Christmas is almost here, are you ready? I’m almost there but we still haven’t made any mince pies and Christmas can’t start without them so tomorrow I’m going to have to get my finger out!
I’ve been drawing robins in my sketchbook this week. I try to draw and paint robins every year but usually the end up looking a little “special”. I tried again this year and they didn’t look too bad, (for me that is).
Since they came out so well I painted some little robins on watercolour paper placed them onto some card bases. They’re not amazing but very much better than usual so I’m quite pleased with them.
Sorry the lighting is a bit weird the sun was quite low in the sky; it makes everything yellow and elongates the shadows.
Robin Christmas cards
This is the robin I decided to use for the cards. It’s nice to see there was a little improvement from last year; maybe the practice is paying off.
A second little robin from my sketchbook.
I’ve made two more little sketchy robins into a pattern just to see how it would look. If anybody would like to use it for their own personal use please do, just click on the image, click again to enlarge, right click and save the image.
If you’re on mobile devices I have no idea how to do that sorry.
Robin pattern paper
Happy Christmas every one and whether you’re celebrating or not I wish you all love, peace and joy.
Thanks for taking the time to stop by. Till next time, have fun x
It’s that time of year, you know the time of year when everything you do is geared towards one day. This week I have been shopping (on-line), shopping in actual shops, because that’s still a thing and making Christmas cards/tags.
Looking around on the internet I’ve seen people painting lovely watercolours and making them into cards, I thought what a lovely idea, I should do that! Who am I kidding; I would have to start making my cards in august if I wanted to finish before Christmas.
Introducing all the stuff I have made this week. The star card is made with nesting star dies and has a little floating star in the aperture. It’s a 6”x6” card so the top layer was embossed with an embossing then the folder was moved along to emboss the other side, happily it worked quite well.
In real life the card is very sparkly and has blue glitter borders. It doesn’t show up, we have very poor light this time of year and even at midday in bright-ish sunshine everything looks washed out.
The gold card bases were given to me, they’re an odd size 6”x3”. The second card in the picture was embossed with a die; I like it more as a die-cut. I had some fancy paper which was a cross between tissue paper and mulberry paper; I used it to back the cut-out, it looks really good when light shines through it.
The reindeer card is made entirely with peel-offs. For some unknown reason I seem to have loads of peel-offs, they need using up. It’s just the right size to place a gift voucher into.
Another card made with card bases I seem to have acquired these are 6”x4” cards. An embossed panel and die – cut snowflakes, I also managed to use up more of my peel – offs and a small piece of thin ribbon.
Through out the year, when ever we get something in pretty packaging I die cut some tags and put them in a little box. Then when I need tags for gifts they’re cut and ready to use, just pick something that goes with the wrapping paper.
For the main presents this year I thought it would be nice to have die-cut names on the tags to make them a little bit special. I cut each letter three times and glued them on top of each other to give some dimension, then glued the names onto the tags, it’s a bit fiddly but I like the effect. It also used up lots of tidily bits of card I had hanging around.
I haven’t bought any new dies, stamps, card or anything else really this year. I have far too much stuff and really need to use things I already have so that’s what I’ve been doing. To be honest all this making hasn’t really made a dint but I’ll keep going and eventually I’ll get to the bottom of it all.
So, cards done, tags done, vouchers done. Gifts almost wrapped, shopping done, and we still have a couple of weeks left to go, yes! I’m on it this year hehe.
Thanks for stopping by today. Till next time, have fun x
Christmas is over, I know, these are the last minute things I made. You know the bits you have to make because there weren’t enough tags for example and that last minute card you thought you had made and given to some body else!
The tags were made as easily as I could. Snowflakes all cut with a tiny circle die from an old Christmas card from last year (I save any thing I think will be useful). Die-cut a sentiment from red card. White card embossed with a Swiss dots embossing folder. Blue card cut into squares. The corners of the squares were rounded.
The white embossed card is cut into slightly smaller squares than the blue and matted on top. The merry Christmas glued down and the snowflake stuck down with a small piece of foam tape for height. I used blue yarn to tie them.
The card is almost the same as the one I posted here. The differences were the gold card instead of silver and the colour differences in the backing paper and houses.
That’s the end of Christmas. The tree and decorations have all gone back to live in the attic for another year.Just enough time to breathe a little, then start all over again.
For Christmas new dies and crafty stuffs were given (big thanks to all gift givers) so now I get to have fun making things with new stuffs, yay.
Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to read. Till next time have fun xx
Dies used: Creative Expressions Sue Wilson Festive Collection – Snowflakes FREE Merry Christmas die
Spellbinders – Nesting Circles DoCrafts Xcut Build a Scene Cutting Dies – Village Embossing folder:
Swiss Dots
Hi there. Christmas day came and went off successfully and we are all now very happy and very full. Hope your Christmas was equally successful.
The only hitch we had was Christmas crackers, as in some body forgot to make any, eeep. Luckily the kids came to the rescue and said give us some ”stuff” to make them and well do it.
I had hats, wrapping paper (from the many now opened gifts), toilet and used wrapping paper rolls (from the recycle box), a small box of wrapped chocolates and a small packet of cracker bangers. I put them in a small pile in the middle of the room and left them both to it.
