Non Traditional Christmas Card

The new challenge on the Crafty Cardmakers Blog is either to make a Christmas card in non-traditional colours or to use traditional colours and a non-Christmas image. Well, I went for the former.



I used a brass stencil - a Dreamweaver one, I think - and watercoloured the hat, scarf and carrot nose. I then added embossing pen to the star and wording and embossed them in silver. The card background is stamped in Versamark Baby Blue with a snowflake stamp which was one of the first I ever bought some years ago, and finished it with some blue and silver ribbon.

Faux Cloisonne (Again)

Or, I really should say this is the first time. A few weeks ago, I made this post, but said the idea inspired me to make a card for a swap. Well, I now know the card's been received, so I can post it here too!



This time, I used a fairly old butterfly stamp, embossed it in gold and painted them with my twinkling H2Os. When that was dry, I painted over the colour with a clear varnish. The detail butterflies were stamped on two layers of fantasy film - I can't actually remember which colour because it didn't seem to matter which I used, it always looked about the same. The theme of the swap was 'transparent', and the butterfly wings just about comply with that. After that, all I added was some ribbon from an Autumn collection I bought in Hobbycraft.

Friday Sketchers Challenge No. 78

I really liked this sketch - it's nice and symmetrical while still having something a little different about it. (What can I say? I like symmetry.)



The image is from Cute Daisy May, and it's coloured with my Promarkers and edged with Olive Versamark.

The paper is actually from a Christmas collection, although it's not specifically Christmassy, and the ribbon is some raffia ribbon I've had for a while with a little olive green added. It's finished with a couple of flowers and brads from my collection.

Stamp Something!

When I first got into papercrafting, I tried stamping and quickly decided (well, not that quickly - I still bought quite a few stamps) that it wasn't for me. Then, I joined the Crafty Cardmakers group and decided to give it another go. Now, it's something I'm starting to enjoy although I still get frustrated from time to time when things don't work the way I expected. Still, I recently got some Oliphant stamps which intrigued me because they've got a figure of a boy and a girl as well as several background elements.

The Crafty Cardmakers challenge this time is to stamp something, so I had a play.



As an additional challenge, we had to try something we hadn't tried before. Well, I tried something I've never had any success at before ... masking so I could add the chair, tree stump and robin.

I coloured with my Promarkers. I'm still getting the hang of them, and I'm finding it easier to get the effect I want but sometimes it still doesn't look the way I expected it to. I suspect that's my total lack of an artistic background coming through.

In the background is some paper from the Paper Cellar and I Wizarded some Co'ordinations card with a Cuttlebug folder and cut a snowflake. Then I added some glitter, a stick on gem and some ribbon.

Anniversary Card

One of my colleagues' parents' celebrate their 51st wedding anniversary at the end of this month. In fact, they got married one day after my own parents, although sadly my dad died just short of their fortieth anniversary. I did a fairly serious golden card last year, and this year, she decided she'd like something 'fun', so this is what I came up with.



The central image is one I got from Craft Creations. I've embossed the raindrops and puddle with holographic powder and decoupaged the image. The background papers I made in Photoshop elements, based on the umbrella. The sentiment is one of those 'needs no ink' stamps which have their own reservoir and it and the heart are also embossed with the holographic powder.

Abstract in Acetate

The cardmaking group I belong to has recently instigated a digital challenge. Each month there's a digital image freebie from somewhere which we're directed to, and then we can see just how different the results can be. This month gave some interesting results, and this was my attempt.



First, I coloured the image in Photoshop Elements using several opacity gradients in the various colours. I only coloured some sections of the image in each of three layers, and then I printed the base and coloured layers onto acetate. I layered the various images onto silver holographic card, separating the layers with a frame of card, then added a frame on the top, some peel offs and ribbon.

My original idea had been to have a completely uncoloured layer, but decided not to use it, so instead, I coloured that version with Sakura Glaze pens and a second card was the result!



As you can see, the colours are a lot stronger this time, and again I mounted it on silver holographic card.

The original image came from Dover Books. Each week, if you sign up for it, they'll send you some free samples from their various publications, and this is one of those. If you're interested, go to http://www.doverpublications.com/sampler1/ and sign up!