Merry Christmas to One and All

Just a little post to wish everyone of my Crafty Friends a Very Merry Christmas.  I hope you all have a wonderful day!

We have all been busy with our projects especially on the lead up to Christmas and I think we all deserve a pat on the back (and a little tipple if you have a mind to...I'm going for the tipple).

I have really enjoyed writing my blog and also meeting other crafters albeit online. (forgive me if I have rambled on too much at times...I spend 14 hours every day on my own talking to myself).

I have really appreciated the lovely comments to my posts and the advice that I have been given.  It has also been a pleasure to read other blogs and to find out what is going on in this crafting world of ours.

I have picked up loads of tips, been inspired and laughed.  I have been picked twice now for a top 5 placement for my cards and I have also won £50.  Who knew that that was gonna happen!

So I have had a good year and I am certainly looking forward to 2014.  We are moving house at the end of January and this means that I will finally have a proper Craft Room again Yippee!  I have so many plans for how it will be arranged going on in my head and what new things I will buy to fill it up.

I shall let you all get back to your festivities with a big THANK YOU to my friend Irene McKendrick who made the lovely set of Festive Mice for me.  (They were sitting on a sheet of cotton wool but my cats stole it!)

Hope Santa was good to you


Hugs n Kisses from

Emma Burns
Handmade in Scotland

Hi Folks!  Still making Christmas cards!  So last post I passed on my tip for making a fringe for the end of a paper scarf using thread.  At the time I had not fully made up the card...I was trying to get a production line going but not succeeding.  But I have finally got that batch of cards finished and mailed, so now I can take a little time out for blogging!

So to recap, after building up my image (Forever Friends Teddy). I cut off the paper fringe and added the blue thread and left it to dry.

So while the glue was drying I cut out two layers.  One was a blue striped backing paper, the other was a piece of hammered card from my stash and I began building up a background scene using Copy Paper, Ink duster, Memento Summer Sky ink pad, and a moon mask.  Once I had built up the colour to the shade I wanted, I began to stamp up some plant life.

I of course reached for my favourite stamps which are of course Clarity Stamps.  They have quite an extensive range of stamps and are of the very best quality.  Part of their range is the Mini stamps which are great for doing mini landscapes or for even using them as a seal with wax on the back of an envelope.

I used two Clarity Stamps both from a Leaf set for the Naked trees of Africa.  I stamped them using Distress Ink - faded Jeans.  I layered my two pieces onto white card, put in my insert and then added my topper.









I then used a glue pen to add some Glamour dust to highlight the scene.






I have made two sizes of this card.  I have also matted one onto plain smooth white card and the other larger one onto White Pearlescent card.  The blue background paper was cut out using a Spellbinder and a Nellie Snellen Die.



















So over the next few days I will post the last of the other cards I have made for Christmas that I actually remembered to take photos of to share with you all.

Hugs to all

Emma xxx

  

Quick Fix for Decoupage

Hi Folks!  Most of you will have done all your Christmas shopping and finished of all your Christmas cards and I bet you are feeling quite happy about that.  Well I have to say that I am rather jealous of you all.  As I have been suffering from the flue over the past few weeks I am still playing catch-up with all of my Christmas chores ( not nice making cards when you can't stop coughing and sneezing) and to top that off I am having to move house.  ( I have until the end of January to find a new home as the current home has been sold).

So as it stands I have still to make about 35 cards and shop for presents for about ten more people and get everything delivered before Christmas...glad I don't have to worry about Christmas dinner as my husband takes care of that, I haven't cooked a Christmas dinner in 29 years!

Well the panic is starting to settle in and there is no sign of Santa's Little Helpers so I will just have to get my head down.  Try for no distractions...turning phone off and not answering door... as for the presents, that will have to be a last minute dash which I hate to do but I have no choice.  I did go for a little walk with my son to clear my head, but I was so tired that I fell asleep at 4.30 today and didn't wake up until after 9pm.

