New Grandparents.

Hi all, as I reported in my last post we have a new baby in the family and it means that my Son and  DIL are grandparents for the first time. My son is very excited about this and so I just had to make a card for them.
I used this cute stamp from LOTV and decided to give it a vintage look by stamping it with Vintage Photo DI onto ivory card. I then used a water brush to drag the colour into the image, adding a touch of Victorian Velvet DI and using an almond Promarker to colour the baby. I then cut it out with a Spellbinder die from the Elegant Ovals set, inking the edge lightly with the Vintage Photo ink. Both of the patterned papers are from an LOTV pad called Country Lady. The spotted paper being cut to make a mat for the die cut, and inked around the edge with DI. I fixed a piece of ivory coloured cotton lace to the bottom of this piece. The greeting on the tag is computer generated and printed onto ivory card, and cut into a tag shape with an X cut die, and matted onto a slightly larger spotted tag made by drawing round the outside of the tag die and cutting by hand. The base card is a 6" square with edges shaded with Vintage Photo DI. I cut a piece of the flower paper to size and die cut one edge with a Britannia scalloped die. I wrapped some narrow ribbon around this before sticking it to the card. This was an upcycled hanging loop cut from the shoulder of a purchased garment. It looks a bit dark in the photo but it matched better IRL. I used the tiny surplice piece to tie in the tag and then attached it to the image panel with a spotted brad I found in my stash.  The whole panel was then mounted onto the card with foam tape.

My Grandson doesn't live as locally to us as my Granddaughter does so I don't see them as often but as we had a family gathering at the weekend for a christening they were all there and I got my chance to meet my little Great Granddaughter, Ella, and have a nice little cuddle. She looked very sweet in her pink outfit,she was just ten days old.

As my card has some snippets in it, the stamping card and the tag were snippets and I think my upcycled ribbon probably counts as a snippet too, I am entering this at Pixies Snippet Playground.

I also noticed that the new theme at Cuttlebug Mania Challenge this week is Wheels, so as my little pram has wheels and I used my Cuttlebug for the die cutting I am entering there as well.

I would like to thank you all for taking time to visit here and for your comments which I really appreciate.
Jean

Another New Baby

It is a while since I have posted anything here, but I have been working on things I couldn't show you just yet, mainly for a double Christening celebration that is happening this weekend. I was trying to get it done so that I had time to make a new baby card for one of my Grandsons and his partner whose baby was due in about two weeks time, but as you can see baby Ella decided to arrive early and catch me out, so I had to stop what I was doing to make this card for them.
The base card is a white 5" x 7" and I covered the front of it with two pieces of paper from LOTV Country Lady pad. I covered the join with some pink organza ribbon and a piece of pale pink lace both from my stash. I used a new but unused stamp from LOTV stamped onto smooth white card with black Memento ink, and coloured with Promarkers. I brushed over the balloon twice with a clear Wink of Stellar pen and drew in the shine highlights with a white Wink of Stellar pen.  I die cut the image using a Spellbinders Radiant Rectangles die and sponged a little Spun Sugar DI shading around the edge before removing it from the die. I layered it onto a plain cut pink mat before fixing it to the card front with thin foam tape. The congratulations stamp is a very old wood mounted one and it didn't stamp very well, but I was aiming for a subtle look anyway hence the coloured ink, I think it was Versafine Crimson Red. I stamped it onto a snippet of the spotted paper and and a matching pink mat. The flowers were also made from die cut and punched snippets and were left overs from another project, and the leaves were die cut with a Brittania die. I added a pink organza bow to the top corner to finish it off.
So it is welcome to the world for little Ella and congratulations to the new Mum and Dad. My son is also very excited to be a Granddad for the first time and so I also made a card for him and my DIL which I might show you next time.  I've got a feeling my next few posts are going to be a bit baby orientated

I am going to enter this at
 Darnell's NBUS Challenge 5 - ( Never Before Used Schtuff ) My stamp.

