Lili of the Valley James Bear in the Snow Christmas Card

Hi everyone

Just stopping in to share a Christmas card that I made for my daughter which I started on the 23rd and finished Christmas Eve morning:

This is also my card for the following Challenges:

Winter Wonderland - Anything Goes Christmas

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - December - Always Anything Goes and you may enter any creation on which patterned paper/card has been used.  The idea of the challenge is to use up any of those papers we have been "collecting".  My designer papers are from 2011 so I think that I am....ahem... 'well-qualified' for the challenge!

Splitcoaststampers - Free for all Friday - F4A407 - Merry December - Happy ??? - Make a card to celebrate your favorite holiday in December. It could be Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day...you decide but make sure you tell them what you are celebrating.  Just for fun (optional, in no way mandatory), add sparkle to your card.  I am (obviously) celebrating Christmas and I have loads of sparkle on my card.

Splitcoaststampers - Ways to Use it - WT667 - Colouring is a perfect way to relax and get rid of all that stress, so take out your favorite colouring mediums....markers, coloured pencils, watercolours, chalks...anything you can use to color.  To make this a little more challenging, you must use at least two different colouring mediums on your card or project.  I used watercolour pencils, Tombow pens and chalks.

The image is by Lili of the Valley (UK) and is called 'James Bear in the Snow' which I bought as an unmounted rubber stamp quite some years ago.  Although you can't get the rubber stamp any longer, you can purchase it from LOTV as a digi image or a pre-coloured printable image.

I stamped the image with Ranger Archival Potting Soil ink and coloured it with a mix of Faber-Castell + Lyra watercolour pencils and Tombow pens.  I paper-pieced the scarf and hat using Bo Bunny Snowfall designer paper from their 6" x 6" pad and added a small amount of shading using a grey Tombow pen.  After fussy-cutting the scarf and hat, I went around the edges with a Pitt Artist Walnut Brown pen to hide any imperfections in my cutting.  I lightly coloured around the image using Kaisercraft blue chalk. The image and teal circle layers were diecut using my Big Shot and Lifestyle Nesting Circle dies.

The designer paper on the card base is also from the Bo Bunny Snowfall collection and is a 12" x 12" sheet called Blizzard.  This collection is from 2011 and is therefore long-retired yet it still remains one of my most favourite all-time releases.  The touches of glitter are so gorgeous!  The teal cardstock on the card base was trimmed to a 1/8" using my Perfect Layers Tools.  I glued the finished card to a white card base using Tombow Mono Multi glue which gave me enough wriggle-time to get the card exactly where I wanted leaving a very small white border.

The sentiment is from Penny Black from their Holiday Snippets set which has tons of very small sentiments that are easy to add to a card when you don't have alot of room for one. It was stamped using Versamagic Ocean Depth chalk ink and diecut using a Lawn Fawn Slide-on-Over die for the sentiment as it was the perfect size.  I added a blue Couture Creations gemstone either side of the sentiment.

The snowflakes were diecut from white glitter cardstock using a Kaisercraft Mini Snowflakes die set which has 8 different-sized snowflakes and two different-sized 8-pointed stars.  I added a blue Couture Creations gemstone to the snowflake centres.  I glued just the centres of the snowflakes down using Tombow Mono Multi glue and bent the arms up a little to give the snowflakes some dimension.

I tied on a teal organza ribbon from my stash, added Fray Stop to the cut ends to stop them from fraying then added a diecut star using teal glitter cardstock from the Kaisercraft Mini Snowflakes die/star set and glued it on using Fabric Glue.

I glued some Stampendous Cotton White Fun Flock mixed with a little bit of white glitter to the teddy bear's hat plus the snow on the ground using Tombow Mono Aqua glue.  The falling snow around the bear is Nuvo Glitter drops in White Blizzard which gave the snow a lovely sparkle and added a bit of dimension.

Here is a close-up of the sweet little teddy bear:

Lastly, I used a Pitt Artist Walnut Brown pen to go over the eyes and nose to darken them up a little then used a white gel pen to add some highlights.

Thanks for visiting my blog today!

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Lili of the Valley - James Bear in the Snow unmounted rubber (retired*) - *available as a digi image or precoloured printable image from LOTV.  Sentiment from Penny Black - Holiday Snippets 30-307 clear set

Ink:  Ranger Archival Potting Soil, Versamagic Ocean Depth chalk

Designer Paper:  Bo Bunny Snowfall 12" x 12" Blizzard + 6" x 6" paper pad (retired)

Accessories:  Big Shot, Faber-Castell + Lyra watercolour pencils, Tombow pens, Kaisercraft blue chalk, Tombow Mono Multi + Aqua glue, Fabric Glue, Perfect Layers Tools, teal organza ribbon (stash), Fray Stop, Couture Creations self-adhesive gemstones, Stampendous Cotton White Fun Flock mixed with white glitter, Nuvo Glitter Drops - White Blizzard, Pitt Artist pen - Walnut Brown, Ranger Inkssentials white gel pen, cardstock:  teal, white card base, teal glitter, white glitter

Dies:  Kaisercraft Mini Snowflakes DD446, Lifestyle Nesting Circles, Lawn Fawn Slide-on-over LF1202

Penny Black Purr-fectly Sweet Valentines card

Hi everyone

Just stopping in to share a card that I made for my daughter for Valentine's Day just to say how much I love her.  I used one of my new purchases - a Penny Black stamp called Purr-fectly Sweet - no surprise there I guess!

