Christmas Lace

Here's another easy Christmas card which is also postage friendly.

After stamping the Bible verse on Very Vanilla cs, I ran it through my Cuttlebug with a Nestabilities oval. After taping the dark green dsp onto the Sage Shadow cs base, I added the lace and secured the oval over it with double-stick tape.

For the flower, I used one from a Hero Arts flower packet and added a red center with one of the shapes from the SU Boho Blossoms punch. A Stampendous dot sticker adds some glimmer.

This card is destined for one of my friends whose house is Victorian and reflects her style. I hope she enjoys it!

FROM MY FILE--Sunflower

Here's another card from my Pre-Stamped Images file that I stamped years ago!

The petals were done with SU markers, the center with chalks. The leaves and stem were colored in with markers also. The seeds on the border were enhanced with a black Gelly Roll pen. For a final touch, I used Inkessentials "Glossy Accents" for the dew drops.

The image is mounted at an angle with dimensionals over a yellow sun dsp on kraft cs. The raffia adds a hint of Autumn to the card.

Kinkade Scene

This could be a Christmas Eve scene, done beautifully by the artist. All I added was the "light" from the windows--talk about easy!

After taping the image to the back of the overlay, I stamped the sentiment above and mounted it onto the card with SU dimensionals. Done!

Takin' Care of My Peeps

We're off to visit our daughter and family in Prague again! This time, through the "miracle" of blogland, I've already scheduled some posts of cards every 2 or 3 days for you to enjoy while I'm away. Please leave your comments--I can access my emails and blog posts from my daughter's flat and look forward to your remarks.

Be sure to scroll down for any cards you may have missed. Now that I'm back on track, I've been posting every 2 or 3 days. And, of course, you can click on them for a closer look at the details.

November should be a fun month for stamping--lots of Fall colors and images, Thanksgiving cards, and more Christmas card designs to try!

FROM MY FILE--Cardinal

Talk about easy! This one was so simple, it hardly took any time at all.

Using Sage Shadow as the card base, all I had to do was color in the image with markers, add a touch of black Stickles for the eye and mount it on a scrap of dark green cardstock.

For a little glimmer, I added a bow of red metallic twine.

After adding the greeting, it was done!

OLW--Birds and Trees

Some of the details on this card did not photograph well, unfortunately. For instance, the border I did with my ScorePal stands out better IRL. So does the Spica pen enhancement on the owl's eyes and the pine cones. So what looks like kind of a dull card, actually has some sparkle to it. (If you click twice to enlarge, the sparkle shows up better.)

It was fun getting out my peg stamps for this one. I started with the pine needles, added my own "branches" with SU markers, then stamped the pine cones. The owl is from Hero Arts.

Thanks, Jennifer, for another great challenge!

FROM MY FILE--Squares of Holly

After coloring in the image with markers, I used various scraps to put this card together.

Starting with a Crumb Cake card base (formerly Kraft) I added a piece of red cardstock that I ran through the Cuttlebug for some texture and taped it on the left side. Then I taped a piece of Christmas ribbon to the textured black cardstock and taped that on the right. After securing the square with dimensionals, I found a metal ornament in my stash that was just perfect for the center of the squares. I tied some red metallic twine through the hole on top and used a glue dot to adhere it to the card for a nice postage-friendly embellishment.

Next, I stamped "Merry Christmas" on white cs, taping it to a red oval scallop and placing it as shown with dimensionals.

Using pre-stamped images from years ago is getting to be fun!

OLW--Non-traditional Christmas Colors

First of all, recognition is in order for Susan Raihala of Simplicity. Not only did Susan start our weekly challenges, but she has done a wonderful job of managing it and visiting all our blogs to comment on our entries. Kudos, Susan, for a job well done and appreciated!

The real challenge, however, is in knowing when to withdraw from something even when it is going well. I had to learn this myself several years ago, and I know the agonizing that one goes through when making this kind of decision. After all, there's a time to move on in order to pursue other things in life.

