Christmas Snow Globe

 I'm all for quick and simple card making so I don't know what I was thinking when I bought this Sizzix bell jar diorama die set in a sale in the summer (OK maybe I was thinking ooh bargain!). When I actually opened the packet up last month to make some cards I was met with an assortment of tiny dies and it took a while (and some online assistance) to figure out what went where.

After that it was a question of trying to figure out what card to use for which bit and cutting it all out. I found it easiest to batch cut in 4s or 6s and then store the bits carefully. Then I assembled parts like the trees, the houses etc before finally assembling each one. Along the way I found it easiest to cut some of the tiniest bits (windows, wreaths, bows, snow in white card and colour as necessary with alcohol markers. Similarly I used a single brown card and coloured some parts with a darker brown marker. 

I'm pleased with the final result but boy was it fiddly! I used grey card for the outline, some patterned blue paper for the sky, dark green for the trees, brown for the trunks, house, base and path and glitter silver card for the stars. The rest was all coloured with markers. The sentiment is an old stamp I had made many years ago. 

Nothing left but for me to wish you all a very happy Christmas. May you stay safe and well.

Christmas Pocket Card

 A spare scribble snowman was sitting on my desk and I realised it had been a while since I had made a pocket card.

The background is a leftover from another project and I tore some scrap white card for the 'hills'. The mountains and trees are from a Sizzix set called Arctic Bear and the sentiment is by Tattered Lace. 

A Wild Birthday

 

Taking a break from all things Christmas to post another of the Crafter's Companion Peek-a-Boo cards. This time it's the Giraffe and I used the semi-circle window arch again. The patterned paper is from an old Papermania 6x6 pad called Secret Garden and the bunting is by Crafty Individuals stamped with scattered straw DI.

Here's a view of the inside:

Reindeer and Tree

 This card came about because I wanted to use the grey waste from another project which I will blog later. Because I had made several cards I had a few pieces of this dome-shaped card which I thought would be a suitable backdrop for another Christmas card.

I embossed the grey piece with the Cuttlebug Snow folder and embossed the white card base with the Sizzix Snowfall folder. The difference between the 2 folders is that the Cuttlebug one has an allover pattern of snow whilst the Sizzix folder has a heavier pattern at the top that fades to nothing at the bottom. This is useful if you want to stamp a sentiment at the bottom.

The frame, background and snow mound are all from a Sizzix die set called Bell Jar Diorama. The reindeer is by Marianne with a punched and glossy accented red nose. The tree is from a Sizzix set called Arctic Bear.

Monthly Tag Challenge - December

 This month's theme (no surprise) is Christmas with a free colour choice. I decided to do the inlaid die cut technique as in my previous post and used the poinsettia die from TH's mixed media Christmas die set. I used the same method as before with a double sided sticky sheet to slot the pieces in once they had been coloured. If I'd taken a minute to think about how many tiny berry pieces there were I might have changed my mind but I persevered. The holly berries have been coloured a slightly deeper shade of red to the poinsettias. I gave the berries a little texture with glossy accents and the poinsettias were brushed with Wink of Stella for a little sparkle. The background is broken china DO splattered with some water. The sentiment is by Tattered Lace and some tiny glitter card stars completed the tag.

A Holly Jolly Christmas

 That is the sentiment inside this card (an old Hobbycraft stamp). The card, which I'm quite pleased with, came about as a result of a request for a holly-themed card. I like the fact it's clean and simple and uses traditional colours.

The card features inlaid diecuts which I was inspired to do by watching Natasha Foote's YouTube channel. The holly was cut with Tim Holtz's mixed media Christmas die. I kept the pieces and coloured them with alcohol ink markers. I added a double sided sticky sheet to the back of the 'waste' and then it was a simple process of fitting all the pieces back in.

The sentiment was a magazine freebie in the shape of a bauble. I snipped the words out and then decided to make to holly berries pop a bit more by adding clear Nuvo drops. Make sure that where there are two or more berries together you do one and wait for it to dry before doing the second one. That way you get nicely defined berries rather than a big splodge (you can guess how I discovered that!). It was all mounted on a white A6 card blank. I contemplated colouring a border around the outside edge but decided I preferred it without a frame.