This is also my card for the following Challenges:

Incy Wincy Designs - Love 
Glitter 'N' Sparkle - Challenge #226 - Love is in the Air
Splitcoaststampers - Free for All Friday F4A363 of Make a Valentine  

I must find some new Challenge blogs as many of the ones that I have entered over the years have stopped.  If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment and let me know.

I stamped the image onto Bristol Smooth White cardstock with Ranger Archival Jet Black ink then coloured it with a mix of Faber-Castell Watercolour pencils and Tombow pens and my paintbrushes.

I started the card after dinner the day before Valentine's Day and had this bright idea late that night to paper-piece the I, HEART and U which I did - but then realised I would need to paper piece the cat paws as they were holding the sign and therefore should be on top of the I, HEART and U.  So I reinked just the paws and coloured them and then cut them out which was very, very fiddly but worth the result I think :-)  I went around all the cut pieces using a Copic black fineliner pen to hide the white parts where I trimmed.  I even found the stray paw that I had already cut which had adhered itself to the sleeve of my top without needing to redo it ha ha!   So, with all the extra fiddling around, I ended up not finishing the card in time for this morning (Valentine's Day) - oh well!  But I do like how the paper-piecing ties it all in with the rest of the designer papers.  I diecut the image with my Big Shot and a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die.

Here is a close-up of those sweet cats:

 
The gorgeous designer papers are by Queen and Co. and came with their Heart Throb Kit which I purchased directly from them in the USA as I couldn't find a stockist here in Australia.  It got here on the 13th so was just in time for making my card and I was very impressed with how quickly it arrived from when I ordered it.  I really, really love the colours in this pad and definitely would love to get another pad as I can honestly say that I love every single sheet in the pad which I don't often say about paper pads as there are always a couple that I am not as keen on.  Luckily, you can purchase the paper pad separately and you don't have to buy it with the kit.

The 3 different cardstocks I used were from my stash - no names of the colours or the brand(s) as I stocked up on cardstock when my local Scrapbooking store closed a few years ago (sniff!).

I used my EK Success Arrows border punch to punch tiny hearts from some of the designer papers (the leftover punches from using the punch look like tiny hearts) and glued them on using Tombow Mono Aqua glue.

And of course, I had to add plenty of glitter and glitterized the I, HEART and U and all the tiny hearts plus the cheeks on the cats using Stampin' Up Dazzling Details glitter glue.

The side panel was punched using a Martha Stewart Pinking Scallop edge punch and all the cardstock layers were trimmed to 1/16" using my Perfect Layers Tools.  The organza ribbon was added in 2 separate elements and the bow itself was made using my Bow Easy.

I added 3 pink rhinestone hearts to the bottom right-hand side which I bought from KMart.  It comes as a pack of self-adhesive gems that you are meant to add to your mobile phone or other devices but I find them very handy for cards as you get all different shapes and sizes and colours plus they weren't very dear.

I wondered about adding a sentiment to the card but thought that the banner was enough.

Lastly, I added my card front to a white cardstock base.

When I went to stamp the sentiment inside my card, I actually stamped it portrait instead of landscape like the card front as I wasn't thinking....ughh....so I had to cut off that half of the card base and attach it to a new card base and stamp the sentiment the correct way.  This made the card front very heavy so it doesn't stand up very well - oh well, what can you do......?!!

I think you could use this image for a Wedding Anniversary or just to tell someone that you love them.

Thanks for visiting my blog today!

Jocelyn 


Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Penny Black Purr-fectly Sweet clear stamp 30-398

Ink:  Ranger Archival Jet Black

Designer Paper:  Queen and Co. Heart Throb 6" x 6" pad

Accessories:  Big Shot, Perfect Layers Tools, pink heart gemstones (KMart), Bow Easy, organza ribbon (stash), Stampin' Up Dazzling Details glitter glue, Faber-Castell watercolour pencils (Riot Art and Craft), Tombow pens, #2 round paintbrush, flat paintbrush, dimensionals, Copic black fineliner pen, Tombow Mono Multi and Aqua glue, doublesided tape, cardstock - pale pink, pale chocolate, pale aqua, white card base, Bristol smooth white

Punches:  Martha Stewart Pinking Scallop edge, EK Success Arrows border

Dies:  Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangles

Penny Black It's from You Wedding Anniversary card

Hi blogging friends

Yesterday, my husband and I celebrated our 27th Wedding Anniversary.  It is hard to believe we married in 1989; the time has gone so quickly!  My husband is a wonderful man - kind, caring, supportive and patient - I feel very blessed.  
And this is the card that I made for him:

This is also my entry for the following Challenges:

Incy Wincy Designs - Colour me Wonderful - use your favourite colouring medium:  mine is watercolour pencils/Tombow pens.

Little Red Wagon - Challenge #336 - Celebrate - any occasion from birthday to Christmas - mine is a Wedding Anniversary of course!

In the Pink - Challenge #91 - Dies and/or Punches - and your card must be predominantly pink - I used Stitched Rectangle dies, tiny punched pink hearts and punched pink glitter hearts.

Splitcoaststampers - F4A312-Pretty In Pink - Make a card with PINK in it.  For extra points use glitter. 

Luckily, my husband loves cute and cuddly critters and he loves cats so I thought this Penny Black image "It's from you!" would be perfect for him - and well, you know how much I love Penny Black images!  I love the excited expression on the cat's face:  Margaret Sherry is so wonderful at capturing expressions on the images that she illustrates.

I stamped the image onto Ranger Distress watercolour cardstock using Ranger Archival Jet Black ink and coloured it with Tombow pens + Albrecht-Durer watercolour pencils using a round paintbrush.  I lightly chalked around the image using Kaisercraft blue chalk then added some subtle I-Kandee pearlescent pink chalk here and there (unfortunately not really evident on the photo).  Here is a close-up:

I decided that I would paper-piece the envelope plus the card that the cat is holding - including the hearts on the card so stamped those parts of the image onto some designer paper from the same pad that I used for the paper on the card base.  I cut them out then went around the edges using a black Copic fineliner pen to hide the white edges and glued them on using Tombow Mono Aqua glue.  I then re-stamped the paw that is holding the card, coloured it, cut it out, went around the edges with the black pen then popped it up on a dimensional.  You can see the dimension in this photo:

Because I can get away with a little bit of sparkle and glitter on my husband's cards, I used a Wink of Stella clear glitter brush to go over the paper-pieced card and envelope.  I love how it adds a bit of subtle sparkle (even if you can't really see it much in the photo).  

I used an EK Success Arrows Border Punch to punch some tiny hearts from the designer paper (they are the leftover punchies that look like tiny hearts) and glued them around the image then added some Stampin' Up Dazzling Details glitter glue using a tiny paintbrush.

I diecut both the image and the black cardstock using Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies.  These dies are a recent purchase and gosh, they cut so beautifully.  I have always been very impressed with Lawn Fawn dies - fantastic quality and cut in just one pass in my Big Shot.

All the designer papers are by Bo Bunny from their pad Love Letters.  The black cardstock base was trimmed to 1/8" using my Perfect Layers Tools.  I tied on the cream ribbon then punched three hearts from pink glitter cardstock using a Carl CP-8 heart duo punch (I used the largest heart from the punch) then popped them up on dimensionals on the bottom right-hand side of the card.  I didn't think I needed a sentiment on the front of the card and just added one inside.

Lastly, I added my card front to a white cardstock base.  I think you could use this card for Valentine's Day as well as an Anniversary - or simply to say 'I love you'.

Thanks for stopping by!   Hope to see you again soon!

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Penny Black It's from You! 2859J wood-mount

Ink:  Ranger Archival Jet Black

Designer paper:  Bo Bunny Love Letters 6" x 6" pad

Dies:  Lawn Fawn large and small Stitched Rectangles

Accessories:  Big Shot, Wink of Stella clear glitter brush, Kaisercraft blue chalk, I-Kandee pearlescent pink chalk, Stampin' Up Dazzling Diamonds glitter glue, Tombow pens, Albrecht-Durer watercolour pencils, #2 round paintbrush, tiny round paintbrush, Tombow Mono Aqua glue, double-sided tape, dimensionals, scissors, Copic fine black multiliner, cream grosgrain ribbon, Perfect Layers Tools, Cardstock: black, white, dark pink glitter, Ranger Distress watercolour

Punches:  EK Success Arrow border, Carl CP-8 heart duo

The More the Merrier Shaker card

Hi blogging friends

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas.  We had Christmas Day at home for the first time in the 25 years that we have been married - which was absolutely wonderful!  We had my Mum, my brother plus his wife and their daughter over for lunch and it was such a lovely and relaxing day.  Boxing Day we always stay at home and just relax and play with our new toys.  You won't find me at the Boxing Day Sales - the last thing I want to do is drive to somewhere crowded, fight for a parking spot and go shopping - I just don't understand all the hype about it as the shops have sales throughout the year anyway!  Each to his own I suppose.......

