Encre, papier, ciseaux

I'll Be Home for Christmas... If Only In My Dreams

Inspiration: Card Maps July 2018 sketch + Festive Friday #72 (house + twine + cranberry - the color)

I wanted to use my Hello Christmas collection from Carta Bella. The chipboard Accents were what I was most drawn to, then I decided to get the puffy stickers and the 6" x 6" paper pad as well. I was surprised to discover that Carta Bella changed how they do their chipboard now. It used to be entirely die-cut and adhesive--backed. This new version is plain chipboard, just brown underside, no adhesive. The pieces also have those little tabs keeping the images in place in the packaging. I'm sure this was done so that all of the pieces stay in place through shipping and when they are displayed in stores, as some pieces used to pop out and fall to the bottom of the packaging before. That being said, I have always hated when die-cuts have tabs on them, as if leaves an uneven edge when you pop the piece out. I always go back with scisors to try and trim the prongs off and get an even finish, but it's not always easy, especially not with chipboard. If you look really closely at the top of the house and the bottom of it, you'll see what I am referring to. This was the first piece of the package I was using, so we'll see how I feel about it in the long run, but so far, not a positive change as far as I'm concerned.

The chipboard has a few house images - this one here and another one of a house in a glass dome. I love it, but the shape of the house was easier to work into the design I was using. I kept thinking I wanted to use "I'll be home for Christmas (if only in my dreams)" as my sentiment. We often see the first part used on cards, but adding the second part made it work with the current situation. Who knows this year how the holidays will be. My mom and I had a phone call last week and she said she didn't think my dad and her would be able to visit based on the current situation as it is. Sadly, she is probably right, so I'm mentally preparing for a different kind of holiday season. 

I paired the house pattern on top with the lovely green gingham at the bottom, die-cutting both with my largest Dotted Rectangle die from Lawn Fawn. I added a bit of die-cut lace in red in the middle and decided to do stenciling at the bottom. My latest find is Rose Quartz glitter paste in the sale bin. I love everything rose gold, so I was totally drawn to the colour and I don't own any texture paste in that colour, so at a third of the original price, I decided to give it a try. I'm liking it, it's a great texture and thick enough to get great details. The color looks lovely against the green. I used a mini stencil from set 38 from Tim Holtz.

For the sentiment, I wanted a typewriter font. I have the We R Memory Makers typewriter, but the font is fairly big, so the result would have been too large. I went to dafont.com and downloaded a couple of free typewriter fonts (everything is organized by theme or look, so you can really quickly find what you are looking for). I ended up using Typewriter Rustic and it's exactly the look I envisioned. I taped my 6" x 6" paper to a regular 8½ x 11" sheet of printing paper and ran it through the printer, then I die-cut the printed patterned paper with a die from the Everyday Sentiment Banners.

I added green thick twine and a couple of puffy stickers to finish the card, decorated the inside with a cut-apart image, and for the envelope, I used the same stencil and glitter paste then added a puffy sticker that reads "Home for the Holidays" as a tie-in.

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Thick Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers, Chipboard Accents, Puffy Stickers: Hello Christmas (Carta Bella)
Dies: Dotted Rectangle Stackables, Everyday Sentiment Banners (Lawn Fawn);
Final Touches Edgelits (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Pistachio Pudding, Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!);
Rose Quartz Glitter Paste (Martha Stewart); A2 Avocado Envelope (envelopes.com)

 

Ho Ho Ho Tags

Inspiration: CAS(E) This Sketch #398

I am now back to recent supplies, as the next Christmas collection I turned to is Jingle All the Way from Simple Stories. I realized the Thickers include Ho Ho Ho, which is featured on this week's CAS(E) This Sketch challenge, so I decided to see what I could create with it. I initially planned on using the three words directly on the card, but I saw the patterned paper with tags and decided to layer three tags behind the words instead. Even with overlapping the tags, the card still ended up measuring 4" x 9" (which fits with the current slimline trend). I punched a hole in the tags and threaded cotton twine in matching colours, then I added the Santa from the Bits & Pieces pack. I added a few decorations from the Sticker Book and Puffy stickers and on a whim I decided to add a couple of dangles on the middle tag. 

An envelope was made out of cardstock. I discovered the envelope punch board doesn't include measurements for cards that are 9" high, so I took my best guess and it worked out. I used a cut-apart for the center, and decorated with a die-cut and a sticker. 

