Getting ready for Christmas

Hello my dear friends and lovelies!!  So pleased you dropped by. 

Hope you are all having a wonderful day.

Well, I have finally started making my Christmas cards.  

You might be thinking that it's still only October, but I'm thinking 'Oh my goodness!!  It's near the end of October already and I haven't even started on my Christmas cards!!!!'   LOL!!

For a little while now I have been testing different techniques on making Masterboards and I finally did one for Christmas that I really liked.  It is much the same as one I did a while ago (you can check it out here if you wish) and, just as I did back then, I have cut this one up to create my cards.

This piece has been matted on some green cardstock.

The Distress Ink colours used for the background are Forest Moss, Crushed Olive, Fired Brick and Wild Honey.   The poinsettia stencil is from Tim Holtz.   It was one of the things I purchased from Funky Junky Boutique with the voucher I was lucky enough to win from Mini Album Makers Challenge Blog.

To construct the layers under the cluster, I used some corrugated board (which was lightly swiped with gesso) half of a die cut doily and, somewhere underneath it all, there is a small piece of gauze as well.

Created the flair sentiment by printing it, punching it out and covering it with an Epoxy Sticker.
Easy Peasy!

Another piece of the Masterboard on the inside ..

.. and the full frontal!!

I will have a few more of these to share with you.  As a matter of fact, I will probably bore you silly with all the Christmas cards I will be sharing over the next month or more so I will apologise for that up front .. LOL!!



Have you started your Christmas preparations yet??   I usually end up leaving mine till the last minute and then get totally stressed out in the rush.   Hopefully I will get all my cards made soon (??!!??  Ha!!)  and then I can concentrate on the rest.  I did say 'Hopefully'.  LOL!!

Thank you so much for dropping by and taking a look.
Have a wonderful day!!
Take care and God Bless.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #197 - Fancy Folds

Hello lovely visitors and welcome to my blog.  Hope you are having a wonderful day.

There's a new Challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers and I am happy to tell you that it's my turn to play Host!
The Theme is Fancy Folds and this particular Challenge is for cards only. 

I wasn't sure what type of card to make for this Challenge.  Thought about Step cards and Easel cards but they weren't really what I wanted to do.  Then I saw a card on Pinterest that piqued my interest .. an Upright Z Fold card .. I had never made one of these so I thought, 'That's what I'll do.  Something new and different.'    Well, for me anyway.

The papers are a mix of Maja and Kaisercraft.  I seem to be using them a lot lately but they do go so very well together.

I still had quite a bit of Autumn coloured bits and pieces on my work bench left over from the last Challenge (yep!!  afraid I haven't really been very particular about cleaning up my Craft room) so decided to use some of them.

The flowers are available at Megs Garden.  They were a creamy white and I altered them with sprays made from watered down acrylic paint.  I always make sure to wet the flowers with water first and then the colour soaks in really well.

The leaves were cut from Maja papers with a Cheery Lynn die.

Had to add some prills of course, with some micro beads mixed in, and I also added some gesso highlights to the flowers and leaves along with a few splats on the base.

 This is another first for me.  The bit of 'lace' was made with a mould and Acrylic Gap Filler.  It is a little fiddly but quite easy to do and looks pretty good, I reckon! 

When you start to open it right out, this card is fairly long ..

 .. and a bit difficult to photograph but I managed to get it in one shot.

 Easy to see how it stands up here.  I used a gem brad to anchor it.

It was fun to make and, although I probably won't use this style a lot, I might make some of my Christmas cards like this.

Update:  I have just found out that it was Berit Rosenfeldt who first created this fold.  Thank you Berit .. it is awesome!!   Unfortunately I cannot find a current blog of hers to link to but HERE is a video of the original cards.  I'm afraid it's in Danish but the cards are gorgeous!! 

Well, I hope I have given you some inspiration to try a new style of card and to join in with our Challenge!  For more inspo', pop on over to the Blog and take a look at the wonderful creations by my Teamies and then link up your entry.  Please read our rules and take note of the 15 Challenge limit.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #197 - Fancy Folds.

Thank you so much for your visit and for leaving me a little love .. I  really appreciate it.
Whatever you plan to do for the rest of your day, do it safe and do it happy!!

Take care and God Bless.
oxox   Marg

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #196 - Autumn

Hello sweet visitors and welcome to my blog.  Hope you are having a wonderful day.

There's a new Challenge starting over at Crafty Cardmakers!  For this Challenge, Kim is our host and the Theme is Autumn!!

As always, you may create anything you like, as long as it follows the Autumn Theme.
Please read our rules and take note of the 15 Challenge limit.

