I cleaned my craft room

Well, I cleaned my crafting table last night... which took long enough.  I'll do the sewing table later.

It took a couple of hours to tidy my craft area.  My Bigshot used to stand the other way (perpendicular to the wall), which was fine for embossing, but die cutting really punishes the plates so I don't want to run them through my machine twice, so I needed to turn it.  This caused space problems as it's a rather large machine.

All in all, I think things worked out well.  I added the smaller black tower, which is a cd holder turned on its side, to hold more items (crepe paper, sponges, tape).  I put thin cardboard over the ridges so everything inside would sit properly.

And I punched a dowel through the cardboard tower to the left to hold ribbon.  It's weighted inside the box so it shouldn't fall out.  And it's much easier to find what ribbon I want to use on my projects.

The smaller strips of ribbon and lace in my drawer has always given me problems (especially when my cat comes in and starts eating them).  So I packed them into clear bags according to type of ribbon/lace. I've seen people do similar things by colour, but I figure finding the colour in each bag will be easy, and  I generally know what style I want.

The last change is something I did a while ago but didn't mention here.  As clear stamps are sensitive to light, I decided to move them out of my drawer, where they were stacked on top of each other and therefore hard to dig through, and into a lidded storage box.  I made a divider with a piece of cardboard so there's a compartment for regular and small stamps and another one for really large stamps.  In a smaller box to the front are my embossing plates and the Lego box holds smaller stamps.

Now I'm reading for card crafting again. :)

How were your holidays?

I had a very busy Christmas season.  I prepped my blog posts well in advance and just watched them post before heading off to work.  Luckily I had Christmas eve as well as day off, so I did get to relax a little bit. :)

My hubby got me some great crafting goodies, so look forward to seeing new stamps and dies in 2013. I also got a book on specialty paper folds to use on cards and plan to learn new techniques this coming year.

Did you have relaxing or hectic holidays?  Any special plans for New Year's?  So far my plans are to collapse. :P  I'm hoping to get some card crafting in next week but may not post much until the new year (I'm dying for a vacation right about now).

Merry Christmas! And a card.

One of my favourite cards this crafting season is this ornament card with red ribbons.  The ribbon makes it look so elegant.

The ornaments were all cut on my Silhouette, with glitter glue used for accents.  The Season's Greetings is from Stampendous' Winter Trees set, and was stamped in green ink.

I hope you all have a Wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

Silver & Blue Ornament Card

Since I cut out a ton of mini ornaments on my Silhouette, I wanted to try different types of cards with them.  Here's another one.  I went with a simple silver and blue theme.  I stamped the Kaiser Craft sentiment and mini snowflakes in silver ink and coloured the white ribbon blue with markers (careful with that as until it dries the ink will stain your fingers, paper and anything else it comes in contact with.  It will also bleed through the ribbon onto whatever surface is behind it, so make sure to do this on scrap paper and let it dry for a while before you use it).  The 'string' was drawn in with a fine black marker.

Wreath Card

I bought this wreath stamp at the Creativ Festival and had some fun with it making cards.  It's a wooden stamp and I'm not sure which brand it is.  I stamped it in green and coloured the ribbon with red marker.  I then added some glitter glue to the ribbon, some rhinestones as berries and stamped the Kaiser Craft sentiment.

Peace on Earth 3D Nativity Card

I bought the cut file for this 3D card from the Silhouette store.  It was made by Samantha Walker.

All I had to do was put the paper in the machine, peel off all the tiny stars from the Silhouette sheet (which took forever), scored the fold lines and put it together.  I added text in silver pen after taking the photos.

The front of the card.

The inside, a 3D pop-up nativity!

Deck the Halls Card

This card was one of the make & takes at the Creativ Festival last year.  It was my first time using pop-dots (if you can believe that).  I don't know the paper companies we used, though I do remember that the Deck the Halls tag came decorated (with the exception of the twine).  The corner pieces were from the same die cut the tag was from.

This was the card that convinced me that card making could be so much more than stamps on paper (not that there's anything wrong with stamps on paper).  After this I got into embellishments more and started experimenting a lot with my cards. :)

Angels We Have Heard On High Card

Since I went to all the work of making my Angels We Have Heard on High sheet music, I wanted to make more than one card with it.  

