Thought I'd share more of the cards made using the Trimming the Town DSP - ingredients are much the same as listed on my previous posts. I've quite enjoyed putting these cut out houses together in varying ways to make a selection of Christmas cards. I still have a few more variations but will save them for another day.
As well as tempting me with crafty items I don't have, viewing blogs often serves as a reminder of something which I already have in my stash. This was the case when I spotted a card posted by Jules when I remembered that I had some dies which I could use to make a card similar to and inspired by one of her recent makes. If you look near the top of her blog you will also find a link to a library of wonderful card layout sketches - yet another source of inspiration when you are stuck for ideas. I sorted out some background papers and oddments of card to die cut the components for this card, starting with some toning background papers, followed by the ovals one of which was run through an embossing folder to give it some interest. I then cut out the various small pieces of the succulents and their pots and assembled them, finally adding a simple greeting. Thanks Jules for a timely reminder which didn't result in any retail therapy 😊
Background - bits and pieces from my stash, border die from Crafter's Companion
Ovals - dies from Tonic, embossing folder from Creative Expressions
Succulents - die set from Sizzix Dimensional Botanicals
Sentiment - computer generated, punches from Stampin' Up
I'll give you a break from Christmas cards for today and share something different. I came across the remnants of a card kit which came with a magazine and tried to think of a way of using up some of the bits and pieces. There were some good size pieces of card with printed and foiled images and I selected one of them for the basis of the card, then used a teacup die to cut out three cups from some of the scraps. The sentiment was also part of the kit and that was a fairly quick card to put together once I'd decided on how to use up the 'bits'. I fancy it is an advantage having a fairly good memory for all the dies and stamp collections I've amassed from the magazine freebies over the years - mind you it does often take a while to actually find them 😄
Remnants of a kit from Hunky Dory magazine
Teacup die - another freebie which came with a different magazine ages ago
I've made a couple more Christmas cards using the houses which I'd cut out but with this one I've gone a little off-piste because I only had a couple of smaller houses left. I did incorporate a strip of the DSP with printed trees for one of the layers. Decided to die cut a car using a die from a freebie set which I've had for a few years, cut out some larger trees and 'found' a stray lamp post in the tray on my desk.
Sky layer - printed from Artylicious Season's Greetings CD
Tree layer and houses - DSP from Stampin' Up Trimming the Town
Car - die cut using a free set of dies and stamps I've had for some time
Large trees - Sizzix Seasonal die set Santa's Workshop
Lamp post - stray item found on my desk, left from last Christmas I imagine
Snowy area - embossing folder from Creative Expressions
Hills - cut using dies from Lawn Fawn stitched hills borders
I thought it was probably time to get on with some Christmas cards - I've made a few here and there through the year but a more serious effort is required to get more done. My friend Anne suggested to me (persuaded me!) that I really needed to acquire some designer series paper (DSP) which has a series of houses on some of the sheets which can be cut out either using a lovely die set which I don't own ~ yet ~ or alternatively they are quite easy to cut out using scissors. I know that Anne has been making cards using this DSP and if you watch out for her next blog post I'm sure you will be seeing what she has come up with.
So far I've made a total of five cards, all similar but not exactly alike - batch making isn't really my scene although I have to say it would be a more efficient method than my normal way - not really into time and motion study and let's face it time isn't really a problem when I'm at home pretty well all the time. I printed off some background papers for the sky and die cut the snowy landscapes and trees adding sentiments in most cases.
For this card I die cut some snow with a line of trees, snowline with row of houses which I also cut using some yellow card so that I could light up the windows. The snow at the base was die cut and then put through an embossing folder for texture. Coloured houses and paper trees were all cut from the DSP and for this one no sentiment has been added although there is a space in the sky if I decide to add one later. You will probably be seeing the other four cards at some point.
Time to visit the Playground once again and what a fun card the lovely Di has produced for us this time ~ I think I will have to ask for my name to be included in the draw for the brilliant die used - don't you just love the long johns 😁. I've used quite a lot of fairly small snippets for my card this time as well as delving into several different sets of dies in order to build up an interesting scene. I started with the octagon die which I cut once in green and once in a patterned card. I then sliced the top off the patterned piece to form a little slope. Next came the tree house cut from a kraft card snippet, over stamped with bark design; followed in turn by the toadstools, flowers, grass and last but not least the two gnomes. Phew, that was a lot of die cutting and sticking I must say. I'm probably going to use this as a New Home card but will add a suitable sentiment when I finally decide (left space for it at the bottom).
It's been a while since I made a card for the Butterfly challenge and I did intend to try the clever fold idea but sadly this was not to be but the details of all the different card shapes are on the Butterfly Blog so I can try again another day. The alphabet letter for #147 is 'D' - double point fold, diamonds and colours of delft blue, dandelion and damson with of course the usual butterfly. I managed to incorporate diamonds in the large die cut background shape and some 'diamond' gems on the butterfly body, also colours delft blue and dandelion yellow. The die used for the main fancy shape is one which I've had for more years than I care to imagine and using it has made me realise just how dies have improved over the years in terms of ease of use. This one needed more than one pass to cut and then it wanted to hang on to all the pieces rather than letting them just drop out. The butterfly was cut in the two colours as well and some matching paper was used for the background. Card was finished off with some matching 'card candi' - something else which I've had forever!!
Die cut Shape - Marianne die set
Sentiment - stamp from my favourite freebie set
Butterfly - Sizzix die
