Season Like Christmas

Hello, Crafters.

Yesterday I had my first play with the Season Like Christmas Stamp Set.

This is a four-step stamping set and will be even easier with the new Stamparatus when it arrives!

It took me a few practice goes to decide on a suitable colour combo, and I've decided it's best to use two similar greens, and stamp the bigger tree stamp in the lighter green first.

I started with Pear Pizzazz and then moved onto Wild Wasabi. 

For the tree trunk I used Soft Suede and Real Red for the berries.

It was so easy and I was really pleased with the results. 

Both cards have a Real Red Cardstock (CS) card base, with a layer of Whisper White CS and a top layer of Merry Music Specialty Designer Series Paper (DSP). 

The two different designs of DSP I have used on these cards are on the reverse of each other.

Apart from having a go at the four-step stamping, I also wanted to have a play with the Fine Tip Glue Pen. 

On the first tree, I put a small blob of glue on to each berry and put it to one side to see if it would dry as a blob, or if it would flatten out.

On the second tree, I put a small amount of glue on each berry to see what that would look like dried.

I did the same on the third tree, but sprinkled some Dazzling Diamonds Glitter over it very lightly.

As I was working on the sentiments, I dropped a piece of paper on the first tree, which was the one I wanted to see if they'd stay as blobs or become flattened as they dried.

I found out if a piece of paper is dropped on them, they flatten! Grrr! 

Rather than just allowing the glue to dry in a very indiscrimate manner, I covered the whole tree in Dazzling Diamonds Glitter. 

I gave it several seconds for the glue to adhere to as much glitter as possible, and then shook off the excess.

I used my pointed tweezers to manouvre the glitter back onto the berries, or I removed it off the card altogether. 

I was pleased with the level of success I had doing this, but I was very disappointed that the berries on the first tree were looking very pink!

I finished off two cards with tree two in the diamond shape, and card three in the oval.

Instead of adding ribbon to the two cards, I adhered two or three narrow strands of Real Red CS across the front of the card and  beneath the tree image.

I chose the sentiment from the Holly Berry Happiness Stamp Set, and coloured it by painting with my Marker Pens in Real Red and Wild Wasabi. 

After I had fussy cut them both, I adhered them to the card front using Dimensionals.

On the sentiment on the card with tree two, I went over the letters with the Fine Tip Glue Pen sparingly and allowed to dry.

I won't be trying that idea again! LOL!

Inside both cards, I adhered a layer of Whisper White CS, and added a punched bow, which I'd stamped in Real Red Ink on Real Red CS - the stamp was from Holly Berry Happiness Stamp Set.

The last photograph shows the tree with the pink berries, and I have no idea what to do with it at the moment! Any suggestions?

Yesterday evening, hubby and I had a super dinner at out favourite Singaporean restaurant, which is called Singapore Orchid - the food there is amazing.

I hope you have a great weekend, and until tomorrow, happy crafting. 

JanB.

Five Christmas Bells Video

Hello, Crafters.

As promised, I uploaded my video this morning which shows how I made the Five Bells card I shared here last Saturday.

When I orignally showed my card, I hadn't decorated the inside of it, but I'd remedied that by the time I'd made my video. 

I kept it simple by just adding four of the holly die cuts that I had adhered onto the outside of the card.

Except they weren't die cuts; I actually stamped them, which I would have done on the video but I used pre-prepared die cuts to save time.

As I knew this would be quite a long video, I had all the bells and holly ready beforehand, and then demonstrated how I did them, one of each, on camera. 

Another advantage of having everything ready beforehand was that I was able to demonstrate the bleach on a different colour from the one I needed for my project.

I chose to use Real Red - I didn't think I could chose anything more different! LOL! 

One of the reasons I love this technique is because you just never know what colour result you're going to get!

I think the only change I made to my card from the card I shared on Saturday is that I used Jute Twine instead of our Copper Trim. 

As much as I prefer the Copper Trim, I thought the Jute was more appropriate. 

Today I'm looking forward to a call from my UPS man with my latest Stampin' Up! delivery! 

Until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.

Five Seasonal Bells

Hello, Crafters.

Every now and again there are occasions - like today - when my modesty goes straight out of the window! 

Please forgive me, but I'm so pleased how today's card has turned out! 

I'm planning this for my Wednesday video, although it'll take some forward planning.

I started my card by heat embossing four - the plan being three for the front and one for the inside of the card - of the bells from the Seasonal Bells Stamp Set using White Embossing Powder on Elegant Eggplant Cardstock (CS). 

