Carol Singing

Post 18
Still feeling festive, so I dug out a beautiful stamp from Lili of the Valley , called 'Carol Singing'. I thought I'd have a go in the monthly challenge over at LOTV which has the title 'Anything Goes'...how can you resist. Click the picture to go to the challenge....

                             

I decided to limit my colour palate, so went with a black base card, and use the warm greys and a few reds from my promarkers to colour the image.

I matted it onto some black, then some centura pearl card. The poinsettias are die cut and embossed  from the Layered Poinsettia,die from Spellbinders.

Into the centres just a few black self adhesive stones.

I've used Star Dust stickles for a bit of glitter on the hat. And to finish the 'NOEL' stamp from LOTV 'Grunge Christmas Postmarks' is added as a tag.

Inside the sentiment is also from LOTV, the 'Christmas circular sentiments', and to finish the little carol singer cut out and wearing a co-ordinating red coat and glittery fur .

In for a penny in for a pound, after looking at other entries at LOTV , thought I may as well enter the card into the 'Passion for Promarkers' challenge. Well with all the legs...why not!

Hope you like.
Happy crafting.
Clair xxx

Christening.

Post 17

Todays card is a Christening card. The brief was.....the girls Mum was a rugby fan, the girls Dad was a football fan....the little girl is VERY girlie, go with the girlie for the card. Phew!!!! I couldn't imagine incorporating football and rugby into a christening card!!!

                                       

My image came from a retired cd rom of Joanna Sheens, 'Baby Love'              

                                   

I matted the image onto some ivory centura pearl card, and did some paper piercing around the edge, followed by a black matt. The backing paper which accompanied the imaged was cut with a spellbinders die, label 20 I think. I tried making a faux nestie to matt this onto, but I wasn't happy with my cutting out,so I cut a matt with the same sized die then off set it behind the decorative paper to give it a shadow effect, I repeated this with the tags and labels. The backing paper was from the free digikit , 'Daydream' that came with my well loved Craft Artist 2. I had to recolour it to co-ordinate it with my image.

                                    

I decorated the rest of the card with various flowers and pearls from Wild orchid crafts. The butter fly was cut from an old spellbinder die ,and embellished with self adhesive pearls.

                                    

Because of all the embellishments, a box was required. This I made using more centura pearl cardstock. I decorated it with another butter fly and the name of the little girl whose christening it was. The letters were cut from the sizzlit alphabet called 'First Steps'

                            

Hope you like.

Happy crafting.

Clair xxx

More festive bits...

Post 16
On a bit of a roll with the Christmas cards at the moment. Also on a roll with the beautiful Lili of the Valley stamps.

Such a simple card!!!! My base card is cut from the sizzix base for the pop n cuts cards, from Karen Burniston. This initially was done as I'd intended to do a pop up card. But for the bulk required for christmas I decided against it and went flat......also postal fee friendly...it's win win! 

 Stamped and embossed the holly tree using some silver embossing powder.

Then painted the holly leaves with my white 'twinkling H2O's. Glittered the berries with silver glitter.

A little matting with centura pearl , to match the base card, and a layer of black.

Stamped a Lily of the Valley Christmas sentiment in an insert....and that sent me on a roll with stamp, glitter and paint in hand. Happy days.

Hope you like.

Clair xxx

Christmas...arrggghhhh!

Post 15
Two posts in one evening...can you tell my OH is out!!!!
It had to be done , there is no denying the fact, Christmas is around the corner and I needed to make a start. So today, once the children were out at school I set too with my beautiful new Lili of the Valley stamp.

The stamp, Partridge in a Pear tree , I fell in love with as soon as I saw it. I coloured the image with my promarkers (a fine tip on your pens is a must for this image) then glazed the pears and glittered the buds.

The  image was then matted onto some red card stock then on to my base card, centura pearl.

The flower was cut from the Spellbinder poinsettia dies, inked, glittered and finished off with gems.

