The best laid plans

Hi Blogland, and how is 2012 treating you so far. I guess for many it is/was a return to work today after the New Year Holidays. What a day to go back! It was rather windy out there today don't you think?! It was fun taking Holly for her morning stroll this morning! Those of you who visit us here at Barleylands will know that the car park, albeit FREE really could do with a wind break at the best of times, but when it is blowing 50 - 60mph you don't really stand a chance.. Still, Holly had fun chasing any leaf or bit of paper that got whipped up in the wind!!
Now, with every good intention and the best laid plans to get a friends card made yesterday for their Birthday and then posted in Blogland Today somehow, a rather busy first day of our sale put paid to that plan! And I had to do the ultimate crafting No No and go out and buy one!! So, as I still haven't had a chance to get one made, Today I'm going to offer you another Christmas card.. This will make 11 so far this year and it's only January 03rd.. Get in!!This is a card I made for a very special Pinnacles Friend.. She said that her Grandson said that she received it because it was old looking.. I know she corrected him saying that it was Classic and Vintage, just like her!! Touché.....
Late last year I had a week’s worth of lessons where we used Alcohol Inks.This was one of the samples I produced and kept, as, although I had no plans to make a card with it at the time; I knew it would come in handy in the future!
It initially started off as a piece of White Glossy card stock (sorry, I don't have step by step photos of this stage). I added a couple of Alcohol Ink colours to it and then Embossed it using the Christmas Vine Embossing Folder and then went over the embossed image with the Alcohol Ink Gold Mixative..I then cut the largest die from the Fleur De Lis Rectanglesand then matched it up with its counterpart Chipboard shapeso as to make a much thicker and sturdier image.I prepared my base Easel card using a 12" x 12" piece of backing paper which was a Christmas Wreath image and cut it so that it roughly resembled its original shape..Adding my Embossed image and a vintage die cut topper to the back of the card.This particular piece of card stock has served me well over the past few Months and the particular Carol on this piece is very apt! After all, my dog is called Holly!!This was also added to the back of the card.
For the stopper for the Easel card I decided to make Poinsettia's.I cut out my images using the Spellbinders Poinsettia Creations Die (S5-055) using Red card stock.To make them slightly more aged and vintageI applied some Gold Ink to them using a Stippling Brush.And then layering the pieces together to form my Poinsettia.I then took some pre made leavesand added some of the Gold Ink to them to tone them down to fit in with the project.Finally adding the Leaves and the Poinsettia Images to my card to finish it off..Another one for your Christmas 2012 pile.
Thanks for checking us out, see you soon..
Andy.

Happy New Year......

Hi Everyone, and "Happy New Year". I hope 2012 is a great Year for you..Have you made any New Year's Resolutions yet? I've made a couple and the main crafting one is to get my Christmas cards for 2012 on the go straight away.. Each year I say it, and each year I find myself on Christmas Eve finishing of my immediate family and friends cards, when really I should be down the pub!!
So, with that in mind my first Blog Post of 2012 is a..... Christmas card.... Hopefully to help and inspire you to get going with your cards for this year and in the greater scheme of things help us all not leave it to the last minute again! Periodically I will be posting Christmas cards throughout the year, so don't be surprised to find a Crimbo card posted in the middle of summer!
So, here we go with our first one.
Personally, I don't think you can go wrong with a little bit of Black and White,or even White and Black.Notice the difference in the colour ways of the Baubles!I started off by cutting out my border using a Memory Box Die (98146 Snowflake (Frostyville)). These dies are new to us here at Pinnacles and have already proved immensely popular. They go through all of the main die cutting machines and are used in the same way you use your Nestabilities.One suggestion I would make when using this particular border die is to have the "straight" edge facing inwards on your card stock,this way you can either add it as a decorative edge directly to a base card or,as in this case cut the edge to the width that you require for your project.If you place the "straight edge directly or near to the edge of your card stock,when the die is cut you end up with a very thin edgewhich doesn't really leave you much room to add any adhesive to the cut piece to add it to your project..
I put the border to one side whist I prepared my Baubles...I used the Memory Box Die 98231 Snowflake Ornament to cut out an image in Black and White card stock.I used 225gsm - 240gsm card stock as this weight card released the pieces from the Bauble much easier than my preferred 290gsm card stock.I then ran my Tape Pen over an area on a scrap piece of card stockand stuck one of my Bauble images to it.I then filled the spaces in the Bauble with the waste from the corresponding image in a different colour.. Now, for those of you who are aware of Memory Box dies, you may be saying that there is a solid image of the Bauble that you could lay the more ornate image directly onto to give this effect!.. That, my crafting friends is very true.. However, firstly I don't have that particular die and also, for me, filling in the image gives a much fuller shape to the Bauble. It doesn't take long to pop the pieces back in and makes good use of the waste and is quite therapeutic to do, a bit like a Jigsaw Puzzle..I did this for both colour waysand then cut each image out.
I then had a "dummy run" to see which colours went best together on my prepared base card.All Black Baubles,all White Baublesor one of each!Decision made, I cut two strips of card 1/4" wideand applied them to the back of my Snowflake border to which I had added some foam tapeand then attached it to my card.I added one layer of foam tape to the back of one of the Baubles and Two layers of tape to the other Bauble.This would give the Baubles a bit of dimension between each other when added to the card.I then finished the project off with some Gems, Bows and a Sentiment...And there you go....
Now, not all of my friends like Black and White, and also to make it a little bit more interesting for me to churn them out I tried a few other colour ways..Green and White or is it White and Green? These were obviously made in exactly the same way as before..But instead of opening another packet of Green Gems to finish the project, I simply coloured some Clear Gems used on the Black and White version with a ProMarker Pen.. Also colouring a Silver Peel Off to match the project.How about Lilac and White or White and Lilac?Turquoise and White or White and Turquoise?And last but by no means least, my favourite.. Red and White or White and Red!!
There we go; we've already done 10 cards for this Christmas...
Thanks for checking us out, see you soon.
Andy.