Handicrafts by Kate Perry and other ramblings

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Rudolph Day Challenge 2024 # February

I am so happy that Helen has agreed to take on the running of this challenge. It has been the perfect inspiration for me to build my stash of cards throughout the year.
I admit I was not very prepared for this month as I have been busy laying with a new piece of equipment (see my previous post). But I do have a small recycling project completed.

A friend at church collects finished-with cards each new year, and re-mounts suitable images to sell very reasonably to raise funds for the church. She sent one to me this year that she knew I would like, and it was a simple stepper card front, with a Bethlehem scene at the back, and a stable scene on the front 'step'. I just knew it could be recycled again and I made it into two cards.

For the first I used the step cut to size to fit an A6 card, and glued some snowy sky paper behind it. Then I cut the phrase from black vinyl with my silhouette cameo machine.

For the second card I used the Bethlehem scene as the background on a square card and added silhouettes of shepherds and sheep to the front. These were images from my silhouette library, cut on my machine again from black vynil. I used a different font to cut the same phrase from gold metallic vinyl.

I shall link this up with Rudolph Days Challenge at Helen's blog.

We are never too old...

 We are never too old to learn new skills. I have recently been 'give' a laser cutter on long-term loan. The owner, Steve Kirk, gave me several tutorials on his larger, more pwerful machine, at his home, along with several tips on using this one. He was also very patient with all my questions and mistakes.

So it was time for me to try a project of my own and I knew just what I wanted to do. My youngest son, Ben, has just set himself up as a self-employed performer, plus music technician, with a company called "Totally Sound". So I have made this wall plate for his studio.

The base is 3mm birch plywood, cut out and painted black. 

The treble clef, notes and script are cut from 1.5mm bass plywood. The clef has a light spray of varnish, and the rest are spray-painted in white. The script is a font called Zapfino which he  has used on his business cards.

For the picture I started with  a coloured photo he has sent me. I used Gimp to turn it into a black and white sketch, and then I engraved it onto the base plate with the laser. I cut a mask from eclipse paper and held the 'window' part over the engraving and sprayed it lightly with varnish, and then covered the image with the mask while I painted the black background.

I then mounted the pieces with acrylic glue, and black sticky foam tabs behind the script.

As I live in Spain, I  wrapped this in several layers of bubble wrap to post it to UK last Friday, and I was amazed to hear today that it has arrived already. And most importantly, Ben loves it.

It is fun to have a new 'toy' to play with.

Thursday, January 25, 2024

Rudolph Day Challenge 2024 # January

It is time to start thinking about making cards for next Christmas now.  I know some poeple find that idea just too much, but I find it really useful when Christmas comes around and there is so much to do, but my cards are all done. So here goes for this year.

I am not off to a very good start, as a broken humerous/shoulder at the end of November has made most crafting very difficult. Added to that I have had an ulcer on my right hand for well over two years, that just doesn't want to heal. After many tests the hospital decided to take a biopsy from it two weeks ago, and within a few days, the site was again infected! So I am on strong antibiotics and have a thick bandage on my hand, so although my arm is healing, albeit slowly, I am again unable to handle pens, scissors etc with any precision. 

So for this months cards I settled on two very simple recycled ones: one from a card I received this year, and one from an even older one. I cut the images with a circle die and the bauble from a metal die bought from a well-known Chinese site, so I don't know its name. Square dies cut the backgrounds and frame, and my snow embossing folder added interest to the white background. I needed two hands to turn the rollers on my Big Shot, but determination won in the end.  Perhaps it is time to invest in an electric one? The main image slipped lower than I had intended on the first one, but I will hang on to it in case I need 'just one more card' next year. Hopefully by next month, I will have both hands and arms back in full action.

So this will be linked with the Rudolph day Challenge over on Scrappy Mo's blog. Why not make an early start on your cards, and come and join us.

Sunday, November 26, 2023

Rudolph Day Challenge #November 2023

 A very quick one from me today as I have broken my right arm (Yes I am right-handed), so I am typing this with my left hand and that is not easy for me. Fortunately I had these cards made ready for today.

The file is one purchased from Etsy. It was intended to make a 3Dwooden one, but I flattened it, cut it from metallic vinyl and transferred it onto a base card.

I worked quite well so I cut out five more from other colour metallic vinyls and transferred them to complimentary coloured cardstock.

A useful set  of six cards, but that's me done for today so I will link up with Rudolph Day challenge over on Scrappy Mo's blog. Please forgive me  if I only manage a limited number of comments, but I will visit you all.

Thursday, October 26, 2023

Rudolph Day Challenge#october 2023

As I am fairly well ahead with my Christmas cards this year I had time to play around a bit and I do enjoy editing files and rearranging them on the computer to find different ways to use them. I came up with a set of ten cards on a theme of "Sentiments in Arabesque window". I bought a bundle of these sentiments some time ago, so I uploaded them into my silhouette cameo software. Then I spent some time designing a base card with the arabesque window, and resized my chosen sentiments to fit in it. Next I sorted through my larger snippets of Christmas papers and found ten pieces I could use, cutting each one to fit inside a 15cm square white card base, and cutting the window and star from each one.

