The Christmas Tree and The Holly Wreath.

For this last day of easy to make, cost conscious, Card-io Stamps Christmas cards, I wanted to make two cards which would be suitable for men.  So I pinned in mind two particular men and made cards which I thought  they might like – but I still stuck to my ‘rules’: –  they had to be simple;  with few adornments or embellishments; and they HAD to fit into a regular sized envelope – so that they’d be less costly to make and to post.

I decided upon a Holly Wreath, and a  ‘manly looking’  Christmas Tree. 

The Holly Wreath card, was made on a plain 6×6 scored and folded card, using a small selection of individual Card-io Stamps.   I stamped a circle of leaves, branches and fronds, randomly, but still with a nod to it being balanced.  I didn’t want it to be symmetrical, but instead sort of loose and flowing.  With a red, fine nibbed pen, I dotted little red berries into the wreath images, which gave it a little bit of interest.

With that same fine nib red pen, I wrote the flowing, red  ‘~noel~’  at the bottom on the card, as the ‘sentiment’.  Then came the fun bit.

I bought (some time ago) a couple of metres (or so) of teeny tiny holly leaves and red berries, bound onto some slim wire, (can’t remember where I bought mine from, but I know you can get it on Ebay for less than I paid, so do have a look there, but shop around on there as there are sellers who are selling it far cheaper than others).   I trimmed a short length (about 5 inches) off it,  made it into a circle, and then attached it to the card (using glue gel), directly on top of the stamped wreath so that it gave it life and movement and brought the whole card together making it more ‘special’.  I tied a little red satin bow, added it to the top of the wreath and VOILA!  Card finished.

I absolutely adored making this card.  It was easy, clean, pretty to look at and apart from waiting for the glue to dry, it was made in minutes.   AND … it fits inside a regular envelope!  YAY!  😀

Card 2

I wanted to make a ‘man card’  with a Christmas Tree on it – but I didn’t want to make that abundant tree with all the tinsel, baubles, lights and presents beneath it which you normally find on Christmas Cards.   I wanted something a little different, but which was still recognisable as a Christmas Tree.

I searched through my box of Card-io Stamps to find the tree I had in mind,  mounted it to an acrylic block and, using a dull brown colour of Memento Ink Pad, I stamped the tree in the middle of some craft cardstock.

Ok..  that turned out great … what next?

I really didn’t have a plan for this one.  I was just ‘winging it’… 

I looked around my craft room for something which would look like baubles … but not baubles.  I didn’t want brightly coloured things, I wanted something more … ‘organic’.   Something more in keeping with the masculine feel which I was trying to achieve.  My eyes came to rest of some bags of Craftwork Cards CANDI!  Yes!  The very thing!

‘

I chose a handful of  Candi in just the right colours and using some teeny tiny little double-sided sticky foam dots, I attached Candi to the tree.  Once they were all in place, I then felt that they needed a nod towards something twinkling.  So using a small nibbed glue pen, I ‘drew’ glue around the edges of the Candi and then sprinkled a little glitter over the glue.  The effect was exactly what I wanted.

I added some fine lines of glue along the branches, and sprinkled some fine white glitter dust over this to make it look like twinkling snow resting on the branches.  The finally …  using Pinflair Glitter Glue, I scribbled glue around the base of the tree and then added Pinflair Ice Diamond over the top, and sprinkled just a tiny bit of iridescent glitter over that, just to give it that eye-catching sparkle which freshly fallen snow seems to have.

I mounted this onto tartan paper, and then mounted it all, at a jaunty angle, onto a 6×6 scored and folded card.  I had to forcibly stop myself from adding ribbons, twinkly sparkles, sticky back pearls and all the other things which were all calling to me from their hanging hooks…  “Cobs.  Co-o-o-bs.  We’re here!  Come use us!”  Tsk tsk.  …  these embellishments are such flirts!

For readers who might not have come into contact with Candi before …  They’re ‘dots’ of paper type product, which are shaped into domes which look very much like brads.  You can either glue them flat (I’d use a glue gel for this, since they’re domed) or, like I did on this card, use teeny tiny sticky foam pads.  But … although they’re raised from the card and add dimension, they still remain quite ‘low’ in height, so they fit easily into a regular envelope and don’t add any depth to a card.  You can buy them in a huge variety of colours and designs.  They’re very lightweight and perfect for all sorts of things.  (You can even make flowers and leaves out of them!).

photo to show how Candi hardly adds any depth to a card.

Again, this card was so quick to make, but a very enjoyable make, and I really loved the end result.

Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing a few moments here with me.  I really do appreciate the time you share with me, and it means the world to me to know that you’re here.  Thank you.

Have a fabulous Friday.  May your day pass without any problems and I hope no gremlins get into the day at all!

Sending my love ~

 

 

 

 

[gasp] . . . What Happened to Christmas Dinner?

I’ve missed blogging my Card-io Christmas Cards over the past two days, so I’m blogging three of them today to catch up. (As you view each photograph, you can click on it to make it bigger – but don’t forget to click ‘back’ in your browser window so that you can come back to reading here!)

If you’ve missed the last few blog posts you won’t know that I normally don’t make Christmas cards for neighbours, or friends and family whose cards I have to post, simply because you can buy a box of Christmas Cards for so little that it would cost me more to make and send my own handmade ones than to buy some, – so have always gone with the more ‘frugal’ ready made boxed cards –  as those were cheaper not just to buy but also to post.

A ‘group photograph’ of the cards I’ve blogged about over the last few days, and the three I’m blogging today.

However, this year I had such a stash of cardstock, I thought I’d challenge myself to make cards which wouldn’t cost me the earth to make or post, so I got out some of my favourite stamps,  Card-io Stamps,  and decided that I’d try to use just those stamps, some ink pads and some cardstock – (and try not to put any expensive or BIG adornments or embellishments on them, so that I didn’t have to make specially sized envelopes or boxes), – so that they wouldn’t cost the earth to post!

But, today I’m blogging three cards:  Starting with … a Christmas warning to our feathered friends . . .

Don’t stop here lads   –   apparently  –  they’re eating BIRDS for Christmas!

The little bird down on the ground there, has been earwigging  (a British term – means eavesdropping)  at the open kitchen window and keeps hearing: “What time will that bird be ready to take out of the oven?” –  and . . . “Is that bird cooked yet?” – and even . . .  “The bird looks so lovely. I can’t wait to eat it!”  . . .   Eeeek!  No wonder he’s fretting!   😮

A simple to make card. I began by making a mask to ‘frame’ off a square in the centre of the card. Using a spare bit of thicker paper, I measured out the size I needed to cut, then once ready, I took it outside and sprayed the back with some Stick and Spray from Crafters Companion and carefully stuck it to the card front.

I then ripped a bit of copy paper and put the ‘frilly’ torn edge on an angle across the card and made the winter sun you see in the background, using three colours of Versa Color ink pads. I stamped the bare winter trees you see in the distance, just over the top of the hill, and the one standing on top of the hill.

Wanting to add some Pine Trees, I angled the torn paper again on the card, but a little further down the page, so that the Pines looked closer.  Once the torn paper was in place, I stamped the Pines using the 2nd generation stamping method I talked about in previous posts over the last few days.

Finally, I wanted to add the little bird, stood all alone on a snow drift.  Then came the fun stuff.  SNOW!

The ‘snow’ you see on the card is a simple effect to achieve. I use Pinflair glitter glue, and Pinflair Snow Dust. That’s it. It takes a short while to dry, but once dry it’s a lovely addition to a card.

Time for Card 2.

Oy! You’ve Forgotten my Christmas Dinner!

Oy! You’ve forgotten my Christmas Dinner!

The family have eaten their Christmas Dinner and are now out for a walk to give the children some fresh air, and hopefully wear them out so that they’ll go to bed! But oh!  Look!  They’ve forgotten to fill up the bird feeder and that little chap on the floor is having a grumpy moment about it!

This card was made basically the same way as the previous card, only this time:  I made a mask with 4 equally sized sections in it, so that it looked like you were looking through a window. Once the mask was in place it meant that I could ink up the sky, the winter sun, and stamp the trees, the church, the family, the bird etc, and even draw in the fence. Once everything was in its place, I removed the mask and added the snow.

Card 3.

Who Buried Dinner?

 

I don’t actually really know what the conversation is which is going on here, ↑ –  but I do kind of feel that the little bird in the centre of the card is either ‘getting it in the neck’,  or he’s letting the bird on the right let off steam and voice his complaint so that the digging, scratching and searching can begin to find all the seeds, nuts and mealworms which have obviously been blown off the bird feeder, and are now hidden under a layer of snow.

Made in the same way as the two previous cards.

