CHRISTMAS ELEPHANT IN THE WOODS!

Hi there, 

Today I'd like to share with you a card using the October Reveal Elephant Christmas Tree Set: 802 and the new Nuvo Glimmer Paste Moonstone.

I made my step card base using the Sizzix Balloons Step-Ups as a guide. I cut the inside panels from Super Adhesive sheets and stuck them on to the front panel and the two little steps. I repurposed the stamp by stamping the image on white cardstock in Memento Tuxedo Black and then I fussy the elephant and tree out, as I wanted him to be decorating his chosen tree out in the woods! I know elephants don't live in the woods, but call it artistic licence!

Our little friend was colored with Copics: YG03, YG06, YG67, Y17, R37, N2, C3, C5 and Dimensional Glue was applied to the baubles and the star, and to his hat and tail to which was added Twinkling Clouds Sparkle N Soft, for some dimensional sparkle. I die cut the trees with the Die-namites die cut Winter Forest and split it up so that it would fit on the steps of the card. The were sponged with Memento Olive Grove, Bamboo Leaves and Peanut Brittle and then once the inks were dry, I put them on a piece of left-over protective backing and applied the Moonstone Glimmer Paste with a spatula. I find that it is a very easy clean-up when you used the protective backing, none of the paste is wasted, just scoop up any paste from the sheet and put back in the jar. This was put aside to dry - though it doesn't take very long - half an hour at most.

I did the same process with the Memory Box Curved Merry Christmas, leaving "Merry" white.

The Glimmer Paste makes the piece very pliable.  When this was dry I stuck a piece of 3/4" Tear-ific Tape to the back of the "christmas" and burnished Cloud Nine to the word. The assembly of the card was next. I started with the steps, by removing the backing of the Super Adhesive Sheet scraps that I had put on the front of the steps. I then placed the two trees on the back step and then covered the remaining sticky surface with Cloud Nine Velvet Glitter. I repeated the process with the three trees and then placed the elephant on the front panel together with the Merry Christmas die. The Merry Christmas die was slightly wider than the card, so I turned it over and cut off the overlapping edges.

Here is a closer look at the dimension achieved with the Dimensional Glue.

I'd like to join in the following Challenges:

The Merry Christmas Challenge #2: Add a sentiment

Fashionable Stamping Challenge #116: Trees

Scrapy Land Challenge #51: Use a die cut brand that Scrapy Land sells

Cardz for Galz Challenge #33: Use at least one die cut

Hope you've enjoyed my share today and that I have inspired you to look at your stamps a wee bit differently.

Hugs,

Shona

HIBISCUS SYMPATHY

Hi there,

Today I am going to share a sympathy card with you that I made using the new Nuvo Embellishment Mousse together with a  Hibiscus Dreamweaver Stencil and some glitters.

I began with taping the Dreamweaver Hibiscus stencil down to back cardstock.

Mother of Pearl Embellishment Mousse was then applied through the stencil with a spatula. After applying the Mousse, remove the tape in the reverse order that it was put down, leaving the top "hinge" for the last one to come off. Place the stencil immediately in soapy water, these mousse dry quite quickly.

Next I applied Pinkerbell Glitter to the buds, Bubblegum Glitter to the flowers and Misty Isles Glitter to the stems and leaves.

I then worked on the frame, while I set the hibiscus aside to dry completely.

Ivory card was die cut with the Spellbinders Lattice Rectangles die. Working on top of a piece of protective backing from a previous project, I then laid 3/4" Tear-ific Tape on top of the frame and then turned it over, to apply the Misty Isles glitter to the die cut. 

The edges were trimmed to make a rectangular frame. I'm not sure, if it was because the mousse dries so much quicker than embossing pastes, but it didn't seem to hold on to the glitter that was originally put on, so using the Nuvo Fine Tip and Medium Tip Pens, I added more of the glitters to the piece.

The frame was then attached to the hibiscus image, also the card base, by removing the protective backing from the back of the frame.

The sentiment, from Stamp Set 579: Sympathy, was stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with Black Detail. I fussy cut the sentiment and then edged it with black Copic marker, before attaching to the card front with Foam Squares. 

Hope you've enjoyed my share today, Come back this Saturday, the 1st, for the Sparkle N Sprinkle October Reveal and for a chance to win all five of the new Reveal sets.

Big hugs,

Shona

CONGRATS. GRAD!

Hi there,

Well I'm back from a whirlwind visit to Scotland, Italy and back to Scotland. My eldest son Struan, graduated from St. Andrews University, so the family went over to attend the ceremony.

While we were there, we had also organized a family reunion the Sunday after we arrived on the Saturday. We got a great turnout - 56, including my parents, my three brothers, all my aunts and uncles, cousins, nephew's and nieces and one fourth generation baby! There were also 6 close family friends.

After the Graduation on the Tuesday, David, Calum and I took a week's vacation to Rome, Italy. We had a wonderful time, staying with my first landlady and landlord, visiting old friends (new for Calum), lying on the beach, checking out some old haunts and restaurants. Rome has been cleaned up considerably from when I worked there 30 years ago. It was also while some of the Euro soccer games were being played, so Calum got to watch a few games with real Italians, which was a real treat for him!

We then came back through Scotland for a few days, to pick up bags that Struan had accumulated over the four years, and flew back on the 4th of July. Mum and Dad will come out to us on the 21st of July, so it wasn't too hard to leave this time.

So that's the last three weeks in a nutshell, now back to reality! For my card today, I'd like to share what I made for Struan's Graduation.

