My Favourite Five Christmas Cards of 2014

Hi there.  Debby over at A Scrapjourney has her challenge on at the moment to choose our five favourite Christmas cards.
                                                      

Now, this year I have not posted as many Christmas cards as I did last year because I started so late and I ran out of time to blog them.  I have given myself a stern talking too and must start earlier this coming year!  Anyway, here is my selection.

                                                      MonochromaticWinter Wonderland

                                                                 Snowy Winter Houses

                                                                       Framed Noel

                                                           Glittery Snowflakes Christmas

                                                                    Happy Christmas

I am linking up with this challenge right away as I am not sure when the challenge closes.  Thank you for coming to take a look today.

Pat x          
         
                                                                               

                                                       

Happy Christmas

Hi there everybody.   Here is a card I made after seeing something similar over at Heather Telford's bits & pieces.  I only found her blog relatively recently and on looking through some of her posts you can see what wonderful work she produces.  I looked at the video tutorial she made and couldn't wait to have a go.  I used the tree from a freebie set from Penny Black which I got recently with a magazine, and although more of an indoor tree I thought it would probably work OK.

 Now it is no way as good as hers and it is similar as there isn't a lot of different ways to do snow and trees, but I hope she wouldn't consider this too much of a copy.  I cut a piece of copy paper with the shape for the snow, and the moon I cut using a circle die, cut the inside of the die to make it a bit smaller, pencilling the shape on to a 'post it' note and cutting out.  I used watercolour paper this time as I wanted to make it wetter and this does allow you to wet with a spray where ordinary card disintegrates much more easily.  I used  a brush and some water with my Distress Inks in  Tumbled Glass and Faded Jeans to build up the sky.  The trees were stamped with Adirondack - Bottle.  I actually spritzed the stamp with a bit of water before stamping so it blurred a bit and then went over again when dry with the same colour without the added water and on one or two I used a bit of Black Soot over the top instead of Bottle.   I did have a bit of a problem with the copy paper getting too wet and transferring the green  in several places.  I did try lifting the colour out with lots of water on the brush and a tissue which worked a little, but I just had to incorporate these in to the design as best I could.  If the tree looked a bit too thin I used a little extra Bottle ink with a brush and water to make the foliage more dense.  I used some more of the blues round the trees to give the appearance of the trees sitting in snow hollows and blurred lines of blue to give the snow depth.  I think this worked a bit but Heather's is fantastic.

I finished by stamping the sentiment and added some Perfect Pearls for the falling snow.  I think my blobs are a bit too regular.  Her brush and masking fluid gives a much more random effect.  Overall I was pleased with the way it turned out, but please if you don't know Heather and have never seen her work do go and take a look as you will be blown away by it.

After photographing it I decided that as it was what I considered to be my best and most creative card, artistically speaking, of the season,  I put a new sentiment tag over the top making it more personal and sent it to our son.  I didn't bother to take another photo though so this is it prior to the sentiment change.  

I would like to say a big thank you to all my lovely followers and fellow bloggers who I have come to know in the last fifteen months and hope that you all have a lovely Christmas, and for those that don't celebrate, an enjoyable break, and that 2015 will be happy, healthy and fulfilling. 

Pat x 

Glittery Snowflakes Christmas

Hi everyone.  I made this Christmas card using a Creative Expressions die which is called Vintage Baubles, and one of a number of co-ordinating stamps which you can use with the smaller of the two dies, and I have the Snowflake Bauble.  I also used a large background stamp from Chocolate Baroque called Snowflake Shadow.

I stamped and heat embossed the background using a snippet of white card and Ranger's Perfect Medium Ink and WOW Glittery Gold Embossing Powder.  The base card is a white card approximately 6" x 6" and the stamp is the same size, but I decided to cut the background down a bit to allow room for the sentiment on the side.  I finished the background by mounting this on to a snippet of Gold Mirri card.

The set comes with two different sized baubles consisting of an outer and an inner die, so you can make a solid bauble, or by adding the inner piece, a cut out bauble.  I used just the large outer die and made a solid bauble using a snippet of Gold Mirri Card, and then I used the co-ordinating stamp and the Perfect Medium heat embossed with the WOW Glittery Gold EP, and cut it out with the smaller outer die and assembled the bauble using these two layers.

I finished by stamping the sentiment, using the same products and technique, straight on to the base card.

With everything that has been going on recently I think I may have omitted to welcome one of my recent followers, so just in case, she is Jennifer and you can find her blog here.  Please do go and see her wonderful work. 

I hope everybody's preparations for Christmas are going to plan.  Mine have been rather haphazard but I am getting there.  Will hopefully be posting one or two more cards before Christmas.

Pat x

I am entering this card in the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 155.  We have to use up snippets that we have accumulated and I have used quite a few here, so huffing and puffing I have arrived with a day to spare.
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Anything Goes.

Heart Window Anniversary

Hello there.  I have two anniversaries to make cards for this month and this is the first.  I used the following dies:     Nellie Snellen Multi Frame Heart,  Xcut Nesting Circles and  Creative Expressions Classic Rose and Petite Vinery.   I also used a Craft Concepts Embossing Folder -Woodgrain.

I used my usual square white base card and a snippet of white pearlescent card and cut to size, and placed it on the card and fixed temporarily with removable tape.  I fixed the circle die to the front of the card with some more removable tape and ran it through my machine to cut through both layers at once.  I then embossed the pearlescent layer with the woodgrain embossing folder.   I did have to extend the embossing a bit to cover the card and luckily this worked well.  I then coloured using Distress Ink in Peacock Feathers using blending foam.  Using another snippet of the white pearlescent card I cut two of the smaller of the two Nellie Snellen scallop edge hearts that there are in this set so that they could be set back to back,  and then finished by inking the edge of the front facing heart with the Peacock Feather DI.

