Embossing on plaid

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Here's a Christmas card I made with some gorgeous plaid paper gifted to me by a very kind friend. The papers were released by Stampin' Up in 2020 and featured plaids in loads of beautiful colours. I bought a pack and loved it so much I used pretty much every scrap! Of course I couldn't get more as SU don't tend to carry papers over to subsequent catalogues, so I was absolutely delighted with the gift.

For this card, I cut a panel from a blue and green plaid using a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle. I stamped a garland of ivy from Stampin' Up's Quite Curvy stamp set onto a white card panel, and used the same rectangle die to cut it out. The ivy was coloured with alcohol markers and I fussy cut the top section away so that I could layer it over the plaid.

 

The sentiment is from Stampin' Up's Merry Christmas To All and was stamped directly onto the plaid in versamark ink and heat embossed with gold embossing powder. While I was at it, I drew berries on the ivy with a versamark pen and heat embossed those in gold too.

The panel was attached to a card base and I finished the card with a little bird from the Quite Curvy set, stamped, coloured as a robin with coloured pencils, fussy cut and mounted on dimensional pads.

CHALLENGES

I'm playing along with Happy Little Stampers Christmas challenge where Anything Goes this month; At Jingle Belles, Lauren and Stephanie have a What Santa Brought challenge and I am joining in with my gifted designer paper.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Eva loves opening presents and must be quite bemused when they make an appearance at seemingly random times in the year! Here she is opening one of her presents at Christmas...

... a fabulous crinkly eared elephant which she carried around proudly throughout the festive period! Unfortunately it's gone to the dog toy graveyard already as OH inadvertently used it to play tuggy with Eva at new year and it wasn't designed for that! Please don't feel bad for Eva though - she has an extremely large basket of toys!!

Sending hugs,

All is bright

Hello, crafting friends!

Clean and simple stamping has always been my favourite card-making style but just lately I find myself inclining towards bright colour and maximalism. It's much harder but kind of fun!

This card is very frugal! I didn't have any circle stamps so I used the rims of glasses to stamp them; I didn't have the right coloured card stock either so I swiped ink over the edges of the card base; and I used up snippets of card stock for the ribbons and the sentiment. 

The circles were stamped onto a panel first and I added the birds from Stampin' Up's Quite Curvy. I stamped and cut out the ribbons from WPlus9's Silver Bells, and drew lines with matching coloured pencils to look as if the circles are hanging from ribbon too. A grey pencil was used to create the board effect on the background and I coloured the birds with pencils too as well as their circle perches.

To frame the hanging circles, I stamped the fir branch from Uniko's Winter Foliage several times. The same ink was swiped over the card base to add depth. I finished the card with a Hobbycraft die cut sentiment cut out of a snippet of pink card stock, and a sprinkling of blue sequins.

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with the Kickstart Christmas challenge where there's a fabulous inspiration photo (I used the circles tied up with ribbon from the top of the photo, the bright colours and the fir branches); I'm also joining in with the Christmas Card Throwdown where the theme this week is Birds; I'm playing along at the Rudolph Day challenge too - the goal is to make a festive card at the end of each month, starting on the 25yth. Edited to add: There's no Rudolph Day challenge this month as Maureen and her family are ill. I know you will join me in sending love and get well wishes.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Sometimes, after a morning of romping about with friends, tucking into a bowlful of meaty chunks, tearing up tissues and rummaging through the laundry basket...

... it's good to find a sheltered spot in the garden and zzzzzzz

Sending hugs,

Birdsong

Hello, crafting friends!

Well spring has officially sprung and although it could be warmer, I'm loving seeing all the bright spring bulbs in bloom and the blossom beginning to come through. The birds are as busy as can be building their nests and it is a joy to watch them from a seat by my French doors.

This card was inspired by all that activity and is the first outing for the Quite Curvy stamp set by Stampin' Up I acquired earlier on in the year. I was attracted by the birds in the set - I can never resist a bird! - and they really are adorable aren't they?! I stamped them, coloured them with alcohol markers and fussy cut them.

The background was made using the emboss-resist technique. First I stamped the musical notes on a panel using Versamark ink, and embossed with clear embossing powder; then, using an oval mask as a guide, blue ink was sponged over the embossing, working from the centre out to a fade. I stamped a few leaves from Stampin' Up's Birds and Branches, wiped away the excess ink and positioned the birds. The panel was trimmed to size with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle and attached to a card base.

CHALLENGES

Less is More starts a new challenge today with the theme CAS Inking so I'm linking up there; I'm also joining in with CAS on Friday where the theme is Music. The irresistible colour palette is from the new-to-me Make The Cards Challenge and I will share at the NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) challenge too as I used a new stamp set.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I took Eva out in the fields behind our house as usual today and in the third field a pair of pheasants flew out of the undergrowth as they heard our approach. Eva was tremendously excited of course - pheasants are in her blood and she only has to hear their distinctive call to be on red alert. I do hope the pheasants are not going to try to get a nest going in this area as it's a major thoroughfare for dogs and I can't see it ending well...

Sending hugs,