Rudolph Days Challenge - February 2019

I was determined to join in this months Rudolph Days challenge over at ScrappyMo's. My card is very simple, and I have a sneaking feeling I've made a fairly similar card in the past, but it's the best I could do this time around:

I used:

- 5.25" x 4" 'off-white' card blank, tent style (I chose 'off-white' as the image I was using looks better than it would against bright white) - and the size of the card is quarter of an inch smaller top and side than a USA A2 card, which is usually my preferred size but the top panel just looked a bit lost on the bigger size so I chopped the card blank down

- another piece of the same off-white card, die cut using the second from largest die in the Lil'Inkers 'Stitched Rectangles' set of dies

- I'd already had a quick look through my box of saved shop bought Christmas cards from family and friends and picked out the sweet robin image I wanted to use

- then die cut an aperture in the stitched panel using a die from the MFT 'Inside Out Stitched Square STAX' set of dies (bought just before I was attacked by the dreaded gout). It's a great set in that each die will cut an aperture with a faux stitched edge to it as well as the centre 'waste' square also being edged with faux stitching - so you can make toppers or apertures, very versatile!

- then added the sentiment using the Misti, Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a stamp from Uniko's 'Most Wonderful' set of Christmas sentiment stamps

- used the aperture to very lightly pencil around the portion of the card I wanted to up cycle and then trimmed round leaving an overhang of about 0.25"

- added narrow red line tape right around the reverse of the aperture itself (in the front panel) and then stuck the robin part of the image in place

- finally assembled the card by using Collall All Purpose glue and a sandwich of thin white fun foam between the image panel and the card front

Phew - all done!

AND, thanks to Susan B for the heads up - I'm also adding this card into the current 52CCT Challenge, which is basically to re-use something you've been hoarding! I cannot believe I've missed this challenge for all these years. Slap my wrists, especially as our Alison is heavily involved. I aim to put that right just as soon as I'm running on all cylinders once again.

I do hope to be able to make a snippets card for Sunday's new challenge (#347). This foot is taking its time to allow me to be as mobile as I want and any time spent crafting or sitting without it raised causes it to shout and tell me off. But, each day brings an improvement - and regardless, snippets card from me or not, we'll have a fresh challenge on Sunday!

Upcycled robin for Christmas

The other week I was totally uninspired for what to make in the hour or so I had spare. I rootled around in the 'shop bought' Christmas cards box and whilst doing so my eye was caught by one card in particular and also some card stock lying to the right of me, waiting to be put away.  Suddenly the beginnings of a card began to appear in my minds eye:

There's an A4 piece of matt gold card stock, a snippet of SU 'Wild Wasabi' left over from a previous card I'd finished making - and a long slim Christmas card.

And this was the end result - shame the fact that greens are such a perfect match isn't obvious, I hate it when the camera tells fibs, SU's'Wild Wasabi' is brighter and doesn't have such a blue tinge about it:

I used:

- 4.25" x 5.5" white card blank

- piece of matt gold slightly sparkly card stock as an outer 'frame', glued to the card front

- slightly smaller snippet of SU 'Wild Wasabi' card stock, with an aperture die cut using MFT's 'Rectangle Peek-a-boo Window' die

- then trimmed the piece of the card with the robin on and stuck the image panel behind the die cut aperture

- added the image panel to the card blank, having backed it with white fun foam just to lift it a bit - using Collall All Purpose glue

- finally added a sentiment using a couple of tiny gold peel off stickers

Oh I do so love that Peek-a-boo Window die. I've also seen it used for shaker cards around blogland - it's just perfect for that of course!

Upcycled Scottie Dog Christmas card

Wanting to make a card, but not feeling ready for stamping and die cutting, I rootled through the 'shop bought' Christmas cards we've been sent that I save from year to year. Came across a really cute Scottie Dog card and this was the result:

I used:

- 5.75" x 5.75" white card blank

- the Scottie dog card was already shaped at the top half with the solid rectangular bottom half. Just a matter of trimming down the straight edge at the left hand side

- then used a piece of the same white card as the card blank and embossed it using SU's 'Softly Falling' embossing folder before trimming it so that the Scottie Dog panel would sit there with the bottom and side edges totally aligned then glued it in place

- backed the panel with dark green card, trimmed to just slightly larger than the image panel and glued it onto the card blank

- a really quick card, finished!