The resulting card is probably not what would qualify as a Clean and Simple card, but it was really easy to assemble and I'm loving the end result. I'm happy because this was one of the fall collection that I was on the fence about buying - so far, I've made two cards with it and I've loved the results for both, so I'm happy I purchased it.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Pool Party (Stampin' Up!); Jewel Tones (Recollections)
Patterned Papers, Sticker Book, Puffy Stickers, Foam Stickers: Jingle All the Way (Simple Stories)
Accessories: Festive Farm Cotton Twine, Mini Stampin' Dimensionals, Envelope Punch Board,
Ticket Corner Punch (Stampin' Up!); Tassel, Jump Rings (Bead Landing);
Gansai Tambi Starry Colors Watercolours (Kuretake)

 

Vanilla Poinsettias

Inspiration: Little Red Wagon #575 (Non-Traditional Christmas Colors)

I wanted to make pale poinsettias using the Poinsettias dies from the August-December Minicatalogue, and I found that it was a good occasion to pull out the Brightly Gleaming Specialty DSP, which came out last year but returned in this year's minicatalogue. I picked one of the Pretty Peacock patterns to make the flowers stand out and I stamped and embossed a larger sentiment in the center in copper powder. I thought when I picked the stamp set that it was still current, but I think it's a retired one, unfortunately. The sentiment reads, "Friendship brightens the Holidays." 

The flowers were die-cut out of Very Vanilla cardstock and I used my bone folder to give them shape. The leaves and centers were cut out of brushed metallic cardstock, also from the minicatalogue (p. 45). The result is so classic and elegant, I love it! Because I was not using the center on the smaller poinsettias, they looked a little bare, so I went through my embellishments and decided to add some iridescent pearls to them. 

The finished card measures 8" x 4", so I made a matching envelope out of patterned paper using the Envelope Punch Board. I used my last die-cut flower and an address block die-cut with the Stitched Nested Labels dies to tie in with the card.

 

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Stamps: Illuminez les Fêtes (Making Christmas Bright)
Cardstock: Night of Navy, Very Vanilla, Brushed Metallic Cardstock
Specialty Designer Series Paper: Brightly Gleaming
Ink: VersaMark
Accessories: Copper Stampin' Emboss Powder, Poinsettia Dies, Envelope Punch Board,
Iridescent Pearls, Stitched Nested Labels Dies

 

New Year Nutcracker

Inspiration: CAS Colours & Sketches #396 + ColourQ #62

Avery Elle came out with some pretty cute stamp sets this season, including the Holiday Circle Tags. The CAS Sketch was perfect to use this set, so I looked at past ColourQ challenges for colour inspiration and I picked #62, as I thought it would go great with the nutcracker image. I embossed it in gold on watercolor paper and used inks to colour the image. I punched the image with a 2" Circle punch and layered it over a Wonky Circle Frames die-cut cut out of Brushed Gold cardstock. I layered scraps of cardstock in matching colours as per the sketch, and I embossed a couple with the Subtle 3D embossing folder to give them texture. The white background was also embossed using the Holly embossing folder. 

I stamped my sentiment ("Happy New Year") on white cardstock and layered it over a yellow scrap on the card. I added candy dots and glitter enamel dots in matching hues on each cardstock strip.

The same nutcracker image was then stamped and gold-embossed on a red metallic envelope to finish the set. This card could be simple enough to mass-produce and I love how bright and colorful the ginal result is.

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Holiday Circle Tags (Avery Elle); Six souhaits (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Shimmery White, Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise, 
Real Red, Emerald Envy, Brushed Gold (Stampin' Up!); Watercolor Paper (Fabriano)
Ink: VersaMark, Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise, 
Real Red, Emerald Envy, Blush Blossom, Sahara Sand
Accessories: Glitter Enamel Dots, Stampin' Dimensionals, Candy Dots, Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder,
Subtle 3D Embossing Folder, Holly Embossing Folder (Stampin' Up!);
A2 Jupital Metallic Envelope (envelopes.com)

 

Vintage Tags and Milk Caps

Inspiration: Card Maps July 2018 Sketch + Hand Stamped Sentiments #351

I'm still working on my holiday cards that will be sent to a Seniors Center. I was going through my stash, having trouble to find an idea that led to something, and I finally caught a spark of inspiration when I pulled out Carta Bella's Christmas collection from 2018. I am not shying away from doing cutesy, but I do have an inkling that the vintage and retro images might appeal to the seniors, so I am trying to pull out my collections that have that vibe. I remember that two years ago, my local store was hit by a wave of gorgeous Christmas collections that I couldn't resist and I had so much new stuff that I struggled to use it all. This is unfortunately one of the collections that got neglected. I find it absolutely gorgeous, so I was happy to revisit it. I realized that the colors might suit Tim Holtz's Christmas milk caps, so I pulled them out and sure enough, it made for the perfect embellishment. I really loved the tag cut-apart sheet, so it became the starting point for this card.

