Firstly … sorry to still be posting Christmas cards, in the middle of January, but this was one which I couldn’t post before Christmas as it would have spoilt the surprise, so sharing it with you now.
Originally this was a children’s book called Dear Zoo.
It was one of those books which is ‘interactive’. It had opening doors on each page. So I began by cutting those doors out so that the pages lay closely together.
I set to work and first measured out how much of a section I wanted to cut out of the book in order to leave the right size ‘hole’ inside the card/book at the end. Once I’d cut through the pages, I then glued and used double-sided tape to ensure that the pages I wanted to stay shut actually stay that way.
Then … I went to town. Papers, card, ribbons, flowers, baubles, a sleigh, handmade hearts, berries, printed pictures from a CD Rom, cutting, pearls, snowflakes, die cutting … you name it, I think I probably either did it or thought about doing it.
Inside, showing page 1, of the book/card.
I die cut the Christmas trees, then painted them roughly with a little paint then once dry I added some dimensional ‘snow’ and added a little twinkling glitter. While those dried I stamped the blue backing paper with clear embossing ink and added some softly twinkly embossing powder so that it gave the background a bit of twinkle. The snowflakes are all die cuts too.
Inside of the book/card – page 2
I printed this page (above) three times, and cut out various parts of the page so that I could do a little decoupage and give the page some depth.
I added a little white glitter here and there, on these layers, just to catch the light and again, add some depth.
The back of the card/book
The spine of the book (and spreading round to the front and back) … when you see it in real life, looks like leather. It’s not. It’s actually made from regular craft card and glycerine. (and an embossing folder – but you can use any embossing folder you like). I won’t bore you to death with a ‘how to’, because people have posted how to’s about doing it all over the web. But instead, I’ll give you a video of the fabulous lady who taught me how to make this faux leather: (her name is Sheena Douglass and she’s Scottish – so give yourself chance to adjust to her accent and you’ll be fine then). . .
And that’s all there was to it!
Have to admit that the most difficult bit was actually cutting through those individual pages. Coooo, those were thick and really tough work. But then … I’m a bit of a weakling so taking the top off a bottle can challenge me most days! tsk tsk. drat these muscleless arms!
Well .. it’s Tuesday(or Chewsday as my friend pronounces it), and I think we need a little Tuesday fun, so here are a few jokes to turn the corners of your mouth up . . .
Why don’t you ever see hippopotamus hiding in trees? Because they’re really good at it.
How does NASA organise their company parties? They planet.
My friend recently got crushed by a pile of books, but he’s only got his shelf to blame.
What did Jay-Z call his girlfriend before they got married? Feyoncé.
What do you call dangerous precipitation? A rain of terror.
What do you call a big pile of kittens? A meowntain.
…. and finally ….
Atheism is a non-prophet organisation.
Well even if only one of them made you smile, then I’ve done my job. 😀
Thank you so much for coming. I love seeing you here. Each blog post is, for me, like opening up my front door and waiting for you to arrive . . . and then you all come, one by one, and stop for a coffee with me. I just love it. (and I love it even more when you stay for a chat – so please feel free to chat away in comments. I can promise I’ll reply because, as everyone will tell you, I love to chat!) 😀
I visited the Kuretake website (crafty goodies manufacturer) a couple of days ago. They’d updated their website and I couldn’t get into my account, so a quick call to their office sorted out the problem for me, and I got the new website address. As the page loaded there was a handmade card on the site which caught my eye, and I thought I’d have a go at making my version of that card … and here it is.
The die cut word, ‘Believe’ was one of a choice of two different makes of dies that I have which say the same thing, but in different ways ….
I cut them both out so that I could actually see what each of them looked like on the front of the card. I chose the Creative Expressions die – which I’ve had about a year and never, until this moment, used it! (No idea why … it’s so pretty, and cuts really well).
You’ve heard me say before that I’m a crafter, not a photographer – and these photo’s prove that I’m telling the truth. They do nothing to show you how pretty this card actually is. So I’ve taken some close-ups to try to share some of the details...
Once I’d die cut the word, I used a fine nibbed glue pen and added some crystal glitter to the whole of the word. I worried at first that it might look a little Christmassy, but I wanted something to ‘speak’ to the silvery painted feather – and this worked really well.
Painted in Gansia Tambi paints, in the ‘Starry Colours’ selection. These paints are all made by Kuretake.