Today I am sharing the Christmas card that I made for my 11 yo DD which I couldn't share here on my blog until it had been opened on Christmas Day:

I haven't made a Shaker card for ages but as I have seen alot of them around Blog-land recently, I thought I would make one as they are really fun.  I used a Large Round Shaker Card Pouch which comes in a pack of 10 by Impression Obsession.  You can get many different sizes and shapes of pouches but I only have the circles.  They are really cool because you just peel off the adhesive and stick it down - although I did actually add some Stampin' Up Fuse Fast adhesive which is super-strong as I was a little afraid the adhesive on the pouch wasn't really strong enough. The shadow at the top part of the pouch from taking the photo out in the sun looks a little odd but if you look at the IO website, you will get a better idea of what the pouch looks like.

The main image is from the Stampin' Up set - The More the Merrier - which I bought second-hand on EBay a few months ago as it is retired.  I fell in love with this image when I saw a card on Splitcoastampers made with these snowmen.  If you are a regular reader of my blog you will already know that I am crazy for any stamps that have a snowman on it!  It must be genetic because my DD is nuts for snowmen too!

I stamped the image onto Ranger Watercolour cardstock and coloured it with a variety of mediums:  Tombow pens plus Lyra and Faber-Castell watercolour pencils using a paintbrush.   I stamped a couple of snowflakes from the Stampendous set - Winter Warm above the snowmen using Soft Sky ink then chalked around the image with blue chalk for the sky.  I had meant to add glitter to the snowmen's hats and scarves but only remembered about 5 seconds after I attached the pouch to the image.....oops.....sigh...... :-( 

I added Cotton White Fun Flock mixed with fine Crystalina glitter to the ground for the snow and to the cuffs and pom-poms on the Snowmen's hats using Tombow Mono Aqua glue.  You can see a bit more detail in this close-up:

I added sequins, stars, glitter and gemstones from my stash in various colours for the Shaker contents and then diecut the burgundy and blue cardstock circles and attached them over the top of the Shaker pouch using Tombow Mono Multi glue.

The designer paper, twine, tag and large brad are from My Mind's Eye - Winter Wonderland which has been a favourite of mine this Christmas season.  The blue and burgundy cardstock layers on the card base were trimmed to 1/8" and 1/16" respectively using my Perfect Layers Tools.  I then popped this up on thick doublesided tape on my white cardstock base. 

The next card I am sharing is the amazing Christmas card that my 11 yo daughter made for me:

My daughter and I had a good laugh when we opened our cards because we both used the same image AND made a Shaker card!  This was my DD's first-ever Shaker card too.  Such a funny coincidence!  And this is the handmade felt snowman that my daughter gave me:

SQUEE!  Isn't my snowman just soooo adorable??!!  My DD didn't use a pattern and designed it all herself and it stands about 15cm - 6 inches high.  Oh my gosh, I ♥love♥ it so much!

And now here are some gorgeous handmade cards that we have received this Christmas season:

From my Stampin' Up Demonstrator

From my beautiful friend Y who first introduced me to cardmaking

From my SCS friend Sabrina in Ireland

From my blogging friend Shaz

An Easel card from our dearest friend C

In an era where alot of people use Social Media to send their Christmas greetings, we feel very blessed to receive such beautiful handmade cards in the mail.  

Lastly, as I haven't shared photos of Ruby for a while, I thought I would post some photos of her playing around her little carpeted scratching post and tunnel:

Of course, having the sun come through the window makes you sleepy so once Ruby had a bit of play, it was time to catch up on some zzzzzzzzzs!

Thanks for visiting my blog today!  Hope to see you again soon!

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Stampin' Up The More the Merrier (retired), Stampendous Winter Warm SSC262 clear set

Ink:  Ranger Archival Jet Black, Stampin' Up Soft Sky dye

Dies:  Lifestyle Nesting Circles and Nesting Scalloped Circles

Designer Paper:  My Mind's Eye Winter Wonderland (2012) 6" x 6" pad

Accessories:  Big Shot, twine + tag + brad - MME Winter Wonderland set, Fray Stop, Stampendous Cotton White Fun Flock mixed with fine Crystalina glitter, Tombow Mono Multi + Mono Aqua glue, SU Fuse Fast adhesive, X-Press it thick doublesided tape, Impression Obsession Large Round Shaker Pouch SHP02, Kaisercraft blue chalk, #2 round paintbrush, Faber-Castell + Lyra watercolour pencils, Tombow Pens, Perfect Layers Tools, assorted sequins + gems, Ranger Distress Watercolour cardstock, other cardstock - burgundy, blue, white

More Mama Elephant Arctic Penguins

Hi blogging friends

I am still playing with my Mama Elephant Arctic Penguin stamp and die set and thought I would make another Christmas card - this time for my husband.  I am so lucky that my husband doesn't mind cute images - he is such a great encourager for my cardmaking and I feel so blessed :-)  This card is also my entry for the Crafty Catz Challenge #256 of Winter.

