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Posts Tagged ‘Handmade Christmas Cards’
My Favorite Holiday Colors
Aloha, all!
The Stampin' Up! Only Challenge theme this time around is as the title of this blog post states – I'm supposed to have created a card or other project using my favorite December holiday colors! Every year I go through this same argument with myself: Is it Red/Green or Blue/Silver? If you look around at what I've been making over the past couple of months since the Stampin' Up! Holiday Mini Catalog was released, you'll see a lot of Red and Green. So this time around, I decided that, at least for today, my favorite color combo is Blue and Silver!
And it's not the dark blue that I've used in the past – Stampin' Up!'s Night of Navy. No, this time around I wanted something a bit brighter, so I decided on Marina Mist. Actually, in the Stampin' Up! color galaxy, Marina Mist is one of the "Subtle" colors. But it surely did look bright enough for me to pair with the silver.
And I wanted this card to SPARKLE! So I needed lots of glitter. The Silver Star was easy because I could just cut that out of Stampin' Up!'s new Silver Glimmer Paper. No muss, no fuss with that star! But the Marina Mist star was going to be slightly more work. I covered a square of Marina Mist Card Stock with VersaMark ink and Heat and Stick Powder and, after the heating part of the routine, sprinkled it liberally with Dazzling Diamonds glitter. I used my heat tool again to set the dazzling diamonds into the heat and stick powder and then ran the square through the Sizzix Big Shot with the Stars #2 Die, as I had with the Silver Star. There was a bit of the sparkling blue card stock left, so I cut a small star out, too.
I decided to try to use the Pines and Poinsettias stamp set with the poinsettias and rose, even though I wasn't sure how it would work in blue. I think it came out lovely! I actually stamped it twice, once on some Whisper White Card Stock using VersaMark and then Silver Embossing Powder, and once with the Marina Mist Classic Stampin' Pad, from which I cut out just the flowers. I then adhered the flowers on top of the silver part of the first image.
I cut the circle with the Circle Scissors, so I'm not sure what the final measurement is. I put the stamped image under the Circle Scissors and adjusted the center and diameter of the circle until it was just where I wanted it.
To give the white circle a bit of texture, I stamped some snowflakes using the snowflake stamp in the Jolly Bingo Bits stamp set, and then sponged the edges.
No ribbon this time around – but I did add some of the Marina Mist and Silver Glimmer Brads and a few Basic Rhinestones to finish the glittery look off!
Now I'm seriously into my Christmas crafting. I hope you're getting into the holiday spirit with your crafting, too – and having fun with it!
Subscribe to the comments for this postWhew! A busy holiday weekend!
Aloha, all!
I am definitely taking a big breath after these last few days of madly working to get my 2011 Greeting Layout eBook done. And I'M DONE!!
So why am I showing you a Christmas Card?! It's because this is one of the NEW cards I made from one of the layouts that's included in the eBooks. I promised to make new samples for at least a dozen of the layouts/sketches from 2011 – that would be exclusive to the eBooks – and so far I've made 15. So I've decided to share a couple of them here with you as something of a teaser. And actually, this card is in the center of the photo collage that I made for the eBook cover, so you'll see it in other places, too.
You may have noticed that I've used the plural – eBooks. That's because there are two different versions of the 2011 Greeting Card Layout eBook available. The first is in the same form as last year's collection – it's a .pdf file that I send to you on a CD. The second is an actual eBook that you can download from Amazon.com for any of your Kindle applications, whether they're on an actual Kindle or a Kindle application for a PC, tablet computer, or even your smart phone (I tried it on mine, and I prefer something a little larger!). You can click here or on the picture/link up at the top of the column on the right to find out more about the difference in these two products and how you can order either one – or both!
One big benefit to buying the CD is that you can buy it as a gift. I had several people who purchased last year's layout book who ordered second and third copies just for that! In fact, I'll be giving it as a gift to several people, including my best customers! If you're not already one of those (and you know who you are!) you can become an instant "best customer," if even for a short while, if you place at least a $50 online order of Stampin' Up! products from my website by December 3rd. That should be easy if you're getting ready for that big Christmas Card-making push as December begins! And I'll send a CD right off to you.
