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

Stampendous Snow Bears on Ice Circle card

Hi blogging friends 

Today I am sharing a Christmas card which I made for my dearest friend C who lives on the other side of Australia.  C is the kindest and most generous friend you could ever know - and has been an amazing support to our family since our loved one was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness in February 2012.  C is also a very talented cardmaker so I love our long chats on the phone about cardmaking.  Now that C has the card in her hot little hands, I can share it here:

The main image is by Stampendous - Snow Bears on Ice - which I have had forever and as far as I know, is retired - and was stamped using Ranger Archival Jet Black ink onto Ranger Distress watercolour cardstock and coloured with a variety of mediums:  Tombow pens, Ranger Distress Markers and Faber-Castell watercolour pencils.  I used a tiny round 5/0 paintbrush to dot white acrylic paint on the scarves.  I coloured around the image with blue chalk.

I went over the red hats using a Wink of Stella red glitter pen and added Stampin' Up Dazzling Details glitter glue underneath the skates.  I also added Cotton White Fun Flock mixed with Crystalina glitter to the cuff and pom-pom on the hat using Tombow Mono Aqua glue.  

Here is a close-up:

It is a bit hard to see the sparkle as the weather was very dreary on the day I took the photo.  An hour later, the card was in the post so I didn't have much choice!
 
The snowflakes are by My Favorite Things from their Snowflakes Trio die set.  I glued down just the centres and bent the snowflake arms (is that what they are called??) up a little to give them some dimension against the white cardstock, then added red rhinestones to the centres.

The sentiment is from Elzybells (who are no longer in business) and I added a green rhinestone to each end. 

The white cardstock base was originally a square pre-folded card and was diecut using a Lifestyle Nesting Circle die but I moved the die up a little so that I still had a small fold at the top.  I dry-embossed the circle cardstock base using my Big Shot and Cart-Us Snowflakes embossing folder, then all I had to do was layer the main image panel on.  All the circle/scalloped circle diecuts are from the Lifestyle Nesting Circle/Scalloped Circles sets.  I really love these sets because you get oodles of dies in them - from tiny circles to really large circles that are big enough to make a circle card:  great value in my opinion.  

I really should make more circle cards - they are a fun change from the regular square or rectangular cards.

Lastly, I used my Bow Easy to tie a double-bow out of my Doodlebug twine and glued it on using Glossy Accents.  I put some weight on it whilst it dried to hold it firmly.  As always, I added Fray Stop to the cut ends to stop them from fraying.

Challenges:

I am popping my card into the following Challenge - 

Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - December - Anything Goes

This will be my last post before Christmas.  I have one more Christmas card to share but as that person won't be opening it until Christmas Day, I can't share yet - plus they read my blog so sharing it beforehand would spoil the surprise. 

Merry Christmas and a happy 2015 to you all - and thanks so much for your support, comments and emails throughout this year.

Thanks for visiting my blog today!

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Stampendous Snow Bears on Ice D144 wood-mount (retired), sentiment from Elzybells Mini Messages 20-054 clear set (retired)

Ink:  Ranger Archival Jet Black

Dies:  Lifestyle Nesting Circles and Nesting Scalloped Circles, My Favorite Things Die-namics Snowflakes Trio

Accessories:  Big Shot, Tombow pens, Ranger Distress Markers, Faber-Castell watercolour pencils, #2 and 5/0 round paintbrush, Stampin' Up Dazzling Details glitter glue, Wink of Stella red glitter pen, JoSonja white acrylic paint, Stampendous Cotton White Fun flock mixed with fine Crystalina glitter, Tombow Mono Aqua and Mono Multi glue, Kaisercraft blue chalk, Bow Easy, Fray Stop, Doodlebug Ladybug twine, green and red rhinestones from stash, Ranger Distress watercolour cardstock, other cardstock - white, green, red

Memory Box Silver and Gold Deer

Hi blogging friends

The cards I am sharing today are quick and simple - and I made a silver and gold version.  I have almost finished my Christmas cards now - yay!  Whilst I am typing this, my cat Ruby is curled up beside me hugging the heat from the fan inside my laptop and it has turned cold and is pouring with rain outside - GREAT crafting weather!

I made a similar card last year and just changed things up a little plus the finished card size is smaller at 5" x 5" or 127mm x 127mm. The deer were diecut using silver glitter cardstock.  The sentiment is by Stampendous from their Christmas Wishes clear set (you can see the set HERE on the Stampendous website) and was stamped using Versamark Watermark ink and then heat-embossed using Ranger Fine Detail Silver embossing powder.  I trimmed the silver cardstock edges on the sides and bottom to 1/16" using my Perfect Layers Tools.

