Christmas Past and Future

Because my daughter came to stay over Christmas, and then again on New Year's Eve, the spare bedroom had to be cleared and much of the 'stuff' found a temporary home in my craft room. This meant no possibility of cardmaking until the 'stuff' was replaced once more in the spare room, so Julian's birthday card had to be made in early December and I've been waiting impatiently for a return to creativity ever since. Some of the time I was able to use productively by developing a new storage system for my Nesties and various stencils: they're now all standing up in a box separated by labelled card dividers, which looks just like a library card catalogue such as I used when I started work in the local library in 1963 - I felt quite nostalgic! I also now have my JustRite Stampers in a wonderful collection of boxes given to me for Christmas by one of my best friends.

Finally I sorted out all my patterns and threads for stitched cards, and made a start on my Christmas cards for 2011. We receive around 120 cards and have them displayed on the two doors in the living room so looking at them over the holiday period is when I'm most inspired. It's several years since I did any stitched designs (apart from one poinsettia design last year) and I've decided to prick out as many patterns as possible while I'm in the mood, then I can stitch whenever I feel like it throughout the year. Yesterday I actually completed one card, shown here, even down to the insert sheet and my stamp on the back, and I also have another two fronts stitched but not mounted. Don't worry, this level of enthusiasm can't possibly continue!

Some boys never grow up!

My son is an adrenalin freak - he once sent us a postcard from New Zealand which said 'I can think of nothing I want to do more than spend my life jumping out of a perfectly good aeroplane at 13,000 feet with another fellah strapped to my back!' He had just done his first tandem parachute jump and went on to do two more. Forget bungee jumping - unless he can go and do the highest in the world, in South Africa, he's done all that he wants and they're all too tame. Having already tried skate boarding as a youngster, and then wake boarding (the same thing but on water and without wheels: that one gave him concussion and a permanently scarred head) of course he naturally gravitated in NZ to hurtling down mountains like dragons' teeth on a snow board. It's his birthday today (he's spending it snowboarding in Poland) and this stamp cried out to me for his card as soon as I saw it. Happy 37th birthday Julian!

Just for the record...

This shows all 80 cards I made for Christmas 2010. I used the photo as my blog header pic for December but once the new year came I substituted another and lost this one. I thought it was worth keeping so am backdating a new post and hope it appears as the last post of the year.

Pink & black scrap card

I used up more scraps than I expected in making this card because I didn't like my first effort, so I salvaged the stamped panel and made a new base. Then I picked up a small black piece which just happened to be under my hand, decided it was exactly what the card needed and stamped the sentiment by Hobby Art in Versamark then heat embossed with detail white powder. The main panel was one of my experiments with Distress Inks back in July when DH was in France; I stamped the weeds and grasses using Versamark/white embossing powder and Memento tuxedo black. The stamps are by Darkroom Door and Elusive Images.

That pile of scraps is shrinking most satisfactorily......then I shall start on the bits in the stuffed drawers.....

More cards from scraps

I have two crafter friends whose birthdays are 23 December. I always try to make 'summery' cards for them because I know how easy it is for such birthdays to get lost in the midst of Christmas preparations and I want them to feel special. This one for Carol isn't really as plain as it appears: the cream pearlised paper is patterned all over with swirls of roses which have a fuzzy feel - not as soft as velvet paper but there's definitely texture there. The shiny dark purple also has a textured pattern, while the matte mauve provides a contrast. The words are by Clarity Stamps cut with a die from Labels #9, and the edge punch is 'Modern Garland'.

This is for Liz. The daisy paper came free in Making Cards magazine some years ago, the daisy stamp is from JustRite Stampers. I stamped the border in deep pink on green and cut it with a Nestie classic circle, then stamped the flower on white and cut it with a smaller die.. I stamped it again and cut the flower closely to shape so as to make a mask, superimposed it on the circle and was then able to colour the surround with pink chalk. The 'Celebrate' is by Stampin' Up. And the daisy strip was a serendipitous find in my bulging drawer of ribbons, trims and other embellishments - I didn't know it was there but it was exactly the right length to cross the card and tuck round each edge!

So several more scraps have been put to good use and the remains thrown away.

There are birthdays in December too!

