White embossing

This is a card I made when at a class at Davina's, taught by our talented Kim. Firstly I stamped and white embossed the trees in the foreground. I punched a circle from a post-it note and placed in the sky for the moon. Next I sponged the sky in iced spruce and stormy sky distress inks, removed the 'moon' and very lightly stroked the sponge across to take out some of the brightness. I tore up some pieces of scrap paper and laid them randomly across the bottom half of the card and lightly sponged from the edge of the scrap paper outwards in the iced spruce. This gave the impression of snow drifts. I next took a stamp of pine trees, inked up with same colour and after first stamping on scrap paper, placed on card at various levels along the 'drifts'. A clear sparkle gelly roll pen along the branches and on the edges of the 'drifts' adds the effect of frost. A peel off greeting to finish.

No apologises

I make no apologises for using my favourite stamp from Stampendous Snowbird it is lovely. In this case I stamped and painted with distress inks barn door and rusty hinge. Once dried I then cut it out. I dry embossed a crafts too folder onto white card blanking a section part way up from the bottom. I dabbed over the snowflakes with a little silver metallic paste. I then scored a line each side of the area left blank. Here I stamped a greeting before fixing the Robin in place using Woodware silicone glue which I swear by.

Birthday girl

This is a very hastily card made for my lovely daughter-in-law's youngest daughter. 

The ever faithful LOTV topper with a bit of added glitter given to the edge of the mirror, bows on the shoes and spots on the dress just give a bit of sparkle. Papers from stash added to one of the lovely patterned Woodware cards. Lace trim, faux pearls and sentiment to finish.

Rudolph

This is another of the cards I made for my friend to give to her friend!

First I must apologise to Kim for borrowing her inspiration on making a shaker card. I hope she forgives me because my granddaughter now wants one! Typical! 

For this card I used Hobby Art's Santa's Reindeer 

I stamped out the reindeers, Robin  and log and after colouring cut them out. I tore some scrap paper to use for 'drifts', positioned them on 8 x 8 card and sponged with distress ink iced spruce enhancing the sky with a touch of stormy sky. The snow laden fir tree I inked with the iced spruce and using second generation stamping stamped at various heights to give the illusion of distance. Aged white Frantage was used on the front of the card. I cut a piece of circular white card to fit an empty double sided tape reel. On this I stamped the trees and fence from the stamp set and added white glitter to the top of the fence and in the foreground. Next I stuck the log with the Robin perched on in front of the fence. I glued the reel to the front of the card and cut a piece of blue snowflake paper large enough to cover a piece of acetate. White glitter was sprinkled over the little scene and the acetate stuck over the top. This was left to dry overnight. 'Rudolph' was fixed to the edge of the 'window', the other reindeer to the side. Message edged with the iced spruce and snowflake embellishments plus a touch of glossy accents to the red nose to finish. When shaken it makes a lovely little 'snowstorm'.

They all come at once

I hardly made any cards in October as I was sorting out my craft room. It's amazing just how long it takes as you don't realise how much you have accumulated till you start. However it is now done so I'm making up for lost time. Just four days after my granddaughters birthday it's my grandsons birthday (her brother in law). For this card I used Kim's Coppice from Woodware. I first stamped the image twice using second generation stamping. I then stamped again, slightly off centre of the first images and added the sentiment in the corner. I then embossed the entire panel. The background card onto which I mounted the image has been stamped with leaves and the sentiment using Versamark and blasted with a heat gun. I then sponged the card using distress inks. After a few moments I buffed the card so the images would show clearly. I then re-stamped the leaves and sentiment again using darker distress ink.
I originally started this post in November, it is now December. I have been that busy, like fellow crafter, with Christmas cards, I also have six birthdays in December. Just as well I enjoy it😉

Girl from Brazil

1. The girl from Brazil is my lovely granddaughter in law whose birthday it is on Wednesday. The card is a pre-embossed card from my stash which I have sponged in distress ink crushed velvet. The panel is made by using one of Anna's stencils which has been spread with Imagination Crafts Sparkle Gel using a palette knife. After carefully peeling off the stencil the panel was left overnight to dry. 
2. When it was dry I sponged the entire panel with distress inks Milled Lavender and Pumice Stone. While still wet it was flicked with water. Using a wild grass stamp which had been inked up with the Milled Lavender I stamped at random on bottom of panel. With copics I then coloured the stencilled image leaving the tips of the flower buds white. I then mixed some white mica powder with a small amount of water and painted the tips of the buds.

Cutie Robin

I just love this stamp Robin by Stampendous
It's one of my all time favourites, he's so cute
This Christmas card is for my friend, the same one who I made the birthday card for. I stamped two of the images and reversed another one. All were coloured with distress inks barn door and weathered wood. Two of them I cut out. The background papers are from LOTV. I cut out icicle, fir branches and poinsettia dies. The icicles and fir branches I embossed with white sparkling embossing powder which gives a beautiful frosty look. The red poinsettia flowers I edged with glitter glue. The fence and log that the extra robins are sitting on come from a Hobby Art set Reindeer. Painted with weathered wood mixed with barn door, the snow was liquid appliqué in White which was heated and sprinkled with glitter. Sentiment typed out on my computer finishes it off. Hope she likes it.