I did get to feed the Wild Boars and the Goat today so it wasn't a complete failure.

 I have been crafting (playing) but not really getting anywhere.  Being ill has affected my mojo.  I did come up with a clever little fix for a decoupage card that I am making and I thought that after I had done with my rant I would post about it.  So here goes......

One of the problems about cutting out is that some of the finer bits don't come out as you would like. For instance -the tassel / fringe at the end of a scarf. My solution to this problem is to cut the offending article off completely then take some WHITE cotton thread and wrap it around a pencil a few times (for a thicker look use embroidery thread).

Take a Pro-Marker of the colour that matches your design and colour the thread and leave to dry for a few minutes.


Roll the thread off the pencil and cut at one end (as the thread will be in a loop).  Now all you have to do is to turn your piece over and stick down the thread to the back with some craft glue ( tape doesn't really work as you have to make sure that all the thread is going to stay in place).  Leave to dry and you are left with a soft fringe / tassel

So now that that is done I can get on with making the card up...just got a background to finish for this one and also to finish layering up the little guy then mount him on a card and do an insert and make an envelope and get him handed out...only 34 more after that!

Can you guess what my new year resolution is going to be?

Yup, make at least 5 Christmas cards a month, every month.  Or maybe I should just go for one design and copy that for everyone.....nah couldn't do that, I would rather give up!

Hugs to all xx

Christmas Parchment Fairy

I was asked  to do a few Christmas Fairy cards and I thought I would show this one.  I had borrowed the image of this Fairy from a friend.  I had stamped the outline in black ink knowing that it would look lovely in Parchment. So I had my image which I traced onto parchment with my finest ball tool.  I had decided to keep it quite simple and keep the design to whitework and gold and then add some colour by using a patterned christmas paper as a frame.

I also decided to make a rosette to hold the sentiment 'Have a Magical Christmas'.  I took a small piece of gold Vellum, a small piece of a wine coloured patterned paper, two Slider Dies and put these through my Bigshot.  I used another piece of Gold Vellum, stamped my verse in Plum Adirondack, then pierced around it with my large two needle tool and then cut this out with my parchment scissors.  I added a red Organza ribbon and then attached this to the card.

                                        

To give the fairy depth, I worked on both sides of the Parchment.  I added the contrast to the whitework using Tinta Pearl on the underside of the 'skirt' and Tinta Gold to the ribbon, twigs, hair and slippers. 

                                                                  Once I was happy with the depth of the whitework I matted the Parchment onto a brown pearlescent paper. I then used a gold ink pad and a bronze ink pad directly onto the exposed edge of the paper...it is quite difficult to match up golds so my solution is not to try but to add a complimentary shade randomly.  It seems to work.  I matted the Frame over the Parchment, I then matted this onto the coloured paper. I trimmed the excess paper so that there was an even overlap.  I then matted this onto White card, added the ribbon and rosette.  There you have it, one Christmas Fairy!

Hope you like it,  Hugs to all xx

Santa Shaker Card

Hi Folks! My blog has been a bit quiet of late due to illness.  It wasn't feeling very well and had managed to have a relapse of the Flu.  On the mend so it is about time to get another post on the go! I also have to say THANK YOU to all my Crafty Friends for their warm birthday wishes. Hugs to all xx

So I have a little shaker card to show today and these are just some of the items used in its making.
For my main image (santa) is a stamp that I managed to pick up from a car boot sale earlier in the year. I also used a small snowflake stamp from Clarity Stamp which I stamped lightly in the background.
But before I did my stamping I cut out the shapes that I wanted using my bigshot and spellbinders labels 4, Theuva Card, Film coated Clear Acetate.

