Glittered Christmas Stocking

The photograph really doesn't show this card in all of it's sparkly glory. I stamped the Christmas Stocking from Wild Rhodes onto acetate and glittered the back, then mounted it onto two layered panels cut with my new Nestabilities. This then went onto a darker panel which I embossed with a small Cuttlebug folder and layered with some nbrown satin ribbon and some copper card edged with Threading Water again. Some more foiled sentiments from Craftwork Cards complete the card.

Simple Snowflake Christmas Card

This could hardly be easier. Onto a square white base card I stuck a panel of lovely shimmery paper, which I had edged with a Threading Water border punch. Then I just added snowflakes cut from glitter and mirri card and embossed with the Cuttlebug, with the addition of an iridescent gemstone in the centre. A circle sentiment from Craftwork Cards finished the card off. I've made quite a few of these, all on the same theme but each one slightly different. Here's another one:

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

The reason I haven't posted in a while is that I've been spending a lot of time making Christmas cards, the special sort of family ones that you don't want the recipient to see until it's time for them to receive them. Due to various reasons, I lost some of my available time for finishing these cards, so it's been a real push to get them all done in time. However, now that the family cards are all finished, I realise that I might be a little short on other cards, and - whisper this - I might have to actually buy some cards this year.

Anyway, I can at last begin to post some of my Christmas cards for 2008, and I hope you like them.


I adore the Penny Black 12 Days of Christmas stamp set, and so far I haven't got past day one!!
I stamped the image onto a circle cut with my Nestabilities, then coloured it with Prismacolor pencils. Layered with more Nestability circles and backed with papers from DCWV and Basic Grey.

Here's another made with the same stamp and using paper from Pink Petticoat:

For my Biker Brother

As my brother is an avid biker, it's fairly easy to come up with a theme for his birthday card - however, not so easy to keep coming up with new ideas around that theme. This year I used an image from the Dottie and George collection at Charmed Cards and Crafts, and decoupaged it in 3 layers. For the base card, I used a pattern from the DCWV Rock Star Stack. The text is die cut from Funky Foam, and I finished it off with some silver stars. As the card measures 12" x 6", I had to make a box for it for posting.

I love my Cuttlebug

Another simple card, inspired by one that I saw on a blog, but sadly can't remember whose. If I do find my source of inspiration, I promise to edit this post and give full credit to that person. Anyway, here we have three panels of contrasting DCWV card, eah embossed with the same Cuttlebug border folder and then embellished with gems. The greeting is from a Blonde Moments stamp.

Two Simple Cards

Back with the spirit of keeping things quick and easy, here are two cards that I made with the lovely Art Deco lady images from Kanban. The first is embellished with a Cuttlebug embossed panel and a single feather. The second one is pyramage (I think), mounted onto a foiled base card with my first beaded pin that I've secured with a satin ribbon. The whole thing is finished off with a stamped greeting.

Thanks to everyone who continues to look in.

Fantasy Film Dragonfly

I used Fantasy Film with this beautiful Mackintosh-style dragonfly stamp from OneFourZero. Now I have a confession to make - after I had used this clear stamp only once, I managed to tear it in half while removing it from the acrylic block. I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to use it again, but I have to admit I'm impressed with the results -you can't really tell that the stamp was in two pieces when I used it here. I mounted two Fantasy Film dragonflies together to enable me to leave the top pair of wings free. The backing paper is from the Artylicious Butterfly Bliss CD. The greeting is another stamp from the OneFourZero set, embossed in silver.

Oh no!! Peel offs!!

Well there go all my pretensions of being a serious rubber stamp artist - I made a card with peel offs this weekend. This is not something I do very often, I must confess. However, faced with very little time, and even less inspiration, with which to make a card, I decided to experiment with the silhouette peel off and some illusion film. To go with the safari theme, I even managed to use up some glittered animal print card that I have been hoarding for ages. Even further, I used a colour scheme that is way outside my comfort zone. As for the final result, well you will either love it or hate it.

Golden Tree

After a cardmaking hiatus, it'a a busy time for me now as October is filled with friend and family birthdays, and I have just realised hat I need to get a wriggle on with my Christmas cards too. I started playing around with this Klimt Tree samp from Tanda Stamps, then inspiration struck me and I decided to stamp it onto acetate then back it with some Easy Metal leaf. The panel at the side and the background are made with the complementary border stamp. It's really golden and shimmery in real life, but hard to capture on camera.

40th Wedding Anniversary

Sorry about the quality of the picture - I'm having problems scanning in cards that have some dimension. This is a card made for the ruby wedding anniversary of some relatives, and it did take longer then it may look. Centrepiece is another beautiful image from the Fashion Boutique CD, mounted onto an Cuttlebug embossed panel and then affixed to the base card, onto which I had printed the greeting from my computer.

Recently I have had little enthusiasm for card making, and even less for talking to myself through this blog, so I apologise to anyone who does come to look and especially to those who take the time to comment.

Father's Day

Another card made with ingredients from Joanna Sheen's Fashion Boutique CD.

Something simple

At heart, I'm not really an arty sort of person. This is the type of card that I would go out and buy. Very simple, with lots of white space. The stamp is from Onefourzero, coloured with Prismacolor pencils, then clear embossed. Background embossing done with the Cuttlebug and Score-It board, and die cut numbers for an aunt's 60th birthday.

Fashion Boutique Birthday Card

OH asked me to make a birthday card for his aunt. He chose the image from Joanna Sheen's Fashion Boutique CD and he also decided on the text to go with it. I just put the bits together. Backing paper is from the same CD, the text is printed onto an acetate wrap, onto which I have stamped some Autumn Leaves flourishes in white Stazon and added some white Sakura souffle pen touches. The image is matted and layered and all finished off with a double ribbon bow.