I extended the tag by adding a piece of striped cardstock at the end, which I punched with a lacy border punch. I added vanilla lace trim between the two pieces. For the sentiment, I pulled a long narrow sentiment from the Merry Mistletoe stamp set. I have white embossing powder bought years ago that yellowed over time. While I was irked by it initially, it actually ended up working in my favour because look how great it works here with the vanilla-based papers! It fit perfectly. 

I added Cherry Cobbler cotton twine to the top of the tag and tied two Cherry Cobbler mini jingle bells with Altenew Antique Gold metallic thread (couldn't resist - I'm on a mini-jingle bells kick this year!). I added red pearls over the berries from the image, black sequins on my left-side tiny banners and Vanilla Cream sequins on the sentiment and bottom of the tag.

The sketch had stitching in the center, so I cracked into my Roughly Sewn rub-ons from 49 and Market. Playing with those reminded me I've missed rub-ons, especially stitching ones. Since craft is a cycle and everything circle back in, it's be nice to have those make a comeback in the near-future. Seems like the industry only has to give us time to miss something and when they're bringing it back, we're discovering it all over again.

For the envelope, I picked a black one, which I embellished with a strip of paper and another tag. If I was using the envelope to mail the card out, I would have needed to allow for more room, but because the cards will be hand-delivered, I had a little bit more leeway with my design. I also used another tag for my signature on the back of the card. Some of the tags on the paper are incomplete, so I used one of those and glued it straight on the edge of the card.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Sous le gui (Merry Mistletoe - Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers: Christmas (Carta Bella)
Ink: VersaMark
Accessories: White Roughly Sewn Rub-On (49 and Market);
Antique Gold Metallic Thread (Altenew); Glossy Berry Pearls (Studio Katia);
Vanilla Cream Sequins (Little Things from Lucy's Cards); 
Dotted Scalloped Rectangles Dies (Elizabeth Craft Designs); 
A2 Midnight Black Envelope (envelopes.com); Stampin' Dimensionals, Vanilla Lace Trim,
White Stampin' Emboss Powder, Lacy Border Punch, Peaceful Poppies Sequins,
Cherry Cobbler Festive Farm Cotton Twine, Mini Jingle Bells (Stampin' Up!);
Wonky Stitched Rectangles Die-namics (My Favorite Things); Christmas Milk Caps (Tim Holtz for idea-ology)

 

Mittens and Doilies

Inspiration: Mojo Monday #545

After finishing my last card, I wanted to keep going with the Hello Christmas collection, so I started playing with the chipboard pieces and layering paper elements to get something going. I've mentioned in my last post that Carta Bella has changed the way they do their chipboard elements: the pieces are not cut all the way around, they are now held in place with little tabs. This make it quite hard to get the images out without tearing anything. I find it even harder on the smaller pieces, like the mittens and the holly circle I used on this card. If you look at the right mitten, the top edge is slightly uneven because of how it broke from the packaging. I'm not super thrilled about this change. I wonder if this is permanent or just something the company was trying for this release.

This card is fairly simple, but features a whole lot of layering. I initially thought I would have to go oversize to accommodate the doily but I finally came back to a regular A2 size. I was finding the initial layout a little blah, but then I remembered this trick about using double-sided tape around a piece of paper to add fine glitter, so I pulled out my gold glitter and 1/8" score tape to create a sparkly border. This totally changed the whole card and gave life to the layout.

The sentiment was stamped on green patterned paper and as mentioned before, I capitalized on the fact that I have a container of white embossing powder that yellowed over time and now it look perfect when used with vanilla-based papers. For the second doily, I used the tree-pattern paper, which is why I also added the chipboard tree image. I added a few more chipboard pieces and puffy stickers, as well as pearls and sequins to finish off the layout. A black envelope was decorated to match.

I used to not want to use my chipboard pieces on cards. In my mind, they were more expensive embellishments that needed to be saved for layouts or more special projects. Thankfully, I am slowly moving past that mental block. In this collection, the chipboard pieces also happen to be smaller and the packs have way more of them, so maybe that is why I'm changing my tunes. I've also realized this year that the craft supplies have really started piling up over the years and now, I realize that there really is not point in hoarding. Just use it and enoy it - and make room for more, as the company never seem to run out of fun new stuff to offer and tempt us with! I also don't have infinite space, so I need to keep the supplies moving.

