A Christmas Card

This project should have been for a Crafty Cardmakers challenge. That blog has ceased to exist, but I had posts scheduled and decided to continue to post my projects on the scheduled dates..

I made a Christmas card using an stamp from Woodware that I coloured with Promarkers. I added a stitched frame. I pierced the holes using a template I recently got which is actually intended for pricking holes in leather. There are some basic frames and a grid of holes too, although because it's intended for robustness, it's about 5mm thick and therefore quite hard to hold in place. Having said that, it worked fine for this frame. I completed with a layer of mirror card and I embossed the base card with snowflakes to add a little more texture.

International Art and Soul Challenge 98

 This challenge lasts for four weeks, taking us through the festive season, and it's an easy one - Anything Goes with a Bow! So, what are you waiting for?

I decided to have a go with my new hexagonal frame dies from Tonic. I already have a couple of sets of square/rectangular frame dies from Elizabeth Craft and I like those, but was intrigued by the different shape. I finally got something that worked well enough, but I need to find a way of reliably getting the angles between the sides more accurate.

It looks ok, but I can't line the inside with a decorated background because the angles between the sides aren't quite right. Still, I made the best of it by filling it with some flowers. Apart from some greenery which I cut using a Sue Wilson die set, the rest were cut using various dies from Susan Tierney Cockburn. The doily in the background was cut using a pink die which I think means it's Marianne, but I'm honestly not sure. Both the bucket and the doily were shaded with a variety of Distress Oxide inks, and flower details were achieved with Pan Pastel and Liquid Pearl. The silver decoration on the frame was cut using a very old Spellbinders die, and the bow using a Creative Expressions/Sue Wilson die set.

And that's it. I do hope you can join us this time.

A Handbag Gift Box

This project should have been for a Crafty Cardmakers challenge. That blog has ceased to exist, but I had posts scheduled and decided to continue to post my projects on the scheduled dates.

I decided to get out a trusty Tonic die set, and made this:

The structure of the bag uses standard heavy weight card in a dark brown. For the upper layer, I created some faux leather using a Sheena Douglass technique. I didn't have enough Kraft card for the project, so I just used some fairly heavy paler brown card as you can see. I must say, it looks the part, although it got a lot softer and generally seemed less robust than when I've used Kraft card in the past. I completed the box with gold mirror card accents.

International Art and Soul Challenge 97

 The challenge for this fortnight is to make something with lots of pink. If you're like me, this time of year is spent making things either red/green/gold or cold, wintery colours like blue/lilac/grey. So, pink is a chance to do something a bit different! Here's what I came up with:

So, it's a Christmas card, but a rather understated one. In fact, the only specifically Christmassy thing about it is the backgroud paper which has the names of lots of Christmas carols. I used a Julie Hickey stamp and die set, stamping the image on to white and colouring with Promarkers. Then, I stamped twice more on to pink card and used the dies to cut the top layer twice more, and the central bit once.  I used Versafine or Versafine Clair ink for the stamping - Olympic Green for the bottom layer and Charming Pink for the die cut layers.

And that's it. I do hope you can join us this time, and I'm looking forward to seeing your pink creations!