Floral Tree

These November days are not good. By the time that I get round to take photos of last night card it is too dark to take daylight photos, so I end up with bad photos like the one above. Granted the card is not my best one -nor my worst one either- but still the photo does not justice to the card.
I use Dawn Petler's idea of decoupaging with circles some of the flowers of the tree but then I decoupage properly the larger ones.

I may follow my friend Fabrizio's advice and get myself a light tent, but I kind of know that I will buy it and then not use it enough. What I need to try is to experiments with the daylight bulbs that I have.

I love this paper - and this die!

Probably the most used paper in the last month was this notebook doodles one from My Minds Eye. For this simple card I used yet again the ornate card die from Sizzix. It is one of their XL dies so the price tag is a bit higher that what I am use to pay, but the possibilities are endless which such a lovely shape which fist nicely into a C6 envelope.


For the butterflies I use Martha Stewart punches (the three in one and the single one) and for the message I used a sentiment from my Essentials Sentiments set, of course!

More Ornate Cards

I said I loved this die didn't I? To make the aperture I used one of the Standard Circle Nestabilities sets, but only once I had cut the ornate card. If you are a Nestie wizard, I woud suggest to cut at the same time the smaller circle -for the Christmas pudding inside of the card- and the larger one -the aperture on the front of the card-
Since it is quite thick patterned paper and the finished size of the card is not very large, I figured that I could make the main card using this lovely glittered Christmas paper from K &Company. The letters are cut using the Serif Essentials a fantastic Bigz die set, perfect to cut thicker, like really think materials such as book board or thick chipboard.

Gap Cards

As soon as I saw this die I knew I could do a gap card with the Noel. As it is an intricate die cut, I cut two, one of the patterned paper and another one out of the plain green card. Once the card was done, I glued the green card Noel in the inside to strengthen the gap. I just added the scroll from this decorative scroll.
However, I think I over did it a bit when I inked the card with distressing inks, it became a bit too dark for my liking.

Wording stamps and punches

As I did with the Circle Essentials, here you have a the stamps from the Wording Stamp set combined with a selection of punches.
Because this set contains so many different shaped messages (all related to Birthdays) there are a range of punches that combine with them. The two circle messages are smaller than the ones on the Circle Essentials, which means that if you would like to have a white line around it the best sized punch is the 1 1/16" -orange Eksuccess medium punch- and scalloped circle the best one is the Martha Stewart one.

Gold Leaf - Part Two

This one belongs to the same article as the one posted yesterday. The technique for this card is simple. Apply to the card or acetate double sided adhesive, it could be just tape or sheets that you can die cut or just trim. Then, I just stamped the Winter Scroll with black StazOn Ink on the front of the acetate so it floats.

Gold leaf - Part One

Last year this card was featured in Craft Stamper as part of an article I did on gold leaf, actually the fake stuff, as it would be a bit too expensive to use the real stuff.
For this particular card, I use Stamp and Bond embossing powder, something I did not get on at all until the super stamper Kim Reygate taught it to me, do not over heat it and the fresher is the powder the better -ie old powder no good. Also, it was Kim that told me to use gold Perfect Pearls over the top to cover up any gaps without gold leaf.
The message is a PaperArtsy stamp and the Scroll is from Penny Black called Winter Scroll.

Birthday Wishes

Because I was born on Christmas day, birthday cards that have a winter feel appeal to me. It may sound a weird combination, but that is what I like.
For this card I used Enchanting Trees stamp set from Craftwork Cards, click here to see the rest of the images for the set. Copics for the colouring in, and Rock Candy Distress Glitter Glue. About that glitter glue, let me show you a close up.


The Rock Candy glitter glue is very, very subtle, nothing like Stardust Stickles. BUT, it is gorgeous specially for someone that is not very glittery like myself.
The message is from the first Simply Sayings that craftwork Cards manufactured which were blck printed on white card, which is ideal to color in. Alternatively you could use the ones foiled in silver or gold.

Circle Essentials and the punch sizes

Last week I got the parcel containing my latest stamp sets. One of them being the Circle Essentials.You can find them in shops all around the country including The Glitter Pot and Artbase. They look like this on the web:

Unfortunately, I have been extremely busy with deadlines and family so I haven't had the rpoper time to actually play with them -ie make a card-. But I could not resist stamping all of them to check they all work! So, I decided to show how the circles fit into the different punches and nesties. I know there are more combinations but this is using the punches or dies that I had at home.


They all can be punches with 1" but they wont have a white edge around them. If you would like that effect the best sized punch is 1 1/8", which are manufactured by Eksuccess. the bottom examples are used in combination with different shaped punches: star (Stampin Up, large) Square 1 1/8" (EKsuccess) and Scallop Square (StampinUp).

They are all in this set the same size which is slightly larger than the ones in the Mixed Sentiments and also larger than the two that appear on the Wording set - the birthday set.

If you have make any cards using any of the products I have designed whether it is Craftwork Card stuff -Messages In Circles or Buttons, Floral Damask or Floral Christmas- or the stamps -Mixed Sentiments, Circle Essentials...- please leave a comment with the link. I would love to see what people are creating with them.

By they way, I used Versafine Ink Satin Red (there is a reason, as I used Spanish Moss for the Wording Stamp and Blue Lagoon for the Square Essentials). And

Letterpress effect

I did have a system so I could know which cards I had posted photos of and which ones I had not. However, when I had some trouble with blogger last time I decided to use online albums, Picasa to be exact, which works great. But I did that hastily without thinking about my system.
The result is that now I have got loads of photos online and in my computer and I am not sure which ones I have shared. So, from now on you may see some repeat cards. It is not you it's me!
I wish I had more time and energy to actually explain how to make cards, but the truth is I hate writing instructions so I only do when I need to, ie for an article just because that is part of my job. But I can share that the background were don with the Snowflake Impresabilities.

Do you watch Stricly Come Dancing? It wasn't until last year when I started to watch it from my computer -we don't have a tv!-. It was my friend Julie -as in Julie Hickey- who actually talked me into by passing comments here and there about how much fun it was. Last year I was home for week one so I watched it online. I soon became addicted because I LOVE to dance, not ballroom as I don't know how, but pretty much everything else. I really enjoyed series Six and was quite happy with the outcome.
This year I am watching it again online either live or on the iPlayer on the Sunday and I am enjoying it as much or even a bit more than last year just because in each couple I like either the celebrity, the pro, or actually both. Yesterday there was a bit of an upset as one of the clearly better dancers was voted off. Personally I could not warm myself to the celebrity, but I like very much James Jordan the pro dancer not as best pro dancer but because he is one of the few -with Vincent and maybe Brian- who has some masculinity dancing. The other dancers are great, I consider some of them even better, but I don't see them as males dancing just as dancers, if it makes any sense.
The funny aspect about all this Stricly thing is that once I watched about ten minutes of the Spanish version, Mira quien Baila, and it confirmed what I already suspected: UK TV rules! Spanish, unfortunately, is a thousand miles behind.