Encre, papier, ciseaux

Vintage Oval Window Card

Inspiration: Little Red Wagon #572 (Things That Begin with B - Buttons!) 

I was going through past Christmas paper collection and decided I wanted to revisit an old favorite, Home for Christmas. I thought I could do a bold sentiment in the oval window, fussy-cut a little deer from the pattern paper and maybe create a rosette with foliage at the top of the card. My first rosette was way too big (but I'll probably reuse it somewhere else), so I made sure the second one was very narrow to fit at the top. I topped it with a corduroy button and added a circle of music paper underneath. I didn't like the empty holes from the button, so I added a piece of gold ribbon over it.

For the sentiment, I picked something from the Carols of Christmas stamp set. I stamped the sentiment in Mossy Meadow and started wondering if I would be able to fussy cut the letters stamped in other colors and layer them over the shadow. Answer is yes, but it was challenging. Since everything I was using had a retro feel, I decided to add mica flakes around the oval opening. Initially, I was planning to use dimensional adhesive for the frame, but with the rosette already pretty bulky, I thought I would glue it flat instead. I added foliage from the Pretty Pines die set, die-cut in both Mossy Meadow and Old Olive to create dimension, and I added Wonderful Gems in red to create berries. Tne sentiment still looked a little bare so I added gold metallic pearls on each letter.

I tried the card in a regular envelope, but it was too tight of a fit, so I made an oversized envelope using the Envelope Punch Board. I added a vanilla oval and another fussy-cut deer. Inside the card, I added the same patterned paper, layered a deckled rectangle inked with Antique Linen Distress ink and one more fussy-cut deer.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Cantiques de Noël (Carols of Christmas - Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla, Old Olive, Mossy Meadow (Stampin' Up!)
Designer Series Paper: Home for Christmas (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Pretty Pines (Stampin' Up!); Stitched Oval Stackables (Lawn Fawn);
Wonky Stitch Rectangle Stax Die-namics (My Favorite Things);
Stacked Deckle Rectangles (Sizzix)
Ink: Baja Breeze, Cherry Cobbler, Mossy Meadow Classic Ink (Stampin' Up!);
Antique Linen Distress Ink (Ranger)
Accessories: Envelope Punch Board, Stampin' Dimensionals, 1½" Circle Punch, Scallop Circle Punch,
Wonderful Gems, Metallic Pearls, Baja Breeze Corduroy Button (Stampin' Up!);
Distress Mica Flakes (Ranger); Gold Ribbon (Unknown)

 

Christmas Bell

Inspiration: November 2017 Card Maps Sketch + Simon Says Stamp Wednesday (Layer It Up)

I kept working with the Wintergreen Designer Series Paper and the 'Tis the Season ephemera pack from Cocoa Vanilla. When I first went through the die-cuts, I had layered the bell over the woodgrain oval and thought it looked really neat, so I had put that aside for later. It was the starting point of this card. I looked through sketches to find something that would work with this pairing and went from there. I love the soft colours and the beautiful papers. Believe it or not, the pack is dwindling down, but I think I still got a couple of cards left in there. I wanted to give my ephemera pieces a little bit more presence so I decided to add a snowflake underneath. I wasn't sure if I'd prefer a white patterned one or a pearlescent vellum one, so I die-cut both to test out and ended up layering them instead. I found a neat Happy Holidays sentiment with uneven font from last year's snowflake set and I stamped it directly on patterned paper. (I love using tone on tone designs for the inside of the card where we will write our message or for the sentiment block. I find I have a harder time designing with patterned papers when those softer pages are not included in a collection.)

For the scalloped border from the sketch, I was looking through border dies and the newly released Snowflake Border from Lawn Fawn caught my eye. I die-cut it out and tried it, but it was too large for my card design, so I went back to using a scalloped border instead. That being said, I did love the look of the Snowflake Border so I recycled my die-cut piece inside the card instead, which looked much better there.

I had been looking for my big tub of beads, which for a couple of weeks I couldn't locate no matter how much I tried and I finally found it yesterday as I was putting something else away in a cupboard I don't often use. That made me want to add a couple of beads in there, so I did some wire wrapping to add to the bell. I was really disappointed when I first bought the beads and pins as I discovered the holes in the beads are so big that it was going right through. Thankfully, I discovered that you can use sequins and seed beads (which I have a ton of as I'm a stitcher and use them on my cross stitch projects) on the pin to prevent the beads from falling off. I found some dusty pink seed beads that were the perfect shade and included white sequins, which I also reused as embellishments on the card.

The last touch was adding Nuvo drops in four shades to finish embellish the bell. For the envelope, I picked a lovely Aquamarine metallic colour, added another bell die-cut and used Nuvo drops as well. If you ever invest in colored envelopes (which it took me a while to do so as I was wary of the price), keep in mind that envelopes with a metallic sheen are much easier to pair with other cardstock and patterned papers than plain colours are. Because the colour varies a bit as it catches the light, you can get away with something that's a similar shade whereas it is way more obvious when a colour is not a perfect match with a plain colored envelope. I have some in Seafoam and I haven't used them half as much as the Aquamarine and Lagoon metallic ones for this exact reason. Here, the aquamarine envelope is not the same shade as the Sage Shadow cardstock I used, but it goes really well with is.

As Stacey and Clinton used to say all the time on What Not to Wear, "It doesn't match, it goooes!" (Good times!)

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Tourbillon de flocons (Beautiful Blizzard - Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Sage Shadow (Stampin' Up!); Pearlescent Vellum (Lawn Fawn)
Designer Series Paper: Wintergreen (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Always Artichoke (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: 'Tis the Season Ephemera Pack (Cocoa Vanilla);
A2 Aquamarine Metallic Envelope (envelopes.com); Seed Beads (Mill Hill);
Satin White Sequin Mix (Little Things from Lucy's Cards); Sparkly Ribbon (Unknown Source);
Cloud 9 Dream Drops, Calming Aqua, Bubblegum and Bottle Green Crystal Drops (Nuvo);
Bead Value Pack (Bead Landing); Basic Stitch Lines Die-namics (My Favorite Things);
Outside In Stitched Rectangles Dies, Snow Border Dies (Lawn Fawn);
Snow Crystals Dies (KaiserCraft); Adorning Accents Dies and Embossing Folders,
Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!)

 

Trimming the Town - Triple Circles

Inspiration: Card Maps October 2020

This is the third card I put together with the embellishments I created using the Trimming the Town paper collection. I used my circle cluster element in the center, punched two additional wreath images from the patterned paper and layered them over a Misty Moonlight paper strip. The background was created by layering two patterned papers and a piece of Whisper White cardstock embossed with the delicate Scripty 3D embossing folder. I added a silver foil border at the top, die-cut using the Smooth Sailing die set. (I cut about a dozen when I prepared my embellishments, and they make great borders.) I added a little polka dot banner topped with a clear faceted gem. I mimicked the stitching from the sketch with hand stitching done with white embroidery floss.

 

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Cardstock: Thick Whisper White, Poppy Parade, Red Velvet Paper, Silver Foil Sheets
Designer Series Paper: Trimming the Town
Dies: Layering Circles, Smooth Sailing, Painted Labels
Accessories: Trimming the Town Embellishments, Stampin' Dimensionals,
White Medium Envelope, Clear Faceted Gems, Scripty 3D Embossing Folder,
Sprig Punch, White Embroidery Floss, Paper Piercer, Classic Label Punch,
Circle Punch, Banner Punch

 

Christmas Sweater Vest

I have been wanting to use my Sweater Vest dies for the longest time and I finally got around to it tonight. I have this project in the back of my mind that I've discussed with my mom and that I hope comes to fruition but if it does, I need to have a lot of Christmas cards on hand so I'm trying to get moving on my production, especially since I can't believe it's already mid-October! Not that I'll be sad to see this dumpster fire of a year come to an end, but time really got away from me this year, it feels. Anyway, I also want to make sure to have some more masculine Christmas cards on hand and the sweater vest is always a good bet. I went through my 6" x 6" holidays paper and settled on Deck the Halls from Echo Park (released maybe a couple of years ago?). This is pretty straightforward as I let the dies do the work, but I did add stitching with green embroidery floss. I'd like to make a few more sweater vest cards using different paper collections. They're fairly quick to put together and the result makes me smile. 

Click HERE for another Christmas card made with this die set.

