Three Christmassy Birds

This is the Crafts Too embossing folder with Festive Berries and Broken China (I think) Distress Inks blended over and then sanded to reveal the white card.  The birds stamps are a favourite of mine of Hero Arts from last year.  They are coloured using pencils and sansodor (solvent).  The little greeting is from Craftwork Cards.  I managed to get the back of this card so dirty with inks that I didn't  have the nerve to send it to anyone!  I have now invested in a roll of Eclipse tape to use to cover the backs of my cards during the creative process (ha!)  which  you can peel off to reveal a virgin white back when finished!  That tip from Jennifer McGuire (Hero Arts). I know I could have used temporary adhesive and a piece of paper but it's Christmas and any excuse to buy some more craft stash.  When not wasting my time on facebook or having a glorious time making cards I love to watch Jennifer McGuire's cardmaking videos on Hero Arts blog.  In fact I have several cardmaking dvds which are more fun to watch than most tv, very therapeutic in fact. Thanks for coming by :)

Melt art girl

This is a gorgeous stamp by Hampton Art Stamps using Dawn Bibby's melt art technique.  Glimmer mist in the background. It's one of my (many!) favourite stamps and it's a wooden one to boot!

blue birthday

This was a birthday card for my daughter.  I melted some UTEE on a piece of non stick craft sheet in the meltpot and stamped into that with dark blue ink on my Crafty Individuals stamp.  The flowers are inked to match  with blue buttons threaded through.  I have used my Martha Stewart lacy punch on the edges of the folded A4 blue card.  The front piece was trimmed and punched and another piece of punched card mounted on that with a slither of silver card to cover the join.  The corners are the waste from a fleur de lys corner punch.  Thanks for looking :)

Enjoy 17 Theo

Another teen birthday card - great fun to make.  The main card is an A4 kraft card folded in half.  Tim Holtz tissue tape is applied diagonally in stripe patter across the whole thing.  The boy is Paper Artsy (I think! - I have lost the packaging again) stamped in blue, cut out and mounted on a piece of shiny black card with metallic markers puddled on it and allowed to dry.  This piece mounted on white and then mounted on top of a blue piece stamped in dark blue versamagic ink with the other stamp from this set, one of the stamps says 'if people did not do silly things sometimes, nothing intelligent would ever get done'  - very neat! This piece is mounted onto white card.  The kraft text pieces are edged in dark blue versamagic ink ; the 17 is a rub on and the other words were done using an alphabet stamp set.  The flourish is a Tim Holtz sizzix die called Elegant Flourishes.  I hope you like it :)

Melt art fairy

This is done using Dawn Bibby's melt art technique, which is great fun to do. You need to cut a piece of non stick craft mat to fit inside the melt pot, and put the UTEE on top of it so when it melts you can stamp into it and remove it reasonably easily in one piece.  It has feathery edges and is such a great technique.  This is what I have done here with the Crafty Individuals fairy stamp.  I have stamped again on blue card and white embossed, and mounted the UTEE piece over that after tearing the edges.  The main card which is a scalloped edge square Craftwork Cards card has been stamped in dark blue versamagic and embossed in clear ink.  The white paper flowers are finished with buttons ties with dark blue thread.  This technique is on Dawn Bibby's DVD Stamps, Stickers & Stencils, it's such a great DVD with lots of demos.  I hope you like the card :)

Dreamweaver forest. embossing paste & powder

This is one of my favourite stencils and I love the effect with embossing powder.  The stencil is covered with dreamweaver embossing paste and then cosmic shimmer embossing powder is applied and heat set after tipping off the excess.  This is simply trimmed and mounted onto a gimmer mist background. It is super shimmery.  The embossing paste shows up well in this one, and I love the vibrant colours.  I have not put a sentiment on this one as yet.  You almost need sunglasses for this card as it's so shimmery!  The purple glittery ruffled ribbon is a bit over the top but in for a penny, in for a pound!

Embossing paste Tree

More fun with my dreamweaver stencils, this time with three different embossing powders. I have used the embossing paste over the stencil and then applied threee different cosmic shimmer embossing powders and heated to set.  They are so shimmery but never seem to show up in photos. I love my glimmer mists and have made a background to match with metallic shades.  I wanted it without a sentiment but left enough space to add one later if required.  I hope you like it and thanks for looking.  Any comments very appreciated.

Dreamweaver tree

I love this card, it's embossing paste with cosmic shimmer embossing powder and a glimmer mist background. As usual the cosmic shimmer embossing with its amazing interference colour effect doesn't show up in the photo.  I can't resist running my fingers over the tree, it's so dimensional!  I have used my gold leafing pen around the edges. Gorgeous green ruffles with a gros grain ribbon on the side.  I wanted to make some cards without a sentiment so I could add one if I wanted before sending.  I hope you like it and thanks for looking.  All comments welcome :)

Card for Josh

Josh's birthday card 2010

 I need lots of male cards these days, especially younger men and teenage.  This one uses a large text stamp in black embossing with distress ink applied over the top. I restamped and cut out the 'Imagine' to mount on top of that.  The tag has a large J coloured with distress inks with a raffia tie.  The background is inked and distresssed and then clear embossed.  The key is stamped and black embosssed and the fob watch is stamped in distress ink and mounted onto black card.  I used some card candy which I recoloured in dark green copic marker.

The main card is a kraft A4 folded in half with black and white stamping.  The piece of diagonal plaid paper is from my stash.

I really enjoyed making this card and was pleased with the result (unusually!).

Help!

When I look at blogs they seem all beautiful and arty and mine empty and boring.  I hope someone can give me some tips.  I'm watching the Holiday Boot Camp online classes, I haven't actually done any cards yet but add it to the list.  I am learning Tai Chi and Alexander Technique both classes this morning and really enjoy them.  Fortunately they fit together really well.  I'm in the zone!

Christmas cards

Hero Arts little birds stamps on card which has been through an embossing folder.  I used my Quickie glue pen  in a few places and added silver easy metal for a bit of shine.  The birds were stamped and embossed in archival black and coloured using pencils.  I like this one and have used the birds stamps quite a bit this year.    

This is done with Craftwork Cards paper and sentiment.  The snowflakes are die cuts using glitter card and miri.

Another version of the blue one at the top, this time using gold flakes on the background embossing and metallic pens on the birdies.

A different embossing folder here and stamped and embossed baubles.  I used distress inks on the background and a bit of shine with my Quickie glue pen and gold flakes.  The sentiments are from Craftwork Cards and are mounted onto die cut snowflakes.

This is a bit blinged out in this photo, sorry about that.  It's done with Craftwork Cards paper and sentiments, plus die cut snowflakes.  The hollographic one is a real dazzler!  This photo is awful!

This one is another embossing folder with distress inks.  The tree is a stamp I have had for years and still love and use often at Christmas card time.  I have used Quickie glue pen and gold flakes again and the sentiment is another one from Craftwork Cards.  I haven't done a very good job on the photo editing, sorry about that!

Hello blog world

I finally decided to just go ahead and start blogging.  I am new to this so bear with me for a while til I get it right.
I have made a start on my Christmas cards so will post some of them, plus some of my favourite cards (assuming I can figure out how!