Creative Stamping Freebie - Vintage Collage

Greetings from Warts an' All towers, I'm not sure what happened to January but it sure flew by, I didn't get to do much crafting for a variety of reasons. Having our 18 month old Granddaughter to stay for the weekend was high on the list, followed by slipping down the stairs, misjudging the bannister and consequently causing my umbilical hernia to flare up making bending, sitting and just about any movement painful.

Plus dealing with a new freak menopause symptom that causes the skin on my thumbs (and only my thumbs) to split open as if its been cut. No sooner does one heal, another happens, rendering me unable to do so many tasks, until recently I really didn't realise just how many tasks you need you thumbs for! I've been liberally applying hand cream and just discovered that I can seal the cuts with a product called Germolene New Skin, this product alone has been the reason I've been able to craft again, the past few months I've ruined so many projects because my thumbs split and blood oozed out all over my projects ruining many of them.

This card is made with stamps from Issue 67 of Creative Stamping there are some fabulous stamps included in the set including 3 by Crafty Individuals, a relatively new company to me that make some fabulous stamps. I used a combination of Versafine Clair inks to do all the stamping and several Distress Ink Markers to colour the flowers and dragonfly. I know I promised a review of the VF Clair inks and as soon as I have all 24 ink pads I will, I'm 2 colours short of a full set so that I can make some swatches and test all the colours.

I started off with a 5" x 5" panel and used the script stamp from the set and 'Morning Mist' VF Clair ink to stamp the background. I couldn't resist distressing the edges a little so I used a little 'Vintage Photo' Distress Ink to take down the harshness of the white card I stamped on. Next I stamped the flowers and dragonfly from the set on to watercolour card using VF Clair 'Nocturne' and covered the stamped images in WOW clear embossing powder and then coloured the images with Distress Markers.

The two large purple flowers were coloured with Wilted Violet and Ripe Persimmon markers, the small photos were coloured with Picked Raspberry and Ripe Persimmon and the dragonfly was coloured with Peacock Feathers and Twisted Citron. I simply scribbled the markers towards the edges of the images and used a water brush to spread the colour all over the areas I wanted to colour.

I added the brown 'dots and squares' texture stamp from the set with VF Clair 'Acorn' ink and used 'Nocturne' again to add the ink blot and ink ring stamps. I used the shaping tool that came with free with issue 61 of Creative Stamping to give the flowers and the dragonfly a little extra dimension then I adhered the flowers to the card base. I added some small 3D foam squares to the dragonfly to raise him above the flowers and glued the finished panel to a homemade card base made from Kraft cardstock.

I added the sentiment 'Just a Note' which is also from the Vintage Collage set, stamping it on a scarp of white cardstock with 'Nocturne' ink before finally adding some shimmer to the centre of the flowers and the dragonflies wings with a Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle pen which sadly doesn't show up very well on the photos, but it adds a lovely shimmery effect in real life.

This set has so much potential and I'll be making lots more cards with it for my stash, the images can be used to make male and female cards and are brilliant for using on mixed media projects. You can see from my close up image just how well the VF Clair inks stamp and the detail they give, they are my new go to ink for this reason alone. I love how this project turned out, and it was rather quick to put together, the bright colours gave some sunshine to my soul on this cold winters day.

I've just got the new Tim Holtz Sizzix Wildflower Stems #1 & #2 sets and plan on using them to make some spring floral cards and some cards for Easter using those and the Cotton Tail die and I think that bright sunshine colours will be called for 😍 This week if my thumbs behave I'll also be stamping some spring cards with my wreath templates using some new stamps I got for my birthday last month. I've set myself the task this month to make a batch of 'Thank You', 'Just to Say' and some 'Sympathy' cards for my box. The plan is to also make 4-6 Christmas cards every month and set them aside for when I'll need them in December.

Coupled with the motivation board I'm making ready for the Live Well programme I start this week, and the cards to make for friends and family birthdays, there will be lots happening in the craft room, I have an MDF storage rack to make and decorate for my Stampin' Up ink pads and I still have to label all my oxide inks and sort out more stuff to give to my niece who is turning in to a fine papercrafter 😍Here's hoping my thumbs let me get on with the things I want to do! Stay safe and warm everyone and keep on crafting!

