Merry Christmas!

From my home to yours.

This picture is of my tree from last year.  I've been working so much this year there wasn't time to put up a tree.  :(

Anyway, I hope you have an awesome holiday and best wishes for the New Year.

I probably won't have any posts until 2014, so I wish you a fantastic week and I'll see you in the new year.

Charm(ed) Christmas

This was another easy card to put together.  I had the charms lying around and bought the pipe cleaners at the dollar store.  My original plan was to string the charms on the pipe cleaner, but it gets too thick and messes up the strands, so I glued the charms to the paper with a hot glue gun and laid the pipe cleaner on top.  To finish off I added the sentiment in silver ink.

Christmas Ornaments Card

This card took a bit longer as I had to punch out the letters from a magazine sheet and fussy cut the ornaments.  The pine branches were leftovers from an earlier card.  Everything was then glued on (though I only glued the branch stems so the needles would stick up a bit).

Simple Santa Card

This is another card I whipped up quickly using a sticker and a few stamps.

Joy Skates

I interrupt your scheduled posts with another live card.  Marianne Design Challenge has come out with their new challenge to create a clean and simple card.  As it was my day off I decided to participate by making a card.  I had to sneak one of my Christmas present dies out of its packaging for this, but I don't think my husband who never - ever - reads this blog will notice. ;)

The dies are all Marianne Design, with Memento ink rubbed on.  I got the sentiment at Michaels, the Canadian craft chain (it was in their cheap stamp bin one year).  I added some glitter red glue berries to opposing corners and some glitter pen to the blades of the skates (which you can't see in the picture).

Naughty and Nice Stockings

Again, I needed some cards and fast, so I pulled out stickers I bought a while back and whipped up some clean and simple cards.  Here's the first:

Polar Wishes

This is a more complex card I made back when I had time to make cards. :P

I love this polar bear stamp from Some Odd Girl.  I stamped the hat, then masked it and stamped the bear.  I coloured him using pencil crayons (just some grey shading) and the hat with markers.  I then die cut him out.  I tried the 'ink the die to get a solid frame' technique, which didn't quite work as intended.

For the background I stamped snowflakes and sponged on some ink for a blowing snow effect.

The label was die cut, stamped and also sponged with ink.

Snowman Bead Ornament

I don't actually know where to get the materials for this, if it was a kit or purchased separately, as I found the pieces for it at the bottom of a box of ornaments.  It's 3 sizes of clear beads, with a narrow black bead and a thicker black bead for a hat.  I tied it all together using red ribbon (though a silver pipe cleaner might have given it a better snow feel.

Beary Love Ornament

This is the first ornament I made last year, but the most time consuming one, which is why I'm posting it last.

I started out by cutting some acetate with a circular die.  I only cut part of the die because I needed piece at the top to attach to the ornament.  I made a bit of a mess out of it cutting it down to size, so I should have cut an actual ornament shape on my Silhouette.  Ah well.

I glued a card topper I got from a magazine to the acetate, along with a few silver snowflakes.  I curled the acetate so I could fit it into the ornament, glued it on, then added some different coloured sequins and pom poms.

Holiday Snowman

This was a pretty quick card to make.  I already had the velvet sticker coloured from a previous year and the border was scrap from another card.

I started out by laying the snowflake paper on my cardstock.  Then the border with the sentiment stamped on.  The sticker was partly covered by punched snowflakes to make the lines less harsh.

Gingerbread Christmas Card

I wanted to submit a card to Lawn Fawn's CHA challenge, so I spruced up my gingerbread card idea.  I took some of my unused embossed gingerbread cutouts I did before using Lawn Fawn's Sweet Christmas set and used pop-dots to attach them to one of my Silhouette cut pans (I'd already done the glitter pen on the embossed shapes and the white gel pen around the pan).

I carefully measured and cut my matting papers, punching the edge of the red sheet.  I added some Lawn Fawn gold sparkle cord (taped on the back because my bow refused to look good).  I stamped the sentiment, also from Sweet Christmas, in gold on the green cardstock.  I then attached my layers.

