Rice Paper Christmas decor

Hello crafters, 

I am back again for a 2nd Country View Challenge inspiration make, where the theme is "Christmas". I have upcycled a coffee jar again for another Christmas table centre piece. Warning this a photo heavy post... 

I used 2 of the postcards from the Stamperia  All Around Christmas Rice Paper (DFSA4808) and scraps of translucent paper with inclusions (at least 20 years old...). I applied the DecoArt Decoupage matte medium to the glass, smoothed the rice paper down and applied a layer of medium on top of the paper as well. 

  

That layer allowed me to add some white Distress crayon on the mistletoe berries to make them pop.	I used a silicone tip to smooth the crayon. I couldn't resist adding some light touches of Distress crayon on the leaves and the bells.	On the tree side I added Enamel accents on the tree, here and there,

Distress crayon on the bells and liquid glass on the baubles.

On the top of the jar I applied gel medium and dusted both glitter and Glamour Sparkle for a frosty effect. 
Some twine and a snowflake pendant serves as finishing touch.

Do click on the photos to get a closer look.

Some photos at night...

  

I hope you will join us in the Facebook group to enter our challenge, anything Christmassy will be welcomed for our Country View Crafts challenge, as long as you use products or brands stocked at Country View Crafts. If you do you could win a £25 voucher to win...

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield   I am entering the Creative Artiste challenge

New Year cards with glitter

Did you welcome 2022 in style? Well I hope your are are ready for a whole new Country View Challenge! Our theme this month, chosen by Jo, is "Your year to sparkle and shine".  

I made this New Year card with glistening snow : 

I used an old aperture card which matched quite well the  Sizzix Christmas Shadow Box by Courtney Chilson (663611) set of dies. I cut out the trees from a failed background and the snow from glitter paper of course! I die-cut some greenery from scraps of green inked card and added glitter and mica powders to them. 

And to use the last aperture card, whilst I had the die set out I created a second card:

The background is a failed alcohol ink experiment (the running theme is using up bits and pieces taking undue space in my "craft room"!).

Without the antlers, it is now a doe with its hooves in the snow and a white rabbit. 

I will be back later this month with another inspiration piece for our Country View Challenge. Do check out the post for all the DT makes and the rules for the challenge (they have changed last month).

What hasn't changed is the £ 20 voucher you could win by linking your project(s)!

 

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield   

Spring Fling Blog Hop at STAMPlorations

Today I am joining my teammates at STAMPlorations to kick off our Spring Fling blog hop and linky party, which this year comes later than usual due to the circumstances.

This event is a special series of 3 posts celebrating the spring season, hop with us and leave comments on the STAMPlorations post and the DT blogs and/or link a project of your own to be in a chance to win prizes!!!

My contribution gives pride of place to the Dragonfly Cover Plate (part of the Spring Fling promotion - see below for details)

First I applied double sided adhesive to a piece of card.

I die-cut the cover plate from the coloured cardstock and applied it on top of the adhesive. I inlaid back into place several pieces, paying particular attention to the dragonfly body and wings.
I tried to apply the pieces as lightly as I could since I wanted to remove them later.

With the Dragonfly protected, I poured gold glitter all over the card.

Next I removed the card pieces from the wings and poured blue glitter on top. Taking off any remaining cardstock bits I applied the green glitter.

My sentiment is also glittered but this time I actually die-cut it from glitter paper, with the Wonderful Word Die (also in the Spring Fling promotion!!!)

Another look with the light shining on the glitter:

***
May store promotion: All throughout May, products in the SPRING FLING section are 15% off instantly. Don't forget to use my STAMPGIRLCRAFTY code to get up to 35% off on these products and 20% of regular priced items!!!
***

The next Spring Fling post will be published on the 20th of May and the final one on the 27th of May.

Leave a comment before hopping to the STAMPlorations blog!
Thanks for coming by,


   

Blue snowflakes start falling

A quick post to show a Christmas card (I'm on a roll...) with a cute Vintage image.

Merry Christmas

So this is Christmas... [I'm singing this song as I write this...] and what have I done for the Craft Barn blog, I hear you ask? Well, a Christmas card of course!

I wondered if I should call on my Oops Birdie for the occasion but he declined, on account that the poor fellow did not want to be confused with a turkey... [didn't have the heart to tell him there's zero chance of that!!!]

Instead, just to prove that fungi aren't just for Autumn, I enlisted my Mushroom Lane house, which I found snowed in since we last saw it.
I believe there has been, as well as snow, several glitter showers recently....

