Tuesday, November 15, 2016

A Special Christmas

The Christmas cards we make in our stamp-a-stack classes are of necessity fairly simple and straightforward, so my ladies love it when we do a Special, One-Off Christmas Cards class and go for more detail. This year I have found myself very much drawn to a colour palette of blue/white/silver, as you'll see from my cards.

This centre-step card has a brayered sky background and I used a lovely Cottage Cutz die in sparkly white with it. Love, love, love the soft look.


 Materials used:
  • stamps - Holly Jolly Greetings
  • card - soft sky, white glitter (non SU)
  • other - Big Shot, Cottage Cutz die, Christmas Greetings thinlits, apothecary accents thinlits, Dimensionals, white embossing powder, embossing buddy, heat tool

For this one I had some left over Kaisercraft Christmas paper and decided to use it up. The design on the paper is baubles hanging on a pine tree, so I've used pine branches as part of my accents and coincidentally the sentiment comes from the Ornamental Pine set! Lol.

Materials used:
  • stamps - music (non SU), Ornamental Pine
  • card - whisper white, not quite navy, silver foil, Kaisercraft Christmas dsp
  • other - rhinestones, Dimensionals, Big Shot, Pretty Pines thinlits, silver ribbon (non SU), pine branch punch (Martha Stewart), poinsettia die (Spellbinders), stitched oval frame die, embossing stylus and mat, white embossing powder, heat tool

The next card evolved after much to-ing and fro-ing with different colours, designs and dies, until eventually it became this very serene result.


The large star was cut in vellum cardstock, then I embossed a line down the centre of each point and folded them slightly to give some dimension. They are held on with a double layer of Dimensionals. The sparkly white star on top is soooo pretty in real life; the photo definitely doesn't do it justice.

Materials used:
  • stamps - none
  • card - pool party, whisper white, vellum, white glitter
  • other - Darice embossing folder, Starlight thinlit dies, Big Shot, Dimensionals, rhinestone

A number of my ladies have the candle die I've used for our last card and were keen to use it. In order to give it more emphasis, I cut two and stuck them together, and of course they are wonderfully highlighted by the intricate die-cut panel at the top.


Materials used:
  • stamps - none
  • card - very vanilla, gold foil
  • other - Holly Gemini die (Sue Wilson), candle die (Memory Box), Big Shot, two-way glue pen

Hopefully my ladies will have fun getting through these in class - then they just have to decide if they can bear to part with them and who to give them to!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Friday, November 11, 2016

Wonderful Christmas

I happened upon the Global Design Project blog and was intrigued by their colour challenge for this week.


I love the colours but a design that suited them didn't immediately spring to mind. Then, as luck would have it, I had an idea for a slightly non traditional Christmas card. I was reasonably sure that emerald and sugarplum would stand out nicely against a black background, so after pondering on it for a day or two, this morning I sat down and made the card I had in mind.

Here tis:


After cutting and scoring the flower petals I gave them a coat of Wink of Stella for some sparkle, which looks beautiful when it catches the light and is complemented by the rhinestones.


Materials used:

  • stamps - Wondrous Wreath, Gorgeous Grunge
  • card - basic black, whisper white, emerald envy, sweet sugarplum
  • other - poinsettia dies (Spellbinders), Pretty Pines thinlits, rhinestones, Wink of Stella, Big Shot, white embossing powder, heat tool, Dimensionals, embossing buddy, stitched framelits

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Hello Peony

Over at the Altenew blog they've got an inspiration challenge going so I thought it might be fun to take part.

Here's the inspiration photo:


And here's my card. As you'll see, I used both flowers and colours for my inspiration.


Materials used:
  • stamps - Peony Bouquet (Altenew)
  • card - real red, whisper white, basic black (Stampin' Up!)
  • inks - from SU - real red; from Altenew - volcano lake, lagoon, emerald, frayed leaf, forest glades, buttercream, warm sunshine
  • dies - Peony Bouquet (Altenew), Hip Hello (Poppystamps)
  • other - brayer, Big Shot, mounting tape, Wink of Stella, two-way glue, MISTI

I added a touch of Wink of Stella to the flowers (over the red layer) and they sparkle beautifully when they catch the light. It was fun to get out of my comfort zone a little for this one - I might have to try doing that again soon.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kerry

Monday, November 7, 2016

Double Display Cards

My last post showed you the Double Display card I made using SU's Presents and Pinecones designer papers (which was one of the Top 3 Picks for the SUO challenge); here are some other samples with a variety of themes. The blue and silver Christmas one up first is the project I taught at stamp camp.











I have typed instructions if you'd like them (just ask me nicely in an email) but be warned if you use imperial measurements, as the paper cutting sizes are in metric - and no, I'm not going to do the conversion for you! That messes with my head, lol.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez