Unity A Beautiful Sight - A Winter Wonderland

Hi and welcome :-)

I made this clean and simple DT Christmas card with a new Unity stamp called 'A Beautiful Sight' that Fat Cat's Card Corner sent to me this week.  

The words behind the tree are from the Christmas song:  Winter Wonderland - which is one of my favourite Christmas songs.  I know it's Summer here at Christmas, but I still love all things "snowy" for my Christmas cards.  And I especially LOVE white and gold Christmas cards - they just seem to speak "elegant" which I hope is what I achieved with my card.  It is very, very difficult to take good photographs of gold on a card - I tried outside in the sun, but the gold looked all dark and miserable or reflected so much sunlight, the white background all but disappeared, so did a compromise and photographed it in my home with reflected sunlight from my kitchen window but with the overhead kitchen downlights on to show up some sparkle.  Not easy - but I hope you get the idea of what it really looks like - and it is much nicer IRL!

The snowflakes embossing is one of the folders from the Cuttlebug Winter Wonderland set (there are 6 folders in the set).  I stamped the tree with gold pigment ink and heat-embossed it with gold embossing powder, then diecut the panel with my Deckled Rectangle Nesties and popped the panel up on 1mm mounts (dimensionals).

I diecut two snowflakes and popped them up on 2mm mounts, then added a dot of gold pearl dimensional paint in the centres - does take quite a while to dry though (at the time of writing this post, it's now some hours since I did it, and it's still not quite dry - probably will take overnight). You can get this paint at Riot Art and Craft Stores, and comes in a little bottle about the size of Stickles/Kindyglitz and isn't expensive.

The ribbon was attached in 2 separate elements and the bow itself was made with my Bow Easy.  I'm pretty sure the ribbon came from a $2 Shop and was on a reel that had a couple of metres.

Challenges:

It's been ages since I played one of the Stamp Simply Challenges by Sharon Johnson and this week's challenge is:

Stamp Simply #163 – Tis the Season for Clean and Simple

where Sharon wants us to make a clean and simple card with Christmas or Winter in mind.

Thanks again for stopping by - hope to see you again soon!
 

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Unity 'A Beautiful Sight' Itty Bitty rubber stamp IB48 (comes as rubber mounted with cling cushion)

Ink:  Versacolor gold pigment

Accessories:  Cuttlebug, Snowflakes folder from Winter Wonderland set, Cuttlebug Snowflake #2 die, Spellbinder Deckled Rectangle Nestabilities, gold embossing powder, heat-gun, Bow Easy, gold dimensional fabric paint, 1mm/2mm mounts, Ribbon 1-1/2" - 38mm wide, Cardstock: white

Eeeek, it's a spider.....or two - Halloween card

Hi and thanks for visiting my Blog :-)

I thought I would make a Halloween card just for something different after I saw the Splitcoaststampers Clean and Simple Challenge CAS89 of a Sketch inspired by kstamper's card here which I loved - so this is my take on the Sketch:

I have had this old spider and web stamp for years and years and forgot I had the stamps until today when I was looking for some inspiration among my stamps for a Halloween card.   I must admit:  I hate spiders.  I am the sort of person who would jump out of a moving car to get away from one, or abandon my car in the middle of the freeway.  One of my recurring nightmares is hundreds of spiders dropping down from a ceiling on top of me - it seems so real that I usually jump out of bed in my sleep - which then scares poor DH.....anyway, enough waffle and onto the card.......  

The black embossed background was made with a newly released Sizzix Textured Impression embossing folder called "Winter Set #3" (comes as a set of 2 folders).  The spider and web were stamped with black pigment ink and heat-embossed with clear embossing powder which makes them stand out alot more than just using dye ink.  Then I inked all the edges with the same pigment ink and added embossing powder to that too.  Can you see that little spider lurking at the RHS side ready to jump out at you (insert scream here!)?   Thought I would do that just for a bit of fun!  I stamped him on a scrap of black cardstock, heat embossed him, then cut him out and glued him under the terracotta panel.  I coloured the eyes with Cadmium Yellow Acrylic paint to make them look really bright - like they are looking right at you.

