Christmas Jumper layout

Lately I seem to have done a lot of  'making', but not so much blogging!  Here is a layout done at the retreat I went to in January. 
We had a Christmas Jumper day at work, for charity.  I opted for a penguin tee shirt .... with glitter!!! .... all in a good cause :-)

The papers are from Maja design and I die-cut the title and snowflakes.  Hard to see in the photo, but the alpha is a stitched one from Die-namics, I thought it was appropriate LOL.  The larger snowflake is from Joanna Sheen, but I can't remember what the smaller one is, I've had it a while.

Valentine Card

This is the card I made for DH :-)

The stamp is from Chocolate Baroque, after colouring I die-cut the image with Nesties labels 36.  I had coloured a few images and had experimented with three different dies, this one fits the best :-)  I embossed some cardstock in Sandstone from Craft Creations and adhered to a card blank in the same colour, for a nice tone-on-tone effect.  The image is also stamped on the same cardstock.  The sentiment tag is a SU punch and the sentiment is also SU.

 

 

 

 

 

Mandala Monday ......er ...... Tuesday

I didn't get these finished in time to photograph and post yesterday - but I am joining in Sy's Mandala Monday, albeit belatedly :-)
I was originally just going to mount these mandalas - made last year to test the stamp set but never used further - onto a square card blank, but somehow it didn't look right.  So I went in a completely different direction and now I am happy :-)

The copper mandala is done with gilding flakes (very difficult to photograph!) and the silver is heat embossed using a Stampin Up powder, which is quite a matt silver. 
I used the Celtic Dreams layering die set from Tonic Studios to make the mats and also to cut the circular card base.  This is made with two separate circles, the back circle is horizontally scored about an inch down from the top edge, the area above the score line is then attached to the card front with red tape.  Fold along the score line and the card stands up!  The sentiment tag is an MFT stitched banner die.
For the easel card, I scored and folded the front of a card blank to form the easel part, then hand-cut and invert-corner rounded the sentiment stopper panel.  The sentiment itself is die-cut (Robert Addams).
It was craft weekend plus I have a couple of days off work, so managed to make 14 cards over the Sat-Sun-Mon, I am well chuffed :-)

Pin-spired Wednesday: emboss-resist cards

At the weekend I went with Karen to a retreat, held near Arundel.  Met lots of lovely ladies, did just a bit of crafty shopping and managed to get a few layouts and cards done :-)
I had taken some Pinned card ideas with me and here is the one I used for these emboss-resist cards.

I had prepped some white embossed images at home before leaving to pick Karen up - which made me late, I thought I had time, but it just ran away.... sorry Karen!!  It did make me determined to use them, so the effort wouldn't be wasted, and I finished all but one, which will make its own blog appearance in due course.
I used various shades of Distress ink over the white images, spritzed water droplets over the background and blotted off, then over-stamped with various images - more agapanthus (Stampendous), some script (?) and a sentiment (Satmping all Day). 
Having run out of pre-done embossed images, for the last card, I just made a similar background and over-stamped with the agapanthus and poppy heads (Lavinia stamps).
The great thing about being at a retreat, is that you can sit and play, without the washing up/cooking/etc calling from the background :-)

Pin-spired Wednesday: Get Well cards

I am going to try and blog something inspired by one of my Pins, every Wednesday .... feel free to join in :-)
Today I have a couple of get well cards, inspired by this Pin.

I reversed the design as I prefer the stamped image to be on the left.  For the agapanthus card, I stamped the splotches in shades of aqua/green/grey and added some grunge lines and a sentiment. The butterflies are stamped over pink/green splotches with grey water droplets.
Then I trimmed the image to size, matted onto silver and job done!
I am pleased with both of them, but I do prefer the agapanthus card, I think it's a cleaner silhouette than the butterflies. 

Buy it - Try it: Colour Challenge 2017

Nat over at Kool Kitty Musings is hosting a 2017 colour challenge, based on Pantone seasonal colours.  January's colours are two shades of blue, Island Paradise which is an aqua-ish light blue and Niagara which is a dusty darker blue.

I plan to do one in each colourway! I found some Bazzill in a colour called 'Seawater' which was a good approximation of the lighter shade.  To make the shaped card, I used a card creator die from Diesire ('Louise') and cut this blank from an existing rectangular blank, then used it to cut the mats.  It has a non-cutting edge for the fold of the card, so if using for mats you need to do that edge with a trimmer :-)
I embossed the Bazzill with a Swiss dot embossing folder. The paper is a magazine freebie, a bit thin to go straight onto such a textured background, so I made a mat of white card in the same size to stiffen it up a bit :-)  Then I punched a butterfly (Martha Stewart) and added pearls for the body.  The sentiment and punched strip are both from Stampin' Up.
Very unusually for me, I used this new die on the day it arrived in the post!!  I like the effect it gives, though it makes the A6 card blank a little short for the envelope - I 'm sure no one will notice though :-)

Less is more Challenge - Ombre

I thought I would start the year by trying some challenges, it's really something I ought to do more often :-)  The LIM challenge is to make an ombre card, gradual shading from light to dark, or vice versa.

I chose to make butterflies in graduated shades, using a Martha Stewart punch.  The butterflies are attached at the centre only, so the wings can be free, and I added white pearls for the bodies. The sentiment is from Hobbyart. 
I might do some more of these, they could be birthday, get well, best wishes.....