If you missed my last post using this stamp/die set, you can see it HERE.  I decided to go with the same layout, twine, papers and dies to make the whole process quicker and will probably make a few more cards in similar fashion - although I always make a few little changes to make the cards a bit different.  You know, I hadn't even thought about the fact that there are no penguins in the Arctic until my blogging friend Jackie pointed it out!  Maybe the set should be renamed "Antarctic Penguins" instead!

I love how this stamp set has lots of little images (as well as lots of penguins in different poses) and the matching dies saves alot of time fussy-cutting.

To do the background, I used a Lifestyle Nesting Circle die to diecut the My Mind's Eye Winter Wonderland snowflake designer paper and Ranger watercolour cardstock - then used one of my WPlus9 Landscape border dies (which comes in a set of 3) to cut the designer paper where I wanted the edge of the horizon to be then adhered the designer paper to the watercolour cardstock circle.  I scribbled Evergreen Bough and Peacock Feathers Distress Markers on an acrylic block, added some water and painted the watercolour paper to look like the sea.

I stamped all the images using Ranger Archival Jet Black ink onto watercolour cardstock and coloured them with various Distress Markers and Tombow Pens, then diecut each piece.  

I used a Red Wink of Stella glitter pen on the red Santa hat, skates and berries on the mistletoe and Clear Wink of Stella on the floating pieces of ice, leaves on the mistletoe and the green hat.  I added Stampendous Cotton White Fun Flock mixed with Crystalina glitter to the pompom and cuff of both hats.  I also added white dots to the green hat with a white gel pen and Glossy Accents to the nose on each penguin.  I lightly chalked in the cheeks using pink I-Kandee Pearlescent chalk.  Here is a little close-up so you can see the detail:

The floating pieces of ice were glued on using Tombow Mono Multi glue and the penguins and mistletoe were popped up on dimensionals.

The scalloped circle main image panel is a gorgeous die by Spellbinders from their Majestic Circles die set.  

The snowflakes are dies from the Poppystamps Christmas Baubles die set.  I glued down the centres then bent the arms up a little and added red and teal Fun Fair Glitter Colours Adhesive Enamel dots to the centres.  You probably can't tell from the photo but these enamel dots are very glittery and are absolutely gorgeous!  

I was so annoyed with myself because I had coloured the hats and added the Fun Flock and put them aside to dry.  I had already attached the penguins and decided to glue on the diecut snowflakes totally forgetting about the hats.  When I went to glue on the Santa hat, I realised that it was covering part of the snowflake so tried to remove the snowflake but of course, it was stuck fast.  If I had my time over, I would have moved the snowflake down a little so it wasn't partly hidden - oh well - just one of those little irritating things...... Here is an even closer view of the main image:

A few months ago, I decided to upgrade my Digital Camera and it takes fantastic close-up photos.  It's a Nikon Coolpix L320 and takes 16.1 megapixel photos.  My husband had bought a second-hand Nikon Coolpix L310 which was the previous model to this one so I tried it out and was really impressed with how easy it was to use and the quality of the photographs was much better compared to my old camera.  So I bought the latest model and really love it and it didn't cost an arm and a leg which was great.  I have found that I don't have to fiddle as much with my photo editing programs to get the colours true to real life compared to my old camera - and most of the time, I don't need to do very much at all.  With my old camera, I would often spend quite a bit of time editing and but sometimes, no matter how much I fiddled, I couldn't get my photo to look like my card did in real-life which would frustrate me no end!  By the way, I use a mix of Google Picasa and GIMP for photo editing - both free programs.  I am no expert on cameras and I am sure there are more amazing ones around but thought I would share my experience in case it is helpful to someone.  Anyway, I am digressing.......back to my card......

The twine and designer paper on the card base are by My Mind's Eye Winter Wonderland which was released in 2012.  The sentiment was also trimmed from one of the designer paper sheets; I layered it onto teal cardstock and trimmed it to 1/16" using my Perfect Layers Tools then popped it up on dimensionals.  

The teal cardstock base and burgundy cardstock layers were trimmed to 1/8" and 1/16" respectively using my Perfect Layers Tools.

As always, I added Fray stop to the cut ends of the twine to stop them from fraying and unravelling.

As I type this, I am at the hospital in the City with my loved one waiting for an appointment - just routine.  We have just been to one appointment but there is a 3 hour gap between appointments so we are hanging around.  We are coming back in again tomorrow for another 2 appointments - again just routine - and then another one early next week - but fingers-crossed, that will be the last of the hospital appointments in the City for the year.  I am using the hospital computer and the colours look super-bright compared to my home laptop - in fact, my card colours look too bright and the sea looks like there are brown patches in amongst the teal!  Gee, I hope it doesn't look like that for all of my blog readers and that it is just this computer (?!). Thanks for visiting my blog today - hope to see you again very soon!

