Rudolph Day Challenge# November 2022

Well my cards are mostly written and all the ones for UK and other countries have been posted, so this month I have made something a bit different. I used svg files bought from a designer on Etsy, and uploaded them into my silhouette Cameo machine. It was in a good mood and cut everything very well, with none of the usual problems.

I chose this Nativity scene and as I had quite a bit in stock, I used some Vanilla American craft card. The style of sculpture is called slice-form, and it it consists of many layers of card, (about 32 layers in this one), which are interlocked using carefully placed slots. It is fiddly to do, and annoying sometimes when as you put one piece in place, another pops out again. But it gradually stabilises as the shape is completed.  Mine had a small LED light base , purchased from Amazon, placed underneath it. 

This is the view from the top, so you can see how the layers fit together.

I was quite pleased with the result, but once I understood how it worked, I wanted to have another go, so I asked my husband Chris to chose another design, and he chose this one. I bought a pad of white 216gm card for this, and as it is a sphere without any construction for a base under it, the light shines though better, and I actually like this one the best. 

Although not a card, these do fold flat to go in a large envelope so could be posted, and it also makes it easy to store for another year.

I am linking this with Rudolph Day Challenge over at Scrappy Mo's, and also with 

ABC Cristmas Challenge # W is for white.

Rudolph Day Challenge# October 2022.

Here are my cards for Rudolph Day this month. I have been sorting through my files and came across this cut file from Dreaming Tree and decided it deserved a turn to be used. I am wary because it has several layers and I have to watch the weight of my cards for posting to UK, but I do hand deliver some locally  so I decided to go ahead.  Each card has three layers on the front plus three for the banner, and inside there are four layers plus the star. 

As with all the Dreaming Tree files I have bought, it cut well on my Silhouette Cameo machine and went together easily - they do have a good assembly video on their site if you need it.

I used three shades of plain card for the base cards, white and cream pearliosed paper and two types of mirri card and managed to make six cards in three colourways.

Inside the card there is a fancy panel to write on and the cameo image seen through the 'window' on the front.

I am entering this in Rudolph Day# October 2022 over on Scrappy mo's blog, and

 ABC Christmas Challenge which this month is U for an Unusual colour. I hope my green card qualifies.

Rudolph Day 2022# September

 A couple of months ago Sue used some images and dies from a company called Carnation Crafts. I have not visited this site for years and had forgotten how much I liked them - though some of their designs may be a bit 'fussy' for some folks. They sell a large range of dies, and for most of them you can also download a printed image to cut. Unfortunately the company is based in UK so I am wary of ordering from them in case I get caught for high import duties. But I did buy just a couple. 

But the last time I visited their site I found they now have a 'digital market' section where you can buy a selection of their designs as SVGs which can be used on most electronic cutters, including my Silhouette cameo. Unlike many cutting files, which only give the outline and inner windows of a piece, these have the option to cut the detail which are just lines, but do enhance the finished image. So yes, I did treat myself to a few, and here are the cards I made to try them out. 

These are using the robin family. An advantage of a cutting machine over dies is that you can choose what size the image is, so my first card uses a large robin which has three decoupaged layers. I used some torn paper effect circles to cut the window frame, and torn paper square fames from the silhouette store. The branch is a part of the cutting file for the robin.

The paper is an oddment from a pad and I no longer know its name, and the surround is embossed with my snow fall folder. I don't know the make and am not sure it is still available, but I use mine a lot.

I finished the card with random drops of glitter glue, and a peel-off sticker. (I have straightened it since I took this photo!).

For my second card I again cut images from the robin family set. The brown lines you can see on the robins are tiny cut lines which make their feathers so much more realistic.

The white frames are another set from the same company, and I used the silhouette software to make a matching base card and mat. The sentiment was a file in my silhouette library. I again added a small amount of glitter glue and some snowflakes from silver holographic vinyl. They have picked up some blue in the photo but really they are fairly white.

I can see me using these print and cut files more in the future, and I already have several designs to try.

For now I will link up with September Rudolph Day Challenge over at scraps of life with Scrapy Mo.

Rudolph Day Challenge 2022 # August

Well here we are again, and as I have had various family groups visiting me for the past six weeks I had to think of a quick card for today.

Quite a while ago I ordered a Penny Black stamp that I saw on Amazon without realising it was coming from America. They said they would send it when it became available, and it should arrive before 10th October! To my surprise it turned up last week. I couldn't even remember what was in the little envelope until I opened it. Anyway it was this sweet group of children singing carols. The stamp was called 'Choir kids'.

I stamped it on a scrap of white paper, added a little colour with copic markers, and loosely cut around it..

I made a 17 x 11.5 cm base card in deep red, (a standard European size). Then I found a set of vintage Christmas music papers that I think came with a large bundle I bought from Creative fabrica, but I am not sure. I didn't recognise all the songs on the papers but I thought Joy to the World was quite fitting for this image.