So, here  is the card I created for my DT contribution.
The papers used are from Maja and Kaisercraft.  I felt they were a really good match.

The leaves were cut with Tim Holz' Mini Tattered Leaves Die which I have had for ages but never got around to using.   I cut them from a light brown cardstock and then coloured them using sprays made from Distress Re-inkers.  I also added a few veins with a brown fine line pen.

Tucked some gauze under the cluster for some soft texture, added some berries and, of course, lots of prills.

The flowers were also coloured with sprays and I added a touch of gesso here and there.

More of the Maja papers inside.

Et Voila!!

Another fabulous Challenge from Crafty Cardmakers.

Take a look at the wonderful inspiration from the rest of the Team and, while you're there, why not join in the fun and link up your entry.  Simply click on the link below.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #196 - Autumn.

I am sharing this card with the Challenge at
Fussy and Fancy Friday #196 - Fall Colours

Thank you so much for your visit and for leaving me a little love, and,
whatever your plans are for the day, do it safe and do it happy!!!

Take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg

Get Well Soon

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.  Do hope you are all having a wonderful day.

Can you believe we are almost half way through August??   Thought by now I would have lots of Christmas cards done but, plans often go awry don't they?  Mine certainly did.  Lots of things have happened lately and not all of it good.  But that is life I guess.  You have to face the bad along with the good and hope it all comes out right in the end.

The card I'm sharing today was made for a very close member of our family who was extremely ill.  Made this in the hope of cheering him up.

 Lots of layers of mostly Prima papers, either torn to size or distressed on the edges.

 A couple of tags tucked in with a bit of twine for textrue

The greeting was printed with my labeller and simply mounted on some cardstock.

A couple of eyelets and one of my fave flairs (I only have one left .. boo! hoo!) ..

 .. and a Prima light globe.

I am very happy to report that the patient is out of hospital and, although not 100% yet, is getting better every day.  My heartfelt thanks to the wonderful nursing staff at Flinders Medical Centre here in Adelaide.  Due to some woeful Government Policies (so called Transforming Health) they are under staffed, under equipped and over worked yet still manage under those difficult conditions to take very good care of their patients.  Thank you one and all.

Thank you so much for visiting and taking a look at my little makes.
Whatever your plans are for the day, have a good one!
Take care and God Bless.

1 Master Board = 3 Simple Cards

Hi everyone!!  So lovely to have you drop by.

Hope you are all having a wonderful day!

I've been spending some time watching videos (don't we all??)  on You Tube and came across one that I found really interesting.  It was made by Eileen Godwin of Eileen's Crafty Zone and she was demonstrating how to create a Masterboard.   There's actually two videos and HERE is the link to the first one if you're interested.   There, you will see the link to the second one as well.   I thoroughly enjoyed it and was inspired to have a go.  

So, this is what I made.

I didn't take progress photos while I was making this (if you wish, you can see all that on the videos) and I even forgot to take a photo before I cut it up so I simply pieced it back together so you could see how my Masterboard ended up.  The colour was added with Distress Inks and I wasn't overly impressed with my colour choices at first but, started to like it more and more as it progressed.
The colours I used are Mustard Seed, Ripe Persimmon, Faded Jeans and Pine Needles.

I managed to make three cards with this masterboard and am really happy with the result.
They are all very similar but, still, a little different.

The first card measures 3.5" x 7".

I used similar elements on all three cards.    Had to use prills, of course, along with some micro beads.

The gauze has been brushed with gesso to give it shape and structure and the flowers were coloured with sprays made from Distress Re-inkers.

Got myself a Brother Label Maker just recently (been going nuts labelling everything I can in my Craft Room.  LOL!!) and used it to make the sentiment.  

Wrapped the twine around the panel on this card before tying the bow.

The second card measures 4" x 6".

 

  Larger flower this time and simply left it as is.  Another label from my maker for the sentiment.

 Didn't bother wrapping the twine around this one .. just added a simple bow.

The last card measures 4.25" x 5.5".

Same gauze, same prills and micro beads.

 Different flowers again, coloured with sprays made from Distress Inks.

I thoroughly enjoyed creating this Masterboard and then the three cards.  It was something totally different to what I normally do and I love the results.  As I said at the beginning, I didn't really like my colour choices at first but it turned out nice and bright and cheery in the end. 
Thank you so much Eileen for sharing your talent and for inspiring me to do something a little different.

Thank you all too for dropping in and taking a look.  I hope you will go over and check out Eileen's video and her work .. I think she is awesome!!

Whatever you plan to do today,  make it a good one and have fun!!

Take care and God Bless.