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Crumb Cake (Stampin' Up!) 
Patterned Papers: Deck the Halls (Echo Park)
Accessories: Sweater Vest Dies (Sunny Studio); Dotted Rectangle Dies (Lawn Fawn);
Green Embroidery Floss (DMC); A2 Nautical Blue Linen Envelope (envelopes.com)

 

Tree Tag Cards - Pearl Ex Background Technique

Inspiration: Jennifer McGuire YouTube video + Festive Friday #70 (ribbon + die-cut + gold)

Last week, Jennifer McGuire revisited pigment powders in one of her latest videos. I've been using Pearl Ex powders for well over a decade, and it's a product I like to revisit cyclically. I'm trying to get a jump on Christmas cards as I might need more than usual this year. I found two tags I had made last year after purchasing Planner Essentials dies that included a cute chevron tree. I ended up making two so I could reuse the negative spaces of the first one I had die-cut. I believe we were past Christmas when I made those so I don't believe I ever shared them on my blog. I decided they could make great cards and it was a great opportunity to make Pearl Ex backgrounds, inspired by the Jennifer's video.

At first, I stamped the Diagonal Stripe background on Shaded Spruce cardstock and added Spring Green Pearl Ex. I was pleasantly surprised to find out the green shimmer was a nice match to the mint shade from the paper, so I was happy with the result. For the second background, I pulled Poppy Parade cardstock, stamped the Tree Ring background stamp on it and decided to use Interferene Gold powder. The thing with interference powders is that they only show their colour when they get hit by the light, so I expected the gold sheen to only show when you move the card, but it turns out the gold instantly showed on the red cardstock. The result is SO gorgeous! It stands out just enough without overtaking the main image, and the tree ring design goes really nicely with the tree die-cut. 

I liked my diagonal stripes background but it seemed a little boring with the tag over it, so I decided to try something else Jennifer was showing in her video: layering two stamps. So I overstamped the En français background in VersaMark and brushed Aztec Gold powder over it. (It should be noted I had done the stripes and spritzed hair spray over it as a fixative, then I let it dry overnight, so I was able to brush the gold and not have it change the stripes' colour.)

To decorate matching envelope and the inside of the cards, I pulled out an old Christmas stamp set and used the Christmas tree image, then colored it using the Spring Green pigment again. When I mounted the tags on the card bases, I added a gold metallic doily and I topped my bare tree with red pompons from Queen & Co for a fun, fuzzy detail.

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Traditions de Noël, Diagonal Stripe, Tree Rings, En français (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Mint Macaron, Poppy Parade, Shaded Spruce, Gold Foil (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Paper: Holly Jolly (My Mind's Eye)
Ink: VersaMark, Shaded Spruce (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Planner Essentials #12 (Elizabeth Craft Designs); Tags (scrapbook.com);
Label Punch, Stampin' Dimensionals, Gold Cord, Poppy Parade Ribbon, Metallic Doilies,
Mint Macaron Ribbon, Spring Green, Aztec Gold, Interference Gold Pearl Ex,
Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder (Stampin' Up!); Red Mini Pompons (Queen & Co); 
Gold Jingle Bells (Unknown Source);
A2 Blonde Metallic and A2 Rose Quartz Metallic Envelopes (envelopes.com)

 

Santa Rosette

Inspiration: Card Maps October 2020 + Festive Friday #70 (Twine + Die-Cut + Ivory)

The starting point of this card was the rosette I had done with the Home for Christmas papers that was too big for my previous card. The funky edge of the rosette was achieved by punching my strip of paper with the Snowflake Edged punch before putting the rosette together. I added a Santa that was fussy cut from one of the patterned papers directly.

The rest of the card was an arrangement of papers based on the sketch. I couldn't decide which colour of cotton twine to add to the tag, so I decided to do all three together and I'm liking the look and weight it gives to the bow. I added two tiny jingle bells to it (can't seem to stop doing that on my recent creations). The tiny snowflakes were the leftover parts from punching the rosette edge. I made sure to add pearls to the center so that they would stand out better.

For the sentiment, I picked one from the Greatest Part of Christmas, an old hostess set from a past Holidays catalogue, but I wasn't liking how it would have looked directly on the tag, so I stamped it in Mossy Meadow ink on Very Vanilla cardstock and punched it out instead, which frames it better. For the background piece, I decided to use my Stacked Deckle Rectangles instead of a scalloped rectangle, as I felt the deckle edges went well with the retro look. I inked edges with Antique Linen Distress ink to give it definition and a vintage look. I added a sparkly sticker strip to the top of the scalloped border.

Again, the rosette made the card very thick, so I created an oversize envelope out of remaining patterned paper.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Ce que j'aime à Noël (Greatest Part of Christmas), Free Skate (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Thick Very Vanilla (Stampin' Up!)
Designer Series Paper: Home for Christmas (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Mossy Meadow Classic Ink (Stampin' Up!); Antique Linen Distress Ink (Ranger)
Dies: Large Scallops (Stampin' Up!); Stacked Deckle Rectangles (Tim Holtz for Sizzix);
Dotted Rectangle Stackables (Lawn Fawn); Planner Essentials #2 (Elizabeth Craft Designs)
Accessories: Envelope Punch Board, Christmas Traditions Punch, Stampin' Dimensionals,
Festive Farm Cotton Twine, Mini Jingle Bells, 1½" Circle Punch, Sponge Daubers (Stampin' Up!);
Border Stickers (Starform); Snowflake Edger Punch (EK Success);
Ice Cube Mix Jewels (Little Things from Lucy's Cards); Vintage Shimmer Pearls (Studio Katia)

 

Christmas Truck

Inspiration: October 2018 Page Maps sketch + Simon Says Stamp Wednesday (card and matching envelope)

The starting point of this card was the pairing of the Christmas Drive Window stamp from Art Impressions with the gorgeous Christmas Plaid 6" x 6" papers from Memorybox. Those are arguably the best plaid papers I've ever owned. The colours are yummy and every single page has gold foil included in every plaid pattern.

To keep with the gold, I embossed my stamp in gold powder on watercolor paper. The image is quite small and dainty, so I decided to use my Albrech Dürer watercolor pencils from Faber Castell and a small waterbrush to do my coloring. I picked up the pigment with my brush directly on the pencil tip and transferred it to the watercolor paper that way. It worked out very well and I love the effect I achieved. I softly layered a couple of colours for the snow and I love the soft effect it produced. This pencil set includes three metallics - silver, gold and copper - and I used the gold to add a very nice shimmer to the car's lights and the lamppost.

The design of the card was inspired by an old Card Map sketch. I used the plaid pattern at the top and a piece of Merry Merlot cardstock at the bottom, which I embossed with the Cable Knit 3D folder. Between the two pieces, I remembered the new Snowflake Border die from Lawn Fawn that just came out and used it on Gold Foil paper. I layered two washi tapes over it, and tied gold baker's twine. The main image was die-cut with a scalloped square from the Layering Squares dies and I matted the image with Always Artichoke cardstcock. I rounded corners for a better overall look. My curvy corners trio punch was used on the plaid paper and I added two gold foil pearls as well. For the card base, I pulled out Mellow Moss cardstock (now, you know that has been sitting in my stash for a long time!), which was the perfect match to the green from the plaid paper.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Christmas Drive Window (Art Impressions)
Cardstock: Mellow Moss, Merry Merlot, Always Artichoke, Gold Foil Paper (Stampin' Up!);
Green (Recollections)
Patterned Papers: Christmas Plaid (Memorybox)
Ink: VersaMark
Dies: Layering Squares (Stampin' Up!); Snowflake Border (Lawn Fawn)
Accessories: Stampin' DImensionals, Cable Knit 3D Embossing Folder, Curvy Corner Trio Punch,
Envelope Punch Board, Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder, Gold Baker's Twine (Stampin' Up!);
Gold Foil Pearls (Studio Katia); Albrecht Dürer Watercolor Pencils (Faber-Castell);
Winter Woodgrain Washi Tape (Carta Bella); Gold Washi Tape (Recollections)

 

Three Christmas Stockings

Inspiration: Global Design Project #262

Hung with Care was a hostess set offered in a past Holidays catalogue. I thought it was adorable and I loved the French sentiments included in it, but I was only able to get a set for myself when I preordered for Sale-A-Bration in December, which means that by the time I received my order, I was already done with my Christmas stamping and so this set never got inked. I hate when that happens - I hate having stuff in my stash that has never been used, so when I saw the GDP sketch, I thought I could do a bold sentiment and add three stockings underneath.

Initially, I was only planning on hanging the stocking underneath the sentiment banner, but when I looked through my embellishments to pull out my red mini pompons for one of the stockings, I spotted the boxwood wreaths and thought I could add greenery and bows to make it look like a trimmed staircase or fireplace. I love the texture and dimension it added to the card.

For the patterned papers, I needed something whimsical to match the look of the stockings, so I pulled out my Trimming the Town Designer Series Paper. I've been using this one a ton since it came out, I'm already half-way through the paper pack. Because I was adding the sentiment to the olive patterned paper, I made sure to emboss it with navy powder so that it would stand out. I centered the sentiment on the banner, but now that I've chosen to add the bows, I'm thinking maybe the sentiment should have been just a tad higher. To fill in the space a bit more, I added two red dots from the Wonderful Gems pack.

To get the multicolored look on the stockings, I stamped them twice and paper pieced the second colour on each one. I did use markers for the holly image to make it easier.

