Triple embossing

Tracy has mixed it up a bit for the technique/stash challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, and has chosen a tic tac toe grid for us to play with.

I have gone with the right hand column, although if you count the knitted embossing on the front tag as faux stitching, I've also done the top row!

I used three different embossing folders (I couldn't choose!) for the base and two tags. The distress oxide colours are ripe persimmon, peeled paint and peacock feathers, with chipped sapphire for definition. Not traditional Christmas but I fancied a bit of zing!

I love the background, so the rest is kept simple!

 

 

 

 

 

To play along this week, head over to the 52CCT blog.

The challenge is open until Friday 2nd July.

Santa sleigh sketch

 

Gill is our host for November on the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, as Christmas gets closer!

This is the sketch she has chosen for us to play with:

 

This ended up being very last minute for me, what with everything that's been going on with lockdown 2.

So no process photos this time.

The panels on the card are inked with antique linen distress oxide, with a light touch of fossilised amber and vintage photo. I splattered with water to bleach.

The images are stamped in gothic purple stazon ink. The houses are from Clarity, the sleigh is a set from a magazine that I hadn't used before. I wasn't sure what the quality was like, but it stamped beautifully.

The background is also an antique linen base, then I stamped baubles and stars in potting soil archival ink all over. I embossed with a Spellbinders folder, then sponged vintage photo distress oxide over, which picked up the embossed detail.

I finished it off with ribbon and lace, and a clock face embellishment from Craft Box. I don't often use embellishments, but they seemed to be what was needed here.

This isn't at all how I imagined this turning out! I really like the background but battled with positioning the panels - I had a stamped sentiment to finish it off, but changed my mind!

 

To join in with this challenge, visit it us at 52CCT. You have until Friday 13th November to enter your cards.

Orange, green and gold

The 52 Christmas Throwdown has a colour challenge this week. Andreja, our host for August, has chosen an unusual combination.

I started this card in an online workshop with Angela Simpson (the details are here). So no progress photos but lots of finished photos as there's lots to see in this card layout!

I started badly by grabbing the wrong card (I was disorganised so didn't prep beforehand as advised!). Instead of Sheena's stamping card I used Centura pearl hint of gold. I only realised when I'd done my cutting and turned a piece over. Fortunately, it still works with the colour challenge! And looks quite good, it gives a Christmassy touch of shine.

For ink, I used archival inks - fern green and orange blossom. I also used a bright tangelo orange on one piece, then decided I didn't like it so put it away again. I also used versamark with platinum embossing ink (a pale gold I really like).

The stamps are mainly a lovely Christmas set from Crafty Individuals. I also used a border and a snowflake from other sets.

To finish, I splattered with slightly watered gold paint.

I left a space on the left as above and below for the message to be written.

The design papers are from my stash - I went through pulling out green ones I liked - I looked for orange as well but didn't find any!

I stuck the DP down and then realised I wanted to ink the edges - so ended up putting sticky notes under the edge to mask the base while I did them. It meant the edging was a lot heavier than I'd have liked, especially on the front where I used a sharpie. It was also a lot more work!

The green sheer ribbon to tie the card closed was the last step.

It was a fun project to make, building up multiple panels in the same style and with a limited colour palette, although more work than a simple card! It definitely is something a bit special to give, a lot of the group on the workshop made male cards, and special birthday cards.


To join in with our colour challenge and share your take on orange, green and gold, visit us at the 52CCT blog. This challenge is open until Friday 14th August. Have fun!

Toy Soldiers

I'm getting behind with my blogs a bit, only getting the Christmas Card Throwdown ones posted at the moment - I'll have to have a catch up at some point, there's a really big project I want to share!

In the meantime, here's the new Christmas Card Throwdown challenge:

I don't have anything that would pass as a nutcracker, but in my "12 days of Christmas" set I have a drummer, who makes a lovely Toy Soldier.

I started by stamping him four times onto scraps of card. The outline isn't particularly clear, he needs to be coloured. I used distress markers in barn door, stormy sky, black soot and mustard seed.

I cut them all out with different dies, in different sizes.

To get started with the background, I cut stencil card to size and placed it under the Clarity harlequin stencil. I brushed over fired brick first, then moved the card and used salty ocean. For the final layer I used antique linen.

My camera doesn't focus well on the pattern!

As I liked the waste piece so much last time I did this type of pattern, I made sure to use a clean paper underneath!

For a sentiment I cut another piece of card with a die, and added "Happy Christmas" with a Clarity stamp.

I used a Sheena texture stamp and watering can archival ink to add detail to the soldiers and sentiment.

I used the same on the background, and added red around the edge.

At this point I got a bit stuck! Some cards just come together, others make me work for it! My mum is staying with me at the moment, and we were both standing over it at 11pm, trying different ribbons, colours, arrangements.

Having slept on it, we came up with some ideas! This is where we went.

I added a Clarity holly corner stamp to the background, with salty ocean.

I then used an embossing folder as well - I'm not sure where I got this one, it may have been from a magazine.

The background is now much more interesting!

I added antique linen round the soldiers.

I also added little holly leaves on the sentiment, in blue and red, to tie it in.

I added ribbons on the background. I've just sorted out my ribbons, I got a ribbon organiser from Stamps Away last year, and I finally put it together. My ribbons are now all neatly wound onto the hangers, it's very pleasing!