Well,  . . .  I’m pretty sure you’re probably fed up with Christmas Cards by now, so rest assured, I’m not going to bore you forever. But … I have just two other Christmas cards which I want to share – only this time they’re totally different from any of the ones you’ve seen over the past week. Still made using Card-io Stamps – but different.  These one’s have some of those things which I said I wanted to avoid (embellishments) – but, they’ll still post in a regular envelope, and they’ll still cost the same as the cards above.  (Have I piqued your interest?)  ;D

I’ll share those two with you next time.

In the meantime – thank you SO much for coming and sharing a few minutes with me here.  Your company, honestly,  really is very much appreciated.  So thank you for coming and sharing your time with me.

May you have a truly blessed Thursday. ~ love ~

 

A Frosty Nights Seasons Greetings

And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling:  “How could it be so?”
“It came with out ribbons! It came without tags!”
“It came without packages, boxes or bags!”
And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!
“Maybe Christmas,”   he thought,  “doesn’t come from a store.”
“Maybe Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!”

Where I live,  my neighbours and I are surrounded by huge pine trees.  80 feet (plus) tall.  Now I have to admit that I love them, they give my garden some wonderful cool shade in the summer months, and offer protection in the winter.  However there’s a downside to these fabulous trees – because in the autumn and winter months they shed pine needles like crazy and bury all our gardens under a deep carpet of them,  – and they also shed pine cones.

(Which my dog loves!  She sits in the garden, staring up at the trees, waiting for the pine cones to drop, …  and the minute they do, she chases round the garden to collect them and promptly brings them into the house as a present for me.).

I wanted to make Christmas cards for some of my neighbours which had some sort of personal ‘thing’ about them,  so I chose my stamps to include a pine cone  and also a silhouette of a large black cat …  as a representation of one of my cats – who all my neighbours know.

I’m owned by three felines.  One is a very old lady who’s almost 19 years old and the ‘boss’ (and how!) of the trio, and the two others are loveable rascals of two years old who love nothing better than to play Cowboys and Indians at breakneck speed through my cottage!.  One of these youngsters is a beautiful, huge,  luxurious,  black velvet coated beastie, called Alfie.  He’s way too heavy for me to pick up – but not overweight;  long, tall, sleek, powerfully built, adept at walking along the edge of a high fence with such elegance, which makes his muscles ripple like that of a panther.  However, he’s a big softy, who loves a chinny tickle, and who has the teeniest meow you’ve ever heard!

To make this card;  I began by masking off a circle on the card, which was to be the moon, and also masked off where I wanted to put in a snow drift so that it added depth to the card.  I blended three ink pad colours;  two blue Memento Archival Ink pads, and a tiny touch from a black Ranger Archival ink pad.  The photographs haven’t captured the true colours of this card.  The blues are a little darker than they show here, making the whole scene very much like the sky at midnight, on Christmas Eve.

Once the sky and snow drifts were in place I then went straight into stamping:    I Stamped the Pine trees on the snow drift, and then the crescent wreath shape, using the second generation stamping method which I’ve talked previously about in the Christmas cards which I posted about over the past few days.

a section of the card, in close up, to show the second generation stamping method. (click on photograph and it will open up, in a much larger size, but remember to click ‘back’ on your browser window so that you come back to this post to continue reading).

I wanted to add a tiny bit of colour , so stamped some small red flowers to represent Christmas Poinsettia flowers, and stamped the pine cones in a dry brown colour.

Next came the Seasons Greetings sentiment – which I wanted to be in gilding flakes, so I stamped the words using  Cosmic Shimmer Flake and Glitter Glue,  and then used Cosmic Shimmer Gilding Flakes to gild the stamped words.

Following this I added some glitter to the snow drift and the wreath, using a fine nibbed glue pen and Wow glitters;  and then used a Graph It white marker pen to add snow ‘dots’ falling against the dark sky,  and also added  ‘snow’ onto some of the branches of the wreath, where snow would have settled naturally.

And that’s all there is to it! 

I had fun with this card – and I have to admit that I really love the finished article.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing a few minutes of your day with me.  I’ve loved have your company.

Have a truly fabulous, blessed,  rest of your day.

The night before Christmas . . .

I loved making this Christmas card.

I wanted to make some night-time Christmas cards  . . .  but I wanted ones which weren’t the typical  ‘cottage with the lamp in the window’ views, nor the:  ‘Santa driving his sleigh across the moon’ type of thing.   These sorts of card are really lovely, pretty cards.  But they weren’t what I had in mind to make.  I wanted to make something more ‘edgy’.  Christmas night sky – but with a difference.

