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.