On a side note, I've used my Metallic Thread from Altenew on many of my latest creations. It took me a while to get my hands on it, as it kept selling out, but I am really loving the three beautiful colours included in the pack and the texture and shine it has. Be advised that the ends have a tendancy to split (it's a three-ply thread), but aside from that, I am thoroughly enjoying using this product.

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Ce que j'aime à Noël (Greatest Part of Christmas - Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Handsome Hunter (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers, Puffy Stickers and Chipboard Accents: Hello Christmas (Carta Bella)
Ink: VersaMark
Accessories: Doily Die (Recollections); Decorative Doily Duo Die-namics (My Favorite Things);
Mini Stapler, Gold FIne Glitter, Stampin' Dimensionals, White Stampin' Emboss Powder, Festive Farm Baker's Twine,
Distress Tool, Wonderful Gems (Stampin' Up!); Vintage Shimmer Pearls (Studio Katia);
A2 Midnight Black Envelope (envelopes.com); Vanilla Cream Sequin Mix (Little Things from Lucy's Cards);
Enchanted Gold Metallic Thread (Altenew)

 

Not a Creature Was Stirring (Except in the Kitchen)

Inspiration: Little Red Wagon #574 (Color Me Happy)

Finally had time to ink the adorable A Creature Was Stirring stamp set from Lawn Fawn's last release. I made an English card between the sentiment included in the set is very clever and makes me smile. I didn't know what I was planning to make when I pulled the stamp set out, I just wanted to do some coloring so I stamped all of the images, colored them in shades matching the Mistletoe Kisses papers, which were the last paper collection I had used and was still on my desk. 

Once all images were colored and die-cut, I realized I could make a slimline card and create a little kitchen scene. There's nothing really earth-shattering about this design, but it's just cute! I added a few gems and crystal stars, an enamel heart as well as Stickles on some of the images to jazz them up.

Then I made a matching envelope for my 8" x 4" card using cardstock and added one of the cut-aparts from the paper collection.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: A Creature Was Stirring (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Lucky Limeade (Stampin' Up!); Cotton Candy (Bazzill);
Playground (Recollections)
Patterned Papers: Mistletoe Kisses (Simple Stories)
Ink: Basic Grey (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: A Creature Was Stirring, Fancy Wavy Bannners (Lawn Fawn)
Accessories: Crystal Stars (Buttons Galore & More); Stickles (Ranger);
Envelope Punch Board, Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!); Markers (Copic);
Winter Hugs Shape Sprinkles (Doodlebug Design)

 

Farmhouse Christmas Anya

Inspiration: Tuesday Morning Sketch #579

The Greeting Farm came out with some adorable new stamps this year, including this lovely Holiday Anya 8. I paired her with the Farmhouse Christmas papers from Carta Bella for a classic look.

The Anya image was paper pieced so that I could have a plaid dress on her. I've learned with practice that it's often better to have a second image stamped on white cardstock and added on top of the clothes in order to have her arms be over the clothes, instead of looking like they are indented in the dress. For this reason, I stamped and colored her legs, then I shaded the dress that was stamped on plaid patterned paper with Copic markers, handcut it and added it over the legs. I then colored the top portion of her, stamped separately, and fussy cut this part and added it on top of the dress. Because I didn't leave any white border on her, I used the black marker tip and went over the whole border with the tip of my marker to make sure no white was showing anymore. I kept the earrings blank as I knew I wanted to use a gold marker to fill them in and as I was doing that, I also added a dot in the center of the bow and decided to add a gold line in the plaid. I love how much life that detail added to her look.

I kept the gold touches by gold embossing for my sentiment ("happiness and health", which is a good one to use this year), a narrow gold ribbon and gold gems. For the envelope, I fussed around a bit but finally selected an Anthracite metallic envelope, added a dotted scalloped rectangle in the center and gold-striped washi on each side.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Holiday Anya 8 (The Greeting Farm); Six souhaits (Six Sayings - Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Mellow Moss, Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers: Farmhouse Christmas (Carta Bella)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento), VersaMark
Accessories: A2 Anthracite Metallic Envelope (envelopes.com); 
Dotted Scalloped Rectangles Dies (Elizabeth Craft Designs); Markers (Copic);
Washi Tape (?); Gold Pen (Posca); Snow Crystals Dies (KaiserCraft); White Gel Pen (GellyRoll);
Wonderful Gems, Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder, Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!);
Outside In Stitched Rectangle Dies (Lawn Fawn); Christmas Day Snow Dies (Echo Park)

 

Sugar Plum Banner

Inspiration: Freshly Made Sketch #460

I love creating Christmas projects with sweet shades of pink, green and aqua. My inspiration for this one was the gorgeous Sugarplum collection from My Mind's Eye, which dates back a few years now. I stamped and colored my two characters from the Warm Wishes set from The Greeting Farm in shades matching the patterned papers. There was no die set to go with the stamps, so I fussy cut them out. Initially, I had placed both characters on each side of the banner and it was looking a little strange. I realized it looked much better when I was placing them side by side in the center of the card.

