Christmas, New Year and Winter

Puffed up

Hi there!

I’m back with another Crafts-U-Love DT card.

Earlier this month I shared how I used the Studio Light stamp and die set to create a paper-pieced card. Today I’m using one of the dies from the set plus another item I received in my DT pack – the intriguingly-named ‘white fluffy stuff’ by Cosmic Shimmer.

It has been YEARS since I played with this sort of product. I recall buying something similar the first Christmas that I was crafting and used it on Santa beards! The Cosmic Shimmer version is very similar… but my style had changed and I was concerned that the Fluffy Stuff might be a little too…. heavy… for the countryside scene that I was originally planning to make as my second card using the Studio Light set.

In the end, I settled on a masked ink blended background to showcase the Fluffy Stuff. I used just one die from the set and cut it several times before masking off a section of my base card and then adding the trees on top.

I gently blended four shades of distress ink (Antique Linen, Victorian Velvet, Seedless Preserves and Dusty Concord) and then removed the masks to reveal my white trees! Then I die cut the Creative Expressions Merry Christmas die a few times from card, adhered the layers together and then onto my card. I planned to add a top layer cut from gold glitter card but as I would be using a heat tool for the Fluffy Stuff, I thought it may be safer to add the glitter layer after heating the Fluffy Stuff.

Once my sentiment was in place, I started to play with the Fluffy Stuff. I wanted to create smaller dots of snow, so I tested the dot size on a piece of spare card. A little goes a LONG way.

In the end, I added very small dots to my base card – I needed quite a steady hand as the Fluffy Stuff flows freely from the bottle and I didn’t want to apply too much by accident!

 

 

Then I got to work heating the Fluffy Stuff! Once this stuff gets hot it certainly puffs up – and actually puffs up a lot more than I expected! And that is where I made a mistake! I was convinced that the two small dots in the bottom left should puff a little more… so I went back to heat them a little more. Result = burnt Fluffy Stuff.

 

 

 

Well I guess this would be ok if I was creating an image of a Baked Alaska but this is not the look I was going for on this particular card!Luckily, once cool, the Fluffy Stuff comes off really easily! Phew!

 

 

 

 

Actually, I managed to knock off a couple of my fluffed up dots when I was adding the top layer of the sentiment. So to prevent this from happening when I added some shimmer to the trees, I positioned a couple of clear blocks on the card to ensure my hand was away from the paper.

In hindsight, I would use the Fluffy Stuff as my very last element to reduce the risk of losing some dots.

 

 

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*

Cosmic Shimmer Fluffy Stuff*

Distress inks

Creative Expressions Merry Christmas die

Nuvo Aqua Shimmer Midas Touch

Spiralling around

Happy Sunday everyone!

It’s time for a new challenge over at AAA Cards and this fortnight we want to see CAS cards that are mostly white. Our sponsor is Stamplorations.

I love white on white and don’t use it enough! As we like to keep layering to a minimum over at AAA cards, I started by dry embossing a frame in the centre of my base card to support the focal point – the beautiful Dixi Craft Christmas Spiral Tree die which I cut from white glitter card. I added a silver die cut star and a sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp Holiday Words on a Line set.

My teammates have shared some gorgeous CAS cards on the AAA Cards blog and we are also joined by our wonderful sponsor, Shery, plus the super talented Sandie from London Days. She has some fabulous creations on her site!

Thanks for stopping by – I do hope you play along with us!

LucieG.

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.