Each feather is painted a different colour. One silver (in the centre) and the remaining two feathers are painted in different colours of the Kuretake Gansai Tambi paints, ‘Starry Colours’. The feathers were die cut using a set of Todo feathers dies.
I added gold sequins … and a string ‘bow’ (very fine string) ….
. . . And that’s all there was to it!
I did share the link to the Kuretake a couple of weeks ago, but they’ve changed their website, so I offer the updated link just in case you can’t find it:—> Kuretake.
I highly recommend this company. Their products are second to none, and their customer service is the best. I’ve been shopping with them for … oh … practically since dirt was invented, and I’ve visited the companies UK branch, when they used to have yearly sales there. I’ve contacted them from time to time for information, help or advice and each time I was breathtakingly amazed at how truly wonderful all the members of staff are there.
Please know: …. I’m not employed by Kuretake, I’m not paid in any way and have not been given any products in order to recommend the products or the company.
Everything I own is because I bought them in exactly the same way that you or anyone else can buy them. I only recommend them as much as I do, because I’m SO impressed with the quality of all of the products I have (and I have a lot), and love the customer service I receive from this company.
I’ve been doing a bit of crafting this week and also trying to keep on top of all the blogs I follow. I’m still having the odd problem with my reader — I’ll think I’m up to date and suddenly there appears a post from ‘A’ and another from ‘B’ in the middle of all the posts and blogs I’ve already visited! eek! So … if you’ve posted something and I’ve missed it and not commented when you know I normally would have, please give me a poke in the comments here and give me a link to the post so that I can catch up.
May I take this opportunity to say a warm ‘Hello‘ to some new followers. I won’t name you individually … but I welcome you in and sit you down at the table while I get you a coffee (or tea) and bring out the cakes and biscuits. Please feel right at home to join in the conversations we have here. We’re a noisy lot sometimes and we all like a bit of a giggle from time to time, but we love new people joining in. Don’t be shy. Just jump straight in and say hello … or comment on a post… or include yourself in a conversation which is going on in the comments. Please don’t be shy… speak up and make new friends. It’s how it works here.
Have a blessed rest of your day today, (Thursday). Enjoy it – for it is the last day of August this year. So make it a memorable day. And … if you can at all …. Make someone smile today.
What would you wish for if you were stood under the boughs of a Fairy Tree? Only one wish. That’s the question I asked myself as I was in the middle of making this card. I still haven’t actually come up with an answer that I’m happy with.
The Fairy Wish Tree. ~ the tiny white dots, aren’t white dots at all …. it’s very fine glitter.
I have to admit, that this card was one of those cards where I liked the idea of what I’d planned … then began to make it, and found that I fell out of love with it. So I put it on one side and began something else. Then, a few days later I told myself that I’d ‘made it that far, so you might as well get on with it’ … so I picked up where I’d left off and continued with the plan.
Three times I fell out of love and three times I tried again, and again, and again … until I’d finished it. And I’m SO glad that I did because now … I love it.
Where the front is more ‘quiet’ in colour, the inside is a riot and has colourful flowers, bird houses and dragonflies with multi coloured wings.
The little Fairy sat under the tree, is a very lightweight material – almost like a paper/wood mix. I was making an order, on-line, and added her into my basket simply because I liked her. I had no plans about what I’d do with her at the time.
The tree is a Tattered Lace die (I don’t own too many of that range of dies as I find them a little too fussy). Cut out of white card and coloured by me. Once I’d had the idea of putting her beneath a Fairy Wishing Tree, my next decision was that I wanted the card to have two ‘looks’. One for day, and one for evening …. so I ‘built’ the card with a window, then put a little piece of shimmery stuff – I think it may be a plastic type of thing – which I bought years ago from Hobbycraft, in one of their sales. I’ve used bits of it every now and again until I now only have a teeny piece of it left. But it worked so well for the magical shimmery look I wanted to the opening (see photograph above) and for hiding a battery operated T-light inside the card.
The T-light makes the glitter inside the card twinkle merrily too.
The card is a 6″ x 6″ plain white card, which I die-cut to the size of the Fairy sat in the oval.
I’ve left the front without any sentiment so that I can be creative with the card and use it for any occasion what-so-ever. Birthday, Anniversary, Thank you, Cheer you up, Hello, …. all sorts of things. The design is such that it will ‘fit’ many occasion.
