Ornamental Sparkle

I shall post the results of my poll about "Following" & the conclusions I have come to once Christmas is over. In the meantime I had two cards left to make & have just managed to get these done ready for delivery by hand on Christmas Eve.

Although it took a while to work out how to "hang" the ornaments I was very pleased with the result. Another aspect that quite delighted me was the way the "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" wording worked out on the patterned paper for the inside of the card.

front of card

angled view to show sparkle of glittered ornaments
 & mirri card used for layering 

close-up showing heat embossing
& glittering of ornament

close-up showing dimension & gold thread
"hanging" of ornaments

inside of card

close-up showing paper piercing of
sentiment panel

Recipe

Stamps Chocolate Baroque UDLSP0304 Christmas Decorations.

Inks VersaMark watermark stamp pad with Stampendous Gold Tinsel Embossing Powder, Peeled Paint Distress Ink (inking some cardstock & paper edges). Brilliance Galaxy Gold (edging stamped images).

Colouring Ice Stickles Glitter Glue (Crystal Ice).

Cardstock Craft UK Limited (card blank); an assortment of white, gold & green cardstock from stash.

Papers Making Cards The Craft Creations Collection Christmas Papers.

Punches Woodware (oval & scalloped oval).

The ribbon, gold star sequins & gold thread are all from stash.

Snowflake Blue

Christmas Trees & Snowflakes are images that I associate with winter - probably something to do with my first 6 Christmases which were spent in Sweden; those that I remember involved skiing through the pine forests on my own small skiis. I don't remember skiing after we moved to the UK in 1967 although both my brother & Father liked nothing more than to set off for Austria to ski during the Easter Holidays.

Edited 22 Dec

I have uploaded all the photos again as the first set were not clickable for enlarging.

front of card

close-up showing dimension of
snowflakes & heat embossed tree 

close-up showing sparkle & dimension of heat
embossed snowflake background

close-up showing detail & sparkle of heat
embossed tree

close-up showing detail of tree & dimension achieved
by using 2mm foam pads for mounting 

inside of card

close-up to show paper piercing
of message panel

Recipe

Stamps Chocolate Baroque UDLSP0304 Christmas Decorations (tree) & UA6SP0267 Winter Wonderland (snowflake patterns).

Inks VersaMark watermark stamp pad with Stampendous Winter Wonderland Embossing Powder, Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink (distressing some cardstock & paper edges).

Cardstock an assortment of blues & whites plus patterned in various finishes from stash.

Punches, Dies EK Success (Iron Eagle corner), Xcut (snowflake corner - the small snowflakes are the waste from the corner), Woodware (circle); Spellbinders Shapeabitlities Sprightly Sprockets; 

The ribbon & snowflake sequins are from stash.

Challenges Entered

Everybody Art Challenge 173 - Anything Goes
Joanna Sheen Challenge 1 - Christmas Wishes

A Question of Blog Following

I am in the process of deciding which blogging platform to use & one of my main criteria is how easy it would be for people who wish to to follow my blog. I would very much value some feedback & to that end have placed a poll to the right in my sidebar.

I have been working on becoming familiar with two blogging platforms & need to choose which one to pursue as I want to be able to concentrate on colouring & getting my fingers inky.

Thank you for any help or comments you might wish to leave.


Edited 12 December
Having initially set the poll for a couple of days only from yesterday I realised the time span was too short so have reset it for a week leaving this post (I hope!!) as a "sticky" 11-18 December. 
This is proving very interesting indeed & moreover extremely helpful - THANK YOU.

Tying A Patterned Ribbon Bow Right Side Up

The main inspiration for what follows is a video tutorial by Becca Feeken of Amazing Paper Grace where she explains how to tie peg bows. I like to have my ribbon tails both exiting the bow from behind & showing the right side (as Becca does), moreover with a patterned ribbon having an up or down motif (as in my example where the flower stems grow up out of the ground) I don't want any part of the bow looking as if it is upside down. Not always having pegs to hand I thought I would see if it was possible to do something similar using my fingers & the following is what resulted.

1) Using a piece of ribbon about 12 inches long

2) & placing the bottom edge of patterning to the left, loop the ribbon around the first two fingers as shown.

3) Taking the left tail place it over the right ribbon & flip over between the first two fingers.

4) Turn the hand over & ensure the right side of the ribbon you have just flipped over is facing you & the bottom edge of the pattern is to the left.

5) Insert the tail down through the gap between the two fingers as shown.

6) Turn the hand back so the palm faces you & the ribbon just inserted through the gap has the wrong side facing you.

7) Pull the top tail straight down so the wrong side faces you & the tail is towards the right of the first  tail as shown.

8) Taking the left tail fold it up & over the second tail as shown.

9) Insert the tail through the loop formed by the second tail as shown.

10) Pull the first tail upwards & the second tail downwards ensuring both the tails have their wrong sides facing you.

11) Pull tight

12) Turn the hand over & neaten the centre fold if necessary.

13) Turning the hand back so that the palm faces you the knot should look like this with an inverted U or horseshoe shape visible.

14) The tails can be pulled downwards......

15) ....... or sideways

16) ......& the ends snipped as desired.
Here you can see that both bows have the flowers growing upwards out of the ground whether looking at the bows themselves or the tails.

Christmas White

Glenda Waterworth has set a White Christmas Challenge with the prize being a Chocolate Baroque Gift Voucher to the value of £1 for every entry made (maximum £50).

One of the this year's Chocolate Baroque Christmas stamp sets is Steampunk Christmas & having recently purchased the Spellbinders Shapeabilities Sprighly Sprockets I wanted to combine the two in some kind of wreath design. This card is what evolved as I worked.

