Accordion Card

On Monday I spotted some dies for making accordion cards at a bargain price and it seemed an opportunity too good to pass up.  I came home with ideas of making some form of Christmas decoration using the die to make two accordions; one of five 'pages' with the word HAPPY and the other of nine sections forming the word CHRISTMAS aiming to make three sets - who was I kidding??    What I'd not realised was the time it seems to take to die cut and assemble all the elements so for the time being I've just made the one with four sections using letters to spell out NOEL. I also found the sections a bit difficult to manoeuvre and hold onto while the glue was drying on the connecting tabs  I know this is the first one I've ever made in this style and subsequent ones should become quicker and easier - they may turn out to be something to make during the year ready for  Christmas 2016!!  I might look for some suitable images to use and just make them with four sections (or even just two)  for this year and forget about being too ambitious in spelling out the words.

Dies - Die-sire square accordion card die set Crafter's Companion,
Holly and alphabet  - Tim Holtz dies

White Christmas

White Christmas is the theme for the Make My Monday challenge this week and hopefully this card will qualify even though it also has some blue on it.  The lattice design was die cut using the double sided sticky produced for intricate dies and it certainly helped to adhere it to the background.  The snowy scene was cut using a freebie die and in the main I've used bits and pieces from my scraps to put this card together.  Some glitter was added to the die cut ivy and in the sky on the winter scene.

Lattice - die by Crafter's Companion
Scene - free die from recent magazine
Ivy - Sheena Douglass die which has a matching stamp (not used on this occasion)
Sentiment - free download on punched shape (Stampin' Up)

Anniversary

This is just a quick post before I pop out to meet three crafty friends for some crafty chat, shopping and lunch - a good way to spend time I'd say.  I made this anniversary card for my box using a selection of Sue Wilson dies which are so handy for making such a variety of cards.

Snippets Week 206

The lovely Di has posted such a cute card on the Pixie Snippets blog this week - an adorable hedgehog in an oversized Santa hat and there are also some lovely picks from last week's entries.  one lucky winner will get the stamp too which has to be good. My offering this week is a card using an idea spotted in a recent magazine and I think if I used the technique again I would do it differently.  The background was achieved by using a border die to cut away the corners of a square, keeping the outer corner pieces, then cutting the border again from contrast card so that it could be inserted into the 'gaps' left.  The slight problem I found was that because the border strips seemed to have stretched slightly by being cut and embossed it wasn't too easy to set the pieces back to form a neat square again.  I liked the idea of having a partial border on the corners but would just cut them, lay them onto a whole background piece and trim away the surplus if I did this style another time.  I used some snippets of card to cut circles, stamping some flowers onto the white one and adding stamped and punched butterflies.  More snippets for the greeting and a few gems and that's my entry for this week.

Background paper - printed from Crafter's Companion CD (Downton collection)
Border Die - Signature die from Joanna Sheen
Floral Stamp - Stampin' Up
Butterflies - stamps and punches from Stampin' Up
Sentiment - computer generated on faux washi tape tag made using fancy scissors

One Layer for Christmas

I decided I'd have a play with some stamps to make a single layer Christmas card although I must admit to actually stamping onto a square piece of card which I attached to the card front once it was completed.  I'm sometimes not the cleanest of stampers and it is so annoying to be working on a whole card and find that there is a little smudge or maybe the greeting has somehow a bit askew - happens to everyone I imagine!!  I've done these scenes previously in monochrome but thought I'd go for a mix of colours this time for a change.

Wreath and Greeting - free stamps with Creative Stamping Magazine for December
Snowman, trees etc - stamps from Cardio

Out and About

I've not had much time for blogging this week because I've been out and about with my Son and his Wife who are on holiday.  Nothing madly exciting but we visited a large garden centre which has a huge display of Christmas related 'stuff' - amazing just how much there is around.  They also have a good restaurant so of course lunch was enjoyed and today we popped into a local gallery (with excellent coffee shop) to see a Christmas craft/art exhibition.  However I do have a card to share with you which was made using a free die which came with the Inspirations magazine from Crafter's Companion.  The papers and sentiment panel were printed from the CD with the same magazine.  I raided the oddments boxes to die cut a leafy spray and punched a few flowers from the left over paper.

Papers and Sentiment Panel - Downton Abbey range Crafter's Companion
Die - Edge die from Crafter's Companion cut within the panel rather than on the edge
Leaf Sprey - Sue Wilson die
Flowers - punch from Stampin' Up

Snippets Challenge

I've not used my usual number of snippets for this card but nonetheless they are still snippets and this type of card doesn't need to be too elaborate in my opinion.  The background has been embossed with a deco style design, the label on which the flowers are stamped is also a deco style and the green decorative elements also come from a die with a deco name.  All this is actually coincidental and I didn't realise it until I came to jot down the items used.  There is a great card and also some super pics from last week on the Snippets blog page so well worth taking a look.

Embossing - Creative Expressions Art Deco folder
Stamps - Wild about Flowers Stampin' Up
Dies - Deco labels SU and Deco Lattice by Sue Wilson (used twice behind the main label
Sentiment - Computer generated, SU punch and faux washi label cut with  fancy scissors