A touch of tartan - up cycling for Christmas

One of the Christmas card fronts I die cut last week ready to up cycle has a 'touch of the tartan' in the pile of wrapped gifts - and that was my starting point for this card:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" white card blank, side opening

- the up cycled image from a shop bought kraft card sent by a friend last Christmas, die cut using a Presscut 'Oval Stitch Hole' die

- a panel of green tartan paper, which was a snippet already cut to almost the right size and tucked inside the back of the paper pad 'envelope pouch'. The paper pad is one of my very favourite LOTV pads called  'Classic Christmas' - and there's not much of it left in the pad!

- then a further poke around the same 'Classic Christmas' snippets pouch pad turned up a strip of red tartan paper - a fairly good match (IMHO) to the tartan wrapped gift in the image panel to pull it all together 

- glued the strip of red tartan across the green tartan , snipped the really small overhang off, then glued it to the card front

- final step, after spending ages dithering over a possible sentiment and deciding against it, was to glue the oval image panel in place

A little hunt through my crafting downloads in the middle of writing this post turned up LOTV's 'Classic Christmas' papers in digital form - hooray! I bought them back in 2017, forward planning there! ☺ 

I've posted the results of our 'Christmas in July' themed Challenge #432 over on the Snippets Playground HERE.

Dudley Pupdate - a quiet week really. Dudley is certainly happier that the scorching temperatures have dropped somewhat. So are we! Having written that the other day, they seem to be climbing again!

Rudolph Days Challenge July 2022 - up cycling

The other day, I grabbed a handful of shop bought (great source) Christmas card fronts, saved from Christmas 2021 that we'd been sent, and had a little session using the Gemini, die cutting the elements I wanted to 'up cycle'. It's a good way to do it by having a 'session' as I did. I wrote which die I'd used on the back of each die cut and also kept a few snippets of the same card fronts to potentially use for sentiments, on some cards, not all.

A day or so later I rustled up a very quick recycled card from the batch, in readiness for the current Rudolph Days Challenge over at ScrappyMo's HERE:

I used:

- 5.75" x 5.75" square white card blank, side opening

- the gorgeous gold embossed edged front panel of a card which originally had a lovely embossed Christmas tree die cut on it - it's kept kept to one side to be played with another time. We've had the same 'tree' card (probably from the same friend who feels that hand made ought to be repaid with a special card) which I up cycled last year I think/know!

- the centre of the panel had the very slight and thin remnants of the glue from sticky pads on but, I knew that would be covered by the image I wanted to add

- trimmed the front square panel to the same size as the card blank and glued it in place 

- then pulled out a die cut really adorable robin image, from the front of another card, which I'd previously cut using a 4.5" diameter 'Stitched Circles' die by The Works

- glued the image onto the card front

- I always add printed or stamped inserts with Christmas greetings into our cards, so didn't spoil the front of the card by trying to add a sentiment

Very simple I know, but if the up cycled elements are pleasing, then try to work the card around them and let them shine and have a second outing. Better than being swamped with too much unnecessary 'stuff'. IMHO only of course!

Laminating paper napkins

A while back, I discovered Ann Melvin and her numerous online card making videos, particularly different ways to use a laminating machine. One technique had me gripped - laminating paper napkins, you can watch it HERE. So, I dutifully sent off for a selection of paper napkins as well as some matte laminating pouches (I bought A5 size pouches which are perfectly adequate for my needs), my existing folders were all glossy ones. And this is a Christmas card I made:

I used:

- 7" x 6" white card blank, tent style (bit more about this below)

- rounded the corners of the card blank using my We R Memory Keepers corner half an inch rounder (it cuts through two layers at once, so I would be sure of them matching exactly when the card is closed)

- I'd laminated the image a few weeks ago, following Ann's video and using a rather Scandinavian or possibly German style of napkin

- mounted the image onto white card using double sided adhesive sheet, trimmed it to size and rounded the corners with an X-Cut half inch corner rounder

- then made a backing 'frame' using Tonic pearlescent 'Red Velvet' card, again with the corners rounded

- glued the image panel onto the card front

- grabbed a long narrow snippet of leftover Tonic pearlescent 'Red Velvet' card and trimmed it to half an inch width using my old faithful Woodware rotary trimmer with the changeable blades (I used the 'deckle' blade)

- glued the strip across the width of the card and trimmed any overhang from the back of the card using sharp scissors

- the sentiment was stamped using left over white snippets from trimming an original 8" x 8" card right at the start of making the card blank (I never use huge card blanks these days so didn't feel at all guilty)

- for the sentiment I used a stamp from the Poppy Stamps ''Gilded Christmas Wishes' set of stamps , the Misti and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

- then die cut the sentiment using a matching die from the same Poppy Stamps set

- finally. popped the sentiment onto the deckle edge strip using thin sticky fixers

I made six all the same! At this rate I ought to be finished all my Christmas card making well ahead of time. 

