Congratulations On Becoming A Priest

Well, this is an unusual card for me. It was actually requested by a customer of my sister's over in Spain. It's for a man who is about to be ordained as a priest. It threw me a bit because I don't make religious cards and I was racking my brain trying to think what I could use on it. Then it dawned on me.....my brand new Small Gothic Window die from Poppystamps.

So, I then had to decide on a patterned paper, and having decided I wanted to add vellum behind the window, the paper sort of chose itself as I have the Papermania Exquisite Vellum pack and the matching Exquisite paper pad.

As the papers have cream as a base colour I decided to make the window gold. I had originally decided on silver, but all that changed once the papers were chosen.

So, having cut out the window shape from gold satin cardstock, I roughly cut a piece of the script vellum to fit behind.

I then cut a strip of the scroll leaf paper and matted it onto the gold satin card.

The next part was the fun part.......the Spellbinders Bracket Borders 1 dies. These are my most favourite of dies at the moment, at least until I buy some new ones, I'm very fickle like that!

I opted for the lattice inset die as that one seemed the most masculine of the three and the dot dash edge die to go with it. Both were placed against the edge of the card blank and die cut. Not as easy as you might think in a Bigshot as these would benefit from being run through the machine lengthwise but I didn't have that luxury so I placed them on my baseplate at a slight angle and ran them through as far as they would go without damaging the edge of the card blank. I then turned the whole thing around and ran it through again. Because the rollers have a tendency to jump over the dies when they are parallel to the die, it took a few passes to get it completely cut out, but the effect it gave was well worth it.

The sentiment, from the Woodware Jane's Script sentiment stamp set, was then stamped onto the patterned paper strip using Memento Espresso Truffle dye ink. The same ink was also used to stamp the cross, a Katie & Co image, directly onto the cardblank. The image was positioned using a Stamp-a-ma-jig to ensure it was in the centre of the window once it was added over the top.

All the pieces were edged using the Y26 Copic marker to match in with the gold card stock.

For the inside, I die cut another window shape and matted my writing paper behind it that I use for the insert panels in my cards. A panel of the scroll leaf paper was die cut using the dot dash edge bracket die, as was a panel of the gold satin card. These were layered together and added to the bottom edge of the card, so that the pattern on the paper shows through the lattice design on the front.

Here are the challenges I'd like to enter this card into:

• Through The Craftroom Door - Anything Goes
• Crafty Boots Challenges - Celebrations
• Love To Scrap - #5 - Anything Goes
• Make It Monday - #140 - Anything Goes
• Great Impressions - Celebrations
• Scrappy Frogs - Free Challenge
• That Craft Place - Makes For Men
• Hiding In My Craft Room - HIMCR #97 - Super Scraps Saturday
• My Time To Craft - #221 - Decorate The Inside To Match The Front
• Our Creative Corner - Anything Goes
• Paper Creator's Craft - #8 - For The Boys
• Crafty Catz - #182 - Anything Goes
• Inspire Me Fridays - #102 - Anything Goes
• Simply Create Too - #37 - Anything Goes
• Sister Act Card Challenge - #6 - Anything Goes
• Totally Papercrafts - #166 - CAS
• CCEE Stampers - CCEE1319 - CAS Card with Scraps
• Moving Along With The Times - CAS
• Paper Crafting Journey - Anything Goes

Pink and Green Cherry Tilda

I have decided this week to enter the Just Magnolia blog challenge. The challenge this week, #3, is in the form of a sketch.

This is the first Just Magnolia challenge that I have participated in, much to my shame, but this is mostly down to the fact that it is about two and a half months since I used a Magnolia stamp, and five months since I used a Tilda stamp!! (I know, how terrible of me, I should be flogged!!)

So, here is the sketch that I followed to create the card shown above:

So, I decided to use the lovely Cherry Tilda stamp that the equally lovely Alex sent to me back in September last year. Please head over to her blog to see her beautiful creations. She really is a very talented lady.

The Cherry Tilda image was watercoloured using the Whispers Brushstroke markers and highlighted with Craft Planet Iridescent Sparkle glitter glue.

An oval of white hammer card was cut out using the Fiskars Shapecutter and colour-tinted with Whispers Port Wine permanent dye ink. This was then stamped around the edge to create a frame using flower and foliage morsel stamps from the See D's Tropical and Romance Collections stamp sets using Whispers Green Green, Port Wine and Grand Cranberry permanent dye inks. This was in turn matted onto an oval of Anita's dark pink vellum. The Tilda image was cut out and matted onto the ovals.

A piece of light green paper was stamped with a small flourish stamp from the Autumn Leaves Rhona Farrer Flourishes v.2 stamp set and a morsel flower stamp from the See D's Tropical Morsel Collection stamp set using the Port Wine ink, and embellished using the Iridescent glitter glue. The paper was then colour-tinted around the edges using the same ink.

A strip of the cherry paper from the DCWV Nana's Nursery Baby Girl stack was edged using the edge of the Fiskars circle template and the Fiskars Shapecutter, and similarly colour-tinted around the edges.

Strips of Dovecraft Pouty Pink grosgrain ribbon were colour-tinted with the Port Wine ink and adhered across the strip of cherry paper.

Iridescent sequins (from a bead kit from my sister) were added in the corners of the green panel, as indicated in the sketch, and highlighted with the glitter glue.

To finish the card, a sentiment was added by stamping 'Birthday Wishes' from the Hero Arts Birthday Messages stamp set below the patterned strip using the Port Wine ink.

The inside of the card was also decorated with strips of the colour-tinted green paper and the DCWV cherry paper. The flourish image was 'second-impression' stamped using the Port Wine ink, and the sentiment was stamped over the top using the same ink.


The 'Handmade By' medallion on the reverse of the card was made by stamping my new 'Handmade By' stamp from Oyster Stamps onto a circle of white card cut out using Nestabilities, which was later colour-tinted with the Port Wine ink, and matted onto a scalloped circle of the colour-tinted green paper.

Judging by the way it is stamped a bit off-centre, it looks like I might have to invest in a stamp positioner. If anyone can tell me the best-value one to get in the UK, I'd be very grateful (and please don't tell me to make one from Lego - I don't have any!!!)