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