March Rudolph Days Challenge

Hi there everybody.  Well, here we are again and another Rudolph Days Challenge has come and nearly gone and I will make it by the skin of my teeth again.  This challenge runs from the 25th to the end of each month and is run by Mo over at Scraps of Life by Scrappymo and is always 'anything goes'.  Sorry the photo isn't the best as I had to do it with the aid of a lamp and it looks a slightly odd colour.
 

I have used a stamp which I won before Christmas and is a PB Hedgie stamp called Santa's Hat, using a snippet of white card and coloured with my Spectrum Noir pencils and blended with the paper stumps and Sansodor.  I then fussy cut it and mounted it on to a die cut stitched oval mat the centre of which I embossed with the second size stitched oval die for a little extra interest.  I used some Pearl Cosmic Shimmer liquid pearls on the hat, and as it wasn't that white whilst it was wet I used some WOW White Embossing Powder and heated it from the back.  I was very careful to keep the heat gun moving as I wasn't sure how using heat would make it react and I didn't want to do any damage to it,  but it did give it more texture and definitely whitened it a bit.

Instead of a square background I decided to make two triangles each backed with a snippet of red card and before mounting embossed the white pieces with a Crafters Companion embossing folder called Snow Flurry.  I then mounted these on to the base card and added the stitched oval on top.

I finished by adding a Memory Box Snowflake Corner and a sentiment die both from more snippets of red card backed with Stick It adhesive.

Thank you for dropping by today.

Pat x

I would also like to enter the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 222.  Where we use up our leftover snippets of card, paper etc.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

Faux Mother of Pearl Birthday

Hi there.  I made this birthday card for a nephew but hope he feels it is masculine enough as after I had finished, although I love the colours, I did wonder if it would have been better if they were darker.  I have made it with the Happy Little Stampers March CAS Challenge in mind which has asked that we use a faux mother of pearl technique which involves using a Pearl PVA or something similar which has mica in it and using a piece of scrunched up cling film dabbing it onto the card and when dry adding inks.  I added my inks by smooshing and the lovely pearl shine shows through beautifully.

The idea for the card came after visiting The Muse Challenge and seeing this featured muse card by Michelle Ferguson, but as that particular challenge has finished you will find the card on her blog here. Instead of a slope I made mine a curve and used a Happy Birthday Script die by Sue Wilson, but using the embedded die technique in a similar fashion.

 

As explained above I smooshed the snippet of white card, which I had first randomly covered with the Cosmic Shimmer Pearl PVA, with Distress Inks in Peacock Feathers, Mowed Lawn and Spiced Marmalade.  I then cut the curved shape using a Spellbinders Curved Borders One set of dies.

I then cut the Sue Wilson Scripted Happy Birthday,  just the bottom half, out of the smooshed snippet, making sure to keep all the little pieces to put back into place.  I placed a piece of the Stick It adhesive on the back of the piece of card where I new I would be cutting it to make it easier to stick the pieces back.  I then cut the die again out of another snippet of white card which again I backed with the Stick It adhesive.

To finish I adhered the curved section to the white base card and then placed the white Happy Birthday into the negative space followed by the smooshed card pieces over the top, filling in the gaps with all the little pieces to restore the curved shape as seen above.

Lastly I found some little white sticker dots which I coloured in a dark green Promarker and then stuck them in to place to give the white space at the top of the card a little more interest.

I was pleased with the final result but I notice that the bottom of the curved piece does not appear to have stuck as well as I had thought although I did use double sided tape which normally sticks very firmly.   I photographed and sent it out in the post the other day and to the naked eye it appeared to be fine but in close up it doesn't look quite so tidy.

Thank you so much for stopping to take a look today.

Pat x

I am also entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 221 where we are asked to use up our snippets.

Birthday Balloons

Hi all.  I don't make cards for younger children very often and haven't got many stamps or dies which are suitable for these sorts of cards.  I have quite often had to go out and buy a card, heaven forbid, when I just couldn't think of anything appropriate to make, but this time I remembered a balloon die which I got with a magazine a good few months ago and this was a first birthday and luckily the idea I had worked quite well.

I started by finding some snippets of brightly coloured papers from freebie pads which I have had for ages, and cut five balloons and then an extra one for the number using a snippet of plain card.  I used some bakers twine which I fixed to the balloons with tape at the back and made them look like the strings were knotted on the bottom of the balloons.

I used one of the larger snippets to cover the front of a white square card leaving a narrow border.  I then cut and embossed a snippet of white card using a Sue Wilson Embossing Folder called  Checkboard.