For the sentiment, I found something size-appropriate to fit in my banner that reads, "May this festive season be filled with big moments and fond memories". I wanted to add a holly image underneath, so I went digging through my Christmas embellishments and I found some cute Holly Berries Sprinkles Shapes from Doodlebug that worked perfectly.

The little embellishment in the bottom right corner is actually the leftover piece from the die-cut banner. The original piece was too long, so I run it again a second time to shorten it and the leftover piece had this cute shape, that I topped with a brad to add interest to the card. The designs from the pack were too busy for a sentiment, so I went looking through my Stampin' Up! Designer Series Paper stacks and used a Certainly Celery scrap instead. Since it's double-sided, I used the backside for my embellishment piece.

An Aquamarine metallic envelope was decorated with a sticker from the paper pack to finish the look.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Ce que j'aime à Noël (Greatest Part of Christmas - Stampin' Up!); Warm Wishes (The Greeting Farm)
Cardstock: Pear Pizzazz, Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Paper: Sugar Plum (My Mind's Eye)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Old Olive (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Holly Berries Sprinkles Shapes (Doodlebug Design);
Bundle of Joy Enamel Dots (Echo Park); Make It Merry Designer Brads (October Afternoon);
Banners Dies, Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!); Everyday Sentiment Banners,
Outside In Stitched Rectangle Dies (Lawn Fawn); Dotted Scalloped Rectangles (Elizabeth Craft Designs);
Markers (Copic); Border Dies (Photoplay); A2 Aquamarine Metallic Envelope (envelopes.com)

 

Christmas Scooter

Inspiration: Mojo Monday #549

The Holly Jolly collection from Simple Stories came out either last year or two years ago and when my store got it in stock, I had a look and decided to pass on it. Then, when it came on sale, I thought about it again, and passed. Then it went on clearance, I leafed through the paper pad again, and decided to pass again. I must not have been the only crafter that did that because this collection stayed around for quite a while in my local store and online. The patterns are just really cute, but the colours feel somewhat off to me. That being said, I finally caved and decided to buy it and get it out of my system for good. It'll be interesting to see how I find working with the collection. I really love the cutesy patterns like the ones showcased on my card, but I'm not so sure about the ones that feel more vintage like the florals. I also got the ephemera pack, which made putting this cute card together fast and easy.

I used the adorable scooter as my main image and the Fa La La La die-cut as the sentiment. I tried out a few patterned paper circles but they were taking the focus away from the main image, so I finally used cardstock instead and embossed it with the beautiful Jeweled Snowflakes 3D embossing folder from Sizzix. I used my Glitter Gloss Aqua Shimmer brush to make the cardstock sparkly.

I kept the embellishing simple: I added a few enamal dots, including one of the front wheel of the scooter, and two little enamel hearts from Doodlebug to fill the space over the scooter. I used additional ephemera pieces to embellish the inside of the card and the front of the envelope.

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Cotton Candy (Bazzill); Buckaroo Blue (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers and Bits & Pieces: Holly Jolly (Simple Stories)
Dies: Outside In Stitched Rectangle Stackables (Lawn Fawn);
Postage Stamps (Hero Arts); Border Dies (Photoplay)
Accessories: Jeweled Snowflakes 3D Embossing Folder (Sizzix);
Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!); A2 Rose Quartz Metallic Envelope (envelopes.com);
Rainbow Hearts and Winter Hugs Shape Sprinkles (Doodlebug Design);
Oh, What Fun! Enamel Dots (PinkFresh) 

 

Retro Christmas

Inspiration: Page Maps June 2020

As I was working on Christmas cards using the Home for Christmas Designer Series Paper, I realized that it would pair great with pictures I took at Hollywood Studios in Walk Disney World on our last trip. We went the first week of January, so the Holidays festivities were over, but some of the Christmas decorations had not been put away just yet, particularly at Hollywood Studios. I will admit this specific park has always been my favorite of the four in Florida, and I think it's in big part due to the aesthetics of the architecture, which i sinspired by Art Deco and looks beautiful. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Christmas decorations are also vintage-inspired. (Which makes sense, knowing how much thought Disney World puts into everything they do.) I just had to take pictures of the adorable vintage bells and fawn images trimmed with tinsel.

