Charming Box of Cards

In recent years it has become increasingly difficult to buy gifts for my mother-in-law.  She is a very healthy 87 year old lady who really does not need or want anything.  I had been buying her gift certificates for her favourite shopping malls only to find out recently that she forgets she has them and they are not being used.  For Christmas this year I have purchased a gift certificate to one of her favourite restaurants and have also made a box of 8 assorted greeting cards with envelopes.  The cards are identical except for the greetings.  All of those are from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set.  I packaged the cards in a clear acetate box and tied it with the wonderful Old Olive wide striped ribbon. 

I stamped the pale plum base card with the En Francais background stamp using pale plum classic ink.  I used the same stamp and ink on the whisper white image panel before stamping the floral image.   I coloured the floral image using my markers - Old Olive and Rich Razzleberry.  I also did a few rows of piercing to add a bit of visual interest.  On some of the cards I left the polka dot side of the ribbon showing and on the others I reversed it so the ribbon shows the solid colour.  I stamped the small butterfly image from the Charming stamp set in the bottom corner of the envelope as well as on the back flap.

This is one of the cards from the box:

The image panel and the greeting are raised up with dimensionals.   I left the inside of the card blank so there is plenty of room to write a personal note.

Recipe:

Stamps Sets - Charming, Teeny Tiny Wishes, French Script

Card Stock - Pale Plum, Old Olive, Whisper White, Rich Razzleberry, Cottage Wall DSP

Ink - Pale Plum, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive

Other - Word Window Punch, Rich Razzleberry Polka Dot Ribbon, Dimensionals, Acetate Card Box

All products used are Stampin' Up! except for the acetate box.

Clock

I made another clock following the directions given by Heather Summers in her Simply Holidays 2009 online class.  This one is for my sister and I can show it now that I have given it to her (she peaks in on my blog so I couldn't post it before now).   She loved it!

Supplies used were posted HERE

Gift Card Holders

Yesterday Judy and I made some cute little gift card holders.  We followed the instructions from week 7 of Andrea Walford's 12 Weeks of Christmas.  Quite quick and easy but oh so cute!   We made one little change - Andrea had stamped the greeting right on the "cuff" of the stocking but we decided to make a little panel so the greeting would stand out a little more.

It is hard to see in the photo, but we used the Perfect Details texturz plate to add some detail to the stocking.

Recipe:
Stamp Set - Four the Holidays
Ink - Chocolate Chip
Card Stock - Real Red, Very Vanilla, Merry Moments DSP
Other - Real Red 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, Vintage Brads, Antique Brass Jumbo Eyelet

Have a great day!

Monday's Projects

I got distracted and forgot to post the cards Judy and I made on Monday. 

I had posted this card before, but Monday was the first chance we had to make it together. 

Recipe:

Stamps - Snow Buddies (Level II Hostess), Winter Post
Card Stock - Real Red, Soft Suede, Whisper White
Ink - Real Red, Jet Black StazOn
Markers - Only Orange, Real Red, White Signo Gel Pen, Sakura Gelly Roll Pens (Stardust and Metallic Black)
Other - Real Red 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon, Paper Piercer, SU Mat Pack
 
We also did an easel card - similar to the one I had posted before, but I changed up the DSP a bit.  I am liking it a lot more than the previous card I had made.
 

 
Recipe:
Stamp Set - Christmas Punch (Level 2 Hostess); The More the Merrier (Level 3 Hostess)
Card Stock - Real Red; Old Olive; Merry Moments DSP
Ink - Jet Black StazOn; Real Red (craft and classic); various markers
Other - Wide Oval punch; dimensionals; 5/8" Real Red grosgrain ribbon; clear embossing powder; glitter glue

The third card we did was one I had seenn on Sandi McIver's blog.  She had posted THIS CARD and later posted a tutorial which I purchased.  On her card Sandi had "whacked" her Finial Post embossing folder.  I was tempted to do so as well, but finally decided not to.  Instead of embossing the Real Red card stock we gave it a quick spray with a mixture of isopropyl alcohol and Frost White shimmer paint.  A very pretty effect with no scissors involved!  You can't really see the beautiful shimmer on the card stock in the photo, but rest assured it is very pretty in real life.

