Christmas baubles

 I hope everyone had a good weekend.  I think we have seen the last of our nice fall weather.  Friday it was close to 70F and yesterday it only reached 45F but felt like 39F with the wind.  Clocks go back an hour this coming weekend, which means shorter daylight days.  

About a month or so ago, I happened to come across a beautiful card, I believe it was on You Tube.  Once I watched the video I knew I needed the stencil.  So I order it and it came about 2 weeks later.

The stencil is from Sweet Poppy Stamps in the UK.  These are not your typical plastic stencils, these are steel, and the edges are sharp, so you have to be very careful when cleaning them as to not slice your fingers. I've made 6 of these so far, 2 of each of the designs below.

Distress Oxide inks were used for all 3.

My first card I used victorian velvet and aged mahogany.  Using a large round ink blending tool, lightly sponge on the ink through the stencil.  I then took the small poinsettia from Stampers Anonymous - Winter watercolour #CMS354" and stamp it using the aged mahogany ink.  The little sprays coming from the poinsettia I stamped in the same ink but stamped off once.  Sentiment was stamped in black versafine and is from Stampers Anonymous Deco Christmas CMS176. I added some TH distress glitter to the poinsettia and a gold rhinestone in the center.

Card below was sponged with iced spruce and wild honey.  Image I used is from Stampers Anonymous Holidays Drawings CMS284.  I added glitter to the snowy roof top and some along the ground.

My last card is using the same inks as the first, victorian velvet and aged mahogany.  The cardinal image is from a set from Flourishes and sentiment is from the same set. Glitter was added to the branches and berries.

All card fronts where adhered to a 5.5 x 4.25 card base. 

I would like to try making some and masking off the entire card except for the bauble part and spray with a fine glitter spray, for lots of shimmer.  

So glad you stopped by today.  Have a wonderful day!

Pauline

Slimline Christmas cards

 I sat down today to tackle making a slimline Christmas card, as this seems to be the rage now.  I ended up making 2.

I'm using Simon Says Stamps Slimline Scene Builder - Christmas set along with Pinkfresh Studio slimline stitched rectangles die set (there are 4 dies in this set - 2 are stitched and 2 plain).

Using my Misti, I applied distress inks onto the background stamp.  I threw the first couple in the garbage as I did not like how they were turning out.  I found the background looked too streaky and blotching.  So.... added the ink directly from the ink pad to the stamp, then used a dauber to tap it out and blend it and this seemed to work.

Inks I used were distress tumbled glass, broken china, stormy sky and chipped sapphire.  I used the same inks for both, but think on the second card I was a bit more lighter when applying the inks. Once the background was done, I stamped the small trees using stormy sky, then heat embossed the large tree in silver. I also embossed the sentiment in silver. I used Enchanted evening (PTI) and a scrap of lighter blue from my scrap bin for the layers on this one.

For my second card, the small trees were stamped in distress hickory smoke, then white embossed the large tree.  I also used the decoration stamp for the small trees and stamped them in stormy sky.

I cut out both backgrounds using the smallest die from the slimline set, then used the next size up for the next layer. Before adhering to the stitched layer, I sprayed both backgrounds using Imagine sheer shimmer craft spray in Sparkle. I tried to take a picture of all the shimmer but just couldn't capture it, but trust me, these are very sparkly.  I used SU Soft sky and Not Quite Navy for my layers on the 2nd card.

One everything was adhered I added some red jewels to the first tree, and kept the white tree plain.

I also embossed the sentiment onto some Almost Navy (SU) c/s using white embossing powder, trimmed to fit then added a small strip of  silver glitter paper along the bottom edge.

Which one is your favourite?  

I appreciate you stopping by today, enjoy the rest of your day!

Pauline

In the forest

 Hello everyone and Happy Monday.  I hope you all had a good weekend.  You can sure tell the fall is upon us, days are shorter, nights are cooler, and day time temps in the lower to mid 70's, just perfect, my kind of weather.

With that said I have a couple more Christmas cards to share.

Stamps user are both from Impression Obsession: # L13829 (forest) & E13830 (deer)

I started by stamping the forest in a soft grey ink.  To tell you the truth I had so many grey inks on my desk trying a variety as some were too dark, some too much on the brown tones and some too light.  I honestly don't remember which brand I used.

I then punched a circle die for the moon from a post-it note and adhered to where I wanted the moon.  I then sponged some distress oxide blueprint sketch very softly, as I can always build up the intensity but you can't take it away.

Once I got it to my liking, I stamped the deer in black versafine ink, I think I stamped twice using my misti to get a good impression.

Next came the snowbanks.  I used The Greetery die set called Drifting die, there are 2 dies in the set, so cut both, then placed them to make them fit.  I then stamped the sentiment, and added some glitter along the snow drift stitched lines and as well as in the trees.

My second card is done exactly the same as the first except I tore the edges of the snow drift and sponged ink on them. This card was created by seeing a sample at my craft store in London, called Stamp Art, so I give them credit for the inspiration.

So there you have it, 2 more to add to my stash for this year.

I appreciate your visit today, have a wonderful day! 

I also want to say my thoughts and prayers are with everyone out west who are dealing with the forest fires. Such devastation and despair.  Hugs to all,

Pauline