For now, I'm going to go read a good book on my Kindle – no, not my Card Layout eBook – no more crafting tonight! But I'll be back at it tomorrow and having a lot of fun with it! I hope you have some fun crafting time this week, too!
Quilt Block Christmas Tree
Aloha, all!
As I was putting the finishing touches on the content of my new Card Layout eBook, I decided that I wanted to group together the few cards that I've made using "quilt blocks." I haven't made one since earlier this summer, so off I went to make one with a Christmas Theme!
Once I got the squares figured out, I had to decide what to do as far as my quilting paper for the designs. After a few tries at some of the current Designer Series Paper sets, I retreated to my tried-and-true paper from the Patterns Stacks, this time from the Regals collection, using Garden Green and Robin Hood Red.
As an aside, I just got a couple of new books of the Patterns Stack papers and found that the papers are arranged in the stacks in a delightfully different way. Instead of each of the two identical sheets placed in the book both facing the same way, the second of each sheet is turned around. This way you can see all four patterns right away without having to go back and forth among the 4 sheets to see all of them. Great change, Stampin' Up!
So, back to the tree. I actually did use a little piece of the Early Espresso patterned paper from the Letters to Santa Designer Series Paper. It was a small scrap that I had left on my work table from an earlier project. In fact, that's what these little "quilt" patterns are great for – making use of all those otherwise nearly useless scraps left over from fine-trimming some squares and rectangles.
I've matted up the tree motif onto some Riding Hood Red and Garden Green Card stock, with a layer of brushed gold on which I stamped the Merry Christmas from the Holiday Mini stamp set, Christmas Lodge. The two Christmas Greetings in that set are so very versatile, and I think I would have bought that set just for the greetings – if I didn't like that tree so much!
I have the layout for the "Quilt Block" and the card itself all done and safely tucked away in my 2011 Greeting Card Layout eBook – to be published soon! Keep an eye out her for the publication date announcement!
Punch Pals for One More Year?
Aloha, all!
You might recall that, last year, I did quite a few of my Christmas cards for this blog – including a big blog hop – using the stamp set Punch Pals. It's a favorite of mine, and I was so sure that it would be retiring this past summer because of its age. But no!!! Punch Pals did not retire and it's lived for at least one more Christmas season, and I'm going to take advantage of it while it lasts.
Actually I made the card for today based on a layout that's going to be featured in my upcoming 2011 Greeting Card Layout eBook. I'm still plugging away at it and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, very likely before Thanksgiving – cross my fingers and toes for that one!
The Punch Pals set has quite a few stamps that can be punched out with Stampin' Up!'s fun punches. But those penguins do NOT have a punch so I just stamped them on the horizontal strip. The colors that I used for these little guys – after I colored in their little black feathers – were Marina Mist and Pumpkin Pie. Orange and blue make a classic color combination because they're complementary colors – opposite to each other on the basic color wheel. If you get into details, Marina Mist is off to the side a bit, but this is paper crafting, not high-powered art!
Back to my 2011 eBook – I said that I would have a dozen cards in the book this year that are EXCLUSIVE to my eBook, all of them remakes of layouts that I shared earlier in the year. This is not one of the dozen; but it and its layout will definitely be in the book, along with the original card. I just know you're going to like this year's book as much as you liked last years!
Also, I'm going to be offering an early-bird special (an appropriate announcement when I'm showing off penguins!) for those of you who bought my 2010 eBook or are on my Newsletter mailing list. If you'd like to be one of the first to know when I'm ready to mail them out, be sure to sign up for my Newsletter (up on the left column of this blog) – or better still, buy a copy of last year's book while it's still available! More information about that at the top of the right column!
Now back to work so I can get my writing done! I'm having a lot of fun with it, and I hope you're having as much fun with something in your craft room this weekend!
