Fireworks

It was my grandsons' birthday last week and I always struggle to know what put on his cards, as I do with most of the menfolk specially the young ones. Anyway I was needing to do something with fireworks a couple of weeks ago for another project and remembered I had this Dreamweaver stencil, and while I was using it, it occurred to me that it would make a good birthday card. I have recently renewed my interest in Imagination Crafts' Sparkle Medium, and while at the NEC show a few weeks ago I invested in some more colours and they are perfect for the job.I masked off each of the fireworks with tape and and uncovered one at a time so as to keep the colours separate, which turned out to be a bit easier than I expected. I set it aside to dry completely before trimming it and mounting onto red metallic card.I cut and folded a black 5" x 7" base card and stamped two swirls from a Chocolate Baroque set with Versamark and embossed them with WOW metallic brass glitter embossing powder.The greeting was stamped and embossed in the same way as the swirls and mounted to match the main panel, and I added a few red gems to finish off.
As I have used two tiny snippets left over from the fireworks piece for the greeting I am going to enter this at the Pixies Snippets Playground, a lovely fun and friendly challenge hosted by Di who is celebrating 100 weeks of hosting with some brilliant prizes so why not pop over and take a look.
I am also entering at Sarah Hurley Challenge Blog - Bonfire Brights
Paper Creators Crafts - Birthday
Thank you looking and for your comments which I truly appreciate.

Scenic Christmas

Well here we are at the 25th of the month again which means it's time to make a Christmas card for Rudolph day at Sarn's blog, Stamping For Pleasure. It is the last chance to enter this year as this time next month we shall all be celebrating Christmas Day itself. This is my card for this time inspired by a demo that I saw at the NEC show earlier this month. It was at the Cardio stand where they sell the Majestix stamps. I was intrigued to see the lady using this twig stamp to make a circle shaped wreath by stamping several times with one inking, and then created a little scene inside. She had stamped hers with black ink and used another little stamp that looked like fairy lights threaded through the twigs. Of course I went and bought the twig stamp and then had to choose between two sets, ( I couldn't afford both! ) one had the lights and other Christmas decorations and the other these little scene stamps. I decided on these and thought that would decorate my wreath with flowers. I started with an A6 folded card and drew faintly round the inside of the DS tape roll to get shape right. I stamped the twigs with iced spruce Distress ink and the added the poinsettia flowers and holly leaves with some Tapestry peg stamps from my stash, using barn door DI and olympia green Versafine. The scene was made starting with torn paper for the skyline, and scattered straw and rusty hinge DI for the sun and broken china and stormy sky for the sky, applied with a finger wrapped in a dry baby wipe. For the rest of the stamping I used black Memento ink and a little broken china to define the landscape. I think the demonstrators' wreath looked much tidier than mine but I am quite pleased with way it turned out. The greeting is a Chocolate Baroque stamp stamped with the iced spruce ink.I am now off to link this up with the final Rudolph Day challenge for 2013 .
Thank you for visiting here and for you comments all of which are much appreciated.

Jumbo Birthday

It is my husband's birthday tomorrow and this the card that I have made for him. I have had this Crafty Individuals stamp for a little while but this is the first time I have used it. My hubby is very fond of elephants so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to get it inked up.I used Memento Rich Cocoa ink and stamped onto white card. It was trimmed to size and shaded all over with Distress inks, antique linen first very lightly then tea dye and vintage photo on the edges. I think a touch of peeled paint and aged mahogany found their way onto it as well. I then used two shades of grey pencil to add a little colour to the elephants, and red for the postage stamp. The patterned paper is from a colourful little 6" Penny Black pad that I won along with a lovely bundle of Penny Black stamps at Stamping Sensations last month.I thought that this design complimented the image quite well. I cut some dark blue card to fit the front of a 6" square card blank and layered the other pieces on top inserting a dark green mat under the main image. I found a. bit of green organza ribbon with blue stripes in it and threaded it through a carrier which I cut using the centre die from the Spellbinders set called Radiant Rectangles.Because I wanted to use the patterned paper for this I put a snippet of the paper through a Xyron sticker maker and stuck it to a bit of thin scrap card before cutting it.It seemed to work OK. To finish off I wrapped the ribbon around the blue mount before adding to the card and fixed a blue gem to the centre of the carrier.
As both of the top layers were made with bits of card from the snippets box I am going to pop over to link this up at Pixie's Snippets Playground, a fun and friendly place to visit where we are encouraged to use up some of those snippets that we all squirrel away.
I will also enter it at Paper Creators Crafts - Birthdays
and Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes.

Thank you for visiting here and for your kind comments.

A Special Birthday Card

This very cute, very pink card is "special" because it is for my little Great Granddaughter who was one year old yesterday. ( my goodness where did that year go?) There was much excitement going on at her house with tons of balloons, and little friends to a tea party, as well lots of parcels to be opened and the contents to be investigated.
For the card  I used a Lily Of The Valley image stamped onto white card and coloured with Promarkers, and then cut with a Spellbinders die. The base card is a pink 6" square folded card and the next layer is a pale pink embossed with a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots EF. Then a deeper pink layer again cut with another die from the same Spellbinders set. I used a square pink push pin that has been in my stash for ages, and a pink flower shaped brad, onto which I stamped the 1 with black ink and embossed with clear EP and then I dabbed the whole brad onto a Versamark ink pad and then into the clear EP to give it a glazed appearance. I managed to find enough of the right colour letter beads in my jar to complete the sentiment. I added a pink ribbon and some pearl buttons and a little teddy bear from my                                                       stash to finish.

 I am entering this at,
Seize The Birthday - Anything Birthday ( with texture )
Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
Paper Shelter - For Some One Special
Make It Monday - Anything Goes.

I have some more new followers this week, so welcome along and I hope you like what you see here and keep coming back. Thank you all for your lovely comments too, they are greatly appreciated.
                                                   

More Christmas Cards

Yes Christmas is coming and although for the first time ever I have been making a few Christmas cards all year I still only have just over half what I need, so it's time for some batch makes again. This time I was inspired by this nice free stamp that came with this months Craft Stamper. It is the reverse kind of stamp where the background is inked and the focus part of the image shows through. I fancied to see it in white on dark green card. I looked in my box of small coloured card pieces and found enough green bits to get started. The stamp is only about 2" square so only needed little pieces. I stamped with Versamark ink and embossed with white WOW powder. I was pleased with the result and to see that even the very fine wording detail showed up nicely. Another search in the bit box came up with enough red and gold pieces to make double mounts for each image. I then used pieces of backing papers left over from my last project to cover some small square cards, just adding a few bits of ribbon, gems  and a couple of holly die cuts again from the die cut bit box.

  Here is a close up showing the stamped image. As I have used up so       many snippets I am going to enter this at,

  Pixies Snippets Playground - week 98
  and Make It Monday - Anything Goes.

Thank you for taking a look and for your comments which are much appreciated.