I used another snippet of pearlescent white card and cut two of the filigree flowers in the Classic Rose set of flowers using the two different sizes of die.  I removed one of the petals from the smaller one and then glued together and coloured this with the Peacock Feathers DI, then I cut the very smallest solid flower in the set with another snippet of the pearlescent white card and mounted up the flower.  I cut the two dies in the Petite Vinery set using a further snippet of the same card.

The heart was hung from the aperture using a piece of thin silver cord which I doubled and twisted to make a thicker and stronger piece and sandwich between the two hearts as explained above.  I stuck it to the inside front of the card using a small snippet of card to cover it and make it tidy.   I then made a bow with another piece and stuck this at the top of the heart.

When mounting the card up I realised that the heart was inclined to twist rather a lot so I made sure that one of the leafy swirls was stuck in just the right place to be an anchor, and stuck the leaf to the centre of the heart to hold it in place.

Thank you for looking at my blog today, and I have one new follower to introduce to you today, and she is Kristie Goulet and you will find her blog here, so please do go and visit her and see her lovely cards.

Pat x

I am entering the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop -Week 154.
 
                                                                                                                            

Christmas Robin

Hi all.   I really do need to get a move on with my Christmas cards.  Well here is another to swell the ranks a bit!  I thought I would try and enter some challenges to focus my mind a bit and I need to get a move on as this is for Merry Monday where the challenge is Feathered Friends.  Well I have quite a few Christmas stamps and dies now but don't have a suitable bird amongst them so thought I would attempt to make my own.  I do love robins so did my best to make him look reasonably the right shape and size.   I think he looks as though he has been eating too many worms but hey ho I did the best job I could. 

My first attempt was a snowy woodland behind the robin, but I fiddled too much and ruined it, so cut out the robin and the snowy foreground and attempted a different background with a few hills behind which I felt ended up a bit better.  I used a snippet of Watercolour Paper and my Distress inks, mixed with a little water and applied with a brush, in Tumbled Glass and Faded Jeans and a little Shaded Lilac and then I added a bit of white acrylic paint over the hills, sun/moon (to be honest I think this could be day or night),  and also the foreground snow and the post the robin is sitting on.  There is also a bit of Walnut Stain on the post.  I finished this layer by mounting it on to a snippet of dark blue card.

The background uses one of  the stamp from a set by Indigoblu called Here Comes Santa.  I stamped the sentiment all over a piece of  white card using Faded Jeans DI, and to add a bit more dimension I then embossed it using a freebie snowflake border three times and then cover the whole thing with the Faded Jeans which then highlighted the snowflakes as well, but this is a little difficult to see as the next layer covers quite a bit of it.  The words on the stamp came out rather blurred in some places but I decided that as it is only a background this would be fine.

On the next layer I used a snippet of white card and the same freebie snowflake border on it three times to fill and then used some Tumbled Glass DI to highlight the snowflakes.  I decided to leave the sentiment for now.

Thank you for dropping by today.

Pat x

I am also entering the following challenge:

Simon Says Monday Challenge - Holiday Cards.

Wedding Day Wishes

We received an invite to a wedding for which I made this card,  and the day went well.  As the weather this time of year can be a bit unpredictable it was just as well it was at a wedding venue so mainly indoors.  The weather was at least dry if overcast and chill but not freezing so they did manage some photos in the rather lovely grounds.  We luckily only had to brave the elements for about ten minutes which was quite enough as my outfit wasn't terribly suited to the autumnal conditions, especially as the wind had started to blow a bit!

I haven't made many wedding cards in the past and was lacking a little inspiration so did my usual trick of looking on Pinterest to see if anything fired my imagination.  I decided to go with a silhouette bride and groom and found an image which I adapted  a little as I thought the totally black silhouette was a bit heavy looking.  I fussy cut one image out then on the second I cut the skirt and train out and cut part of the upper body and shaped it into a strapless top.  I used these two bits as templates and then after pencillling round the shapes on to a snippet of heavy-ish white paper I cut them out and glued them in place to give the bride her white dress.  I then decided perhaps she would look nicer with an embossed train so cut the original template down and embossed with a Cuttlebug EF called Textile Texture which I thought had the look of lace.

 I then thought I would use the same EF in the background so cut a snippet of white card to fit the white square base card and ran it through the folder.  I die cut some corners from a set of NBUS dies (Never-Before-Used-Schtuff as coined by Darnell of djkardkreations)  from Sue Wilson at Creative Expressions called Vintage Bauble  using silver Mirri card and glued them to the embossed background.

I then made some flowers from another Sue Wilson NBUS die called Classic Rose.  Using a snippet of white card I made two flowers using all the dies except the largest of the plain dies but added an extra layer of the second smallest die to fill it out a bit.  I snipped away one petal out of each one and shaped and glued them, then layered them up to form the flower and set a pearl in the centre of each.  I then cut another set of plain flower die cuts using another snippet of white card, but this time I also cut a large patterned flower die cut and glued it on top of  the largest plain flower die cut and then  layered the rest on top without cutting away any of the petals except I cut an extra small one for the top layer on which I removed a petal and also attached a pearl.

The last step was to make the sentiment  which I did on the computer and then cut out with my S/B  Captivating Squares, the second size die. 

I hope you haven't found my post too long winded but this was a little more complicated than a lot of cards I make, but as this was for a wedding we were actually attending I wanted it to be extra specially nice.

Thank you for visiting my blog today.

Pat  x

I am entering the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 153.  Where we use up our snippets of paper and card, and as I used quite a few snippets on this card I am going to visit my friends over there.

P.S.  Thank you to Di, who has subsequently highlighted my card over at Pixie's Playground, for her lovely comments.  I have only just realised that she thinks the little flowers in the bouquet were added by me.  The only white pieces I added were the bodice and skirt with the embossed train added over the top.  I apologise for not explaining it clearly enough and for not reading Di's original comment properly otherwise I would have put her right.  I didn't want anyone who might come across the original silhouette to think I was claiming for work I didn't do.  Thank you so much for all the lovely comments that have been left which I really appreciate. 

