Merry Monday #50

Hello there,

well its been a busy day and several since I actually made this card for Merry Monday's challenge this week. An interesting one to create an elegant Christmas card!

Elegance to me has overtones of detail and richness, but some should be subtle. I had two elements pop into my mind straight away (stamp set and DSP) and this is how they came together.

The colours were a big part of creating the sense of richness for me. Continuing with that theme I embossed all the ornaments, and for the first time experimented with colouring the glimmer paper with reinker. I ended up with VERY brown fingers but it worked (excited wriggle here ;) and I got just the right level of toned down bling. A little of playing around with placing ornaments and all done. End result - an elegant Christmas card - well to my tastes anyway :)

Thanks for visiting,
Kim

Recipe: All SU! unless otherwise noted
Stamps: Ornament Keepsakes, Mixed Medley
Cardstock: Cherry Cobler, Early Expresso, Very Vanilla
Ink: Versamark, early Expresso reinker, Cherry Cobler marker
Accessories: Candlelight Christmas DSP, Holiday Ornaments Framelits, Lacy Brocade embossing folder, Dotted Scallop Ribbon border, 1 1/4" scallop circle punch, Silver glimmer paper, Cherry Cobler embossing powder, Festive paper piercing pack, Early Expresso twine, Double sided tape (X Press), Dimensionals

JAI 148 Just add Christmas

Hello there,

welcome everyone for the last Just Add Ink challenge of the year. We are wrapping up a fabulous year with a very Christmassy challenge - we want you to Just Add Christmas. So pull out your Christmas projects, I'm sure you are working on some ;) I have bits and pieces scattered all over/under/around my crafting space. However the one I'm going to show you today I made to take to the Sydney SU! Heartfelt event back in November. A mini ornament Merry banner (double sided so you can pick your colour to match your Christmas decor). First the blue side.

 The red side

 Used the tag die to create a place to tuck the project recipe into.

A close up

A couple of construction shots. That little bit of tape was used to reinforce the most fragile fold.

 The same blanks now stamped up with the matching ornament.

The idea for this came to me when I was out walking one morning. So I just had to try and fold the cardstock and see if I could cut an ornament chain - and it worked! It was possible to cut 5 layers - just. I had to do just a little fine snipping in some spots where it had heavily embossed rather than cut all the way through. I was pretty pleased with how it came out and even more so once I had added the stamping step. Once that was done - it was time to embellish and for Christmas I couldn't go past adding some bling. Silver glimmer mats for the blue side and champagne for the red side. Of course I had to add my letters, fussy cut using the Broadsheet alphabet.

Some quick construction notes: The doubled sidedness served two purposes - one so you can select the side to suit your Christmas colours ;) but also a more practical one of making it quite sturdy. I adhered the two sides using dimensionals, securing the twine in there at the same time. The twine was used to tie each ornament to the ribbon (red and blue stuck together with doubled sided tape). The twine from each differently coloured pair of ornaments was tied together in a bow over the grosgrain ribbon, and the ribbons tied at either end of the banner. I added my project recipe using the two tag die cut and tied that on with more twine.

Thanks for visiting and if you can join us for our 2012 finale. However don't forget to join us again in 2013, well rested I hope, for our first challenge on Friday January 18th!
Kim

Recipe: All SU! unless otherwise noted
Stamps: Broadsheet alphabet, Ornament Keepsakes, Perfect Punches, Tiny Tags
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Night of Navy, Silver glimmer, Champagne glimmer
Ink: Real Red, Cherry Cobler, Bashful Blue, Night of Navy
Accessories: Holiday Ornament framelits, 1 1/4" scallop circle punch, 1" circle punch, Scallop Trim border punch, Jewelery Tag punch, Two Tags BigZ die, Candlelight Christmas specialty DSP, Real Red and Night of Navy stitched grosgrain ribbon, Cherry Cobler and Island Indigo twine,  Doubled sided tape (XPress), Dimensionals

JAI 144 Just add music

Hello there,
goodness I can't tell you how good it feels to sit down and write this post. We spent four days of this last week without phone and internet  - and while at times that was somewhat liberating it also felt like a decent into the dark ages! But I'm back in time to let you know about this week's Just Add Ink challenge. This week we want you to Just Add Music. Lots of scope and fun to be had with this one!

Now at this time of year I'm finding my thoughts turning more and more to Christmas, and an integral part of my memories of Christmas, particularly as a child, are of the music - the Christmas carols to be exact. So I just had to design a Christmas card that included music.

Heavens knows why but after years, and I do mean years, of avoiding Always Artichoke I was seized by the desire to use it, and its muted tones seemed to suit the vintagey feel I thought music would add. So that was what determined the colour choice. To generate that vintage feel I sponged all the edges and roughed the base mat up a bit. I added texture by embossing the tag that was used to mat the ornament, rubbing some white craft ink over it to bring out the pattern. Then finished off the card with a few focal layers and some little snippets of seam binding and lace.  The inside was finished off to match. So, pretty simple but fun to make - and you will definitely get inky :) Do go check out the rest of the DT for some fabulous ideas on how you can add music this week!

Thanks for visiting,
Kim

Recipe: All SU! unless otherwise noted
Stamps: Ornament Keepsakes, More Merry Messages, Music Notes
Cardstock: Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake
Ink: Always Artichoke, Crumb Cake, Bashful Blue, Whisper White craft
Accessories: Two Tag BigZ, Lacy Brocade embossing folder, Holiday Ornaments Framelits, 1" circle punch, Double ended banner die (Papertrey Ink),  Jewels - pearls, Sponge, Double sided tape (X Press), Dimensionals