Winter Wishes

I am still crazily making holiday cards, and I want to get them mailed by early next week. I might make my deadline...I still have quite a few to get made.  Since I am making several different cards this year instead of a master card, I am needing some inspiration -- what better than some card making challenges.

I bought this retired Stampin Up set used because I fell in love with the eyelashes...yes eyelashes!  The set is  Stylin Snowfolk. It's got a snowperson's body and lots of bits and pieces to make Snowmen and Snowladies.  I got out my stamp positioner. 

It was a critical tool to make sure every thing was placed where I wanted it.  The stamps are cling, so they cannot be positioned by sight like clear stamps.  I stamped in this order : Body over masked hat,  hat, eyelashes, nose, buttons, arm with ink wiped off of the "hands", mitten and lastly the sentiment.  I used inks from Hero Arts - Orange Soda and Cornflower. My sentiment is from Taylored Expressions - Love Grows Here and is inked with Versafine Majestic Blue, and all my black bits were stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black. 

I found a scrap of blue shimmer paper that was fairly close in color and dry embossed it with the Sizzix Swirly Vine folder. The paper is very thin and it has a distressed look to it...it reminds me of swirling snow.  My tag was cut with Lawn Fawn's Tag your it die set.  And I absolutely had to add some embossing paste sprarkly snow with the Simon Says Stamp Falling Snow stencil and Distress Glitter in Rock Candy.  To finish the creation I added a pearl and some white embroidery string.


I am entering the card in the following challenges:

Die Cut Diva's December Challenge - Snow and Christmas/Holiday



The Card Concept Challenge - Snowman /Tag - Style Clean and Layered


Thanks so much for stopping by!

Lawnscaping White on White Challenge #95

During my last trip to California I picked up quite a few Lawn Fawn items.  So, I  have decided to check out the Lawnscaping challenge blog.  The current challenge is White on White and is open through Wednesday December 10, 2014. I am entering this card in that challenge.

I added some snow and glitter using a stencil and some Distress Glitter.  Then I gathered three Lawn Fawn dies - Tag you're it, Scripty Joy, and Stitched Snowflakes. I cut them all out of some white shimmer cardstock by Bazzill and layered the snowflakes and the sentiment on the tag.  This was then placed on the card base with 1/8th inch foam tape.  A bit of white thread was added to finish the tag.

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Free is Good - SOS 179

The current challenge at Shopping our Stash is Free is Good - use something you got for free.  It runs through Monday, December 8th 2014 at 11:55 pm EST.

Along with a beautiful shaker card during a November card exchange, LaVon sent me some lovely die cuts, sequins and other bits in both Thanksgiving and Christmas themes. 

I am saving theThanksgiving for next year, but I had to use the super cute Merry Christmas die and the snowflake sequins to make a card right away. 

Fortunately I had a very close to the same shade of red cardstock to use as a card base. I added some pearls that were also free - from Simon Says Stamp and some Stampin Up Gems. The front panel was dry embossed with a Paper Source embossing folder-Holly Leaves.  I don't have the name or make of the Merry Christmas die cut or the sequins.


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Tis the Season

While trying to decide on my next holiday card, I found the left over bit from die cutting a snowman and circle frame on a previous card.  I inked the left over piece with Distress ink in Stormy Sky.  After that dried, I added some snow using embossing paste and the Simon Says Stencil Falling Snow(love this!).

I stamped the snowman and sentiment on a card base using Majestic Blue Versafine ink. The nose and the scarf were colored with an orange sharpie.  I used 1/8 inch foam tape to mount the inked and snowy piece as a frame around the snowman.  The die and stamp are Hero Arts 657781 and the sentiment is CL691. To add a bit of holiday sparkle, I cut the front of the card by a quarter inch, and on the inside portion I added a strip of DCWV glitter paper.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Die Cut Diva's December Challenge - Snow and Christmas/Hollidays

Simon's Monday Challenge - Holiday Cards

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November Card Chain Challenge at SOS

This is my last card for the Card Chain Challenge for this year. I will be visiting my Dad in California for the holidays, and all my card making stuff is in Maryland.  I'll be scrapbooking in California - lots to catch up on.

I decided to go with Deborah's colors and sketch and the theme of gratitude. Three of the 5 options available this month.

I started with a kraft card base, and added my layer of patterned "taupe" paper with a die cut circle.  Leaves were added in a glittered gold, and deep red. The circle die used was from MFT, the leaves were from Lawn Fawn, and the sentiment banner from SSS. The sentiment is from a Taylored Expressions set, and it was heat embossed in old gold embossing powder from Stampendous.  Its fun to get a hand made card in the mail, and fun to send one out to someone new! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Fall Birthday

Another birthday card, I have a bout 7 birthdays in a 3 week period between the end of November and mid December.  It is always a mad rush to get them all finished amid the rush of finishing my Christmas cards.