November Rudolph Day

Hello everyone.  Well Christmas is definitely getting closer now and hurray, I actually made the deadline this time for Sarn's Rudolph Day and I am definitely in need of Christmas cards so need to concentrate my brain on the fact that time is getting very short!  At least this will make two more to add to the pathetic few I have made so far.

For these two cards I have used a Creative Expressions die and a set of Stamps from  Indigoblu.   

I would also like to give my thanks to Sarn for all her hard work in organising this challenge as she has decided to step down.   It was one of the first challenges I entered when I started this blog in September last year and as you can see from my remarks above I am not one of her most regular players, but funnily enough the first time I entered I won a lovely Memory Box Snowflake Corner die which had been donated by Scrappymo, who is taking over the running of the challenge in January, and huge thanks go to Mo for that. 

I am leaving this post here, but if you wish to see the details of how I made both these cards I am making two separate posts below.

Thank you for looking at my blog today.

Pat x 
 

Framed Noel Christmas

Hi there.  As I said in the above post this is the first of two cards I have just made for Rudolph Day.  I have made separate posts of the cards because it makes it easier if I want to enter any challenges.  This card was made using a die designed by Sue Wilson over at Creative Expressions called Framed Noel and it can be used with or without the outside edge.

I cut the die twice using snippets of dark blue and the turquoise card, with which I cut out just the centre piece, and layered it on top of the dark blue.  I then cut a piece of silver mirri card with the outside edge so that it fits exactly behind.  I then found a snippet of white card and embossed using a freebie snowflake embossing folder which actually is just a strip but by moving it down the card another two times it filled the piece of card nicely and didn't seem to leave any lines which was lucky.  I then coloured it using Adirondack - Stonewashed and Distress Inks - Peacock Blue and Shaded Lilac, and then a bit of Faded Jeans on just the snowflakes to accentuate them a bit more.  I finished by using a Sakura silver sparkle pen round the edge and in the centres of some of the snowflakes to add some extra interest but it doesn't show up much in the photo.  I then layered it on a white square card.

Thank you for stopping by.

Pat x

I am entering this card in the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 152.  The aim is to use up our snippets/leftover bits.

Moonlit Santa

This is the second card which I made for Rudolph Day on which I used an Indigoblu stamp set called Here Comes Santa.  I used just the sleigh and the snowflake edge.

I decided on the approximate size of the topper and stamped the snowflake edge top and bottom using Versamark and then heat set it with WOW Silver Sparkle Embossing Powder.  For some reason this did not come out as clearly as it might have done but decided it looked nice and glittery so would go with it.  I then sponged using Distress Inks in Faded Jean and then to darken it even more I went round the edges with Black Soot which muddied it a bit but thought I would carry on and see what happened.  I had left a lighter space in the middle which is where I stamped the sleigh after first removing the mask.  I decided to try some shadows across the moon but overdid it a bit so used some white acrylic paint over it to brighten the moon back up.  This was not easy as I had already stamped the sleigh in place so had to use the white paint around it, and when dry very carefully added one or two more shadows back in.

I finished by layering this on to a piece of light navy blue card leaving a space at the bottom for the sentiment.  This was a piece of leftover card and wasn't quite square so when this was mounted on to the white card it didn't look quite right so cut a piece off the white base card to make it fit better.

I thought this card could have turned out better but as I had spent a reasonable amount of time on it I decided to use it.  I am very self critical as you will probably have noticed, but I always try to learn from problems, so hopefully if I make another similar card it may go better.

Thank you for coming to visit.

Pat x

I am entering this in the following challenge:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

On Safari

Hi there, and thanks for dropping by.  I have a couple of male birthdays this month and I used this NBUS Deep Red elephant stamp which I have been admiring and decided to take the plunge and buy recently.  It is beautifully detailed and ready cling mounted, and as the name implies is made from very deep red rubber.

I decided to give the elephant a scenic background so I did my usual trick of starting the thing off on the Gelli Plate by mapping out the colours roughly with ink straight from the pad i.e. blue sky - Adirondack Stonewashed and Shaded Lilac near the horizon and keeping the ink quite smooth, then for the ground random bits of Distress Inks in Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Bundled Sage, and at the bottom in the middle for the sort of track I laid just the Spiced Marmalade and some Adirondack Espresso, and rubbed it a little with my finger to spread it around.  I then spritzed with a little water and using a piece of white card pulled the print.  To finish the scene I used a paint brush and some more of the ink used like paint and made some long grass at the front and added more bits of ink where I thought it needed it.  I painted two trees in the distance and some hills on the horizon, and I also added a little darker colour to the sky using some well watered down Faded Jeans Distress Ink at the top.

When I had decided the scene was set I used a snippet of white card and stamped the elephant using Memento London Fog ink and then using my Spectrum Noir Pencils I added some grey in various shades and then some orangy brown because elephants like to coat themselves in a layer of mud to protect their skin.  Unfortunately it doesn't really show very well in the picture.  In this instance I think the elephant would have been better painted with the inks rather than the pencils but I don't have enough of the right colour inks to do it.  I then cut it out and attached it to the background and fixed a sentiment.

I do enjoy setting the scene and hopefully you think it works ok.

Thank you for stopping to take a look.

Pat  x

I am entering the following challenge:

Penny Black and More Challenge - Anything Goes.
Sweet Stampin' Challenge - Birthdays.
Addicted to Stamps and More - Make Your Mark. 
Allsorts Challenge Blog - No Design Papers Allowed.

My Mind's Eye Birthday

Hi all.  I needed a card for a female relation and with Mrs. A's Butterfly Challenge in mind I used a sketch  I found over at Fusion Challenge.