Cool Little Dude Card

Hello lovely people in blog land :) I hope that life is treating you kindly and you are all safe and well? I haven't had much time for blogging so far this month, we've undertaken a large DIY project this month. It started with just laying a new carpet in our bedroom and morphed in to getting new plug sockets and lighting installed, fixing all the squeaky floorboards and decorating the room, before we put the carpet down!

I'm using the time that everything has been boxed and bagged up to do some de-cluttering and redistribution, books to both Cats protection and the local National Trust book shop and clothes to a local charity shop. I really cannot believe how much clutter and things we have in our home that have been bought but never used or worn! I'm sure it will all be worthwhile when we're finished but at the minute the house looks like a bomb has gone off lol!

Until today I couldn't get at my craft desk because things from out of our room had been put in my crafting room, so there was no free desk space, but as I've boxed and bagged things up over the past few days, I've made some space to be able to get my craft on! I've been saying for a while now that I wanted to add more cards for the menfolk in my life to my box of made cards. So when a lady in a group I belong to on Facebook posted a card using this cool little dude I was smitten and knew I wanted to use the image to create a card or two (most likely more because he's such a cool little dude).

The images are meant to be used with a die from the latest issue of the Tattered Lace magazine which is issue 60, sadly I haven't been able to find the magazine locally yet, but the images and backgrounds can currently be downloaded from the Tattered Lace website. The Little Dude is available in 5 different colour combinations with colour co-ordinated backing papers. Once I'd downloaded the images and printed off the colour I wanted to use I carefully fussy cut out the Little Dude and added some card stock to the back of the paper to give him a little more substance. I used brown, black and burgundy markers to trace around the edge of the dude to hide any cutting imperfections.

I have to say I am impressed with the cutting I did on this image. I'm getting a lot better at fussy cutting and I think that is down to the scissors I use. My fussy cutting has always until recently been a bit hit and miss, but last year I invested in a pair of Fiskar's Softouch Spring Action Micro-Tip scissors, they are the dogs doodah's as far as fussy cutting goes, they are very comfortable to use and very easy to control.

As there wasn't much to do to this card because of how colourful the little dude and backing papers were I wanted to add some little touches. I used a Versamarker watermark pen to add some gold embossing powder to the little dude's chain and some Tonic Crystal Glaze to his shades. The sentiment is from a set of stamps that came with issue 52 of Creative Stamping magazine. I stamped the image with Versamark on to black card stock and used the same WOW Metallic Gold Rich Super Fine embossing powder that I'd used for his chain and then fussy cut the image out. I used a metallic gold sharpie around the edge of the cut out image to hide any little imperfections.

I used some 300gsm Purple Cardstock that I got from Limetree Crafts at the NEC, its an absolutely gorgeous shade, I've used it to make some Christmas cards and to make a Fairy themed card. The card base I made is tent fold and I added a mat of gold metallic card on to the purple then added the printed backing paper on top of that. I added the little dude and the sentiment to the front of the card using some 3D foam pads and popped some star shaped gems to the front from my stash of gems and bling and voila the card was complete.

I have to say the hardest part of this card was finding a sentiment, I wanted a 'cool dude' phrase but I don't seem to have anything like it, so I'll have to acquire something soon. I'm hoping to find the die at some point in the not to distant future, but for now I can continue to fussy cut the little dudes to make more cards!

Creative Stamping Autumn Treasures

If you're a regular reader of my blog, you'll know that I'm a sucker for autumn and its colours and for Halloween, so when a magazine offered a free stamp set called Autumn Treasures you can understand why I got a little excited at the potential.