Then I used normal household bleach and painted inside the bell. 

While I was waiting for the bleach to work its magic, I stamped another four using Silver Embossing Powder on Basic Grey CS, and then painted them with bleach. 

By this time my plan had changed to five bells as seen in my finished card, and I knew I wanted a darker outline for the bells. 

Seeing the developing results on the first two sets of bells, I chose Smokey Slate CS with Copper Embossing Powder, and created five bells. 

I should have done six, so I had one for the inside of the card!

I punched the bells out using the Bell Punch, but I didn't like the outside of cardstock showing, so I fussy cut around the edge of the heat embossing. 
 
I inked the Sheet Music Background Stamp with Sahara Sand Ink, and stamped off once. 

Then I took a layer of Whisper White CS and laid it on top of the stamp, making sure I positioned it straight. 

I took a scrap of paper, placed it over the cardstock, and gently rubbed all over. 

Using Tombow, I adhered this layer onto a layer of Copper Foil, and then onto a Whisper White CS card base. 

I should have waited before adhering to the card base so I could have adhered the top of the 1/4" Copper Trim at the back of the Copper Foil! DOH! 

Never mind, I successfully anchored the top of the trim down using Glue Dots.

I punched holes in the top of each bell using my 1/8" Handheld Punch, and threaded the Copper Trim through all the bells.

I adhered the bells to the card front using Dimensionals. 

At this stage I decided I needed a pop of colour and chose the holly and berries stamp from the Carols of Christmas Stamp Set. 

I painted them using Garden Green and Real Red Marker Pens, making a total of nine altogether. 

I die cut them using the Card Front Builder Thinlits Dies. 

I heat embossed the sentiment from the Star of Light Stamp Set, onto a piece of Very Vanilla CS, and adhered it to a layer of Copper Foil. 

This was then adhered to the card front using Tombow. 

Finally I added the holly using Glue Dots on the five bells, and Tombow in each of the four corners.

By the time I reached this stage, it was getting quite late and I was beginning to feel quite tired...............but I still hadn't decorated inside my card! 

This is just the second occasion since I started decorating the insides of my cards on 01.01.17 that I haven't done it! 

I adhered a layer of Whisper White CS onto a layer of Copper Foil, and adhered that inside my card, and left it!
 
At least this way I can go back to my card and finish it off properly at any time, rather than forcing myself to do something and run the risk of spoiling my card! 

The penultimate photograph shows the results of the other two bells I bleached! 

Originally I photographed the "pink" bell on a sheet of Blushing Bride CS, and the "yellow" bell on a sheet of So Saffron CS.

The idea was that I thought it would give you a good idea of the true colours! 

However, being the lousy photographer I am, while the Blushing Bride didn't look too bad, the So Saffron looked more like Daffodil Delight see the last photograph! 


I don't have any immediate plans for thes other bells, but as the saying goes, watch this space! 

I hope you have a great weekend. Until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.

Seasonal Bells meet Smitten Mittens

Hello, Crafters.

I have loved mittens ever since I was little! 

I can remember both my older sisters moving onto "grown up" gloves, but I stayed with mittens! 

When I first saw the Smitten Mittens Stamp Set, I knew I wanted to make a card using Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper for the cuffs to make it look like fur cuffs!

Yesterday I loved creating today's card, until it came to the sentiment, and I suddenly thought what do mittens have to do with Christmas? 

For a lot of us here in the Northern Hemisphere, we look forward to having a white Christmas, but in the Southern Hemisphere, it's summer time, and a lot of places never see snow! 

I chose to use the same sentiment I used on Thursday's card, but going forward I'll put something Christmassy on the back of the mittens e.g, Father Christmas, reindeer, gingerbread man. 

There are some great stamps in the Iconic Christmas Stamp Set, and co-ordinating Ornamental Christmas Framelits Dies, that would be ideal.

The co-ordinating dies for the Smitten Mittens Stamp Set is called Many Mittens Framelits Dies

I started my card by die cutting one pair of large and one pair of small mittens using Emerald Envy Cardstock (CS). 

Using Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper, I also die cut two cuffs, two large and two small snowflakes, and the mitten that has all the fancy die cutting. 

I didn't have any plans to use it on this card, but I wanted to know what it looks like in Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper!

In the end, I decided to use six of the little "x's" from this mitten to decorate the back of the small mittens I was using to decorate the inside of my card!

I found one of the bows in my Emerald Envy Ziplock Bag, but I needed two, so I die cut another one, using the die from the Mini Treat Bag Thinlits dies.

