Well, are you all ready for Christmas? Actually, never mind ready, have you made all your cards? You have! Er........ well, you're 100% better than me because I've only made TWO and confess I've had to resort to (whisper) buying mine this year. I'm not going to beat myself up about it though because I really have had a lot on my plate this year and if it wasn't my time flying out the window it was my mojo, lol! Never mind, it'll soon be a brand new year and I am determined to believe 2013 will be better, as far as crafting is concerned anyway.
However, today I have got a make to show you. It was my lovely buddy (and wonderful crafter), Judith's birthday at the end of last week and I struggled all week to make her a card and I'm sorry to say, I had to send her an apologetic message saying it was going to be late. Late! It nearly didn't get made at all but I was determined so I stuck at it until I got something I was relatively happy with and Judith finally got her card yesterday.
Unfortunately, I really struggled to capture the true colours of this card on my photos. On here it looks a tad too blue and as I used Tumbled Glass and Broken China Distress Inks, you'll know it should look more turquoise(y).
I started out with a 21cm square card base and stamped an Artemio wildflower image at random with Versamark ink, heat embossed with clear embossing powder and then blended the two Distress Inks mentioned together with Vintage Photo. When I had the effect I wanted I covered the card with paper kitchen towel and ironed over the top to remove the embossing.
I then took a large tag, spritzed it with water and then put some Tumbled Glass and Picket Fence Distress Stain on my craft mat, spritzed that with water and swiped my tag through it. I repeated this several times, drying with my heat gun between each layer and finally flicking some water from my fingers and blotting it off to create the bleached effect here and there. I then stamped images from PaperArtsy and Indigoblu using Distress Inks and Coffee Archival, spritzed with Gold Glimmer Mist and then edged with Vintage Photo DI. I used a mask at the top of the tag and applied Golden Texture Paste coloured with a little Broken China DI through the mask. I left it to cure overnight and then touched it with Viva Inca Gold to highlight the texture.
(this photo shows the nearest to true colours)
I stamped the lovely Stampendous bird image onto ivory card and added the word Dream which is a Chocolate Baroque stamp. I coloured with DIs and added a little Derwent Coloursoft pencil before cutting out with a Nestie label and lightly blended DI's around the edge before removing the die. I took some Prima flowers and touched them lightly with DI's and spritzed with Gold GM's. I also die cut the leafy sprays with a Marianne die from some fibrous handmade paper. I arranged all the elements onto the card before adhering them. Oooh, nearly forgot the cute little wooden bird. He came from The Stamp Connection and I tapped him with the Versamark inkpad before sprinkling him with Judi-Kins Rustique Bent Nail embossing powder (from my lovely candy win the other week).
I'm so glad I persevered because in the end I was quite pleased with this card and Judith said she liked it too. Not only that, I realised that it fits with Hels Sheridan's Sunday Stampers Challenge 234 this week where the theme is tags! I hardly ever enter challenges because I forget to look if my project fits any themes, lol, so I'm really pleased that finally I have an entry for Hels' Challenge which I've wanted to join in with for an absolute age.
Well I hope you're all set for a good weekend. I'm finally putting our tree up tomorrow, something else that is a week late being done, ;D. Stay warm and cosy everyone. I'm dreading the temperatures we are supposed to have in store for us next week, Brrrr! Till next time ..............
Hugs
Lesley Xx
