Flower Sparkle: 2016

Saturday, 31 December 2016

Pretty Pines Window Scene Christmas Card

This is the Christmas card I made for our friend Jan. Very sadly, Jan lost her husband Alan during 2016 and I thought a classic card design would be most appropriate. I found it hard to come up with ideas, I think I was so concerned about hitting the right note with the card. Pinterest is a saviour in times like this and I found THIS CARD made by Tami Hewlett and I CASEd her lovely design.

I lightly brayered Smoky Slate ink over the embossed brickwork panel and inked the edges of the panel with a sponge dauber before gluing the panel to the front of a 5" x 7" white card base. I stamped snowflakes onto a piece of white card using VersaMark ink and I heat embossed the snowflakes with white embossing powder. I applied Tumbled Glass, Broken China and Faded Jeans Distress Inks to the snowflake piece using ink duster brushes, trimmed the piece to size and glued it behind the die cut window shape. I inked the edges of the window with Smoky Slate ink applied with a sponge dauber and popped the window up.

I die cut various greenery using the SU! 'Pretty Pines' die set and I stamped and die cut three pine cones. I glued the greenery in place, added three mini pine cone embellishments on top of a die cut sparkly red bow and added red stones as berries. I knew Jan would find Christmas very hard without Alan and a 'Merry Christmas' sentiment didn't seem fitting so I didn't put a sentiment on the card front.

Here's the inside of the card. I stamped only the 'with loving wishes' part of the sentiment, omitting the 'for a bright and beautiful season' part. I used square dies from the SU! 'Stitched Shape' Framelits die set for the sentiment and added more greenery, pine cones and berries.

Here's the envelope, made with patterned paper and the SU! envelope punch board. I added a strip of contrasting paper and popped up stitched oval shapes as a name label.

Jan came to us for Christmas lunch and we had a very relaxing, enjoyable day. I'm pleased to say that she was very happy with the card - huge thanks to Tami for the wonderful inspiration!

Supplies:
Stamps: SU! 'Wonderland', 'Christmas Pines' & 'Embellished Ornaments' sets
CS: PaperMania 5" x 7" white card blank, SU! Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive, Mossy Meadow & Crumb Cake, SU! Real Red Glimmer Paper
Patterned paper: SU! 'Presents & Pinecones' DSP
Ink: VersaMark, SU! Smoky Slate, Soft Suede & Real Red, Ranger Tim Holtz Tumbled Glass, Broken China & Faded Jeans Distress Inks
Tools: Poppystamps 'Grand Madison Window' die, Creative Expressions Brick embossing folder, SU! 'Pretty Pines' & 'Stitched Shapes' die sets, SU! envelope punch board, brayer, Inkylicious ink duster brushes, sponge dauber
Embellishments & accessories: red stones, SU! white embossing powder & Dimensionals

Thursday, 29 December 2016

Moose Warm Wishes & Mistletoe Kisses Wobble Spring Card

This is the Christmas card I made for my hubby Owen. I wanted to make something festive and fun and the moose in a Christmas pudding jumper seemed ideal - plus I thought the image would work well on a wobble spring which adds to the fun!

I embossed the white panel with a snowflakes embossing folder, glued that panel to a mat layer of Real Red CS, added the gingham ribbon with a snowflake charm and glued the entire panel to the front of a 5" x 7" white card base. I stamped the moose from the Woodware 'Christmoose' stamp set in Memento Tuxedo Black and used ProMarkers to colour the image. I fussy cut the moose, added Glossy Accents to the red nose to make it shiny (using artistic license to turn a moose into Rudolph the red nosed reindeer!) I stamped and die cut the white 'Warm Wishes & Mistletoe Kisses' sentiment circle, glued that to a punched black CS circle and popped it up. Once the shiny red nose had dried I attached the moose to the white embossed panel with a wobble spring.

Here's the inside of the card. I glued a strip of patterned paper to the right hand side and added a narrow strip of black CS. I stamped the sentiment and then stamped the three red hearts.

I used my envelope punch board to make a patterned paper envelope. I stamped three hearts on the white label, attached that to the red label with black brads and popped up the whole name label.

