Christmas Wreath

I find that making cards such as this Christmas wreath card  a good way of using some of the smaller scraps of card which I can't bear to throw away.  The background was made by running a piece of white card through a wood grain embossing folder and then using some Distress Oxide ink as a wash to give it a bit of uneven colour, finally brushing on a darker shade to bring out some detail.  This produced a suitable background for the rustic style of wreath with a selection of die cut sprigs and flowers.  The 'berries' on the sprigs were made with liquid pearl drops and left to dry thoroughly before making up the card.  A die cut sentiment and that's another Christmas card done and dusted.

Wood effect - embossing folder by Sizzix for Stampin' Up
Wreath and Flowers - Sizzix die set
Berries - added to sprigs with liquid pearl drops
Sentiment - Britannia dies

Pixie Snippets Playground #341

Time to visit the Playground again for the latest challenge and today I'm taking along two cards but of course they will count as one entry into the challenge - Mrs indecisive here couldn't make up her mind which one to use!!  The reason I actually made two cards, which incidentally is my nod to a sort of 'batch making' which as I said yesterday I don't really do, is because I'd cut four gingerbread men and quite a few holly sprigs and only used three on the initial card.  While I still had all the snippets ready to hand I set about making another similar card to use the lonely little chap flanked by a couple of Christmas trees from the same die set.  Apart from the base cards both of these are made entirely from snippets, some of which are really tiny.

I started by stamping the sentiment direct onto the card - the Misti helped with positioning - then trimmed a snippet of patterned paper which was left from a sheet which I'd printed recently, backed with some red card.  The ovals were die cut from scraps as were the gingerbread men and the little holly sprigs; these had punched red berries (really small snippets here!).  This was repeated for the second card once I'd die cut a couple of Christmas Trees with punched stars.

The lovely Di has made a beautiful wedding card and the prize of course is on this theme - a very pretty collection which will prove so useful for the lucky winner. 

Ovals - Stitched shapes dies by Sizzix for Stampin' Up
Men, Trees and Holly - all from free die set which came with a recent magazine
Holly berries and Stars - punches used
Sentiment - from a seasonal stamp set Stampin' Up.

Another Snow Globe Variation

When I got the snow globe  set I stamped and die cut four of them and have gradually been making them into cards of slightly varying design.  I admire people who can happily 'batch make' cards all the same but that method isn't really favourite with me and I hardly ever knowingly repeat a card design.  For this one I again stamped the bottom part of the globe onto coloured card, die cut as a whole and then fussy cut the base.  I have quite a few odd circles of card which are left over from die cutting frames and so on and the white one has been embossed with snowflakes,  Some background paper was printed onto lustre white heavy paper and a sentiment was die cut with more of my scraps of matching card.

Background - printed using Crafter's Companion CD free with their magazine
Snowflake - Cuttlebug embossing folder
Snowglobe - stamp and die set from Studio Light
Sentiment - Crafter's Companion dies

Still in Seasonal Production

Well I'm not sure where the week has gone since I last posted here but here is a quick look at another card from my Christmas collection for this year.  It's another version of the snow globe with a different scene and this time I stamped the base of the globe onto coloured card and cut it out rather than colouring the base with pens - quicker in the long run I found.  I added a banner and a die cut poinsettia along with a simple greeting.

Snow Globe - die and stamp set from Studio Light
Poinsettia - from set of free dies with magazine last year
Circles - Sizzix stitched circle dies
Banner - Creative Expressions die, snow embossing folder Sizzix for Stampin' Up

Christmas Gnome

I know Santa has elves as helpers but I'm not too sure about gnomes.  However I've used a free seasonal stamp and die set from last year and it definitely features gnomes aka tomte.  The signpost and toadstool 'workshop' were stamped and coloured with alcohol pens, as was the gnome but the gnome was the only stamp which had a matching die so the other two were cut out with scissors.  I then die cut some snow layers and a few Christmas trees, finally stamping Santa sailing across the sky being towed by his reindeer team.  I really enjoyed making this cheery card and it certainly helped to brighten up a really wet and windy day when I decided staying indoors was probably the best option.

Sky - printed from Artylicious Season's Greetings CD
Snow - dies from Lawn Fawn using Centura pearl card
Trees - dies from Crafter's Companion and larger ones from unknown source
Santa in sky - free stamp given with magazine
Gnome, signpost and toadstool - from set of stamps/dies free with magazine last year

Playground challenge #340

It is well worth a visit to the Playground just to see the really amusing card which Di has for us this time around and of course the stamp set is the prize on offer to whoever is lucky enough to be drawn out of the 'hat'.  My snippets card this time is seasonal but I'm gradually catching up with the Christmas cards so that's a good thing because as we all know time flies when we are having fun.The only thing which isn't a snippet is the blue snowflake paper which is a sheet I printed - I do have a few snippets of that one left for another time though!  The birch trees were die cut from Centura pearl card and the circles from bits and pieces of blue with scraps of kraft used for the deer.  Sentiment is one which I downloaded and resized before printing off a sheet so that they could be punched out when needed.  The layering of the various circles, trees, deer and the frame required a bit of juggling but it came right in the end.

Snowflake paper - printed from Season's Greetings CD Artylicious
Birch Trees - die which seems to have lost its packaging, sorry
Circles - Sue Wilson Noble Pierced circles die set
Deer - Sizzix die set
Sentiment - download from Netty's Cards

Snow Globe

Despite knowing that I really didn't need anything else to make Christmas cards I was tempted when I spotted cards made by my friend Anne using a matching stamp and die set - a snow globe with three little scenes to stamp.  The images were stamped onto white stamping card (Misti came in very handy here to line them up) and then coloured with Copic pens.  Having die cut the globes I then had to decide how to compose a card to use one of them so I found a piece of background paper which I'd printed recently and some scraps of blue and kraft card to cut the circles.  Greeting was die cut from a small scrap of the left over white card and also some small snowflakes were punched.  I felt it just needed a little something else so scrabbled in my box of random die cuts where  luckily I found some greenery and fir cones.

I have three more globes ready prepared to make more cards so it is thinking cap on - miserable day today and getting a bit dark to do much more now.  I reckon I should make a warming cuppa and sit down for a 'think'!!!!  Some people sits and thinks but some just sits - I will try to do the former.

Background - printed from Seasons Greetings (Artylicious) onto iridescent white paper
Circles - Spellbinders and Creative Expressions dies. Stampin' Up embossing folder
Snow globe - die set with matching stamps from Studio Light
Foliage and Fir cones - used freebie dies
Sentiment - Britannia dies