Sparkling Flakes

     My Christmas card for this week is based on a sketch from 52 Christmas Card Throwdown. 
    As soon as I saw the sketch I knew I had just the right embossing folder for the job, Crafts Too Snowflake Banner.
    I have used some thick white pearl paper to emboss and then gone over the snowflakes with pva dries clear glue and clear glitter to give them some sparkle.
    I tried a few versions with colouring the plaque in the middle but they didn't look right so I've opted for the plain and simple look.

    I've added a greeting in the centre and two snowflakes either side. The little flake on the plaque has a small clear gem on it.
    The snowflake panel is mounted on a small layer of blue and then on a white card covered with the same pearl paper so it matches. I love blue and white any time of year but at Christmas it's great with silver and my favourite snowflakes.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Sketch

CraftyHazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Sentiment

CraftyHazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything

Sparkles Christmas Challenge - Favourite festive colours

Garden Spells at Make My Monday

    This card was inspired by the book cover shown over on Make My Monday. The book is called Garden Spells and features flowers and butterflies on a black cover so I chose mica powders for my creation.
    Mica powders have what is called an 'interference' colour in them most of the time, so what you see in the little pot is what you get on white card but on black card the interference colour will shine through. I have taken two photos of the card at different angles to try and show this, the flower on the left is blue in the big picture but mauve in the small one. These powders are something I love to work with, especially for nature and Christmas.
    All the stamps used are from Chocolate Baroque, the wording is from Artistic Affirmations and the flowers are from Wild Meadow. I have used Perfect Medium to stamp with but if you have Versamark it will do the same job. I stamped each flower separately and powdered them so that I didn't cross over with my colours. I have used Cosmic Shimmer Mica Garden Flora and Shimmer Lux sets.

    Once all the mica was done I brushed off any excess and gave it a light spray with hairspray to fix it. The card is then mounted on pearl gold card and then onto a 7x5 card card blank that used to be white. I used Distress Ink Black Soot to colour my card edge and then stamped with Black Soot using one of the Wild Meadow stamps to decorate it a little.
    Once in a while you know what you want to make as soon as you see the challenge example and this was one of those times for me. The book cover just yelled mica to me and I listened. I think black is a such an amazing 'colour' to use and should never be thought of as dull or boring, it really has potential.

Little Brown Deer

    Here is this weeks Christmas card. 52 Christmas Card Throwdown are looking for Christmas animals, Jingle Belles would like your card to be in neutral shades, Sparkles Christmas Challenge would like you to use 3 flowers, 2 gems and 1 image and last but by no means least CraftyHazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra are happy with anything Christmassy.
   I began by stamping the image in Archival Ink Coffee on cream pearl card and then clear embossed it, it's a Penny Black stamp called 'Wish for peace'. The cream is matted on to satin gold then pearl chocolate card. The next layer is Kraft card put through a snowfall embossing folder, matted on another piece of chocolate pearl and finally on a cream 7x5 card.
   The flowers are punched from mat gold, patterned cream and plain cream card stock with foliage die cut with a Spellbinder Foliage die. Two of the flowers have gems but the top one does not, I did think about a butterfly but you don't see those in a snowy forest so I left it bare.

  The inside of the card is stamped with an All Night Media Anna Griffin stamp but has no name that I can find. I have used Archival Coffee again, I like this colour as it's strong but not as harsh as black and looks great on cream. I've added a little holly sprig to the envelope too.

I would like to enter the following challenges:

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Christmas animal

Jingle Belles - Neutral Noel

Sparkles Christmas Challenge - 3 flowers, 2 gems, 1 image

CraftyHazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything goes

All Steamed Up

   Good morning and welcome to my 100th post.

   This is my entry for SanDee & amelie's Steampunk Challenge 3D section. This month it's a steampunk cuckoo clock and I've had a lot of fun with this. A few month's ago I would never have thought of trying something like this, it has no function, no purpose but it was fun to make and I love it. Thank you to the ladies at the challenge for stretching my imagination, it's like being a child again....anything's possible.
   I began with a birdhouse pattern downloaded for free from one of the crafting magazines. I cut the roof from silver mirri card and embossed it with a checker plate mask, masks give a softer impression than folders which can be just as effective. The silver was a bit bright so I toned it down with a Ranger Acrylic Dauber Espresso brown, dab it on and wipe some of it off.
   The bottom and sides are cut from gold satin card and then run through a cogs embossing folder. They have been given the paint treatment too. I chose to cut little doors in the front instead of the hole on the pattern.