Made using only Card-io Stamps for the images on the card.  I began by first making a mask for the moon – which I cut from a post it note, using the sticky part of the post it as part of the circle, so that I could attach it to the card without any fear of it marking the card when I removed it.

After getting the moon in place, I then ‘put in’ the snow drifts and then stamped some trees.  I added the birds flying in the sky, and then chose a black fine tipped pen and drew a swirly line around the left hand side of the card and across the top.  To this I ‘pegged’ some stars, (in three sizes), some hearts and some Christmas Trees.  The hearts I coloured in red, the trees in green,   and the stars:  I coloured some in icy blue;  some in Gold glitter from a Glitter It pen, and some in sparkly Silver, again from a Glitter It pen.

 

I then added ‘snow’ to the snow drifts – using Pinflair Glitter Glue and Pinflair Snow Dust.  (see close up, above, of a section of the card so that you could see the Snow Dust).  I then took a fine tipped glue pen and added some tiny dots of glue, which I sprinkled some glitter dust on to make twinkly dots in the sky.  Finally, just to finish the night scene off, I used a Graph It marker in White, to add ‘snow’ dots to the scene.

And that, –  as they say in some of those TV shows,  –  is all there is to it.

This card was seriously simple to make, and I really like the way it turned out.

I pretty much think I’ve told you everything I’ve used to make this card as I was walking you through what I did to make it.  The only things I think I’ve left out are:  I used Whisper Archival ink pads in three shades of blue and also in a sage green (only the teeniest bit of this).  I also used Ranger Archival Ink pad in black, and used Staedtler fine liner coloured pens to colour in the trees, stars and hearts.  Finally – the glitter I used was from a collection of glitters by WOW.

If I’ve missed anything and you want to know just ask using the comment box.

Thank you for coming and visiting.  I’m always so thrilled when I get visitors, and even more chuffed beyond measure when someone leaves a ‘like’ or comment for me, so please feel free to comment away!

Wishing you a thoroughly lovely Thursday.  Have a good one!   ~ love ~

Come and see . . . the Christmas Trees!

Day two of a selection of Christmas cards, made using Card-io Stamps – but on this card I’ve added a stamp made by another company:  Clarity Stamps.

I wanted to make another wreath stamp, but one totally different from the one I made yesterday.  I began by stamping one of the bunnies from a set of Clarity Stamps  – (re-mountable Bunnies and Grass,  clear stamp set – should you wish to buy some, I’ll put a link to the Clarity site at the bottom of this post).

I used a mask to cover the bunny so that I could stamp the wreath using a little ‘branch’ type stamp from one of the sets in my Card-io stamps, and using the same method I used yesterday – second generation stamping, in order to give the wreath a little depth and dimension.

I blended three colours from my Versa Color ink pads, to get the sunset effect, and then using two shades of blue – one chosen from my Whisper Archival ink pads and the other from my Memento ink pads, I did the rest of the ‘sky’.

I then stamped the Pine trees and birds, stamped the bare oak tree, and then drew in the short length of fencing using a very fine tipped black pen.  Finally I added the tiny stamped image of the family – father, mother and the two children, heading off across the snow-covered meadow to go and choose their Christmas Tree.

Then it was time to add ‘snow’.  Using some Pinflair glitter glue and some Pinflair Ice Diamond, and some of their Snow Dust – I added crystal like snow to parts of the wreath, and to the snow scene within the wreath.  I also added some around the fluffy tailed bottom of the little rabbit who’s peering through the wreath and watching the family walking away.  (No doubt so that he can perhaps find a way into the garden and snaffle any winter vegetables which might be there for the taking!)

I had a terrible time trying to photograph this snow – it just didn’t want to show up on the photo’s.  So I tried taking a photo which was just a tiny bit out of focus to see if that would work and … it did!  So although this photo isn’t the best in the world – you do actually get to see the ‘snow’ and where I applied it …

. . . .  and a little closer up so that you can see both the second generation stamping and the snow a tiny bit better:-

I had such fun making this card.  It was quick,  easy,  very little planning,  and no fiddling about with die cuts, embellishments or fussing.

• Link for Clarity Stamps, the page which details the bunnies set which I used one of for this card:  http://www.claritystamp.co.uk/Clear-Stamps/Easter-and-Bunnies/11471-/Remountable-Bunnies-amp-Grass-Clear-Stamp-Set—As-Seen-On-TV

As promised yesterday, I am working on a post which will tell you more about Card-io stamps, and that will be appearing on my blog this week, so please look out for it.

Thank you so much for coming to visit today.

Have a truly wonderful Wednesday!  love ~