It's That Time of Year!

 I don't make or send as many Christmas cards as I used to - the high cost of postage these days and the convenience of email/WhatsApp means I only make a few cards. I usually have 2 or 3 designs and I'm starting off with a very old stamp that I may have blogged years ago.

The stamp is called Scribble Snowman by Funstamps. I embossed the image with sparkle powder and then used my coloured embossing pens and clear powder for the hat and scarf. I cut the image out and mounted it on foam pads. The background is a TH/Sizzix embossing folder called Snowfall. The sentiment is also by Funstamps stamped in harbor by ColorBox.

Baby Talk

 As a break from Christmas Cards (I'll be blogging them soon) I had to make a new baby card for friends. This gave me the perfect excuse to purchase a Gemini Peek-a-boo stamp and die set. This set cuts the word and the elephant head shape out of a card blank. The stamps include the elephant head, a rear view of the whole elephant and some baby-related sentiments. It can be used on its own but also works with another Gemini die set called Window Arches. Luckily there was a good Black Friday bundle deal for the Window Arches dies and 2 other Peek-a-boo sets (Giraffe & Bear) which I took advantage of.

It took me a while to figure out what to do but there is a good tutorial explaining different ways of using the sets which I found later. I wanted to colour the elephant with alcohol markers but they tend to bleed through the card. I worked around this by cutting the head shape out and then stamping, colouring and cutting out the head and body on spare card so that the bleed through could be hidden.

The pic below gives a better idea of the aperture and the shapes (excuse the shadows).

I forgot to take a pic of the inside but here's the inside of the first card I made without the arch which shows the rear of the elephant.

As we now know the name of the baby I added that using Memory Box Parker dies and silver embossed one of the sentiments that came with the set. 

Time for Tea

 I made this card for a relative who is well-known for her love of tea. She gets very irritable if she doesn't get her afternoon cup of tea and we always tease her about it. I saw this template on the Craft  World site here and thought of her straight away. I enlarged the template 140% and cut it out from some dark pink card. I used the floral patterned paper to cover the front and added some white paper inside for writing on. 

The sentiment is an unbranded die cut that I bought off someone on eBay. It's a very useful die that I reach for often. I cut it 3 times - twice from white card and once from the same pink I used for the card base. The stacking gives a slight shadow effect. I punched some stars from waste card and covered them with Wink of Stella for a little shine.

Monthly Tag Challenge - November

 The colours for this month's tag challenge are blue, green and silver. I had been colouring in a few more of these Hunkydory die cuts and by pure coincidence had coloured a silver outlined one with blue and green alcohol markers so it was a no-brainer!

I'm trying to use some of the older bits and pieces in my collection (I can't really say 'use up' because I don't think I'll ever get to the end of some things but every little helps). The background patterned paper is from a pad I bought years ago in The States. I stamped a Paper Artsy text stamp with Versamark and heat embossed in silver. I found a very old border embossing folder (Quikutz maybe?) and used it on some blue vellum which I stuck onto some blue card cut with deckle scissors. I embellished the border with some silver gems and added the die cuts. I embossed the edges of the tag with silver and highlighted the centres of the die cuts with clear Nuvo drops. Finally I added some organza ribbon and eyelash fibre to the tag hole.

Although it's not a Christmas tag it has a Christmassy feel to it.

Framed Flower

 Here's another card made with some of the Floral Flourish die cuts. These were in silver and I coloured them with pink and green alcohol markers. I mounted 2 of them with foam in between and put them onto some waste from another project which I embossed with a Sizzix starfall 3D embossing folder. The waste and the narrow pink border around it are part of a Sizzix snow globe die set. I mounted this onto some co-ordinating patterned paper and added a small silver embossed sentiment.

Cowboys!

 An acquaintance sent me some die cuts as a thank you and among them was this silhouette of cowboys on a fence. I wish I knew the brand of die because I love it. It was crying out for a sunset/sunrise background so that's what I did.

I punched a circle from a sticky note as a mask for the sun and then used scattered straw, spiced marmalade, worn lipstick and ripe persimmon DIs with my blending brushes for an ombré background. The tree is from a Crafty Individuals set stamped in Versafine onyx black. Then all I had to do was add the die cut and a sentiment. This one is from a die and stamp set which comes with a variety of sentiments.