A Quick and Easy Christmas Card
Aloha, all!
I first have to tell you that my card for today was inspired by terrifically artistic fellow Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, Mary Brown. Mary is the "Mary" of Create With Connie and Mary, and has a fabulously unique ability to make clean and simple cards that make me say, "Wow!" then I first see them. I really like her style – can you tell?
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When Mary made a similar card she used the Pool Party color as the accent for the Whisper White Card Stock and Silver Glimmer Paper. Somewhere along the way between then and now, I saw another card that used Island Indigo for an accent, and that caught my eye, too. So why not combine the two ideas!
The Christmas Tree is one of the die cuts that you can make with the new Sizzix Die, Stocking Accents, which is in the Stampin' Up! 2011 Holiday Mini Catalog. I initially decided not to purchase this die, but now I'm in love with all the little pieces – that aren't really so little! There's a Candy Cane, some Ornaments and Holly pieces that are all just perfect for CARD accents – the heck with stocking accents! The greeting is from the new stamp set, Petite Pairs, and there is a second part to this greeting that you can stamp inside the card – thus the "Pairs" part of the stamp set's name. Every one of those has two stamps that go together so you can put one on the outside and one on the inside – or both of them on different elements on the front – of your card. Pretty neat!!
Now here's the fun part for those of you who have been waiting for my new 2011 Greeting Card Layout eBook! I'm making a card with these very same colors to include in the card and layout collection using one of the layouts I shared with you here earlier in the year. And I'm going to be doing that with a dozen or so of the early layouts! I'm going to show you how easy it is to use different products with the same layouts – which is why a book of layout suggestions is so helpful to have when you need some inspiration to get something done! Last night in no time at all I had 5 brand new cards made and ready to photograph!
The best part? I'll only be sharing the photos of those cards with those of you who purchase a copy of the new eBook! I'm well into its preparation and I only have to make a few more cards and do what amounts to a couple of days worth of editing. So it's going to be available in time to have it for your Christmas Cards – or for giving as a Christmas gift!
Now back to getting those last few cards made – and for preparing for Saturday's class! I hope you'll have as much fun with whatever you're doing this week as I'm planning to have with my projects!
Fun With a Challenge Sketch!
Aloha, all!
It's Saturday and the Holiday Edition of Create With Connie and Mary is almost over. Can you believe that?! A six-week program seems to have gone by in less than a month! (Note that this doesn't mean you can't still subscribe and get ALL of the projects from this great program that focuses on everything in the 2011 Stampin' Up! Holiday Mini Catalog. You can!!!)
But I digress (as I often do). This week for the Holiday Edition, a week which focused on the Frostwood Lodge Product Suite, our challenge was a horizontal sketch. Now usually when someone presents a sketch challenge, one can take liberties with the sketch, including rotating a horizontal sketch to become a vertical sketch. But this one was quite specific. And once I started being "obedient" about the position of the card, I did so with the rest of the elements of the card. So my card is pretty true to the sketch. So here's the sketch…
…and here's my card!
One thing that's a lot different from the cards that I usually show you here is that this card is 7" wide x 5" high. Those trees from the Christmas Lodge Stamp Set just seem to overwhelm a standard 5-1/2" x 4-1/4" card. With this card their size seems more reasonable.
I'm not sure how many of you have ever been where there are a lot of Birch trees growing. But I've had the opportunity to be around Birch quite a bit up in the north woods of Minnesota. And this paper from the Frostwood Lodge Designer Series Paper set reminds me so much of Birch bark that's peeled off the trunk. We frequently find pieces of the bark and use them to write notes or signs to hang in various places up at the cabin. Lots of fun. To make this paper seems even more like the bark, I wrinkled it up and rolled the edges a bit.
The only product on this card that's not in the Holiday Mini Catalog is the "25" stamp, which is from the set Tags 'til Christmas Stamp Set in the 2011-2012 Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalog. But I stamped it on one of the papers from the Frostwood Lodge DSP set, so that brings it right back into the Create With Connie and Mary Holiday Edition realm.
