Tuesday, 23 December 2014

Happy Christmas Eve Eve!



Good morning, happy Tuesday. Not long to go now! All your gifts are wrapped & under the tree by now & all the food is bought, I presume?? :)

This & my remaining posts for December are being scheduled in advance, as I'm taking some time off to relax with friends & family.

I've two cards to show you today, both using Imagination Crafts' Sparkle Medium through a stencil to get a foiled effect. Here's the first card...............



It couldn't be easier to get this fab effect.....

Place your stencil - in this case I used the Imagination Crafts' Poinsettia Large stencil - on top of a piece of smooth white card, secure with stencil tape.
 
 
Use a piece of Cut & Dry foam to dip into the SM, move it away & use a patting motion up & down on the craft sheet. This forces most of the glue into the foam & leaves the glitter on the surface.
 
Move to the stencil & rub the C&D foam briskly over one area. You will see the glitter smooth out & stick to the card below as it catches on the edges of your chosen stencil.
 
Apply more SM to the foam & repeat as above until satisfied you have enough foiling on your card.
 
Remove the stencil, clean it immediately, or place into water until later.
 
You can wash out the C&D foam too, you should get a few uses out of it - and only cut a small piece in the first place, it's easier to manage the foiling. 
 
Here, the stencil is still in place..........
 

 
 
The SM will dry very quickly  
 because most of the glue has been removed.
 
Stencil removed..........

 
 
To finish this card I first applied Weathered Wood distress ink, then replaced the stencil & applied Chipped Sapphire & Stormy Sky distress inks to highlight the flowers. I matted & layered with silver mirri card & a dark blue ribbed card from my stash & embellished with silver liquid pearls, grey seam binding ribbon & organza ribbon from my stash & a Hobby House pearl brad.
 
The finished card again..........
 
 
 
 
I used the same technique on the second card, this time using Gold Shine Sparkle Medium & Festive Berries & Barn Door distress inks..............
 
 
 
 
 
Instead of cutting the foiled card as I had done for the first card, this time I added a border, using a black fine liner pen............
 

 
 
 The numbers & the holly are from the Woodware Clear Magic stamp 'Christmas Date'. I stamped the numbers onto a scrap of patterned paper, cut them out & adhered them to red linen card, matted & layered with gold mirri & black card.
 
I applied a little Diamond Sparkle Medium to the numbers with my finger & when it was dry I covered the numbers with Glossy Accents This gives them the appearance of epoxy stickers I think.
 
 
 
 
The holly was coloured with watercolour pencils, the leaves were heat set with clear embossing powder & more Glossy Accents went on the berries.
 
The tree is from the Imagination Crafts' Fir Trees stencil & I used Black Stars Sparkle Medium. Matting & layering was done with red linen card & black card onto a 7x7 white card blank.
 
The second card again.............

 
 
 
Poinsettia Large  Fir Trees  Sparkle Medium Black Stars    Sparkle Medium Gold Shine   Sparkle Medium Diamond     Sparkle Medium Silver     Christmas Date    Pens and Pencils  Red Linen Card pack of 10 sheets    Plain Black    Glossy Accents   Glitter Glue - Xmas RedLiquid Pearls - Silver       Seam Binding Ribbon       Hobby House Pearl 8mm Pastel Mix Brads      Forest   Emboss Ink Pads   WC05 Metallic Silver   Stencil tape 25mm x 25m    Cut-n-Dry Foam
  
And that is it. It only remains for me to wish each & every one of you a VERY happy Christmas.
 
Kirsten
 
 

Monday, 22 December 2014

December Promotion & Giveaway Winner

 
Thank you to everyone who commented on the two weeks of the Sparkle Medium promotion posts, we hope you enjoyed seeing the projects.
 
Important message: Please, PLEASE check that you've left a comment on EVERY post during the promotion fortnights. I hate having to leave people out, I want you all to be in with a chance.
 
Those who commented on every post are as follows:
 
December 8:
 
Yvonne Lambert 1
Samantha Wade 2
Mags 3
Nicola 4
Joyce 5
Karen Petitt 6
 
December 9:
 
Yvonne Lambert 7
Samantha Wade 8
Mags 9
Nicola 10
Karen Petitt 11
Joyce 12

December 10:
 
Yvonne Lambert 13
Samantha Wade 14
Mags 15
Nicola 16
Karen Petitt 17
Joyce 18

December 11:

Yvonne Lambert 19
Mags 20
Samantha Wade 21
Nicola 22
Karen Petitt 23
Joyce 24
 

December 12:

Yvonne Lambert 25
Mags 26
Samantha Wade 27
Nicola 28
Karen Petitt 29
Joyce 30

December 13:

Yvonne Lambert 31
Nicola 32
Mags 33
Samantha Wade 34
Karen Petitt 35
Joyce 36

December 14:

Yvonne Lambert 37
Nicola 38
Mags 39
Samantha Wade 40
Karen Petitt 41
Joyce 42

December 15:

Mags 43
Yvonne Lambert 44
Nicola 45
Samantha Wade 46
Karen Petitt 47
Joyce 48

December 16:

Yvonne Lambert 49
Nicola 50
Samantha Wade 51
Karen Petitt 52
Joyce 53
Mags 54

December 17:

Yvonne Lambert 55
Nicola 56
Samantha Wade 57
Karen Petitt 58
Joyce 59
Mags 60

December 18:

Yvonne Lambert 61
Joyce 62
Nicola 63
Karen Petit 64
Samantha Wade 65
Mags 66
 
December 19:

Yvonne Lambert 67
Joyce 68
Nicola 69
Karen Petitt 70
Samantha Wade 71
Mags 72

December 20:

Joyce 73
Nicola 74
Karen Petitt 75
Samantha Wade 76
Yvonne Lambert 77
Mags 78

December 21:

Samantha Wade 79
Yvonne Lambert 80
Mags 81
Nicola 82
Karen Petitt 83
Joyce 84
 
As usual, random.org chose the winner...........
 



Which corresponds with Karen Petitt's comment on December 19.

Congratulations Karen & happy Christmas!
 
You now have ONE week to email Lisa - lisabaker1@btinternet.com - with your address & she will post out your prize.

We hope you enjoy using it.
 
Thanks again to everyone, the next promotion will start on Monday, January 5 & in the meantime, the blog challenge continues until January 3.

I'll be back tomorrow with my regular Tuesday post.
 
Kirsten

Sunday, 21 December 2014

Keep It Simple Sunday - Gift Tags


*This is the FINAL post of the November promotion fortnight. Remember to leave a comment to be entered in the giveaway.*
 
Gift tags are always needed at Christmas, often at the last minute, so you need to make something quick & simple. These six took me about thirty minutes & are so simple they hardly need explaining.......
 
 
 
 
I used scraps of Anna Marie True Red Dottie card, scraps of white card, the
Woodware Clear Magic Forest stamp set.........
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
White & red embossing powders......


 

 
I originally used ordinary string, but didn't like it. Happily, a rummage through my ribbon stash unearthed some red & white baker's twine.
 
All six again..........
 
 
 
 
 
Kraft Tags    Tiny Pine Trees    Cutting & Embossing - Ice Crystal 2   Zen Leaf     Sparkle Medium Bright Red   Forest   Dottie True Red    Glitter Glue - Xmas Red WL01 Bright White    Emboss Ink Pads   VersaFine Ink pad - Onyx Black
 
And that completes a fortnight of promotion posts. Remember to make sure you've left comments on ALL of them. I shall post the giveaway winner here on the homepage sometime tomorrow.
 
Until then, happy crafting.
 
Kirsten