Recipe:
Stamp Sets - Leaf Lines, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Card Stock - Real Red, Old Olive, Shimmery White
Ink - Real Red, Old Olive, Encore Gold
Other - Gold Embossing Powder, Orament Punch, Mistletoe Ribbon (Holiday Mini), Glitter Glue,  Mini Glue Dots, dimensionals
 
Have a great day! 

Easel Card

I decided to try another easel card - this time with a Christmas theme.   Overall, I am quite pleased with the way it turned out and I plan to make more (it will be one of the projects we do at Judy`s tomorrow).  I am changing some of the DSP though.  A little bit too much green for me on this one.  Maybe I should have used the pine bough paper on the 'platform' of the card instead of repeating the olive green snowflake pattern.   For the ones we do tomorrow, I plan to use the striped paper from the Merry Moments package instead of the pine boughs.  In addition, we will use the striped design on the `platform`. 

Recipe:

Stamp Set - Christmas Punch (Level 2 Hostess); The More the Merrier (Level 3 Hostess)

Card Stock - Real Red; Old Olive; Merry Moments DSP

Ink - Jet Black StazOn; Real Red (craft and classic);  various markers

Other - Wide Oval punch; dimensionals; 5/8" Real Red grosgrain ribbon; clear embossing powder; glitter glue

Thanks for stopping by.

More Christmas Cards - Part 2

The camera battery is charged so I was able to get pictures of the rest of the cards Judy and I made on Monday.   These are the other two cards from Heather Summers' group of three.  All of the stamps, card stock, etc. are the same as posted on Monday.  Hope you like them.

More Christmas Cards

Judy and I got together on Friday as well as yesterday to make some more cards.  On Friday, we only made one card instead of the usual three because I had brought my laptop to give her an overview of My Digital Studio.

On Friday we had intended to do all three of the cards Heather Summers had posted HERE.  I really liked that there were three cards that were basically the same but a little bit different.  The dimensions of each the card stock layers for all three cards is identical.  The same stamp set is used for all three cards.  Different embellishments are used on Heather's samples.  We used nonSU snowflake brads in their place.

Here is the card we did on Friday

                                                           

Recipe:

Stamps - Snow Buddies (Level II Hostess Set - Holidy Mini); Teeny Tiny Wishes

Card Stock - Soft Suede, Bravo Burgundy, Creamy Caramel, Very Vanilla

Ink - Soft Suede, Creamy Caramel, Timber Brown StazOn (non SU)

Markers - Pumpkin Pie, Creamy Caramel, Bravo Burgundy

Other - Snowflake Brad (non SU), Scallop Border Punch, Modern Label Punch, Dimensionals

Yesterday we made the other two cards from Heather's group of three.  I will post pictures later in the week - I have to charge the battery in the camera first.  In the meantime, the third card we did yesterday was one we had seen on Patty Bennett's blog HERE.   I had made a sample on Sunday so did get a picture.

We made one change - instead of using the red gingham ribbon that Patty used, we used 1/4" Whisper White grosgrain.  What a lovely way to showcase the beautiful flocked paper from the Christmas Cocoa Specialty paper pack.

Recipe:

Stamps - Grateful Greetings

Card Stock - Whisper White, Real Red, Soft Suede, Christmas Cocoa Specialty DSP

Ink - Soft Suede

Other - Ornament Punch, Dimensionals

Have a great day!

Using the layout from one of the cards in Heather Summers' fundraiser kit, I made this card.  Just changing the DSP and the stamp set makes the card look quite different.

My friend Debbie does not live near me and she wants to do more stamping but it is difficult to get together.  Hopefully we will be able to arraange something soon.  I prepared a kit for her and am mailing it to her.  She will have all the card stock, ribbon, DSP already cut to size to make two of these cards.  I also stamped and coloured the snowman image.   She will just have to assemble her cards.  I think she will enjoy it and I am pretty sure she has some stamps at home that she could use with this layout.  I haven't told her this will be coming - I think she will be pleasantly surprised.

