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 ~

 

 

 

 

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[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.

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 ~

Putting the Boot in! (That’s the Wellington Boot Card of course!)

I love shaped cards, but rarely make them and I don’t know why!  They’re such fun and can bring a different sort of look to the line up on the mantel shelf or windowsill.  So when I saw some card blanks shaped as Wellington boots (and flower pots – but those are still to come) I couldn’t help but make the instant decision of buying them and a pad of fabulous garden potting shed papers.

However – I’ve never been comfortable in making  ‘quick’ cards  (as I call them).  You know what I mean?  – cut and stick, and finished!  I need to make cards which have stretched my creativity in some way.  I need to put my own unique bit of art on a card in order to make it ‘Hand made by Cobwebs’.  So on this card I decided I’d like to put some hand painted plant pots.

All the plant pots you see in the above photograph of the Wellington Boot Card, were stamped out using stamps I’ve had for donkey’s years, and after stamping, they are all hand painted by me, onto some cream cardstock, then each one was cut out, manipulated so that each one curved like a real plant pot would,  and then added to the card individually – using Pinflair glue gel – to help the pots keep their dimension,  and Anita’s Tacky glue.

I know that I could talk you through the steps for making a card like this, but I thought it might be more entertaining to simply show you how to make a card like this by taking photographs.  So I took a gazillion and have chosen the best.

I haven’t taken a photograph of the blank card (you’ll see the back of the card in a photograph so that you can see what they look like without anything on – so it seemed a waste of space to put a ‘blank card’ photograph!),  so I’m going to explain the first step:

The cards start out life as a blank, ready-made and scored card made from Kraft Card.  I chose a paper which I liked, then drew around the boot shape directly onto the paper, and carefully cut it out then fixed it to the front of the boot.  It was at this point that I added the garden string – and this was so I could gauge where to place the plant pots.  From here I then went on to stamp the plant pots onto a scrap of cream, high gsm cardstock from my scrap draw,  . . . .   and from here, dear reader, I’ll let the photographs take over the story of how I made this card  . . . . .

It was at this point that I then ‘assembled’ the front of the card.  I used the one large pot with the lavender/lilac (Memento  Grape Jelly)  coloured flowers for the front of the card – which you see stamped above.  I’d already added stalks to the flowers using a rich, green, fine tipped pen, and I then carefully cut around the pot and the flowers as one, and shaped them then fixed them to the card.  The other pots were also fixed to the card at this point.   I then hand painted the shadows of the pots which you can see on the card below (but I also added a little shadow to some of the pots on the cream card so that you could see this shadow clearly – see above photo, number 7)

I wanted to do something with the envelope as it looked so boring in comparison to the card – so I thought some more pots might look cute  . . . .

Of course … me being me,  I couldn’t just leave it to look plain inside the card.  You know me – I have to give a little something more for the inside a card so . . .

And that’s all there was to it!

Oh … I nearly forgot …   I added a sentiment to the front, curved over the string, and made it look like it was riveted in place,  (so that it looked like it had some sort of garden potting shed function), and used a little bit of brown grosgrain ribbon for a bow.  Finally – I added a little, metal,  vintage bird house which I tied with a bow of bakers twine and fixed it beneath the brown ribbon.

Ta dah!  One Wellington boot card, which would be suitable for either a lady or gentleman who likes to garden, grow, or maybe even has an allotment!

Thank you so much for coming and visiting the potting shed today, I’ve really enjoyed your company.  I have a couple of other potting shed cards to share with you, but we’ll leave that for another day, because I’ve no doubt that you’ve got plenty to do and I really shouldn’t keep you.  (Although I’d love to, you understand!)

If you’ve already clicked to ‘Follow Me’,then you’ll get an email from the website here to let you know when I published the next visit to the potting shed, and if you’ve like this one then I think you might like what’s coming next time.  {winks a cheeky wink}.   But for now – take very good care of yourself and I’ll see you next visit!

Have a blessed rest of your day.   Sending love ~

A special ~ ‘Pink Ribbon’ ~ Card

I don’t normally make ‘requested’ cards.   I make cards and donate them to charitable causes and organisations who sell them to raise their much-needed funds.   But .. I made an exception with the request for this card.  The person who asked me if I would make a card for someone told me about the lady they wanted a card made for, and also why they wanted a special card made – and I knew I had to make the card.  And that’s why this is a  ‘Special’ Pink Ribbon Card.

The person who asked me to make the card said that she liked vintage looking cards, and said she “would love a card with a bike on it, like on the other card…”   which she’d seen on my blog (here  → https://thecobweboriumemporium.wordpress.com/2014/07/30/take-time-to-stop-and-smell-the-flowers/ ).  She also said that she’d love some pink flowers on the card. 

So armed with this information, I set out on my journey of making a special card ….

