Christmas gifts (2)
Posted: October 24, 2008 Filed under: Designer Paper, Gifts Leave a comment
The second set of cards I put together as a Christmas gift were all made using Bella Rose paper and Riding Hood Red cardstock. In my hurry to get them completed and posted off I didn’t photograph the box but it was the same style as the box in this post. The set included cards posted here, here and here.
Supplies:
Stamps: Upsy Daisy, All Year Cheer, Garden Silhouettes
Inks: Riding Hood Red, Pretty in Pink
Cardstock: Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, Bella Rose designer paper
Also: Red Hemp Twine
Star Wreath
Posted: October 22, 2008 Filed under: Best Yet, Designer Paper 2 Comments
This is a simple way to make a wreath using the small star punch from Stampin’ Up. To give myself a guide circle I pressed the lid of a container of eyelets into the versmark and stamped it onto the card. Then I punched out stars from the red and green designer paper in the Bella Rose pack, glued them down and added a hemp twine bow. Last year I also made star wreath cards by punching stars out of old Christmas cards.
Supplies:
Stamps: Best Yet
Inks: Riding Hood Red
Cardstock: Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, Bella Rose designer paper
Also: Red Hemp twine
Christmas Gifts
Posted: October 20, 2008 Filed under: Designer Paper 4 Comments
I posted off four parcels of Christmas gifts today. To send gifts to Australia by surface mail and have them arrive by Christmas they have to be posted in October. I have lived in Canada for eight years now and I am getting better at the early Christmas routine, but I still find myself scrambling to take advantage of the surface mail prices rather than the more expensive airmail rates. As well as sending early, packing light also keeps the postage costs down. This year I made several packs of greeting cards in matching boxes.
I went through my stash of cards and sorted out cards made using the co-ordinating designer papers and then made more matching cards so I had sets of five cards in a box with a designer paper lid. The cards above (along with this one and this one) completed the set I made using Le Jardin designer paper and co-ordinating cardstock.
I will post a few pictures from the other sets as soon as I can. I plan to do a box tutorial when I get a chance but Sharon has an excellent one and so does Leslie.
Supplies:
Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Paint Prints, Art by Design
Inks: Always Artichoke, Bashful Blue,
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Le Jardin Designer paper, Almost Artichoke, River Rock
Also: Olive Organza ribbon
How Silently
Posted: October 19, 2008 Filed under: Season of Friendship, Uncategorized, Wondrous Gift 2 Comments
After I made the Snow Laden Tree a week or so ago I wanted to make a similar card, but one that I could make more quickly and demonstrate easily. This is what I came up with. I have used some of the same techniques but there is definitely less sponging and less embossing steps. I stamped the snowflakes first in versamark and embossed in clear e.p. I then sponged with bashful blue and brocade blue, taking care to build up the sponging toward the right hand side. Once I was happy with the sponging I stamped the tree in navy and a few snowflakes in brocade blue. Lastly I stamped the sentiment and embossed it in white.
Supplies:
Stamps: Season of Friendship, Wondrous Gift
Inks: Brocade Blue, Versamark, Bashful Blue
Cardstock: Brocade Blue, Night of Navy , Whisper White
Also: Clear and white embossing powders, sponges
Silver on silver
Posted: October 18, 2008 Filed under: Baroque Motifs, Snow Swirled 3 Comments
I’m not sure where I saw this first but I know someone designed a beautiful silver on silver wedding card a while ago, and I have kept it in mind to try some time. After playing with the Snow Swirled tree and the flourish from Baroque motifs I decided they would be perfect for this colour( or lack of colour!) scheme. It was a very quick card to make, the only real decision was whether to stay entirely silver or add some red. I think the red works because it is a Christmas card, but it is the silver on silver which I really like. Thank you to whoever first gave me the idea.
Thank you for stopping by, there will be another Christmas card tomorrow. A big thank you, also to those people who dropped in yesterday for the first time, while I was a cohost for Sharon’s Stamp Simply challenge. I am having a wonderful time looking at all the different takes on my “No Pictures” challenge and have discovered some inspiring blogs that I hadn’t visited before.
Supplies:
Stamps: Snow Swirled, Baroque Motifs
Inks: Versamark
Cardstock: Real red, Brushed Silver
Also: Red gingham ribbon, silver cord, silver e.p.
Stamp Simply without stamps!
Posted: October 16, 2008 Filed under: Designer Paper 14 CommentsNot quite “no stamps at all” just no picture stamps!
The current Stamp Simply challenge is quite a thrill for me as I am Sharon’s co-host this week. Last month when Sharon was having a bonanza of blog candy and competitions my name was chosen. This meant that I came up with the challenge, which is to make a card without using picture stamps. So I refrained from reaching for the Christmas trees, snowflakes, flowers or leaves. The only type of stamps allowed are sentiment or background stamps.
I decided to feature designer paper instead and pulled out the Certainly Celery paper from a year or so back which is covered in pretty designs. As soon as I did I started thinking of fabric swatches again and ended up with the shabby chic design above. I distressed the edges of each piece of designer paper and then found a piece of white lace to fit in with the fabric theme. I stamped the sentiment in versamark and embossed in white before adding a little white eyelet. The sentiment is from the Upsy Daisy set.
Make sure you visit Sharon’s talented design team members’ blogs and see what they came up with.
Darlene
Julie
Dee
Jennifer
Janine
Tammy
Becky
Have a great day and thanks for dropping in.