The frame is from Carnation Crafts, as a print and die cut set. As it is a die I cannot resize it, and it was a little too big really. I didn't want to hide the title at the top so I cut a slit across the paper,  and a matching one at the lower edge, and tucked the two ends of the frame behind it. Then I mounted the image on top, and a relatively quick and easy card was done.

Next month when all my visitors have left, I shall try to do a run of cards again, as I think I am rather behind with my collection this year. But every one helps. So if you feel like starting on your Christmas cards, do join us for some inspiration, and link one up at Rudolph Day Challenge for August, on Scraps of Life by Scrappy Mo.

I am also linking with the Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge #22, where  - 'Anything goes as long as it is for Christmas.'

Rudolph Day Challenge 2022 # July

I recently saw a post on one of the Silhouette pages I follow on Facebook, where a lady named Sabine Harris, showed a card she had designed, and she generously shared the cutting file for the template. I like it, and it is very versatile as the circles could have flowers or butterflies etc for a birthday card, a sentiment on each one, or of course Christmas images and BP. So I went for this option to try it out.

I chose three fun images from the Silhouette store. They were each layered cutting files but as I wanted to use them quite small, I kept them as a one-layer complete image each, and used the print and cut option on my Cameo. I used some plain red paper snippets to cut the mats for each circle. Then I found solid green lightweight card snippets to cut the inner circles and some of the outer pieces, and chose a backing paper to cut the rest. To give some contrast I used plain white card for the centre circle background. (I think the BP was some offcuts from a magazine giveaway).

I glued all the pieces in place and added perfect pearls in white for the fur trim on the hats, and gold and yellow glitter glue for the stars on the centre wreath and the lights on the third image. I also cut one small piece of holly from the BP to add interest to the dark green lower panel. I haven't decided whether or not to add a sentiment to the upper panel as only half of it will show when the card is closed.

The card folds up over itself to give a small 8½ x 17cm card. Fortunately the designer added a file to cut a matching envelope.

I have since enlarged the file to make a card that will fit nicely into a standard slimline envelope.

I will link this with Rudolph Day# July over on Scraps of Life with Scrappy Mo, 

Also in the Snippets Playground where the theme is anything Christmas related,

And My Time to Craft Christmas have the theme "Cutesy Christmas" so I am linking there too.

Rudolph Day Challenge # June 2022

Recently I saw a card I liked on a Facebook page. The lady who posted it had made a design for her Cricut machine. This is similar to my Silhouette Cameo but I think the software is much more restrictive. Anyway I cannot use Cricut files in my Silhouette, so I looked up the link where she said she had found the original design. This was by a designer called Iced Images, and the card design is called Z-fold pop-up block card. She does not design for a machine but measures and cuts everything by hand. Her video tutorial was good, so although she was working in inches, which I left behind many moons ago, I followed her step by step and made a birthday card that I was quite pleased with. (Unable to show it yet).

But I realised that it would be a lot easier if I cut it all in cms on my machine, so I set about making my own file for Silhouette, changing the dimensions of each piece slightly to fit my usual base card (17 x 11.5cms). I used this to make a second birthday card and was very happy with the results, so I now have a file in my library that I can use at any time. And I used for my Christmas designs this time.

For my first card today I chose a sheet of scrapbook paper from my extensive collection on the computer, and down sized it to give the effect I wanted.

The santa was made from some clipart pictures merged together, resized and cut from glossy black vinyl.

I cut the background twice so I could continue it across the front and side panels. I chose some navy card snippets for the mats, and finished it off with a silver peel-off sentiment and some randomly placed stars.

I then decided to have a second go while I was on a roll and this time I used some dark red card for the mats, red patterned paper from a magazine, and a pale pink sheet from a give-away. It has probably been in my files for years.

All the panel designs were cut using files from my Cameo library, mostly bought from the Silhouette store, using green and red vinyl.

So I will be linking these up to The June Rudolph Day Challenge at Scraps of life by scrappy mo.

Rudolp Day Challenge#May 2022

Here in S.Spain we have jumped from Winter straight into Summer. Apart from an unprecedented amount of rain during April, Spring didn't really happen. So now it is very hot and not the weather to inspire the making of Christmas cards. However I am no sewing expert, and being frustrated trying to make well fitting cushion covers for new outside furniture all week, I decided to take a day off and see what I could come up with. 

Too hot and sticky to do much with pens or glue, I settled on some png files I recently downloaded from a site called pngwing.com. They are designed to create the illusion of torn paper.

I have at last discovered the trick to 'Print and cut' on my silhouette machine, which involves setting up an image in the silhouette software with registration marks to assist the machine to find the image later for cutting. You then print it, and put the printed image back into the machine which will then cut it out.