 Simon Says Stamp - Stamp And Punch / Die Cut.  Stamped image, die cut image,flowers and leaves.
 Cuttlebug Mania - Anything Goes.  All die cuts made with Cuttlebug.
 Eclectic Ellapu - Pink Challenge Anything Goes.
Pixie's Snippets Playground - Use snippets. Stamped image, flowers leaves & sentiment all snippets.

Thank you for taking time to visit here today and for you comments which I really appreciate.
Jean

August Rudolph Day

Well here we are the 25th of the month again and time for the Rudolph Day Challenge, where the theme is always anything goes as long as it's Christmas. The challenge starts today and runs until the last day of the month.
For my card this time I have used some new stamps from Paper Artsy, from their  Eclectica range designed by Lin Brown. All the stamps I've used here are from the same set.
I began by stamping the snowflake with Brilliance Ice Blue ink randomly onto some smooth white card. I wanted a subtle background and it doesn't show up very well in my photo but I think you could see it if you click on the picture to enlarge it. I then coloured the branch stamp with Distress Markers, Vintage Photo and Forest Moss, and huffed on it before stamping it toward the top of my card. Next I stamped the little bauble with Versamark and embossed it with WOW pearl gold embossing powder, and then coloured it with a red  Derwent Aqua tone marker and a water brush. At this stage I die cut it with a Li'l Inker  stitched rectangle die. I did this first so that I knew exactly where to place the Noel, which I stamped with Versamark and embossed and coloured the same way as the bauble. I used a small piece of gold peel off for the hanging chain, and then layered it onto first, some dark green card and  then gold mirri card before mounting it onto a folded red A6 card.  I quite like it now it's done but it didn't quite turn out as I had in mind and I had some difficulty trying to colour the embossed images. I tried Promarkers and then Distress markers which did colour OK, but I smudged both efforts trying to remove surplice ink from the embossing so my first two ended in the bin. The water colour crayons seemed to work better so I could make some more of this design quite easily now.

Thank you all for taking time to visit here today and for your lovely comments, I appreciate them all.

Now I am going to link this up at Scrappymo's Rudolph Day Challenge - Anything Christmas.

Jean

Musical Butterfly

This card was made with the Butterfly Challenge in mind where the theme is  Butterfly + W for Washi tape. I have said before that I have never used washi tape and don't even have any, but while looking for something else the other day I found this Tim Holtz tissue tape which I guess is more or less the same thing. It was hidden away at the bottom of  a drawer and I had completely forgotten I had it. Goodness only knows how long ago I bought it. Having found it I decided I could enter the challenge after all. As the tape has a musical theme I chose this Chocolate Baroque stamp to make the card. It was stamped onto a Snippet of white card with Memento Tuxedo black ink and coloured with Promarkers. I drew over the swirly lines with a gold gel pen and painted the bubbles with Art Quest Sparkling Pastelles pearlescent paint palette.Having done this I used a Li'l Inker stitched rectangle die to cut it out and while it was still in the die I sponged a little Broken china DI around the edge. I matted it onto a snippet of glittery orange card that had been saved from a purchased card. This was also cut with a stitched rectangle die.The base card is a white 6" square and I sponged the edges very lightly with the same blue ink. I stuck two pieces of the tape across the center of it leaving a small gap between. I found some narrow blue ribbon to bring out the blue in the butterfly wings and used it to fill the gap.  I fixed the image panel in place slightly to the left hand side and stamped the Chocolate Baroque birthday greeting in the top right hand corner. I stamped another butterfly from a different Chocolate Baroque set onto a small snippet of white card and coloured it to match the main image, and then fussy cut it out by hand. I used a double ended tiny stamen coloured with a  black marker to make some antennae and glued them to the back of the butterfly before sticking it to the card with gel glue and adding two brown gems to the body.

I am entering this at The Butterfly Challenge - Butterfly + W for Washi Tape
                                  Pixies Snippets Playground - Use Snippets
                                  Stamping Sensations - Use Stamps and Dies

Thank you all for taking time to visit here today and for your comments which are all really appreciated.