Some Odd Girl Bliss

I've got a new card today, one that's not Christmas themed.  I scrabbled some time together to make this card for Some Odd Girl's See Your Project at CHA contest.  CHA is a big craft show for professionals, so it would be amazing to have a project at one of the display booths there.  I tried to make this card as perfect as I could (and therefore rejected two stamped and inked panels due to smudging).

This was a fairly simple - though time-consuming - card to make.

I stamped the image on white cardstock and die cut it out.  I then, very carefully (due to my previous errors) added ink around the edges, trying not to smudge it or make the colour uneven.

I picked out the backing papers and cut them, using an embossing punch on the corners of the darker page.

Finally I coloured the image and added a few silver and gold highlights and then put the layers together.

Pom pom Christmas Tree Ornament

This is another quick ornament to make.  I just filled a plastic ornament I bought at Michaels with some sparkly pom poms I got at the dollar store.  Voila!

Poinsettia Christmas Tree Ornament

This is an ornament I made for my tree last year but didn't share on the blog.

I cut out a bunch of different sized poinsettia flowers on my Silhouette SD (plus 2 leaves, though one didn't cut properly, which is why it's only partially visible on the finished piece).  I then scored the flowers to make them look a little more real and added glitter glue to the edges.  I assembled all the pieces, added a few gold cardstock berries and a piece of ribbon to hang it from.

Snowflake Tag

I went to the Creativ Festival in October and this is one of the make'n'takes I did.  It's pretty quick and can be adjusted to fit your own materials.

A piece of rectangular cardstock was embossed with dots.  Then 2 stamped snowflakes were die cut out and layered on each other using pop-dots.  Finally a crystal was put in the centre of the top snowflake.

Punch a hole and put your string through.

Core'dinations Tree Card

This is a pretty quick card I whipped up.

I started by ripping a few triangles of Core'dinations cardstock for the tree - with a small piece of brown construction paper for the trunk.  I then ripped another piece, this time of whitewashed blue, for a snowy hill.  The base cardstock was embossed with snowflakes.

After assembling the card I thought it needed something else, so I punched a small star out of glitter cardstock.

Reindeer Silhouette Card

This was an easy card to make as all I really needed to do was cut the shapes out on my Silhouette SD.  The top of the red reindeer didn't quite make it, which is why I designed the card with that part going off the edge.

I glued the two reindeer down, then added the sentiment in gold ink.

Pine Branch Card

I worked on this card in stages for a while.  I started out by making the pine branch piece, then shifting it a bit so I'd get slightly different degrees between the needles when I layered them.  My original plan was to do 3 branches on top of each other, but I decided that 2 worked well enough, and it gave me extra pieces for another project.

I made the layered pinecone pieces myself too.  After cutting them out, I added some white gel pen to the ends before gluing them together.

I stamped a snowflake on the cut ornament, and a sentiment on the banner before attaching those to the card.

Season's Greetings Wreath

This is the last live post I'll be doing until the new year.  I've got a ton of cards and posts prepped for you though.  My work schedule is getting very hectic and I didn't want my blog to go neglected.  Turns out I made more cards than I though as I've got more than the 2 posts/week I'd originally planned.  I also added some tree decorations posts just for fun.

This was a quick card - you can expect to see a lot of quick cards in the weeks ahead as I was trying to get them all ready for Christmas.  I stamped the wreath using 2 shades of green ink and the circle stamping gear.  I added some red rhinestones, a bow and the greeting.

Season's Greetings Flurry Card

This is a card I made last year, but it's a bit different from the one I posted here, so - since I'm pressed for time - I'm posting it here now.

The flurries are a background stamp from JustRite.  I added the Santa & sleigh stamp as well as the sentiment.  Such an easy card.

Let It Snow Card

This is a card I whipped up a few copies of.  Starting next week I won't have much time for anything, let along card crafting.  I'm hoping to set up posts for December, but I apologize if there's nothing new here to see.

I stamped the background in blue ink using a bunch of small snowflake stamps.  The border is a piece of glitter ribbon.  I stamped the sentiment and added the punched snowflakes.  Easy peasy.  Sorry about the crosshatched pattern.  I tried taking this photo in a different spot and got a reflection from my window screen on the card.  The real card is plain white with the stamped snowflakes.