I mounted the soldiers and sentiment with 3d glue gel. I made a matt layer, with salty ocean distress ink, and mounted onto a 5x7 card blank.

It took a bit of trial and error to get this to card to work, but I'm pleased with the final result.

To join in with the challenge, go to the Christmas Card Throwdown. You have until midnight BST on Friday 30th June to enter. I look forward to seeing what you do with our theme.

Ivy wreath

We have a gorgeous ivy covered wall at the front of our house, which grows madly. We used branches from it in the table centrepieces for our wedding, I love ivy leaves and it was a way to include something from home, as we didn't get married locally.

I've been making use of it again for a Christmas wreath. I saw this done on TV years ago (Kirstie Allsop I think), and have been meaning to try it each year since. My prompt was this month's Berkhamsted Creative Challenge - which has a Christmas theme to help us get ready.

My ingredients are a selection of long branches cut from the wall, and a box of decorations I've had for years. I think I bought these on the post Christmas sales, for gift wrapping and things.

First step is to make the wreath - twisting the ivy strands round each other. Forming a circle is very easy, filling out the gaps and getting the leaves pointing the way I want is a bit more fiddly.

But I think it looks quite good, very verdant.

Next I add some decorations - a ribbon at the top, some baubles and poinsettia flowers around the ring. Not too much, I don't want to overwhelm the ivy, I want it to stand out rather than be the background. The Baubles are tied on with their strings, the poinsettia are wired - very handy.

Touches of red to set off the lush green ivy. Ready to hang on the front door.

Just fits below the knocker - luck rather than judgement, maybe I should have measured first!

Old Fashioned Christmas

This week's theme challenge at the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is Old Fashioned Christmas.

I have some paper packs with lovely, vintage images, which I really like but don't fit with my usual cards. So this was a good excuse to dig them out.

I also pulled out some wooden frame embellishments, some old and some new, to, well, frame the pictures.

Hubby has been getting me some great dies from The Works (very reasonable too) so I used the foliage ones, and a Tattered Lace ivy die, to cut another design paper - it has a subtle snowflake pattern and a linen texture, so the foliage doesn't look too flat.

The red background paper contrasts nicely with the foliage and frames, so they stand out. I blended brushed corduroy distress ink around the edges. I added a strip of cream "Merry Christmas" ribbon around the card.

The final touch is the bow and stars. These were die cut from another of the vintage images, which had a glitter and gloss finish, to give a touch of sparkle and to match Santa's hat, which also has a bit of sparkle in it.

I put the card together on an A6 card base, using super sticky tape. I really don't get on with glue, but needed something more than tape runner to hold the wooden embellishments.

It's a bit of a change from my usual style (if I have one) but it's been fun to try a different look, and a bit of a mixed media approach.

Harvest Festival Favours

Today I'd like to share with you the wedding favours I recently made for friends. And I'm going to submit them for the October Berkhamsted Creative Challenge, as they fit the theme of Harvest festival - Time of Plenty, with their Autumnal colours and edible filling.

Let's start with the samples I made for Becci and James to choose from.

The box in front is based on the meadow from my walled garden piece. They all use the dragonfly stamps, from Sheena Douglass.

The design they chose is a mixture of the two jars shown behind.

There are different parts that came together to make these favours. Let's look at the lids first. (The jars are the 110ml hexagonal glass jars from Hobbycraft.)

I painted the gold lids with white gesso, then decoupaged them with a decopatch paper.

The dragonflies are the larger stamp in the set. I stamped with versa mark onto heat proof acetate, heat embossed in gold and cut out with scissors.

For the flowers, I used a sheet of double sided adhesive. I attached it first onto the wrong side of gold paper (so the reverse is gold).

I then peeled off the other backing, and started adding to the sticky surface. First came gilding flakes, dotted across. Then glitter in bronze, gold and brown shades, including some tinselly pieces. I dusted gold shades of mica into some areas, then finished with gold and platinum embossing powder in the gaps, which I heated to set.

This is the first sheet I made:

And here's the second version, with more gilding flake and less mica. (It's also bigger.)

I love the texture this creates! It's fun too, basically you throw everything you have at the sheet.

I then die cut flower shapes from the sheets and layered up to form 3D flowers. I attached these to the lids, and the dragonflies to the flowers, using a glue gun.

On the jars themselves, I heat embossed the couples initials, R and J (Becci was Rebecca for this). I didn't know if heat embossing onto glass would work, but had a go, and it did. It just takes a long time to turn, as the glass absorbs more heat than card, and then takes a while to cool again.

The next step was the mini envelopes. These were cut from parchment using a punch, then embossed using the Groovi system. I added the fold lines, the names of the guests (the favours became place settings as well) and a twirly flourish.

To colour them, I sprayed them with gold paint from behind.

Inside, they each had a personalised printed message, which I edged with a brown sharpie pen to finish them off.

I pierced the corner of each envelope, and made a ring from wire to feed through to attach them.

I threaded the envelopes onto organza ribbon, along with a selection of beads, and feathers (I wired these with a spiral round the "stalk" and a loop, to be able to thread them on).

The ribbon was wrapped around the jar, with the knot hidden inside a bead. I used a dab from the glue gun to hold them in place.

I filled the jars with colourful dried fruits and seeds, arranged in layers.

When you see them all together, they make quite the swarm!

In situ they look rather more the part. What a beautiful table!

And many congratulations to Becci and James.