Happily, Owen loved this cheery card and I catch him having a wobble every now and then! It's wonderful that we have been able to spend Christmas together this year, we've been making the most of it and are having as much festive fun as we can!

I promised Owen I'd bake something for him between Christmas and New Year and while on Pinterest I came across a Carrot Cake Cheesecake recipe. Well, that's two of Owen's firm favourites together in one recipe so I baked that yesterday. We have our special friends Debs and Mike coming round later on today so they can share it with us. I just have to add a glaze to the top of the cake and sprinkle on some nuts. I'm a bit apprehensive when I've made something for the first time - I just hope it turns out a success!

Supplies:
Stamps: Woodware 'Christmoose' set, SU! 'Tin of Tags', 'Embellished Ornaments' & 'Hello Darling' sets
CS: PaperMania 5" x 7" white card blank, SU! Real Red, Basic Black & Whisper White
Patterned paper: SU! 'Merry Moments' DSP
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, SU! Real Red, ProMarkers
Tools: Cuttlebug 'Snowflakes' embossing folder, SU! 'Stitched Shape' Framelits die set. circle punch, envelope punch board, Sizzix 'Card, Fancy Frame Flip-its #2' Framelits die set
Embellishments & accessories: black & white gingham ribbon, snowflake charm, Ranger Glossy Accents, Woodware Action Wobble Spring, black brads, SU! Dimensionals

Saturday, 24 December 2016

Batch of Rudolph Tag Be Joyful Christmas Cards

This batch of Christmas cards was whipped up last weekend to make sure I had enough cards to give out! There are only four cards shown in the photo but I actually made a batch of twelve. I made things quick and easy for myself by using deer tags I bought from Wilko, using a limited colour combo and by keeping the stamping simple. I did everything in stages, making the A6 Kraft card bases first, then stamping the tags, then the card fronts, the insides and lastly the envelope flaps. Then I added gingham ribbon to each tag, a small red stone as Rudolph's nose and Dimensionals on the back of each tag.

Then it was just a case of placing each tag on each card front and that was that - a batch of quick and easy Christmas cards done. This is the first year that I've embraced making batches of Christmas cards but when you're short of time batch making is the way to go!

Here's just one card on its own. I love kraft, red and white together, quite Nordic I think!

Here's the inside and the envelope. If I use coloured card bases I usually adhere a light coloured panel inside but to save time I stamped directly onto the kraft card base.

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas!

Supplies:
Stamps: SU! 'Merriest Wishes' set, Hero Arts 'Joyful Christmas Season' set
CS: SU! Kraft, deer tags from Wilko
Ink: SU! Real Red
Embellishments & accessories: red & white gingham ribbon, small red stones, SU! Dimensionals

Friday, 23 December 2016

Deer & Trees Ornament Christmas Cards

I made these two cards for special friends. I was running out of time and making two of the same design seemed a good way to go! I chose navy, white and silver as my colour combo and kept to a simple layout. I'm happy how the cards turned out but it was such a miserable, grey day when I photographed the cards so it was impossible to get decent pics.

Here's just one of the cards. I used stitched square dies to cut out all the squares. I embossed the white squares with the SU! 'Softly Falling' embossing folder. The sparkly silver ornaments were popped up as were the navy squares.

Here's how I decorated the insides of the cards and the envelopes. I used dies from my MFT 'Blueprints 14' die set for the inside of the cards. For the envelope flaps I die cut the tree ornaments from the SU! 'Merry Tags' die set and then punched around the tree with a circle punch and layered the navy circle over a larger punched sparkly silver circle.

Supplies:
Stamps: SU! 'Embellished Ornaments' set
CS: SU! Night of Navy, Whisper White, SU! Silver Glimmer Paper
Ink: SU! Night of Navy
Tools: Memory Box 'Stitched Square Layers' die set, SU! 'Merry Tags' Framelits die set, SU! 'Softly Falling' embossing folder, MFT 'Blueprints 14' die set, circle punches, snowflake punch
Embellishments & accessories: SU! silver ribbon, Dimensionals

Thursday, 22 December 2016

RAK Christmas Gift Bag

From 1st December onwards I start to wear my Christmas earrings and brooches. Each year I add a few items to the stash! I've also got several festive headbands and that collection grew a lot this year!