I added the 2 x silver sequins using Glossy Accents and corner punched the bottom. I tied on the silver cord and added Fray Stop to the cut ends to stop them from fraying.  I added some Glossy Accents underneath the bow centre and put something heavy on it while it dried.  This stops the bow from loosening and holds it very firmly in place for mailing.

And now here is the gold version - except that I reversed the gold glitter cardstock in the die to make the deer face the other direction:

The sentiment is by Flourishes from their Christmas Wreath set.  I just discovered that Flourishes are no longer around - not sure why or when :-(

I stamped the sentiment using Versamark Watermark ink and heat-set it using Ranger Fine Detail Gold embossing powder.  Again, I trimmed the gold glitter cardstock around the sentiment panel to 1/16" using my Perfect Layers Tools, added gold sequins and the gold cord.

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenges -

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Last Christmas Card of the Year (although these cards won't be my last!)

Incy Wincy Designs - Christmas Anything Goes

Splitcoaststampers - Clean and Simple CAS303 Holiday Sparkle

Thanks for stopping by!

Jocelyn


Card Recipe - Silver Version:

Stamps:  Stampendous Christmas Wishes SSC1068 clear set

Ink:  Versamark Watermark

Designer Paper:  Silver glitter cardstock

Dies:  Memory Box Deer Trio #98166

Accessories:  Big Shot, silver 6mm sequins, Glossy Accents, Ranger Fine Detail Silver embossing powder, heat-gun, Paper Mill silver cord (Riot Art and Craft), white cardstock

Punches:  Stampin' Up corner


Card Recipe - Gold Version:

Stamps:  Flourishes Christmas Wreath Set #68 (retired)

Ink:  Versamark Watermark

Designer Paper:  Gold glitter cardstock

Dies:  Memory Box Deer Trio #98166

Accessories:  Big Shot, gold 6mm sequins, Glossy Accents, Ranger Fine Detail Gold embossing powder, heat-gun, Paper Mill gold cord (Riot Art and Craft), white cardstock

Punches:  Stampin' Up corner

Cottage Cutz Winter Wonderland Scene Christmas card

Hi blogging friends 

The card I am sharing today is another clean and simple card done in similar vein to my last two posts (see HERE and HERE).  Hope you aren't getting too bored?!?  I guess this is my way of kind-of speeding up the process when I need to make alot of cards in a short space of time but I get really bored if I make 2 or more of the same card so I love to change things up a little even if I might be using similar products and layouts.  I am trying to see how many of my die cut shapes fit inside the MFT Photo Card Frame dies and see it as a fun challenge to see what I can make.

The aqua glitter cardstock frame was diecut using a My Favorite Things - Merry Photo Card Frame die and I trimmed off the word 'Merry' because the word covered up my scene.  The dot embossing is a retired embossing folder by Cuttlebug - Kars Snowflakes.  You will most likely not be able to find this embossing folder anywhere online but if you check THIS post, I have several suggestions for alternative embossing folders that you can use.

The scene is a die by Cottage Cutz - Winterland Wonderland Scene.  Because I wanted to have a space to add a sentiment, I used one of the dies from the My Favorite Things Snow Drifts set and diecut some white cardstock and layered that over the bottom of the diecut scene.  

The snowflake on the bottom LHS is by My Favorite Things - Snowflakes Trio (I used the smallest snowflake in the set) and the snowflake on the RHS above the Church was punched using a Martha Stewart Snow Flurry edge punch ie: it is one of the leftover snowflake punchies from using the punch.  I glued the scene and snowflakes down using Tombow Mono Multi glue then attached the scene to my white cardstock base and trimmed the edges to 1/16" using my Perfect Layers Tools - apart from the top of the card which is where the card fold is. 

The 'Peace' is a die by Elizabeth Craft Designs and was diecut from the same aqua glitter cardstock and attached using Tombow Mono Multi glue.

Lastly, I added a Hero Arts rhinestone to each snowflake centre. 

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenges -

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Bling it on 
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - December - Anything Goes 
Splitcoaststampers - Clean and Simple CAS301 - Lovely as a Tree

Thanks for stopping by!