Thank you so much for coming and sharing a coffee moment with me. I love to see you and chat with you.
I make a wish that your day goes well – or went well for those of you who live on the opposite side of the world, and will go well for those of you who are just waking up and about to go out into the world.
What ever you’re going to do today, do it with joy. Even if you’re not really enjoying it, find the joy – and then the task will be much sweeter … and will be over with a lot sooner than it would if you did it in a grump.
Go bravely into the world and smile. For the World becomes so much easier to deal with if you’re in a smiley mood. May your God go with you.
How do you photograph an item which has glitter on it? (insert a red-faced, steam coming out of the ears emoticon here and you’ll get a picture of what I look like right now).
I’ve made something that I want to share with you, but, out of all the photographs I’ve taken, I cannot get a good photo because the glitter which I’ve used shows up in the photographs as dots and blobs and looks like the glitter fairy has flown over it several times, instead of twinkling merrily like very fine glitter dust does.
So … any tips for photographing something which twinkles and sparkles like mad when viewed with the eyes, but looks like a crazy mess on a photo?
To capture a Fairy in a Jar ... you simply have to be gentle and kind, and want to capture her (or him) with all your heart.
I originally found a photograph of a fairy in a jar on Pinterest. I fell in love with it instantly and literally stopped everything I was doing and got all the supplies out on my desk and began to make my own jar ready to capture my fairy, right there and then.
I’ll warn you now that this blog post is photo heavy. I totally forgot to take pictures at each stage of the make, simply because I was SO into making it. But I’ve taken a photograph from all angles of the finished fairy in my jar, so that you can see it all around and even on top, and I’ve taken photo’s in sunlight from the window in my craft room, at dusk in my craftroom and even in the house in the darkness – at night-time, with all the lights off. So here goes, dear reader. Get ready for lots of photos ….
My Captured Fairy in a Jar with the lid off. But she didn’t want to escape! She preferred to gaze at her star and make wishes!
Showing the left hand side of the Fairy in a Jar. You can see the grass which the Fairy is sitting in.The right hand side of the Fairy Jar.The back of the Fairy Jar ~ created by Cobwebs.looking at the jar with the lid in place, from above.
I chose to keep the lid of the jar, as I wanted to have a choice of how it was displayed (lid on/lid off). My original idea was to have the lid on during the daytime when the Tea lights weren’t alight, and leave the lid off at night when the lights were switched on. But I actually love it both ways.
I did, at first,decorate the glass lid with white cotton fabric (like shirt fabric), which I tied on with string around the knob on the top. (It was glued in place). I decorated it with buttons and flowers. However, when I stood back to look at it, I wondered if I’d like it better if I’d have done the same thing on the lid as I’d done to the jar itself. I lived with it for a couple of days, then stripped the cotton off, scrubbed it clean again and decorated it to match the jar. And …. I love it like that!
The Fairy Jar without the Tea Lights lit and no flash from the camera, just lit by the light from the window.Lit only by the light from the window.Showing the Tea Lights inside.
You should only use battery operated Tea Lights inside a Fairy Jar. That’s soimportant that I’m going to say it again: YOU SHOULD ONLY USE BATTERY OPERATED TEA LIGHTS IN A FAIRY JAR! This is because you’ve glued paper and or card to the inside of the jar. Paper/Card and Candles DON’TMIXWELL – unless you want to start a FIRE! We don’t want any accidents … so please don’t even try out a candle inside the jar. Please, please buy battery operated Tea Lights for your version of a Fairy Jar. You don’t have to put three in if you don’t want to. One works … Two makes things twinkle brighter, and three, for some reason, makes Fairy Wings seem to flutter just a little. Why is that, I wonder? It must be Fairy magic!
Even with no lights on an only the sunlight from the window to light it in order to take the photos, the Fairy Jar still looks incredible.Another view of the Jar from above, so that you can see it without any light other than that from the window. Still looks lovely, doesn’t it!
My wonderful little Grandson comes to visit at the weekend and we have him for about 5/6 hours to give mum and dad a little free time to do stuff. When he came last weekend, I introduced him to the “Fairy Shadow I caught in a Jar!” … I didn’t want him to hear me say I actually caught a Fairy in a jar, because … well, he knows me to be kind and loving, and anyone who’s kind and loving most certainly doesn’t catch a Fairy and stuff them into a jar! So I explained that I’d caught a Fairy’s shadow. That sounded much nicer, more gentle, more kind and loving.
