Christmas Cards - Poinsettias

Well the Christmas cards are all posted. Still have a couple to make for family. I thought I would share a few. I seem to have done a lot of stamping and colouring this year. So therapeutic to sit with the promarkers. In fact I haven't even touched my CDs this year. I doubt most of the recipients will appreciate the fun I had creating them, but they are all sent with love.

This first selection today are examples using the poinsettia stamp from Joanna Sheen, with variations. The first one is coloured water coloured with sakura stardust and the others are done with promarker pens. I must confess I made rather a lot of poinsettia cards, all different - just a variation on a theme.


The actual stamp included the flower pot, as in the last image, but I made quite a few cards just using the flowers without the pot as an experiment, which I rather liked as an alternative.

RHS cd cards

I had fully intended to do some cake decorating this evening, but somehow I got side-tracked, and decided to make some cards. They are all for birthdays next week, and two hopefully I can give to my son tomorrow to hand-deliver as they are for his future m-i-law and s-i-law, whose birthdays are both on the same day.

All the images are from the latest Joanna Sheen cd - the Royal Horticultural Society Collection, which for those that don't know about it features artwork from well-known botanical artists, the originals of which are all in the archives of the RHS.

this is the inside of the card, and as the recipient is a great flower lover, I thought I would also print the piece about the artist from the CD.

The next two cards are a variation on a theme, as I printed off a whole sheet of images. One A5 and one DL.

Poinsettias and Christmas Roses

This was an experiment, having played with my new stamps from Joanna Sheen. I used part of the poinsettia image and using artistic licence, my sakura clear, green and blue stardust pens and a koi brush. Cut out the image, and attached it to card with clear pads. The matching ribbon was coloured with a promarker pen, added some little stick-on sparkles to the ribbon and centre of the flowers.

I confess I love this unusual look, and am sure I shall be doing it again!

The Christmas roses were coloured with sakura stardust for the flowers and a koi brush, and the leaves were done with promarkers, and highlighted with clear stardust. (Don't know why the leaves look such a weird colour as used same pens as the poinsettia leaves below!)

The Poinsettias were both coloured with promarkers, and then the veins highlighted with clear sakura. The photos don't do them justice, as they really sparkle!

I should add that all the images were on 160 gsm paper - even the ones I "water-coloured"!

Birthdays, a Wedding and a First!

I shall start with "a first" . I have had my bookatrix board for a couple of years, I tried to use it when I first had it, and failed miserably. I was determined to try again. Well I have to confess that this may also be my last bookatrix - I just couldn't get on with it with the pearlised card, although the vellum layer was ok. Having eventually got the back part of the book cut out, I realised that it was bigger than an A5 card - botheration! After all that struggle! Fortunately I had some large A4 cards and envelopes in a goody bag the other week. Panic over! and another first in making an A4 card.

The wild rose stamp was coloured with sakura pens and a koi brush, with decoupaged flowers. I balanced this with a little verse I found which was so appropriate for this family member - my mum's second cousin. In 2003 we met Lily and her family for the first time, not previously knowing of their existence and living so near to us, and we had a wonderful day. My mum and her cousin were so alike. Do click on the photo and read it.

This second card is for a forum pal's birthday, this time image coloured with promarker pens, and the same image used as a background on the main card.

and finally a wedding card for a neighbour's son and his soon to be wife. My son is going to be best man at the Wedding on Saturday. This image and backing paper is from a Joanna Sheen cd.

Anniversary Cards - variation on a theme

Based on an idea that Suzanne did for a DL card on her blog, I created a couple of landscape A5 cards, the blue one for a pal, and the orange one for my daughter and husband, as she had this colour of lily in her wedding bouquet.

The images were both coloured with promarkers, and the first mount layers were created with colouring the edge of some white card with a promarker. The plaid paper in the blue card, was taken from a Joanna Sheen backing paper and recoloured in Publisher.

I seem to have a "confusion" of green's on this card. The first layer of backing were both done with the same colour promarker, but have realised one was on pearlised Conqueror paper and the one around the message on plain paper - the colours were supposed to be a near match for the punched strip - but they appear quite different in the photo! I also coloured the Lilies with promarkers to match the image.

Normally I print out the message in a matching colour, but this time I printed them both out in black and then went over them with promarkers to create a sort of co-ordinated colour shadow.

I also learned how to do a watermark for the insert - I scanned and saved the images I had coloured and then in Publisher converted them to a watermark, with a duplicate image of the flowers placed over the watermark on the "fly" of the insert, and the wording done with a clear background on the lower section. (Just realised, I forgot to take a photo of the inserts - duh!)

