Bah Humbug challenge my first entry!

I decided to enter the Bah Humbug challenge this week, and am getting in pretty much by the skin of my teeth. I have had trouble with headaches which has made crafting really difficult, but no matter, my card is together now. The theme this week was Holly or Fairies, or you could use both. I chose to use a digital image by Mo Manning called Holly Fairy, which is just perfect for this challenge. I used some lovely backing paper from Sei, from their Winter Song range, that I have been cherishing for a long time, and that formed the basis for my colour scheme. It is a lovely soft turquoise colour. Some of the other papers in the range have a deep red in them, so I decided to choose a deep red Bazzil card as my mount.
I have used Diamond Stickles to edge a lot of my layers, to add a bit of Christmas bling, you always have lots of glitter at Christmas, don't you? I have used a Whiff of Joy die to cut out my Holly leaves, and a Crealie die to cut out my lovely flowers from the remaining Bazzil card. I wet this before I curled the flower points to add dimension to the flowers.

The sentiment comes from Elusive Images, and the brads are from Hobby House. I saved a biscuit tin left over from Christmas, as per the tip on the Bah Humbug blog last week, so this card will be the first to go in there ready to send out at Christmas. It feels really good to say that I've started to make my Christmas cards for this year!!! Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Flowers

I always seem to be telling you that I've been ill whenever I write a post, and today is no exception. However, I'm not going to ramble on, I am feeling a bit better, so let's hope that it stays that way. I've just got back from a short break with my OH to London and the trip probably did me some good too. We had a lovely time going to the Science Museum, we saw the West End show Jersey Boys, did a bit of shopping, and I got to visit Blade Rubber Stamps and trawl around Liberty looking at the gorgeous haberdashery department. I had some gorgeous cupcakes in Selfridges, my favourite one was called Red Velvet, which had a cream cheese topping on it, need I say more!

Anyway, onto the subject of this post, Flowers. I have made lots of flowers recently, in various shapes and sizes, using several different methods and materials, so I thought that I'd have a chat about one or two of them. I love using my Nesties with scrapbook paper, newspaper, or even computer paper to cut several layers, scrunch them up, distress the edges, and then use Distress Inks, or Glimmer Mists, before layering them together with a brad, or putting a button on the top. I often make lollipop flowers along a similar vein, just using circles instead of Nestie shapes.

Recently, I made a metal flower with my Nesties, painted the layers with precious metal paint, and then moulded the layers with an embossing tool, before fixing the layers together with a brad. I used the flower on a project on my other blog http://craftstampingquartet.blogspot.com/ which I run with three very good friends. There is a step by step tutorial for the metal flower over there, but I'll show you a picture of the flower here, in case you haven't had a look, (if not, why not?)! 

The other day, while blog hopping, I came across a stunning card made by Linda Ledbetter on Linda's blog I don't have the exact spot sorry, but just scroll back a few days, you'll see it. Anyway, she found a great tutorial here  I have a few step by step pictures myself, so here goes with an explanation. These are fabric flowers made from old chiffon scarves, dig them out of your wardrobe if you have them. I have loads from the days when I did a proper job, and had to wear a suit.

Cut several circles of different sizes from your scarf.

Burn the edges with a lit candle, carefully, with a bowl of water standing by. I used tweezers to hold the fabric.

Layer up and sew through a few times, finish off by adding beads or buttons in the centre.

                                                     

I've made a card with the two red flowers, as I thought that they looked a bit like poppies, which are my favourite flower. I started off with a piece of Kraft card, which I stamped with a Grungey Flower from Elusive Images in Versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder. I  then coloured the card with dried marigold, spiced marmalade, worn lipstick and fired brick DIs. I then ironed away the clear embossing powder under greaseproof  paper to get a flat surface, and stamped a flourishy flower from the same stamp set in fired brick onto my background. I finished off by edging the background with black soot. I stamped a sentiment onto watercolour paper and edged this with DIs, then mounted it onto pearlescent card. I punched four flourishes and set two behind each flower in opposite corners of my card. Hope you like, Judith x