And I have to make 6 birthday cards for the month, although one has already gone for a friend's birthday on the 2nd. This new one is for my brother-in-law who was a Christmas Day baby; he and my sister will be in the States visiting their daughter and her family so I had to make the card in good time - no good leaving it until the day before as I sometimes do! I was tidying my craft room after the Christmas card marathon and sorted out a pile of scraps. Three pieces landed together and I liked the effect so much I decided that would be the base for the card - the plain brown Bazzill, the gorgeous copper coloured paper (which is far more brown/gold IRL than the pink it appears to be here) with embossed ovals, and a piece I had coloured myself with Distress Inks in light yellows and oranges. The latter made the edge strip under the trellis and also the background for the sentiment. And all the little scraps which were created from the old ones have gone into the waste paper bin!!!

Tomorrow, weather permitting, we are off to the German Christmas markets.....if I don't post in the next couple of days, you may assume we have managed it this week.

Unfolding a mystery...

I didn't expect to be blogging this week but our trip to Germany was cancelled because of the snow - we got as far as sitting in the plane for 4 hours at London (Gatwick) Airport, then returned and slept (sic) on the floor in the terminal building before driving home, arriving back 24 hours after we'd left! The airport has been closed ever since, but the forecast is for temperatures to rise at the weekend and our trip has been provisionally rescheduled for next Tuesday-Friday.

I realised from comments received that iris folding is unknown to many crafters so have made use of my 'down time' by preparing detailed pictures to show just how it's done. My apologies for the poor colour balance: the first 3 were taken this morning in daylight and the others this afternoon when the light was on and I didn't think to turn it off and rely on flash.

The craft originated in Holland and the earliest folders there used the patterned insides of envelopes. I didn't think we had much variety in ours but having collected a boxful a few years ago I was agreeably surprised at what I found. However, in a rare fit of tidying my craft room the envelopes went for more traditional recycling and I now buy IF papers specially, sometimes sheets that I cut into strips 2cm (¾in) wide but more often pre-cut strips from specialist suppliers. I like to use papers with a sheen or sparkle, and plain or small patterned, but anything can be used according to the effect required. As long as the paper isn't too thick and will hold a crease, it will do.

The pattern shown is a photocopy from a Dutch book and the aperture card was sold specifically for this pattern, though it is possible to cut an aperture by hand using a copy of the pattern and a craft knife. The card goes face down over the pattern and is secured at one side with low tack tape - as you work on the back, this means you can flip the card over to see progress then flip it back to continue. The strips on the pattern are numbered (in this case) counterclockwise, spiralling from the outside towards the centre; the selected papers are arranged in chosen order and then the first strip cut or torn to the desired length, which goes from one side to the other of the aperture plus a little more to attach with a tiny piece of tape at each end. The folded edge is placed face down against the inner line of strip #1 on the pattern. How much to fold over is a personal choice - some instructions say fold in half but as long as the strip covers the desired area it isn't critical. Then the pattern is turned and strip #2 in the next colour is applied in the same way, then #3 likewise. The third photo (lower left, above) shows one round completed, to be followed by the fourth strip which will be the same colour as the first, and so on, always in numerical order and turning the pattern each time. (One of the chosen papers is coloured both sides, the others are white on the back). The lower right photo shows the tree after a couple more rounds had been added.


Photo #5 on the far left shows the work flipped to look at the front, when only a couple more rounds are needed. The picture on the right shows the finished piece before the centre patch is added, and finally (below) the completed work is seen from the front. The 'iris' in iris folding refers to the likeness of the folded strips and the centre patch to the shutter of a camera. It's important to work accurately and to keep checking the the appearance on the front, but if a mistake does occur it can be rectified by easing up one end of each overlapping strip, removing the errant colour and replacing it with the right one. The central iris is covered with a piece of contrasting paper at the end, then pieces of sticky tape applied over the back to squash the strips down and make firm folds.

The iris need not be a triangle, but the number of its sides governs the number of colours used: a tree lends itself to 3, of course, but if you look back at the holly leaf (entry for 21 November) you will see a pentagon in the centre and thus 5 colours, and the bauble (15 November) has a rectangle and four colours.

So now you know I'm not really ever so clever - it's simple enough for a child to do, it's fun and it's addictive. And there are more advanced/difficult methods of working for the truly addicted, and you can design your own patterns.....now that's what I call being clever!