Sue's Christmas Card for 2011

Another card I found in my picture file, is the Christmas card I sent to my friend Sue - LAST Christmas.

I used a house shaped Sizzix die that can also be used as a gift card holder. The Noel and Deer (both by Tim Holtz) were cut from a beautiful bronze Stardream card stock and have such a pretty shimmer.

The door on the front of the 'house' opens, and this is where you could insert a gift card. I chose to stamp and embellish the opening - and the '2 5' (which cuts with the NOEL) is also a shimmery bronze.

This is a bottom fold card, ha ha.

Here is a look at the inside:

It was fun to make something a little unusual for her - I can't believe it has taken me a year to post it!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Silouette Christmas Card

I keep finding cards in my picture file that have not yet been posted ... today's share is one of them.

The red card base is 5" square, and the silhouette was Cricut cut using 'A Child's Year' cartridge. I love that cartridge!

The top layer was cut from black and the shadow was cut from red. Once they were attached together I spritzed the die cut with glimmer mist then popped it up onto the paper covered card front.

I stamped the verse inside with a Printworks stamp and red ink.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Warm Wishes Christmas Card

Remember that kraft Christmas paper stack I used for my Merry Monday #29 card? I used it to make a card for my friend Jane last year, and just found the pictures in my file so they never did get posted! I'm trying to clear out some of these older cards/pictures to make room for new ones.  :-)

I cut a 6" square card from green Bazzil card stock, and trimmed down one of the patterned sheets. The rest of the design is in my scrap folder to use for a future project. I outlined lots of the details on this teapot with glitter glue.

In order to get the Warm Wishes to fit on a 6" card base, I had to cut it apart and squish the words together. But I think it worked out OK.  It was one of my first group of large square cards, so it was really fun to do and Jane really liked it.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bird and Trees Christmas Cards

I have a two nearly identical cards to share today ... one is a 5-1/4" square card and one is an A2 size. I love this birch tree stamp, and want to use it more often in the New Year. The bird is a chubby little sparrow, and I turned into a cardinal with the help of a very fine point red Sharpie marker.  I held my breath when I was using it, in case I messed up the card but it worked out the way I wanted it to!

I used a hand cut stencil, a cosmetic sponge, and dye ink to sponge the clouds on the white center piece, then overstamped  it with the birch image and brown ink. Finally, the bird in red and some glitter glue for seasonal sparkle.

I embossed a strip of card stock with an embossing folder, and added it to the card base before popping up the stamped image with foam tape.

 

Supplies: Card Stock - {Baja Breeze} Stampin' Up, red & white from Office Depot. 

Stickles Glitter Glue

Stamps - Impress

Memory Box and Stampin' Up Ink

Sizzix and ?? embossing folders

Foam tape

Thanks for stopping by today!

Joy Christmas Cards

I would rather be making tags to join in the '12 Tags of Christmas over at the Tim Holtz blog, but the cleaning continues here. Instead I have a couple of quick and easy cards to post - using the same Tim Holtz / Szzix ornament and JOY dies as my December 1st card post. 

 

The paper (My Minds Eye) is sparkly, and cheerful - and it would be easy to make multiples of these cards. Which is a good thing - I haven't started addressing my cards yet, and I may need to make more!

Tomorrow I should be back, playing catch up with the tags. 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Happy December First

It's the first of December,  and I want to wish you a Happy Holiday Season - however you celebrate it.

I have made several quick and easy Christmas cards - here is the first:

This is a 4-1/4" square card, made with a folded white card stock base and a 3-3/4" square of glittery patterned paper.

The "JOY ornament" was cut using two Tim Holtz Sizzix dies ... the word oval fits perfectly into his ornament die (among others). Brilliant!  I traced around the outside of the word oval, then quickly hand trimmed it to glue behind the words so they showed up. Some Bakers Twine (Stampin' Up) and foam tape and ... done.

 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Snowman Christmas Card

 

I had fun with my Tim Holtz snowman die for this card. I cut it out of pearlized Bazzil card stock, and inked the edges with brown. The A2 card base is a confetti card stock, and the patterned papers have sparkly touches.

The buttons were threaded with narrow strips of chocolate brown card stock (Basic Grey - more like a heavy paper) and attached with Crystal Effects.  I cut a strip from the Stampin' Up chocolate chip striped ribbon, which is quite wide, for the scarf. The snowman is popped up with foam tape.