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps and Ink:  None

Designer Paper:  Aqua glitter cardstock

Dies:  My Favorite Things Die-namics Merry Photo Card Frame, Snow Drifts and Snowflake Trio, Cottage Cutz Winter Wonderland Scene CCE-050, Elizabeth Craft Designs Peace ECD-750

Punches:  Martha Stewart Snow Flurry edge

Accessories:  Big Shot, Perfect Layers Tools, Hero Arts rhinestones CH213 Sea Mixed Accents, Cuttlebug Kars Snowflakes embossing folder (retired), white cardstock, Tombow Mono Multi glue, doublesided tape

Memory Box Woodland Deer Christmas card

Hi blogging friends 

Well, it's full steam ahead in my Craft Room as I feverishly try and get as many Christmas cards done as I can!  It's not like I didn't know Christmas was coming - but sometimes even when I do have time to make cards, my mind is just not in cardmaking mode because I have been at hospital appointments with my loved one and I just can't think anymore.  I have learned not to craft when I am too tired emotionally because that's when nothing goes right and I get annoyed with myself.  Now that all of our medical appointments are finished for the year, I can finally concentrate wholly on Christmas preparations and on making Christmas cards.  Pieces from my diecutting are flying everywhere as my Big Shot is in overdrive - gosh, what a mess my room will be when I'm done!

The card I am sharing today is another clean and simple card done in similar vein to my last post (see HERE). 

The red glitter cardstock frame was diecut using my Big Shot and the My Favorite Things - Joy Photo Card Frame die.  The dot embossing is a retired embossing folder by Cuttlebug - Kars Snowflakes.  You are very unlikely to be able to find this embossing folder anywhere online but if you check my last post HERE, I have several suggestions for alternative embossing folders that you can use.

The deer is a die by Memory Box - Woodland Deer and the snowflake is by Impression Obsession.  I glued the deer and snowflake down using Tombow Mono Multi glue.  I attached the scene to my white cardstock base and trimmed the edges to 1/16" using my Perfect Layers Tools - apart from the LHS of the card which is where the card fold is. 

Lastly, I added a Kaisercraft red rhinestone to the snowflake centre. 

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenges -

Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - December - Anything Goes 
Incy Wincy Designs - Snowy Days 
Splitcoaststampers - Clean and Simple CAS300 Winter Wildlife

We put up our Christmas tree last weekend which our cat Ruby is enjoying LOL!  Ruby loves to chew the pine needles for some odd reason and is enjoying batting the baubles and killing the tinsel.  I gave Ruby her OWN piece of tinsel so she could destroy it to her heart's content but she prefers the tinsel on the tree.  Of course, we did put it up 'just for her' didn't we?!!

 

Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog today.

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps and Ink:  None

Designer Paper:  Red glitter cardstock

Dies:  Impression Obsession Die100-F snowflake set, My Favorite Things Die-namics Joy Photo Card Frame, Memory Box Woodland Deer #98679

Accessories:  Big Shot, Perfect Layers Tools, Kaisercraft red rhinestone SB711, Cuttlebug Kars Snowflakes embossing folder (retired), white cardstock, Tombow Mono Multi glue, doublesided tape

Cottage Cutz Deer Snowflake Scene Christmas card

Hi blogging friends 

I can't believe how quickly Christmas is approaching - time seems to speed up at this time of year!

Today I am sharing a clean and simple Christmas card just using dies and an embossing folder.  This is also my entry for the following Challenges:

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes with the optional extra theme of make a decoration or gift for Christmas (which I obviously didn't do), and

Splitcoaststampers - Clean and Simple Challenge CAS301 of add a tree(s) to your card.

The Deer Snowflake scene is a gorgeous die by Cottage Cutz which I purchased at a Craft Show in August.  Isn't it a beautiful?

The dot embossing is a retired Cuttlebug folder - Kars snowflakes which is very difficult to find but there are two embossing folders that you can substitute:-

Taylored Expressions (new release) Snowfall TEEF09.  The dots are larger on this folder compared to the Kars Snowflake folder.  Taylored Expressions embossing folders plus their stamps/dies are now available in Australia from various retailers - just do a search online.

Image copyright Taylored Expressions

Or you can use the Sizzix Dots folder from the Merry Christmas Words and Dots set Item #658285.  These dots are closer in size to the Kars Snowflake folder.  I can't find this set on the Sizzix US website so it may be retired (?).  I have seen the set on various websites around the world so you might be able to pick it up somewhere.

Image copyright Sizzix

I used Tombow Mono Multi glue to attach the diecut Deer Snowflake scene to the embossed cardstock and cleaned up any little bits of glue that seeped out using a Xyron Adhesive remover.

The aqua glitter cardstock was diecut using a My Favorite Things Joy Photo Card Frame die.  I attached the scene to my white cardstock base and trimmed the edges to 1/16" using my Perfect Layers Tools - apart from the LHS of the card which is where the card fold is.

The smallest aqua glitter cardstock snowflake on the scene is from the Poppystamps Christmas Baubles die set (which includes 2 snowflakes - I used the smallest snowflake from the set) and the largest snowflake is from the My Favorite Things Snowflakes Trio set (I used the smallest snowflake in the set).  I added aqua rhinestones to the snowflake centres.

