MORE CHRISTMAS CARDS FROM FREYJA

Here's a whole gallery of cards by Freyja Lee - scroll through and ENJOY!

A fabulous embossed cardstock for the background, some simple stamped accents, a metal frame... and a wonderful result. LOVE this one!

Sweet and simple, eyelets for accents, an embossed Greeting and 3 layers of card

Multiple layers of cardstock, stamped backgrounds and lots of COLOUR! Fabulous!

This one is a lovely meld of layers and layers of carstock. Notice how the border round the main image is different strips of card, each stamped differently? Very effective. And the perfect finishing touch is a great stamped image in black on white - dramatic!

Very pretty in shades of lilac, with a grid layout. Each image is mounted separately onto the violet card.

Another simple yet really effective card: two contrasting layers of cardstock with a lovely holly sprig mounted on top, uniting them both. And just a touch of glitter.

These should give you all bags of inspiration! Don't forget it's only 4 weeks to the Big Day, and 2 weeks really if you need to get them into the post (and be assured your cards will arrive nicely in time).

Fabulous cards or what?

CHRISTMAS CARDS FROM FREYJA

This one is very clever - those ornaments are detatchable! So it's a present as well as a card.

A great fun one for the kids - or the young at heart.

I love this one - a painted background and a wonderful collage style.

This one is totally gorgeous - I love the colours, and the folded effect is just stunning.

Love, love, love ALL these! Thanks Freyja - keep 'em coming!

JUST ONE STAMP - DA VINCI'S 'LADY'

Just one stamp - the Da Vinci Lady. Two fabulous cards by Freyja, one from Chris and one from me!

Copyright Freyja Lee

Copyright Freyja Lee

Copyright Chris McMillan for Craft Stamper July 2011

Copyright Susie Jefferson

It's always great to see a different 'take' with a particular image, and I hope these will stimulate a few ideas. If you want something a little different for your Christmas cards, this image would make a great Madonna (stamp by Blade Rubber Stamps, telephone orders only).

DECK THE HALLS - HANDMADE CHRISTMAS STAR

Photo copyright House Revivals

I found this wonderful tutorial online (in 3 parts - links below) for you to make some fabulous woven stars from old book pages!

This is a very clever concept which I wouldn't have thought of in a million years (in fact it's so good that some unscrupulous people have been passing it off as their own, which is a total NO-NO) so I'm very pleased to be able to give you the original instructions by the incredibly inventive Amanda at House Revivals.

• Tutorial Part 1
• Tutorial Part 2
• Tutorial Part 3

If you decide to mention this on your own blog, do please provide credit and links to Amanda, who thoroughly deserves ALL the credit for thinking this one up.

This star design is in Tutorial Part 3 - copyright photo House Revivals

We always like to change things to match our own decor, so here are a couple of variations which would also work: vintage sheet music, plain strips of heavyweight vellum, vintage flock wallpaper - and so would a little stamping of favourite Christmas images or some quotations or text on ordinary cardstock (a great chance to make use of those mini stamps too!) Add colour using Tim Holtz Distress dabbers etc (or swipe with a mini ink pad).

Wouldn't these look great hanging in a window for the light to shine through? With just a touch of glitter?

TIP: If you're going to hang these in a window, I'd give a quick spray with a clear varnish (eg: Crafters Companion) to prevent them going limp if you suffer from condensation.

Deck the halls with lots of goodies, tra la la la laaaa!

JUST ONE STAMP: SANTA MATILDE

Copyright Susie Jefferson

Now we're all gearing up to Christmas, I thought it would be useful to post some cards which all use the same stamp, to give a few different ideas re layouts etc.

All these cards use Stampington's 'Santa Matilde', which is such a beautiful image whether you want to colour or just emboss... The card above shows the Saint stamped onto acetate, and spray glue applied to the back of the acetate, then gold leaf added.