Recipe:

Stamps - Snow Buddies (Level II Hostess),  Winter Post

Card Stock - Real Red, Soft Suede, Whisper White

Ink - Real Red, Jet Black StazOn

Markers - Only Orange, Real Red, White Signo Gel Pen, Sakura Gelly Roll Pens (Stardust and Metallic Black)

Other - Real Red 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon, Paper Piercer, SU Mat Pack

Fundraiser - Heather Summers - more cards

Here are two more of the projects from Heather's fundraiser.

As I said in a previous post, all of the projecs in the kit featured the Four the Holidays stamp set and the Christmas Cocoa Specialty Paper pack.

This first card showcases the metallic snowflake in the Christmas Cocoa papers.  It also uses the Petals a Plenty embossing folder.

Recipe:

Card Stock - Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Christmas Cocoa DSP

Ink - Chocolate Chip

Stamps - Four the Holidays

Other - Whisper White Organza Ribbon, Petals a Plenty Embossing Folder

This card uses the very popular Dasher Stamp and the flocked paper in the Christmas Cocoa pack.

Recipe:

Card Stock - Real Red, Soft Suede, Whisper White, Christmas Cocoa DSP

Ink - Soft Suede

Stamps - Dasher

Other - 5/8" real red grosgrain ribbon

Swap Cards

I am participating in another swap.  I chose 2 spots.  For one spot the theme was Thinking of  You and the second spot is Thanks.  This time the swap was for full cards with envelopes rather than the usual mountable card fronts.  The idea is to get a selection of cards that could potentially be packaged up for gift giving.

For the first card, I used the one sheet wonder technique.  I stamped the images from Fifth Avenue Floral randomly using Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa and Creamy Caramel classic inks on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of shimmery white cardstock.  I then used my paper trimmer to cut out panels of the desired size.  There is a whisper white panel on the inside of the card and it has also been stamped with some of the floral images.  I think that although it is a very simple card, it is quite pretty.  I hope the other participants in the swap think so too.

Recipe:

Stamps - Thank you Kindly, Fifth Avenue Floral

Card Stock - Shimmery White, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Whisper White

Ink - Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel

Other - 5/8" Chocolate Chip Grosgrain Ribbon, Wide Oval Punch, Scallop Oval Punch

The second card uses the Medallion background stamp.  For this card, instead of using Shimmery White card stock I chose to mix some isopropyl alcohol with Frost White shimmer paint to make my own "shimmer mist".  After inking up the stamp with Bermuda Bay I used my sponge dauber to dab Night of Navy on the edges and around the centre circle.  I then stamped the medallion from the Charming stamp set, punched out a 1/2" circle and mounted that on a Build a Brad.  I then placed it in the centre the the stamped medallion.  When assembled, I spritzed the whole card with the "shimmer mist".

Recipe:

Stamps - Medallion, Charming,  Kind and Caring Thoughts
Card Stock - Whisper White, Bermuda Bay, Not Quite Navy
Ink - Bermuda Bay, Not Quite Navy
Other - Build a Brad, Frost White Shimmer Paint and Isopropyl Alchohol

Fundraiser - Heather Summers

On October 24, Heather Summers hosted a fundraiser in honour of her father to raise funds for GI Cancer Research.  Although I do not live in her city, I was able to register for the fundraiser and I received all of the supplies needed in the mail.  I have not done all of the projects yet, but here are a few of the ones I have done.  Each kit had the materiels to make 2 each of five projects.  All of the projects featured the Four the Holidays stamp set and Christmas Cocoa Specialty Papers.

This project used the Two Tags Die, Serene Snowflakes and Four the Holidays stamp sets.

This one uses the Sparkly and Bright Stamp set as well as Four the Holidays.

Watercolour Roses

Several months ago Patty Bennett posted some wonderful cards featuring a "watercolour roses" technique.  She also posted a video tutorial that you can find HERE.   I had tried it a couple of times but was not very happy with my results.  Not one to give up, I recently tried the technique again with greater success. 

