CLARITY CHALLENGE ------NOVEMBER

     Challenge time again at Claritystamps.  This time the theme is TRAVEL. Needed a little bit of thought but I know a lovely lady who is going to Australia for Christmas. She is going to see her brothers who she has not seen for many years, so exciting. So I decided to make a card that would be suitable to wish her well on her journey and also double up as her Christmas card. I chose the Hot Air Filligraphy Balloon stamp, as I could make it look a bit festive. Think she will far prefer a plane to get her there though, balloon would be a bit slow and unpredictable. 
       

Completed card

       I started by brushing some hills onto Gelli plate card, using pale blue, mauve and pink ink, and some torn paper as a mask for the hills, blending the edges a little  I also sponged some clouds in the sky.  Next I stamped the Balloon image onto some pink parchment using white ink. Then I embossed all the solid parts of the Filigraphy stamp, rather time consuming but worth it as it brought out all the detail. Good job I like a challenge. I am not an expert at parchment craft but I love the effect that can be achieved, I do admire the wonderful people who are skilled at this craft. 

Balloon detail

          I stamped the image twice more and cut them all out then layered them up, adding some gems to pick out the detail. Before adding the balloon to the base card I stamped on some pine trees and heat embossed them with some glittery embossing powder. Adding a small deer and some foliage at the bottom completed the card.

  
            I have shown some close ups of the different parts of the card as the colours were quite pale not so easy to show in a photo.
Well I hope she likes her card but perhaps more importantly that she has a wonderful trip to see her family.  I look forward to hearing all about it after Christmas. If you are off on your travels over the festive period have a lovely time. 

ANNIVESARIES

       I have been asked by a good friend if I would make a card for her Mum and Dad's  Wedding Anniversary. They will have been married for 45 years, which apparently makes it their Sapphire wedding anniversary. Now I only have 18 months to go before it will be 45 years for us, so hey folks I am looking forward to a new piece of jewellery.  Some ear rings might be nice to match the Sapphire engagement ring I had all those years ago. Better start dropping some hints early. Actually 45 years is a wonderful landmark and I hope they have a fantastic day. 
        I decided the card had better be a bit special and as my friend did not ask for any particular design I was free to do what I liked. I chose to make a book on top of the card so that I could add all the details for them. Starting with an A5 card base I covered it with some pale blue paper. The book was embossed and cut out using a board I had a few years ago. I used several different colours of card finishing with a layer of parchment paper. All the edges of the book are finished with peel offs.    

Finished card

      I added some dark blue ribbon down the middle to look like a bookmark.  Also some blue and white flowers from Sweet Lilac .

Close up showing details on book.

    Of course this was never going to be able to go in an envelope so I made a suitable box for it. Hope they like their card and I am sure their lovely family will make sure they have a special day.  Congratulations to both of them. 

A BOOT FOR HALLOWEEN

    A little late for Halloween proper but the challenge at http://sweetlilacflowers.blogspot.co.uk/ this month is titled Spooky Halloween. My grandchildren always look forward to this event but I must admit now our children have grown up we do not take part in the celebrations any more. I do always have a bag of treats ready though for all the children who visit our house.  I enjoyed making the card for my entry as I have used some Iris Folding and I have not done this for a while. 

        If you have not tried Iris Folding before please have a try, it really is not difficult and there are plenty of free designs available on the internet. You do not need to have special papers just some that is not too thick as the pieces are laid on top of one another. Anyway I made the central design, backed it on some black shiny card and then onto some appropriate spooky paper. 
Some die cut swirls and a few of the lovely flowers from Sweet Lilac completed the design. I added a few matching gems for a bit of sparkle.

Close up of flowers

                                                                  

Iris folded boot

   I hope you all had a fun Halloween and Bonfire night. The weather certainly seems to have changed now and Christmas items are appearing in all the shops.  Please leave a comment if you have time and thankyou for visiting my blog.