A little sparkle on a dull day...

Hello friends, hope you are keeping well. The weather has been chilly and grey here the last couple of days, perfect weather for some crafting, - so I am in full Christmas Card making mode. I have made nearly 20 cards so far, but don't worry, I will not show them all, - today I will share just a couple made with some of my Tim Holtz stamps:

I'll keep this post quite short, as these are busy times for us all, just a few close ups and some product info:

This one uses the Holiday Greetings stamp set. The background was done with Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap Distress Oxides. I stamped some trees from a much older set in the background, using Iced Spruce Doxide.

The main stamp was stamped in Ground Espresso Doxide and then clear embossed, I also added some white pencil for snow,

The main card was mounted on a piece embossed with the Lumber 3D folder, coloured with Distress Inks in various brown tones and then I applied a layer of Crazing Medium with a palette knife, a cool trick I learn from my lovely blog friend Sara Emily from Saras Closet  After the crazing medium had dried I then rubbed in some Distress Crayon with a damp finger, to bring out the cracks. I also drew in some stars with a white gel pen and added a little sparkle with Diamond Stickles.

The second card was done in a very similar way, - the bird is from the Simon Says Stamp limited edition stamp set and was coloured with a mix of Distress Markers and coloured pencils

I then finished it with a die cut coloured with Doxides and then I added just a tiny bit of Distress Glitter in Vintage Platinum, it looks really sparkly in real life but it all gets lost in the photo.

Well that's it, hope you are all having a good week and are not too busy. I'll try and visit soon...

xxxxx

The next installment

Hello all and welcome, thanks for dropping by.
Today I am sharing the second part of the projects I created for Hunky Dory using their dies.

These projects use the dies called Pretty Poinsettia and as you can see, I created two further Christmas cards;

For this one I used a frame die and sentiment from my stash, and then embellished with the beautiful poinsettias, leaves and pinecones that are all part of this set.

I cut and embossed the poinsettias from vellum, the other dies were cut from the fabulous card I received, and coloured with a variety of Distress Inks.

I just love these little pine cones, they are put together with two little dies, one fitting on top of the other.

For the second card I decided two cut various circle dies and make a circular card. I used my old Spellbinder dies, but Hunky Dory stock and incredible variety of dies, both their own brand, like these circles for instance, and numerous other ones.. I used some Tim Holtz Kraft Christmas papers and one of the Christmas Worn Wallpaper papers for the background, and then again used the dies to embellish.

For this one all of the dies were cut from the card 

I decided to tuck the little Santa from the last die set I featured in my previous post, in between

 the poinsettias. This time I cut him from Kraft Card and coloured with Distress Inks and pencils etc. to add some detail.

The card was finished with a white embossed sentiment from the Tim Holtz Holiday Greetings set.

Well, that's it for today. I would like the thank Hunky Dory for sending me these lovely products to play with, and hope you all have a great creative week!

xxxxx

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The first CCs

Hello friends, hope you are having a good creative week!
It's only early November but I have started my Christmas Cards. I know some of you make them all year round, but I usually hold off until November and then get on with it full blast. So today I am sharing the first 3, all using stamps from the new 2018 Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous collections.

The moment I saw all the stamps on Tim's Facebook Live a while back, I fell in love and ordered several sets, including the Simon Says Stamp Stamptember limited edition one.... (I know, I know, as if I needed more Christmas stamps)....
Anyway, below a few details.

This one uses the Stamptember set, I just love that little bird.

On this card I stamped it in archival black and then coloured with watercolour pencils. The little stars in the background were done with one of the new layering stencils, using Wendy Vecchies Gold Embossing paste.

This one uses two other stamps from the same set. I embossed the branches, which made them very dark, so I won't do that again.
For both these cards I used the Lumber 3D texture folder, I always love how it looks so much like real wood. The sentiment was stamped on a very old woodplanks die, to match the rustic look.

This last one was done using the Watercolour and Overlay sets. If you are wondering what these are all about, check Tim's video here. He not only shows the stamps, but also some amazing and very inspiring samples!!

Another embossing mistake, the little bird was stamped in Iced Spruce, overlayed with the Merry and Bright stamped in Brushed Corduroy and then clear embossed, which really does not do the bird justice, - like usual, love and learn..... The photo also does not help, the light has just been awful around here....

I finished the bottom half of the card with one of the 3D Dresden Trims, some twine and a snowflake charm.

Well, that's it for my cards today, but before I  leave, just a couple of photos still of my latest mail art envelope, this time in a much softer, romantic style. I photographed it in the plastic card sleave I will be sending it in, just to give you an idea of what that looks like. I will adhere the address label on top of it.

Front

Back

Thank you for taking the time to visit and I do apologize for the quality of the photos. I am a hopeless photographer anyway but the light at the moment makes it even worse....

xxxxx