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Stamps: Accrochés avec soin (Hung with Care), Voeux indémodables (Greetings of the Season)
Cardstock: Old Olive, Whisper White, Myths & Magic Glimmer Paper
Designer Series Paper: Trimming the Town
Ink: Poppy Parade, Old Olive, Misty Moonlight, VersaMark
Accessories: Layering Circles Dies, Stampin' Dimensionals, Stampin' Write Markers,
White Medium Envelope, Wonderful Gems, Boxwood Wreath Embellishments,
All the Trimmings Ribbon Combo Pack, Red Mini Pompons (Queen & Co)

 

Skis and Snowshoes

Inspiration: October Page Maps sketch

This is the second card I put together using the paper dolls I previously colored with distress embossing glazes. I just love this little pair, ready to go enjoy winter sports in their retro garbs. Again, I used last year's Christmas papers from Tim Holtz for my background. I added red trim between the two background papers. I layered a couple of banners and I folded a tab die-cut over them, then stapled them together with a mini stapler. I added a "Merry Christmas" sentiment embossed in lime powder on a tag die-cut and added Mossy Meadow cotton twine on it.

To ground the characters, I added snow using the Snowcap stencil from Tim Holtz and White glitz glitter gel from Gina K. I distressed the edges of the papers before adding them to a Mossy Meadow card base (4½" x 6"), and I made a matching envelope out of Festive Farm DSP (last year papers). 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Traditions de Noël, Bas de Noël (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Mossy Meadow (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers: Christmas (2020) (Tim Holtz for idea-ology);
Festive Farm Designer Series Paper (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: VersaMark
Accessories: Cherry Cobbler Stampin' Emboss Powder, Lots of Labels Dies, Envelope Punch Board,
Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!); Peeled Paint, Fired Brick Distress Oxide Glazes,
Lime Mixed Media Powder (Ranger); Distressing Tool (Tim Holtz for Tonic);
Paper Dolls (Tim Holtz for idea-ology); Snowcap Stencil (Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous);
White Glitz Glitter Gel (Gina K. Designs); Planner Essentials Dies #11 (Elizabeth Craft Designs)

 

Snowy Day

I'm still going through past Holiday papers and stamp sets to see what sparks inspiration. On this one, I paired In the Meadow from Papertrey Ink with the Wintergreen Designer Series Paper. This paper pack is ancient, but it aged gracefully and I still very much enjoyed using it. As for the Papertrey Ink, the design is still gorgeous, but the product itself didn't age so well. Not sure what happened to the photopolymer but the front of the stamp sticks more than the back does, despite me rewashing it, and the photopolymer is a little cloudy... which made it really hard to work with the dies. The matching dies are not open outline dies, they are full metal shapes with NO poking holes on them. I think I had erased this detail from my memory but it came back instantly how problematic it is to get the die-cuts out without damaging them. (Yes, I should have sandwiched wax paper in between layers, but that detail had also escaped my memory when I started workinng on this project.) I just thought I'd use my stamping platform to line the images up, but because the front of the stamp had better adherence than the back, the die-cut wouldn't stay down, even after adding temporary adhesive on the back. The cloudiness of the photopolymer also made it hard to line the images up properly, so in the end, I eyeballed most of my stamping and the results were less than stellar. It's a little sad that the product is not the same quality as other similar products I own. I wonder if the quality of their stamps improved over time. I can't attest to it as I've only ever ordered from them that one time and now that we have good quality photopolymer available and open dies, that set is paling in comparison.

That being said, I made it work and the result is pretty cute. I picked from a French set for the sentiment. I stamped it in Always Artichoke ink and embossed it with clear powder to make it stand out. The green cardstock seemed a little bland, so I decided to add snowflakes. A few were staomped at full force and most were stamped off, which I think I should have done for all of them for the sentiment to be more visible and the panel to appear less busy. That's part of designing, you try things out and go from there. The tree felt very bare without anything on it, so I added a couple of stamped birds and a mix of pearls in white, grey and soft green. The background was created using the Hometown Greetings Edgelits dies from a few years ago, and I used the Slimline Stitched Hillside Borders dies for the snow. I purchased those dies even though I don't plan on doing a lot of 9" wide cards because I saw the opportunity to use the part of the hillside that works best for my design. When you are using A2 border dies, the curve falls where it falls, whereas here, I as able to select where I wanted it and make it work for my little sledder.

I could have used a regular A2 envelope since the card is pretty flat, but I decided to make a matching envelope just to try and use that paper up already. As I was cutting my remaining paper to size, I realized I had one corner too short to get a full 8" x 8" square so instead of wasting what I had cut, I glued a strip to even the square out and this actually creates a really cool detail on the envelope. I might recycle that idea in the future, just because I like the look. I had a few leftover die-cuts, so I used one to embellish the envelope.

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: In the Meadow (Papertrey Ink); Parfum de Noël (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Whisper White, Baja Breeze, Certainly Celery (Stampin' Up!)
Designer Series Paper: Wintergreen (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Always Artichoke, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Pear Pizzazz, Baja Breeze (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder, Stampin' Dimensionals, Envelope Punch Board,
Hometown Greetings Dies (Stampin' Up!); In the Meadow Dies (Papertrey Ink);
Slimline Stitched Hillside Borders Dies, Outside In Stitched Rectangles Dies (Lawn Fawn);
Arctic Breeze, Seafoam and Stormcloud Pearls (Studio Katia)

 

Joyful Poinsettia

Inspiration: Card from Bekka Prideaux

I'm still working on my Christmas cards and I thought I'd pull out the 'Tis the Season die-cut pack from Cocoa Vanilla. I got it this summer in my local store sale. I don't have any matching paper, but I figured I'd go through my paper scraps and find something fitting. Turns out I didn't even have to do that, as I still had the Wintergreen papers out from my last creation and I realized the soft colours would pair well with the Cocoa Vanilla images.

I was inspired by a card seen on Pinterest and I used the poinsettia die-cut as the starting point. I had the Christmas Messages stamp set out, so I picked a sentiment from it that would fit my opening ("Oh, what joy") and stamped it in Always Artichoke ink. I rounded the two bottom corners with my Corner Chomper and I layered two ribbons for texture. The poinsettia center was embellished with beaded pearls, and I added Seafoam pearls on each fold. I made sure not to glue those down to keep the dimension. I added Stickles to the berries. Pretty simple card, but the result is very pretty. 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Parfum de Noël (Christmas Messages - Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Always Artichoke (Stampin' Up!)
Designer Series Paper: Wintergreen (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Always Artichoke (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Envelope Punch Board, Lots of Labels Dies, Stampin' Dimensionals, Beaded Pearls,
Pear Pizzazz Pleated Satin Ribbon, Pear Pizzazz Chevron Ribbon (Stampin' Up!);
Stickles (Ranger); Seafoam Pearls (Studio Katia); 'Tis the Season Ephemera (Cocoa Vanilla);
Crop-a-Dile Corner Chomper (We R Memory Makers)

 

Christmas Music

Inspiration: Mojo Monday #547

I was in the mood to play with my Distress embossing glazes and pair them with paper dolls, so I started coloring details on paper dolls while watching Tim's latest Facebook Live on replay. As of now, I have Fired Brick, Peeled Paint and Speckled Egg on hand, which happens to work very nicely for holidays card and to match Tim Holtz's Christmas papers (I have last year's stack on hand). So I colored six different paper dolls and today, I decided to start using them on projects. I used the always fabulous Mojo Monday sketch as my starting point and picked the little boy, as the size worked well to layer over the circle.

I prepared my patterned paper layers and then I tried cutting the little flagged tab myself. I wasn't liking the look and scale, so I decided to go through my Planner Essentials dies to see if I could find something that worked. I picked a tab from the collection #11, but the music elements from collection #12 also caught my eye. It's very subtle, but there are music notes on the background paper with the trees, so I thought I could use those music elements to layer. I die-cut two staves, initially thinking I'd use the second one on my envelope, but I ended up using them both on the card. I used black foil paper for the stave and red foil paper for the notes and clef. I used the overhang to fill in the space at the top of the card.

I wrapped Mossy Meadow cotton twine at left of the card and used gold metallic thread to add two little red jingle bells (which are the exact shade of red to match the papers). My card needed a sentiment to I went digging through my French stamps and had trouble finding something that was the right size to fit on the tab. I finally ended up using the "Happy Holidays" in a rectangle from the Christmas Gleaming stamp set, embossed in red glitter powder, and placing it underneath the little boy's feet to ground him. I used paper scraps and another paper doll to decorate a matching red metallic envelope. 

