Merry Christmas (so very nearly)

Christmas wrapping complete, house clean, and fridge stocked.  All the activities this last couple of weeks has centered around cards, wrapping and tagging and I just haven't had a chance to post all the wonderful projects I have completed.  I didn't want to miss one last opportunity to say Happy Christmas to all my customers and share with you so a quick flurry of photos for you here.

I love the Big Shot Northern Flurry emboss folder and I have used it for as many of my projects as I could so it features here for most of the cards.  The first is based around a design which was shared at our team training.  The DSP paper design fits perfectly in the bauble shape and a quick large pearl finishes it off beautifully.  A tip here is to make sure you cut the bauble first otherwise you will flatten your embossed snowflakes otherwise.

I have had a lot of fun with the emboss powders too this Christmas. I love the excuse at Christmas to use silver and sparkle so I embossed the sentiment and the middle bauble. I was playing around with colours this year, but kept the dark blue background to match the grosgrain ribbon.

I made this third card for a close friend.  I just love the Snow Flurry die for the Big shot.  I have used it for card toppers and for present dressing this year.  I could not resist dressing it with rhinestones and pearls for that extra special affect.

The ribbon bow was actually to cover a mistake as my paper cutter blade was a little old and damaged the edge of the card.  I came up with this ribbon design which can be flattened for posting - brilliant!

The next flurry of cards are all using the Snow Much Fun.  Regulars to my blog will know I have been playing with this set for a while.  Time to make those cards for the special people in my life so I used it again.  Out came the blender pen to colour the friendly little snowmen and all were dressed with ribbons and the Northern Flurry emboss folder again.

Extra sparkle for my son's card to his Daddy. I used crystal effects on the tree, but you cannot see this on the photo.

For the label I used the Decorative Label punch to cut twice and create my own custom label shape.

 

My favourite, this card is based on a card I had seen by another demonstrator (sorry I don't have the details to hand, but will add later).  I swapped it round slightly and made some design changes to use different papers and die shapes for the frame.  The DSP is the Howlstooth from Halloween and cut with the Top Note die.  The bow is made from small pieces of the tulle and with a piece of scallop ribbon to make it into a bow shape.

 

Lastly, my Christmas petal cones.  I made these for gifts for a Christmas fayre I had a stall at.  These are fantastic stocking fillers.

Merry Christmas to you all and I look forward to another year ahead crafting and sharing creations with you all.

If you are interested in joining in a crafting workshop in the New Year make sure to get in contact and register your interest.

Chistmas Tree Snow with Snow Much Fun

Well it's been longer than I thought I would be, but here I am back with some more crafting ideas.  I have been playing so much I forgot to come back and show you all the lovely things I have been making so I will try and come back with some more pictures in the next few days.

Now any of you who have poured over the Autumn/Winter and the new Annual catalogues will have seen the tree folded card in the Annual catalogue (P181) to show off the Simply Scored pad.  Well I couldn't resist making my own version since I saw it in the catalogue and I have used my snowman from the 'Snow Much Fun' stamp set (P15) as I just love it. 

The Simply Scored makes this folded tree so easy to make and to replicate for your Christmas stack.  Once complete you can use the Simply Scored to create your own custom envelope to protect the card in the post too! I even had scraps of the Always Artichoke cardstock to use up so I was so pleased to be able to use them.  Remember if you want to fold an accordion folded effect like this, score at 1" intervals and then flip the cardstock up and over to the reverse side keeping it lined up in the same place on the score pad and then score at the 1/2" intervals.

Some of you may think the colouring with the blender pen is time-consuming, but I found it really quite simple as there are just small areas to colour and strangely relaxing.  I loved getting arty and creating the shadowing on the snow mounds and the cute snow friends.  The finished card looks fantastic and will stand proud on any mantelpiece. 

Now I did not need to go find out and fiddle with what size strips and folds I needed to create as another lovely SU demonstrator has already worked all this out, so thank you  to Natasha at Stampin' Enchantment for your instructions.  I just made a slight adjustment to make an 10.5 x 14.5cm card size and then scored the fold to create the spine at 4" and 4.5" (sorry for the metric to imperial measurements flip here!). 

 This is another lovely card created using the 'Snow Much Fun', 'Make a Mitten' (snowflake) and 'Greetings of the Season' stamp sets.  The colours are Baja Breeze, Always Artichoke, Whisper White and Crumb Cake (or Soft Suede for the tree trunk).  Inks were also the Staz On Black, Whisper White craft pad and Brights collection marker pens.  The star was created with the Baby Blossom punch.

I hope you like it, come back soon for more Christmas posts.

To place an order or join in one of my workshops, email me at craftyinkbuds@sky.com

Snow buddies are Snow Much Fun

I have been enjoying time with my snow buddies whilst I have been away and today's post are a few of the cards I have been making with my snow buddy friends. 

First of all the 'Frosty Friends' single stamp from the Autumn/Winter catalogue.  I love that Stampin' Up! have included more single stamps in the current catalogues and what a delight this one is. I had a couple of customers mention photo cards to me for sending photos of loved ones for their Christmas wishes and this was my first attempt at a card. 

The 'Merry Christmas' is from the 'Greetings of the Season' set.  This is set has already earnt it's place in my must-have stamp sets for Christmas.  As well as this stamp it has 'Noel', 'Peace on Earth' and 'Greetings of the Season' - what more do you need to say?

The second card was a variation of style for a photo card.   I chose the tall snowman from the 'Snow Much Fun' set from the main catalogue.  I just had to buy this set when I saw it as I loved the cute snowmen and the snowball with bird friends - you don't need to have little ones to have an excuse to buy this set, it is perfect for gift tags too! The tall snowman was perfect for the staggered card layout and I was really pleased how well the layout worked with the photo insert for the finished card.

For both cards I stamped with the StazOn Basic Black permanent ink and then used the SU blender pen with inks to colour and accessorise my snow friends. It did not take as long as you think once I had my palette of colours decided on and the blender pen made it so easy to get the right amount of colour. I added paper from the Snow Festival DSP pack to match the Baja Breeze background. A perfect snowy scene for both cards.

'Having played with the blender pens to make my cheery snowmen I tried for a different look using simple stamping and a neutral palette with this lovely little fella from the 'Snow Much Fun' set again.  I teamed him up with the 'Heart of Christmas' stamp - again a lovely single stamp SU have given us for Christmas.  I gave the card an 'aged' look with some daubing and added a tab of the seam binding ribbon for the finished look.  Same stamps, but a different colour and style for a completely different look.

To place an order now for these or any of the other fabulous products, email me at craftyinkbuds@sky.com.  I am regularly placing orders and can offer share of P&P costs.  If you want to come and play with these products and much more and live locally to me, come and join in one of my workshops.  To read more Click Here