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Mama Elephant Arctic Penguins set

Ink:  Ranger Archival Jet Black

Designer Paper:  My Mind's Eye (MME) Winter Wonderland (2012) 6" x 6" pad

Dies:  Lifestyle Nesting Circles, Spellbinders Majestic Circles, Mama Elephant Arctic Penguins, Poppystamps Christmas Baubles (snowflakes), WPlus9 Landscape Borders die set

Accessories:  Big Shot, Ranger Watercolour cardstock, Stampendous Cotton White Fun Flock mixed with fine Crystalina glitter, dimensionals, Tombow Mono Multi glue, doublesided tape, Fun Fair Glitter Colours Adhesive Enamel Dots (by Helz Cuppleditch), Twine from MME Winter Wonderland twine set WW1068, Perfect Layers Tools, Glossy Accents, Distress Markers - Evergreen Bough + Peacock Feathers + Festive Berries, Tombow Pens, #2 round paintbrush, Cardstock - burgundy and teal, Wink of Stella glitter pens - red and clear, I-Kandee Pearlescent chalk, Ranger Inkssentials white gel pen

Mama Elephant Arctic Penguin Christmas card

Hi blogging friends  

When Mama Elephant released their Arctic Penguin stamp set recently, I couldn't help myself and just HAD to get the set - those little penguins had captured my heart!  I love how the set has alot of penguins in different poses PLUS it has tons of little extras like the Santa hat, winter hat, present, cup, mistletoe, 2 sizes of floating ice and a few other little images.  Cute, cute, CUTE LOL!  I also bought the matching die set which makes putting together a little scene nice and quick.  And here is my card:

To do the background, I used a Lifestyle Nesting Circle die to diecut the My Mind's Eye Winter Wonderland snowflake designer paper and Ranger watercolour cardstock - then used one of my WPlus9 Landscape border dies (which comes in a set of 3) to cut the designer paper where I wanted the edge of the horizon to be then adhered the designer paper to the watercolour cardstock circle (I hope that makes sense!).  I scribbled Evergreen Bough and Peacock Feathers Distress Markers on an acrylic block, added some water and painted the watercolour paper to look like the sea.

I stamped all the images using Ranger Archival Jet Black ink onto watercolour cardstock and coloured them with various Distress Markers and Tombow Pens, then diecut each piece.  

I used a Red Wink of Stella glitter pen on the Santa hat, skates and top of the present and Clear Wink of Stella on the floating ice and green part of the present.  I added Stampendous Cotton White Fun Flock mixed with Crystalina glitter to the pompom and cuff of the hat.  I added Glossy Accents to the penguin's nose.  Here is a little close-up so you can see the detail a bit better - the photo is a little dull as it is very stormy here today and I had try and take photos inbetween squalls:

The floating ice was glued on using Tombow Mono Multi glue and the penguin and present were popped up on dimensionals.

The scalloped circle main image panel is a gorgeous die by Spellbinders from their Majestic Circles die set.  

The snowflakes are dies from the Poppystamps Christmas Baubles die set.  I glued down the centres then bent the arms up a little and added red and teal Fun Fair Glitter Colours Adhesive Enamel dots to the centres which I bought 2 weeks ago at Scrappy Hollow in Croydon, Victoria.  You probably can't tell from the photo but these enamel dots are very glittery and are absolutely gorgeous!  There are quite a few colours and sizes in the set which makes it good value for money.

The twine, chipboard sentiment and large brad plus the designer paper on the card base are all by My Mind's Eye Winter Wonderland which was released in 2012.  Here is a close-up of that gorgeous brad:

Gosh, I love the colours in the My Mind's Eye Winter Wonderland set - right up my alley and so perfect for cool, winter/Christmas scenes.  Yes, I know it is summer at Christmas where I live but I am just crazy for snowmen, snowflakes and snowy scenes.  I have never felt very attracted to images of Santa on a surfboard or Santa wearing shorts for Christmas cards - they just don't appeal to me - and I am blissfully singing "Winter Wonderland" or "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" no matter how hot it is!  I just bought some more of this MME range online from Scrap Therapy in Queensland, Australia as I was getting a bit low - they have great customer service - prompt and the goods are really well-packaged for the postal service (I have no connection to the company other than being a regular customer).  

The teal card base and burgundy cardstock layers were trimmed to 1/8" and 1/16" respectively using my Perfect Layers Tools.

As always, I added Fray stop to the cut ends of the twine to stop them from fraying and unravelling.

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following Challenges:

Splitcoaststampers - Free for All Friday F4A248 - Grab and Go - grab the most recent thing you have purchased and haven't used and use it.

