Snowflake Keepsake Card

I love snowflakes! They remind me of cold winter mornings, clean, crisp air, and fond childhood memories. Some of my favorite ornaments on my tree are some crocheted snowflakes a neighbor gave me 20 years ago!  I’ve never attempted to crochet one until now, and thought it would make a great embellishment, er….. keepsake…. card!
The card base is  a 5 1/2 inch square, embossed with tiny dots.  The snowflake is tied on another dark green square, embossed with snowflakes. I sandwiched a piece of light green cardstock to “frame” the snowflake mat.
Inside I actually stamped a sentiment (I’m a terrible stamper, and have to practice way more!!!). The sentiment said “Be Merry”.
The snowflake is very easy to do, it is a total of 3 rows, and takes about 10 minutes from start to finish.  It took longer to put the stiffener on it and pull it into shape than it took to make it.  For those of you that can crochet, I’ll put how I made it below.
Enjoy! And thanks for visiting me from the Card a Day Blog! Make sure to visit there tomorrow for another “ornament” inspiration from Michelle Hessler from Paperthreads!
Below: A picture of card front and a closeup of “textures” used.


Below, a picture of another snowflake I made before stiffening!


Simple Crocheted Snowflake Pattern.
I used 3 ply crochet cotton, and a 3 1/4 mm crochet hook.

Chain 6, slip stitch together into a loop.
Row 1: Chain 3, double crochet 11 into the “ring”. Slip stitch to the top of the 3rd chain from the beginning of the row.
Row 2: Chain 3, double crochet into the same stitch (beginning of row).chain 4. *Skip a stitch, double crochet 2 times into next stitch, chain 4*. Repeat ** until you have 6 sets of (2 double crochets). Slip stitch the row together.
Row 3: *Chain 4, double crochet into void (between two sets of double crochets). Chain 6, slip stitch into top of double crochet. Chain 4, slip stitch inbetween 2 of the double crochets of previous row. Chain 6, slip stitch into previous stitch to form loop.* Repeat ** until you have 6 sets (and complete row)… slip stitch together and tie off. Secure ends.
Finishing…. use stiffener of choice, and lay flat on plastic wrap or waxed paper. Once dry you can hang on your tree or use on a card or for a gift topper etc.!

Card a Day Blog ~ Christmas at Home

Thanks for visiting me from the Card a Day Blog!
This week the theme is Christmas from Home. Some of my favorite Christmas decorations include Snowmen, Christmas Trees, and Snow Globes! I pick up a lot of Christmas graphics online, and sadly did not record where I got this snowman snow globe from. But it reminded me of some of my best Christmas at home, so I had to use it! I hope the technique inspires you to look around what you have on your hard drive and have some fun playing and making a card!
The card size is 5 x 7 inches, side fold.
Card base cut from dark forest green cardstock.
“We Wish You A Merry Christmas” song printed on coordinating pale green cardstock. (I got the song “jpg” from http://pinanoandsynth.com . 

For the snowman snow globe, I had found the graphic online, and printed it out 4 times. I cut it out like this:

All that was left was to assemble with dimensional adhesive tape. The bottom lime green strip was from Christmas wrap that I had used in iris folding cards years ago.
I quite like the way it turned out!

Remember to visit the Card a Day Blog for daily card making inspiration!

A Red & White Star

My card design for the Christmas Around the World theme at Card a Day Blog is based on a traditional Norwegian cards made with just red and white. I thought it would be hard, but it is really easy if you just follow the 1/3’s rule. My card is approximately 1/3 red to 2/3 white.

The card is a 1/4 side fold (4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches).

I used the Cuttlebug Candy Cane Stripe embossing folder to make the red background. The shininess comes from using my Versamark inkpad applied to the embossing folder and then clear embossing powder.

The white frame was made with the Sizzix A2 sized Victorian Frame folder that I cut the center out.

The star was just made freehand on white cardstock, and I doodled the edges on it before I cut it out. I applied it to the card with dimensional tape.

I made a poem for the inside that I hope you like too!

I’m hoping that everyone tries to make a two color card! You can have such fun creating depth and interest with different cardstocks or treatments (embossing or flocking etc).

Just remember to have fun, and enjoy the upcoming season!