This page is quite busy - I kept going back and forth between using the music sheet pattern or the ornements in the center panel. The ornaments fit the theme, but it does make for a busy background. I love the result nonetheless. I made sure to include a few handcut fawns, since they were what made me draw a link between the pictures and the papers in the first place. I also handcut a poinsettia to tuck under the corner of a picture. You'll notice I worked in threes: three fussy-cut vintage images, three buttons, three layered snowflakes. Those dies are brand-new. They caught my eye online and even though there weren't much images showing what they looked like, I took a gamble and I think it was a good call because they are gorgeous. I love that each one comes with a backing shape (which I didn't realize before playing with the set). That definitely helped here, as the snowflakes stand out better against the busy patterns with the vanilla cardstock on the back.

When looking at ribbons to trim the edge of the torn music strips, I found an old two-tone blue ribbon that matched the ornaments perfectly. I used it in the corner of my largest pictures and I love that it draws the eye to the ornament cluster. I wasn't aware it was showing when I took the picture of the street, but I realized when I started working on the page that it was highlighting the retro-inspired decorations I'm talking about on this layout. This detail becomes more evident with the use of the ribbon bow. I die-cut the second largest picture using the Stacked Deckle Rectangles, which I love to use to mimick old-time pictures. The pictures were not popping enough against the busy papers, so I made sure to mat both with Very Vanilla cardstock, inked with Antique Linen Distress ink, and I matted my two square pictures with red foil cardstock.

For the title, using the Deco Alphabet from Tim Holtz seemed like an obvious choice. I die-cut my letters out of chipboard first and then patterned paper. I was planning to just layer them for dimension, but I realized when they were placed askew on my table that it might look cool if I actually did a drop shadow by painting the chipboard another colour. I pulled out white acrylic paint, pourred Mossy Meadow reinker in it to die it (I don't own a lot of paint colours, but I have a rainbow of reinkers for my inkpads, so I make sure to always have white acrylic paint on hand and I make my own mixes. Works great!) and I colored my chipboard. It dried paler than the wet acrylic paint was showing, but it pairs very nicely with the aqua letters and it gives the title more presence on the layout. I needed "Christmas" for the first word. I had initially thought I'd use sticker letters, but I thought it would look better if I stamped a small word (which I knew I could easily find in any Christmas set I own). I found one that was on a banner in a sentiment, so I handcut it out and layered it over a punched snowflake. When I was looking through button options, I really liked the red one with its vintage look, but it wasn't working out on the green banner (the green threaded button was much better), so I decided to add it to the middle of the O in my title instead. I threaded it with clear tinsel to match. (In 15 years to buying trim from Stampin' Up!, this is my favorite of all times. The roll is dangerously low and I'm using it sparingly until I can find somewhere to buy more. I ordered the Sugar Cookie trim from the new Prima Christmas collection and I'm praying it is similar.)

Finally, I needed to fit my journaling somewhere, so I decided to do a vertical strip on the right edge, and I like how it looks. This is the first layout to make its way into my Disney album. I'm looking forward to scrapping my pictures from the trip. I had just started scrapbooking when my sister and I went together in our early twenties and I had the best time scrapbooking every single picture from the trip after we came back. Still one of my favorite albums to this day, so I hope I have as much fun with this one.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Joyeuse année (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Red Foil Sheets (Stampin' Up!); Blue Obsidian Mirror Cardstock (Tonic)
Designer Series Paper: Home for Christmas (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Cherry Cobbler Classic Ink (Stampin' Up!); Antique Linen Distress Ink (Ranger)
Dies: Layered Snowflakes (PinkFresh); Reinforcer Variety Pack (Elizabeth Craft Designs);
Stacked Deckle Rectangles, Deco Alphabet Bigz (Tim Holtz for Sizzix); Layering Circles (Tonic)
Accessories: White Acrylic Paint, Green Ribbon, Blue Ribbon, Chipboard (?);
Sponge Daubers, Stampin' Dimensionals,Wonderful Gems, Buttons, Clear Tinsel Trim (Stampin' Up!); 
Buttons (Foof-a-La); LePen Pen (Marvy); Vintage Shimmer Pearls (Studio Katia);
Snowflake Punch (EK Success)

Farmhouse Christmas Ornaments

Inspiration: Mojo Monday #544 + Festive Friday (patterned paper + pearls + die cut)

Today's creation was inspired by the gorgeous Farmhouse Christmas papers from Carta Bella. All of their Farmhouse collections are been absolutely stunning and this one is no exception. I grabbed the 6" x 6" paper pad at my local store and it was the inspiration for this card.

