Christmas easel card

 I've been having a good rummage through the snippets box and the Christmas snippets box. In my main snippets box, I keep a section for "basics" - black, white, kraft, cream, silver and gold - where i know that even the tiniest scrap can be used. However those tiny scraps build up - and this card has shifted an awful lot of the scraps of kraft. 

I added a sheet of tartan paper from a pullout collection that was in a craft mag a few years ago, and added lots of snippets that were part of the same collection - even the snow scene tag is a snippet. These are the very last scraps of the papers - but I saved a download of the designs and I'm sure I will revisit them - especially that pretty snowflake paper. 

In the spirit of using things up, the felt snowflake border is the very last scrap from a huge spool of it I've ben using for years,  and the crystal "fruit  pastilles" are the last three from a much loved sheet. I'll have to try and source some more of those! 

I am sharing this with 

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge 416

and the challenge which this month is acting as a "sister" challenge, with Miss Di as guest designer, 

Christmas Kickstart - Christmas Snippets  

Feeling slothful

 My granddaughter is crazy about sloths, and with her birthday approaching I couldn't resist this sloth stamp that came with a recent issue of Creative Stamping. 

The accompanying magazine included instructions for a bridge fold card which I adapted slightly to make it stronger, as it need to survive international postage. Everything is coloured with Promarkers, and the sloth isn't that pale in real life, but these gloomy November days mean that everything has to be photographed using flash and sometimes it just isn't possible to edit out that washed out look (same goes for humans, too, on these dreary November days!) The background is made using stamps from the set - there are two different contrasting backgrounds although one of them is hiffen behind the image, in the recess of the bridge fold. 

I am sharing this with 

Addicted to Stamps and More - Birthdays 

Little Red Wagon - No patterned paper 

AAA Birthday - Animals 

Acetate Butterfly

 This butterfly wasn't going to be acetate - I had planned to make a one layer card, with the butterfly heat embossed on the background, but then I got an urge, and you know what it's like when you get  an urge.... 

I started with my blank card, masked off the edges and filled the space with blended inks in shades of orange, gold and brown. Then I used a large Crafters Companion collage stencil to lightly stencil all over the background in one of the orange shades,  and used stamps from a recent Indigo Blu magazine kit  to randomly stamp words and a tailoring pattern stamp over the background in brown. 

This is the point where I was going to stamp and emboss the butterfly, also from the Indigo Blu set. But I felt it would have a bit more life to it if it was a separate layer, so instead I stamped and heat embossed it on acetate. As I heated it and watched my acetate curl and melt into a soggy mess, I remembered that I have a pack of heat embossable acetate....  So one more butterfly later, here is the finished card. 

I am sharing this with

Crafty Calendar - Anything Goes  

Taylormade Cards 4 U - Fall colours 

 

The Archer

 No, not the radio series (and if you are in the UK,  you may well be humming the theme tune now) but a gnome archer complete with very rustic bow and arrow. 

The stamps I have used are from a NBUS set I won from Imagination Crafts a few months ago. The packs weren't labelled so I don't know which of their brands it comes from,  but I have a whole host of gnomely images. I haven't used them so far as nearly all are Valentines Day oriented and it was after V-Day when I won them. 

I used the arrow image to create a wobbly "flight" of arrows across the page to give the sentiment somewhere to sit. Then I stamped the archer, coloured him with pencils and fussy cut him, and attached with 3D adhesive. 

I am sharing this with 

Allsorts - from boys to men  

AAA - sketch/gnomes  

The Male Room - gnomes  

A bit more time to craft extra - anything goes

London in the Snow

 Yesterday I shared one of the cards I made with the stamp sets I bought from Clearly Besotted's October release. Now I've used the second set - also NBUS until now. 

First I made the winter sky background with blended inks and splattered gesso, then I stamped, coloured and fussy cut the images and attached them, with the buildings image flush with the background and the roadside image raised slightly with 3D adhesive. I love that so many London icons are there - how many can you spot? 

I am sharing this with 

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Anything goes

Watercooler Wednesday - All about Occasions  

Pearly Sparkles - Merry Christmas 

NBUS - NBUS

Craft Rocket - Winter/snow

Meery Christmas!

 No, that isn't a typo.  It's a meerkat themed Christmas card. With cacti, of course. 

I bought a couple of stamp sets from the Clearly Besotted October release, and what with family visits and health issues have only just got around to playing with them. This is my first make from the first set. 

I used die cut circle waste and masking tape to create a dome shaped space and blended red ink into it. Then I stamped, coloured and fussy cut the meerkat and cactus images and attached them with 3D adhesive. 

I am sharing this with

Sweet Stampin' - Use red 

Fab'n'Funky - Christmas is getting closer

Critter Crazy Challenges - anything goes with a critter

CAS Christmas - Christmas Critters 

Embossed embossing #2

 Catching up after the family visit, here's a last minute second entry to Let's Squash It, with a different form of embossed embossing. 

This time I used watercolour paper which I had dampened, then swiped the embossing folder (an old magazine freebie) with distress inks before embossing. This left the paper clean(ish!) on the raised area and with a blended watercolour background. Once it was dry, I smooshed a clear ink pad over the raised area and embossed with clear powder. However being a nice juicy pad and a fairly open design, I have actually embossed the whole of the lower area of the card as the ink went onto the flat areas too. Oh well, it gives it a nice sheen and a contrast in texture to the unembossed space at the top, which I finished with a die cut butterfly.