Twelve Tags of Christmas With Loll And Friends

Hello, I'm thrilled to be a guest designer again this year for Loll's wonderful Twelve Tags of Christmas, and to be opening the proceedings along with Karen Bourke!  This year, Loll has gathered together even more designers to bring you a double dose of inspiration for your Christmas tags for the next twelve days.

Right, let's get this party started!

For my tag, I recycled a piece of cardboard, adding a light coating of gesso, Distress Paints and chalk paints to the base, rubbing most of it in with my fingers.  I stencilled the numbers with modelling paste and added some dribbles of Distress Crackle Glaze to the upper portion of the tag.  The tape is dyed with Distress Inks.

The tattered pine cone had its first outing for this tag.  It's made from a piece of Core'dinations card, with all the tips folded back and distressed with emery paper.  It's nestling on a strip of crumpled muslin, with a few stamens, and a diecut sprig tucked behind it.  I sponged the edges of the diecut sprig with Walnut Stain (it's amazing the difference a little sponging round the edges makes!), then I added Stickles to the edges of the pinecone and a bit on the sprig.  There was just enough room for a small sentiment at the bottom of the tag.

Pop on over to Loll's blog for more inspiration from my fellow guest, Karen, and for information on how you can join in and win some fabulous prizes.  And stay tuned to Loll's blog for the next 12 days - I know I will be!

Thanks so much for inviting me again, Loll!  I'm looking forward to seeing all the wonderful inspiration from my fellow guest designers.

From Birthday To Wedding

This card started off in my head as a birthday card, but then I had the bright idea of putting ribbon on the car to turn it into a bridal car, and it became a wedding card for a reception that we were attending.  The image is from Stampington, with light watercolouring to mimic a hand-coloured photo.

The background is patterned paper with a wash of gesso to knock the colour back, then stencilled circles using modelling paste, topped with a blue gelato wash.  Vellum die-cut leaves, fibre, gauze, a ribbon flower and stamens finish it off.

I'm entering this into Virginia's View - All About Textures

and Mixed Media Monthly Challenge - Texture

The Mixed Media Card Challenge - Family

It's time for a new challenge at The Mixed Media Card Challenge, and this month our theme is Family with an optional element of Arrows.

My background panel was created with a Gelli plate and acrylic inks, using lace, stencils and punchinella.  At the bottom of the panel I used Fran-tage embossing powder.  The copper settled at the top edge of the inked area, which helped to define the ground for the birdies to stand on.

The birds were stamped and die-cut, then coloured with Distress Inks, and some of them got extra wings or glossy accents on the eyes and beaks.

The sentiment was handwritten on to black card with a white pen, then the words were chopped into random shapes and adhered onto the panel.

Pop on over to the MMCC blog for some scrumptious inspiration from the rest of the team, and join in with your family-themed card.

CASEplorations with Suchi

It's a new month, and a brand new CASEplorations challenge! This month we're CASEing this gorgeous card from Suchi of Suchi's Cardstock:

Sushi's card

Plenty to go at: segmented background, large grungy text, selective pops of colour on the text, brightly coloured focal image, dimension from the popped-up bird.

Here's what I came up with - which was totally different to what I had intended to do.  Up until the point that the inked text hit the paper, I was going to completely cover the background of my tag with grungy text quotes, but as I was stamping, this happened instead:

Pop on over to the STAMPlorations blog to see how the rest of the Design Team CASEd Suchi's card, and if you fancy CASEing any of the cards, add them to the CASEplorations gallery for a chance to win prizes.

STAMPlorations Inspiration #45

Here's a little STAMPlorations inspiration for you using the Heaven Sent stamp set.  The background is made on a Gelli Plate using acrylic paint with punchinella and lace.  The image is coloured with Distress Inks then fussy cut, and the sentiment stamped directly onto the panel.

Pop on over to the STAMPlorations blog for more fabulous inspiration from the Design Team, and if you're inspired to CASE any of our cards, why not add it to the CASE playground for a chance to win prizes.

I'm adding my card to the Simon Says Monday challenge - Throwback.  I've gone for April 2015 - In The Middle.

Purple Poppies

You learn some interesting and unexpected things in the line of cardmaking.  I wanted to play along with this week's Muse, and also with this week's FUSION:

Tracey McNeely for Muse

I already had my Clearly Besotted Brushed Poppies stamp set out on the desk (granted, it was under a pile of gelli prints, background papers, half-completed cards, etc., but it was out on the desk) because I wanted to try some poppy cards in colours other than red.  So I turned to my friend Google and searched "purple poppies".

In the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand the red poppy has been used since 1921 as the symbol of remembrance and hope to commemorate soldiers killed in conflict since 1914, and is worn in the days leading up to Remembrance Sunday (nearest to 11 November).

There is also a white poppy which, depending on your point of view, is either a political protest against war, or is worn alongside the red poppy as a lasting message of peace.

I was surprised to learn that the purple poppy was adopted in 2006 by Animal Aid to remember the animal victims of war, and again is either a political protest or worn alongside the red/white poppy to remember animals that lost their lives in service to their country.

The other thing I learned is that, while there certainly are purple poppies, they are often confused with purple anemones, which are a different family.

So here is my non-political, non-anenome, purple poppy card.  I think I'll try pink next.  Or orange.

I'm also entering it into Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

Art Is... A New Stamp Set from STAMPlorations!

We've got a great new set being released for you at STAMPlorations today - this fabulous set from Shery, filled with great quotes.  Love those fonts!

Art Is

I've used one of the quotes over a flower made with alcohol inks and an air duster - great fun!

We've got a mini blog hop going on - take a look at the fabulous inspiration for you here.  Comment on this blog and at the other stops on the hop for your chance to win this set!  It's available in the STAMPlorations store at 10% discount until 4 November.