Rudolph Day Challenge #November 2023

 A very quick one from me today as I have broken my right arm (Yes I am right-handed), so I am typing this with my left hand and that is not easy for me. Fortunately I had these cards made ready for today.

The file is one purchased from Etsy. It was intended to make a 3Dwooden one, but I flattened it, cut it from metallic vinyl and transferred it onto a base card.

I worked quite well so I cut out five more from other colour metallic vinyls and transferred them to complimentary coloured cardstock.

A useful set  of six cards, but that's me done for today so I will link up with Rudolph Day challenge over on Scrappy Mo's blog. Please forgive me  if I only manage a limited number of comments, but I will visit you all.

Rudolph Day Challenge#october 2023

As I am fairly well ahead with my Christmas cards this year I had time to play around a bit and I do enjoy editing files and rearranging them on the computer to find different ways to use them. I came up with a set of ten cards on a theme of "Sentiments in Arabesque window". I bought a bundle of these sentiments some time ago, so I uploaded them into my silhouette cameo software. Then I spent some time designing a base card with the arabesque window, and resized my chosen sentiments to fit in it. Next I sorted through my larger snippets of Christmas papers and found ten pieces I could use, cutting each one to fit inside a 15cm square white card base, and cutting the window and star from each one.

I glued a small snippet of gold paper behind the stars, and then found pieces that I could use behind each window. Once these were in place I decided which embellishments would go with the papers and resized them in the software, and using the 'Print and Cut feature' I printed them on basic photo paper to deepen the colours and give them some shine, and cut them out. 

I decided which sentiment would suit which set of 'extras' and cut them from vinyl so they were more simple to glue inside the windows. I arrange the embellishments around them and glued them in place, adding a little glitter glue to some. 

I ended up with ten cards, four doubles, and two individual ones, and lots of files in my library to use again should I need them.

Poinsettias from Carnation crafts.

Crib and sheep from Jan Mahew's digital shop.

Arabesque Christmas ornaments - sorry I can't find where I bought them from.

Doves and nativity silhouettes, old files from my Cameo library - source unknown.

I will link these with Rudolph day Challenge#October  

Rudolph Day Challenge # September 2023

A quick and easy card this month that I made using an element from the scrapbook kit Into the Woods by Cornelia Designs. It is unusual for an element to be a complete picture, but I liked this one so I resized it and printed out a couple of copies.

Then I used the inner section of a die frame set to cut a window in a plain white 15cm square card. I placed the image behind the window using thin foam strips.

The holly frame was a file in the library on my Silhouette cameo, bought from the silhouette store many years ago. It was a fiddle to add but I used transfer tape so it did not distort too much. 

Then I added red perfect pearls for the berries, and a gold peel-off sentiment.

A second card was made in exactly the same way.

So now I will link this up with Rudolph Day Challenge over at Scraps of Life by Scrappy Mo.

Rudolph Day Challenge #August 2023

Another scheduled post as I shall be in UK on tis date, and far away from my PC. (I don't trust my skills fiddling around on a smart phone!).

For this set of cards I wanted to try out a technique called 3D stained Glass window cards. I found loads of images for stained glass windows, but struggled to find any Christmas ones. Eventually I settled on this lovely poinsettia which was one from a set of images for making Christmas coasters.

I enlarged it to the size I wanted for my card and in the Silhouette software I made a cutting fil e for it. Then I made a second square a bit smaller for the first internal frame. Making another even smaller square I centred it over the original image and cut out where they intersected, giving me the next layer. Then I repeated this again for the second frame and smallest centre image.

I printed the three images on good quality photographic paper to bring out the colours and give a nice glossy finish, and used the Print & Cut feature on my cameo to cut them out. Then I cut the base card and two frame squares from black card, and used 1mm foam pads to lift each layer slightly over the one below. (I managed a small tear on the centre image, when pulling it off the sticky cutting mat, so I hid it under a gold peel off, Spanish Christmas greeting).

The card was a bit darker than I would have chosen but the only alternative Chrstmas ones I could find were a set of 'Old Father Christmas' roundals. (Or Old man Winter if you prefer). So I made  another set of frames and concentric images as for the square one and made these two cards.

I overlapped two base circles by a small amount and added a score line where they crossed, to give me a joined base card. And knowing what a nuisance circular cards can be, I also sliced a very thin piece off the bottom of the card so that it would stand up.