The magazine in question is Creative Stamping, the issue is 60 and the stamps are just fabulous to have a closer look click on the image below, like all stamps sets that come with Creative Stamping they are superb quality and stamp really well, I've had stamp sets from some magazines that just didn't stamp well at all, I never have that problem with stamps from Creative Stamping, it helps having a Stamping Platform 

The magazine in question is Creative Stamping, the issue is 60 and the stamps are just fabulous to have a closer look click on the image below, like all stamps sets that come with Creative Stamping they are superb quality and stamp really well, I've had stamp sets from some magazines that just didn't stamp well at all, I never have that problem with stamps from Creative Stamping, it helps having a Stamping Platform 

I've so far only used around half of the set and my head is full of ideas for using those stamps again, and for using the rest of the stamps in the set. To give you an idea of size of the stamps the 3 leaf and quote card is 8" x 8" and the other 3 cards are all 6" x 6" cards. For the 6" cards, I used a 5" and 6" Wreath Template to build up the designs.

As soon as I saw the set the idea to create this card popped in to my head, the leave stamps are perfect for using my Hero Arts Ombre 'Autumn' ink pad, lovely rich autumn colours that lend themselves so well to stamping leaves and items for autumn.

This card was so simple I die cut the 4 panels and used my Stamping platform to line everything up. The backing paper was a free download, but I can't recall from where. A couple of mats and layers and a bit of rich chocolate brown organza ribbon finished this card off nicely. I've used some different ombre pads to create some different cards for different seasons.

My next card used a selection of Memento Dewdrop Ink Pads: - Elderberry, Rhubarb Stalk, Potters Clay, Cantaloupe, Morroco and Expresso Truffle and I added some touches of Distress Marker to the blackberries, leaves and acorns. I used the 6" Wreath Template to create this autumn inspired goodness.

The sentiment also from the Autumn Treasures set I stamped on to white card and then used a Sizzix Bigz die called 'Millinery Leaves' by Brenda Walton and used some Memento Potters Clay ink to add some colour to the leaf. I stamped the sentiment in Vintage Sepia Versafine ink.

This card again was really simple to put together, again I used the 6" Wreath template and the stamps in the set designed by Hot Off The Press to make a quick almost 1 layer card. This time I stamped the design direct to the card base in Versafine ink.

I die cut 2 different sized circles and stamped the black cat from the set and the sentiment with Onyx Black Versafine ink. I used a Fluorescent Green Zig Real Colour Brush Pen to fill in the sentiment and the same pen for the eyes with a dab of Nuvo drops to finish off the cats eyes.
Some 3D foam pads and the cards was complete.

My final card from tonight's play was actually the first one I made, in hindsight I used the wrong shade for the acorns, next time I'll use a lighter ink, I was actually going to discard it but decided in the end to use it. This one was stamped with the 5" template and I used Elderberry, Rhubarb Stalk, Expresso Truffle, Cottage Ivy and Pear Tart to form the wreath.

I love this sentiment quote by Emily Bronte from the set, and I again stamped in Onyx Black Versafine. I kept this one simple again, matting the trimmed panel on to some purple foiled card, then a piece of elderberry card and finally adhered it all to a lilac Dovecraft 6 x 6" card blank.

I had so much fun creating these cards tonight even though the temperatures in my little craft room topped 29.5C again, phew! This hot weather plays havoc with some mediums, they dry out before you have time to use them, but stamping with inks is something you can do because ink drying quickly is a bonus, unless you're going to try heat embossing on it. Just another couple of days of the heat and then temperatures are set to cool down again and I'll be happier, when I get too hot I get cranky, which is no fun for my poor hubby. I hope you are all coping with the heat and managing to keep your cool, time now to attempt some sleep I think, the temperature seems to be dropping whooo hooo!

Playing With Oxide Inks

Greetings lovely blog land people, I've been playing a lot with my Distress Oxide inks lately, I love how they blend together and with the release of 12 new colours and the promise of 12 more colours come October - please have Squeezed Lemonade amongst them - crafting playtime is a lot of fun.

I've also finally got the hang of creating droplets of water to help lift the colour, no expensive gadget, and to my delight I discovered that the failed attempts prior to now were down to spray bottles not right for the job and not down to my being useless. I bought 3 spray bottle misters - the kind that gardeners use - from my local supermarket, the trigger on them is much better than small pump bottles and they are perfect for the job, a short little squeeze makes big droplets, a full squeeze and we get a light mist.