I love dies, and how versatile they can be. After I made this card I cut about 10 more snowmen out of  white card stock. Left plain, they make perfect tags for wrapped Christmas packages, with lots of room to write on them. They can be attached with foam tape, 2 faced tape, or tied on with bakers twine through his folded arm.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Christmas Sketch Cards

There is a new sketch over at CAS-ual Friday's blog, and these scraps of sparkly Christmas paper were just the perfect size!

I used Stampin' Up's Old Olive to make the folded cards, and put a white insert inside to add the verse and sign our names. The greeting is a Tim Holtz stamp, done with Old Olive ink.

 

This is such a useful sketch - I want to have another go at it, this time using a much smaller greeting below the popped out layer. 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Noel Ornament Card

The new sketch is up at the Clean And Simple Stamping Blog and I just had to play along. But I also had to take some artistic liberty with it:

Here is the sketch  FTL167:

So I added the sentiment INTO the circle element, which was made into a Christmas ornament shape and moved the strip up to the top of the ornament. Gotta love the flexibility of sketches!

I added packing tape to the reverse side of the cut out ornament and added Martha Stewart glitter to the front. The adhesive of the packing tape keeps the glitter attached.  A hand trimmed white card stock oval backs the ornament and I used a silver metallic pen to colour the top of the die cut. I also added 2 silver dots to the paper strip to represent the buttons on the sketch.

The ornament and words are by Tim Holtz, and the little paper strip is from a Martha Stewart package I've had for ages. I ran it through a Stampin' Up embossing folder.  I'm not sure who makes the green patterned paper but I will update this post the next time I haul the paper stack down from the shelf.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Snowman Sketch Cards

I had a chance today (when I dug out the studio) to make 2 cards for the latest sketch at the Clean And Simple Stamping Blog.  This card also qualifies for the CFC28 which is to make a CAS card with a tag on it, over at the CAS-ual Friday's Blog. 

Here are my cards:

 

and here is the sketch:

I was able to use some sparkly scrap paper from my Craft Sale Mess Chaos Stash and that always makes me happy. The two snowmen were cut from another scrap, but before hand trimming them I glued the scrap to a piece of white card stock for stability.

The tag is a Tim Holtz die - I love that die set, as there are so many little tabs and tags on it.  :-)

I tried to capture the sparkle in the paper and snowmen scarves, but it never shows up well in a low res web photo.

Word stamp is by Hero Arts, and the scallop border is a MFT (My Favorite Things) die.

I sold quite a few Christmas cards in our Craft Sale this past weekend, so it's time to re-build the stash!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Holly Christmas Cards

I managed to make another couple of cards using the sketch (FTL165) at the Clean And Simple Stamping Blog.

 

The paper strip was leftover from wrapping some mini chocolates for one of the Craft Sale projects, and was 12" long. Perfect for making two A2 cards!  I did cluster the three elements from the sketch together though, as they looked scattered to me otherwise.  The Holly is from a wonderful Sizzix die, I cut the holly leaf twice and added some sparkle with a Sakura gel pen. The circle is a 1" punch from Stampin' Up.

This is not the sentiment I wanted to use.  I WANTED to use my 'go to' Merry Christmas stamp. But I can't. And unless I find another one for sale somewhere, I won't ever be able to use it again.

What happened? I have one word for you. 

Jasper.

I actually used three words:   !@#!@#$!& Jasper. 

My favourite Christmas stamp! He came into my studio with a bone, and left chewing what I thought was the bone. Nope - he traded me. Left ME the bone, and took my stamp instead. See where he peeled off the rubber?

Yes, he ate it.

Yes, it appeared again - in the dog run the next day. Where I gathered it all up in a poo bag and tossed it in the garbage. And said again  !@#!@#$!& Jasper. I couldn't help myself.

 

This sentiment is by Hero Arts and I used a green rainbow ink pad to stamp it. Not the greeting I wanted, but it will have to do and I think the card turned out all right! 

And I've stopped swearing at that dog.

Until the next time.

