Penny Black - Before the Snow - clean and simple Christmas card

Hi blogging friends

I whipped up a couple of Clean and Simple Christmas cards in non-traditional colours that will be nice and flat for mailing.  Here is my first one in purple:

There isn't much to explain - I think you can see for yourself.  And here is my turquoise one:

The only difference between the two cards (aside from the colour) is that I used pigment ink on the purple card and heat-embossed it with Satin Pearl embossing powder; the ink on the turquoise card is chalk ink and (of course) is not heat-embossed.  Easy peasy!

I wrapped the twine twice around the card and added matching rhinestones to the tree.  The main thing with these sorts of cards is that you stamp everything on straight, ie: if the sentiment is slightly crooked, it really stands out like a sore thumb - and it can be a good idea to use a stamp positioner if you have one so you don't waste your cardstock.

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenges -

Splitcoaststampers -  Clean and Simple Challenge 45 of Christmas/Winter

Allsorts Challenge blog - Week 130 - One Layer Cards

Thanks for stopping by!  

Jocelyn

Card Recipe - Turquoise Card:

Stamps:  Penny Black - Before the snow 3993K, Sentiment from Hero Arts - Merry Christmas Tree clear set

Ink:  Versamagic Turquoise Gem chalk

Accessories:  Kaisercraft Island Lagoon rhinestones, The Twinery - Carribean twine, Cardstock - white, Stampin' Up corner punch

Card Recipe - Purple Card:

Stamps:  Penny Black - Before the snow 3993K wood-mounted rubber, Sentiment from Hero Arts - Merry Christmas Tree clear set

Ink:  Colorbox Heliotrope pigment

Accessories:  Kaisercraft SB705 purple rhinestones, The Twinery - Lilac twine, satin pearl embossing powder, heat-gun, Cardstock - white, Stampin' Up corner punch

Elzybells Teddy and Snowman Christmas card

Hi blogging friends

I have another Christmas card to share with you today using a very cute little bear and snowman:

Isn't this just the sweetest little image?  I coloured it with Faber Castell + Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils and a small, round paintbrush.  I added some dots to the teddy's scarf with white acrylic paint and added my usual Cotton White fun flock mixed with Crystalina glitter using Designer Dries Clear adhesive to the snowman's hat and the snow around + underneath image which is my favourite way of adding some texture.  Here is a wee close-up:

And here is another angle so you can (hopefully) see the dimension on the card a little:

I added the bow in 2 separate elements and the bow itself was made with my Bow Easy.

Finished off with some My Favorite Things snowflake diecuts which are popped up on dimensionals.  I didn't think it was necessary to add a sentiment as I thought the wording on the ribbon would suffice.  This is my last piece of that ribbon (sob!).

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following Challenge -

Just us Girls Challenges - JUGS #111 - Colour Challenge of red, white and green

Thanks for stopping by!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Elzybells teddy and snowman (retired)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx black

Designer paper:  Kaisercraft Be Merry Collection

Accessories:  Cuttlebug, Spellbinder Circle + Scalloped Circle Nestabilities, Faber Castell + Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils, paintbrush, 140lb Watercolor paper, Kaiser red rhinestones SB711, Stampendous Cotton White fun flock, Crystalina glitter, Designer Dries Clear adhesive, white acrylic paint, dimensionals, ribbon by TPC Studio - Deck the Halls, Bow Easy, My Favorite Things Let it Snowflake Die-namics dies, Cardstock:  white, green

Punches:  EK Success Scalloped Scallop edge

Elzybells Rudolph and Robin - Season's Tweetings

Hi blogging friends  

Here is another card I made using my all-time favourite Christmas image by Elzybells - it's just so adorable!!   It's a shame that Elzybells are no longer around as I really love their stamps.

The image was stamped onto watercolour paper and coloured with Faber-Castell and Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils.  I added some Kindyglitz red to the reindeer's nose and Cotton White Fun Flock mixed with Crystalina glitter along the snowline.

The sentiment is also by Elzybells and is from a clear set which has no name on it. This main image panel is up on dimensionals.