Edited to add: Thanks to Clare_ M_ Allen who identified the die as Men sitting on Fence by Paper Rose item no: PAP-DIE-17283.

Monthly Tag Challenge - October

 

This month the theme is Autumn with colours of red, yellow and green.

I used a very old oak leaf stamp with a Kaleidacolor autumn leaves stamp pad on some kraft card as a background. I scribbled some Gelatos in red, yellow and green onto a scrap of kraft card, blended the colours with a waterbrush pen and punched out some small maple leaves. These were stuck onto a scrap of TH Halloween paper. The Hero Arts ginko leaves were stamped with Versamark, gold heat embossed and cut out. The quotation is an old one that I got in a grab bag years ago. Some gold metallic dots and gold ribbon completed the tag.

Chloe Stem Revisited

 This is one of my oldest Memory Box dies (Chloe Stem) and I have used it a lot but hadn't given it an airing in a while. A scrap of paper from another project was the perfect excuse to bring it out. I'm trying to make use of old paper pads that I've had for a while. It's a very CAS  card with the addition of a small sentiment from a set I bought recently. In fact I seem to have acquired (ok bought) a lot of new sentiment sets recently as I always seem to be missing the right words. This card is going to a friend who has been in hospital for a while and is a bit low. The inside reads 'if you're feeling blue try painting yourself a different colour'.  Hope it cheers her up!

Cool Colours

 After posting several cards in hot colours I've gone for a cooler coloured card. This uses some more Hunkydory die cuts, this time with silver embossing to which I've added some highlights with marker pens and gems.

I used a Sizzix 3D embossing folder called fallen leaves on some black colour core card. This is coloured card with a black top layer which when embossed and sanded reveals the coloured layer underneath. I've had it for years so it was good to get it out and use a piece. 

The black card was matted onto a piece of co-ordinating paper and then onto a white card blank. I used some silver peel-off lines to edge the black card to carry on the silver theme.

Starry Birthday

 Here's another card using my new birthday die. I had a few pieces of patterned paper on my desk and thought I'd put them to good use. They were both from a very old set of designer paper pads by Amy Butler. I die cut a rectangle with a cross stitch border and then added the birthday die cut. The die cut didn't stand out enough so I die cut another sentiment from black card and off set it slightly to give a  shadow effect. I punched some stars from the left over scraps and mounted it all a white card blank with a black border.

New Stuff!

 I recently made a couple of purchases to add to my collection (not that it needed adding to!). One was this happy birthday die which I have already used several times. The other was a tartan/plaid stamp which I stamped with twisted citron DO. The flower die cut is from the floral sheet pad I mentioned in this post coloured with alcohol markers and mounted on foam pads. The edges were sponged with brushed corduroy DI and some gems were added.

Mellow Yellow

 A bright birthday card for a friend who loves yellow. This gave me the chance to use another Sizzix layered flower die called Winter Flower. As it was the first time it was a bit tricky trying to work out the different layers but I got there in the end. In addition to the dies I used in this card it comes with dies for a layered pine cone, some berries and some fir style leaves.

The background embossing is a Crafters Companion Beatrix Potter folder and the flower was raised on foam pads. The banner sentiment is by Clearly Besotted stamped with Impress lemon yellow. I also used the yellow ink to add a border to the white card blank. Some tiny gems finished off the card.

Nature Pocket Card

 Some bits on my desk and a strip of peeling bark from my garden were what prompted me to make this pocket card. The base patterned card was left over from this project and the birds were the waste from this coloured with an alcohol marker. The bark is the small jagged piece under the text and the flower. I played around with the elements and added some punched leaves, a paper flower, some gems and a hemp bow. I am loving putting together these little cards - it reminds me of the joy of making ATCs which I haven't made for a few years now.

Spread Happiness

 

Trying to cling to the last remnants of summer I made an ombré background using hot colours of Distress Oxide - fossilized amber, spiced marmalade, crackling campfire and candied apple. I sprayed the panel with water and dabbed off the excess. I then added some strips of card in toning colours with a small gap in between. The lavender die cuts are from a Sizzix set called spring stems and I added an organza bow to tie them together. The sentiment is from a sunflower stamp set edged with crackling campfire. The completed panel was raised onto foam and mounted onto a white card blank.