I've been having a lot of fun creating panels to turn in to cards with the oxide inks that I have and adding water drops and splashes, and I'm loving the results. The top creation isn't a card but a panel that I'm going to frame for my wall. I fell in love with the Visible Image 'Curious Cats' stamp set when I saw it and had to acquire it, not sure the 3 bands of colour works well, but I'll experiment with this set for sure.

The set arrived on Friday morning and I had to play, my first attempt at using the set is a tad basic compared to some of the creations I've seen for this stamp, but not bad for 30 minutes work. I have a lot of ideas for using the set. There are a lot of other Visible Image stamps I'd like to add to my collection in the future as well. The stamps are fabulous quality and stamp like a dream.

Another oxide ink play card creation this week was a card for my nephews 16th birthday, how the years have flown, hard to believe that it was 16 years ago that I moved to Derby but it is and this year will mark 15 years of being married, it doesn't feel that long though! Mind you it doesn't feel like 16 years since my nephew was born. I can post the card now as his birthday has been and gone and I'm so glad that he loved it.

I started by heating embossing in white some of the "We Love Music" stamps that came free with issue 31 of Creative Stamping on to water colour card, I then used rainbow shades of distress oxide inks to create a rainbow effect on the card, spritzed with water and blotted off and allowed the card to dry. I heat embossed the 16 and Happy Birthday sentiment in WOW gold embossing powder using stamps from the "Timeless Moments" set that came with issue 44 of Creative Stamping.

The headphones die is by Fuzzy Lemon and I cut it twice in red and black card and paper pieced the image and used a silver Sharpie to colour the inside of the ear cones once I'd attached the headphones to the card. I decided to add a banner on the same black card I made the base card out of and finished the card off with a few star gems from my stash.

I've been playing with the oxide inks a lot recently, I love the creamy look they give and the texture that looks like chalk with shades of velvet but it isn't either. I don't know if its a new thing syndrome, but I'm finding that I'm reaching for the oxide inks more than the standard distress inks, although I do think that original distress ink colours are a lot more vibrant.

Distressed Enchantment

It's May already, ummm where did April go? I had so many good intentions of posting about cards I'd made, but I failed to do it, mostly because I was busy working on the garden and off visiting places and people, we also seem to have sorted out the problem of the noisy neighbour, its coming up to two weeks since it came to a head and so far she's been quiet. I can't tell you what a difference that has made to my state of mind the relief is huge.

I hope you've all had a lovely bank holiday weekend? We went to Mablethorpe for a few days visiting the Seal Sanctuary there and we went to a couple of National Trust places as well and saw the most beautiful exhibition of Pre-Raphaelite art by the De Morgan's, Evelyn De Morgan being my favourite Pre-Raphaelite artist so it was a joy to stand in front of her painting called 'Flora' this weekend and get to study every exquisite detail.

I walked in to the room and actually said WOW! as I entered, I didn't expect to come face to face with so many of the paintings that I've admired for so long, and having the time to look at every detail and brush stroke was a real treat, its filled me with floral ideas for cards for the future and yes I'll be going back to the exhibition at Wightwick Manor again.

It's a co-production between the National Trust and the De Morgan Foundation that will run for 10 years and each year from what the lady I spoke to said, items will change. I have to say that Wightwick is already one of my favourite NT places to visit, and we go at least twice a year, but I can see me going back a lot more times than that over the next 10 years. #lovedemorgan

Okay my art fan girl thing aside I'll get to what most of you are here for, and talk about the cards I recently created, I was chuffed when I saw what the free stamp set with issue 42 of Creative Stamping was full of enchanted fantasy characters like knights, princesses, dragons, unicorns and even a fairy tale castle to boot. The set also contains playing cards and and other elements and lots of useful sentiments.

When I got my copy I immediately started to play with the set stamping the Unicorn on to white card and colouring it in with my Zig brush pens. Then yesterday I decided to have a play with my new Distress Oxide inks. By the end of the evening I'd created 3 A6 cards in bright colours for my box.

