Decoupage Christmas

I must say, I don't think 3D decoupage cards look as good as drawn or stamped cards. But they are soooo relaxing to do! And when I saw this design I'm afraid I couldn't resist it. It's so cute. I might send the card to my dad, as he always prefers a religious card for Christmas....

What d'you think?

Updates..... and a bit of crafting =) and trying to draw Miss Peach!

The beautiful leaf colours around tell me that autumn has finally arrived here, yet today was like a spring day. Luvbug and I went off for a bike ride in just jeans, T-shirts and jumpers. -Still no need for coats for jackets.

This time of year has a strange light in the afternoon. It makes the late flowers glow, especially the red hot pokers, which seem to fluoresce.

It was nice to cycle past fields being ploughed- with flocks of gulls following the tractor along. And passing under trees as leaves are shedding and fluttering down.... it was all very Enid Blyton! When we got back, we worked out from the map that we'd done about 8 1/2 miles. That meant huge mugs of tea =)

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Thanks for all the messages! The cold or flu, whatever it was, is out of my system now, I think.

I saw the doc aweek ago to get my test results, which were negative for everything. So no diabetes or any further thyroid problems. Hmmm. No clearer, then, as to weight gain and strange goings on in the running-to-the-loo department. As I had already noticed that wheat and sugar seem to make things worse, Doc advised I try strictly cutting these out.

So this is what I've been doing. I did it successfully for 8 days. I did fell less gurgly, less bloated, and the route to the loo was definitely less trod.

THEN! Oh dear. The "certain-time-of-the-month" demon crept up, whispering into my ear "SHOOOOOOOOOOGAR......SHOOOOOOGAR..... you MUST HAVE IT! YOU MUST!" and so on and so on till I gave in, some time in the middle of Friday night. (Sigh). I made toast- with non wheat bread- but slavered it all over in ginger jam. MmmMMmMMmmMMmm scrummy. Then, after about 15 minutes, it was HEY PRESTO! Gurgle gurgle, then orange poo. WHAT the????? I had to retreat to bed in a jumper and with a hot water bottle, as I was so cold and shivery, too.

Hmmm. A bit of a mystery, yes?

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Here are a couple of Christmas cards I made this week. The poinsettia is an outline sticker, stuck onto coloured paper, then cut out and layered up with silicone glue.
The bear stamp was free with a magazine. Isn't it cute? I coloured it with water-colour pencil, but left a lot of it as pencil rather than wetting it. I love the way the cat is clearly happy, but the bear looks a tad annoyed with having to pull the sledge!
Here are two dragons, stamped and coloured with Promarkers. The larger dragon is a Whiff Of Joy stamp. Not sure about the other, as I bought it used, on Ebay last year. Does anyone know of a "how to" video on Promarkers? I'm sure I could get more out of them than I do, I'm not too good at shading and highlighting at the mo.

Lastly, I'm trying to draw Miss Peach:I'm not completely pleased with it yet, so I'll have another go. But as the first cat portrait I've done in a while, I think it's quite nice =)
I've also been working on tag books and I'm going to do a how-to post on them soon, but I want to send off the one I made for a present first =)

I am definitely in an 'up' in the zig zag at the moment. I am doing so many things all at once!!!

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Hope you're all keeping warm and busy!
We are finally getting our central heating fixed- yippee! They start on 2nd November. This means it will be in by my birthday, the 8th. Luvbug even suggested it could be my birthday present. HAH! Nice try, buster!!!!

Anniversary Wols and pets galore....

Oonagh and Bill are Luvbug's parents, and it's their wedding anniversary today (52 years, I think.) Luvbug is over in Ireland visiting them at the moment, and he took this card with him to give to them. I'm not sure how he felt about seeing his mum and dad represented in "wol" form though :)The stamp came free with "Craft Stamper" magazine. I love bird stamps.
I stamped the letters of "anniversary" onto patterned paper, then punched out each letter with a flower punch, finishing by outlining each flower with a Sakura Soufle white pen and going over the letters with a clear Sakura glitter pen.

-2 wols inside. This time without the 3D eyes or the glossy glaze. Note that the girl wol has a red beak, as she has lipstick on (obviously haha).

Hey ho! So what do I do when Luvbug is out of town? Um, well there's this lot, to start....

OK, this isn't my usual style, never done this kind of decoupage before, but a pack of 4 sheets, mostly cats??? Couldn't resist. Besides, I like a change. It was relaxing, and fun!