The snowflakes stamped around the image are from a Studio-G clear set and were stamped using Versacolor Laurel Leaf pigment ink.  I heat-set the snowflakes with my heat-gun then added some Frosted Lace Stickles to the snowflake centres.  Here is a wee close-up - you can always click on the pic for a larger view:

The burgundy panel was embossed using my Snow Dots embossing folder.  I decided to punch the ice blue cardstock with my Icicles punch, but now it looks a little lost against the dp background - oh well - it was a nice idea........maybe I should have added some stickles to it to make it stand out?  Too late now as I would probably make a mess!

I kept thinking I needed to add a ribbon somewhere but in the end thought it best to leave it off.  I find it really hard to not use ribbon on a card - it just doesn't seem to feel right somehow but I don't know why!!

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenges -

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge - Challenge #109 - Snowflakes

Winter Wonderland - Awwwwww, what a cutie - any cute Christmas image

Thanks so much for stopping by - I really appreciate it at this busy time of year.

If you are in a hurry, you can always click on the "Reactions" at the bottom of my post.

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Elzybells Reindeer and Robin, Sentiment - Elzybells clear set (name unknown), snowflakes by Studio-G VS5701 clear set

Ink:   Versafine Onyx black

Designer paper:  Echo Park Wintertime - Snow

Accessories:  140lb watercolour paper, small round paintbrush, Faber-Castell + Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils, Stampendous Cotton White fun flock mixed with Crystalina glitter, Designer Dries Clear adhesive (for flock), Kaiser Ice blue SB774 rhinestones, dimensionals, Frosted Lace stickles, heat-gun, Cuttlebug, Cuttlebug Snow Dots embossing folder, Spellbinder Circle + Scalloped Circle Nestabilities, cardstock: ice blue, burgundy

Punches:  Martha Stewart Icicles edge

Penny Black Teddy Santa Christmas card

Hi blogging friends

My craft room has been a hive of activity with my Christmas card making.  I do love making Christmas cards - there is just something so special about the whole process of choosing the papers, stamps and ribbon etc - it just seems to make me feel so happy inside going through my stash.  So onto my card......

The cute little Penny Black teddy was stamped onto watercolour paper and coloured with Faber-Castell plus Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils.  Here is a closer view of the teddy:

I added some Fun Flock mixed with Crystalina glitter to the hat using Designer Dries Clear adhesive - and added Kindyglitz Crystalina glitter glue to the present.  Here is a wee close-up of the flocking - don't you just want to reach through your computer screen and have a feel of how soft it is LOL!!

The ribbon was attached in 2 separate elements and the bow itself was made with my Bow Easy.

Did you notice the three green Sparklets in the top RH corner?  Oh my gosh - I love them so much!!

They are a newly released item by Kaisercraft and come in lots of different colours and 2 different sizes in the pack and are self-adhesive like rhinestones and pearls.   The larger ones are 15mm or 9/16" in diameter and the smaller ones are 8mm or 5/16".  Here is a picture so you know what I am talking about -

The designer paper is also by Kaisercraft - Be Merry which was released last year.

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenge -

Penny Black and more at Allsorts - November challenge - All creatures great and small

Problems with leaving comments on other Blogger's blogs

Not sure if it is just my computer, but I have had alot of trouble in the past month getting onto Blogger blogs including my own.  It takes absolutely forever for them to load and most times, I am not able to bring up the blog - it times out.  And then I might try a few minutes later and all is OK.  I have also had a very difficult time leaving comments on other blogs, particularly when it is an embedded comment form ie: loads within the blog - not a separate window or page.  I keep getting an error message saying something about "not having permission".  So I have been visiting you my lovely followers but often not able to let you know I have been! And it is very frustrating when you leave a lovely comment here but I am not able to reciprocate!!  It is driving me crazy - and is such a great timewaster! I am waiting on an answer from Google Help, but haven't had anything that has helped so far

That's about it for me!  I have finished a couple of other Christmas cards and will share them very soon.  Thanks for stopping by and thank you for any comments you care to leave - I really appreciate them  