I began with the background:-  I embossed a 6×6 piece of good quality craft card using a Sheena Douglass embossing folder, putting the card through the embossing machine twice (because the embossing folder I wanted to use was only  5 x 7.)   I had to be careful about where I placed the ‘join of the pattern’  of the double pass so that the embossing ‘fell’ just right so that the pattern continued as seamlessly as possible.

Then came colouring the woodland scene:  Three colours of Gentle Blends (by Pinflair)  blending the colours over the embossed areas in the places I wanted them to be and then using a duster brush I added a little cantaloupe coloured ink from a Memento Ink Pad and another yellowy colour which was slightly more buttery,  to the centre of the ‘view’ to give it that ‘hazy sunshine in the background’  feeling.

 

I hand painted the butterflies, leaves, flowers and grass  using a paint brush and Memento ink pads,  and. once the ink was dry  added a little pearl gilding wax to some of the butterflies, to give them a slightly ethereal feel and make them look as if their wings were fluttering.  I gave each of them a little glitter trail –  ‘falling’ behind them as they fluttered their wings to fly,  using a glue pen and some of my favourite glitter dust.  It kind of gave the whole scene a magical feel.

The sign post  I built using my computer.  I went around all the edges of the sign post with a black pen so that it gave the post a little depth and made it look like it had a dark shadow falling behind it.

A darker view of the card so that you can see a little more of the details which the flash has hidden on the other photographs.

I wanted to add a little more depth to the leaves on the branches , so I ran the embossing folder with a scrap of craft card inserted into it, though the embossing machine again, but this time carefully cut out a branch and its leaves, and then painted the branch and leaves using the paintbrush method, but this time in three darker shades of green so that it looked like it was somehow in the shade.  (I added a little glitter to the very edges of some leaves, which again, just added to that all round magical woodland feeling).

I die cut the bicycle using some textured black card, and, using a white pen, added highlights to the bike where the light would have naturally caught on it, to give it more of a dimensional feel.

At last I was able to assemble the whole card.   I fixed the sign post to the background, using Pinflair Glue Gel, and a tiny bit of tape on the back, where I’d pushed the bottom part of the post through to the back of the embossed card.  Then attached the embossed background to the card base – with my favourite ‘go to’ glue:  Collall All Purpose Glue.

The bike was added using some black foam tape, cut and snipped to the right proportions,  and the extra branch was added using Pinflair glue gel and Anita’s Tacky Glue.

I added some pretty papers to the inside of the card and stamped a butterfly  from a set which I’ve had for donkeys years . . .

. . .  and so that the inside of the card reflected the front, I added a little bicycle stamp to the other half of the inside of the card.  Signed the back and … voila!  One card all done and dusted  . . . . . . .   except  . . . . .    it needed something more  . . .   A Box!  So I made it a special box …

The decoration to the top of the lid was made using a Tonic Die set, and I just glittered the words (‘with love’) and the wings of the dragonfly.

NOW it was finished!  I’m really pleased with this card.  It has something magical and special about it.  I love it.

Thank you so much for coming to share this card with me.  I enjoy your company! 

Have a truly fabulous Sunday!  ~ 

 

Life is a Journey .. not a Destination. ~ A vintage style handmade card

 

Life is a Journey, not a Destination.

This post is dedicated to Stacey, a fellow blogger on WordPress, who came up with a brilliant idea of promoting other crafting blogs in posts.  Stacey very kindly mentioned my blog (with a link) and other crafters blogs that I hadn’t seen before  – which was enough to tell me that I too should take up her idea and promote crafters blogs on my own blog here. 

So, since Stacey came up with the idea, I am firstly promoting her blog (link below) and dedicating this post  – and this card  –  to Stacey. 

Stacey’s blog can be found here:  http://staceyscorner.wordpress.com/2014/06/01/share-sunday/  ~ go and take a look and maybe even click to follow her.

To Stacey,   a dedicated blog post and card,  for an amazing idea!  ~ from Cobs.

. . . join me on a journey through this card . . .

 

Every few days/weeks  … now and again … I’ll make what I call a ‘labour intensive’ card.  One of those cards which takes more time than the regular cards you’ve so far seen me post here.  This card – ‘Life is a Journey, not a Destination’, is one of those cards.

It’s not that these types of cards are difficult, they just take a little more thinking and working out so that you end up with the ‘feel’ that you started out knowing you wanted.  This particular card was inspired by a piece of wall art which I have hung in my bedroom, facing my bed.  It’s an iron framed rectangle with a piece of calico strung in the centre and printed on the calico are the words Life is a Journey, not a Destination, and that’s what gave me the theme for the card.

I wanted the card to have a vintage style, with a slightly ‘steampunkery’ feel to it – but at the same time I knew I wanted it to carry a message,  and wanted the message to be read as either literal or spiritual, depending on who the card ended up with, and the circumstances they were in within their life, at that time.  And ... I think I’ve managed it.