So I successfully cut two of the torn paper strips. Then I brought two nativity images into the software and resized them to fit behind the space. I printed them out, mounted the frame over them, and then mounted the complete design onto small A6 size base cards from my stash, and here they are.

A stamped sentiment (very old Chocolate Baroque stamp) on one, and a peel off on the other finished them off.

Flushed with success at the print and cut, I then tried a second file from the same company, this time one that looks like a torn hole in the paper. Using the same method as above, and an image from a card I received last year, I made this 15cm square card.

Again I finished it off with a gold peel-off sentiment and some randomly placed stars.

So now I am off to link up with the Rudolph Day Challenge for May, over at scraps of life with Scrappy Mo.

Rudolph Day Challenge #April 2022

My cards are made, so I am writing this almost a month early, because next month I will be visiting family in UK. I go next Friday (29th March), for five weeks. Although I will have wifi access most places I go, I am so used to posting on my PC and my fat fingers are not nimble enough to write a good post on my phone. So I will schedule this for 25th April, and then I will just have to link it up on the day.

I have spent quite a bit of time lately, looking at cards on the internet and taking inspiration from them. A lady on my Silhouette Cameo group, recently posted a cutting file to make this three diamond edge card. But when I took a proper look I decided I could do it just as easily with my large paper cutter so that is what I did. 

For the first one I used a snippet of paper I found in my box. I thought it was from an old Joanna Sheen CD and eventually I found it so I was able to enlarge one motif a little for the central topper, and cut two for the side diamonds. I cut a cream base card. It was a bit of a fiddle to make sure I had the three diamonds correctly positioned.  I used gold peel-offs on the diamonds and gold glitter glue around the topper star.

I found a lot of suitable paper offcuts so I had another go, this time using a stamped image for the topper, coloured with copic markers. I used an ivory base card, two toning DPs, and added red perfect pearls to the stamped berries, and red gems on the diamonds.

Then I found a topper of a robin that I made a while ago, using an image from a card I received. It was a good size for this card so I made one more. This time I made the base card from dark red, and added an ivory mat with some snippets of holly paper. I die-cut a sentiment from the red card for the centre diamond and highlighted all the berries with glitter glue.

So there we have it, another set of three useful cards added to my box. So I will link this up with Rudolph Day Challenge #April over at https://scrapsoflifebyscrappymo.blogspot.com/2022/04/april-rudolph-days-challenge.html.

Sorry I cannot link properly as I am using a new tablet that I have not learned the ins and outs of yet.

Rudolph Day Challenge # March 2022

Rudolph nearly caught me out this month as I had not prepared my post, but I have made some cards so here they are. Two cards using the same idea, but very different elements.

I happened to see a card I liked on the net with a braided spine, so I investigated how it was made and it used the old idea of lattice cuts. I did some of these maybe twenty years ago, I think using a stencil for the cuts. They were cut, folded and tucked in, to form a flat ornamental strip along the edge of a card. But for these cards, the cuts were made centrally along the spin of the card, folded and tucked, and then folded in half to make the card with a braided spine.

Of course, my hands not being very nimble these days, I try to do most of my card cutting with my Silhouette Cameo machine, but it took me a long time to make a cutting file that just cut slits. (Normally it would cut along both sides of my lines to make wider slits and I didn't want that). But after a lot of fiddling around I finally had my file, so now of course, I can use it whenever I want to, and it is just effective for cards for different occasions.

For my first card I used blue printed card from Lilds which was white on the back. Then I added some embossed pearl blue card, and used a Memory box die to cut the teardrop nativity scene from gold mirri-card, and cutting it a second time from blue paper to infill the design. I finished it with a die-cut sentiment in gold and some peel-off star strings.

For my second card I chose a very different theme, this time using some more Lidls card with snowmen and pine trees printed on it, a panel of bokeh paper and my absolutely favourite snowman stamp (Fun stamps). I cut him out with a frame die that was bought with a winter scene stamp by Flourishes. I added some colour to his hat and scarf and white perfect pearls to the pom-pom. As I like a bit of sparkle on Christmas cards I used glitter glue to highlight the snow and added a silver sentiment and a few silver snowflakes.

I think my efforts in the Silhouete software paid off, and I can see this file has the potential to make many more cards. So these two will now be linked up to the Rudolph day Challenge for March over on Scrappy Mo's blog.

Rudolph Day Challenge # February 2022

I mentioned last week that not many of the cards I received this Christmas really inspired me to make any, but I had one that I liked and I decided to make my own version of it. This is the front of the card I received.

And this is the one I made.