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Penny Black Teddy Santa 3549F

Ink:  Versafine Onyx black

Designer paper:  Kaisercraft 'Be Merry Collection' P561 - Delight

Accessories:  Cuttlebug, Cuttlebug Seeing Spots embossing folder, Spellbinder small and large Deckled Rectangle Nestabilities, Stampendous Cotton White Fun Flock mixed with Crystalina glitter, Designer Dries Clear adhesive, Bow Easy, ribbon from TPC Studio 'Deck the Halls' collection, dimensionals, 140lb Watercolour paper, small round paintbrush, Faber Castell + Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils, Kindyglitz Crystalina, Kaisercraft Sparklets - Fern RS419, cardstock:  red, green

Punches:  Fiskars Scallop border punch

Hero Arts Snowflakes card using heat and bond powder

Hi blogging friends - and a special welcome to my new Followers

I do have a Christmas card to share today, but you will have to scroll down past my holiday snaps.

I have just returned from a holiday at Bright, in north east Victoria.  We had lovely spring weather and it was wonderful to see how green and lush it is up there after our awful 10 year Victorian drought.  Note you can click on any of my photos if you wish to have a bigger looky.  The holiday house we rented backs onto the Ovens River and here is a view of what we looked at every day:  beautiful, isn't it?!!

And this is where we walked through into the township every day:  hard to take, isn't it?!!  

Bright was resplendent with azaleas, rhododendrons, spring bulbs and roses - truly a glorious sight:

There was a little family with 2 ducklings which stopped by every day for a feed.  It was really hard to take a photo of them as they were always moving!  The mother is on the far left; the father has the darker brown head:

There is an awesome Scrapbooking and Giftware store at Bright called "Little Shoppe of Memories" run by Cindy Cherry and I spent a lot of time in there!  Cindy is a lovely lady and a very talented scrapbooker - and loves all things vintage.  

Since I returned, I have been laid low with viral gastro and are still not 100% - ick - but I need to get my skates on with Christmas just around the corner and I don't have many Christmas cards done yet.

The card I am showing you today is a quick and simple card that would be easy to mass produce.  I have actually done a couple of cards in different colours which I will show you over the coming weeks.

To achieve all the glittery goodness, I used Stampendous Stamp and Bond powder which is my first time using this product.  I have recently "discovered" Kristina Werner's blog:  KWerner Design, and on Day 12 of Kristina's 25 days of Christmas cards 2011 videos, Kristina used Stamp and Bond powder so this is how I learnt how to use it.  I will say, that if you don't want to have glitter and mess everywhere (note that I am a pretty messy cardmaker!), I would recommend doing it somewhere like outside on a verandah or decking in nice, calm weather  (or maybe in hubby's garage if he doesn't mind all his tools and his car being glittery LOL!!) - and you will need to have access to a powerpoint for your heatgun.  By the time I tried different types of ink and different coloured glitter and had a good old play to see what worked and what didn't, I had glitter absolutely everywhere!!   And I mean - EVERYWHERE!!  Next time, I will definitely do it outside!

So onto how it's done:  I lined up the 3 individual Hero Arts Snowflakes (note: comes as a set of 4) on my acrylic block, inked them with Versacolor Violet pigment ink (you have to use a slow-drying ink for the Stamp and Bond powder to work - and you really want a juicy ink pad - not one that is getting a bit dry as the technique doesn't work as well), poured on the Stamp and Bond powder and removed the excess from around the images, then heated it with a heat gun until the powder melted which takes very little time.  As soon as it was melted, I poured on fine Crystalina glitter and of course, shook off the excess and used a small paintbrush to remove any surplus glitter from around the card.  It is helpful to have everything ready at hand - any delay might mean it doesn't work

Next, I inked up the sentiment with the same colour ink (I masked off the star which is after the word 'Wish' as I wanted to add a star brad instead), poured on clear embossing powder and heat-set it.  