The lovely thing about the original card is that it came already embellished with a black gem for the eye plus a little strip of dark green velvet ribbon for the collar - and the sentiment was already printed as well of course! Easy, peasy 😃

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge #308 - 'Cute or Anything Goes - so long as it's Christmas'

Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for November - always 'Anything Goes'

Upcycled Christmas Tree card - Rudolph Days Challenge October 2016

It's time for Mo's Rudolph Days Challenge for October - it runs from today until the end of the month. And, there's only one more left after this one until the real countdown begins!

The basis for this card was lurking in my box of saved Christmas cards, and I think it's been hiding there for a few years now. A really quick and easy card, and my entry for Mo's challenge:

I used:

- 4.25" x 5.5" cream card blank

- I made the card blank from a 6" square card and used the largest die in the Lil' Inkers 'Stitched Rectangles' set of dies to emboss the stitched outline before cutting it down to size. It's easy to do this, it only embosses the stitched outline and doesn't cut a rectangle like the other dies in the set - really useful too. So long as you remember to butt the die right up against the spine of the card - then you just need to trim the other sides to suit

- the Christmas tree image from a small Christmas card, just trimmed in proportion to the card blank I intended to add it onto

- glued the image onto a slightly larger snippet of deep red satin mirri card, left on the desk from the Hunkydory cards I made

- then glued the completed two-layer panel to the card front - no sentiment needed of course

Done! The camera does tell porkies though as in real life the cream colours on the topper and the card blank are identical.

I only made one card of course, haven't managed to train friends who send us some beautiful shop bought cards to make sure they all send the same designs - or at least lots of three the same :)

Christmas Red Cardinal

Rootling through my box of shop bought Christmas cards we've been sent in recent times, I came across a beautiful card - manufactured in the UK and sent to us by Scottish friends. What struck me was the image, it's a Red Cardinal and I'm sure they're not found here in the UK in the wild. But what a charming bird and the image whistled called cried out to be up cycled - so this is what I ended up with:

I used:

- A6 white card blank

- a layer of white sparkly card (which was in the snippets folder), to completely cover the card front, glued in place. It matches the sparkly edging which was already around the image when I removed it from the card ready to up cycle

- next a slightly smaller layer of patterned paper from Wild Rose Studio's 'Annabelle's Christmas' paper pack, glued in place

- to make the sparkly edged image 'pop' a bit more I found a snippet of red silk mirri card and used part of it to 'frame the image before gluing it in place on the card front

- final touch, using the Misti I added the sentiment using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a stamp from the Paper Smooches 'Christmas Sampler' set

So happy I rescued this darling little bird, BTW the image is slightly fuzzy so it's not my photography! And, it already came with the lovely little shiny red berries sort of debossed and foiled - another reason I framed the image in the matching red silk mirri card.

I chose the sentiment 'Holiday cheer' as it's not really one we use in the UK. We refer to Christmas and New Year as just that - but I suspect this little chap will be winging his way over the Atlantic in December to wish someone Holiday Cheer anyhow! :)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Merry Monday (currently on Summer break but we can link cards made using previous challenge themes, so I chose 'Challenge #137, Feathered Friends')

CHNC Challenge 293 'Vintage or Anything Goes'

CHNC Extra for August 'Always Anything Goes'

Di
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Christmas blues

I do love blue and white for Christmas cards and was inspired to make this when I stumbled across a card I'd kept to upcycle from last Christmas:

I used:

- 5.75" x 5.75" square white card blank

- a layer of navy card, cut just a little smaller than the card front and glued in place

- topped that with a one eighths of an inch all round smaller piece of patterned card stock - it's called 'Merry Mistletoe' made by Kanban - and is one of my favourite backgrounds although it's not always easy to find blues (apart from navy) that look right with it

- then I chopped the front of the small Waitrose Christmas card into a somewhat smaller square, still leaving a white border all around

- mounted the image panel onto a larger square of the same navy card stock I used for the first layer on the card front

- then glued the complete image topper with navy frame onto the card front

Such an easy card to make and I did think about kidding you that the word 'hope' had been die cut by yours truly :)

I'd like to enter this card into the current challenge over at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge 286, where it's 'Cute or anything goes' this week.

Am also linking into Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for June, where it's always 'Anything goes'.

Di
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Playing with snippets

Apart from the kraft card blank, this Christmas card is totally made from snippets - even the tag counts as a snippet as it was upcycled:

I used:

- 4" x 6" kraft card blank, chopped down from a 6" square one

- snippet of black card stock, trimmed to an eighth of an inch smaller on each side compared to the card blank then glued to the card front

- snippet of red patterned paper from the LOTV 'Classic Christmas' paper pad. Now that LOTV have stopped selling paper pads - even snippets of snippets will be squirreled away!