I didn't expect to like the resulting card as much as I do. I do enjoy seeing what Tim Holtz comes out with and the project he shares, but I don't always find it easy to create with vintage elements. It just leaves me pleased when I manage to make it work.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Fêtes étincelantes (Christmas Gleaming - Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Smoky Slate, Red and Black Foil Paper (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers: 2020 Christmas (Tim Holtz for idea-ology)
Ink: VersaMark
Dies: Planner Essentials 10 and 11 (Elizabeth Craft Designs);
Circle Double Stitched (Art Impressions); Outside In Stitched Rectangles (Lawn Fawn)
Accessories: Peeled Paint Distress Embossing Glaze (Ranger);VersaMarker, Wonderful Gems,
Festive Farm Cotton Twine, Mini Stampin' Dimensionals, Mini Jingle Bells (Stampin' Up!);
A2 Jupiter Metallic Envelope (envelopes.com); Antique Gold Metallic Thread (Altenew)

 

Season's Tweetings

Inspiration: Scrapbook & Cards Today World Card Making Day challenge #1 (Analogous Colours) + Simon Says Stamp Wednesday (Anything Goes)

I got all of my "to-do" list handled yesterday so I could clear my schedule for crafting up a storm during World Card Making Day. I checked out the challenges posted online by S&CT on their blog. The first one challenged us to use analogous colours and watercolour a striped background. I decided to go with a gradient from blue to blue-green, thinking it could then serve as a sky or an underwater scene. I pulled out my Gansai Tambi watercolors, had fun painting wide stripes with a big fluffy brush, and I let the panel aside to dry. I used a full 5" x 7" Fluid 100 watercolor sheet from Stampin' Up!, thinking I could cut it to size later.

When I came back to the panel, I wasn't initially sure how to use it. I've admired foiling on other people's projects for the longest time but never got into it (despite my love of everything shiny) because I kept thinking it looked like a really expensive addition to my hobby. Earlier this year, Jennifer McGuire talked about her favorite laminator and I was really surprised to discover the price was way less than I would have expected. So this purchase has been on the back of my mind ever since and I finally ordered one, which got delivered yesterday. I was eager to give it a try, so I pulled out the Duo Deco Foil gel and the Falling Snowflakes stencil and added patterns over the watercoloring. I let aside to dry and in the meantime, I reached out for the Season's Tweetings stamp set, this year's Stamptember exclusive set from Lawn Fawn. I had yet to use it and thought the branches and birds would look great against the blue backdrop. I knew I would have to incorporate colours if I wanted the birds to pop, so I colored everything in a mix of reds, blues, yellows and greens. (I picked colours based on the Christmas light string.) This is more vibrant than what I usually go for, but I was really liking the result. I basically colored every single image from the stamp set, repeated the snow and ornament various times, and then proceeded th die-cut everything.

By the time I was done with the images, the gel had time to dry and I was ready to try out the laminator. I purchased the duo gel so that I could dip my toes into foiling using my die-cut machine. I was liking the result, but even when using brand-new plates, the foiling had a tendancy to take on texture and not be as shiny. It was a lovely result, but with the heat laminator, the result is striking! I ordered two foil colours with the laminator - a proper gold (which is always sold out at my local store) and on a whim, I also picked a roll of aqua. I LOVE how the aqua foil looks against the watercolored background. It adds such a nice sheen, and because the birds and ornaments are bright, the foiling is not taking the focus away from the main images.

I had room left for a sentiment at the bottom so I went hunting for someting appropriate and picked "season of joy" from the now-retired Christmas Pines stamp set. With all of the images I wanted to use, I ended up using the full 5" x 7" panel. I only trimed 1/8" off the sides to show the white card base and frame the scene. Because of the oversize dimension, I had to make my own envelope. I used the envelope paper Stampin' Up! was previously selling. The Midnight Muse paper was a nice match and I like how the polka dots look like falling snow. I added an address block using Cool Caribbean (In Color OG!) and stamped my favorite of the birds on it.

This is a really fun set. It's way bigger than I was expecting! Much larger than the usual Lawn Fawn sets. It's filled with elements that will be fun to pair with other LF sets as well, including the long branches and the light string.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Season's Tweetings (Lawn Fawn); Sapins de Noël (Christmas Pines - Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Thick Whisper White, Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper (Stampin' Up!)
Envelope Paper: 2016-2018 In Color (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); VersaMark; Blueberry Bushel (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Envelope Punch Board, White Stampin' Emboss Powder, Deco Labels Dies (Stampin' Up!);
Markers (Copic); Aqua Foil, Duo Deco Foil Gel (Deco Foil); Laminator Royal Sovereign);
Season's Tweetings Dies (Lawn Fawn); Gansai Tambi Watercolors (Kuretake);
Glossy Accents (Ranger); Fresh Snowfall Glitter Accents (Nuvo)

 

Trimming the Town - Mini-Envelope

Inspiration: Try Stampin' on Tuesday #477

This is the second card put together with my Trimming the Town embellishments. The mini-evelopes were actually the starting point of me putting together as set of embellishments, inspired by a YouTube tutorial. I made a little matching tag that I slipped inside the envelope. The Try Stampin' on Tuesday sketch was the perfect design to use the mini-envelope on a card. If you look at the whole card series, you can see a lot of elements (punches, dies, trims) repeated. 

I'm always amazed at how much more efficient I get when I work on something based off of a limited set of supplies. I used to think that had to mean working on something assembly-line style (which I'll admit I really hate) but I'm discovering now that it can mean making different projects that are all unique but all based on the same set amount of punches, dies, trims and embellishments. I used to have that when I started with Stampin' Up!, as everything was made to match and as an active demonstrator, I was solely focusing on current products, but I think I kind of lost part of that focus in recent years as my stash expanded. This was a nice experiment and I'm thinking I could do this again in the future, switching to a new DSP pack or bundle every time. I like that this allows me to create a set of cards that are all different in a more efficient way than if I was designing each of them one at a time.

 

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Cardstock: Misty Moonlight
Designer Series Paper: Trimming the Town
Dies: Stitched Rectangles, Smooth Sailing
Accessories: Trimming the Town Embellshments, White Cotton Trim,
Clear Faceted Gems, Mini Stampin' DImensionals, Ticket Corner Punch,
Circle Punches, White Medium Envelope

 

Winter Cottage Foursquare

Inspiration: Simon Says Stamp Wednesday (Anything Goes)

Simple Stories has really hit it out of the ballpark with its fall collections. Winter Cottage was really high on my wish list. The colors and style really remind me of the look of Crate Paper. I even went for the stamp set, which I rarely do with this company, but the small handdrawn images really appealed to me.

They were the starting point of this card. Because I wanted to feature them, I pulled out the Foursquare Backdrop Portrait die set from Lawn Fawn. I created the frame out of the star pattern and filled in the square with four different patterns. The images were colored with Copic markers and added to the panels with dimensional adhesive.

At the bottom, I created the "Happy Holidays" sentiment with the Joyeux Noël dies from Stampin' Up! and the Star of Light stamp set (on a tag that comes from the same die set). The larger gems come from the Pumpkin and Spice Say it in Crystals collection, which happen to match this line nicely.

I decorated the envelope and inside of the card with the remaining stamped images I had left and a few stickers from the sticker book. This is the first project I was putting together with this line and I'm looking forward to making more with it.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Winter Cottage (Simple Stories)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Patterned Papers, Sticker Book: Winter Cottage (Simple Stories)
Cardstock: Powder Pink, Whisper White (Stampin' Up!); Delicate Pastel Glitter Pad (Memorybox)
Accessories: Joyeux Noël Dies, Mini Stampin' Dimensionals, Wonderful Gems (Stampin' Up!);
A2 Rose Quartz Metallic Envelope (envelopes.com); Markers (Copic);
Pumpkin and Spice Say It in Crystals (Prima); Foursquare Backdrop Portrait Dies (Lawn Fawn),
White, Silver and Sparkly Gel Pens (Gellyroll); Silky LIlac Metallic Thread (Altenew) 

 

Trimming the Town - Pocket with a Bow

Inspiration: Card Maps October 2020

This is the fourth card that was born of my Trimming the Town embellishment-making session. The starting point was the long slim envelope. It didn't have an insert yet, so I created one using the Delightful Tag Topper punch. The white tag seemed a little blah, so I used Smoky Slate ink and the Birch background stamp to add a pattern. I then stamped a sentiment from the Christmas Gleaming stamp set and framed it in Poppy Parade cardstock using the Ornate Frames dies. I'm really glad to see those make a comeback, as they are one of my favorite die sets from Stampin' Up! You can choose to use the outside frame alone or use the middle shape as well, which I did here as I didn't want to hide the Birch pattern too much. Because I wanted to stamp the sentiment directly on the tag, I made sure to stamp off my Smoky Slate ink before adding the image to the tag, so get a less saturated colour.

For the background, I was looking at ribbon options to divide the two patterned papers and I realized it was too bad I had not purchased the Misty Moonlight ribbon. I realized I should look at retired ribbons to see if I could find something close and sure enough, last year's Night of Navy velvet ribbon looked really good with the paper collection, so that is what I used. As I went looking through embellishments trying to find my snowflake sequins, I also found mini jingle bells, so I decided to hang two red jingle bells from the ribbon bow, using red baker's twine.

