Aaaaah!!! Christmas

Hello everyone.  I LOVE CHRISTMAS but it can be really stressy in the lead up, especially when you're running way behind in making your Christmas Cards.  I've just spent the last three days madly trying to make my cards for this year. 

I actually started making my cards in early November  ( thought I was really good this year to start so early - HA!! )   The first one I made was an advent calendar card. 

Made the Poinsettia out of cardstock.  Spent quite a few evenings in front of the telly cutting out lots of  petals, spraying them and scrunching them up a little bit and then glueing them together.  Enough for all my cards. The leaves were cut using a Tim Holtz die.

 I really like this card.  I downloaded the template from Norma at 'From my Craft room'. You can find it HERE. 

This was going to be my card for everyone this year.

Silly me.  Didn't happen.

 It's not a difficult card to make but it does take a bit of time to do especially with all those little number cards you have to print and punch and cut out. Then my lovely man and I got really busy with lots of different stuff and I found myself running out of time.

 So I decided to make shaped side step cards. They don't take long do they?  Got all the bases and the mats cut out with the help of my daughter-in-laws Silhouette Cameo and put them together and then got the inside done. But when I decorated the outside on one of them, I did not like it at all.  I don't know what went wrong but it wouldn't sit right and it just looked ... blah!  Soooo!!!  I had to start all over again, hence the mad rush in the last few days.
I  ended up making easel cards.  Hopefully I'll get them in the post tomorrow and then I can show you.
Whew!!  
Like I said, I love Christmas  but sometimes ....
Thanks for visiting.  Take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg

Easel Card

Hello and welcome to my little blog.
My 2nd Daughter-in-law had her Birthday the day after my oldest son and I can now show you the card I made for her.

I actually made this card quite a while ago.  Although she's not a 'girly' girl she does love butterflies and flowers, so of course I had to make a card with butterflies and flowers on it.  She's not into the pinks and pretty pastels so the colour range I went for was more to the beige and brown side of  the spectrum.

I wanted something a little different so I chose to make an easel card which is a simple card to make yet looks very effective.

The papers I used are from Prima's En Francais collection.

The Imaginarium butterfly was colored with Hazelnut Paint Dabber, coated with Crackle Accents and, once it was dry, I mounted it on dark brown cardstock which had been sprayed with Pearl Glimmermist.  

The red flower is from Kaisercraft but the others came out of my stash and I have no idea where I got them from.  The leaves were cut with Magnolia Ink's Vintage Flower & Leaf die and the tags are from Graphic 45's Olde Curiosity Shoppe collection.  The flourish is a Make'it'Crafty Flower Leaf Swirl which I colored with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and then coated with Crackle Accents.

These cute little roses are all from Kaisercraft.

My daughter-in-law is actually Kerry-Jean from KJWStudio and she makes some really fabulous cards. If you're looking for some unique Christmas or Birthday Cards why don't you check out her Etsy Shoppe.  You can find the link on the right hand side of my blog.

That's all for now. Thank you so much for visiting.  Take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg

 

Book Card

Hello everybody!  My son had his Birthday this week so now I can show you the card I made for him.  This one is a bit different.  I found a tutorial by Sandie Edwards of  'Delightfully Crazy'  on a Vintage Book Card.

You can find it  HERE.

I really loved the card and thought I would try one myself.  It turned out to be quite an easy one to make.  Sandie's instructions are very clear and easy to follow. 

As my son is an avid gamer I based the card on one of the games he plays.

 

I finished the inside of the card first and then found I had nowhere to put the sentiment.  I had intended to make a pocket inside to put in a tag, but somehow that got lost along the way.

Anyhow I ended up putting a door? on the front which opens to reveal the sentiment. 

 The Door.

I wrote the sentiment on this tag.  The 'doors' are held closed with some magnets.

Among the images from the net I found a map and a creepy creature which I fussy cut and placed on the inside cover.  I also found the sword and shield which I placed in the corner.

For the 'book' side of the card I  printed two copies of the character and fussy cut one of the figures and glued it over the top with foam squares.  The chipboard corners are from Make it Crafty which I coloured with Versa Magic Midnight Black and then rubbed a little VersaColor Bronze on the edges.
The frame around the central image was covered with paper from Graphic 45's Olde Curiosity Shoppe.

Here you can see the edge of the 'book' which I highlighted with VersaColor Bronze..  For the closure I simply cut a strip of cardstock and bent it around to slide underneath the paper on the front of the card.

 This is the full view of the inside.  Some of you may recognize the images, they are from the Kingdom of Amalur - The Reckoning.
My younger son's partner also makes cards.  Check out the one she made at KJWStudio it's awesome.
I would like to thank Sandie Edwards for her excellent tutorial.  This card was really fun to make. 
That's it from me for now.  Thank you so much for visiting.  Take care and God Bless.
xoxo Marg

Anniversary Card

Hi everybody! My oldest son and his wife just celebrated their 19th Wedding Anniversary and I thought I'd show you the card I made for them.