I decided that I would make a birthday card for my mother-in-law using the roses I made.  I probably should have more white on the card base so the roses would show up more, but overall I am very pleased with the card.  Hope you like it too!

The roses were stamped on Shimmery White Card Stock, the base card and the Whisper White Top note panel were sprayed with a mist made from rubbing alcohol and Frost White Shimmer paint.  The effect IRL is very pretty.  I used my old olive marker to draw in the lines on the leaves.

Recipe:

Stamp Set - Fifth Avenue Floral

Card Stock - Whisper White, Shimmery White, Old Olive, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose

Ink - Rose Red, Summer Sun, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White Craft

Other - White Embossing Powder, Frost White Shimmer Paint, Top Note Die for the Big Shot, Stampin Dimensionals

Easel Card

I have been wanting to try one of the easel cards that have been so popular these last few weeks.  I need a card for a friend's upcoming birthday so decided that now was the time to take on the challenge.  They are really not very hard to make and can be adapted easily to whatever card size you want.  I decided to do a 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 card.  All products are Stampin Up except for the ribbon.

Here is my card

Recipe:

Stamp Set - Fresh Cuts, Sincere Salutations

Card Stock - Old Olive, Whisper White,  Rich Razzleberry, Cottage Wall DSP

Ink - Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry

Other - Stampin Dimensionals, Ribbon (nonSU)

Punched Turkey

Although Judy and I did not get together on Monday, I did spend the afternoon in my craft room with my stamps, ink and paper.

One of the cards I made is this one that I have sent to friends in Florida. I had seen a turkey made with punches one day while blog surfing - it was actually decorating a Hershey Nuggett chocolate. The head was attached to one end of the nugget and the tail to the opposite end. I decided to make it into a card. The layout is one I saw on Splitcoast Stampers. I wish I had bookmarked both, but unfortunately I cannot remember to whom I should be giving credit.

Hope you like it!

Recipe:

Card Stock - Chocolate Chip, Really Rust, More Mustard, Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie, Patterns Pack DSP

Ink - Close to Cocoa

Other - 1 inch circle, Scallop circle, Boho Blossoms, Dimensionals, Nestabilities, googly eyes

Lest We Forget

Thank you to all the brave men and women who serve our country - now and in the past.

Tool Time

My Dad's birthday is coming up in December and I wanted to make a card featuring tools. My mother has bought him a power saw and my sisters and I are giving him a "saw table". I don't have the stamp set featuring tools, but I had signed up for Heather Summer's Simply Punches online classes and I remembered that one of the projects featured tools made with punches. So here is my version. I love how the birthday greeting from Teenie Tiny Wishes fits perfectly on the head of the hammer!



Recipe:
Stamp Set - Teenie Tiny Wishes
Card Stock - Real Red, Basic Black, Basic Gray, Creamy Caramel, More Mustard
Ink - Basic Black
Other - Vintage Brads, Punches - Key Tag (retired), Word Window, My Way, 1 3/8 Circle, 3/4 circle, 7/8 square (nonSU)

Have a great day!

Stamp Day with Judy

Yesterday afternoon Judy and I had our weekly get together to chat, catch up with each other and stamp a few cards. I had posted these cards previously - but these ones are a tiny bit different.

I had previously posted a photo of this card (Andrea Walford's 12 Weeks of Christmas). Neither of us has Serene Snowflakes which is what Andrea used, so we substituted the retired Snowflake Spot. We used nonSU embossing powder on both - this one uses Snowflake, the earlier one used Northern Lights.

Recipe:
Stamp Set - Snowflake Spot (retired)
Card Stock - Sahara Sand, Soft Suede, Christmas Cocoa Specialty DSP
Ink - Soft Suede, Versamark
Other - Real Red 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, Embossing Powder

Don't you just love the Medallion Stamp. Yesterday we made this card using Bermuda Bay and Not Quite Navy inks. Although it does not really show in the photo, we also used the homemade 'shimmer spray' to add some sparkle. We don't have the Pretties Kit so used a nonSU half pearl in the centre of the medallion.