At Wilko we have non uniform days to raise money for the charity our store is supporting that year. The manager heard a colleague commenting on my Christmas earrings and came over to have a look. I mentioned my collection of festive headbands and said I supposed I could only wear those on non uniform days. Happily, our lovely manager assured me I could wear my headbands every day in the run up to Christmas - so a perfect opportunity to add some new ones to the collection!

Quite often I'm asked why I'm the only cashier wearing one - I reply I'm the only one daft enough to own any and actually wear them! It's a bit of festive fun and it's great if it brings a smile to a customer's face at this stressful time of year! My colleague Anastasia loves Christmas so much and she always comments on my festive gear and she's been borrowing headbands so it's not just me now!

I went into our local fabric shop and found some lovely iron on felt Christmas shapes which I thought would make fun brooches. I bought a few and used my hot glue gun to attach brooch bars to the back of the shapes. Two of the shapes came in packs of two so I decided I'd give the extras as a RAK gift to Anastasia. I glued some patterned paper to the front of a gift bag and added a decorated die cut square to the bag with a mini clothes peg.

Here's a closer look.

I stamped another sentiment on the back of the square.

Here's the two brooches that were inside the bag. Anastasia loved them!

We had a non uniform weekend at the beginning of December to support our charity this year which is Canine Partners. I wore my felt reindeer brooch, a headband with bauble bedecked antlers and I had a string of coloured lights wrapped round me for good measure! On the Saturday we had a cake stall, card making for kids and a guess how many sweeties were in the jar competition. Also, some Canine Partners dogs came into the store with their owners, trainers and puppy parents which was absolutely lovely. The dogs made a huge difference to the fund raising for sure! I was in my element running the cake stall - and getting to know the dogs!

I chatted to one of our regular customers, Andy, who has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair. Andy comes in with his assistance dog, Peggy, a very sweet black labrador. It was so interesting to hear what these dogs do for their disabled human partners - they're amazing! It was a really fun day and we made almost £300 for Canine Partners so it was a win/win! Lots of photos were taken on the day and I was surprised a few days later to see that we were featured in the local newspaper - fame at last! 😊

Supplies:
Stamps: SU! 'Tin of Tags' set
CS: white paper gift bag, SU! Crumb Cake & Whisper White
Patterned paper: SU! 'Warmth & Cheer' DSP
Ink: SU! Real Red
Tools: SU! 'Stitched Shapes' Framelits die set, Poppystamps 'Valley Snowflakes' die
Embellishments & accessories: SU! mini clothes peg, rhinestone jewels

Sunday, 18 December 2016

Archie & Pals Christmas Card For Archie

As soon as Shirley told me she wanted a card for baby Archie I knew I'd just HAVE to use my very sweet Hobby Arts 'Archie & Pals' stamp for the card!

I stamped onto Whisper White thick CS and coloured using ProMarkers. I matted the white panel onto Garden Green and Basic Black layers and glued the whole panel to the front of a 5 3/4" square Real Red card base. I popped up the sentiment label and added a Red Glimmer Paper punched heart. I added three punched white snowflakes on the right hand side and placed a tiny sparkly punched circle to each snowflake centre.

Once I'd finished the inside of the card and the envelope I added Orange Peel Stickles to the snowman's nose and Star Dust Stickles to the Santa hats. I know now to apply the glitter glue after I've finished everything so the card can be safely set aside to dry! Here's a closer look at the sparkle.

Here's the inside and the envelope.

That cute Elzybell's penguin stamp hasn't seen ink for a long time - I get a big goofy grin on my face whenever I do use it though!

Supplies:
Stamps: Hobby Art 'Archie & Pals', Clearly Besotted 'Eat, Drink & Be Merry' set, Elzybells penguin
CS: SU! Real Red, Garden Green, Basic Black & Whisper White (regular & thick), Red & Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, ProMarkers
Tools: Spellbinders 'Labels Trio' die set, circle punches, heart punches, snowflake punch
Embellishments & accessories: Stickles 'Orange Peel' & 'Star Dust' glitter glue, SU! Dimensionals

Friday, 16 December 2016

Two Gingerbread Girl Spinner Christmas Cards

A friend at work, Shirley, asked me to make three personalised Christmas cards for her, Two cards were for five year old twins Daisy and Danielle and I decided a gingerbread girl spinner card would be ideal! Shirley also wanted a card for baby Archie who will be celebrating his first Christmas - I'll share Archie's card next time.