I glued a small snippet of gold paper behind the stars, and then found pieces that I could use behind each window. Once these were in place I decided which embellishments would go with the papers and resized them in the software, and using the 'Print and Cut feature' I printed them on basic photo paper to deepen the colours and give them some shine, and cut them out. 

I decided which sentiment would suit which set of 'extras' and cut them from vinyl so they were more simple to glue inside the windows. I arrange the embellishments around them and glued them in place, adding a little glitter glue to some. 

I ended up with ten cards, four doubles, and two individual ones, and lots of files in my library to use again should I need them.

Poinsettias from Carnation crafts.

Crib and sheep from Jan Mahew's digital shop.

Arabesque Christmas ornaments - sorry I can't find where I bought them from.

Doves and nativity silhouettes, old files from my Cameo library - source unknown.

I will link these with Rudolph day Challenge#October  

Monday, September 25, 2023

Rudolph Day Challenge # September 2023

A quick and easy card this month that I made using an element from the scrapbook kit Into the Woods by Cornelia Designs. It is unusual for an element to be a complete picture, but I liked this one so I resized it and printed out a couple of copies.

Then I used the inner section of a die frame set to cut a window in a plain white 15cm square card. I placed the image behind the window using thin foam strips.
The holly frame was a file in the library on my Silhouette cameo, bought from the silhouette store many years ago. It was a fiddle to add but I used transfer tape so it did not distort too much. 
Then I added red perfect pearls for the berries, and a gold peel-off sentiment.
A second card was made in exactly the same way.
So now I will link this up with Rudolph Day Challenge over at Scraps of Life by Scrappy Mo.


Friday, August 25, 2023

Rudolph Day Challenge #August 2023

Another scheduled post as I shall be in UK on tis date, and far away from my PC. (I don't trust my skills fiddling around on a smart phone!).

For this set of cards I wanted to try out a technique called 3D stained Glass window cards. I found loads of images for stained glass windows, but struggled to find any Christmas ones. Eventually I settled on this lovely poinsettia which was one from a set of images for making Christmas coasters.

I enlarged it to the size I wanted for my card and in the Silhouette software I made a cutting fil e for it. Then I made a second square a bit smaller for the first internal frame. Making another even smaller square I centred it over the original image and cut out where they intersected, giving me the next layer. Then I repeated this again for the second frame and smallest centre image.

I printed the three images on good quality photographic paper to bring out the colours and give a nice glossy finish, and used the Print & Cut feature on my cameo to cut them out. Then I cut the base card and two frame squares from black card, and used 1mm foam pads to lift each layer slightly over the one below. (I managed a small tear on the centre image, when pulling it off the sticky cutting mat, so I hid it under a gold peel off, Spanish Christmas greeting).

The card was a bit darker than I would have chosen but the only alternative Chrstmas ones I could find were a set of 'Old Father Christmas' roundals. (Or Old man Winter if you prefer). So I made  another set of frames and concentric images as for the square one and made these two cards.



I overlapped two base circles by a small amount and added a score line where they crossed, to give me a joined base card. And knowing what a nuisance circular cards can be, I also sliced a very thin piece off the bottom of the card so that it would stand up.

I expect there will be more Christmas images available later in the year as this is a popular technique right now, so I may try a few more then. Now the files are in my software library, it would be very easy to just use a different image.

So this is another set to add to my stash. I will schedule it to post on Rudolph day challenge#August on Scrappy Mo's blog.


Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Rudolph Day Challenge #July 2023

Because I am preparing for a longish holiday, I am writing this early and scheduling it to publish, so that I don't miss the date like I almost did last month!

This time I have made a layered card showing a simple nativity scene. This was a cutting file I purchased from one of the Facebook groups I belong to, and it was designed as a shadow box.

When making a shadow box, each layer is cut to the full size and placed in order inside a deep shadow box frame. But I wanted to flatten it for a card, and this would have been very bulky as there are ten layers as well as the base card. So I spent some time in my Silhouette software, deciding which ares were needed from each layer and cutting them down so that my eventual stacked card would not be too thick for posting.

Having made the first card fairly successfully, I made use of the files I had prepared and cut another three sets. They didn't take too long to assemble so now I have another set of four cards to add to my stash.

The yellow script should have been cut out of the blue top layer to show the yellow layer underneath, but I had trouble cutting these small letters, so instead I cut the blue layer complete and cut the script from yellow vinyl, which always cuts beautifully. And the effect is the same, just neater.

I will be linking this up to the Rudolph day Challenge on Scraps of life by Scrappy Mo.