The main envelope has been decorated with the Gift Wrap stamp and matching punch. I love that bundle and I keep going back to it. I find the shape and size of the bow really pleasing. The only thing not found in the set that I wish had been included in the stamp set is a simple bow with just the outside and now pattern, to match the punch. This would have worked way better here when used with patterned paper. I tried using the punch on its own, but I was not loving the look. (You will see the punched bow used somewhere else, as I recycled it on a tag.) Again the little border from the Smooth Sailing die set and the scalloped border from the Painted Labels dies were both used at the bottom of the envelope. Snowflake sequins and Trimming the Town embellishments were added to the card as a finishing touch.

 

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Stamps: Enveloppé d'amour (Gift Wrapped), Birch, Fêtes étincelantes (Christmas Gleaming)
Cardstock: Whisper White, Misty Moonlight, Silver Foil Paper
Designer Series Paper: Trimming the Town
Ink: VersaMark, Smoky Slate, Misty Moonlight
Accessories: Gift Bow Builder Punch, Delightful Tag Topper Punch,
Stampin' Dimensionals, Night of Navy Velvet Ribbon, Real Red Baker's Twine,
Mini Jingle Bells, Trimming the Town Embellishments, Snowflake Sequins,
Circle Punch, Ornate Frames Dies, Stitched Rectangles Dies

 

Sleigh Rides

I had just finished my previous card and I was playing with remaining pieces and I ended up with this card. I recycled a few ideas from the previous projects I made today: coloring details on the gold-foiled paper with ink and a blending pen, sponging ink over the gold foil on the leaf, and the layered poinsettia.

The paper scrap I was left with had the sleigh on it and I realized when I cut it down to size that it was 4 inches large, which was perfect to layer over the card front, so I added the Brushed Metallic cardstock I had already been working with before, and embossed my two pieces with the Hammered Metal 3D embossing folder. The result looks pretty neat. I used the Old Olive ribbon I had been working with before as well to add finishing between the panels, a gold faceted gem to the middle of my poinsettia and gold gliter enamel dots around. The ruffle behind the poinsettia was also made with a leftover piece of Plush Poinsettia paper. For a card made out of leftovers, that turned out pretty good.

 

 

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Mossy Meadow, Whisper White, Brushed Metallic
Specialty Designer Series Paper: Plush Poinsettia, Wonder of the Season
Ink: Mossy Meadow, Cherry Cobbler, Sahara Sand
Accessories: Poinsettia Dies, Hammered Metal 3D Folder, Gold Faceted Gems,
Gold Glitter Enamel Dots, Envelope Punch Board, Stitched So Sweetly,
All the Trimmings Ribbon Combo Pack, Stampin' Dimensionals, 
Blending Pen, Sponge Dauber

 

Trimming the Town - Layered Circles

Inspiration: Mojo Monday #546

Last week, I pulled out the Trimming the Town Designer Series Paper pack and decided to make a set of embellishments with it. This is something I've done in the past few months when I was down to a few scraps left in a collection and I was amazed at how many intricate elements I could put together if I worked on them all at once. This time, I decided to use current supplies and dive into a new paper pack so I could make cards to send to my downline members. I spent an evening punching, die-cutting and gluing away and now, I'm slowly turninng all of my elements into actual finished project.

The first one was inspired by the Mojo Monday sketch. Since I had created a layered circle, it was easy to work it into the Mojo design. For the background, I pulled out the new red velvet sheets and embossed it using the Woodland embossing folder, to match the trees in my patterned papers.

The silver mesh ribbon is shown as part of the Halloween suite as it can look like spiderweb, but it also looks like frost to me, so I layered a piece over my snowflake paper and I used a sentiment punched out of the patterned paper, which reads "under a blanket snow" and popped it on mini Stampin' Dimensionals.

The two circle dies used for my main piece were cut with dies from the Painted Labels set, and the little branches were punched with the Sprig punch. I would not necessarily have thought to combine all of those elements together if I had simply been working on a card, but because I worked differently (I punched and die-cut a bunch of elements, laid them out on my desk and started assembling them in clusters), I ended up with something different. To finish, I embellished with a few All the Trimmings embellishments.

 

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Cardstock: Old Olive, Whisper White, Silver Foil, Red Velvet Paper Pack
Designer Series Paper: Trimming the Town
Accessories: Trimming the Town Embellishments, Sprig Punch, Stampin' Dimensionals, 
Painted Labels Dies, 1-1/2" Metallic Mesh Ribbon, Ticket Corner Punch,
White Medium Envelope, Classic Label Punch

 

Felt Tree Ornament

Inspiration: Just Add Ink #523 (Just Add A)

I was trying to find elements that start with A and I kept thinking of "arbres", which means tree in French. Lots of options there... 

I had seen felt trees made out of circles on Pinterest and I was curious to test it out myself. I pulled out the green felt I had and started die-cutting circles, alternating colours. I punched a hole in the center with my paper piecer and layered the circles on a wooden rod. I was surprised at how many layers it took to get a full tree and I was worried I would run out of felt before I was done, so I spaced the layers out with green buttons I added on the rod. The trunk was made out of rolled brown felt and I added two stars die-cut out of glitter cardstock at the top and I sandwiched twine in between to turn it into an ornament.

 

 

 

Supplies
Dies: Layering Circles (Tonic); Outside In Stitched Stars (Lawn Fawn)
Felt: Brown (Papertrey Ink); Green (The Cat's Pajamas)
Buttons: Stampin' Up!, Foof-a-La
Glimmer Paper: Champagne (Stampin' Up!)

 

Mrs. Claus's Poinsettias

Inspiration: Freshly Made Sketch #453 + Simon Says Stamp Wednesday (no stamps allowed)

This card came together slowly, but I am happy with the end result. It started with me playing with the Poinsettia dies for fun and assembling a couple of flowers. I recently watched a couple of YouTube tutorials on how to put together flowers, in which they were using a large stylus on a foam mat to shape the petals. I later remembered I still have my Empressor stylus from EK Success, which I believe was purchased from Stampin' Up! when they carried years ago (I am talking back when they had metal stencils). I also have an old piercing mat, so I pulled both of those out and played with my die-cut poinsettia to see what results I would achieve. The verdict is that the Empressor works really well.

It's funny, I have been doing paper crafts for close to 20 years now so as you can imagine, I have accumulated quite a collection of crafting nicknacks over the years. I've tried to purge a bit over the years, but I find that things are cyclical and that the old tip that goes "if you have not used something this year, you should get rid of it" is not necessarily true when it comes to crafting, as that will probably lead to you rebuying another version of the same thing you gave away, but at full price! This is a good example of that. It's been years since I last used the Empressor, but now that I've found this new use for it, I expect it will come out more.

Once my flowers were finished, I started looking at this week's challenges to see if anything caught my eye to use the poinsettia on a project. I had in the back of my mind the idea of using the Wonder of the Season Specialty Designer Series Paper and the Plush Poinsettia Specialty paper, and when I was the Freshly Made sketch, I saw an opportunity to use both.

I matted the velvet-patterned paper with a gold sheet from the Brushed Metallic cardstock pack for my background. I then die-cut a large circle out of a gold-foil sheet of Wonder of the Season paper. The Dear Mrs. Claus heading caught my eye and when I started reading what the note was about, I saw that it was a question about how to keep poinsettia from wilting. Perfect text, so I placed my circle to make sure that text would appear on the left side.

Once I layered the circle, I felt the card was a little bland, so I masked the bottom and used a sponge dauber to ink the top in Mossy Meadow ink. I then used a blending pen to add ink to the Dear Mrs. Claus banner and the whole thing instantly became more interesting. I looked through my ribbon for something that could decorate my panel and I picked the Old Olive ribbon from the All the Trimmings ribbon combo pack. I liked that the edges are gold, which ties in with the paper. 

The center of the poinsettia was decorated with a Beaded Pearl (love those - gorgeous!) and I added Wonderful Gems to the holly berry and the top of the circle. A matching envelope was made out of the Specialty paper.

 

 

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Cardstock: Mellow Moss, Brushed Metallic Cardstock
Specialty Designer Series Paper: Wonder of the Season, Plush Poinsettia
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Mellow Moss, Sahara Sand
Accessories: Poinsettia Dies, Stitched So Sweetly Dies, Beaded Pearls,
Wonderful Gems, Sponge Daubers, Stylus, All the Trimmings Ribbon Combo Pack

 

Snowglobe Scenes

Inspiration: Just Add Ink #522

Rejoice: a new Lawn Fawn release is here! I was looking at the Sneak Peek videos posted this week and making a wish list and I was glad that the list was short - and then the full release was posted online and I realized that we had not seen the half of it!!! They basically just covered the fall stuff, and kept the Christmas stuff for another sneak peek week they'll do later in the season. The list got significantly longer once I spotted the Christmas stuff, which I can never resist.

