Lili of the Valley Christmas Bear

Hi and welcome to my Blog :-)

I finished off another Christmas card today which uses the same layout I have used for my last couple of cards - nice and easy for this time of year to have a "go to" layout when my brain is overloaded with a thousand things and I can't really think anymore!

The gorgeous teddy image is by Lili of the Valley (UK).  I don't have the name to hand, but will update this post when I find out (plus the LOTV company is closed for Christmas so you can't see any of their stamps/stamp names on their website) *see below.  When I bought the stamp, it came as unmounted rubber so there is no name on it like you get with wood-mounted stamps.  I coloured the teddy with Prismacolor and Derwent Coloursoft pencils and OMS.  I added some Polar White Flowersoft using Aleen's tacky glue to the teddy's hat, and fine red glitter using Designer Dries Clear adhesive glue to the presents. 

Here is a little closeup.   Poor teddy looks a little anaemic in the top photo but looks better in the closeup - I have no idea why!!  

The green cardstock was embossed using my Cuttlebug Holly Berries embossing folder.

The sentiment was diecut with my Cuttlebug and one of the Tiny Tags dies, and I ran my Warm Red ink pad around the edges.  I added the twine in 2 separate elements - I didn't need my Bow Easy to tie the bow as the twine ties very easily into a nice bow.  

Whew - another Christmas card off my list!

Great news!!  Fat Cat's Card Corner will be stocking the BOW EASY very soon - if you have never used one before and are bow-challenged like me, it is a fantastic product.  I use mine all the time, and you can even tie bows with double or triple loops.  Kaaren has a heading for the Bow Easy on the LHS menu on the front page of the website, so keep an eye out for when it comes into stock.

Challenges:

I am entering this card into the Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge #63 and this week's challenge is:  "Your Choice" - and you get to pick one of your favourite past Challenges on their Blog - so I choose Challenge #60 which is "Christmas" (you know how I like making Christmas cards LOL!!).

Thanks for stopping by!  I'll be back tomorrow with another Christmas card.

Jocelyn

*ETA:  The name of the Teddy stamp is:  Xmas Ted Presents S091

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Lili of the Valley - Xmas Ted Presents S091, Sentiment from Elzybells Mini Messages Christmas clear set 20-054 (retired)

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo black, Colorbox Chalk Warm red

Accessories:  Cuttlebug, Cuttlebug Tiny Tags die set, Cuttlebug Holly Berries embossing folder, Spellbinder Oval and Scalloped Oval Nestabilities, twine, fine red glitter, Designer dries clear adhesive, Flowersoft Polar White, Aleen's tacky glue, Prismacolor + Derwent Coloursoft pencils, OMS, paper stumps, Cardstock: green, red, KW Doggett "Knight" white

Lili of the Valley Challenge #55 - Thomas big bunch of flowers

Hello and welcome to my Blog :-)

My DD will be turning 7 very soon and this is the card I made for her birthday.  Her favourite colour is pink and she loves cats, flowers, butterflies and glitter, so this is what I came up with.  The Lili of the Valley image of 'Thomas - big bunch of Flowers' was the perfect choice.  And of course, I had to colour Thomas in the same colours as our own cat Ruby.  There is a little pic of  Ruby on the LHS of my Blog - scroll down to find it if you want to see her. 

Over at the Lili of the Valley Challenge Blog, the fortnightly challenge #55 is a Sketch Challenge plus flowers.  Here is the Sketch:

I really love this layout and I'm sure I will use it again.

The image was coloured with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol.  I added Art Institute very fine transparent pale lemon/pale pink glitter to all the flowers plus the punched butterfly, as well as the cat's ears and cheeks.  This is the first time I have used my Octagonal Nesties - aren't they cool?!  The lacey corners are a Cuttlebug diecut from the Vintage Die set; it's actually a square die but I just tucked them under the octagon - it's like they were made for each other :-)

Here is a little close-up pic of the transparent glitter.  I love how it still lets your shading/colouring be seen and just adds sparkliness.

All the panels are up on mounts (dimensionals).  I added some wide pink lacey ribbon across the bottom panel (can you see it?) and added the darker pink cotton lace over the top.  The hole for threading thru the darker pink lace on the main panel was made with a Stampin' Up horizontal punch and the lace bow itself was made with my Bow Easy.  I did add some Fray Stop to the cut edges of the bow to stop them from fraying.

All the designer papers are digital.  The panel underneath the cat was put thru my Cuttlebug using the Roses embossing folder - I really love the bit of texture it adds.

Lastly, I added the pink gems to the top LHS and bottom RHS of the card.  I decided not to add a sentiment like the sketch - I didn't think it really needed it.

I am also popping this card into the latest Splitcoaststampers Ways to use it Challenge WT275 Raving on Ribbon.  Check out the Gallery for all the cool ways you can use ribbons.