As my purple star brad wasn't quite the right shade of purple, I held the prongs with a pair of tweezers, inked it with the same ink, added the Stamp and Bond powder, heated it with my heat gun then poured on the same glitter.  Yay - now it matched!  You do not want to handle the brad till it cools down of course and you don't want to handle the brad too much anyway because it is very easy to scrape off the glitter/embossing.  I usually cut off my prongs with a pair of pliers and glue brads to my cards with Crafter's Pick Incredibly Tacky glue as I have a hard time poking a hole in just the right spot on my card and lining my brads up - it's just easier for me that way.

The white card base was embossed with my Big Shot and the Snowflakes embossing folder from the Cuttlebug Winter Wonderland set, corner punched the top and bottom RHS, wrapped some Lilac Twine around it (LOVE my twine!!) and popped the main panel up on dimensionals.  Finished card size is 5" x 5".

Here is a close-up of all that gorgeous sparkly glitter:

Challenges:

I am popping my card into the following challenges -

Splitcoaststampers, Free for all Friday F4A88 - 'A True Free for All' - nice and easy

Winter Wonderland Challenge - Make your card sparkle - use lots of glitter or glitter card

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Card Challenge CHNC45 - Bright colours and/or sparkle

For those of you who (like me) are a visual learner, here is Kristina Werner's video from You Tube where Kristina demonstrates how to use Stamp and Bond Powder on her Christmas card (Kristina is using Stampin' Up brand which is called 'Heat and Stick' - it's the same thing).  Enjoy!  (And thanks Kristina!)



Thanks so much for stopping by.  I'll be back in a few days!

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps:   Hero Arts Four Framed Snowflakes cling rubber, Sentiment by Stamp-It Australia - A little Christmas Wish 1607C

Ink:  Versacolor Violet pigment

Accessories:  Acrylic block, Big Shot, Snowflakes embossing folder from Cuttlebug Winter Wonderland set, heat-gun, Stampendous Stamp and Bond embossing powder aka Heat-and-Stick in other brands, Fine .008 Crystalina glitter, small round paintbrush, Crafter's Pick Incredibly Tacky glue, dimensionals, star brad (from stash), The Twinery lilac twine, cardstock: white

Punches:  Stampin' Up corner

Hero Arts + Sizzix Collage background Distress Inks card

Hi blogging friends

I have been very busy these past few weeks with 2 weeks of school holidays and then my DD was off school sick = almost no crafting or blogging time.  

I also celebrated my mother's birthday, my birthday  and watched the Bathurst 1000 V8 Supercar race (I love car racing!), visited the cinema and Melbourne Aquarium among other things.  Any wonder, I only managed to make 2 cards!  I must admit I been a feeling a little "dry" cardmaking-wise, however, I went to a Craft Show last weekend which is the first one I have been to for a few years and it was AWESOME!  Came away with loads of ideas (and loads of really cool stuff thanks to my birthday money) so I shall be diving headlong into my Christmas cardmaking.  Yep, Christmas displays are already in KMart and mince pies are in Woolworths.....{sigh} seems to get earlier and earlier every year.....anyway, I am waffling as usual.......

Whilst I was at the show, I did a fantastic free make-and-take workshop and made a vintagey tag using several different coloured Tim Holtz Distress Inks and was really happy with what I made.  So I pulled out a recent purchase of a Hero Arts Background Collage stamp/Sizzix embossing folder combination set and thought I would give it a whirl.  It took me a few try-outs to figure out what cardstock worked the best for me and what colour choices worked well together - so here is the final result:  

Now I have to say that this sort of cardmaking is totally out of my comfort zone and I am not about to throw my coloured pencils away, but it was really nice to try something different especially as I have been feeling so stale.

To get the background effect, I used 3 Distress ink colours and smooshed them across a non-stick craft sheet keeping the colours all separate, spritzed them with a bit of water using a Ranger Mini Mister till I saw little droplets, then wiped my cardstock through it and moved it around a little to mix the colours but not too much or you will get a browny-kind-of-mess.  I used 140 lb watercolour paper as my ordinary white cardstock couldn't handle the amount of water.  I used 3 different Distress ink pads:  Spun Sugar (pink), Bundled Sage (green) and Tumbled Glass (blue) .  I dried off the watercolour paper using my heat-gun.  I actually did 2 sheets of watercolour paper so I could stamp the butterfly again* (see below) and cut it out.