I used the sketch and the pretty blue in the photograph for my card.  I found some My Mind's Eye freebie papers which I thought would work, and also a Lily flower stamp from a set by Sheena Douglass called A Little Bit Floral.

I stamped the flower on to a piece of the paper twice using Black Archival ink.  I cut the whole flower out and then on the second image just the three largest petals,  and used my white gel pen to fill in the lines on the stamp and the stamens as I thought this would tie it in better with the rest of the card.  After I had shaped the petals and stuck the flower together I added a centre  using a hole punch and a snippet of white card.  I shaped the pieces with a ball tool and attached them in the middle of the flower.

I made the tab shaped topper with another piece of the paper and backed it with a piece of blue card which was a snippet which had been dry embossed originally, but I thought that as very little of it would be visible this would look fine with the patterned paper.  A tip which I have found useful when trying to make the shape at the bottom is to line up both pieces  and after snipping the 'V' shape slide the top layer up as far as you wish and then cut the excess off the top.

The background layer is the third of the patterned papers with a snippet of the pink either side because it seemed to look better with the pink flower and harmonised the design.

I don't have any butterfly stamps only a couple of dies, one of which is very large, and one very small, so I decided to draw and cut out one of my own design.  I did look at a few different shapes and just sketched one, made a paper template.  I cut out a butterfly using a snippet of white card, and used this together with a freebie star stamp which I got recently with a magazine, and stamped the design from the stamp on to the butterfly using Picked Raspberry Distress Ink and also blended some of the ink on to the butterfly using blending foam.  I finished the butterfly with three of the white punched pieces shaped as above.   

The stars were a freebie stencil which I got with the same magazine and I drew round it and cut it out using a snippet of white card, and then stamped the design with the same star stamp using the Picked Raspberry and also blended some over the stars.

I finished by stamping the freebie sentiment from the same set on to the bottom corner using Black Archival ink.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Pat x

As well as the above challenges I am also entering this card at:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 151. We have to use up our scraps/snippets.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge  - We're Seeing Stars.
Country View Challenges - Bugs, Bees and Butterflies.

Optical Pattern Birthday

Hi there all.  I hope your weekend has started well.  A few days ago I needed a male birthday card and I was musing about what I might do and was just surfing the internet when I came upon this optical design by Julianna Kunstler which you can find here.  I was completely bowled over by it and just had to grab a piece of paper and follow her instructions for making it, to the best of my ability anyway.  I really thought that it would probably end up in the bin so chose a snippet of inkjet paper that had a sentiment which had been printed wrongly on one end so I cut this down to round about 51/2 inches square.  With hindsight it would probably have been better on something a bit more substantial.  Something like this is completely therapeutic and apart from cooking dinner and then eating it, I was determined to sit and finish it.  I must admit that by the time I had completed it my fingers were aching somewhat but I was quite happy with the effect.

She suggests you start with series of vertical wavy lines and then put one wavy line across the middle, and this is where you start pencilling in the segments so that all the lines curve towards the centre.  I will say at this point that when I mounted it I twisted the whole thing round by 90 degrees so the tubes are running horizontally not vertically.  You can use a fine line pen but I decided to pencil so I could erase and change anything I didn't like.  After all the lines were done  I started to colour with my Spectrum Noir pencils.  I started with the two plain tubes thinking this would be easier to achieve, but frankly after doing two plain ones I thought it would look more interesting if I alternated the colours.

I didn't at first think that this would work as a birthday card, but once I had mounted it on to a snippet of black card and then adhered this to the square white base card I began to think that maybe it was ok.  I finished by adding a strip of black card on which I added the sentiment.

Thank you for looking today.

Pat x

Birds on a Branch Anniversary

Hi all, and here is an Anniversary card I made for some good  friends whose 20th Wedding Anniversary was towards the end of November.  When it comes to Anniversary cards my mind seems to go down the same routes all the time, so had a look around for fresh ideas and found that the pair of birds idea came up quite a bit, and I don't think I have used birds on any of my recent cards.  A particular bird punch by Stamping Up  kept appearing, and as I don't own this punch and needed the card in a hurry, I decided to try making a bird of my own design.  It does look a little similar but the punch gave the bird just one wing but I have given mine two and the tail shape is a bit different.   I tinkered about a bit and finally drew one I was happy with, so just reversed it for the other bird to make a matching pair.

I used my Gelli Plate and Distress Inks in Tumbled Glass and Victorian Velvet with a snippet of white card applying the ink direct from the pad to the plate, and in this instance I think I mixed them together with my finger and then misted with a little water and pulled the print.  I think I may then have added some more Victorian Velvet  to random areas of the plate and misted then put the card back on the plate and pulled the print again just to darken the colour a little.  I then cut the background to size and ran it through a Card Concepts EF called More Dots.  I had to extend the pattern as the EF was rectangular not square, but with this simple pattern it proved quite easy to do.   I finished the background by inking a little more round the edges with Distress Ink - Faded Jeans.

The heart topper was made from another snippet of white card and using a Nellie Snellen Multi Frame Heart die, after which it was embossed using a folder by Cuttlebug called Birds and Swirls.  I then cut the birds from snippets of pink and blue paper from a pad of plain papers from Dovecraft, and cut the wings separately and ran them through the CC folder and attached them to the birds and pencilled an eye on each.  I decided to add a little shading to each bird with some Tumbled Glass and Faded Jeans on the blue, and Picked Raspberry and then to darken the wings a little of the Faded Jeans.  The branches were made using the Sue Wilson die - Petite Vinery.  I inked up the veins of the leaves while they were still in the die using Faded Jeans, and then I cut each branch a little shorter and coloured with the Tumbled Glass and Victorian Velvet inks.

Finally after assembling the card I ran off the sentiment on the computer and then made a mat for it using Spellbinders Decorative Elements  die Labels Eight.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Pat  x

I am entering my card in the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 150 where we us up our snippets of paper and card.

