different colour to the main image but that might just be down to my ability to take photos!!!  lol

Thanks for looking.

Tilda in Red

Die Cut Dreams challenge this week is "Tilda in Red".  So I was stumped......... I don't actually own any Tilda stamps; but luckily I knew a woman who did!!!  My great friend Anne over at Stamps & Paper has a some and she kindly stamped a couple of images for me so I could join in this challenge.

This image is Dinner Tilda and I have cut her out and coloured in ProMarkers.  On top of a square card base I have used some Christmas paper from a K&Co pack which I've had for ages.  The border has been punched with a Martha Stewart snowflake edge punch with a strip of matching paper from the same pack which I put through my Big Shot in an embossing folder.  I then added a strip of red lace.  I've used nesties ovals and added some red lace for Tilda to sit on - I used my bone folder to shape her and then used Pinflair Glue Gel.  The sentiment is computer generated and I used Stampin Up punches.  The holly berries and gold ribbon were snaffled from some Christmas crackers a few years ago - knew they'd come in handy for something!!!!  lol  As a finishing touch Tilda is wearing a necklace and bracelet of tiny gems and I've added red Stickles to the holly berries on the backing paper.

Thanks for popping over.

Winter Wonderland

Thjis week's challenge over at Bah Humbug is "Winter Wonderland".  I immediately thought of an unmounted rubber stamp that I've had for ages (and so can't remember where it comes from.......... senior moment!!) that shows a house set in some trees with the sentiment "Winter Wonderland" underneath the image.  Unfortunately this stamp is more of a photo stamp and so doesn't lend itself to being embossed.

So in the end I hunted out my Creative Expressions build a scene Village stamp set and stamped it onto brown cardstock with Versamark and then embossed with Ranger Stream embossing powder.  I masked off the rest of my unmounted rubber stamp so I could stamp the sentiment only.  Again I used Versamark and the Stream embossing powder on brown cardstock.  Both images were matted and layered onto light and darker cardstock and the sentiment added to the top of the village scene.  I took a DL card and a piece of patterned paper from My Mind's Eye Christmas Glitter Book.  The edge of the patterned paper was punched using a MS deep edger and then stuck using d/s tape to the main card with a piece of matching cardstock underneath the punched edge.  I found a matching piece of ribbon and some gems and added Mint Ice Stickles to the main image.

Thanks for dropping by.

Flippin' Birthday Card

It's my eldest nephew's birthday next week and it's that same old thing - what on earth to do for it.

I have used one of the Flippin' Men stamp sets  for the main image and coloured with ProMarkers.  Both the back and front images were cut out and glued onto acetate which, in turn, was attached to an oval aperture card.  Not sure if you can see from the photo but the glass, shoes, tap and puddle had Diamond Glaze put on them for some shine and the foam on top of the glass was achieved by using Snow Writer.  The paper on the front of the card was a piece of Artylicious from my stash.  A border peel off was put around the aperture.  The sentiments were part of the stamp set and stamped in SU Chocolate Chip ink and clear embossed.  I finished the card by placing a piece of ribbon down the side and added some gems.  On the insert which can be seen through the aperture I have stamped the row of glasses from the set and added watercolour to each glass depicting how much beer was still in them.

Thanks for stopping by.

No stamping tag card

On the Die Cut Dreams Challenge blog this week the challenge is to make a card featuring a tag but with absolutely no stamping on it at all.

I immediately turned to my new Artylicious Essence of Nature double CD set as there are some lovely tags on the 2nd CD which match up with some of the papers on CD1.  I chose a lovely large tag with the image of gently lapping water at the bottom and then printed out the matching paper.  The sentiment was computer generated within the CD.  The base card is an A5 blank.  The border across the centre has been punched with a Martha Steward deep edge border punch with added lace and some torn vellum goes from top left to bottom right of the card.  The flowers are also from the CDs, cut out and decoupaged with a brad in the centre.  A little lace on the tag and some rather "blingy" gems finished the card.

Thanks for looking.

When is a Poinsettia not a Poinsettia?????

The challenge this week over at Die Cut Dreams is Poinsettia................... well as I don't have any silk poinsettias or even a stamp with poinsettias on them I thought I was snookered.