I arranged the balloons and stuck them down to the embossed layer and added the gold letters.   I had to improvise with the number which is lower case die cut 'l'.  The Xcut alphabet set I have didn't seem to look right on the balloons and the stick on numbers were too tiny, but the die cut 'l' was more the right size and I don't have any die cut numbers.

I then die cut the sentiment which I backed with Stick It adhesive and adhered it to the card to finish.

Thank you for dropping by today and I really appreciate your interest and comments.

Pat  x

I am entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 220 where we use up our snippets of paper and card etc.

Welcome Springtime

Hi there everybody.  I have titled this post welcome Springtime because actually it is only about two weeks to the Spring equinox although the clocks don't change until the end of the month.  It has been very cold and windy of late but is due to warm up a bit in the next few days so let's hope that is right. 

I started by stamping the Daffodils, using a set called Spring Bird Daffodil by Chocolate Baroque, on to a snippet of white card, using my Versafine Smokey Gray ink, and then used my distress inks to colour.  I used Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Mowed Lawn and Walnut Stain.  I did add quite a lot of water for a slightly looser more washy look and this did make the card buckle a bit and made sticking it down somewhat difficult, but I kept squeezing little bits of glue down the back and it finally decided to stick.  The Collall glue I use is very good as if it gets on to the card where you don't want it you can rub it away and it doesn't leave a mark at all.  I die cut it using an Xcut Oval Nesting Die, the largest of the set, and then layered it on to a Spellbinder Floral Ovals Nestibilities Die, which I cut from a snippet of dark green card.  I found the oval was not quite the right shape so by eye I gradually trimmed some card from the top and bottom trying to keep a good shape until it fitted nicely on the green die cut mat.

I then found another snippet of white card and cut the embossed strip for the background using a Sue Wilson Embossing Folder called Checkboard which I was lucky enough to win several months ago and have never used.

I then edged each side with  a scallop cut from a snippet of white pearl card using a Lawn Fawn Stitched Scallop Borders set of dies.

I finished the card with a gold sentiment.

Thank you for looking at my blog today.

Pat  x

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Twofers Challenge - Organic.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - A Bit O' Green.
djkardkreations - NBUS Challenge 6.  This is run by Darnell and you have to use your 'Never Before Used Schtuff' and mine is the Checkboard Embossing Folder.



 Addicted to Stamps and More - Clean and Simple.

Purple Butterfly and Hearts Anniversary

Hi all.  I have made this card for some good friends whose 26th anniversary is soon.  I thought I would try to do a theme which fitted in with some challenges at the same time.  The first is Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge which closes tomorrow so must get a move on.

Darnell of djkardkreations has a NBUS challenge, her sixth actually.  In case you don't know NBUS stands for Never Before Used Schtuff so out comes anything new or old maybe that hasn't been used before and I'm sure we all have some of those.  She is giving away some really generous prizes too, so thank you Darnell!



I used a NBUS set of dies which I bought recently, another from Sue Wilson called Heart of Hearts.  I also used another set from Sue Wilson which is one of her Configurations dies called Elegant Lace Edger.  The last die yet another Sue Wilson die is another NBUS and is a nice large Congratulations sentiment die.

I made the background using a Cuttlebug Embossing Folder called Kimmy-Luvs which unfortunately isn't available any more.  I used the embossing folder inking techique which means just inking up the inside of the embossing folder.  I smooshed the Memento Grape Jelly ink over the piece of card  first for background colour,  and then I layed the folder out flat and ran my ink pad over the inside of the front of the folder and placed my card over and rubbed it really firmly to transfer the ink to the card.

I then cut the heart die into the patterned background and after adhering this layer to the card I replaced all the original hearts with silver mirri ones.  I met say that I backed the silver mirri with 'Stick It' adhesive so that they would just stick straight into place without using a lot of messy glue, but the only problem was that a lot of them fell out of place so it was a bit like piecing a jigsaw together and took quite a bit of time to find the correct places for them. and some of the hearts were extremely small which proved a trifle fiddly.

I then cut a frame from the same snippet of purple glitter card using the two different sized heart dies, which I placed round the inset hearts and finished with the sentiment which I cut from a snippet of white card and glued into place.  I found a butterfly topper from my stash which was a good colour match and nice and small to fit on the top of the 'C' on the sentiment, and I just added some clear Wink of Stella to give it a nice glittery finish.

Thank you for visiting my blog today which is greatly appreciated.

Pat  x

I am also entering the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 219 where we use up our snippets of paper and card etc.