Christmas Decorations - Indoor Wreath

I love Christmas decorations and in an ideal world every room in the house would be festooned to bursting point. In reality though, every year the living room looks beautifully festive but the decoration of the rest of the house is sporadic at best. So I vow to craft up a storm for next Christmas, but it always seems to creep up on me! You know, it's ages away, it's ages away. it's ages away, oh shit it's here! It's like that scene out of Monty Python's The Holy Grail (but without the carnage 😂!) You'd think by now I'd be better prepared...

So in my attempt to boost the decorations stash I have made a few things, including this indoor wreath. I will be attaching one to every internal door in the house.

I cut a ring from Kraft card with a 15cm outer diameter. I then lined it with pine sprigs that I die cut (I don't know the brand) from green paper. I then die cut holly leaves from two shades of green mirror card using the holly dies in the Tattered Lace Holly & Robin set. Finally I cut several poinsettias using two sizes from the Tattered Lace Poinsettia 2016 set to place over the leaves around the frame. The wreath is finished off with a red bow at the top and a loop of red ribbon for hanging glued to the back. As I cut the holly from green mirror card, I went back over all of the berries with red glitter glue.

In our house the decorations go up on the 1st December. That's only a couple of days away so I won't have a full complement of decorations in time for that, BUT technically I've got until Christmas Day so I'll keep making them and adding them up until then.

Three Looks, One Die

I love background dies and the Tattered Lace Grandma's Garden panel die is really pretty.  There are loads of techniques that are great with background dies, but here are three simple ways to use it.

1.  Cut it out of Kraft (or other coloured) card and affix to a white card blank.  Stick a die cut sentiment also cut from Kraft (or other coloured) card on to a white oval and then affix both on to the background with foam pads.  It's really simple but it looks great.

2.  Die cut a panel out of plain white cardstock and place it over a coloured background.  In this case I created a vibrant background using alcohol markers, but you can use inks, watercolours, pan pastels or whatever medium you like.  I placed a white die cut sentiment onto a piece of coordinating card stock.  The white against the vibrant background helps to tone it down.  This is a great technique to use with busy background papers too.

3.  Die cut a panel from plain white cardstock and colour in the different elements, then affix to a card blank.  In this case I used pastel shades and a Kraft card base.  The pastels and Kraft work really well together.

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6x6 Holly Wreath Card

Wow, was it really May when I last posted on this blog?!  Time is racing past at an alarming rate, which means that Christmas will be here in the blink of an eye!  So, it seems like a good time to start sharing some Christmas projects.

This is a card that I made last Christmas, but I think that I will make some more this year too.  It's pretty straightforward to make.

You will need:

• 6x6 card blank
• Gold Mirror card in different shades
• Kraft card
• Flat back pearls or Liquid Pearls
• Embossing folder
• Bow or ribbon
• Foam Pads
• Glue

I used my Silhouette Portrait to cut out the holly leaves, but you could use a die, or a punch, or if you have the patience, do it by hand!  I also used the Portrait to cut out a ring about 3 inches (7.5cm) in diameter to act as a base for the holly wreath.

• Start with a 6x6 (15x15cm) card blank.  
• Cut a piece of mirror card to leave about a 1/2 cm (1/4 inch) border around the outside (so 5.5x5.5 inches or 14x14cm) and affix to the centre of the card blank.
• Cut a piece of Kraft card about 5x5 inches (13x13cm) and emboss using an embossing folder of your choice.  I used Sheena Douglass' 7x5 swirls folder (one of my favourites).
• Affix the embossed Kraft card square to the centre of the mirror card mat.
• Cut about 20 holly leaves out of different shades of gold mirror card.  If necessary emboss the veins onto each leaf using a ball tool or blunt pencil.
• Cut out a ring about 3 inches (7.5cm) diameter and 5/8 inch (1.5cm) wide from card for the wreath base.
• Attach the holly leaves to the ring, alternating shades and layering some to add dimension.
• Attach a bow at the bottom of the ring.
• Place flat-back pearls in groups of three around the wreath for berries.
• Attach the wreath to the card with foam pads. 
• Place a pearl in each corner of the embossed Kraft panel.

You could also add a sentiment to the front if you wanted.  This would also look great with traditional green holly leaves with red berries, but you could also try pink leaves with turquoise berries, or purple leaves with gold berries or any colour combination that you like for an alternative look.  Just be sure to match the colour of the mirror mat with the holly leaves.

Washi Tape Banner Card

I've amassed so many supplies, but hardly use any of them, including my collection of Washi Tape, so I decided to make a Washi tape card.

I placed strips of Washi tape vertically from the top right corner of the card blank and cut the ends to look like banners. After that I stalled! I couldn't think of how to finish the card. I tried a horizontal layered banner across the bottom, but the layout was really lacking something.  Then I remembered my new Tattered Lace Melded Backgrounds dies and that made all the difference. 

Tattered Lace Melded Backgrounds die set

 I cut the diamond pattern into the bottom left corner and added a pink insert into the card, which really made the pattern pop. I then placed the layered banner back over the top and finished it off with a die cut "Wonderful" (the waste from another die) and a small flower.