Thanks again for stopping by!  Enjoy the rest of your week!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Lili of the Valley S124 Thomas - big bunch of flowers

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo black

Designer papers:  NitWit Collections Fat Quarter Bundle Series "Perfect Pair" ©2010 by Mary Fran of  Nitwit Collections (plaid - non-embossed panel)

Bearly Mine - Floral Dreams 31 (bottom panel)

Bearly Mine - Just Plaid (roses embossed panel)

Accessories:  Prismas, Gamsol, paper stumps, Cuttlebug, Roses embossing folder, Cuttlebug Vintage Dies set, Spellbinder Large Octagon and Scalloped Octagon Nestabilities, paper rose, 1mm/2mm mounts (dimensionals), Fray stop, Kaiser Rhinestones SB701, pale pink lace 36mm - 1-7/16" wide, dark pink lace 10mm - 5/8" wide, Bow Easy, Stampin' Up horizontal punch, pink and lemon Art Institute Glitter - Shabby Chic set (Peewee kit), Art Institute Designer Dries clear adhesive, 15mm mulberry paper rose - Enthaily Wholesale, Carl CP-1 Butterfly-A punch, Cardstock: pink, lemon, white

Lili of the Valley: Thomas - Letter for you

Hello!  Happy Monday and welcome to my Blog!   It's the start of Term 2 at school so I was back doing the school-run today and catching up on cleaning the house after a whirlwind seemingly went through it these past two weeks!   

I made this card for my soon-to-be 8 year old niece and thought it would be fun to use some new items the postie brought to my door the other day - which is also the Ways to Use It Challenge #261 (WT261) at Splitcoaststampers from a few weeks back where the theme is "What's new?". See this link for the deets.

So what's new on my card: the Designer Paper is a digital download I did from a few days ago, the cat is my new stamp from Lili of the Valley (LOTV), the flowers are from my new Cuttlebug flower die set, the bottom punched border is my new Martha Stewart  Floral Lace edge punch and the embossed purple cardstock is my new Cuttlebug Caramello embossing folder.  Sometimes it takes a while before we get the "latest" craft items here in Australia - so some of the items might not seem very new to you if you are in the USA - but they are to me.

I rarely use purples to make a card which is odd because it's my favourite colour, yet I only have about 6 purple ribbons compared to about 100 pink or brown ones.  Anyway, I think I'll use purples more often from now on - they look so pretty and are a very nice change from pink.

Isn't this cat stamp just so adorable?!!  Being a cat-lover, I had to have this cat (along with several other designs) as soon as Lili of the Valley (UK) released them.   I coloured the image with Gamsol and Prismacolor pencils and I added Kindyglitz Crystalina to the cat's cheeks, flowers and around the edges of the envelope.  I wrote the 'for you' on the little card with my Zig black pen.  I lightly chalked around the image with my Kaisercolour chalks.

The image panel was popped up on 1mm mounts (dimensionals).  I also ran my Warm Violet ink around the image panel and Peach Pastel ink around the Buttercream cardstock panel because these panels were handcut using the Nestie as a stencil and it makes them look better because it tends to hide my not-so-perfect cutting!  I wish Spellbinders would bring out the inbetween sizes in the Labels Nesties - it would make things so much easier.

The Designer Paper (floral background and purple gingham) is a from a digital set called "Noah's Too" by NitWit Collections.   I said I would never use digital papers - I'm eating my words since I thought I would give them a chance and try them and oh my gosh - I am such a convert!  They are BIG files to download, but I can print them on my printer using the "Standard" setting which doesn't use too much ink and they just look fantastic.  I love the idea of being able to resize the image, or change the colours - and even with only my Canon Scanner program - I don't have Photoshop.

For the flowers: I attached the different coloured elements of the flowers to white cardstock to give them some stability as the Designer paper was printed on just ordinary printing paper which is thin so I needed some extra thickness to keep all the bits together and so I could bend the petals up a bit without ripping the paper!  The button is sewed on with Anchor stranded cotton using the full 6 threads. Two of the flowers were mounted with glue dots, and the top LH one is on a 2mm mount so it would be slightly higher then the one next to it. 

The ribbon was attached in 2 separate elements and the bow itself was made with my Bow Easy.

I am also entering this card in 3 Challenges:

Alice in Wonderland Challenge - Chapter 8 (OAC8) - the Challenge being "flowers".

The Pink Elephant Challenge #62 - which is 1 image, 2 dies and 3 of my favourite embellies:  the 2 dies being the Labels Nesties and the Cuttlebug Flower dies, and 3 of my fav embellies are the flower buttons.

Colour Create Challenge #42 - which is Lilac, Grey & White + the extra challenge of Gingham (my cat is coloured grey in case you are wondering where my grey is).  I had to think very hard about how to incorporate the "extra" challenge of Gingham, but that's why it's called a Challenge isn't it?!

Wish me luck :-)

Thanks for stopping in to have a peek at my card!  

Jocelyn

 

Stamps:  Lili of the Valley (LOTV) 'Thomas - Letter for you' S125 (unmounted)

Paper:  NitWit Collections: NitWit Collections Backs "Noah's Too" ©2008 by Mary Fran of www.nitwitcollections.com

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Colorbox Warm Violet & Peach Pastel chalk ink 

Accessories:  Cuttlebug, 3 flower-shaped buttons, 1mm & 2mm mounts (dimensionals), Caramello embossing folder, Swiss dots embossing folder, Spellbinder Labels 2 Nestabilities, Martha Stewart Floral Lace edge punch, Anchor lilac stranded cotton, Gamsol, Prismacolor pencils, Zig Millenium .005 black pen, lilac ribbon 3/8" - 9mm wide, Kindyglitz Crystalina, Bow Easy, Kaisercolour chalks, Cardstock: white, lilac, buttercream