Jean

Sail Away

I have a man card to show you today that I made for my brother's birthday recently. I began by die cutting a circle from the center of a piece of copy paper. Then taking some smooth white stamping card I applied Distress Inks through the aperture with a blending tool to form the sun. I think the colours I used were Dried Marigold, Spiced Marmalade and Barn Door.There may have some others as well, I can't quite remember. When I was happy with the colour and made sure it was dry, I stamped the ship with Archival Jet Black ink. I cut a mat from some dark red card using a Li'l Inker stitched rectangle die and then trimmed the image to fit leaving a border all round. I stuck these together and then stamped the greeting in the lower corner and added a small helm charm, attaching it with a small matching brad. Both stamps I used are from Chocolate Baroque. The base card is made from a sheet of camel coloured card, similar in colour to Kraft but it has a nice bit of texture to it. I cut and folded it to make a 5" x 7" card, and then fixed the image panel in place.

I am entering this at Addicted To Stamps - Make Your Mark
                                The Crafter's Cafe - The Great Outdoors
                                The Male Room - Vacation / On The Beach.

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

Jean

A Pretty Freebie

Well another week has just whizzed by and we have enjoyed some lovely summery weather for the last few days, so I hope the sun has been shining where you  are too.
My card today is made with this lovely stamp and embossing folder set that is free with the current issue of Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine. I thought that apart from being very pretty this was good value and worth the price of the magazine. There is the A6 size EF, the border EF and the cameo style stamp. I pretty much followed the design that was in the magazine but I used different colours and different dies.
The base card is an ivory 15cm square, and the front is covered with Forest Moss coloured card from the Distress card pad, cut to leave a tiny border of ivory showing.  I used Bundled Sage card from the same pad to emboss two border strips and the sanded the embossing to reveal the lighter core. I trimmed these to fit onto the dark green panel leaving a narrow border. Next I ran a piece of ivory card through my Cuttlebug with the main EF, and then trimmed this piece to fit in the center, again leaving the narrow border. I stamped the cameo image with black Archival ink and die cut it using a Nellie Snellen nesting oval die. I used a Spellbinder die to cut the mat from the light green card to mount this. This die is from a set designed to co-ordinate with Just- Rite stamps. For the greeting I used the smallest die from Spellbinders Elegant Ovals set cutting one from light green and one from ivory card. I the trimmed the edge away from the ivory one so that it would fit inside the fancy edge of the green one and then stamped the birthday greeting with a Stamp Tapestry stamp. All that was left to do was to add a bow and a little rose above the image and some tiny green pearls to the frame and greeting panel.

I am entering this at Stamping Sensations - Anything Goes With a Stamp and a Die

Thank you for visiting here today and for your comments which are all really appreciated.

Jean

Anniversary Card

Oh dear !, it has been a while since I posted anything here. This is not because I haven't made anything, I have actually been quite busy, but instead of lack of creative mojo,  rather I sometimes  get a blogging block when I just can't seem to get down to doing it. Still now that I've started again and as I have several cards made and photographed you may get a little rush of them.( But I'm not promising !.)
Anyway today I have an anniversary card made for my Son and DIL last week.
The base card is a pearlised white 15cm square and I stamped the greeting with black memento ink before embossing with Couture Creations EF, Tied Together. The embossing didn't cover the entire front of the card so I cut a lacy border from a snippet of mauve pearl card with a Joanna Sheen Signature die and wrapped it round with a very narrow purple ribbon before fixing it to the fold of the card. I then used another short length of the ribbon to tie a bow over it. The circle frame was cut from another snippet of the mauve card with a Memory Box die, and stuck in place to frame the greeting. On reflection I should have stamped the greeting onto a separate piece of card as it looks a bit faded on the pearl card. I think it looked better IRL though, than it does in the photo. The flowers and leaves are all made with Britania dies. I used a snippet of green pearl card for the leaves, and  snippets of white satin paper from Joanna Sheen for the flowers which I coloured with Promarkers before making up. I used a gel glue to fix these in place and self adhesive tiny pearls to embellish the embossed background.
I am going to enter this at Pixies Snippets Playground  - Just use Snippets.

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

Jean