I didn’t think he’d be over-impressed, after all it was just a Fairy, and the big thing in his life was CARS! – however he was awestruck! I came in from my craft room, carrying the already lit and lidded jar really carefully, and I whispered to him that he had to: “be very quiet and careful because I’ve captured a Fairy Shadow in a Jar!” …. I placed the jar down on the coffee table so that he could see it. His little face was a picture. He got down on the floor and perched his chin on the coffee table and gazed, . . . and his eyes grew to the size of saucers! There was so much magic showing on his face and in his eyes. So much ‘awesomeness’ (I don’t think that’s a word, I think I made it up for the purpose of explaining – lol). He looked at it for ages. Then, moving quietly around the coffee table – he examined it carefully from all angles. All of a sudden … he slowly lifted his arm, and with one finger he delicately reached out and v.e.r.y. gently touched the side of the Fairy Jar, almost as if he wasn’t sure if what he thought he was looking at, was actuall really, really there! Thankfully… I managed to capture that very moment on my camera . . .
My Grandson – aka ‘The Funshine of my Life’ – was incredulous. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing with his own eyes.
I was totally thrilled to pieces that he liked it. Everybody else could hate it if they wanted to, but the fact that he liked it, was so impressed and so awestruck by it meant the absolute world to me.
I was so engrossed in the making of this Fairy Jar that, as I said previously, I totally forgot to take photographs of each step of the making. However … I’ve got something better than my explanations. A video, which you’ll find at the end of this post.
I enjoyed making this so so much. It was fun from the start to the end. I was going to give it away, but, once it was made … I fell head over heels in love with it and couldn’t part with it.
In the video which you’re about to watch … White tissue is used in the making. I however used a VERY PALE pink tissue in this project (above) and as you can see, it worked perfectly – as you can see from the photos. But it was simply a matter of choice. I have a selection of tissue colours. Something about the pale pink called to me, and I found my hands reaching for it. So … don’t feel you have to follow the instructions to the letter. If there’s something you want to do which will make a fairy jar yours and yours alone, then do it! If you want to use …red tissue then do so! Blue tissue to make it look icy? Go ahead! Oh – and do post some photo’s on your blog, and then come back here and let me know so that I don’t miss your fairy, because I’d love to see more of these. I’m already planning another one and I’ve just today found a wonderful jar in the shed which will work brilliantly!
If, after watching the video, there’s anything that you want to ask about the Fairy Jar In the photographs above, which I may have forgotten to mention, then please feel free to ask in a comment here and I’ll answer you within 24 hours. One thing I think I haven’t mentioned is that the glitter I used on the outside of the jar was a chunky glitter, not the fine stuff, which I mixed a little card makers ‘snow’ into it, just to add that ‘frosted’ look to the whole thing.
So, that’s me done and dusted for another beautiful day. It’s been a little windy around here the last few days. But thankfully we were not ‘hit’, other than a few branches in our garden came tumbling down – but nothing structurally was hit, so I’d call that blessed.
I hope you too have a truly blessed day. Remember to stop and enjoy life – even for just a moment, and in that moment be thankful for all you too are blessed with.
Hullo thar me hearties … It’s Pirate Cobs sailing the ocean waves!
Ok .. well no, not quite. It’s just me … showing you the card I made for my Grandson, on his birthday recently. I’m totally besotted with this little chap. He’s the complete apple of my eye and he has me wrapped around his little finger. He gives out his orders: “Grammy, … come to ma rooom. C’mon Grammy. Come to ma rooom!” and up I get and toddle after him. Actually no, I don’t toddle after him. He waits at the start of the hallway and then holds my hand so that I don’t get lost on the way there. (Not joking. He actually does.).
This blog post about the pirate card is rather picture heavy, so I’ll try not to be too wordy and just post photographs with a bit of description to support each photo. But if there’s anything specific you want to ask, or you want to know either how I did something or what brand something is, or even where I bought something, then just give me a shout in a comment and I’ll answer any questions you might have.