For this one, I used red and gold ribbon for the borders and a stamped and coloured angel (from my mystery set) as the central image.  I coloured her dress and hair with pencil crayons and used a silvery blue gel pen for the sash and a gold gel pen for the halo.

I added a thin edge of cream paper to pop-dot my sheet music on, so it would look like a stack of carols instead of just one.  

Recycled Christmas Cracker Card 2

For this card, I again used the Christmas cracker trim for the top and bottom border of my card, and the main image as a centerpiece.  I dry embossed Noel (from my mystery stamp set) in silver beside it.  :)

Recycled Christmas Cracker Card 1

My sister-in-law had Christmas crackers at our places for dinner last Christmas.  While I enjoyed pulling it apart and getting my prize, I thought it would be a waste to simply throw them out as they were so pretty.  So... I took most of them home with me.  And made cards out of them.  

Here's the first one:

I used the outside part of the cracker for the edging at the top and bottom of my card.  Then I used the main image from another cracker (there were 3 shades so I mixed and matched them) for the centerpiece.

The mini "Angels We Have Heard on High" sheet music was something I downloaded off of a public domain site.  I got the angel from this public domain image site, and the trim from another page on the same site (I did this in January and so can't find the image now).  I used pixelmator to add them together and printed them off really small on a cream coloured resume paper I have.

Easy Christmas Gift Tags

Since I knew I'd be working a lot in December (and it turns out I'm working more than I expected) I did a lot of my Christmas shopping early.  Which also meant wrapping the presents early.  (Note, I made these at the end of November.)  I needed some quick gift tags that I could put on my packages and so dug out some stamps.  My idea with these was to use small or part images, so there's more of a hint of Christmas rather than something fancy (besides, let's face it, I'm not going to save my tags for next year so why go overboard on them).

These 6 tags took about half an hour  (or maybe even less) to do, from cutting the paper, to stamping, colouring and adding the glitter glue.  I kept the colour scheme simple - red, green and yellow - for all of them.

I'm usually a stickler for getting the entire image on my cards, so it was a little difficult for me to only stamp part of the tree and angel, but I think they worked out well.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Recollections
Stamps: the snowflake/star & stocking are Recollections; the holly, candle, tree and angel are from a Christmas cling set I bought at Michaels last year but I threw out the packaging and don't know what brand it is
Markers: Crayola
Glitter Glue: Recollections

Homemade Embossing Displaced Ornament Card

I picked this blue because I don't really like it and I didn't think the homemade embossing displacer would work well for the circle.  Well, it worked beautifully so I had to figure out what to do with the card.  The idea for an ornament came to mind so I cut out a circle that could fit around the embossed area.  In retrospect I should have chosen a dark blue rather than white.  I also should have use my Memento blue ink to darken the embossing area before adding the white ring (as I got a bit of blue ink on it).  I used a gold gel pen to make swirls on the ring and add some colour to the snowflakes.  I also added an ornament topper in gold ink and ribbon.  The sentiment is from Kaiser Craft's Christmas sentiments set.

When I was writing up my Christmas cards I realized I REALLY didn't like this one.  So much so, that I was too embarrassed to assign it to anyone on my list.  Having received my Spellbinders Classic Circles Small in the mail the previous day I decided to try something to fix this.  It was my first time using Spellbinders.  Since I have a Silhouette I didn't want to spend more money on dies, especially simple ones like circles.  But... I've seen techniques that are easier to do with dies, like placing a hole on a particular point on a card (which is hard to do with precision on a Silhouette), etc. that I wanted to try.  I also like the embossed edge Spellbinders give.  Anyway, I was surprised by how much the dies cut into my acetate cutting pads.  Up until now I've only used my Big Shot for embossing, which keeps the acetate nice and clean.  I now understand why people suggest turning the acetate over when die cutting, so they last longer.

 The acetate is quite reflective, so you can't see the circles too well, but there are 4 of differing sizes cut into the pad.

I also got to finally use the crease pad I bought about a year ago, thinking it was the rubber pad, and the rubber pad I got yesterday.  Together, they add up to the thickness of a cutting pad and let you emboss the Spellbinders dies.  (The die came with a different sandwich that called for a tan rubber mat, but my sandwich worked fine and doesn't require me to buy another mat to use.)

I decided to cover the white circle, which just looked odd, with a dark blue one.  The embossing on the circle helped make it look more professional.  I also went over the gold again, with a pen that looked less yellow.  I should have used silver for the accents instead of gold.  Ah, well.  Live and craft some more.

Here's the new finished card.

Homemade Embossing Displaced Card

So here's the first card I made.  The center is flat, allowing me to stamp my sentiment with an embossed 'wreath' of snowflakes around it.  I used a piece of plastic Christmas wrap ribbon on the side to complement the sentiment.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Recollections
Stamp: sorry, I bought this last year and threw away the packaging so I don't know what company it's from.  It's a set of Christmas cling stamps Michaels had on sale. :)
Ink: Memento red
Markers: Crayola green
Ribbon: stash
Embossing Folder: Sizzix Christmas set 3, homemade embossing displacer

Homemade Embossing Displacers

Earlier this year I saw embossing displacers (also called diffusers) for sale at different crafting stores.  The idea is that one of the plates you use in your embossing machine sandwich is replaced with a plate of equal size that's got a shaped hole in it.  Wherever the hole is, the embossing folder won't emboss.  Similarly, if you use the cut out shape, you can emboss ONLY where the shape is.

I wanted to see if I could make my own embossing displacers before I bought some and finally got around to trying this.  My problem with the store bought ones is that you're stuck with the hole in whatever position the manufacturer put the hole in (because the plates are made to a specific size you can't put them anywhere.  So if there's an oval at the bottom of the panel you can make your hole at the bottom or the top, not the sides because the plate won't fit through your machine that way (they're longer than they are wide, unless your card is short enough to go through sideways.  Similarly you can't put the hole at the center of the card without running your card through the machine a few times making sure your circle is in the same place as you point it up and then down to get the embossing all around).  Anyway, I thought if I could make my own panels I could do any design I wanted (circle, oval, heart, etc.) anywhere I wanted on my page.

So I took a heavy piece of cardboard and cut out a circle using a craft knife.  I also wanted to see if I'd need to cut the circle into all my pieces or just have it one piece thick with a full piece of cardboard behind it.  I ended up cutting circles out of two pieces of cardboard to make sure the image would be deep enough to not interfere with the embossed area.  

My hope was that if it worked I could set up a system where all I'd need to change for displacing would be the top layer (the one that goes next to the embossing folder).

Well, it worked.  I used the panel with the hole to emboss a piece of white cardstock, and the two cut out circles to emboss the blue.  As you can see, there's a segment where each one has not been embossed.  

I used a Sizzix Christmas set 3 embossing folder for the cards.  When you place these in the machine, you have to sandwich it so that the hole/shape is next to your embossing folder with the solid parts towards the top.

My design may not be as crisp in definition as the professional ones (I haven't seen any in person so I don't know if they are or not) but they look pretty good.  I can see doing hearts and embossing them in specific areas on the page for a Valentine's or Anniversary card...

Here are all the layers I used for the displacer.  In order to emboss you need your displacer to be the same width as the top plate you'd normally use.  The first photo is all my layers next to my Bigshot top plate.  I ended up with two circles (or cut out circles), two other pieces of heavy cardboard and two shims of thin cardboard (the stuff you get from pantyhose packages).  You may have to experiment with the width depending on the cardboard you use and your machine.

 Check back tomorrow to see the first of the finished cards.

PaperHaus Magazine's 12 Days of Christmas

I've been signing up for contests and giveaways on the internet for over a year and have never won anything.  Until today.  :D  I found out I'm one of the winners of PaperHaus Magazine's 12 Days of Christmas event.  The prize, a 3 month subscription to UmWow Studio's monthly embellishment kit club.  I found out about these kits recently via another giveaway and they're quite nice.  This is what the November kit looked like:

I love the deep red flowers, which, according to the owner, DeeDee Catron's, etsy site are handmade.  Beautiful and impressive.