When I actually looked at an image of a poinsettia I realised the petals looked very much like leaves - only red.  I have recently got the lovely stamp "Skating Along" from LOTV and hadn't used it yet.  So I stamped her in black Memento and coloured using ProMarkers.  For her hat and fur on the coat I used Glamour Dust.  I hunted around on the internet for a free photo of poinsettias and printed it out to 5"x5" and used this as the main backing for the square gold card.  The main image was matted onto red and gold nesties die cuts which had been run through my Big Shot using Crafts Too Swiss Dots folder and then sanded.  A matching ribbon and bow were added and the sentiment is computer generated and mounted using SU punches.  Now all I had to do was make a poinsettia flower............. so out came my Nellie Snellen leaf punch and embosser and with some red cardstock I soon had a reasonable looking poinsettia flower.  I put a small blob of Pinflair glue gel in the centre and scattered on some micro beads.

Thanks for stopping by.

Angels & Fairies and Vellum

This week's challenge over at Bah Humbug is Angels and Fairies and at Polka Doodles it is acetate or vellum.

I wanted to do something a little different and so thought I'd complete a parchment project that I've been wanting to do for a while - in fact I got the template and the Pergamano Magic Girl Vellum last year sometime.

I started off by tracing the star pattern onto white parchment with white ink and then embossed and pricked following the instructions.  I took a piece of gold vellum and layed the completed star on top and used a cutting tool to cut around the shape leaving a small border.  I then did the same with another piece of gold vellum for the scalloped circle on top of the white star.  I then die cut the Magic Girl image using my nesties, added some glitter to her wings and a few gems around the image.  Her star was also decoupaged.  The base card is an 8" square covered with gold card which was cut to size and then embossed using my Hougie Board.  The sentiment is from the Papermania Silent Night stamp set, gold embossed onto parchment and matted.  I then added a ribbon and some corner peel offs.  To glue the image to the next layer of vellum I used my Xyron 510 so no glue showed through.

Stained Glass

I'm back............. had a brilliant week at Dillington House learning how to make stained glass and the tutor was superb.  It was really good as there were only 5 of us students so got lots of one to one time which does make a difference.

I completed two projects - one, which was the major project, I can't post a photograph of because then I'd just have to kill you all!!!!  lol  It's destined as a present and I don't want to spoil the surprise............. after the event I will post a photo of it.

The other project I made was a sun catcher of a hummingbird sipping nectar from a lotus flower.

I really did enjoy this course and luckily for me the tutor runs his own workshops from his studio which is only about half an hour's drive away from me.  Yet another interest to add eh?????

Thanks for stopping by.

Die Cut Dreams "Snowmen" Challenge

The challenge this week from Die Cut Dreams is Snowmen.  I haven't got any snowmen stamps so went looking through my digistamp files to see what I could find.

In the end I found two images and couldn't decide which one to use so, in the end, used both!!  The first one is a snowman iceskating and can be found here.  The second one was a pre coloured image of a snowman sitting with a bird on a branch which can be found here.

I coloured the skating snowman with ProMarkers and added some glitter glue for highlights.  Matted and layered onto nesties.  I made an easel card and covered it with paper from My Mind's Eye Glitter stack and then punched a border using a Martha Stewart edger.  The addition of a ribbon and sentiment finished the card.  With the snowman and bird I matted and latered onto nesties and added some Polar White flowersoft to the snow and then some glitter glue for highlights.  Again I used paper from My Mind's Eye for the backing.  I then cut a strip of navy cardstock and put it through my Big Shot with a Crafts Too embossing folder and matted this onto silver mirri.  The sentiment is from the Papermania Silent Night set, silver embossed and matted onto silver mirri.  A bow and flower were added.

Thanks for looking.

Blowing my own trumpet!!!!!

Forgive me for "blowing my own trumpet" but I was tickled pink yesterday.  I had entered some of my goodies in the Queen Camel & District Horticultural Society's Annual Show.  When we went along yesterday afternoon I was amazed to find that I had won four 1st prizes, one third prize, two "best in show" rosettes and two silver cups.................. you could have blown me down with a feather!!

I had entered my nuno felting on silk scarf, a free machine embroidered bag, a mixed media painting of a sunflower, a dish of cherry tomatoes (all of these got 1st prizes) and a Dorset apple cake (3rd).  Here's a photo of my certificates and rosettes - I have to wait for the silver cups as they have gone away to be engraved.

