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.)

Rudolf Day Challenge # November 2021

It is that time again so here are my last Christmas cards for this year. In fact all my cards for UK are already written and posted to my sister who will post them on next month. But I still needed a few for local friends, so I made these three simple box cards.

They are made with a cutting file purchased from SVGCuts, and cut on my Silhouette Cameo machine. Fortunately there was a video showing the best way to assemble them.

Each 'box' has three main layers. I chose to add some embossed panels to the front of each one, but this was optional.

Before assembling them I added a stamped sentiment on the back of the first panel.  (Stamp from an old set by Sentimentally Yours).

This shows how the three layers fit together, and it does all fold flat for easy posting.

There were extra layers for the star and angel to give them some dimension, and I added a tiny holographic star to the centre of the card star, just for a tiny bit of sparkle.

As my Cameo machine was in the mood to cut really well, and I had a pack of American craft card in vanilla which happens to be the best card I have found for the machine, these cards were relatively quick and easy to make.

Now I think it is time to stop making cards and concentrate on a couple of decorations that I have on my 'to do' list.

But first I will link up with the November Rudolf day Challenge with Scrappy Mo.

Rudolph Day Challenge#October.

I had a nice little surprise this week when my prize from the July challenge finally arrived. (Not Mo's fault I hasten to add. I think it had been 'resting' in customs!)

It was a very pretty little nativity die so I decided to use it straight away, and these are what I made.

I am not sure but I think I prefer the one without the brown mat behind the frame. They are on the same colour base cards, somewhere between these two, but the camera saw them differently!

I have not used yupo paper before. I bought a pack ages ago. I can't even remember my reason but I must have had a plan at the time! Anyway I thought it was time to have a go and I used it with alcohol inks. It was great fun and kept the colours true and bright. I engineered them slightly to get the paler yellow area behind the crib, but other than that I let it do its own thing,

I chose the best place for the die to go, then glued it in place and cut round it. Then I cut a gold scroll frame from vinyl on my Silhuette Cameo, and also a brown mat for it on one.

I mounted it all on a 15cm card cut from a 12" x 12" sheet of American Crafts vanilla card, and added a die cut gold star above the crib.

I also received some black diecuts of the three kings, and for them I covered two sheets of yupo paper with shades of blue alcohol inks. When they were dry I lightly spritzed them with a very old silver mica mist, and glued the die cuts over this. 

Then I cut two white base cards and stamped a line of script using another ancient warrior, a Serendipity stamp, and glued my inked piece below it. This time I added a silver star.

Easy cards to make and quite efective so Thank You Maureen.

I will be adding these to the October Rudolph day Challenge.

Revisiting old techniques for Rudolph Day#September.

I was not sure whether there would be a challenge this month but I decided to make a card or two anyway. I have seen several posts recently of cards made using alcohol inks on Acetate instead of glossy card which I am more familiar with, so I decided to have a go. (There are plenty of youtube videos on this if you are interested).

I was surprised to find my inks were still fine, as it is years since I last  used them. The only ones that had discoloured were the metallic mixatives, and as I couldn't find anywhere around here that sells them, I ended up buying a set of three of a different make from Amazon.es. It turned out they were not really mixatives (language problem, lost in translation!), so they tended to stay where I put them and I used a pointed stick to move them around a bit.

I used two techniques for applying the ink to the acetate, first by dripping it on directly and adding drops of blender and letting it do its own thing, This resulted in the darker panels on two of my cards. The other two, which are lighter I used a felt applicater and 'pounced' it onto the acetate. It took several layers to get enough colour to show.

Then I cut two European size base cards (17 x 11.5cms), one A6 and one 13.5 cm square. I used a large embossing folder of holly to make the next layer for three of them, and then cut panels of the acetate and attached one to each card, edging them with ancient gold peel-offs.

Then I turned to my dies and cut the Memory box Holly swirl, and an ornate tree (maker unknown), and made a green mat for the swirl in my Silhouette cameo soft ware. I mounted these over the inked panels on two cards and added a die-cut sentiment.

For the third one I used an Altnew set of layered stamps and matching die to make the poinsettia and aded gold foliage from a Crafter's Companion set.

The fourth one is a bit different because I used a smaller piece of inked acetate to cut out two layers of a ponsettia, and added two filigree layers from gold mirri-card and red card. This was a set purchased for my cutting machine from a private designer via Facebook. I layered it up and added some gold holly sprays, also a file in my Silhouette library,  and a small peel off sentiment.

Now I will link up with Scrappy Mo for the September Rudolph Day Challenge.