- snippet of white card, embossed using a Darice 'Snowflake Background' embossing folder

- trimmed them to size and adhered both the red patterned paper and white embossed panel  to a spare snippet of thick paper which was about quarter of an inch smaller than the pieces I just listed so, when they'd been added to the paper, there was a neat little border all round on the reverse side. I then cut a narrow strip of black card leaving it a bit longer than necessary and stuck that over the join of the patterned and embossed panels so I could hand trim it to size (from the back - always) which ensured perfect alignment. That then made it so much easier to attach the whole assembled panel to the black panel on the card front - why didn't I think to do this before now?!
 
- and the final part was really where the idea for this card came from. In the box of Christmas cards to upcycle there was one card I'd been looking at all last year - it had a traditional image of Santa on and a sentiment label added using sticky pads

- had to chop away a bit at the card to prise the label off the card without damaging it - so poor Santa was sacrificed. Part of the label's design was a printed eyelet and a little printed strip of string which would need to be disguised.

- created a separate eyelet from a snippet of kraft card, using a small SU round punch and a smaller hole punch. Then punched a hole in the tag itself and added the newly made eyelet over the top of the printed one

- a rootle through some snippets of ribbon turned up some black and red ribbon which was then added to the tag

- stuck the tag in place using 2mm thick sticky pads - had to do that due to the thickness added by the ribbon. Simple tip here - if the hole you're threading ribbon or cord through is quite small, use a loop of thread as a 'fishing line' to loop the ribbon through and then pull it through the hole

Have a feeling this card will need a large letter size stamp - or be hand delivered :)

I'm entering this card into Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge #265 where it's 'Use a sentiment' - and also into Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for January where it's always 'Anything goes'.

Di
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Upcycling Christmas cards - yet again

As usual, I carefully went through our 'shop bought' Christmas cards when it was time to take them down and selected any that might be useful for a spot of upcycling. I thought pickings seemed a bit lean this year - or perhaps I'm looking more critically and only keeping cards where I truly can see potential? All the hand made ones we were sent are treasured and tucked in a safe place needless to say!

The current challenge over at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge is 'Red'. And this is what I came up with:

I used:

- 4" x 6" white card blank

- an upcycled off cut from a Christmas card (complete with the word NOEL), die cut using a die from the Lil' Inkers 'Stitched Rectangles' set and mounted onto a slightly larger snippets of SU's 'Lost Lagoon' card stock to pick out the colour of the birdie

- another snippet of SU's 'Lost Lagoon' card stock, trimmed just a smidgen smaller than the card front

- a snippet of white card, embossed using the Darice 'Snowflake Background' embossing folder and trimmed down

- at this point I could work out the spacings for the image and the ribbon so next I wrapped a snippet of brown ribbon, edged with turquoise, around the lower part of the embossed piece of white card then stuck that piece of card to the larger snippet of 'Lost Lagoon'

- stuck that whole panel onto the card front and popped the image panel on top

- tied a knot of ribbon around the ribbon strip and (as always) to keep it in place I just tucked a little piece of double sided red line tape behind the knot 

Really quick and easy card - but I do think the image could pass for being hand stamped and coloured :)

This is also for Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for January, where it's always 'Anything Goes'. I love both of these challenges run by Hazel - a great way to steadily produce Christmas cards throughout the year rather than have a big rush in November time.

And there's also Rudolph Day each month over at ScrappyMo's plus Merry Monday every week - two more challenges I love to join in with.

Although I accept that some folk just can't face even thinking of making Christmas cards much before November, being well ahead certainly saved my bacon this past Christmas!

Di
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Upcycling for Christmas

Out of the 'shop bought' Christmas cards we've received in recent years, I've kept quite a few that seemed to have potential for upcycling. There was one square card which I kept looking at - a plain black background with a pretty printed wreath of holly, white flowers and some red glitter - with a lovely die cut 'Noel' sitting in the centre, popped up on a dimensional sticky pad.