The EEK sentiment was done with an alphabet foam-mounted stamp set I bought from KMart years ago - don't know if it's still available.  I don't have any Halloween sentiments, so came up with this instead - I thought I would stamp the letters at any angle for a bit of interest - wish I had had an exclamation mark to add to it.  These letters were also heat-embossed.

Challenges:

I am entering this card into 2 Challenges - both with Halloween themes:  The first is Crazy 4 Challenges C4C60 and the 2nd is Dutch Dare Card Challenge DDCC #89 which also has the alternative colour theme of purple, black, orange and green if you didn't want to make a Halloween card).

Thanks for stopping by - it was lovely to have you come and visit :-)

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  All Night Media Spider 612A and Corner Web 407B (both c1994 and most likely retired), Alphabet foam stamp set - name unknown (K-Mart)

Ink:  Versacolor black pigment

Accessories:  Cuttlebug, Sizzix Textured Impressions Winter Set #3, cadmium yellow Jo Sonja acrylic paint, clear embossing powder, Cardstock:  Colormates Deep Terracotta and Black

House Mouse Sleepy Stocking: Clean and Simple Christmas Hat

Hi and welcome to my Blog :-)

I made a clean, quick and simple card using just the hat and one of the sentiments from my House Mouse 'Sleepy Stocking' set:

I coloured the hat with Prismacolor and Derwent Coloursoft pencils plus OMS, then added some Polar White FlowerSoft - I LOVE the texture that the FlowerSoft adds - it is such cool stuff!!

The main image panel is up on 1mm mounts (dimensionals).  The ribbon is a much brighter green IRL - more like Irish Green - but being sparkly, it was rather difficult to photograph.  The green and red cardstock underneath the main image panel is also a bit brighter IRL.

The embossing on the white cardstock is a Cuttlebug Embossing folder called:  Season's Greetings  although my cardstock was smaller than the folder, so some of the writing isn't on my cardstock.

Lastly, I added a green pearl either side of the sentiment, and a red pearl to the diecut snowflake on the ribbon.

Although I have already made a card for the SCS Inspiration Challenge IC253 - see this link for the deets - I was so inspired by the John Lewis Department Store, that I made another card.  This card was inspired by a red and white Christmas ornament.  I really liked the red & white combo and the red border, which made me think of my new Eyelet Nesties and how I could layer some red cardstock underneath to make a border.  I did end up adding the green cardstock layer and the green ribbon - the card ended up needing a little "pizazz".  I would love to get the round Eyelet Nesties one day - I think I would use them alot - in fact, I would love to see similar Nesties but with snowflakes or stars instead of the circles.  Oh well, it's nice to dream.......

Thanks again for stopping by - hope to see you again soon!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  House Mouse Sleepy Stocking JSHM006 unmounted rubber set

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black

Accessories:  Cuttlebug, Snowflake #2 die, Season's Greetings embossing folder, Spellbinder Eyelet Nestabilities, sparkly green ribbon, Bow Easy, FlowerSoft Polar White, Aleen's tacky glue (for FlowerSoft), 1mm mounts, Prismacolor pencils, Derwent Coloursoft pencils, OMS, paper stumps, Kaiser pearls:  red and green, Cardstock:  red, green, KW Doggett "Knight" white

Punches:  Stampin' Up corner

A Christmas Explosion box !

Hi and thanks for visiting :-)

I did a workshop at a new local store about 10 days ago to make this 'Explosion Box'.  

