Embossing

This week's challenge over at Bah! Humbug! is embossing.

For this card I decided to do the double embossing method.  First of all I decided what die to use and I've chosen a Nellie Snellen set.  I then took two pieces of card (same size as the embossing folder that I am going to use) and place the largest die on top and cut out the centre.  I repeated this with the other piece of card and made sure I had placed the die in the exact position by putting the first piece of card over the top and pencilling in the aperture.  When you have both pieces of card cut use some temporary glue to position them together.  These two pieces then get taped on top of the embossing folder (on the outside).  Cut a piece of card to fit the embossing folder - in this case I've chosen a universal e/f - and run through your die cutting machine.  You will see that the whole card apart from the central area where your die had been cut out have been embossed.  Then separate the pieces of card and taking one piece position your die back over the aperture and put this directly over your embossed card making sure everything lines up.  Again run through your die cutting machine  so the outside of the die is actually embossed on your embossed card leaving the central piece untouched.  You may have to have a play to get the correct recipe of plates etc as you don't want the original embossing to be flattened out.  I then took the same die set and made a frame to enhance the unembossed piece, stamped my sentiment (Stampin Up) and embossed in red glitter e/p.  I then placed the frame on top using silicone gel to raise it up, put an embossed line around the edge of the card using red liner tape and then matted and layered as normal.  The only addition it needed was a ribbon and some gems.

Thanks for looking.

Bah! Humbug! Holly and Fairies

Well folks - here we go again.......... only just taken the Christmas cards down and Bah! Humbug! has started up their challenges again!

The first one is Holly and Fairies and whilst I was clearing my table (!!!) I found this card that I had started last year and the white card had already been die cut using a Nellie Snellen frame die and mounted onto red card - so I thought that was a good place to start.  I decoupaged all the layers of the die cut up using Pinflair glue gel and then stamped this image of a Christmas fairy praying from Lili of the Valley which I coloured in with Promarkers.  The wings are made from Angelina Fibres although it doesn't show up very well in the photo.  I used Stickles on the holly berries in her hair and used glue gel to add her to the top of the decoupaged die cuts.  I then stamped a corner holly leaf image at each corner and added more Stickles to the berries.  It's a very simple card but hopefully will ease me into crafting for next Christmas!!  lol

Thanks for stopping by.

All White Christmas Challenge

This week's challenge at Die Cut Dreams Christmas Club is to make a card with the predominant colour being white.

I started off with a white 6" square card blank and cut a slighly smaller piece of white card which I put through my Big Shot in the snowflake Cuttlebug embossing folder and mounted this onto the main card.  I then found a piece of white and silver handmade paper in my stash and used one of Tim Holtz' new dies to cut a fancy edge - unfortunately it doesn't show up very well in the photograph.  I stamped the largest snowflake out of the Stampin Up snowflake set and embossed on parchment in silver.  This was cut out using a Nellies die and mounted onto a piece of silver mirri also cut using the larger Nellies die.  The sentiment is a silver peel off mounted onto white and silver mirri punch out with my SU oval and scalloped oval punches.  I used some diamond gems in the centres of some of the snowflakes on the embossed card and the main image and added a white and silver irridescent ribbon bow and some silver peel offs down each side.    For some strange reason the silver mirri looks like gold in the photo!

Thanks for looking.

Bah Humbug A Child's Christmas Challenge

Didn't manage to join in the Bah Humbug challenge last week so thought I'd try to get one done in time this week.  The challenge is "A Child's Christmas" which set me a bit of a problem because I really don't have many things suitable for children at Christmas. 

Anyway I routed through my stash and found a Daisy & Dandelion stamp set which was free on a magazine I think.  I also found a set of "Santa's Little Helpers" which are all lovely little images and eminently suitable for a child except I think they are really bad stamps................. the images printed on the front acetate show delicately coloured bunnies, bears, dogs etc but when you come to stamp them they are anything but delicate!!  I know my friend Val also found she had problems with these stamps as where they show gentle shading you just get big dark patches of ink even if you use a very light inkpad.  Anyway I digress......... failing a more suitable stamp I used the Daisy in her Santa hat and coloured the image using my ProMarkers and used a DecoArt glistening snow writer for the fur trim and pompom on the hat and some little areas where, I think, snow has settled on her body.