Today's card is showcasing the Snow Globe Scenes stamp set and matching dies. When I saw that the Just Add Ink sketch had three squares, I figured I could do three snowglobes on my card, using different scenes in each. I also used the gorgeous Let It Shine patterned paper from this release as well. I loved it the second I saw it used on projects shared online and because of the name and what I had seen, I wrongly assumed that all of the papers would be gold foiled. I found out when the whole release posted that it is not. Three of the papers have gold foil polka dots on them: the mint, the cream and the red. The other pages have white dots on them and white stripes on the reverse side. I'll admit this was a little bit of a let-down. The silver lining is that my store owner purchased the gold-foil papers by the sheets, so I was able to just purchased those, so that made me happy.

The new release also includes gold metallic cardstock. I didn't purchase any since I already have some at home, which I did add to this project to line the main scene. Having just the mint panel felt a little blah, so I decided to get out my Slimline Stitched Hillside Border dies (from their summer release) and create snow banks out of the cream gold-foiled paper and that instantly made the card more interesting. I flipped the red paper over and used the diagonal stripes to vary the patterns.

The globes were colore with Copic markers. I gold-embossed a shooting star over the car and gold-embossed the little labels on gold-foiled paper, then added the three sentiments and embossed them in Pool Party powder, before adding them to the globes. I added snow details in glittery gel pen and created falling snow with my Gelly Roll white pen. I love the look this created.

The card format was chosen based on how side the three globes would be side by side and the sizes of cards I could make a matching envelope for with the use of my beloved envelope punch board. I ended up with a 4-1/4" x 7" card. (The size on the punch board is 4½ x 7", but I couldn't make a 4½"-wide card out of regular letter-sized cardstock, so I went down a quarter of an inch to accomodate that.) I used an old Nestabilities die set to make the address block on the envelope. 

I colored and die-cut an additional globe to decorate the inside of the card. 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Snow Globe Scenes (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Thick Very Vanilla, Gold Foil (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers: Let It Shine - Mint, Red, Cream (Lawn Fawn)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Dies: Slimline Stitched Hillside Borders, Snow Globe Scenes (Lawn Fawn); 
Labels 13 Nestabilities (Spellbinders)
Accessories: Gold and Pool Party Stampin' Emboss Powder, Stampin' Dimensionals,
Envelope Punch Board (Stampin' Up!);
White and Sparkly Pens (Gelly Roll); Markers (Copic)

 

Here Comes Santa - Jingle All the Way Collection

Inspiration: Try Stampin' on Tuesday #474

The craft companies have been rocking their Christmas releases and it is time I start diving into my new collections. I purchased items as they came trickling in my local store and tonight, I took a few minutes to group everything by collection so I would be better organized when creating. I decided to first start with Jingle All the Way from Simple Stories. This collection is right up my alley with its shades of aqua and moss green and its retro-inspired images done in a modern way. I indulged in various items from the collection, but this card features the 12" x 12" patterned papers and the sticker book. I recently discovered those and I'm liking the variety they include. They are paper stickers, so on the thinner side, so you have to keep that in mind when designing as they don't work exactly like the cardstock stickers do.

I was really liking the challenge sketch as I felt it would showcases the cute papers and allow me to add a different image on each panel. I started with the car and Santa stickers and figured out the sizes I needed for the aqua and red panels. I then created two panels for the remaining upper right corner in the appropriate size. I had empty room at the top of the aqua panel, which I filled with the Christmas light sticker, and I added leaves and a poinsettia to the last panel. I inked the edges of the card and every panel to add a bit of depth. The poinsettia sticker was decorated with gold glitter enamel dots and the car rims, with candy dots. The sentiment sticker comes from the sticker book as well.

My favorite part of the design is the little glitter and clear epoxy shapes I found in my stash and added to the Christmas lights. They are supposed to be raindrops but they look just like the center of Christmas bulbs and they were the PERFECT size! It really made the sticker come to life and added that little extra to the card. It took quite a few, but I'm letting go of the need to hoard and I've decided to just use my supplies. If I like the look, then I just go for it. I sure could use to make up room in my stash, so at this point, the urge to hoard my supplies for that special project is just counterproductive. 

I used stickers from the book to decorate the front of the envelope, and lined the flap with patterned paper. I inked the edges of the envelope to match. I glued a remaining paper scrap inside the card and added a circle sticker on top to decorate in a matching manner and added inking in there as well. 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Crumb Cake (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers and Sticker Book: Jingle All the Way (Simple Stories)
Ink: Soft Sky, Soft Suede, Cherry Cobbler (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Sponge Daubers, Glitter & Clear Exposy Shapes, Gold Glitter Enamel Dots.
Neutrals Candy Dots, Crumb Cake Medium Envelope (Stampin' Up!)

 

Merry Stripes

Inspiration: The Card Concept #138B + Little Red Wagon #559 (Stripes)

I'm slowly easing into Christmas cards as I've received my Holidays minicatalogue preorder and as I'm seeing more Christmas challenges appear online as well. This card was definitely inspired by the inspiration picture from the Card Concept. As beautiful as the tree and gifts are, it was the holiday pillow propped on the chair that caught my eye. I loved the simplicity. I loved the red on pink stripes. I really loved the single word with the typing font. And I realized I could really easily incorporate all of those elements in a card.

The first thing I did was pull out my Typo Lowercase Alphabet Bigz die from Tim Holtz and die-cut the letters for the word Merry, including the period at the end, which I thought was a nice touch. I found a piece of black suede paper in my scrap drawer, so it added a nice texture. I had a feeling I would need to go oversize in order to incorporate the BIgz alphabet on my project, so I laid out the letters to figure out which size I needed and I landed on a 7" x 3-1/2" card.

I cut a Very Vanilla thick cardstock piece of that size, I used my wide purple tape to mask the middle and I spritzed Picked Raspberry Distress Oxide spray on it. I then grabbed my Gansai Tambi watercolors and added stripes over it. I embraced the uneveness, which adds fun and whimsy to the card.

At this point, I was torn between keeping the card as is or adding a touch of embellishing. I was hoping to add a small poinsettia in the corner using my new poinsettia dies. While I was trying out stuff, I remembered the Plush Poinsettia specialty paper that was also part of my preorder. It includes vellum sheets with holiday patterns in white flocking. Since I had used vanilla cardstock, I was hesitant, but I handcut the images to try them out and it looked pretty cute (even in white), but I decided to try inking the images with Distress Oxide ink to see how it would look. I really liked the result, so I ended up adding the flowers, leaves and branch to the card. I used the new Beaded Pearls (one of my favorite embellishments from the new minicatalogue) and a few beads and gems as well. I'm really happy with the result.

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Thick Very Vanilla (Stampin' Up!); Black Suede Paper (Chatterbox)
Specialty Paper: Plush Poinsettia
Ink: Spun Sugar, Cracked PIstachio, Festive Berries Distress Oxide (Ranger)
Dies: Typo Lowercase Alphabet Bigz (Tim Holtz for Sizzix)
Accessories: Beaded Pearls (Stampin' Up!); Blender Brushes (Picket Fence Studio);
Gansai Tambi Watercolors (Kuretake); Picked Raspberry Distress Oxide Spray (Ranger);
Pearls - Glossy Berry Mix (Little Things from Lucy's Cards); August Crystals (Studio Katia)

 

Cathedral Window

Inspiration: Frank Garcia Class - Lesson #1 - on Scrapbook.com + Fusion (colours from inspiration picture)

I watched the first lesson of the Frank Garcia class yesterday and was inspired to start crafting along with him. While my card is very much inspired by his project, the result is quite different. I did reproduce those elements from his original card:

• the paper and cardstock layers with the marker-inked edges and the dimensional tape
• the Lawn Fawn backdrop die on white cardstock
• the Liquid Pearl border
• the glitter-covered wreath
• the little bells hung with twine in the center of the wreath.
• a stamped sentiment on a banner die-cut

 I used the Santa Baby paper collection from Prima, one of my favorites with its soft hues. I don't really have big Prima flowers on hand, so I knew I'd have to come up with another plan, so I started hunting for supplies and when I spotted the Cathedral Window Etcetera pieces I bought last year and have yet to use, I knew this could look great. I also pulled out the Christmas paper dolls.

For the wreath, I knew I had some green and white opalescent box wreaths from last year's Stampin' Up! catalogue. They were wrapped smaller than I remembered, though, but I knew they're made of string of wire that can be unwrapped and reworked into another shape. I played with the idea of following the edge of the window at the top and then I also tried wrapping it around a spritz bottle to form a larger wreath and I liked that idea better. I did that with two wreaths and I layered them on top of one another using my glue gun. I then put Distress Collage Medium over the leaves and sprinkled white fine glitter over it. The window piece was spritzed with Brushed Pewter Distress Mica Spray and I used the Collage Medium to add snow on the top and bottom, sprinkling the same white fine glitter again. 

