Circle Fold Flower

 I saw this tutorial a while ago on the Craft World forum and decided to give it a go. I punched out some circles in patterned paper and folded according to the instructions. Once you get the hang of it they come together very quickly and it's a fun thing to do while listening to a podcast or watching TV. I punched another circle from scrap card and used that as a base to stick the patterned pieces on. Then it was a matter of matting and layering and adding a gem and a diecut sentiment. I think double -sided patterned paper would be a better option but I decided to practice on some old paper that I was that enamoured with. You can find it the instructions here. 

A Happy Card

 I bought this Visible Image stamp from Country View Crafts last week. Every year in December Country View have an advent calendar which opens to reveal a different set of offers every day - it might be Sizzix dies or Crafter's Companion, or Visible Image or a selection all at discounted rates. Postage is free in the UK if you spend £7.50 (not hard with so many tempting offers). Of course I had to use it as soon as it arrived so I made this quick card. The background is DOs - fossilized amber, spiced marmalade, crackling campfire (another advent calendar purchase) and candied apple - blended through a pebble stencil. I stamped the sentiment in Versafine onyx black and cut it into a banner shape. A candi dot finished it off.

Festive Wreath

 

Back to festive crafting and I thought I'd use my wreath builder template because if you can't make a wreath in the run-up to Christmas when can you? I discovered some leaf frond type clear stamps that were from an old set I remember buying in Lakeland in the good old days when they sold craft products. I'd used some of the floral stamps in the set but I had never used these small wispy leaves before. I used 3 different stamps and Impress Emerald, Spring Green and Versafine spanish moss inks. I wanted some berries and whilst I could have gone for some red Stickles I used a sprinkles stamp from a build-a-cupcake set. The star gems were added to hide an ink blot. I used a circle die to cut out the centre and mounted it onto a 10.5cm square card blank. The sentiment by Paula Pascual is stamped on the card blank in Impress poppy red. I think next time I will position the fronds so that some of them stick out a little to fill the space a little better but on the whole I'm pleased with the result.

Monthly Challenge - November

 As a break from all things Christmas I finally completed my entry for the monthly alphabet challenge. The letter this month is : 

                                                                 K for Kiss

Colour options are Kelly Green and Khaki both of which are in this somewhere.

My original plan was more human-based and romantic but then I found this old frog/toad on a leaf stamp that I think I got years ago in a grab bag. Given the colour options this month a frog sounded like the perfect image and then I remembered this quote about kissing toads to find your prince. I stamped and masked the frog and leaf and then created some water and sky with DIs - tumbled glass, shabby shutters and salty ocean. The 'water' had a stencil and peacock feathers added to it to give a sort of rippling effect. The main image was coloured with Coloursoft pencils and solvent. The stitched clouds are from a Sizzix landscape set and the reeds are by Craft Emotions cut from a scrap of card. I hand cut a gold crown and printed out the quotation. Now back to Christmas...

Festive Bauble

 Continuing with my Christmas cards I used this Sizzix die which I bought some months ago but hadn't used. I cut it from green card but decided the bird needed to be a contrasting colour so I used gold card for the bird and the two small pieces that made up the hanger. The blank space at the top of the bauble was crying out for a sentiment and this one by a company called Funstamps seemed to fit best. The card base was embossed with a snowflake folder and once the bauble was stuck down I added some candy cane Stickles to the berries and a small piece of wired ribbon.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

There's something about this card I find joyful - it makes me smile when I see it. I think it's the pop of red against the white and grey. The image is by Crafty Individuals, I've had my eye on it since it was launched so when I saw it for sale on eBay I decided to bid for it. I stamped it with Versafine Smokey Grey rather than harsh black - it adds to the faded vintage feel of the image. I made a batch of 12 of these stage by stage with the help of a stamping platform and some exact measuring (for a change). I cut out the card first (8 x 9.5cm) and with a few trial pieces positioned the stamp on the platform so that it fit on the card exactly. After that it was very fast to stamp each image out accurately.

I then used barn door DI with a waterbrush to paint the umbrellas. I wanted to replace the snow on the umbrella but neither a white gel pen nor a white Posca pen managed to give a pure white - both seemed to soak up the red ink and dried pink. Finally I achieved the result I wanted with white enamel accents. When dry I matted the stamped image with some red paper. The base card was embossed with the Sizzix falling snow embossing folder. The sentiment is a well-used stamp that I had made years ago. I debated stamping it in red but I didn't want it to detract from the focal red of the umbrella. I hope the card gives you Joy.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

 Christmas. A work in progress. Watch this space...