Spring Aconites Card

Evening All,

Well, it's rained all day here, hardly let up at all, so not much sign of the spring sunshine we are all hankering after. However, the yellow aconites, from an original watercolour by the artist Elizabeth Davies, in this card remind us that spring is on its way.

While I was tidying the drawer that holds all the envelopes & card bases   - and there's a lot of in that drawer - I came across this long forgotten card base. It's ancient ... bought back when I did cross stitch for a project that was never completed. In fact, never got started ... my eyesight just got too bad to be bothered. Anyway, I almost threw it out, but then thought the spray of aconites at the bottom were too pretty for that, so I pondered as to what to do with it and this is the result.

You'd hardly believe it but there are gold highlights, made using gilding flakes. I tried every which way to get the gold to show up on the photograph and eventually had to lay it down under the Ottlite to get anything near the look of it.

Not perfect, but you can just about see the gold on the cage and around the aconite spray.

I found some pretty paper that, once trimmed and edge-punched, blended well for the inside ...

... and the back.

Almost everything in this card has most definitely risen from the ashes of my stash: the stamp had its first inking even though I've had it since last year, the ProMarkers got the first airing in many a month, the gilding flakes date back almost a year, the patterned paper is from September 2010 magazine. Even the ink pads, edge punch and the ribbon have been around forever :) That being the case this card qualifies for Di's Snippet Challenge.

Materials I used:

The very old cream card base with oval aperture.
Piece of leftover paper - mine was from Romantique 6x6 paper pad from Prima and chosen because the colour was fairly neutral.
Patterned Paper - The Nancy Watt Collection, Owls and Swirls pack - free with Making Cards
Ink pads - Memento, Rich Cocoa for stamping, Tim Holtz Distress Inks, Scattered Straw and Vintage Photo.
Stamp - Crafty Individuals, CI-320
ProMarkers - Pastel Yellow, Buttercup, Pear Green, Marsh Green, Sandstone
Quickie Glue pen and Creative Expressions Sunshine Gilding Flakes
Martha Stewart edge punch - the name is long forgotten but it is my one and only much treasured MS punch :)
Ribbon and gems from stash.


I'm also going to submit this card to the following:

Waste Not Wednesdays - #8  - as it is the first outing for this stamp.
Allsorts Challenge - Week 142 - anything goes
Crafts and Me Challenge 72 - shades of spring

And of course it merits the following:

Yes, I watched Tim Holtz on QVC TV for an hour or so yesterday and did not succumb to temptation ... true, I sat on my hands all the while, but even Tim's persuasive chat did not make me break my pledge to use it up! However, I was sorely tempted when I saw some of Anna Griffins stunning papers in a later programme - I may have to take the pledge not to watch QVC TV on craft days :)

I'm off to the dentist for a check-up tomorrow ... I'd rather give birth if truth be known but there's no getting out of it.

On a happier note I'll be back with my Handy Hippo Thursday share tomorrow too ... much more pleasant ... so see you then.

Happy Crafting,

Naked Tree Card

Good Evening to you all,

Another visit to my g-granddaughter, Rhian, today for a cuddle, followed by a trip to Waterstones to buy the latest book for the reading group I attend - 'A Fine Balance' by Rohinton Mistry. A chunky read of 614 pages and fairly small print - gulp :( Goodness knows when I'm going to find time to read it all.) I also found a lovely book of nursery rhymes for Jenny to sing to Rhian as she mentioned that she had forgotten the words to many of them. That got us all thinking and trying to remember the nursery rhymes we were taught  - for my DH and me that's going a very long way back!

Back home again and I've completed this birthday card for our friend whose birthday is tomorrow.

This effect is the one that uses post-its as a mask and then a make-up sponge and a Big & Juicy to create the inked background on white card. I chose the bare tree from the Lavinia Autumn Scene stamp set and the Birds stamp to stamp over the background using a black dye ink pad.

The sentiment is from the Sheena Douglass stamp set, again stamped in black on white card. Both are edged using a Krylon 18kt Gold Leafing Pen (saw Barbara Grey demo this) and then matted onto plain brown cardstock. I added some gold brads to the sentiment topper.

The base card is Crumb Cake (formerly Kraft card) from Stampin Up and the backing card is one I made some time ago using Cosmic Shimmer in Rich Gold and cling film on thin white card.

For the insert I used My Craft Studio digital punch to create the edge using a Nitwit digital paper, Ticking Mocha, from the Cottage Charm Too Fat Quarter Collection - gorgeous papers! The stamped greeting is from Stamps Away's collection of useful words.