I did look at the very few Prima flowers I have, but they weren't the right look. I did find, however, the vanilla paper shapes I bought from Prima years ago and I pulled out a little embossed star, which was a nice way to ground the little guy's feet. While I was looking through embellishments, I also found last year's Snowflakes & Stars wire elements and decied to add a copper star on top of the paper one.

For the sentiment, I went back to my Stitched with Cheer stamp set, which I've used over and over through the years. I picked out Rococo Rose as my ink to stamp and I like how well it blends with the Prima papers. I added a few rhinestone embellishments, snowflake sequins, and I decided to add a silver and grey button to tie in with the darker paper doll, threaded with Soft Sky cotton twine. I alternated two colours of Liquid Pearl to create the border and I added drops of clear Crystal Drops around the card.

I like the final result and I'm surprised that this still feels like a very "me" card, as the original shown by Frank is very different from my usual style. I'm looking forward to watching the other videos from his class and see if they also inspire something.

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Cousu avec joie (Stitched with Cheer - Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Whisper White, Mint Macaron (Stampin' Up!)
 Patterned Papers: Santa Baby (Prima Design)
Ink: Rococo Rose (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Quilted Backdrop Die (Lawn Fawn); Crystal Fine Glitter (Martha Stewart);
Cathedral Windows Etcetera (Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous); 
White Opal, Platinum Liquid Pearl, Distress Collage Medium (Ranger); Morning Dew Crystal Drops (Nuvo);
Frosted Finishes Embellishments, Winter Wonderland Embellishments, Mini Jingle Bells,
Snowflake Sequins, Stampin' DImensionals, Bunch of Banner Dies, Soft Suede Stampin' Write Marker,
Snowflakes & Stars Wire Elements (Stampin' Up!); Christmas Paper Dolls (Tim Holtz for Idea-ology)

 

Hidden Santa Bear

Inspiration: Mojo Monday #540

So I was not planning on making a Christmas card today but I recently stumbled unto die-cut pieces I was gifted last year when I took part in an international Christmas card exchange. One of the ladies was nice enough to slip a little cello envelope in her card containing pieces die-cut out of white cardstock using the Santa Bear in Pot from The Scrapping Cottage, and she added a colour picture of the assembled piece for reference on the bag. I found the bag again during my recent scrap room cleanup and ended up at the top of the pile when I put everything away last week. Today, I wanted to craft but had trouble getting the ball rolling so I decided inking up my little bear pieces while watching the latest Tim Holtz video on Facebook would get me in the groove (and it did). I picked random Distress Oxide colours and they kept reminding me of an old paper pad from many years ago. I didn't take me long to find it - it's Handmade Holiday from Simple Stories. (I never realized it was from Simple Stories as it was before I started following their releases closely, so it must be one of the first collection I purchased from them.) The darker colour and shabby look worked with the bear really well. I was trying to decide which colour to use for the pot and I decided to glue the die-cut on the back of a piece of polka dot patterned paper and handcut it instead. I inked the edges for depth.

For the design, I was eager to use the latest Mojo Monday sketch, as I love long narrow cards. This seems to be the new rage, as slimline card dies are popping up everywhere lately. This one was sized perfectly to work with 6" x 6" patterned paper. (Julee includes the measurements for each pieces on her sketches, so you can quickly see how to keep the right proportions.) I used a piece of kraft paper with a snowflake and poinsettia border but it looked a little lost of the card, so I matted it with Bravo Burgundy cardstock. I was wondering what to add to the card background to make it less boring. Because of the size, background stamps and embossing folders would have been tricky, so I pulled out my stencils. I picked the Sparkle stencil from Tim Holtz and it worked out perfectly.

For the two pieces, I used a scrap of paper and layered one of the die-cuts over it (cut down slightly smaller than it's original size). I added Cherry Cobbler and Very Vanilla cotton twine tied in a bow, which filled the space nicely. I backed my bear with plaid paper die-cut with a stitched circle and inked the edges so that the plaid paper would blend better with the darker burgundy cardstock. On a whim, I decided to pull out my Dymo and emboss "Happy Holiday" on a strip of Crumb Cake cardstock, which I also inked. It doesn't stand out that well, so I was tempted to repeat the same step using Core'dinations cardstock, but it looked nice enough that I just decided to keep what I had. I pulled out the Home for Christmas enamel dots and added a few around the card.

I knew I had to handmake an envelope, but couldn't use the 6" x 6" patterned paper, so I pulled out my cardstock stacks to find a suitable colour. (Those stacks were bought at Michaels specifically so that I would have affordable cardstock in a variety of colours when I needed to make an envelope and didn't have patterned paper to match on hand.) I picked a vanilla cardstock, made my envelope and inked the edges to have a matching antique look. I added a few die-cuts from the collection, and I used the scraps from the cardstock to add a rectangle inside the card, which I like to do when I am using a dark colour for my card base.

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Mellow Moss, Bravo Burgundy (Stampin' Up!);
Vanilla Cardstock (Recollections)
Patterned Papers: Handmade Holidays (Simple Stories)
Inks: Vintage Photo, Aged Mahogany, Fired Brick, Iced Spruce, Peeled Paint,
Antique Linen Distress Oxide (Ranger); Mellow Moss Classic Ink (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Festive Farm Cotton Twine, Stampin' Dimensionals, Envelope Punch Board,
Home for Christmas Enamel Dots (Stampin' Up!); Blender Brushes (Picket Fence Studio);
Sparkle Stencil (Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous); Label Maker (Dymo);
Circle Double Stitched Dies (Art Impressions); White Gel Pen (Gelly Roll);
Santa Bear in Pot Dies (The Scrapping Cottage)

 

2019 Christmas Party

This is a second layout that was inspired by the Workshop brochure from KaiserCraft (September 2018) I made. I saw this gorgeous page with very soft stenciling and a myriad of layered patterned papers with distressed edges, and I knew it would be easy to reproduce and perfect to use paper scraps.

I went looking through my pictures for a portrait-style one and I didn't have to look for long. I saw the picture of our group taken at last year's office party and I knew it would work well. I picked a sheet of Midnight Muse and applied white Craft ink through the Falling Snowflakes stencil using a blender brush. Then I layered various pieces of papers from the Season of Cheer Designer Series paper pack. What's funny is that when I started reading the instructions for the layout in the brochure, I saw measurements, so I thought, this is going to be so fast... Turns out there's measurements for the first two layers and then you're on your own! Haha! Makes sense, since it's really just using paper scraps, but I got my hopes up in vain.

To finish the page, I fussy cut some of the poinsettias from the patterned paper to tuck underneath the upper left corner and I also used leftover cardstock snowflakes I had from using the snowflake background plate die Stampin' Up! was selling about two years ago. I had some in aqua and blue in colors that were a close-enough match so I went with that. I then found the Make it Merry Doo-Dads pack from October Afternoon with only three pieces left in there, so I used the green bracket piece in the lower corner of the page and the "Meet me under the mistletoe" bubble near the flowers. I added the year on the first die-cut using the Alphanumeric Script dies from Tim Holtz and I covered the Hello Honey numbers with Glitter Crystal Effects. I would have loved to use the third die-cut from the kit as well, but its background was off-white and clashed with the papers I was already using. I sprinkled rhinestones and sequins around the page and I finished by handwriting my journaling in white gel pen, including the names of everyone directly on the picture. I've seen that on some of my older layouts recently and it's made me want to start doing it again. (Creative cycles, right?)

Speaking of older stuff, I had a tin with an assortment of older leftover embellishments that I don't know where to store and don't want to get rid of, so because I've been rearranging my craft room, the tin was out on my desk and after I was done with the page, I thought, I should have a look inside the tin and see if there's anything in there I could work into the page. That's where I found the Merry Christmas charm, which is very old, but the color works and I had this empty spot on the right side of the layers where I had previously considered adding something, so there it went. 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Midnight Muse (Stampin' Up!)
Craft Ink: Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
Designer Series Paper: Season of Cheer (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Make It Merry Doo-Dads (October Afternoon); Falling Snowflakes Stencil (Carta Bella);
Alphanumeric Script Dies (Tim Holtz for Sizzix); Clear Faceted Gems, Distressing Tool, Jumbo Rhinestones,
Shimmery Crystal Effects, Glitter Enamel Dots, Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!); White Gel Pen (Gelly Roll);
Blender Brush (Picket Fence Studios); Assorted Moonshine Sequins (Simon Says Stamp);
Merry Christmas Charm (Making Memories)

 

Serene Snowy Scenes

Inspiration: Mojo Monday #513 + Try Stampin' on Tuesday #459

It's a little random that I'm putting together Christmas cards when the weather outside is finally 40 Celcius with the humidex factor (on a side note, I went from wearing knit sweaters to shorts and t-shirts in a span of two weeks - crazy!). They were inspired by a decoupage kit I found while rearranging my papers. It was late and I figured I could quickly put the images together while watching crafting videos on YouTube. As I was assembling the kit's images, I realized that the scene colours might work with the Frosted papers from KaiserCraft. I pulled the 6" x 6" paper pad and indeed, they look gorgeous paired together. That's when inspiration started flowing and so I kept going, putting the first card together.

