Mistletoe Christmas

Hi there.  Well it's that time in the month when Rudolph Day over Scraps of Life by Scrappy Mo is here again, and continues until the end of the month.  I have made a card using a Penny Black Mistletoe stencil and a new/NBUS Spellbinders Borderabilities - Curved Borders 1 die  in the background.

I started by dry embossing the stencil using a snippet of white card, and then coloured through the stencil with some inks and blending foam starting with a lighter colour green, Adirondack Lettuce I think, and then some darker ink to add shading which was Mowed Lawn Distress Ink, and finally some Pine Needles DI, and the berries I left alone.  When dry I put the stencil back over and added some Cosmic Shimmer Translucent Texture Paste using an old plastic card to apply it, and then left this to dry for an hour or two.  I then finished by blending some blues into the background using Adirondack Stonewashed ink and darkened with Stormy Sky DI around the edges and then a little Peacock Feathers towards the centre to lighten.  I also darkened around the leaves with a darkish blue Spectrum Noir pencil and added a few highlights with a lilac.  I found when I came to use my Cosmic Shimmer Pearl Glue Gel on the berries that it had dried out so I used a dot of the ordinary CS glue on each berry which did give a raised effect, and when dry I added a black dot on each berry with a Micron pen.  I layered this topper on to a snippet of dark blue, then light blue and finished with a snippet of gold mirri card.

For the background I used another snippet of white card edged with one of the curved borders and then dry embossed with the mistletoe stencil which I used twice to make a nice pattern.  Unfortunately it doesn't show up very well on the photo.  I then used a snippet of blue using another of the edges, and finished with a snippet of gold mirri card and another of the edges.  I stamped the sentiment on the base card using Versamark ink and WOW Gold Sparkle embossing powder and then finished by layering everything up.

I have never used the texture paste before and it did bleed under the stencil a little so I used my Promarkers to cover up some of these blemishes, and I also added a little extra colour to the leaves with a darkish green one too as I felt the leaves needed just a little extra shading as these do work on a shiny surface.

Thank you to everyone who visits my blog as I really appreciate all your interest.

Pat  x

I am also entering the following challenges:

Happy Little Stampers August Christmas Challenge - Sparkle.  I hope the gold mirri and the gold sparkle embossing powder fits the challenge ok.
Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge - Use Some Gold.
Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challeng Extra - Anything Goes every month.
Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 191 where we use up our snippets.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.
   

Acetate Golden Wedding

Hi all.  From never having made one I have now made my second Golden Wedding card in four months.  Both the recipients are cousins of mine whose weddings I went to and for this particular one I was a bridesmaid.  When you are fourteen you don't think you are ever going to be looking back to a wedding that happened fifty years ago ..lol.  On one of my Pinterest visits I remembered seeing a card which used acetate and had decorative panels vertically down the front and then a sentiment mat in the centre which I thought was quite attractive and has sparked my recent enthusiasm for acetate. As you can see my panels go horizontally instead of vertically.  These sorts of cards do require a nice heavy weight of acetate.

Using an A4 piece of pearlescent card I folded it in half to make a card blank and cut down to make it square with the fold at the top. I decided the width of the top border which I think was about 3/4" and cut the rest of the front of the card away.  I then cut three strips one to go at the back of the top border, just a little narrower, because if at the back it butts up to the crease the card will not close properly, and then two more strips, both of the same width as the top border, to go at the bottom. I then cut a piece of acetate the same width but just very slightly shorter than the original card front, again for easy card closure.  I cut the decorative borders using my Sue Wilson Configuration Dies and snippets of pearlescent card from the card front. I cut one length and two corners for the top and the same for the bottom.
                                                                             

I then stuck the decorative border to the underside of the top of the card using double sided tape, then the acetate, lining it up with the bottom of the card, then the white strip to neaten the back, all stuck with double sided tape. This was obviously repeated with the bottom strips.  I then cut two hearts using my Nellie Snellen Hearts die set and more snippets of pearlescent card, one for the front, and after attaching, one to neaten the back.  I then cut a decorative heart from a snippet of gold mirri card and finally another smaller plain heart using another snippet of white pearlescent card.  I then cut two Nellie Snellen Multi Frame Borders 3 dies to go top and bottom using snippets of gold mirri card.  This particular design has little pointed bits on the edge which I didn't particularly like on this card so I cut them off before adhering to the borders.