About 2 years ago, I bought an Explosion Box kit from another place after seeing one made up, and was keen to open up the kit and get cracking - except that once I read the instructions and sat there and frowned alot and thought that my head would probably explode instead of the box, I packed it all up again and put it aside {sigh}.  That's not to say that the instructions were hard to follow - I'm just not very good with instructions - I'm more of a visual person who needs to watch someone do it step-by-step, and then I'll be fine.   Mine is a little rough - some panels aren't quite on straight and I smudged the sentiment, but I'm just keeping it as a sample so that doesn't matter.  Using a Scor-Pal made the whole process very easy!

The designer paper is the new Basic Grey Jovial range and the bow on top was made using Sizzix Bigz Die - Bow, Create-a-Bow #656544.   There are three different sized dies in the pack to make the bow - you diecut several of each size and then you use a brad to hold them in while you are putting it together (quite fiddly!).  The workshop teacher put this die thru her Cuttlebug but I don't know what sandwich she used (I didn't even know you could use the Sizzix Bigz dies in the CB).  

The next pic of the box is after you take the lid off to (partially) reveal the folded layers of cardstock/designer paper:

And the next two pics are the inside once you open it right out.  You will see that there are two layers of cardstock:  the burgundy plus the brown - the brown cardstock is cut slighlty smaller than the burgundy, otherwise the box won't close:

I'm not sure who made the sentiment - it may possibly be Stampin' Up.  If you do know, drop me an email or leave a comment, and I'll update this post.

The tags are supposed to have little photos or a handwritten message on them - or whatever you like - and I have seen one of these boxes with lots of family photos instead of having the tags and the bit they tuck into. The tags were diecut with a Sizzix Bigz Die - Tag, Super Crescent #656341 which was also put through the Cuttlebug.

I did an Internet Search to find some instructions for you - as I don't think I could explain it without a step-by-step tutorial and accompanying photos. 

Here is a tutorial by Marie Aviza (her lid is deeper than mine but the rest of the box is virtually the same), and here is a tutorial on Splitcoaststampers (you have to be a member of Splitcoasters to be able to view this tutorial).  If you Google "Explosion Box tutorial", you will bring more variations on the theme and there seems to be some videos on You Tube (I haven't watched them so I can't vouch for them being easy to follow etc).

Thanks again for stopping by - back in a few days!

Jocelyn

ETA:  Thank you to "Writer's Stamp" who identified that the stamp is from a set by Stampin' Up called "Solemn Stillness" circa 2004.

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer card using Stamp-It Reindeer Text stamp

Hello and thanks for dropping by :-)

I whipped up a simple card using a lovely vintage stamp from Stamp-It Australia called "Reindeer Text".   

It was stamped onto cream cardstock with Vintage Sepia ink and then diecut using the newly-released Spellbinder Eyelet Square Nestabilities.  The nestie fitted the image perfectly (don't you love it when that happens?!).  

I heavily distressed the image with Antique Linen ink and a seasponge (as are all the layers on the card) and the image panel is up on 1mm mounts (dimensionals).  I added a little red rhinestone to his nose - check it out with this close-up:

If you don't have such a tiny rhinestone, you could just use some Red Stickles instead.  My rhinestone actually came from one of those little Basic Grey bling pictures - I like them because they usually have some very tiny rhinestones on them and are smaller than the Kaiser rhinestone sets. 

The ribbon came from Kenny's Cardiology (you will find this store at most larger Australian shopping centres) - where I buy my DD her Beanie (Kids) bears.  When I was in there the other day, I noticed that they had a stand of rolls of wide ribbon, so being a ribbon-a-holic, I had to get some LOL.  I love the sparkles in this particular ribbon - think I might get some more...... ;-)  The ribbon was attached in 2 separate elements, and the bow itself was made with my Bow Easy.

Challenges:

I am entering this card into 2 Challenges.  The first is Allsorts Challenge Blog where this week's challenge #73 is 'Inspiration from a Song Title'  Well, of course it's Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer (bet you're singing it now.....).  The other Challenge is Papertake Weekly Challenge which is 3 of a Kind - which can be anything like 3 papers, 3 buttons etc.  I have used just 3 colours on my card:  cream, brown and red.

