Christmas Card Number One

Yes I am ashamed to say this is the first Christmas card that I have made this year in spite of my intentions to start earlier. So now as usual I will be rushing to get them all finished in time. The challenge this month at St. Luke's Charity Cards Challenge is for a CAS Christmas card, and I made up my mind to enter as it's ages since I have taken part, but here it is almost the end of the month again and I've only just about made it in time.
Here is the card I made, it is only small, about 4 x 4,5 inches, so not a lot of room for much white space, but the design is quite simple so I hope that it fits the challenge.I stamped the main image onto the card with Memento tuxedo black and onto some spare card with Memento rich cocoa. I coloured the trees with a green coloursoft pencil and the white distress marker.This turned out to be a bit tricky as the pen tip kept picking up the green and I had to keep cleaning it on a piece of kitchen paper. I was going to use a glue pen to add glitter to the snowy bits but my pen seems to have run out or dried up so I used white Liquid Pearls instead and some ultra fine crystal glitter. I stamped the star above the trees with Brilliance galaxy gold ink and embossed it with WOW clear gold highlights EP. I then cut out the little deer from the brown stamped image and used silicon glue to to stick him over the black one to give just a little dimension, and then stamped the greeting at the top. All the stamps used are from Chocolate  Baroque, the main image is from a set called Christmas Creatures, the star and greeting came from other sets.                                              
I am also going to enter this at Crafty Ann's- Christmas in October.
and Stampin' for the Weekend - Anything Goes.
Thank you for taking a look and for your comments, I really appreciate them all.  Jean.

U and V Alphatags

 Another month has passed so quick and it is time to show my tags for the Chocolate Baroque Alphatag Swap. We are nearing the end of our year long task and almost every one who started is still in, but with some very difficult letters all together at the end it doesn't get any easier to come up with ideas. Both of mine have a vintage feel to them this time which I didn't really plan but I struggled with finding stamps to match my ideas.

U is for Undergarments

For this one I covered my tag with some very pale pink backing paper from a Papermania pad and inked around the edge with Victorian Velvet distress ink.The background image is a crafty Individuals stamp, stamped straight onto the tag and coloured with pencils.The back dress form and the front stand were also stamped onto the tag,and the front dress
                                                form and all the corsets were stamped onto spare card and coloured with
 pencils and then cut out. I used an off cut from the backing paper to make a kind of pelmet at the top of the tag. I stamped the piece with a texture stamp and Victorian Velvet ink and used more of the same ink to shade around the edge. I used an edge punch to make a fancy edge along the bottom and then fixed it above the sign.I fixed a length of lace down each side tied with tiny ribbon bows to represent curtains and then fixed all the corsets in place, and added some little roses and a bit of ribbon for embellishment.The stamps are from Crafty Individuals and Chocolate Baroque, and all the main stamping was done with Memento Rich Cocoa ink.

V is for Victorian Valentine.

I took my inspiration for this one from the backing paper which is from crafty Individuals shades of Summer pad. It is full of lovely romantic images of roses and birds in pretty colours. I chose this one because I liked the birds and thought they looked just right for carrying a valentine greeting.The paper is 6x6 so wasn't quite long enough to cover the tag, so I found some matching braid and stuck it to the top to cover the gap and then added another piece at the bottom.I inked all the edges with Broken China distress ink. The large heart is a Chocolate Baroque stamp and was stamped onto the tag with Verasfine Majestic Blue which was really a bit too dark so I embossed it with WOW white pearl EP to tone it down a bit and also to give a nice lustre, which doesn't  really show in the photo. The top bird was cut out from the piece of paper left over from covering the tag and fixed using foam pads.The two tiny hearts are part of another CB stamp and were stamped onto spare card and embossed in the same way as the large one. I cut them out and fixed them to look as if the birds were carrying them as well as the flowers. I used a blue ink pad to add some colour to the roses from my stash and a little blue stickles  glitter and fixed them together with a piece of  lace to the bottom corner. The words were printed onto Saffmat using the computer, and some blue gems added for decoration.

Thank you for looking, your comments a re much appreciated.

Birthday Greetings

I need several cards for the men in my family during this and next month and I never find them too easy to do. However Chocolate Baroque have recently brought out a range of clear stamps to run alongside their excellent rubber ones, and when I saw this beautiful crane in the Oriental Crane set, I thought it would be ideal for some of them.
I first stamped the crane onto white card with Tuxedo Black memento ink and coloured it with colour soft pencils. I trimmed it down and used broken China distress ink to shade around the edges. I mounted it onto blue and then grey card and fixed it to a square white card blank. The grasses are from CB eastern grasses set and I stamped it once with memento London Fog and once with Versafine Olympian Green.
the greeting is stamped with the London Fog also.

I am entering this at The Stamp Man, Birds, Butterflies and Bees.
Make It Monday, Always Anything Goes.
Crafty Bloggers Network, Anything Goes.

Thank you for visiting, I really appreciate your comments.  Jean

Alphatags S and T

It's time once again to show you this month's tags that I have made for the Chocolate Baroque Alphatag swap. The letters this month were S and T which were a lot easier than last month's.  I bought this Haberdashery set of stamps from CB some time ago and somehow haven't had the opportunity to use them and seeing as these scissors are so beautiful and begin with S, I decided begin with them and see where it led.

S is for Sissors, Sewing and Stitches.

