Warm Wishes and Mistletoe Kisses - latest challenge card

I've not taken part in a challenge for a couple of weeks, so I checked out the latest one over at CAS Colours & Sketches.

This week it's a sketch one.

The idea is to make the area/sentiment in the centre the focal point so I really hope that I managed to achieve it with this card.

The sentiment, which comes from the Tin of Tags stamp set, was stamped in Versamark. I then  applied Gold Embossing Powder and heat it with my heat tool. I love watching the powder turn into a glossy enamel. 

I also heat embossed the inside of the card with an image from the same stamp set.

The Very Vanilla cardstock that the sentiment is on was die cut using the Lots of Labels Framelits, and I also die cut a slightly larger Soft Suede one. 

The mistletoe and branches are dies from the Pretty Pines Thinlits Dies.

I hope you like this project and please feel free to leave a comment.

Fiona xx

If you are interested in making a similar card, here's details of the products used

Happy Birthday Michael

I find it very hard to believe that my youngest was 21 yesterday. He's currently at University in Chicago and I haven't seen him in the flesh since the beginning of December last year.

We do talk and managed to speak last night while he was walking home from college - the wonders of technology.

I did send him a card by snail mail. Luckily it arrived on Tuesday (having taken nearly 2 weeks) so it made it in time.

This is what I made for him.

I do enjoy a bit of paper engineering and I chose to adapt Kirsteen Gill's card (which measured 5.5" x 8.5") so that it fitted a UK C6 envelope. There were a few prototype mechanisms before I came up with one that I was happy with. 

The Stampin' Up! supplies used included:

I'm happy to report that Michael and his girlfriend were suitably impressed.

Fiona x

Ideas from my Display Board - Friends & Flowers

This is the last of the cards (actually it's a tag) that I'm featuring from my display board.  Of course, the tag could also be added to a card front to make a really cute baby card.

It was made using some of the paper from the It's My Party Designer Series Paper Stack and the Lots of Labels Framelits (I cut off the bottom).

The bunny was stamped in Smoky Slate and I coloured her ears and whiskers with a Blushing Bride Stampin' Write Marker. I also used the marker to ink the greeting, which comes from Suite Sayings stamp set. The bow was made from a piece of Melon Mambo 1/4" Cotton Ribbon.

I love the Friends & Flowers stamp set as it is really versatile. If you use the co-ordinating Festive Flower Builder Punch there is no end of flowers that you can make. The set also includes a fish and a cute "pea in the pod" which would be great for a baby card.

If you would like to purchase any of the products that I used to make the tag, click on the details below:

OnStage Live 2015 Swaps - Day 1 WOW Swaps

Today I thought I would make a start on sharing my swaps that I received last weekend at OnStage Live in Brussels. I have too many to share in one go, so I thought I'd break them down over a few days.

I am a member of the Stampin' Stars team and some of us decided to take part in a WOW swap. Are you are wondering what that is? Quite simply its something that makes you go WOW when you open it. I was so glad to hear that there were only 10 people (including myself) who decided to take part. Being a WOW swap, these are extra special and can be pretty time consuming to make.

First off, here is the swap that I made.

I found some plastic calendar cases sitting in a cupboard and thought it was about time that I used them up. There are 6 inserts for the case - a month on each side. Each month has it's own colour and I used the Perpetual Birthday Calendar Stamp Set through out.

I used the Lots of Labels Framelits and the Little Numbers Thinlits to decorate the front of the box. Just so you know, I made the box using the Envelope Punch Board.

I'm not going to bore you will photos of every single month, but here's February's. The heart was punched out of Real Red card stock and then glossed up using Crystal Effects. Got to love that stuff.

 

Here are the fantastic swaps that I was lucky to receive.

This little cup filled with sweets was from Jackie Hall. She very kindly gave me the cutting and punching instructions for this so I am going to be giving it a go when I have a spare minute or two.

