Is a Bird in a Wreath Worth Two in the Hand ?

Hi Folks, how's the weather with you on this Black Friday ?  Well, that's exactly what it is here in my little bit of Cornwall.  Dark, dank, damp and horrid.  I soooo hate these dark days and I'm guessing we'll be getting wet in a short time judging by the black clouds which are gathering overhead.  Time to turn on the lights, turn up the heating and Craft I think - yay !

I've been busy making lots of Christmas cards in the past few days, most of them in small batches of five or ten and the card I'm sharing today is one of my designs which creates a flat and lightweight card.  These are ideal for sending through the mail - postage costs are so high these days, we have to think about how many layers we put on our cards, well I do anyway !

 

I used a C6 base card, the bird in a wreath stamp was a freebie on the Craft Stamper Magazine recently and the square sentiment below is from a set of stamps by Lilli of the Valley.

 

All images were stamped using SU! Raspberry Ripple ink.  The stamped panel way matted over a slightly larger layer of red cardstock then attached to the front of the card.   I've decorated a matching envelope which you can just see at bottom left of the pic above.

 

I'm sharing a table with a lovely pal at a local church Table Top Sale tomorrow, this batch of cards will be up for sale, although if I do sell them I'll need to make more for my own use !  Either way I'll be happy.



I hope you've enjoyed your visit here today, thanks for taking the time to see what Stamping Grandmas has been getting up to.  Thanks in advance if you have the time to leave me a little feedback.

Enjoy the rest of your day.

It's not snowing, but it IS raining......

Anyone want me to send the rainclouds your way to water your gardens ?  No?  Thought not !

Today I certainly don't need to make Christmas cards to cool me down here in Cornwall.  We have dark skies and intermittent heavy showers - so unfair as I understand that the rest of the UK is still enjoying warm sunshine !   Still, wet weather means not being able to get anything done in the garden, so more time to craft ! 

The card I'm sharing today is another Christmas card to add to my stock.  I just found the Lili's Little Fairies challenge blog and as the prize is two Lili of  the Valley stamps, I just HAD to create an entry for this week.  The challenge this week is anything but a square card and here is my version.

I love this cute couple carrying their Christmas gifts - do you think they are on the way to deliver them or on the way home to put them under the tree?  I coloured the image with my Copics before cutting it out. 

I used Marianne's dies to cut the lantern shape and the tree, nesties to shape the card and cut out the sentiment layers.  The sentiment is LOTV and I smudged some Bundled Sage DI around the edges as the white card that I stamped on looked too stark against the darker muted colours of the bp.  The bp was a magazine freebie and I used a scrap of SU! cardstock for the scalloped oval layer behind the lantern.  A few touches of Stickles and Glossy Accents, some tiny red gems from my stash and Pinflair glue to pop up the elements from the background and that's about it folks. 

Thanks for dropping by and hope you've enjoyed today's creation.

Times to Treasure

I'm loving the sweet Marianne's Designs die sets I recently bought, sweet little birds, birdhouses and a great picket fence are among them and I've used a few for the elements on today's card.

I coloured this sweet Lili of the Valley image with my Copics whilst at the fabulous Craftathon held in Bristol in February - where a number of Craftbubble members got together for a weekend of crafting and socialising - but I hadn't used it on a card until now.  There's Glossy Accents on the book to give it some dimension and Stardust Stickles around the edges of the image layer. 

The grass, fence, birds and birdhouse were all cut with Marianne's dies using my Cuttlebug and bits of Stampin' Up cardstock and the background papers are magazine freebies which are just perfect with the floral theme and colours which match those I used on the image.

Sail Away

My lovely pal Lauren set the saturday sketchie challenge over on the Craftbubble 'Craft Mad & Loving It' group this week with the theme 'Sail Away'. 

I do love this Lili of the Valley stamp, he's a real cutie and perfect for the challenge.  I coloured the image with my Copics and added Glossy Accents to the boat to give it some dimension.  The background papers are from the Papermania Portobello Road pack and I tied some natural twine around to secure the button.  The sentiment was a diecut from a Goody Bag I received in a Secret Santa gift at Christmas. 