Lorianna, the one on the left is on its way to you. The purple one is going to my mum....

(Why do dog pictures look so sad???)

The black lab is why I bought them, really. My friend Donna, in Missouri, has a black lab called Boston who hasn't been well lately. So this one is off to them!

Is it me, or is that kitten's head way too big???

I love this gold ribbon. Wish I could remember where I got it from. Ms Peach, the one on the right is coming your way :)

I keep hearing/reading that the fashion is moving towards really big cards, but I'm moving in the opposite direction! I like little cards. I think it's because they are easily held. I also love the way these cats sit up above the height of the card.

I like this one. I like the way the blue card picks up the blue of the cat's eyes.

OK now this one's just silly. Why would anyone have a dog the size of a cat when they could just have a cat???

Ah well, they were fun to do as I could sit and do them on a lap-tray- I haven't been feeling too well this week. With stamping I need to be at a table and press down on a hard surface. This is far more sitting-in-front-of-the-telly friendly.

Medallion 3D Decoupage tutorial

As promised, here's a step-by-step of how to do the 3D toppers I showed in a post recently.......

I use these stickers:
If you haven't seen these before, you need to look or ask for "Peel Offs" or "Peel Off Outline Stickers". This kind is generally called a "Medallion" pattern. They come mostly in gold or silver, but some places stock other colours (especially dark green and red, as part of their Christmas stock). If you're lucky you'll find pastel colours too. Average price seems to be about 70 - 90p a sheet but look for offers. Lots of online craft shops offer bulk buys. My local stationer gives one free for every 10 bought. (And always look for "Clearance" in the sidemenu on online craft shops!)They are made up of one large medallion shape, then smaller and smaller ones, each being part of the main pattern. You layer them up on top of each other, in order of size. Each sheet usually includes other decorative shapes, e.g., triangles for the corners of your card.

Choose a backing sheet to stick them onto. The kind of sheet you choose will make the overall effect of your card. Choose something bright and bold for a modern look, something softer for a more delicate look.

Here I have chosen the purple stickers. As they have a gold outline I have gone for a piece of vellum with a gold pattern.

Tip re choice of backing sheet: You can use vellum, paper or card. The only thing I would advise you don't use is handmade paper: sometimes the stickers won't adhere to this, and if the handmade paper is very heavy or textured it doesn't look good anyway. It's just a waste of interesting paper, really!

Carefully and slowly pull off the stickers that form part of the medallion pattern and stick them to your chosen background sheet:
....then cut them out:

Here's a tip for when you're cutting:
use the smallest scissors you have and use them right up at the top, not down by the tips of the blades -see picture- this will give you more control, and also mean you move your fingers less so it doesn't hurt arthriticky hands :)

Here you can see what I mean about each piece being a small part of the main pattern:
Next you need to chose your adhesive. You need something that will stay as a lump so that your layers end up 3D...

Note re Adhesives: Here you see Silicone Glue and foam pads- little round ones (you also get square ones) and then the latest, transparent ones. They are sticky on both sides so you can use them in decoupage BUT be aware of this- when sticking on layers you need to match them up with the pattern on the one underneath. If you use foam pads they are not very forgiving- you get one chance to stick them in place; you can't move them around once you've put them down, so if you get it slightly askew you can't correct it. This is why I prefer to use silicone glue.

I have recently read, however, that you can get round this by rubbing the foam pads with a glue stick (like the one in the picture) and this will give you a sticky, yet slippery pad that you can move a bit. I haven't tried this technique yet because well, I just like blobbing the glue, to be honest :)

Silicone Glue doesn't dry absolutely clear, it dries sort of 'milky'. I quite like this as it gives a sort of antiquey look but if you want a completely transparent look, go for a gel glue such as Pinflair. Click here to have a look at this brand.

So here's me blobbing some Silicone Glue onto the second layer. Space it out in pea size blobs and always put one in the middle:....place this second layer carefully onto the base (i.e. the second largest piece onto the largest):
Keep layering up:..till finally all the layers are on top of one another:Slide the finished medallion onto a piece of paper or card and, using this piece, move it round and check that all the sides are even, i.e., that one isn't lower than the others. If you do find this is the case, use the tip of a knife, nail file, blunt pencil etc., to gently lift the lower side. Hold it up for a few seconds. You may have to do this a couple of times but it will eventually stay put.
(One advantage of using foam pads, of course, would be that the pads would all be the same depth so you wouldn't have to worry with those.)

The topper should be set after an hour and a half but I leave them overnight before putting them onto cards. Again, if you're using foam pads you don't have this wait. I still think blobbing blobs of gooey stuff is fun though.

Lastly, here is an alternative to these sheets of stickers:-you can buy medallion patterned stamps.

Stamp it once as a main image then several times more for your different layers. How many layers can you see in this one? Colour them all (or stamp onto patterned paper!) and cut them out. Then layer them as before. Here is one I made from this stamp:-you get a completely different look! I think this would be good on the lid of a trinket box.


Well, I hope I explained it all ok, but if you have a queries please ask!!!! Have fun!

A Creative Splurge.....

From Thursday evening till Friday afternoon, we were entertained with thunderstorms swirling round and around us. Interspersed with blue skies and sunshine, they kept coming back. Then, we had the biggest clap of thunder I've ever heard- imagine someone slamming all the doors in your place at once, then imagine that they had wired them up to speakers! WOW! I love it. But I know not everyone does. My Bear hates it and hides in the airing cupoard.

Anyway. Over the same period I seem to have had a creative splurge, producing 21 cards and 13 decoupaged "toppers" to go towards 13 more. And yes I did remember to eat and go to bed, and do a few other things as well. LOL! Amazing! Other times I can just about motivate myself to get up.

I was going to split these up over several posts but then I thought no, I'll log what it's like when I'm in the upward part of the zig-zag. Busy, busy, busy, doing lots of things at once. I actually packed up all my stuff twice, then gradually pulled it all out again as I thought of something else to make....enjoy!

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13 Decoupage "Toppers" to be set onto cards at a later date.....


These two are my favourite ones. This first one is so delicate, like lace...On this one I used paper with tiny roses on and you can just see some of them...
Lorianna and Feronia asked how I do these so I'll post some step-by-steps next time I do one! Promise!

BTW, they're not expensive and they're not complicated, really! They are very relaxing to do.

Dragonstar asked about putting them in envelopes.
You can get special envelopes with a walled side, giving some extra room inside. I bought some just yesterday from The Papermill, £1.99 for 10 (click link for a pic of them). Or you can just put them in a padded envelope or 'jiffy bag', OR, just use an ordinary envelope a bit bigger than the card and wrap bubble-wrap round the card inside.

Whichever I use, I wrap the card in tissue first so that bits aren't caught when the recipient pulls the card out.

Set of 5 glitter cards, 4 x 4 inches...
In a small, independent stationery shop in town, I found this pad of 8 x 4 mulitcoloured card, 24 sheets in it, for £1. It's a good thickness for cards so I had to buy it! Bargain! Now I have to find some 4 x 4 envelopes, or make some! LOL!

Set of 5 cat cards, 4 x 4 inches....These are "outline stickers" which I've stuck onto cartridge paper, then coloured with ProMarker pens.
The papers are scraps and cut-offs of vellum.
I keep a basket for "scraps and little bits". It was fun to use some of them up!

Card for a new baby (boy!)
I rounded off all the corners on this one since I took the photo. It finished it off, and also means the newbie won't poke his eyes out!
One in pink....
Another of the fairy tags, which came free with a magazine a few months ago.
Wouldn't have been something I'd have bought, mind, not really me. But I like what I did with them. Lots more left too. Trying to use some stuff up, as you may have gathered!

For my niece...
This one is larger and uses real pressed flowers. Do you like the butterfly stickers? They're made by "Anita's" and called "Dimensions Stickers" as only part of them sticks down. The rest you can lift up for a 3D effect but they fold down to be posted.
A try at Iris Folding...My first go. It was fiddly but fun!
It's for for a young nephew of my partner's, whose favourite toy is a dolphin called Dolphy....
(actually it's a little early to show this but I'm sure he won't be visiting so we should be ok!)

Here's the back. This is large, an A5 card:
Note for my Japanese friend, Mikiko...
The image was free in a craft magazine this month. I cut it out and coloured it with ProMarker pens and glitter.
Actually, I added some rosy cheeks since taking the photo!
Just Pootling....
Oh! I made two of these. Seem to have only photographed one, though. Oh well! They were almost the same anyway.... the birds are rub-on transfers.

And some more of those "dimensions" stickers!
This one has a mark on it. I need to work on this one...
Two nice, simple, flower ones:Love this last one:
Well I think that's it for now.
The thunderstorms must be good for me. Maybe it's like mild ECT. LOL!

Let me know which was your favourite! I need to give my achey hands a rest now!