It's Christmas Market time again

Yes, I am having my usual panic crafting sessions to make items for a couple of charity stalls that are coming up in the next few weeks. We had the first one last Saturday but I only took jams and pickles to that one, as it was a joint effort from our church, and other folk did baking, knitting etc.

But now I have my own stall to get ready so here are a few of the things I have made. Starting off with a huddle of sock-snowmen.

They were relatively easy to make, and I love the way they turned out. In fact the hardest part was finding the coloured sock with long enough tops. There were plenty of stripey socks in the market but they were mostly very short, coming just above the ankle. Basically each one is made from the 'foot' of a plain white cotton sock - adult size - that is filled with round grain rice and tied at the top and around the neck. The hat is the top half of a coloured, preferable stripey, sock, and the scarf is cut from what is left over. I glued on a red pear-shaped pin for the nose, and punched black felt circles for the eyes. Then I glued on some matching buttons and used a promarker to add pink cheeks.  I also added a snowflake with a matching gem at the centre, to each hat. So these are very much for decoration only, and are not toys, but I still think they are fun.

Next I called my silhouette cameo into service and using a file bought from My SVG hut, I cut out a stable and assembled it. It was a little bit fiddly, but it all went together quite well. I would like to have stamped the roof with a wood-grain stamp but I haven't got one, and my embossing folder is too small, so I bought some craft, corrugated card, and used that instead. The stable is quite deep, with a vellum backdrop about half-way back.

This leaved enough room to put a battery tea-light behind it which gives the scene a really nice glow.

Again using my silhouette machine, and this time with a cutting file bought from Etcetera4U, I cut out a star.

I saw a photo of this star on Facebook and it looked as though it was white, with a golden light shining through cut out angels and stars. However, when I opened the file in my software, I found it was a solid star, with sequins glued randomly over it! Not deterred by this, I used some stars and angels from my file folder, making them much smaller, and added them over my star sections before I cut them out. The back is another star but without the cut-outs. I wasn't sure whether such small shapes would cut from card but they did. I was using a gold card bought from our 'todo' shop, at 75c for five sheets, so I didn't expect the quality to be as good as it is. Before I glued the last piece in place, I put a small string of 20 Led lights inside it, with the battery case and on/off switch left outside. They are almost too bright, but it does look rather nice lit up.

Each side of the star was cut from an 8inch square of card, and if I have time, I want to make a larger one, using two 12inch squares.

And finally here is a little amigurumi elephant that I crocheted using variegated Danish sock wool, bought from a shop below my son's flat in Aarhus when I visited him this summer.

I am not sure whether he was worth the effort, but he is rather cute.

So I have a few more items in the process of being made, so I am sure I will back in a day or two.

Reindeer for Rudolph day.

Finally I am getting back to some semblance of normal, after a long hot summer and lots of visitors, suddenly it is autumn. We have had several days of rain (my visitors timed it well because they had sunshine every day!), and last night the duvet came out,  and today I need a cardigan handy! So hopefully i can also get back to doing some crafting. 

Yesterday I did a quick browse through my very long Bloglovin' list and commented on as many posts as I could manage, so I didn't get my Rudolph Day post written. But the challenge is open until the end of the month, so I can still do it today. Fortunately I knew I would be busy so I made my cards at the beginning of the month!

I noticed that I had a lot of snippets of mirri-card in my box. I always seem to need a new sheet when I want to use it. So I matched up the gold ones (aren't there a lot of different shades of gold!), and cut out a set of frames with matching sentiment frames, and then set about finding something to put in them.

Once again I resorted to using my digi scrapbook kits, and used adobe to make a card layout, resizing a 12" x 12" backing paper to fit a 15cm card , and adding an image from another set, resized to fit in my frames. I also added a sentiment from a third kit, to fit my small frame. This is all a bit time consuming, but the complete card is now saved in my files, so I can quickly print off more should I need them. They just needed to be cut and glued to the front of a basic white card, with the frames added, and a little stikles to add some sparkle. I also glittered a wooden snowflake to go in the top corner.

I started by printing off two sheets and was a bit non-plussed when the second one came out a pinky-mauve. My yellow and blue cartridges were almost empty and only the magenta one was working properly! I thought they still looked quite pretty, so rather than waste them I rummaged through my mirri-card snippets again and found enough pink to cut frames for one, and purple for the other. They are a warmer shade of mauve than they look here!