Under Sail

Hello fellow card lovers.  Well, I took my life in my hands and changed my blog a little, just the fonts anyway.  I am always a bit nervous of changing the look of the blog in case anything goes awry.  What prompted me was a post by Di about blogger and its problems which you can find here.  I left Di a comment thanking her for bringing this site to our attention and said I was afraid to change anything in case of problems.  Afterwards I thought "come on Pat, it really should be ok, just give it a go".  Well I did and everything appears to be alright.   The only thing that is slightly bugging me is that when the blog first comes up, and before it is fully loaded, it seems to flash up the old heading, but because the sizing of the new heading is a little different it flashes up the old heading on two lines before it finally loads and then puts up the heading with its new font.  I know this is just one of blogger's little foibles, and hopefully over time it will stop doing this.

Anyway, here is another male birthday card with a watery theme.  I enjoy making cards with a sea theme and I found this image that I thought would make a nice card and I used it in conjunction with my Gelli Plate and Distress Inks.

I covered the Gelli plate in four different colour Distress Inks, namely Faded Jeans, Tumbled Glass, Shaded Lilac and Peacock Feathers.  I swirled the ink straight from the pad over the Gelli Plate starting with the darkest colour, Faded Jeans, at the bottom, then the Tumbled Glass, then a small area of Shaded Lilac, and then the Peacock Feathers at the top, and then spritzed with a little water.  I made sure there weren't too many areas of white left and then pulled the print using a snippet of white card.  The print was quite good but decided to add some Shaded Lilac, again spritzed with water, to the bottom two thirds of the plate, put the print back on and was happier as the lilac had lightened and filled in the gaps.  I then decided to add  some Faded Jeans to approximately where the horizon line would be, and again added some water and pulled the print for a third time.

After printing the image, then colouring and cutting it out, I glued it in place.  It was a bit difficult to cut out as I had to cut off the lines attached to the sails which in turn were attached to the boat as they were too thin to cut out successfully.  After glueing in place I took a Spectrum Noir pencil and put the lines back in as accurately as I could and also added the birds at this stage.  The lines could perhaps have been a little sharper, but I went over them with a pencil to give a bit more definition, and decided not to chance my arm any more and just left it there.

I cut the finished picture down a little to give a good edge and mounted on a piece of dark blue card which in turn was mounted on to a square white card, then added the sentiment.  The only other thing I did was to create shading under and around the boat so it looks as though it is in the water and not on top of it.  I am fairly pleased with the result, and at a distance the horizon line seems to have morphed into a bit of distant coastline which is an added bonus.  The thing with this printing is that the results are quite random and unpredictable and if you'll excuse the pun you have to 'go with the flow' as it were.

Anyway, thank you for stopping by today.

Pat  x

I am entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 149 where we use up our snippets of card and paper.  Only a couple here - a large leftover piece of white and dark blue card.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

Dahlia with Embossed Frame

Hi there.  I can't believe that it is nearly the end of October and although the weather has been mild, now the clocks have gone back and the trees are changing colour, Autumn is well and truly here, and this seems to make me want to use different sorts of colours.  I made this card for a friend whose birthday was fairly recently, and used this Dahlia stamp by Sheena Douglass from her range A Little Bit Floral, and also a Crafter's Companion Embossalicious Embossing Folder called Elegant Frame.  I also used a newish die I have from Sue Wilson at Creative Expressions called Petite Vinery.

I started by stamping the image on to a snippet of white card using Distress Ink - Spiced Marmalade and then using Adirondack Sunshine Yellow and the Spiced Marmalade ink on a glass mat, coloured it in using a water brush, and then cut it out.  I took another snippet of white card and embossed with the Elegant Frame EF.  I coloured it in using Distress Ink - Mowed Lawn and then highlighted the edges using some gold mica powder.  I cut three of the Petite Vinery dies from snippets of gold mirri card, and cut them back so that I had six pieces, and then layered the card up as in the photo.  I also cut a little of the edge of the Elegant Frame away so that it fitted the white square card better.

Thank you for looking at my blog today.

Pat x

I am entering the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 148 where we use up snippets of paper and card.

Golden Wedding Anniversary

Hi there.  Some friends have just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, and as far as I can remember this is the first golden wedding card I have made.  I started with the idea of making a shaped card so I took a snippet of gold mirri card cut to about 6" x 3", and using a Spellbinders Labels Thirty Three, the largest die, cut one edge with the die.  In order to establish where to cut the base square cream card to the same shape I laid it down folded and roughly measured how much of the bottom of the card to remove in order for the finished piece of mirri to be about 2" in depth.   In order to cut just one edge you just have to make sure that the rest of the card is tucked through to the back of the die.  Guess how I know this.  I then fixed the gold mirri to the bottom of the card, cutting to fit.

The heart was made using  a Nellie Snellen - Heart die, largest fancy edge die, and then the largest plain edge heart cut from a snippet of white card and then run through my Cuttlebug Kimmy-Luvs EF which sadly is no longer available.  I actually used Versamark ink on the raised side of the folder and then heat embossed using WOW Gold EP.  This was a trifle fiddly as I had to tidy up the gold powder with a brush before heat setting and there were still stray bits which don't show too much after using the ink which was a mixture of Adirondack Sunshine Yellow and a little Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink.   The background is made with a snippet of cream card and a Cuttlebug - D'Vine Swirls EF extended to fit, which was shaped with the Labels Thirty Three die as well.

 I finished the card with a heart, the next smallest plain heart, die cut from another snippet of cream card, and using some Claritystamp numbers clear stamps, I heat embossed them on to the heart using the Gold EP.  Lastly I added the two pieces of Sue Wilson - Petite Vinery die cut from another snippet of cream card.  My card was rather thick and did not die cut the leafy swirls very easily, and they got a bit marked as I struggled to release them from the dies, but as this was the last of that colour cream card which went with the rest of the card, I had to go with it.  The cream ribbon was a piece from my stash. 




