my Crafty Corner

Cards and other handicrafts made by Jean Straw

Thursday 25 May 2017

May Rudolph Day

Hello friends once again, being the 25th of the month it is time for the Rudolph Day challenge at Scraps of Life by Scrappy Mo. You only need to make one Christmas card to enter, but I have made four this time as I was experimenting with this new Penny Black stamp, and also with my new Tim Holtz stamping platform. I used plain white card for the stamping making the four panels from an A4 sheet. I coloured directly onto the stamp with distress markers, colouring just the red parts and then spritzing lightly with water before stamping. I gave it a quick wipe over and then did the same with the green marker, and by using the stamping platform they matched up perfectly. I think I did two with the distress marker and then tried one the same way only using some very old Marvy pens. I must of had them for more than twenty years but most of them still work just fine. For the fourth one I stamped with Memento black ink and then coloured with Zig water colour pens. For all them I added some bright yellow dots to the center and then highlighted them with yellow Stickles.
I made them into two 6" square cards and two A6 size with the opening on the short edge. I found some Christmassy coloured papers to almost cover the fronts and then trimmed the stamped pieces to size and inked around the edges with a blending tool and stormy Sky Distress ink. Using the same ink pad and a very useful wood mounted random dots stamp made by Denami Designs I added the background dots, stamping some of the ink off onto spare paper first. The stamped panels are mounted onto gold very smooth glitter card, and I used the same card to die cut the Joy word using a Penny Black die. I added these to the square cards, and  stamped the greeting that came with the poinsettia onto the smaller cards using versamark ink and embossed with WOW gold embossing powder.

Now I am going to see what Christmas cards every one else has been making during this lovely spell of summery weather we have been having this week. The Challenge is open until the end of the month if you fancy taking part.

I am entering The Rudolph Day Challenge - Anything Christmas
and                   Addicted to Stamps and More - Holidays ( Christmas )

Thank you for your visit and for your  kind comments which I really appreciate.
Jean




Thursday 18 May 2017

Butterfly Layers

Hello, I haven't got around to entering the Butterfly Challenge for  ages,but when I saw that the theme this time is L for Layers and C for cream I thought of this card which I made recently but haven't blogged before. You can enter with either or both elements and as it has both layers and cream colour it seemed like the perfect opportunity.


I started with a 6" x 6" square ivory base card and cut a matting layer from purple card leaving a border. Next came a cream layer die cut with a Lil' Inker stitched die which I stamped twice with a stamp from the Stampin Up set, World of Dreams, using Memento Olympia Green ink. I added a little purple colour with a Zig water colour marker. The birthday greeting is stamped with a Chocolate Baroque stamp and Memento Elderberry ink. The butterfly is die cut with Memory Box co-ordinating dies. The solid one cut from purple card and the open one from cream card backed with stick it adhesive. Once assembled I glued the butterfly just along the body and used foam pads under the wings to keep them lifted slightly. I am sorry this isn't a particularly good photo the colours look much nicer for real.


Thank you for your visit and for your comments, they are all really appreciated.
Jean 

Thursday 11 May 2017

Happy News Day

Hello, today I have some happy news and a cute card to go with it.  On Tuesday morning my Grandson's wife gave birth to their first baby, a little girl. She is our 5th great grandchild, all girls!! Her name is Harper and she looks really cuddly. Unfortunately I will have to wait till later in the summer to hold her as they are living in Cyprus until then.

My card is a white 6" square base with pale pink paper cut to cover the front leaving a tiny border. I cut the bottom edge of it with a Fiskars edge punch and wrapped a piece of pink lace and some narrow ribbon round it before sticking it to the card. I stamped the Lily of the Valley stamp with grey Archival ink onto a snippet of white card and coloured it with Derwent Coloursoft pencils. I added a little sparkle to the stars and hearts with a clear sparkle gel pen. I trimmed it down and used a snippet of pink card for a mat, cutting the bottom edge with same punch to match the first layer.This is mounted onto the card with thin foam pads. I used two old clear stamps for the sentiment, I don't know the make, stamped with the grey ink. Then  I just tied a double bow with the ribbon and attached it along with a little pram charm.

I am going to enter this at, City Crafter Challenge Blog - Arrivals.
                                           Ooh La La Creations- Something Beginning With B
                                           The Cutie Pie Challenge Blog - Ribbon and Rubber
                                            Addicted to Stamps and More - Anything Goes
                                            Pixies Snippets Playground - Use snippets.

Thank you for taking time to visit here I really appreciate your comments.
Jean