Dragonfly Love

I've had a change from making male cards and this card could be ready for Valentine's Day which isn't really all that far away.  The various elements were die cut from cream and gold pearl card and layered up onto a pink butterfly background paper.  We've had quite a change in the weather today - nice blue sky and some sunshine but very cold with quite a frost first thing this morning which hung around for quite a while.  It is nice though to see the sunshine after a week of grey and rainy days.

Background paper - from Polkadoodles
Dies - all from Tonic

Steampunkery

Today's card is similar to the previous one but with different colours, different embossing folder used and a stamped image added instead of a die cut.  Again the embossed background strips were coloured using Distress Stains.  The steampunk image was stamped and heat embossed onto a piece of text card, then backed with a purple oval mat.  A stamped sentiment on the same text card and that's another one for the box - could be suitable for male or female I think.  The purple background technique has shown up more brightly on screen than it is in real life. It was touched with some pewter stain to highlight the texture.

The weather here has again deteriorated into relentless rain and wind and I hope it isn't too bad where you are.

Embossing Folders - Tim Holtz Alterations
Sentiment - Tim Holtz stamps
Text background - from a Prima paper pad, more card weight than paper
Stamp - from Steampunkery stamp set by Chocolate Baroque

Inky Session

I decided that my box was short on male cards so yesterday I set about making some backgrounds by embossing white card using various 'industrial' style embossing folders and then colouring with Distress stains and inks along with some metallic stain.  Good idea to do most of the inky jobs in one fell swoop and then have a major hand cleaning attempt.  So far I've put together three cards and this is just one of them - they have similar components but are not all the same.  For this one I cut three strips from the inked card, die cut a motorbike and added a bit of over-stamping to some text background paper. Of course most of this is covered up with the strips but not to worry. The bike was layered onto a scrap of text paper which in turn was layered onto another left over strip of a different text paper.  A selection of cogs were die cut from black card, embossed with 'industrial' folders and rubbed lightly with Treasure gold. Sentiment was produced on the computer and punched out.  I had intended going for a walk today but became engrossed in making these cards - now it is lashing with rain so the furthest I will be going is to put the wheelie bin by the gate.

Embossing Folder - Tim Holtz Alterations by Sizzix
Cogs - Sizzix Bigz Die
Text Papers - Prima pad which I've had for a long time
Motorbike - unbranded die
Sentiment - Stampin' Up punch with ends trimmed off

Playground Challenge # 369

The lovely Di of Pixie's Crafty Workshop fame has been taking a short break but it is lovely to see her back today with a beautiful Christmas bauble card which of course is a big hint as to what the prize will be for Snippets #369.  My make this time is a relatively CAS style of card using what I thought was an interesting set of geometric dies and something a  bit different.  I die cut the openwork layers twice and layered them together for a bit of extra dimension - using snippets of white pearl card.  Then found a snippet of card which I'd coloured with Distress Oxide and Pixie powders some time ago - this was a left over piece which of course I saved and it has come in handy for this card.  I stamped a narrow border three times onto a large snippet of white card using similar colours before arranging the triangles and a message banner, finally adding a few left over 'jewels' scattered in between.

Triangles - set of unbranded dies
Banner - Sue Wilson die and stamp from Tim Holtz
Border stamp - from a Stampin' Up vintage stamp set from several years ago

As Promised

I believe I promised to show the other card which I made using the Christmas wreath die which is a good one for using up tiny scraps of card.  This time I popped the wreath onto a layered red and white scalloped circle, adding a punched bauble attached with some baker's twine and with a printed sentiment in the centre.  I've had problems getting going again with everyday cards but at last I've made a start and the mojo is drifting back slowly so watch this space.

Wreath die - Sizzix thin die set

Bauble - punch from Stampin'  Up from a few years back

Scalloped Circles - dies from Tattered Lace, also several years old

Sentiment - downloaded from Netty's Cards, resized to fit a punch

Merry Mice

I'd more or less finished with Christmas cards for a while until I came across these merry mice - there are quite a few in the set and I've only used some of them.   They are quite small so a great way of using up some of my snippets of white card to stamp and die cut them and also some other snippets to make up the card.  Shame it isn't the week for visiting the Playground with a card but worth taking a look all the same to see what might be on offer in the grand seasonal draw if you make and enter a card using some of your snippets.

I started with stamping, colouring and die cutting the mice and some of their 'accessories' and shuffled them around a bit to see what scene I could  conjure up.  Settled on some of the mice putting Christmas lights onto the side of a 'shed', accompanied by their mouse snowman and a little tree.  Santa is on his way to visit flying across the sky.  The shed was made from a scrap of card stamped with a woodgrain effect with a scrap of white for the snow on the roof.  Oddments of white card were used for the snow on the ground and a snippet of blue pearl paper for the sky. Finally a frame was cut to surround the scene, again cut from a snippet of pearl white. I really must put away all the Christmas bits and pieces for the time being although I do have pictures of a few cards which you've not yet seen.

Frame - Sue Wilson Noble Pierced Squares die set
Shed - stamped with Stampin Up Wood grain stamp
Santa - die from a Crafter's Companion set
Mice and Accessories - from Merry Mice set of stamps and dies Hello Bluebird
Tree and Star - lying around on my desk waiting to be used

Seasonal Greetings

With very best Christmas Wishes to my followers and those who take the time to visit this blog and leave lovely comments.  Have a wonderful time and ...

  Here's to a Peaceful and Healthy year to come.  

A simple card, white on a gold layer.  Stamped and embossed in gold.  Stamp used is a very old wooden backed one (remember when all stamps were on wood blocks??) from Papermania.