Julie: Cardmaking using nostalgic Santa images

Hello again.

If you're looking for a quick no-need-to-stamp-or-colour-in image for your handmade Christmas cards then look no further than this 12x12 sheet of 'Images from the Past' featuring 15 fabulous nostalgic Santa's from Pion:  

I sat myself down with this sheet and, inspired by the various colourways across the individual Santas, I created a whole collection of Christmas cards:

But, although the images are very traditional in style and colour I decided to mix them together with some of my more modern alphabet stickers which I think really draw the colours out nicely.

Here's a closer look at a couple:

 Here the damask design backing paper is also a sheet of Pion called 'Christmas Poem' from the 'Waiting for Santa II'  range:

And the cluster of embellishments includes a decorative heart pin, a paper rose and a snippet of seam-binding:

The background to this one is 'Winterplay' by Pion:

 And another cluster of embellishments anchors the image down for a pretty focal point:

For me, they're a nice mix of soft vintage shades, modern alphas and a relaxed scrappy/shabby style [which is my favourite way to work!], which makes a change fom the usual strong bold red and green. 

 

Haing said that ...

 

I made lots of cards using these lovely nostalgic images several of which were indeed red + green! But I guess it goes to show how easily they can be adapted to whatever other colours and supplies you have on hand!

 

By the way ...

If you bought the sheet of the Pion 'Fairytale of Winter' festive children images from 3DJean earlier in the year then keep an eye out over on my personal blog over the coming days/weeks as I'll be sharing another set of cards using those [alas they're no longer in stock, but if, like me you hadn't got around to using yours yet, then there might be something there to inspire you.]

 

Thanks for stopping by today. Happy Christmas-crafting to you!

Julie :-)

Supplies available from 3DJean:

• Pion 'Images from the Past' 12x12 sheet
• Pion 'Waiting for Santa II' 'Christmas Poem' 12x12 sheet
• Pion 'Waiting for Santa II' 'Winterplay' 12x12 sheet
• The Hobby House decorative heart pins
• Paper flowers
• Seam binding

A Christmas Themed Post Again

I think one of the best 12x12 sheets i've stocked this year has got to be these PION image sheets. The one with all the santa images on is the one ive used to make lots of christams cards this year like this one. The base of the card is one of the PION 12x12 sheets with the 4 different 6x6 patterns on them. I just cut the sheet in half and then glued the side and bottom together to form the pocket.   

Then decorated the front with santa , pearls , velvet ribbon and seam binding. A piece of card then pops inside the pocket card for you to write your greeting on.

Thanks Jean x

Jan; Three of a kind

Jean has these delightful vintage images by Pion. I've used them to create a Christmas triple easel card.

There are two other sheets in the range, Romance and Santas, both would work well with this style of card. I've used seam binding, heart pins and pearls  to add a bit of glamour. Sorry the photo is a blurry.  These images are so appealing.
 So if you are looking for a different Christmas card this year pop over to the shop and stock up with gorgeous goodies. If need another idea how to use these images the click  here  to see how Julie used her sheet to make a very feminine advent calendar,
Have fun.

A Change

For a change I thought I would do some scrapbooking. I still have thousands of photo's sitting around needing to be scrapped and put in albums. So this one is a very old one of me in Russia , so old I cant remember the year and will nedd to dig through things to find it out , which explains why it only says 198 for the moment.  

Ive used some of the  THE NOTEBOOKS OF THE HERBORISTE 12x12 papers . Love the the border sheet which I cut up and used lots of it on the layout , some white rub-ons where added , which were probably as old as the photo , couple of cabouchons and a nice white bow and strip of seam binding to pull it all together.   This is the border 12x12 sheet , how nice is it ?

Thanks jean x

Julie: Paperclay Long Legged Robin

Hello, hello.

 

My project today shows one way in which you can use a product which really has an endless variety of creative uses: Creative Paperclay.

 

And here's what I made:

The original idea and instructions came from Effie and, in case you missed her original version, you can catch up here on her blog. A group of us sat down and worked on our versions using the same basic techniques, and all came up with something quite different in the end.

 

I'd never worked with Paperclay until I made this little chap, but it was really fun once we got started.  And he's deceptively simple to make.

 

His body began as a lightweight ball [like polystyrene] into which we pushed wire legs and then coated in a layer of the Paperclay.

The head is a solid rolled ball of the clay pushed on to a cocktail stick, then pushed into the body.

 

TIP: When moulding and stretching the clay [eg. to create the connection between the body and the legs, or to create a tail] keep some water on hand to dip your fingers into occasionally to help you smooth the clay along without dragging it.

We set the birds aside overnight to dry through completely and, the following day we sanded the bodies for a smoother finish and painted them with regular acrylics.

 

And, naturally we added wings ... and a crown!

 

And if you're wondering how far a packet stretches: between us our group made 8 birds and we only needed to break into a second packet for a couple of heads worth!

 

There' much more info about Creative Paperclay here on the 3DJean on the website

 

If you've been putting your Paperclay to good use already, or you're thinking of trying it out don't forget you can always:

• Leave a link to or photo of your work on the 3DJean Facebook page OR
• Leave us a comment here on the blog.

See you soon.

 

Julie

Me As Well

Yes I have been having a play around with the new Queen Kat stamps also. I've used the Gothic Girl stamp (no suprise there then lol) and made a card . The paper is some I had left from the French Christmas Range we have in stock.    

I added a bit of black seam binding , some flowers and a couple of heart pins.