The card is very flat and will be going overseas to one of my cardmaking buddies.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps and Ink:  None

Designer paper:  Aqua glitter cardstock

Dies:  My Favorite Things Die-namics - Snowflakes Trio and Joy Photo Card Frame, Poppystamps Christmas Baubles, Cottage Cutz Deer Snowflake Scene CCE-169

Accessories:  Big Shot, Cuttlebug Kars Snowflake embossing folder (retired), Hero Arts rhinestones CH213 Sea Mixed Accents, Perfect Layers Tools, white cardstock, Tombow Mono Multi glue, doublesided tape

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

Clean and Simple Kate's Snowflake Christmas cards

Hi blogging friends

Today I am sharing some Clean and Simple Christmas cards using my favourite snowflake die:  Kate's Snowflake by Simon Says Stamp and a new embossing folder I picked up at a Craft Show in October.

These cards are also my entry for the following challenges:

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - November - Anything Goes
Crafty Catz Challenge #255 - Christmas is coming

The embossing folder is by Nellie Snellen - Christmas Round and was just the right size for the snowflake die to fit inside - yay!

On Jennifer Maguire's blog, I had seen Jennifer diecut things then heat-emboss them and thought I would give it a try - and it worked really, really well.

For the gold snowflake:  I smooched the diecut snowflake very thoroughly with Versamark Watermark ink and poured on Ranger fine detail Gold embossing powder and picked it up very carefully with my closed-point tweezers and heat-set it.  As soon as the powder melted I poured on a 2nd coat of embossing powder and heat-set it.  You really do need two coats of the embossing powder to get really smooth coverage - one just doesn't look as good:

For the silver snowflake:  I used the same ink and did two coats of Ranger fine detail Silver embossing powder:

For the teal snowflake:  I inked the diecut with Colorbox Sapphire Silk pigment ink and did two coats of Polysparkle clear embossing powder:

I adhered the snowflakes to my white cardstock using Tombow Mono Multi glue which gave me a little bit of time to line up the points perfectly.  I cleaned up any stray bits of glue using my Xyron adhesive eraser.

I have also seen on Jennifer Maguire's blog how Jennifer had made matching embossed edges to her embossed diecuts so I did this same technique for the bottom matching borders.  All you have to do is take a scrap of white cardstock and apply the same ink that you use for your diecuts to one edge and heat-set with two coats of embossing powder then trimmed it to size.  Simple and quick!  I attached mine to the card base using doublesided tape. 

I tied on the twine/ribbon and added Fray Stop to the cut ends to stop them from fraying.  I glued the tails down with Tombow Mono Multi glue to hold them in place because they kept blowing in the wind when I was trying to photograph them! 

Lastly, I added rhinestones to the snowflake centres.  The gold gem came on a sheet of different coloured rhinestones from Bellbird Paper Arts which cost about $2.50 (Bellbird Paper Arts are located in Blackburn, Victoria).  The silver and teal rhinestones are by Kaisercraft.  I couldn't figure out where to put a sentiment so left it off.

Please note it is REALLY hard to photograph silver and gold so the snowflakes look a bit brighter in real life.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Teal Snowflake -

Stamps:  None

Ink:  Colorbox Sapphire Silk pigment

Dies:  Simon Says Stamp Kate's Snowflake SSSD111309

Accessories:  Big Shot, Nellie Snellen Christmas Round-1 EFE003 embossing folder, Tombow Mono Multi glue, doublesided tape, Polysparkle embossing powder, heat-gun, Fray Stop, blue sparkle ribbon, Kaisercraft Ice Blue rhinestone (SB774) white cardstock

Gold Snowflake -

Stamps:  None

Ink:  Versamark Watermark

Dies:  Simon Says Stamp Kate's Snowflake SSSD111309

Accessories:  Big Shot, Nellie Snellen Christmas Round-1 EFE003 embossing folder, Tombow Mono Multi glue, doublesided tape, Fray Stop, gold cord, Gold gem (Bellbird Paper Arts), heat-gun, Ranger fine detail Gold embossing powder, white cardstock

Silver Snowflake -

Stamps:  None

Ink:  Versamark Watermark

Dies:  Simon Says Stamp Kate's Snowflake SSSD111309

Accessories:  Big Shot, Nellie Snellen Christmas Round-1 EFE003 embossing folder, Tombow Mono Multi glue, doublesided tape, Fray Stop, silver cord, Kaisercraft Silver rhinestone, heat-gun, Ranger fine detail Silver embossing powder, white cardstock