Christmas, New Year and Winter

Retro baubles

Hello everyone!

When I was in school, I used to buy those value packs of cards to give out to my classmates, but I never liked giving those ‘boring’ bauble cards.

Fast forward a few decades and I cannot stop buying bauble stamps and dies. There are just too many cute sets this year, don’t you think? This year, I may be sending out JUST bauble cards. All handmade of course… and not at all boring!

As soon as I saw the new Retro ornaments die set from Simply Graphic, I HAD to have them!

Today, I’m using them in my entry for the Color Throwdown challenge (red, aqua and silver) and the Freshly Made Sketches challenge.

I created my background panel with a new favourite find – Cosmic Shimmer Luna paste – it’s so sparkly and festive! The sentiment die is by Simon Says Stamp.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Christmas paper piecing

Hi everyone!

It’s time for a new Crafts-U-Love design team post from yours truly and today I’m playing with Studio Light trees and some Echo Park patterned paper.

The Studio Light set has 8 individual trees and matching dies – usually I would be stamping and die cutting straight away but you’ll have to wait for later to see that!!

Now you know I rarely use patterned paper even though I have a MOUNTAIN of it! I received a few sheets from the Echo Park Christmas Gingham 6×6 pack in my DT supplies this month and decided to use a technique that I haven’t done in a long while – paper piecing!

Step 1 – stamp and fussy cut images

I decided to use four of the tree images that are roughly the same shape for my card – much easier to fussy cut a simple triangle! I stamped the images a few times on the red and green papers and cut them out, making sure I cut into the black outline.

The simple spindle tree was the only image without a bold outline, but I just cut a triangle around the image and hoped for the best… It actually turned out better than I dared imagine in the end!

Step 2 – stamp the base images

I then cut a panel of lighter paper and stamped out the trees using black ink.

It’s difficult to see in my photo, but some of the centres aren’t perfectly stamped – that’s fine as soon they’ll be hidden by the fussy cut trees.

 

 

Step 3 – stick the patterned trees

Once the ink was dry, I stuck the cut trees onto the corresponding images on the panel – it’s very easy to line up the images and as I cut into the black stamped outline, the ‘join’ is quite difficult to see.

Before adhering the base panel to my card, I stuck it to a strip of grey paper. I also cut a little star from the same paper and stuck it above the centre tree to act as a focal point.

The Studio Light set doesn’t contain any sentiments, but I don’t think you always need them for Christmas cards! If I were to add a sentiment to this card, I’d probably stamp a small strip sentiment to the right, just under the panel.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

 

Supply List

Here are the links to the products I used on my card. Products marked with an asterisk (*) were kindly sent to me to use.

Studio Light tree stamps and dies*

Echo Park Dots and Stripes Christmas Gingham 6×6*

Archival Black ink

 

Starry joyful wishes

Hello everyone!

It’s been a little while since I’ve played along with a Case This Sketch challenge, but I decided to play along today.

I started by stamping an ornament from the Simon Says Stamp Ornate Ornaments set using versamark. I then coloured the image using coloured Prismacolor pencils over a coat of white pencil. I actually used a few shades of each colour – but these don’t really show in my photo… Anyway, once I had finished my colouring, I embossed the image with my new Wow! platinum sparkle embossing powder – and oh my goodness! It is wonderfully sparkly!

I then fussy cut the ornament (I had wanted the dies, but they were sold out when I placed my order. Luckily this image is pretty easy to fussy cut!) and adhered it to the card base using sticky fixers. I added a die cut sentiment from the SSS Holiday Words on a Line set and some sequins, together with a silver bow to finish off my card.

I’m also entering this into the current SSS Flickr challenge – ‘Let’s colour’!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Jolly Snowman

Hi there friends!

The Color Throwdown challenge has quite a cool autumnal palette this week – red, kraft, aqua and orange, but I decided to use them for a Christmas card as I’m in the midst of festive cardmaking for the Caring Hearts card drive.

I used a fabulous snowman from the Papersmooches Cool Snowdudes set. This was a very easy shape to fussy cut, so you may be seeing more of him this year! Anyway, I stuck him to a panel that I had created by masking off an area I then covered with a light coat of Frayed Burlap distress ink followed by a stencilled layer of the same ink. I added a few little trees from an Avery Elle die and then the sentiment from Simon Says Stamp.

I’m also entering this into the current Freshly Made sketches challenge and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge (Anything Goes).

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Bubble Bauble

Happy Friyay everyone!

I’m so excited that my Simon Says Stamp order arrived very quickly this month! I couldn’t wait to start playing with my new Ornate Ornaments stamps!

I was totally inspired by this card by the super talented Gayatri and had to CASE it! I stamped the ornament several times and coloured them using my Prismacolor pencils. I still felt the card needed something a little ‘more’ so I added some orange dots. I covered some of the bubbles with Tonic Studios Nuvo Crystal Glaze and then finished off the card with a die cut sentiment also by Simon Says Stamp.

I’m entering this into the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – anything goes.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Poley Penguin

Happy Tuesday!

Today I used Art Impressions’ fabulous ‘Poley Penguin’ to create a quick CAS Christmas card.

After stamping the image with Pumice Stone distress oxide ink, I masked it off and lightly stencilled an area around the image using an Echo Park stencil. I removed the mask and coloured the image using my Prismacolor pencil before adding some glitter to Poley’s hat!

To finish off the card, I added a sentiment from Avery Elle.

I’m entering this into the current CAS Christmas Card challenge – the theme is ‘birds’.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.