However, for ages I really couldn't think of how to upcycle the card other than slapping the whole square front onto a slightly larger square card - which wasn't gonna be true upcycling IMHO. Then, when I spotted Hazel's Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge this week was to use festive trees or greenery on a card (a little or a lot), out came said box of cards to upcycle and once again I pondered over that black square card. Bingo! Sudden thought and off I went - and this was the end result - a rocker card:

I used:

- the card front, after I'd carefully removed the 'Noel' with its sticky pad backing and put it to one side - because I was going to use the Cuttlebug on the card front and didn't want to squish it

- out came the set of Tonic Studio's 'Circle Layering' dies - more about those wonderful dies below this 'how I made the card burble'

- selected a circle die just the right size for cutting out the wreath from the upcycled card, plus the next two sizes up - so three dies in total

- die cut the wreath and set it aside

- using the next size up, die cut a red satin mirri card circle and also a circle of 300gsm white card stock - set those aside

- using the largest die, cut a circle from the 300gsm white card stock - and left it in the die. This was because I was using this largest circle of card for the rocker base and, yet another great thing with these Tonic Studio dies, they have a little notch at each 'quarter hour' of the die for precision. So, I marked the card at opposite sides using a pencil, removed the piece of card from the die - then lined the pencil lines up on my Hougie board and scored down from one mark to another. rubbed out the pencil marks and (with heart in mouth) folded down the score line to form a half circle. Result! A perfectly lined up rocker base - yay!

- so then it was just a matter of assembling the whole card (using Collall glue for some 'wiggle' time) by sticking the circular wreath to the red die cut circle. Then backed that red circle with the piece of white card I'd cut at the same time - this was so that the back of the card looked matched to the rocker part 'cos the reverse of the red satin mirri wasn't a crisp white

- lined up and stuck the complete card front to the folded rocker

- added the word 'Noel' back into the centre of the wreath, using a fresh strip of sticky pad

Back to the Tonic Studio's set of circular dies, it's absolutely brilliant! As the name suggests, it consists of circular dies - but the fabulous part is that there are 14 dies in the set ranging from 14cm down to 2.5cm and they come on a magnetic sheet within a hole punched pouch (ideal for popping in the front of my 'frame dies' file). I just looked online and there's a great offer over at Amazon.co.uk at £14.72 with free delivery, a saving of 36% (I know I paid much more than that price for the set I bought a while back). The largest die still fits my Cuttlebug fine yet is big enough to cut a circular card - and although the blurb says the dies will cut up to 240gsm card stock, I used 300gsm white card stock and it cut with no problem at all. One of my all time favourite everyday die sets for sure - even though I already had a Spellbinder Nestabilities set.

So, this card is for Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge 246, where it's 'Festive trees or greenery,' and also Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for September - where it's always 'Anything goes'.

Di
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Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge 245

I try to play along with Hazel each week and this week's challenge is 'twas the Night Before Christmas'. Quick rootle through the box of received and saved shop-bought Christmas cards turned up a fairly large square card with three Christmas stockings lined up a staircase. I couldn't just slap the card front onto a card blank and call it a day - so I chopped it down to include the sentiment and just one of the stockings:

I used:

- A6 white card blank, the front (only) of which which I scored at approx. three quarters of an inch in from the spine - on the inside of the card - to create a flat spine

- then added a strip of saddle stitched red ribbon down the 'flat spine' using red line double sided tape, folded the ends over to the inside of the card and stuck the spine together with the back part of the card

- layered the cut down upcycled image onto snippets of SU 'Real Red' and also matt gold card and stuck it onto the front of the card

A super fast card which came about from a great idea that Jane brought to the Playground last week. I hadn't seen cards using this 'flat spine' idea before (apart from shop bought cards) and it's a really great way of adding a strip of ribbon or perhaps washi tape to a card and then enclosing it in the spine so that the 'behind the scenes work' is nicely hidden.

This is the card propped slightly open - thanks Jane for a great idea!

I'd also like to enter this card into Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for September. 

Di
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Snippets Playground - update

First of all, a snippets card from me. I had carefully peeled a lovely heart shaped topper off the Valentine's Day card that Len gave me this year and it was on my desk for weeks. Then, I had a paper pad out for a different card (still to be made) and the topper and one of the paper designs just seemed to wanna have a hug :) So I made this:

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white linen card blank

- backing card by SU, 'Smoky Slate', from the snippets folder

- a piece cut from a sheet of patterned paper in the LOTV 'Heartfelt' paper pad (I love this pad!)

- the adorable topper, added using thin sticky pads

- the word 'love' was die cut three times from another snippet of SU's 'Smoky Slate' card stock (backed with Stick It adhesive film) then layered together for dimension. The die is by Cheery Lynn, called 'Love' (now there's a surprise!)

