A Gothic Christmas

Jo and her October elf, Carol, set a challenging challenge at Christmas Kickstart this month: Gothic Christmas! You wouldn't believe how many different ideas I played with and ultimately rejected. In the end I've combined with the Die Cut Divas who want to see shaped cards this month.

Gothic architecture seemed like it might offer some inspiration. Unusually for me I've gone for a sort of hybrid approach here and included some imagery printed from the computer. I found some lovely fantasy stained glass images from an Etsy seller (here) and after playing with the idea of making some of the circular images into baubles (I might come back to that!) I returned to the initial window idea as this is such a classic gothic shape. I also decided candles can be quite a gothic element so added a chunky church style one with some winter greenery.

The mat and the card itself are hand cut (I basically eyeballed and pencilled in the border round the printed image after cutting that out). I decided I wanted a bit of texture - that got added by rubbing a ball tool over the card on an embossing folder and moving it around pretty randomly.

The candle and fir branches are die cut, the ivy is fussy cut from another window image and I've added some Stickles and Wink of Stella to the flame and Glossy Accents to the jewelled bits of the frame. The colours are richer in real life, I think maybe the amount of black confuses the camera!

Stamps: Compliments of the Season (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Cryogen white
Black

Ink: 
Versamark by Tsukineko
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door, Pine Needles, Antique Linen)

Other:
Gold detail embossing powder
Fantasy Stained Glass digital images (Old World Pages on Etsy)
Candle die (Elizabeth Craft Designs)
Stickles (Candy Cane)
Brickwork 3D embossing folder (Tim Holtz/Sizzix)
Glossy Accents
Spica glitter pen (green)
Wink of Stella (clear) 

Thanks for stopping by!

Cake and candles

I’m combining challenges again today! Shabneez has chosen our theme at Daring Cardmakers and as she has lots of family birthdays to celebrate in August, she’d like to see birthday card ideas featuring candles and/or cake.

Let’s Squash It’s challenge of a shaped card combined with any embossing folder is ongoing so I decided to play again there — the cabinet card shape I made last week was looking very lonely in the challenge gallery until the lovely Robyn joined me on Wednesday but I'm sure Jo and Gail would love to see a few more shaped cards!

I kept the shape really simple this time, using the largest die from a really old Spellbinder set, but it still looks a bit different than your regular straight edges. Wafer thin dies tend not to want to go through two layers of base weight cardstock — I ran the folded base through the machine once which cut the top layer and made a good indentation in the bottom one. You can then flatten it out and use the indentation to reseat the die and place your top plate so it lines up along the fold of the card to make sure you don’t cut more than you intended. I then die cut a full front out of black cardstock, embossed it, dry brushed with metallic acrylic paint and stuck to the card base. 

The cake is stamped, coloured with Copics and fussy cut then stuck on with gel glue with a glittery gold frame to spotlight it. The sentiment is cut with a small rectangle, modified make it longer.

I realised when dry brushing the card front that there is even a cake with candles (top left) in the embossing so it’s double cake all round!

Stamps:
The Cafe (Cornish Heritage Farms, no longer with us)
Sentiment from Essential Messages (Hero Arts, retired)

Paper:
Bristol board
Black
Gold glitter

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)

Other:
Birthday embossing folder (Cuttlebug)
Copic markers
Labels 8 dies (Spellbinder)
Fine frames die, circle (Altenew)
Stitched rectangles A6 size (Paper Rose)
Espresso metallic paint (DecoArt)

Cool citrus

Kathy is setting our challenge at Daring Cardmakers this week — it's hot again here in the UK so she'd like to see ways to keep your cool. Check out the blog for ideas from the team!

I'm partial to a citron pressé when on holiday somewhere hot so I decided to go that way —there's something cool and refreshing about sharp citrus flavours mixed with gently fizzy water and a spoonful of sugar. A couple of ice cubes and a sprig of mint make it more sophisticated if you’re that way inclined!

This pretty layering stamp set from The Greetery was on my wish list and hubby bought it for me as a gift now there’s a UK stockist (Seven Hills, if anyone needs to know!). He bought the coordinating dies too (which I confess I probably wouldn’t have done) so I played with both here. The dies definitely made the flower cluster easier!

The shaped card was inspired by the current challenge at Let's Squash It who want us to combine our embossing folders with a card that isn’t square or rectangular. I haven’t used this cabinet card die for ages and thought it might make an attractive frame for an arrangement of lemons. I chose a basketweave folder to be reminiscent of picnic baskets or perhaps shady sun hats! I ran a gold paint pen around the inside of the frame for a bit of definition. Because it’s a steel rule die it’s really easy to cut through a couple of layers — just fold the base then position the fold fractionally inside the left hand cutting edge so it stays intact and you’ll have a perfectly shaped card base.

The Die Cut Divas have a shaped card challenge too so I’m linking up there as well!