A Nice clean and bright design for this one, not too fancy or fussy so ideal for a guy's card, after all no matter what age they are all still little boys I find !!

Here comes The Bride.....

Here we go, another new week and the sun is currently shining here in Cornwall, what's the weather like where you are? 

Did you have a nice weekend?  I had a good but really busy one.  The daughter of one of my pals is getting married next month and she had a 'wrinklies' Hen Night on saturday.  It was fun but as I was driving I had to decline the vodka shots which appeared part way through the evening, I did have a small sip of the pink bubbly though  !!!

Sadly, I won't be able to attend the wedding, but I wanted to create a special card for the happy couple.  I know that the Bride is fond of clean and simple designs, so I didn't want to make an overly 'busy' or fussy card.  This pretty Lili of the Valley image was just perfect and I coloured it with Copics - I'm sure the Groom won't actually be wearing purple on The Day, but I plead artistic licence here. 

I cut out the image layer using a set of nesties and a layer from SU! Sage Shadow cardstock with a larger die from the set before embossing it with a Cuttlebug tiny hearts embossing folder.  A length of organza ribbon wrapped around and tied in a double bow and some faux pearls created with a Waco Pearlmaker Pen added each side.  Touches of Stardust Stickles on the flowers and clear Spica Gliter pen added over the dress to give a very subtle shimmer and this simple design was finished.  I do hope they like it.

Thanks for stopping by today and allowing me to share my project, I do love reading all the kind comments you leave me.  Keep on Crafting.......

White on White

I had a great time creating this card!  White on white with only colour allowed on the image is the challenge I entered with this one.  The challenge is from the Craftbubble Craft Mad and Loving It forum and this is a really great theme which I plan to use again when I get down to making more christmas cards for this year.

I just love this new snowie image from the Lili of the Valley Christmas stamps - he has such a cheeky expression.  I coloured the image with Copics although I have only a very few colours.  I generally use Promarkers, but I was able to get all the shades I wanted from the Copics I have, so was very pleased!  I added a little Glossy Accents to his carrot nose and the baubles hanging from his arms. 

A little Stardust Stickles gives the image layer a nice sparkle and also around the edge of the scalloped frame.  The image and the frame were created using nestabilties dies and I added Pearl Drops dots around the scalloped frame.  Here's a side view which shows the layers a little better.

The base layer is a combination of two different christmas themed Cuttlebug embossing folders and the snowflake ribbons were cut with a Martha Stewart border punch which my pal Jacqueline brought around and let me play with - thanks Jacqueline!  I cut out two double layer poinsettias from white card using my Marianne Designs dies, tucked them under the edges of the image layer and added a little more of the Stardust Stickles around the edges of the petals.  The sketch calls for a sentiment to be added at the bottom, but I left this off as I thought it would spoil the balance of the layout.

Hope you've enjoyed my White on White creation - thanks for stopping by today.
hugs
wynneth
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I ♥ ProMarkers Challenge #17

The prize for this week's challenge on I ♥ ProMarkers is sponsored by Joanna Sheen and we are asked to follow a recipe :

1 ribbon

2 different papers

3 buttons

that's it, no sketch, no colour theme, so you can let your creativity run wild!!  and with a chance to win a great prize, what are you waiting for?

For my DT card this week, I decided to use this sweet 'Me and My Cat' stamp by Lili of The Valley, which I coloured with my ProMarkers.  The large scalloped cirle layer was cut using a recently purchased die set by Marianne Designs, the flowers and swirls were cut using other dies included in the same set.  I used my 1 ribbon to thread through the cutouts on the circle, finishing in a bow at the bottom.  The background layer is my second paper and I added my 3 tiny buttons to the centres of the flowers to complete the recipe. 

To enter the challenge, just visit the I ♥ ProMarkers blog and add a link to your creation.

I hope you've enjoyed your visit here today, please do come back as I have so many things to share with you and I love visitors!

hugs

wynneth

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