As this is intended for a male friend -  a businessman with a no nonsense approach to life - I've made it as non-fussy as possible, well, for me that is, so I hope it passes muster.

I'm now away to take a peek at as many WOYWWers desks as possible.

Bye for now,
Elizabeth

Cherry Blossom Card & What the Postman Delivered

Good Evening,

I meant to bring part of this post to you yesterday but I had the chance so opted to visit my great-granddaughter instead - just couldn't resist the opportunity for a cuddle and to assure myself that all the family were doing well too, and they are. So it's catch up time and here's the latest completed card.

The inspiration for this notecard was taken from this beautiful photograph provided by Clare Curd in her Inspiration Challenge at Docrafts. 

I didn't have any stamp, digi image, or any other image type of an orchid but I did have this cherry blossom image all coloured up ready to use. I went for a pink/lilac/green colour combination and made use of one of the new masks from Creative Expressions to emboss the Core'dinations Cardstock which I had never used before.

Materials used:

• Rose pink pearlescent cardstock for base
• Core'dinations Cardstock, the Whitewash Collection (white/lilac combo)
• Creative Expressions Mask for embossing
• Docrafts Woodland Folk Paper Pack
• Stamps - My Craft Studio Cherry Blossom digital stamp & Ladybug Crafts It's Only Words 2 sentiment
• B-C-E Baby Nesties oval template for matting
• Ink-it-up Kelly Green ink pad
• Dark green ric-rac trim

Frankly, the colours I used are nothing like those in the photograph but I'm still happy with the end result. I like the way the flowers in the mask are similar to those in the design paper from the Woodland Folk pack, which is really pretty, particularly on the inside.

I still want to enter this card for Clare's Inspiration Challenge despite there not being an orchid in sight!

Now to what the postman brought at last - at last because these were ordered well before Christmas but because of all the snow, etc., have only just arrived. I can't believe how odd the postal service has been over the last couple of weeks. Christmas cards posted at the same time and therefore you would expect to be delivered much about the same time I have found have been delivered as much as two weeks apart. The last reported sighting was a card delivered as late as Monday : (

Firstly, with a view to organising my crafting stuff to make it easier for me to find stuff I order some storage containers from Weston Boxes and here they are:

I got a pack of 2 A4 size boxes and a pack of 5 of what they call the Peel-Off box (measures 245mm x 108mm x 30mm) - I've already got quite a few 12 x 12 containers for my scrapbooking supplies. One A4 box now has all the free papers collected from magazines - and as there is so much I've resolved to use some of it up. The other box I've used to store toppers. As you can probably see I've managed to fill three of the Peel-Off boxes, one with peel-offs of course, bling in another and stickers in the third. That leaves two spare.
So for now I'm really happy at how I've sorted out and tidied up all my crafting stuff - I just have to stop buying more : (

And that brings us to the second parcel the postman brought. My Lavinia order - feast your eyes on this:

Stamps (pheasant on fence, spiderweb, naked tree & foliage, fences, flock of birds), Adirondack ink pads (eggplant, citrus, sunshine yellow), Versafine ink pads (Olympia green, vintage sepia, crimson red, imperial purple) and a bottle of holographic glitter. Now, I know that this was a rather extravagant purchase but it was prompted by the projects illustrated in the November Craft Stamper - you can just catch a glimpse of it propped on my chicken box at the back of the photo. I saw it and was lost!!! A tad aambitious perhaps but I'm going to give it a try.

We saw the return of the snow this week but it didn't last long and just as well because my snail suffered yet again, as did his companion, the duck.

And, in case your wondering, these garden creatures were acquired when the grandchildren were small to entertain and amuse and now they are here to stay!

That's me for tonight - I'm off to see the Dancing on Ice skate off.

Bye for now
Elizabeth

Week 1 Christmas Card & Clarity Stamp Card

Hi Everyone,

Yes, another Christmas card. I resolved to make one a week over 2011 so this is the first of many. However, it is a Christmas card with a difference - the trim is recycled.

The holly border and the strip of gold embossed card underneath it are from cards sent to us this year. I've always thought it is such a pity that when the occasion (whether it be Christmas, birthday, Mother's Day, Valentine, etc.) is over we either put the cards away never to be seen again or, worse still, bin them. I have given some to charity in the past but I keep most because I can't bear to part with them. So I thought this year I would do my bit to save the planet and recycle. This week, instead of just watching TV, I've been multi-tasking by gutting cards at the same time and saving the best bits to use on other cards where I think appropriate, as I have on this one.

Materials used:

• white scalloped base card
• Christmas tree embossing folder
• Versamark & Perfect Pearls in Forever Green
• recycled holly leaf border & gold embossed border strip
• adhesive tape & fine gold glitter
• sentiment stamp
• Adirondack Cranberry ink pad
• red & yellow gems

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Week 1
Snoflakes Christmas Card Challenge Week 1 at Docrafts
Recycled Card Challenge also at Docrafts
In my last post I mentioned that I was following one of Barbara Grey's tutorials for a Thank You card using a corner stamp and with window insert but that I'd messed it up on my first attempt. Well, I tried again and here is the resultant card.

Insert showing window

Insert showing detail inside window



The outer 'sleeve' or front of the card

Materials used:

• Clarity Stamp corner stamp
• Big & Juicy Mountain Meadow ink pad
• white card for window insert
• tan coloured card for card sleeve
• topper from stash

I'm quite pleased with the end result this time and think I could now replicate the style but put my own 'stamp' (pardon the pun!) on it and use different colour combinations.

The postman delivered a couple of seriously delayed packages today - I shall be so pleased when the post gets back to normal - and I will reveal the contents tomorrow when I've taken the photographs.

In the meantime I'm off to do something about dinner and then plan to sneak back here for a quick crafting session before the new gardening programme, Life in The Cottage Garden with Carol Klein, starts on BBC 2 at 8pm tonight.

Bye for now,
Elizabeth

Scrapbooking

Good Afternoon to you all,

It's a miserable wet day here in Ayr but I believe some of you in other parts of the country are experiencing snow again, as if you haven't had enough already! Hopefully, it won't last and the snow won't lie.

It's my oldest grandson's 22nd birthday today and we were intending to visit William but I have a sore foot, can't put pressure on it, so the visit has had to be postponed for a day or two. Which means I can't post the birthday card I made for him here as I had intended.

So I thought I'd let you see one of the scrapbook layouts I did some time ago, in fact before I started making cards and before I started blogging about my experiences. A few of you may have already seen them on my Do-crafts gallery but I hope you won't mind this re-visit. So here is one of my first layouts:

The subject is my granddaughter, Jennifer - yes, the same granddaughter that has just given birth to my great-granddaughter! She was only 3 years old when this photograph was taken on her first day at nursery school. Although it is a black & white photo I know the dress was a medium pink floral so I chose colours to remind me of this.
Materials used:

• My Mind's Eye 'Wild Blossom Paper',
• Basic grey 'Indian Summer' in Woodrose,
• Green cardstock,
• 4 types of lace in cream, white and pink,
• Prima Essentials 'Shabby Chic' flowers in brown & pink,
• Handmade lace flower and stickpin,
• Rose sprays and pearl droplet trim from the haberdashery department of my local department store,
• Butterfly charms and pink heart-shaped buttons from The Works,
• Journal stamp from Papermania Boutique collection,
• Black Stazon ink

Close-up of the handmade lace flower and stickpin:

And talking about handmade flowers I've made my first concertina flower using the Hougie board my DH gave me for Christmas.

I'm chuffed to bits with it. There is a bit of knack to it as you have to fiddle about to get the pleated band to pop into place and then manoeuvre it onto a previously prepared adhesive base and then get it to stay there long enough for the adhesive to set. However, it should get easier with practice.

Over the next week or two I plan to post a few more of my scrapbook layouts. I really want to do a few more layouts for my heritage album and re-visiting the layouts I've already completed might just be the encouragement I need.

So now it's back to my Hougie board to try out something else.

Bye for now,
Elizabeth

The Frozen River Ayr + A Baby Card

Hello Everyone,

Just about getting back to normal but it's proving difficult after the excitement of the past couple of days. I just had to share these photos of the River Ayr as it looked when it was frozen over Christmas and New Year.

This photograph was taken from the bridge the A77 goes over. Hundreds of people flocked to see this amazing sight. The temperatures have been as low as -10 degrees here in Ayr over December, so cold river froze. Here you can see that because of fluctuating temperatures ice had broken up further upstream at some point then floated downstream producing this rarely seen phenomenon.

The shards of ice were so packed they built up and formed ice sculptures - a wonderful sight!

Sadly the temperatures have risen and the ice disappeared overnight but it was amazing while it lasted.

Here's the card that I made for the birth of my great-granddaughter.

I tried to keep this card simple and unfussy because I really admire that style of card but I don't think I succeeded. In fact, in the end, I wasn't really very pleased with it although I did like this stamp:

It went well with the ribbon I used. The lovely DP is from the Papermania Summer Bloom pack and I used it to decorate the inside too.

Other materials used:

• Cardstock - pale pink, medium pink & white (for base)
• Stamps - from The Art of Stamping set
• Ink pad - Adirondack Cranberry
• Embellishments - pink Dovecraft Jewel Brad; chipboard (free with Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine) and ribbon from stash.

That's my news for today. I'm now working on a birthday card for my grandson so still unable to start a scrapbook layout I've been yearning to do for some time and there a couple of other projects bubbling away in my head. Hopefully, I'll be able to get to at at least one of these after the birthday card is completed.

Bye for now
Elizabeth

WOYWW - Week 82 - New Toys from Santa + Workspace Re-organisation

Good Afternoon to you all,

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that Santa was good to you. I can't believe it is a week since I last posted. The holiday has just gone by in a flash and to make matters worse my great-granddaughter, due on Christmas Eve, has not yet arrived. We are all on tenterhooks here.

Welcome also to my new followers, Debbi and Claudia Rosa. I hope to keep uploading posts that will be of interest to you.

Now, to What's on my Workdesk this Wednesday - not sure what this is about then please pop over to Julia's here and take a voyeuristic peek at many more workspaces :

It's my new Hougie Board - one of my crafty presents from Santa (aka DH). Other craft related goodies I found among the parcels were:

Not had time to play with them yet as I've spent the last 3 days having a massive re-organisation of my workspace. This was a job long overdue! The place was a mess and I was starting to get very frustrated with the muddle left from all the Christmas card making neglect. It's much better now, I know where everything is and I can see my where all my stamps are.

There's not a lot of the wooden-backed stamps but they were tucked away in a drawer, I couldn't see what I had, and I read somewhere that it is best to store them on end like this. Other stamps are stored in DVD or CD cases which I've started to label so I can see at a glance what each one contains.

Once again I have to apologise to those of you that I failed to visit last week, Christmas just got in the way - I promise to do better this week.

Now that I've sorted out my workspace I can get down to some serious crafting and playing with my new goodies. There are a ton of new techniques I am eager to have a bash at and share the results with you.

In the meantime, I hope that those of you who are still on holiday continue to have fun and those unfortunate enough to have returned to work, well, it's only a couple of days before the New Year and hopefully you'll be off again for the weekend, at least.

Here in Scotland the New Year celebrations can be somewhat protracted, going on for a few days. Although I feel it is nothing like the fun it was when we were all young and the extended family, with friends, got together  in each other's houses and partied a few days away! We used to travel from Edinburgh out to the suburbs, Musselburgh, Dalkeith, Danderhall, Old Craighall and Rosewell, all on the best bus service in the country, to make sure we'd wished everyone a Good New Year. Now we all live too far apart, Aberdeenshire, Stirlingshire, the Borders, London and even Australia, so we have to make do with a phone call. Changed days.

We're off to M&S this afternoon - some vouchers are burning a hole in DH's pocket. So glad the weather has improved.

Bye for now.

WOYWW - Week 81 - Seasons Greetings

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY HOLIDAYS

to you all from all at

including our very cold  

snow snail

Yes, it's still freezing here, as elsewhere in the country and the snail mail is being delivered at a snail's pace - though bless Royal Mail for keeping at it and trying to make sure we get all our cards before the big day!

And speaking of cards guess what's on my desk today - yes, more Christmas cards. I needed some last minute cards to give/send in return for the unexpected - there's always some, is there not : (

These are 15 toppers I was working on last night. After adhering some really thin strips of paper with PVA glue - the usual tape runner was too wide unfortunately - I left these to dry overnight. I got the idea from watching a WhimsicalWendy demo on YouTube in which Wendy Naismith showed how she makes her Christmas cards in bulk. Of course, I did not have the Kraft card, the same design paper, the same edge puncher or even the same stamps but, hey ho, I thought I would improvise and give it a bash anyway. Here's two of my finished cards:

As you can see I used some green tree embossed card  as well as some buff coloured textured card from my stash (can't remember where I bought them from) for the base of the toppers. A rummage through my off-cuts produced enough paper and white card for the strips and the trees, so it proved a great way of using up those bits and bobs leftover from other projects. The greeting and the tree stamps were from the Christmas stamp set from Let's Get Crafting, Issue 26. Wendy makes her own stamps - how clever is that!!! You can see what the cards should look like at Wendy Naismith Designs.

And, guess what, they really are quick to make this way. And I found the whole exercise really enjoyable -  just at a time when I thought if I had to make another Christmas card I'd scream!

I very much doubt I will be posting again until after the big day unless some goodies, expected but delayed by 'adverse weather conditions', finally arrive so let me wish you all a very happy and joyful holiday weekend and that everything goes well for Christmas day itself - and that Santa is good to you, bringing lots of crafty goodies perhaps : )

For those of you who may be having to live without oil for your heating - I understand some people won't get their delivery until mid-February!!! - I hope you have found some way of keeping warm and that you are wrapping up well.

Seasons Greetings

Elizabeth

Edited Note: How could I have forgotten this - for all those who have strayed on to this mad woman's blog and are wondering what she is on about please take a jog over to Julia's Stamping Ground and enjoy a blog hop through many more WOYWWers' workspaces.

Z is for Zero Degrees or Zipping Through the Snow

Good morning, on this cold and frosty one, to you all,

Yippee! The last card in the Alphabet series is done. Z proved to be, by far, the most difficult letter to design a card around. However, I had to design a card for our 11 year old grandson, Alun, who loves anything to do with speed -  in particular, Formula One racing cars. I couldn't fit racing cars into the Christmas/winter theme somehow but I discovered this racing tobogganer design in the My Craft Studio CD, The Finishing Line, and the idea for this card was born - Z for Zero Degrees or even Z for Zipping Through the Snow!

Materials used: My Craft Studio, The Finishing Line CD, Design 4; white cardstock for base; Gold mirror cardstock; blue pearlescent cardstock; glitter; embellishments - snowflakes; diamante stars, peel-off gold/silver stars.

I printed off the design sheet, re-jigged the background to make an insert large enough for the A5 sized card and using the digital punch created an area for the greeting which was inserted using the text feature. Otherwise, it was simply a case of cutting out, matting, glittering and embellishing.

I thought the greeting that comes on the design sheet most appropriate for the front of the card because one of Alun's favourite words is 'cool' - everything that he approves off is 'cool'.

That's it - the series is over at last. What should have taken only 26 days took far longer for me. I've discovered that I'm a lot slower than many cardmakers, that it takes a lot of time for me to think up a design, gather all the materials together and make the project. I'm never going to be able to whizz through a project but that's okay - I'm not really in a hurry.

Nevertheless, it was a great challenge which had me trying out lots of new equipment, techniques and crafty stuff which I will be able to use in future projects and I can't wait to try other new things in the coming year.

In the meantime, a planned visit to my daughter and her family has had to be postponed due to the snow - she lives further inland and it's worse where she is - so I'm going to amuse myself with a few last minute projects. There are a couple of ideas buzzing around in my head that I'd like to try out and I think, if I have to stay at home, I should seize the day.

DH is on his laptop doing a bit of research into the dates, times and costs for a trip on the Fort William to Mallaig steam train (the Hogwarts's Express I believe). It's one of the items on our 'bucket list', which we are progressively working our way through, and this one is going to be scheduled for late Spring/early Summer.

Hope you are all keeping as warm as you can and enjoying your day.

Bye for now,
Elizabeth

Y for New Year - the Penultimate Card

Good Evening

This is probably going to be everyone's busiest weekend of the year - all the last minute shopping to be done, last minute cards to be posted and the present distribution started. For those of us past the first flush of youth, e.g. moi!, Christmas comes round quicker every year and, despite all the practice I've had, I'm still never organised enough! Ah well, as my DH says, it (Christmas) comes, and it goes : )

These are some voucher/money wallets/cards that I've made for three teenagers - my step-grandsons. They are young men really - two of them are at university. So I wanted to make something appropriate for that age group - grown up and not too fussy.

As luck would have it, I won some more candy  - I know, another win! - from Sasa at La-De-Dah and the New Year stamp set from Fiskars included (see picture below) was just the thing for this project. Sasa, or Sarah, makes the most awesomely beautiful art and her blog is well worth a visit for inspiration

Materials used for the cards: White base cardstock; gold embossed cardstock; design paper BoBunny Licorice Dot; Fiskars stamp set New Year; Penelope & Percy stamp;  gold embossing powder; Martha Stewart border punch; gold peel-off borders.

