Sunday 27 September 2009

My First Christmas Card for 2009!!!


Who's been to Church and lit a candle?.......

....here she comes......

Isn't she the cutest?

Ooh I just couldn't resist this little Tilda with her candle,
there is another stamp that is almost identical but I just
loved her tiny halo of flowers....
So onto this card, I have taken lots of photo's for a little
tutorial so you can see how it developed, I really don't
know what the outcome will be sometimes.....

Right, I really don't want to teach your grandmother
how to suck eggs so to speak, but lots of people are
really not aware of the time and effort we put into
our cards, some think that these images come ready
coloured and cut out and we just stick all these
ready made things onto our cards!!!!
NOT THE CASE!!! So here is my little Tilda,
Rubber Stamp stuck onto an acrylic block all ready
to be inked up with Staz On permanent ink. The
reason I have a 'New' sticker on this is, I have a few
that are not as wet, so rather than throw them out
I use them for any distressing or light stamping.
Here she is coloured-in using my Le Plume II
watercolour pens.


The idea for this card came when I was sorting
through my templates and found this beautiful Arch
shape, my original idea was of her looking
through the window (I will try that one next time)
then I thought I would have her coming through
the Church doors....

I cut the Arch shape out of the beautiful paper
that I would be using on my card (these papers
are My Mind's Eye signature Christmas glitter
Book and are a must)!!!
As my Tilda stamped image was not long enough
to reach the bottom of the door I used this blue
paper from Scenic Route. You can see that I have cut
the bottom of the white stamped image, just
leaving her feet, this is to give the impression that
she is walking onto the blue stone floor! I then added
to the outer stamped image distress inks from the
Tim Holtz range, Vintage Photo, Frayed Burlap and
then Antique Linen.

Next the doors; I cut the Arch Shape in half and
drew lines from top to bottom on both doors
with my Le Plume II Dark Brown water colour
pen and then using a little water on my brush
blended the lines. Each door was stuck-on in two
places with ds tape and left to run along the door to
look like panels of wood going in the opposite direction.
I then used the same pen to enhance the detail
of wood in certain places, I also drew some
fine lines and wood knots with a fine water
colour brush.

This is so you can see how fabby doo this paper is,
don't know if the glitter shows up much?

Ok, the doors have had another coat of Tim Holtz
Vintage Photo distressing ink to give it a deeper
colour. Don't you think this double sided tape looks
pretty good!! ha ha

Here I am measuring where Tilda will be once
the front of the paper and doors sit on top of
her and where she will appear when the doors
open. Also the little sentiment I got from the
internet, "Bless us Lord this Christmas with
quietness of mind, Teach us to be patient and
always to be kind"! Just thought that was so
sweet.

As you can see I have torn the edges of the sentiment
as it was too big, I then edged it with these two
colours and they made this fab teal colour, (I think
I will be mixing those two again).

The door handles were made from the stems of my
paper roses, I twisted one end around my
finger to form the circle and twisted again
to secure, then punched two small holes in the door
with my eyelet gun and threaded them through...

twisted them again twice and cut off the
excess. Here is the back of the paper with the back
of the door showing, you can see how the door is only
fixed in two places either side.

How fabby doo does this door look!! I am really
pleased with it.

I have then attached some lace (secured only at
the back) to form my trellis for my climbing rose,
this is so I can glue some of my beautiful white
leaves underneath as well as on top.

Now I stick my Tilda and blue floor together
before securing to the card, the paper with the
doors is then finally attached to the card.

Now I can decorate the trellis with these beautiful
leaves I have punched, my paper roses I have twisted
together for form a climber, sequins, hearts and a little white
butterfly. (I know there are no butterflies at
Christmas)! The ribbon on the sentiment is from stash
as is the little silver bell and diamante star.
I have then finished off with some beautiful glistening
stickles in Crystal, around Tilda, my roses and butterfly..
If you look on the third and fourth picture at the top
of this post you will also see that I have painted in some
stones for the floor on the blue paper.

Here she is all lit up!
Phew is this a record for the longest post?
I hope you all managed to stay awake?
TFL, and Happy Crafting to you all, Sue xx

Saturday 26 September 2009

Scattered Pictures.....


Hello Everyone, Happy Saturday to you all, I thought I'd show
you the last card I made, which was yesterday ha ha, (I still
have three months worth to blog OMG)!!!....anyway getting
back to this card. I recently met up with one of my cousin's
daughters, he died when he was only 38 some 23 years ago
and I have not seen her since she was three; to cut a long story
short myself and another cousin sorted through all our old
photo's from our parents and found some fab photos of her
Dad when he was a little boy, her Nan and Grandad who she
never met and her Dads sister (her Auntie) so she has found
a whole new family. My Mum, her Nan's sister, was the youngest
of 11!
I thought I would make her a lovely keepsake wallet card
containing all the photos we found and send it to her.......

Papers are K & Co, distressed with emery board and added
Tim Holtz vintage photo to edges and tags. Printed sentiments
from Computer onto Velum, the tiniest of eyelets I used on
the top tag to secure. Lace was threaded with ribbon and
string of pearl beads. Craft paper punched with Fiskers heart
border punch the butterfly is MS punch....

Flowers from stash, peeled back papers and inserted 'Family'
sentiment, again printed onto velum, distressed cream
card underneath, heart punch from Woodware.
Hope she likes it! TFL Happy Crafting, Sue xx

Friday 25 September 2009

Laughter is the Best Medicine!

Hello to all you lovely crafters!! I can only apologise profusely for
my lack of blogging! I know you are all probably sick and tired of
waiting!! so I thought I would start with making you all laugh out
loud at this fab video.....
.

..... hopefully you will come back soon to see some of my creations.
Happy Friday to you all and Happy Crafting, TFL Sue xx