I expect there will be more Christmas images available later in the year as this is a popular technique right now, so I may try a few more then. Now the files are in my software library, it would be very easy to just use a different image.

So this is another set to add to my stash. I will schedule it to post on Rudolph day challenge#August on Scrappy Mo's blog.

Rudolph Day Challenge #July 2023

Because I am preparing for a longish holiday, I am writing this early and scheduling it to publish, so that I don't miss the date like I almost did last month!

This time I have made a layered card showing a simple nativity scene. This was a cutting file I purchased from one of the Facebook groups I belong to, and it was designed as a shadow box.

When making a shadow box, each layer is cut to the full size and placed in order inside a deep shadow box frame. But I wanted to flatten it for a card, and this would have been very bulky as there are ten layers as well as the base card. So I spent some time in my Silhouette software, deciding which ares were needed from each layer and cutting them down so that my eventual stacked card would not be too thick for posting.

Having made the first card fairly successfully, I made use of the files I had prepared and cut another three sets. They didn't take too long to assemble so now I have another set of four cards to add to my stash.

The yellow script should have been cut out of the blue top layer to show the yellow layer underneath, but I had trouble cutting these small letters, so instead I cut the blue layer complete and cut the script from yellow vinyl, which always cuts beautifully. And the effect is the same, just neater.

I will be linking this up to the Rudolph day Challenge on Scraps of life by Scrappy Mo.

Rudolph Day Challenge# June 2023

 Wow I made these cards a few weeks ago and have been so busy with other projects that I forgot to publish them! But I see I have one day left so here goes. (I haven't missed a month yet so it would be a shame to miss one now).

I did something a bit different this time. Because of problems and expense of postage I usually send a 'family card' to each of my sons and their families. But as I am going over to UK for all of August and I am taking my Christmas cards with me, some to leave along with some birthday cards to the relevant houses, and some for my sister to post when the time comes, I decided to make individual ones for the 'little people' this year. So here is a set of fun cards I made using my silhouette machine.

The files were bought from the Silhouette store, so I just had to decide on colours for each layer, cut them all out and do some serious paper piecing to assemble them all.

I think they are quite fun  so I hope the young ones will enjoy them.

Now I will link with the Rudolph Day Challenge for June and hopefully I will not be so laye with my July cards.

Rudolph Day Challenge # May 2023

I am trying a few different techniques to make cards this year as my hands have not allowed me to do much stamping and colouring, so this month I had a go at casing a card I received last Christmas. I liked it but it didn't lend itself to recycling as the only option would have been to just cut out the whole card front and put it on a new card base - not what I do. 

So instead I used Photoshop to download one of my 'go-to' backing papers and typed the word Peace on to it in upper case letters. Then I isolated each letter and adjusted its size to add interest.

Next I searched though the hundreds, (possibly over a thousand) scrapbook kits that I have on my computer, trying to find a Christmas one that had pictures of the nativity characters that weren't cartoon ones. It turned out I had very little choice but eventually settled on these ones.

I sliced the group of three kings to give one single one that I moved behind the letter 'P' and two that I placed in front of it. I similarly split the two shepherds to put one in each layer, and resized the Mary-Joseph-baby trio to fit nicely into the letter 'C'. 

I then spent ages searching for an angel that was seated and looking down and managed to find one in free clip-art. So I resized her to sit on top of the A.

When I was happy with the composition, I cropped it to fit on a DL card and printed it. 

Then I ungrouped the layers and removed the three front layer elements to print separately, and finally removed the back layer leaving only the script. I was able to trace this, and cut it from some gold textured paper in my silhouette, also cutting a simple star from my library.

After many years of using my silhouette cameo machine, I have now learned to successfully use the print and cut feature, (I have had very mixed results up to now but I think I have finally cracked it!), so I took my three printed foreground characters, traced them in the silhouette software and sent them to cut out. 

Then it was a case of gluing the background picture to a DL base card, adding the gold letters and star, and then decoupaging the two kings, the shepherd and the angel with a little silicone glue to give them some dimension.

All this was a bit time consuming but once I was happy with how it came together, I made three more identical ones very quickly, and would be able to make more just as easily if I need them.

I know there is more detail here than some of you need to see, but I know some folk like to see how a card is made so hopefully I have answered all your questions.

Now it is time to link up to the Rudolph day Challenge at Scraps of life by Scrappy Mo.

