Holly Wreath

 This weeks challenge over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is to use a wreath on your card. Also over on J and C Creations challenge blog the theme is anything goes using Sizzix dies so this card joins them together nicely.
The holly leaves have been cut from cream card stamped with a music score. There were four different colours used, Archival Coffee, Distress Brushed Corduroy, Distress Forest Moss and Distress Iced Spruce. I cut 30 leaves from the Sizzix Festive Greenery die as it has four different holly leaves on it. All the leaves were then edged with Distress Forest Moss.
The wreath was built by gluing each leaf to another, I used a round shape as a template to help me keep a decent shape, it's not as easy as you think to make a good circle!
Having glued the wreath together I then stuck red gems on as berries and put a red bow at the top.

The numbers are cut from sticky sided card using Sizzix alphabet Round Table. Peel off the top layer and sprinkle with gold glitter, I found that the glitter was shedding a little so I sprayed it with hair lacquer to fix it.
The numbers are mounted on foam pads and fixed in the middle of the wreath.
The backing paper is from Chocolate Baroque CD Rom Seasons Greetings printed in draft so that it's paler and doesn't overpower the wreath. The holly paper is matted on to red mirri card and mounted on to what used to be a white card blank, the edges have been coloured with Distress Forest Moss to get a nice dark green as the white didn't look good. In the corners of the holly paper are small gold peel off corners, I've used peel offs because I can usually get two or three corners to emboss well but the fourth never seems to work.
It was fun making a Christmas card in such hot weather, after all it was too hot to be outside wasn't it?!

Hint of blue

 This weeks offering for 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is following a colour theme of Black ,White and a hint of Blue.
The image is a stamp from Chocolate Baroque found in the same set as last weeks tree, Madonna and Trees. The image is stamped and embossed with Cosmic Shimmer Black Sparkle onto a piece of  Centura Pearl card, this card has a golden pearl shine to it. I have painted the swaddling clothes with a pale blue Cosmic Shimmer watercolour which matches the Brilliance Pearl Inkpad Sky Blue that was used to colour the edge of the matting layer. I often use the Brilliance pearl inks to colour mat layers because you can use ordinary card and only colour the edge that will show rather than using a large piece of more expensive pearl card only to cover most of it up.
The swirls down the side are die cut with Sizzix die Festive Greenery from a white glitter card and then studded with pale blue gems. It does have a rather nice twinkle to it but unfortunately my camera work leaves much to be desired...sorry.

I would like to claim a little artistic license on this card as I have painted the halo's a very pale gold, I felt they needed to be highlighted a little. Having played with this stamp for the first time I really like it, there will be more cards made with this one. The Madonna is quite tall but fits nicely onto a large DL size card.
Christmas crafting goodies are arriving in the shops now so Happy Hunting.

True Friend Tag

 This months challenge over at J and C Creations is Anything Goes with the emphasis on Sizzix dies. Now how could I let an opportunity go by without making my favourite flower. I'm not normally a very 'cute and girlie' crafter but I do love flowers and although this tag looks purple it is actually more of a gorgeous plum colour.
Here is a list of all the Sizzix dies used : Tag & Bookplates / Tattered Florals / Tattered Flower Garland / Festive Greenery.
To begin with I cut a tag using Foundations Coconut White card, this card works very well with Distress Inks. I inked the tag with Seedless Preserves Distress Ink from the Autumn collection, it's a lovely deep plum colour which my camera doesn't seem to pick out very well....sorry. Then I used Tim Holtz stamp Fabulous Flourishes spritzed with water, this will lift the ink back out of the card and leave a gentle image. The edges have been coloured with Black Soot Distress Ink and then the whole tag has been sprayed with Cosmic Shimmer Enchanted Gold Mica Mist.

The flower has been coloured in the same way but not sprayed with mica. For the tutorial on how to make this flower here is a link to a previous post. The leaves are from the garland die and have been coloured with Crushed Olive Distress Ink then veins added with a gold gel pen. The swirls were cut from green card and sprayed with mica as well. The sentiment is a stamp from stash embossed in Gold and cut out with Spellbinder die Mega Deckle Rectangles and mounted on foam pads. The ribbons are a green organza from stash and some American Seam Binding coloured with Seedless Preserves. I really like this ribbon as you can colour it to match your project so easily, after all how often do we spend ages hunting for just the right colour.
I hope you find this useful, there will be lots more flowers to come with a little finale at the end of the challenge so please pop in when you can. All items used here can be found at JandC Creations. Happy Crafting.

Silver tree

Seasons Greetings!  Making Christmas cards when it's cool and raining just seems comfortable, you've just got to love the great British summer.
My contribution to this weeks sketch challenge on 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is quite basic, I didn't want to distract from the silver tree. The stamp is from a set called Madonna and Trees by Chocolate Baroque, the backing paper is also from them on a CD Rom called Seasons Greetings. I printed the backing paper from the disc on the usual settings but then printed another piece on the 'draft' setting to stamp the tree onto, draft gave me a matching background that didn't over shadow my stamp as it comes out much paler.
The tree is embossed with Cosmic Shimmer Silver Shine and I'm pleased to say that it actually shows in the photo, I must have got the angle right this time.
I was told today that August is going to be hot, let's just wait and see shall we, wouldn't it be nice to have dry school holidays! Oh well, there's always plenty of crafting to be done whatever the weather!!!!

Penny Black Party Gang

Here's the Party Gang from Penny Black. The full run through on how it was put together is over on the J and C Creations blog if you would like to see it.
This months promotion has been on Penny Black animals, which for me has been a real challenge as I don't make many cute cards. I must say it has been fun stretching myself.
Wait until you see next months challenge which starts on the 13th of July, you'll love it I'm sure, there is a small clue on this card.

Just a small note to let you know that Snetterton Park will begin running 'Midweek Motivation' starting on Wednesday the 18th July. This means every week there will be a workshop or demonstration on a Wednesday, something to break up the week and spur you on to more creations.   Happy Crafting.