Snow Day - Winter Wonderland

Well there have been no flurries of winter snow just yet, but I thought I would share a cute card with you today made with the snowman dress up set Snow Day. I have to admit as much as I love the idea of making a snowman in the snow with my little one, my poor car does not like the snow and we are usually left housebound until the snow clears so the prospect of a wintery shower comes with mixed feelings for me.

This snowman though requires no cold outings and just some fun with some sparkle and ribbon.  He is stamped and embossed with the Iridescent Ice emboss powder (101930) to give him a lovely glistening snow effect.  You can almost imagine he is outside taking in the winter sunshine!  The layers of snow mounds are cut (free-hand with scissors, you can probably tell) out of the Shimmery White Cardstock (121717) for the added sparkly snow effect.

The Snow Day stamp set (131892) comes with all the little accessories of the hat, scarf and other little additions to make your winter scenes with.  I bought the set in wood as I wanted to use it with my little one and the wood blocks are easy to hold and robust for little hands.  The set does have a scarf stamp in it, but I wanted to add some embellishment so I tied a length of the stitched grosgrain round my snowman for a 3-D element to the card.

Tip: To line everything up with a wood set each time I have cut some window sheets into squares and then used the Stamp-a-ma-jig and staz on ink to stamp the images in each corner of the window sheet squares to use as templates each time. I just pop them inside the case and they are there ready to use each time.

I made my winter sky on this card with a mixture of Pool Party, Pistachio Pudding and Crumb Cake colours using a sponging effect and then stamped the little snowflakes in the co-ordinated colours.  I also added little daubing round the edges of the background  and on the edges of the snow mounds.

Like my little snowman in my ice emboss, but want a quick stamped version?  Here he is again on my sweetie cones (mine were made with the retired Petal Cone die).

A lovely frosty Pool Party snowman with accessories.  I have even given him a little sash with the wavy 'warm wishes' wording from the stamp set.  The photo does not show it so well, but the snowflake from the set is stamped in the Craft White Ink for a snowy background.  I have filled my cone with big fluffy marshmallows and made a hanging with the Organza Ribbon from the annual catalogue so he can be hung in pride of place on the Christmas Tree.

To place an order, book a workshop in your home or come to a class, just drop me an email at craftyinkbuds@sky.com. Remember you can now order online at anytime too by just clicking on the link from my main blog page.

Festive Flurry Merry Expressions

It's all a flurry of festiveness at our house! I am busy preparing for a couple of local Christmas Fayre's I am going to be going along to and I am crafting at every possible spare moment.  I just thought I would take some time out from creativity to share with you over the next few posts some of the beautiful things I have managed to make.

This card is fully inspired by a fellow demonstrator, Donna at our fantastic Inspirin' Inkin' team training.  Donna was fabulous at showing us all how to put together the Festive Flurry decorations as they are seen on in the Autumn/Winter catalogue on pages 12 and 13 (I will post the decorations on another post later on).  Donna also made some great cards and projects to inspire us all with and this card design was one.

I have started off with a square Island Indigo textured card base measuring 13.5 x 13.5cm (available in the Autumn/Winter catalogue for a limited time).  I have then added a layer of Pool Party which measured 13cm x 27cm.  I scored the Pool Party card at 13cm and 19cm.  I then ran the edge of the 7cm section through the Big Shot with the Adorning Accents Edgelits and then again with the matching emboss folder to give the decorative edge.  This was then layered on top of the base layer and folded back on itself to give the folded effect.  A final layer of Whisper White was stamped and layered on top again.

The Festive Flurry snowflake was stamped with the largest image in Pool Party, then the next size of layers was inked in Bermuda Bay (stamped twice).  The fabulous sparkle layers were added with the Glimmer paper cut with the Festive Flurry dies (the largest and the smallest sizes).  For an addition to top the final glimmer layer I cut the centre of the second of the Bermuda Bay images (by hand) to add a centre detail.

Then finally, the 'Merry' sentiment is made from the Expressions thinlits for the Big Shot.  I love this, it really finishes off the snowflake with a festive sentiment.  I think I am going to be 'Merry' all year through......and 'Thankful' and giving lots of .....'Love' (these are the other words in the set). 

Here is a side view of the card so you can see the folds and also I have stamped a 'Merry Christmas' on the back (Greetings of the Season) as I thought it would look a bit too busy to add another sentiment to the white layer and wanted the contrast of the white with the snowflake to stand out.

The Festive Flurry comes as a Wood/Clear stamp set or you can save yourself 15% buying the bundle of the stamps and the matching dies for the Big Shot!

Festive Flurry Bundle 133284 Wood /133285 Clear (pg 30 Aut/Wint)
Greetings of the Season (Aut/Wint Carry Over)
Expressions Thinlits Dies 132171
Adorning Accents Edgelits 125595
Adorning Accents Folders 125601
Glimmer Paper 124005
Island Indigo 12x12" Textured Card 132132

I have made so many Festive Flurry projects so far so be warned there are lots more to come!

To place an order, book a workshop in your home or come to a class, just drop me an email at craftyinkbuds@sky.com. Remember you can now order online anytime too by selecting to 'Shop Now'.