The flower centre started off as one link from a string of white plastic flowers which I coloured red with a Copic Ciao Marker; that didn't look right; neither did a covering of Xmas Red Stickles mixed with Glossy Accents but, by the time I'd added red micro beads to the mix & let it dry overnight I was rather pleased with the resulting glittery textured effect. I only had pink pearls no red - but that was easily rectified with the Red Copic Ciao.

front of card 

close-up to show dimension of flower
& embellishments

close-up to show micro beads & glittering
of flower centre 

close-up showing ribbon embellishing &
sparkle of holly leaves

inside of card

close-up to show paper piercing of
sentiment & message panels

close-up showing heat embossed sentiment,
paper piercing & textured cardstock

Recipe
Stamps Chocolate Baroque UA4SP0362 Steampunk Christmas (image) & UA6GW0211 Celebration Alphabet (sentiment).
Inks Fired Brick Distress Ink (image), VersaMark watermark stamp pad with Stampendous Detail White Embossing Powder (sentiment).
Colouring Copic Ciao Markers, Ice Stickles Glitter Glue (Crystal Ice), Stickles Glitter Glue (Xmas Red).
Cardstock Craft UK Limited (card blank), Bits N Pieces A4 Assorted Embossed Card (Snow White), red pearlescent & white from stash.
Punches/Dies Woodware (scalloped circle & scalloped oval, small & large holly sprigs), Xcut (holly leaf); Spellbinders Shapeabilities Sprightly Sprockets.
The red micro beads are Woodware & the remaining embellishments (sequin flower & bead, ribbon, gems & pearls) are from stash.

Challenges Entered
Glenda Waterworth/Chocolate Baroque White Christmas Challenge

Joanna Sheen Challenge 1 - Christmas Wishes
Make My Monday Week 28 - Seasonal Theme + Red Ribbon
Stampalot Challenge December - Bingo (my line on the Bingo Grid can be either the vertical pearls-mist/stickles-ribbon or the diagonal pearls-flowers-punch)
TimbroScrapMania Stamping Challenge 38 - Bow

Finally......... A Card Simply Stamped

Our carpets have been laid, my craft room has been rearranged yet again (the wireless connection kept disconnecting itself) & I'm getting back into the groove of working with my stamps & inks. I had a bit of shock with Messrs Blogger & Google (Blooger & Goggle perhaps) - one moment I am following 69 blogs, & then it varies between 11 & 20! I've tried the new interface, switching back to the old one, unsubscribing/unfollowing & resubscribing/refollowing & as soon as I've got it all sorted - it changes!!! I really do not understand so I have resorted to keeping up with blogs/following via a mixture of RSS Feeds & the Top Sites on my Mac.

Although I still have some colouring homework to finish & experiments/testing I want to do I've been missing entering the Penny Black Weekly Reader Challenge. So, feeling rather out of practice (my last entry was in April) here goes.......

front of card

close-up showing embossed image & background

angled photo to show dimension of image panel

created using foam pads for mounting

close-up showing glittering of main image

inside of card

close-up showing tone on tone stamping

& paper pierced scallops

To mark the introduction of a regular feature (plus the new Designer Kelley Eubanks) on the Penny Black Blog this week's challenge is to create a simply stamped card based on the sketch provided.

I have tried stamping a one layer card - not for me as that little scamp of a Perfectionist Imp perches on my shoulder muttering into my ear & I become more anxious & tenser as the days go by with nothing to show but inky fingers & a bin full of rubbish. Seeing the inspirational samples by the Penny Black Design Team made me realize that I could actually have some layering & dimension incorporating some favourite  details (distressed edges & paper piercing) & my card would still  qualify as Clean And Simple.

Recipe
Stamps Penny Black 30-068 trims (image & background) &30-067 to you (sentiment).
Inks VersaMark watermark stamp pad with Stampendous Detail white Embossing Powder (stamping on card front) VersaFine Vintage Sepia (stamping inside card), Vintage Photo Distress Ink (distressing some cardstock edges).
Colouring Ice Stickles Glitter Glue (Crystal Ice).
Cardstock Craft UK Limited (card blank), an assortment of browns & whites in various textures from stash.
Punches EK Success (corner rounder), Woodware (circles & scalloped circles).

Challenges Entered
Penny Black Weekly Reader Challenge - Simple Stamping
Rainbow Lady's Challenge 180 - Cards for Men (the colours & CAS design make this suitable for a man)

An update from under dust & disarray........

.....midst extra bookshop duties & helping my husband with the house renovations.

I'm certainly very thankful for the extra hours in the local secondhand bookshop as these have enabled me to replace my broken Cuttlebug with a Big Shot, & to purchase a greater selection of cardstock, Spectrum Noirs & ProMarkers so that I can make a proper comparison between these alcohol markers plus Copics.

The house renovation is proving a much longer process than expected & my husband who is bearing the brunt of it badly needs more help from me - at present we are removing the 30 or so years old carpet throughout the house & de-gripper rodding plus de-tacking & thoroughly cleaning the boarding prior to having new carpets fitted.

We also need to de-clutter the attic to enable better access for wiring repairs & mice control. Our piece of woodland beyond the fenced off lawn area (see photo) means that the woodmice are sorely tempted by our warm loft insulation during the winter months & scamper over the lawn despite the best efforts of the owls & buzzards etc..... The mice do not like our sonic deterrant but in their haste to escape it they jump between the rafters dislodging insulation material & necessitating our easy access for its replacement.

I'll leave you with some photos of my rearranged craft room.........

enter through the hallway

standing in the doorway looking in

turning clockwise round the room

looking towards the door with it closed

& the final corner

Our completed fireplace - we managed to source some reclaimed bricks & a large slab of black slate which was cut to size & sealed with a special sealant after the whole was completed

All my photos are clickable for enlarging. If you wish to see what the fireplace looked like as the builders began work in August, see this post.