Recipe:
Stamp Sets - Medallion, Sincere Salutations
Card Stock - Whisper White, Not Quite Navy, Bermuda Bay
Ink - Bermuda Bay, Not Quite Navy
Other - 'shimmer spray' (made with isopropyl alcohol and Frost White shimmer paint), half pearl.


Now another Dasher card. I love that stamp. This photo does not show it, but after inking the stamp with Chocolate Chip we sponged a bit of Champagne Mist shimmer paint on the antlers.
The image panel (including the Baja Breeze layer) is popped up on dimensionals. This card is also from Andrea Walford's 12 weeks of Christmas.


Recipe:
Stamp Set - Dasher, Warm Words
Card Stock - Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Riding Hood Red (retired), Baja Breeze (retired), Holiday Treasures DSP (retired)
Ink - Chocolate Chip
Other - Champagne Mist shimmer paint, dimensionals


Have a great day!

Medallion Stamp Set

I don't know why I didn't order this stamp when I first saw it in the Idea Book and Catalogue. I finally got it a couple of weeks ago and just love it. I have seen numerous versions of this card in various blogs, but did not bookmark them so cannot give full credit to anyone. A lot of the cards I have seen with this layout also had some ribbon embellishment. I decided I liked it without the ribbon. I wanted the medallion itself to be the showcase.

This first card is for the retirement of a colleague. I love the colour combination of crushed curry and soft suede. I inked the stamp with crushed curry and then dabbed on the soft suede. After stamping I then spritzed it with a 'shimmer mist' made with isopropyl alcohol and Frost White shimmer paint. The effect is subtle but very pretty. Recipe:
Stamp Set - Medallion, Congrats (retired)
Card Stock - Very Vanilla, Soft Suede, Crushed Curry
Ink - Soft Suede, Crushed Curry
Other - 'Shimmer Mist'

On this card I used Melon Mambo and Rich Razzleberry. As with the previous card, I inked up the stamp with the lighter colour and then dabbed on the darker one. Sprayed it with the 'Shimmer Mist', added a nonSU rhinestone brad, adhered the layers and it was done!

Recipe:
Stamp Set - Medallion, Thank You Kindly
Card Stock - Whisper White, Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry
Ink - Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry
Other - 'Shimmer Mist', non SU Rhinestone Brad

12 Weeks of Christmas - Andrea Walford

Andrea Walford has been releasing a new project each week leading up to Christmas for her newsletter subscribers. If you want to subscribe, go to Andrea's website and sign up. You will not be able to get the past projects, but you would receive them for the next 8 weeks. I have made the projects for weeks 1 and 3. I had to make substitutions in both - for week 1 I did not have the Serene Snowflakes stampset so I used the retired Snowflake Spot set. I also used a nonSU embossing powder in place of the heat & stick powder and glitter that Andrea used. For week 2, although I do have the stamp set Andrea used I decided to use the Dasher stamp. I did not have the DSP that Andrea used and in my quest to use up my retired papers, I used DSP from last year.

Here is my week 1 project:Recipe:
Stamp Set - Snowflake Spot (retired), Christmas Greetins
Card Stock - Sahara Sand, Soft Sued, Christmas Cocoa DSP
Ink - Versamark, Soft Suede
Other - Real Red 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, nonSU embossing powder

This is my card for week 3. I inked Dasher with Chocolate Chip classic ink and then, with my sponge dauber, sponged a bit of Champagne Mist Shimmer paint on his antlers.

Recipe:
Stamp Set - Dasher, Warm Words
Card Stock - Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze (retired), Ski Slope DSP (retired)
Ink - Chocolate Chip, Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint
Other - Dimensionals

Both of these cards were very quick to make.

Patterned Pines

I saw THIS card and knew I was going to have to CASE it. I really liked the simplicity of it. These are my versions of it - one landscape and one portrait. I am really liking how they turned out, however I wish I had more of the red SU Circle Fire Rhinestone brads.