I don't think this is one of the kits I'll get, but it makes me sure I'll love whatever DeeDee's got planned for the next few months.

Thank you PaperHaus Magazine!!!  They've still got a few days left for their event, so become a follower and start commenting. :D

Cards of Christmas Past 4

I made a ton of copies of this card as it was pretty much the only one I handed out last year.  I bought this cute stamp set at the spring Creativ Festival and was determined to use it.  The set, called The Holiday Snowglobe Rubber Stamp Set by Plaid, included the snow globe, a snowman, snowcat, snowbunny, snowdog, a tree, Santa and sled and stars.  I made a bunch of different critters in the snowglobe.

The base was done with watercolour crayons as I decided it blended better than my other options.  I used a blue pencil crayon to give the snow in the globe some colour and markers for the inside critter.  The outside trees were inked with markers (so the leaves are green and the trunk brown).  I made a stencil for the Merry Christmas and coloured marker through it.  Then I added a strip of wrapping ribbon on the side.

As a final - and sometimes bad - touch, I sprayed the card with glitter mist.  The first few times I did this I had the nozzle too close to the paper and it caused the ink to run and warped the paper, though it also made the paper sparkly.  I quickly learned to just barely mist the pages so that wouldn't happen.

Cards of Christmas Past 3

I did a couple variations on this card, using leaves and berries I cut off a Christmas garland from the dollar store.  For this card I also had a store bought die cut poinsettia.  The sentiment was hand written with a gold pen.

Cards of Christmas Past 2

This santa going down the chimney card was also from a magazine idea.  Again I made a template myself and cut out the different pieces.  Not sure why I kept the entire face white rather than just adding a beard.  I used a little pompom for the edge of the hat.  You could add glitter, fake snow or cotton balls for the snow, beard and glove cuffs but apparently I didn't do any of those. 

Cards of Christmas Past 1

I've got some cards I photographed from several years ago that I thought I'd share.  They're of... differing quality and long before I started learning card making techniques.

This first one I got from a magazine.  Using the idea, I created my own reindeer template, which I cut out of brown paper, with a black outline and red nose.  I used snowflake and tree sequins, googly eyes and glitter glue, all from the dollar store.

Babies are a Blessing

This is another baby card I made recently.  I saw the idea in a magazine a year or more ago and had forgotten about it until now.  You fill a bonboniere bag (I got mine at the dollar store, 6 for $1) with confetti (I got a giant bag of shaped confetti from Michaels a while back for a couple of bucks) and glue the bag to the card.  The sentiment is from Fiskar's Precious Baby set, stamped in gold Ultimate Encore Metallic ink.

Baby Love Cards

A friend of mine is having a baby soon and we don't know if it's going to be a boy or a girl so I needed some quick baby cards that could go either way.

This card was inspired by a new blog I came across recently, J. J. Bolton.  It's the second card from this post.  I created my own L<3VE file in Silhouette's Studio program, cut out a panel and added baby feet and diaper pin embellishments.  It's super easy and super cute.

Hello Gorgeous!

I made the backing panel for this card months ago but didn't know what to do with it.  I found the technique on another blog.  Unfortunately that must have been before I joined pinterest as I didn't pin the card and so don't remember which blog it was from.

I stamped Hero Arts' Lattice Background in versamark ink on watercolour paper, applied white embossing powder and heat embossed it.  The other blogger then used Tim Hotlz distress markers for the colouring job (these markers act more like ink, running when water is applied).  I don't have distress markers so I used Crayola markers.  As waterbased markers, they also run when water is applied and wipe off the embossed area well so you don't have to be too exact when colouring as long as you wipe the embossed area every few minutes.  In retrospect adding the red was a mistake as the blue and purple ran together nicer.  I sprinkled the card with water and pulled the colour across the embossed ridges a bit with a cloth.  I should have only pulled blue to purple and purple to red, rather than pulling some of the red into the purple.  I also sprayed the card with sparkling mist, so it would shimmer in the light.