Quite a while ago I saw the Karen Burniston Pop N Cuts dies, and I finally bought the base die yippeee! I've been itching to play and this card fit the bill. So, having cut the base from the die I then cut some of the red card for the pop up...

as it was far too short I added on some centura pearl and a strip of green to cover the join. The sentiment is an old favourite from Lili of the Valley. The card was finished off with more poinsettias.

Once I had finished my first Pop n Cuts christmas card , I ditched the housework and became a machine for the rest of the day, managing only 6 cards....but very pleased with them, and a most enjoyable day to boot.

Happy crafting.

Clair xxx

Wedding bliss....

Post 14
A little rush job for a cousin who, after being with his partner for goodness knows how many years, and surviving many family traumas, they finally tied the knot. My Aunt had rung him, thinking he was away for the weekend in the Lakes, he told her they were literally walking out of the place in Gretna Green where they had just Married....MARVELLOUS.
So a card had to be made A.S.A.P.

The base is Centura pearl cardstock from Crafters companion,the first layer has been pierced all the way round the matt. The decorative paper is from a DCWV paper stack called 'Love and Marriage'.

The hearts were also  cut from the centura pearl then embossed using a cuttlebug embossing folder...sorry can't tell you the name of it. Some crinkle edged ribbon from Creative Expressions sits behind the hearts. And the to finish I used some paper roses from the stash.

Inside was decorated with some smaller tumbling hearts on some more paper. 

Hope you like.

Happy crafting.

Clair xxx

Retiring ....

Post 13
A card inspired and shamelessly copied from Octobers  'Craft Stamper' , there was an article a few months ago demonstrating this technique, and this month someone sent in a card having done their own version...it totally inspired me to have a go. In both the article and the readers version they have used distress stains. As I haven't yet invested in distress stains I had a think and decided to try my distress markers, applied as a water colour

Using a template cut out from a spellbinder label, 20 I think, I applied the colour in diagonal stripes....my first attempt was terrible, I used far too much water and it seeped under the template and made a dreadful mess. The second attempt was much better.

Once the paint was dry I placed the stencil back on the card and traced around the shape 3 times with a fine liner pen moving the template slightly each time.

The painted area was then covered with the positive I'd cut when making the template. I stamped the swirls using black memento ink. The stamps are some clear stamps I've had in my stash for years.  I inked around the card with antique linen distress ink and matted it onto some core-dinations cardstock.

The flower, also from my stash, was stuck on with pinflair glue gel. And finally the sentiment, I printed off my computer , cut it out banner style, and inked around the edges, before sticking it on the card with a raised part to give it some interest.

The inset was also inked with antique linen, and I repeated the process of drawing around the stencil and stamping my swirls to surround the sentiment inside the card. A few self adhesive pearls finish the card.

Hope you like. 

Happy crafting.

Clair xxx

Starting where I left off......The Guys!

Post 12

Well...Hi! After a wonderful holiday in Portugal, can recommend Lagos (beautiful town, marina, beach all with  a fabulous cooling breeze) for anyone looking for a holiday!

I'm finally back to my bloggery. I haven't been in Portugal for a whole month, as glorious as that would be, but with getting both my boys ready for starting new schools and going back to work my blog time has been at a minimum. 

The card making has recommenced in earnest as I'm trying to get all birthdays done before starting on the Mount Everest of Christmas card making.

My card for today is as the title suggests a 'Man' card.

An image I love for man cards, every man I know assumes this position probably more often than their other halves appreciate!!!!

The image is from Mos digital pencil , it's coloured with my beloved promarkers. 

 The base card is a Kraft card and the papers matted on to it are from a free digikit by Serif, it's called American holidays 2011 . 

 The numbers has been printed off, from another digikit then coloured and glazed.

A wee bit of bunting to fill a corner. And then some faux stitches around everything stuck down. 

I decorated the inside with faded version of the paper and added more bunting.

Hope you like .

Happy crafting .

Clair xxx