Penny Black - A Bright Tomorrow

This is the last Christmas card for the season.

I used a background paper from Creative Memories Candy Cane, a die cut circle from Go Kreate Circles stamped and embossed with an image from the Penny Black set A Bright Tomorrow.  The circle was then Distress inked with Festive Berries and Evergreen Bough.  The sentiment is from the same Penny Black set.

Christmas Paper bag card

 FRONT

INSIDE

 BACK

This is the 2nd paper bag card / gift card holder that I made for Christmas.  I found the idea on the Whiff of Joy blog created by Karina  where you take a rectangle shaped paper bag, tuck the bottom flap under, fold it in half and decorate.



Front -  background gold coloured paper is actually a scrap of left over wallpaper given to me by a friend.  The owl is a Cottage Cutz die called Stylzed Owl.  I altered the leaves at the end of the branch to holly and added a couple of berries.  The santa hat is from another Cottage Cutz die Santa, Down the Chimney.

Inside - the label has been in my Christmas stash box for a few years so I am not sure just where it came from.

Back - the stamp set is Penny Black Hanging Treasures die cut with Spellbinders 2011 Heirloom Ornaments.

Penny Black - Marzipan Greetings

A fun stamp set from Penny Black which I coloured in using markers, pencil crayons and a blender pen.  Dies used - Spellbinders Curved Rectangles and MFT Fishtail Flags.  The striped paper is Kaisercraft Deck the Halls.  The sentiment is from the same Penny Black stamp set.

Cottage Cutz - Festive Deer

The reindeer on this card is from the Cottage Cutz die called Festive Deer, the background die is Spellbinders Labels Ten and I am unable to locate the set the sentiment came from.  I think it might be a Penny Black one.

Peachy Keen PKSC-11 November 2012

This Peachy Keen set is very cute with a number of  different faces for the elves and reindeers.  I coloured the image in with aqua pencils and a blender pen.  The sentiment is from the same set.  The border punch used on the right hand side of the card is EK Success Plaid.

Santa down the Chimney

This card started with me trying to get an idea to use a new die I had bought - Cottage Cutz Holly Jolly Legs.  I had a left over piece from a previous card which I used for the brick fireplace.  It was embossed with Creative Expressions Brick embossing folder and darkened with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  The fireplace opening was made using Spellbinders Long Rectangles Classic and Scalloped.  The fireplace surrounds and 'fire' are all from Cottage Cutz Holiday Fireplace.  The mantle and base of the fireplace were die cut twice and joined together hidden under a stocking at the top and a log at the bottom.

The stockings are MFT Stocking Trio die used with the Stitched Stockings co-ordinating stamps.  The inks used for the stockings were Brilliance Galaxy Gold, Pearl Thyme and Pearl Poppy.

Paper bag gift card holder

FRONT -  Cottage Cutz Holiday Sleigh die, sentiment is Penny Black Holly Day Critters.  The background paper is actually left over wallpaper which a friend gave me.

INSIDE

BACK

The idea of a paper bag gift holder came from Karina from the Whiff of Joy blog - I added my own papers and decorations and came up with a gift card holder that was fun to make. 

The inside has a tag slipped under the foot of the paper bag on the left hand side and the snowman stamp on the right hand side is a Peachy Keen one PK-148 Snow Gifts.  The gift card holder which slips into the opening of the paper bag is Gift Card Pocket Vertical from MFT.  The wreath on the back is also MFT - Winter Wreath with the corners being from an old EK Success punch.

Punch Art - Santa in Chimney

I look at this card with the snowflake background and am wishing for icy cold weather as we have 35 deg C today, down from 41 yesterday !!

 

Starting from the snow background, I used the CI-241 Crafty Individuals stamp in Archival French Ultramarine ink layered over with vellum to dull the effect.  The 'brick' effect for the chimney is a Creative Expressions Brick embossing folder darkened with Walnut Stain Distress ink.

 

Santa punch art :

Mittens - small Spellbinders Nested Eggs, trimmed with leftovers from a Cottage Cutz die

Hat - drawn and cut free hand (my art classes are paying off !)



Hat trim - middle sized Stampin Up oval punched out of sparkly white paper
Face - small sized Stampin Up oval
Moustache - Stampin Up Blossom Petals Builder punch
Nose and pom pom on hat- 5/16" circle SU
Eyes - from my stash - I have a whole packet of them already punched out

Additional :
Toy sack - PK-205 Feed, Santa or Flour Sacks stamped with Hero Arts Ancient Motif in Archival Sepia ink
Gifts - stamps unknown as have had them laying around in my Xmas stash for ages

The sentiment is Hero Arts Happy Holiday Trees in Archival Sepia on a retired Clear Dollar die.

Art Impressions - 'Try' Folds Village

I have been an Art Impressions fan for a long time and just love their new 'Try' Folds sets.  There are instructions on the rear of the packet and they are easy to follow - I generally do pictures but this was not hard at all !

The colouring in was done with a variety of mediums, markers, pencil crayons, aqua crayons and a blender pen.  The tab on the right hand side is a Stampin Up punch.

The concept is that the centre panel with the houses on is stamped in the middle of the card, you turn the cardstock over and stamp the other 2 scenes,  the trees and the snowman at opposite ends.  You then cut out the top half of the trees and snowman stamps and fold them both inwards.  Not the best of explainations, I know, but the Art Impressions site is bound to have a better one !

Gift box from 12 x 12 Cardstock

There are many crafters who have posted tutorials about making a container from a full 12 x 12 sheet of cardstock but I got my instructions and idea from Alipeeps' Art blog - just love how she fills it up with beverage sachets.

The plum pudding punch art is made from a brown circle (Spellbinders Large Classic Circles - middle circle) which was trimmed off at the bottom.  The 'icing' was punched out of a type of glitter paper and edged with the Stampin Up scalloped edge border punch.  The decoration on top is from Cottage Cutz - Holly Berry.  The sentiment is a Peachy Keen one from the set PKS-15 Oh by golly.

Tag - Penny Black Sent with Love

Another tag using the Go Kreate Concentic Tag die.  I thought this stamp from Penny Black, Sent with Love, was quite appropriate for a tag.  I stamped with Archival Coffee ink and used aqua pencil crayons with a blender pen to colour it in and then added Distress ink to the tag.

Penny Black - Flower Festival

After seeing a video on the Penny Black website on the use of Gesso as a surface for stamping on I set off in search of Gesso not thinking for one minute it could be found in Cape Town.  I was most surprised to be able to get my hands on it and set about experimenting.

Using a section of newspaper I tried to get the right consistency of the Gesso.  I did water it down a fair bit before I was happy with it.  Once it had dried I found it easy to stamp on (Archival black ink) and colouring in was no problem.  I used aqua pencil crayons and a blender pen.

The circle is from Spellbinders Circles Large and the die behind it is from Spellbinders Blossom Three.  The sentiment is Penny Black 'To You'.

Kanban Clear Stamps Jungle Animal

Not sure about the name of this stamp set from Kanban as there is nothing on the packaging.

The card size is 79mm x 158mm with the pink circle being Spellbinders Circles Large - the 3rd largest.  The zebra was coloured in with markers and the sentiment is a Stampin Up one called Whimsical Words.