I started by creating backgrounds with the Distress Oxides laying down bands of colour that blend so easily. Once I had the colours I wanted I placed some masks over the inked panels and sprayed water on to the unmasked area. I left it a few minutes then used some kitchen roll to blot up the excess water, this created the lighter pattern on the background. During this exercise, I realised that most of my masks were Christmas or cat orientated so I had a limited selection, which has now been rectified thanks to Ebay lol!

I removed the masks and left the pieces to dry completely, then I die cut the panels with a stitched edge die and placed the panels in my new Tim Holtz Stamping platform, I used a powder tool first then stamped the images with Versamark and heat embossed in white and gold.

Once the image was heat set I used some bleach in a water brush pen to change the colour of the oxide inks to make the images pop, when the bleached area was dry I added some shimmer pen to finish. I used the sentiments from the set and heat embossed each one on to some vellum strips and finished with some sequins from my stash.

I love this stamp set so much, and know that it will get lots of use, I've already created some different styles of toppers since I got the set, I may be a little addicted, especially to the unicorn. The stamp sets with Creative Stamping  just keep getting better, in the future I'd love to see some cat and kitten stamps, and maybe a signs of the zodiac set with some month sentiment stamps. I can't wait to make more cards using this set, I will certainly be making more distressed backgrounds using the oxide inks as well. 

Under The Weather

What a crazy few days we've had here! My Dad's partner suffered a brain aneurysm at the weekend, they operated and thankfully she is getting better by the day, but boy did she give us all a scare! Then yesterday my youngest nephew fell at his gymnastics class and broke his arm in such a funny way that at 10pm last night they were operating on him to fix the break. So yesterday evening I fretted and couldn't settle once again, so I decided to do a little crafting to calm me down and I started making a couple of Get Well Soon cards for my box.

I got these lovely girl and umbrella stamps free with the 'Whatever The Weather' stamp set that came with issue 38 of Creative Stamping and despite having a few ideas for using them, I hadn't got round to using the set until last night. I also stamped a few images from the 'Truly Scrumptious' set that came free with issue 39, a mouthwatering array of sweets and treats stamps, with a fab sweetie jar stamp that in my head is going to house a fairy, well that's the plan!

I think that my colouring is improving, but I'm still having problems shading and getting the colours right, I think I need to watch more colouring tutorials and have lots more practice. I still think what I'm doing colouring wise today is infinitely better than when I first started colouring stamped images a few years ago. However, when I see the work of some of the fabulous card makers out there like Kristina Werner I know I have a long way to go, but I'll get there :) One of the bonuses of keeping a blog is you get to look back at what you've done and you can see your progress and I am genuinely amazed by the progress I'm making creatively.

The biggest thing that has helped me improve is getting the right tools and learning which ink is suited to which media. For example to colour with my Zig brush pens, I used Ranger Archival ink, which doesn't streak or smudge and I find it gives superb results every time. I also use my MISTI tool so if I don't get the full image stamped, I can re-stamp and not have to worry that the image won't be lined up. When I first started stamping - and I've said this before - I used cheap inks and stamps and the results were really rather rubbish, the right tools for the job and good quality materials makes for better results.

Here's a photo of the finished card, I fussy cut the little girl out and created a back panel using the cloud embossing folder and cloud dies from the Crafters Companion Little Angel collection' Adding some some 'Tumbled Glass' distress ink to colour the embossed clouds and background.

I added a layer of green card cut with one of the dies from my Lawn Fawn 'Simple Stitched Hillside Borders' to ground the little girl. The sentiment is from the free set and fits perfectly in the large cloud, its not how I intended to add the sentiment but I think it works rather well. I added touches of gold Nuvo drops to the tip and handle of the umbrella to give it some dimension, and cut a slit in the little girls hands to poke the handle through to look like she's holding it. The final touch, and I may have gone a little overboard with it, was to add some Clear Spectrum Sparkle Pen to the girls bow, raincoat, boots and umbrella. I raised the top of the umbrella on some 3D foam pads and also two of the clouds to add extra dimension. I still have the oval image I die cut to finish colouring and turn in to a card, but I need to stamp and colour another umbrella and I think that image will get turned in to an easel card.