If its purple, then it must be from Rebecca Willmore. This type of little box was featured on here back in September and there is a tutorial for it on the tutorials page. There is a cute little slice of cake inside the centre box.

This cute box from Kim Fee holds a sachet of Hollyberry scented wax. The bells on it (not Stampin' Up!) are really cute. The greeting comes from the Flurry of Wishes stamp set and the silver embossed splats are from Awesomely Artistic.

This cute card (it measures 8.5 cm x 8.5cm) is from Char Wijers. It opens out to show a scene made using the Sleigh Ride Edgelits and Cozy Christmas stamp set.

I have a few more to show so please bear with me.

This cute pull out card and bag was made by Eimear Carvill. The bag was made using the Treat Bag Thinly die with a hole cut using the Oval Framelits. The pull out card inside was embossed using the Woodland Embossing Folder and sponged with various colours. The cute little flowers are embossed with white embossing powder. I'll have to go and research which stamp set they come from.

This swap was from Lesley Lendon. It opens out to show a scene stamped using the Wonderland stamp set. The belly band (picture above) uses the Vintage Leaves stamps set. You can't see it too well (bad lighting) but both sides of the card (they fold over the front) are embossed using the Woodland embossing folder.

The star above folds out flat and was made by Gill Moore. I had a little bit of a problem closing it when I first got it so I'm reluctant to open it up again to take a photo of the gold glimmer paper inside.

This cute wood ornament was decorated by Jan Frances-Dicks using the Festive Flower Builder Punch. The flower is embossed using Gold (petals) and Black (leaves) embossing powder. The greeting from Teeny Tiny Wishes is also embossed with clear embossing powder.

Last but not least is this card made by Andrea and Cary using the Be the Star and Fabulous Four stamp sets. There is a lot of embossing going on - both black and gold. The inside of the card is an aperture card. The aperture opens as you open the card and the greeting inside says "Be The Star You Are". Very appropriate given that this is a Stampin' Stars swap.

I think you will all agree that they are a fabulous set of WOW swaps. If you are coming to class in the next few weeks they will be on display for you to see close up.

In the meantime, I'll be back soon with some of the general swaps I received. There are lots of those so I'll split them up into cards and non cards.

Merry Little Christmas

This week I'm going to be using some of Stampin' Up!'s Designer Vellum, and today I'm using the Holidays Fancy Foil Designer Vellum to make a card. The 12" x 12" pack comes with 9 sheets - 3 each of 3 different designs in Red, Green or Silver. I've chosen to use the green design vellum for this card.

The vellum has cute Christmas trees all over it. I paired it with Garden Green and Real Red. Being vellum it's not that easy to fix it to the card base without seeing the adhesive, but there are some tricks that you can use:

• Adhere the vellum and hide it like I have with the strip of card stock and also the raised greeting in the centre.
• Carefully place the glue behind the vellum on the images. You can use glue dots or the new Fine-Tip Glue Pen for this.

I quite like to have the vellum loose a little, so I did not bother sticking it down other than along the edge and behind the greeting.

The greeting comes from the Cozy Christmas stamp set and I used Garden Green and Real Red Markers to colour it in before I stamped the image. The greeting was cute out using the Lots of Labels Framelit dies and I then cut a larger one (next size up) in Garden Green. The two were glued together before they were added to the card front using Stampin' Dimensionals.

Full details of the Stampin' Up! products used are:

I have a day off from crafting today as I'm taking my mother to visit some distant relatives. I don't mean that they live far away, but that they are second cousins of second cousins, or something like that as I can never figure it out. 

Co-ordinating your Bags and Cards to make a gift set

This week I'm planning on sharing some of the bags and matching cards that I've made over the last week.

You may have noticed from Sunday's post that I had some of the Farmers Market Designer Series Paper on the table so I have been playing with that along with my Gift Bag Punch Board.