The inspiration card did not have a greeting on the front, but I just found there was too much blank space so I added a greeting. Initially I had stamped directly on the card but smudged it a bit so I stamped it again on a scrap and punched it out with the Modern Label Punch. It blended right into the card so I punched another Modern Label from Real Red card stock, cut it in half and then layered it behind my greeting. I then just sponged the edges with real red, attached it with dimensionals and that was it.




Recipe:

Stamps - Patterned Pines, Warm Words

Card Stock - Real Red, Very Vanilla, Merry Moments DSP

Ink - Garden Green, Real Red

Other - Real Red 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, Modern Label Punch, Circle Fire Rhinestone Brads, Dimensionals



This version uses basically the same 'ingredients', but I used wider grosgrain ribbon and plain brads. I also used a different greeting and changed it from landscape to portrait. The greeting was punched out and then the outer edges were sponged. It was adhered to the card with dimensionals. I was going to add a bow, but decided that it is just fine as it is.



Recipe:

Stamps - Patterned Pines, Christmas Punch (Level 2 Hostess Set)

Card Stock - Real Red, Very Vanilla, Merry Moments DSP

Ink - Garden Green, Real Red

Other - 5/8" Real Red Grosgrain Ribbon, Wide Oval Punch, Dimensionals




These were two of the four cards we did when I got together with Judy this afternoon. The other two are ones that I have posted previously. One was the card made using the Elegant Bouquet embossing folder and the other was the Punch Art Rudolph.

Have a great day!

Snow Globe

Who does not like a snow globe. Project 19 of Heather Summers' online class Simply Holidays - 2009 is just that. A snow globe. The circle is cut from Stampin' Up!'s heavy window sheets - Heather used the Bigz circle die which I don't have so I used my Nestabilities. They did not cut very well through the heavy plastic - they did leave a good impression so I cut around it with my craft scissors. I should probably have used a smaller circle and placed the base a little closer to the ribbon, but overall I am pleased with the card. I will definitely be trying this one again.


Recipe:
Stamp Set - Snow Buddies (Level 2 Hostess); Grateful Greetings
Card Stock - Real Red, Old Olive, Basic Black
Ink - Basic Black, White Staz On, Black Staz On; Old Olive, Real Red, Basic Black and Pumpkin Pie Markers, Blender Pen
Other - Sleigh Bells Ribbon

Sweet Treat Cups

I made a bunch of these cards - just a piece of 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 piece of card stock for the base - to give to some of the kids in my life (big and small). The black tab slides out so that the candies are released without destroying the card. When I stamped the greeting, I held the stamp in place for a minute and then dragged it down a bit. Not sure that it shows up really well in the photo. I used the Sanded background stamp on the card base.Recipe:
Stamps - Sweet Centres, Grateful Greetings, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Sanded
Card Stock - Tangerine Tango (retired), Basic Black, Old Olive, Lavendar Lace, Whisper White
Ink - Versamark, Basic Black
Other - Sweet Treat Cups, 1 3/4 circle punch, Round Tab Punch, Ribbon (non SU), Mini Glue Dots, Black Embossing Powder

Punch Art Rudolph

A few days ago Judy sent me a link to Amy Celona's blog to check out a punch art creation. You can check out Amy's Rudolph HERE.

It is just the cutest thing and I knew I would have to copy it. Today was the day. If this does not lift your spirits on a drizzly October day then nothing will! Just tell me you don't want to break out into a chorus of Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer! I made a few tiny changes - I sponged the edges of the punched pieces and used red for my base card. I think I may have to make a few more of these.

Recipe:

Stamps - Four the Holidays

Card Stock - Creamy Caramel, Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White

Ink - Real Red

Punches - Wide Oval, Large Oval, Small Oval, 1 3/4" Circle, 1/2" Circle, Word Window, Curly Label, Swirls Scribbles Sizzlits Die

Other - Dimensionals, Chunky Glitter, Tombow MultiPurpose Glue, 2 Way Glue Pen

Thanks for stopping by.