If you have the Christmas Lodge stamp set you might notice that the trunk of both trees doesn't show up at all. For the tree on the right, it's obvious that I stamped the tree low on the card so the trunk was "stamped off." For the other tree though, before I stamped it, I placed a piece of plain paper across the area where the ribbon was going to be and then stamped the tree. I removed the piece of paper on which the trunk was stamped and I had that nice clean space to put my ribbon.
I hope you've enjoyed these Create With Connie and Mary challenge projects. These Saturday challenges are the only time we're permitted to show off something that we make for the subscription. Every other day of the week during the program, there's a great project complete with a downloadable tutorial from one of us designers. As I've said before, I'm having a blast with these and can hardly wait until I have some time to go make the projects that some of the other designers have posted on the blog. And I don't have to hurry up to do it because the subscription projects stay alive and well for ONE YEAR! I'm still referring to the Summer Edition projects and have a lot of time with them, too. So if you've not yet subscribed, do think about it – and enjoy all these projects especially for the next 2 and a half months that the Holiday Mini catalog is effective!
Lots of Glitter Without the Mess!
Aloha, all!
We're just finishing up the 4th week of the wonderful Create with Connie and Mary Holiday Edition! I have been designing and making projects that are very different from those that I usually feature here, even during blog hops. Connie and Mary encourage – actually require! – original designs and well-constructed projects and tutorials for everything that we do for them.
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For the Saturday challenges, though, we are not held to the original design standard too closely, and I'm sure that you've seen lots of cards in different places that use three stockings made from Holiday Mini products. But for this one, I wanted lots of glitter to accent the color challenge for the week. The challenge was to use Real Red, Wild Wasabi and Cherry Cobbler, the colors featured in the Holly Berry Bouquet product suite in the Holiday Mini.
I have to confess that there's only the slightest bit of Cherry Cobbler in this card – in the holly berries on the Holly Berry Bouquet Specialty Designer Series Paper at the top of the card and in the card base itself. OK, I got that out of my system and headed for the "Real" Red as well as the Wild Wasabi green. (I have to tell you that I was really disappointed when Glorious Green was retired from the Stampin' Up! collection; but Wild Wasabi has grown on me – just wish it had a different name!) And, of course, I wanted all that red to be glittery! That was really easy because not only do we have the Real Red Glimmer Brads and Red Glimmer Paper, we also have the glitter designs on two sheets of the Designer Series Paper set. That's why the word, "Specialty," appears in the product name. The striped and polka dotted sheets are glittered!
So now that I had 3 different sheets with glitter, I just punched each of the sheets using the new Stocking Builder Punch and mixed and matched the results. One trick that I used was to cut up smaller pieces of the designer paper and arrange them in the punch so that the designs fit the shape I was punching, especially with the stripes. So it's no accident that the large stripe and the one polka dot fit perfectly in the heels of the stockings, or that the stocking and cuff are punched so that the stripes run parallel with the design. It just took a bit of care and I didn't waste much paper at all. Love the result, too!
For the basic design, I wanted this to look like stockings hung "by the chimney with care." But with no fireplace in my Stampin' Up! collection, I had to make do with a shelf and a plain wall, which is what I have in my house. So after I created the "shelf" with the Red Glimmer Paper, I embossed the Wild Wasabi "wall" using the Sizzix Stripes Textured Embossing Folder.
I wrapped the whole scene with a mat of Red Glimmer Paper, a teensy sliver of Whisper White, and mounted it all onto a Cherry Cobbler greeting card base.
And after I finished the whole project, there wasn't the slightest speck of glitter sticking to anything or anyone! Love that Stampin' Up!'s looking out for the welfare of my vacuum cleaner
I hope you'll check out the other designs for this week's color challenge over at Create with Connie and Mary. That site is always free, and we're all posting our challenge cards there as well as in the Holiday Edition subscription site. If you haven't subscribed to the Holiday Edition, you can do so any time and have access to everything in the entire program – for one year! But, of course, now's the time to subscribe because the 2011 Stampin' Up! Holiday Mini Catalog is still in effect for another 2 and a half months!
