Crafty As L

Is it me or is the run up to Christmas going at break-neck speed this year?   I’ve barely even started my Christmas shopping and suddenly there’s only 10 days to go.   Aaargh!! I’ve not made any cards this week but I have been creative none the less. We had an extension done last year and moved our lounge to the other side of the wall.   The log burner then needed to be moved so we got the builders back to turn the fireplace around. Luckily, they managed to get the granite hearth pieces out whole and they were re-laid on the other side.   When it was in the other room, the fireplace was lined with brick but I’m not a big fan so took the opportunity to change that.   After the fireplace was dry lined with fireboard, Mr L and I then tiled it with porcelain tiles.   It was Mr L’s first experience with tiling so he was on the tile cutter whilst I was doing the sticking! After the grouting was complete, I filled the holes around the edges, sanded and painted...

Our Visible Image Design Team theme this week is ‘Thank You’.   Do you or your children send thank you cards after Christmas?   This CAS style card would be ideal for making with youngsters and also batch making – if you think Santa’s going to be generous! For my mini-slimline card, I started with a 5½” x 2¾” piece of white card, taping it to my gridpaper, and taped the stripy side of the  Stars & Stripes stencil over.   I then blended Squeezed Lemonade and Worn Lipstick Distress Inks through the stripes. This step is optional but I wanted to add a little shimmer so sprayed some Fossilized Amber and Picked Raspberry Distress Spritz.   I was a bit heavy handed with my spraying so some seeped under the stencil so try to spray a light mist. For the sentiment, I used the Thank You stamp set and did a bit of ‘stamp surgery’ as the font size suited the design better.   I simply trimmed carefully along the flat parts of the stamp between the letter...

I’ve had my eye on this layering stencil and die set for a while so, when it was in the Black Friday sale, I decided to treat myself to it.   For my first cards, I went with a traditional colour scheme although I might try some contemporary colours next time. The set is Holiday Wreath by Alex Siberia Designs.   It comprises 4 layering stencils and 4 dies to cut out the wreath, garland and two bows.   I didn’t use the stencils in order and I don’t think it made any difference. To begin, I blended dark green ink through one of the leaf stencils. Next, I added the twigs using brown ink.   The large bows were also on this stencil so I did those too. The next stencil was the second leaf layer which I did using a lighter green.   The last stencil layer was the berries, which I did in the same red as the bows. I then used the matching die to cut out the wreaths and bows. I gold heat-embossed the sentiment and then, after glueing the bows in place, I attac...

More cards this week from the Tim Holtz/Sizzix vault release, this time using the Christmas Magic set of dies.   I do love a silhouette so I couldn’t wait to get playing with these. To begin, I started by die-cutting the buildings.   I cut them from black card and backed one with white card, slightly off-set, and another with white card which I’d left the windows in and coloured with a yellow marker. Next, I die-cut the sleighs.   Again, I cut these from black and also from silver glitter card which I offset behind the black die-cuts.   I then wondered what it would look like if I coloured it so cut it out of white card and coloured it with my markers.   I die-cut another sleigh from red card, added Wink of Stella and then decorated with a gold metallic marker.   After chopping off the runners, Santa and sack, the sleigh body was glued onto the coloured die-cut. I backed this one with black card. Last on the die-cutting schedule were the other bits in...