'Tis The Season...

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week, I’ve got the last of my Xmas cards for this year...

...using the beautiful Festive Wreath from Avery Elle.

This set includes a large wreath and all the sprigs and baubles and lovely stuff you would use to make a wreath in real life...but no no, that’s not hard enough work for me haha, so I decided I wanted to make a CAS card using the little sprig to make a smaller wreath - so ultimately - you’re getting two wreaths for the price of one! Good stuff!

I started by lightly mapping out a small circle in pencil, and creating many masks using the smallest sprig, candy canes, stars and baubles. I then stamped all my stars and decorations around the circles, covered in their masks, and went over top with sprigs, making sure each over-lapped the last.

I then coloured the whole thing using my Zigs. I normally always use them with water and this was one of the first times I used them just as they are and ‘woah’ they are so intense and bright, Utterly amazing!

I stamped my sentiment over the wreath and heat embossed in gold. I added a simple bow from gold twine and finished by coating my decorations in Glossy Accents.

If you set up a wee production line and do each step on multiple cards, I think these could be produced uber quick - so if you’re cutting it close and are still to get started - I hope these give you a little inspiration on what you could do.

As always, everything I used is linked below.

Well folks, all that’s left is for me to wish you all the merriest of all Christmas', and the happiest of all new years! See you next year!

Love always, Jillx

   

Adorable Arctic Penguin Parade

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week I’ve got a group of Mama elephant’s adorable Arctic Penguins...

playfully slipping and sliding down an icy slope, struggling to stay upright on their little sweet skates!

I LOVE these precious little penguins, in real life and in magical Mama Elephant land. Penguins are pretty amazing animals. As if the whole ‘partners for life’, thing isn’t the most endearing quality in the universe  you only have to watch their little waddle to fall head over heals in love with them, and I think these Mama Elephant illustrations capture their playful personalities perfectly.

And to top it all...the images are black & white so anything you do with them saves you a TON of time on colouring and means you can whip up your designs in next to no time!

I wanted my card to look like a slippery snow covered slope with all the little penguins skating down it. You get so many different designs of penguins all doing different things in different directions I thought it would look really cute - like they are all battling to keep their balance as they have their fun.

I started by stamping out my penguins and fussy cutting, adding a wee dash of red to their skates and orange to their beaks for the teeniest splash of colour. I made my slopes by cutting Mama Elephant’s Landscape Trio Border Dies and lightly ink blending blue ink behind. I used foam tape to elevate my slopes and adhered my party of penguins behind. I added a slick of glitter across the edges of my die cuts to add a little sparkle to my snow. My sentiment is from Mama Elephant’s Polar pals and is stamped straight onto my card.

I finished by adding a scattering of sparky sequins and cutting my panel using Lawn Fawn’s Cross Stitched Rectangle, mounting onto a card blank, and there you have it!

A very quick easy peasy parade of precious penguins!

I really hope you like it.

As always, everything I used is linked below.

See you next week.

Jillx

    

Pretty, quick make Christmas cards

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week I'm sharing my quick make Christmas cards that are the actual design I am using this year (I know, get me showing off, for the first time ever...I am organised early!).

It's a tough time time of year for us card makers; our nearest and dearest are well aware of our hobby and are looking forward to something fancy and bespoke, and I don't know about you, but for me I still want to make every card impressive and pretty, and to look like it took me a whole load of blood sweat and tears...but whilst being really easy to make and without taking too much time.  I mean, making a whole batch of cards for a whole load of different people...is hard! 

My answer...SENTIMENTS!  Big, bold, beautiful, stylish and superb...SENTIMENTS!

Quick and easy to make, but hopefully pretty enough to make an impact!

For me, it's all about the organisation.  I have an idea in my head, and I have all my tools and elements in place before I begin; stamps mounted, card-stock cut to size, paints and brushes ready to go etc...then I get to work. 

I started with the backgrounds.  I chose my colours and watercolour washed across each of my panels in an ombre effect.  Once I was done with the last one - the first one was pretty much dry and ready to be covered in plenty flicks and flickers of beautiful iridescent and gold paint from Gansai Tambi's Starry Colours.  Once each panel was dry, I had a variety of stencils and stamps at the ready to add extra interest to my background in soft and subtle white ink.  I used a variety of snowflakes and the Tiny Bubble stencil from Altenew to act as snowfall.

I then moved on to the main event - the big bold sentiment stamping.  A beautiful background with a big stand-out sentiment is my all time favourite design when it comes to card making.  I just don't think you can go wrong, and it simplifies batch card-making so much.  No colouring or fussy-cutting for example.

I decided to use Mama Elephant's Merry Christmas Wishes sentiment, but there are so many of this kind of stamp to choose from.  All fabulous fonts and stylish designs.  

I used a stamping platform to make my life that little bit easier, but really, there's no need.  I had a little production line all set up - my pile of backgrounds which I stamped onto using Versamark, covered in gold embossing powder, and left aside to do all my melting at once.  I added a little trim along the bottom from Mama Elephant's Zennith Borders.  This border always reminds me of a Nordic folk tree design so thought it would finish of the card nicely, also embossing in gold.

 

And there you have it, a pretty background, a big bold sentiment, and few little added bits of interest, and you could have the task complete in next to no time!

As always, everything I used is linked below.  

See you next week.

Jillx

    

Super cute sticky note.

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week, I’m making a cute birthday memo...

...using the cute as a button ‘Sticky Note’ from Mama Elephant.

I love any set that contains ‘peek-a-boo’ critters, there’s just something so uber cute about their little noses peeking over a page edge or similar. It makes my heart melt and that’s all it takes for me to snap up a set! I’ve also had a massive stationary obsession since I was tiny so this set was ticking all my boxes!

I started by stamping out and colouring my wee sneaky peeky critter and fussy cutting. I really wanted my sticky note to look like a, well, a sticky note and didn’t have the exact colour so used, yup you’ve guessed it...sticky note paper! It’s obviously very thin and I wanted it to look like a stack with the cute memo on top so stamped it out a few times, only adhering at the top so the pages could curl up along the bottom.

I stamped my greeting onto my sticky note and cut a Scalloped Circle from My Favourite Things to act as a frame.

I added a balloon attached to string and a further sentiment to some vellum and adhered my elements in place.

I embellished with a tab of ribbon and a scattering of enamel dots and there you have it.

I really hope you like it.

As always, everything I used is linked below.

See you next week.

Jillx

Chilly Christmas Cheer

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week, I'm spreading some chilly Christmas cheer!

Using Wplus9's All Year Cheer.

I LOVE this set and have got SO much use out of it already as it is so easily adaptable to whichever season or feeling you want to portray.  Since first getting it I have been looking forward to the winter chill kicking in so I could craft a little Robin Red Breast out of the sweet

bird, and eventually got the chance to do that with this, the first of my Christmas cards!

I started by stamping out & heat embossing a ton of the little snowflakes from the All Year Cheer set all across my background then washing a load of watered down purple inks across...which I then pretty much covered completely with a panel of vellum sandwiched between a frame cut from Mama Elephant's Index Card Creative Cuts...but ho-hum haha.  I then inked up, stamped up, and die cut all my small elements- my wee little robin and all the leaves and branches.  I had already embossed my sentiment onto my vellum panel in a gold powder so all that was left to do was build-up my scene up, around and over that.  

I added a scattering of pearl drops that I had coloured red with an alcohol marker to act as holly berry accents.

I finished my card by adding a teeny slick of Glossy Accents onto my Robin's beak, and a coat of shimmer onto his wee little tummy.

I really hope you like it.  As always, everything I used is linked below.

See you next week.

Jillx