Hope to see you there! And I hope you'll have fun with whatever Holiday Mini products you've already got. Just 10 more weeks 'til Christmas!
A Special Christmas Card
Aloha, all!
This weekend's challenge at Create With Connie and Mary was a bit of a different kind of challenge. We were to make a "one of a kind" card for someone special. Hmmm. One of a kind? What in the world did that mean? No hints out of Connie and Mary, though. So I had to figure my own particular "one of a kind" out myself.
As I looked around at all the Christmas products I've purchased from Stampin' Up!'s Holiday mini, I started to think about using some of the embellishments of which I'd purchased limited supplies. Then I started to think about techniques that were very time consuming. And of course, I considered color combinations that were a little bit "different" from those which I was most comfortable using for Christmas crafts. Finally I had to decide who the special person was that would be the recipient of my card. It had to be someone who would appreciate all the thought and work that went into the card.
Once I had that all figured out, the card started slowly coming into focus.
All of these elements didn't pop into my mind in a neat sequence. That would have been too easy! But once I had them all out on my work table, they just all seemed to meld together perfectly into just what I wanted.
There are two somewhat time-consuming techniques in this card. Heat embossing required some planning – making sure that I close the window at my work table to make sure there is no embossing powder blowing all over the place (ask me how I know this happens!); having my Embossing Buddy and Powder Pals at the ready and making sure that the embossing gun is plugged in and ready to go. That worked out really well – the Dove stamp from Comfort and Joy is a joy to emboss! Then I wanted a sentiment with a bit of a fancier font than the "Peace on Earth" that came with Comfort and Joy, so I hunted down my Christmas Set, Four the Holidays (I knew it was around somewhere!).
Then on to the Mini Jingle Bells. I decided that the best way to attach them all around the central motif was to sew them to card stock. That meant that I had to have some evenly-spaced holes around the edge, so I had to make sure that the size of that card stock fit with what I could do with the Paper Piercing Template in the Mat Pack. I punched holes for my needle and thread around the perimeter of the Real Red card stock (layer 4 in the sketch below) and sewed a Jingle Bell on at every second space. I love how they came out – and how good they sound when there are so many of them on one card! But I used a good percentage of my supply of bells, so I won't be teaching this in a class any time soon!
The Silver Glimmer Paper was the perfect finishing touch for this card. It accents the silver embossing so very well. I almost wish I could have made a larger card to fit more of Stampin' Up!'s silver products in it. But I do like to keep my cards to sizes that fit into Stampin' Up! envelopes. This 5-1/4" card fits beautifully into the Stampin' Up! Medium Square Envelope. But I do have to tell you that, with all those bells, it weighs well over an ounce even without the envelope! I probably won't be putting this card in the mail, though; at least not in an envelope.
And who's going to get this special card? I'm not telling because I think that there's a good chance that person reads my blog! It's got to be a surprise!
Oh, and don't forget that you can still sign up for the Create With Connie and Mary Holiday Edition! There are tons of fabulous projects already published and more to come. This is just the end of week 3! And you'll have access to the full tutorials for every single project for a year after the subscription series is over! I loved the Summer Edition and still go back and check out some of those projects (though I've downloaded most of the tutorials already).
Here's the sketch for this card – would you believe SIX LAYERS besides the basic card! That's something I don't do often, either! No wonder this card weighs a ton! But it was a lot of fun making it – and I'm sure you'd have a lot of fun trying something with the sketch, too!
Christmas in Fall Colors
Aloha, all!
There was a "Fall" color challenge over on Split Coast Stampers this week and it looked like a lot of fun – Cajun Craze, So Saffron and Always Artichoke! When I started looking around at my stash of Designer Series Papers for something that had at least two of the colors, I found Well Worn Designer Series Paper. Hmmmm. It had the So Saffron and Cajun Craze. But what about the Artichoke? Then I remembered that I had mentally connected the "Well Worn" name of the papers with the new "Denim Jean Ribbon" line in the 2011-2012 Stampin' Up! Catalog. And there it was – Artichoke Denim Ribbon!