The images really do look and feel like vellum when laminated using matte (or matt) pouches - a fun way to use napkins. I'm so glad I never disposed of my Woodware rotary trimmer - still have loads of different blades, even some spare ones, cutting track inserts and even a spare handle. 

The reason the cards ended up measuring 7" x 6" is that I needed the 7" width for the image panel, 7" x 7" would cost Large Letter postal charges (eek!) and 7" x 5" just didn't leave enough space for a decent sized sentiment below the image. So, I'll set to sometime soon and make some envelopes, rather than leave them until the last minute.

By the way, I found some USA large size slimline envelopes at Bumbleberry Papercrafts HERE. 50 for £4.99 so not too badly priced either. They're longer than DL envelopes and perfect for anyone who, like me, slipped up and bought USA sized slimline dies, thinking the measured the same as our DL ones. Bumbleberry also stock mini slimline envelopes by Gina K. But, they are far from being a realistic price (£7.99 for eight) and would probably cost more than it takes to make a small card, so I'll just make my own.

Pupdate - during the excessive heat last week, Dudley had little inclination to go looking for mischief. Basically we were all trying to keep as cool as possible. We celebrated his 4th Birthday on Friday, all quite low key. He proudly wore a new 'Birthday Boy' bandana the whole day and looked adorable. ☺ This is he:

It took umpteen shots to even capture this one as he doesn't pose nicely for photos.

As soon as the nights were cooler than in the midst of the heatwave - he's been sleeping on our bed all night, making up for lost time we think. 

And last but certainly not least - Sarn has posted the latest Snippets Playground challenge HERE. The theme is still 'Christmas in July'. A lovely card made by Sarn plus another cocktail recipe await you over in the Playground!

My cocktail recipe is nothing like as imaginative or exotic as Sarn's are - basically my first thought was cranberries as so many of us associate them with Christmas. So my offering is:

Vodka Cranberry - also known as Cape Cod Cocktail

Image from the internet

So easy to make. 1 oz. vodka, 4 oz. cranberry juice, wedge of lime - plus a little 'simple syrup' if you like it sweeter. Fill a whisky tumbler two thirds full of ice (really?). Pour in the vodka and cranberry juice and stir. Add a little squeeze of the fresh lime wedge then pop it onto the rim of the glass as a garnish. For a longer drink, just double the ingredients and use a highball glass. Float three or so cranberries on top if you have them to hand. Personally, I'd leave them out for fear of anyone 'virtually' choking on them, unless you provide a virtual straw to drink through! 

Love from me and a woof from Dudley.

Christmas Stickeroos

I rustled up four Christmas Snippets cards, two identical ones of each design, the other afternoon: 

I used:

- the last of some light cream card stock to make cards sized 5.5" x 4.25" (tent style) and 4" x 4" (side opening)

- I'd already stuck some Penny Black 'Berry Delight' Stickeroos onto snippets of Tonic pearlescent 'Majestic Gold' card so I just trimmed them down properly and rounded the corners

- then set to rifling through snippets of light cream and also Tonic Mirror 'Fire Stone Red' card for backing layers

- trimmed those to size, rounding the corners of the cream layer

- used the Misti and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink to stamp sentiments onto the cream layers - using stamps from Uniko's 'Christmas Sentiments' set of stamps

- then glued the red and cream backing card layers onto the card fronts

- glued the Stickeroo image on its gold panel onto the card front

- finished!

The camera is a funny thing isn't it - in real life the pretty images look as if they're just mounted onto a pearlised card backing - but if you look at the photos above - they can give the illusion that they're set into a shadow box. Weird! 

I rounded the corners using a new (to me) X-Cut Small 2-in1 Corner Rounder punch -  bought to round the corners on some envelopes I plan to make. It also does an inwards curve which I've seen a few people doing lately and want to try for myself. 

So that was something NBUS I used making my cards and I'm off to join in with Darnell's NBUS Challenge #40 HERE. 

