Another Acetate Card

Another acetate card. This time I used the  retired Serene  Snowflakes stamp set and White Stazon ink.  A little tip here; when stamping on acetate don't use a brand new ink pad or one that you have recently re inked.  The juicier the ink pad is the more chance of the stamp slipping on the acetate, leaving you with blurry images instead of nice crisp images.
The candle image is from a set that was free from S.U  with a qualifying order.
I coloured the images with Copic markers.

Magic of Christmas

Here's a little card made using three stamps from a new stamp set from Stampin' up.The set is called "Christmas Magic " and it will be available on 2nd of September.
The holly branch is from  another new set coming out in September. I have to say,  I am very excited about this new Autumn- Winter catalogue.   I think  it's was because almost all the stamp sets I love come in the red rubber, wood mount rather than the photopolymer.

I coloured the images with Copic markers and used a black stamp and write marker to drawn in a few more snow mounds to match the mounds at the base of the snowman.
The background I created using the Serene Snowflakes stamp set, (now retired) and white craft ink.

Round Easel Card Tutorial

Tonights post is a very long one and it's a  step by step tutorial on making this round easel card. It's one I have been meaning to do for a very long time,  but knew it was going to take me ages to do, so I have been putting it off.

Step 1
Fold a sheet of card in half and place it over a large circle die.  So that the folded edge is only partly cut, lay the card on the die and leave a little of the die exposed. This will create the hinge of the card.(see photo on left)
Run it through your die cutting machine.
The folded edge should NOT be cut completely. See photo below

Step two
Cut another complete circle in the same size and colour card.  (this will be the front of your card.)

On one half of your hinged circles, score a line about half across  the circle making sure it is straight and fold in half towards the center of the card.

Step three



Your base card should now look like the photo below.

Step four


Add adhesive to the outer edge of the folded circle.

Step five

Take your full single circle and place it over the glued section lining up the edges of the circles perfectly.

 Your base card is now ready for decorating.

 Step six.

option one
Cut two white circles one die  size smaller than the base card. 

or

Option two 

Cut, two  white lace doilies and one smaller white circle two die sizes smaller than you base card.

 Step seven
Ink up a  small tree stamp  in a light blue ink. ( I used stampin' up's Bashful blue) near the top of your circle.
 Make sure you leave room above for a  second row of trees.
Using the same ink and stamp  ink up the stamp and lightly stamp the image onto scrap paper then stamp the image again (without re inking)  above and between the first line of trees you stamped. Repeat this process until you have a pleasing arrangement of  trees.

The stamping off of the excess ink before stamping the second row of trees will make them look further away, increasing the depth of your card.

Step Eight .

Ink up a larger tree  or group of trees
(I used the line of tree s stamp from  stampin' up's set Lovely as a tree) with the same ink and stamp the image either side of the circle leaving a gap in the centre  for your focal point .

 Step nine

Take a sponge dauber and ink it up lightly with the same blue ink. Dab off a little of the ink onto scrap paper, then using the edge of the dauber begin making streaks starting at the sides and bringing the streaks in towards the centre and under the larger trees. 
Then draw soft streaks below the smaller trees. This will create the impression of snowy  land and anchor the trees to that ground.
( have a little practise on scrap paper if you have never done this before.)

You can now stamp your focal point.

 Step ten

Using a darker ink ( I have used Stampin' up's Night of Navy) 
The pine tree stamp is from the "Lovely as a tree" stamp set from S.U. 
Stamp the tree in the foreground.







 Step Eleven

Very Important!!!  you card has been handled a lot and has collected oils from your hands and moisture from the inks, so if you apply embossing powder now it is going to stick in places you really don't want it to stick.So the next step is crucial.

Once the inks are dry wipe over the card with an embossing buddy/ anti static pad.  If you don't have one DON'T DESPAIR, you can make one from several layers an old pair of thick tights and some talcum powder. But that's another tutorial.
Another option is to just sprinkle a little talc over the card and  brush or wipe off with a clean cloth or tissue. This method is a little more messy.

Step 12
Ink up a smallish snowflake stamp with Versamark ink and randomly stamp the snow flakes over the trees. 
You won't be able to see where you have stamped very well with this ink as it's clear, so have a good light available and you should be able to see the sheen. 


When you have stamped enough  snowflakes cover them with  a  fine silver embossing powder,  tip the excess back into the pot. 
Then gentle  tap off the excess powder from your work and heat until the embossing powder begins to melt. Don't over heat, once it is shiny move your heat tool to another area of the card.
Over heated embossing powder is not a good look.

 This is the front panel of the card finished.

