Faux Shaker

Good morning all, and Happy Halloween. I hope you had a good weekend and are having a good start to the week. Unfortunately there was no blog yesterday as our craft room was unusable due to working on the kitchen again at the weekend. Why is it that when you do anything with the kitchen the whole house ends up a mess????? 

Anyway, we did treat ourselves on Sunday by going out for lunch and 

 then to the cinema to see Thor. Chris Hemsworth, need I say more?😊.

Right, on to today's card, this one is a faux shaker, using printed acetate instead of sequins or beads. I used the small Snowglobe Die from Clearly Besotted, and a Simon Says Stamp Circle Christmas Greeting stamp, which I stamped on dark blue card and then dusted over with Mica Powder.

Then I added a circle of pre printed acetate to give it the look of a shaker card, but without any of the depth or weight for posting.

For the background I used a piece of pale blue textured card and then a dark blue mat, which was cut out with a Lawn Fawn, Stitched Squares die.

The smaller square was an off cut I had left from a stamped background I had made using Distress Inks and a snowflake stamp.

Then I added some sequin snowflakes and a Britannia die cut sentiment.

Hope you like it, take care and I'll see you soon.

xxx

Decorated Door

Good morning all, I hope you have had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend. I know I am lol. 

Today's card was made using a free gift set from a magazine, which I think was last Christmas. It contained the door and frame embossing folder and some decorative stamps and dies.

I embossed the door pattern onto white card and then embossed it again on red card, then I cut the red door out and stuck it on top of the white one.

I ran around the grey frame with a cool grey Copic Marker to add a bit of shading and then stamped a letterbox and door knocker on to the door with Versamark ink. Then I heat embossed this with gold embossing powder.

I used the wreath and holly dies with some white card that I shaded with green Copic markers, so that they wouldn't be all the same colour.  

I added this to the door and popped on some red pearls and a gold bow to finish the wreath off. Then I white heat embossed the simple sentiment and popped it all on to a cream 4 x 6 note card.

Hope you like it, take care and I'll see you soon.

xxx

Easy makes

Happy Thursday friends and welcome back.

Today I have another example of a card that is easy to make and quick to mass produce.  

I took a piece of Christmas paper and another of white card and cut them both out with a die slightly smaller than a standard card blank.

The two pieces were stacked together and I cut through both layers at an angle.  This makes the top and bottom halves of the card front.

To separate the two pieces I added a strip of gold shimmer card.  I then stamped a sentiment to match the angle.

For a simple card I left it there but I could have added more stamping or sequins for more detail on the white half.

The card can be changed up by amending the proportions or using different colours.  The possibilities are endless.

Hope you like this idea.  TTFN Jude xx

Merry & Bright

Good morning all and happy Wednesday. I hope you are all having a good week. Today's card was an experiment after watching another of Jennifer McGuire's video's, on how to do a form of Letterpress.

I decided to give it a go using three different sizes of snowflake dies. For this technique, you cut each of the snowflakes 3 times from heavy weight card, then once from plain vellum. Then you glue them all together and this is what makes your letterpress image.

I used the very pale blue ink from the Altenew Cool Summer Night ink set, which is called Sea Glass. I applied it to the vellum side of the snowflakes and then laid them on a piece of watercolour card.

You then run these through the die cutting machine using an embossing sandwich and the stacked snowflakes press into the card and leave the inked image behind.

I must admit I was really dubious about getting it to work for me, but it did work lovely, so I will definitely be doing more. I added a sentiment from the latest Simon Says Stamp kit, and heat embossed it with Bright Silver embossing powder. 

Then I cut the panel out with an MFT Stitched Rectangle die and added it to a blue note card. Then to finish it off I added a few drops of Sea Mist Nuvo Jewel Drops. 

Hope you like it, take care and I'll see you soon.

xxx

Under the mistletoe

Hello everyone.  I'm here again with another Christmas card.

This one combines the Mama Elephant Pandamonium set with a mistletoe stamp freebie.  This one came from Altenew and was included with Creative Stamping issue 47.