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - November - Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting my blog today!

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Mama Elephant Arctic Penguins set

Ink:  Ranger Archival Jet Black

Designer Paper:  My Mind's Eye (MME) Winter Wonderland (2012) 6" x 6" pad

Dies:  Lifestyle Nesting Circles, Spellbinders Majestic Circles, Mama Elephant Arctic Penguins, Poppystamps Christmas Baubles (snowflakes), WPlus9 Landscape Borders die set

Accessories:  Big Shot, Ranger Watercolour cardstock, Stampendous Cotton White Fun Flock mixed with fine Crystalina glitter, dimensionals, Tombow Mono Multi glue, doublesided tape, Fun Fair Glitter Colours Adhesive Enamel Dots (by Helz Cuppleditch), Brad from MME Winter Wonderland Decorative Brads set WW1063, Chipboard sentiment from MME Winter Wonderland Decorative Buttons set WW1064, Twine from MME Winter Wonderland twine set WW1068, Perfect Layers Tools, Glossy Accents, Distress Markers - Evergreen Bough + Peacock Feathers + Festive Berries, Tombow Pens, #2 round paintbrush, Cardstock - burgundy and teal, Wink of Stella glitter pens - red and clear

More Embossing folder stamping......

Hi blogging friends

Hot on the heels of my last post where I shared my first card using the Embossing Folder Stamping technique, here is another card that I made with this same technique but with a few extra things thrown in:

I used a Die-sire Floral Embossalicious embossing folder for the stamping and scribbled on various colours of Tombow pens - numbers 723, 090, 993, 991, 673.  The good thing about Tombow pens is that it doesn't matter if you get another colour on the nib because you just scribble it out on a sheet of scrap paper.  I sprayed on some water using my Ranger Mini Mister then lay my watercolour paper on top.  I recently purchased some Tim Holtz Distress Watercolour cardstock and I love it because it is really white and has a smooth and a rough side.  In this instance, I used the smooth side.

I left my watercolour paper on top for about a minute and pressed down with my fingers to make sure I had good coverage on the paper, then lifted it off.  I dried off the paper very thoroughly with my heat-gun and put it aside for a little while.  In the meantime, I scribbled the same colour Tombow Pens onto my Craft Mat, sprayed on some water and used another sheet of watercolour cardstock to smooch the colours around so that I had matching cardstock for diecutting the butterflies and for adding the top and bottom borders.

I decided to run the stamped background through my Big Shot using the same embossing folder to add some texture but had to be extremely careful to match up the stamping with the embossing folder and added plenty of removable tape to secure it in place so the cardstock didn't move.  In fact, my first attempt was a fail because I didn't quite line things up so had to start all over again.......unhappy sigh...... but we learn from our mistakes, don't we?!

What I discovered is that the watercolour cardstock tends to stretch a little in the Big shot because the embossing is pressing into what you have stamped so when your folder is very detailed like the one I used, you do end up with one end matching well and the other end goes a bit 'out' as the cardstock stretches.  Anyway, I do love how pretty and lacy it turned out with the added embossing/texture.

The butterflies are dies by Memory Box - Moonlight Butterfly (which is the butterfly base) and the matching Kaleidoscope die (which is the detailed butterfly top).  The body/antennae is a separate die from the Kaleidoscope set.  The Moonlight Butterfly die comes with a body/antennae die too but it is slightly different to the Kaleidoscope one.

I glued down just the centre of the butterflies using Tombow Mono Multi glue so I could bend the wings up a little.  The bottom border was punched with a Martha Stewart Lace Doily edge punch which was difficult because the cardstock was a bit too thick and it jammed!  Fortunately, after a few moments of choice words, I was able to finally get it to punch right through but I won't use the watercolour cardstock in it again - I have learned my lesson!  I only just replaced this punch a few weeks ago so hopefully I haven't shortened its life!

I added some Pink Kindyglitz glitter glue to the butterflies and used Glossy Accents to add some pink 8mm sequins and some clear 5mm sequins.  The clear ones are fantastic because they pick up the colours around them so they look like pink ones!  Here is a close-up:

Lastly, I tied on the pink ribbon and added Fray Stop to the cut ends.  I wondered if I should add a sentiment but really didn't want to cover up the pretty background so left it off.

My niece and her partner recently became engaged so this card will be going to the happy couple but I think you could use the card for alot of different occasions and not just for an engagement.