Thanks for stopping by - hope to see you again soon!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Stamp-It Australia 'Reindeer Text' 3902E (self-cling rubber stamp)

Ink:  Versafine Vintage Sepia, Tim Holtz Antique Linen Distress

Designer paper:  Kaisercraft 'Be Merry' 6 x 6 pad

Accessories:  Cuttlebug, Spellbinder Eyelet Square Nestabilities, tiny red rhinestone, seasponge, 1mm mounts (dimensionals), Bow Easy, ribbon 1-1/2" - 38mm wide, Cardstock:  brown, red, cream

Punches:  Stampin' Up corner punch

Sympathy card using Cuttlebug and Sizzix embossing folders

Hello and welcome :-)

I found myself needing to make a Sympathy card during the past week for a lady whose husband passed away.  It's never easy making a Sympathy card and I like to keep things simple.

I corner-punched the cardstock first (if you do it after the embossing, it squashes and marks the embossing - maybe that's a 'no-brainer' but I have often done it after, and then wished that I hadn't!!) - then used one of my narrow embossing folders from my Cuttlebug 'With Love' folder set.  I added the Scor-pal line so I could butt my Sizzix Textured Impression embossing folder up against the line - that way, I knew the embossing would be straight.  I have found that if I do the embossing first, then add the Scor-Pal line afterwards, it is almost always crooked.  Even if you squash the Scor-Pal line a little, you can just re-do it.

The ribbon was attached in 2 separate elements and the bow itself was made with my Bow Easy.  The sentiment panel is up on 1mm mounts.  I only had really wide organza ribbon, but folded it in half and it turned out looking OK - though it was a bit fiddly to hold it folded in half while I was putting it through my Bow Easy!

I added some very fine white glitter to the flower centres as well as the punched hearts on the sentiment panel.  It's a really white glitter which I prefer for my Sympathy cards - this glitter is not like Kindyglitz Crystalina which has the pinky-blue hues in it.  Adds that bit of "something" but still understated and not over-the-top (well, that is what I hoped to achieve).

I'm popping this card into this week's Splitcoaststampers Inspiration Challenge IC253 where the inspiration for your card comes from the John Lewis Department Stores website.  While I was thinking about what to make for this card - and thinking of a bunch of white flowers - I came across an image of beautiful white freesias.  As soon as I saw them, I thought of my Cuttlebug 'With love' narrow bunch of flowers folder and my Sizzix Floral Flourishes folder - the stems and unopened buds on the freesias reminded me of this Sizzix folder: hence my combination of the two folders.

Thanks for stopping by - hope to see you again soon!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Wendy Irving Expressions J6412.01 clear stamp set (I believe this set is retired but is still in stock at a few stores - bit hard to find though)

Ink:  Stazon Jet Black

Accessories:  Cuttlebug, With Love embossing folder set, Sizzix Textured Impressions Floral Flourishes and Vines #656259 (comes as a set of 2 folders), Scor-Pal, 1mm mounts (dimensionals), Spellbinder Oval Nestabilities, Designer dries clear adhesive (for glitter), Bow Easy, white organza ribbon, Cardstock: white

Punches:  Carl CP8 Heart (has 2 different-sized hearts), Stampin' Up corner punch

ATC Christmas Collection Vintage card

Hello and welcome to my Blog :-)

I had this idea going around in my head to make a Design Team card for Fat Cat's Card Corner with my NEW Martha Stewart Holly Leaves Combo punch and have the holly leaves as the main border around the card, and this is what I came up with.  No stamping or colouring on this card which is a great time-saver.

I started with a 5 inch square piece of green cardstock, then following the directions on the back of the packaging, I punched the corners first, then the sides.  It all worked out first go (phew!!).  I then cut off one side of the punched cardstock (so then I had 3 sides with holly leaves), and attached the panel to a white square card to make the card a top-opening card.  I did have to cut the white card down a little so that none of the white cardstock showed through the green holly borders.   Gee, I hope that makes sense!  Drop me an email if it doesn't!!

