Finding my mojo for Rudolph Day

Well it seems like ages since I was posting on here, though I've really only been AWOL for two weeks. (There has been one post in that time because I was guest designer for the Butterfly challenge, but that was done well in advance and scheduled to post on the right day!). I haven't actually been away at all, but I have enjoyed two weeks with my lovely grandsons and their girl-friends. We don't see them very often, so with such a lot to catch up on, I left the computer sleeping.

But when I have had a break from crafting, I find it really hard to get started again, so Sarn's timely reminder that Rudolph Day is here again, was just the incentive I needed to make me get busy. If you don't know what I am talking about, pop over to Stamping for Pleasure, and maybe join in by posting two Christmas cards on the 25th of each month. It's a great way to get started on your Christmas stash.

For my first card I decided to CASE one made by Sue Wilson. I am sure many of you watch her on create & craft TV. I don't have that opportunity but I do follow her blog and pick up some useful ideas from her videos on Joanna Sheen's shop website. Her card was in pretty shades of lilac and green, but I thought it would also make a good Christmas card. You can see Sue's card, and follow her tutorial for making it, by clicking here. 

Instead of her pastel shades, I used glitter with strong Christmas colours, and cut the frame from ivory pearlescent paper. The base card is matching ivory pearl card. Both the inner fancy circle and the outer frame are cut with Sue Wilson's new die set - Italian Collection, Calabriar. To make the outer frame stand out from the background, I cut a mat from an ancient piece of old-gold paper. I have no idea where it came from. Before assembling everything, I cut the sentiment with Britannia dies from the centre of the gold mat. To finish it off, I used snippets of red and green paper to cut the ivy flourish and poinsettias, both using Joanna Sheen's signature dies. Since taking this photo, I have also added a dark red nailhead to the centre of the circle and it looks just right.

I really like the look of the glitter, especially on a Christmas card, (If you haven't seen the tutorial, it is glued to the back of acetate, behind the frame), and I will probably make some more of these at a later date, but it was fairly time-consuming as each colour of glitter needed to be almost dry before the next one was added. On her video, Sue does them one after the other, but even using an anti-static bag, I found quite a lot of stray glitter clinging to the wrong areas, so I needed the glue to be fairly dry before trying to clean this off and add the next colour. Still worth it I think.

This was all done last night, so I then had to think of a second card that would be relatively quick to make. I had also bought some other Sue Wilson dies, from the California Collection, the Basic frames, and Decorative frames set B, and I wanted to try them out. These are a nice shape to work with, and the two sets do work together in most sizes, though there is no mat for the largest decorative frame. Anyway I chose a smaller plain and fancy pair, and then rooted through my box of Christmas scraps to find an image that would fit them. This one of the three kings was just perfect. So I cut it with the plain die, and then found some snippets of gold mirri-card to cut the fancy frame. Next I stamped the verse which is one of my oldest Clarity stamps, with versafine ink, and embossed it with Cosmic Shimmer gold detail powder. I also layered this onto a narrow gold mat. For the paper I used a sheet from a Papermania set called Silent Night. I sent for it in with some other items a few years back, but was disappointed when it came because it is so dull, and I haven't used much of it. However, I did find this sheet in dark red with a small gold dot pattern which worked fine. The base card is again made from the ivory pearlescent card. I accidently bought two big packs of this on two trips to a craft shop in Albox, which is just too far away to justify going back to exchange one. It is a useful, neutral colour which is just as well, as I am likely to be using it for a few years yet! To add a little interest, I cut two lace edging strips from those strips that always seem to get left over, and you can never decide whether or not to save them. Now I have edge dies, I always save them! I think this die is a Spellbinders one but I am not sure.

So that is two more cards for the pile. Now all I need to do is to link them up with Sarn's Rudolph Day Challenge, and Pixie's Snippets playground.