Rising from the ashes...

Back in November, at the Lincoln Sincerely Yours show, I bought a brilliant Sweet Poppy stencil of a Phoenix- they had done a demo card where the Phoenix had been zen-tangled and it was fab. I had to get the stencil so I could make my own Fawkes inspired cards (and possibly use it in my Harry Potter scrapbook if I ever get it started!).

This is the first time I've used it so I've gone for quite a simple design

I started with a sheet of golden yellow A4 cardstock that I folded to make an A5 base card. I inked the edges of the card with Barn Door (Red) distress ink. I then used a Versamark pen to draw the phoenix design through the stencil onto a piece of white card. I did small parts of the design at a time, heat embossing with gold embossing powder. After I had embossed the entire phoenix, I went around the edge of the design firstly with a red promarker and then orange and yellow, blending the colours together. I also used my black promarker to colour the embossing on the eye- just to help it stand out a bit. I then trimmed down my phoenix topper and mounted it onto red mirror card.

I wanted to add a layer of texture to the background of the card so I cut a piece of orange net fabric, slightly smaller than the card, and then attached it using double sided tape.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-
Challenges 4 Everybody 'anything goes' 4/4
That Craft Place 'anything goes' 15/3
Blog named Hero 'stencil' 14/3
Catch the Bug 'anything goes' 8/3
Crafty Calendar 'animal' 2/4
Crafty Catz 'anything goes' 6/3
Paper Shelter 'animal magic' 4/3
Creative Inspirations 'boy thing' 4/3
Love to Create 'anything goes' 2/3

Christmas 2014!

As I mentioned, in a previous post, my New Year's Resolution is to keep making Christmas cards all year round (so I don't have to try and make 14 in one night!). My plan is to try and make 2 a month and, so far, I'm on track- I've made one and we're only a few days into January! I'm really pleased with it too...

Pretty much everything on this card is brand new or something that I've had for a while but not used yet.

I started with the Stag design which is a Sweet Poppy metal stencil. It is a beautiful design with so much detail to it. I simply inked the design onto the kraft card using a stencil brush & Brilliance 'Pearlescent Crimson' ink pad. I then edged the design with the same ink pad before mounting it onto green mirror board.

I wanted a tartan background to match the Scottish theme of the stag but I didn't have anything in the colour scheme I needed so I decided to make my own. I took a piece of 8x8 kraft card and masked stripes with low tack tape. I inked the remaining kraft card with the 'pearlescent crimson' ink used for the stag. I carefully removed the tape and then re-attached it to the card the opposite way (to create stripes in both horizontal & vertical) and inked again. I then repeated this process but using Brilliance 'pearlescent olive' ink. The olive colour seemed to take a while to dry so I carefully removed the tape and left it for a few minutes to dry. I then trimmed the kraft card slightly so it would fit onto an 8x8 card.

To finish the card,  I wrapped some 'metallic copper' raffia around my background 3 times before I attached it to my 8x8 base card and then attached the topper.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:-
Christmas Card Challenges 'anything goes' 5/1
Craft Your Passion 'new' 6/1
Crafters Cafe 'animals' 8/1
Pink Elephant 'anything goes' 5/1
Crafty Hazlenut Extra 'anything xmas' 31/1