And a little update on the Snippets Playground. When this publishes we should be back home but, as I said already, the Playground will run for a further week to give me time to catch up. However, I'm adding some little runner up prizes into the draw:

The lovely people at Stix2 sent me four of these little packs to give away. Each one contains a packet of tiny sticky pads, a tape runner, a glue stick and a really handy 'Pick Up Pencil', which is so useful for picking up little gems etc.

To be in with a chance, all you need to do is to have at least one entry in the Mr Linky on last Sunday's post HERE. You have all of this coming week if you haven't already played.

Then, just leave a comment here saying you'd like to be in the runner up draw - of course if you already said you want to be in the main draw you can also enter this one as well!

Now, I thought there might be a little complication with posting these packs outside the UK.  I've checked with Stix2 directly and they post the glue sticks overseas, they go on white and dry clear and are non-flammable - so you can all play along too, no matter where you live!

Di
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Upcycling - beginning with 'B'

First of all - thank you all so much for the lovely comments yesterday about me being on the Cuttlebug Mania Design Team.

If I could have picked any team to be on, this would be the ONE. I adore the versatility if you stand back. The peeps are lovely and of course I do love die cutting and embossing, as you know :)

It's not going interfere with the Playground - but most importantly, the themes are really easy if you think it through. For instance, this current two-week challenge is based on I 'heart' you - most probably Valentines Day. Do you need to have a heart die cut or embossing folder? Of course not - there are many, many stamps and images out there with heart or love themes and if you just cut the background using a die and/or including an embossing folder that is non heart - you're in it!! Tee, hee - think outside of the box :) OMG, this is where I get kicked out of the team - but I very much doubt it :)

Anyhow - today's offering is for: Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge is to make something for Christmas, featuring something beginning with 'B'. I got carried away and made two quick and easy upcycled Christmas cards whilst everything was out on the desk to play with:

 This card has the following 'B's' - Bird, Blue, Branches

 And this card has the following 'B's' - Berries

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blanks with all four corners rounded using Fiskars scissors

- a layer of white Centura Pearl card, embossed using the Darice 'Snowflake Background' embossing folder, trimmed slightly smaller than the card and all four corners rounded before being stuck onto the card front using Collall All Purpose glue

- then used two cards from this last Christmas to upcycle. In both cases it was a question of using a die from the Spellbinders 'Labels One' set and carefully positioning it on the card front to get the best cut. For instance, I wanted the bird (dove), the star and as much of the trees as possible to be included on the first one. And then I wanted the sentiment on the second one, which was right down in the bottom left hand corner of the original card so there was some careful addition (and a lot of checking) in both cases of lo-tack tape whilst the dies were in place for cutting

- using more white Centura Pearl card I die cut the 'lacy' backings using a Spellbinders die from the 'Luscious Labels One' set and stuck the images on using Collall All Purpose glue

- just a case then of fixing the lacy edged images onto the cards, using thin sticky pads

Two more for the 2015 box!

And I'm also entering into Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for February, which is always 'Anything Goes'

Di

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Another upcycled Christmas card

Having moaned that not many of this last Christmas's cards really lending themselves to up cycling - what does Hazel do over at Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge ask us to do? Up cycle, recycle, re purpose or use something free! So I scrabbled round in the box of saved cards and came up with this:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- backing paper from the My Mind's Eye 'All Is Bright' paper pad - chosen as it went well with the colour of the church in the image that I wanted to use. Plus I worked it so that the word 'Christmas' in the design shows and means no need for a sentiment as the card is probably busy enough

- the image came from a  shop bought Christmas card, die cut using a Spellbinders 'Labels One' die -it's a lovely sparkly image ( on the snow especially) which doesn't show up sadly in the piccy :(

- then I die cut a frame using a Spellbinders 'Luscious Labels One' die, glued behind the image and then glued the whole topper onto the card - using Collall glue - still in love with the little bit of maneuverability of course

- the baby blue pure silk ribbon (sigh, this makes such gorgeous bows) is from The Ribbon Girl, tied in a bow and adhered to the card using the glue gun

- finishing touch, an already glittered snowflake shaped button (from Hobbycraft, bought eons ago), just with a bit of iridescent cord tied in a bow and then glued onto the blue bow using the glue gun. Thereby making this a card which will not go through the normal sized letter slot - but hey-ho, sometimes it's worth it :)

This should have been a quick card to make, but I hit a huge pot hole in the road snag that's probably worth sharing.

I'm not sure how many of you may have seen (on blogs and YouTube) tutorials about the reasonably new idea of using tumble dryer sheets to remove all the fiddly bits from dies?

