A Heavenly Host

I am finally getting back to my card making and I am very behind my usual schedule for Christmas cards. So I decided to go for something that uses what is already in my stash. As I am gradually moving much of my 'stash' to my computer I went to my folder of Christmas digistamps and found this angelic choir. I am not sure where it is from, but looking at its ID number I think it may be from Craftuprint.

Anyway I could see that each angel also had a cutting line so I knew I would be using my cameo silhouette machine to help me.

First I made a rough sketch of my design and then chose five angels to use. By shifting them close together I managed to get three sets onto one sheet of A4 paper and printed them out. (the black square top left, and the two black corners are registration marks that show my machine where the images are for cutting them out).

Next I set up my machine and cut them out.

You can tell I am out of practice as I made a fundemental mistake. I should have removed the cutting lines, (in red) before printing the page. Because the cut is never 100% spot on, my cut-outs all had a red line in some places which had to be fussy cut to remove them!

I chose three backing papers, used my machine to cut the shape I wanted and glued each one to a plain white 15cm square card blank.

Using alcohol pens I added some colour to each set of angels to match the BP and glued them into the cut-out circles.

I cut the script from vinyl and used transfer tape to place it onto the cards. Finally I added glitter glue to all the angel wings for a bit of sparkle.

Soon the three cards were assembled, and once the design is saved in my machine library it is easy enough to make a second set. This time I remembered to remove the cut lines before I printed the sheet, and replace them but remove the print lines before cutting them out, so no fussy cut was needed. The second set are all ready but not yet assembled. Hopefully by tonight they will all be done.

I am linking these to Peace on Earth Challenge 116, Anything Christmas

& Make my Monday Challenge 282  Christmas in July

Robins, robins and more robins

Last year was a bit tough as we both battled with some health issues, and we also sold up in Spain and moved back to UK. It wasn't until late summer that we were settled in our new home, and a few more months before my computer was up and running.

So this year I decided I would really try to get a few more cards made and posted on here. As you can see, my first one is a Christmas card. No surprise there as I really like making them, rather than birthday cards. 

Anyway, by sheer chance I spotted this die set from craftaddicts, and when it arrived I had to try cutting all these dear little robins. I coloured them with alcohol ink and made a snowy scene for them.

I am linking this card with Peace at Christmas # 107, Anything Christmas goes, and 

the NBUS challenge # 84 over on Darnell's site, "Use anything that is Never Before Used." i.e. the robin dies.

Rudolph Day Challenge # November 2024

Well last month I actually missed this challenge, for the first time in several years. I will put it down to being busy packing up the house ready to go on the market, and other life factors. But I was determined not to miss it again this month, so here I am writing my post two days early!

I saw a card similar to this on a facegroup page, but I think it was a birthday card. Anyway I decided to have a go at designing it for myself, so I made a window shape and gradually built it up to what you see here, using my silhouette cameo software.

I sized it to fit on a 15cm square card and then I needed a picture to put behind it. I have many nativity pictures in a file on my computer, mostly bought as part of a bundle from Creative Fabrica. But when I imported some into my Silhuette software, I realised it was not going to be easy to find one that fitted the aperture without window bars crossing the main faces. But after much experimentation I came out with two that worked for me, so I made up a second card the same as the one above, used a gold peel-off strip down each side, and added a sentiment to each one. I finished them off with a gold and black star in a suitable place which didn't interfere with the pictures.

I will be linking these to the Rudolph Day Challenge for November.

Rudolph Day Challenge 2024 # September

 Oops, nearly missed this challenge  this month. I have been busy preparing our house for the market, and the days just flew by. Luckily I have a card ready that I haven't used yet so here is my offering for this month.

This card is using an oval floral display from a Carnation Crafts USB. I resized it to fit a 11.5 x 17 cm base card from my stash, printed it on good paper and then resized the cutting file to fit over it. I cut it on my Silhouette Cameo twice so I could decoupage some parts, and then cut the next size up mat from gold mirri-card. The main flowers are decoupaged and the whole thing is mounted onto the crimson base card.

The sentiment is an old peel off that just happened to be the right size, and a few gold nail-heads in the corners finished it off. 

I rather liked this and intended to make some more but 'life' got in the way. But the files are saved in my silhouette library so I can easily make some more if I need them.

Now I will hurry across to link this up with The Rudolph Day Challenge for September.

Rudolph Day Challenge 2024 # August

There is quite a lot going on here as I am battling a long term health problem, and just starting a major de-clutter prior to a big move from Spain back to the UK, so my cards are quick and simple this month.