I then replaced my two cartridges and made two more yellow and gold cards, using two different frames and die-cutting a snowflake from the frame centres for the corner.

While having my original play around in Adobe, I also tried out a second image that I liked, on a darker background, and I printed one off to try. I thought it was a bit too dark, but once again I didn't want to waste it, so I mounted it on a base card and made a frame from dimensional glitter paste. (It didn't quite fit in my cut frames!). I printed half a Christmas tree and fussy cut it to add some dimension, and added some stickles for sparkle. I also glittered the snowflakes on the backing paper and added gold peel-off sentiments.

So that's another half a dozen cards for my collection. I am linking these up with the Rudolph Day Challenge at  Scraps of Life by Scrappymo, and also at Pixie's Snippets Playground, where it is Di's 200th week anniversary, so do pop over and visit her if you can.

Bobbin' Robins

You must think I have gone on strike. I am really just busy with visitors, but with more visitors and a very busy time to come next week, I thought I would just pop in with a set of Christmas cards that I made.

While looking for some inspiration among the remnants of old cards, I found a jolly little robin made from pieces of felt. He was a bit big, and heavy for my cards but I decided to try making him with pieces of paper. So I took him apart and scanned the separate elements, and then imported them into my Silhouette cameo, down-sized everything, and made a cutting file of them. 

Then I rifled through my Christmas paper off cuts and found a lot of little pieces and cut one set out.

Putting it together was relatively simple, and I thought he was quite cute, so I then cut out several more sets.

I mixed and matched the pieces until I had assembles twelve robins. I gave each one a black glass bead for an eye. I also found a cutting file in my library for a branch and added some holly leaves and again cut and assembled twelve of these. Then it was just a case of going through my boxes to find card large enough to make base cards, papers for the backgrounds, some extra scraps of paper, and an assortment of dies, stamps, punches and embossing folders, and getting them all mounted up.

I was given a big sheet of red card that had been very badly folded into rough quarters, and I was able to make several cards and some embellishments, from the uncreased parts of this. I also used some from a similarly folded up sheet of blue card, and some green. I had a couple of large paper surrounds from old cards that I made use of too, and I ended up with a dozen cards that are all different, but are all linked by a little paper pieced robin somewhere in their design.

There were two blue ones;

Two green ones;

Three red and White ones;

And five red and cream ones.

The only new sheet of paper I used was the cream and white snowflakes one which I printed off specially for the cards. All the rest came from my snippets boxes so I am linking these up at Pixie's Snippets Playground.

Then I had better go back and join my visitors.

A Heavenly Host for Rudolph Day

I know I was kind of minus my mojo for a few weeks during our long, hot, summer, but it was still a bit of a shock to count up my pile of Christmas cards and find I have only made 45 so far! So much for my intention of making a dozen each month!  And, as I send around 120 most years, I need to do some batch baking, and Rudolph day is a good incentive to get cracking.

I am very good at collecting stamps, digis, cutting files etc, that I think might be useful for Christmas, but not so good at actually using them, so I browsed my Christmas folder in my Silhouette cameo software and spotted a rather cute, angel. This was a cutting file bought from the silhouette store, so the first thing I did was to resize everything in the file so that the finished card would fit in a standard envelope. I chose white card for the base shape as I have plenty of it, and then raided my snippets boxes for card and papers to cut the various parts. The most difficult was the wings because the swirls tended to tear, and the lower edges of the skirt layers also needed a little help with scissors, but I eventually had the first one made.

I adjusted the settings, to get a cleaner cut, and tried another one which went together better, so encouraged by this, I made two more, mixing and matching card and papers all on a similar theme.

Then, to make it even easier I cut four more base shapes, and four sets of wings without the swirls. Instead I passed them through an embossing folder, and did the same with the top, white layer of the dress. This time I did blonder hair, used shades of blue card and paper, silver foil in place of gold for the halo, and replaced the star with a two layer die-cut snowflake.

I made three more of these, so I really did use up a nice lot of paper snippets.

As with so many of the modern images, the original angels were faceless except for the cut out eyes, but I had to give mine rosy cheeks and a smile!

So the cards in this set are all similar but each one is different, and they make a good addition to my pile. Now for another design....!

