Here Comes Santa

Hi everyone.  Well the Rudolph Days Challenge is here again run by Mo of Scraps of Life by Scrappymo which runs fronm 25th to the end of each month, and I can't believe a month has gone by since the last one.  Dare I say that it is only six months to Christmas ..lol.  My DH can't understand how I could possibly make Christmas cards when it's warm and sunny outside, mind you at the present time the sun has gone a little shy.  Anyway, on to my card.  I have based it on a sketch for the Less is More Challenge No. 334, and this is it:

and here is the card I made using it:

I decided to use a set from Indigoblu called Here Comes Santa.  I have had it a couple of years but haven't used it very much so thought it deserved an outing.  I cut the curves by hand but using a Spellbinders Borderabilities Curved Borders One die set to pencil round for the basic shape.  In order to get this shape I would have had to put the die the wrong way up so that's why I had to cut it by hand.  I also used a Crealies XXL No. 44 Rectangles with Dots set of dies to cut the layer.  I used this set for my last Rudolph Days card too.

I started with a snippet of white card and I stamped Santa and his sleigh using Black Archival ink, and then heat embossed it with WOW Clear Embossing Powder.  I cut a mask for the moon with some Stix2 Low Tack Masking sheet using a small circle die, and placed it before inking with Brushos.  I used Black and Ultramarine, with lots of water, and I finished by inking round the edge with a little more Black Soot Distress ink and then in the centre with Faded Jeans DI as I thought it was looking too boringly grey.  I removed the mask which had worked well considering the amount of water I used, and as  the moon looked too white I added a little Black soot and some Sunshine Yellow Adirondack ink applied with a Clarity Brush.

I decided the finished dimensions of the card would be 7" x 5" and cut down a large card to this size.  I continued with two more snippets of white card for the two curved sections.  I decided where I wanted the little scene and then cut the curved shapes as I mentioned above.  I fixed the two curves over the top of the scene and then cut it with the largest die in the Crealies set and fixed it to the front of the card.

I added some stars in the background using a Sakura sparkly silver gel pen, and then finished with a sentiment from the same set of stamps, and stamped with Versamark and heat embossed using WOW Silver Sparkle EP.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I hope to see you again soon.

As well as the Rudolph Days Challenge and Less is More Challenge, I am also entering:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 287/8 where we use our snippets of paper and card etc.
The Foiled Fox Challenge - Simply Irresistable - Emboss Resist Technique.

Brushos and Texture Paste Get Well

Hi there.  I have just heard that sadly a friend of mine has fallen over and broken her hip so this card is for her.   I have made this nice and bright and cheery using a set of rose stamps which I bought a little while ago in one of the sheds which sell all sorts of things including crafting goodies.  These do not seem to be named but appear to be from the Netherlands.  I used one of my stencils bought at the same time.  These are not top quality items but I must say they are very good for the money.

I started with a 6" square snippet of white card and a stencil with a wreath of leaves, and using some Creative Expressions Multi Tex powder I mixed it with some water and a little PVA glue until it was the right consistency for spreading through the stencil.  I applied it with an old plastic card which works well.   I added a little of the Turquoise Brusho powder to the paste before applying it to the card.

This took about an hour to dry and then I die cut the centre using an XCut circle die.  I decided to apply some Brushos to this circle using Turquoise, Lemon and a tiny bit of Aquamarine which has some little bits of pinky purple in it .  They are such fun to use as you never quite know what you will get.  I spritzed with water and then blotted with a bit of kitchen towel to remove the excess water.

I stamped the flowers on to this circle using a couple of the stamps and my Versafine Smokey Gray ink and I then watercoloured the flowers with the Brushos and my waterbrush.  I wasn't sure how this would work but I sprinkled the very tiniest bit of the powder through the single hole in the top of the pots and added the water from the brush on to my glass mat.  I used the Lemon and Orange on the flowers, and for the stems and leaves I used Dark Brown, Leaf Green and Emerald Green.   I decided to darken the edge of the circle with some Peacock Feather Distress ink applied with a blending tool.

I was not totally happy with the finished colour of the texture paste which I thought needed to be darker, so I decided to darken it with Peacock Feathers ink.  The stencil is quite thin and the application of the texture paste worked out well but it would not line up well enough to apply the ink over the top so I decided to add some of the ink over the whole piece instead using a blending tool.

To finish I adhered this texture paste background to a 7" square white base card and to break the colours up I added a larger white circle cut using an XCut circle die a size larger which I sandwiched between the background and the topper.  I then added the sentiment using the Versafine Smokey Gray ink.

Thank you for stopping by today.  

I am entering the following challenges:

CAS Mix Up June Challenge - I have used stamping and stencilling with texture paste as asked for, and my own choice watercolouring and ink blending.
CAS Watercolour June Challenge - Summer.  I have used roses which are a Summertime flower.
The Flower Challenge - No. 9 Anything Goes.
Addicted to Stamps and More - No. 247 Make Your Mark.  Congratulations on your 5th Birthday!
Penny Black and More June Challenge - Anything Goes.
Happy Little Stampers June Watercolour Challenge - Anything Goes (no twist).
Allsorts Challenge - Week 421 Flower Power.