I am a great fan of the company Carnation Crafts, but often their dies are too big for me, but I like to follow their Facebook page and pick up some good ideas. Recently they featured a lot of cards made using their layered triangle die, and I decided to design something similar in my Silhouette Cameo  software. I designed the file and cut it twice; once from white card and once from cream card. I then swapped the triangle layers making a  white card with a cream topper, and a cream card with a white topper.

Next I cut a silhoutte from black vinyl to go on each one. This design has been in my library for a while and I was waiting for an opportunity to use it. I think I may have made it from some clipart but I am not sure. (The vinyl picked up some light reflections in my photo but it is shiny black).

Then I simply added a gold star to each one.

So now I will link up with The Rudolph Day Challenge HERE.

Rudolph Day Challenge 2024 # July

It is too hot here to do much crafting so for this month's challenge I chose a simple silhouette file of a deer in a fancy frame that was in my Silhouette library. I probably bought it from the silhouette store ages ago, but I am not sure. Anyway I cut it four times from black vinyl and mounted them to make this set of four cards.

For two of them I glued a small offcut of snowy paper behind the frame, and mounted it onto a white base card that I had passed through my Falling snow embossing folder.

For the other two I glued offcuts of the snow embossed paper behind the deer, and mounted them onto a white base card covered with off-cuts of snow/star paper.

A small peel-off sentiment finished each one off.

So now I will link these up with

Rudolph day Challenge # July and 

Snippets Playground Challenge # 485

Rudolph Day Challenge # June 2024

Well the 25th sure seems to have come round fast this time, but fortunately my cards are ready. This month I have two that are  almost the same, but they are mounted differently which means the elements needed to be resized for the card with extra mats.

I love the artwork that is sold by Carnation Crafts but often find their dies and matching vignettes (images for printing and die cutting), are too big for the cards I make. So when they started issuing some of their most popular collections digitally, as single images, or on a USB, I was delighted.  Not only are they excellent value because they contain so many dies and vignettes, but also I can upload them and resize them as much as I want. Usually I do this in my Sihouette software because I am familiar with how it works. I am able to design a card, group all the elements together and resize it to fit my standard 17 x 11.5cm cards which neatly fit into the European envelopes. Then I separate the elements out again, print what I want and then add the cutting file over the images and send them to my Cameo machine to cut.

For these cards I used elements from the Carnation Christmas USB. I chose two different fancy frames and cut them from gold miricard. The smaller one got a bit 'lost ' against the pale base card so I added two contrasting mats behind it. I added a little glitter glue to the candle flames and the fire, and some white perfect pearls to the fur on each stocking.

I may add a sentiment across the wooden mantle shelf, but often with a busy card I put the sentiment inside. I haven't quite decided yet.

I am waiting to have surgery on my right hand this week, and until that is done and healed I cannot manage stamping and colouring so well, and these Print & Cut files are just perfect for now.

So I will link this with the Rudolph Day Challenge and enjoy looking at all your lovely creations.

Rudolph Day Challenge # may 2024

I wanted a few Christmas cards with angels on them, so for this month I covered four DL cards with offcuts of plain paper in different colours.

In my Silhouette software I designed the card using several images from my silhouette library, and moving them around until I was happy with the arrangement. The word 'Rejoice' was also in my library though I probably made it myself on another occasion.

I needed to separate out the colours into different layers, and first I cut the angels, candles, holly leaves and star corners from gold vinyl. I used transfer tape to lift them all in their right positions and added them to the card fronts. Then I cut the red candle dish, holly berries and word from red metallic vinyl and added them. Finally I cut the snowflakes from silver holographic vinyl. This time I placed them around the rest wherever they fitted best.

So a set of four cards which were fairly quick and easy to make. The hardest part was choosing, sizing and arranging the elements on my template. Now I have it saved in my library,  I could quickly make it as often as I want to.

Time to add this to the Rudolph Day Challenge for May

Rudolph Day Challenge # April 2024

I have seen a lot of cards on facebook pages using the 'Fractured'  technique so I thought I'd try a few. Here are two examples.

Because my hands do not allow for much measuring and cutting right now, I spent some time making a template in my Silhouette Cameo software. 

Next I printed off a sheet of little robin digi stamps, (made from an ancient wooden stamp a friend was throwing away), placing one inside each diamond on my grid. I coloured them with copic markers and cut them out.

I collected up an assortment of backing paper snippets and ribbon oddments and made a set of twelve cards pairing up the papers and embellishments as best I could. It is surprising how different they look and they will be a useful set of cards in my stash.

I am linking this to: April's Rudolph Days Challenge

and  Pixie's Snippets Playground

Rudolph Day Challenge 2024 # March

 Here is my card for this month's challenge.

