Reflections Ooh La La DT inspiration

Hello again, well another Monday and this is the final inspiration card for 2012 as we launch the final challenge of the year at Ooh La La Creations.

Thanks to everyone who entered our previous challenge Spots and Dots, you can see the winners over on the Ooh La La Creations Challenge blog. Also thank you to all those who have participated in the various Challenges throughout the year and to my fellow DT members you have been a joy to work with and I am looking forward to working with you all during 2013.

Finally huge thanks to Wendi and Emma the owners of Ooh La La Creations for bringing us some wonderful CD's in 2012 long may it continue the images and papers are a true inspiration. If you are new to Ooh La La products take a look at the website to see all the CD's in the range and further inspiration in the gallery, by clicking on this link  http://www.ooh-la-la-creations.com/Pages/default.aspx.

Now onto my DT offering for this challenge

I decided that I wanted to create a double easel card and have used Kraft card as a base to keep the colour scheme of the beautiful image from the 'Watercolour Memories' CD the images are little works of art and when I saw this one I knew I had to use it (I have always had a passion for photographs and paintings of bridges reflected in water below).

Whilst looking for a suitable tag for the right hand side of the easel I found the text I eventually used in the tags and sentiments folder on the CD I felt the text captured the reflective nature of the card I wanted to create perfectly.

Unfortunately the image behind it didn't work with this gorgeous bridge so I used My Craft Studio and edited the image by reducing the opacity to 50% and then adding the text on top. I also did the same for the thinking of you tag on the left of the card but I only used a portion of the image this time to get the desired shape.

I printed off the tag the topper and the pyramage design onto white card. The pyramage is lovely to work with as it is so easy to cut out and line up. I used thin foam tape behind each layer as I didn't want too much height to the image. Once done the whole design was mounted on gold mirror card and trimmed to leave a fine gold edge I did the same with the topper and the tag.

I made the easel by cutting the front of a 8" square kraft card into two section the larger is 5" and the smaller is 3" I then folded the 5" square to make the larger easel and used a pale beige paper that has a slight quilted effect in the design and I emphasised this by scoring along the lines and adding card candi at the intersections. I then mounted the paper onto gold mirror card and trimmed it to leave a narrow edge. having made 2 panels

I covered both the front and the back of the easel so that the back wasn't just bare kraft card.  I then cut the pieces of paper for the smaller easel and mounted these onto gold mirror card trimming to leave a narrow border and mounted then onto the front and rear of the smaller easel. The text topper was then stuck to the smaller easel and a die cut flourish added to the top and bottom right hand corner. these were cut in white card and coloured using ranger distress ink in aged mahogany to match the colour in the backing paper.

The Pyramage panel was then stuck at an angle to the larger easel and the tag had a copper eyelet and copper organza ribbon added and was stuck at an angle at the bottom left of the easel.

The inside of the card was lined using a matching backing paper from the CD and two strips of a contrasting paper was edged using a Martha Stewart punch. The stopper is made from die cut flowers and leaves which again were cut from white card which has then been coloured using aged mahogany distress ink to match in with the colour scheme.

All that remains is for me to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and I hope to see you all in the New Year.

I am submitting this card for assessment for my Diploma in professional crafting and will also be entering it into the following challenges.

http://ppp-makeitmonday.blogspot.co.uk/ - Anything Goes
http://simplycreatechallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ Anything Goes
http://pennyschallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ Anything Goes

Almost There.

Well I reached the point where I have only two more Christmas cards left to make. Having made approximately 100 cards this year, I left two really special ones until last. The one for my Dad and the one for my Husband.

Now Dad is a somewhat of a traditionalist when it comes to Christmas - lots of red, gold and green, suits him fine so I came up with this.

I used a digistamp from crafty sentiments and coloured it with Spectrum Noir pens, adding glitter to the white  top and the tassels, and a layer of glossy accents to the candy cane. Once it was dry I fussy cut around the edge. The background card was a deep red and I trimmed it to fit my card blank and then edged it using peel off border stickers. I used the largest of my x-cut nesting label dies and cut the panel from the striped paper and then mounted this onto glittered green paper and trimmed to leave a narrow border. I then used the third largest oval from my xcut nesting dies to cut an oval from the green dotty paper and mounted this on the striped panel and stuck the panel to the card front. I used an x-cut alphabet die to cut the letters and stuck these below the panel. The stoking shape was then stuck to the oval panel using pinflair glue gel to give it a bit of dimension and I finished off the front with the holly sprigs made by snipping down 4 holly flourish shapes cut using a Cheery Lynn die.

I printed an insert for the inside and there you have it my Dad's card.

Now all I have to do is design and print the insert for my Husband's card which is currently drying in a hidden location so he doesn't see it, and then all the Christmas bits and pieces can be packed back in their drawer until I start on the next batch of Christmas cards - usually around January to use up all the recycled tags and cards from this years festivities.

I am entering this card into the following Challenges
http://littlescrappieces.blogspot.co.uk/ - It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
http://trimmiescraftchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ - Christmas
http://cutecardthursday.blogspot.co.uk/ -red and green
http://pennyschallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ - Anything Goes

Pastel Christmas

Having three grandchildren of similar ages it is always a challenge to create their Christmas cards every year. They have to be different enough for them to feel that each card is specially for them, but similar enough to prevent any falling out. This year I decided that they are old enough to move away from pictures of Santa, which have formed the basis of their cards for the past couple of years, so I went with stockings.

I don't do much colouring but am trying to get to grips with my Spectrum Noir markers, so I used a digi stamp from Crafty Sentiments. It was sent to me last year when I took part in a blog hop at Craft Your Passion, it is a simple design but looks really effective. I also decided to go with a pastel palette for a change.  Here are the three cards I came up with

By using different papers from my stash I was able to create three designs.

 I went with lovely girlie pink for Chloe-Ann our granddaughter. I am entering this card into the following challenges.

http://inkyimpressionschallenges.blogspot.co.uk - Pastel Christmas

http://craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge.blogspot.co.uk - Girlie Christmas

http://wagsnwhiskersrubberstamps.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/challenge-93-christmas.html - Christmas

Damien and Aaron got green and blue respectively. I added two tiny 'jingle bells' to each card on top of a snowflake glittered the appropriate colour using stickles glue and then added snowflakes which had been coated with iridescent stickles. I also added a thin layer of glossy accents too the candy canes to give then a shiny finish.

Finally I printed matching inserts for each card and added a die cut greeting panel with their names on.

I am entering the boys cards into the following challenges.
http://2sisterschallengeblog.blogspot.co.uk- Christmas sparkle - lots of stickles
http://pileitonchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ = pile on the embellishments, ribbons bells and snowflakes
http://cutecardthursday.blogspot.co.uk/ - snowflakes
http://simplycreatechallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ - Anything goes
http://ppp-makeitmonday.blogspot.co.uk/ -Anything goes
http://incywincydesigns.blogspot.co.uk/ - Non traditional Christmas colours