So without further ado,

Supplies:
Riley and Company Mushroom Lane Cling Stamps - House 2
Find it Trading Dies: Yvonne Creations - Merry Christmas
cArt-us glitter cardboard: White and blackColouring: alcohol markers, white acrylic paint, silver gel pen.

The fun thing about this card is the way the partially die-cut "Merry Christmas" projects its shadow on whatever is behind. Like so:

I do hope you will have a great time during the 12 days of the season and that New Year will find you in fine fettle and rearing to craft.

Merry Christmas to you all!!!
I am entering the Lost Coast Designs, Fashionable Stamping, The Artistic Stamper, Unikostudio and We Love To Create  challenges.

X-mas wrapped up

So I have the cards, the next item on my crafting to-do list is the wrapping. I may yet create some wrapping paper, I have done so in the past, but today I'm looking at making bags in the quickest way so that I have a template for last minute wrapping panic (been there, done that).

If you want to read my step by step for not just 1 but 2 kind of bags you will have to hop on to the Craft Barn blog.

Supplies:
Woodware clear stamp: Huge Snowflake
Embossing powders: Cosmic Shimmer Brilliant Sparkle in Gold, Sea Glass (Wow), Frantage Aged rose, Clear
Paper Artsy Fresco paints
Andy Skinner's Sunburst and Imagination Crafts Drop Screen
Inks: black Versafine, Brilliance Starlight silver, gold
Envelopes, mirror card.

Hope you like my bags!
I am entering the SSS Wednesday and Rubbernecker challenge.

Fire and Ice

Paper Artsy is having a Glitter fortnight and I have been inspired by Nikki and the fab technique she used on her project and was running out of time to enter the challenge....

I used a double sided adhesive sheet and placed some die-cuts on one side (Diesire - Delicate Swirls Overlay Die) before applying gilding flakes (IndigoBlu Winter Dawn).

On the other side I placed a pine branch die-cut (Impression Obsession Pine Branch), which I had already embellished with embossing powders (White, Aged Aqua - Stampendous, Wow Seaglass).

Tipped half a bottle of fine glitter over it (Art Institute)... Added a sentiment die-cut from black cardstock - I'd planned to emboss it with gold glitter but I felt I had reached the point of TOO MUCH glitter already!

And unusually for me no stamping...

The shining effect is incredible, although in my case, as the glitter is blue, it does interfere with the lovely warm colours of the gilding flakes. A close up and like Nikki I am attempting video:

I would recommend the technique, despite the glitter mess and bits of flakes flying around, well worth it in the end!

Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the Addicted to stamps challenge.

Christmas shine

Christmas is the time where glitter is a pre-requisite rather than an afterthought so I decided to finally have a go at a glitter technique I have seen many moons ago (we are talking years here...).

It's a very simple technique, on a stamped image apply a double sided adhesive sheet, rubbing with a bone folder to ensure a perfect bond, then a fine glitter over the top. Preferably a white/transparent glitter... but mine is blue so the result is not as good as it should, let's face it, it does cover the image a little bit too much. However it SHINES!!!

I then decided to substitute glitter for mica powders as they are finer so should work better than my blue glitter. This was quite fun as I proceeded to "paint" the mica over the image with a brush, in different colours of mica. Rather successful experiment, I think. Although you'll have to look at the photograph below to actually see the design as, even with the cloudy weather, the mica just bounce the light at this angle!





For my last experiment I had the curiosity to try the double sided adhesive technique with a non shiny substance... Fun Flock, and although it does dampen the image's colours quite a bit I like the result.

And finally all tags together.

The Hollie Hobby Christmas stamp is an old freebie from a magazine and I coloured the images with alcohol markers.

What is your favourite result?

I am entering my glitter tag in the Live and Love craft, Bunny Zoe's Crafts and Tando Creative (W2) challenges.
And all of my tags enter the SSS Wednesday and Craft Barn challenges.

The shining

For those who, relying on this post's title, were expecting some gory Halloween scene... sorry to disappoint this is totally not scary, just shiny in a glittery way...
Yes, Lavinia Stamps want to see some gems and glitter this month and I used my Dandelions again for this simple card.

For the background I used an alcohol ink background I had made whilst cleaning my craft mat and added some dandelions stamped with dye inks.

Then I stamped the foreground Dandelions in black Versafine and overstamped them with glue. Finally I sprinkled the glitter, a very fine blue-ish glitter.

