Wishes of Joy, Love and Peace via a Christmas Card!

I received an email telling me that another of my cards, which I’d made and sent to the USA, had arrived!  I cannot begin to tell you how filled with gratitude I am when I hear that something has arrived.  I think maybe it’s more of a joy to me when I’ve actually made something and put all my love into making that item for a special person.

This card was made for my most favourite of Rabbits.  Rabbit of  Rabbit Patch Diaries.  She’s a wonderful writer and has this magical way of picking me up and carrying me along with her as I read her posts.  Aww, I love her to pieces.

I wanted to make her a card for Christmas and send it to her, so I asked if I could, and she said yes!  I went to work and this is the card I made especially for my fabulous Rabbit blogging friend….

The hearts, reading Joy, Love and Peace, are hearts I made myself, from a very lightweight, white clay.  Once they were dry (I always leave it for 24 hours), I coloured up the hearts using ‘Buff It’ (made by Pinflair).  The ‘Joy’ heart was done in Gold Buff It.  The middle (Love) heart was coloured using Red Buff It, and the ‘Peace’ heart was coloured using Pearl Buff It.

The Poinsettia flowers are handmade, with yellow glass beads at their centres, and they were kissed by the snow.  (Or rather: stuff I used as pretend snow).

Behind the flowers and leaves is a little muslin, some loofah strands, green moss, and some twigs – which are from my garden.  I was helped in the collection of said twigs, by Little Cobs.  He wasn’t quite as selective with the size of the twigs as he was with the collection of “tiny pine cones”, which I told you about a couple of days ago.  I was getting what could only be described as branches.  Large branches.  The type you’d make a fire with, but not the type you’d glue to a card.  Bless him.

There are pine cones fixed to the card, and you can just about see them in the photographs.  These pine cones were collected by Little Cobs, in his tin bucket, from the garden.

Finally …  I added a string of creamy pearls in different sizes.  Just to add a touch of ladylike glamour to the card.  What can I say….  I’m a twin set and pearls sort of gal.  And then I ended the card making session with ‘snow’.  (The same ‘snow’ which kissed the poinsettia flowers earlier on).

And that’s all there was to it!   😀

The card was my way of saying ‘Thank You’ to Rabbit for all the enjoyment I get from reading her posts.  So .. Thank You Rabbit.

The joy I receive from your blog posts is beyond measure.  Each post is book ended with love, and, when I get to the end of each post, it leaves me both filled with peace, and not wanting it to end.  Almost like a book that one is enjoying so much, that one doesn’t want the books final page to arrive.

Thank you Rabbit, for the wonderful reads, and ….oh,  for so, so much more.  May God Bless and keep you, my friend.

And … Thank You  my lovely reader, so much for coming and sharing some time with me.  It’s especially lovely to see you here I think because it’s Christmas.  It’s always so lovely to see friends at any time, but to see them at Christmas time is like a gift.  You  and your time, are as a gift to me.  So thank you, from my heart, for coming and spending some of your time with me.

Sending love, squidges and Christmas wishes ~

 

 

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Victorian Christmas ~ a handmade card.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I’d been making some cards which were being sent to the USA, and I was a bit worried that none of them would get there before Christmas.  Well … I had an email a couple of days ago telling me that the one card had arrived at its destination!  So I’m thrilled to pieces to finally be able to share one of them.

This particular card was made especially for Beverly of More Ink Please.  Beverly is a fellow crafter.  She makes the most incredible cards – some of them are amazingly intricate and so, so pretty.  She is also a very talented hand-made book maker.  But … she has but one fault.  She never finds time to blog about them!  She will chat with me about some things that she’s making, but even though I push her to take a photo and pop it onto her blog …. she’s a proper rascal and never does!  tsk tsk.

I decided back at the beginning of November what sort of card I wanted to make for Beverly.  I wanted to make a card with a very Victorian feel, with lots of layers.

The Poinsettia flowers are all handmade and although I cut the centre (black) stamens from cardstock, I gave the flowers their yellow centres by adding some tiny glass beads.

The tiny pine cones you see on the card (covered in [fake] snow) are actually from my garden.   I put Little Cobs to work during the summer, and asked him to collect me some fallen pine cones, but, I told him,  “I want the teeny, weeny, baby ones, because Grammy wants to craft with them and put them on cards”,  and, Bless his little heart, he took his bucket and went around my garden, picking up pine cones and either putting them in his bucket or, after doing a spot check, declaring them  “Too Big!” and discarding them.

