Rudolph Day - April

Well here I am turning up a little late for Rudolph Day which as most of you will know is always 25th of each month. The challenge remains open until the end of the month though, so I'm not too late. For this challenge you just need to make one christmas card which all helps towards getting a head start before the festive season arrives, which won't be too long, the way the months are speeding by at the moment.
I actually made two cards before our little away break last week so that they were ready to post when we came home, but we didn't get back till Friday evening, and yesterday was a bit hectic with all our stuff to sort out, washing and shopping to do and a Baby Shower in the afternoon for my Granddaughter whose third baby is likely to arrive next month.

I loved this image and knew straight away that I would have to make a new card with it. I trimmed the image close to the gold edging, the little corners are part of the picture, and added it to a red card mat. The backing paper is from a 6x6 pad that I think I bought in The Works. I chose this because it had a vintage look to it and the colour and style complimented the picture. I trimmed it just slightly smaller than the 15 cm ivory square base card and added a piece of brown and gold ribbon before sticking it down. The text was added using Chocolate Baroque stamps and Memento Rich Cocoa ink. I fixed the image over the ribbon with thin foam pads and with the last tiny piece of ribbon tied a knot to the side of it. To finish off I used a gold gel pen to highlight the top design and added a red gem to the centre.
                                                                                   
                                                                                 I loved the colours and sparkle in this image and simply trimmed it down a bit and stuck it to a mat of brown backing paper. The base card is 5x7   used landscape style with the fold at the top, and the front covered with paper from a Dovecraft christmas pack. I cut two corner decorations using a Memory Box die ( I think )  from brown pearl card and fixed them in opposite corners and added gold coloured gems.

I will now go and link this up at
Scraps of Life by Scrappymo - Rudolph Day.

Thank you for visiting here today and for your comments, all of which are really appreciated.
Jean x






                                                                            

Musical Butterfly

Good evening, what a lovely week weatherwise we have just had. For us here on the south coast anyway we have actually had two weeks of gorgeous warm sunshine and have been able to open windows and patio doors to let in some nice fresh air. I am hoping it will continue into next week as we are going away for a few days with my husband's bowls club and although I'm not very interested in the bowls I don't mind spending the afternoon sitting in the sun with a glass of wine and some friends to chat with while the men play.
Now for my card which I made today for the Butterfly Challenge where the theme is Butterfly + M for Music Notes. I was looking through my box of odd die cut scraps yesterday and spotted this yellow butterfly cut from some very old irridescent paper. It looks quite dark in the photo but IRL it varies from bright yellow to a reddish orangey colour depending on what angle you view it from. It is quite  thin paper with a shiny surface and having taken it from the box it promptly rolled up with the warmth of the sun, so I flattened it under an acryllic block and left it overnight while I decided what to do with it. To day I started by cutting and folding a white A5 card blank landscape style with the fold to left. I die cut the matching open work butterfly and the music notes from some snippets of dark brown pearl card. Both these dies are Memory Box. I used an ancient snippet of yellow patterned paper to make a panel for the left hand side and fixed it in place. I used some Stick It adhesive sheet when I cut the music so it was easy to stick it place. I glued the shiny butterfly in place next and then the body and the open work wings , glueing only in the center. To finish off I used Memento Rich Cocoa ink to stamp the sentiment which is a single clear stamp from Chocolate  Baroque. I bent it slightly to try and make it follow the shape of the music.
So now I am going to link this up at Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge - Butterfly + M for Music Notes and as I used some snippets I'll hop over to Pixies Snippets Playground, I might just be able to make it before the gates close for this week.
Thank you you for taking the time to visit here today and for your comments which I really appreciate.
Jean x

Two More For The Men

I had more men's cards to make last week as it was my SIL 's birthday and also his SIL's on the same day. I recently bought two Stampin Up embossing folders with mens cards in mind. Both are abstract in design and look quite stylish as well. I particularly like the diagonal stripes. This is the one I used  for the first card, embossing a piece of white card. I then used my brayer and a Kaleidacolor ink pad, Desert Heat to add some colour. This is a brilliant way to colour embossed card as the colour really stays on the raised areas only. I saw this technique  on  Liz's blog Crafty Sunflower, here, a few weeks ago and thought what a good idea. Thanks Liz. I also used an ink blending mat which really helps to spread and blend the ink onto the brayer for nice smooth look. I cut some dark red card to fit the front of a white A5 card blank leaving a very narrow border, and then trimmed the embossed panel down to fit on the red card leaving a slightly wider border and stuck the two together. I cut the greeting with a Britannia die, once from a snippet of the red card and twice from white snippets, and the layered them up and coloured the edges with a dark red Distress Marker. I laid it on a non stick mat and gave it a coat of Glossy Accents and left it to dry before adding it to the card. I also added some gold coloured brads to the top and bottom corners and a tiny gold coloured gem for dot over the i. I  tied some red and white bakers twine around before sticking it to the base card.