Monthly Tag Challenge - September

 Stencils, washi tape and peel-offs oh my! This month's theme is Birds with blue, green and brown colours and I managed to use some long neglected supplies - these days even using a few centimetres of washi tape is an achievement.

The 8cm x 14cm tag was stencilled with 2 TH stencils and peeled paint and brushed corduroy DI. I used a Sizzix die to cut the birds into the tag and backed it with some blue card. A small piece of washi tape was added and edged with gold peel-off lines. The words are cut from a Sizzix Hunky Dory strip alphabet coloured with a brown alcohol marker as was the strip attached to the top of the tag.

Summer Pocket Card

 

It's been a while since I posted on my blog - a lot has been going on. Despite being very careful and still wearing a mask in shops etc I managed to get Covid last month. Fortunately I don't seem to have passed it onto family or friends and spent 10 days in my own little isolation unit of bedroom and bathroom with meals and snacks left at the door. Thank God for iPads and Netflix! After a few days of doing little else but sleeping and drinking lots of fluids I felt much better and caught up on a few series that I had wanted to see. I am fully recovered now and have my sense of smell back.

I thought I'd break myself back into crafting gently with a pocket card which I haven't made in a while. This came together very quickly. The background is a serviette from a pack I had bought a few months ago for all the BBQs we were going to have in the summer (ha, ha, thanks a lot summer!). I die cut the letters for summer, coloured them with worn lipstick DI and cut the word sweet out of a book of tags. That's about it sweet and simple!

Monthly Tag Challenge - August

This month's theme is Sugar & Spice with pastel pink and green as colours. I remembered I had an old paper pad called Kitschy Kitchen which had the quote 'Sugar and spice and everything nice' on it so that set me off on a culinary themed tag. The gingham background is from the same paper pad and I ran it through a falling flowers embossing folder (click on the pic for a better view) before edging the quote and the tag with bundled sage DI.

The cupcakes are from a very old (2006) set called Build-a-Cupcake by Banana Frog. I stamped the components with Brilliance coffee bean, heat embossed them and then water coloured them with DIs - spun sugar, scattered straw and tea dye. I added some pink heat embossed 'sprinkles' to the larger icing.The cherries were coloured with embossing pens and heat embossed. The icing on the large cupcake and the smaller cupcake were raised on foam pads. The original cherry on the larger cake had a much bigger stalk and after sticking it down I realised it didn't look quite right so I gave it a smaller stalk and repositioned it which left a bit of an 'oops' mark on the tag which I covered up with some strategically placed sequins coloured with an alcohol marker. Some organza ribbon finished the tag.

Charity Shop Finds

 With the easing of restrictions in the UK I have been out and about a little more and popped into some charity shops for a look around.One of my finds was a Hunkydory book called Floral Flourishes. This is a 6"x 6" book of die cut floral shapes for colouring. It's quite relaxing to sit with some alcohol markers and colour a few. The card above has 2 such die cuts layered with foam and some scraps of patterned paper left over from making a mini-book. Some of the die cuts are gold foiled , some silver and some outlined in black. As the ones I used are gold outlined I embossed the sentiment in gold.

The second card is a mini slimline and uses some more coloured die cuts matted onto red and gold card which was cut with another charity shop find - a Tonic Verso shadowbox insert die set.

The third card uses the die-cuts in one of my last aperture card blanks. Years ago when I did crossstitch cards I used to mount them in aperture card blanks and this is one of my last ones. The floral medallion was layered with foam pads, mounted onto a stitched circle die cut and then some red card was used to fill the aperture.

You will probably see some more cards made with these die-cuts soon.

A Birthday Booklet

 

I wanted to send something a little different from a card to someone when I saw this tutorial on the Twigs and Tomes Channel on You Tube. It uses 2 sheets of 6x6 paper and there is only a tiny amount of wastage. As it turned out I recently bought a 12 x 12 paper pad from The Works that I wanted to use so I cut a couple of sheets to size before I started.

I followed the very simple instructions - just a few cuts and folds - and then added some more tags/inserts to complete it. Here's a quick flip-through showing the completed project.