Now you will need to create the bottom panel.

For option one

just recreate the top part of the front panel on the lower half of the bottom panel.  ( see above photo)
Then adhere this panel to the bottom circle of the base card.


 For option two

Adhere the doilies to the  front  and the base panels. Then adhere the stamped circle into the center of the doily on the front of the card.

So now you need something to stop the card collapsing  when it's being displayed.
This can be done by cutting two strips of card  the same length as the width of your card and layering them. 
Stamping a sentiment on the top layer.

This this then stuck across the middle of the base panel using sticky foam pads  to give it a little height  which will act as the stopper when the card is on display.

My final words on this card are  why not mix and match the options. I am thinking  I may like  one doily on the front and the tree scene on the base. That's  a project for another day as it's time to say goodnight.

Faux Fire Place for Christmas.

My creation this week has nothing to do with card making or scrap booking. This is a prop for the Christmas play this year and you are seeing it before the cast and the rest of the school.

Made from five cardboard boxes. and a whole lot of paint and glue.

The two uprights are the boxes that the fadeless display board backing paper comes in. If you work in a school  you will know  exactly what I am writing  about
 I mention this as so many Stampin' up! demonstrators work or have worked in schools.

The base is made from two similar shaped boxes  just a bit wider and stuck together end to end, a sheet of card was then glued over the top to conceal the join and to give a little more stability.

The two side boxes were glued into position with PVA glue and I placed weighty objects on the top of each box while the glue was drying 

 I then painted the inside of the inside faces a of the boxes black and the outsides a creamy yellow (using school acrylic paint.)
Once the  cream paint was dry,  I added  the brick work. This is easier and quicker than you may think. You just make a large brick stamp.

How to make the stamp Using a piece of fun foam  (available from any craft shop)  

Cut a rectangle approximately   3 1/2 " x  5"     Using   double sided  tape stick the foam  in the centre of a piece of grey strawboard  which is three time the length of the foam,.... but the same width


At  each end the foam on the card....score a line .... turn the card over so the fun foam is face down on your surface and is place length ways across your surface.
Fold  both ends of the card back onto it's self .  these flaps  will be the handle.

Now in the centre of the two flaps score another line down the centre of both flaps ( the same as you did at each end of the foam.) 

Fold  the card outwards on the new score lines  of the card.

Apply glue  to the whole length of these  flaps and stick  together,  The shorter flap at the end should  stick up in the air,  so when you look at the whole thing side on it looks like a  letter  T. 

This sounds more complicated than it is and it should only take about 1 minute to make once you know what you are doing .... two if you don't.

When dry,  smear a thick layer of  brick coloured paint over a tray and use the stamp you have made  to pick up the paint and to apply the paint to the fire place  press firmly over the back of your stamp and lift off.

You don't have to use the whole stamp,  I used either one end or the other most of the time and you don't want a perfect solid impression every time.

Don't worry if you make a  a bit of a mess  or you get some paint missing from your bricks you can fill in the  big misses with a brush afterwards.

If you place your brick in  the wrong position either wipe it off  while it's still wet with some water and a cloth  ( because you used acrylic paint)  or wait for it to dry and  tidy it up later  with  your  base colour.

DO NOT fill in all the misses in the brickwork,  some  small misses help to give depth.

 I found this a great way of getting my bricks fairly evenly placed and of equal size.
 I think it took me less than twenty minutes to make the stamp and paint the bricks on and do the filling in. If I had done it by hand with a brush  it would have taken much longer and not looked as good.

The hearth of the fire I painted black and allowed to dry before spraying it diluted white acrylic paint . I used a bodyshop,  bodyspray  bottle to spray the paint on. These bottles are great as they deliver a very fine mist




On a large sheet of Grey strawboard  I painted the  outer edges of the board black and left the centre of the board blank until the black had dried as I didn't want the black paint mixing with the  bright colours of the fire and dulling them or worse  .... everything turning into a muddy mess.
It's important to use acrylics and not  school poster paints, as once the acrylic paint has dried it stays put. It is not re activated when it gets wet or by painting over it. I painted over lots of the black area s to create this fire. 
Once  the  painted fire was dry, I applied  streak and dots  of PVA glue and sprinkled glitter in various colours over the glue to add a little sparkle.

 When all was dry I added  a 1" wide line of PVA glue  to the  long sides  of the strawboard and then adhered the strawboard to the  back of the upright boxes, using a wall stapler and stapling the back panel to the back of the uprights this helps to keep the back panel in place while the glue is drying.