I also wanted a bow for the small mittens I using to decorate inside the card.

I found one in the Christmas Staircase Thinlits Dies which, on its own, looks upside down, but it was designed to sit on a Christmas parcel. 

This makes it ideal for the mittens.

I was then ready to start putting my card together! 

I started with a Whisper White CS card base, with a layer of Emerald Envy CS and a top layer of Whisper White CS.

I dry embossed the top layer using the Softly Falling Embossing Folder.

When I'd finished adhering all the elements to the front of the card, I added two Basic Rhinestones in the centre of the bows, two inside the stars on the mitten's snowflakes, and two on the decoration on the sentiment. 

I'm not sure where the two stars are from, except to say they were in my Emerald Envy Ziplock Bag.

I suspect they were left over from the strip of seven stars that come with the Mini Treat Bag Thinlit dies.
 
Inside the card I added a layer of Emerald Envy CS and a top layer of Whisper White CS. 

Using Tombow, I adhered the two small mittens in the bottom right hand corner.

This stamp set and co-ordinating dies will make a fabulous new baby card, or baby shower card.

Can you imagine these mittens i a pale blue or a pale pink? Stunning!

Don't you just love the versatility of Stampin' Up! products!

Tomorrow we'll be at the Tadworth Craft Fair which will be held in the Church hall at the Church of the Good Shepherd, Station Approach, Tadworth, Surrey, KT20 5AH.

It starts at 10 am and finishes at 3 pm. Please pop in and say hello if you're in the area, it'll be great to see you.

Until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.

FACEBOOK:Tadworth Craft Fair

TWITTER: Tadworth Craft Fair

Seasonal Bells meet Pretty Pines!

Hello, Crafters.

I'm always looking for different ways to decorate the backgrounds of my cards, rather than using Designer Series Papers, dry embossing or stamping. 

Yesterday I thought about using snowflake die cuts, and absolutely love the result!

The idea of the bell and the fir was inspired by a card that was posted to Pinterest five years ago, so that was the starting point for today's card. 

The Pinterest card was stamped, but I decided to use die cuts as we have two stamp sets with co-ordinating dies that are ideal. 

I cut several fir branches in three different sizes, using Emerald Envy Cardstock (CS) and the Pretty Pines Thinlits Dies. 

Then I painted them using my Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Pen. 

To make the bells, I took a scrap of Smokey Slate CS and wiped over it with my Embossing Buddy.

Using Versamark Ink, and one of the bells from the Seasonal Bells Stamp Set, I stamped four bells. 

After I had dipped them in my Whisper White Embossing Powder box, I tapped off the excess powder and heat set the images using my Heat Tool. 

There were two reasons why I stamped four bells! 
 
First was because that was the size of the scrap of paper I'd picked up, and second was because, although I knew I wanted two bells for the front, I wasn't sure what I'd be doing on the inside. 

This is how I end up with so many images stamped/heat embossed/punched/ die cut/etc which I use in later projects! 

I decided to use Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper snowflakes, because I had a small pile of six of them sitting on the shelf behind me, and which had been there for a couple of weeks - a leftover from a previous project! LOL! 

Two of them in the pile have been used on this card, and I die cut an extra four, plus another four of the smaller snowflake which came from the same set of dies - Seasonal Tag Framelits Dies. 

As I didn't use the smaller snowflakes on this project, they're waiting for a future project! 

FYI this set of dies co-ordinates with the Seasonal Chums Stamp Set, and the Pretty Pines Thinlits co-ordinate with the Christmas Pines Stamp Set.

I punched the bow I've used on the top of the bells using the Holly Berry Builder Punch, and more Glimmer Paper. Then the fun really started! 

I played around with lots of different layouts, but always leaving space at the bottom of the card for the sentiment.

I hadn't given this any thought at this point because I would decide once I'd finished the layout of everything else.

Once I was happy with the layout, I used my Fine Tip Glue Pen to adhere the three branches to a layer of Whisper White CS, and these included two smaller branches, and one medium branch, which I'd cut off two sets of the lower branches.

When they were in place, I painted two of the bells using the Clear Wink of Stela Glitter Pen, and adhered them, making sure they covered the ends of the branches, using Dimensionals. 

Then I adhered the bow in place using Tombow on the back of the bow tails. 

Next it was time to adhere the snowflakes in a random design around the bells, and like when painting this kind of background, I made sure some went off the edge. 