Supplies:
Stamps: Upsy Daisy
Inks: Versamark
Cardstock: Whisper white, Certainly Celery, Certainly Celery Designer papers
Also: White e.p. white eyelet
Simply Sharon
Posted: October 12, 2008 Filed under: Snow Swirled 4 Comments
As I mentioned last week Sharon has been featuring her design team in her Stamp Simply challenges lately. This week her design team took the lead and decided the challenge would be to make a “Sharon Style card”. I am impressed with all Sharon’s cards but my plan was to CASE one of her White on White cards, which are simply beautiful. As you can see that just did not happen. Instead I was inspired by this card. I even went with her colour scheme of brown and gold, why change something that works so well?
Supplies:
Stamps: Snow Swirled
Inks: Versamark
Cardstock: Brocade Background designer paper, Brushed Gold, Textured Beige cardstock I picked up at the dollar store.
Also: Gold organza ribbon, gold cord, gold e.p.
Baroque Christmas
Posted: October 11, 2008 Filed under: Baroque Motifs, Home for Christmas, Snow Swirled 6 Comments
As I played with the Snow Swirled set this weekend I noticed how well it co-ordinated with the flourish from Baroque motifs. So I created a little snow storm! This card actually took me quite a while because I couldn’t settle on the colour combination. Perfect Plum and Pale Plum work together but neither Bravo Burgandy nor Eggplant Envy work as a darker colour with them. I ended up using just a little Bravo Burgandy and a bit of Black in the darkest areas of sponging.
Perhaps next time I do one like this I should take pictures as I go. First I stamped the tree and the snowflakes in versamark on separate pieces of Whisper White cardstock and embossed with clear e.p. I cut a piece of paper into the shape of a gently rolling hill and laid it across the bottom to mask my snowy ground before sponging all the sky. I sponged first in Pale Plum and then worked in Perfect plum to create the middle colour and the darkest colour at the top. I used a Plum coloured Marvy Brush marker to draw along the swirls of the flourish and the tree and then wiped the excess off the embossing. I sponged the tree in Pale Plum and stamped three tree tops in Pale Plum also.
Although it is hard to see in the photo the ribbon is tied in a bow and the two tails are twirled and then held under the matte with sticky strip. The matte is made from Bravo Burgandy but I coloured the edge with the same Marvy marker to make it a darker burgandy. I popped the tree up on Stampin’ dimensionals. The finished size of the card is 4 1/8″ by 7 1/8″ a non-standard size for which I have no envelope, but as I don’t want to crush the ribbon twirls anyway, I think I will keep this one for friends close by.
Supplies:
Stamps: Snow Swirled, Home for Christmas, Baroque Motifs
Inks: Versamark, Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Bravo Burgandy, Basic Black
Cardstock: Pale Plum, Whisper White, Bravo Burgandy
Also: Wine organza ribbon, clear e.p. Stampin’ dimensionals, Marvy brush marker no.64
Snow laden tree
Posted: October 8, 2008 Filed under: Season of Friendship, Stamped Landscapes 10 Comments
I have several Christmas card events to plan for in the coming months so I have been playing with snowflakes stamps again. This tree and the snowflake is from the Season of Friendship set in the Stampin’ Up Holiday Mini. I think the projects featuring different seasons caught my eye more than anything else, but I have been having fun making winter scenes.
I have spent a bit of time lately browsing through the wonderful artwork of Michelle Zindorf and was inspired to try a scene complete with shadows and heavily sponged skies. To make this card I stamped the tree in versamark and embossed with black embossing powder. I then stamped the snowflakes in versamark and drew snow on the branches with the versmarker before embossing again, this time with white e.p. To make the tree’s shadow I inked the trunk with Brilliant Blue and stamped it at an angle, using a little scrap of paper near the base to mask any area I didn’t want stamped.
The sponging for the sky had to be built up layer by layer creating the impression that the moon was shining from the left. In order to have the snowy ground I ripped a piece of paper to use as a mask while I sponged. I used Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue and Brilliant Blue. Finally I stamped a few more snowflakes in Ballet Blue and matted it to fit on a 5½”x5½” square card. It was fun to make so I’ll be revisiting this style and method for sure.
Supplies:
Stamps: Season of Friendship
Inks: Brilliant Blue, Ballet Blue, Versamark, Bashful Blue
Cardstock: Brilliant Blue, Ballet Blue: , Whisper White
Also: Black and white embossing powders, versamarker sponges
Sing ‘n’ Stamp with Becky
Posted: October 6, 2008 Filed under: Wondrous Gift 2 Comments
For the last few weeks the Stamp Simply Challenges have been focusing on Sharon’s Challenge design team. The current challenge feature’s Becky beautiful work. I spent quite a while browsing through Becky’s archives, collecting ideas. Becky is a singer and stamper, hence the title. Part of the challenge was to include something music related; I tried to include the lyric from this set, but it didn’t work out.
To make this card I stamped the tree and stars in versamark and embossed with gold embossing powder. I then drew lines for the tinsel using Sparkles diamond glue from Personal Stamp Exchange and sprinkled some fairly fine coloured glitter on the glue. As the glitter included bright pink flecks I matted with Rose Red as well as brushed gold. I would never have thought to make a black Christmas card but I quite like the black and gold combination.
Supplies:
Stamps: Wondrous Gift
Inks: Versamark
Cardstock: Basic Black, Brushed Gold, Rose Red
Also: Gold organza ribbon, Sparkle diamond glue, glitter
Heather Telford 