A few years ago I spotted a card on someone's blog (can't remember whose) which I really loved. It was an easel card done in black and peach and it was gorgeous so I saved the image but hadn't got around to using it as an inspiration until  now.
Here is my card.

 Unfortunately I didn't have much in the way of peach coloured stuff in my stash but made do with what I did have. 

 

The papers I used are from Prima's Rondelle collection (love those) but  the one I used for the front was just black with a few floral images in the corners and it was a bit flat so I stamped it with a Kaisercraft script stamp using VersaMagic Cloud White.  Luckily it turned out exactly how I wanted it - uneven and patchy.

The flowers are from my stash.  The small cream one is from Prima the two pink ones are Kaisercraft but I can't remember where I got the large one. It could also be a Prima but I'm not sure.

The little Imaginarium frame was painted with Adirondack's Dabber in Pitch Black and then sprayed with a little Pearl Glimmer Mist.  I've backed it with a small doily which was cut out with the Die-namics Decorative Doily Duo Die.  ( Try saying that 5 times really fast. lol )

 These little flowers are all Kaisercraft, the doily is the same as on the front of the card and the little branches were punched out with a Martha Stewart punch.

And here is the inside.  I wrote our greeting on the journalling card.

 Here is the original card.

 
My version is not exactly the same as the original but then it was never meant to be a perfect copy.  I'm pleased with the way my card turned out and I am very grateful for having the original design to get me inspired.
Thank you so much for visiting.  Take care and God Bless.
xoxo Marg

Completed Curiosity Shoppe Mini Album

Hello all!  My Mini Album is finished. Yayy!!  I had a lot of fun doing this one.  Sorting out the binding and working out how to do the faux leather and then all the different pages.  I really enjoyed the process.  I loved working with the Graphic 45 Olde Curiosity Shoppe papers, they are so versatile and I love all the images on them that you can fussy cut.

 

I created quite a few pockets for tags and for single page booklets so there are plenty of spaces for photos  and also for journalling. 

I did a lot of fussy cutting and I enhanced some of the images with glossy accents.  Unfortunately the camera doesn't really pick that up.

The envelope opens up and swings out from the page, it is held down with a magnet.

This pocket flips out with more photo space behind it.

Here, if you look closely, you can see where I've used the glossy accents.

 

And this is the back.

So, that's my Curiosity Shoppe Mini Album.  If you've checked out some of my previous posts you'll see that I've explained how I did the binding.  I wasn't entirely sure if it would be sturdy enough.  Well, I can now tell you that it is quite strong.  This mini has been looked at by quite a few people now and it hasn't fallen apart, thank goodness.

Thank you so much for stopping by.  Have a lovely day.  Take care and God Bless.

xoxo Marg

Curiosity Shoppe Mini Album Cover

Hi everybody! I've almost finished my Curiosity Shoppe Mini Album.  Having a little trouble with this one because I keep coming up with different ideas.  Anyway it's nearly done, I've just got a few more tags to make.  I thought I'd share with you how I made the cover.

I originally wanted faux leather, so I researched the net and found a few different methods for making cardstock look like leather.  The one I tried  uses Ink Refresher.  You saturate the cardstock on both sides with the refresher and then scrunch it up, open it out, scrunch it up again and do this until you get the look you want.

Be careful though with the type of cardstock you use. I tried it on a small piece first and it worked really well but when I worked on the piece for the cover I used a different cardstock and ended up with black hands because the colour ran. I had to put on rubber gloves. 

After I got it to the look I wanted I sprayed it all over with Creme de Cocoa Glimmer Mist and then in a few spots I also used Sugar Plum Fairy.  After it was completely dry I rubbed some Versa Color Bronze over the raised bits.

 

Not sure that it actually looks like leather but it didn't turn out too bad.  Unfortunately it was a bit difficult to make it fit around the edge and I couldn't get it to stick down properly.  In the end, I made a frame and only used the leather look piece in the centre. 

The clock charm and the leaf are from Blue Moon and the brad is from Graphic 45.

Here is a close-up of the flower cluster.  Some are Prima and some are Kaisercraft. The leaves were cut with Magnolia Ink's Vintage Flower & Leaf Die and I added a few of my little spirals as well.

And this is the back.

Further to my previous posts on the binding for this album, before I add the outer cover I glue some cloth tape just on the spine only.

Like this.

I think it helps to strengthen it.  Unfortunately my albums don't open up as wide as I'd like them to so I'm going to have to find an alternative for the outer spine cover.

Well my friends, that's all for now.  Enjoy the rest of your day and thank you so much for visiting.

Take care and God Bless

xx Marg