The main image was made using the large Cloisonné Flower which I stamped randomly over some glossy card stock using a Versamark pad. I then sprinkled with fine, clear embossing powder and heat set. Using a brayer I coloured the whole thing with Kaleidacolor Dye Ink in Calypso and then rubbed lightly over the embossed images to remove excess ink from the flowers.

I trimmed this piece down to a suitable size and layered it onto purple card – it’s raised up on 3D foam pads for a bit of height interest. I chose yellow card for the background for a sunny theme (much needed at this time of year!) and used scraps of both the yellow and the purple for accents and layering just to keep it all ‘together’.

I put the trimmings of the main image through the Grand Calibur with the long strip die from the Ironwork Accents set and glued them to the yellow and then the purple card to make the ‘ribbon’ strips. The faux brads were made by punching two different sized circles from the card and rounding them slightly with a large embossing ball tool before sticking them on to the card with rolled-up glue dots to help keep them in shape.

Embossed resist

Die-cut strip

The Sketch

The final 6

Well, it’s taken some time (a whole year I guess) but I’ve finally finished all 26 Alphabet Cards. Actually, I have done 27 ‘cos I wasn’t happy with ‘D’ so I did a second version . I think it’s obvious that I left most of the difficult letters to the last – Q, U, X!

What a great challenge this has been and – as a bonus – I’ve got a load of cards made to use throughout the year so I can concentrate on my scrapbooking for a bit.

As before, click on the thumbnail for a larger image and details of my thought processes, enjoy!

K

Q

U

U

X

X

N

N

Y

Triangle Box

For the month of December the lovely Michael challenged us to use the template he provided. It is basically a box, there’s a tab to close it so if you wanted to put a small gift in there it could be very useful (thinking  chocolates jewellery…..). I’m afraid mine is anything but useful – there’s so much decoration on it that it can’t easily be opened any more – I did intend it to be purely ornamental.

I started with some heavy-weight scrapbook paper in a lovely mossy green colour and drew out the shape on the back. I enlarged the original design by making a basic equilateral triangle out of some cardboard and then drew around that as the layout showed. It folded nicely as it was a good quality paper and then I started playing! I die-cut Spellbinders Layered Poinsettia several times out of the remains of the 12×12 paper and then stamped them with the Cloisonné Circle in a dark green Versafine ink before layering them up and securing with a black brad. I lightly ran over the ‘spines’ of the poinsettias with adhesive and sprinkled with fine gold glitter and put them aside to dry. They were then glued onto the three upright edges. I die-cut Ironworks Motif from both more of the green paper and also shiny gold card and glued them together and stuck the whole thing onto the bottom of the box. I also stitched through the centre and took the loop of cord up and out of the top of the box for a hanger.

Close-up

Ironwork Motif

Three poinsettias

The Cloisonné Circle was stamped on gold card and embossed with gold powder and then I took the bauble top from Chocolate Baroque’s Mackintosh Baubles and stamped that 3 times before embossing with silver powder, cut them out and glued them behind the circular shape. I punched 3 holes toward the top of the triangle points and strung the baubles through them – they are free to swing about.

Another view

Bauble close-up

Honeycomb Ornament

I found this gorgeous ornament on Becca Feeken’s blog – Amazing Paper Grace – and wanted to try it but I could not find thin, double-sided paper anywhere! I thought I’d got the right thing with some light-weight gold paper but, after cutting out 18 shapes, embossing them through a couple of embossing folders and then sticking them together I found that….well, it just didn’t work! I don’t know where Becca got the lovely paper she’s using but it’s something I’m going to keep my eyes open for. I haven’t bothered showing that ornament as it just is not worth it

So, I tried it with an old book instead – this is a soft-back novel which is broken down the spine and falling apart anyway so I’m not destroying anything valuable (honest, Gloria )

Becca insists that you use strong glue dots but I couldn’t find those either! I wanted tiny ones, obviously, and the ones I had were huge so….I made my own! On the web you’ll find instructions for making them using Aleens Tack it Over and Over which, once more, I didn’t have but I did have some Stampendous tacky glue which I use for sticking my unmounted stamps to acrylic blocks. I laid tiny dots of this on some release tape from shop-bought glue dots and left them to dry. Although they were fiddly to work with they did do the job beautifully and are holding the paper together very nicely.

I used some plain twine for the hanger which I threaded through a couple of large, rather ugly beads before rolling them in copper glitter glue. I also rubbed the edges of the ornament with the same glue using my finger to add just a light dusting.

I’d like to make more of these, I think perhaps I’d over-stamp the papers with something decorative or maybe I could use a thin paper and stamp a design on both sides…….watch this space .

Bead

Book papers

Honeycomb ornament

All Four Tags

Time for the Holiday Tag Blog Hop! There are 13 blogs to visit and you should have come here from Mike’s – if you get lost then please go back to Hetty’s Blog and you’ll find all the links there. You’ll find the scavenger hunt letter you’re searching for at the bottom of the post – find them all, make a wish and send your answer privately by email to Hetty  (buzzy4you©hotmail•com)   (not in the comments please). A winner for a Michael Strong Stamp will be chosen on Wednesday, December 7th.

My first step was to study my Strong Stamps and pick a suitable Christmas one! Hmm…. I don’t actually have one so I had to be inventive. I’m going to add photos below, please click on each and you’ll find a description of the thought process and the actual techniques used. We only had to make one but I got a little carried away – although three are similar the last one is quite different (apart from the fibres used ).