I liked the cut-apart sheet and decided to use of the sentiments for my card. Because it was taking up a lot of room, I wasn't sure what to fill the circle with. I kept thinking I could do a hanging ornament. I have a pair of punches from last year's Holidays catalogue, so I pulled them out and saw that I could actually fit the two pretty nicely. They were punched out of plaid and were fading against the background so I decided to add red metallic stitching around the shape. And to punch the top out of Copper foil paper. And to add something in the middle. I ended up using one of the patterns and cutting the little frames out to add to the ornaments. Finally, I found some red tinsel trim leftover on my desk and decided to hang my ornaments from it. As I was grabbing the tinsel, I also spotted some white lace and decided it might look nice with the farmhouse look of the paper. This filled the space nicely on the card and lightened it up a bit. Finally, I added moss green, berry and vintage pearls to the lace and card. The papers were added to a Crumb Cake card base and I inked the edges with Crumb Cake ink to better match the farmhouse feel of the papers.

I repeated one of the ornaments inside the card. For the envelope, I grabbed a Oak Woodgrain envelope, added green polka dot paper at the bottom and copper Merry Christmas washi tape (from Crate Paper's Snowflake collection). I layered two punched ornaments again.

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Copper Foil Paper (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers: Farmhouse Christmas (Carta Bella)
Ink: Crumb Cake (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Lace Trim (Unknown); Red Metallic Floss (DMC); A2 Oak Woodgrain Envelope (envelopes.com);
Vintage Shimmer, Moss Green and Berry Mix Pearls (Studio Katia);
Snowflake Washi Tape (Crate Paper); Gleaming Ornaments Punches, Sponge Dauber (Stampin' Up!);
Dotted Rectangle Stackables Dies (Lawn Fawn); Circle Double Stitched Dies (Art Impressions)

 

Nordic Mittens

Inspiration: Card Maps October 2018 + Fusion

Today's card was really random. I had put aside the Many Mittens dies Stampin' Up! hoping to use them again this season and they were perfect for the Fusion inspiration picture. I went through my retired Holidays patterned papers from Stampin' Up! and when I spotted the Nordic Noel suite, I thought it might work well with the mittens.

I used a mix of old and new supplies on this creation. The Jeweled Snowflakes 3D embossing folder used in the background and the Studio Katia pearls are new from this year. The Hemlines stamps from Paper Salon date back to my early stamping days. The Nordic Noel papers are also quite old, as I remember using those in workshops back in the days. Speaking of which, I have a weird love-hate relationship with those papers. I always end up loving the final projects I made with them, and yet it's always a struggle to make the busy patterns work together. I feel like the best paper collections have small, medium and large papers and also have a few tone-on-tone motifs thrown in there. This is not the case with this collection: aside from the Pool Party paper with snowflakes, the patterns are quite loud. And yet... once again, though it is a busy card, I do like the result.

Because I had dry embossed my background, I knew I couldn't stamp a sentiment on it directly, like in the sketch, and luckily I found a very nice rectangle sentiment that was the right font and size in the Christmas Gleaming stamp set (which Stampin' Up! carried over in this year's minicatalogue, if you want to check it out). I stamped it in Calypso Coral ink and cut it out, then popped it up on Stampin' Dimensionals. 

I had a big enough piece of patterned paper to make a matching envelope out of, and I used the lighter snowflake pattern to make an address block, using the Deco Labels dies (another oldie).

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Fêtes étincelantes (Christmas Gleaming - Stampin' Up!); Hemlines (Paper Salon)
Cardstock: Thick Whisper White, Shimmery White (Stampin' Up!)
Designer Series Paper: Nordic Noel (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Calypso Coral (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Deco Labels, Finishing Touches, Many Mittens (Stampin' Up!);
Wonky Stitch Rectangle Stax (My Favorite Things)
Accessories: Jeweled Snowflakes 3D Embossing Folder (Sizzix); 
Baker's Twine (Lawn Fawn); Café au lait, Rose Pink, Glossy Berry Pearls (Studio Katia);
Envelope Punch Board, Stampin' Dimensionals, Snowflake Sequins (Stampin' Up!)