(To make a comment: scroll up to the top of this post, to the heading: “Aarrr! Avast, me hearties; Swashbuckling Pirates Ahoy!” – and look to the right of that title where you’ll see a pale grey speech bubble. If you hover your mouse over that speech bubble it will turn deep red. Click on that, and it will open up a comment box for you – and also show you any comments which might have already been made).
It was his 4th Birthday, so he’s still a little chap, and I kind of introduced him to Pirates about two years or so ago, when we were out shopping together – he was sat in my shopping trolley (‘cart’ for US folks) in Toys-R-Us when we came across a huge section of dress up clothes, and like the Magpie that I am, I went straight for the hats. I tried several hats on the young man (and took hilarious photos on my phone camera of him in them) and couldn’t resist trying on the fabulous three-cornered pirate hat myself. I told him what I was, and then did the ‘Aarrr me hearties’ pirate greeting, accompanied by the arm gesture, which he instantly caught onto and did back to me. Awww reader, I so wish you could have been there. I was hysterical with laughter, loving him and covering him in kisses, tears streaming down my face and all the time trying to get him to say it again, and again, and …. well, you get the idea. He was such a tiny tot, and this made it all the funnier.
Oh well anyway … let’s get on with this card, shall we?
Start with 2 x 6″ sq. cards, and glue/tape together as shown in the photo above.
I tend to double-sided tape and use glue to fix both of the cards together. It just makes the whole thing more sturdy.
Once fixed together, cut the cards as shown above.
You can click on any of these photographs here to make them bigger. (But don’t forget to click ‘back’, to come back to reading!)
Using the two sections cut off in the previous photograph, fix your chosen papers (once cut to size) to those pieces of card.Now is the time to fix either matching paper, or toning paper to the inside back of the card.While your glue is drying on the main card, you can turn your attention to decorating those corner pieces. On this side of the ‘scene’, I’ve built a sandy beach by tearing some regular sandpaper carefully, into the shape I want it to be and then fixing it in place.
I had a devil of a job finding some of this sand coloured sand paper! Everywhere had either black sandpaper or deep red coloured. I very nearly kissed the shop owner when I finally found some!
My favourite part of card making! Decorating and embellishing. I added tiny, multi coloured fish. shells, star fish, and some sea glass ‘look’ beads – all made from plastic, into a fishing net (I have no idea of where I got this net from, but I know you can buy netting from lots of places). I added a bronze coloured metal starfish and a Tibetan Silver Seahorse too, for contrast.And then added a few sprinkles of fine glitter, to make the ‘trawl’ in the net look wet and straight from the sea. I also added the rope (hairy string) around the edge of the scene. Now is the time to fix this ‘flap’ into place. I tend to use super strength red double-sided tape, but anything which you know is a really good fix, will do the trick.The inside of the card …. I added some of the same papers, but wanted a little boy pirate and found the very thing in one of my Lili of the Valley topper books. I made the rolled up pirate maps from some faux parchment, and tied them up with deep red baby ribbon. The starfish brad was from a selection I’ve had for a while.
Although I used the same papers throughout the card, I wanted the paper on the ‘inside back’ to look more bright blue, like the sort of pirate seas you’d see in a children’s book, so I rubbed in some bright blue inks, carefully, to kind of brighten the sea to something more magical looking. (If you do this, make sure you leave time for the paper to dry out).
The ‘front’ of the card. A tiny glass bottle filled with gold and silver teeny tiny gems, which twinkle and sparkle as the light catches them. An anchor hanging up to the top right, along with a little metal tag which reads: “Treasures”. Some miniature wooden cotton reels, onto which the rope (string) which surrounds the card edges is wound. A Tibetan Silver Mermaid holding a golden star, swims through the waves!
This front flap is left ‘swinging’ free. You don’t fix this flap into place. However … you can fix this into place if you’re making a card and want to have the card stand up by the use of either a stand specially made for the back – or by leaning the card on a wall or such. You can then put tags inside the card for the recipient.
