Tuesday 13 September 2011

Christmas is coming ... with Humphrey! :o)

Hi,

Those of you who are Crafter's Companions will already know about Humphrey, the little elephant with a BIG heart.


Well, the fabby team at CC are launching Humphrey's Christmas today! Yippeeeeee! I can't wait. Click here to get to the Crafter's Companion website where you can find more info.

Wednesday 7 September 2011

My First Easel Card - Wedding Acceptance

Hi,

I decided to extend my knowledge and abilities and have made my first easel card. This is the result, together with an envelobox to go with the card. I also wanted this to be a very special card as it is in response to the Wedding Invitation from my brother and his FiancĂ©e. :0) !!!!!!!!!!


Not only was this my first easel card, but it's also the first time I've coloured in a digital stamp and the first time I've used buttons in a project! I decided that because my stamp was tall and narrow my card should reflect this, so it is a slimline card - the finished size of the card when it was folded for posting was fractionally bigger than A5. The card base is ivory and it looks like it has some form of hammered finish to it, but as it has been a long time in my daughters' craft cupboard I've no idea where it came from!

I used the "Springtime Sweets and Cupcake Treats" embossing board with my Ultimate Pro (both from Crafter's Companion) to produce the hearts and ribbon border on the left side of the card. My Top Tip for embossing is to rub some soap at the top of my card (I used a freebie guest soap from the bathroom of the ferry we used to travel to and from France on!) and to run my embossing tool in this - it makes your tool run ohhhhhh soooooo smoothly across the card! :0) I used the same embossing on the left side of the envelobox to tie the project together (unfortunately it hasn't come out too well in the photo above!) :0(

The digital stamp is called "Simply Daisies" by Daisy Doodles, available from The Printable Craft Shop at Card Making World. Having printed this onto my Solar White Neenah Card, I coloured it using my Spectrum Noir Pens (from Crafter's Companion) in the following shades:
Flowers: 12, 14, 11, 1
Stems: 48, 43
Water: 171, 68
Grounding under Vase: CG1
I then cut the stamp out and mounted it onto my card using a 3D glue.

The sentiments on the easel part of the card and on the stopper both came from a Crafter's Companion Member's Monthly Download called Luscious Ladybirds. The circular "Thanks" was already on the download, and additionally there was a blank oval. I imported this oval into my normal word processing package, and superimposed a text box with the font Tempus Sans  to produce the additional wording. I printed these out onto card, cut them out and coloured the edges using my Spectrum Noir in Shade 1 to tie these in to the flowers. These sentiments were mounted using sticky pads. I bought a red organza ribbon, some coir fibre and these delightful handmade ceramic buttons in the shape of a heart from Hobbycraft. I fixed the buttons the ribbon by running the coir fibre under the ribbon, threading it through the holes in the button and then finished it with a bow. I think it gives a lovely "Shaker Style" look to the card, don't you?

I would like to enter this card for the following challenges:
I hope you like this card. Now what am I going to make as a Wedding Card :0∫ !!!!!