Diamond Wedding Anniversary Card

My hubby reminded me we were invited to a diamond wedding tea party today. When we were invited some time ago I wasn’t sure I’d be well enough to go, because it would be less than a week after a chemo treatment, but because I am doing so much better on the reduced dose, I felt just about able to go.

I had forgotten about it in the meantime, and suddenly realised I needed to make a card! This is one of the reasons for wanting to start my card factory – to avoid having to make cards at such short notice as this.

Even though I am feeling better than usual at this stage in a cycle, I am far from 100 percent, and this morning I was suffering badly from chemo brain and made soooo many mistakes, it was driving me nuts! I did succeed in making a card, but managed to leave out one bit which I found after I’d finished! Also, recently I bought some circle dies which I simply cannot find, and I thought I had a music embossing folder, which I didn’t, so I had to rethink the thing on the fly! It was rather a frustrating morning all round, but I got there in the end.

It was rather difficult to photograph because it is white and sparkly. The glitter and silver don’t show up as much as in real life.

This card is not my usual style, but I wanted to do something silvery and sparkly for a diamond wedding. The couple are retired musicians, so I decided to add something to give a musical theme. The wife later said, when she opened the card, “Oh! It’s a record!” I hadn’t thought of it like that, but it does look a bit like a CD!

I began by creating some mat layers, using silver mirror card and some white card which I inked around the edges with Hickory Smoke distress ink, using a home-made ink blending tool. I got this distress ink quite recently (one of the new ones for this year) and am surprised how much I am using it already – it’s a lovely soft grey, and a very useful colour.

Not being able to find my circle dies, I had to resort to my Martha Stewart circle cutter, a tool I really don’t much like. The die would have produced a nice embossed edge, which of course this does not.

I cut a 4-inch circle and stamped and heat-embossed it using the “Music Background” stamp from the Artistic Stamper, using Cosmic Shimmer glitter embossing powder, which came out slightly pink from one direction, and a shimmery green the other way – very pretty! I haven’t used this for ages and had forgotten how nice it was.

Here is the circle mount. Rather difficult to see but you can just see the pinkness of it!

I made a circle with “60” in it to go in the centre. I used stamps from the Stampin’ Up set “Memorable Moments” – a very useful set because it has separate words for the sentiments, and numbers, and “rd,” “nd” etc. so that you can mix and match, and a nice little scalloped oval shape to stamp them in as well. I chose the number 60 for the front of the card, stamped it on white card and heat embossed it with silver embossing powder. I then went over it with a glue pen and added some Hunkydory Diamond Sparkles Angel Whispers fine glitter. I cut out the circle using a plain 2-inch circle punch.

I find the best way to make sure that glitter is well stuck down is to put a piece of paper over the top, and then run a brayer over it several times. I find very little loose glitter falls off that way.

Here is the completed “60” layered onto a slightly larger piece of silver mirror card punched out with a scalloped circle punch.

Turning back to the background again, I found some ice sparkly silver and organza ribbon in my stash and stuck this down vertically across the mat with double sided tape.

Using two sizes of butterfly stamps from the Stamping’ Up “Papillon Potpourri” set, I heat-embossed two of each, using the same glitter embossing powder as before, and silver embossing powder respectively, and then fussy-cut them out with fine scissors.

I added the Diamond Sparkles glitter with the glue pen as before, to the silver-embossed butterflies.

To stamp the inside of the card, I used stamps from the Stampin’ Up “Memorable Moments” set, using Wendy Vecchi Archival Ink in Watering Can, which tones very well with Hickory Smoke distress ink.

I stuck down the two glitter-embossed butterflies using Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive in the centres so that the wings were loose, and attached the antennae using the glue pen.

The finished card, showing the glittered silver-embossed butterflies, attached in the same way.

We got to the party OK and it was great. I was so glad I went – the couple were surprised and delighted to see me as they didn’t think I’d be able to come. It was lovely seeing lots of other old friends too, and catching up. A very happy time. The card went down well, too!

I felt a lot better when we got home, and spent the evening relaxing on the recliner. We’d had plenty of gorgeous canapes at the party so we just had some stewed apple and cream later in the evening. I’m hoping to feel better again tomorrow, but I am not pushing it. I intend to rest and get over the busy day I had today.

Green and White Exotic Floral Box for Lavender Sachet, and Cards to Go in the Boxes

This box is to go with the green and white sachet with the cluster of ribbon roses on it.

I began by completely inking the box piece made from watercolour paper, using Evergreen Bough distress ink and an Inkylicious Ink Duster.

I inked both sides, and then added some embossing using white embossing powder and a selection of stamps from my Fantasy Florals set.

I had some trouble with this initially because even after trying to dry the piece with my heat gun, it was still a bit damp and the embossing powder kept clinging to the surface where there was no Versamark. In the end I found the best solution was to dust the whole thing with talcum powder first, and then brush it off well, before stamping with the Versamark and applying the embossing powder. As a result of this problem, one of the side motifs isn’t as clear as I’d have liked it.

On the inside, I used stamps from the same set, embossing this time with silver embossing powder.

The completed box, side view. The colour has come out a bit odd in these pictures – it’s not as yellow as this in real life.

End view.

This one was quite fun to do – I love the Fantasy Florals stamps, and I added a few doodles in between with my glue pen and embossed them. Also, I like the colour combination of green and white, and green and silver.

I also made some little cards, each measuring 2 1/2 x 1 3/4 inches to go in each box. I designed these using Serif PagePlus, my desktop publishing software, and created a grid template that I can use again if I want to make these boxes in the future. I printed them out on basic computer card and used the cutting guides I incorporated in the design to cut them accurately with a knife and cutting mat.

Finally, a photo of the first fifteen boxes completed, not including the one in this post.

Until tomorrow, I have no idea how many of these I am going to need. I shall take all the ones I’ve managed to make with me, and if I haven’t got enough, I’ll bring them home again and make some more before my next chemo, by which time I will have a better idea of how many people will be attending with me for their treatment.

Boxes for Calico Lavender Bags Part 2 Butterflies and Bees

The second of two posts for today, continuing on the subject of the boxes I made for the calico lavender bags.

Butterflies Box

I began by heat embossing the inside with two different butterfly stamps, using gold embossing powder.

On the outside, I stamped using my archival inks, using small butterfly stamps, exactly as I did on the lavender sachet, and distressed the edges lightly with Vintage Photo distress ink, using an Inkylicious Ink Duster.

I repeated the distressing with Vintage Photo on the inside, this time making it a bit bolder.

The completed box.

 

Blue Butterfly Box

I really like this box – the simplicity of the design and the colour scheme.  The shape of the box lends itself quite well to single motif stamping, set off by the line around the shape of the box piece.

I began by stamping two larger, and two smaller, butterflies where they would show on the outside when the box was assembled, and went around the edge with a blue marker pen. I lightly distressed the edges with Broken China distress ink.

On the inside, I stamped with blue archival ink using my favourite swirl stamp, and repeated the outlining and distressing as for the outside.

The completed box.

 

Bee Boxes

I made three of these, and began embossing with gold embossing powder on the inside, using all the bees from Stampotique Originals.

I used the small bee to stamp repeatedly all over the outside of the boxes, using sepia archival ink, and outlined the pieces with my Faber Castell Pitt artist pen (medium thickness).

The completed boxes. I added a little doodle to the top of each box.

These were all the boxes I completed yesterday. Here is a group photo. Smile, please!