Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year

 

Thank you all so very much for your support and encouragement throughout the year. I wish you and your families a peaceful and merry Christmas and a very happy and healthy New Year. Stay warm and safe whereever you are. Take care and big hugs, Petra. x

Acknowledgements: main image by Stamping Mathilda, clip art by MyCuteGraphics

Christmas Bauble/Ornament

This week's Tag Tuesday theme is: Decorate a Christmas Bauble/Ornament.  I made two small baubles (each one is about 7 cm in diameter) from old bookpages ... it was such fun

 

For each bauble I cut 8 circles, folded them in half and lightly distressed the edges with walnut stain distress ink. I stamped tiny Christmas images and sentiments and words on the inside of each circle, one for each half of the circle and coloured them using Copics

 

I glued four circles together (= 4 half baubles), attached some twine in the middle  of two of them and then glued the remaining halves in place to complete the bauble. The finishing touches are some little beads. Have a lovely Christmas time, Petra.

Linked to: Craft Artwork

Mondrian Cake

A little while ago one of my lovely colleagues challenged me to make a Mondrian Cake. The Mondrain Cake is based on the paintings of Piet Mondrian.
My colleague sent me this link with a photo of such a cake. My first thought was: this is fine, the second one: oh dear how do I do this and the third one: oh no, this is not going to work. But a promise is a promise so I set out to make a Mondrian Cake last weekend. On the way there were various challenges: how much sponge do I need, the measurements, the colours, how to assemble. To resolve all of this I basically baked LOTS of sponge in various colours whereby I was not 100% happy with the red ... it was more pink-orange (sigh). But here it is

  The cake measures 6cm x 6 cm. I cut it all using ruler, tooth picks and a very sharp knife and assembled it with chocolate ganache. Unfortunately the ganache was quite soft when I cut the cake, so the chocolate smeared a little bit and the cuts are not quite clean. Oh well, it might be better next time (lol) Petra.

Just The Two of You

This is a wedding card I made for Peter's running friends who married today. They are a very lovely couple

I used a scalloped white card and based the design on Deconstructed Sketch No46 

 ... rotating it by 90 degrees ... layering four different EchoPark design papers and doing quite a bit of machine stitching around the edges of the various segments. The very sweet digi stamp is from Sliejke's Digi Stamps coloured with Copics and colouring pencils and a little bit of Stickles. I finished it off with organza ribbon, a heart button and a little tiny bling. Petra.

Linked to: Unruly PaperArts

12 Days of Christmas - Day 6 and 7

I struggled with those two days (sigh), in the end they turned out to be very different

 

Geese-A-Laying

The background are flowers from a children colouring book which I coloured with colouring pens. I stamped the geese (stamp: wood carved stamp), cut them out, embossed them and 'stickled' them. The egg basket is a Snag'em stamp - the eggs are also 'stickled' and the gras is a die-cut from Die-namics. With all the individual elements I created a little meadow scene, adding a couple little punched butterfly.

For Day 7 I found a lovely vintage image showing a Swan family and I couldn't resist using it for the ATC

 

Swan-A-Swimming

I layered the image on 7Gypsies paper which I distressed with distress ink and added some stamping (stamps: Artistic Outpost, Marianne Design). The ATC has been embellished with a little lace, some blings, resin flower and some punched branches. Have a lovely weekend, Petra.

12 Days of Christmas - Day 4 and 5

Four Calling Birds and 5 Golden Rings ... how could I resist .... This time it got very inky with distressed inked backgrounds

 and Artistic Outpost stamps .... some lace and a little glittery snowflake.

and La Blanche stamp .... five golden rings, a little paper poinsettia, ribbon, bell and lots of micro beads (gosh, I had forgotten how jumpy they are and now they are EVERYWHERE (lol) ). Have a lovely day, Petra.

12 Days of Christmas - Day 3

I know I know ... a bit slow, a bit late but .... I thoroughly enjoy it and you get 2 for 1 today (lol). Here is my first offering: the 3 French hens very traditional in white blue and red

 

I covered a white ATC with some free and very old magazine paper and some strips EchoPark patterend paper. The paper strips are mounted on foam pads to give the ATC a bit more depth and the edges are covered with Stickles. The little cute hens are from a web colouring page, printed, cut out and coloured with Copics. I embellished the ATC with a glittery goam snowflake and some star blings.
When I had finished the ATC, I all of a sudden remembered that onec upon a time when I started to make cards I had bought some 3D decoupage sheets from Crafthouse Press, one of them with the French Hens. I found it and thought it would be fun to make a Christmas card using a Kraftcard, Crafthouse press and EchoPaprk papers. The stamped sentiment is from Elzybells.

Have a lovely week, Petra.

Baby Girl

A babygirl for one of our friends and colleagues ... and these Tilda papers were just perfect, so baby pink and flowery

 

I mounted four different papers in various shapes on a white A6 card ... a requirement for the Unruly Paperart RAQ1. The digital image is by LoriBoyds Design ... isn't she sweet with her little rabbit and teddy?  It is coloured with Copics and colouring pencils. The card is finished with some machine stitching, a little ribbon, Prima Marketing flower, wooden heart, a stamped sentiment (stamp: Karten Kunst) on a little punched label and a couple of pearls.

The design of the card is based on a wonderful Mojo Monday sketch which worked brilliantly for this card

Wishing you a lovely weekend, Petra.

12 Days of Christmas - Day 2

This is my offering for the second day of Christmas inspired by Alpha Stamps: Turtle Doves ... in the spirit of love, peace and kindness .... which requires a lot of wonderful hearts

 

I created the background by lightly brushing various distress inks onto white card and stamping (all stamps: Elzybells) it with blocks and heart stamps. For the centre piece I made a rosette from crepe paper and covered the edge with Stickles. The heart is a cardboard shape which has been 'painted' with ink and acrylic paint and then lightly crackled with crackle glaze from Paper Artsy. Stickles and Glossy Accents give a final touch. And now all what need to be done was to add a little stamped sentiment and two tiny punhed and inked turtle doves. Wishing you a lovely day, Petra.

Linked to: Try it on Tuesday

12 Days of Christmas - Day1

I felt inspired by the 12 Days of Christmas organised by Alpha Stamps. I would not be able to make such wonderfully lavish projects as created by the Alpha Stamps Design team but I thought I give a go to the ATCs. I love ATCs, they are so versatile not only for swaps but also to be used as toppers. Here is my first one: a partridge in a pear tree

I kept it simple and clean in the design but did a lot of 'fuzzy' cutting for leaves, pears and partridge .... The pear tree, a really sweet image from Beccy's Place, is printed on digital paper from Tracy Ann. I printed the pear tree a second time, coloured leaves, pears and partridge with colouring pencils, cut them all out and layered them onto the ATC to give the image a bit more depth and dimension. The finishing touches are a little bit of stamping (Stampendous), some Stickles and a little velvet ribbon bow. Now off to catch up with the 2nd and 3rd day ... enjoy the evening, Petra.

Christmas Is Coming

... and I made it! The first Christmas cards this year ... I have to admit somehow I do not feel like Christmas quite yet. The sketch from Try Stampin' on Tuesday helped me to start with the 'production' (LOL)

 

 The cards are made using the same sketch, plain coloured and white card and the same stamps (Elzybells). I coloured the stamped images using colouring pencils and Stickles. The white card is embosed using Cuttlebug embossing folders. The finishing touches are ribbons and some little blings. Wishing you a good start to the new week, Petra.