Catching up!

It is such a long time since I last blogged - so sorry that I've been AWOL for so long! December saw me frantically making several birthday and thank you cards, together with over 100 Christmas cards - which then had to be written and posted, so there was no time to write blog posts at all. Over the Christmas and New Year period we were busy entertaining our family and friends, then we came down with the dreaded lurgey and were forced to retreat to bed to hibernate until we felt better.

Anyway, now that things are getting back to normal, I thought that I would share a few photos of some of the cards that I made over the last couple of months.

The first one is a thank you card made with a Lili of the Valley cute image stamp and papers, Spellbinders dies and sentiments by Waltzingmouse Stamps. We took this to the Stroke Unit at Fairfield Hospital, Bury to thank the staff there for looking after my husband David when he first had his stroke last year.

My second card was for my Brother-in-law Les' 80th birthday. He loves the countryside and there are squirrels in the trees behind their house, so I decided to go with a woodland themed card. I used a Spellbinders embossing folder for the green background panel which I added to a 5" x 7" white card blank. I embossed the Papertrey Ink tree cover plate onto Bockingford watercolour paper, watercoloured the tree trunk and leaves, then stamped the trunk with the co-ordinating PTI stamp to get the bark effect. The tree panel was matted onto chocolate brown card, which I also used to cut some branches and an assortment of small birds with a selection of Memory Box and Poppystamps dies. The squirrels and acorns were cut with Impression Obsession dies, then I highlighted the acorns and the squirrels' eyes with a tiny amount of glossy accents. I was really pleased with how this turned out.

The next card was made for my Sister-in-law Alison for her birthday. I used a similar technique to the previous card, this time using a Papertrey floral coverplate and watercolouring as before. The small stitched flag was cut using a Li'l Inker die and stamped with a Waltzingmouse stamps sentiment. Lime green and pink card layers and some co-ordinating ribbons were all that were needed to complete my design.

Below you can see a similar version of the card above, this time using Papertrey Bitty Dot background paper and matching ribbon, with an orange and lime green colour scheme.

My next card was designed to be produced en mass and was based upon a card that had been featured on the Less is More challenge blog. The stitched rectangle die is from a set of Lawn Fawn dies, the sentiment is a Magenta stamp, the snowflakes are by Waltzingmouse stamps and the legs are part of a Prima Valentine doll stamp. I used Memento dye inks and Copic Ciao markers to colour the legs and shoes, adding a touch of clear Wink of Stella pen to the shoes to make them sparkle. The snowflakes were stamped with Versamark ink and heat embossed with WOW sparkling embossing powder. I made a total of 65 of these C6 sized cards - which took me ages!

Finally we have my other batch Christmas card for 2014. I made about 35 of these 6" square green cards and stamped the backgrounds using red Memento dye ink and a candy stamp from Waltzingmouse. Then came a red linen card layer and a square of mottled green card embossed with a Cuttlebug candy cane embossing folder. The striped candy canes, bow and gingerbread man were all Waltzingmouse stamps, cut with their matching dies and coloured with Copic Ciao markers. A touch of red and white bakers twine completed the look.

Apologies for the long post and thanks for reading this far!

Lynn

Couture Birthday Card

I have just realised that I didn't share the twenty - first card that I made for my daughter back in the summer, so it's time to put that right! Jess is studying Costume as part of her University course - so what better papers to use than the wonderful Graphic 45 Couture collection?

A word of warning though - if you are a fan of clean and simple (CAS) cards please look away now! Clean and simple this is not! In fact I would go as far as to say that this is one of the most elaborate cards that I have ever made and it took me several days to complete. To give you some idea, there were a total of twenty - two different dies used on this card - some of them more than once!

I started off with an A5 card blank, portrait style, with a top fold. I added fleur-de-lis borders to the longer sides, which I had cut from black glitter card using a Spellbinders die. Then came a layer of turquoise pearlescent card, followed by several panels of the Couture papers by Graphic 45. The ric-rac border at the bottom of the card was cut using a Papertrey die and I used a white gel pen to add the faux stitching.

The next two photos show the top of the card, where I wanted to hang bunting to create a party feel. I used three of the dies from JustRite's Buntings and Button dies set with more of the lovely Couture papers to make the pennants and scalloped bunting. These were layered using clear foam tape then tied together with narrow black polka dot ribbon, forming six tiny bows. 

The top pelmet of turquoise hearts was cut from a Memory Box die and topped with a Spellbinders Fleur-de-lis in black glitter card. The photo below shows how I used several black foam dots to raise the centre of the pelmet to give it a curved shape. Two small ribbon bows were added to the ends to make it look like the ribbon had been used to tie up the bunting.

The main stamped image is one of the Prima doll stamps by Julie Nutting, which I stamped, coloured with Copic Markers, paper pieced and decoupaged. I heat embossed the dress portion of the stamp four times onto another of the Couture papers, fussy cut them and decoupaged the layers with clear foam pads at the bust and hemline. I also added some tulle netting gathered at the hemline to make it a real party frock! The party hat, bow belt and shoes were also decoupaged and I painted them with some Tattered Angels Tide Pool Glimmer Glam Glitter paint for added sparkle. Three turquoise gems completed the party crown and some narrow gold beaded trim made the perfect necklace and bracelet - every party girl needs a bit of bling!

The photo below shows the dimension achieved from all the layering on the skirt of the dress (sorry it's a bit out of focus).

The panel for the sentiment was cut from two more Couture papers using Spellbinders labels dies. I added a larger Fleur-de-lis to the top and bottom of the panel and mounted it onto the card with foam tape. The "happy" die cut is from a Simon Says Stamp die and the numbers and letters are all cut using Memory Box Classic number and alphabet dies (both upper and lower case).

The bottom right of the card was finished off with a bouquet of co-ordinating flowers. The white gypsophila, turquoise blossoms and variegated leaves were from Wild Orchid. I made the six other flowers myself using Spellbinders Bitty Blossoms dies and more of the Couture papers. I used a cocktail stick to curl all the petals before securing with glue, then I added either a tiny turquoise pearl or a gem to the centre of each flower. A couple of diecut flourishes completed the arrangement.

The photo below gives you some idea of the dimension added (sorry it's a bit out of focus again).

A final look at the finished card. I was so happy with how this turned out and my daughter loved it too!

Thanks for looking.

Lynn