Spring is here, but I am thinking about Christmas already - what is wrong with me????

I have been playing a lot with paper crafting this month, and really loved the coloured vellum.  I thought that the embossed snowflakes looked fantastic with it, when I made my little snowflake mini card, so I wanted to see it in a larger card.

I made some gate fold cards recently using this technique.  They are very similar with some minor differences.

I used plain white card stock, and folded it to have a centre opening.  I used a pale blue card stock to line the centre of the inside, and each side of the fold on the outside.

I made a centre medallion with a larger white background, measuring approximately 2.75 inches high and wide.  The centre vellum medallion is 2.25 inches.  I inked the medallion with a blend of light and darker blues, which match perfectly by change, the blue card stock on one side.  After that was blended well, I turned the vellum over and stamped the snowflake on with Perfect Medium, and embossed it with a pearl powder, and then stamped and embossed the sentiment on.

Then I punched the corners out, and glued the vellum sheet onto the white stock.  Then I glued the medallion onto either the right or left side of the gates - you could make them for the right or left handed of your recipients.

I lightly inked white snowflakes on the side panels to add a bit of pattern.

For the second set, I did make it the same, but I felt that the pearl powder was a bit too muted for the medallion, so I made it with a plain white embossing powder, which I felt stood out more, and a different red for the sentiment, which had a bit more glitter.

This one does stand out more, but I think I also inked the back of the vellum more as well, with the darker blue ink.

I really like how the gate fold card looks.

Here it is opening up - and on the inside, I felt just leaving the blue card stock was a bit too plain, so I added some stamping and colouring inside.

To add a bit more whimsical fun, I stamped a cute little snowman, and sentiment.  I hand coloured the stampings with gel pen.

I felt they were cute and am happy how they turned out.  Now the challenge is being able to remember where I store them until next Christmas!

Awwww - have a heart! More stained glass window envelopes...

I made a couple more of those pocket envelopes - they are handy for mini cards which I may use as gift card holders, or to hold little cards to add with gifts, or swap note cards.

These are like the butterfly ones too, in that they have die cut shapes in the front, with a coloured and stamped vellum insert.  I did use Staz On this time, so there was little or no smearing.  Do try to blend, blot, and dry the coloured ink well, otherwise that will smear.

These also allow the light to shine through, and I used a bit of gold ink at the centre of the heart, but that is hard to see in the light I had.

The ladies are visiting again...

I think these are my favourite of the batch of mini cards I made recently.  I think it is because of the way the blue stands out on the buff back ground.  I also do love this stamp image.  I got this on Clearance at Michaels, for about $3, and had a fair amount of use out of it already.

Anyways, I made a small card, that fits into a pocket envelope with parchment style card stock in this neutral beige tone, and folded it in half.  I cut a 2 inch wide strip of vellum for each card, and inked the back with a variety of blue pigment inks, blending with cotton pads.

On the front, I stamped the images of the ladies using Perfect Medium - I carefully masked so that only the image I wanted stamped, so as not to waste ink or embossing powder, or get too many stray marks.  I embossed the image in copper, and really like how they turned out.

I masked off the left side of the card, two inches from the right edge, and stamped the flourish with sepia ink, approximately where the most blank space on the vellum would be.  When that dried, I adhered the vellum to the right edge with a glue runner, and added the lacy washi paper to the edge of it.

I stamped and embossed the sentiment on the blank strip on the left.  My big regret there is that I did it in silver.  I wish I did it in blue.  I also ended up with 4 cards, because when I finished the three, I realized I accidentally stamped and embossed one face twice.  Oh well, it won't be wasted!

I love the blues and browns together, and love how the blue seems to almost glow.