For the second card I made it basically the same way using the Zig Zag EF and Melon Melody Kaleidacolor ink pad, and mounting onto dark green card. I turned the base card around to make  it a tent style, and hand cut a banner from  a snippet of white card for the greeting, which is a Chocolate Baroque stamp, inked with the same ink as the background.  I used green and yellow bakers twine and three coloured brads for decoration.
My description here is a bit long winded but these cards were actually quite quick to make.
I used a few snippets here so I going to pop over to Pixies Snippets Playground with them, where a snippet or two  is all that is required to get in.
I am also entering at Incy Wincy Designs  - Embossing - Wet or Dry
                                 Creative Knockouts - Birthday Wishes.


Thank You for visiting here today and for your comments all of which I really appreciate.
Jean

Butterfly With Corners

Hi I'm back again because I wanted to enter this card at Mrs. A's Butterfly Challenge and I am only just going to make it in time. The challenge theme this time is Butterfly + C for corner. I used these Chocolate Baroque stamps from a set called Harlequin Butterfly. I stamped it with a black Memento ink pad, but I'm afraid it is getting dry and I need to replace or re ink it. So  I wasn't very happy with the impression but rather than stamp it again with a different ink and have to emboss it so that I could use Promarkers for colouring, I decided to trace over the corner design with a gold gel pen, I tried to use a light touch for this so that it didn't quite cover all of the black.  I was reasonably pleased with the result and so I also added some gold to the harlequin background as well, again I used a light touch and blotted away some of the ink with a paper towel. I stamped parts of the image again and coloured the butterfly with Promarkers. For the flowers I used a red Colour Soft pencil for the tips and edges of the petals, and the coloured all over them with a pale yellow Promarker which served to blend the pencil colour to achieve the effect I wanted. My inspiration for this is on the right
here, a beautiful gerbera that was given to me on my birthday last
year and which has just flowered again. I cut out all the extra flowers
and butterfly by hand and used silicon glue to stick them over the main image ones, adding an extra layer to the bottom right hand one.
I used a Krylon pen to make a gold edge before matting onto pearlised turquoise card. I used a white 15cm square base card and stamped the large corner stamp in the top right hand corner and gave it the same treatment with the gold gel pen. The greeting is a free magazine stamp. I gave the finished butterfly a coat of clear Wink of Stellar but I'm not sure how much it shows in the photo. I'm adding a close up below to see if it shows up better, it looked really sparkly in the sunshine this morning.
I am quickly off to link this up at the Butterfly Challenge now, thank
you for taking the time to visit and for your comments, I really
appreciate the all.
Jean

Happy Easter

I am just here today to say Happy Easter to all my readers. As I said in my last post I don't make a lot of Easter cards but I made a few like this one for my close friends and family. I used ivory cardstock for the base card and for stamping on. The stamp is from a Papermania set and I stamped it with black Memento ink, and I used Promarkers and a gold gel pen for the colouring.  I used a fine nib attachment on the puple Promarker to over write the text on the cross. The greeting is stamped with Dusty Concord DI, and the matting layers are lilac pearlised card.

And now just for fun I will show you what I made for my little Great Grandaughters. I recently bought a Knitting and Crochet magazine that had a little yarn pack and pattern booklet as a freebie. The colours are so pretty and couldn't resist making these cute little critters and the Easter basket. The basket is crocheted and the animals are knitted. Of course I filled the basket wth small chocolate eggs and bunnies but I forgot to take another photo. They were fun to make.            
                                                               
                                                                                Thank you for visting here today and for the     comments you leave me, I really  appreciate all of them.                                                                  Enjoy the rest of the holiday
Jean                                                                                

Easter Daffodils

I hope you have all been ejoying the bank holiday today, I'm afraid it started with rain here this morning, although there was a little bit of sunshine in the afternoon and it is raining again now. It didn't matter to me as I wasn't planning on going anywhere, my husband was out playing bowls this afternoon so that meant craft time for me. You can't help feeling sorry for working people and families who make plans for the holiday though.
I only make a few cards for Easter and this is one I made for a friend. I started by inking a piece of white card using Tumbled Glass DI dabbed onto an acrylic block and spritzed with water and then laying the card on top. I tried to keep the ink mostly at the edges and made it fairly wet as I was looking for a subtle background. I used a heat gun to dry it and then stamped the Chocolate Baroque daffodils in the centre and cloured them with Promarkers. I layered it onto first dark blueish green pearlised card and then light green pearlised card. The base card is a white 15cm. square, and I trimmed a page from  Crafty Individuals 6" x  6" Background Papers Book 1 to fit the front leaving a small border. I wrapped a piece of yellow gingham ribbon over the left hand side before sticking it to the card, and the tied a short length into a knot on the front. I then stuck the stamped panel in place and stamped the greeting beside it. The greeting is from a Just Rite clear Stamp Easter set.

I hope we all get to see some sunshine and enjoy the rest of the Easter holiday.

Thank you for your visit here today and for your comments, all of which I really appreciate.

I am going to enter this at Pixies snippets Playground, I used snippets for the stamping and matting.
Also at Crafty Ribbons - Easter with Ribbons
             Crafters Cafe - Easter
             C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - Inspiration Picture