He then helped me to put all the baby Pine Cones inside a plastic bag, and zipped it up for me, so that I could force out any insects and part company with them.

I’ve put him on the payroll, and he now gets paid weekly, in cash.

Well look ….  a week before Christmas and I’m only just posting a Christmas Card. Sorry about that  … making them all is taking time and by the time I’ve finished making one, I’m onto the next ‘making’ and … well, time just runs away from me.  It’s that things fault.  Time.  It’s times fault.   Awww, let’s not get into Time and it’s horrors. grrrr.

Thank you so much for coming and having a coffee with me while I chatted away.  I love seeing you.  Especially on a Monday morning before Christmas.  😀

Have a blessed rest of your day my fabulous friend  ~ 

 

Ye Olde Christmas Past!

Dickens seems to be a theme running through my mind over the past week or so.  Maybe it’s just because it’s Christmas time, maybe because there was the old Alistaire Sim, A Christmas Carol, film on TV about a week or so ago – one which is a favourite of Mr.Cobs, so it was, of course, something which was a ‘must watch’ film for the dear man.

I don’t know what it is but I do know that it’s settled itself into my brain, and now my craft room, as you can see by the latest card I’ve made, pictured above, along with the Charles Dickens book – A Christmas Carol.

Made on a 6″x 6″ white cardstock.  I used an embossing folder to make the brickwork impression behind everything.

I stamped the window and the street lamp using Penny Black stamps: Winter Illumination – which come as the set of two.  Then hand painted them using watercolours, and dried them with my heat gun, so not to let the cardstock get too wet and floppy.

Although the stamped image of the lamp does have a wreath as part of its image, I wanted to give the lamp a touch of ‘3D’, so made a teeny tiny wreath for over the top of the stamped wreath, and added a red silk ribbon bow to top it off.

The wooden fence, actually is wooden fencing.  I bought a length of it a few years ago, and have used little bits of it now and again for various projects.  It’s lovely stuff because the wood will take colour really well.  Here I painted it black, and dried it off using my heat gun, as I wanted it to ‘be encouraged’ to be a matt finish, rather than give a slightly shiny finish, which it has a tendency to do if you leave it to dry naturally.

A side on view, to show the various layers and depth to the card.

The Poinsettia flowers were made using a die, from pages cut from an old book and then inked up to colour the petals and leaves, with the addition of a few glass beads for the centres.

I added the snow using ‘Glossy White’ stencil dimension medium,  and then added some Pinflair Snow Dust to give it that crunchy snow look, and finally assemble everything with the use of black foam tape, Pinflair Glue Gel and a few dabs of glue from my trusty glue gun.

I think I’ve told you everything, but if there’s something I’ve missed or something you want more information about, don’t be shy about asking.  I’m more than delighted to help out a fellow crafter.

On a personal health note … It would appear that the infection I had has now cleared up  (hurrah!) but I’m still suffering this doggam awful pain and the doctor can’t figure that one out.  He’s checked me for any signs of a rash (thinking possibly Shingles) but there is none.  He’s booked me for a blood test (tomorrow) to take a look at my kidneys and see if something is going on there.  After that …  I think Mr.Cobs is taking me to our vets to see if they can sort me out.

Well that’s me done and dusted.  Have a wonderful, bright start to your new week.  May your Monday be peaceful.  Gentle.  Mild.  And may you end the day with a smile, and the thought that, if you consider what COULD have gone wrong today – all things considered, you had a fairly good day.

Sending warm wishes and snuggly hugs your way ~

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The First Christmas Card of 2016

I finally did it.  I jumped in and made my very first Christmas Card of 2016.  I don’t in the least feel anything like it’s coming up to Christmas, but there was a little niggle forming inside me telling me that I really should do SOMETHING,  and I think it was simply because other blogs have all started featuring their own Christmas cards.  It kind of made me feel like I was being a total lay-about.  Like that pupil in school who never turned in their homework.

So I did my first Card for Christmas this year …  but with a twist.  It’s not the normal ‘opening’ card with four sides (front, open left, open right and then finally the back).  Nope.  This one is made on a great big post card (as you can see) which measure 21cm long – or for those of us who still work on the fabulous, can’t be beaten, original measuring system in the UK – that’s 8.25inches.