The gorgeous Vintage image is from a little pad called: ATC Collection - Christmas by Leisure Arts.  See this pic of the pad:

The pad is about 65mm wide x 90mm long (or 2-1/2" x 3-1/2" if you are imperial)  and there are 2 of each image.  I did cut down my image a little then heavily distressed it with Antique Linen Distress ink and a seasponge.  I then added some fine red glitter to all the berries.  I used a pin to dob tiny little dots of Designer Dries clear adhesive so I didn't end up with giant blobs and a big mess.  This panel is up on 1mm mounts (dimensionals).

I aged/distressed all the other parts of the card using the same Antique Linen ink.

I ran the designer paper thru my Cuttlebug using the Holly Ribbons embossing folder - I just wanted to have some extra texture to the card.  Note that this folder is the LARGER size to regular ef's, ie: this one is 5" x 7".   The designer paper is retired now but there are so many gorgeous Vintage papers out there that you would easily find a substitute.

The ribbon is made of silk and was attached in 2 separate elements to the card, and the bow itself was made with my Bow Easy.

I'm popping this card into the Splitcoaststampers 'Ways to Use It' Challenge WT289 of Holiday Headstart where you can make any sort of holiday card, eg: Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc.

Thanks again for stopping by - back in a few days with another card.

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  None

Ink:  Tim Holtz 'Antique Linen' Distress 

Designer paper:  Basic Grey Fruitcake FRU-600 Holly Berries/Spearmint (retired)

Accessories:  Cuttlebug, Holly Ribbons embossing folder, ATC Collection Christmas pad, silk ribbon 1-1/4" - 31mm wide, Bow Easy, 1mm mounts (dimensionals), fine red glitter, Designer Dries Clear adhesive (for glitter), seasponge, Cardstock: white, dark olive, burgundy

Punches:  Martha Stewart Holly Leaves Combo

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse: House Mouse Sleepy Stocking

Hi and welcome to my Blog :-)  

I was going to upload this card yesterday, but the weather turned all dark, windy and stormy so I couldn't take a photo until today:

I decided to start a Christmas tradition a few years ago that I would read the poem by Clement C Moore - 'Twas the Night Before Christmas - to my DD just before bedtime on Christmas Eve in the loungeroom where we have our (real!) Christmas Tree with just the Christmas tree lights on.   Ahh, it makes me feel so happy just thinking about it!!   The first part of the poem reads (which probably most people would know):

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

So when another Design Team Pack arrived in the mail this week from Fat Cat's Card Corner - including one of the cutest Christmas stamp sets - this House Mouse 'Sleepy Stocking' set - I immediately thought of this poem.   Isn't this set just adorable?!!  It comes as unmounted rubber which you simply attach to EZ Mounting Foam then cut out.  These stamps are very finely detailed and stamp beautifully, plus they come with a colour picture which is helpful for colouring.  

I coloured the image with OMS and Prismacolor pencils as well as Derwent Coloursoft Pencils.  Upon the advice from an on-line buddy that these Derwents blend with OMS like Prismas, I bought myself a set - and they blend beautifully.  They don't feel as 'waxy' as Prismas when you are colouring, but they blend just as well as Prismas with the OMS, and it has been nice to fill in some of the gaps in my colour range of Prismas.  Plus I have a few Prisma pencils that don't blend very well at all - don't know why - but I'm a happy camper now.  Anyway, enough waffle, and onto the card.........

I added some yellow chalk around the image to simulate the 'glow' from the Christmas light, then lightly shaded around the image.  I also added some Crystal Lacquer (same stuff as Dimensional Magic) to the light to make it shine - see this closeup.  Doesn't it look cool?!!