The next challenge for me was to figure out what I wanted to do with it. I looked around the craft room and there was the new Stocking Builder Punch sitting where it had landed when I unpacked my Holiday Mini Catalog order last week – unopened and unused. Poor punch! I had been itching to get my hands on it, but the opportunity had just not presented itself. And now here I was with these fun colors and that light bulb went off. So I took some time off from making my projects for the Create With Connie and Mary Holiday Edition program and played with those papers and that punch. (Hold that Create with Connie and Mary thought – there's free tutorials and blog candy over there!)
The greeting on this card is from the Holiday Mini Stamp Set, Christmas Lodge. I decided not to fuss too much with the stockings (no heel and toe accents for them this time around) because the paper had lots of interest in itself and I did add some Victoria and Chantilly Crochet Design Trim for the cuffs.
Bottom line for this card? You can make Christmas Cards with lots of different color combinations!
There's a New Preview Over at Create With Connie and Mary!
And that means a new FREE TUTORIAL and BLOG CANDY!
Just click on over to the Create With Connie and Mary Holiday Edition blog to find out what our latest Preview Designer has for you in the way of a FREE TUTORIAL, and then go on over to her blog to comment for a chance to win a FREE SUBSCRIPTION to Create With Connie and Mary!
And Don't Forget to Check Back Here on
Monday, September 12th
for my own PREVIEW PROJECT!
More Fun With Gift Givers!
Aloha, all!
Can you tell that I'm really enjoying using the new stamp set, Gift Givers? You can't? Oh, yes, now I remember I've only posted it here once before. But I can definitely tell you that I've been using it a lot more than I'm showing it off. Think Create with Connie and Mary's Holiday Editon Program! More about that at the end of this post (and there are FREE TUTORIALS available, too!).
The last time I showed off this set, I used the Thanksgiving Turkey with the Curly Label Punch. This time, I'm using the Halloween Pumpkins with the Decorative Label Punch. I stamped the image as well as the background Woodgrain stamp on Sahara Sand Card Stock. I wanted the little pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns to show off a little bit more brightly so I stamped them again on Whisper White Card Stock and colored them in with a variety of Stampin' Write Markers before gluing them over the background card stock.
The Designer Series Paper in the background is from the Holiday Mini Designer Series Paper Set, Frostwood Lodge. To rough it up, I scored it every 1/2 inch with the Stampin' Up! Simply Scoring tool, folded each score back and forth a few times, then ran the Distressing Tool from my Cutter Kit up and down the folds a bit. Looks distressed to me! Some More Mustard and Crumbcake Brads trying to look like nails in the wood complete the look. Oh, and then there are those little spiders that scampered over from the Out On A Limb Stamp set.
Fun Giveaways at Create With Connie and Mary - and you don't have to buy a thing!
Now for what's going on with CREATE WITH CONNIE AND MARY! The Holiday Edition is now officially in its Preview Program! What that means is that nearly every day for the next two weeks there will be a project by one of the Holiday Edition designers and there will be FREE TUTORIALS for every project! Yep! You don't have to subscribe or anything!!! But let me tell you, once you see what these fabulous designers have in store for you, you're definitely going to want to buy a subscription. OR YOU CAN WIN A FREE SUBSCRIPTION! Every one of us at Create with Connie and Mary Holiday Edition will be giving away a Free Subscription on the day our Preview Project is posted (along with the Free Tutorial, of course!)..jpg)
My preview day is next Monday, September 12th, and my project is all ready to show off! Here's just one little part of it (and a hint about why I've been using the Gift Givers Stamp Set so much!). But don't wait until then to check things out! Lots of free stuff over there already!
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Click for information about purchasing the CD by Paypal or ordering the Kindle eBook from Amazon.com.