I spotted that Enfys of 'Going Buggy' had done a tutorial HERE and it looked a really great idea just to run your newly die cut piece of card, still in the die, through your cutting machine with the die face down onto folded tumbler dryer sheets. Quite magically the 'dross' from the die cutting should stick to the dryer sheets leaving you with a clean die plus your cut shape all neatly minus any little clinging pieces.

I'm a big fan of Enfys and she made it look so easy, so whilst doing the Sainsbury's run at the weekend I picked up a box of their 'own brand' tumble dryer sheets and tried out this new 'wonder technique'.

Now, it could be that Sainsburys dryer sheets are much moister than others. Folk do recommend you buy the cheapest from places such as Poundland or a Dollar Store, and also that you experiment a bit as perhaps you need only three folded sheets instead of four. But, I was horribly disappointed for the following reasons - the card shape didn't release from the die at all and I ended up poking bits out of the metal die once I'd managed to remove the shape, the shape itself seemed to be damp but I soon realised it was almost oily and also looked greasy and a bit discoloured - and to add insult to injury the cutting plates were left icky and needed a good wash.

So for me, right now, it's a thumbs down :( As I've said, perhaps less moist/oily sheets would be a vast improvement but needless to say I threw the test die cut out and reverted to good old waxed paper, which always works a treat.

I'd love to hear if any of you have had real success trying this out - especially as it looks such a great idea. And if you did have success, where (in the UK) did you buy your dryer sheets?

And I'd also like to add this card to Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for January.

Di
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Upcycling Christmas cards

To be honest, I didn't find that 2014's shop bought Christmas cards which were sent to us were as good a prospect for upcycling as in previous years - purely in terms of upcycling potential I hasten to add! Which means I'll have to just work harder on making Christmas cards from scratch this year :)

But, I did keep a few to upcycle and this card, for Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge -' Inspired by a Christmas Carol or Song' was made using one of those very cards. The song/carol I chose could be one of several, particularly. 'Deck the Halls with boughs of holly' and/or 'Oh Tannenbaum':

I used:

- A5 cream card stock with gold embossing round the edges

- a piece of gold mirri card, topped with a piece of holly patterned card (no name but it's very much like KanBan)

- the front of a Marks and Spencer card, sent by a friend, die cut using a die from the Spellbinders 'A2 Distressed Edges' set and then mounted onto a backing of straight cut deep red satin mirri card

And that was it! The in-house critic said to resist adding anything else.

This card does show how great the Spellbinders 'A2 Distressed edges' dies work with more traditional images. Remember, there's a set of these as this week's prize in the Snippets Playground over here! But you only have until 11am UK time on Saturday.

Di
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And onwards to Christmas 2015

Tee, hee - I bet many folk are totally fed up of Christmas cards by now, but needs must when the devil drives and I'm really going to try and stick to making 12 Christmas cards a month through January to November (which would be 132 of course). It was such a help this Christmas just gone, even though the last minute panics were just transferred to other things :)

Some of the cards will be 'batch bakes' but I do want to still join in with my favourite year round Christmas challenges - and this card is for Craftyhazelnuts Christmas Challenge where it's 'Anything goes' this week - and also for Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra where it's always 'Anything goes':

I used:

- 6" x 6" square cream card blank - tent style

- the image from a 2013 Christmas card, carefully trimmed/fussy cut - I'm already eyeing up the shop bought ones we received this Christmas!

- a main frame of red mirri card to pick up the red foiled frame around the poinsettia image, topped with a piece of designer paper from the My Mind's Eye 'All is bright' paper pad

- the sentiment was from the same upcycled card, trimmed down into a pennant and then two Josy Rose nail heads added as 'faux fasteners'

Of course there's also Rudolph Day on the 25th of the month and Merry Monday every week so that (quick count up) could cover at least nine cards a month if I don't double up.

Di
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Someone got an early Christmas present from Santa

Our lovely 17 year-old neighbour, Abi, passed her driving test - yippee - so I whipped up a card in double quick time:

I used:

- 6" x 6" white card blank

- a frame of gold mirri card

- the image is an upcycled card, but it seemed just so appropriate as if Santa is giving an early Christmas gift :)

- the L-plate was just copied and resized from the internet, printed onto glossy card, torn in half and placed so it looks as if Santa's throwing it away

- used gold peel offs for the 'Congratulations' and also Abi's name

I bet most of us can remember that heart in mouth feeling when we first took to the road without anyone sitting beside us. I certainly can!