The holly and berries in the top LH corner were cut out from the Designer Paper.  I LOVE this new Kaisercraft 'Be Merry' paper - LOVE the colours.

The sentiment tag was diecut with my Cuttlebug using one of the Tiny Tags dies, then layered it onto scarlet cardstock.  The tiny hearts are the leftover punchies from my EK Success Arrows border punch - if you are a regular visitor to my Blog, you know I always have to add them to my cards somewhere..... LOL!

The bottom holly border was made with a Martha Stewart Holly Leaves punch (comes as a Punch Around the Page combo set).  Not sure if you can see, but I added a score line just above the holly using my Martha Stewart Scoring board. 

Both panels are up on mounts (dimensionals). 

Thanks again for stopping by - and thanks for all your encouraging comments - they really make my day :-)

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  House Mouse 'Sleepy Stocking' JSHM006 unmounted rubber set

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo black

Designer paper:  Kaisercraft 'Be Merry' Collection 6" x 6" paper pad

Accessories:  Cuttlebug, Tiny Tags die set, green ribbon, Bow Easy, mounts (dimensionals), red button, red sewing thread, Martha Stewart Scoring Board, Crystal Lacquer, OMS, Prismacolor pencils, Derwent Coloursoft pencils, paper stumps, Kaisercolour chalks, Cardstock:  green grass, scarlet, KW Doggett 'Knight' white

Punches:  Stampin' Up corner, Martha Stewart Holly Leaves Combo Around the Page, EK Success Arrows Border

Vintage Card #5 from the Debbi Moore Vintage Christmas CD

Hi and welcome to my world :-)  

Now that the school holidays are almost over, I am hoping to go back to my usual blog posting of Wednesdays and Saturdays. 

This is my 5th Design Team Vintage Christmas card from the Debbi Moore Vintage Christmas CD.  

If this particular image looks familiar, it's because I made a card using it just over a month ago - see here.  But the main difference between that card and this one, is I did no distressing or aging on this one. 

I printed the image onto textured cream cardstock using the "Best" quality on my Canon printer - it looks like an oil painting up close - then added Christmas red stickles to the berries on Santa's hat.  If you look closely, you can see that the sun captured a little bit of the sparkle.

The background embossing was done with a gorgeous Cuttlebug folder 'Holly with Berries'.  I LOVE this folder - it is so pretty.

The bottom border was made with an old temperamental Woodware punch which was almost impossible to line up to get a perfect edge which made me grumpy 'cos I wasted alot of cardstock to get an edge that I still wasn't happy with {sigh}.  Love the design - but it's not worth the angst!  

I added the red pearls on the punched border so you would look at them instead of the uneven punching!

The GIANT pearl on the ribbon is not actually a pearl - it is a 30+ years old button which I inherited from a haberdashery shop my family had back in the 1970's.  I have quite a button collection......  All I did with this red pearl button was cut off the shank and glue it to the ribbon.  Just goes to show you should never throw anything out............

The sentiment was heat-embossed with gold embossing powder, and both the image and sentiment are up on mounts (dimensionals).

I'm popping this card into the Splitcoaststampers Ways to Use it Challenge WT289 of 'Holiday Headstart' where you can make any sort of holiday card.

Thanks again for stopping by - I'll be back in a few days!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Sentiment - Waltzingmouse 'Very Vintage Christmas' clear set

Ink:  Versacolor Gold pigment

Designer paper:  Cosmo Cricket 'Jolly by Golly' 6 x 6 Mini deck

Accessories:  Cuttlebug, Spellbinder Oval and Scalloped Oval Nestabilities, Debbi Moore Vintage Christmas CD, cream grosgrain ribbon, Bow Easy, mounts (dimensionals), Christmas red stickles, gold embossing powder, heat-gun, red pearls, red pearl button, Cardstock: cream textured, buttercream, soft sage green, soft red

Punches:  Woodware Holly leaf border punch