Under the Mistletoe

I made this card for Kenny K's current challenge, Pumps & Pearls.

I printed the image and cut it out using my Silhouette.  I then coloured it with pencil crayons, adding rather too much silver eyeshadow, LOL.  I added some liquid pearls to the mistletoe in the woman's hand and liquid applique to make the fur lining on her outfit pop.

I wanted to try a gate fold card, and managed to make the flaps a little too small.  Ah well, it led to my using the oval in the centre, which I like.  I attached some patterned paper to my white cardstock base, then the inked oval.  The woman's attached with pop-dots.  For the 'pearls', I added some liquid pearl dots around the oval and the black pearl flourish at the side.

I'm thinking this card will go to a guy so I didn't want too much around the image.  I haven't stamped the sentiment inside, but I'm thinking of using 'Naughty or Nice'.

Silver Moon Christmas Card

This is a card I made either last year or early this year.

I die cut a circle out of blue cardstock and put silver paper behind it.  I stamped a santa and reindeer over it.  The white cardstock had 2 wolves stamped and fussy cut around the tops of.  I stamped the sentiment and added liquid applique (which after drying and heat embossing puffs up to make fake snow).

Poinsettia Negatives

This was a somewhat accidental card.  I cut a ton of different sized poinsettia flowers out of red cardstock, and afterwards had this sheet of negatives.  So I decided to make them into a card.  I cut the cardstock down and glued it to the card base.  In retrospect I should have glued the cardstock before cutting it, as I lost a few of the smaller pieces that gave the poinsettia shape).

To finish the card all I did was add some ribbon and a bow.

White on White Challenge

I've wanted to do a white on white card for ages and it's taken this JustRite challenge to get me to try it.  I realize that if you're only using one colour you either need lots of textures or lots of layers so I pulled out my dies.  I recently got some border dies (my first - which is my excuse for why the layers don't line up) and got to work.

I started by die cutting an edge from a piece of glossy white cardstock.  Then I cut it again so that the good side of the paper looked good (apparently die cutting glossy paper from the back warps the glossy layer, so you want the cutting edge to face the glossy side of your paper).

Then I lined up my card back and die cut the fancy layer out of it.  Then I took out a new card base because I couldn't get the die cuts to fall out on the other one despite passing it through the machine several times, and remembered to use wax paper so the pieces came out properly.  I cut the edge and glued the two layers together.  For fun (and to cover some of the glue tape that showed through the die cuts) I added some sparkly glitter glue to the die cut areas.

I used a spellbinders die to cut out a medallion shape, then stamped and heat embossed the JustRite medallion inside (from the You Inspire Me set) with white embossing powder.  The sentiment (from Botanical Medallions & Banners set) was stamped with white ink and heat embossed with a glittery clear powder, so it shimmers in the light.  It's a bit hard to read so I may have to ink some colour over the sentiment when the time comes to give it away.

Back to the card base, I stamped the flourish, also from Botanical Medallions & Banners set, three times to make a large flourish for the medallion and heat embossed it with white powder.  The medallion was attached with some pop-dots and I put a few dots of glitter glue around the flourish.

It's not perfect, but I really like how it turned out.

Have a Sweet Holiday Card

This is a card I made last year but wasn't entirely happy with and so didn't hand out.  I stamped the scene (without masking), coloured in the shapes and stamped snowflakes and the sentiment.

Simply Jane Frame

I haven't had time to craft in a while (and I won't have much again until Christmas and New Year's are over - welcome to retail) so again, this is an older card.

I started out by die cutting the frame and adding a light ink to the edges.  I then stamped and embossed the Jane images (from Papertrey Ink's Simply Jane stamp set).  I glued it to the card back and it looked empty, so I added the corner frame stamps.

Penguin on an Ice Floe Card Finished

Some time ago I did this Penguin on an Ice Floe interactive card.  But I never finished it.  So I decided it was time I did.

