Thursday 3 November 2011

Festive wreath card

Sorting through my Christmas stamps the other week I came across a great little set of 'peg stamps' that I've had for a long, long while - and, with some free time, had a little play:
Firstly I followed a tip I found on The Crafty Elf's blog (have you signed up for her amazing Blog Candy offer of a Cuttlebug yet?). Her tip is to emboss a circle when you're making wreaths on cards. So, I flipped the card over and on the reverse just ran an embossing tool round a large round Nesties die so I had a template on the front to follow. You could use a can, glass, mug or whatever if you don't have circular dies - it saves having a faint pencil line, that Elf's a flipping genius!

Before using the peg stamps I stamped a few cedar branches round the embossed circle to give a background structure and then the fun began. One by one I used each of the seven peg stamps, just picking whatever ink pads I thought could work. It's also good not to re-ink the peg stamps for each time you use it - try to stamp a couple of images and that way you get a variation in density. When I was happy with the wreath I held my breath and stamped 'Merry Christmas' in the centre - thank goodness for an alignment thingy!

Finally, I added some touches of Glossy Accents and a sprinkling of glitter on the fruits. They remind me of those boxes of marzipan fruits that you can buy at Christmas with a little bit of sugar coating :)

I think the result is OK, bright and fresh - and very easy to do. I can see another little production line of these coming up here!

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card stock

- Rubber Stampede 'Cedar' stamp

- Stamp Tapestry 'Fruit Wreath' peg stamp set

- Funstamps Small Merry Christmas' sentiment

- Anita's Clear Gloss

- un-named glitter in a big pot - this glitter isn't as fine as Glamour Dust but not as heavy as the likes of Twinklets

Another one for the Christmas card box, which is slowly looking fuller!

OK, so the fringe business. Sam, my hairdresser, didn't laugh too much - she was too excited about her news, a baby on the horizon :)) So, I got off the hook - phew!

Apologies that I spent almost all of yesterday running round and haven't done a proper hop around WOYWW comments and the blogs I follow at the very least. Off out again this afternoon to try and sort out my local crafty friend's internet problems. The cables are a dreadful tangle I know for sure so the two of us are likely to be on all fours underneath her desk trying to sort out Spaghetti Junction.............'I could be some time' as the famous saying goes.

Di
x

21 comments:

  1. WOW - absolutely gorgeous and PERFECTLY proportioned and circular wreath . . . and very colourful too.

    You should def make some more!!

    Good luck sorting cables etc!

    Hugs xxx

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  2. Lovely card, Di. Like the mix of colours and, as you say, against the white the wreath looks fresh. I've seen some peg stamps before and thought that they must be easy to use, especially for crafters with dexterity problems. Good luck with the spaghetti junction ... it's a real pain trying to sort out what goes where on a pc and I hope you get the problem sorted. Elizabeth x

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  3. So? Where is the photo of the new hair do?.....[taps fingers on the table!]....I'm waiting! :-)
    Really love this card Di. You really have got the balance just perfect.
    Hugs,
    A x

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  4. Lovely card and using forgotten items too, think Jules needs to add that to the snippet section.

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  5. So pretty, love the colours
    Lindsay xx

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  6. What a useful tip about the circle. I have loads of tapestry stamps but I never get a really good 'round' wreath. Blogger won't let me zoom in on your photo, but I can see it is a great mix of bright colours. Certainly worth doing some more of these. Kate x

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  7. Just lovely Di, I really like Tapestry stamp sets but have yet to invest in any myself but the results are so beautiful.

    Hugs
    Brenda 74

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  8. ooooo am LOVING this wreath, very pretty colours! xx

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  9. its gorgeous! That Crafty Elf has magical powers - lol!! I would never have thought of embossing a circle - so easy when someone tells you!! x x

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  10. That card looks beautiful and what a handy tip:)

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  11. Hi Di. Thanks for the info re.viewing photos. Interestingly that works fine in Firefox but not in Google Chrome which I usually use for viewing!
    Anyway, your's looks just as good close up as it did in the smaller image!
    Kate x

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  12. I love your wreath! I like the way you combined the different images to make the wreath.

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  13. Hi Di, Wow oh Wow!! this is so beautiful the wreath has lots of lovely colours and nice that the colours are not too deep which really makes it stand out beautifully looking forward to your next project:) Sandra H

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  14. Hi Di

    I am a bit envious that you had some "free time". What is that and how do you get it?!?!?! LOL!!!

    This is gorgeous.

    I have a set of those pegs too .. .. something else to get out "another day".

    The finished result is definitely worth a production line session. Beautiful.

    Love Jules xx

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  15. That's a lovely card Di! I shall get round as many WOYWW'ers as I can ... it's fascinating seeing everyone's worktables isn't it? X

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  16. PS ... regarding the little stepping stool - I fell off a brick when I was 9 and broke my arm so have been banned from climbing ever since. Alas, I am not only height-challenged but width-challenged too so me and little steps sound like a disaster waiting to happen! Debbie 77 xXx

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  17. I love this card, it is fabulous and I can see where you are coming from with the marzipan fruits, I love those but have you seen the price these days. But I thought Newberry Fruits.

    Kath x

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  18. OK Di....this is stunning! I love fruit at Christmas in fact I have fruit on all my trees! As soon as I saw this wreath I could tell it was sugared (awesome touch)...that's what I call anyways. Very very pretty! Another shout out....OMGosh I'm not worthy, thank you!

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  19. This is fabulous! Perfectly stamped, love the colours :o) Lisa x

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  20. That looks great and what a great idea to emboss the circle, first! Thanks for passing on the tip x

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  21. Di, this is so lovely.

    I have some peg stamps but never got round to using them and now you've got me all inspired.
    The wreath is really beautiful and again the colouring so delicate.
    Ax

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