The first Christmas cards of 2014!

My mad dash panic to finish Christmas cards last year really took the pleasure out of my makes last year and I was determined not to have the same experience in 2014! I also wanted to recycle some of the cards we had been sent last year into new designs. This card really lent itself to recycling.

I cut up the card into the separate panels and mounted each one onto black matting to highlight the colour scheme.

 

I wanted to reflect the rustic nature of the photos in my designs, while keeping the main red, black and neutral colour scheme. I paired the pictures with papers from two different Marianne design collections reflecting a Scandinavian theme and some wood plank designs and some similar Nordic Do Crafts papers.
I added some felt and wooden snowflakes and hearts, a variety of sentiment stamps, including one from Penny Black, some ribbons, some ready made metal sentiments that I have had in my stash since I started crafting and some Memory Box die cut Precious Snowflakes.
 

So my first 8 cards are made and I am fairly pleased with the results here.

I have already started die cutting for my next batch, this time all of the same design.

Elaine

Mirabelle easel card

I had another family birthday recently. They are hard to keep up with at the moment. This was for a great niece who was 11.

 

It was pretty tough to get a decent pic of this card before it got posted. My main image is one of the new Leanne Ellis Mirabelle stamps from Trim Craft, coloured with Prisma pencils. I cut her our carefully and mounted her within an arch made by embossing a gorgeous Stamp Camp stamp in gold on purple card. This stamp was purchased on my one and only trip up to Port Sunlight to Happy Stampers in September 2012 and I think this was its first inking which is shameful for such a beautiful image.

The backing paper for the main image is from the Prima Firefly range, an offcut from another project. I also stamped the sentiment onto the same paper, the stamp is designed by Leesa Gibbons for Prima. This time I  embossed in purple moonglow powder and matted onto a scalloped oval die cut that had been embossed around the edge in gold. The finishing touches were some Prima paper hydrangeas a recent purchase at Sandown Park craft show.

Thank you for leaving comments, they are very much appreciated, all comments give me so much encouragement.

Elaine x

Valentine's day

I saw this Memory Box die in the sale at The Glitterpot and it had to fall into my basket. We have had a tandem for many years as I can't ride a bike on my own! So we have some fun memories of our bicycles! I have so say it is while since ours has been out of the shed though!

This is a really simple design because my OH isn't keen on lots of fussy stuff!!! The tree behind the die cut is a Stamp Camp stamp, I coloured the little hearts with a Distress Ink Barn Door marker. The sentiment is from a new Chocolate Baroque set of clear Macintosh sentiments to work alongside their new Macintosh inspired stamps - you can find them here

Elaine

Trees

I made this card a while back for someone who had been through some major surgery. I wanted to make something that was relatively understated and not too fussy. Once again I used the Kaisercraft stamp I love so much. This must be one of my most inked stamps already!

This isn't a great pic as the light was bad as it has been so much these past few months. I used a 7 Dots Studio paper designed by Anna Dabrowska. I really like these papers, they always seem to capture special light within them. The strips of light made me think of the light coming through birch trees which was why I added the die cut trees.

Hope you are staying safe and sound in this dreadful weather. Thankfully so far our trees are all still upright, but many close by have come down. I hold my breath when I pull the curtains each morning to see what damage may have occured in the night.

Elaine

A birthday card



I had to make a man's card this week. Always a challenge to make something that doesn't look too fiddly and fussy.

 

I decided to use the Marianne camera die I bought recently at Sandown Park. I managed to find some textured black card which was just right for the camera case effect I was looking for. I added highlights on the camera with Treasure Gold gilding wax and some eyelets and screw head brads. I used a ready made sentiment I had because it seemed to work well for the camera lens, mounted up on foam pads.

I mounted the backing paper which is from Graphic 45 Old Curiosity Shop after inking the edge with Vintage Photo DI - very appropriate for the theme of this card I thought! I mounted it onto a black 8 x 8 card blank. I used the Tim Holtz film strip die and added some old vintage photo paper behind each aperture, and a larger pic alongside. The finishing touch was a couple of metal cog embellishments.

It sounds very wet and wild outside tonight and is forecast to get much worse overnight and into tomorrow down here on the south coast. I hope wherever you are you are safe and warm.

Elaine