The woman, purse and sentiment are from Penny Black's Hello Gorgeous stamp set, inked in black.  I coloured her in with Crayolas and fussy cut her out.  The sentiment and purse are stamped on parchment paper, which I taped to the back of the panel.  I'd intended to have the woman more on the blue side, but forgot when I stuck the parchment down, so here she is. :)

Butterfly Swarm

Can you tell I like butterflies?  This is the birthday card I gave one of my sisters last year.  It's various punched butterflies made from parchment paper on a navy blue cardstock base.

Calm Seas

This is a card I made for my dad a few years ago.  It was done after a trip to the Creativ Festival in Toronto, where I picked up a ton of shaped buttons. :)

Originally I had high waves in the water, but wisely smoothed them out as they didn't quite fit the sentiment I was going for (smooth sailing).  The birds were leftover curls from one of my punches and the score lines for the insert frame were added with a stylus and a metal stencil I also got at that show.

Where To Buy Card Crafting Supplies

When I started this blog I'd meant to give tips and tricks in addition to showing cards I've made.  Well, here's a tip post.

Here are several places I buy my crafting supplies.  Every type of store has their own advantages and disadvantages, which I mention briefly.

1) Dedicated crafting stores - This would be places like Michaels, specialized scrapbooking stores, beading stores, etc.  The benefit to shopping here is selection.  They tend to stock more of what you want - now.  The downside tends to be the price.  You're paying for the right to find your stuff all in one place.

2) The Dollar Store - A great place for paper, ribbons, and embellishments.  The price is right, just check the quality of what you're buying.  I've had mixed results with tape runners I've bought at dollar stores, from horrible to pretty good.  It's also a good place to get basic paint brushes, gel pens, glitter pens, glitter glue, photo corners, small mirrors, etc.  The stores near me are constantly changing their stock.  I found a craft knife once, but haven't seen them since I bought mine.

3) Art Supply Stores - These don't tend to have much in the way of craft supplies, but if you want good watercolour paper, paints, specialty brushes and origami paper, this is where you should go.  They also tend to stock sets of pencil crayons, Copics, etc.  I get my fine line black markers and chunky glitter at these stores.  The prices tend to be high but you're getting quality stuff.

4) Stationary Stores - I was amazed one day, wandering around Staples, to discover they have a scrapbooking section.  The prices for their punches were cheaper (a LOT cheaper) than Michaels.  Alas, their selection was very limited and I already owned the punches.  :(  Still, if you're starting out, remember that stationary stores do stock things like craft knives (and spare blades), paper trimmers, stencils, etc.

5) Walmart - Not my favourite place to shop but they have a decent selection of goods, especially ribbon.  The prices are good and if you like one stop shopping, it can be a convenient place for your basic crafting supplies.

6) Online - I've increasingly started buying my supplies online.  Can't beat the prices, selection or number of stores.  A lot of the stamps I like are unavailable in stores, so you have to go online, often to their site, to get them.  Prices vary.  You can usually find sales and deals with free shipping over a certain amount (depending if you're shopping domestically or internationally).  Just remember, if you're shopping internationally, you might get hit by customs and taxes at the border and factor that into your price.

7) Fabric stores - A great place for specialty buttons, ribbon, lace, zippers and - of course - fabric.  Since the selection is limited to embellishments, it's not going to be your first shopping choice, but it's good to remember that their selection of laces, etc. tends to be different if not better than that of craft stores.  There's a specialty leather store in Toronto that also sells buckles, which are great as ribbon buckles.  Think outside the box. :)

8) Trade shows - An excellent place to find deals and crafting goods at fantastic prices.  The selection and prices are varied depending on the type of show and what exhibiters attend.  Crafting shows also tend to have 'make and takes', which allow you to try new products and learn techniques from experienced crafters.  Bring lots of cash as many places aren't set up for credit or debit.  Also, you'll be inclined to look first and shop later, but once things sell out at a show they're gone.  So better to shop early and get what you came for.

So, where do you shop for your craft supplies?

Wedding Card - Inside

I did the inside of this card first, and it took quite a while, both to come up with the idea and then to execute it.  The couple met while Salsa dancing, so I took that as my cue.  I did a card a while back with a pop-up curtain around a dancer and had the idea to do something similar here.