Lots of stamping and gold embossing with a bit of punch trim and gold embossed cardstock added. I struggled to get the numbers straight and didn't succeed but otherwise the result was not too bad. I put a pocket inside to include a voucher and, as time is not on my side now, left it at that this time.

I'm off to relax and watch a film with my DH. We both love films and have a fairly big collection of DVDs and old videos (we're replacing them slowly before they become completely redundant) and also subscribe to an online film club. I took several courses on film at university - how cool is that, being able to watch movies and call it studying : ) Last night we chilled out and watched the first of our collection of Christmas movies - The Holiday with Kate Winslett and Cameron Diaz and the gorgeous Jude Law! Tonight's offering is going to be a bit heavier I believe and nothing to do with Christmas, it's entitled The Brothers - I'll let you know what I think next post.

In the meantime I hope you are all relaxing, putting your feet up and, those of you who are still knee deep in white stuff, keeping warm.

Bye for now,
Elizabeth

X is for Xmas

Good evening everybody,

It's getting increasingly difficult to think of a theme for the letters of the alphabet so it's just as well that I'm almost finished this series of cards. After struggling to find a better alternative I ended up using the word Xmas even though I do not particularly like it - I much prefer the word Christmas. Apart from that little detail I enjoyed making this card - lovely papers, great templates for cutting out the shapes, some 'snowy' embossing, a bit of decoupage, and really cute die cuts.

Materials used: Henbury Lane Poinsettia pack; Gold embossed cardstock; Kiwi Lane tiny templates; Seafoam white embossing powder; iridescent glitter, heart shaped die cut; Sentiments 4 You digi greeting.

I cut the design papers using Kiwi Lane templates. I first discovered these when I was making 12" x 12" scrapbooking pages and just thought they were so clever. Since then they have designed teeny weeny templates for card-makers. For those who have never seen them before here is a photo of those I used on this project.

And here is a photo of the inside of the card which shows the effect you can achieve with them.

Apologies for the quality of the photographs - the light is soooo bad at this time of the year. The card is much prettier and the colours much more zingy in real life - a mix of coral, lime green, and gold.

I've been waiting in all day for a UPS delivery and so far it has not turned up. However, the last delivery I had from them was at about this time so it may come yet.

In the meantime I'm off for a restorative cuppa.

Bye for now,
Elizabeth

P is for a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Update on snow in Ayr - well a couple of flurries so far but nowhere near enough to stop the traffic yet. I'm poised ready with my camera and nothing is happening :(  All joking aside, for those of you still struggling with the problems the snow has caused you have my sympathy - I hope conditions get better soon.

I'm at P in the Alphabet series and because I already had this gorgeous paper in my stash the theme seemed obvious - the Partridge in a Pear Tree:

Here's a close up of the image on the paper - Papermania, double-sided, Pear Tree/Polka -  that inspired the card:

The cage started out as gold mirror board but I wasn't too happy with the gold - I wanted something that looked aged with maybe some verdigris on it - so I altered it, quite bit as it turned out.  I started by dabbing some Tim Holtz distress ink in Aged Mahogany from a bottle I had tucked away. This didn't give the effect I was looking for so I gave it a blast with the heat gun and while it was still a bit tacky applied some white embossing powder and this worked a treat because as it heated the ink underneath caused a sort of dimpled effect, a bit like hammered metal painted over. One of those happy little accidents that happen so often in crafting : ) I then spritzed some Cosmic Shimmer Mist in Meadow Lush to get the verdigris effect I was looking for and finally blinged it up with a few gems, a Christmas tree charm and some fibre from my stash.

Similarly, the bird got the embossing and distressing treatment. I started by stamping in Versamark a leaf flourish stamp from Anita's Magical Christmas set, then embossed in Crimson Red Heat It Up and finally distressed the birds body and wing with TH's Brushed Corduroy and the perch with Weathered Wood.

I finished the topper by cutting a trim from the polka dot reverse side of the paper using a mini Paisley Place template form Kiwi Lane Designs - love these templates - and embellishing with white twill, more of the fibre and three brads from the Papermania Silent Night collection.

Inside and back are decorated with a trim of the polka dot paper and the image of the partridges in the pear tree and another one of the sentiments from Sentiments 4 You that I use a lot.

I keep saying this but I think this is one of my favourite cards so far - I really enjoyed making it, all that messing around with distressing inks and embossing powders. Let's see what the letter Q brings - could that become a favourite too? : )

Thank you for taking the time to look and all comments are really appreciated.

Bye for now,

Elizabeth