About Me

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Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
I have been crafting since May 2008, when in desperation to find an unusual birthday card for my Mum, I gave up looking in the shops and decided to have a go at making my own. I soon realised that crafting is addictive and I haven't brought a card since. In 2011 I completed my certificate in papercrafting as a result of the work I did as part of the course I started entering challenges on line and in magazines. I applied for design teams and also started making samples for Ooh La La Creations for their shows on Create and Craft. I have now completed my Diploma in professional crafting and most recently been runner up in the Papercrafter of the Year 2013 a competition run by Papercraft essentials magazine, I don't have a particular style I like to use elements from lots of styles and techniques, although I do love all things vintage. In 2014 I started to move more towards scrapbooking to take care of the huge family archive of photographs that were stored in my attic. I have continued cardmaking and Scrapbooking through 2015 and 2016 but have also become interested in off the page projects. I hope to be able focus on these in the future.

Monday 14 November 2011


I am now nearing the end of my Christmas card making for another year and for this one I decided to experiment a bit with some of the materials I had around the house.

As you may have gathered I love the vintage look, so was delighted when a few weeks ago I found the Marianne die for a Christmas lantern in my local craft shop. This was the starting point for the card.
I cut it out of plain green card stock and then ran it through the sizzix on an embossing mat to bring out the detail. Having done this I dabbed it with Momento ink in Cocoa and then used copper and gold inks to highlight it to age the piece.

Once done I went to work on the backing which is from the Papermania range – called ‘At Christmas Time’ I cut it to A5 size and used a pair of scissors to distress the edge before rubbing with brown ink.
I used a piece of plain brown wrapping paper that we happened to have in the house and ran this through the sizzix using a musical score embossing folder. The edges were then torn and rubbed with brown ink and the surface was rubbed against a copper ink pad to highlight the pattern.

I had some strips of brown glitter paper left over from a previous project which I used Marianne dies to cut into flourishes.

I cut a small piece of parchment paper to cover the aperture in the lantern and cut a small piece of white glitter paper to make the candle which I added a brown paper flame to the top and one side of the candle was then coated in pearlescent paint, to give the idea of the melted wax and the flame was coloured using gold metallic ink and red paint


I coloured a white card tag using Tim Holtz Antique Linen distress ink and stamped a greeting in brown ink and edged the tag in brown ink before adding three small copper coloured pearls with pearlescent paint.
The lace was an off cut I had in my stash as was the striped ribbon which I used to edge the lace and add the bow to the tag.

The flowers and leaves have a velvety texture and are left over from a Christmas decoration for my mantelpiece.

Overall I was quite pleased with the look of the card as when I started I wasn’t sure if the brown paper would work, or if the idea for the candle would work.


I am entering this card into the following challenges

http://2sisterschallengeblog.blogspot.com/ - Anything Goes




6 comments:

  1. Beautiful card - very creative - thanks for joining in my CHNC challenge 46 - hope to see you again soon x

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  2. WOW!! This is a piece of art! I love how your lantern opens!! Your distressing is gorgeous! Thanks for sharing with us at Frosted Designs!

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  3. Gorgeous card,Alli!Love the image and the design,your embellies are fab!
    Thanks for joining us at Totally PaperCrafts this week.
    Dodici
    xxxx

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  4. Alli,

    Beautiful card, I think you have captured the vintage look wonderfully and the colours are amazing. I love the marianna lantern.

    Love Bex xx

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  5. Ooooh, this is getting me in the mood for 'A Christmas Carol'. Really Lovely, Alli x

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  6. Amazing card, you did a fantastic job! I am loving that diecut!! Going to have to keep an eye out for that one!!

    Thanks so much for playing along with us this week at Frosted Designs! :)

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