my Crafty Corner

Cards and other handicrafts made by Jean Straw

Wednesday 25 February 2015

February Rudolph Day


Hello everyone, Yes it's 25th today which means the 2nd Rudolph Day of this year. For any readers who don't know Rudolph Day is a christmas card challenge hosted by Scrappymo at Scraps of Life by Scrappymo blog, it starts on 25th of each month and is open until the end of the month. The requirement is to make one christmas card and here is the card I have made this time.                                                                                                  
I stamped the postcard image onto
a snippet of white card using
Memento London Fog ink and             added a little colour with Coloursoft     pencils. I also added some highlights
with a silver gel pen and used a Wink
of Stellar pen to add sparkle to the
snowy areas. I trimmed close to the image and mounted it onto some shiny dark green card. I stamped the sentiment with the London Fog ink on a small snippet of white card and cut it with a Spellbinder plain oval die. I drew around the outside of the die onto an offcut of the green card to mount it on. The postcard image is a Stampendous  stamp and the sentiment is chocolate Baroque. I used a 5" x 7" white base card with the fold at the top and embossed the front with a snowflake embossing folder by Darice. the image is fixed with double sided tape and the sentiment with thin foam tape.

I am going to enter this at Rudolph Day of course and as I used a few snippets I will pop over to
Pixie's Snippets Playground where you just need to use at least one snippet to get in.

Thank you for dropping by today and for your kind comments all of which are truly appreciated.
                                                                                                       

Monday 23 February 2015

A Red Rose For A Special Birthday

It was one of my sisters 80th birthday at the weekend and this is the card that I made for her. I used the same set of Chocolate Baroque stamps that I used in my last post, this being the largest of the stamps, and the corner is also from the same set. I folded an A4 sheet of white pearlised card in half to make the A5 base card. This is much bigger than I usually make but the stamp is quite big and I felt it needed the extra space. I stamped the corners with Memento Elderberry ink, and then stamped the main image onto a snippet of matching pearl card also with the elderberry ink. I brushed over the white corner flourish with a clear Wink of Stellar pen, which as usual doesn't show up in the photo. I stamped the image again onto a snippet of plain white card and coloured the rose with Promarkers and then fussy cut it out. I used a snippet of mauve pearlised card to cut a mat  for the rose panel. I wrapped red organza ribbon around the front of the card and fixed the mounted image on thin foam tape over it. The coloured rose was then glued over the original one with silicon glue for extra dimension.The greeting is die cut from matching mauve card using Britania dies. I also cut it twice from plain white card and layered them altogether. This is a bit fiddly to do with these fine dies but I do like the effect. I added a bow and some red gems to finish off.

As I have used several snippets I am entering this at Pixies Snippets Playground - Use snippets,
                                                                   and at Stamping Sensations - Anything Goes.
                                                                             Simon Says Stamp and Show - Anything Goes

Thank you for visiting here today and for your comments which are all really appreciated.
Jean

Friday 13 February 2015

Rose, Butterflies and Ribbon

I made my first craft purchase since christmas this week, (very restrained of me I think), but Chocolate Baroque had the lovely A4 Harlequin Rose set for sale at a reduced price and I couldn't resist. I have used two of the stamps from the set to make this card, the rose with a script background and the lacy panel. I began by stamping the rose with memento black ink onto a snippet of white card, and then colouring it using Coloursoft pencils blended with Sansodor. After trimming I used a duster brush and Festive Berries DI to lightly shade the edges and mounted it onto another snippet of grey pearlised card. I used a 5" x 7" folded base card and stamped the lace slightly lower than centre directly onto it, with Brilliance Lightning Black ink. I brushed over all the dangly motifs with a clear Wink of Stellar pen and added pink Stickles to the dots. While that was drying I stamped the birthday greeting with Victorian Velvet DI, using another Chocolate Baroque stamp form a clear set of  birthday sentiments. I wrapped pink ribbon around the front of the card above the lace. The rose panel is fixed in place with thin foam tape. To finish off I cut two butterflies from a tiny snippet of pink pearlised card with a Cheery Lynne die, and glued them  on by the bodies only. I didn't have any grey pearls so I coloured white ones with a Promarker before adding them to the butterflies.
I am entering this at Pixies Snippet Playground - Use Snippets
                           Mrs. A's butterfly Challenge -  Butterfly and R for Ribbon
                            CCEE Stampers Challenge - Month of the Pearl - pearls and pearlised card.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and for your comments, all of them are really appreciated.
Jean