All the best

Shelley

CADB ~ A Quick Congratulation Card with Die cuts

The only die cutting I do is with my Silhouette cutter. Although I never did use it for print and cuts when I first bought it, now I love doing it as I can design all the elements of a card on one sheet of paper. Just print, cut and put it together!
The card I made is super simple. An eyelet bordered frame, five flowers of different sizes, a scroll flourish, and a tag adhered with a ribbon.
My design screen looked like this:

After printing and cutting the pieces, I arranged them before gluing them down on the card base (4 x 5 inches).
Then I had fun with some glitter pens, first highlighting the tag to make it pop out more, and then doing different floral centers! I’m quite pleased with the way they turned out, and hope it inspires you to doodle a little bit on your die cuts to add some pizzazz to plain paper!

Visit Card a Day Blog tomorrow for more inspiration from Christine Patton at Creativegenie-ous, and more of the theme of diecuts!
Don’t forget to enter the challenges there too!
ENTER AUGUST CHALLENGE:

You’re #1 to Me!

Thanks for visiting from the Card a Day Blog! I made a card for the guy in your life (big or little one ).
For my card making, it was my Silhouette to the rescue! It was a very simple card to make, sized to a 1/4 side fold card. It consists of 5 things!

1. Textured card stock for background…. it is a pale blue that my camera didn’t quite pick up.
2. Dark blue “numbers” mat from the Silhouette store, originally square, but it resized well as a rectangle.
3. Two part ribbon from the Silhouette store, cut in white (background) and turquoise.
4. Word art for the inside of the ribbon.
5. Matching ribbon to anchor the paper ribbon to the card front. (The medallion ribbon was adhered to the card with dimensional tape)

Make sure to drop back to the Card a Day Blog, when Kelly George will continue in the theme “Just for Men”!

A Swedish Sandwich Cake - “Smorgastarta”!

Today I am going to a retirement BBQ, and plan to bring a Smorgastarta for my part of the potluck. Inspired from here. I am making a loaf style “cake”, versus a traditionally shaped cake. The cake will be approximately five inches wide by eight inches long by five inches tall.

Ingredients:

• 1 loaf Calabrese Bread sliced lengthwise
• 1 small chunk smoked salmon &/or lox
• small container cooked shrimp
• long English cucumber
• radish (for garnish)
• parsley (for garnish)
• 1 lb. of cream cheese
• 1 cup (approx.) miracle whip or mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup (approx.) sour cream
• melted butter or oil based dressing of choice to “kiss” the bread

1. In a mixer, whip cream cheese, mayonnaise or Miracle Whip, and sour cream together. Reserve half for alternating layers.
2. Mix smoked salmon into cheese mixture in mixer. Add enough to “taste”.  I found I doubled the amount in the mixer.
3. Begin layering your sandwich cake… I put a bit of butter on the “plate” to hold the bottom piece of bread in place.  Then thinly buttered the bottom slice of bread, and spread on approx. 1/4 inch thick spread of smoked salmon mixture.  Another slice of bread, plain cheese mix and thin slices of cucumber, topping it with a slice of bread that had more plain cheese mixture.  Finally covering that slice of bread with another 1/4 inch thick spread of smoked salmon mix, and the final slice of bread.
4. Cover your sandwich cake with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours before “icing” with sour cream/mayonnaise mixture (I didn’t include those amounts in the ingredients above). Decorate with boiled eggs, lox, radish & carrot curls.  I plan to decorate it in such a way that people will slice it into small squares, vs. slices.

The following pictures show how I made and decorated it!

Left to right:

bottom layer of smoked salmon spread -, middle layer of cheese/sour cream/mayonnaise with cucumber - completed “cake” filled and wrapped, waiting to be decorated!

Below: Completed “cake” iced with more cream cheese/sour cream/mayonnaise icing. Decorated with cucumber, cooked shrimp, radish, lox “rosettes”, and parsley from my garden!

I know that it will tend to fall apart when being cut, so I’m taking my extra sharp knife with me to the event! I’m quite happy with how it turned out!

An Eventful Week!

It has been such an eventful week off! Starting with Sunday, and a dinner out celebrating Father’s Day at the Driftwood Restaurant in Oyster Bay, followed by 3 nights camping at Saratoga Beach Resort. Then a quick day trip to Port Alberni with my sister to visit our sister Barb’s NorthStar Cherry tree that we planted in her honor! Today was hearing tests and doctor’s appointments for Marcel, and tomorrow is visits from friends and a retirement BBQ for a co-worker. Sunday will be a stay at home day to recoup before heading back to work. Indeed, it is true that sometimes we go to work for a rest!
Here are some of my favorite pictures of the week so far! Enjoy!

Above: Saratoga Beach
Below: Going crabbing for Stargo

Above: Arlis at Sproat Lake
Below: Cody along the trail at Fossli Park

 

Barb's Tree

Old Farm along Stirling Arm Drive, Port Alberni, BC