Copyright Susie Jefferson

This one uses the butterfly as additional embellishment, stamped and embossed onto vellum and then cut out. I glued the images with a dab of silicone glue, bending the wings up for some dimension.Santa Matilde was placed off-centre and stamped off the edge of the main layer, completing a frame effect. The only colour on the image is glitter added to the halo.

Copyright Susie Jefferson

This last image shows the Saint's face stamped repeatedly onto cream card then cut out, and mounted onto the back of slide mounts which have been stamped and embossed. Again, the only colour on the image is some glitter added to the halos.

I hope this sparks a few ideas? And I do apologise for the low resolution of the images - these were scanned some time ago, on my old machine, which wasn't exactly the best...

SNOWMAN CONFIGURATION BOX

Snowman box - lit up

Here's my Snowman Configuration Box, all lit up. 

Snowman - detail

This one's more for the kiddies, with lots of snow, a snowball under his feet, prezzies... and white bobble braid (more snowballs anyone?)

Detail - little bottles spelling 'Joy', and another bottle with Christmas Cheer spilling out of it (and some more prezzies at the side

Fun, huh?

CHRIS IN DECEMBER 2011 CRAFT STAMPER

Copyright Chris McMillan on behalf of BladeRubber Stamps for Craft Stamper Magazine. Photograph copyright Craft Stamper magazine.

Here's a very simple, very fun card by Chris for BladeRubber Stamps, in the latest issue of Craft Stamper magazine. It's using Blade's own Christmas Definitions and Leafy Christmas Tree stamps, and Stampendous Foliate Quad Cube TC51


INSTRUCTIONS

1. Create a 14 1/2cm square base card from dark green A 4 cardstock. Cut a 14cm square cream panel and stamp Blade Rubber Christmas definition using Versafine olympia green inkpad. Stamp musical notes with gold encore inkpad and heat emboss with gold powder.
2. Cut a panel from red card and stamp flourish leaves from foliate cube with Versafine crimson red inkpad. Trim to 5cm width using Woodware trimmer with the wave cutting blade. Layer onto a gold mirri panel and attach to cream panel. Attach to green base card.
3. Stamp Christmas tree with gold encore inkpad and heat emboss with gold sparkle powder. Trim and mount on gold mirri card. Create a tag shape from green card and attach tree. Add a gem, ribbon and bow and mount onto base card.

Great for cards in a hurry!

BOX CLEVER WITH CHRIS

Box closed

Box open

 A fun box from Chris with a built-in decoration - which could also be hung up separately if you want!

Explosion box

And here's an explosion box - great for hiding small prezzies inside, or to make a scrapbook project, where the box is the present itself.

Chris's masterclass (more details here) is on 3rd December (still a couple of places left, so book early to avoid being disappointed). Be there or be SQUARE, lol lol lol

FREYJA'S CHRISTMAS CARDS

This sample uses stamps from the Angels plate, exclusive to BladeRubber Stamps (and designed by me!)

 

Thought you'd like to see Freyja's latest creations - gorgeous or what?

Great inspiration - I love the way Freyja has used the head of the little angel to make an angel ornament (left). So pretty!

All these are made using chalk inks - and if you want to learn how to use them to your best advantage, Freyja's class is on 26th November (just a couple of places left, so if you hurry you can still book!)

UPCOMING

I'll be posting lots of Christmas cards over the next couple of weeks (we need all the inspiration we can get, lol) and where possible I'll do a 'with one stamp' feature, showing lots of different ideas all using the same stamp.

A CHRISTMAS CONFIGURATION BOX

My 'NOEL' box - closeup - unlit

My 'NOEL' configuration box - closeup - lit up

The box unlit, in daylight

All lit up for the evening

Closeup of the tree, the other lights and the German glass glitter - this tarnishes a little over time - it all adds to the effect

This is just one of the Christmas boxes I made for the class (on 20th November) which is now Waiting List only - sorry - but at least you get a sneak peek!