The second photo was taken with the card standing up so you can see how the edge looks, but it wasn't easy to photograph and didn't catch the best of the light so looks a bit dark I'm afraid.

Before I go I am so happy to introduce two new followers,  Corine and Kathy.  Please go take a look at their lovely work, you really won't be disappointed.
 
Thank you for stopping by my blog and thank you for the interest you show in my meanderings, which is much appreciated.

Pat x

I am entering the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 147, where we use up our snippets of paper and card.
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Anything Goes.

Leaping Salmon

Hi there all.  This card was made for a friend, and I found this free image of a fish.  I am not great at recognising fresh water fish, and although I think this is supposed to be a trout of some kind, the fact that it is leaping out of the water is more the behaviour of a salmon, and also my colouring makes it look more like a salmon too, so a salmon it has become.  I printed this free image and coloured using my Spectrun Noir pencils, and for the background I made a print from my Gelli Plate.

I used a 6" x 4"  Kraft card and made a print using Distress Inks - Walnut Stain and Spiced Marmalade, and also some Adirondack -  Espresso.  I laid the ink down straight on to the Gelli Plate in vertical stripes quite randomly and then brayered the ink smooth but keeping he different tones a bit, and pulled the print using a snippet of white card.  When dry I ran it through a Craft Concepts - Wood Grain Embossing Folder.  I had to extend it a bit to keep the pattern running in the right direction on this landscape card.  I cut it into four pieces and backed it with a snippet of black card.  The image, which I cut out after colouring has been placed on two mats cut using a S/B Labels Thirty Two.  The smaller one was cut from a darker blue snippet, and then stamped with a Creative Expressions - Bubbles  using Adirondack - Stonewashed ink blended with some DI - Faded Jeans and then some Memento - Nautical Blue to darken the corner, and also on the water attached to the image.

I finished with some Glossy Accents on the eye and some Perfect Pearls on the on the bits of foamy water, and then added a sentiment.

Thank you for stopping by.

Pat  x

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 146 where we use snippets of card and paper, and I used quite a few here.

Flower Power Birthday

Hi all.  This card was for the lovely lady who lives next door, unfortunately it was a little late as I made it shortly after returning from holiday and was a day or so late getting it to her.  I belong to the Claritystamp Club and receive a new stamp each month.  This was September's stamp, and I decided to give it it's first outing for this card.   I had just seen Barbara Gray's latest You Tube Tuesday on which she demonstrated a technique using the Gelli Plate, and I was so struck by it I decided to give it a try.  You will find it here on her Blog.

I started by inking the Gelli Plate with Shaded Lilac Distress Ink, pressing the pad randomly on it and then using the brayer to spread it over the Plate.  I then took the stamp and pressed randomly over the inked surface, and removed the ink between each stamping.  I have some white card which is exactly the right size for the GP and lined it up and pulled the print.  The next step is to ink the GP with another colour, in my case Victorian Velvet Distress Ink.  Using a piece of scrunched up copy paper opened out very slightly I removed ink from the plate, again quite randomly, and then lay the print over the plate again and pressing down lightly pulled the print again.  I now inked the stamp with the Shaded Lilac and stamped this over the print.  Obviously if you can watch Barbara's video you will get a much better idea of the technique than trying to understand my ramblings which are mainly for those who are unable to do so.

I made the topper by stamping with the Shaded Lilac onto a snippet of white card, die cut with the second size S/B Captivating Squares die, and inked with Shaded Lilac through the die using a piece of blending foam, and then round the edges with the die removed.  This was mounted on to the largest Captivating Squares die cut using another snippet of white card, inked with the Shaded Lilac through the die again using the blending foam.  I decided to highlight the inked flowers on the background with a little bit of pinky lilac Spectrum Noir Pencil and also I used the same colour on the centre of the flowers on the topper too but quite lightly.

Thank you for stopping by my blog today.

Pat x

I am entering the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 145 where the challenge is to use up snippets of paper and card.
Papertake Weekly Challenge - Anything Goes.
Artistic Inspirations Challenge - Anything Goes.

On the Beach

Hi there everyone.  Well,  I suddenly realised the other day that just over a year has passed since I started writing this blog, and actually it has gone by really quickly.   I wasn't sure whether it would still be going a year on, but thanks to you all it has exceeded my expectations and I have so enjoyed getting to know my fellow bloggers in this wonderful crafting community.  Hopefully I will be sitting here next year looking forward to the start of my third year.

I love doing sea themed cards and this one is for a male birthday.  Looking at it I hope it can be considered to be a masculine theme, personally I think so.  Anyway, I used some stamps I have from Crafty Individuals called Seaside Treasures.  I also brought the Gelli Plate out for a bit of an airing.

I started by blending the colours on the Gelli Plate with my brayer to create the background scene.  For the sky area I used some Distress Inks in Tumbled Glass, Peacock Feathers and Faded Jeans.   I laid it down in stripes with the Faded Jeans at the top, then the Tumbled Glass and then a very little Peacock Feathers and used a brayer to blend.  Then for the beach I laid down Walnut Stain at the bottom, then a small amount of Spiced Marmalade and a larger amount of Sunshine Yellow, and again blended with the brayer.  Finally I loaded my fingers with a little water and dripped it gently on to the Plate.  I have some nice 7" x 7" Clarity white card which I use, so laid this over and pulled the print.  It worked beautifully, and this was my base on which to put the shells etc.  The shells were stamped with Archival Black, on to a snippet of white card and coloured using Sunshine Yellow and a little Shaded Lilac, Spiced Marmalade, Adirondack Espresso, and Black Soot, and then stuck down with Pinflair Glue Gel.   For the birds and the sentiment I used Archival Black.  I darkened the edges at the bottom with some Walnut Stain, and round the top Some Faded Jeans, and using a cocktail stick I added some shadows and texture with little bits of Adirondack Espresso.

