Forgotten Friday 42- It's been a while

Hi Folks, it's been a couple of weeks since I've done a Forgotten Friday post, and I'm really not expecting any of you to go rushing out to make something to join in this close to Christmas. The makes that I'm going to show you today are coincidental, not specifically for this post either. We are all so busy at this time of year.

Unfortunately, I haven't been that well recently, so crafting has been almost impossible for me, which has been really frustrating in the lead up to Christmas. I am buying a lot of my cards this year, but listening to a lot of other people, I'm not the only one. I hope that you aren't all feeling the pressure of the season too much. Hopefully you will be able to approach the big day ready to wind down, enjoy some time with friends and family, and that you can relax for a while. I know, I'm not ignoring the fact that there is a huge dinner to cook on the day, believe me! However, I have three helpers who do the vegetable peeling and the washing up, so I have learned to delegate!

Anyway, on to my projects this week. I have been making a book card with my card class for the last couple of weeks. It wasn't meant to take so long, but the construction was a little involved, and then the front needed decorating. I then showed them how to make the TH pine cones, so it became quite time consuming. My project was based on a project taken from the Whiff of Joy tutorial blog, there is a great 'how to' video on the blog. I have used a neglected Martha Stewart punch to make paper lace to decorate both the inside and outside of the project, colouring the card with Antique Linen Distress Ink.

I then embossed a favourite Chocolate Baroque holly swirl stamp in gold onto my background card, and then added various green Distress Inks. I then stamped an unused LOTV angel stamp onto an oval of card, which I had already coloured slightly with some of the green inks. I coloured the image with Coloursoft pencils. I added some more of the paper lace, and two of the pine cones and foliage from the same die, which I had inked with Pine Needles Distresss Ink.

My second project is a Birthday card that I needed to make for a twenty year old this week. I wanted something quite vibrant to reflect her vivacious personality. I used some Distress Inks patted onto my craft mat, spritzed with water, and dragged my card through the colours repeatedly, building up the layers. I then sprayed a Crafty notions white spray over the top to knock the colour back slightly. I then stamped an IndigoBlu crackle stamp over the top.

I stamped 'Ella Bella' from IndigoBlu onto the background, using Archival black ink. I added some lovely sari ribbon that my crafty friend Lesley had given me, I have been hoarding this for an eternity, and the colours are gorgeous. I then added a silver butterfly that I had coloured with Stream and Wild Plum alcohol inks, again, a neglected craft item. To finish, I added some tiny flat-backed self-adhesive pearls on the image. I have lots of these, but rarely use them.

If you feel like making something with your forgotten stash, please leave a comment, and I'll pop along to your blog to take a look. However, please don't feel guilty if you are too busy this week. Thanks for stopping by, xx