The 3 hearts gems finish the card. Another look at the shine:

Thanks for coming by,

Also entering the Polka Doodle challenge.

Shiny Things Inspired by Pam Thorburn

You may recall this book cover (image right) which  I decided to complete using the same colour scheme but with shine!
I took inspiration from Pam Thorburn's project that you can see here with her step by step and Finnabair Sparkle and Shine blog hop.

My base textures were sequin waste, drywall tape (joint tape/scrim), Memory box Tessatina die-cuts, X-Cut Corner die-cut (from the Trim Borders set) and a piece of lace. Sadly this last piece doesn't work particularly well.
I also used the letters to form the word "Dies" since this is what my book will contains. Sounds ominous, but I couldn't think of another relevant word under 5 letters!

I applied my metallic tape with pieces roughly cut to the sizes of the different textured areas in a bid to make the joints look as natural as possible. A slow progress and delicate touch is required at this stage, the tape is thin and can tear (translation: it did tear!)

After painting with Frescos and removing the colour from the highpoints I added Gloss medium in the recesses, here and there, to adhere fine glitter for more shine...

To finish I used a stamp from Paper Artsy Hot Pick 1204 and made embellishments with Tim Holtz Hardware Findings die, painted, crackled and silver foiled in places.

And if you wondered... yes I haven't finished the spine! I plan to use fabric for that so I don't have to deal with any cracking.

Thanks for coming by,

IndigoBlu Inspiration

I have been honoured to make the top 3 at the IndigoBlu blog challenge last month, with this card, and I have been offered the chance to join them for this month's theme, Let it Snow, with an inspiration piece.
Not an offer I could refuse...

Now is a good time to bling up our cards and as I normally shy away from loose glitter, I made an effort to use some in a bid to streamline my supplies! But I had also decided to use my favourite shiny supply... gilding flakes, from IndigoBlu of course!

I made a frame with snowflakes die-cuts covered with an adhesive sheet, then glittered and foiled to my heart's content.

The main image is from the Retro Christmas plate. I coloured it with alcohol markers, adding white gel pen and white glitter as "frost".
As a backdrop for my image, I used a circle cut out and splattered some blue, green and silver watercolours with a brush.

A peel off sentiment finishes the card (yes I still use them!)

I hope you've enjoyed my card and will join the Let it Snow challenge, you will find plenty of inspiration on the IndigoBlu blog including from my fellow Top 3.




I will leave you with a bonus picture showing the shine from the gilded snowflakes, bear in mind the sun isn't playing ball these days.

Christmas Sparkle

At Christmas with so much competition facing my cards on the mantelpiece, I search for techniques that will make an impact whilst not being too taxing to make! One of the ways to achieve this is to use a different shape or something with a kinetic element.

Having settled for tri-shutter cards, I cut 2 out of a 12x12 (less waste of cardstock compared to A4) and all the designer papers at the same time (quicker overall!).

My first card below is all about the big glittered snowflake matted on pearlescent cardstock. To make it, I stuck some double sided tape (large width) on a piece of cardstock, die-cut it ( Papertrey ink) and then applied white glitter (quite chunky) followed by a very fine bluish glitter. I kept the waste, a star shape, and glittered it gold.
I took this opportunity to use up some very old stash such as the Peel Off sticker and bauble die-cut on the right hand side panel

For the base I used Docrafts Kraft cardstock (the last one of an old pack), the papers are from the Graphic 45 Christmas Emporium collection (an oldie!).
Another look at the card laying flat:

On the reverse side, where the writing will go I have kept things simple, adding only small stamped images (Craft Stamper Freebies):

The elf is coloured in pencils and the baubles in gel pen.

I will post my second card, which I intend to be more vintagey, as soon as I put the finishing touches.

I am entering the Country View Crafts, Oldie but A goodie and Inkychicks challenges.
Thanks for coming by,

CAS Die cuts only

With this card I am aiming for a simple but elegant look with a bit of sparkle.

Both the Happy die and Snowflakes are from Papertrey ink and the Christmas stamp I embossed in white is from a set given in a magazine.
For the Snowflakes I used a card weight vellum with an iridescent coating which add a subtle sheen. I simply stacked the 3 sizes available in the set and glittered the centre star.

Nothing particularly difficult here except the fiddly gluing of the inlaid Happy!

Here you have it simple Christmas!
I am entering the following challenges : Inkychicks, That's Crafty and Wedodoobadoo.

Thanks for coming by,