Using a Ranger Inkssentials foam tool and pad, I went around the edges with Antique Linen Distress ink, then did the same using the Spun Sugar Distress ink.   I inked up my stamp with Versafine Vintage Sepia ink and stamped it over the top.  Next I ran the watercolour paper through my Big Shot using the Sizzix Textured Impressions embossing folder that came with the stamp. The embossing doesn't show up super-well in the photo and looks heaps better in real life.   You can see it a bit of embossing around the sentiment and butterfly but that's about all.  The large flowers around the edges are also embossed but you can't tell from my photo.  I then sprayed the watercolour paper with Pearl Glimmer Mist to give it a bit of sparkle which again isn't visible from my photo but looks very yummy in real life.

I then inked up just the butterfly* and stamped it onto the 2nd sheet of watercolour paper and cut it out, inked around the edge with Antique Linen Distress ink then smothered it in Kindyglitz Crystalina glitter glue and popped the butterfly centre up on dimensionals and bent the wings up a little.

Using some Kraft cardstock, I rounded 2 of the corners and went around the edges with Spun Sugar + Antique Linen Distress ink.  I pulled out some pink seam binding which I dyed myself a while ago using Jo Sonja acrylic paint mixed with Jo Sonja Textile Medium and attached this to the watercolour paper in 2 separate elements (the bow itself was made with my Bow Easy), then layered the panel onto the Kraft cardstock.

I decided to add some Hero Arts heart pearls to the sentiment to make it stand out a little more.

Now it all sounds like a lot of steps and fiddling but now that I know how to actually do this type of card, ie: what colours look nice together, what cardstock works etc. etc., to make another card the same would probably take 1/10th of the time it took to make this one!  And I do love how it turned out and it was sooooo much fun to make a mess (which I am really good at doing!!) and make something totally different.  I am not sure where you would call this card Distressed, Shabby Chic or Vintage (or something from my compost bin??) - I am a bit clueless so I'll pop this card into all 3 categories on my blog sidebar. 

I found a video made by The Master himself (Tim Holtz) which shows how to do the inked background.  The type of background I did starts at 1 minute 56 seconds into the video.  Enjoy!

Challenges:

I am entering my card into the following challenge -

Splitcoaststampers - Free for all Friday F4A85 Make your own background

Thanks so much for stopping by my little corner of the world!  

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Hero Arts Collage background stamp #657766 (in set with emb.folder)

Ink:  Tim Holtz Distress Inks - Spun Sugar, Bundled Sage, Tumbled Glass, Antique Linen, Versafine Vintage Sepia

Accessories:  Big Shot, Sizzix Collage background Textured Impressions embossing folder #657766, Ranger Inkssentials Blending tool and foam pads, Ranger Mini Mister (filled with water), non-stick craft sheet, 140lb Watercolour paper, hand-dyed seam binding, Bow Easy, Tattered Angels Pearl Glimmer Mist, Hero Arts CH173 Heart Accent pearls, Kindygliz Crystalina, dimensionals, heat-gun, cardstock:  American Krafts

Punches:  Stampin' Up corner punch

Stampendous Snuggly Kitties Christmas card and Tag

Hi blogging friends

I have finally finished the matching Christmas card and tag which matches the Snow Globe that I showed you on my last post.  Here is a little pic in case you missed it:

The cute little kitties on the card were coloured using paper stumps with Prismacolor + Derwent Coloursoft pencils and Odourless Mineral Spirits.  I tried to add little stripes on them so they would look like ginger tabbies.  I added some little dots of white acrylic paint using the head of a pin to the kitties' hats and scarf, then added some Polar White Flowersoft using Aleen's Tacky glue to the hats and the snow.  I lightly chalked around the image with Kaisercolour blue chalk.

