At Last - I'm Back!

Sorry I have not posted for a while, but all the crafting I have done lately has been for ladies who see my blog and I wanted to make sure that they had their cards / gifts before posting them here!!!

Here are the cards I made for our team, Joanne, Sara, Hazel, Chrissi & Maureen.

I made up my own background stamp a few weeks ago using scraps of rubber from stamps I have bought and attached them to a spare wooden block. The stamp was used to create the cracked background for the skaters - I love how this turned out, its much better than I thought it would be.

I used Winter Post (for the first time!) and started with the snowflake, stamping it on Crumb Cake cardstock with Versamark, sprinkling on Heat and Stick powder, adding Dazzling Diamonds and then heating again to set.

Mats of Very Vanilla and Early Espresso card were torn diagonally and distressed, then I positioned them roughly in place to work out where to stamp the stag.  Once the stag was stamped I secured the distressed card mats to the card blank and the Post Card image was stamped in Early Espresso ink. 

The skaters were stamped onto Very Vanilla card and then inked up my 'cracked' background stamp with Versamark and sprinkled clear embossing powder over before heating.  To emphasise the cracks, I rubbed over the top with Sahara Sand ink on a sponge dauber.  The ink doesnt stay on the embossed areas, it just soaks into the card between the cracks, leaving a lovely effect. 

The edges of the Early Espresso mat I used behind the Skater image has been punched using something BRAND NEW!  I cant tell you much yet - but if you bob back soon, I can explain...

I had to keep the card relatively flat for posting so I just mounted the Skaters on Dimensionals.

To finish the card I stamped the postmark image on to the Very Vanilla card, decorated the insert AND the envelope (which I nearly always forget to do).

I also decorated a little box to match and added a bookmark.  Theres a little gift in the box too but I dont want to spoil the surprise if they havent opened the box yet.

Well, Im off to do some more cards - I really ought to make my Hubbys card didnt I? 

Hope you have a wonderful, special and safe Christmas!

Jan x