Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Flying by to say Merry Christmas -- with glitter!

I don't normally use glitter, since cards for Operation Write Home can't have it, so this was a little bit of fun for me.

The airplane is from Lawn Fawn's Bon Voyage stamp set, and the houses are from Sizzix Townscape die. More of that difficult silver elastic twine forms the tow line for the sentiment, which I believe is from The Alley Way Stamps' All Wrapped Up. I had fun heat embossing the greeting in metalic embossing powder. There is Wink of Stella glitter on the airplane, as well as glossy accents in the windows.  Glitter! Glitz! Wow!

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Christmas critters on text, variations on a theme.




So, no two the same, right?  I ran out of the striped glitter paper for the mat, so I used some wispy branched paper for the mat on the top picture. I decided that the houses from the last post needed more contrast, so I cut them from kraft paper. On the third card, I went with a bundled up bird. Yes, that is a barely visible vellum snowflake near the top of the card.  Even in real life it is hardly visible. Learn from my mistakes, OK?

I did all three of these on kraft colored card bases, just because I like it.

The reindeer are from The Alley Way Stamps set "Fa La La", the bird is from "All Wrapped Up", also from The Alley Way Stamps. The sentiment on the bird card is from Lawn Fawn's "Winter Fox", and the houses are from an old Sizzix die, "Townscape".  

That invisible snowflake? It's from a die set from Paper Smooches. Not that you can tell, LOL.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Flying reindeer, for the win!

Last year my flying reindeer had on sweaters, this year he's naked!

This cutie is from The Alley Way Stamps set "Fa La La", and I stamped him on a page I tore out of a book. I gently colored him with my Spectrum Noir markers. Gently because the paper wanted to grab the ink and run with it. His nose and antlers are shiny with Wink of Stella glitter.

The row of houses at the bottom need more contrast, so the next versions will be colored differently. I am pleased with this as a first effort on old book art, and will be playing some more with it later.

I am down to about 8 square inches of actual work space on my table. I have really got to clean up to make myself a little room.

Good news (at least for me)! Home made glue dots actually work when you use sticker paper for the backing. I had been using the slick stuff that came in a bucket of perler beads, and that was a complete disaster. Heatproof it may be, but not nonstick, KWIM?

Season's Tweetings, round 2


Never one to leave things alone after the first try, here is version 2 of last week's card. I used a falling snow embossing folder on the blue background piece and also on the center blue panel. Then I used my new white pen to make a faux stitched line around the outside edge and to highlight the "snow" on the central panel. I really didn't like the music notes on the background of the original.

It is a lot easier to tie a bow with actual ribbon than it is with stretchy silver twine.

Once again, the birds are from Lawn Fawn's Winter Sparrows, and the tree line is their forest border die. The panels are cut with dies from Mama Elephant.

What a difference a juicy pen makes.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

And so it begins -- Christmas card season!

Yay, I made my first Christmas card of the season. This is a prototype of some more that I will be making, minus the musical note background piece.

I love the little Winter Sparrows from Lawn Fawn, and they go so nicely with the little forest border. My white gel pen decided not to work after 3 snow dots, so I ended up stamping snowflakes near the top left to cover the "error".  Then I used my paper tool to pick up some of the white ink and make snow dots on the birds' heads. I also think I'll use a different twine for the rest of them. Maybe I'll use silver cording, what do you think?