I punched some snowflakes out of blue and white cardstock using a Martha Stewart Snow Flurry edge punch (they are the leftover punchies after you use the punch) and attached them to the card using dimensionals, then added some light blue rhinestones to the centres.  I added the same blue rhinestones either side of the sentiment.  Note that the sentiment and kitties are all one image, ie: they are both on one stamp.

The snowflake embossing is a folder from the Cuttlebug Winter Borders set and I added a Scor-Pal line both above and below this embossing as well as underneath the ribbon.  When I tied the gingham ribbon on, I threaded through a little piece of blue organza ribbon just to add "something extra" - plus it's a good way of using up little ribbon scraps.

Just as a little tip (and I learned this through experience), I would recommend before you stamp your image, to make the Scor-Pal line at the card bottom first, then butt your embossing folder up against this line so you know it is straight, then add your Scor-Pal line on the other side.  There is nothing more annoying than colouring your image only to do the embossing or Scor-Pal lines all crooked because, trust me, being a clean and simple card, they really stand out like a sore thumb!!

The bottom blue cardstock border was punched with an EK Success Scalloped Scallop edge punch.

Now here is the matching tag.  I need one of those florist's spikey flower holder thingies that lots of cardmakers use to pop their cards/tags on as I had to lean my tag against a card so I could photograph it as it obviously won't stand up by itself!!  If you know what the spikey thing is called, please leave me a comment.  

The tag was diecut using my Cuttlebug and one of the dies from the Spellbinder Shapeabilities tag set.  I actually diecut the white cardstock using the die, then traced around the outside of the die onto blue cardstock and cut that out by hand and punched the 2 bottom corners with a corner punch.  I did this so that I could have a narrow blue border.   I masked the sentiment from the image before I stamped it and coloured it using the same method as for the card.  I added Stampendous Cotton White fun flock mixed with crystal glitter for the white bits on the hat plus the snow. The blue snowflakes were diecut using a Cuttlebug Snowflake #2 die and the white snowflakes are from the MS Snow Flurry edge punch.  I added some blue rhinestones to the snowflake centres and I popped the snowflakes up on dimensionals.

I punched a hole at the top with a 1/4" circle punch and threaded the gingham and blue organza ribbon through then tied them together with some silver cord.

Here is the back of the tag:

The sentiments are from a Waltzingmouse clear set called "Sewing Box - Christmas" which you can find at this link here.  The snowflakes were made the same way as for the front of the tag and popped up on dimensionals.

So here are all my 3 projects together which I will have to hide from my DD until Christmas:

Challenges:

I am entering my card and tag into the Truly Scrumptious Challenge #66 of Clean and Simple.

Thanks for stopping by!  

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Stampendous F166 Snuggly Kitties

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo black

Accessories:  Cuttlebug, Cuttlebug Winter Borders embossing folder, Scor-Pal, Kaiser blue rhinestones, blue gingham + blue organza ribbon, Derwent Coloursoft + Prismacolor pencils, Odourless Mineral Spirits, paper stumps, white acrylic paint, Polar White Flowersoft, Aleen's tacky glue, Kaisercolour blue chalk, dimensionals, cardstock: KW Doggett "Knight" white, medium blue

Punches:  EK Success Scalloped Scallop edge, Martha Stewart Snow Flurry edge

Tag Recipe:

Stamps:  Stampendous F166 Snuggly Kitties, Waltzingmouse Sewing Box - Christmas clear set

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo black

Accessories:  Cuttlebug, Spellbinder Shapeabilities Tag die, Cuttlebug Snowflake #2 die, Kaiser blue rhinestones, Kaisercolour blue chalk, Derwent Coloursoft + Prismacolor pencils, Odourless Mineral Spirits, paper stumps, blue gingham + blue organza ribbon, silver cord, dimensionals, white acrylic paint, Stampendous Cotton White fun flock, crystal glitter, cardstock: KW Doggett "Knight" white, medium blue

Punches:  1/4" circle punch, Martha Stewart Snow Flurry edge