Well done Abi, clever girl!

PS. Do make sure you join in the three year Snippets Playground Celebration party :) And I think I'm almost ready for Christmas - wahoo - that was a miracle!!!

Di
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Ten minute card

Whilst rootling through the box of last year's 'received' Christmas cards, kept to upcycle, I came across one card front with a beautifully made sentiment topper that's been longing for a little makeover. This was the end result of literally ten minutes work:

The trickiest part was removing the sentiment topper from the plain gold card front. Little tip, in order to avoid bending or creasing the topper (which was on a large sticky pad), I placed the card face down on my cutting mat and then gently prised the card away from the topper. That way, the card front which I was discarding could be bent whilst the sentiment topper was held down flat. I learned that trick a while back, the hard way :)

I used:

- 6" x 6" square cream card blank

- a trimmed slightly smaller gold 'flittered' backing sheet from First Edition's 6" x 6" paper pad called 'Gilded Winter'. I love this pad (bought from Hobbycraft recently) as it's 64 sheets, with a lovely mix of papers, some foiled, some glittered, some double sided and some sort of glazed

- the sentiment I already wrote about - I left the existing large sticky pad on the back and just added some narrow strips the same depth on all four sides. Also moved the teeny bow as it was at a bit of an angle and not centred properly, just by a gnat's whisker and re-stuck it using Glossy Accents

Job done, super fast as already said.

Di
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Christmas rocker card

The latest challenge over at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge is 'If you want to get ahead, get a hat'. It's the 200th week that Hazel has been running the challenge - wahoo!!

At first I intended using a NBUS stamp but then I turned to the box of last year's received shop-bought cards and found one which was perfect to upcycle.

I'd spotted that Elizabeth had made some lovely rocker cards recently, so after an online search I'd already bought some bigger circular dies (the largest one is 14cm/5.5" diameter), then yesterday just sat and worked out how to make a card. It really is easy-peasy lemon-squeezy but such a fun result :)

I used:

- SU 'Cherry Cobbler' card stock, die cut into a circle using the largest (14cm) die from the Tonic Studios 'Circle Layering Die Set'. Then scored right across the centre at 7cm, using the Hougie Board

- then dropped down a couple of sizes in the die set and cut out the adorable penguins

- cut a further circle in toning paper the same size as the image to cover the back of the image and stuck it down

- used a bit of eyeballing to line up the image onto the rocker base and drew a line across the centre of the back of the image

- spread a thin layer of Collall glue onto the bottom half of the back of the image and, using the line I'd drawn used that as a guide to stick the image onto the rocker section

- then added teeny little googly eyes to each penguin, which wobble to and fro as the card rocks, snigger

- final touch, a Kanban sentiment banner at the top of the card

The in-house critic was muchly impressed, and of course immediately suggested Christmas rocker cards for the little girlies in Germany. I was already ahead of him there as it was why Elizabeth had been playing making these initially!

And my opinion of the Tonic dies? Brilliant! There are 14 dies in the set, they go up in pretty small steps from 2.3cm to 14cm. They come on their own magnetic sheet in a nice little plastic packet which has fitted into one of my die folders perfectly. And, as I have no immediate intention of changing my beloved Cuttlebug, they are well within the cutting plate size. They cut beautifully too, I bought mine from Amazon UK here.

I've only made this one card so far, but am wondering if it would pay to be really careful if you add extras such as gems, die cuts etc. - just in case it ends up too weighted at one side or another so wouldn't sit properly. Mine does but then what I did add is pretty much balanced out.

Edit: And too funny - when I'd written this post I hopped back to Elizabeth's blog to link to her cards and found a lot of what I've written here about which dies to use, balance issues etc. Shame that I didn't think to check first and save a load of time; but a few blog posts slipped past when we were getting ready for the bathroom workers :(

And of course, this card is also for Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra, where it's always anything goes'

Di
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And amidst all the racket

....and also 'cos apart from making teas and coffees there wasn't much else to do, I sat in my craft room with time to play :) The first challenge I wanted to enter is Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge, where this week's theme is 'Something beginning with P'. I rootled through last year's Christmas cards, kept to upcycle, and found loads of ones with penguins on. I know, pretty obvious choice really:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- backing paper from LOTV's 'Frosty Christmas' paper pad

- penguin image was die cut using what I think is a Sizzix die (one of the first I ever bought) and then mounted onto a white Centura pearlescent card backing, which had been hand cut after tracing round the outside of the die. A quick whizz round the edge using a silver Calligraphy pen

