A Beautiful Season with extra bling!

I was very excited when I got up on Saturday and found that this week's challenge at Less is More is to make a card using bling. I thought it would be perfect for all those Christmas cards I've been planning to make! Well, it was weird, I couldn't seem to make a CAS card at all and then Life happened and I had to go away and get on with that... This is my fifth attempt and I'm finally happy. Come and see what you think:

The starting point for this card was the frame: I embossed it onto a scrap of Very Vanilla card stock using quite a tight sandwich so that the frame popped out of the surrounding card stock. It was easy then to smother it in versamark ink and heat emboss it using gold embossing powder to produce this gleaming embellishment.

I decided to use the frame to highlight part of an image and this gorgeous bird on a holly sprig from Beautiful Season seemed the perfect choice. The rubber was coloured directly with markers and I used a blender pen to add more colour to the image after stamping. The bird has been turned into a Christmas robin - as Chrissie mentioned I really do have a bit of a thing about robins! I was a little worried that the frame wasn't blingy enough for their royal Limnesses, so I highlighted the holly with a little dazzling diamonds glitter to add a bit more festive sparkle!

The word Christmas in the sentiment was embossed in gold too and I added a small 'merry' to the top of it using my stamp-a-majig. Some of my customers tell me they don't like to say 'merry' Christmas - preferring 'happy' Christmas instead. I always tell them that with a stamp-a-majig you can say pretty much anything you like! I placed my sentiment inside score lines to balance out the image.

Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: Beautiful Season, Petite Pairs

Ink: Versamark, markers

Card stock: Naturals Ivory

Other: Designer Frames embossing folder, gold embossing powder, heat tool, dazzling diamonds glitter, stamp-a-majig, scoring blade

I'd be delighted to order any of these supplies for you and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I am committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to help and advise. Just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. 

I'm afraid the black cross has had to go on our front door again - this time the children are all going down with colds and, in the case of my eldest son, quite badly so that I've had to keep him off school. I've arranged him on the sofa, next to the cat, and given him the first of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials to keep him occupied. (He surreptitiously exchanged it for the Argos catalogue when he thought I wasn't looking and is obviously fantasising about opening an iphone-shaped parcel on Christmas day!) Just before lunch he asked plaintively when his brother would be home from school. "I could do with a bit of light entertainment," he said. Aaah! Brotherly love!

Thank you for popping in to see my blingy Christmas card! I shall be round to see all the other entries in the next couple of days and I'll be back here tomorrow with a new project. Hope to see you then.

Hugs,

FTL 166 - Button Buddies snowman tag card

I've missed so many of the sketches over at Clean and Simple Stamping because time has run away with me, but the latest sketch is a tag design and, since I'm currently having a bit of a tag moment, I've managed to whip a little something up! Come and see:

I really do apologise for the photos today - I was struggling with some very low light levels and all the photo-editing software at my disposal hasn't helped! - but I think you can get the general idea. I wanted the card to be clean and simple so I kept all the elements the same colour with just a flash of red in the sentiment, ribbon and snowman's embellishments. The tag is from my Two Tags Bigz die and I embossed it with one of the frames from the Designer Frames embossing folder. The large oval punch fits the inside of the frame perfectly so I was able to cut out this snowman image and fit him in there popped up on dimensionals.

Here's a closer view of the snowman - isn't he a cutie?! I made a mask by stamping him in early espresso on a scrap of paper and then punching out his head and body with 1/2" and 3/4" circle punches. Using a sponge dauber and some Whisper White craft ink, I daubed some 'snow' onto some Baja Breeze card stock, then held my mask over it and daubed more white ink inside. Using my stamp-a-majig, I stamped the snowman image over the top having first coloured the rubber with markers.

Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: Button Buddies, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: Poppy Parade, Early Espresso, Whisper White craft ink

Card stock: Baja Breeze

Punches: Scallop border punch, 1/2" and 3/4" circle punches

Other: Two Tags Bigz die, Designer Frames embossing folder, Cherry Cobbler seam binding, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these supplies for you and I can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I am committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to help and advise. Just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. 

Today is a very, very special day. Sixteen years ago today, my gorgeous little baby daughter was born two weeks late, and my life changed for ever. I could never have predicted how utterly I would fall in love with my baby and what joy she would bring and, sixteen years later, she's become a young woman that I respect enormously and who remains one of my favourite people to be with.

We'll be celebrating tonight with take-away curry and home-made banoffi pie - her choices! - and naturally I've been beavering away on some little projects to celebrate her birthday! I'll show you those tomorrow if you fancy popping back. 

Hope to see you then,