Let's take a Sleigh Ride!

Hi there,

A quick post from me today - mainly because I'm still feverishly getting my cards made and secondly because I didn't photo document this one as I was making it (as it was bits and pieces of other cards that ended up together)!

I had received a free package of an embossing folder (with border strip), a British Robin stamp and a couple of sayings, with a magazine last month and had used the folder on this piece of purplish textured cardstock.

I had some scraps of watercolor paper where I had been playing with my purple and green Nuance powders, which I had also heat embossed with Sparkle. I used the anti static bag over the piece before stamping the couple sleigh riding in Versamark and heat embossing with black detail. It was then cut and embossed with Spellbinders Classic Oval die.

The sentiment was also from the freebie package and I stamped in black StazOn before coloring the poinsettias with pencils to match my scrap piece of "Nuances Poinsettia" left over from a project that I will share next week. The sentiment was die cut and embossed with Spellbinders Mega Ovals and I added some Lavender Iris to the purple petals using a Sakura Glue Pen.

A little green sheer ribbon bow was tucked behind the sentiment and then it was all attached with dimensional foam. This was layered on to a white card base to finish the card.

That was it! Not bad for a bunch of bits and pieces, right?

OK, that's all for now - back to the drawing board or should I say craft room!

Hugs,

Shona

.... AND A PEACOCK IN A CHERRY TREE!

Hi there, 

I'm back to share with you some more goodies we got in our SNS surprise package last month. I got some Gold Mirror Cardstock which I thought I would highlight this time round - making a gold and black card. Difficult to photograph always, but here goes!

I took the stencil that I had also received (Dreamweaver Cherry Blossom) and taped it down to mustard cardstock - remember to tape in order that when you remove the tape you are left with the top "hinge".  Apply Matte Black Embossing Paste over the stencil. Remove the stencil and let the paste dry for 30 mins at least. Clean off the stencil.  I worked on the peacock in the meantime.

Stick a piece of 2 1/2" Tear-ific Tape down on white cardstock and run the Peacock Stencil (Sizzix Thinlits Peacock #659070) through your embossing machine, both to cut and then to emboss. You can see how the pattern of the peacock's tail eyes are raised. Remove the protective backing and apply Fleur De Lis embossing powder and then heat set.

Apply the anti static bag to the piece before proceeding to the next step.  Replace the stencil over heat embossed peacock. Using a Versamarker pen trace the tail eyes and the wing of the peacock and "color in" with the ink pen. Remove the stencil and then apply Black Detail embossing powder and heat emboss.

Back to the background! Replace the clean stencil and apply glue (using the Essentials Glue Pad) and then using a small stencil brush, apply Dreamweaver Metallic F/X Gold Dust. Again remove stencil and clean. Below you can see the dimension that the paste and the Pearl Ex provide.

On to the embellishment! I took three flowers (not sure of the source - but they had music on them!) I took my Versamark pad and just swiped here and there on each of the three flower layers, as I didn't want to completely cover the music design, but wanted to tie in the gold. This time I heat set with Gold Detail embossing powder. The brad was also "blinged" with Fleur De Lis to tie everything together.

So then to put everything together. I cut an oval (using Spellbinders Grand Ovals) from the Gold Mirror Cardstock (which was slightly smaller than the mustard piece) to make a frame for the background. The "blinged" flower was attached to the corner of the frame, before being layered to the black cardstock base.

The peacock was then attached with Dimensional Foam as shown to complete the card. I deliberately kept the embellishments to the bottom of the card so as not to cover the entire background.

I left off a sentiment on  the card, but it really could be used for anything - Christmas, Sympathy, Birthday .... endless possibilities! Love Gold and Black! ... and Fleur De Lis is just that!!

Thanks for stopping by today,

Hugs,

Shona

BIRTHDAY QUEEN OF HEARTS!

Hi there, I really appreciate you stopping by today. There has been a lot of using embossing pastes and stenciling going on here - instead of Christmas cards! Will get to that in my next post (I hope!) I went up to my stamping room today and found myself knee deep in embossing paste again!

When I saw the new Birthday Queen Set 759 from Sparkle N Sprinkle, I had a  perfect background in my mind! I went to work with the Heidi Swapp Heart Stencil. I taped the stencil down on pink cardstock and applied Dreamweaver's Matte Black Embossing Paste.  I removed the stencil and cleaned it in soapy water.

When the paste was dry, I taped the stencil back on top and applied glue (from the Essential Glue Pad) with a dauber to the dried paste. Dreamweaver Metallic F/X Rose Berry Pearl Ex Powder was then applied to the sticky paste with a stencil brush.

Loved the velvety result!

The Birthday Queen from the new Birthday Queen Set 759 was stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and colored with some Copics and Spectrum Noir markers.

She was cut out using Spellbinders Floral Ovals and some Memento Angel Pink was sponged on to the background before I removed the die. I applied some added sparkle accents with the Sakura Glue Pen and some Bubblegum Glitter.

I stamped the sentiment in Versamark on white glossy cardstock and heat embossed with the new Rosa (EP462) embossing powder. The sentiment was then cut with Spellbinders Classic Scalloped Heart die and the edges were distressed with Versamark and a little more of the Rosa powder. Plum sheer ribbon was used to make my bow, which tied in nicely to the color of the hearts in the background.

The background piece was then layered to a piece of white cardstock which had the same distressed treatment as the sentiment heart. The image, sentiment and ribbon were then added with tape and dimensionals as shown to complete my card today.

Hope I've given you some inspiration to get out the Pearl Ex powders and some embossing paste!

Hugs,

Shona