Knit Me Baby, One More Line

I hope this week has been good for you? Here things are improving, my dear hubby is almost back to normal and will be returning to work next week, my cough seems to be finally fading after almost 4 weeks now, and on Monday we found out that in July our new grandchild will be a little girl, she will be called Evie and I can't wait to meet her! I was so excited that I may have done a little Nanna shopping and bought some cute little outfits for her, and some other bits to add to things I bought when we first learned a baby was on the way. I haven't done much crafting this week, the cold has put my sleep pattern out of whack and I've had no creative mojo or energy, but thankfully today I got some mojo back and put it to good use.

I've been wanting to make matching bookmarks to give with cards I send for a while, especially useful if the card is for an avid reader and crafter. Partnered with a gift/book token they can chose the book they want to read and use the bookmark to hold their page, giving them something more than just a card. So when my latest copy of Creative Stamping (Issue 40) arrived this morning I was inspired to create this card set using several of the stamps from the free 'Handmade With Love' that came with it as well as a couple of stamps from my Avery Elle Made with Love stamp set.

I started by taking a piece of white stamping card that was 12.5 x 12.5 cm and stamped the background using the cable square stamp for the CS mag, I stamped 5 squares using Ranger Dye Ink in 'Lavender Field' and 4 in 'Grape Soda'. The bookmark background was stamped on a piece of white card 17 x 4cm, I was rather pleased with the way the backgrounds turned out, even more so when my hubby thought that I'd used a backing paper for the background. I'm not sure that it would have been possible to achieve the same result without my MISTI tool though, not as accurately anyway.

I used 2 of the dies from the Sew Pretty - Have A Beautiful Day Circle Frame that I used on the Beautiful Day Rocker Card I posted last week. I used a dark purple card to create the scalloped circular frame and the used the stitched circle to create the topper in white stamping card, which I then stamped with the knitting and needles stamp from the CS set using Jet Black Archival Ink. I used a purple Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pen to colour the stitches and 2 shades of grey for the needles. I stamped a sentiment from the CS set, again using archival ink and then added some Clear Shimmer Pen to the image, finally I added a few drops of Grey Mist Nuvo Jewel Drops to the rounded ends of the knitting needles to give them some dimension.

Next I matted the background panel on some of the dark purple card I used for the topper frame, and some lilac linen card and attached the panel to the front of a 6" x 6" white card blank, then I used 3D foam pads to layer up the topper and attached it to the centre of the card. I toyed with adding some die cut buttons and real buttons in shades of purple to the card but they didn't look right so I abandoned that idea and decided the card looked fine as it was.

For the bookmark I used a corner rounder to round off the corners of the stamped panel and backed that on to a piece of the same dark purple card I used for the card matting after rounding the corners of that as well. I punched a hole 1cm up from the base of the bookmark using a 'Fiskars 3mm Small Circle Round Hole Soft Grip Hand Punch', instead of ribbon I decided to use some strands of purple wool to decorate the bottom of the bookmark, which I think finished it off nicely.

I stamped the ball of wool and knitting needles stamp from the Avery Elle set I mentioned above using archival ink and then fussy cut the ball out and coloured it in with 2 shades of purple Zig pens, then went around the edge with a black Promarker to hide any white bits, then I gave the ball of wool a coat of Clear Shimmer Pen. Once the image was dry I used my powder tool and stamped a sentiment from the Avery Elle set that says "Knit Me Baby, One More Line" using Versamark ink, and added some WOW Super Fine Metallic Rich Gold embossing powder. The sentiment incidentally amused me, probably more than it should have done lol! I attached the ball of wool image to the bookmark with some 3D foam pads and the set was complete.

I'll decorate the envelope with some stitching to finish it off, then think about making a few in some different colour ways for my box. I think the design could also lend itself to making baby cards if the background is stamped in pastel ink shades and you add a suitable sentiment like "It's A Girl", it would also make a good thinking of you card for sending to crafty friends. The CS set has some sewing and dress making stamps as well, and and even some DIY stamps that would make super male cards and lots of sentiments like "Get Well Soon", "You Nailed It", "Handmade With Love" and an assortment of relative stamps like Brother, Dad, Son, Daughter etc.