I'd also like to enter the Holly card into the current Allsorts Challenge #685 Challenge HERE.

It's been far too hot this past week to tackle the promised sort out of the flowers etc. that I'll be sending to a few people. This coming week is set to be even hotter so please bear with me.

It's also Dudley's 4th Birthday on the 22nd. We have no special plans other than me making a card and perhaps getting him a Birthday bandana.

Speaking of Dudley, thank goodness he was trimmed just before this heatwave hit us. He's been very restless during the night and has been wanting to be out in the garden sniffing the night air several times a night - in the small hours. The other night I was fast asleep and Dudley was pestering Len to be allowed out for the umpteenth time, around 1:30 am. Len played possum and Dudley did settle down until around 4am - when he had his paws up on Len's side of the bed, asking to go out yet again. This time Len took him down and let him into the garden. That poor little dog had been hanging on, really needing to poop! Lesson there, no matter how many times he asks to go out - one of them could well be for more than a sniff of the night air! Me? I slept through it all. ☺

Sarn has been shaking up some brilliant cocktails in the tree house. My own offering is still under wraps - still waiting for the gold leaf flakes to arrive don'tcha know?! Wink.

Remember, the results of Challenge #431 can be found HERE. And there's still a week to play on the current Snippets Playground challenge - the theme is 'Christmas in July'.

Snowman in a Jar

When I spotted that the current Challenge#64 over at Christmas Kickstart was 'Show Us Your Snowfolk - out came my NBUS basket - with a Woodware stamp set fairly quivering in excitement to at last be coming out to play. And this is the card I ended up making:

I used:

- A6 white card blank, side opening

- covered almost all the front of the card with paper from the LOTV 'Frosty Christmas' paper pad, die cut using the largest die from the Heffy Doodles 'A6 Stitched Rectangles' set of dies

- to be fair, I had already worked out all the colours etc. I wanted to use, before choosing the backing paper for the card front

- then I set to making the snowman in a jar using a NBUS Woodware 'Snow Jar' set of stamps

- used Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink to stamp the jar main image of the set three times - twice onto plain white card, then the sky portion onto paper from Sticker Kitten's 'Celestial' paper pack

- then trimmed the main jar as a whole, ran a black Whispers brush pen right round the cut edges and set it aside

- next trimmed the 'sky background' from the 'Celestial' paper, ran a black Whispers  brush pen right around the cut edges and set it aside

- then did the same with the second full stamping onto white card - this time trimming all along and around the snowman - again running around the edges with black pen

- coloured the snowman's carrot, hat and the robin (plus a little separate robin from the same stamp set) using Polychromos pencils

- to assemble I used a medium glue pen and adhered the snowy blue sky onto the main jar panel then coloured the stamped 'snowflakes' using a white gel pen

- then glued the snowman and hillside part of the scene, all one piece, onto the 'sky' layer - wallop, it suddenly sprang into life!

- now I had the jar panel all ready, and having left the screw portion of the neck clear, I could add a length of black and white gingham ribbon with a little knot at the front - used red line tape across the back of the neck to secure it

- added the 'Snowman in a Jar' to the front of the card using thin stick pads to add dimension

-  popped the extra robin I'd cut and coloured earlier so that it sits on the rim of the jar, used a tiny piece of red line tape and a sliver of thin sticky pad

- whilst stamping right at the beginning, I'd also stamped both sentiment strips which came as part of the set and trimmed them using scissors  

- added the sentiment strips using the same medium glue pen

- final touch, a few subtle tickles of clear 'Wink of Stella' on the tree, hat brim and pom pom, here and there on the snowy hillside and a touch on each snowball - none of which show up on the photo but that's nothing new, sigh

- finished!

And, of course I made two at the same time.☺

I'd also like to enter this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #40 HERE. The 'Snow Jar' stamp set was having a first outing.

Pass the parcel - for Christmas!

Time for a new Snippets challenge HERE - the theme is 'Christmas in July' - and to enter you must make something that adheres to the Christmas theme and also uses one or more identified snippets. We have two consecutive challenges with the 'Christmas in July' theme - and also two bumper Christmas goodies prizes, one per challenge, to be won in plenty of time for your Christmas crafting!

