My big reveal of my Christmas card for the Cardathon and a tutorial

Thanks for popping back to day. Yesterday I teased you with a sneak peek of the Christmas card I made for the Cardathon over at Scrap Rendezvous. They will be sharing a guest designer sketch and card every day throughout November so if you want some ideas for your festive cards do take a look.  You can find my card by following the link here

This was my little tease.

So first of all this is the sketch I designed,a nice simple one.

and this is the card I made from my sketch

And below is a little tutorial of how I made the master board for my card.

 I decided to make a master board so that I could use a piece for the centre strip of my card and have some spare for a couple of others.

I chose 2 blue and 1 white Paperartsy Fresco acrylic paints. I used a sheet of mixed media card.

Using a circle stencil I made some random circles on the card using a brush allowing time to dry between the colours. I stenciled the dark blue spots first.

I then stamped my Visible Image snowflake stamps randomly over the card using black archival ink

Then I stamped some smaller snowflakes using the white and the pale blue paints. Be careful to wash your stamps quickly after stamping using paint.









And this was my finished master board

I have cut this up and used various pieces for Christmas cards which I will share with you in the coming weeks.

To complete my card I stamped again on a Kraft card blank using embossing ink. I added embossing glitter which I heat set. I die cut the TimHotlz branch and bird using cardboard packaging and added plenty of glitter for sparkle and a couple of star gems.

Here are some close ups of my card. The sentiment is also by Visible Image.

and my card once more

Thanks to Alex for inviting me as a Guest Designer and I hope I may have inspired you use my simple sketch. You may also want to make your own master boards for some of your Christmas cards. I would love to see what you make.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Pixie's Snippets 2/3 Playground #201 I used a snippet of my master board.
Sweet stampin 2/3 dies and/or punches I used a die for my stamped sentiment surround
Flonzcraft Vintage 2/3Traditional Christmas
Papertake Weekly 2/5 anything goes
We love to create anything creative/mixed media #22
Crafty Catz 1/3  winter
Simon Says stamp Monday So Glossy I have used embossing glitter which gives a wonderful sheen to the stamped snowflakes. The stickles on top of the brown distress ink on the bird and branch also give a lovely shine.
Inspiration Journal mission embossoble. I have used wet embossing for my shiny snowflakes.

Creative Inspirations 1/3 sparkle my sparkle is glitter embossing powder on the card blanks and the glitter on the bird and branch.

Country View the colour blue

Penny Black and More 2/3 anything Christmas

Thanks so much for visiting me here and a warm welcome to my newest followers. Today is a very special day as it's my granddaughter Daisy's birthday party....she is 2 next Wednesday...how did that happen! I have been busy cake making and decorating and making lots of zoo themed decorations...here's a sneak peek of some of the models I have made...

I will share the finished cake and some party photos with you very soon. Luckily her chicken pox is no longer contagious...all good timing. The cake is boxed up and we're ready to set off very soon for Southampton. All very exciting.

Enjoy your weekend.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Take one orange....

I promised to come back with a quick tut for making a Christmas Clove orange. I know there is only one week to go but this is so quick to make and the smell is just divine  When I smell this it takes me back to each wonderful Christmas I have enjoyed since I was a little girl. I can also remember my children making these at school and bringing them home to hang up. I last made one of these myself as a child and for a couple of years I bought the ingredients but never seemed to get things together in time. This year I bought the ingredients again and on Sunday I finally made the time. I am so pleased I did as the end product was really worth it.

Ingredients;
1 medium sized orange.
Jar of dried cloves.
1 large or 2 medium cinnamon sticks.
1 meter of thin ribbon (avoid satins and organzas)
Pins .
30 minutes of your time ;0)

So here we go...take one orange

Divide the orange into quarters by wrapping around the ribbon and crossing it over underneath

Secure the ribbon using pins, just simply push them into the flesh, they wont' be noticed at all. Tie the ribbon with a knot at the top but don't finish a hanging loop yet.

Open the jar of cloves and inhale deeply.......mmmmmm.....just wonderful

Use a cake tester or something else sharp to make holes in the flesh and then push a clove into each hole

Once all the orange skin is covered open up the cinnamon sticks and again pause and inhale deeply..............another............mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Sit the orange on it's base and cut the cinnamon stick into 2. Tie in one piece...

Then tie in the second and finally make either a hanging loop or as I did just tie the orange to wherever you want to display it.

Mine is hanging from the banisters where we also have lights and hang our cards.

The smell is just wonderful and it brings back a lifetime of Christmas memories. Do try one, they really are so festive and really easy to make.
My card really has to be something from the past too. I recently was the lucky winner of the weekly candy at Joanna Sheen's great blog and I received this card making CD in the post. It features images by  Giordano which were so

popular when I was a child. I can remember these images on cards which I bought and received in the late 1960s and early 70s. I had a play and found all sorts of projects on the CD including images, backing papers etc. I printed out one of my all time favourites from years ago. It is of a very stylised nativity and I used it to made a couple of quick last minute cards. There is no colouring involved so all I had to do was print out the image and put together my card design.

I simply matted the image onto gold card and added a few simple embellies as I did not think the image needed a lot more. I was really pleased with this.A very simple card for me but so right for my childhood memories of making Christmas Oranges.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Joanna Sheen With Love at Christmas
Top Tip Tuesdays Christmas #92
Bunny Zoe's Monthly Challenge Celebrations
Hooked on Crafts #27 Christmas
Woopsi Daisy Traditional Christmas
Holly Jolly Christmas Vintage Christmas
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Anything Goes #103
Crafty Catz New beginnings I think the Nativity certainly fits the bill ;0)
Forever Friends fortnight challenge Christmas #51
Forever Friends monthly challenge Christmas cards
Dream Valley Anything Goes #34
Cutie Pie Christmas #34
ABC Christmas Y is for your favourite die/punch My favourite punch here is my fab holly punch, it is a really old Woodware one. I use it so much at this time of the year.


I would also like to mention that the Ribbon Girl has a 6 of the best giveaway..pop on over and join in the fun.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope I can inspire you to made a Christmas Orange and evoke some special childhood memories too. Keep inhaling that smell of Christmas past, present and yet to come. Enjoy the last week of festivities, remember to

Keep calm and carry on making Christmas ;0)

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x