But first I will link these up at Scraps of Life by Scrappymo for the Rudolph day Challenge, and in Pixie's Snippets playground.

Pink for a special lady

I learned at my sewing group on Wednesday, that an elderly lady who sits with us, is celebrating  her birthday next week. She is very sweet and I wanted to make a special card for her. She wears a lot of pink which really suits her, so that is what I chose for her card. A blog friend Darnell has been running another NEBUS challenge. (For the uninitiated NEBUS = Never Before Used Schtuff!). I have several unused items, bought over the passed months, that I am just waiting for the right opportunity to use, so I found a set of Sue Wilson dies, from the Gemini range. They come in three pieces, an upper and a lower smooth, shaped edge, and a fancy bit in the middle, and the set I have used here is called Pavo. They are wider than I expected, but they were easy to work with, and I think they look really pretty.

This card is a rather last minute entry for Darnell's challenge which ends tomorrow, so I had to photograph it by artificial light which has made it more of a peachy-pink than it actually is, and the backing card is bright white!

I used the upper and lower edge dies to trim away parts from a 17cm square, pre-cut card from my stash, and I also cut the back of the card to match. Then I found a panel of pink from my snippets box. It is actually a page from a wallpaper sample book I think. Some-one gave me loads of them ages ago. But it has a nice texture to it, and I was surprised at how well it cut with the dies. I again cut the upper and lower edges with the smooth dies, and this time I added the fancy part at the top.

The flowers were made with Heartfelt Creations Delightful Daisies stamps, and cut with the matching die. I have used the leaves before with my poppy set, but the flowers are another NEBUS item. I used Memento rhubarb stalk ink on white paper snippets, and copic pens to add some extra colour to the petals. Then I double layered each flower and found some pretty jewel flowers for the centres. The leaves are painted with H2Os which gives them a nice sheen, and they are left over from the poppy card I made a while ago, when I got a bit carried away and made loads too many.

The sentiment isn´t one I would put on many cards but it is very suitable for the recipient of this one. I have two stamps of this verse in different fonts, but neither would fit into my oval die, so I printed it out on the computer and then cut it with what I think is a D'sire die. The butterfly came to me a few years ago on a card or gift, so I thought it was time she flew on to a new home.

So I will be linking this up with Darnell's NEBUS Challenge.

I will also pop over and link it in Pixie's Snippets Playground.

Butterfly Challenge #38; Y is for Yarn

With the very hot summer we have had, time away visiting family, and visitors here, I have not managed to enter this challenge as often as I would like, so I was determined to have a go this time. When I saw the challenge was Y is for yarn, I was a bit dubious. Yarn to me means wool, but I read the post and it said, 'Wool or embroidery thread', and I have lots of embroidery thread so I went for that. (I actually have even more wool, but I do not usually use it on my cards). 

Anyway, I remembered a card I made years ago, according to the information on the photo I took, it was back in 2009!, and I thought I´d give it another try. I hunted around for the necessary stencil which I found, but there was no sign of the instructions, so I had to figure it out again. It also took me quite a time to find the decoupage sheet I bought to go with it. Then I needed to sort out card, threads and beads and I was all set to go. Here is the card I made.

I know, the green layer is not straight, but I used very strong glue, so it is staying that way. It is a good thing I only make my cards for family and good friends, and they are used to my idiosyncrasies. A new pair of eyes and steadier hands would come in useful!

This is the stencil for making the card. I think it is an old Marianne one, but I am not sure. The idea is to cut around the inside of it, leaving the 'bridges' between the circle and triangle, and also around the outside of the square. Then you use a pricking tool to mark the holes along the edges. I sketched a second template and marked where I wanted to sew, and having chosen a copper thread and a bright green one, to go with the centre image, and a few green beads, I did all the sewing trying to keep the template as flat and evenly tensioned as possible. 

When this is done, you cut away the 'bridges' so that the triangle is suspended in the centre. You have to be careful not to cut any of the threads. You really don´t want to do that! Do you hear the voice of experience speaking?.

Next you need to cut matching circles in the base card and a top layer, big enough to cover the actually stitching and template, but not so big that it hides the thread work, and fortunately the largest of my set of circle dies was just right. I was using a large pre-cut base card, so I decided it needed a second mat, and I cut a larger circle in this as it would be sandwiched between the other two. (If I´d stuck to one layer it wouldn´t look so crooked!) Before joining them, I used an X-cut corner punch to cut a small butterfly in each corner. Using a punch again made me realise why dies are so popular. It was hard work!

