A Crackin' Christmas

 Hi There! I've been enjoying playing with the fabulous Nutcracker stamps from Bee Crafty this week. Here is how I made my card

I began by wiping distress ink onto a super skinny slim, giving it a spray of water and then pressing it onto a 14cm square of mixed media card. I dried it between each colour. 

Next I sprinkled a little explosion powder in coordinating colours on to the background and sprayed it with a mister.

Once this was dry I stamped it with the bauble stamp in blueprint sketch ink. 

On a piece of watercolour card, I stamped and embossed the smaller nutcracker and coloured him with a combination of distress ink and ecolines. I cut him out leaving a narrow border.

I stamped the sentiment in blueprint sketch ink and added a few highlights in silver. 

Finally I matted and layered the background, sentiment and Nutcracker onto the 15x15cm card. I used 3d gel medium for the sentiment and nutcracker. 

Here are links to the products I used:

Bee Crafty Yuletide Doodle Art Nut Crackin' Christmas stamp set

Distress inks in Mustard Seed, Mermaid Lagoon and Blueprint Sketch

Pretty gets gritty explosion powders - I used Olympia and Mermaid

Ecoline pens in skintones

Versamark ink

Silver Embossing powder

Silver gelly roll pen

Gel medium

Thanks for looking and I hope your festive preparations are going well x

Chocolate and cash!

 

Sometimes we want to give a small gift to someone either as a thank you or for a special occasion. Sometimes this might be a little something to accompany a gift card or some cash. My friend Valerie came up with this lovely idea which I have adapted slightly, and could be adapted for a  gift card too. 

I began with an A4 sheet of  200gsm kraft card, which I measured and scored as follows:

In landscape I scored down at 8cm, 9.5cm, 17.5cm,19cm and 27cm. I also scored along the top and bottom 1.5cms from the edges. 

I cut off the remaining piece of card to the right, along with the 9.5 cm strip along the top and bottom edge from the right hand end. This is what I was left with.

I rounded the corners of the flap and cut from the edge to the first fold top and bottom.

Next I randomly stamped snowflakes in white and chianti ink all over the card.

I used pva glue to attach the small flap to the inside-front of the box then stuck the sides together, making a 3d envelope. 

I used another piece of Kraft card, measuring 16x7.5cm to make a separate pocket, using a circle punch to make a semi-circular indent on one edge.

 I stamped this with snowflakes too, rounding the corners and adding a little brown ink along the edges.

Using double sided narrow tape around three edges I attached it to the front of the inner box.

I added the bar of chocolate and the cash into the pocket. If I was giving a gift card I would make a pocket smaller to fit it.

I created a belly band for it's closure using a ribbon, measured to be the correct length (approximately 22cm allowing for overlap) and secured with Gel medium. To cover the join in the middle I added the smaller nutcracker which had been stamped and coloured whilst I was making samples. 

Here is the finished gift.

This was made to fit a 110g bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk and cash but could easily be adapted to fit other brands and, if needed, a gift card. I am sure it would be useful for gifts at other times of the year too. 

Here is another without the money wallet and just using the snowflake border set. 

For this one I used the strip of card from the end of the A4 sheet, painted with Polished Jade Dylusions shimmer paint for the belly band. The inks were Versafine Clair Warm Breeze and the Hero Arts unicorn white.

For the first I used:

One and a half sheets of A4 200gsm Kraft card

Snow border flakes and words stamp set 

Versafine Clair Chianti

Hero Hues Unicorn white ink

Approximately 22cm of coordinating Ribbon 

Nutcracker stamps

Versafine Clair Black ink

Coloured pencils

gel medium

Thanks for looking! 

Bold Colours!

Hi There! I have been enjoying getting inky and combining some different colours into a simple card where the sentiment is the focus. Here is how I made it.

I began by blending seedless preserves and faded lilac distress oxide inks onto a 14cm square of mixed media paper. 

I then placed over the mandala 4 inkable and blended prize ribbon ink through it 

Next I splattered it with water...

...and some Pretty Gets Gritty Artemis Explosion powder mixed with water. I set it aside to dry. 

I stamped the sentiment in versamark ink and embossed with gold embossing powder before matting and layering it to the card on sticky pads.

Here is a closer look at the finished card. It makes me think of batik fabric. 

I used 

6 x6" blank card

Black card

Mixed media card

Distress oxide inks in Prize Ribbon, Shaded Lilac and  Seedless Preserves

Inkable Mandala 4

Pretty Gets Gritty Artemis Explosion powder

Wordage Moon and Stars sentiment set

Gold embossing powder

Sticky pads or 3d gel for attaching the sentiment

Before I go here are my Nutcracker samples for the Craft Store show last week

I decorated 4 of the regular sized mdf nutcrackers

For this one I used alcohol pens on parchment paper stuck behind the front piece

This was the same nutcracker but not backlit

I also made a couple of cards combining the stamps with some older stamps over inky backgrounds...

Next week's project may well involve a nutcracker too! 

Thanks for looking and I hope you can join in the challenge over in the Bee Crafty Facebook group where the theme is Stay subtle or Be Bold with your colours!