Creative Stamping Woodland Christmas Cards

Yesterday I finally managed to pick up a copy of Issue 27 of Creative Stamping Magazine with the free Woodland Christmas stamp set and I couldn't wait to get stuck in and play. These are four of the cards I've created so far using the set, and amazingly bits and bobs from my 'Maybe Someday' box.

I used four colours of Ranger Archival Ink for all the cards, some embossing powders and a couple of distress inks. The first card is mounted on an 8" x 8" card blank, so it gives you some idea of the size of the stag head stamp, and the background of the card was embossed with a snowflake embossing folder. I used the same embossing folder on all but the last card, where I used the dotty folder that came with my new Big Shot Plus Machine.

For the stag card, I stamped him in Potting Soil Archival Ink and used my water brush to paint with Distress Inks in Rusty Hinge and Brushed Corduroy for the fur, the inside of the ears were painted with Spun Sugar and the nose with a little Black Soot, the antlers I used Ground Expresso and then gave the nose a dab of Glossy Accents when dry. Once I'd stamped and coloured the stag, I built up the greenery around the side using Archival Inks in Fern Green, Library Green, and Potting Soil for the pine cones. The edge of the image was blended with a little Pine Needles distress ink.  Gold card and dark green spotted ribbon from my stash completed this project.

For the next card, I made a panel stamping the top and bottom with the same colours as above, to this I added the holly leaves stamp using embossing ink and Lindy's Stamp Gang Embossing Powder in Fiddlehead Fern Green, its a beautiful shiny metallic bluey green. The berries are also part of the set and were stamped in Vermillion Archival Ink. The Christmas Kisses die cut was done last year using an Xcut Christmas Sayings Die Set and sat in my 'Maybe Someday' box unused, I thought it would be perfect on the topper, and along with some dark green and gold organza ribbon from my stash and a couple of clear gems another card was born.

Of all the cards I made so far with this stamp set this Winter Wonderland Fawn card is my favourite :) The panel is partly an accident but it worked out beautifully, the fawn is die cut using my Spellbinders Deer D-Lites Die, I'd die cut it a few weeks ago when I got the die intending to use it on this years Christmas cards and it went in the 'Maybe Someday' box. So the accident? The blue background... When I was stamping the foliage around the edge of the circle I managed to splatter red and dark green archival ink in the centre, not a huge amount, but enough to stand out. So I decided to use some holographic embossing powder and the snowflake stamp from the set to try and hide it.

As you can see from the detail image above, you can still see a few tiny spots of red (look at the snowflake just under the pine cone and the one under the deer's tail). I decided to give the whole thing a 'sky' background by blending Broken China distress ink over the whole circle, this is where I discovered the magic of archival inks! Once dry they are permanent and don't alter when you go over them with distress ink, I gave the background a light mist with my homemade pearl shine mist and left it to dry.

To finish the panel I stamped some snowflakes using neat Broken China ink, to create the darker blue snowflakes. I mounted the panel on to a circle of gold card and attached the deer to the front. I decided to go over the snowflakes on the embossed card in Broken China and give the card front a mist of white pearly shimmer mist to bring the blue of the centre panel in to the overall design.

My final card created so far used all the same colours of archival inks as above, but on the darker green branches I over stamped with embossing ink and added some Papermania Holographic embossing powder to add a little sparkle and shimmer. The sentiment is from the Woodland Christmas stamp set and I used embossing ink and Whispers Metallic Gold embossing powder to stamp it. I added some bling holly berries, I didn't have any red adhesive gems, so I used a Ruby Red ProMarker to colour some clear gems red. The panel was mounted on to a new Spellbinders 5" x 7" Holly Frame panel that I die cut using red holographic foil card. and was then mounted on to a 5" x 7" white card that I'd embossed the front of with an A4 dotty embossing folder.

I've also made some more panels using the stamp set which have yet to be turned in to cards, the heat gun (pun intended) is on now, because as well as making all the Xmas cards for friends and family and a batch for my local Cats Protection to sell, my future daughter-in-law has asked me to make 50 invitations for their engagement party. We're also making homemade gifts for all the adults, so lots to do and we're already over halfway through October, eeeek! I better get my skates on :)