I used plenty of strong, quick-drying glue to attach the stitched template to the base card, and then glued the green layer to go on top. That's when I remember there was a tan layer to go between them so I had to glue that fast, and by the time I had added the green one it was dry and wouldn´t move at all.

I cut the triangular butterfly out, and the decoupage layers, and  assembled them on the centre, and added a matching plain triangle to the back to hide the stitching.

Finally I found a copper happy Birthday peel-off to go in the bottom corner, added some yellow stickles to the centre of the flower, and at the top I added two shiny butterfly stickers. I bought a set of these from Lakeland before they stopped selling craft items - ten years ago maybe? There were hundreds of them, and they are still so pretty. I have used them regularly, but there are still lots left.

Now I will link this up to Mrs A´s Butterfly Challenge, and as the green card was from my snippets box, I will also pop over to the Snippets Playground to link it there.

Rudolph Day

Well Rudolph Day has rather taken me by surprise this month, but fortunately I have a couple of simple Christmas cards I made to try out a new Stampin´up stamp. Rudolph day occurs on the twenty-fifth of each month, when we are encouraged to make a card related to Christmas, and share it on Scrappy Mo´s blog. So why not join in. Here are my contributions this month.

I like cards that depict the Nativity story, but the Kings get most of the attention, so when I saw this image of the shepherds, I just had to buy it. It is a clear stamp, and I haven´t managed to get a very good impression from it yet. Perhaps I need a new black ink pad. However, after a couple of practice prints, I stamped it onto some off cuts of lightly patterned cream paper. This one was using a versafine ink pad. While searching for some dark card to go behind it, I found a piece of navy card that was just big enough to fold into this little base card. It is 9 x 12cms, so I cut my image with a stitched square Crealies die, and it just fitted the card. The sentiment is from a very old SeeDs stamp set, embossed with Stamp-n-stuff Winter Wonderland powder. This is white with silver glitter in it and it is very pretty in real life. Then I just added some sparkle to the star with stickles.

For my second image I used a Memento Tuxedo Black ink pad, but it was no better or worse than the first one. I again cut it with a Crealies square die, and this time I double mounted it with skewed squares of navy card and blue Christmas paper from my snippets boxes. I then found a piece of white paper with navy stars, that was big enough to cover a pre-cut 15cm white square card, and placed the mounted image centrally. The sentiment is from a set of Nativity stamps by Our Daily Bread.

So I´m off to link this up at Scraps of Life by Scrappy Mo, and see what ideas other folk have come up with this month.

I´m also linking up with Pixie´s Snippets Playground.

With Sympathy.

We had some sad news this week, when my husbands best friend in UK, lost his battle against cancer. I wanted to make a card for his wife, but knew it had to be a quick one so I could post it that day (Friday). We have no postal collections or deliveries at the weekend, so if I didn´t post it on Friday, it would have been at least Monday before it started on its journey.

You will know from my previous posts that I have recently placed a big order with Stampin´up, and another set of stamps I bought was a skeleton tree, this pretty blossom bough, and some appropriate sayings for Sympathy and Get Well cards. I believe the set was called Hopeful Thoughts. So I used them to make this card.

Sorry it is such a poor photo. The card has been sent so I couldn´t try again! The ribbon is actually a pretty olive green that exactly matched the distress ink, and the paper was not shiny!

I tried a few arrangements on scrap paper, and eventually chose this arch made by stamping the bough three times. I coloured the stamp with broken china and milled lavender distress pens, ´huffing´ on it before I stamped in case it was drying out. The sentiment came from the same set of stamps. I embossed a small strip of white paper with a Crafts-Too embossing folder and attached it below the image, cutting the complete piece to fit on a 7" square card. I distressed the edges and raised parts of the embossed strip with Memento bamboo shoots ink, and covered the join across it with a strip of green ribbon and added a bow.

Well I´m back today. Last night I had the same problem as our friend Veerle had last week, and was unable to add a photo, but I followed the advice kind friends gave to her, and cleared my cookies and browsing history, and today everything is fine. There is always something new to learn with the computer.