Thursday 30 June 2011

Traditional Christmas card

Last night I started on another card to meet the target I set myself for creating at least 5 Christmas cards each month. Of course, an incentive such as the CCAYR challenge (for June the theme is Anything goes) is also very helpful in this respect. Since I needed to finish and upload my 5th card this month no later than tonight, I decided I needed to make a quick card. Using this week's sketch from Sketch N Stash and a collection of things I had lying around, I created this card. The pieces of Marianne Design paper were left over from a card I made last Christmas, the poinsettia die cuts (also MD) also date back from December. The image from a decoupage sheet (also MD) was already cut and only needed to be put together, and the swirl was one I made with my Silhouette digital cutter to possibly use on the green, red and silver card I made recently.

So although these materials don't really qualify as either neglected or new stash, I think I can get away with it. However, I did use one piece of equipment that I have had for as long as I can remember, which is the tracing wheel I delved up from my sewing box to create the faux stitching. I traced the wheel along a ruler and then used a silver-coloured gel pen to create the stitches. How clever (and quick) is that?!


I'm also entering this card into the following challenges:
Christmas Card Challenges – Die cuts
CHNC - Anything goes

Tuesday 28 June 2011

Pretty in pink

This weekend I allowed myself to be challenged into creating a pink Christmas card. It turned out like so much fun that I actually made two. And to make sure these cards in pink would not be lonely this Christmas, I used the scrap of  patterned paper that was left after creating the cards to create two tags.



For the layout I used this week's great sketch from Christmas Challenges {with sketches}
I also created these cards and tags with the following challenges in mind:
ABC Christmas Challenge – M for Monochrome
Jingle Belles – Lonely this Christmas (aka Tagging Along) >> card + tag
Opus Gluei who are Tagging along with Jingle Belles (or the other way around)
Sew Many Challenges – #58 Dry embossing
Charisma Cardz Challenges – White plus one colour
Winter Wonderland – Pretty in pink
Totally Paper Crafts – #72 Spots and Stripes
Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge– #140 Embossing (dry or heat or both; I used both – dry for the background squares and ribbon and heat for the trees in silver on the tags & the card on the right)
CHNC – #26 Anything goes
CCAYR – June Challenge: Anything goes; 4 down, 1 to go, so I'd better hurry

Materials used:
The papers came from a stack of papers I bought through a second-hand market site on the Internet a few years back; no idea what brand they are
Spellbinders scalloped circles
Cuttlebug embossing folders (Swiss Dots & Frills)
The scalloped doily is a Silhouette design; I thought the punched-out holes of the inner circle would be perfect for weaving a ribbon through
The tree stamps are from Imaginisce (the one on the left in smoke-blue Versamark ink, which is more of a light grey; for the one on the right I used embossing powder in silver) and Studio g (I used masking to only get the tree without the entire label).
The pearls are made with different Viva Perlen-Pens. I really love these.
I applied Ranger's disstress ink (milled lavender) on the embossed pieces of white cardstock
The ribbons are from my stash.
The sentiment I created with the Silhouette software and then sent it to my printer.



Sunday 26 June 2011

Get well card – Mojo Monday 196

I wanted to make a simple flower card for a dear friend who has to undergo surgery.
This also seemed a good opportunity to try out my new Cuttlebug embossing folder and my new distress ink. I used Antique Linen on a piece of cream card stock, which gives it a soft look and makes the embossing stand out really well. I matted the card on a piece of mustard brown card stock (very small edge, hardly visible on the photograph) because I felt I needed to offset the embossed piece from the very pale yellow/organgy card. I also applied some Antique Linen distress ink on the edges of the card.



For the layout, I used this week's sketch from Mojo Monday (196).



Other materials used:
Flower: Marianne Design die cut & paper from an old paper pad
Sentiment: StudioLight stamp in gold ink on a piece of mustard brown card stock, the corners of which have been shaped with a corner punch
Button: paper button created with a JoyCraft die cut from the same paper as the flower
Other materials: piece of recycled ribbon; rafia, brad and pearl ribbon from my stash

Sunday 19 June 2011

Christmas kisses

Summer has finally arrived here on Crete, Greece, but I'm still working on my Christmas cards. Even though I started pretty early this year, I have only completed 7 Christmas cards until now, so that means I still have a lot more to go, if I want to send a hand-made card to everyone who's on my Christmas card list.


I made this card for the following challenges:

I used this week's sketch from Christmas Challenges {with sketches}
ABC Christmas Challenge – L for Love & using the colours green, silver and red
Winter Wonderland – Christmas flowers
Totally Papercraft – #71 Die cuts & punches
Totally Gorjuss – #85 Pearls & swirls
CCAYR – Anything goes

Materials used:
Design paper: Papermania Deck the Halls
Image: Marianne Design clear stamp, coloured with Derwent pencils
Poinsettias: Marianne Design die cut; I used Versamark ink (silver) to colour some of the flowers
Swirl: Silhouette design, cut out with my Silhouette cutter
Pearls: Viva Perlen-Pen, silver
Sentiment: Marianne Design clear stamp, Versamark ink, green





Sunday 12 June 2011

Gold, cream and white

I finished this card just in time for this week's Christmas Cards Challenge. Challenge #27 was to use the colour combo gold, cream and white. My mind's been full of ideas this week, but no time to play.
I found it quite hard to stick to these colours, but that's part of the challenge I guess, and I'm quite happy with the result.


For the layout, I followed this week's sketch at the Mojo Monday challenge blog.


This card is also my first card this month for the June challenge at CCAYR – Anything goes.


Materials used:
Will have to wait until tomorrow. It's way past midnight in my corner of the world and it's been a long week ...

Thanks for stopping by.