I created the background, the St. Andrew's Cross, the Saltire, the national Scottish flag by adhering a piece of Super Adhesive Tape to white cardstock. After removing the protective backing, I lay 3/4" Tear-ific Tape down from corner to corner and applied Cobalt Glaze to the remaining sticky areas.

The backing was then removed from the two strips (I cut the backing of the top strip where it crossed over the bottom strip using an exacto blade). Then Cloud Nine was applied to the cross. This piece was layered to a blue layer, before the glossy white card base.

I used the Impression Obsession Die (DIE296-T) to cut out the graduates from black cardstock, I then covered the piece with Versamark and heat embossed with Black Detail, to give them a shinier appearance. They were attached with foam squares for dimension. The sentiment and scroll (from Graduation Set 435) were stamped together on white glossy cardstock with Versamark and then this was heat embossed with Cerulean (one of the detailed Tuscany colors, which work really well on script and detailed images).

I then cut this out as a banner and added to the finished card with Foam Squares again for dimension.

 ... and that finished off my card for my graduated boy! Here he is on graduation day:

I'd like to join in the following challenges with this card:

The Sister Hood of Crafters: Create your own background

Dream Valley Challenges: The color of your flag (Scotland)

Hope you've enjoyed my share today! Will be back again soon, have a lot of catching up to do!

Hugs,

Shona

CONGRATS. GRAD!

Hi there,

Well I'm back from a whirlwind visit to Scotland, Italy and back to Scotland. My eldest son Struan, graduated from St. Andrews University, so the family went over to attend the ceremony. While we were there, we had also organized a family reunion the Sunday after we arrived on the Saturday. We got a great turnout - 56, including my parents, my three brothers, all my aunts and uncles, cousins, nephew's and nieces and one fourth generation baby! There were also 6 close family friends.

After the Graduation on the Tuesday, David, Calum and I took a week's vacation to Rome, Italy. We had a wonderful time, staying with my first landlady and landlord, visiting old friends (new for Calum), lying on the beach, checking out some old haunts and restaurants. Rome has been cleaned up considerably from when I worked there 30 years ago. It was also while some of the Euro soccer games were being played, so Calum got to watch a few games with real Italians, which was a real treat for him!

We then came back through Scotland for a few days, to pick up bags that Struan had accumulated over the four years, and flew back on the 4th of July. Mum and Dad will come out to us on the 21st of July, so it wasn't too hard to leave this time.

So that's the last three weeks in a nutshell, now back to reality! For my card today, I'd like to share what I made for Struan's Graduation.

I created the background, the St. Andrew's Cross, the Saltire, the national Scottish flag by adhering a piece of Super Adhesive Tape to white cardstock. After removing the protective backing, I lay 3/4" Tear-ific Tape down from corner to corner and applied Cobalt Glaze to the remaining sticky areas.

The backing was then removed from the two strips (I cut the backing of the top strip where it crossed over the bottom strip using an exacto blade). Then Cloud Nine was applied to the cross. This piece was layered to a blue layer, before the glossy white card base.

I used the Impression Obsession Die (DIE296-T) to cut out the graduates from black cardstock, I then covered the piece with Versamark and heat embossed with Black Detail, to give them a shinier appearance. They were attached with foam squares for dimension. The sentiment and scroll (from Graduation Set 435) were stamped together on white glossy cardstock with Versamark and then this was heat embossed with Cerulean (one of the detailed Tuscany colors, which work really well on script and detailed images).

I then cut this out as a banner and added to the finished card with Foam Squares again for dimension.

 ... and that finished off my card for my graduated boy! Here he is on graduation day:

I'd like to join in the following challenges with this card:

The Sister Hood of Crafters: Create your own background

Dream Valley Challenges: The color of your flag (Scotland)

Hope you've enjoyed my share today! Will be back again soon, have a lot of catching up to do!

Hugs,

Shona

TIE A YELLOW RIBBON!

Hi there, I have another card today to share  using embossing pastes, a stencil and an embossing powder.

I've been working a bit with different embossing pastes, stencils and embossing powders this month. This card came about after trying three different backgrounds:

It's using the Plaid Folk Art stencil: Ditsy floral. I've decided to call this a "negative" stencil, The reason being is that the embossing paste is actually the background, the card you use becomes the "image". To show what I mean - I did it three different ways:

The first is white cardstock, white paste with three different embossing powders. Then I changed it for the yellow cardstock, translucent paste with the same EP's. Then I changed out the EP to just Ebony Spark. The flowers appeared all of a sudden!

I looked at it for quite sometime wondering how I would incorporate it into a card. I had a piece of black cardstock with the Die-Versions Birthday Cut Out sitting in my "pile". I attached the background to the base and stuck a piece of 3/4" Tearific Tape behind the cut out, applying Mimosa Sparkle N Soft to the front. It has some yellow and orange tones to it, so I decided to color the Prima flowers with Dylusions Ink Sprays: Lemon Zest and Pure Sunshine.

I edged the tips of the petals with Versamark and then heat embossed with Tequila Sunrise, to match the two tones of the Mimosa Sparkle N Soft.

Three of the brads were heat embossed with Ebony Spark for the centers of the flowers and then another was heat embossed with Tequila Sunrise for the center of the bow.

I stamped the Wishes (from Set 402: My Rose Garden) in Versamark on white cardstock, hand cut it into a banner and sponged it with Memento inks: Cantaloupe and Dandelion. It was popped up on Dimensional Foam.

The yellow ribbon worked well, since it also had two tones. It was tied in a loose bow and then the card front was layered to a yellow card base.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:
Crafty Boots Challenge: Use a sentiment
Craft-Dee BowZ: Make a handmade bow
Craftin Desert Diva's: Use Ribbon

Hope you've enjoyed my share today.

Hugs,

Shona