This is what they made. No fancy ribbons paper or even dies. Just made the way we used to make them when we were kids (all those years ago).
We didn’t have jokes to put in so decided to all tell any joke we could think of, yes the jokes were terrible, worthy of any Christmas cracker we’ve ever pulled. We had so much fun doing this I think we may do the same thing next year.
Thank you for dropping by again, wishing every body all the best for the holidays. Till next time, have fun xxx
The day is getting closer and this year I’m trying to get the prep done a little earlier. I don’t want to leave everything till last minute like I usually do.
I’ve made some gift tags with an owl die I had free with a magazine. I thought they would make cute reindeer faces.
All of the shapes were cut out with dies and stuck down with PVA glue. The antlers were cut with a snowflake die chopped into three parts.
The base shape is spellbinders labels#4 gold ( labels#4 is one of my favourite shapes) in silver mirri card. Most of the backgrounds were paper made to test different colours and embossing powders, some silver, clear and white all with various blue inks blended on them. I used part of it in the village scene from the previous post. When the paper ran out I used a piece of wrapping paper. This is what the paper on the tags looked like before I covered them up. This one is clear embossing powder on white card blended with blue ink.
I used cotton yarn instead of ribbon for the ties because I didn’t want to cover the words up then threaded small paper beads and tied knots onto the ends to stop them pulling through.
So they kind of look like reindeer right? Maybe if you squint and look at them sideways? I may make others I’ll have to see how many more I need, or maybe i’ll leave some plain like this for the more serous members of the family but really who doesn’t love reindeer?
Anyway thanks for stopping by and getting this far. Till next time, have fun x
Dies Used:
Spellbinders – Nested circles
Spellbinders – Labels#4 gold and Labels#4
Stamps Used: Sizzix Textured Impressions Embossing Folder w/Stamp – Snowflake Background Set DoCrafts Xcut A5 Cutting Die Set – Snowflakes
FREE Cute Creatures die
FREE Merry Christmas die Inks Used:
Distress Ink – Faded Jeans, Broken China, Shaded Lilac
Clear Embossing Ink
Hi there. How are you? The Day is getting closer, I really need to get organised.
This is a little village scene Christmas card.
The blue background was a background paper I had made testing different colours and embossing powders. The rest will be used on other projects, only a small portion was used on this card.
This part was stamped with a snowflake stamp using embossing ink and heat embossed with silver powder. Blue Distress ink was blended over the top.
The buildings were one whole strip die cut out of white card, cut up and arranged on top of each other to make a little scene. I cut the bases of the buildings as circles to match the blue circle for the sky.
The layers were put together with foam pads to give some dimension then matted onto a slightly larger mirri card circle. The die cut snowflakes were added and a peel-off for a sentiment.
The last few cards have peel-off sentiments because I found a load of them in the back of a draw and they need using up. Then I can fill the space with new stuff I need hehe.
I’m trying harder to organise myself this year, I probably still be going till the last minute but hopefully there will be more relaxing if I can get the main stuff done before December.
Thanks for stopping by. Bye for now. Till next time, have fun x
Dies Used:
Spellbinders – Nested circles DoCrafts Xcut Build a Scene Cutting Dies – Village
Stamps Used: Sizzix Textured Impressions Embossing Folder w/Stamp – Snowflake Background Set Creative Expressions Sue Wilson Festive Collection – Snowflakes
Inks Used:
Distress Ink – Faded Jeans, Broken China, Shaded Lilac
Clear Embossing Ink
Hi there. How are you. This is a good one for batch cards. They’re not too big and are reasonably quick to make.
I was watching crafty telly thinking “ I really like those stamps, I may need to buy them” when I realised I already had some similar stamps by the same company (Card-io) that I’d hardly used. They are tiny little stamps that are used to build up pretty effects and designs. I even have a set of stamp pegs!
To make the cards I used an inny and outy cut of a circle die to gently blend a little distress ink. They were just slightly offset to show the circle where the edges touch. This gave me a slight pattern to follow.
With a branch stamp I stamped 1st and 2nd generation with a beige ink pad, then with a sage green, stamp some leaves (again1st and 2nd generation) Stamping like this adds a some depth to the wreath.
The three bauble stamps were stamped in red yellow and blue and the tiny little hangers are black. It looks fiddly but I used the acrylic stamp pegs with a stamp on each end so it was really quick.
A micron pen was used to add in the curly ribbon. I drew on top of the same line and on the baubles with a clear star glitter pen to add a bit of sparkle. I used glossy accents on the baubles to add some shape and dimension. A peel-off for the sentiment and were done.
Thanks for taking the time and stopping by. Till next time, have fun x
Dies Used:
Spellbinders – Nested circles
Stamps Used: Card-io – Dotty Christmas Card-io – Oriental Blossom
Free Stamp – Leaves from a magazine set
Inks Used:
Distress Ink – Fired Brick, Wild Honey, Peeled Paint
Versa magic – Sea Breeze, Sage, Wheat Momento – Black Tuxedo
Sunnyfae 