 NB it's a good idea to measure the distance between the  the upright boxes before you glue them to the base box to make sure you will be able to adhere the back of the fire place to the back sides of your upright boxes.


The mantle piece  was a  cardboard box which I had removed the tape from the bottom and folded flat. Lucky for me this box  that looked as though it was going to be too short turned out to be exactly the right length once folded flat. I made use of the flaps that were already on the box to attach it to the back of the fire place, Before doing this  I cut off the flaps at the other end of the box scored a line across the width of the box the same depth as the uprights as this mantle has to fit over the uprights.

About  six inched out from this score/ fold  line,  I trimmed off the excess box. I now had a long narrow U shape  piece of card which can now be glued to upright side boxes. Apply lots of PVA to the top of the upright boxes and position the U shaped card upside down over the uprights making sure both ends are even and that your uprights are still upright and not listing. Add weight to the top of the mantle piece to help the keep contact between the glue and the card.
Paint the mantel piece and decorate as desired.
The grate was created by cutting strips of strawboard approximately 1 " wide and gluing and stapling together. I then screwed up balls of coloured paper and foil and placed them in the grate.
 Here I have used green tinsel and the  Bow die from Stampin  up to create my double bows. the stockings were cut free hand and  stamped and heat embossed using the  serene snowflakes stamp set. the label on the stockings is from an old stampin' up set called gifted.

I don't have a fire place at home.... maybe I'll be bringing this one home for the season. I'll have to be quick because  a couple of other people have their eye on this piece too.

Serene Snowflake Card

This is a card using a technique I use quite a lot. It requires very little time and effort and the results are very effective.

Known as emboss resist technique, what that means is you stamp the image  with Versamark  clear ink pad  sprinkle with white embossing powder and tipping off the excess powder back into the pot and heating with the heat gun.

Allow  embossed image to cool  and set (just a few seconds) . 


Using a sponge dauber apply the ink to the centre of the snowflakes in a gentle, circular motion working to the outer edges of the snowflake allowing the ink to fade away. 

Serene snowflake table setting

 This year Christmas dinner was eaten in our son's garage. Yeah, I know it's sounds like a strange thing to do it was  an unconventional thing  for us to do too. But actually it made perfect sense.
In general houses in the uk are small, too small  to have the whole family round for dinner at one time.
My son suggested having dinner in his garage. 










He would build a table big enough for 11 people and carpet the floor,  put in a ceiling and lighting in the apex roof.
 I have to say he did a really good job and when it was all finished it actually felt quite cosy in there.

I would make the oversized table cloth the placemats,  napkin rings and place cards and a tree skirt to hide the stack of wheels in the corner which had the Christmas tree stuck in the middle.

The table cloth was made from a white sheet which I stamped using black and grey stazon ink pads and the serene snowflake stamp set from SU.
The placemats were A3 black card stamped using the serene snowflake stamp set  and heat embossed with silver embossing powder. The napkin rings where made from a strip of black card and a strip of mirri card, which I had embossed with an embossing folder.  The tree skirt matched the table cloth.
The name cards I have already done a post on so I won't go into those again.
With all that done all that was left to do was cook my third of the meal on Christmas day but that's another story......
Everything turned out ok in the end and I think everyone forgot we were in a garage.

Serene Snowflakes card

A very simple card using the serene Snowflakes stamp set from stampin up and Whisper white card stock, Marina mist ribbon and ink

I really don't think you need me to waffle on to explain how I made this one, but if you do email me and I will happily email you back the instructions.

Oh , I did add some small sparklies and a touch of dazzling diamonds to this card but they don't show up very well in this photo.

Snowflake Christmas card

The acetate window sheets were used for this see through card.
I stamped the acetate with Stazon using the serene snowflake stamp set .
I stamped the navy card with one of the larger snowflake stamps in the set, but this time I stamped it with shimmer paint . I applied the paint with a sponge dauber to the stamp taking care not to flood the stamp with paint.
I set one of the new stampin' up jewels in the centre of the snowflake and then placed three more jewels on the far side of the card.
I used the new stampin up lace edge punch on the side of the card.
This was then layered onto whisper white card and mounted on to the acetate base card.
I cut two pieces of whisper white card the same size and stuck one inside the card for the greeting and one on the back of the card, by doing this you hide the adhesive strips and it also gives you somewhere to stamp your,..... "Handmade by Joanna blogs"

"Time for bed "said Zeberdee....... and tonight, I will go willingly zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Christmas card

Marina mist ink and card again, I do love this colour.

I used stampin up's "lovely as a tree" stamp set, daubers, "serene snowflakes" stamp set and the deer from the "winterpost " stamp set.