December 2011

Hello Bloggers! So here we are in December! I don't know about you, my fellow crafters, but I am still racing to finish my own Christmas cards (having made them for everyone else!) and I still have some general birthday and other occasion cards to complete! But I have now told everyone that I am closed for requests until January...after all a girl has to have time to play and think of designs for next year, doesn't she?


This afternoon I put up some cards for sale in a glass cabinet in Yate Library..last year they sold well, so everything crossed!
I am starting to get comments left...thank you to those who do! I hope my thank you emails get back to you, because it's really good to connect with other crafters and I love reading your comments.


I can't remember if I blogged this (and forgive me for not checking back!), but a few weeks ago, whilst using my beloved Grand Calibur the handle broke in half! Now as regulars will know,  I love this craft room essential.. obviously because I use it daily, but also the ergonomics of it, it's great to touch and use and okay, yes, I love the colour! I never mistreat it(though one of my nicknames is Calamity Jane!) so I was shocked...I 'rescued' it with some industrial black tape and have carried on using it. But when my crafting idol, Sue Wilson was demo-ing Spellbinders recently on Create and Craft and as a daily follower of her blog, it struck me that she might have some idea of the best place to go for a replacement...so I emailed her, and all I can say is 'Thank you so much Sue!' A reply came by return and Sue got a new handle off to me before she headed to the US for Thanksgiving...isn't that great!?!


I expect that most cards posted here for the next few weeks will be Christmas themed, so apologies if I start to bore you! Here is today's card...

Apologies as it's not a great photo and it is a small card (6x6). First of all using my Tim Holz ruler with holes provided (another little tool that gets so much use) I made little faux stitch holes all around the edge of the base card. I cut another piece of white card, slightly smaller  and rounded the edges with a corner hole punch. I like rounded corners so much, this little thing that cost so little is invaluable! I then stamped three fir trees from the Creative Expressions  Snowflakes and Sprigs stamp set using tuxedo black versamark ink and you can't really see in the photo, but I then stamped snowflakes all over with Perfect Medium and embossed these with Cosmic Shimmer Aurora Christmas Sparkle embossing powder. I also added a little of this to the trees.


I used the edger die from the Spellbinders  Holly Accents shapeabilities set. I typed the greeting and cut it out using 2 dies from  the Ironworks Motifs, which is one of my favourites. The star shape can be a snowflake or a star and I think I will be adapting it for cards all year.


Finally I ruched some white American Seambinding ribbon, dampened some more and then dried it with a heat gun before tying it messily and adding a black/white bakers twine bow on top. It's quite a 'busy' card, but I hope it works. I am really liking white on white and monotone cards at the moment.
That's all for now! Carole x


December 21st


Morning Bloggers! We're nearly there now...almost Christmas Day! I finally made my last personal Christmas card on Saturday. It was for my parents in law and I swear I photographed it before giving it to them on Sunday..but it's not on the SD card, so obviously I imagined it! I was especially pleased with it, so when we are over their house next week (they are with us for Christmas so no chance before) I may well take the photo and post it after the big day..I hope you will forgive me for that! 


A few weeks ago I was glued to Create & Craft as Sue Wilson was back with more Spellbinders and more of her absolutely beautiful cards. Work has been extra tough lately and I was thinking that she has my dream job...not only making cards all day long, but also getting to try the latest dies, stamps and other wonderful items that Creative Expressions come up with! Oh well, I can dream!

 Meanwhile, here are my last few pre-Christmas cards...

Cute L'il Bear: This card was made using the same Grand dies, but the cute bear is a digistamp, which I coloured (of course) using Promarkers; the edges were coloured with Spun Sugar distress ink...I love this colour. I also cut a die in red and layered the stamped die at a 'jaunty angle' on top of this. The greeting was again typed and cut out on what I think, next to the Spellbinders 'Flights of Fancy' butterfly, is my favourite die..it's from Ironworks Motifs and whilst it looks great at Christmas, I will use it all year round.


I mounted the image on sugar pink glitter card and added red ribbon.






Tree Decorations 1: For this card, I first of all mounted black card on an 8x8 blank. The rest of the card, as is usual for me, I made separately and mounted last. I cut red card slightly smaller than the 

black  and mounted slightly smaller white card on top of this. I then printed green polka dot card from the Polkadoodles Creative Christmas CD (Polkadoodles papers are THE best!) and stamped the tree branches from the Creative Expressions Snowflakes and Sprigs stamp set. I cut a large ornament (Spellbinders Ornaments 2010) on pearlescent card and just slightly shaded the edges with Antique Linen distress ink to buff it up a bit. I then cut and layered two poinsettias, printed the greeting and cut it using  another die from Ironworks Motifs. I was a bit disappointed with the shading, it's probably a bit 'heavy' . I 'drew' the swirls with Cosmic Shimmer Black Pearl and used Cosmic Shimmer Olympic Gold in the centre of the Poinsettias...then of course I added the obligatory ribbon: this time a sheer wide ribbon from stash.

Tree decorations 2: This final card is a variation on the above: this time using two globe ornaments and making the poinsettia from white pearlescent heavy paper and adding double-sided green and red ribbon, which I bought from my favourite ribbon source, Out of the Blue in Chipping Sodbury.


I have calculated that I made a total of 175 cards...about 70 personal and the rest sold at craft fairs, the library and in Tom's office. Next year I am just going to have to make a few a month, because it did get quite stressful during December!


 I hope you like these last few Christmas cards... I will try and get back before the 1st January with the card I promised, but meanwhile thank you to those of you who follow this blog and for the comments you leave, which are very much appreciated. I do respond but am not sure if the messages I send get to you...so I'm not ignoring you, I promise. 


I'll finish wishing you a Very Merry Christmas and hope that 2012 brings health and happiness and lots of crafting to you all. Now that the Christmas madness is over, I will be back more regularly, so please keep watching this space!