    There are two holes cut in the bottom to let the chains and weights hang down, this is from an old necklace I found in a charity shop.  I have cut various cogs from dark brown pearl card and attached them with brass look paper fasteners.
   The winged clock is from Inkadinkado stamped and embossed in copper, the wings are layered but that doesn't show too well in the pictures.  The cuckoo is a Marianne die and he hangs from jump rings through an eyelet just above the doors.
   Once all outside decoration was done I stuck it all together and added foil tape to the side joints with dots of Cosmic Shimmer PVA in copper to look like rivets.

 The chimney should really be a cylinder but that was very tricky to get just right so I opted for a square one. It's cut from the same brown card as the cogs and attached inside the roof. The 'steam' is a cotton wool ball opened out and fluffed up.
   The ribbon that it hangs by is through a hole in the roof, inside the roof the ribbon goes through a button so that it won't pull through.
   
There is a new challenge blog over at Country View Crafts which this month is Pick and Mix so anything goes and they accept altered art too. There aren't many rules and if you need anything to complete your creation they sell lots of lovely things on their website.

   There is another challenge that accepts altered art as well as papercrafts called Crafty-emblies. They also have a shop with lots of lovely things just crying out to be altered. It's so good to find challenges that stretch your crafting that little bit further.

  Happy crafting.

Scandinavian Glitz

Somehow it feels right to be making Christmas cards while there's snow outside, even if it is eleven months to go.
This weeks challenge over at 52 CCT is the use of glitter and patterned papers, while Jingle Belles have a red and white Scandinavian feel so after a sift through the Christmas stash this is what I've managed to come up with. I found a lovely red ribbon from a box of chocolates (all eaten in the name of craft) so I can also enter Crafty Hazelnut's challenge to recycle.
I began by covering a square card with patterned paper. Then added a row of 3 mm high tack tape around the edge which I covered with red glitter, I've found this a cheaper way of adding a glitter border than using glitter card to mat with, plus I'm not covering up all that lovely glittery card in the middle.
The bauble is cut from red pearl card using a Spellbinder die and then run through an embossing folder before being sanded back to show the white core, (this is also a good way to hide any cracks that may appear in the red top layer). It is then mounted using foam pads.

The ribbon is stuck on with high tack tape because it has a textured surface, I also added a small length of Scandinavian style ribbon to the straight edge, again stuck on with high tack tape. The greeting is stuck on with thin foam pads across the bauble. The bottom corners looked a little empty so I have put on some red gems to give it a little more sparkle.
As requested in the 52 CCT Challenge I have decorated the inside with a bauble branch stamp in Distress Ink Festive Berries and added a small bauble to the front and back of the envelope in true 'Ruth' style! It really makes the whole card look so classy, thanks Ruth it's a great idea.
I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Glitter, patterned paper and inside decoration

Jingle Belles - Scandinavian style

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Recylce something or use something free

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything goes

Christmas Card All Year Round - Anything goes

Quick pearlescent card

This little fellow is for a friends birthday. I don't usually do a lot with pink but this just seemed to be right.

The image is stamped with Archival Ink Coffee and clear embossed. The mouse and cake are coloured with watercolour pencils, the icing and candle are painted with Cosmic Shimmer watercolour paints.

I wanted to mat and layer the picture so I used Spellbinders Nesties but every pink card I tried wasn't quite right, until..... I played around with Brilliance Pearlescent Orchid ink pad! It's almost a perfect match for the 'Rose Hue' used for the icing. I only had to ink up the edge of the card because the middle is covered, no point in wasting ink! It dried well and has a perfect sheen to it. I'm now working my way through all my inks and matching them to the paints where I can, no more expensive pearl card required!

The edges of the main picture have been lightly inked with Distress Ink Spun Sugar whilst leaving the nestie on the card, giving the tiny white edge. The background has been stamped with a swirl in both Spun Sugar and Pearlescent Orchid.

If you have some pearlescent ink pads give it a try, if you don't you might like to get some. Brilliance are available in Dew Drop size which are not to expensive for a try out, good luck playing.