In this photograph you can see that there are tags now sitting inside the folded and stuck down section of the card, along with a ribbon loop for pulling the bigger tag out of the pocket. There’s also a pocket watch hanging from the ribbon loop!Showing how you stand the card up just using that one free corner.Close up of the inside of the flap. I made the pirates eye patch by simply cutting a small circle out of black card, using a punch, then cutting the circle in half, and round off the corners. I used a large balling tool and firm mat to ‘bend’ the edges slightly; drew on the pirates skull and crossbones using a white pen, added some black string and VOILA! Pirate Eye patch.The ‘big’ tag removed from the pocket. I drew all those foot prints which ‘walk’ around the island, along with some palm trees. And of course … every good pirate map HAS to have an X which marks the spot where the treasure is hidden!There are two tags hidden inside the larger tag. This photograph shows the back of the large tag – where there’s a poem for my Grandson, and these are one sides of the two small tags – one shows that rascal Captain Hook, with a string attached on which a pirates dagger is strung! The other tag is stamped and says: “You are the FUNSHINE of my life”, and this has a little gold love token hanging from it.The other sides of the two little tags. One is stamped with ‘Happy Birthday’ and the other has a picture of Tic Toc, the naughty crocodile who bit Captain Hook! I’ve only just realised that I haven’t shown you the wonderful Galleon ship which I put on the poem side of the card! You can just about see the sails of it behind Tic Toc. I had this rub on in my stash for about 6 years. I wouldn’t part with it because I knew that I’d use it one day. I wish I’d have taken a photograph of it to show you. It’s just the nicest thing!Let’s remember there’s a back of the card! That’s where all the pirate treasure is. Gold, Silver, Gems and Pearls! The ’empty’ postcard was made using an Urban Stamp, and a lovely gingery brown ink pad. It’s where the dedication was written. (To … , Happy Birthday, love from … etc).The box…. here, showing the inside of the box – lid and base.The outside of the box, the card and … a little gold bag of Pirate Treasure! The lid of the box was firstly decorated with a sheet of sand paper, onto which I fixed a Pirates Map. The fabulous Pirates, the Galleon, Flags etc etc were all an incredible accidental find in a supermarket. I ‘think’ it might have been Tesco, but if not there, then it may have been Sainsburys. Inside the golden bag are two gold coins. Chocolate coins, naturally!
And that, as they say in TV land, is all there is to it! Phew! I swear it took longer to take the photo’s, load them onto the computer and re-size them, than it did to make the card! (But then I’m useless with a camera so that’s no surprise! lol). As promised, here is the very short pirate song which is my grandsons favourite song with regards to pirates:
Thank you so much for coming and sharing this fun card with me. I hope you have a truly fabulous rest of your day!
Another vintage style Christmas card– this time made for my Grandsons Teacher at Nursery School. She’s a fabulous lady who I love dearly, and has such a lovely way with the little folk in her care. I wanted to thank her for just being the lovely person that she is and for the incredible job she does.
I had an idea of what sort of card I wanted to make, but couldn’t find the right image to base the card around … until I found this one on the Graphics Fairy ~
This image had the right vintage feel about it, and it was a little boy in the picture building a snowman – and since my Grandson is obsessed with Olaf (the snowman in the film ‘Frozen’) at the moment, I felt this was the perfect image. I re-sized it, matted and layered it onto some lovely linen finish, plain coloured card stock, in a soft beige and a lovely vintage red, then glittered around the edge to make the image sparkle and draw attention to the image and make it stand out from the card.
I have some little wooden ‘adornments’, and from the assortment I chose a birdcage to gild with gilding flakes – so that I could have it ready to attach when I needed it.
The base on which I ‘built’ this card was a 6 x 6 Kraft card with a high gsm– so that it would be weighty enough to take the adornments which I wanted to attach to the card.
The papers I used to cover the card are all part of a pack of Christmas papers which I obtained free with a magazine a while ago. They’re really lovely papers – but the red coloured, 12 days of Christmas, paper I chose for the front was a little too red, so I knocked the colour back by using some Gesso, just applied roughly across the paper once it was adhered to the front.
I’d found some lovely vintage style lace for sale in a local charity shop a while back – and knew that it would be perfect for this card, so added a length to both the top and bottom front of card.
Before I added the vintage picture, I put a little cheesecloth behind the picture, to give it a soft outline, then added the picture and then draped some rayon seam binding around the front in the curvy way I wanted it to lay – but before I finally attached it I threaded a pendant charm onto it, and placed it on the card in the centre of the leading edge. I then fixed the pendant and ribbon into place.