Dies used

I placed two of my dies onto the A5 Theuva card and put through the bigshot at the same time - one inside the other.  (I only wanted the outer layer to begin with.)  I then took the inner die and traced it out on Theuva card and then cut out around it.  I also used this same die for the template for the clear Acetate window.  

outer Die and Acetate

So I now have 1 x outer frame, 1 x inner plain piece and 1 x Acetate window. (Both the Acetate and the inner frame are larger now than if I had cut them out using the bigshot...the reason for this is that they now fit behind the outer framework by about .5cm)  I coloured the frame using my ink duster and Memento Teal Zeal.  I used double sided tape on the back of the frame around the inner edge and then attached the Acetate.  (Remember to remove one side of the protective film from the Acetate...the side being attached to the underside of the frame)

Taking my inner piece of card I stamped my Santa image in Cool Piri Adirondack ink. I coloured the image using Pro Markers -  Duck Egg, Soft Green, Blush.  I used Cool grey 1 and a Blender to shade in the beard and hair.








I masked parts of the image while I shaded in the background with Memento Summer Sky and Teal Zeal and this is when I stamped the snowflake.  I used a quickie glue pen to attach White Flocking to Santa's Hat, Cuff, Jacket and top of his boots.

Once I had this all done I began to put it all together.  I removed the other layer of protective film, attached double sided foam tape around the edge of the acetate.  I laid down a small clump of Dry UTEE over the Santa image and then laid down the framework.  (I usually use Micro Beads but I didn't have enough for what I wanted so I substituted with the UTEE).
Now my Santa was standing in a nice deep pile of snow.

I  cut out 4 small swirls from a pale blue Vellum using a leafy swirl die from Cheery Lynn.  I stamped out Merry Christmas (freebie from a magazine) onto printable vellum with Teal Zeal.  I then pierced around the words and then cut out using my parchment scissors.  Using Tinta Pearl and my nib pen I coloured the inside of the lettering.  Once this was dry I then mounted these pieces onto my framework using Pergamano Glue.  I had already put in my insert and mounted the framework to a plain white card so all I had to do then was to shake the card to make sure it was sealed properly (It was thankfully) and take a final photo before putting it in its envelope.

It is my first shaker card made for christmas this year, I have a few more to go so I had better get on with them.  I hope you like this one and I hope I didn't ramble too much.  Thank you for reading xx

Crafty Hugs to all!

Emma

Rose Panel

Hi again Folks!  So today I got my Comment Candy Win and I have started to play with it.  My first play is with the New Rose Panel Stencil from who else but ClarityStamp 

I began by cutting an A4 sheet of Double Sided Tape down to 10.5 x 24.5cm.  I took the Rose Panel Stencil, smooched it with a Tumble Dryer Sheet and placed this down onto the Double Sided Sheet, removing the top protective layer first, which I then had to put back in place.  I then took a Small Ball Tool and went over all the edges of the design then I went around again with a pencil.  I removed the protective layer and proceeded to cut out the Leaves and the Roses.  I replaced the protective layer back in place. 

Once the tedious stuff had been done I got out my Gilding Flakes. I used Large Gold Gilding Flakes on the exposed Leaves and the Roses.  I gave them a bit of a Burnish with my Finger Sponge and then I removed the Protective Layer and got in about the edges with my Large Copper Gilding Flakes.  When I got around to Burnishing I did it from the outer edges inwards.  I then laid down more Copper Gilding Flakes and Burnished the lot.  I then removed the Rose Panel Stencil and I took a paint brush and brushed in Pearlescent Wine (Perfect Pearls Beautiful Earth Collection).                                                   

My next step was to mount this on to a piece of 300gsm Pearlescent Mauve Parchment.  I trimmed this using my Perfect Layers Ruler. (If mounting sticky sheets it is always best to gently lay down in the middle while keeping hold of the ends and then slowly lay these down).  I finally layered this onto a piece of  350 gsm Matte Black Card from my stash and the result is .....

I think I will have to look for a frame for this as I really like it a lot, I hope you do too!

I am away to play again!

