Saturday 28 November 2015

Vintage snowflakes

I seem to be using Tim's weathered winter snowflakes a lot this year, for this card I kept to a vintage neutral palette to start with but you can see it brightened somewhat as I went along.


I began with a Prima 6x6 life time collection paper pad and some scraps of patterned papers to create a simple collage on a background.


I scraped gesso over using a palette knife .....


... and when the gesso was dry I used coffee archival ink to stamp one of the weathered snowflakes.


Over that I brayered another layer of gesso to create a distressed look ....


.... and die cut one of Tim's layered snowflakes and ran it through the accompanying texture fade, I also cut all the snowflakes from the paper snowflakes thinlits set and punched one as well. I didn't use all of them but some of them to layer up to create the focus of the card. By smearing left over gesso and dipping the smaller ones in what was left I created a textured  background on them. They then got dipped in peacock feathers and twisted citron distress inks, finishing with dips in gathered twigs and hickory smoke.



After adding a little patina distress stickles I layered them and added to the card with some washi tape to add a little more interest .....


... a stamped sentiment and a small bow made from a strand of hessian.


Wishing you a happy weekend with some creative time set aside just for you.

hugs Brenda xxx

Wednesday 25 November 2015

Snowflake Tinsel

Welcome to my blog and today I am sharing my second DT contribution to the Country View Challenges theme for November which is 'The colour Blue'.


My backgrounds started with the card being dipped into a blue mix of distress inks and brushos and dried. I took the gorgeous shabby snowflakes from Tim's Weathered Winter stamp set and covered them with blue distress inks direct from the pads. Don't forget to always start with your lighter blues and then the darker ones so you don't contaminate the lighter colours. I spritzed water into the air and wafted the snowflakes through it and then stamped onto the background, in most cases this gave me an even more distressed look as the snowflake edges bled into the background a bit. You can see no two look the same.


When perfectly dry I brayered over a thin layer of white gesso to make it look more like a snowy background.


I wanted a strong image as the focal point so I die-cut Tim's layered snowflake in a light blue card, and lightly brayered gesso again over the raised parts, dried it off and dipped it into broken china DI and dried then into faded jeans and dried it again.


I brayered over with the gesso again being careful to just touch the high points and sprinkled over some snowflake tinsel embossing powder. Once heated this gave me a beautiful sparkly effect and to make the snowflake pop and stand out more I blended ground espresso DI round the edges.


I adhered the snowflake onto the background with some natural fibre beneath it ........


.... added the words die-cut from Tim's holiday words script 2 set .......


... and then mounted onto some dark blue paper before adhering to the card.


I have prepped 9 of these with just the one completed but when I finds some time there will be quite a few more to add to my box and plenty of handmade cards to send to family and friends.

I hope your week is going well. Enjoy the run up to the weekend and I hope you find some quiet time for you in it somewhere.

hugs Brenda xxx


Monday 23 November 2015

Poinsettia Blueprint

Good morning - I'm joining you with a Christmas card for Country View Crafts Project Blog that you can make quite quickly and add to your box. I am pleased to say I am getting a few done now and glad I have started as things seem to be getting manic with project deadlines and family life.


You can find all the details over at CVC and more photos to see how it came together.

Take care and have a great week.

hugs Brenda xxxx





Updated from CVC


The background was stamped using the sentiments from seasons silhouettes with embossing ink and heated with a sparkly white embossing powder. This was then selectively dipped in festive berries and mowed lawn distress inks.


Stamp the poinsettia twice cutting them out without the leaves on one. Dip the smaller part in festive berries, fired brick and abandoned coral distress inks. Put them together having blended the edges with your favourite brown distress ink then add a small amount of pinflair or collal glue gel to the middle and stick in some dried natural seeds to make them look like the berry centre.
I then dipped the lower piece in in pine needles and twisted citron and I just love the colour combination and blending that occurred.


Die-cut holiday greens holly using green paper and also dip that in twisted citron to get shade variations on the leaves and edge with ground espresso.


The banner was simply dipped several times in festive berries drying between each dip and seasonal chit chat words added.


