Thank You

Thank you to all you wonderful people who leave such lovely comments on my blog. You are very kind.

"Thank You"

Today's card is a triple stepper card with sidepanels. The old jalopy and gears are diecut from foamboard using Sizzix Bigz dies. This gives really thick diecuts with loads of dimension. The gold colouring is added by dabbing with gold mixative alcohol ink.

Ingredients:

Sizzix Bigz Tim Holtz dies: Old Jalopy, Gadget Gears

foamboard

Adirondack alcohol ink: gold mixative

Marianne butterfly dies

Kanban Industriana paper pad

cardstock: grey 300gsm, black pearlised

adhesives: PVA, Pinflair, glossy accents

silver thread

washers

Entered for the following challenge:
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Thank You

A Dove Book Card for Christmas

This is my favourite card from the last couple of months, it has all my favourite things - vintage images, loads of ink & stamping, and above all lots of dimension. I hope you like it too.

"Dove Book Christmas Card Inside"

This card has the usual book card construction. If you've never made one before, I have a tutorial with all the construction details.

"Inside left panel"

The background paper is entirely handmade using a heat-embossing resist technique to stamp the snowflakes, with plenty of blue distress inks sponged on, and a few extra blue stamped snowflakes for dimension. Spellbinders snowflakes are diecut from pearlised card, together with a Venetian Motif decorated circle behind the sentiment. The sentiment is printed from one of those Christmas magazine CDs & sponged with distress inks to match, then mounted on a Fancy Tag diecut with Pinflair blobs to raise it. You can't see it in the photo, but the swirls have thin lines of glitter glue added for extra sparkle.

"Inside aperture"

The beautiful dove is a free image from the Graphics Fairy (thank you Karen!). It is printed three times, fussy cut, shaped & layered. The feathers on the wing edges and tail are feathered with scissors so they look more realistic. The image was glued into some old acetate packaging filled with tiny clear seed beads and white sequin snowflakes to make a shaker card, and fitted into the aperture. Extra diecut snowflakes are slotted in between "the pages of the book" and held in place with tiny dots of glossy accents. The front layer of the folded book pages is heat-embossed & inked to match the backing paper.

"Outside cover"

The front cover has some more of that patterned paper matted onto pearlised white card edged in distress inks, with some more diecut snowflakes.

Well, it's turned cold here in Northern Ireland and whilst they forecast snow, we didn't see any thank goodness. It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas :-)

Ingredients:

Stampers Anonymous stamp set - Tim Holtz Reindeer Flight

Spellbinders - 2012 Snowflake Pendant, Create-a-flake 4, Venetian Motifs, Fancy Framed Tags Two

Distress Inks

Versamark ink pad

Stampendous embossing powder, clear detail

free dove image from the Graphics Fairy

recycled acetate packaging

seed beads & white sequin snowflakes

Papermania Persimmon ribbon

cardstock: blue 300gsm, white pearlised 200gsm, white 160 gsm & 300gsm

Hot Off The Press - vintage Christmas CD-Rom

Fine glitter glue

Entered for the following challenges:
Joanna Sheen - Cold and Frosty
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Stamp Without Ink

Black and Gold Bauble Madness

Back to the Christmas cards today, and I enjoyed making this one playing with inks, stamps and dies mmmm better than chocolate (no, really!). It's quick if you have a few to make in a hurry.

"Black and Gold Bauble Madness"

I like the way the baubles are falling like snowflakes across the background. A couple of the bauble images are stamped on spare card and diecut, then placed on the card with foam pads to raise them up for some extra dimension. Everything here is stamped, but gold embossing works really well too.

Ingredients:

Justrite stamp set: Merry and Bright

Spellbinders: Holiday Ornaments 2010, Frosty Forms

Brilliance Ink Pad: Galaxy Gold

cardstock: black 300gsm, gold glittery 200gsm (for reindeer)

gold aquamarker (for edging)

adhesives: foam pads

Entered for the following challenge:
Justrite Inspiration - Happy Holidays

Lest We Forget

"Poppy Field"

 

If I Should Die
by Rupert Brooke

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

 

Ingredients:

Indigo Blu stamp set: Poppy Meadow

Spellbinders Decorative Labels One, Labels One

distress ink pads & markers

archival ink: Jet Black

Stampendous embossing powder: clear

red grosgrain ribbon

cardstock: red 300gsm, black 300gsm, white 200gsm

 

Entered for the following challenges:

Card Crafter's Circle - Remembrance / Poppies
Crafts and Me - Reds
Try it on Tuesday - Memories
That Craft Place - Red for Remembrance

Traditional Christmas Book Card & Charms

Today I can finally share my secret with you, that this month I have been chosen as Guest Designer for Stampalot. Also, they have changed the name of their blog to Stamping Sensations! This month's challenge is "Traditional Christmas" so why not pop along and have a go or even just have a nosey at the design team's wonderful creations? There's a great prize too! Well here we go with today's card. It's one of my book cards, and we'll jump straight to the inside.

