Non-Traditional cards for Rudolph Day

On the 25th of each month we try to post about another Christmas card we have made, and suddenly the date has arrived again. I am a wee bit ahead of myself as I am writing this on the evening of 24th, but I am sure by tomorrow, there will be a Rudolph Day Challenge for me to link up with.

I am really trying to use up my papers and card, but also looking at items that have never been used, and browsing my files this week I came across a digital stamp that I bought along with several others, from Aurora's Wings. It is called the Rose Angel, and I am not even sure it is a Christmas image, but I decided to use it to make some very non-traditional Pink Christmas cards. I had the forethought to choose my dies for frames up front, so I could print out the image in the right sizes. That doesn't happen very often!

I printed it three times, and coloured each of them in much the same way, using my copic markers. Then I punted around for pieces of card to go with them. So here is my first card.

I found a new sheet of deep pink card which made two base cards, and a scrap of lighter pink for the frame which was cut with the largest die from the Spellbinders set, Resplendent Rectangles.  I used some Tsukineko sheer shimmer spritz on the image to give it just a little sparkle, and cut it out with the next size down from the same die set, and mounted them together on the base card.

I wrote the sentiment on the computer and printed it out three times. I made one into a banner and glued it across the base of my image.

The second card was made using the other half of the deep pink card, and I again spritzed the image. This time I cut and framed her with  Just Rite Nested medium oval labels, using the same light pink card as before. Then I cut two panels using Sue Wilson's Striplets-Lattice Windows die from white card and layered them under the image. I cut the second sentiment using the cutting edge and inner edge of a label die (make unknown). I liked this layout and will use it again some time.

My third card is slightly different. I used a white base card and covered it with a snippet of pink backing paper. The image and frame were cut using  stitched square dies, and the third sentiment, cut as for the second card, was attached at the base with short off-cuts of sticky ribbon.

It is not like me to use pink for Christmas but I think it worked quite well, and I have three more cards to go in my collection for next Christmas. 

So in the morning I will link this up with the February Rudolph day challenge and see who else is getting ahead making cards for next Christmas.

My Butterfly has landed.

Anyone who has read my previous post will know that I misread the criteria for a challenge and was left with a paper-pieced butterfly looking for a place to land. Well this week she has landed on a card I made for my sister's 82nd birthday.

The butterfly was made using a Leane Creatief stamp which I won as a prize in an earlier Butterfly Challenge. I stamped her onto various snippets of yellow and orange paper and cut out the individual sections to glue in place on an image made by stamping on white card.

I found a piece of burnt orange card to make the base. For the next layer I used a new set of stamps and matching dies from Altnew, called Amazing You. First I stamped the various leaves off the edge around a piece of white paper cut to fit the card front. I coloured these with copic markers.

Then I stamped some of the flowers onto snippets of the same papers I had used for the butterfly, and cut them out with the corresponding dies. I added a little colour to their centres and glued them to the stems and leaves.

The sentiment is a very old stamp by Crafty Individuals, and I finished the card off by randomly adding green and orange card candy in the spaces.

I am going to link this up to Pixie's Snippets Playground as I haven't been over to lay for a while.

Using a Trapeze Template for the Butterfly Challenge.

Before I start I'll share a 'senior moment' with you. I have been housebound for nearly two weeks with a nasty throat and ear virus, and I needed something to get me working again, so I thought I'd look to see what the latest butterfly challenge was. I glanced at it and saw P for paper piecing and thought I could do that, so I found my Leane Creatief butterfly stamp and stamped it twice onto white card. I coloured the outer frame in black on one and dark brown on the other, and decided I preferred the brown one. So I then stamped the image again, parts of it anyway, on several papers from my patterned snippets box, and proceeded to cut out the sections from the wings and glue them into place on my white image. Soon I had a pretty paper-pieced butterfly ready to go on a card.

Then I went back to the challenge blog and discovered there was a sneaky little 'r' in that word, and what I should have made is a paper-pieRced card!

So back to square one: - This time I dug out a Trapeze stencil by Mariannedesign.nl, bought decades ago, and used only once that I can remember. The idea with these stencils is to cut an aperture with a 'floating island' in the centre, held in place by stitching. This week's challenge is also to use the colour fern, which I presume can really be almost any shade of green, so I made a dark green base card and taped the stencil to the front. Then I carefully cut around the three unwanted sections and removed them.

Next I pierced holes round the circle and the triangle leaving some out, because I didn't need them all for my pattern. So when the stencil had been removed I was left with this, which I am showing to prove the paper really is pierced, because later I am going to cover it up!

The stitching is the next stage. This is a bit of a fiddle especially as I chose to use metallic thread which can be stiff and inclined to tangle, and I also added beads to some threads for extra interest. When all the stitching is done, sharp scissors and a very steady hand are needed to cut away the three struts that were supporting the triangle, without cutting any of the threads. It is not pretty when that is finished as all the threads are secured by bits of masking tape, which now needed to be hidden. 

To do this I cut two squares from a sheet of paper saved from a magazine I think, and cut a circular aperture in each, just one or two millimeteres smaller than the one on the card, and I glued one on the front and one on the back of my stitched piece. I also cut a matching triangle of the paper to go in the back of the 'island'. On the front of the triangle I glued a butterfly image that I bought a sheet of when I bought the stencil. They provided some extra layers so I decoupaged it a little. Then I cut a large frame using a Marrianne cut and emboss die and removed its centre with a tiny-scalloped circle die, and glued this to the front.

To finish it off, I added tiny green and pink gems to the spaces around the frame and in three of the corners. In the fourth corner I stamped a simple sentiment and added a small butterfly sticker. Then I piped a little green glitter glue around the butterfly's wings. So here is the finished card.

And here is a close up of one corner to show the detail better.

I did feel that perhaps the dark green card masked the sewing a bit and I am in two minds about adding a white insert behind it. Here I have just placed a piece of paper inside for the photo. Hubby likes it better with white behind it. See what you think.

So now I will link this to Butterfly Challenge #72: P is for paper-Piercing and F for the colour Fern. I think I have used enough shades of green to cover that as well.

Meanwhile there is still a paper-pieced butterfly fluttering around here somewhere, looking for a card to land on, so back to the drawing board!

P.S. Please see my next post to find out where she eventually landed.