I started by covering an 12 x 12 cm sheet with various sized stars and cut them as a stencil from a sheet of mylar, using my silhouette cameo. I then used small areas of it to stencil some stars on the top corners of plain white base cards. I added a setiment using an old Stampin'up stamp.

The silhouette I used for the image was purchased from the silhouette store. It was all black but I used the inbuilt software to downsize it to fit a 13.5cm square card, and separate the elements. I could then cut them in different colours of vinyl. Once the design is ready it is just as easy to cut several of them as one, so I made nine sets of each element. I am good at losing these pieces when I cut a lot, so I stored them all in a tin until I was ready to assemble them. 

Soon I had nine, almost identical cards to join my stash. I am doing well so far this year.

So now I will link this up with the Rudolph Day Challenge.

Rudolph Day Challenge 2024 # February

I am so happy that Helen has agreed to take on the running of this challenge. It has been the perfect inspiration for me to build my stash of cards throughout the year.

I admit I was not very prepared for this month as I have been busy laying with a new piece of equipment (see my previous post). But I do have a small recycling project completed.

A friend at church collects finished-with cards each new year, and re-mounts suitable images to sell very reasonably to raise funds for the church. She sent one to me this year that she knew I would like, and it was a simple stepper card front, with a Bethlehem scene at the back, and a stable scene on the front 'step'. I just knew it could be recycled again and I made it into two cards.

For the first I used the step cut to size to fit an A6 card, and glued some snowy sky paper behind it. Then I cut the phrase from black vinyl with my silhouette cameo machine.

For the second card I used the Bethlehem scene as the background on a square card and added silhouettes of shepherds and sheep to the front. These were images from my silhouette library, cut on my machine again from black vynil. I used a different font to cut the same phrase from gold metallic vinyl.

I shall link this up with Rudolph Days Challenge at Helen's blog.

We are never too old...

 We are never too old to learn new skills. I have recently been 'give' a laser cutter on long-term loan. The owner, Steve Kirk, gave me several tutorials on his larger, more pwerful machine, at his home, along with several tips on using this one. He was also very patient with all my questions and mistakes.

So it was time for me to try a project of my own and I knew just what I wanted to do. My youngest son, Ben, has just set himself up as a self-employed performer, plus music technician, with a company called "Totally Sound". So I have made this wall plate for his studio.

The base is 3mm birch plywood, cut out and painted black. 

The treble clef, notes and script are cut from 1.5mm bass plywood. The clef has a light spray of varnish, and the rest are spray-painted in white. The script is a font called Zapfino which he  has used on his business cards.

For the picture I started with  a coloured photo he has sent me. I used Gimp to turn it into a black and white sketch, and then I engraved it onto the base plate with the laser. I cut a mask from eclipse paper and held the 'window' part over the engraving and sprayed it lightly with varnish, and then covered the image with the mask while I painted the black background.

I then mounted the pieces with acrylic glue, and black sticky foam tabs behind the script.

As I live in Spain, I  wrapped this in several layers of bubble wrap to post it to UK last Friday, and I was amazed to hear today that it has arrived already. And most importantly, Ben loves it.

It is fun to have a new 'toy' to play with.

Rudolph Day Challenge 2024 # January

It is time to start thinking about making cards for next Christmas now.  I know some poeple find that idea just too much, but I find it really useful when Christmas comes around and there is so much to do, but my cards are all done. So here goes for this year.

I am not off to a very good start, as a broken humerous/shoulder at the end of November has made most crafting very difficult. Added to that I have had an ulcer on my right hand for well over two years, that just doesn't want to heal. After many tests the hospital decided to take a biopsy from it two weeks ago, and within a few days, the site was again infected! So I am on strong antibiotics and have a thick bandage on my hand, so although my arm is healing, albeit slowly, I am again unable to handle pens, scissors etc with any precision. 

So for this months cards I settled on two very simple recycled ones: one from a card I received this year, and one from an even older one. I cut the images with a circle die and the bauble from a metal die bought from a well-known Chinese site, so I don't know its name. Square dies cut the backgrounds and frame, and my snow embossing folder added interest to the white background. I needed two hands to turn the rollers on my Big Shot, but determination won in the end.  Perhaps it is time to invest in an electric one? The main image slipped lower than I had intended on the first one, but I will hang on to it in case I need 'just one more card' next year. Hopefully by next month, I will have both hands and arms back in full action.

So this will be linked with the Rudolph day Challenge over on Scrappy Mo's blog. Why not make an early start on your cards, and come and join us.

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.