Merry Christmoose

Yesterday I received some very happy mail thanks to the generosity of my favourite company - Hero Arts. Thanks a million Hero Arts:) I’m so glad I’m off work for most of this week so I can dive in and get inky! I started by making some items for a Scramble I’m hosting in the Hero Arts Flickr group on Saturday, but since the theme is a surprise I can’t post them just yet.

Anyway next up I wanted to use Christmas lights from the new Sparkle Borders set. I always like to make some cute Christmas cards and this time decided to have the funny moose from the Missing You set decorated or decorating for Christmas.

Stamps (Hero Arts) – Sparkle Borders, Missing You, Very Merry Christmas, Christmas Reindeer (snowflake), Polar Set by Lia (snowflake) and Fancy Cut Christmas (snowflake)

After die cutting a circle from a panel of kraft card, I embossed the panel and left it aside. For the background I inked a piece of white card with tumbled glass and salty ocean distress inks. After spritzing it with water and allowing time to dry, I stamped a mix of snowflakes in faded jeans distress ink . I adhered some snow banks onto the panel. These were made by tearing white card and distressing the edges with a scissors. I stamped the moose on white card and drew a line of string for my lights. The smallest light image from the Sparkle Borders set was stamped along the string. After cutting out the moose and lights image I coloured it with Promarkers and added diamond stickles and glossy accents to the lights.

The sentiment was made by combining sentiments from the Very Merry Christmas and Missing You sets.

I’m submitting this card into Merry Monday’s Christmas Lights and Glitter Challenge, Simon Says Stamps’ Anything Goes Challenge and Hero Arts’ Holiday Card Making Challenge.

Poinsettia Wreath

Today we’re going to decorate the house for Halloween and here I am thinking about Christmas again. I still have quite a few Christmas cards to make so hopefully you won’t get sick of my Christmas card posts between now and Christmas!

I wanted to make a wreath for a card and thought the pretty little flower in Hero Arts Color Layering Dimensional Bird set would be perfect for making a poinsettia wreath.

To make the background I embossed a panel of kraft card with the Snowflake Trim embossing folder from Darice and distressed the edges. The sentiment from Hero Arts Polar set by Lia was white embossed. I stuck the tail end of a piece of string to the back of the embossed panel before adhering the panel to the card base with foam pads.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Color Layering Dimensional Bird and Polar Set by Lia
Embossing Folder (Darice) - Snowflake Trim

Next it was time to make flowers and leaves for the wreath. I stamped the flowers in barn door distress ink and the leaves in mowed lawn distress ink. After cutting out the flowers and leaves I layered the flowers and added gold sequins to the centres. Then I adhered the flowers in a circular shape and added the leaves and string bow to finish.

I’m submitting this card into Hero Arts Holiday Card Making Challenge and Simon Says Stamp Wrap it Up Challenge. Now I'm off to spookify the house:)

Snowflake Card and Bag

I love using kraft, white and red on Christmas projects and as I still had Hero Arts Hand Drawn Snowflakes and Fancy Cut Christmas out on my table, I thought I'd make another Christmas card and a matching gift bag.

To make the card I white embossed the snowflakes on a panel of kraft card and applied white ink around the edges. After die cutting the sentiment out of the panel I die cut the sentiment again from glitter card and inlaid it into the panel. For some extra sparkle I added a sprinkling of gems.

Hero Arts - Hand Drawn Snowflakes and Fancy Cut Christmas

Next it was on to my gift bag. After die cutting the bag, I embossed snowflakes on the back and front panel. Again I used the inlaid technique and added some gems and baker's twine once the bag was assembled.

Hero Arts - Hand Drawn Snowflakes and Fancy Cut Christmas
Lawn Fawn - Goodie Bag Die

I'm submitting the card into Hero Arts Holiday Card Making Challenge and the gift bag into Simon Says Stamp Wrap It Up Challenge.

Snowflakes Christmas Card Set

This year I seem to be far behind on making Christmas cards compared to other years so I think it's time to start making sets of quick cards to help speed up the process.

Stamp (Hero Arts) - Hand Drawn Snowflakes Bold Prints
Die (Hero Arts) - Fancy Cut Christmas

I can't seem to resist pretty snowflake stamps or dies and this year I'm delighted to have added Hero Arts Hand Drawn Snowflakes Bold Prints to my stash.

Distress inks - shaded lilac, dusty concord & faded jeans

The snowflakes on this stamp are so delicate and gorgeous looking and I also love that the stamp is large (6"x 6") so it's the perfect size for anything I want to make.

Distress inks - tumbled glass, broken china, faded jeans & salty ocean

To make the cards I started by white embossing the snowflakes onto squares of white card. Then I applied distress inks and spritzed with water. As I wanted the snowflakes to be the main feature on the cards, I just added the Christmas sentiments I had die cut using one of the dies from Hero Arts Fancy Cut Christmas .

Distress inks - barn door & spiced marmalade

The sentiments have four layers, the upper layer die cut from either glitter card or plain card which had a coat of diamond stickles applied and the three other layers are die cut from matching plain card. After adhering the embossed panels to card bases, using foam pads, I added some gems to finish.

Distress inks - shabby shutters & mowed lawn

I'm submitting these cards into Hero Arts Holiday Card Making Challenge . This weekend is a bank holiday weekend here so no work or school on Monday. Also the clocks change this weekend, so an extra hour in bed on Sunday or maybe that will be an extra hour of crafting instead! There's lots to look forward to this weekend. Hope you have a great weekend too:)

Happy Birthday Rocket

I wanted to make a birthday card with a space theme for a two year old boy so pulled out a cute freebie stamp set (Rocket Thanks) that Hero Arts recently gave out with orders.

After stamping and cutting out the rocket, I coloured it with Promarkers and added stardust stickles to the flame. The star background was made by applying distress inks (salty ocean, peacock feathers & faded jeans) to white card and stamping the stars in faded jeans distress ink.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Rocket Thanks, Fantastic Birthday & Tiny Star Background
Die (Tonic) - Advent Drawer Deco Die

I die cut numbers out of the side of the card base and added a panel of acetate behind the number two so that I could inlay the birthday boy's age. As I wanted it to appear that the rocket flame had ignited the number, I coloured it in the same colour as the flame and applied stardust stickles.

I'm submitting this card into Allsorts' Numbers Challenge and Simon Says Stamp's Anything Goes Challenge.