My first ever Penny Black

From the new Penny Black clear stamp set, coloured with Prismacolors. Base card is embossed with two different Cuttlebug folders. Finished with a die-cut heart.

Did you miss me? No, I thought not.

Prismacolor Pencils and Primas

I haven't been posting very much recently, because my mojo seems to be taking a sabbatical. I'm going through one of those periods where I have loads of ideas until I sit down at my craft table and then nothing springs to mind. Perhaps I have TOO much stuff to play with, and certainly too many things that I couldn't live without when I bought them, but have yet to see the light of day. This stamp is a prime example of that. It's one of four that I bought from Clarity Stamps at the Papercrafts Show in Harrogate a month ago. The other three feature stylish ladies in the Erte style, where this one has a much more modern feel. After fiddling about with the idea of more paper piecing (see my previous cards made with Clarity stamps), I decided to do something different and colour this one with some of the gorgeous Prismacolor pencils that OH bought for me from the US at Christmas. I'm still getting used to using the Magic Coloured Pencil technique, but I have to say I'm fairly pleased with this attempt. Trying to get away from the idea of having the main focal image just sat on a blank piece of white card, I masked the lady off and stamped a portion of a huge Judikins harlequin background stamp in sepia, together with a clear text stamp by Rita Marie. I then added some texture by sponging Brilliance Pearlescent Jade ink around the figure. I couldn't resist using a toning paper by Basic Grey and some Prima flowers - oh, and of course some bling in the form of iridescent gemstones in the centre of the flowers.

Thanks for looking.

DCWV Geisha

I adore the Far East stack by DCWV but I have to admit that I struggle with knowing how to use it to best effect. Here is a card on which I combined different patterns from the stack and added as a focal point a geisha image from Tanda stamps, which I coloured with metallic watercolour pencils, which gives a lovely sheen that you can't see in the scan. The card was made for a 70th birthday, hence the die cut numbers on the slider piece.

Stampbord Birthday Card

This is a birthday card that I made for my Mother-in-Law, using stampbord in two sizes. The larger piece is stamped with a butterfly image from Elusive Images, for the text, I stuck die cut letters onto the smaller stampbord pieces and triple embossed them. The backing 'paper' is from the Artylicious Damask Delights CD, printed onto acetate and backed with plain paper, onto which I stamped a couple of flourishes. Finally, I added some Sizzlits corners and a few Prima flowers, with black pearls stuck in the centre. The final card looks very sumptuous and really dimensional.

Thanks for looking.

Funky Wedding Card

I just love these American Art stamps and this is the first card that I've made with them. Image simply coloured with Tombow pens and highlighted with Sakura clear stardust pen, mounted onto white glitter card, then onto a piece embossed with the Cuttlebug. The text stamp is from CuddlyBuddly. A gem brad and odd tiny gems add some bling to the finished piece.

Elegant Lady

Main image is a stamp from Clarity Stamps, paper pieced with Basic Grey paper to tone in with the backing papers from the Periphery range. I embossed a piece of blue velvet paper in the Cuttlebug and was really impressed with how it turned out, so I'll be using that technique again. Text stamp is from Simply Friends. Flowers and bling to finish it off.

I hope you like it.

Rainbow Lady's Fairy Challenge

Well, not only have I completed one challenge this week, but I've also managed to do a second - I can hardly believe it! This one is in response to the fairy challenge set by Cynthia, aka Rainbow Lady. It's another decoupage card (which means I'll have to make a box for it), mounted on a panel which I have half-embossed with the Cuttlebug Stylised Flowers folder, and added a few gems for a bit of sparkle. Unfortunately the scan doesn't show up the full dimensional effect of the card.

Flutterby Butterfly Challenge

I finally managed to complete a card for a challenge. This week's Daring Cardmakers challenge is to incorporate a butterfly on your card, and this is my offering. The white background is stamped with an Elusive Images damask stamp and embossed with clear powder. I printed a similar design from the Atrylicious Damask Delights CD onto acetate and adhered three strips of the printed acetate with jewel brads by Making Memories. The butterfly is from the Artylicious Butterfly Bliss CD, printed onto clear inkjet shrink plastic and shrunk down. Text is also from an Elusive Images stamp.

Thanks for looking.

Monochrome for Men

Here are two more cards for men made from Joanna Sheen's Fashion Boutique CD. (I promise I will make some cards for ladies from this wonderful CD very soon, I just have to decide which of the many fabulous images to use.). Anyway, the first card is made with a mixture of black on white printed vellum and a co-ordinating white on black paper. I made the embellishments with die cuts made with the Cuttlebug, and added one plain and one fancy silver brad. The vellum sheet forms the front of the card, so it sort of 'floats' in real life. For the second card I used DCWV black and white paper together with a Cuttlebug embossed paned, and added some charms from a set that I bought ages ago at a show. Finished off with a couple of die cut corners. I'm quite pleased with these, so much that I may use one of them for OH's birthday in May.

Dragon Thank You

For some light relief from making Christmas cards in April, I made this card to say Thank You to our friends for hosting us at their Spanish villa recently. At long last I used one of the lovely dragon stamps that I got from Rubber Bandit in New Zealand. That's a long way away I can hear you say, but in fact delivery was incredibly fast - from online order to my door within a week! If only the majority of UK craft suppliers could do so well......Anyway, the stamped image is coloured with Sakura Stardust pens and then mounted onto yet more Basic Grey paper. For the greeting, I used one of my new Cuddly Buddly stamps, which are extremely useful and fantastic value for money, so of course I just had to get three sets.

Having spent some time reading the instructions for my scanner (always a good idea if all else fails), I'm hoping that I have finally solved the problem with my scanned images not always being in sharp focus, which I'm sure will come as a great relief to anyone looking here. Fingers crossed!