I  used gold numbers and a gold sentiment to finish the front and I ran a greeting off the computer and cut it out using a large Nellie Snellen die from the same set which I stuck to the back of the card.

I was very pleased with how this turned out as it was a complicated card to make which I had to think about very carefully before starting and whilst assembling, and I think the back looks just as neat and tidy as the front which I feel is essential with acetate as whatever you use to glue it, in this case double sided tape, can look messy from the back.  This is definitely a one off as a special card for a special occasion.  

I hope you have found this description of some use but if totally bored and nearly dozing off I hope you liked looking at the photos anyway .lol ..haha. (I have just seen on another blog post, Darnell for the many that know her, that lol is now out of favour and haha is now back in again, so not to be considered uncool I have changed my text .haha/lol ..or whatever (laugh)).

Thanks for visiting my blog today.

Pat  x

I am entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 190 where we us up our snippets of card, paper ribbon etc.
Simply Create Too - No. 92 Anything Goes.
Vintage Stamping Challenge - No. 35 Anything Goes.  Although they have vintage in their title they do say that your cards do not have to be vintage in design.

Fun Fish

Hi all.  I have a collection of fish, carp actually, to show you today.  I needed a card and I wanted to enter a few CAS challenges.  I have used the current sketch over at CAS(E) this Sketch and here it is .....

..... and here is the card I made:

I used a carp from a set of stamps by Sheena Douglass called A Little Bit Oriental - Koi and Waterlilies, it's the smaller of the two fish.  I stamped the central fish on a snippet of white card using Memento Tuxedo Black, and then I made a mask and covered that one up so I could stamp a few others around it.  I then used my Distress Inks to watercolour in shades of blue including Tumbled Glass, Peacock Feathers and Stormy Sky.  I then coloured the fish using Spiced Marmalade and Mustard Seed.  I think I must have been half a sleep or something because I intended to use Archival Black but it wasn't until I had finished and coloured it that I realised I had used Memento which really should not be used when using water because it can run and blur the outline, but I was lucky that didn't happen.   Some of the fish do look fainter anyway because they are second generation ink. I did add a little extra red to the orange on the fish and also a bit of darker blue around some of the fish using my Spectrum Noir pencils.

I finished by adding a snippet of black card as a mat before mounting on to my square white card and added a sentiment.

I have another new follower today who is Eve, and I think many of you will know her as last week she helped Di with the challenge over at Pixie's Playground and she is a very talented lady, so if you haven't seen her blog you will find it here.

Thank you for dropping by today and thank you also for your continued interest in my little corner of blogland.  This community is the  best!

 Pat  x

I am entering the following challenges:

Addicted to CAS - School.
Less is More - Congratulations.
Casology - Aquatic.
Happy Little Stampers - Masking.

Heart on Acetate Anniversary

Hi there.  Yet another anniversary card for friends whose anniversary was a week ago, and I also wanted to enter the challenge at  Addicted to CAS which is 'Banners'.  This card has only one banner but hopefully it will be alright for the challenge.

I decided on the cut out idea which I used on my chevron card last week, so I used my Stitched Circle die from Simon Says Stamp and then cut a frame from a snippet of white card, using the two larger dies, and this goes on the inside to neaten it up.   The acetate was cut with a plain Xcut circle die which was a little large so I cut  1/4" off  it so the frame would cover over it when glued into place on the back of the cut out.

I cut two of my Nellie Snellen hearts, one for the outside of the acetate and one to cover it on the inside, using a snippet of red card, and cut the banner sentiment also using a snippet of white card, which I tucked under the heart on top of the acetate and finished it with a silver sentiment.  The inside of the card was covered with a piece of Papermania paper from a pad which I won over at Pixie's Playground quite a while ago.  I placed a die cut heart on the back of the card too to write the message on.

I have one new follower to introduce who is Sid and you will find his blog here.   He seems to enjoy anything which includes stamps and inkiness and I'm sure he would love you to go and take a look.

That's all for now.

Pat  x

I would also like to enter the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 189 where we use up our snippets including paper and card.

 

CAS Anniversary

Hi all.  I'm back with a clean and simple anniversary card with the Less is More challenge in mind which is to use berry colours, and also using the sketch over at CAS(E) this Sketch.  Here it is but unfortunately the challenge has closed now.

          
Well I needed this card for a niece and her husband and thought I would combine the challenges on this card, but to be honest I am not sure that it works, but I am getting short of time so I am going to send it and hope that as they are young they will think this untraditional anniversary card is alright and not wonder if I've lost the plot ..lol.

