Bah Humbug Challenge #8

The theme for this week's Christmas challenge is 'flying things'. I was planning to use one of the 'Winter Birds' stamps by Impression Obsession but I went to a big craft show on Friday (and Saturday....and this morning! Well, it's only ten minutes down the road) and saw a sample card which I have sort of copied - certainly took it as my inspiration. The stamp is one of a set of 'Twas the night before Christmas' by Clarity Stamps; it's a favourite poem of mine and I have a beautifully illustrated copy, but I think Barbara Gray, owner and designer of Clarity, has done a fabulous job. The card on her stand at the show had the image mounted and layered on the Nesties Label #1 and then mounted on a larger card with a ribbon accent; I decided to leave it small and have mounted a small square red card behind. It was stamped in black Versafine and coloured with dry watercolour pencils. The red mount is velvet paper which I was pleasantly surprised to find is self adhesive.

Slipped disk? #7

The subject for this week's Bah! Humbug! challenge is to use a CD as part of the design. I persuaded DH it was time he weeded out all the computer disks he didn't actually need any more, having grandiose ideas of what I might make with them, only to face my usual problem of what I was actually going to do once they were in my hands! I've said many times that I don't do well with lots of shine or sparkle so my first idea was to cover up as much of the surface as possible while still proving that it really was a CD and not a piece of card masquerading as such; in fact that led to this centrepiece idea quite quickly.

I cut a piece of silver mirri card using a big die by Marianne Designs of a scalloped circle and stuck the disk on top. I used the smaller die from the larger set of poinsettias, also by Marianne, to make six flowers; curled the petals over my finger to give a bit of depth and stuck them round a nightlight (I should have taken more care with the spacing but was in a hurry to finish and take a photo outside in daylight). Cutting and then embossing the total of 18 layers took a fair time but it was hardly rocket science.

I have a circular wooden box which last Christmas contained genuine Turkish Delight (but not for long). I'm thinking of painting the lid with acrylic paint to cover the writing and putting this piece on top, minus the tealight and substituting....something else...maybe a teabag medallion? in the centre to make a gift box. I haven't got time this week to play with it, but I'll keep the idea in mind.

I was delighted yesterday to find I've been selected as a Guest Designer for Bah! Humbug! during the month of March. I have the topics (no, I'm not open to bribery); I have scribbled lists of ideas and am itching to get started.....but I have a task which simply must take priority. I'm off to re-program my brain.

A tricky card problem.....

I needed to make a card in a hurry but spent a long time debating what to put as the message. It's for a lady in her 90s who has been declared unfit to live alone any longer and has been transferred from hospital (following a fall) to a residential nursing home. It's a fantastic place and her family are so relieved that she is now going to be well looked after, but I think she thinks she will be going 'home' quite soon.....I didn't want to cause an upset by referring to her new home so finally used that excellent 'one size fits all' phrase, Thinking of you. Now all I have to do is come up with a tactful message inside!

The background and the plain pink papers were freebies from Making Cards magazine, the words and wide border are by JustRite Stampers cut with a classic circle Nestability. The large mount is the Lotus Pendant, also by Spellbinders, and the flower in the top left corner is the small poinsettia by Marianne Dies without any embossing.

And the pink/silver ric-rac braid was in my prize package from the Bah! Humbug! ladies which arrived yesterday - I knew I wouldn't be able to wait for the next Christmas card marathon!!

It's All About Love

That's the theme for Rainbow Lady's challenge for this week....perhaps she expected lots of Valentine cards but since my poor DH didn't get one this year (come to think of it, neither did I!) I'm offering something different. We have four couples among our friends who are celebrating their Golden Wedding in the next 12 months so this was a good opportunity to start the special cards. First came the choice of a cream card base rather than white. Then I went through my folders and pulled out all the suitable cream & gold background papers, deciding to use another of the handmade Indian sheets which I have in abundance. The hybrid rose is a PSX stamop I've had for years and used many times, even painting it with watercolours on one occasion (and for me that was a huge adventure). This time I embossed it with Versamark ink and gold detail powder but was very disappointed with the result: no raised lines at all, and no shine.....if asked I think a viewer would decide it was a gold picture because it couldn't be anything else, but it certainly wasn't what I wanted. So I did it again using my very old ordinary gold EP and got the right effect this time. The matte gold card was a couple of bits from my scraps box, the gold peel offs added the finishing touch and that was it: an hour's work, one GW card down and an entry for Cynthia's challenge :)

Teatime for Bah Humbug!! #6

I'm still recovering from the shock: TWO cards made today for TWO different challenges with TWO blog posts.....and furthermore, one isn't due until next Thursday and the other has another two weeks to closing!

The theme for this week's Bah! Humbug! Challenge is doileys. Now, last week's Buttons and Bows made me humph just a bit because I don't use either very much, but this new one was even worse - not only have I never used doileys, but I don't like them and have never bought any! Hang on a minute though....didn't I come across a packet buried in my stash drawer when I was looking for the buttons last week?! Goodness only knows where they came from - they must have been a freebie, since not only are they doileys but they are very, very bright gold doileys and really not my style!! Never mind, I can get rid of a couple on a card and with luck I can 'lose' the rest and forget them.