Time Themed Birthday

Hi there everybody.  I made this card a couple of weeks or more ago for a family birthday.  I found this stencil with the clock and cogs amongst my new collection of stencils and thought this would work for the background.  I then found a pocket watch stamp from a freebie Docraft collection to put over the top.

I started with a snippet of white card and inked through the stencil using Versafine Smokey Gray ink and then heat embossed it with WOW Clear Embossing Powder.  I cut it with a Tonic Scalloped Square die.  I then coloured it with the smooshing technique using Peacock Feathers, Faded Jeans and Mustard Seed Distress Inks.  When it was dry there were some white spaces which I decided to fill in with Adirondack Stonewashed Ink using some blending foam.

I stamped the pocket watch image three times on another snippet of white card again using the Smokey Grey ink and fancy cut them out.  I then backed them with white funky foam and attached them to the base stencilled image, and then adhered this to a white square base card.

Finally using my Misti I stamped the sentiment with the Smokey Gray Ink and heat embossed it with the WOW Clear EP.

I decided not to send this to the person it was intended for after DH made the point that the time passing theme seemed to him inappropriate for someone of older years.  I must admit this had not occured to me but hopefully it will be more suitable for someone else in the coming months.

Thank you for looking at my blog today and I hope to see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 285/6 where we use our snippets of card and paper etc.
Uniko Challenge - No. 41 Masculine (without the twist).
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Emboss It.
Penny Black and More June Challenge - Anything Goes.  Happy 7th Birthday!
Happy Little Stampers June CAS Challenge  - Smoosh.
Allsorts Challenge - Week 420 Birthday Boy.

Sweet Birthday Wishes

Hi there everybody.  I saw that Less is More have a challenge this week with the title Sweet Things so I found my Sheena Douglass stamp of a bee which is part of the Floral Fantasy set which I have had for quite a while, and which unfortunately I don't think is available at the moment.  I also used a Tim Holtz honeycomb stencil, as I thought that the link being honey would work for the theme.

This is a one layer theme so I stencilled the honeycomb on to the middle of the  6" square card using a NBUS set of Brushos whuch I finally took the plunge and bought recently.  I used the Yellow for this.  I was quite pleased with the result and after it was dry I stamped the bee using Black Archival Ink and then heat embossed it using WOW Clear Embossing Powder.  I then coloured it with my Lyra Aqua Brush Markers.

I finished it with a sentiment again using the Archival Black.  This proved to be more difficult than anticipated.  I wanted the word 'sweet' but I didn't like either of the sentiments with it in so I decided to mask the other words off and stamp it using my Misti stamping tool.  The only problem was that I had to stamp it several times and each time I had to put a fresh mask over the other words.  I did eventually manage it but I did notice that there were one or two tiny bits of ink which looked a little messy.  I managed to scratch them away with my pokey tool and then I used an eraser to smooth it out.   I thought the ink was dry but it must have been very slightly damp and the ink smudged a little to leave the background looking a little grey.  I decided to go with it anyway as I liked the rest of the card, but I don't think I will be trying this again as it took twice as long to fix it as it did to make the rest of the card...lol.

I have a new follower to introduce called Mia and you will find her blog here.  She is interested in all sorts of crafts, so if you haven't seen her blog before do go and visit her.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I'll be back soon.

I am also entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Emboss It.
Penny Black and More June Challenge - Anything Goes.

Cape Daisy Anniversary

Hi there.  Now it is early summer I have lots more anniversaries on the calendar to make cards for.  I have used three NBUS dies too which are the Cape Daisies and Delicate Fronds which are by Sue Wilson from Creative Expressions, and an XCut nesting die set Ornate Frames.

I started with a snippet of white card cut into an approximate 6" square and embossed with a Docrafts Embossing Folder called Hearts and Kisses which is difficult to find at the moment.  I extended it to make it square, and then using my brayer I inked it with some Peacock Feathers Distress Ink and made it slightly darker with Adirondack Eggplant Ink. 

I then cut this piece with the Ornate Frames using the four largest dies.  I then inked round the edges of the main mat and each of the die cuts with the Eggplant ink.  I also cut the smallest die shape out of another snippet of white card and stamped a sentiment on to it also using the Eggplant ink.

I die cut two of the Cape Daisy flowers and one of the delicate fronds and blended the same two inks on to them using some blending foam.  I cut the frond into several pieces so I could frame the flower.

I finished by adhering the nested die shapes by size and replaced the smallest patterned piece with the sentiment plate in the centre, and layered up the flowers and fronds on to a corner of the Ornate Frames.

Thank you for stopping by today and I hope to see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Weeks 283/4 where we use our snippets of paper and card etc.
Country View Challenges June 2017 - Hearts.
Happy Little Stampers June Anything Goes with Dies Challenge.
Allsorts Challenge - Use at least two dies.