- the sentiment also came from the original card

- the bottom left corner is more white Centura pearlescent white card, die cut using a Memory Box die called  'Snowflake Corner' and a new secret weapon - more details are below

- the scattered snowflakes were punched using Woodware snowflake punches and a snippet of white card which had been covered with clear sparkly film

- final touch, different sizes of clear sparkly gems were added to the snowflakes and the corner

And, today I have two 'hints and tips' for you:

1.  First of all, the 'new secret weapon'. I bet most of us have some intricate dies which drive us crazy when trying to neatly glue them onto projects? I've tried all sorts of tricks including using glue pens, very fine nozzle glues (such as Cosmic or Glossy Accents) - and my Xyron machine. Now, much as I really love the Xyron, those of you who have one will know that with an intricate die you will have a layer of sticky 'gloop' within the gaps. I can usually remove this using SU's adhesive remover 'eraser' - but, with a very detailed die such as I used today it's a loooong process and so I would normally resort to a glue pen or similar.

But, last week I stumbled across a new product online, on Kath's blog (All That Glitters) - ordered some and used it for the first time on the corner die cut. And I'm 100% converted!

It's very similar to normal double sided adhesive sheet, but with the added advantage that it's got very thin protective sheet on either side of a 'micros thin' layer of glue - very much like the Xyron glue film in fact. But, the beauty is that you just cover the wrong side of the piece of card you intend to die cut with a piece of the adhesive sheet, then die cut it of course in the usual way - and there are no gloopy bits! I think it's best to have your project sitting there ready for the die cut as when I removed the die cut from the die the second layer of protecting paper came away really easily ( no poking about looking for an edge to start off the peeling).

The sheets come in packs of five, called Stick It Die-Cut Adhesive sheets, in two sizes from Craft Obsessions. More or less A4 and A5 sizes.

If you can hang on, there will be a couple of packs of the large size coming up in the Playground shortly :) Oh, and I have no connection at all with the product - just wanted to share a brilliant new invention which has been endorsed by Ken Oliver. I bet Spellbinders wish they'd thought of it first!

Edit!! I just spotted that Kath over at All That Glitters is giving away some of these sheets, all you have to do to be in with a chance is add your name to the linky thingy bob over HERE. And, like me, Kath will post internationally.

2. My second tip is also to do with sticky stuff, a tip I also found it on the internet but can't remember just where, otherwise I'd give credit. The individual snowflakes used today were stuck on using Glossy Accents. Until recently I really struggled and almost always had to clear the nozzle with a hat pin before starting a fresh session with the stuff. Not so now though!

The routine is, when you've finished using Glossy Accents just follow these steps:

a. Squeeze the bottle until the glues rises right to the top of the nozzle.

b. Wipe the nozzle and top with a baby wipe, at the same time releasing the pressure so the glue sinks back down.

c. Give the bottle a couple of taps on your worksurface to make sure it's properly settled.

d. Replace the cap as usual ready for your next, hopefully trouble free, use.

Of course my card is also for Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra, where it's always 'Anything Goes'.

Di
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A look back in time

The current challenge over at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge is 'People matter' - in other words use one or more people on your card. And of course it's always 'Anything Goes' over at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra.

Out came the box of last year's Christmas cards to upcycle and there was a card too sweet to chop about but what was more eye catching - I hate to say it - but I'm almost sure I remember Christmas cards with similar images being the 'norm' when I was a kid. Ha, and this one was labelled 'Vintage Christmas' on the back - which puts me right in my place - sigh :(

I used:

- 5" x 7" white card blank

- green paper to cover the whole card front from a magazine 'freebie' paper pack, topped with striped paper from the same pack

- the already glittered image, trimmed carefully to keep the gold glittered edging

- dark green ribbon from my ribbon box, wrapped around the card spine and tied in a bow.

I've mentioned this little trick before, I do usually stick ribbons across the front only of cards with the ends hidden behind a layer of card either on the front or even on the inside of the card itself. On the rare occasion I tie a ribbon right around the spine of a card I always tie the bow on the very edge of my card - the right hand edge in this case. This gives you some 'purchase' and allows the ribbon to be nice and firm around the card (ie, without any 'droop'). Then all you need to do is to gently wiggle the ribbon with the ready tied bow into position/bow - if it's really tight then gently 'bow' the card to give some slackness so you can move the ribbon.

Di
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