I started by scanning the card into my computer and making a cutting file for the town skyline, adding some different, more solid palm trees, and welding it to an oval aperture so I could cut the window out. Then I positioned this over a base card and cut it out. I did this five times but with the first one I made a mistake. I had added a dashed line for the central fold and forgot that when I made my image into a compound path in the cutter software, it turns it into a solid line so it cut my card in half. Not wanting to waste the side with the image on, I just cut it again on the other side and when they were assembled I glued them onto a plain navy base card, so I ended up with six cards instead of five. That might not make a lot of sense to anyone who has never used a plotter-cutter machine, but I am very used to using my Silhouette cameo for most of my cards, so I knew how to save the situation).

Next I cut snippets of yellow paper to go behind all the windows.

For the sky I found a paper from an old scrapbook kit and downsized it to fit six onto an A4 sheet of paper.

I glued one behind each opening in my cards.

On the original card  the script and the figures were printed in silver, but I used black glossy vinyl which cuts so well in my Cameo machine. I generated the script using Passions Conflict font, which is quite fancy but just 'solid' enough to cut out, as long as it is not too small. I have several sets of the Mary, Joseph and donkey in my Cameo library so they were easy to make. 

And because I like a bit of sparkle on Christmas cards, I added just a touch of glitter glue to the larger stars.  You can't see it in the photos but it is there. 

And thereI have it. Another set of six cards for my stash. I am off to a good start this year.

So I am linking up with Rudolph Day # February   and

Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge#10 

Happy Twosday

Well yesterday (Tuesday) was fairly significant as its date could be written 22.02.2022 which is a palindrome i.e.it reads the same forwards and backwards, and if it is written in squarer digital numbers it is also an ambigram which means it reads the same upside down!

However it was a more significant day in our family as it was our youngest son's 35th birthday. (Pity it wasn't his 22nd!) So I made him a 'Happy Twosday' card. 

He happens to be a fairly talented musician, especially singing with his piano, so that is what his card featured. This is the front of it which was inspired by several cards I have seen online.

All the script was made using a font called Passions Conflict. I made it in my Silhouette Cameo software and cut it from glossy vinyl. The music was a cut file purchased from the Silhouette store, and the piano keys were sized and cut in the software. The flowers were die-cut from a tiny plate of different flowers that I bought years ago but have never used. I think it may be by Presscut but I am not sure. (Now I am about to use it again for another card so perhaps it wasn't a bad buy after all).

The inside was inspired by a random Youtube video I found by someone whose YT channel is called I am a Bird. They showed a plain pop-up grand piano and a line drawing of the layout and which lines to cut or fold. It was free to use so I copied it and uploaded it into the Cameo software, where I was able to turn it into a cutting file. Although the original was cut by hand, I would have struggled to do that well, but in the Cameo it cut with no problem. Once put together I felt it was too plain, so I then went into the design page again on the cameo and made slightly smaller cut outs of all the front facing pieces and cut them from the nearest paper I had to a wood-effect. I drew a tiny keyboard and added that, and then searched the internet for the inside of a grand piano. I used the best one I could find and reshaped and re-sized it to fit in my piano. Then I hand cut a strip of toning patterned paper to cover the stool.

I added some music notes cut from vinyl on the machine, and some diecut flowers, and also added the Happy Tuesday Ben and numbers cut from vinyl using the same font. I have a huge folder of vinyl off cuts which I usually use with the cameo, not dies, but it worked well so it was a good way to use some of them up.

He was very pleased with it and made this little video to put on facebook which he is happy for me to add here, but I haven't been able to make blogger accept it!.

I am linking this to Darnell's NEBUS Challenge #35 (the flower dies had never been used),

The Allsorts Challenge #64, I love..playing with designs in my cameo software.

And the Snippets Playground Challenge#422

Rudolph Day 2022 #January

Well here we are at the start of a new year and it's time to start making Christmas cards again. My January offering is usually  a set of cards made using small images, etc from the cards I received for Christmas, but this year I did not find much inspiration from them.

However I did receive a card from one of my sisters that featured three baubles depicting Nativity scenes, on a plain dark blue background, and I decided to case this and make it my own.

I made copies of the baubles, resizing them to fit one from a set of plain circle dies. Then I cut gold card hanging pieces using a tiny die from a set of ornaments by Creative Expressions. The green foliage is from an old Tim Holtz set using several snippets of green card. The hanging chains are peel offs.

I printed the baubles on photographic paper to give them some shine. The background paper panels are from an 8 x 8 paper pad called Christmas Shades collection  designed by John Lockwood for Creative Expressions. These papers are so pretty. I have used a lot of them but I managed to find enough pieces to cut five panels, but now I need to replace it.

Last night I assembled the first card to use on this post, and I also cut all the elements to make four more, all identical except that two have gold backgrounds. This afternoon I will assemble the rest in the same way and that will be a nice set of five cards to start off my new stash.

So I will link up with the January Rudolph day Challenge at Scraps of life by Scrappy Mo:

Snippets Playground Challenge #420

And also Peace on Earth Challenge #8 (this is a bi-monthly Anything Goes Christmas challenge.)