Here are the two cards together.

Here's just one card. I used Real Red, Crumb Cake and Whisper White CS and added in some Red and Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper for a bit of seasonal sparkle. The patterned papers I used are from the SU! 'Candy Cane Lane' DSP pack. I lightly edged each gingerbread shape with Soft Suede ink using a sponge dauber to add a touch of definition.

Here's a photo showing how I decorated the insides of the cards and the envelopes.

Supplies:
Stamps: Clearly Besotted 'Eat, Drink & Be Merry' set
CS: SU! Real Red, Crumb Cake & Whisper White, SU Red & Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper
Patterned paper: SU! 'Candy Cane Lane' DSP
Ink: SU! Crumb Cake & Soft Suede
Tools: XCut 'Gingerbread Family' die set, SU! 'Sliding Star' Framelits die set, MFT 'Photo Corners' die set, Spellbinders 'Labels Trio' die, Memory Box 'Cross Stitched Frame' rectangle die set, heart punches, sponge dauber
Embellishments & accessories: 3mm foam tape

Wednesday, 14 December 2016

Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String

This is one of those "it seemed a good idea at the time!" projects! I wanted to do something to make this Christmas a bit more special for my hubby Owen to make up for the fact that he was in hospital over Christmas in 2015.

I decided on advent gifts - so 24 gifts to buy and wrap - what was I thinking?! Trying to get this all done before 1st December was a tad stressful but I'm so glad I did it! I placed all 24 gifts in a Santa sack and the look on his face when he realised it was for him was priceless, he was so, so surprised and touched! Each morning since December 1st he's been rummaging in the sack and opening that day's gift and he's enjoying it immensely. Spreading some Christmas joy is fun for me too!

The first thing I did was to stamp all 24 numbers on the gift tags. Next I wrapped up gifts in brown paper and finished off by tying the tags on with baker's twine, adding a jingle bell and a bauble to each package. Some of the packages also got a holly embellishment. This did take quite a bit of time and I completed the wrapping and decorating in batches so I didn't get too fed up with it! I completed a few gifts at a time spread over 4 sessions. I have to say I was glad when I'd finished, I don't enjoy wrapping and it's usually Owen's job!

I bought a variety of gifts ranging from £1 to £5 like scratchcards, Christmas socks, toiletries, chocolate, games and some other odds and ends. I bought Christmas choccies, candy canes and chocolate coins and included a few of those with some of the smaller gifts.

Here's a photo of just two of the packages - I don't think I could have managed one photo with all 24 gifts!

Supplies:
Stamps: SU! 'Memorable Moments' set
Ink: SU! Real Red & Garden Green
Embellishments & accessories: kraft wrapping paper, tag and twine set, jingle bells, bauble present toppers and holly embellishments - all from Wilko

Saturday, 10 December 2016

Batch Of 10 Fancy Frost Snowflake Merry Christmas Cards

This is a set of Christmas cards I made to give to my card group ladies. Saturday 1st October was World Card Making Day and this batch of cards was my project for the day. I was very organised indeed and worked in an orderly fashion doing one stage at a time - stamping, heat embossing, die cutting and cutting card bases, panels and ribbon lengths.

After I'd completed the stages I laid everything out in a plastic box. So here's the box with all the elements ready for me to assemble the cards.

Here's the completed, assembled card. I was inspired by a card on page 36 of the SU! Autumn/Winter catalogue which featured white heat embossing, vellum, glitter ribbon and Fancy Frost Specialty Designer Series Paper. That card was made using the 'Frosted Medallions' stamp set which I didn't have at the time (I do now though!) and I used the 'Flurry of Wishes' set instead. I made a 5 3/4" square Sweet Sugarplum card base, added strips of glitter ribbon to a panel of 'Fancy Frost' DSP and added a sentiment label embellished with Fancy Frost Sequins. I stamped the snowflake in VersaMark ink onto vellum and heat embossed with white powder. I attached the square of vellum to a punched Sweet Sugarplum CS circle with a rhinestone brad and popped up the circle on the white panel. I then adhered the panel to the front of the card base.

