Poinsettia Tag Card

I had a bit of time today to make another Christmas card and, thanks to my friend Linda W, used a lovely poinsettia image from Hero Arts' new Peace Poinsettias set.

Hero Arts Stamps - Peace Poinsettias, Lattice Background, Stamp and Cuts Ornament & Merry Merry Decorate It set

I started by embossing a white piece of card with the holly ribbons folder from Cuttlebug. Then I die cut a tag, stamped the lattice background in gold ink from the Merry Merry Decorate It set and added ribbon. After cutting out the poinsettia flower and leaves, I added beads to the flower centre and a layer of crackle accents.

The sentiment was embossed in gold. I'm submitting this card into the Mad About Metallics and Tag It categories in Hero Arts' Holiday Challenge and Simon Says Stamp's Anything Goes Challenge.

Scrappy Snowflake Tags

The other day when I was making this card my first attempt at a watercolour background looked really hideous. When this happens I usually set the piece aside and see if I can come up with another use for it. Often the not so nice pieces are die cut into butterflies or flowers but in this case I die cut some snowflakes to make gift tags for Christmas. Sorry for the gloomy photos but it's a really dull day here today.

Dies - Simon Says Stamp (Eliza and Kate snowflake dies) & Spellbinders (Picot Edge Circles)

I used the inlaid die cutting technique, and between using the scrapped watercolour panel and scraps of white card left over from other projects, I was happy with the amount of scraps I used up.

To finish the tags I added some gems and baker's twine.

I'm not quite ready to wrap my Christmas pressies yet (in fact I haven't even bought one Christmas present yet!) but just wanted to see how the tags would work on a present simply wrapped with tissue paper and baker's twine.

I'm submitting these tags in Simon Says Stamp's Watercolour Challenge over on Flickr.

Joyful Flurry

I wanted to join in again on the Simon Says Stamp Watercolouring Challenge over on Flickr, so last night I got out some purple and blue watercolour paints to make a background. I much prefer the colour of the card in real life compared to how it appears in the photo. In real life it's more purple than blue, but for some reason my camera seems to be picking up the blues more than the purples no matter how many photos I've taken in different lights! Anyway you'll just have to imagine this card as being purple:)

Dies - Simon Says Stamp (Eliza & Kate snowflakes), Die-mamics (By the Letters), Memory Box (Bristol Snowflake)

To make the background I applied water to watercolour paper and then added the paint. Then I sprinkled some salt on parts of the panel. I wasn't quite sure how that would work out but I like the look it gave to the panel.

Then it was just a matter of scattering snowflakes on the panel. I used Simon Says Stamp's Eliza and Kate snowflake dies, a snowflake punch and some pretty snowflakes my friend Linda had sent me. For some sparkle I added sequins and gems. I die cut the sentiment a number of times from silver card, layered the letters and added silver glitter to the top layer.

Hope you're enjoying the weekend. Tomorrow is a bank holiday for us so we're looking forward to the extra long weekend and mid-term break from school.

Snowflake Christmas Ornament

Every year I seem to have a mad dash in the lead up to Christmas as I try to make a lot of Christmas cards to send to family and friends. So shortly after last Christmas when I was talking to my friend Linda we thought it would be a great idea to make two Christmas cards each month throughout the year to save the flurry of cardmaking before Christmas. Well Linda is all up to date (and maybe even a little ahead) in her cardmaking, but let's just say I'm not!

So I decided to pull out some supplies again this morning to make another Christmas card.



Dies (Simon Says Stamp) - Eliza Snowflake & Kate Snowflake
Stamp (Lawn Fawn) - Trim the Tree

Over at the Simon Says Stamp group on Flickr Barb has a fun challenge going on which is watercolouring. So I thought I'd make a watercolour background for a snowflake Christmas ornament. I used three watercolour paints (two blue & one white) to make the background. I think there are layers and layers of paint on the panel at this stage as I'd be just about happy with it when I'd add something and mess it up! Anyway when I had an okay background I decided to call a halt and just added a few more splashes of paint.

Next it was time to make the ornament. When Simon Says Stamp released a whole range of pretty snowflake dies last year I fell completely in love with them. For this card I die cut two different snowflakes and applied star dust stickles to them.



After the snowflakes had dried, I layered them together using foam pads and added some string to suspend the ornament from the panel. The sentiment was embossed in silver and to finish off the card I added a sprinkling of gems.

I'm so happy to have my quota of Christmas cards made for this month, now I just have to catch up on the rest of the cards I was supposed to make throughout the year!

Sparkling Season's Greetings

I haven't posted in a while but now that I've finished making things to donate to Christmas fairs and am back from our holiday in Disneyland Paris, I'm all ready to get into making more cards for Christmas.

Hero Arts has a great Holiday Challenge going on at the moment with a number of different fun categories. I decided to combine two of the categories - - Mad About Metallics and White Out.

Ornament stamp & die set (Hero Arts) & pine branch die (Impression Obsession)

My good friend Linda sent me a gorgeous new set from Hero Arts called Stamp & Cut Ornament - thanks again, Linda. The set has a few pretty ornaments, a lovely mix of sentiments and a die to cut out the ornaments - love this as it will definitely help speed up my Christmas card making!

To start with I made a card base and using foam pads added a panel which I had embossed using the Snowflake Trim embossing folder from Darice. Linda had also sent me pretty pine branch die cuts from Impression Obsession so I took one of these, embossed it with star dust embossing powder and to add even more sparkle applied a layer of star dust stickles.

I embossed the ornaments in silver, die cut them and then added gems, dots of stickles and thread to suspend them from the branch. The sentiment was also embossed in silver and to finish I added a sprinkling of gems to the background and on the branch.

Hope you are enjoying the weekend. We're having stormy weather with lots of rain and I think it's due to continue on that way for the weekend - it's a really good reason to stay inside and get inky!