C is for Christmas - Ooh La La DT card

Good Morning, today sees the launch of the new fortnightly challenge at Ooh La La Creations ....... but before I show you my card for the Design Team this time, I just want to thank everyone who entered the last challenge Christmas Sentiments. As the DT member choosing the top 3 I had to have a lie down in a darkened room after making my choice. It really was a difficult job, but also very enjoyable and inspirational there were so many gorgeous entries. You can see the winners over on the challenge blog here. I hope the lucky winners enjoy their prizes.

Now onto the new challenge C is for Christmas, having received my copy of the new 'Yuletide Wishes' CD from Ooh La La Creations...don't forget to tune into create and craft at 5pm this afternoon to see it featured in the show with Hayley. It took me most of the day to decide which image to work with there are so many gorgeous images and papers on there. I kept coming back to Holly Angel and so here she is .........

I used Kraft card as the base and the main backing paper is from the bonus folder on the Yuletide Wishes CD. I printed the backing paper off onto white pearlised paper to give it a lovely sheen and I cut a square from it which I then mounted onto matte finished gold card and trimmed this to leave a narrow border. The graduated blue paper was from the Holly Angel folder and I cut a square from this and ran it through the big shot using a Kreasions - garden flourish folder to emboss it. Holly herself was printed onto white super smooth card and I printed two images. The first I mounted onto matte gold card and trimmed to leave a narrow border, and the second image I fussy cut taking off the wings and the lower hem of the skirt and mounted this on top of the main image to give a 3D effect.

The edges of her cloak were given the Flowersoft treatment using Polar white, her dress was given a thin coat of stickles iridescent glitter and finally I highlighted the wings using gold stickles. Whilst she was drying I went to work on several flourishes and leaves from my precut stash these were cut from white card but I coloured them using stamp it up metallic gold ink before coating them with stickles gold ice, the white poinsettia was also given the gold ice treatment.

The sentiment was a clear self adhesive one I had in my stash and I stuck it to an off cut of the main backing paper to match it into the design. I then added a double bow tied in a lovely coffee coloured lace which I had got recently for a few pence from a stall on our local market from their bargain bundles bin. The small cream and blue flowers were from my stash. The final touch was the blue pearls at the corner of the card.

I have got a bit carried away with the Christmas theme and decided to add two candles as a bit of set dressing for the main photo. They are covered in dark green flocking and as such are unsuitable to be lit and are for decoration only. I printed off the White Poinsettia decoupage from the Ooh La La 'Fleur d'Imagination' CD and added the decoupage panel to the candles to give them a bit of a Christmas make over. 

I will be entering the card in the following challenges

http://abcchristmaschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ - up to you 

http://ppp-makeitmonday.blogspot.co.uk/ - anything goes

Bewitched

I don't usually go for the whole Halloween thing, due mainly to it not being something that has any roots in my childhood. However a few nights ago I was making a Christmas card and using some die cut corners which I had cut using a Cherry Lynn die, called holly corners. I was suddenly struck with an idea that if I turned the corners upside down and made a few well placed snips with scissors I could create a bat. This lead me to search my stash for suitable items to create a Halloween Card so I could use my bats and here is what I came up with.

 Materials used

8 inch square Kraft card base
Black card
Bright Orange Card
Image, backing paper and sentiment from the Ooh La La CD Femme Fatale in the ATC folder.
Black Lace, Black ribbon, Hessian strip, and Gold Organza ribbon from my stash
Flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts
Gems and beads from stash
Gold stamp it up pigment ink pad
Marianne dies LRO157 - Leaves and  LRO206 - Ivy Leaves
Kreasions die - Fern Leaves
Cherry Lynn die Holly Corner.
Black glitter from my stash.

Method.
I resized the image of the Witch from the ATC folder and cropped off the happy Halloween greeting down the side, I also resized the Happy Halloween sentiment. The backing paper was from the flights of fancy folder on the Femme Fatale CD and by opening it in my craft studio I was able to adjust the colour to fit this project. I printed 2 copies of the topper and 1 sentiment onto white card. If you haven't come across Ooh La La CDs before then you can find the full range here . They are really versatile and can be used stand alone or in a graphics programme as I have on this project and they contain some stunning images and backing papers.

To give the card some extra depth I fussy cut one image of the Witch from the topper and using scissors to gently curve the skirt I glued this over the image on the other topper using glue gel. I then added some spots of PVA using a microfine tip to her hat the hem of the dress and the corset area of the dress before sprinkling with ultrafine black glitter. This was left t one side to dry.

I then cut the Black card, orange card and backing paper to size to leave a thin border of the base card showing.

I roughed the edges of the backing paper and orange card and rubbed the edges along the gold ink pad before sticking the backing paper to the orange card. I then wrapped this panel with the Hessian strip and the black lace and ribbon sticking the ends at the back of the panel to ensure a neat finish and then sticking this panel to the black card panel before sticking the whole panel to the base card.

I die cut a selection of leaves using the dies listed above from black card. To allow the topper to dry fully I made up 2 jewel pins using a selection of beads from my stash, which have been collected from various charity shop buys of old jewellery. I used 2 long Jewellers pins with decorative flower finials and coated the pin in glue gel ( by sticking it into the end of the tube) and the slid the beads into place. I wiped the end of the pin which was left exposed and left these to dry.