When they were all adhered in place, I turned the layer over and trimmed off the overhanging snowflakes. I adhered this layer to a layer of Emerald Envy CS, and then onto a Whisper White CS card base. 

I decided to use the Happy Christmas sentiment from the Seasonal Bells Stamp Set, and then to cut it out freehand! 

So I took a scrap of Whisper White CS and wiped over it using my Embossing Buddy. 

I inked the stamp in Versamark, then in Emerald Envy Ink, and quickly dipped the images in my box of Clear Embossing Powder. 

After I'd heat set the sentiment, I painted it with my Clear Wink of Stella Glitter Pen, cut it out by hand, and then adhered it to the card front using Dimensionals. 

To finish my card, I added a layer of Whisper White CS onto a layer of Emerald Envy CS and adhered it using Tombow.
 
I arranged a bell and sprig of fir in the bottom right hand corner, and added a Dazzling Diamond Glimmer Paper Bow I'd found in my packet of cut outs made but not used!

I'm really happy with today's card, one of the few that I don't look at thinking I could have done this or I should have done that! LOL!

I have a very busy day ahead of me today, as we are doing a craft show on Saturday, and I have masses of projects to sell, but I haven't prepared them i.e. priced, wrapped, labelled, etc!
 
I hope you have a great day, and until tomorrow, happy crafting.     

JanB.

Mistletoe Friends - Watercolouring or Marker Pens?

Hello, Crafters.

When I saw my GP yesterday she told me the Xray had been of my spine, not my ribs, and that the report was inconclusive! 

As there is no treatment for cracked ribs I suppose it doesn't matter, but the good news is that my GP is arranging a Dexa Scan for me!

Yesterday I stamped two images of the family of four animals from the Mistletoe Friends Stamp Set, using Basic Black Archival Ink. 

I painted the image I'd stamped on Whisper White Cardstock (CS) using Marker Pens, and the one I'd stamped on Shimmery White CS, I coloured by watercolouring.

I used watercolouring for the background of the image painted with Marker Pens.

I was pleased with the results of both methods, except for the watercolouring of the cat's hat and sweater - I used Real Red, but it looks pink! 

I used far too many different colours for each image to list them all here. 

I was determined not to restrict myself to just three or four colours, which is my preference! 

I enjoyed colouring both images, and apart from the Real Red I've already mentioned, I don't prefer one or the other; I like them both!

For the Marker Pen card, I started with a card base of Whisper White CS, a layer of Old Olive CS and a top layer of Whisper White CS. 

This layer had already been dry-embossed using the Garden Trellis Embossing Folder in preparation for a previous project, but I'd decided not to use it on that occasion!

I cut one of the new Gold Foil Snowflakes in half, and adhered each piece behind a square of the Christmas Around The World Designer Series Paper (DSP). 

I'd cut this to the same size as the image, which was 3" x 3". 

Then I adhered the image at an angle, and then to the card front, again at an angle. 

I stamped the sentiment onto a piece of Whisper White CS, using Pear Pizzazz Ink. 

I die cut it using an oval die from the Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies, and adhered it to scalloped oval from the same DSP. 

It had been die cut using a die from the Layering Ovals Framelits Dies.

Inside the card I adhered a layer of Pear Pizzazz CS with a layer of Whisper White CS. 

It hasn't been decorated yet, but I'm planning to stamp the candy cane from this stamp set on the top layer and colour it in using Real Read and Pear Pizzazz Marker Pens.

For the watercoloured image I started with a card base in Shimmery White CS, a layer of Pool Party CS and a top layer of Shimmery White CS. 

I chose two designs from the Christmas Around the World DSP, and fish tailed them using the Triple Banner Punch. 

Using a ruler and the 0.5 Journalling Pen, I drew faux stititches around both banners and the image. 

I used  a Silver Foil Snowflake cut in half to adhere behind the image, and laid it on the card front along with the two banners so I could decide on the layout. 

As I didn't have much room for a sentiment, I chose the banner stamp from the Seasonal Bells Stamp Set. 

Looking at it now, I see I stamped it on a piece of Whisper White CS - I should have used Shimmery White CS! 

I used Basic Grey Archival Ink, and cut he sentiment out freehand. 

Hopefully I can correct this with a new image on the correct CS, and adhere it on top to cover it up. 

I've adhered a layer of Pool Party CS and Shimmery White CS inside the card, but haven't decorated it yet. My plan is the same as my Marker Pen card but I'll colour the image using watercolours.

Although I don't normally like rainbow coloured cards, I'm quite pleased with how these cards have come out!

Until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.