I chose a background paper and covered my tag with it and then stamped the scissors with Memento Rich Cocoa and embossed with clear embossing powder. I coloured them with Sukura glitter pens  in gold and silver. The thimble was stamped, embossed and coloured in the same way and the cotton reels were stamped with the same ink but not embossed as I wanted to colour them with colour soft pencils. I used Victorian Velvet DI to add shading around the edges and then adhered the tape measure ribbon down one side. I pricked holes round the other edges using a Tim Holtz ruler and stitched through them to look like machine stitching. It reminded me of the sewing cards I used to do when I was a little girl. To finish off I added a little swatch of fabrics cut from a craft magazine freebie and fixed them in place by sewing on with the buttons and adding a small sewing needle making sure that the point was hidden in the tape and gluing some thread through the eye with a spot of glossy accents, and lastly hanging a pair of scissors charm with the ribbon in the eyelet.
I am entering this tag  for The Crafters Cafe Challenge, Stitching Faux or Real.


T is for Time and Tide

The tags that I bought some time ago are rather a dark cream, not really manilla which I think they were called, but I find that the colour of inks is somewhat distorted and I usually end up covering them with paper, but on this occasion I decided to try using Picket Post distress stain to lighten it .It worked quite well and created a nice matt almost chalky effect when I used DI to colour over it. I think I used Antique Linen and Tea Dye on the lighter side and Chipped China and Stormy Sky on the blue side. I added a little background interest on the right hand side by adding more Tea Dye ink through a Crafters Workshop stencil and on the left with a little stamp that gives the effect of ripples in the water.The main images were stamped with Memento London Fog and embossed with clear embossing powder. I coloured the flowers with colour soft pencils and the dandelion clock with picket post distress marker, and added the little clock face and gems. I decided that the ship didn't show up enough and stamped it again on spare card with Versafine Black Onyx, embossed it and cut it out and adhered it over the original and added a few highlights with the white marker pen.The wording was printed onto safmat on the computer and the individual words cut out closely and placed on the tag. I used Walnut Stain DI to darken around the edge. The ship stamp is from the Seashell Collage set from Chocolate  Baroque and the dandelions also from CB Punky Romance set.

Thank you for taking a look, I love reading your comments.

Dotty Oval

The Less Is More challenge this week is to use an Oval. I quite like ovals but I haven't got much oval stash, but I remembered this Stamping Up stamp that I bought last year.I stamped it with Versafine Crimson Red ink and then cut it out.The dotty edge on the stamp made me think of the Cuttlebug  Swiss Dots embossing folder and I used it to emboss the front of my card, and then wrapped a crimson ribbon around it.The sentiment is part of this months Craft Stamper freebie stamp which I stamped onto the sticky bit of a post it  and then cut away the words to form a mask. I placed this over the cut out label where I wanted the sentiment to go and stamped the words through the mask with Memento Rich Cocoa. The little birds are from a mini Artimo set That I bought last week because I thought they were so cute, and liked the fact that they facing different directions which will make them so useful.They were also stamped with the Rich Cocoa ink, the lower one was stamped straight onto the label but the top one I stamped onto spare card so that I could cut it out. This was very fiddly as they are very tiny, but I wanted to fix it to the top of the label, which I did with a spot of glossy accents, so that I could mount it over the ribbon with foam pads.
I am also going to enter this at Try It On Tuesday, Anything Goes
Thank you for taking a look, and for you comments, all very much appreciated.

One Layer Foliage

Yes it is one layer at Less Is More this week and the theme is Foliage. This stamp from Lavinia Stamps came to mind straight away, it is one that I really like and I have used it a lot.I began by cutting  rectangle and circle masks with nestie dies. I taped the mask with the rectangle cut out onto my card and placed the one with the circle cut out inside it and inked it with Squeezed Lemonade  DI. I dried the ink and then covered it with the cut out circle and inked the rest of the background with Stormy Sky and a touch of Victorian Velvet.  I used Versafine inks in Spanish Moss and Olympian Green to stamp the acer branch, stamping the lighter one first and then masking it to stamp the darker one. The sentiment is from Crafty Individuals and stamped in the darker green ink.

I am also entering this at Challenges 4 Everybody, Anything Goes, and Make it Monday, Anything Goes.

Thank you for taking a look, I appreciate your comments.

Purple and Pink

This is a card that I made for my friend's birthday nearly two weeks ago. I only just got it made in time and thought I had posted it without taking a photo, but when I went to transfer some ATC photos onto the computer I found this, so I must have been having a senior moment and taken the picture without remembering.
I started to make this card knowing it had to be a pinky/purple colour scheme because they are my friends favourite colours. I decided to use this B Line Design stamp and inked it up with Onyx black Versafine ink onto a piece of ivory card. I then coloured it with colour soft pencils and very carefully cut it out . I used a Die Namics  die to cut the decorative oval frame from pale lilac pearlised card and stuck the image onto it. I chose a piece of purple patterned paper from my stash and cut a scalloped edge along the bottom with a memory box die. I did the same with a strip of the lilac card and layered them together.Next I took a folded A5 card and using a stamp from the Chocolate Baroque Texture Fragments set I created a background by stamping  randomly, firstly with dusty concord  and then picked raspberry distress Inks stamping off some of the ink onto scrap paper each time.Then I fixed the patterned panel to the card and added the oval mounted on some thin foam pads. I added a matching ribbon with a bow and then made the flower with circles of chiffon in two shades curled with a heat tool and fastened together with a brad.I didn't have a brad the right colour so I coated one with WOW Ruby Romance embossing powder. I added the flower to the card together with some silver leaves from my stash and some pearls also coloured to match. ( I used permanent markers for that ) I decided that the flower was really a bit bright so to balance it a bit I used two Memory Box dies to make the butterfly cutting the open one from card to match the oval frame and the solid one from bright patterned paper.
I am just about in time to enter this in Fashionable Stamping Challenges;Anything Floral/Handmade Flowers
and also Make It Monday; Always Anything Goes.

 Thank you for dropping by to look at my work, hope that you will like what you see and leave a comment. I appreciate them all. Jean