Challenges:

I am linking my card up to the following challenges -

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Anything Goes - with the optional extra of adding something that reminds you of summer or has a summery theme (I didn't do that bit as it is winter here and can't get my head around summery things 'cos my little feet are like ice-blocks)

Crafty Catz Challenge #233 - Anything Goes

Splitcoaststampers - Technique Lovers Challenge TLC482 - To Emboss or to Stamp (specifically for Embossing Folder stamping), and

Splitcoaststampers - Free for All Friday F4A223 - Use that Stash - where we have to use our Crafty Stash.  For me, it is the butterfly dies.   I have a lovely stash (which is continually growing) of butterfly dies - all brands - I love them 'cos they're just so pretty (especially the Memory Box ones!) but keep forgetting to use them on projects - and, because I don't embellish my cards alot, they don't seem to "fit" anywhere.  This time, I made a huge effort to use them and I am so glad I did!

Thanks for visiting my blog today!

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps, Ink, Designer Paper:  None

Accessories:  Tim Holtz Distress watercolor cardstock, Big Shot, Die'sire Embossalicious EF-6 Floral embossing folder, Tombow pens - 723, 090, 993, 991, 673, Craft Sheet, Ranger Mini Mister, sequins - 8mm pink and 5mm clear, Kindyglitz pink glitter glue, Glossy Accents, Memory Box dies Moonlight Butterfly #98260 and Kaleidoscope Butterfly and body/antennae #98261, pink ribbon, Fray Stop, Tombow Mono Multi glue, heat-gun

Punches:  Martha Stewart Lace Doily edge punch

Penny Black Strawberry Jam thank you card

Hi blogging friends

The card I am sharing today is a "Thank you" card for a wonderful friend who has been very kind and supportive during our loved one's illness so what better way to say thank you than a handmade card!

The image is by Penny Black - Strawberry Jam and is my new favourite PB stamp (which I am sure I could say about every PB stamp LOL!).  It was stamped onto watercolour paper using Ranger Archival Sepia ink and coloured with various mediums:  Winsor and Newton watercolour paints, Faber-Castell + Albrecht-Durer watercolour pencils and Tombow pens using a No. 2 round Kolinsky Sable paintbrush.   I dry-brushed a little bit of white acrylic paint on the strawberries for the highlight.   I really love stamping some of the Penny Black critters in brown ink instead of black as it gives a softness to the image.

I punched some tiny hearts using pink and red parts of the designer paper using an EK Success Arrows border punch (they are the leftover punchies after using the punch that look like tiny hearts - too cute!) and glued them around the image then added Kindyglitz Crystalina glitter glue. 

The sentiment was a freebie stamp from a set called "Sweet Treats" - designed by Beth Gunnel and came free with a Quick Cards Made Easy magazine back in 2012.  I stamped it using Versamagic Gingerbread ink.  I originally stamped it with the Ranger Sepia ink but it just looked too dark and didn't look right so went for a softer and lighter brown.  The red heart was punched from one of the strawberries on the designer paper using a Carl CP-8 Heart duo (I used the smallest heart on the punch) then added Kindyglitz Crystalina to add some sparkle.

Here is a close-up of the sweet image:

The designer paper is one I picked up from a Craft Show which I thought was just perfect with the image.

The middle panel was embossed using my Big Shot and a Cart-Us embossing folder (sorry, but there is no name on the folder nor the packaging).  

The bottom brown layer is actually the flip-side of the designer paper as it matched the strawberry pattern so beautifully and the pink layer is cardstock.  All the layers were trimmed to 1/8" using my Perfect Layers Tools,

The fancy bottom border was punched using a Martha Stewart Lace Doily edge punch.  I recently replaced this punch because I wore the old one out and it is still my favourite punch:  just so feminine and pretty and never tire of it.  I am tempted to buy another one to put away before it comes unavailable just in case I break my new one or I wear it out.  Hmmm, wonder if should?  What do you think?

The twine is by Trendy Twine - Krazy for Kraft.  I added Fray Stop to the cut ends to stop them from fraying.  

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenges -

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - May - You're favourite PB stamp 

Thanks for visiting my blog today and for any comments that you care to leave - they are very much appreciated!

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Penny Black Strawberry Jam 4254J wood mount, Sentiment Sweet Treats (freebie from Quick Cards Made Easy Magazine in 2012)

Ink:  Ranger Archival Sepia, Versamagic Gingerbread chalk

Designer paper:  Crate Paper Pretty Party - Cake Stand (2011) - both sides

Accessories:  Winsor and Newton watercolour paints, Faber-Castell + Albrecht-Durer watercolour pencils, Tombow pens, JoSonja Titanium White acrylic paint, No. 2 round Kolinsky Sable paintbrush, Kindyglitz Crystalina glitter glue, dimensionals, 140lb watercolour paper, Fray Stop, Trendy Twine - Krazy for Kraft, Big Shot, Cart-Us embossing folder (unknown name), Lifestyle Nesting Rectangle dies, Lifestyle Nesting Circle + Scallop Circle dies, Perfect Layers Tools, cardstock - pink

Punches:  EK Success Arrows border, Martha Stewart Lace Doily, Carl CP-8 Heart duo