I added some white gel pen to the penguin's body and orange to its beak and flippers.  I used a green gel pen to give the fish scales.  I stamped winter wishes on the pull tab, some waved below the ice floe and some snowflakes.

Voila.  Now it's ready to give as a Christmas card.

Penguin Wishes

I'm submitting this card to Simon Says Stamp's Christmas/Happy Holiday challenge.

I started by die cutting 2 circles and stamping the penguin in the smaller one.  I coloured it with pencil crayons and glued them together.

The light blue panel was embossed and glued on the card.  Then I die cut and inked the label and stamped the sentiment on it.  I added a piece of dark silver glitter ribbon to the card and put the label on top.

Flipped Butterflies

I've wanted this embossing folder ever since I first saw a project using it, but didn't think I'd ever get my hands on it as it's been discontinued.  Well, I found a site in the U.S. that had atrocious shipping costs but that folder in stock, so I placed an order.

And now it's mine. :D

The concept I had in mind to put gold ink on the raised parts of the embossing folder and letter press them didn't quite work.  I always got residue on the unraised parts, making the final card look pretty bad.  So I finally just embossed the whole thing in black and used a gold pen on the raised parts for the contrast I wanted.

I then added the punched butterflies.  The ink pad was a truer, brighter gold than my pen, but it still looks good.  I matted the embossed panel on a gold panel to aid the contrast, then mounted that on the black card base.

Wreath Greetings

I made this card for Simon Says Stamp's weekly challenge, use a rubber or a clear stamp.  I used 2 rubber stamps.  For the wreath I used Versamark ink and heat embossed a sparkly dark green embossing powder.  I then coloured the bow with a red gel pen.  Then I stamped the sentiment with red dye ink.  Voila.  Easy peasy.

White on White Christmas Card

I made this card for a clean and simple challenge, but I don't think there's enough 'white space' as it were, so I'm not submitting it after all.

I started out with the white embossed angel idea and went from there.  I wanted something more visible, so I got an embossing folder that had an edge, and cut out the element.  I then stamped and embossed the image (I waited for the embossed part to be sure where to add the angel).  Instead of using my fine white powder, I used a sparkly one.  It may have been clear rather than white (they both look white in powder form), which could be why it doesn't show up as well as it should.  It's not particularly sparkly either, which sucks.

After the angel was embossed I used a tape runner to glue the dry embossed panel to the card.  For the sentiment at the top I used the fine white, which turned out nicely.  If I did this again I'd use the fine white powder for the angel too.

The paper warped a bit because I wasn't sure if the angel had embossed properly (it ended up a bit grainy).  On the other hand, the warp made the heat embossed parts show up better in the photograph.

Ink 'Painted' Christmas Card

I discovered this site for stampscapes a while back.  While I love their stuff, their shipping charges are too much for me, so before taking the plunge and buying a bunch of stamps (to justify the shipping fee) I tried their paper saturation / 'painting' techniques to make a card and then use stamps I already own.

I used make up sponges to apply the many layers of ink on glossy paper, then stamped over it all with the closest silhouette stamps I had.  It didn't quite work (and I tried using a marker to increase the silhouettes, which was a mistake - the lines show up darker than the stamp ink, so it looks strange) but I can see myself trying this again when I have more time.  I haven't mounted it on cardstock yet, but I except I'll do so on black or dark blue.

Birthday Rays

I'll be posting mostly Christmas cards from here on out, as I've made a ton of them (that I haven't posted yet).  Since my time is becoming more limited, I'll be concentrating on the rest of the Christmas cards I need.

But for today I've got a masculine birthday card for you.  It was a very easy card to put together, but uses an unconventional crafting product.  I don't do nail art.  Though I think it's lovely my nails break too easily (and often) for me to bother.  But I saw thin strips of metallic tape on sale for nail art and thought it would look great on a card.

I started with a piece of black cardstock, stamped 'Happy Birthday' in gold, then made some rays with the tape. The only thing to be aware of is the tape's not particularly sticky.  I suspect it's designed to have nail polish applied on top to keep it in place.  It works well enough though and is so shiny!  I finished the card by slapping the cardstock on a cream base.

