my Crafty Corner

Cards and other handicrafts made by Jean Straw

Thursday 1 May 2014

Christmas Joy

This is a card that I made for the Christmas card group on the Chocolate Baroque community site where a small group of us encourage each other to make at least one Christmas card each month in order to get a head start before the "busy season / panic station " is upon us. We work to a suggested  theme and for April it was a sentiment or text. For my sentiment I chose this large Joy stamp from a Chocolate Baroque set of clear large Christmas Greetings which can also be bought individually. The poinsettia frame is also CB from a set of rubber stamps called Christmas Creatures, so called because it also has images of birds and animals in it. This frame stamp actually has a little church scene in it, but I masked it off with tape before inking it so as to make room to stamp the sentiment. I stamped the frame complete with flower with Versamark ink onto ivory card, remembering to remove the masking tape before stamping, and then embossed using WOW pale gold EP. I then carefully stamped the word inside the frame and embossed in the same way. Next I trimmed it fairly close to the image and edged it with a gold Krylon pen. Next I looked in the snippets box for green and red card to mat it onto. I also found some smaller snippets and stamped the whole poinsettia onto green card twice and just the flower part onto red card twice using versamark ink and embossing with WOW clear powder. I then fussy cut them all out and stuck the red ones on top of the green with Cosmic Shimmer glue, and added some yellow stickles dots to the centres. I cut my Base card from an A4 sheet of ivory card and intended it to be 5"x 7", I trimmed the bottom but forgot to trim the side so it ended up 6" x 7" instead so now I will have to make a custom sized envelope for it as I didn't realise what I'd done until after I had fixed the matted panel in place. The stripy ribbon I used has got nice gold threads running through it but they seem to have disappeared in the photo. I finished the card by sticking one flower over the gold one on the frame and the other on the ribbon.
Because of all the snippets I used I am going to pop over to Pixies Playground with it and see what's happening, there is usually some sort of mischief going on among the other playmates.
Thank you all for looking and for your comments which I really appreciate.



12 comments:

  1. Love the embossed gold JOY. It looks wonderful. Drat about the special envelope...and I thought i was theonly one who did things like that! lol
    This is such a lovely card.

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  2. I love this gold embossed JOY and the pretty poinsettias!

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  3. Oh how I love poinsettias for life. Lovely red and gold.

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  4. Oh Jean, what a stunning card. Very elegant and great use of snippets too! Ha, so pleased I often end up making odd sized envelops :) Sometimes to get the balance of a card right it's unavoidable - err, but mostly it's due to me forgetting to do some chopping as well :)

    Hugs, Di xx

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  5. This is so pretty Jean, and a stroke of genius to mask off the original image to make a frame for the JOY. I also love the poinsettias and the extra petals cut in green for the leaves. With the layering and the gorgeous ribbon it makes a really beautiful Christmas card. x

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  6. Your use of the different stamps to create a cohesive whole is a super idea & I particularly like the way your ribbon has green, red & gold in it. The clear embossing onto coloured card is very successful for the flowers & I log the way the gold framing with the red & green mats ties in with the ribbon. Very classy.
    Paula (PEP)

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  7. I am in awe with your even marking with the gold Krylon pen. Also great masking skills on this one too. That is stunning. Love the sparkle of the gold WOW embossing and the poinsettias are beautiful. The ribbon trim is just perfect on this particular card, as it brings out all the different colors you've used above the trim. Beautiful card. TFS & Happy Wkend.

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  8. This is a really lovely card Jean. So elegant and that Joy stamp is wonderful.

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  9. Beautiful Christmas card Jean.
    yvonne x

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  10. What a beautiful card Jean. I do rather like poinsettias.
    Hugs
    xx

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  11. Fabulous use of your snippets Jean .. .. a beautiful finished Christmas card.

    Sorry it has taken me so long to see it!!

    I hope you are having a good week.

    Love Jules xx

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  12. Beautiful Poinsettias and a really wonderful design for your embossed image! Gorgeous!

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