Thursday 5 February 2015

No Stamping Again

Today I got out my boxes of snippets to see if I could make a card just using up some bits and pieces. Apart from the 5" x 7" ivory base card which I cut and folded from an A4 sheet, that's what I did. My second card in a row without stamping which is a bit weird, but I have got all these nice dies and embossing folders and I thought I would give them centre stage for change.
First I saw the snippet of dark red co-ordination card which was large enough to cut the largest of the Spellbinder Radiant Rectangles. I made the frame using the three largest dies from the set. The largest cuts the outside edge, the second makes the cutouts and the perforated edge and the third cuts out the center, leaving a lovely decorative frame. I used the third die again to cut a piece of ivory card to fit into the centre and ran it through the Cuttle bug with a Crafts Concept embossing folder, Budding Vine. After sticking these to the card, I cut the greeting using a Britania die three times, once in the same red as the frame and twice in ivory, all backed with some Stick It. I layered them up and gave it a coat of Glossy Accents, and when dry fixed them onto the embossed panel. The printed flowers came with some printed papers that were free with a magazine some time ago. I think the magazine was Simply Homemade but I can't remember when it was. I think I used some of the papers at the time but this sheet of embellishments had just a couple of bits cut off and it seems to have been hanging about for ages, So I chose two each of two different sizes and fussy cut them by hand. I shaped them slightly with an embossing tool and layered them together adding a flower gem in the centres. The gems were colourless and I used Whispers permanent pens, using three colours to try and make them match. In my photo they look like they don't even match each other let alone anything else, but they do look better IRL. I had to take the photo under my craft light as it had got dark by the time I'd finished, so the colours are all a bit distorted. To finish the card I added a piece of folded dark red ribbon to the bottom corner and then fixed the flowers over it. The leafy bits are parts of a pair of Joanna Sheen Signature dies cut from a snippet of green card and tucked in behind the flowers, and then some pink Stickles added to the flowers.
I am taking this over to Pixie's Snippets Playground - use Snippets.
Thank you for your visit and for your comments which I really appreciate.
Jean

Sunday 1 February 2015

Butterfly Valentine

Hi everyone I hope you have all been enjoying the weekend. It has been beautifully bright and sunny here today but I went out this morning and the wind is bitingly cold. I have one new follower to welcome,Karen Hasheck, so thank you Karen and welcome to My Little Corner.
Today I have a valentine card of sorts to show you. I don't really do valentine cards as a rule but I like to enter the Butterfly Challenge when I can and for the current challenge the letter V for Valentine is required along with the butterfly. This can be interpreted in any way you like eg.colour hearts love etc. and this is what I came up with. I bought this butterfly die a while ago but hadn't used it before, so that was the starting point for my card. I found this very old shaded pinky red card in the bottom of a box and used it to cut the butterflies. This die cuts the wings and leaves the butterflies attached by their bodies, so the wings can be lifted. Although the butterflies are arranged in a heart shape the die does not actually cut it out, so I used a Spellbinder Shapeabilities heart shaped die, and because it wasn't quite big enough I drew around the outside of the die and cut it out by hand. I cut and folded a 14cm square card from some very pale pink textured card, and then a panel of grey pearl card. I trimmed the bottom of this piece with a Woodware edge punch and tied some pale pink ribbon around it before fixing it to the card. After sicking the butterfly heart in place I gave all the wings a brush over with a clear Wink Of Stellar pen, and added a few pink pearls. The words are part of an Indigo Blu stamp set that came free with a magazine sometime last year. I stamped them with black Memento ink onto a piece of the pink card and cut the words apart and inked around the edges before sticking them to the card.The tiny grey hearts are the waste from the punched edge.
I am off now to link this up at Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge - Butterfly + V is for Valentine
Thank you all for taking time to visit here and for your comments which are all really appreciated.
Jean