So, the first step was to google salsa dance silhouettes and pick a nice image to make a cut file for.  I found one and traced it into Silhouette's studio program.  Since it needed to be larger than the silhouette on the front of the card, I spent a long time making sure it looked good as a cut file, modifying all the lines and curves so it looked really good.

After getting the dancers, I realized my curtain idea was a bit lame and looked into making the dancers themselves the pop-up.  This was easier to learn how to do than I expected (here's the tutorial I adapted).  The execution, however, was hard.  I had to watch that video numerous times and redo steps several times to make it work.  I also decided to take out the perforated fold lines as the joins were so small I was afraid they would rip if I kept those in.

I cut out my pop-up, made some corrections, and cut it out again a bit smaller (so it wouldn't stick out of the card when folded).

My husband suggested doing the pop-up in gold to match the background and then add the black silhouette on the front to add contrast.  I think it was a good plan, as the non-shiny backing made a good 'sand' for the front of the card.  You can't see it very well in this photo, but the gold really shines  (I used Michael's brand, Recollections cardstock.  The metallic pack is cheap, includes 5 colours and are all very shiny on one side).

I glued the black dancers to the gold paper, then the entire pop-up to the backing paper, one side at a time to make sure it would open properly.  The rest of the card was just a matter of cutting a frame for the 2 stamp sentiment.  I curved the white edges and used an embossing edge punch on the black paper.  The sentiment was stamped with gold ink.   

Sorry, I used so many materials for this card I can't even remember them all, so I'm not doing a supplies list.

And here it is, the inside of my pop-up wedding card, the most difficult card I've done to date.

Beach Wedding Card - Outside

As promised, here's the first post detailing the wedding card I made from my husband's friends.  This is the most complicated card I've ever done.  And I think it turned out very well.

It was a beach wedding, so I googled 'beach wedding cards' to see what other people had done.  There are some fantastic cards out there.  I loved the various sandal cards but I actually did the (much harder) inside first, so the outside had to fit what I'd already made, and that meant a shaped card was out of the question.

Then I spotted a 3 silhouette print by Cherry Graphics called Wedding Favor Clip-art.  It's free to download, so I downloaded the image and then opened it in my Silhouette's Studio program.  I learned a while back how to trace images with the software (from one of their blog tutorials), the problem being that when images (like this one) are small or low resolution, your traced image isn't well defined.  So... I spent several hours making sure the lines were defined and the holes (which didn't show up in my trace) were back and properly defined.  Given how small the cut turned out, I probably needn't have worried about it so much, but it did look fantastic.

I originally made a backing paper for this using a pattern derived from the bridesmaids' dresses (with stripes of white, black, red, purple and light blue) but thought it looked too busy with the silhouette, so just cut it out of black and glued it on the back of the gold paper I used for the inside.  My husband thought the brown looked like sand, which seemed appropriate.

Here's the front of the card:

If you look at the original picture, you'll notice that I slanted the couple a bit too much, which is why my horizon is on a slant.  I ended up adding another line there so I had a properly aligned horizon line.  You can also see the little cuts in the palm tree trunks and leaves.  Yeah, that took a LONG TIME.

Tomorrow I'll explain how I did the inside.

Punta Cana Trip

Last week I went to Punta Cana for a destination wedding.  The wedding was fantastic and the trip itself very relaxing.  If you'd like to see some photos, I've set up a small album here.  We stayed at the Now Larimar resort and the service there was impeccable.  The cleaning lady we had put flowers on our bed and dresser every day when she cleaned the room. :)

If you want to see the wedding card I made for the couple, come back over the next few days.  It's the most complicated card I've done to date and will take a few days to detail.