Having all my teabag folding papers over the table inspired me to cover most of one doiley with a large TBF medallion. I punched the 2"/5cm squares from pearlescent paper and used a fold by a South American lady named Carla Prediger. The corner decoration of quarter doileys was somewhat forced on me when I spilt some glue and dropped the card in it (that was just typical of the whole project!) but in the end I was more satisfied with it than I had anticipated. Now, I wonder how I can use the rest of the packet..........

Teabag Folding

It must be at least two years since I last did some teabag folding, although for a considerable time it was my greatest papercraft interst and I compiled a vast file of all the different folds I came across. The Circle of Crafters forum has monthly challenges for teabag folding, iris folding and general cardmaking; yesterday I noticed that the given fold for this month's challenge was one I had done long ago and decided to have a go, using it as an excuse for making yet another Christmas card! The fold is very easy but because it ends up as a 7 sided motif (made from 7 individual squares) it is very tricky to make it look symmetrical, and this one was made even worse by wanting to put a greeting in the middle! I achieved it eventually and it doesn't look too badly out of kilter if you squint at it in a poor light ;)

Let me clear up a misunderstanding for those not familiar with the technique: you do not do anything with soggy teabags. Like so many papercrafts this came from the Netherlands, where teabags are packaged individually in decorative paper bags within boxes. A Dutch lady skilled in origami remembered one morning at breakfast that she had forgotten to make her sister a birthday card for that day. She started folding the teabag packet, then another, and thus developed the method - it's described as modular origami in some books, because true origami is made from a single piece of paper whereas this uses 4, 5, 7 or 8 identically folded pieces. The border on the card shows 3 of the tiles before cutting and folding.

The tile is by Helen Jane's Designs, MS punch is Iron Gate and the circle cut with a Nestabilities Classic Circle.

Bah! Humbug! time #5

And I'm only just in time this week, but only just is good enough! The theme is Buttons and Bows, a tricky one for me since I rarely use either, but I remembered I had kept a red knotted ribbon which came on a special jar of chutney given to us at Christmas, and while rummaging in my embellishments I found these winter buttons by Dovecraft. Snowmen stamps I have in abundance (this is by FunStamps) and the words are from a custom made stamp.

ETA: What a good thing I checked back after posting the link on the Bah! Humbug! board.....I was in such a hurry I forgot to include the picture!!

A quick birthday card

Not, perhaps, quick to make overall, but I had stitched the fuchsias during my stitching marathon when I was unwell and just mounted the front today to send to my niece in America. I used DMC embroidery threads for the design from Form-A-Lines, and I added Mill Hill seed beads to the stamens in place of single stitches. Liz loves her garden so I hope she will enjoy the card.

I've been awarded...

...a Liebster blog award! Thank you so much Dori, You really made my day with this! Dori does some great work and I always enjoy her creations so go have a look if you don't already know her! You'll find her blog at http://stampinghmom.blogspot.com

The rules of the Liebster Award are simple:
1.) THANK the person who bestowed it on you, with a link to their blog
2.) ACCEPT the award by posting it on your blog
3.) SHARE the bloggin' love with 3-5 fellow bloggers.

I'd like to share the award with the following people who not only do terrific work but are always so generous with their kind comments. Unfortunately, my technical skills being abysmal, I can't get the links to their several blogs to work but please do go and have a look:

Elizabeth http://elizabethscraftroom.blogspot.com/

Kathy http://luckystamper.blogspot.com/

Shaz http://silverwolfcards-shaz.blogspot.com/

Hannah http://delightfullydistressing.blogspot.com/

One thing is certain: I shall never win an award for computer competence!

ETA: I knew I shouldn't do technical things late at night! It's now Wednesday: I remembered this morning that a friend had a similar problem with getting hyperlinks into her blog post and was advised to use 'Compose' mode. Lo and behold, it has worked for me :)

Parchment craft

It's a full year since I made a parchment craft card, despite saying at the time that I intended to concentrate on that technique and practise a lot. Well, I have applied to go on a week's course in October with two of the country's top teachers and really must practise beforehand, so here's my first effort for 2011 which is a card for a dear friend who will be celebrating a special birthday at the weekend. The design is by Pauline Loweth and I really enjoyed it but I had forgotten just how long the cutwork takes: I needed several breaks so I didn't get careless and spoil the whole thing - you can't just undo it like knitting! I'm very pleased with the final results although I can see bits that a teacher would help me to improve, and the design was carefully chosen to avoid the things I'm not confident with, like shading (I think I managed the petals fairly well for a first attempt) and colouring. I did try a coloured flower on a spare piece but much prefer the plain whitework so didn't do it on the actual card.

A golden oldie in silver: Bah! Humbug! #4

The challenge at Bah! Humbug! this week is to use something that hasn't seen the light of day for quite a while but used to be a favourite - what they are calling 'An oldie that's a goldie'. I used this stamp by PSX several years ago for many of my Christmas cards because it gave beautiful results without too much work and I could produce quantities fairly quickly. All it needed was heat embossing in gold or silver; sometimes I coloured the flowers lightly but more often left them plain. I'm now thinking of trying it in white or copper EP on dark card, rather like the thistle from my Burns Night card, but for this challenge I just mounted it on a panel of red mirri with a length of silver ribbon. The dies were the two largest from the mega deckle long rectangles. And the green border is purely background - I found that a plain white card on the white blog page left more than a little to the imagination!

And I still love the stamp and wonder why I haven't used it for the past few years.