The Post Card doesn’t open up.  Instead I cut a stand for the back of the card which folds out, and makes the card stand up all by itself.  If you can’t imagine what this looks like …  go back to your school photos, the ones which came in a mount.  On the back of those mounts was a fold out stand, with another little bit to it which then folded down, and locked the stand in place.  Well that’s exactly the same as the stand on the back of this card.

I totally forgot to take photo’s of the making, apart from one .… so this is all I’ve got to show you how it all came together …  so I’ll try to tell you, but if there’s anything I miss or anything you want to know, just ask away in a comment.

I began by tearing up some corrugated card, and then some paper which I’ve had in my stash for a while, pale beige with white snow flakes on it.  I distressed and inked the paper and fixed it onto the card next to the corrugated.  Added some Polyfilla in appropriate places and in order to give it all that frost appearance, I added, to the Polyfilla while still wet, some Mica Flakes;  Chunky glitter, and some very fine glitter dust.

I used a mixture of Polyfilla (yes the type you use on the walls – but buy the flexible Polyfilla in the tube – so that it doesn’t crack and flake) and in some places (along the top) a little dimensional paste, in order to achieve the snowy, icy look I was after.

The Father Christmas ‘postage stamp’ you see in the top right hand corner, is a stamped image, which I stamped onto some brown paper and then fussy cut out.  Then added the white berry twig, twisted into a wreath.

While that all dried I used some Buff It  (by  Pinflair) in red and gold, to the sleigh.

I cannot recommend Buff It highly enough.  It’s a fantastic product, which you use very little of, and mix it with a tiny bit of water.  If, while you’re working on your project, the Buff it on your plate, or tile or glass mat, dries up, you simply add another little tiny drop of water, and it all starts working again.  It dries super quick.  You then buff it with a soft cloth (I use a dried baby wipe) and it positively gleams!  You can find it HERE on the Pinflair website.

Then I began to build up the elements . . .  using the holly and berries (which are made from felt), and the red tinsel (which I curled) along the bottom.   The Poinsettia flower and leaves are made from a set of dies – (which I bought from a fellow blogger about 3 months ago).  I cut the flower itself out of red card, but the leaves were cut from three different shades of green card.

I wanted everything to have that crisp, icy look,  so after I put the flower parts together, I dragged a tiny bit of dimensional paste around the edges of some of the petals and leaves, and using some Tonic Glitter Accent in Fresh Snowfall I ‘iced up’ the flower & leaves.  This Tonic Glitter Accent in their Fresh Snowfall,  is ‘like’ a Stickles (only in a much bigger bottle) but this particular one, in the Fresh Snowfall, is very thick.  Very sticky, and sets hard.

While everything was drying I made some ‘gifts’.  These gifts took me ages!  Bits of paper and card.  Tiny bits of bakers twine. Sticking the paper down without sticking the whole thing to my fingers!  Ugh!  I popped the presents into the sleigh then turned my attention to making ‘snow’.

I found some fabulous little tiny round dots which twinkle like a million stars, in The Range (in the UK – sorry to folks in other places) when I went shopping last week and fell in love with them.  I wish I could show you how fabulous they are but I can’t get a photo of the twinkles.  They look more like sequins in the photos, but they’re really nothing like them at all.  So so lovely, and, would you believe, all made from a tiny bit of plastic.

I added Christmas Red Stickle ‘berries’ to the wreath surrounding the Father Christmas stamp and some Red and Green ribbon and string bows at the left hand side of the card.  A metal silver charm in the shape of a snowflake hanging from the berry wreath, and some more red tinsel around the seating area of the sleigh.  Aaaaand  that’s all there was to it.

So there you have it  … I’ve made my first Christmas Card!  I have no idea who I’ve made it for as I didn’t have anyone in mind while I was making it, I just knew I wanted to make a Christmas Card on a big Vintage Style Post Card, with a sleigh on it and some tinsel.  After that I just kind of winged it!  But have to admit that when I stood back and looked at it once finished,   I loved it  …  and hope you like it too.

Have you made any Christmas Cards yet?  I’ve done a little Christmas Shopping, but making cards just …. well, it still feels too early for me.  Tell me what you feel about it.  I’d like to know that I’m not alone in this feeling … but I’m starting to think I am.  eeeek!

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