Thankful Kitties

This is a card I made for the friend who took care of our cats while we were in Germany this May.  We've 2 kitties, one mostly white with a tiny pink nose and the other a unique mix of black and brown. My husband and I have a joke that the kitties party while we're away, hence the balloons. :)

Supplies:

Cardstock: Recollections

Stamps: Stampendous - Fluffles the Cat, Hot off the Press - Stamp and Punch set

Ink: Memento

Markers: Crayola

Ribbon: from stash

Jane Austen Cameo

This is a card I gave a writer friend of mine for the publication of one of her books.  The cameo and ovals were cut on my Silhouette SD, with punched butterflies and a dot embossed background.  The text is from Pride & Prejudice and I printed it up myself on cream resume paper.  In the future I'd probably leave the creme oval bare, as the text makes it feel busy.  I also used some Core'dinations cardstock, sanding the edges for a softer look.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Recollections, Core'dinations, resume paper
Punch: Martha Stewart Butterfly and Stamp
Embossing Folder: Couture Creations - Swiss Dots
ribbon
pearl accents
sandpaper

Believe Peel Off Card

Another older card, this believe was my first (and failed) attempt at using peel off stickers on a card.  I didn't realize how flimsy the sticker would be, being so intricate and thin.  I pulled the entire sticker off its backing for this card, not understanding that it would buckle and not stick on properly when I tried to lay it down.  I believe you're supposed to lay the first bit of the sticker on your cardstock and pull it off while immediately letting it stick to your paper (does that explanation make sense?).

Anyway, I haven't given this one away yet, being slightly embarres by how it turned out.  Maybe if I add some glitter accents the misshapen sticker won't be as noticeable...

Believe Doily Card

As Christmas is still some time away and I don't want to run out of holiday cards to post in December, I thought I'd post some non-Christmas cards for the next little bit.

This is a card I made quite some time ago (a year or more).  I really liked how it turned out, so I should make some more of these.  The white rim with the embossed roses is from a dollar store doily.  Originally I'd left it blank underneath but decided it needed some contrast (and structure) so added the red cardstock.   I also added some clear glitter glue to the corners of the frame and to the roses (though that may have come after I took this picture)

The corners of the frame were embossed and punched using a 4-in-1 punch I got on clearance from an online store. :)  Unfortunately you can't see the detail in this photo.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Recollections
Doily
Stamp: ? I think it's a cheap stamp I got a Michaels.  I'm not sure what brand it is.
Ink: ?  This was done before I got my Memento inks, so it's probably a cheap ink pad I picked up somewhere, or maybe a marker.
Corner punch: Embossing Punch 4-in-1 Elegance
clear glitter glue

Christmas Ornament Card Revisited

When I originally did my Christmas ornament card I'd intended to add decorations to the bulbs.  But life got busy and I wanted a card done, so I called it done without any extras.  Well, people commented that they looked bare - and rightly so, so I took the card out and added some glitter glue to the bulbs.  I think it's much better now.  Do you agree?

Winter Deer

I made this card and yesterday's together, trying slightly different things with them, but using a lot of the same materials.  I used a ripped piece of paper to make the edge, which I then inked up.  I added liquid applique on the trees and in a few places on the ground.  The deer are coloured in with a marker.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Recollections
Stamp: Stampendous - Winter Trees
Ink: Memento
Markers: Crayola
liquid applique

Winter Valley Card

I've got another Christmas card for you today.  I used an embossing folder I bought some time ago and used for the first time on this card.  It's a valley with trees and just screamed winter holiday.  I also used liquid applique for puffy snow (once it's dried overnight and heat gunned).  My 'ink painting' still isn't the best, getting smears everywhere, but luckily this card doesn't need to look polished to look good. :)

Supplies:
Cardstock: Recollections
Stamps: Stampendous - Winter Trees, Technique Tuesday - Treemendous (snowflakes)
Ink: memento dew drops
Embossing Folder: Crafts Too - Pine Tree Scene
liquid applique

Posts will be sporadic for the next few months...

With Christmas coming, I'll be working more hours at the store than usual, meaning I'll have less time for card crafting and blog posting.  I'm hoping to still have at least 2 posts a week, but expect things to be more haphazard until the holiday season is over, and thank you for visiting!

Shoe Panel Card

I liked the design of yesterday's card, and so made another using a different stamp.  Turns out this is an easy way of making your own patterned paper.  I used two shades of purple ink and repeated the shoes upside down, to give it the look of professional paper.  As with the other card, I also scored it along the top and bottom.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Recollections
Stamps: Imaginisce - Sole Sisters Stiletto Snag Em Mini Stamp, Whiff of Joy - Magical Wishes
Ink: Memento dew drops
Martha Stewart Score Board

Tropical Flowers Card

I saw someone do this style of card elsewhere (unfortunately I couldn't find the site I got this from).  The idea is to do a stamped panel across a plain card with a sentiment at the bottom.  I added a few crease lines with my score board for added effect.  