I started by making a watery background using a snippet of white card and three different colour inks, i.e. Distress Inks in Festive Berry and Picked Raspberry and Adirondack Ink Eggplant.  I then die cut it using my Simon Says Stitched Circle die and cut portions of it and added an extra curved bit or two, until I built up the shape you can see by mounting it on to a snippet of purple cardstock and leaving little gaps so the purple shows through.  I also cut the purple by hand to leave it extending a little beyond what I intended to be the last piece, but after looking at it I decided to add another piece to the top which as you can see was after I had mounted it on to the base card to which the Ink Splats had been added.  This is another That Special Touch mask which is another never before used/NBUS item which has been sitting on the table waiting to be christened as it were.  I used the same inks here as well.

I added a heart from my Nellie Snellen set of dies and finished with the two sentiments using Brilliance Starlite Silver.  I'm not sure that the 'congratulations' is quite straight but as this card has a slightly distressed look I will allow the slight dip in the stamping ..lol.  Stamping straight on to the card is something I don't like doing but it was appropriate for this card. 
  
Before I finish I would like to introduce a new follower who is Barb and you will find her blog here.  I'm sure she would appreciate a visit and she is a very creative lady who in the past has painted and fired her own china, and she has just recently posted a beautiful piece of parchment work which she did a while ago but like most of us who have done other things card making is now her passion.

Thank you for taking a look today and I really appreciate all your interest.

 Pat  x

I am also entering the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 188, where we use up our scraps/snippets.
Stamping Sensations - Anything Goes with a Stamp and a Die.

Seaside Themed Birthday

Hi there everybody.  It was DH's birthday a couple of weeks ago and the usual dilemma is what am I going to make as I'm sure most of us find it more difficult to make masculine cards.  He does like to get out into the countryside or down by the sea, and in the past we have done a fair bit of walking, not so much these days though, but we do try to get out and about, and he has taken up photography in a bigger way since he retired.  Well,  I do have some seaside themed stamps and I decided to stick with them.

I found a snippet of white card about 5" square and started with the background to the image.  When looking on Pinterest recently I found some cards where the background had been applied using the sticky side of masking tape which gives it a rougher more textured appearance, so I thought I would give it a try.  I used Sunshine Yellow and Stonewashed Adirondack ink and Faded Jeans Distress ink.  It did say you should use shiny card so that the glue would not stick firmly to and damage the surface.  Well I wanted to use ordinary white card so I ran the tape over my trousers a few times to remove some of the tack and then inked up a piece cut a bit shorter than the card.  To ink I just ran the pad straight over it and then pressed it down firmly on to the card and worked my way up from yellow to light blue to the darker blue.  If it didn't seem dark enough I inked and went over it again.  When I changed colour I used a fresh piece of  tape.

I used my Sheena Douglass stamps for the plant, I think it's called Thrift (I didn't ink quite all of the stamp), and the Puffin, and a set from Crafty Individuals for the Seashells, and I stamped these using Espresso Adirondack ink.  I then coloured these images with my Spectrum Noir pencils.  I did think that the brown was a little dark but decided to go with it, and I also used a white gel pen to whiten the feathers on the Puffin a bit.  I also used the pencils to add a litle extra shading and to darken the horizon.  I layered the topper on to a snippet of blue card.

The background was made using another slightly larger snippet of white card and a NBUS stencil from That Special Touch called Wavy which I bought for using with sea related cards and I inked it very lightly with the same two blue inks and a very little Peacock Feathers DI as well.  I applied it using some blending foam and I moved the stencil over a bit to fill up the gaps for a bit more coverage.

Before putting the card together I ran off the personal sentiments from the computer on to the inkjet paper I use for inserts and cut them out using a stitched circle die and punched a hole in each one using a screw punch.  I then wrapped three pieces of baker's twine round the image mat and fixed the tags in place with a bit more baker's twine, and to keep them in place I adhered them to the card as they tended to twist.

I finished with the die cut sentiment which I cut from a snippet of dark blue card.

I wasn't quite sure if he would like it but he has said several times how much he loves it so was relieved that I made the right choice. 

Thank you for stopping here today.

Pat x

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 188 where we use up our left over stuff/snippets.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.
Stamping Sensations  - Anything Goes with a Stamp and a Die.
Artistic Stamper Challenge - Anything Goes.