Here's the inside of the card and the envelope. The snowflakes are stamped in Sweet Sugarplum ink and I used Rich Razzleberry ink for the sentiment. The MISTI made this stamping stage so quick and easy!

Here's the whole batch of ten cards bagged up ready for me to write out. I don't make batches of cards very often but when I do I always enjoy seeing them all together when I've finished!

Supplies:
Stamps: SU! 'Flurry of Wishes' set
CS: SU! Sweet Sugarplum, Whisper White, vellum
Patterned paper: SU! 'Fancy Frost' Specialty DSP
Ink: VersaMark, SU! Sweet Sugarplum & Rich Razzleberry
Tools: Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper, Spellbinders 'Labels Trio' die set, heat tool, MISTI, paper piercer
Embellishments & accessories: SU! Sweet Sugarplum glitter ribbon, Fancy Frost Sequins, Rhinestone Brads, Dimensionals

Thursday, 8 December 2016

Christmas Gifts For My Card Group Ladies

Later than planned, here's my post sharing the gifts I gave to my card group ladies. Our router stopped working and we were offline for a couple of days but our new router arrived today and we're connected again, yay!

With my hubby Owen being in hospital over Christmas last year the festive season kind of passed us by and I opted out through necessity. However, taking a step back from it did give me a perfect opportunity to reflect on what Christmas means to me. In common with a lot of people I suspect, there's quite a list of things I dislike about Christmas - the too early start, the commercialisation, the crowds, the songs you've heard too many times and the feeling that you MUST do certain things because that's what everyone else does at Christmas. Last year made me realise that it is absolutely OK to opt out!

This year I've focused on what I really love and enjoy about Christmas and I'm making sure I do those things. The idea of giving home made items as presents has always appealed and I love browsing Pinterest to see prettily packaged home made Christmas goodies. However, it usually remains an idea that doesn't make it to reality! I was determined this year to make - and give away - some home made Christmas goodies. I've always enjoyed making Christmas puddings and mincemeat but this year I tried something new and made chutney.

I like to give my ladies at card group a little something from me at Christmas and I decided a jar of home made chutney would be part of my gift to them this year. The first batch of cranberry chutney I made was a real disappointment - the texture wasn't quite right and there was a far too strong taste of cloves! I decided to try an apple and cranberry chutney recipe instead (no cloves in the ingredients!) and that was a success. The colour is SO Christmassy!

So here's my ten jars of Christmas CranApple Chutney. I had a very happy time making the chutney and it was so satisfying to see my jars all ready to give away!

Here's just one jar on its own. I dressed up a Kilner jar with Kraft paper, red and white twine and I couldn't resist using a 'Spread some Christmas cheer' sentiment on the tag - it seemed perfect for chutney!

Look at the beautiful-jewel like Christmassy colour!

Here's a jar with the lid off. I was very pleased with how this batch turned out and was happy to be able to give something I'd made as a gift!

As I work in Wilko I see lots of lovely packaged gifts. A few days after I'd made the chutney I saw this very pretty hand care set containing hand cream and a patterned emery board.

I bought one for each of my ladies, placed each hand care set in a snowflake patterned cello bag, placed each jar of chutney in another snowflake cello bag, tied the two bags together with red and white gingham ribbon threaded through a cut out deer tag (a Wilko purchase!) stamped with a Real Red 'This is for you' sentiment. To finish off I added a holly embellishment.

A time consuming project - yes - but easily manageable if done in stages. It was such an enjoyable thing to do and so very satisfying - and the gifts were very well received! I've made a second batch of chutney so I can use a few jars as gifts and then there's some left over for us.

Friday, 2 December 2016

December 2016 Card Group Projects

Yesterday was our last card group meeting of the year and a very happy time was had by all! Due to my hubby being in hospital this time last year we missed a few card group meetings and didn't have a Christmas meeting in 2015. So we had to make up for that this time! Christmas music, home made cakes, hand made Christmas cards, Secret Santa gifts and some crafting - what a perfect afternoon!

Last month I asked the ladies what they'd like to make on the December get together and the suggestions were another tag and gift bag, a masculine birthday card and a perennial favourite - a trees scene Christmas card with an inked sky, moon and Santa's sleigh. I was also asked to make the designs simple. As I knew there'd be lots going on during the afternoon simple seemed a good way to go!