 

Christmas Bits and Pieces

Inspiration: Card Maps November 2017 sketch

I kept going with the 'Tis the Season Ephemera pack and Wintergreen Designer Series Paper to design this pretty and soft card. I am really loving the pairing of those two items and how easy it is to put together quick but gorgeous cards thanks to the ephemera pack. That is not how I usually design, as I tend to prefer incorporating stamping in my cards, but this will help me get a kick-start on the pile of Christmas cards I need. I recently mentioned I had something in mind that would require having a lot of Christmas cards at the ready and the project has been confirmed. I offered to make cards for the nursing home residents in my hometown. My mom does volunteer work for their board and she has mentioned that confinement has been particularly hard on morale. As we don't know what the rules in place are going to be during the Holidays, I suspect people might feel lonely, so I offered to not only prepare cards but also take care of the messages that will go inside. The staff has been spread thin all year long, so I know that providing the empty cards wouldn't be enough. Because I hate assembly-line production, I prefer to use the remaining months to prepare quick but individualized cards. I also suspect that it will give the residents something to talk about and share if all of the cards are different. Let's us this endeavour is a success. There are 56 residents overall (but 6 couples, so 50 cards to make) and I already have a growing pile of cards, but I also want to make sure I have cards left for my own family and friends, so this should keep me busy until December. It's all good. The sooner we can commit 2020 to memory, the better we'll all be, I think.

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Ce que j'aime à Noël (Greatest Part of Christmas - Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Sage Shadow (Stampin' Up!)
Designer Series Paper: Wintergreen (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Always Artichoke (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: White Square Envelope, Stampin' Dimensionals, Triangle Eyelet,
Always Artichoke Cotton Twine, Corner Rounder Punch (Stampin' Up!);
Basic Stitch Lines Die-namics (My Favorite Things); 'Tis the Season Ephemera Pack (Cocoa Vanilla);
Pumpkin and Spice Say It in Crystals (Prima Marketing);
Cloud 9 Dream Drops, Bubblegum, Calming Aqua Crystal Drops (Nuvo)

 

Country Christmas Elf Boy

Inspiration: Card Maps Sketch October 2018

I found a really good Card Maps sketch to use my Oddball Boy Elf, which was part of my Stamping Bella placed earlier this year when they announced they'd retire dies altogether. I got the elf stamps and die at that time, but I wasn't in Christmas creation mood at that time, so this is the first time I'm using it. As you can see, I'm slowly starting to ease into Christmas projects. I had also purchased the Simply Vintage Country Christmas 6" x 8" paper pad very late into last year's Christmas season and it had remained untouched, so I decided to pair both together. I used to be very adamant about not buying new supplies and letting them sit untouched but in the last few years, things have gotten away from me a bit on that front, it seems. 

I really love the sketch's design and I was able to very clearly reproduce all of its elements with things that I had in my stash. I was particularly happy to bring out the Wonky Circle Frames from Avery Elle, which I love. I paired it with the Golden Satin specialty paper from Tonic. Its texture reminds of vintage Christmas cards, and so it was perfect with the Simple Vintage collection from Simple Stories.

I initially planned on doing a sentiment strip like the sketch, but I had already moved the bow to the bottom for better balance and when I found the Traditions de Noël stamp set, it seemed like a really good match to the card, so I switched gears and used this instead, which allowed me to fill in the empty space in the middle of the circle. I did add a little green polka dot banner underneath the punched sentiment.

My little elf boy was colored with Polychromos pencils. I added a smidge of Midas Touch Aqua Shimmer to the bell and buckle for glimmer. Red pearls and gold glitter enamel dots were added for embellishment. 

For the envelope, I needed to make my own since I had made my card (5½" x 5½") just a little too big for my existing square envelopes. I remembered I had another vintage Christmas collection from Simple Stories - Simple Vintage Christmas) - so I dug it out and used one 12" x 12" sheet to make an envelope. I used one of the paler sheets from the 6" x 8" paper pad to make my address  block, picking a die from the Planner Essentials 21 dies from Elizabeth Craft Designs. I am really getting a lot of use out of those planner dies for everything but planners!

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Oddball Boy Elf (Stamping Bella); Traditions de Noël (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Thick Very Vanilla, Shaded Spruce (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers: Very Vintage Christmas, Very Vintage Country Christmas (Simple Stories);
Golden Satin Specialty Paper (Tonic)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Cherry Cobbler Classic Ink (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Planner Essentials 21 (Elizabeth Craft Designs);
Wonky Circle Frames (Avery Elle); Oddball Boy Elf (Stamping Bella)
Accessories: Gold Glitter Enamel Dots, Mini Stampin' Dimensionals, Garden Green/White Baker's Twine,
Designer Buttons, Real Red Baker's Twine, Envelope Punch Board, Tag Punch, Border Punch (Stampin' Up!);
Polychromos Pencils (Faber-Castell); Midas Touch Aqua Shimmer Brush (Nuvo);
Pearls - Glossy Berry Mix (Little Things from Lucy's Cards)

 

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)