How Long to Christmas?

Hi everybody.  I have been rather tardy in my cardmaking recently, just don't seem to have been able to get on with it but  I think sometimes a bit of a break can be good   It has suddenly occurred to me that there are only about six weeks before the approximate time for posting the Christmas cards out so I don't have a lot of time and must step up production.

I have a folder full of bits and pieces of toppers and such like that have been lying around for several years, so I decided to see what I could do with some of it as it seems a sin for it not to get used.  A lot of it is Hunkydory and I have found that some of the toppers are overly large for my square cards so I cut out the bird house off a topper and backed it with an oval die cut piece of dotted green card, and then on to a piece of green, both part of the set.  I cut the bottom off the green card and fancy cut round the holly and mounted it over the top for a bit of dimension.

I found a freebie robin stamp which actually has the robin in the centre of a wreath, but I cut the bird away from the rest and stamped with Black Archival on to a snippet of white card, coloured it with my Spectrum Noir pencils then mounted it as you can see.  I finished it with a die cut sentiment topper cut from a snippet of red card.

Thank you for dropping by today.

Pat  x

I am entering the following challenges:

October Rudolph Day Challenge - phew, just made it!  This runs from the 25th to the end of the month.
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Throwback.  For my past challenge I have chosen Holiday Cards from 1/12/14 find it here.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

Happy Little Stampers October Christmas Challenge Reminder

Hi everyone.  I am back again with my second post as Guest Designer for the Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge and this is for the mid month reminder.  I decided that as I won the July challenge with a watercolour type card I would do something along the same lines.
 

For this card I have used a stamp from Chocolate Baroque which I have had for a couple of years but which unfortunately isn't available any more, but I like the shape of the flower and it is also a nice size.

I stamped it using Festive Berries Distress Ink on to a piece of watercolour paper.  I stamped it three times and had to have two masks as the flowers form a tight group.  I then pulled the ink in to the petals from the edge with a brush and some water just to take the whiteness off.  Next I worked on one petal at a time building up the colour with some more of the red and then whilst still wet I introduced some Seedless Preserves DI to add some shading.   I waited for the petals to dry or speeded the process a bit with my heat gun until I had been right round the flowers.  I then added some Mustard Seed DI with a little of the red to take off the harshness of the yellow and to shade the centres a bit.  I did go round and add more colour where I thought it needed it, but it is easy to overwork it so you have to try to judge when enough is enough.

I continued with the background making sure the flowers were dry first.  I used some Bundled Sage DI to start with by wetting the background as I went along, and when this was dry added Pine Needles DI round the flowers.  As even with watercolour paper the water makes it buckle a bit I stuck it under a heavy book overnight which did a good job of  flattening it.  On looking at it the next day I thought the background colour seemed a bit flat so decided to try and lift the colour by adding a little Peacock Feathers DI and this worked better I thought.

To finish it I cut the piece down and mounted it on to some gold mirri card and then mounted this on to my white square card.  I used a spare piece of card coloured to match the background and cut using one of the smaller dies from a Spellbinders set Floral Ovals and stamped the sentiment using Versamark and WOW Gold Embossing Powder.  When I had added this I decided to further enhance the background and sentiment with some stars and dots cut from a Memory Box die Snowflake Corner.

I have had so much fun and I would like to thank everyone over at HLS for making me so welcome.  They are all very talented so do go and take a look at their beautiful work and there is still plenty of time to enter this month's challenge.  You will find the details HERE.

Thank you for taking a look today.

Pat  x

I would like to enter this into the following challenge:

The 30 Day Coloring Challenge

Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge

Hi all.  Well another month has passed and today is the start of the Happy Little Stampers October Christmas Challenge.  I am so thrilled to have been asked to be Guest Designer and here is the first of my two posts, the second being at the half way point of the challenge.

As you can see it is all about Poinsettias this month which I think are the very essence of Christmas and I have used a couple of different stamp sets here.  The first for the twiggy wreath is from Card-io called Oriental Blossom but works well for Christmas too, and the second is a set of flowers from Honey Doo called Flowers for Design which again are quite generic but I hope you agree make a pretty Poinsettia. 

I stamped the wreath with Versamark ink and WOW Silver Embossing Powder on to a piece of white stamping card using this little twiggy branch, and gradually built up the circle with it.  I think there are about three layers and I heat set after each layer.  I also used a circle die as a template and marked very lightly in pencil as a guide for placing the stamping.  I then used some other pieces of white card for the Poinsettias, each has two layers, and stamped using the middle and smaller sized flowers.

I used a water brush and red watercolour paint from a tube which gives a more opaque and brighter red finish, and I also used a touch of Seedless Preserves Distress Ink to darken the middle of the flowers a little, and then finished with some clear Wink of Stella to give a nice touch of sparkle.  I also used a gold coloured gem in the centre of each flower but I'm not sure they show up very well in the photo.

To finish I stamped the sentiment using the Versamark and WOW Silver EP.   I cut the wreath topper to fit and layered this on to a white square card, layered the flowers and shaped them a little, and then placed them on the wreath.

I would like to finish by saying a big thank you to Happy Little Stampers for giving me this opportunity and please do go and see all the wonderful creations that the Design Team have made, you won't be disappointed.  Find all the details of the challenge HERE.

Thank you for dropping by.

Pat x

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 197 where we use up our bits/snippets.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

Framed Rose Anniversary

Hi there.  I made this card for an anniversary a few weeks ago and never got round to showing it here.    I used a Chocolate Baroque stamp called Rose Stem Script and also a set of dies from Creative Expressions by Sue Wilson Elegant Lace Edger Configuration Dies.

I began by stamping the rose on to a snippet of white card using Versamark Ink and embossed using WOW White Embossing Powder.  I watercoloured it using a water brush and using Distress Inks in Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves, Walnut Stain and Mowed Lawn, and Adirondack Ink in Bottle.  I cut the Lace Edger dies, two of each using  some snippets of white card, and glued them to form a frame around the rose.  I finished the topper by cutting round the edge of the frame and added a silver sentiment and then mounted it on to a white square card and as it overlapped at the top and bottom I cut it down to fit.

Thank you for visiting here today.

Pat  x

I am entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 196 where we use up our snippets of paper and card.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.