February Rudolph Day

Hi there, I'm back with my first Christmas card this year, made for the Rudolph Day challenge at Scraps of Life by Scappymo. I missed last month for various reasons and so I made sure I was ready this time.
This is a one layer card for easy posting, and the stamps used are Chocolate Baroque, apart from the greeting which is a magazine freebie. All the stamping is done with Memento Expresso Truffle ink, and coloured with coloursoft pencils, blended with Sansodor and a paper stump.I added a few touches of gold with a gel pen. When I had finished colouring I cut an oval aperture from some spare card and used it as a stencil to add a glow around the lantern, using Squeezed Lemonade and Antique Linen Distress inks and a duster brush. I brushed over the lighted area with clear Wink of Stellar and used a snippet of gold peel off for the hanging chain. I also added a touch of snow effect along the branch and cones with some sparkly white embossing powder.
So now I am off to link this up at The Rudolph Day Challenge. This is a lovely friendly Challenge to take part in so if you feel like making a start on Christmas cards it runs from today 25th until the end of the month.

Thank you for visiting here today and for your comments, I appreciate them all.

Jean

Birthday Butterfly

This card was made for my Grandson's partner who, when I met her last year told me how much she liked butterflies, and I promised that when her birthday came around I would make her a card with a butterfly on it. Her birthday was at the weekend.
The main stamp I used is from Inkylicious stamped onto a snippet of white card with Memento Rich Cocoa ink and coloured with a mixture of coloursoft pencils and Promarkers. I stamped and coloured the butterfly again and fussy cut it out to layer over the first one. I trimmed the image and edged it with a brown distress marker, and then layered it onto a pearlised turquoise mat which I had cut with a Li'l Inker stitched square die.The butterfly flourish and the sentiment are both stamps from Chocolate Baroque. They were stamped directly onto the 15cm. white square base card with the Rich Cocoa ink.  I highlighted the flourish lightly with a gold gel pen, and gave the coloured butterfly wings a coat of clear Wink of Stellar.
I am going to enter this at The Butterfly Challenge - S is for Stamping and /or Sapphire. I have included plenty of stamping.
I am also heading over to Pixies Snippets Playground as I used white and turquoise snippets.

Thank you for visiting here today and for your lovely comments, I really appreciate them all.

Jean

Floral Frame

Hello again at last, I have been away from my blog for nearly two months, and apologise to everyone for my lack of commenting too. There have been several reasons for my absence, starting with two weeks right after Christmas of feeling very unwell with a flu - like cold which sapped my energy, inspiration and enthusiasm to do anything very much. Then my sister Kate from Spain was coming to stay and we had a busy few days visiting our other sisters who live within easy travelling distance from here, and also managed to fit in a shopping trip. When she went home I went with her and spent almost two weeks enjoying some warm Spanish sunshine and relaxation.
I have been home for a week now and have caught up with all the washing and housework and actually got around to spending some time crafting, more or less the first this year.
Here is one of the cards I have made. I used a set of Memory Box dies which includes a die to cut the blank background panel as well as the floral frame die. I used snippets of white, green and pink card for this.The sentiment was stamped onto the white backing with memento Rhubarb Stalk ink and an Indigo Blu stamp which came free with a magazine some time ago. I cut the frame once with green card and then again with pink and snipped the flowers away and shaped them slightly with a ball tool and fixed them over the green ones with glue dots. For the tiny bright flowers I used a tiny snippet and cut it into bits and just placed onto the appropriate places and ran it through the cutter again. The base card is a 15cm square, with the front covered with some plain beige backing paper from a magazine cut around the edge with a scalloped blade in the cutter. I used a Crafty Individuals background stamp and Memento Rhubarb Stalk ink, lightly stamping off  some of the ink onto spare paper before stamping onto the card. I then stuck the floral frame in place and finished the flowers with tiny pearls in the centers.

I am entering this at Pixie's Snippet Playground.--- Use Snippets
                            Addicted to Stamps and More --- Anything Goes.

Thank you for visiting here and for your comments, I really appreciate them all. I will try and get back into visiting all of your blogs again soon as well.
Jean