And we all know there will be a next time!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Christmas Cards - November 2011

I have my 5 November Christmas cards finished for the Christmas Card Challenge at Splitcoast:

 

This first card started out as just a "lets try the new stamp" - I picked up the (Penny Black) stamp this week and wanted to try it out. The panel of (Brenda Walton) paper was sitting by my stamping area and I decided I really liked the look of the brown inked image! So - I added the words (Northwoods), a little glitter glue and mounted the paper onto a folded white card. 

Next up are these two cards. I ran the front of a white folded card through my Big Shot with this Sizzix embossing folder, but it embossed really deep and I didn't like it on the card itself. So I ran smaller panels through with the folder, and decided to mount them on folded green cards.

The cards were cut down from a 12x12" sheet of green card stock. I cut it down to 8-1/2 x 11", then cut that piece in half to give me two A2 cards.  I love the look of the rainbow green ink pad for the word stamp (Hero Arts).

This photo gives you a better look at the embossing folder.

Once I finished those two cards, I was left with a 12 x 3 1/2" strip of green cardstock. And my new stamp.  :-)

 

I added some glitter glue, tore the bottom edges and popped them up on the folded A2 card with foam tape. I used an old Stampin' Up green ink pad (forest green, I think - it's very dark) to stamp the image onto the green card stock.

I'm going to love using this image and plan to make several more Christmas cards with it. AFTER the Craft Sale.  :-)  I think it would make a good masculine birthday card, for someone who has a winter birthday.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Felt Snowman Card

I have snow on the brain. Not happily, mind you ... but it's COLD outside and inside and there is a skiff of snow on the roof and deck that is not melting. Not only that, but the contractor has knocked a BIG HOLE in our wall and is dickering around (technical term) getting the gas-line moved for the BBQ.

Trust me when I say that a 5' x 7' hole open to the outside makes the house REALLY COLD. Really, Really Cold. He put a piece of plywood over the opening when he went for lunch, and I cranked up the heat while he was gone.

Here is a card I made using some paper backed felt and the Tim Holtz snowman die.

I added a small black brad for his eye  and coloured his arms, hat and buttons with Sharpie markers. A narrow ribbon around his neck and some glitter glue finishes off the look. How can a snowman look warmer than I feel???

Last night I started to loom knit a cowl to put in the craft sale. Yeah right. I finished it this morning and now I'm wearing it to keep my neck warm. One less item for the sale, but hey - a girl has to do what a girl has to do.  Once the contractor is gone for the day and the heat is back on I will have to take a photo of the cowl to share. Meanwhile,  I'm off to flip on the fireplace (thank heavens for gas) and see how close I can sit to the glass. 

Thanks for stopping by today!

A Sketch Card or Two (or Three or ... )

This is the new sketch that is on the 'Clean And Simple Stamping Blog' ... and I think it's just FABULOUS!

I have so many ideas!  Immediately I wanted to use my Stampin' Up pennant punch and stamp set:

The trees were punched out of patterned paper while the tree stand and stars were stamped right on the white panel with  glitter glue added for some sparkle and shine.  The 'Happy Holidays' is also a Stampin' Up image.

Next, I did more tree cards but this time I used a Sizzix die. I like the size of these much better for the sketch.

The trees were die cut out of green card stock, stamped with polka dots and I used a brown Copic marker to colour the trunks brown. While it's hard to see in the photo - there are 3 little glitter glue dots above the trees.

These next 2 cards are my favourite out of the bunch, because the snowman die (Sizzix) is SO flippin' cute:

Seriously - is he cute or what?  I cut a bit of black scrap card stock and glued it behind each snowman so the buttons and face showed up a little better. They were cut from white glittery card stock and the arms were coloured with a Copic marker.  The Merry Christmas is by Recollections (Michaels) in their bargain bins.

I deviated a little from the sketch for this next one, but I just HAD to make another card using that snowman. And that wonderful aqua snowflake paper (Brenda Walton). I love it. LOVE it.

Doesn't that little guy just make you SMILE???

I had a little strip of the aqua paper leftover, so thought I'd try it with more die cut trees:

Finally, I used some resin snowflake embellishments from my stash for the final two cards:

 

What a great sketch to use with embellishments - I have more ideas than time at this point. So - that's it for me today. Thanks so much for stopping by.
***EDITED. As Jenny pointed out, the polka dot trees fit in with the 'Less Is More' Week 38 challenge this week. Waa hoo!