I cut the image out using my Nellies die and then mounted on gold and red mirri die cut with my Nesties.  I made a 5" red card blank and covered with gold snowflake card from my stash leaving a narrow border.  I used my SU ticket punch for the corners and tied a red and gold ribbon around the centre.  I also used the sentiment that came with the stamp set embossed in gold with a small piece of ribbon threaded through.  Finished off with some red gems.

Thanks for looking.

Susie & Vikki's Sketch Plan

Well, better late than never......... it's been a really busy few days and this is the first chance I have had to join in Susie & Vikki's Sketch Plan.

I started off with an 8" square card blank and covered the front with a piece of SU purple card and then layered gold glittered card and the purple until I had four layers.  I then took a piece of Hunkydory gold foiled card in a matching shade of purple, cut it to size and then put it through the Big Shot with a Nellies die which cut the ornate centre out.  I then cut the remaining card into four equal pieces and attached them to the front of the card.
The piece that was originally cut out was then placed in the centre of the card using foam pads.  I then stamped and gold embossed the Christmas tree image (Creative Expressions set) and used the smaller Nellies die to cut it out.  This was also placed on the card using foam pads.  I then used some Stickles adding to the dots around the main image and also to create "faux" gems on each corner of the card.  I coloured some gold peel offs using ProMarkers and put the phrase "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" around the centre panel.  As the Hunkydory card is so ornate I thought less is more and left it as is.

Thanks for looking.

Elegant & Party Ladies

I recently bought two stamp sets by Creative Expressions called Elegant Ladies and Party Ladies from my friend Liz at Make a Lasting Impression - it was one of those moments when I just couldn't decide between them so had to have them both!!!

The image on this first card is from the Elegant Ladies set.  I began with a square card blank and used some backing paper from my stash.  I cut some mats using my Nellies dies in light green Bazzill, silver mirri and a darker green Bazzill card.  I used my Martha Stewart daisy punch for the central border.  The image has been paper pieced using paper from a Laura Ashley 6"x6" pack and I added some diamantes around her waist.  The sentiment is also from the same set and I added some green gems to finish the card off.

The second image is from the Party Ladies set.  I started off with an A5 card blank and covered the front with some pearlescent card.  I then cut out mats using Nesties labels dies in four sizes and inked the edges with chalk ink.  The sentiment is from the Elegant Ladies set and again was cut out using a Nesties labels die and inked as before.  I added a Sizzix die cut flourish and heart, a paper flower, ribbon bow and some pearls.  The actual image was coloured using ProMarkers and I used a Quickie glue pen and Glamour Dust to add some "bling".

Thanks for looking.

Silhouettes

This weeks challenge at Bah Humbug is silhouettes so I was thinking of using an image from Joanna Sheen's Dancing with Shadows CD but my friend Anne beat me to it!!! So I had to get my thinking cap on. Did a bit of a trawl on the internet but didn't come up with anything I liked so went through my Christmas stamp box and found a Creative Expressions set which has silhouette images on it.

I have used a square white base card and covered it with a black and silver backing paper from my stash, added a piece of vellum across the centre which was punched using my Fiskars border punch. I added a ribbon across the vellum. The robin image was stamped in black and clear embossed, as was the Merry Christmas sentiment around it. They were both cut out using Nesties circles dies and then mounted onto black mirri card cut using a Nellies die. I had a flourish die and cut two from black mirri but they were too big for the corners so I cut off the "swirls" which I then used at the bottom left and top right of the vellum. The addition of some gems finished the card off.

Thanks for looking.

Nellies dies and SU stamps

Afraid I've not done much crafting in the last week as I've been laid low with a chest infection. The other day our great postie Dave delivered my long awaited Nellies dies so I was itching to have a play with them.

I also haven't had a chance to try out any of my new Stampin Up sets that I received at Christmas so this was an ideal time to try them both together.

I covered an A5 card with a piece of Graphicus paper, cut a strip of SU green card and used my SU wheel to create a flourish border which I then clear embossed. This was matted onto a piece of white card which had been punched with a Martha Steward lattice window border punch. I then tied a piece of cream ribbon around the centre of this and placed it in the centre of the card. I cut out two Nellies frames and used the flourish from the SU Baroque Motifs set as a background using Mellow Moss ink. I then stamped the bird from the Touch of Nature set in Old Olive once onto each of the frames and then twice onto white card for each frame. These were coloured with copics, the first layer I decoupaged the whole image and the second layer only the bird. I then stamped the phrase from the Touch of Nature set and matted onto green card. The finishing touch was three pearls at the top right corner.

Thanks for looking.