I put it all together with some natural fibre behind the poinsettia.


I hope you like the brighter colours for me and a fairly simple card to make and get in the post.


Enjoy getting all your Christmas cards made, it won't be long till the big day now.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxxx





Saturday 21 November 2015

Snowflake Joy Recipe Christmas Card Series #3


Fill your Christmas Card Box - Pt 3

Three more cards for the Christmas box using designer paper and a few simple embellishments to create a sweet but quick card. The focus for this one was using older dies and stamps and a paper pad to have a ready made background.


Ingredients
Paper pack - Trimcraft Silent Night
Dies - spellbinders rectangles and ornate trim, movers and shapers oval, snowflake.
Stamps - Framelits Holiday Joy, Letter to Santa
Distress inks - ground espresso, bundled sage
Archival ink - watering can


Method
Cut background card and belly band border ink edges with ground espresso. Cut oval stamp with greenery and joy
Die-cut frame, ornate trim and snowflake from gold card .....


.... and assemble. I used small foam pads on the frame and thicker ones on the joy oval to create dimension and interest. I even experimented with turning the card on the side, it worked well although I couldn't fit the ornate trim on.


Some of my close friends are not into the vintage, grungy styles I like and this was a refreshing change to make for them. Three more for the box and minimum postage - yay. 


I hope you are enjoying the quick card series, please let me know if you use any as inspiration.

Take care.

hugs Brenda xxx




Tuesday 17 November 2015

Recipe Christmas Card Series #2

Fill your Christmas Card Box - Pt 2

As I am on a mission to get my Christmas cards made earlier this year and not be chasing my tail in December I have been making myself duplicates and I am intending to create cards that will be easy to post trying to keep costs down.


Ingredients
Distress inks - weathered wood, stormy sky, ground espresso, iced spruce
Archival ink - potting dsoil
Embossing powder -  weathered white antiquities
Stamp sets - mini holidays, handwritten holidays 2, christmas magic
Dies - movers & shapers oval
Miscellaneous - ivory stamping card, kraft card. hessian, jute ribbon, tim holtz mini star punch, glitter card

Method
Cut craft card to size, stamp and white emboss.

Cut pennant and mono print the stars mask with the blue dostress inks and dry. Lay the mask back over the stars and blend the groud espresso lightly over them in plaves, mist with water, remove the maask and dry.


Create the sentiment by stamping some card for the background and diecut the ovals. Then stamp the sentiment over the top.


I made three of these at the same time and for a morning's work designing as well as making it helped to increase the numbers in my Christmas card box.


If you use this card for inspiration please link to me and let me know where I can come and see it.



Happy Christmas card making.

hugs Brenda xxx

Friday 13 November 2015

Recipe Christmas Card Series #1

Fill your Christmas Card Box - Pt 1

Each year I end up making some cards under pressure and at the very last moment to fulfil my card list. Although this year I have agreed with some more distant friends that we will send on-line cards I still like to send out hand made cards to closer friends. So I thought I would really get making and do a series on my blog of fairly easy cards to make that you might like to use for inspiration and I will give you the low down on what I have used as well as the process steps (or method) and as I was watching the great British bake off when I started it ended up being called the recipe Christmas card series.
So here is my first sample



Ingredients
Stamp Sets
letter to santa, weathered winter, simple sayings
Distress Inks
cracked pistachio, mermaid lagoon, grand espresso
Distress Markers
faded jeans, pumice stone, stormy sky, bundled sage
Embellishing
gold thread, gold pearls/gems, snowflake charm, gold treasure gold


Method
Stamp text across the card.


Dip card in distress inks


Stamp snowflakes using distress markers to get a variety of colours on the stamp and a light misting of water.


Ink the edges of the card, add a gold pearl and gems, tie some gold thread around the card with a snowflake charm attached and add a sentiment.


I've made two of these as I was making them and have now got my box well and truly started.



After a very busy week and weekend I have been able to take stock and get myself into a couple of larger projects this week, they will end up on my blog at some point before Christmas.

Listen to your heART and thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx