glitter

Christmas Bells

Hello everyone. I little lax in posting this past week or so – good weather here in the UK so I made the most of it.

The new challenge at ABC Christmas Challenge has started. Having reached the letters ‘J’ and ‘K’, we want to see your Christmas/festive creations featuring ‘Jingle (bells)’ and/or ‘Kraft’. Here is my card covering both of the themes:

I started by stamping the Tim Holtz bells onto some water–colour card several times with Archival black ink, as I wanted to layer some of the elements.

I then used mica sprays and Distress water-colour pencils to colour in the images. Once they were dry completely, I fussy-cut one whole image, then cut parts of the ribbon from other images and layered them on top.

The background panel was created using Kraft card stock, and stamping a Hero Arts rubber background stamp in a brown ink for a tone-on-tone look. This panel was adhered to the card base, then the bells attached with 3D foam pieces.

The sentiment was stamped, a rectangle die to cut it out, then a ran the brown ink pad along each edge to make it stand out more.

It’s very difficult to photograph the mica – but those bells really do shine.

As a finishing touch, I added glue to the berries then glitter.

I hope you can come and join us with your Christmas/festive creations following one or both of our themes. xx

Addicted To Stamps & More – Christmas

My Time To Craft Christmas – Christmas and use glitter

We Love 2 Create – anything goes mixed media

Creative Artiste – anything goes mixed media

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Christmas – Acetate Technique

Hello everyone. It’s the start of another ‘anything goes Christmas‘ challenge at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. Here is my card:

The snowflake was created using a Simon Says Stamp die (Pixie Snowflake) and die cutting that out of a previously created panel of acetate, tissue paper, Brushos, and glue……

You take a piece of acetate, add some dries clear glue or lacquer, then alcohol inks or water-colour powder – the colours of your choice – then sprinkle on some glitter. Here is a Sue Wilson video to check out if you wish.

You then add some wrinkled tissue paper and press down so the tissue paper sticks to the glue and alcohol inks. This is the messy part, so I wore some disposable gloves and some kitchen roll.

This needs to then dry over night – I usually make several pieces at one time to have some available when I want them.

Once that acetate and tissue paper had dried, I used a Simon Says Stamp die (Grand Pixie Snowflake) and die cut out of the middle of an A2 sized piece. I did have to use my chrome plate for die cutting as the acetate and the layers it has on it needs a little more help than the usual plates.

I created a white card base and added a green panel slightly smaller. The white glitter card I cut down to a square just larger than the snowflake, then die cut the snowflake out of the centre, and inlaid the acetate die cut into the glitter square.

The sentiment is a previously foiled strip.

I have the ‘off-cut’ here ready to add another sentiment when the time is right:

I hope you can come and join us with your Christmas themed creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Just Us Girls – die cuts – no flowers

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Peace On Earth – anything goes Christmas

12 Months of Christmas Link Up – Christmas – option of vintage not taken

Be Merry

Hello everyone. I wanted a little messy play today, so created this mixed media card:

There are times when I do want to get my fingers dirty, and times when I don’t mind waiting for things to dry. This card took me a couple of days to create for that reason – drying time.

I started with the background panel and applied some white gesso. I then used a couple of Distress Sprays – Peeled Paint and Weathered Wood, also adding extra water and let them flow around. Not to cover every inch of the background, just to add some colour.

I dried this with the heat gun, then took some Nuvo Glacier paste and a spatula and smeared it around. No rhyme or reason, and leaving some chunkier areas. I also used a snowflake stencil and applied some ink through that for the larger background snowflake, another stencil and added some gold and some silver glitter paste dots. Mores mearing with glitter paste on top of all this, then more splatters of teal ink.

Whilst this panel was drying I turned to the die cuts. The poinsettia leaves were cut using purple card stock, and several layered together to give a fuller flower, then silver glitter paste spread across the leaves for shimmer and shine.

The leaves are actually a snow flake die – the large Snowflake Card Creator. The leaves are actually a snowflake die – the large snowflake card creator from Spellbinders/Bibi Cameron. This die was used on a dark teal card stock, then some glitter paste dragged across the whole thing whilst before the die cut was removed.

To create the finished panel – which I did the following day, allowing everything to dry fully – I added the large snowflake to the top left corner with collage medium. The poinsettia leaves were plumped and shaped a little, then added with collage medium again. When the glue had dried, I cut the snowflake arms which were sticking off the edge.

The final touches were some gold glitter to the centre of the flower, and a foiled sentiment from Lawn Fawn.

I created a few more panels using most of the same products and colours, just slight variations:

As you all probably know by now, I don’t have a particular style for my cards. I’ll have a go at most things – but I do gravitate towards die cutting and perhaps embossing folders more than anything else – these were fun…. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Krafty Chicks – Christmas

52 Christmas Card Throwdown – Christmas and sparkle

Tuesday Taggers – sparkle

Addicted to Stamps and More – make your mark

Creative Artiste Mixed Media – anything goes mixed media

We Love 2 Create – anything goes mixed media

MAWTT – sparkle

Christmas Robins

The ABC Christmas Challenge has reached the letters ‘P, Q, R‘, and the Christmas themes this time round are:

P for presents, Q for Quick, and R for Robins’.

Here is my card:

I first stamped all the images from the Hero Arts stamp set, then coloured them with Copics. I then die cut them with the matching die set.

The background is a layer of gold card stock, a layer of blue card stock, then a previously created snowflake background – a tone-on-tone blue.

Once they were layered and attached to the card base, I attached the bird house and the birds as you see.

I added some chunky glitter, and a Pinkfresh Studio foiled sentiment.

I hope you can come and join us with your Christmas/festive creations following one or more of our themes. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – anything goes with a critter

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

Craft Rocket – animals

Crafts Galore – anything goes

12 Months Of Christmas – anything goes Christmas – option of stars not taken

Cardz 4 Galz – red, white, pink

Hello once again. Cardz 4 Galz has started a new challenge and this time the theme has been chosen by Pamela – a girlie card with red, white, and pink. Here is my card:

I struggled with this colour scheme a little – I am not a pink kinda girl 0 but it is a challenge, isn’t it, so I went with it and created a card I am quite pleased with.

Onto a 5 x 7 inch card base, I matted a piece of patterned paper with red.

The butterfly is an old one from Sue Wilson, which I die cut in red, then added a glue spray, then added glitter.

To ensure the butterfly didn’t get lost on the background, I added a scalloped circle, and then added the foiled sentiment.

I’m looking forward to seeing your red. white, and pink creations – maybe it will give me some ideas for future challenges with these colours……..

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

MMM Challenge – all creatures great and small

Shopping Our Stash – something starting with ‘B’

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

ABC Christmas Challenge – Y and Z

Hello yet again. ABC Christmas Challenge has reached the end of the alphabet for this year. With the letters being ‘Y’ and ‘Z’ – Wendy is hosting and the themes are ‘Y is for Youngsters (for or featuring a child and/or ‘Z’ is for Zoom (mode of transport). Here is my card:

I stamped the image from Newton’s Nook onto Distress water-colour card, and used the Distress water-colour pencils to colour it in.

The best way for me to use them, is to take a wet brush and touch that to the pencil nib, then move the colour around each part of the image. Once this was dry, I used the matching die set to cut it out, and set it aside to create the card base.

I took a white panel, die cut a Hero Arts bauble shape then dry embossed that panel with a Simon Says Stamp embossing folder.

I created some hills with white card stock, and found a previously created blue ink smooshed panel. I fiddled with the placement of the panel, the hills, and the bauble until I was happy, then adhered this to a card base.

I added the van at a jaunty angle, then also added some dots of glue to the blue sky, parts of the presents and the tree on the van, and along the edge of each hill.

The sentiment is a previously foiled strip.

I hope you can come and join us with your Christmas makes – following our themes – and I look forward to seeing you in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Beyond The Blue – winter holidays

Allsorts Challenge – anything goes with option let it snow

Cupcake Inspirations – happy holidays

As You Like It – anything goes Christmas

Use Your Stuff – anything goes Christmas

Floral Framed Birthday

Hello yet again. Happy Little Stampers anything goes birthday has started a new challenge – and we’ll be taking a break for a couple of months after this. Here is my card:

The background was created using a Spellbinders stencil, paste, and then sprinkling glitter over the paste and let it dry.

I added A Pinkfresh Studio deco frame, and layered the flowers and twigs around the edge.

I added some gold gems to the flowers, the corners of the frame, and each end of the foiled sentiment.

I’ve forgotten which die and stamp set I used for the floral and leaves elements, and with the Color My Life app having some issues at the moment I couldn’t search it – and didn’t fancy trawling through my stash – when the app works again I’ll edit the post to let you know.

I hope you can come and join us for our last challenge of the year – it would be great to see you in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – anything goes

Dream Valley Challenge – lots of layers

Crafters Café – use dies/punches

Mix It Up Challenge – anything goes – option to use a technique – stencil, paste, glitter