Friend of a friend

My friend in Cornwall asked me to make a birthday card for her very good friend so this is what I came up with.
I've used the spellbinders lattice die for the background in pale pink pearlised card and backed it with a dark red paper. The butterfly corner is also a spellbinder die cut from Ivory pearlised card. I mounted this in the bottom right hand corner then cut my favourite Marianne vintage swirl die out of the same card. I fixed the swirl to the card with a generous amount of silicone glue to which I added a pink bow, handmade flowers, two pearl stickpins and a couple of leaves to which I added a few dabs of glossy accents to look like dew drops. I stamped the sentiment 'for a special friend' onto a strip of card, added a sparkly gem and inserted this into the pocket created by the butterfly die. I also just added three gems to the body of the 'butterfly'.
I also made a box for the card and decorated the lid by sponging spun sugar distress ink through the outline left from cutting out the swirl. I think you'll agree it makes a good 'stencil'.

Dragonfly

This is a card that I made for my grandson-in-law's birthday. He lives in Cyprus and his birthday was last week. The background was done at one of my friend Kim's classes at Davina's using a gelli plate which was covered in distress inks and impressions were made using a dragonfly stamp. Card was then placed over the Plate to make a 'print'. A second print makes a more subtle image. On a piece of pearlised cream card I stamped the lovely Dragonfly Vine stamp by Stampendous. Mounted this onto medium brown card from stash. Added peel off greeting mounted to match. Faux pearls in adjacent corners to finish. Hope he got it in time!

Colourful card to bring cheer

 Next week is my eldest granddaughter's birthday. In June she gave birth to a beautiful daughter, another addition to the family and last week we said farewell to a member - her father! So I made this card to bring a little colour to her. I used a peel off by Woodware Francoise's Mums Round and laid the smaller ones at random on white card then sponged over with Brilliance ink pads. I then gently removed the peel offs.
                                  

I followed the same procedure with the large circular 'mum' but didn't remove the peel off, then cut it out using a nestie.  Using  blue card I next cut a scalloped circle onto which I mounted the  large one. With a strip of white card I punched a border using a Tonic punch, edged with the pale blue ink pad then mounted this onto the front of the card. Over the  centre of this I glued the main image. At the bottom I added a black peel off sentiment from stash. Out of the blue card I cut small rectangular shapes which I stuck in the corners. I think I will enter this into the Woodware challenge for September Woodware sketch 38

      

Alcohol Inks

Last Saturday at Kim's class at Davina's we played with alcohol inks and had great fun. Davina had held her Macmillan coffee day on the Friday but carried it over and it was my 70th birthday yesterday and Davina had decorated her conservatory with pennants and banners to go with the Macmillan balloons. Then during the afternoon I was presented with a chocolate cake adorned with candles. We all indulged in some cake - it was scrumptious! Thank you ladies for a lovely afternoon.

Anyway just to prove to our tutor, I do use the bits that I make and here is the proof........

I must say the panels look good when mounted onto white card.

They make ideal men's cards.

Well I'm very sorry to say that my friend Kim met with an accident yesterday when returning from visiting her daughter in Birmingham and has broken her elbow in a fall. She must have been in terrible pain as she still had the journey to complete, fortunately she didn't have too much luggage.

Here's wishing you a speedy recovery Kim xx

My Wonderful son-in-law

There was so much happiness in the weeks leading up to the wedding of my son then the morning before their big day my wonderful son-in-law of  32 years sadly lost his battle against brain cancer. So there I was frantically making sympathy cards for his mother, family and my daughter and families.      

      

I then posted them on my way to having my hair done. My darling Stephen was  buried yesterday in the churchyard in Sowerby amid the North Yorks Moors overlooking the lovely beck where he spent many hours watching kingfishers and sand martins. I loved him dearly and we had a wonderful relationship. Rest in peace, your suffering is over.  

                                                    

  

Happiness and Love

This is the card that I sent to the newly weds. It is quite plain. White card mounted with Ivory pearlised paper repeated twice and mounted onto an 8x8 white card. The top piece has been embossed using the diamond

 pattern then using Spellbinder fancy-heart die I cut two out at an

angle half way down. I pushed out the fancy centres and positioned them half way over the apertures. I added white faux pearls at the inter-sections of each diamond. Out of the ivory paper I cut the word LOVE, wedding rings and champagne glasses using various dies. On the right is the box I made for the card to go in. Below is a photo of the happy couple.

Love

Saturday was my son's wedding. So now I can share the wedding cards with you. It is his second marriage and her first and this is the card I made for his two daughters to give to the happy couple.
The background is wax paper run through an embossing folder of roses. The Love stamp I have coloured with pearlised paints and cut out. I have curled it slightly and mounted it onto the card with silicone glue. The LOTV stamp I have coloured the bride's dress with the same paint but the rest is coloured using copics. Sentiments are also LOTV.