Mays Christmas Card....

....just !!. So all my crafting as has gone to pot abit this month as I am concentrating on wedding makes. I hadn't completely forgotten about my monthly Christmas card but just didn't have time before 25th, so last day of the month and here it is.

 

I used a Spellbinders Die set and used the inner and outer bell dies. I cut them in some patterned paper from an old pad I had and cut the whole bell to go behind. The little bow is part of the set and I used a Clearly Besotted pine stamp to create the background. Sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

Hopefully Junes will be more organised. I have loads of cards to post about so hopefully I will be back soon with some of those.

Aprils 2nd Christmas card

Back as promised with another quick tutorial for using the left over foam from yesterday snowflake card. After you have die cut the snowflake you are left with the waste part, I die cut that again using a plain circle die. In the Sweet Dixie set there is a smaller snowflake, I die cut that from more of the foam and then covered both that and the circle with more of the Wow Fab Foil in teal.

 
 I had this idea of filling in the gap between the two with glitter, so I die cut a circle from some double sided adhesive and attached that to my piece of white card that I had already cut with the Presscut stitched rectangle die. I made sure I put it further down the card so I could draw a line with a fine liner pen to make it look suspended.

I then peeled the sticky off the circle and then placed my circle of foam on top so it sticks to card. My next step was supposed to be to add the small snowflake in the middle before throwing glitter over it....but in my excitement I did glitter first then had to add some pva glue behind the smaller snowflake to stick it to the glittered area. So its a case do as I say not as I do...it would have been easier to stick the snowflake to the sticky double-sided. So pretending that I did it in right order it looks like this

 

Next I repeated the same process of die cutting some Holly leaves from a Sue Wilson die set from last year and then covering them with silver foil.

 

 

These were attached to the top and three more of the pearls I made for yesterday card were added in a cluster and one more in the centre of the snowflake. The sentiment is from Crafters Companion. In theory you could make three of these cards from the waste from yesterday card, that's three off your list.

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you enjoyed this idea, back again tomorrow with non Christmas cards I promise. 

April Christmas Card

 

Good morning, its the 25th so time for my monthly Christmas card. Its a bit of a twofer this month, I made two cards using the Craft Plus Uk product of the month Wow Fab Foils. I am posting one today and one tomorrow as they are quite photo heavy. The card uses Sweet Dixie Snowflakes die, but you can do this technique with any die as long as its not too detailed. I found some Xcut ejection foam in the shop. This is supposed to be used inside dies to help the cardstock fall out after its been cut. If you had the original Quickutz machine and dies, the same system was used for those as well. Its a thin self adhesive foam and can be cut with thin metal dies. So once you have cut it out one side has a removable sticky side. Lay your foil colour side up on top of the sticky die cut and rub all over and gently pull off.

 

 

I used the teal foil, keep the waste foam I have used it for my other card I am posting tomorrow. The sentiment was typed on a computer and then printed off using a LASER printer....not an inkjet. If you don't have one of those just type out a whole A4 sheet of lots of sentiments on your computer, print off on your inkjet and take along with some cardstock to your local printer and they can do it for you. It doesn't cost much, just make sure you leave some spaces in-between so you can trim or die cut out.

 

 

I used the silver foil, again just lay a piece over the sentiment and run it through a foiling machine if you have one or a laminator. I find it helps putting it through with a carrier sheet , if you don't have one copy paper will do. Put it through folded side first so I doesn't get caught inside machine.

 

 

 I used my Presscut stitched rectangles die on white cardstock and matted onto some black card. Arrange three of the snowflakes across the card, I used a fine tip glue applicator to get a little PVA on back of snowflakes. I wanted to add something in the middle of the snowflakes so I made some white pearls using Creative Expressions White PVA glue. Put some drops onto a non stick mat and leave to dry, I usually do it night before and come back to it in morning. Using a pokey tool lift them off and apply to card with a little drop of glue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you like these techniques, back tomorrow with my second Christmas card.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March Christmas card

Today is the 25th so its time for a Christmas card. Its been so cold this week, I had to get my gloves out again to walk the dog. When I got back I had to put the heating back on and make soup to warm up before heading to my craft room to make these cards. I had to remind myself it is almost April and not November !! Anyway, onto the card, I wanted to use something that I had brought and never used...well there's a surprise !! So I found my Memory Box Precious Snowflake die and using the inlaid technique ( well that's what I call it ) and this is what I made.

 

I used the cream shimmer cardstock from Stampin'Up and made my card base to 5" square. I cut another piece of the cream card and die cut the two snowflakes out. This piece was them backed with some double sided adhesive.

 

 I die cut the snowflakes again in Stampin Up soft sky cardstock and laid them back to cream cardstock so they were attached to the double sided sticky. Then I sprinkled glitter all over to cover the rest of the sticky areas. Down the side I masked off an area and stamped with the coordinating soft sky ink a little cluster of snowflakes from the Indigo Blu Seasons Greeting set and then drew a line with a ruler and a black fine liner pen. I stamped the sentiment in black which is from one of my Clearly Besotted sets using my misti. I found some little gems in my stash that match the soft sky perfectly. I love my Itty Bitty bow die from Sue Wilson, so used that for a finishing touch. Lastly,  it was matted onto some soft sky cardstock and mounted onto card base.

 

Managed to make three the same to add to my others from last month

Back on Sunday with my Mothers day card, have a great weekend and hope you get time to squeeze in some crafting.

Februarys Christmas Card

Its the weekend, I hope you all get some time to craft during the next two days! I have decided to do a monthly Christmas post. I promised myself that this year I would have all my cards made well before Christmas. I was meant to start in January but it didn't happen, so if I have planned post for the 25th of each month there should be no excuse not to get at least one done. I can then make a few of each and I should be covered. Well that's the plan anyway, lets see what materialises !!

 

So the card for February uses a stamp from Stamps By Chloe and its called Stag. I have had this stamp on my wish list since its been released. I love using Wow powders, so I did two version, one with  their Calypso and one with Platinum embossing glitter.I used my Misti to stamp it on plain white card with Versamark ink, this way I was able to  stamp it a few times and make sure it was well covered. I then heat embossed it and put it back into my Misti to stamp the sentiment which is from Papertrey Ink. I had a rummage through my Christmas embellishments and found these metal holly sprays which fitted ideally in the corner. I was going to punch some snowflakes but I like the holly and I have used something else which I have had years and years and never opened.

The actual card is just matted onto some black card and I created a top folding card to fit it.

 

 

 I am teaching again today and will be back next week with nine cards I made using one third of the  the Scrumptious Kit from Craft work cards.