Naughty Kitty

This is another card from a quick batch.  I suspect my work schedule is going to be crazy come November, so I'm trying to get some extra cards made now so I have something to post (and so my Christmas cards are all ready in time).

The kitty on this card is from Stampendous' Fluffles the Cat set, which I've woefully underused.  I paired it with a CAS-ual Friday sentiment because that cat just looks guilty of something.  Which is why it's holding the little Christmas tree as a 'look, I'm good' ploy.  It's standing on a piece of glitter gold ribbon.  I used a bit of pink glitter pen on the berries on the tree and the cat's nose.

I'm submitting this to Simon Say's Stamp's Anything Goes challenge.

Lawn Fawn Deer

This is the first card I made yesterday for the CAS-ual Friday's Fall Colors and a Leaf challenge.  I thought this was too busy, but looking at it again, I don't think it is, so I'm submitting it after all.  I'm not generally a fan of brown, but I'm having fun playing with it lately.  I'm also submitting it to Simon Says Stamp's Anything Goes challenge.

This card again uses the stuff I won from Lawn Fawn.  I love the maple leaf sequins.  And yes, I know, birch trees don't drop maple leaves, but that's what I had so...

I started by stamping the deer on white cardstock and colouring it with markers.

I used brown cardstock for the base, then cut a piece of patterned paper to go on top because I wanted something to wrap the brown and white hemp twine around.  I attached the paper to the base, then added the shimmery dark orange leaf sequins and the fussy cut deer to the card with pop dots.  Lastly I glued on the blue sequin.

I Love Fall

This is the second card I made for CAS-ual Friday's current challenge: Fall Colors and a Leaf.  I thought the first one turned out a bit too busy for a clean and simple card, though looking at some of the other entries, maybe it would have been ok.  Anyway, I'll post that card tomorrow.  For today, I've definitely got a CAS card.

Since it's a fall theme and I just won some fall oriented things from Lawn Fawn, I decided to play with them.

I started out by scoring three lines on the bottom of the cardstock for the ground.  I stamped the tree in brown and then the leaves in various colours.  I'd actually planned to put an animal next to the tree (either the racoon - which didn't end up fitting the colour scheme - or the fox - which would have) but in the end decided that the card looked fine without anything in the middle.  I stamped the sentiment to give the card a bit of balance.

Winter Wishes

This card is for the Some Odd Girl card challenge, which is a card sketch:

I tend to use these pretty literally, so here's my card.

I started with a piece of dark blue cardstock for the card base (it looks black in the picture, but it's really navy blue).  I die cut the circle out of the light blue cardstock and then embossed it with a snowflake folder.  I debated using a smaller circle for the inset piece, but it looked strange, so I used the same die to cut out a white circle which I then stamped and coloured with pencil crayons.  The winter wishes was carefully masked so I could separate the sentiment (which overlaps a bit), and the ends cut with scissors.

If you're interested in trying digital stamping but aren't sure how, or if you already use digital stamps but could use some pointers, Some Odd Girl has put out a free downloadable ebook with information.  You get an image to practice with too, which is pretty cool.

Monochromatic Christmas Card

I made this card for the Lawnscaping challenge going on right now, monochromatic.

I wanted to use more of my scratch and sniff embossed gingerbread cookies, so I decided to make my card with shades of brown.

I punched snowflakes out of a lighter piece of brown cardstock and a border out of a metallic brown/bronze cardstock, then started assembling things.

The cookies were fussy cut a while back and applied with pop dots.  The tray was cut on a silhouette and lined with a white gel pen.  I used a bit of coloured gel pen on the cookies themselves.

I used the sentiment from the Sweet Christmas set, as well as the mini snowflake, which I stamped in the open areas.  I probably should have centered the sentiment, but I didn't think of that in time.

Crafting companies are so amazing.  Lawn Fawn recently had a contest for their newest collection, stamps and dies.  And, along with several other lucky people, I won!  This is the prize they sent me, the complete Into the Woods collection.  And it looks awesome. :D

Hydrangea Birthday

Today's card is for the current Simon Says Stamp Challenge, to celebrate Stamptember and use a product from the SSS catalogue.  I used SSS's Delicate Dahlia die and Impression Obsession's Hydrangea die, which I got at their store.

