Craft Creations Robin on Flowerpot papertole Christmas card

Hi everyone 

Happy New Year!  Hope 2017 is everything you would wish it to be!

Just stopping in to share another make from this Christmas season.  If you missed my last post, I wasn't able to make many Christmas cards due to illness and only started them very close to Christmas which meant I had no time to photograph them nor blog them.  Anyway, here is one that I made for my daughter:

I am popping this card into CraftyHazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for January.   Hazel says on her blog:  "Perhaps this month you'll want to share designs that you made for Christmas, but didn't have time to blog - we would love to see them. And, of course, you might be making a head start on making new designs for this year."  So, why not join in if you made something but like me, didn't have time to blog about it :-) 

I am also entering my card into the Splitcoaststampers Free for All Friday F4A354 Challenge of "Let it Snow" as well as the Splitcoaststampers Fan Club December Christmas Challenge SCSCCDEC16 (note you have to have a paid membership to play along).

The beautiful image is by Craft Creations - Robin on Flowerpot and came already diecut which makes it quicker to pop the pieces out and put them together with dimensionals.  It was quite fiddly with some of the fine stems on the snowdrops as I had to trim down the dimensionals to fit - but I really, really love to put together papertole because I find it's very relaxing plus it's something I can do in front of the TV at night.  

The designer papers are by Wild Rose Studio - Birds and Berries - and I have to say that these papers are some of the most beautiful papers that I have ever seen!  I love them so much that I just ordered another set.

I popped the papertole image onto one of the blue papers and trimmed it to 1/16" using my Perfect Layers Tools.  

The light blue cardstock side panel was punched using a Martha Stewart Pinking Scallop edge punch.  I added a score line using a Mini Martha Stewart score board which gave me a straight line to butt my designer paper up against.  I am not very good at eyeballing things to be straight so any tools or techniques that I can use to make sure things are straight are very helpful as I get really annoyed when something looks crooked.

I tied on some silver and white twine which came in a set of 5 different twines from KMart (Australia).  I tied on a snowflake charm from my stash using the same twine.

Here is a close-up so you can see more detail:

The two snowflakes on the image were diecut from American Crafts Silver glitter paper using a Poppystamps Valley Snowflakes die set and my Big Shot.  This glitter paper is beautiful and easy to diecut plus the glitter doesn't come off and go everywhere.  I will have to get some more!  I added a Kaisercraft Silver Rhinestone to the centres then glued them on using Ranger Multi Medium Matte glue.

Here is an angled shot so you can see the layers: 

The sentiment is also by Craft Creations - Creative Diecut Banners - Merry Christmas silver on white which has 24 banners on the sheet.  I picked this sheet up at a Craft Show here in Melbourne.  I adhered it to my card using dimensionals.

Once I had finished my card front, I attached it to a white card base.

I am sure that you could use this image for not just Christmas; maybe for a Winter birthday (?).  

Thanks for visiting my blog today.

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps and Ink:  None

Designer Papers:  Wild Rose Studio - Birds and Berries 6" x 6"

Image and Sentiment:  Craft Creations Robin on Flowerpot DCD559 diecut papertole (3D decoupage), Craft Creations Creative Diecut Banners - Merry Christmas silver on white CDS165G

Accessories:  Perfect Layers Tools, silver and white twine - KMart, silver snowflake charm (stash), dimensionals, Ranger Multi Medium Matte glue, doublesided tape, American Crafts Silver glitter paper (12" x 12"), Big Shot, Martha Stewart Mini Score board, Kaisercraft Silver rhinestones SB700, cardstock:  light blue, white 

Dies:  Poppystamps Valley Snowflakes set #1234

Punches:  Martha Stewart Pinking Scallop edge punch

Memory Box Dancing Snowflake Frame Christmas card

Hi everyone

Just stopping in to share a few Christmas cards that I made this Christmas season.  I will share them over several blog posts otherwise this blog post would go on forever!  This particular one I finished on Christmas Eve!  I wasn't well from the last week in November so only ended up making a few cards which was very frustrating!

I really love to make white Christmas cards with just a little bit of silver (or another sparkly colour) thrown in:

This card is also my entry for the following Challenges:

Holly Jolly Christmas - Challenge #86 - Create a Christmas Card or Anything but a Card

Splitcoaststampers - Free for All Friday F4A354 - Make your creation snow

Splitcoaststampers - Fan Club December Christmas Challenge - SCSCCDEC16 (note you have to be a paid Fan Club Member to be able to participate)

Onto my card:  the snowflake frame is by Memory Box - Dancing Snowflake Frame.  Once you diecut the cardstock, you then pop it back into your diecutting machine with an embossing pad (and obviously change the sandwich compared to a diecutting sandwich!) and then the frame embosses a few extra elements around the frame.  I don't actually find that it works terribly well even if I add a shim or two but hey, it still looks OK.  If anyone has any recommendations as to how you can make it work better, please let me know!

The deer are also by Memory Box - Deer Trio.  The background dry embossing is an old retired Cuttlebug embossing folder - Kars Snowflake but there are numerous brands of similar embossing folders that you can buy that will do the same job.  I often get emails about where it can be purchased but it would be like finding a needle in a haystack!  I glued all the layers together using Tombow Mono Multi glue then attached the panel to silver glitter cardstock using Ranger Wonder tape which is a strong adhesive and works really well in those situations where regular doublesided tape doesn't adhere very well.  I trimmed the silver glitter cardstock to 1/16" using my Perfect Layers Tools

The sentiment is by My Favorite Things - Starry Christmas - which is a few years old and probably retired too - but again, there are plenty of brands you can substitute.  I prepared my cardstock using a powder tool then stamped the sentiment using Versamark Watermark ink and heat-embossed it using Ranger Superfine silver embossing powder.

I diecut the sentiment using a My Favorite Things Fishtail Flag Stax die.  As I wanted a fishtail at both ends but the die only cuts a fishtail on one end, once I had diecut one end, I simply flipped the die around to diecut the other end so it was a perfect match.

I added a Papermania silver star rhinestone to each end of the sentiment panel then attached the panel using doublesided tape.

I diecut some snowflakes out of silver glitter cardstock using a Poppystamps Valley Snowflakes die set then glued them onto the scene using Tombow Mono Multi glue.  I added a tiny Papermania silver rhinestone to the snowflake centres.

Once I had finished my card front, I attached it to a white card base.

Thanks for visiting my blog today :-)

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps:  My Favorite Things Starry Christmas

Ink:  Versamark Watermark

Designer paper:  None

Accessories:  Powder tool, Papermania silver rhinestones set PMA 351103, Ranger Superfine silver embossing powder, heat-gun, Big Shot, Cuttlebug Kars Snowflake embossing folder (retired), Tombow Mono Multi glue, Ranger Wonder tape, Perfect Layers Tools, Cardstock: white, silver glitter

Dies:  Memory Box - Dancing Snowflake Frame #99281 + Deer Trio #98166, My Favorite Things Die-namics Fishtail Flag Stax, Poppystamps Valley Snowflakes #1234

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