Handicrafts by Kate Perry and other ramblings

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

It's Rudolf Day again.

Yes, the twenty-fifth has arrived with indecent haste so here is my offering for this month's Rudolf day challenge. If you are wondering what that is all about, pop over to see Sandra at Stamping for Pleasure, and you'll soon find out.

I had my long awaited cataract operation yesterday, so knowing I would not be up to doing much crafting this week I prepared this card in advance. I need to make a few more big sets so I tried to keep it fairly simple. Once again I have made a card that depicts what Christmas is really all about. I like making cards with robins, decorations and plenty of bling on, but really I like them to depict scenes from the nativity. So this time I've included them all, stable, kings, shepherds, angels, the whole caboodle! Every silhouette on this card is a dingbat from the font DB Nativity which I purchased from Scrap'n'fonts many moons ago. I used my Silhouette cameo machine to convert each letter into a cutting file, and then arranged as many of them as I could on an A4 sheet of paper. 
I then found that with just two sheets of black paper, and one tiny snippet that matched, I could cut out ten sets of my nativity scene. I had checked with the first one that the complete scene would fit on a DL card. So I went ahead and cut all ten sets out. I then found that the slightly sticky cutting mat made the tiny pieces stick together a bit, and the stables were getting in a tangle, so I separated each set out and bagged them up. So here they are, ten little cards just waiting to be assembled. Hopefully I will be able to do them in a day or two.

For today I settled on just one of them. I folded an A4 sheet of white card to form a DL base, and the piece I cut off I painted very 'loosely' with blue water-colour paint. I then distressed the lower edge with tea-dye DI to ground the characters. I stamped the base card top and bottom with two of the script border punches from a Hero arts set, and cut the painted panel to fit between them. I backed it with some silver holographic paper (Even nativity cards need a little bit of shine!), and glued it in place. Then I diluted some PVA glue so that it was easy to apply and painted it on the reverse of each tiny silhouette, and arranged them along the card. I may add a silver star over the stable. I haven't decided whether it needs it yet.
So one down and nine to go, but now I know what I am doing, it won't take long to finish the rest. The fiddly bit is done.
I am also linking this to Crazy Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge 91: Nativity.

15 comments:

Sarn said...

Hi Kate . . . really lovely traditional nativity scene here.

Hope you make a speedy recovery from the cataract op.

Thanks for joining in.
Good luck in the draw.

Hugs,
Sarn xxx

Lynne K said...

I like nativity scenes too, and this one is beautiful. Love all the silhouettes.

Hope your op was a success, and you have a quick recovery.

Lynne x

Hazel said...

Beautiful nativity scene - thanks for joining in my CHNC challenge 91 - hope to see you again soon. Hope the op went well and that it is a success x

Kathleen said...

Lovely traditional Christmas card

Kath x

Jean said...

Glad to see you were able to craft today after your op. Lovely card you've made, I like the way you have split the words between top and bottom.Jean x

kiwimeskreations said...

what a beautiful card Kate! Love the way you kept the nativity to be the main image. Praying your surgery has gone well and that you have a rapid and total recovery.
Blessings
Maxine

Saskia said...

Beautiful card, love the dark silhouettes against the sky.

Hope you recover well from your operation!

Twiglet said...

I love to see a real Nativity scene and those little cut outs are perfect. Hope your op went well. x Jo

MaryH said...

This is a lovely card, and my favorite of all the Christmas themes (really what it's about, after all!) I enjoyed reading how you did this. I have a cameo, since April, not used it yet. I'm still in a muddle about SVG files, etc. so I appreciated your info about the how-to. Hope the surgery went well...I may have to do it soon as well. Take care, and thanks for sharing your lovely card AND your info. Hugs

Brenda said...

What a beautiful card and of course the very essence of Christmas! I hope your eyes are doing well now after your surgery.

Helen said...

Beautiful - a really elegant and card and perfect for Hazel's challenge.

Thanks for joining us at Crafty Hazelnut's Challenge.

Helen x
GDT member

scrappymo! said...

This is just beautiful! I think the silver tar would just finish it to perfection!

Thanks for the idea about watering down the glue to paint on the teensy slivers...great idea.

Bernie said...

Absolutely beautiful traditional Christmas card Kath. Love all the elements. Hope your recovery goes smoothly and quickly. I've just learned I have the start of cataracts. :(
Hugs
Bernie

JoZart Designs said...

Just popped over to see how you are doing and I see your op is all over.... and I hope a success for you.
Take care and keep on getting better ..
Love Jo x

fatmonica said...

It's a beautiful card. I hope you're recovering from your op and that you're back in action soon.