Bah Humbug

Strangely enough, I've been making a Christmas card today, and it's still October. I can't explain why, I just felt the need to make one. Normally, I leave making my Christmas cards until mid December at the earliest in a mild panic. Probably because my Birthday isn't until the start of the holiday season, and until I've celebrated that, I don't feel festive.

Anyway, enough of that! I decided to use a combination of stamp sets, all from Elusive Images, starting with a house from the New England Winter set, which I only used a part of, because I wanted the effect of a rooftop. I then used the reindeer from the Christmas Fusion stamp set, flying over the roof, with his sparkly trail of stars behind him. Lastly, I used a sentiment from Snowflake Flourish, which is a real favourite of mine for Christmas cards.

I have been playing with my Copics to colour in the house and reindeer, and I have to confess that I didn't really deviate from the suggested colours on the accompanying sheet for the stamps. I used a blend of Weathered Wood, Stormy Sky and Chipped Sapphire Distress Inks for the sky background, and painted a little bit of Diamond Stickles on the stars. I used a lovely deep blue backing paper from the Seasons Greetings Artylicious CD, and silver mirri card to mount everything.

How are you all getting on with your Christmas cards? Have you made a start yet, or are you like me, normally leaving it to the last minute? Good luck with them anyway.

Hopefully over the weekend, I'll get some of my Barcelona photos on here for you. We had a fabulous time, and I just loved wandering around the houses designed by Gaudi. The City is just amazing, and the trip went way too fast, but I'll tell you about it all another time! Bye for now, Judith xx

Art Nouveau card

I recently had the good fortune to work with some stamps from Elusive Images based on elegant ladies in ball gowns, and chandeliers. Glenda has some Blog Candy on the Elusive Images Blog where you can win one of the new stamp sets. The other designers have got some examples of their work on the blog, and if you hop over there, you can go to their blogs too, and see what else they have been up to.

The card that is featured by me was based on an Art Nouveau theme, as I felt that the particular feature stamp that I used was reminiscent of that era. I created a mask by punching out a circle from a piece of card, and sponged Wild Plum and Stream Adirondack Ink onto white card to make a background. I then stamped a small chandelier onto each circle. I mounted this onto black card. I took a round piece of Stampbord, and coloured this with Adirondack Ink, before stamping the Art Nouveau flower onto the Stampbord. I then scratched small areas away to reveal the white again, before covering the whole piece with Glossy Accents, and left it to dry overnight. I edged the Stampbord with a silver Krylon pen.

Inside my card, I created an aperture, on a piece of card covered with Artylicious paper, and stamped a piece of acetate with a larger chandelier, which I suspended in the aperture with thread. I stamped two flourishes on the backing paper to complete the inside.

I also made a matching necklace and gift box to go with my card. I made two more of the Stampbord circles, and added flat-backed gems to the one on the gift box. Instructions for the gift box can be found on Ikki's blog, if you scroll back a bit. I really enjoyed working with these vibrant colours!

Sadly Stampbord do not make these circle pieces of Stampbord any longer, and I am probably fortunate to have some in my stash. Any future projects that I make on the jewellery front using this medium will have to be made with squares or rectangles. I'm sure that I will enjoy using those shapes too. Thanks for looking, and any comments that you make will be very appreciated, Judith xx

Here's some I made earlier!

As it's October, and Halloween month, I thought that I would show you a few more of the samples that I made for the Elusive Images Design Team. If any of you have read the comments on my previous posts, you will have seen my blogging friends Lesley and Jo referring to the stand up card that made the front of the Elusive Images Halloween Brochure.

I wanted to create the effect of walking through a gate, into the spooky garden, up to the creepy house. I used lots of Glossy accents, with a bit of Glitter on the Mushrooms, and Glossy Accents on the roof tiles too. I used Dusty Concord Distress Ink to edge everything, to give an eerie shadow to the background. I had great fun creating this card!

My next card was also featured in the brochure, and features stamping on acetate.

I love the black lace on this one, which was a bargain basement find, but looks really great with the Artylicious paper in the background. The last card that I made was not a Halloween card, but was orange and black, so had a flavour of the season. I used some more of that lovely lace, and echoed this with a lovely lace stamp. 

 

My Husband's Birthday is October 31st, so I have more reason than most to invest in Halloween stamps! I always said that I married a werewolf... However, I do try not to go overboard on the spooky references on his cards. 

I'm off on a short trip to Barcelona this weekend, to wander around the city, admiring the beautiful buildings, and enjoying the atmosphere. Have a good weekend whatever you are doing, Judith xx

Play Date Cafe Challenge

Today over at the Play Date Cafe, Glenda from Elusive Images is the guest designer for their weekly challenge. She is also providing the prize this week of some lovely Christmas Stamps. Each week there is a colour challenge, and this week it is green, white and red. Here is my offering for the challenge:

I have written step by step instructions as to how I made my card on the Elusive Images Design Team Blog If you would like to take part in the challenge and have a chance to win some fabulous stamps, hop over to the Play Date Cafe Blog now. Thanks for popping by, Judith xx

November Craft Stamper

The new issue of Craft Stamper magazine hit the shelves yesterday. I received my copy a few days ago, as I have a regular subscription. I was leafing through, as per usual, and as I turned the page, my heart skipped a beat. There was my card, on the page, before my very eyes! I knew that it was going to be published of course, I just didn't know when, and had been waiting for a few months for it to appear. So, if you have a copy, go and look at page 32, 'Blowing Bubbles', that's my card! It's the first time that I have had anything published in a magazine, and I am of course very excited, and very grateful to Katy, the Editor, for picking my card as a Reader Submission.
I have had a brilliant few months, knowing that my card was going to be published in such a prominent magazine, and being chosen as a Design Team member for Elusive Images. My crafting life has really taken off. I enjoy what I do so much, and am learning new and exciting techniques too. I have my friends, Elaine, Jo and Lesley, who I met through the Graphicus Guild forum, that I run the Craft Stamping Quartet blog with, and they are such a big part of my life now, all because of this crafting mullarkey.

I've been messing about today, just making a couple of tags. They are not for any challenges, or submissions, just for pleasure. I have used some of my favourite stamps and colours, and I hope you like what I've come up with. The first tag is loosely based on the work of the lovely Lynn who makes beautiful tags. She often uses the large Tim Holtz flourish on her backgrounds, and her work is just stunning.

I have used Distress Inks to colour the background, stamped the large flourish twice, and added some scraps of old pages to one side of the tag, which I coloured with Distress Inks again. I made a flower with some lovely Artylicious paper, using the Peony Nestability Die, and added a large brad. I cut my butterfly out using the Tim Holtz Butterfly Die in Grungepaper, which I then painted with green Lumiere paint, and then  Broken China crackle paint over the top. I added some of the lovely blue paper behind the wings. An ideology disc, a Tattered Leaf shape and a Dream ticket finish the tag.

 The second tag uses painting with bleach, which my friends and I used when we made our flag books on our other blog Craft Stamping Quartet

I want to place this tag near to my desk to look at when my creativity has gone walkabout. I love butterflies in any shape or form, this one is a personal favourite. It is from Elusive Images, as are the other stamps, isn't the swirl around the edges gorgeous? I kept this tag deliberately quite simple, as I wanted the stamps to speak for themselves. I have used Distress Inks again to colour my tag.

I'd like to thank you, my followers for your support too, on my crafting journey. I appreciate the time you take to make your comments, and visit my blog. Thank you!

I hope you have a good weekend, whatever you're up to, thanks for looking, Judith xx