Everything was edged with Memento toffee crunch and the Versafine onyx black ink was clear heat     embossed.                                                                                                                                                     

Here's a shot of the tags and bits that are tucked away:

A Warm Card for a Wet Day

 As I type this there is a thunderstorm raging outside and it is pelting down with rain - so much for our glorious summer! This card will hopefully bring some warmth and sunshine if you are suffering similar weather.

The background was made with DOs - crackling campfire, wilted violet, fossilized amber and peeled paint. I sprinkled some water over it and when dry I overstamped with a TH background stamp in Stazon pigment white. The script stamp is by Paper Artsy as is the small circles stamp.

The yellow card was a small sample scrap that was sent with an order. I used a Sizzix staggered chevrons 3D embossing folder over it and added a TH wildflower die.

I mounted it all on a white card blank edged with a yellow alcohol marker.

Old School

Whilst trying to come up with a headline for this post the only thing I could think of was 'old school' because there's something about the layout of this card that feels very old school. I wanted to use this old Hero Arts stamp and cut flower which was one of the first stamp and die sets I ever bought. 

I stamped the image with Memento toffee crunch and  used a coral Triblend marker to colour the flowers. I diecut the coloured image and 4 others from plain card to stack. These were stuck onto a co-ordinating orange label die cut. Some orange dotted patterned paper was stuck onto half the front of a card blank and the label was added. The sentiment is from a Marianne die set, cut from white card and coloured with the darkest coral Triblend marker.

Monthly Tag Challenge - July

 

I'm quick off the mark this month because I knew what I wanted to do as soon as I saw the theme (which doesn't happen very often). The theme was 'Moon & Stars' and my first thought was a galaxy background. My second thought was to use a new die I bought recently - Birds and Stars by Pete Hughes for Sizzix.

I cut out my 8cm x 14cm tag and then used the star die. This die cuts the shapes into the card and gives you lots of small stars as well. I randomly applied mustard seed, picked raspberry, seedless preserves and cracked pistachio DIs with my blending brushes and then went over everything with Versafine onyx black. Some white acrylic paint was flicked over and then I backed the whole tag with silver card. I added a few of the white waste stars for a little contrast and used a scrap of silver card to cut out a crescent moon. The sentiment was a magazine freebie which I double heat embossed in silver. The tag was edged with black ink and a silver ribbon added.

It's been a long time since I've made any tags and I'm really enjoying it.

A Mopped up Thanks

 

I had a scrap piece of card that I used to mop up some spare Distress Inks that I had used for another project. I wanted to test out a Gemini word die and made the result up into a quick card. I cut the word out keeping all the waste and used foam pads on the back of the word. Having put it into place I fitted the small waste pieces and added a few sequins to finish.

I like the fact that you only see the message clearly when you look at the card from the side.

Stencils from Layering Dies

 Shortly after buying the layering die set I used in my previous post I watched this video by the awesome Jennifer McGuire on using layering dies as stencils. She always gives lots of alternative options on the main theme of the video but I decided to just try out the basic idea which is to die cut the layers and use them as stencils on a card. I used seedless preserves and picked raspberry DIs for the layers and also used stencils made from the 2 centre dies that I didn't use on my previous card. I thought a big bold sentiment would be enough and used a Gemini die with some sparkly purple sticky backed plastic that I've had for ages. I used a purple alcohol ink marker to edge the white card blank to finish it off.

Peacock Colours

 I bought a Sizzix layering die set called Kaleidoscope Layers recently. It's a set of 4 dies 2 of which I have used on this card (the other 2 are for the centre space). I went with peacock colours for the 2 layers and mounted it on a black card blank after trying various colours. The black gave the most impact and showed off the 2 layers the best. I added some gems and a Marianne die sentiment in the centre.

A New Monthly Challenge

 Having completed the Alphabet Challenge last month we have decided to start a new monthly challenge featuring tags. There are no major rules  - just to have fun. This month the theme is Orange.

I wanted to use my new Stamps By Me Lily stamp and die set and also my Glimmer Mist (decanted) spray in perfect peach. My tags are all going to be 14cm x 8cm.