Stamp choice

Fan

Masking

Practising

Tree

Stamp positioning

Kraft Tag

Tree stamped

Snowflakes

Colouring

Finished

Black Tags

Gold on black

Snowlfakes

Snowfall

Finished

Second black tag

Stampbord

Oval Stampbord

Red colouring

Gold

Shiny

Too gaudy

Green

Finished

Hop Along

NOw yOu’ve dOne with my blOg, please hOp alOng tO Judy McKay tO see what she has tO share with yOu. I’d lOve to hear frOm yOu – please leave me a cOmment. EnjOy yOur BlOg HOp and Merry Christmas.

White Christmas

I personally think that black and white is really quite elegant and works well for a Christmas Card. This starts with an A4 white base card folded in half and trimmed slightly (I don’t like the size of the full A4 with a fold, it always looks just a little too big to my mind) and the corners rounded with my Corner Chomper. I trimmed the edge with a Spellbinder Die and glued the cut-out piece on the left to mirror the right side. Black paper inside helps show the decorative edge.

Sparkle

There’s a layer of white textured paper – it’s almost a hand-made type – and on top of that the black card has been embossed half with Swiss Dots and half with Snowflakes and has tiny white with black brads in the corners. On top of these layers there’s two widths of ribbon wrapped around and the narrower one is tied in a bow. If you know me at all you’ll know that I really don’t do bows but I had a go.

The main image is from Chocolate Baroque – Angel of Joy – and I find I’ve been using her quite a lot lately . I stamped her in black and embossed with clear powder before cutting her out and mounting her slightly raised on top of the ribbons. I added some sparkle which is a little hard to see in the photo – sorry about that.

Telescoping Card

I recently found this idea for a card design and love the idea of it. I came across it at Donna’s Designs  with a link to Hetty’s blog where there’s a video tutorial. This is actually Barb‘s video so that’s the place you should go to see the tutorial.

The card shown is made using circle punches which I don’t possess so I used Nestabilities for this version. I cut three plain circles and three scalloped ones and while the plain circles were still in the dies I sponged poppy red ink leaving a lovely white border when the die is removed.

The stamps used are from Abiscraft, the poppy set mainly with a butterfly from this set. Oh, and the little filigree stamp is from Gloria – given at stamp club as part of a challenge she set us …… more on that to come at a later date.

The cute thing about this card design is that it folds nice and flat but, when you pull the ribbon, it opens up like a telescope . You have to be aware of the orientation for the middle section but that’s simple once you’ve seen the video.

I have since tried it with squares – which works – and with hearts – which doesn’t!

As it opens

Fully open

Middle circle

Bottom circle

All closed up

15 Challenge

This challenge was to celebrate 15 years in business for Michael Strong Stamps – the brief:

It will be your task to include exactly 15 items, design elements or embellishments on the front of your card, no more, no less. That could mean one large central design element and 14 accents, or three sets of five objects arranged formally or a totally random collection of embellishments, it’s all up to you. The other restrictions to this challenge are that you must use at least one MSRS stamp or a portion of one and there can be NO text on the front of the card. Remember, the members will be choosing the winners this time and the prizes will be extra special. Good luck!

I took an A4 piece of linen-textured white card, folded it in half and scored a few lines with my ScorIt down one side of the front for decoration. I then started on the 15 elements. One piece of lilac card; one piece of white glossy card scored into faux tiling – again with the ScorIt – and then a pale lilac bamboo image stamped on to this; nine shrink plastic fans with gold-pen edging and Glossy Accents dots; four corners = 15!

The colours don’t show too well on the photos but the lilac layer matches the colour of the StazOn ink used on the fans.

Voting took place over the last few days with all members of the enjoyMichaelStrongStamps yahoo group having a vote – and three winners were chosen, as shown in the last photo below.

Slightly different view

Corner

The Winners

Welcome Cerys

Although this stamped image is really the Madonna and Child intended mainly for Christmas Cards, I just love it for new baby cards and have used it several times this way.

For this, it was stamped onto white card, run through an embossing folder after being cut out with a Nestie oval and then coloured with ProMarkers. I recently purchased the alphabet dies and, being a Celtic-type font (uncial),  it is perfect for a Celtic-type name such as Cerys!

I didn’t take step-by-step photos of this commissioned one I’m afraid but I did for the one which I sent to the family. If you click on the photos you’ll get the comments showing .

Decorative

Eyelet

BABY

Blocks

Inks

Lettering

Masking

Stamped Blocks

Wishy-washy

Colour

Baby feet

Anniversary Card

I made this card for my Brother- and Sister-in-Law last week – I’m rather partial to using these Nesties for such a card and love the way they stack.

I used heavy-weight watercolour paper throughout and distress inks to add the colour. The background layer has the dictionary definition of Love stamped a few times – a Lost Coast design – and the heart flourishes and sentiment are by Prickley Pear. I tore the sentiment and the large layer before distressing the edges with Fired Brick and Vintage Photo inks.

Nestabilities

Prickley Pear sentiment

I re-visited a technique I’d tried years ago when I saw Gina K show it in this video.

It’s easy and yet beautifully effective and I’m thrilled with the result.

If you don’t already do so then I suggest you subscribe to StampTV, there are new videos, techniques and challenges every week and it is so very informative.

I find myself going back to look up ideas lurking in the back of my mind and following the step-by-step instructions which Gina makes so clear and simple. Have a look

Being frugal!

Gold weaving

Distress Inks

Antique Linen

Rusty Hinge

Fired Brick

Vintage Photo

Stamping

Colouring

Finished