One Layer Wednesday will continue for a time with Jennifer Styles partnering with Susan to keep the challenges going. Jennifer's challenge for this week is to create a winter holiday card without using Cream, White, Red or Green cardstock for the base. I can't think of anything more non-traditional than Soft Suede, which is how I came up with the start of this card. After embossing the poinsettia in gold, I colored in the flower with a peach chalk, with black chalk toward the middle. I then added black sparkle glitter in the center. The sentiment is done with black embossing powder which also helps to make it a little more readable against the dark cardstock.

Thank you Jennifer for volunteering to help keep One Layer Wednesday going!

From My File

I have a file marked "Pre-stamped Images" where I keep them for future use. These are stamps that were either borrowed or used when a bunch of us get together to share sets around the table for just this purpose.

These birds were from several years ago, and I forgot I had them until today when I opened up the folder. I used this set originally for a beautiful card and matching bookmark for someone special. That card also featured a single bird inside that I cut out from the right side of a duplicate copy.

The chickadees are watercolored with dark and light grays, the leaves with a grayish green. I used markers for the berries and branch. The hardest part was the layering which required precise cutting and mounting. I used a combination of green embroidery floss and gold metallic twine for the bow.

Getting together with other stampers to share stamps is a great way to expand your supplies with only having to spend some ink, cardstock and time. Each of us brings white cardstock, some inks and several of our sets to share. We spread the stamps around the table, stamp 5 or 6 copies of images we don't have and save them for future use. It's also useful for sentiments to put inside future cards.

Hero Arts and SU are sure not to like this idea! (...sorry...)

Something New from ODBD

Our Daily Bread Designs released a new stamp set with matching die and template, and I love it! After stamping the poinsettia and coloring it, all I had to do was place the clear template over it, mark the two holes provided and line up the cutting die accordingly. Then I ran it through the Cuttlebug, which cut the flower and all the intricate cutouts around the leaves. Can you imagine trying to cut all that out with scissors??? Thank you ODBD for coming up with such a time-saving idea!

Check out all the possibilities in the ODBD gallery HERE. They also have a snowflake set that works the same way.

(Don't forget to click on the photo for a larger view.)

One Layer Wednesday--Heavy Metal

It wasn't easy getting this one photographed so that the gold embossing would show, but here it is. Thanks, Susan, for another great challenge!

Since I also like to keep my cards mailable, I made this one postage friendly by avoiding all that extra "stuff" that makes the envelopes bulky. For handouts, I can splurge; but I've come to prefer the clean and simple look anyway.

For the sunflower and leaves, I used a retired SU set (Sketch It) that I just bought last week and have been using a lot since. First I stamped with VersaMark and chalked the flower. The leaves were stamped with Autumn Leaves rainbow dye ink pad. The greeting is a Hero Arts clear stamp, inked with Versamark and gold embossed. I also embossed the flower center.

Enjoy!

Special Fold Card CASEd

I recently received this lovely birthday card from a Silver Stamper, Mary McMillan (Glitter Grammy blog on sidebar.) It was so nicely done, I decided to CASE it as a Fall card. Hers is vertical, but I decided to make mine horizontal.

Later, I used the same pattern for a Christmas card (not shown.) It was a lot of work, but well worth it.

Thank you Mary for a crisp, bright birthday card!

Halloween Card

UPDATE: Here are some of the moms with their finished cards. Do they look proud!

For Mothers Class (now Moms Club) this week we'll be using "Spidey," an old D.O.T.S. stamp from my stash. We used him last week for a spinner card which came out cute; but I forgot to take pictures -- as usual. This time, I remembered!

After embossing the spider web on black cardstock, I punched out a circle in the lower right, then attached the web-printed ribbon. Spidey was stamped in the opening, then the black was mounted on the card with double-stick tape. The letters were stamped on purple cardstock, punched out and attached with glue dots and dimensionals.

For the inside, there'll be a row of pumpkins below the greeting. A fun card to make!

HAPPY WORLD CARD-MAKING DAY!

How will you be spending this day? Stamping? Hiking? Gathering new ideas?

I'll be hosting a Stamp-a-stack workshop today with six stampers around my dining room table. We're making the Christmas card shown in a previous post (scroll down to Sept. 3rd.) Included in the group are three beginners and one new stamper.

UPDATE: The Workshop went very well! Everyone got their 8 cards done, and even added a Christmas star on the envelopes--all in an hour and a half. One woman who came had never stamped before and is looking forward to attending another workshop.