I used one of the vintage picture cut-apart images from the pad to stick behind my main image and the sentiment circle was also part of the die-cut inserts at the end of the pad. I glued Distress mica flakes around the central patterned paper to stay with the vintage look. The navy corners are part of the decoupage kit and the silver foiled snowflakes too. I really like how this one turned out, it's very elegant.

The following night, I decided to make a card with the second image while all of the supplies were still out. I looked at challenge sketches for inspiration and decided to use the one from Try Stampin' on Tuesday. I will admit that it is not that obvious now that the card has been heavily layered, but the sketch was my starting point. I initially planned on tucking the sentiment die-cut underneath my papers, but it just didn't look as pretty as when I was adding it over using Dimensionals, so I just went with what looked best. I love how this one turned out as well, and I'm looking forward to using those to sent out wishes at Christmas time this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Seaside Spray
Patterned Papers: Frosted (KaiserCraft)
Ink: Stormy Sky, Ground Espresso Distress Oxide (Ranger)
Accessories: Outside In Stitched Rectangles Dies (Lawn Fawn);
Distress Mica Flakes, Glossy Accents, Blender Tool (Ranger);
Stampin' Dimensionals, Bashful Blue Satin Ribbon, Pearl Basic Jewels,
Crumb Cake Medium Envelope (Stampin' Up!); A2 Nautical Blue Linen Envelope (envelopes.com)

 

Winter Snow Globe - and Tag!

Inspiration: As You See It #221 (My favorite type of card to send is...)

My favorite type of card to send (and to make) is Christmas cards! I always send out a big bunch every year, and I have a weak spot for Christmas-themed supplies. It's a good thing I send a lot of Christmas cards because I sure do purchase Christmas-themed supplies a lot.

Here, I combined some older supplies with more recent ones. The snow globe pouches from My Favorite Things came out not that long ago, but the stamp set is an old Pure Innocence set I pulled out. I had wanted to ink it again and the size was great to fit into the snow globe. The sentiment at the bottom comes from Lawn Fawn's Ready Set Snow stamp set and was the perfect size. I filled the globe with Distress mica flakes.

The polka dot background was a pre-embossed paper Stampin' Up! used to sell, ready to be inked. I used Blue Parakeet opal polish from Cosmic Shimmer. From the front, the background looks green, but when you move the card around, you see the blue opalescent shimmer when it catched the light. The polka dot strip was also of my own doing: I used a Tim Holtz stencil and two products: Esmeralda Green glimmer paste and Spa Sprite Glacier paste, both from Nuvo. The stencil is a shifter stencil, so I let the first colour of paste dry, then moved the stencil and did the second row in a different colour. I love the look.

To finish the card off, I added stitched rickrackand a snowflake topped with a piece of holly to fill in the space a little.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Flurry of Love - Pure Innocence (My Favorite Things); Ready, Set, Snow (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Mint Macaron, Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper (Stampin' Up!);
Green Glitter Paper (Unknown Source)
Designer Series Paper: ? (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Bermuda Bay, Pear Pizzazz Classic Ink (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Tall Snow Globe, Stitched Rickrack (My Favorite Things);
Ready Set Snow, Stitched Snowflakes (Lawn Fawn)
Accessories: Pencils (Faber-Castell); Distress Mica Flakes (Ranger);
Blue Parakeet Opal Polish (Cosmic Shimmer); Bubble Stencil (Tim Holtz);
Sea Sprite Glacier Paste, Esmeralda Green Glimmer Paste (Nuvo);
Mini Stampin' Dimensionals, Metallic Pearls, Crumb Cake Medium Envelope (Stampin' Up)

 

 

After die-cutting my paper for the snow globe, I ended up with a very pretty rounded shape that looked very much like a tag. So I stamped a couple of images from the Santa's Elves stamp set to add to it, an eyelet at the top and I threaded some cord and voilà! Cute tag using my paper scraps.

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: BB Santa's Elves (My Favorite Things)
Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Whisper White (Stampin' Up!); Green Glitter Paper (Unknown Source)
Designer Series Paper: ? (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Dies: BB Santa's Elves, Tall Snow Globe, Stitched Rickrack, Fold-Up Tags (My Favorite Things)
Accessories: Markers (Copic); Mini Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up);
Blue Parakeet Opal Polish (Cosmic Shimmer); Bubble Stencil (Tim Holtz);
Sea Sprite Glacier Paste, Esmeralda Green Glimmer Paste (Nuvo);
Green and White Trim (Michaels)

 

Snowman Selfie

Inspiration: Simon Says Stamp Wednesday (Party Time)

I decided to pair the Christmas sELFies stamp set with the Snow Day papers from Crate Paper (an older collection) for something colorful. The image was colored with Copic markers and I added a few sparkly details using Nuvo glitter markers. I created a tag out of the yellow polka dot paper and I added vanilla sequins on the polka dots for texture. I made an oversize reinforcer for the hole of the tag using a 1" circle punch and I threaded Pear Pizzazz chevron ribbon, tying it in place with thick baker's twine.

For the sentiment, I found "Be merry this season" in a current stamp set, so I embossed it in Aqua Tinsel embossing powder on patterned paper, dit-cut with the Layering Ovals and matted it with Lovely Lipstick foil paper (from last Spring's SAB offering) with a scalloped oval. The card background was die-cut using the Confetti Card dies from Concord & 9th. Because my card had a lot of layers and the ribbon overlapping at the top, I chose to make an oversize envelope for it. It happens that I had purchased both some 12" x 12" paper and the 6" x 6" pad as well, so I was able to find a leftover piece of the larger paper to make a matching envelope.

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Christmas sELFies (My Favorite Things); Fêtes étincelantes (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Berry Burst, Whisper White, Lovely Lipstick Foil Paper (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers: Snow Day (Crate Paper)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); VersaMark
Accessories: Layering Ovals Dies, Stampin' DImensionals, Scalloped Border Punch,
Circle Punches, Pear Pizzazz Chevron Ribbon, Coastal Cabana Thick Baker's Twine,
Envelope Punch Board (Stampin' Up!); Wonky Stitched Rectangles Dies (My Favorite Things);
Markers (Copic); Aqua Tinsel Embossing Powder (Ranger); Confetti Card Dies (Concord & 9th);
Glitter Markers, Glitter Gloss Aqua Shimmer Brush (Nuvo); Snow Day Border Stickers (Crate Paper);
Vanilla Cream Sequin Mix (Little Things from Lucy's Cards)

 

Happy Mail

Inspiration: Freshly Made Sketch #416

I've purchased the Happy Mailbox Cubbies stamp set a little while ago but hadn't made a project with it yet. I finally took the plunge today, pairing it with some older Authentique patterned papers. I embossed the mailbox image with gold powder and watercolored it using inks and my Starry Gansai Tambi watercolor set. The fun part of this stamp set is that the matching dies included with it die-but slits and opening doors on all of the mailboxes. You can then stamp and color the additional parcels and envelopes images and tuck them in there where you please. It makes for such a cute little scene. I went with something Christmasy here, but this would work well all year long.

Because the focal point was the mailbox row, the rest of the card is fairly simple. I did add Distress Grit-Paste at the bottom using the Snowcap layering stencil and I sprinkled Distress Mica Flakes on the wet paste. I also added a very thin border of Golden Crystal glimmer paste around the largest piece of patterned paper and a piece of gold satin ribbon. The card was a bit bulky, so I made an oversize envelope using patterned paper from the same collection and I added a postage stamp die-cut for the address block.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Happy Mailbox Cubbies (Art Impressions)
Cardstock: Thick Very Vanilla (Stampin' Up!); Watercolor Paper (Fabriano)
Patterned Paper: Peaceful (Authentique)
Ink: VersaMark; Real Red, Granny Apple Green, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake Classic Ink (Stampin' Up!);
Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide (Ranger)
Accessories: Golden Crystal Glimmer Paste (Nuvo); Aquapainter Brush, Stampin' Dimensionals,
Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder, Palette Knife, Envelope Punch Board, Gold Satin Ribbon (Stampin' Up!);
Distress Mica Flakes, Distress Grit-Paste (Ranger); Snowcap Layering Stencil (Tim Holtz);
Postage Stamp Dies (Hero Arts); Dotted Rectangle Stackables Dies (Lawn Fawn);
Starry Colors Watercolors (Gansai Tambi)