I started by blending Peacock Feathers and Antique Linen Distress Oxides on to a white card blank and leaving it to dry.

I then stamped the pandas using Altenew Jet Black and added Wink of Stella for some shimmer, before cutting with the matching die.

The mistletoe was stamped with inks from Altenew's Green Fields set - Frayed Leaf, Forest Glades and Evergreen.  I used Buttercream for the berries then added Nuvo Crystal Glaze for some shine.

The sentiment came from the same magazine freebie.  I heat embossed in white on black card and added it under the pandas with foam squares.

To finish off I stamped three small hearts and added Nuvo jewel drops in Strawberry Coulis.

Hope you like it.  TTFN Jude xx

Christmas Snowflakes

Good morning all, I hope you have had a good weekend. It's been a busy one again for us, but I did manage to sneak out for a couple of hours on Saturday, to have lunch and a catch up with a lovely friend. 😊

Today's cards are all about the snowflakes. I have seen a few cards around where the main focus is on the snowflake, so I thought I would give it a try.

I started with a piece of thick black card, and inked it with Versamark ink. Then I heat embossed it with Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder. 

This card has a Spellbinders Snowflake with a Creative Dies sentiment. I mounted it on orange card which I cut out with an Avery Elle Wonky Stitched Ellement die.

I used the same background die for this teal version, but used a Memory Box Precious Snowflake die for the main focal point. 

I added gold twine and a single gem to the orange version, and a few gems along with some of the diamond cut-outs, with a different Creative Dies sentiment, to finish off the teal version.

Hope you like them, take care and I'll see you soon.

xxx

Merry & Bright

Yay for Friday.  I'm ready for some crafty time this weekend.

Today's cards are a little more involved than some of the ones I've made recently.  I cut a circle from some card to make a mask for the focal point of my cards.  I adhered the mask over a small card base and inked through with Distress Oxides to create an area to sit my deer.

I used broken china, peacock feathers and black soot for one; then antique linen with frayed burlap for the other.

I added a gold circle cut using two dies to create frames around the inking and embossed a banner underneath using metallic embossing powders.

I added white dots and a die cut deer to the blue card but stamped directly into the circle for the other.  I coloured this deer with Copic markers and added Nuvo drops to the nose and collar.

I also added some Wink of Stella to both critters and some gold liquid pearls on the stamped version.

Hope you like them.  TTFN Jude xx

Hurricane Relief Box - Goodies...

Good morning all, I hope you are having a good week. My week got a lot better yesterday when my hurricane relief box from Simon Says Stamp arrived. If you haven't heard of this fundraising effort, head over to: crafters-for-a-cause on the Simon Says Stamp Blog.

So today for a change I thought I would show you what was in my box. As I treated myself to the $100 dollar box, I also got a handmade card from one of the designers. Mine was from the lovely Debbie Hughes of Limedoodle Design. http://limedoodledesign.com/blog/

Isn't it gorgeous?, I love the colours. It did make me laugh that Debbie had made these cards in the UK, then they travelled over to America to be packaged with the boxes, for one of them to then come back to the UK to me!!!

We got some gorgeous Doodlebug Design embellishments, and small inks, along with note cards from Lawn Fawn, and wooden stamps from Hero Arts.

The box also had Perfect Pearls from Ranger Ink, some easy tear tape, pins and badges.

We were lucky that we only received one duplicate set that we already have. The small Seal-a-brate set from Avery Elle, but that will be passed on to someone else at some point.

We got stamps and dies from Mama Elephant, and Simon Says Stamp, and this beautiful rubber stamp set by Wendy Vecchi, from Stampers Anonymous.

The box also contained a couple of die sets from Karen Burniston, which are new to me, so looking forward to trying those.

We also got the one of the latest stamp release from Simon Says Stamp, Jude has been coveting this stamp set ever since it was released.

And, last but definitely not least, this lovely wreath set from SSS and washi Tape from 

Pinkfresh Studios.

Hope you liked this little tour through our new goodies today. Take care and I'll see you soon.

xxx