I had some trouble with the stamp and ended up doing the panel several times (at which point I had trouble with the ink - the pink didn't want to wash off so I ended up with some orange bits).  Tomorrow's card, using the same style, worked out better.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Recollections
Stamps: Imaginisce - Hibiscus, Whiff of Joy - Magical Wishes
Ink: Hero Arts fluorescent yellow, pink
Martha Stewart Score Board

Lingerie Card

My husband doesn't believe I'll post this card, but I thought it looked great so here goes.

I saw this shaped card on Will Run For Stamps and loved the design.  The post links to Stamp Owl, where you can still find the template for free. :)

I put the template into my Silhouette and created a cut file.  I did a test cut with cheap paper, then cut the bra and panties out of a more expensive, red fuzzy paper.  The base is cream paper.  I used lace from my stash, tucking the edges under the red paper so they wouldn't show up top and made little bows as accents.

I didn't glue/tape the inside curve of the bra, so that I could stuff parts of my husband's present in them.  Note, this requires making sure the sides of the bra are glued/taped VERY well or they'll pull off with the stress.  It makes a great gift card holder for that someone special in your life.  And while I used one, you don't need a cutting machine to make it!

Enjoy!

Less Is More: Silver

Less is More's challenge for this week is using the colour Silver in a card.

What a perfect challenge for doing Christmas cards with my new JustRite stamp: Snowfall Background Stamp.  I love this stamp and had to get it. :)

I tried the stamp with a few different coloured metallic inks on different papers.  The ink over the whole page made the edges curl, so photographing these was... interesting.  Here are two:

Platinum ink on black paper.

Silver ink on white paper.

I think the dark paper works great for this stamp, so I think I'll stick with that in the future.  I used pigment inks, so I had to wash off the stamp quickly - and with soap - to get it properly cleaned off (I don't have stamp cleaners as I'd probably forget that you shouldn't use them on clear stamps).

Supplies:

Cardstock: Recollections

Stamps: JustRite - Snowfall Background Stamp, Kaiser Craft - Clear Stamp set Christmas,  Stampendous - Winter Trees

Inks: Brilliance Dew Drop Platinum, Encore Ultimate Metallic Silver, Memento Dew Drop Red

Core'dinations Christmas Card

Like a lot of companies, Core'dinations is having a contest for yesterday's World Card Making Day.  Since I own Core'dinations cardstock (you have to use some to enter the contest) and don't use it often (because it's expensive and I want to 'save' it), I decided to try the challenge.  After all, it's no good to have a lot of pretty papers if you never use them, right?  And it gave me the chance to try some new things.  Like paper ripping.  I like clean cut lines, but Core'dinations papers look awesome ripped, so I gave it a go.

Here's my card:

It was more complicated than most of the cards I've made recently, if only because it uses several papers, stamps and an embossing folder.  I cut the sides of both pieces of Core'dinations cardstock so they'd fit the card, then ripped the green piece.  I cut the blue so no black would show underneath.  Then I taped the two pieces together and stamped the trees, allowing for overlap.

I took the papers apart and embossed the blue sheet, pressing down on the snowflakes that formed over the tree tops so they wouldn't look strange, then very lightly sanded the snowflakes so they'd show up better.  Meanwhile, on the green sheet I stamped and coloured the deer.  I taped te papers back together again to place properly on the card base.

I stamped the sentiment before using a tape runner to affix the top layers.  The green overlapped a bit too much, so I added a few drops of glue so it would stick to the blue and not pull off the card.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Core'dinations Flower Power, Recollections
Stamps: Stampendous - Winter Trees, Technique Tuesday - Treemendous
Ink: Memento, Versa Magic - white
Marker: Crayola
Embossing Folder: Sizzix - Christmas Set 3
glue, tape runner, sandpaper