Joy And Wonder

Good Sunday morning all!  I hit a milestone last night that I would like to share with you and thank you for.  The counter on my blog ticked over the million visit mark.  Surprisingly, I just happened to look at it when I noticed how close it was.  I took a picture of it as it hit 999,999.  I wasn't sure what it was going to do next as it didn't have any more place holders for numbers!  I thought it would just read 000000 and not show the 1.  It actually ticked over to read 100,000, but it eventually readjusted itself and added the extra place to show 1,000,000.  I was over the moon as I never ever thought it would reach such a point.  Thank you so much for all your continued support, I could not have ever reached that milestone without all your help!  You, my crafty friends, are the absolute best!

I  still have a bunch of Christmas cards to show you.  I thought I would just slip them in here and there so it is less painful to think about!  This is kind of a fun card to do because the background is the "caught in crystal" technique.  I showed this technique on my DVD last year and it still remains one of my favourite techniques to do.  There are several ways of achieving this look, but for me I prefer to use crystal lacquer rather than the sometimes used floor polish.  I find that method far too messy and the results are not always as eye catching.  If you use too much, it just becomes a runny mess.  I have never had that problem with crystal lacquer so it is still my go to choice for this method.  A quick rundown, though, for those of you that have never tried this.  Start with a piece of clear acetate and squiggle clear crystal lacquer over the area you want.  Add drops of several different colours of alcohol inks (I used cool peri and stonewashed blue), then tap powdered mica over it (I used silver) and then wrinkle up a piece of white tissue paper.  open it up but don't take out all the wrinkles, then lay it over the top and tamp it down with some kitchen roll.  Set aside to dry over night.  Once dry, cut it to the size you want to use.  You can stamp on the front (smooth) side of it if you want to.  I cut mine into three pieces and matted them with white card for my background and then on to a piece of silver card.  On a larger piece of white card, I stamped my sentiment in the lower corner and added some swirls across the bottom of the card that I embossed in white.  I cut three different sizes of snowflakes for my focal element.  The top on and the back one were cut out of white card.  The centre snowflake was cut from white glitter card.  I added a pearl to the centre of them once they were layered.  I thought a few pearl swirls would be a nice addition to finish off my card.  This is a great card to do for Christmas if you do large batches because you can make up a bunch of sheets of the caught in crystal ahead of time and then just cut them to size as you need them. 

Since it is Sunday, we have a bit of prize giving to do too! 

The winners of this week's comment game are:

Heather Rogers!!!

Marleine!!!

Buttons!!!

Congratulations! You must email me at americansue1@gmail.com to confirm your address and claim your prizes.  All for now, Sue x