The bag was made using a full 12" x 12" piece of the Designer Series Paper and scoring and punching to make the bag in the normal way. I then turned the paper over and around by 180 degrees to score the top using the horizontal score on the board and then folded the paper over so that you could see both sides. You need to stick down one end of the paper so that it does not flap around. Other than that, it's really simple to do and I love the effect.

You can see the folded over other side. You don't of
course have to fold it over and can leave it to
make a longer bag.

The banners were cut on the trimmer with the ends cut by hand. I cut the Mossy Meadow one first - the end cut by cutting up the middle and then cutting the points. I cut the Hello Honey cardstock 1 cm thinner  and used the points on the Mossy Meadow banner as a template and then did a similar thing with the designer series paper.

To hold the bag shut I simply wrapped some Linen Thread around the top.

Here's a closer look at the card. The stamp comes from the  Happy Happenings stamp set and I used the Lots of Labels Framelits to cut it out. I put the exact same greeting and frailest on the banner for the bag too.

To decorate the inside of the card I simply cut out one of the pears from the DSP and stuck it to the Very Vanilla cardstock using some Multipurpose Glue.

My supply list is as follows and you can get to my online shop by clicking on any of the products.

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Fancy Fold Birthday Card

This coming week is a busy week for birthdays; in fact, there are four of them on the same day. Luckily I only have to make cards for three of them because the other birthday is mine.

Last week I featured projects all made using the Birthday Blossoms stamp set and this week I am going to feature the Cherry On Top Designer Series Paper (DSP). This is a great pack of DSP as it measures 15.2 cm x 15.2 cm (6” x 6”) and you get 48 sheets (4 each of 12 double sided designs) for £7.25. 

This is the card that has been sent to my nephew Jack.

The card is a fancy fold card – simply called that because it’s not your normal standard fold. It is however really easy to make. It’s one of my favourites to use, and I’ve used it on a few occasions in my classes. Here’s how to make one.

Step 1. Cut your A4 card stock (21.0 cm x 29.7 cm) in half on the shorter side at 10.5 cm so you have a piece that measures 10.5 cm (height) by 29.7 cm (long).

Step 2. Fold the card stock in half so that you have a landscape card that measures 10.5 cm x 14.85(ish) cm.

Step 3. Fold the front piece back on itself. That then gives you your basic card that you can decorate. Please note that this time I chose to find the front completely in half, but I have on occasions only folded it back about 2/3rds of the way to give a slightly different look.

If you are in the USA making this card – then simply use your standard letter sized sheets (8-1/2” x 11”) and cut along the 8-1/2” side at 4-1-/4”. You can then follows steps 2 and 3.

To decorate my card I cut 3 pieces of DSP measuring

·               10.0 cm x 14.4 cm for the inside of the card

·               10.0 cm x 6.9 cm for the front of the card*

·              10.0 cm x 6.9 cm for the front of the card that’s under the folded back part*. You can see from the picture below where I mean.

*If you decide to fold the front part back at 2/3rds you will of course have to alter the sizing of the DSP.

sorry for the poor lighting on this, couldn't get the angle right without too many shadows

I used the new Lots of Labels Framelits to the make the centre-piece on the front of the card and also the piece to write on for the inside. 

The trick is to add the largest piece you are using to the front and then add the piece for the inside (once you have stamped your greeting). I usually do gluing the larger front piece first and then open up the card so that the front is then face down. I then align and place the inside piece on top (good side facing down) of the back of the front centre-piece and glue the back of the inside piece. I then shut the card by putting the back onto the front (the whole card will then be face down). You should then end up with the piece inside being hidden when the card is closed – that’s assuming your inside piece is the same size or smaller than the piece on the front.

The stars that I stamped in Bermuda Bay ink onto the Bermuda Bay card stock came from the Pictogram Punches stamp set. I also added them to the corner of the envelope too. The wooden element (that I love) is one of the three that come in the set of Expressions Natural Elements.

Full details of the products used are as follows:

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