I added some Christmas white paper roses and leaves, and the gilded birdcage, . . . then came the twinkling part! I chose four glitters and roughly mixed them – a gold, a copper, a silver and a little mix of some teeny tiny glitter gems. They’re not exactly glitter – but they aren’t gems either. I’m not sure how to explain them, and I can’t remember where I bought them from as I remember I had to decant them as the original packet split, so I don’t have anything left which I can check up on the name of this glitter sadly. They make a difference to the glitter mix, as it makes it look more ‘opulent’. Fabulous result, which I just love! In places, I also added some teeny tiny gilding flakes – which gave a different depth to the whole project. (You can see some of those tiny pieces of gilding flakes in the photo above which shows a close up of the gilded birdcage.)
And finally . . .
I pinned a Tim Holtz ‘Keepsake’ pindown in the corner of the card, simply because it kind of fitted the whole feeling which I was trying to ‘build’ into the card itself.
I did make a matching box to this card– but again, because I was in such a hurry to get caught up with myself(after being poorly for weeks on end), I totally forgot to take a picture of the box before I gave the card to the teacher last week.
The inside of the card was lined with pale biscuity coloured paper, and I used ribbons inside, in a lovely shade of pink, and the vintage wine coloured ribbon you see on the front – just to add that final touch which made the inside as pretty as the outside.
Well … I’m still trying to catch up and I’m hoping to craft up a storm in my craft room today – so I’ll hopefully see you later.
Have a truly wonderful Monday, – whatever you’re doing.
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 coloursand 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!
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.
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.
I rarely make Christmas cards. You can buy a box of Christmas cards so cheaply that it kind of feels like it’s a bit wasteful to spend lots of money (not to mention time) to make them myself. We crafters know exactly how much it actually costs for our supplies – and believe me it’s not cheap!
But this year I thought that I could justify making them as I had a plethora of card stock, and I if I used my Card-io stamps then I could make them really cheaply, with very little in the way of adornments or embellishments.(Watch out for more about Cardio stamps soon. I’m going to do a write-up in my ‘Craft Products I recommend’ category on my blog here – so look out for that one.) Over the next few days I’ll post a card a day of a selection of the Card-io cards which I’ve made for friends and neighbours this year.
Today is the turn of the Christmas Wreath Card.
Pretty, isn’t it! And yet it’s made SO simply that you probably wouldn’t believe it. Made using just four tiny little clear stamps. The only embellishments on this card are some pale pink flat back pearls (used as little berries on the wreath), and a tie of a tiny bit of ribbon for the bow on the top of the wreath – oh, and a little sprinkle of some glitter.
I know that in the photograph the wreath looks as if it has quite some depth – but it’s actually totally flat, apart from the pale pink pearls. The clever bit is in the stamping. If you use a second and sometimes third generation of stamping then you’ll ‘build in’ some depth. If you look around the edge of the card itself, you’ll see what I mean by ‘second generation’.
second generation stamping
You can see a dark stamped image … but between the darker images, you’ll see a second, paler image. Well – that’s second generation stamping. I stamped the image once, then without inking up the stamp again, I stamped the image again – this time pressing just a little harder on the stamp to ensure that the image printed out. This is what gives a depth to a stamped image. It looks like something is there, in the background.
Because the wreath is a little more heavily stamped, you don’t see the second generation stamping too easily – but it’s there. It kind of tricks your brain into thinking that what you’re seeing is actually a shadow of the darker stamped image, and so makes the darker images look as if they’re dimensional and stand out proud of the card. Hence the deception of depth.
Crafty stuff I used to make this card:
White 6×6 ready scored card stock.
An assortment (4) of small individual Card-io stamps
Whisper Archival Ink Pads (a pinky peachy raspberry colour and a dull brown)
Memento Ink Pad (in a warm brown)
Ranger Archival Ink Pad (black)
Pinflair Glue
Translucent Glitter Dust
Anita’s flat back pearls from their Gemstone Wheel.
Short length of tartan/plaid ribbon.
This was a really quick to make card and it didn’t need any die cutting, measuring, cutting (other than the ribbon) or any great deal of ‘working it out’. I knew I wanted to make a wreath. I knew I wanted it to look festive but in colours other than red and green (so over-used at Christmas!) – and I wanted the edges of the card to be coloured to tone with the wreath.
I had such a fun time making this … but then … I was using Card-io stamps, and I always have a fun craft time with them. ButI’ll do you a write-up about them and then you can make your own decision on whether to buy some for yourself!
Wishing you a blessed and trouble-free Tuesday, love from ~
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The Art of Cobwebs 