Stamps:
Lemon Blossom (plus coordinating dies) (The Greetery)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress by Ranger (Mowed Lawn, Picked Raspberry)
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide by Ranger (Twisted Citron)
Versacraft by Tsukineko (Lemon Yellow)
Jenni Bowlin by Ranger (Lemon Drop)
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Sunshine Yellow)
Memento Luxe by Tsukineko (Rose Bud)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)

Other:
Basketweave folder (Spellbinder)
Tag Trio dies (Spellbinder)
Cabinet Card and Mini Cabinet Card dies (Tim Holtz/Sizzix)
Gold paint pen

Come join the fun!

 

 Die Cut Divas

The shape I'm in...

The challenge today over at Cornish Heritage Farms today is to make a shaped card. I rarely think to do this so I thought it would be fun to give it a go! Last month's Craft Stamper magazine featured some fun fairy doors so I decided to do a little adaptation and make a fairy door card. I think this would be great fun for a little girl's birthday or 'just because' card. Perhaps the tooth fairy might even leave it to remind her to make her wish?

The top is trimmed to shape with a pair of scissors and I scored the door before stamping the wood grain backgrounder to give the impression of planks. I painted over the stamped swirl with acrylic paint just to give a tiny bit of dimension. The slightly less precise feel of the freehand paint seemed to go with the fact it's representing foliage, too. Tiny dots of 3D paint to represent blossom finish it off. I've added a couple of chipboard 'washers' behind the brad so that the handle really stands proud of the surface and can be used to open the door.

Stamps (all Cornish Heritage Farms):
Wood grain backgrounder
Weathered Wood backgrounder
Beautiful (the Rummage Bin line)
Everyday Petites (Mon Lisa Moments line)

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Walnut Stain)

Other:
Acrylic paint
Dylon 3D paint (like Liquid Pearls)
Decorative brad (Making Memories)

Lots of the DT girls are making shaped cards today so it's a worth visiting the links (over on the right) to see what kind of shape they're in, too!

Thanks for visiting today, hope you had fun!

Not so square

Over at Crafts by Carolyn, the new challenge is to add or subtract something so that your card outline is not a square or rectangle. I did both! I cut away the top of the card to make the snow slope and added three trees cut out after stamping/embossing that stick up over the snowline. The middle one is pop mounted for a bit extra dimension.



Supplies: Tree from acrylic set by Skipping Stones Design, sentiment by MSE, white hammered card, Versamark and silver embossing powder, Clearsnap chalk ink - ice blue.

Nicola (you might know her online as Dollydimple) and I have joined Carolyn to make the CBC Crew and we'll be launching challenges and projects on a regular basis but not so fast that you'll get dizzy! There are some fab prizes in the pipeline too and everyone who takes up a challenge has an equal chance of winning. Pop on over if your Mojo's gone missing or you fancy the chance of winning some new stamps, papers, kits, ribbons etc etc etc!



Challenges at the moment include black and white Christmas card, cards including a charm, this shaped card challenge and there will be new ones coming up soon - keep your eyes open on Thursdays and Sundays!

Bend me, shape me...

There's a chance to get a personalised challenge over on the Crafts by Carolyn forum. Just say "Challenge me" on the special thread and Mel will come up with an individual challenge. Mine for July was to make a shaped card, not a square or rectangle.

Having promised not to recyle the wedding cake card I showed a few posts back, I made this... (clicking on it should give you a more detailed view)



I was inspired by the lovely flower on Anna's blog and had a go at something similar using dark red paper to make a sort of poppyish thing.

I cut two circles for each petal with a Fiskars circle cutter, curved them with the help of a brush handle, stuck them onto a circle of black card and used the largest asterisk from the Cuttlebug set to cut 'stamens' for the middle.

The pot is cut from heavy card stock with the fold on the left and had a piece of white card embossed with the Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls folder stuck to the front. The leaf is one that was left over from the sunflower project a few posts back. Finally, the Happy Birthday message is embossed with a Cuttlebug folder, matted onto the same red as the petals and stuck onto green craft wire made into a coil by wrapping round a pencil.

Shape shifting

Yay! I've joined the Cuttlebug Embossing crowd! The folders I ordered from the USA arrived this morning and I sat straight down to make a card for the Friday Night Challenge over at the Just Bex forum. The challenge is to make a shaped card - no squares or rectangles. I knew what I wanted to do but desparately wanted the embossing folder to do it!



I used the D'vine Swirls folder to emboss smooth white cardstock then cut three rectangles and rounded off the top corners with a punch. The 'ribbons' are cut from silvery Moondust paper (which doesn't photograph well but has a lovely sheen IRL). Sentiment is heat embossed and the hearts are punched shapes - one triple embossed and the other from the Moondust paper raised on little foam pads.

Right, I've more folders to play with so I'm off!