As I already put a sentiment on the outside I added the 'Happy Birthday' on the insert.

Thank you for dropping by today, and thank you again to everyone who has made my first blogging year such fun.

Pat x

P.S  As some people have asked, and perhaps I didn't make it clear in my explanation, for this background I put the ink from the pad straight on to the plate and then used a brayer to smooth it out.  It is best not to pat one colour over another because of contamination of the ink so try to keep them separate, and frequently remove excess ink from the brayer to keep the colours clean.  As far as I know only water based products should be used with the Gelli Plate.Hope this is of some help.  Barbara Gray at Claritystamp does a lot of work with the Gelli Plate, and you can find her blog here, and there are lots of other sites too featuring Gelli Plate techniques. 

I am entering the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 144.  I have used just some snippets of white card this time.

Summer Garden Angel

Hi all.  Things are returning to normal now after a wonderful holiday in France.  I was hoping to be able to keep up with some commenting whilst away, but I'm afraid it very quickly went wrong as wifi was a bit variable to say the least, so I have a lot of catching up to do.

I made this card for one of the younger members of our extended family.  It is another stamp which is getting it's first outing, and I also used some LOTV papers and a sentiment stamp which came free with a magazine.

I used two different snippets of this paper which I backed with Purple pearlescent card, and then cut two mats in purple and white using my S/B Decorative Elements - Labels Eight, the middle two dies.  I cut the purple one as a frame, and then cut the smaller die in the white which makes them fit together like one layer.  I stamped the Angel with Black Archival ink and then coloured using my Spectrum Noir pencils and after cutting the image out adhered it to the mat.  I also used a little Perfect Pearls - Pewter, mixed with water, on the wings and flower centres and on bits of her dress to add a little sheen which doesn't show up very well in the photo, and also the wings look rather dark.  With hindsight I wish I had used just the mica powder and water on the wings so they would have stayed whiter. 

I finished the card by punching some flowers using a very old pair of punches from Dovecraft and some snippets of pink and lilac glitter card.  I used a narrow piece of white ribbon for a bow and then stamped a 'seven' with Black Archival, on to a mat cut from a S/B Labels Thirty Two set using the smallest die, and before  attaching it to the centre of the bow I inked with Distress Ink Picked Raspberry.  I used the freebie sentiment again stamped with Black Archival and inked with the Picked Raspberry, both used snippets of white card.

Thanks for dropping by.

Pat  x

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 143.  I used lots of snippets on this card which means I will certainly be allowed through the gates this week.
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Stencils and Stamps.  If I have interpreted this correctly you can use one or the other or both.
Cuttlebug Mania - Anything Die Cut.
Lili of the Valley - Pretty Papers.

Embossed Hearts and Flowers Anniversary

Hello everyone.  This is another scheduled post.  I got the idea for this card from Pinterest and adapted it for this card.  The original had flower shaped apertures with patterned paper behind and this led me to think of circles with paper behind and then hearts stuck within.  I used my Xcut circles  and my Nellie Snellen Multi Frame hearts dies.  I embossed the hearts with a Cuttlebug EF - Divine Swirls, and the outer embossed layer was a Crafter's Companion EF - Regal Damask.

The paper was snippets from a Papermania pad.  The flowers were also punched from snippets of different papers from this pad together with a few white and red punched flowers, and then a Marianne Creatables die - Forest Branch was used for the red and black foliage behind the flowers.  I finished by stamping the sentiment using Black Archival on to a mat made using the smallest die from the S/B Labels Eight.

Thank you for looking at my blog today.

Pat  x
 

Cherrylicious

Hi there.  This is a scheduled post as I'm busy at the moment, so please forgive me if I don't get to visit as often as I would normally.   I have a couple of birthdays coming up and I have this embossing folder Cherry-licious by Crafter's Companion which I haven't used yet (hereafter known as NBUS - coined by Darnell of djkardkreations).  I decided to emboss on to a snippet of white card and then colour using my Spectrum Noir Pencils which are my favourites at the moment.  After colouring I used an Adirondack Pink Sherbet ink pad and some blending foam to gently colour the background.

I then made a frame using a snippet of white card and a S/B Captivating Squares die, the second largest, and I cut out the centre, and then cut the next size die to fit within that.  I finished by stamping the sentiment in the centre using Black Archival ink, added a bow and mounted on to green card then on to the base square white card.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Pat x

P.S  I am back in the blogging swing again and I would like to enter this card into the NBUS Challenge which is running over at Darnell's blog at the moment and has only a few days left to run, so do go take a look.

Vintage Telephone

Hi all.  This is a scheduled post as I am busy still, so please forgive me if I don't get round to visiting quite as often as normal.  This telephone is a NBUS Cottage Cutz die.  It comes as one 4" x 4" plate and as most of it is black I used a snippet of black card across the whole plate, and then the gold bits were a snippet of gold pearlescent card which I ran through the machine after.  I think what makes this so fiddly is that the plate does not have any holes to help release the card from the die, and some of the components are very small.  Anyway I did like the finished result.

The background was a snippet of card which I embossed by running through my machine using a chevron stencil from Creative Expressions, and then inked over it with Distress Inks in Mustard Seed and Mowed Lawn.  When putting it together I thought the telephone merged into the background too much so I embossed part of the stencil again in a snippet of dark green card and then cut out two strips and attached them to the background as seen here.  Finally I stamped the sentiment using a Black Archival ink pad.  The base card is a square cream card, but actually looks more like white in the photo.

Thank you for looking at my blog today.

Pat  x

Hunkydory Celebration

Hello All.  This is a scheduled post as I am busy at the moment, so please forgive me if I don't get to visit as often as I would normally.  I needed an Anniversary card and thought of a set of stamps which I have had for quite a while made by Hunkydory called Celebrations.  I have been practising with my Gelli Plate and decided to see what I could do with a mask I have from That Special Touch called Chevrons.  Here are the results.