The dies don't cut out the whole of the lily so I fussy cut the remaining parts and pruned one of the buds off  because it didn't fit. The base of the tag was sprayed with Glimmer Mist over a Tim Holtz stencil called Scribbles (although it looks more like roses to me). I edged the tag with crackling campfire DO and then used watery Twinkling H2Os in ginger peach and golden jade to make splatters over the tag. I lined the tag hole with some washi tape and also punched some photo corners.

The 2-step die was first stamped with Archival tangelo (I wiped the ink off the leaves) and then the detail with Versafine onyx black. I coloured the leaves and stamens with Coloursoft pencils and mounted the image on foam tape for dimension.

The text is from the same set and comes with its own shadow die. It was too long to fit so I cut it in half. I finished with some sequins, a couple of punched dragonflies and some ribbon.

Shadow Alphabet

 

There are a lot of shadow sentiment dies around at the moment and after looking at a few I decided to buy a shadow alphabet set of dies. I thought they would come in 2 parts - letter and shadow - but it proved difficult to separate the 2. It's not really a problem as it means you get 2 sets of the die cut word at the same time.

I made 2 quick cards with the letters. The first is a mini slimline card (6.5" x 3.5") for which I used the waste from the die cut. I used a flower stencil and my new blending brushes (I'm loving these) with fossilized amber, crackling campfire and spiced marmalade DO's for the background. I could have just used the waste and floated the black letters in the shadow space but I decided to inlay the shadow and the black letters.

The second card uses the flower stencilled letters and the black shadow. I used the same DO colours with a diamond stencil for the background and mounted it on a white A6 card blank to which I added a border of crackling campfire DO. The flower die cut is from a Tim Holtz wildflower set that was lying on my desk.

Now I have to think up some suitable words for the front of cards...

Travel Notes

 

I've been watching a lot of mini-book videos on You Tube recently. There are so many different varieties and I have been trying a few out with old patterned papers. This one is a simple notebook made out of bits and pieces prompted by a thread on a forum about the Bind-It-All. It reminded me that I hadn't used my B-I-A in a long time.

Front

I cut two 9.5 cm squares from heavy card and covered them with paper from Papermania's  All Aboard paper pack. The blank paper inside was cut (9cm square) from my son's old Maths exercise book. I die cut words from Tim Holtz's adventure words script set for the front and back. The front sentiment was getting lost in the patterned paper so I decided it needed a shadow background to help it stand out. I drew around the outline of the die and fussy cut it. This can't be done with all dies but it worked for this one!

Back

The covers and inner pages were bound together with red 3/8th inch wires. I think I'm hankering for a holiday but this will have to do until I can get away!

Inside Back

Inside Front

Lilies

 I recently bought a lily layering stamp set from Stamps By Me. They call them 'lamination' stamps and I have a tulip and dahlia from the same company. This one also came with a co-ordinating die set for all the stamps including shadow dies for the sentiments. Of course I had to have a play straight away...

I have stamped sentiments I already had rather than the ones that came with the set and left one card blank until I know who I'm sending it to.  The outlines were all stamped with Versafine onyx black. For the first card on the left I used Brilliance pearlescent orange and Coloursoft pencils for the leaves and stamens.  I matted it onto some marbled orange paper. I felt this was a little too pale so used Archival bright tangelo next and die cut the flower and frame. The final card uses Brilliance pearlescent orchid and Coloursoft for the leaves and stamens. I used Wink of Stella on the coloured parts of all 3 cards. 

Double Stencils

I decided to have a play with my stencils after leaving them neglected in a drawer (or two) for a while. I started with a mini star stencil by Balzer Designs and Victorian Velvet DI. I then used a stencil called shattered over the outside of the star stencil with Seedless Preserves DI.. I wanted the white star frame to be more prominent so I cut the star border by hand from another piece of card and stuck it on top. The sentiment was die-cut four times, stacked up and Seedless Preserves was applied to the top layer. I added some Wink of Stella to the sentiment for a little sparkle.

I recently bought a set of ten blending brushes and have been trying them out - so far I'm very pleased with them. I will continue to use my blending foam pads and am quite keen to try out the new domed foam pads but for now these brushes are a useful addition to my tools.

 

Amended:

I completed the sentiment and added a few clear sequins.