Happy crafting!

p.s.  Thanks once again Barbara Gray for picking out my name xxx

Comment Candy Win

Hi Folks!  Well as you will know if you read my post and that of Barbara Gray, I recently became the first Winner of the Comment Candy for her new Blog.  I won a £50 Clarity Stamp Gift Voucher.  So after being pleasantly (understatement) surprised I went about choosing what I would like.  As soon as my Gift Voucher arrived in a lovely handmade card I had to re-think what I wanted...so much loveliness to choose from...a couple of hours later I had made my final choices.  I placed a call into Clarity Stamp and spoke to a very lovely lady who was extremely helpful.  (I am really sorry, but I didn't get her name...I was too excited) My order placed and late this afternoon they arrived.

New Rose panel Stencil

Splodge-A-Mask Rectangles Stencil

Douglas Mask

Fucshia Set (3 Stamps) (1 Lge Handle)

Remountable Winter Wonderland Set (5 stamps)

Long Grass (1 Handle)

Long Grass Flowerheads (6 Stamps)

Scottish Castle (1 Handle)

Remountable Edelweiss Mini

Ultra Fine Pro Marker Nibs (3 nibs)


So I am one Happy Crafter who is off to play....mmm...yup I know what's first.

But before I go, there is another Blog Candy Offer from Barbara.  The following message is from her Blog and remember...You got to be in it to win it!

Good luck and Happy Crafting!
Hugs Emma xx

So let me think...

Blog Candy round Christmas.....

Leave a comment any day and as often as you like between now and Friday 13th (my lucky day! I was born on Friday 13th!),

and I will pick a random winner to send a smashing

Clarity Stencil Hamper to! You should go and check our hampers on the website; lovely gifts and great value!

But be sure to leave a lovely, uplifting and positive message; I believe that if you think and you speak positive, 

you act and you do positive. 

 love,

Traditional Christmas Card

A bit of a traditional card now.  I was having a bit of a play with my new Holly Sprigs stamps from Clarity Stamp and I decided that making a frame for my card was the way to go with these stamps.  So that's what I did.
I stamped the framework onto a piece of A5 Theuva Card using Memento Northern Pine Ink Pad. I then went around using 2nd generation ink.  I then went around again using Memento Northern Pine Ink Pad.


I then stamped in the children on the sledge.  I used a bit torn copy paper and stamped over the edge of this to give the effect that the sledge is weighted down in the snow.  I did the same process for the trees and the hedge in the background.  I also used torn copy paper and makeup sponge to  mark in little areas and to give the sledge a hill to run down.  I then added Diamond Sparkles - Fairie Kisses ( I know that's not how you spell fairy but that's how it's spelt on the tub) to the trees, hedge and ground.
I also coloured in the Berries with a Cardinal Red ProMarker which I then used clear Glossy Accents on to give the berries a shine.

I trimmed my image down and I used a piece of the scrap to stamp Happy Christmas (northern pine)and also a Holly Sprig (olive grove). I shaded a bit around the edges using Memento - Pistachio ink pad.  Then using a Spellbinder Fancy Tag and bigshot I cut it out.  To finish the tag I attached some of my foil leaves that I had cut out (shown in an earlier post) to the back and then attached this to the corner of my card using double sided foam pad.


I mounted my design onto a silver foiled card from my stash and then mounted this onto a white card using double sided tape.  Now I am away to make an envelope to match but since the day is fast disappearing I thought that I had better get this Blogged.  So here it is the finished card.  Hope you like it.

I am entering this into the Clarity Stamp Challenge.  http://claritystampchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/challenge-9.html

Good luck to everyone entering and hugs to all xx

          

Mini Teddy Decoupage

Hi Folks!  I would like to start of by saying that I am having a bit of a problem with comments to my Blog.  It seems that this <no-reply@blogger.com> is to blame.  I did the test ( commented on an old post and right enough it came from blogger no-reply.)  So if you feel that your Blog is not getting many comments or none then check it out.  I have tried a couple of different things to try and fix this but didn't seem to work. so my final try at sorting it was to go into my post settings on G+ and change the setting 'who can comment on my posts' (it was already set for public) but what I did was use the down arrows to change it to circles then changed it back again to public.  This actually saved the setting this time (a little message flashed up to tell me it had) So here's hoping!