I received the embossing folder (Darice) I used here from sweet Greta, I intended to use it on my Thanksgiving cards, but I made just a few, and my mojo was lacking.  However, it is perfect for this fall birthday card. 

I had a watercolor piece that was fall-ish in colors, and I found a card base that would work well too.  Birthdays need a bit of glitz as well, so some glitter paper was added to the pile. As a contrast to the glitter, I added some twine and wood veneer leaves.  I kinda like the differences between the wood and the sparkle.

I adore this large sentiment from the Make a wish set by Mama Elephant.  There is no guessing the occasion for this card. I used the largest circle from MFT's stitched circle dies for my center piece.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!
 I made just a few cards for Thanksgiving, this year. 

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Watercolor Birthday

I am still quite happily playing with my water colors.  They are definitely one of my favorite mediums for creating backgrounds.  It is always a mystery how they will turn out, and more often than not, they look much better dry than wet.  I think I have tossed out only about 5 out of a whole bunch...and only because my color choices turned to mud when blended.  Otherwise I have been happy with the results.

This card used a few scraps of paper, and a watercolored background. I used Mama Elephant's stamp set Make a Wish for the greeting and heat embossed it in white. I love blues purples and greens together.

Below are 4  shots of the background in process. Starting from upper left to right, then bottom left to right

I started with a piece of water color paper (Canson 140 lb weight cold pressed) with the smooth side facing up.  I tape it to an acrylic cutting board.  Next I spritzed it with water from a mister, and then added a bit more water with a wet brush.  Next comes my base color, the one I want most of on the piece. I just splotch it around. You can see the water moves the color, because the card is fairly wet.  Next, I load a rounded brush with wet color, drippy wet and flick it on the sheet by tapping the brush.  You can see how it spreads after it lands.  I did this with the purple and green.  Lastly, I lightly respritz the sheet with water to get some more blending.

Then I leave it to dry.  (I have my laptop on a fan, and the fan on a wire mesh stand.  I stick my projects to dry under it while I move on to other things.  The fan doesn't create a big breeze, but it does pull warmth from the laptop.)

Once this was dry, I added some gold Heidi Swap Color Shine.  Again, just flicking the bottle end of the sprayer over the paper.  Once that too was dry, I added my sentiment and heat embossed it in white. Lastly it was all layered together with a few strips of cardstock scrap and a bit of gold string.

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My last scramble til the new year

I was so glad I was able to play in this scramble today.  I was working on a mail project for hubs and wasn't sure I would get to scramble, but I joined the scramble about 20 minutes in.  For the first time ever in a scramble my card came together with out any major glitches. Whoo Hoo! Tesa's theme was SNOW.

I first stamped, heat embossed and die cut my snow flakes. Next I pulled a white panel and partially die cut my snow man. I taped the die down, and taped the paper down---this saved me a lot of time.  After cutting my snowman partially out, I laid down the circle die around him, and did not move the paper a bit because I was hurrying- I didn't take it off the cutting plate to inspect it ---Guess what --- a perfect cut, I didn't have to do any clean up with craft knife to get the circle edges to line up with the snowman's body.

Since all was going so well, next I stamped the snowman, using a Stamp-a-ma-jig.  The stamp is a cling stamp and would be difficult to position otherwise.  I could have stamped it first then made my die cuts, but this worked out so much better for me. I colored in the scarf, nose, and added some shading to the snowman with Copic markers. 

Next I added some distress inks around the snowman, using Tumbled Glass and Stormy Skiy to get a swirly feel. I wanted it darker around the edges of the circle.  My sentiment was from Stampin Up, and the banner stitching from Simon Says Stamp both were heat embossed. I fussy cut the sentiment, because the die is solid, and I can't see where I would be cutting. Normally I would cut it out first, then stamp and emboss.

Lastly, a quick little red bow tied and stuck on with a glue dot. I then adhered the front panel to a black card base with foam adhesive. Was about an hour from start to finish, to get this card made.

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Another Go at Holly Berries

My last post almost a week ago featured this same stamp set.  I was a little mind blocked using the Holly stamp.  Several readers offered some suggestions, so I took another run at the stamp. One stamp of the holly branch was just too bare, so I tried 2 stamps, then die cut the image leaving only 2 partial branch stampings.  I am much happier with this configuration.

I created a mat frame around it, used some distress inks to add some blue color, and red stickles to enhance the berries. Before adding the stickles, I heat embossed with clear the entire front panel. It gives a nice effect IRL.  I placed this panel on a dry embossed panel of holly leaves before placing on the card base, and lastly  added the SSS Merry Christmas die stacked 3 times. It is a definite improvement over my last try with this set.

Thanks for stopping by!