This card could be for someone who’s:-  moving house;  going on a cruise or going abroad;  it could be a simple regular birthday card (for either a man or a woman);  it could be for someone who’s starting a new job;  or perhaps for a person who needs some encouragement;  maybe some tests soon?;  or … it could be given to someone who is going through some sort of personal challenge or challenging time, and this card would be a gentle, loving way of saying that they’re going to get through this time and move on to a better place or time.

I’ll give you a list of everything I used to make this card at the end of the post, because I don’t want anyone to look at the list and think that they couldn’t make a card like this.  I might have different stash to you, and I might have different cardstock; dies; ink pads; glues etc etc … but I’m pretty sure you will have things in your stash that you could use to pull a card like this or similar together.  Just because the list of stuff I’ve used might look long – please don’t be put off.  If you want to make something like this, go and look at your stash.  You’d be surprised what you can use in order to make your own style of card.

For now .. I’ll just give you different photos of the card so that you can see things closer up….

Up up and away!  . . .

A  (working)  compass  to help you keep you going in the right direction . . .

 

 

Time passes quickly, –  so some gentle encouragement to enjoy the beauty of every moment.

 

 

As followers and readers of my blog know  …  I LOVE to put surprises inside all the cards I make.  I feel that the inside of a card is just so wasted and such a let down when you open a birthday/Christmas or any other time card, and find a big white space with a little bit of writing. 

I like cards to be beautiful inside and out and surprise the receiver when they open their card! . . . 

 

Oooo…  I wonder what the magnifying glass is for?!   ;D 

OOhh .. another surprise!   ..  now we have a lucky wish star and a ticket which gives me ‘entitlement’ to one wish!    But .. what the devil is that magnifying glass for???

 

Ah haaaa!  . . .   It’s so you can read the page from the dictionary/thesaurus!  Ok .. one mystery solved,  . . .   but  … what’s that pink ticket by the end of the handle?

 

 

Ah haaaa!  . . .  mystery number two solved!  (Just call me Sherlock.  lol)

Oh, and by the way  … the postcard inside . . .  is for you to write your message on, for the person you’re sending the card to!  See?  It all makes sense!

And that  . . . (photo above)  . . .   is the just finished card, stood on a glass cutting mat, on my desk …  and that’s all my  mess  important, essential, fabulous, well organised   {cough}  equipment and tools behind the card.  (I’ll clean it up properly at some point, so that I can take a photograph of my craft room and share it.)

 

The Recipe for this card:  I used:

• Sheena Douglass – Little Bit Sketchy – Magnifying glass stamp.
• Papermania Acetate (for the ‘window’ of the magnifying glass)
• Papermania Black Embossing Powder
• Stazon ‘Saddle Brown’ ink pad
•      ”       ‘Jet Black’ ink pad
• Memento Dye Ink Pad in ‘Desert Sand’
•      ”               ”            ”     in ‘Rich Cocoa”
• Xcut Build-a-Scene Dies – Vintage Hot Air Balloon
• Heartfelt Creations 12×12 pad – which I used some of the images from.
• Spellbinders ‘Once upon a Time’ Die
• Tattered Lace ‘Postcards’ Die set
• Heartfelt Creations ‘Time Sentiments’ stamp
•         ”               ”          ‘Journey Sentiments’ stamp
• Pinflair Gentle Blends – in Denim colour
•       ”            ”            ”      –  in Dark Khaki colour
• Graph It Glitter Ink Pen
• Compass – was in a pack of 4 I bought a while ago, from the children’s section of either Asda or Tesco.
• Dictionary page was cut from an old Dictionary/Thesaurus which was no longer used.
• Cardstock used:
• Warm Chocolate Brown 300gsm
• Plain Black 270gsm
• Orange – was scrap from my scrap draw
• White – 270gsm
• Kraft Card – 300gsm
• Extras:
• 2 x short lengths of silver-grey Rayon Seam Binding.
• Grey and white Bakers Twine
• 3 x fuzzy, funky fibre, Eyelash Knitting Yarn/Wool –  1 x length of warm brown.  1 x  length of jet black.  1 x length of a blues and purples mix.
• One tiny metal vintage looking Postcard embellishment.

And that’s all there is to it!  😀

Aw, please don’t be daunted by the apparently long list of ingredients for this recipe.   I’ve named almost everything I used here just to be helpful to anyone who wants to know where I got a particular thing, or the make of the papers or dies etc,  (named everything apart from glue .. but if you need to know:  I used Collall All Purpose, Anita’s Tacky Glue, hot glue, and Double Sided Tape) – but I bet you use tons of stuff when you craft a card and you don’t even notice what you’re using anymore.  It’s just all  … ‘stuff’ … which is treasured and loved,  and there because you use it!

Thank you so much for coming to read.  I hope you like the card!  Oh … and don’t forget to visit Stacey’s blog!

Please have a look around my blog here and check out the different categories.  There’s a list of them all in the column over to the right, – you’ll find the list of categories towards the top of that column.

Have a truly beautiful rest of your day!  ~