Now for a card.  This is another printout from the Forever Friends Christmas Character disc.  I have printed it out on two sheets - the first setting on printer was PLAIN PAPER the second sheet was printed on Super Smooth Decoupage paper so my setting was PHOTO PAPER MATTE.  The reason for this...it saves on ink as the bottom layer is going to be covered (only works if you are going to make decoupage from a single image) (or you can enhance your top image with promarkers, gel pens, glitter etc.)

I began with embossing a Snowflake on to a pale blue sheet of card from my stash and also to the front of the white card that my final piece would be added to.  I used a Clarity Stamp Snowflake for this, along with Clear Embossing Powder.










I cut out the first image from the sheet using a Square Die and quickly took my embossing ball tool around the edge to give it detail (was quicker just to do this at the time)

I matted my first printed sheet to the blue snowflake sheet and trimmed using my Perfect Layers Ruler. I then enhanced the images on the 2nd sheet using a Red Glitter, Green Glitter, Gold Glitter, and Blue Glitter Gel Pens. I also coloured all the lettering with an Artic Blue Pro Marker.   Next I cut out ALL the letters and also the presents and the christmas tree and star...was a bit time consuming and fiddly but worth it.  I stored all the bits in a little ATC bag so as not to lose them. I mounted them onto my first sheet using double sided foam pads

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

I then mounted this to my card using Strong Double Sided Tape. Although  this is only two layers, it is always better to use a Strong fixative when doing decoupage...I have had them fall off the card when I first started making cards - not funny!  
So here is the finished article!

It certainly catches the light!  I just love it.  I made one similar to this last year but I didn't colour or emboss. I like this version better. I hope you do too.

Crafty hugs to all x

I am going to enter this in to the following challenges:

http://craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

http://craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge2.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/chnc-challenge-extra-for-november.html

http://myheartpiecesdigitalstampchallenge.blogspot.in/2013/11/redgreen-and-whatever-other-colors-you.html

http://christmascardsallyearround.blogspot.ie/2013/11/november-challenge.html

http://challenges4everybody.blogspot.ca/

http://4kraftygirlzchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/

                                                                                                                                          

Sending you Sunshine

Where has the day gone?  One minute I was sitting making more christmas cards, then around 3pm my mail was delivered.  The next thing I know it was after 8pm!  What happened?...Well I will tell you!..I received a £50 gift voucher from Barbara Gray of Clarity Stamps for winning her first Comment Candy from her New Blog, http://barbaragrayblog.blogspot.co.uk/

My £50 Gift Voucher inside

I of course spent the next few hours making a list of what I wanted to get from Clarity Stamp.  It was tough going...there is so much to choose from.  I had to come away and get a coffee at one point and then go back to see if I had changed my mind.  So what did I choose?  Well I am going to keep that to myself for now as I will post pictures along with a bit of gloating when my parcel arrives, but I did put on my list a couple of Stencils, a couple or three Stamp Sets and three single Stamps.  So obviously with the time just disappearing I was too late to get the order in today (Tuesday) which means I will have to get on it first thing in the morning

There is still an even bigger giveaway, a £100 Clarity stash. To qualify for that one, you have to attach the Giveaway Button to your Blog (you can link to he Blog from the Button down on the Right Side of my Blog), leave a comment that you have done so and when the Blog reaches 700 Followers the draw will be made.  So why not give it a go and join up.  You will not only have a chance of winning but you will also be treated to some wonderful demo's, lots of tips and an insight into Barbara Gray and Clarity Stamp.  Well worth a visit!

Hope to see you there...Happy Crafting!

Emma xx