It's great how a small feature can really take a card from drab to fab!

Hello Notecard

I wanted to make some notecards, but as usual found it difficult to start.  I've had the Flower Frame and Tree embossing folder set by Sizzix for a while, but since I got it home I've not really been sure about how to use it.  Well, thankfully inspiration finally struck and I came up with these:

I started off using plain Kraft card,  but the embossing folder didn't quite fit and it looked a bit odd so I decided to use it as a panel instead.  I picked out a few embossed elements to highlight, which was done with watercolour pencils initially, but then I tried painting with mica powders, which gave a much better finish I think (you can see the lower bird looks more crisp than the upper bird).  I had a load of 17mm white circles left over from when I cut a tray to hold lip balm tubes, so I stamped individual letters on each one and layered them up on mica paint-washed kraft and white card to mirror the swirl and for an interesting look. Finished off by mounting the panels onto a card blank.  I like the mixture of kraft, white and colours, but I prefer the white panel on Kraft more than the other way round.  What about you?

I'm entering the following challenges:

Colour Throwdown #338 - Use Green, Teal, Kraft and White

AAA Cards #37 - It's Springtime

Simple Mother's Day Card

 

I was inspired by the sketch in Freshly Made Sketches 175 and the colour palette in Colour Throwdown 331 to create a simple but sweet card for Mother's Day (which is coming up on 15th March here in the UK).

The cue colours were hot pink, light pink, green and Kraft.  I used hot pink organza ribbon, MUM was die cut from Kraft card with the Xcut alphabet die, the flowers were die cut with a Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Sizzix Bigz die, then edged with fuchsia ink and curled for body and dimension, and the leaves were die cut and embossed with a Sizzix Leaf Embosslits die.

Say It With Flowers

It's always nice to get flowers so I made this bouquet card for my sister's birthday.   I bought the gingham flowers but made the pinwheels. I was going to put the flowers in a vase, but ended up creating stems from green mirror card and tying it all together with a red organza bow.

I am going to enter this into the CAS on Sunday Challenge #51: Flowers.  I'm not sure if it counts as CAS as there are quite a few embellishments, but I suppose I'll find out...

Pretty Paper

TK Maxx might seem like an unlikely place to shop for craft and stationery supplies, but it's worth checking out every now and again.  From gorgeous notebooks to paper pads and embellishment packs there are some surprisingly good deals to be had.  Much of the crafty stuff is imported from America and not widely available here so even better value.  My best haul so far was a 180-sheet 12x12 paper pad by Recollections that I snapped up for just £7.99.  

But my latest find (which I L❤VE) hails from these shores; a 2015 calendar by Hammond Gower from their Lace collection.  It's a gorgeous fusion of Kraft card with pops of colour. Love, love, love it! The calendar doesn't actually appear on their website but it looks like it's made up of a collection of their greetings cards. I'll be a happy bunny on New Year's Day when I get to put it up.  Here are some of my favourite months.

CASE Study Challenge #195

This week I'm joining in with the CASE Study Challenge (CASE stands for copy and steal everything, by the way).  This is the design that was set: 

And here's my interpretation:

I used white pigment ink on Kraft card. At first the white really stood out, but as it dried it seemed to fade a little. Maybe the Kraft card soaked it up. So although I like the result, it's not as punchy as I would have liked. 

Then I thought about stamping with acrylic paint instead, to get a bolder finish, so that's what I did here:

The result is definitely bolder, but it has a different look to stamping with ink. This was my first attempt at stamping with acrylic paint. At first I applied the paint directly on to the stamp, but I was a tad heavy-handed and some of the finer detail was lost.  So then I applied the paint onto an acetate sheet and then pressed the stamp into that before stamping on the card.  The result was much better doing it that way.  It's not as crisp as the ink-stamped version, but I think it has its own charm.

Finally, because the white was not very bold, I wanted to do a comparison with black ink, and here it is:

The design definitely stands out more in black, but I'm not sure which version I like the best.  I was thinking that perhaps the black version would make a nice sympathy card if the white mat behind the sentiment was changed to black.  I also thought that another version of the white using embossing powder might be a good way to make the white stamping pop.

I am entering the following challenges:

CASE Study Challenge #195

Moving Along With The Times - Clean and Simple

Fleather / Faux Leather

Faux Leather from Kraft card

This is my first attempt at making Fleather or Faux Leather using Kraft card.  I first saw the technique demonstrated by Sheena Douglass on Create & Craft TV a few months ago. Since then she's posted a video on You Tube which shows the technique in more detail.

I've been itching to try it for ages, and I finally bought some Kraft card so it was time to give it a go.  I'm really pleased with this first attempt. 

Basic Kraft card on the left, Fleather/faux leather on the right

I used the Far Out Florals embossing folder by Sizzix, and coloured it using metallic copper and orange pigment inks from Hobbycraft.  I think I was too vigorous with rubbing in the water/glycerin because the surface was shedding fibres, and in lieu of spray varnish I used some old clear nail varnish, but the effect is amazing. It really does look and feel like old leather!  I'll definitely be trying this again.