Well, I won't be posting much over the next seven days as I am off on a week's course to learn how to make stained glass at a lovely place called Dillington House........... hopefully will be able to show you a finished project at the end of the week.

Thanks for stopping by.

Bah Humbug Through the Window Challenge

The challenge this week over at Bah Humbug is "Through the Window".  Ahha I thought, now where are those die cut window sheets I bought ages ago............... hmmmmm can't find them at the moment so will have to improvise.

I have used the large stamp from the Creative Expressions Create-a-scene village set and stamped and clear embossed using black ink on white card.  I then cut this down into four equal pieces and mounted it onto black card leaving a gap inbetween each piece and so creating a "faux" window scene.  I have then mounted this onto a piece of white card which has gone through my Big Shot in a Crafts Too embossing folder to which I added a piece of ribbon.  This was mounted onto a piece of silver holographic card leaving a narrow margin and then onto a black A5 card blank.  I added some Stickles glitter glue to create a snowy scene.  The sentiment is from a Stampin Up set and was punched out using a SU square scalloped punch.

Thanks for looking.

Ruby Wedding Anniversary Card

Friends of ours celebrate their Ruby Wedding Anniversary later this month (obviously they are much older than us!!!!  lol).

I have started out with an A5 gold pearlescent card and attached some foiled paper to it.  I then took some matching card cut slightly larger than the front of the card to allow it to be domed and, using my Nesties, die cut a heart out of the centre and then added a gold mirri scalloped heart to frame it.  The embossing on the top and bottom of the card was done using a Cuttlebug embossing border folder.  I also die cut letters to spell out their names which were attached to the top left and bottom right of the card front - I ran these through my Zyron 510 so they would adhere easily.  I then die cut two tags with the numbers 4 and 0 which were tied together with some matching ribbon and placed in the aperture.  The "waste" numbers were used on the smaller matted heart and I used a peel off for the "th".  The sentiment is a peel off with two gold gems added and cut out using my SU punches.  I added some matching flowers and leaves and finished the card off with some peel offs down each side.

Thanks for looking.

Essence of Nature

I've just received my long awaited Essence of Nature double CD from Artylicious and it's absolutely scrumptious!!!  Glenda has posted a competition over on the Graphicus Blog to make something with the new CD's and be in for the chance of getting the cost refunded so I couldn't wait.  The only problem is choosing which paper to use - they are all so lovely but at least I know I can print out what I want, when I want it, so I don't have to sit and stroke my one sheet!!!  lol

I chose my design and printed it out on super smooth printer card.  I also printed out a sheet of tags.  On the tag I stamped and embossed in copper a sentiment from Elusive Images "Loving Sentiments" stamp set.  I then took a piece of heat embossable acetate and stamped and embossed in copper trees from the Elusive Images "Tall Trees" set.  I attached a piece of copper ribbon to the tag and used d/s foam to mount it on the background.  I then took three paper flowers and edged them with copper ink and used a copper brad to put together and then placed this to the side of the tag.  I used narrow red liner tape on the backing card and stuck the acetate down each side so it was "domed".  This was placed on an A5 card blank which I made out of a pale copper pearlised card and placed two fine copper peel offs down the edges to hide the red liner tape.  A simple card made very effective with this wonderful CD.

Thanks for looking.

Die Cut Dreams "Mistletoe Kisses"

The challenge this week over at Die Cut Dreams is Mistletoe Kisses and it is being sponsored by Roberta from Prairie Fairy Designs who is offering 5 of her brilliant digistamps to the winner.  Strangely enough I had been paying her site a visit a few days ago and found this wonderful image that I have used for my card (and it's also where I got the lovely polar bears image).  Roberta must have given all the Die Cut Dreams design team this image as all their cards use it but as I've only had mine a few days I just couldn't resist using her as well.........

I printed off the image and coloured using my ProMarkers.  For more interest I have used DecoArt Glistening Snow Writer for the pompom on her hat and the edging on her jacket.  I have also used Diamond Glaze on her glasses.  I used my Nesties labels die to cut out the image and then matted and layered onto gold mirri (which had been put through my Big Shot with a Crafts Too embossing folder) and matching card.  The background paper is from Papermania Silent Night and I added some lace to both edges of the text paper.  The sentiment is computer generated and punched with SU punches.  I then added flowers as a finishing touch.

Thanks for looking.