Rudolph Day Challenge # April 2023

A while back I bought a simple cutting die from a well-known Chinese outlet, so this month I gave it its first trial. This is the card I made.

I liked the simplicity of the image so I decided to find other ways for using it. In the end I made six cards, all similar yet all different. For some I used the die cut-outs, and for others I used the negative space on a contrasting mat. It was a good way to use up a few snippets of paper, and I raided my stash for sentiments, ribbons etc. I made a collage of the six cards to show how versatile the little die is.

So now I will link this up to Rudolph Day Challenge #April over at Scrappy Mo's blog. See you there?

Rudolph Day Challenge #March2023

This month I tried something a bit different for me, as I wanted some 'almost' one layer cards for ease of posting, which is getting to be a bit of a nightmare internationally.

I don't see a lot of digistamps that I like but there is one designer I return to over and over and her name is Jan Mahew. So I chose three of her stamps, which are fun and relatively easy to colour, and printed them at A5 size. Then I used my copic markers to colour them. I printed them again and cut out the main characters as a mask so I could dust a little distress ink around them and take the bright white off the backgrounds, and then scanned them into my computer. 

In photoshop I opened a backing paper from my library and added a mask, (bought from a scrapbook site but I am not sure which one). I imported one of my coloured images and clipped it to the mask and flattened it to save as a jpeg. I did this for all three images choosing different backing papers for each one and then I printed them out three times each.

Finally I cut each one to fit a standard card base and just added a stamped sentiment, some glitter glue and a few peel-off snowflakes. 

As these are now stored on my computer I could print off more if I needed them.

I also realised I still have the original three coloured images and although they are bigger than my final print outs, I think I could use them without a backing paper, and just add a simple frame, and I will have three more cards. I don't like to waste anything so I will see what I can do.

I am linking these to the Rudolph day Challenge over at Scraps of Life with Scrappy Mo.

Rudolph Day Challenge 2023# February

Usually my February entry is a card made from a recycled one I received. This year I had very few suitable salvaged pieces, but I did keep two lovely images of robins, and these are the cards I made.

For the one on the left I used a new doiley die from China trimmed to suit my need, and some digital background paper from my files.

The one on the right has a new die cut frame and a recycled card base that was complete with the gold corners.

As I sorted out the mess on my desk I found a few previously cut pieces, as well as some older cards kept from previous years, so I sorted them out and tried to make a card from each one, or a from a combination of them.  When I recycle cards I always make sure mine look very different from the original, and always add some form of my own crafting. 

I was pleased to use up so many pieces, and ended up with a set of nine cards. (2 above plus 7 below). You should be able to click on this picture to enlarge it and see them better. 

I used too many dies, stamps and papers to list but if you would like to know what any of them are, please ask.

Now I will link them up with the Februaury Rudolph Day Challenge over at Scraps of Life by Scrappy Mo, and see what everyone else has made.

Rudolph Day Challenge #January 2023

I have made a good start to my 2023 collection of cards. I often buy Christmas related items, stamps, dies, papers etc, too late to use them so at the start of a new year I look for things that have not been used. This month I have gone with a set of cutting files from DreamOnPrint. They were a bundle including a long advent calendar, several small ornaments and the one I chose to use which is a set of Cathedral Windows depicting parts of the nativity story. They were intended to be cut from lightweight wood or heavy card for a large wall display, but I decided to down-size them to fit on a DL card. 

I used an odd piece off-white card for the base, and various snippets of brown and gold card for the elements.

I liked the result so I made five more using some 300g bright white card for the bases, and a mixture of oddments for the rest of the layers. I did make sure to use the same colour pieces for the three windows on each card. 

Many years ago, maybe twenty years, I bought my first cutting machine, a Craft Robo, at a craft show at NEC Birmingham, and because it was at a show, I was given a whole range of paper and card and some cutting files to start me off. Among the paper was a lot of thinnish gold paper that may have been plastic, because it was textured but it had no fibres, and therefore it cut beautifully. I have used it for odd things over the years and for these cards I used up all the last little pieces, just managing to cut all the window frames, trees and stable scenes, one at a time. The grid on the cutting mat makes it possible to put these scraps in just the right place to match the position of the image in the software. I am sad it has all gone, but at least I made good use of every little piece.

To finish my cards I stamped a simple sentiment at the top using a very old Inkylicious stamp.

And now I have a set of six cards to start off my collection.

Now I shall link ip with Rudolph Day Challenge# January  and

The Snippets Playground