I started by die cutting the hydrangea out of light green and light blue cardstock.  I then used the dahlia die to emboss the upper and bottom corner of my cardstock base.  I glued on the hydrangea stem and the thin bits of the leaves, using pop dots to raise the leaves themselves up.  I glued down the flower backing so there's a nice matching blue behind the flowers.  I removed the fuzz from a Q-tip and used the end to fold the individual flowers around and so I could dab bits of glue on the bases.  I then applied them to the flower base (I die cut 4 batches of flowers, though a 5th wouldn't have been amiss).

I applied a bit of chalk ink to the base of the card to give some colour to the embossed image there and the impression of grass.  I guess pigment ink it's a bit more forgiving than the dye inks I normally sponge with, so I didn't get any smear marks the way I usually do.  I'll have to remember that.  

To finish off the card, I stamped Happy Birthday in a light blue pigment ink.

Embossed Wedding Card

This is a wedding card I made when I first got my Big Shot intending it as a quick wedding card.  So far, I've ended up personalizing my cards when friends have gotten married, so it's still in my pile.

I started out by punching the edge of my black cardstock and putting it on the white card base.  Then I cut the three banners out of silver cardstock, embossed them and glued them to the card.  For the center image the deboss went on the shiny side, which I thought made a nice contrast with the other two embossed images, so I wasn't too miffed with the error.  

Beary Birthday Card

Today I've got another card I made quite some time ago but never posted.  Enjoy!

Scent Embossed Gingerbread Cookie Cards

I started this last week after seeing this tutorial on Papertrey Ink's Capture the Moment blog for making your own scented embossing powder.  I remembered this cute recipe book cover on the Lawn Fawn blog from last Christmas with a design I wanted to reproduce.  I actually bought the stamp set they were profiling because I liked that cover so much.

So, first I needed my spices.  I mixed the spices used for gingerbread cookies, which turned out to be too strong for what I wanted and didn't quite smell like gingerbread.  The tutorial for this technique emphasized not adding sugar (because it will burn when you heat the powder), and I imagine that and molasses help give the traditional scent.  I messed with the powder, adding some more ginger, etc, until I liked what I ended up with well enough.  I then use 1 tsp of my spice mix and combined it with 1* tsp clear embossing powder in a small container I got at the dollar store.
[* After looking at the tutorial post again, it's supposed to be 2 tsp embossing powder to 1 tsp spice/scent, which is probably why I had issues if I used too much powder at once.  Having said that, the 1-1 ratio did work, just probably not as well as the 1-2 I was supposed to use.]

Now, my gingerbread cookie stamps aren't solid, so this was the perfect excuse for me to pull out the Versamark pen I bought years ago and never used.

I started the cookies by stamping a bunch in white pigment ink and another set in black dye ink.  I wasn't sure which I'd prefer, so decided to do both.  After the pigment ink had dried, I went over the faces of the figures with the Versamark pen, and then added the embossing powder on top.  I did 3-4 at a time (and found that 4 was pushing it, as the 4th ones turned out spotty) and tapped off the excess powder.   Then I heated the 3-4 designs before shaking my powder to keep it properly mixed and moving on to the next group.

Here, you can see a few embossed.  The cardstock looks darker (due to the spices in the embossing powder).  Here's a close-up.  You can see how the embossing makes the cookies look a bit rough.  And if you scratch them a bit, they smell!

Fussy cutting them all out took a decent amount of time, but they look great.  I added a few gel pen accents to the arms/legs/hem and tree.

The final step, which I did today, was to cut out the cookie trays with my Silhouette SD and assemble the cards.  I also cut out a slightly smaller tray out of acetate, which I used to help me white gel pen a line around the pan.

I did two cards, trying out slightly different designs.  For the first card I added a strip of glitter ribbon above the stamped sentiment.  I attached the cookies using pop-dots.

For the second card, I added a contrasting panel, which allowed me to wrap some twine around the card.  I'm submitting this card to this week's Simon Says Stamp's embossing challenge.