Christmas Bells

 Hubby was washing the house this afternoon and I had to shut myself inside to avoid getting sprayed..   or at least that's what I told myself!   So headed to the craft room... I was inspired by a Facebook memory of a card I made way back in 2016 - using Sunny Studio Holiday Style stamp set and the gorgeous layer bell. 

Here's what I did today

For today's card I chose some blues to make my bell.   I used Altenew Evergreen ink for the branches and added some ink blending with the same ink and a detail blending brush to give the tree some depth. 

For the bell I used Eastern Sky, Ultramarine and Azurite Crisp Dye inks.  I stamped the sentiment from the stamp set in the Azurite ink and added some Midnight Sky Nuvo Crystal Drops. 

And while I had the stamp set out I CASE'd a card from Mendi (on the Sunny Studio blog)  I loved her idea of white embossing on pale blue card. 

I stamped and fussy cut the silver bells.  I used Altenew Silverstone, Industrial Diamond and Pure Graphite.   I really struggled to get the bells lined up so decided to work from the darkest - the front layer to the lightest - the base layer.   That seem to work better.   I added some sparkle pen to give them some shimmer.   I white embossed the branches from Sunny Studio - Christmas Trimming set along the top and bottom of the card.   I then used the sentiment from that set and stamped it in the middle of the card.  I added 3D tape to the back of the bells after drawing the strings in silver gel pen.   I tied red grosgrain ribbon and added to the top of each bell.   For my little embellishments, I die cut some stars from silver card using a little Mama Elephant die.  It has hearts, stars, and two different sequins.  

Slowly growing my stash of Christmas cards.  I've been enjoying going through my Flickr albums that I've created over the years and getting ideas to remake them.    

Jingle Bells

 A quick Christmas card I made for using some pre-stamped images I had sitting on my desk. 

I made a similar card a couple of years ago and at the time stamped the bells a few extra times and had the vintage music printed out.  So it was an easy colouring using Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol.  I added the music print onto some dark blue card, and added the bells in the corner.  I had the hotfoil sentiment in my baggie of pre foiled and die cuts.  They are a Spellbinders sentiment.  To make it stand out a bit more, I layered it onto some blue card.  

I took my Christmas cards up north with me and my friend chose a number so she could send to her family and in-laws who live overseas, so I need to stock up again.    Postage being as it is, I will need to get my own ones posted off by the end of this week.  

Christmas Kickstart - Bells

I'm super excited to be the Guest Elf at Christmas Kickstart Challenge this week.

Jo's theme this week is Bells

I've chosen to use my favourite Christmas Bell from a stamp set by Sunny Studios - Holiday Style

I stamped the branches from the stamp set in Juniper Mist from Catherine Pooler Designs.   I then used Altenew Silver Stone, Industrial Diamond and Pure Graphite to stamp the bells.  I added Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle pen.  I added some Peelcraft stickers for hangers and die cut some little red bows from an Impression Obsession die.  The Silent Night die cut is from Couture Creations and is cut from the some dark grey pearlised card as the mat.

Thanks Jo for having me as your elf helper for this challenge.

Eat Drink and Be Merry.... some Christmas cards

I've taken today and tomorrow off work to spend some time with my Dad...this morning I got a card made before we headed out to do some shopping.  I wanted to get him something he wanted for his birthday tomorrow... we found a lovely Merino jumper he liked.  Bonus for me was that it was $20 off.  So two happy people.  Plus I went to get some photos developed for a project I'm working on and got some black and white card stock while I was at the Stationery store. 

So back to my card from this morning...

When I first saw Jo's Christmas Kickstart challenge this time around, this was the card I first thought of making.   So here it is, just in time for the challenge!  I used a Sunny Studio stamp set called Holiday Style for my bells and baubles.  I used Altenew inks and was really happy that the aqua colour came through nicely.   The gold decorations are from a Sugarpea Designs that was part of a Catherine Pooler Stamp of Approval Box a couple of years ago!  I stamped them with Altenew Enchanted Gold ink.  I had picked up the aqua sequins this morning while we were out, so that finished the card perfectly.   

And while there was thunder and lightening this afternoon, I made a second Christmas card.   I saw the other day that CAS Christmas September challenge had a cue of Holiday Treats.

 

Here's what I came up with

I used some Candy canes and sweeties from a Catherine Pooler set for my treats.  I used some kraft card to make a plaid background with a Concord and 9th stamp and some Eucalyptus ink. I die cut an oval out to put my sentiment in.  Hope it is CAS enough for the challenge.  

Weekend stamping and a Christmas Tag

Hi all.  Hope you have all had a great weekend.  I did some stamping... a few cards for my design teams and some just for fun. 

Sunday morning I took part in Hero Arts Flickr group 90 mins scramble.  I really had a struggle.  The challenge was to use a frame on your card.   I decided I'd use some oxide inks for a background, smooshing on a stamping block ... but oh my goodness....what a mess!  After several goes, I gave that a miss.... and then decided to use an older HA stamp called Flower Box.  Started by stamping and colouring and then added my sentiment with Versafine Onyx black.   But I forgot that this ink takes time to dry - so don't go and trim it up too soon....

ARRRG... by this time it I flagged it and came back half an hour later and started again!

Still not 100% happy but it got finished.

My next project was a tag to enter into the current Christmas challenge at StampNation. 

I used a tag die cut with a Catherine Pooler SOA die, and used a Sunny Studio stamp set.  The branches were stamped with Altenew Evergreen ink.  The bells are stamped with Catherine Pooler inks in Garden Party, Lime Rickey and Grass Skirt   They really look shiny

I did some testing of different inks for the bells

I'll be sure to be trying out some different colour schemes for my Christmas cards this year.

Deck the Halls

For my guest spot at StampNation this week, our challenge is called Deck the Halls - add a little decoration to them in the spirit of this season.  Need ideas? Ornaments, tinsel, lights, banners, tags, wreath, garland, bows, glitter etc. They don't have to be 3-D, but this would be a great place to use those Christmas items with extra dimension.

I decided I needed to make a really 3-D card and I had bought some mini bells recently - just in case I might need to use them - so here's what I came up with...

 

I started by making my background.   I used a soft grey card and embossed with a Tim Holtz/Sizzix folder.  I made my base card out of a darker grey and used some of the scraps to embossed the sentiment in white.  It's a sentiment from Hero Arts Color Layering Wreath.  I made a wreath using some green Altenew inks and the layers in the set.  I die cut with the matching die and fussy cut out the centre.  I wound the tinsel around the wreath and then using some thread and a needle sewed the bells onto the wreath.  I used some dimensional tape to add it to the card. 

I must admit to really liking this card.  It turned out exactly as I envisioned it would.

I'm going to be busy for the next few days as I got an order to make some cards.... the lady went through my Flickr page and chose a few she want to to make with a few modifications.  2 down - 8 to go!

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great weekend all.