   
As you can see the one on the left is rather pale.   I used Memento Lady Bug which is a nice bright red but didn't come out red at all.  I think I layed the stencil on the Gelli Plate and inked through the stencil before removing and pulling the print.  On reflection I think the other red I have, which is Distress Ink Fired Brick, might have come out darker.  The middle sample I coloured after printing using three different shades of red Spectrum Noir Pencils, and then the right hand one I used the Lady Bug with Memento London Fog and I think I inked up the stencil with the first colour, layed it on and brayered over it, lifted the stencil pulled the print and then did the same with the other colour making sure before pulling the print that the card was replaced in the same position but the other way up so the chevrons overlap each other.  You do have to be careful that you don't mark the Gelli with anything sharp as the marks will obviously pit the surface and leave the marks on any subsequent prints.  The thing with the Gelli is that the results are quite random and you can never be quite sure what will happen, especially if you are using several colours.  Although you can use dye based inks I do think acrylics give more dramatic results, but at the moment I don't have any so am going with what I have.  It is certainly fun to use.

The print I went with in the end was the reverse of the third sample which I made by covering the Gelli Plate with the Lady Bug ink and then inked the stencil, layed it on and then I think I dabbed through the stencil with a tissue to randomly remove some of the ink before lifting the stencil and pulling the print.  I decided to cut round the chevrons to give it a shaped edge and then backed it with black card.  I used the champagne glass stamp and using a snippet of white card I stamped with Archival Black ink and and as it stays wet a little longer I used the clear holographic embossing powder which I'm afraid does not show up in the photo.  I stamped two of these and coloured in parts of the image using a red Spectrum Noir pencil and then cut them out.

As a finishing touch I decided to make a small tag for the sentiment and attach it with Baker's Twine to the stem of the glass before adhering it to the card.  I also wrote the sentiment by hand.  I have some of the small nibs which attach to the Promarker Pens which made the writing fine enough, but I have to admit it took several goes before I was happy with the writing.  I cut the label shape by hand using another snippet and punched a hole in one end and rounded the other with my Tonic corner rounder.  I assembled it using my usual square white card.

Thank you for dropping by.

Pat  x

CAS Flowers

Hello there everybody.  I saw this sketch over at Less is More and I thought as I am a bit short of time at the moment it would make a nice easy card.  I used  a Chocolate Baroque set of stamps called Poppy Meadow, one of the smaller stamps in the set.  I have used this stamp before, and in similar colours.   I don't know why, but with this flower  just seems to draw me to orange, red and blue.

I used a smallish rectangular shaped snippet of white card and stamped with Black Archival ink and then coloured with my Spectrum Noir Pencils - Primaries.  I made the background using the same set of pencils.  I mounted this on to a piece of gold card, and then on to a piece of dark blue.  I stamped the sentiment using the same Black Archival ink on to a snippet of white and then mounted this on to another snippet of blue card.  I used a Gold 7" x 5" card and shaved approximately 1/4" off the length and the width which I felt made it look more balanced.  In real life it is actually a bright pearlescent gold colour but looks rather beige in the photo.

Thank you for dropping by today.

Pat x

I am entering the following challenges:

Less is More - Week 186 a sketch challenge.
Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 139 where we use snippets of card or paper, and I have excelled myself as every single piece was a snippet!
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

  

A Great Pear or Two

Hi there.  Hope you are having a good weekend.  I need an anniversary card shortly and I saw this card design on the Clean and Simple Challenge Blog here.  It just appealed to me, and isn't the sort of anniversary card I would normally make but I liked the sentiment too - just thought it was amusing and a bit different.  I searched around for an image I could use and eventually found a free digital image at Beccy's Place, and there is also a tutorial on how to use Copics, but I have used my Spectrum Noir pencils to colour it.  Colours include Yellows 10 and 12, Greens 50 and 52, Browns 96, 99 and 104 and Reds 27 and 33.

I printed the image on to some inkjet paper I use for inserts which I wasn't sure would be thick enough, but trying to get a printer to take card is not an easy task.  Anyway I started colouring and it seems to have worked fine.  For the background I decided to use my Tim Holtz Honeycomb stencil which I hand embossed.  I laid a scrap/snippet of my inkjet paper over the stencil and using a fairly large ball tool rubbed over the stencil to get the impression.  It worked fine and then I inked it with Distress Ink using Walnut Stain, Spiced Marmalade and a little Mowed Lawn round the edges.  I finished by printing the sentiment on to the same inkjet paper and using one of my Xcut Nesting Hexagons dies I cut and then mounted on to a snippet of dark green card.  I also tied a piece of black ribbon round the top of the two pears tying them together.  This was recycled as I cut it out of a new top which I bought recently, and didn't seem to be necessary for hanging the garment up so I found a better use for it.

I have to say that the gremlins struck again.  I cut out and mounted the pears using my Pinflair Glue Gel which I thought would give them just a little more shape.  After I had glued them down I noticed there was some of the glue showing through, probably because the paper wasn't that thick and maybe it could have been something to do with the pencils which are quite waxy, and maybe it reacted to them too.  I just hoped when dry it would just disappear, but unfortunately it didn't.  I have to say the air was a little blue as I had spent quite a bit of time on the colouring, which, I hasten to add, I did enjoy.  I decided I would have to do two or three of the leaves again and place over the top as it was the leaves which were the worst.  The pears themselves escaped apart from some quite small marks which I have left as pears do have blemishes so that's what they are.  I stuck the new leaves over the top but this time used my Collall Photo Glue which is fine.

Thank you for stopping by and I look forward to being here again soon.

Pat x 

I am entering the following challenge:

Clean and Simple Challenge 303.
Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 139 where we use up snippets of card and paper.  I did use up a snippet of inkjet paper for the background.  Not much of a snippet but hopefully ok for the challenge.
Spectrum Noir - August Challenge.