I roughed the edge of the topper using scissors and rubbed this onto the gold stamp pad, I also did the same with sentiment. I stuck the topper onto the card using glue gel and added the flourishes either side, before adding the sentiment.

I tied a double bow in the organza ribbon and having played with the various leaves diecuts stuck the leave to the card with the bow over the top of the join. I then added the orange flowers and berries and whilst the glue gel I had used to hold the flowers and bow in place was still wet I pushed the jewelled pins in at an angle.

The bats were made by snipping off the centre of the three holly leaves and the flourish from the holly corners die cut. I also flattened the top edge of the remaining 2 leaves snipping off the holly points, These were then turned upside down and the orange gems added for eyes and a black crystal gem for the nose.

The final touch was a line of three of the orange pearls on the bottom corner of the sentiment.

I am entering this card into the following challenges
http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ - Use autumn colours - Orange and gold
http://anythingchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ - make your own embellishments - the pins and the bats
http://audsentimentschallengeblog.blogspot.co.uk - Halloween
http://craftyourpassionchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ Which,Witch is which?

http://craftycatzweeklychallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ Halloween
http://fabnfunkychallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ - Orange Black and Choice - my choice being the Brown of the Kraft card and Hessian
http://hookedoncraftchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ Halloween
http://lilredwagon.blogspot.co.uk/ - Bowdelicious (include a bow in the design)
http://onestopcraftchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ -Anything goes
http://pennyschallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ - Girls Girls Girls - well my Witch is definitely a girl

Christmas Sentiment OLL DT

Hello everyone, well I hope you caught the launch of the new Ooh La La CD 'Yuletide Wishes' yesterday on Create and Craft. If not you can go to the Ooh La La website to browse the gallery to see some of the projects the DT have made using the CD. There are some gorgeous images on it once again drawn by Shelly Rasch so if you liked the 'Everyday Occasions' CD you will love this latest edition to the Ooh La La selection.

Our last challenge over at Ooh La La Creations Challenge blog was 'Santa' and there were some fabulous creations, thanks to everyone who submitted a card and you can see the winners on the blog. Congratulations to you all.

The next challenge is once again designed to keep you in the Christmas crafting mood and is 'Christmas Sentiment'. The prize for the winner of this particular challenge will be a copy of the new Christmas CD 'Yuletide Wishes'

I was originally going to use one of my samples that I had submitted for the Create and Craft show but I changed my mind when I came across a lovely bookmark on the 'Boys to Men' CD. Here is how I used it on my card......

I printed the bookmark onto white card and then scored and folded the card to give a double thickness I fastened a piece of organza ribbon between the layers to make it easier to remove the bookmark from teh pocket on the card.

I made the card blank by scoring and folding the front of a scalloped edged card blank in half to form the easel. I then cut the patterned paper to fit each of the front panel and matted them onto black card to leave a thin border and wrapped each one with organza ribbon, before sticking them on the front of the card.

The image for the pocket was also mounted on black card and trimmed to leave a thin border before being stuck on three sides with double sided tape to the lower left of the front of the card blank, keeping the top corner clear of the fold line.

I then added die cut holly leaves and ivy leaves cut from left overs of the black card. The white swirl and the Poinsettias were cut from plain white card off cuts from the printed sheet used for the bookmark and pocket.

I also added a double bow tied from organza ribbon to the lower pane (the front of the card when it is displayed open)

I added faux pearls as holly berries to keep the black and white theme with the muted colours of the image and backing papers. By adding the embellishments to the upper panel as well as the lower it means that the back of the card also looks attractive when displayed.

For the inside base of the card I used one of the page curl papers from the 'Boys to Men' CD. I think these papers lend themselves particularly well to being the base of an easel card. I also mounted this on black card and trimmed it to leave a thin border all the way round before sticking to the base of the card. The stopper was a sentiment from the 'Watercolour Memories' CD and this was mounted on a white scalloped oval and a single pearl added at the top before being stuck at the point of the page curl design to give the impression that it was holding the curl in place. Finally I added more black holly and ivy leaves to teh base to tie in with the embellishments on the rest of the card. 

By using the large sentiment as the stopper it means that even if the recipient can't wait to use their book mark the card still has a Christmas greeting for others to see.

I have entered this card in the following challenge
http://ppp-makeitmonday.blogspot.co.uk/ Anything goes linky party

OLL DT - Santa

Hello everyone. We had some lovely entries for our challenge over at Ooh La La Creations Challenge blog for our 'If the shoe fits' challenge. You can check out the winners on the Challenge blog.

Our latest Challenge is to feature Santa on the design and here is what I came up with,

The image is from the Christmas Presence CD and I used a backing paper from the Dreams of Tranquility CD. I printed off two of the topper images and fussy cut Santa from one and stuck him on top of the whole topper image using foam pads to give extra dimension. Once I had stuck him on the base card at an angle I added the gem flourishes a gem at a time - yes really I had these lovely ice blue gems in my stash but they weren't self adhesive so it was a lot of work with a glue pen. The corner flourishes were cut from some scraps of silver mirror card using a Anja corner die from Marianne.

 I finally decoupaged the white Poinsettias from the Fleur D'Imagination CD

I am entering this card into the following challenges

http://ppp-makeitmonday.blogspot.co.uk/ - linky party anything goes