Festive Notecards

As I have mentioned before, Heather Summers hosted another online class - Simply Holidays 2009 and as always came up with fabulous ideas for cards, boxes, 3D items, etc. I have previously posted photos of clocks I had made following her instructions.

Project 4 (there were 20) was a set of 3 x 3 notecards in a cute little box. I made the cards, but decided to use the Box #2 die for the Big Shot to make the box for my cards. I cut out 2 boxes, assembled them and stuck them together using sticky strip. I then decorated the box with a bit of DSP and ribbon. I also punched out a 'handle' using the word window punch.

Here is the box - there are six cards and envelopes in each side of the box.

I made 12 cards - 4 each of the designs below.

I also stamped on the envelope.

Here is a picture of the inside of the cards - there is a little bit of space to write. I had thought the cards could be used as gift tags rather than notecards.

Recipe:

Stamp Set - Delightful Decorations, Christmas Punch (Hostess Level 2)

Card Stock - Riding Hood Red (retired), Whisper White, Holiday Treasures DSP (retired)

Ink - Riding Hood Red (retired)

Other - Glitter Glue (nonSU), Kiwi Kiss/Very Vanilla Satin Ribbon (retired), Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon (retired), Whisper White Taffeta Ribbon, Box #2 Bigz Die, Ornament Punch, Word Window Punch, Eyelet Border Punch

Elegant Bouquet - Updated

I did not really like one of the cards I posted yesterday - the one with the glitter glue on the ornament. I removed that ornament and replaced it with one punched out of the flocked paper in the Christmas Cocoa DSP (thank you Judy for the suggestion). Before adhering that to the card, I painted White Frost shimmer paint onto the embossed flowers on the card base. Makes the card look completely different!

I had seen the card while blog surfing but did not know who the originator was - the person who posted it had received it in a swap at Leadership. I finally found out to whom credit should be given so click HERE.

Elegant Bouquet

One day while surfing various stamping blogs I came across a beautiful card using the Elegant Bouquet embossing folder and the new Ornament Punch. I thought I had bookmarked it so I could give credit - I knew I would be CASEing that card. I have made two versions - on the first I used glitter glue on one of the embossed impressions on the ornament. I am not sure I like it - it seems to take away from the elegant simplicity of the card. On both cards, I did sponge the edges of the ornament and used red glitter glue to highlight the centres of the flowers on the white card stock.

This layout would be very lovely with the ornament punched from the flocked paper in the Christmas Cocoa DSP pack.

This one has glitter glue on the ornament:
This one has no glitter glue on the ornament:

Recipe:

Stamp Set - Four the Holidays

Ink - Real Red

Card Stock - Real Red, Whisper White

Other - Glitter Glue, Elegant Bouquet embossing folder

Added October 28 - I have finally found out to whom I should give credit. Click HERE to go to Lisa Freeman's blog.

Swap - Christmas Cards

As I mentioned in my last post, I signed up to participate in another swap hosted by Marie Kirkwood. Participants are to make 12 card fronts (4 x 5 1/4). They get sent to Marie who then sends back 11 different card fronts to each participant. As hostess, Marie gets to keep one of each entry

This is what I am sending in. I bought this stamp set last year with great plans to do watercolouring. A little bit ambitious for this amateur artist so the stamp was left to gather dust until I saw THIS card one day and decided I loved the way it looked. I made a few changes, but the overall feel of the card stays the same.
Recipe:
Stamp Sets - Home for Christmas, Yuletide Christmas
Ink - Soft Suede, Real Red Marker
Card Stock - Real Red, Soft Suede, Whisper White
Other - Gold Elastic Cord, Wide Oval and Scallop Oval Punches, Perfect Details Texturz Plate, Crystals Effects

My Digital Studio - Card

I played a bit more with My Digital Studio and created this card. I am going to have to figure out how to get the DSP to fit the way I want it without stretching it - the images are distorted. Overall though I am very pleased. It took me a bit to figure a few things out, but it was pretty easy. I really like how you can plan a card layout and then use that to then get out the stamps and paper. The trial and error is all electronic so there will be less paper in the waste bin. Now I want to buy the Christmas Jingle Simply Scrappin' kit.