Here's my Christmas snippets card:

I used:

- a mini slimline white card blank, measuring 6.25" x 3.25 - tent style

- then covered the front of the card using a piece of beige (not as lilac as it flippin' looks in the photo) toned paper from a Whimsy Stamps slim line paper pack called 'Champagne'. That had been die cut using the biggest die from Lawn Fawn's stitched border 'Large Mini Slimline Stackables' set of dies 

- the outline for the parcels 'line-up' was die cut using a snippet of 'Tonic Gold' mirror card and the Simon Says Stamp die called 'Brilliant Gifts'. This is yet another goodie first spotted in the Playground here. Probably over at Lynne R's blog as I dutifully fall in love with all of her new stuff! 

- at the same time I die cut the sentiment using more little snippets of 'Inca Gold mirror card (every scrap is always too precious to throw away) - using a Tonic Studios 'Mini Moments Merry Christmas' die

- then glued the 'line of die cut parcels outline' onto the card front using a fine glue pen. Man, that was tricky-woo!

- next I used a piece of 'shades of gold colour' designer paper, chosen from Lawn Fawn's 'Watercolor Wishes' petite paper pack for the main portions of the parcels. Used the paper running 'down' the shades rather than across as they suggest - to create an ombre effect across the little line up and making life easier than lots of mixed colours - for this first play

- and, 'one piece at a time', carefully glued each empty space in the parcel line-up and added its matching 'shades of gold' Lawn Fawn paper insert

- finally, added the die cut sentiment to the top right hand corner

- and, of course I made two cards exactly the same!

The slim line pack of paper is absolutely gorgeous - very reminiscent of the Whimsy 'Blurry Flurries' 6 x 6 paper pad, which I also adore

This card is for Darnell's NBUS Challenge #40 over HERE.

Pupdate: It's been a bit of a time for Dudley lately, bath, home clip and scissor trim, claws clipped and his monthly application of Advocate anti-flea meds. Add him being sick on a car journey and he's been through the mill! Poor little scrap. It's certainly not left him much time to get into mischief!

Far out!

It's been a week since I posted on here, for various reasons. I began this card hoping to join in with the Allsorts Challenge for a 'girlie' card but didn't finish it in time for the closing deadline. However, I would like to enter it into the current Allsorts Challenge #683, choosing the option of 'Anything Goes':

I used:

- a UK sized DL white card blank - side opening

- a sheet of patterned paper from the wonderful Whimsy Stamps 'Taffy' slimline paper pack which just had a little trimmed from both ends. It's such a psychedelic pack of papers! Or did I just dream that? ☺

- the image is from a lovely (discontinued) stamp set by MFT called 'Far Out', can't even find any images of it on the internet

- stamped the image and sentiments onto pieces/snippets of white card using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad

- fussy cut the image using tiny embroidery Fiskars scissors, reserved purely for use on paper

- coloured the image using Polychromos pencils - to pick out the background paper colours

- glued the panel of psychedelic paper onto the card front

- then (sigh) decided that the image would be swamped if placed directly onto the vibrant background. So, I die cut a white snippets backing using two dies from the Spellbinders 'Hemstitch Rectangles Venise Lace' set of dies ** then glued the image onto it (a waste of that fussy cutting!)

- snipped up the sentiment words using scissors

- then glued the  image to the panel, image panel to the card front and then the snipped up words

- finished!

Despite the Whimsy slimline papers being a little on the tall and narrow side, they are all so lovely! This pack especially is reminiscent of the days of LSD etc.Not that I ever ventured, a little before my time I promise, but we've all seen enough films about the visual effects of 'dabbling'.

And as so often happens, it's brighter in real life too - the light was streaming onto wherever I tried when I took the above photo.

** The rectangular hemstitched dies I used for the white panel came from my own duplicate set of the Spellbinders die set, forming part of this current challenge's prize. Well worth playing and still plenty of time to hop over and enter!

As the MFT stamps set, the Whimsy papers AND the set of hemstitch dies were having their very fist outing, I'd like to enter my card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #40 HERE.

Dudley 'Pupdate'. A quiet week on the 'trouble' front for Dudley with no news of mischief - either he's hiding it or we're getting used to it! When he was not 100% toilet trained he did sometimes hide a little 'poop' in the dining room, nice choice of room - so nothing would really surprise me. The hedgies are out and about every evening, and they fascinate him - he never touches them but they do get a good sniff! He's four years old later on in July - how did that happen, where did time go? He had a bath yesterday so we all got a good soaking - right now he's really white and fluffy, still with those pretty peach tinged ears. And, they're growing back nicely since Len had to give them a serious trim a while back.