First up is the gift bag and tag. I dressed up a plain white gift bag with a decorated large scalloped tag and some festive gold sparkly ribbon.

Here's a close up of the tag. I stamped the ornament in Mossy Meadow ink, die cut it, added a die cut gold foil hanger and popped it up on a circle Stitched Shape die cut. The fishtail banner and sentiment label are also popped up. I attached the tag to the bag with thick white baker's twine and added a sparkly gold ribbon bow to finish off.

I used The SU! 'Watercolor Wash' background stamp and the 'Wetlands' set to make the masculine birthday card. I inked half the background stamp with Soft Sky ink and half with Crumb Cake ink - I patted the Crumb Cake ink pad over the stamp carefully and as I didn't go right up to where I'd inked with the Soft Sky there was a gap left. I used a jumbo ink dauber to pick up Crumb Cake ink and then I patted the dauber over the stamp to colour the gap. I stamped the speckles and sentiment in Soft Suede ink, the row of shore birds in Early Espresso ink, trimmed the panel to 3 1/4" square and layered it onto an Early Espresso mat. I embossed the Soft Sky CS strip with the 'Seaside' folder, glued it to the front of the A6 Crumb Cake card base and adhered the image panel in place. I used the Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper to round the top right corner of the card base.

Here's the inside and the envelope.

The row of winter trees stamp from the SU! 'Lovely as a Tree' set is such a gorgeous image and it's perfect for inked scenes. My card group ladies obviously love the stamp as much as I do as we've used it lots at card group but they still wanted to use it again today! I stamped the trees and the sentiment in black ink onto a panel of Whisper White CS and temporarily adhered a 1 1/4" paper circle to the panel as a moon mask. I inked the sky with Distress Inks (Broken China, Faded Jeans and Dusty Concord) applied with ink duster brushes, removed the moon mask and dusted Broken China and Dusty Concord inks very lightly over the moon. I stamped Santa's sleigh over the moon and glued the panel to a white A6 card base. I think this design works well as a masculine birthday card - if you don't stamp Santa's sleigh - so I took both Christmas and birthday sentiments with me and let the ladies choose which type of card to make.

Here's the inside and the envelope.

As a thank you to my lovely group of ladies I made them a gift. I'll share what I made for them in a few days!

Supplies for gift bag & tag:
Stamps: SU! 'Keepsake Ornaments' & 'Four the Holidays' sets
CS: SU! Cherry Cobbler, Pear Pizzazz & Whisper White, Gold Foil Sheet
Ink: SU! Mossy Meadow
Tools: Sizzix tag die, SU! 'Holiday Ornaments' Framelits die set, MFT 'Award Ribbon' die set, Sizzix 'Ornaments #3' die set
Embellishments & accessories: SU! thick white baker's twine, gold sparkly ribbon, SU! Dimensionals

Supplies for shore birds 'Birthday Greetings' card:
Stamps: SU! 'Wetlands', 'Gorgeous Grunge' & 'Blooming with Kindness' sets, SU! 'Watercolor Wash' background stamp
CS: SU! Crumb Cake, Soft Sky, Early Espresso & Whisper White
Ink: SU! Soft Sky, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede & Early Espresso
Tools: SU! 'Seaside' embossing folder, Tsukineko Jumbo Sponge Dauber, Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper

Supplies for inked sky & trees 'Merriest Wishes' card:
Stamps: SU! 'Lovely as a Tree' set, Inkylicious 'Santa's Sleigh' set, Hero Arts 'Very Merry Christmas' set
CS: SU! Whisper White (regular & thick)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Ranger Tim Holtz Broken China, Faded Jeans & Dusty Concord Distress Inks
Tools: SU! 1 1/4" circle punch, Inkylicious ink duster brushes

Pages

Saturday, 31 December 2016

Thursday, 29 December 2016

Saturday, 24 December 2016

Friday, 23 December 2016

Thursday, 22 December 2016

Sunday, 18 December 2016

Friday, 16 December 2016

Wednesday, 14 December 2016

Saturday, 10 December 2016

Thursday, 8 December 2016

Friday, 2 December 2016