I did two versions - one with an Old Olive card base and one with Real Red. It was wonderful to be able to switch back and forth and see the results right away.

My Digital Studio

I have no new cards to post - I have signed up to participate in another swap hosted by Marie Kirkwood. Participants must make 12 identical card fronts (4 x 5 1/4) with a Christmas theme. I have mine all done, I just have to take a picture.

My Stampin' Up! order arrived late yesterday afternoon and after I checked to see that everything was in the box, I installed My Digital Studio onto my laptop and played with it for a little while. I designed a very simple blog banner and explored some of the features. Hopefully I will have a chance to play with it a little more today.

Have a great day.

Delightful Decorations, Lovely as a Tree, Charming

Today I went to Judy's for our weekly crafting afternoon. After lunch and a bit of chatting and catching up we went to Judy's newly set up craft room to do some stamping. We planned to make four cards today - three christmas cards and one that could be used for a general occasion.

Three of four cards use the Ornament Punch and two of them also use the coordinating Delightful Decorations stamp set.

I have posted this card before - I had made it for a friend's birthday and we decided that it would be one of our projects for today. You can see it HERE. It was inspired by Patty Bennett - you can find Patty's card HERE. You will see that she used the Scallop Oval Frame die for the Big Shot. I do not have that die, but I do have Nestabilities so I used them. My image panel is smaller than Patty's, but the overall feel of the card is there. I love the way she used the new ornament punch to make the vase.Recipe
Stamp Sets - Charming, Best Yet (retired)
Card Stock - Dusty Durango, Old Olive
Ink - Dusty Durango Classic, Old Olive and Dusty Durango markers
Other - Ornament and Scallop Oval punches, Ribbon - Mistletoe Ribbon Originals, Dimensionals

We saw this card HERE - Stamping with Roxy. She used Patty Bennett's technique of using a frame to mask out part of the embossing folder leaving a flat area in the middle of the card stock. You will seen in Roxy's video that she used chipboard and used the Big Shot to cut out a frame with the Top Note die. That is what we did for this card. Very simple, but quite lovely (in my opinion anyway). Roxy's version uses Dazzling Diamonds glitter - we used glitter glue as well as a Stardust Gel Pen.


Recipe:
Stamp Set - Lovely as a Tree, Four the Holidays
CardStock - Shimmery White, Always Artichoke
Ink - Always Artichoke
Other - Glitter Pen, Glitter Glue, Petals a Plenty Embossing Folder

We found this card on Roxy's blog as well. You can link to it HERE. This card also uses a frame (oval in this case) with the embossing folder. Colours are not ones I would normally use for Christmas, but I really like the card and will probably make more just like it.

Recipe:
Stamp Set - Delightful Decorations, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Card Stock - Bravo Burgundy, Always Artichoke, Whisper White, Sahara Sand
Ink - Bravo Burgundy, Always Artichoke
Other - Silver Cord, Dimensionals, Petals a Plenty Embossing Folder, Dimensionals

We saw a card on Andrea Walford's blog and knew we would have to make it. You can see it HERE. I did not finish it at Judy's because it was going to be embellished with Crystal effects and chunky glitter so I decided to finish it at home. I thought I left the stamp set at Judy's so I made one little change. Instead of stamping, punching and embellishing the ornament, I punched one from the flocked paper in the Christmas Cocoa DSP package. I also punched one out of real red and adhered the two together just to give it a bit more stability. I am so happy with the results and even managed to centre the motif on the ornament.

Recipe:

Stamp Set - Baroque Motifs, Four the Holidays

Card Stock - Real Red, Old Olive, Whisper White, Merry Moments DSP, Christmas Cocoa DSP

Ink - Chocolate Chip, Old Olive

Other - Real Red Grosgrain Ribbon, Gold Cord, Ornament and Scallop Border Punches, Dimensionals.

Have a great day.