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Thanks.

Boxed card

My sister-in-law had a momentous birthday this month and so I made her a special card. It took me about 3 evenings of faffing about with it to get it how I wanted but I was happy with the final results. To compound the lengthy business my mother-in-law asked me to make one to give from her so I guess I spent about a whole week working on this birthday (only evenings, I don’t feel I can play in my craft room during the day ).

As our family name is Mackintosh the circular element in the middle just had to be a Mackintosh Bauble from Chocolate Baroque (the set is about to be retired) – two of them back-to-back suspended on white cord.

The flowers were made using Spellbinders Spiral Blossom 2 in a couple of different papers (and tissue for those on the box) and then lightly dusted with a bit of glitter. The butterflies have twisted wire antennae and are sitting on some gorgeous gold/copper wired ribbon. I used a border cut from IronWorks Accents and a couple of layers of Labels 4 one of which I ran through an embossing folder and lightly inked the raised parts.

On the inside, I used the second part of the borders I’d used earlier and cut the other side with Classic RicRac Edgeabilities, the stamped flourishes are from Technique Tuesday and the aperture was cut with Spellbinders Ovals with a second contrasting scalloped oval inside. [I was actually lucky enough to win these Edgeabilities in an online competition – just for leaving a comment on a blog post! ]

Card front

Inside

Flowers

The second card

Well I had to think of something completely different to the one I’d just made so this one is very monochromatic and yet still glittery. A stepper card with lots of layers and bling.

I cut the card base with a Grand Label Nestability and used other Nesties to make the layers from an oriental-style paper. The main image is Michael Strong’s Kimono stamp embossed with a holographic powder over Versamark and cut out with the matching die. One of the Spellbinders Fancy Tags holds a ready-made greeting and there’s a Mackintosh image stamped and silver-embossed on the back panel.

The huge flower is made from a set of blossom Nesties with sunflowers mixing-in between layers. A button in the middle and some silver glitter and it was finished. I do hope she liked them.

Stepper 70th

Flower

Folded Star

This was made for a friend of mine – not a special birthday or anything but she is a special friend. If you Google Folded Star you’ll find lots of tutorials for these in various sizes, mine was made from a piece of 12×12 scrapbook paper and I made sturdy templates out of plain card for future use.

The templates made included those for the designer papers used on the triangles and the trapezoids so the next one will be really easy to make. You can see that on one panel I layered a piece of plain paper (stamped with a small rose image) so there’d be a place to write a greeting. The sentiment is a purchased one which I lightly coloured with distress ink and the flower is actually slightly scented – at least it was when it left here!

I made a double bow following the instructions on Jak Heath’s blog and glued those three tiny flowers on top and then decided it was too white so I masked off the rest of the card and spritzed the bow with some gold glimmer mist. I didn’t take a photo of it after that I’m afraid so you’ll have to use your imagination.

Folded Star inside

Close up

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

I don’t quite know why I’ve only photographed two of the four birthday cards I mailed in December but somehow I must have forgotten! Can’t imagine what it is about December which would make me forget stuff……

A GoldWinging friend of ours turned fifty last month so I sent him the ‘birdie’ card and the other with the sunflower was given to a dear friend whose age I’ll not broadcast here. This one was made for a sketch challenge at Stamp Club.

50th Birthday Card

Sunflower

Natural light

Commission

I was telephoned – I think it was about July sometime – by a young man who had seen this blog and wanted a special Christmas Card making for his girlfriend.

Once I’d gotten over the shock of (a) a man actually ordering a special card and (b) him planning it incredibly early in the year, I came up with this Telescoping Card. I made another one first (to the specifications I was given – she likes angels, silver, green etc…..) but was not totally happy with it [see here] so started again!

I’ll never make a fortune at this hobby will I? Not if I keep making a spare one as well!

Full Card Front

Telescoping

Angel

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

Suspended star

These are photos of some of the cards I have made for this Christmas, 2011.

Several of them were duplicated – though not identical – they were basically the same idea so I only photographed one of them .

I like to keep a record just so I can look back next year and see what I did and make sure I try something different.

At the bottom of the page I’ll add photographs of the hand-made cards I receive this year – this will be a little later.

Christmas 2011

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

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.