Handbag card

A card with a little diffence for a forum pal's birthday. Inspired by watching a show on C&C wih handbag templates, I suddenly remembered I had some envelope templates that I bought at Farnborough, that you were supposed to be able to make handbags with. (I think they were the original templates sold by the company demonstrating on the tv).

So I had a play. I extended the template to create the flap, which is fastened with velcro dots and has a hidden Happy Birthday message under it. I used a rollergraph for the pattern on the flap, (done on both sides, so pattern is also there when you lift the flap) using a pretty rainbow metallic pad I fell in love with at Hobbycraft. Used a blue sugarcandy button to finish the flap and decorated the bag corner with some flora doodle, adhesive diamantes and a peel off initial for the recipient. I couldn't decide whether to add a handle, but in the end decided I liked the card as it was.

Nephews' cards - one using my Craft Robo!

I have had my Robo for some time now, and have been very lax about using it. I tried to create stuff myself, but failed miserably. I have made cards using free designs by other people that I have downloaded, but could never quite get things I had drawn to work. However, having watched a couple of show on C&C, and learned a few things, I took the bull by the horns and created this card for my nephew.

I cut the aperture for the image and the word Tony out of the base card using the Robo, and scored two lines down each side of the card. I then printed the image from my Messy Rabbit cd on 160gsm card, and with a bit of jiggling managed to get it to print out in the right place. This was then stuck to the inside of the front of the card. Obviously the word Tony was then white, so I coloured this in with a promarker pen, and also added some extra depth of colour to the ball and jersey on the image. I added matching sugarcandy buttons and edged the aperture first with letraset silver tape, and then highlighted the image and also the inside edge of the score lines with letraset red tape.

The second card is for another nephew - this time my great nephew (who is also nephew of the person for whom the first card was made!).

This time I used a Liliofthevalley diecut image, and matching backing papers. mounted on scalloped card using largest nestability shape, and lightly chalked the background. Finished with some matching sugarcandy buttons and Name and age cut from foam using my go kreate cutters. Like his uncle he is very much into football, but fancied a change this year - and felt the lad with a mobile was fairly apt!

60th Birthday Card

Suddenly realised one of my Sister-in-laws birthdays was upon me, and hadn't made the card, and it was an "0" birthday. Put this together yesterday, which was an achievement as my eyes were still recovering from having drops in them earlier in the afternoon!

Image, backing papers, and insert from Joanna Sheen's The Country Diary of an Edwardian lady. Also used some psychedelic pink paper, some glittery gel peel-offs around the topper, as well as either side of some ribbon. Sentiment printed on computer, and decorated with a few jewels for some "bling". Card stock was a deep maroon.

Galleon Card

I actually got around to making a card today. I have been so busy with other things. (Mainly producing the Centenary Launch edition of our County Guide Newsletter). I am itching to play with all the new craft stash I bought at the weekend, and had fully intended to play today - then I got side-tracked by some new genealogy entries on Ancestry - and finding some answers to some queries I had on the family tree! I need a 48 hour day!

Anyway I knuckled down this afternoon and created this simple card for my son's Godfather. I found this image and matching backing paper on Joanna Sheen's Jane Netley Mayhew CD. Edged both the image and backing paper with a gold promarker pen and mounted them on blue card. Created the letters for the name with blue fun foam from Hobbycraft, using my new Go-Kreate alphabet cutters, and stuck them to white card backed with same blue backing paper.

Golden Wedding Card

Front

Insert and Back

This card was not made by me - it was made by my 3 year old Granddaughter for her Great Grandparents Golden Wedding. (OK there was a little guidance and help from me - but mainly her work.)

She chose the bits she wanted to put on the card - we had to have some pink/purple! She actually want pink card, but I persuaded her that we needed white with some gold.

The bottle, glasses and rings were from some old Kanban stash I had, which we coloured gold with promarkers. Bea punched the papers (she likes playing with my punches - I was in charge of keeping it lined up!) and I stuck them on the card, as that was a tad difficult for her, then she stuck all the other bits on.

We had a bit of a problem with putting 50 on the front as she wanted to put the number 1 on it - so we compromised and put the "1" on the back - well she is 1st greatgrandaughter! Oh yes and we had to use the biggest numbers that I had, so a little help was needed in showing her where to place the 5 and 0! Just couldn't persuade her that we needed smaller ones! She didn't have room for the rings on the front either - she wanted them down the righthand side too - so another compromise was reached to put them under the 1 on the back!

I created the insert, with her mum and her cousin choosing the verse between them, and she helped punch the sides, and stuck the flowers on the left-hand side!

Turned out quite well for a 3 year old's effort! Hopefully it will be treasured by her GGPs.

Must confess she is quite a neat little crafter, if somewhat determined as to what she wants. She loves stamping, and can now colour inside the lines, and gets quite cross if it goes wrong - so we avoided stamping today!