Thursday, October 13, 2011

When it Rains...

The season is really changing quickly here. Last evening it rained, and then the rain turned into something a lot thicker than rain. Fortunately, it did not last long and there is no sign of that incident here this morning.

Also yesterday, my computer was off line for hours. I think I went into withdrawal. So today, again, I have two cards to show.

 These are both from my Christmas workshop. The first is adapted from a card I made last fall in Glendale at a Stampscapes class held by Ken Pesho. You can view his card here. When you get to the Stampscapes  Gallery page, select Ken Pesho VIII from the menu on the left. First, die cut the ornament from white c/s with Spellbinders Heirloom Ornaments (this is the largest die in the set). I used the Stampscapes Comet stamp but changed the scene up with SU's Scenic Season. I masked the words on this and should have masked the small bird as well. It looks as if it is about to be blown to smithereens, as my Mom would have put it. I used markers to add two colours of blue to the comet before stamping. Then I added the scene  with Memories black, and after everything dried, sponged on the same two colours of blue. The mat was created by running a small metal washer with a pencil in the hole around the edge of the ornament on the back of the silver c/s. This works so well when you need a mat for just about anything.
 The navy background c/s was embossed with the Cuttlebug snowflake folder in two passes. The pine boughs are from a Marianne die, the sentiment is stamped on a #4 SB label with navy ink and a border is added just inside the edge of the label with a silver pen. The sentiment here if from the SU set, Beautiful Season. The border on the front and inside were punched from the silver c/s with a MS Garden Trellis punch. Finally a knot of silver ribbon is attached to the top of the ornament with a glue dot.
I can't tell you where the silver c/s came from as it has been in my stash forever. The rest of the c/s, the inks (except the black) and the stamps (except the comet) are all SU.

 Card number two used the gold version of the unknown-origin c/s from above. I die cut the mat from Spellbinders Grand Labels 4. The card base here is ivory.

I stamped the Heartfelt Creations stamp, Large Joy with Poinsettias, in gold encore ink and embossed with gold EP. After colouring with twinkling H2O's ,
I laid the die over the image and lightly traced the inside of the die. Then, using my blade, I cut around the areas that I thought would overhang the edge of the die. With the die placed on the image the way you want to cut it, gently lift the trimmed edges over the to of the die before running the whole piece through the machine. You end up with some areas overhanging the die cut piece. Clear as mud? I hope this photo helps.




As you can see, (at least I hop you can see it), you don't cut away the remaining c/s when you trim around the areas you want to lift.

I made about 10 of these in a row, and once you get the hang of it, it goes quite quickly.

For the inside (sorry about the fuzzy photo - it is too early in the morning for me) I used another Heartfelt stamp from the Holly Border set, with the same embossing and twinkling H2O treatment. Then I stamped the Heartfelt sentiment in gold with no embossing. The bow on the front is gold organdy ribbon from Michaels and is attached with a glue dot.

Today, I hope to get the last of my personal Christmas cards made and the address labels printed. Then I can pack it all away until I get back from the south in December. That will be a great load lifted off my mind.

Oh, and look, the sun is shining so I might try to get out and appreciate one of the last days of Alberta autumn.

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