"Traditional Christmas Book Card inside"

I've worked in the traditional Christmas colours of red, green and gold, and with a vintage thing going on. The basic construction is the same as for the tutorial with the cover made from 300gsm red card and the closures using red/gold woven ribbon. More of the ribbon was used to decorate the border of the book on the right hand panel, along with a fussy-cut border from a free vintage image. I used up scraps from last year's Christmas papers making a collage background for the left hand panel with a layered sentiment.

"Right hand panel"

On the right hand panel, the book aperture, there is more depth to play with and a number of items are glued in place, including decorated buttons and diecut flowers. Snowflakes are diecut from vintage paper scraps and added around the edges, sticking them into the book leaves. I love the big, jovial Father Christmas that is used as the background image, together with the "Jolly Old St Nicholas" sentiment.

"Snowman Pendant"

The snowman is cut from a scrap of patterned paper, glued into a blank cameo with glossy accents, then the cameo is filled with glossy accents and left to dry before gluing into the project with Pinflair.

"Father Christmas"

The "Father Christmas" charm is made in a similar manner.

"Robin"

Did you spot the robin in the top right-hand corner? He is a Kars wooden embellishment coloured with distress markers.

"Front Cover"

I like to make the book covers look realistic, so often use gold heat-embossing to make them resemble old leather-bound volumes. Also, a plain outside leaves more room for a wow factor when you open the card!. The background is stamped in one go using a fab Kanban stamp, and a diecut reindeer is layered red on gold for a shadow effect before sticking to the front.

"Traditional Christmas Book Card"

Ingredients:

Graphic45 8" x 8" paper pad scraps: Christmas Emporium

other patterned paper scraps

Spellbinders: Layered Poinsettia, Frosty Forms

Kanban stamp: Winter trees with stag and deer

versamark clear ink pad

Stampendous embossing powder: Pirate Gold

Kars wooden embellishment

charms

decorated buttons

tiny yellow gems for flower centres

red & gold ribbon lace

cardstock: red 300gsm, antique gold 200gsm, white 200gsm

adhesives: PVA, Pinflair, glossy accents

Eighties Poinsettia Christmas

I just loved that red, white and black colour combo in the 80s and have used it on a few Christmas cards this year.

"Poinsettia Christmas Card"

The Botanical Swirls die is cut & embossed from white pearlised card leaving a neat border. The fab, swirly Justrite "Merry Christmas" stamped in black archival ink in the lower right hand corner and the corners rounded. The whole piece is mounted onto sparkly black card using lengths of foam tape around the frame to give some depth.

"Poinsettia Dimension"

The poinsettia is die cut in lots of layers from red and black glittery card, then each layer shaped by hand before sticking together with glossy accents. Some tiny black gems are added to the centre. The whole flower is mounted onto the card with a big dollop of Pinflair, which gives a little flexibility.

Ingredients:

Justrite clear stamps:  Large Christmas Sentiments

Spellbinders: Botanical Swirls, Poinsettia

cardstock: white pearlised, black sparkly, red sparkly, A5 white 300gsm card blank

small black gems

archival ink: Jet Black

adhesives: glossy accents, Pinflair

Entered for the following challenge:
Justrite Friday Challenges - Happy Holidays

Sparkly Christmas

It can be hard to take photographs at this time of year with those dark days meaning that a flash is required, and this is particularly so with sparkly holographic card, so I must apologise for today's photo's.

"Sparkly Christmas"

There are layers of sparkly holographic card and black & silver holographic card, and diecuts of black glittery card stuck onto the silver card for extra background interest.

"Justrite Bauble"

This is the same bauble stamp that I used on the vintage Christmas card posted on 17th October, sorry that it's so hard to see the stamping against all that sparkle from the camera flash! It's amazing how different the Christmas cards are just from the difference in background papers.

"Diecuts"

This view shows the background diecuts and the glittery black poinsettia layered up with some silver ball gems in the centre. A string of gems makes a fab hanging for the bauble.

Ingredients:

Justrite stamp set: Merry and Bright

Spellbinders: Holiday Ornaments 2010, Poinsettia, Holiday Tree, Botanical Swirl, Create-A-Flake Four, Labels 28

cardstock: "Merry Christmas black & silver, other black & silver for matting, silver holographic stars, A5 300gsm card blank

foam tape for mounting label & ornament

PVA

Entered for the following challenge:
Justrite Friday Challenge - Happy Holidays