Poinsettias = Christmas!

My enthusiasm to finish all of my Christmas card in my "To Do" stash is waning, but I only have a few left, so I will persevere and try to get them all done!  This one is a Dar Peterson 2018 design that I was unable to finish back in 2018 with my hand issues that were finally resolved by hand surgeries on both in April and July 2019.  

I tweaked this card just a bit by adding a red foil layer and using Shimmery White on the card front.  The little pearls are Copic colored and can be done with any alcohol marker.  I have to say I really like the added red foil, it really dresses up the card quite lot, plus it allowed me to enlarge the card, which most of you know by now...I prefer larger cards!

Ingredients:  Stampin' Up products:  Cardstocks--Whisper White, Shimmery White, Shaded Spruce, Cherry Cobbler, Red Foil.  Stamps--Peaceful Poinsettia (2018 Holiday).  Ink--Cherry Cobbler.  Dies--Detailed Poinsettia Thinlits.  Pearls (Copic colored).  Gold Metallic Pearl.  Size:  4-3/4 x 6 inches.

A Christmas Sing-A-Long...Simply Add Music!

Still working on finishing up some old Christmas card kits.  This is another Luci Kirschbaum 2017 card that I did a little bit of changing to.  It had a single layer white cardbase, and I decided it needed a bit more color.  I added the Old Olive cardbase and the black mat layer before adding the card front pieces in the kit.  These I kept the same as the original design.  By adding colors, I also achieved enlarging my card to my favorite size.  Take a peek below:

Ingredients:  Stampin' Up products:  Cardstock--Old Olive, Basic Black, Whisper White.  Patterned paper:  Merry Little Christmas dsp; Merry Music Specialty dsp (2017 Holiday).  Stamps--Snowflake Sentiments (2017 Holiday).  Rhinestones--Black Jewels (2017 Holiday).  Size: 4-3/4 x 6 inches.

Memories to Remember a Milestone Birthday!

A card for my husband's February birthday, which was a BIG milestone achievement this year.  Take a peak at his card below:

Unfortunately several family members were ill on my husband's birthday weekend, so it ended a small, home dinner gathering.  As each of our children, their spouses, or their children got better, they celebrated him in separate festivities which included dinner and breakfast outings.  Unfortunately, I was absentee all of the extended celebrations as I made another trip south to California for a female four-generation pre-planned get-together with our newest three-month old granddaughter.   We got a few casual shots of the four-generations...my 94-year old Mom, myself, my oldest daughter, and three-month old Evie.  Take a peak below...

But, I digress...back to my husband's birthday card!  For me, masculine cards are always more difficult to design, but Stampin' Up's new Mountain Air scenery stamp was a perfect time to recreate our first cross-country trip in our motorhome where one of the major highlights was our week-long stay around Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons.  That was quite the memorable trip, traveling from Washington State mostly along the I-90 corridor.  We made several stops along the way, including Milwaukee for a wedding, and on eastward to the Richmond, Virginia area to visit my husband's brother and wife, returning the southern route and angling north going to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons and back home to Washington.  What a marvelous trip and such beautiful mountain scenery...as I remember we were gone for almost four weeks!

The interesting thing about this new Mountain Air stamp is that it is a two-sided stamp...one side with a detailed stamp image and the other with a muted shadowy look.  I cut my center white panel 3-3/8" x 4-3/8", allowing me to trim it to a perfect size after I finished all my scenery stamping.  I also cut 3 white strips 1-3/4" x 3-3/8" to stamp my detailed navy mountains and my two green tree-line overlays.  I also cut a 3-1/4" x 4-1/4" Balmy Blue panel to mat my scenery panel when finished with its stamping.

I made my mountains in the background using the reverse side of the stamp to give them that muted shadowy look that mountains seem to have when seen from a distance.  I applied my Night of Navy mountains first about 2" down from the top of my white panel, stamping off once before inking on my white panel.  My Balmy Blue top mountain range was inked and stamped off once before applied over the Night of Navy range and just above it.  You can do this because the Balmy Blue is lighter and its inking does not show where applied over the navy.  My third mountain stamping was done using the detailed side and was fully inked before stamping on one of the narrow white strips.  It was then die-cut out and adhered below the other two rows of mountains.  See the card for placement ideas.

Next I stamped the tree lines, using Garden Green ink, on the two remaining white strips (1-3/4" x 3-3/8").  The first tree-line is fully inked and stamped on a strip, and the second tree-line is stamped off once before stamping on the final white strip.  I adhered the stamped-off tree strip first because it seemed it would appear lighter in the distance and finally adhered the fully-inked tree strips to finish my panel.

I used the reverse side of the clouds and sun to stamp these onto the top portion above the mountains.  I used Balmy Blue for the clouds and Crushed Curry for the sun.  I used Memento Tuxedo Black for the birds.  Both the clouds and the sun were stamped off once before stamping on the scenery panel.  Be sure you stamp the sun far enough in on the right to allow for trimming your scenery panel to fit your Balmy Blue mat layer when done.  The final step is to trim your scenery panel and adhere it to the blue mat layer, and voilà, I was done.   Take a peek below at the ingredients below:

Ingredients:  Stampin' Up products:  Cardstocks--So Saffron, Night of Navy, Balmy Blue.  Stamps--Mountain Air, Itty Bitty Birthdays (sentiment).  Dies--Majestic Mountain, Stitched Rectangles (1/2" x 2-1/2".  Inks--Night of Navy, Balmy Blue, Garden Green, Crushed Curry.  Other products:  Patterned paper--Basic Grey "Adrift" paper pack.  Die--Pretty Pink Posh Stitched Borders #1 (stitched zigzags).  Ink--Memento Tuxedo Black (birds).  Chatterbox verse (inside).  A6 Size: 4-1/2' x 6-1/4."  

A Lucky Birthday Card!

One of my good friends and cardmaking buddies has a birthday in February. I needed to put on my thinking cap very quickly, there was no time to waste! I was going to be leaving for a four-generation get-together with my youngest granddaughter and my daughter to visit my mother in northern California. We really need to get some four-generation pictures taken while there.

In looking through my stash, I found a BINGO card in soft aqua, vanilla, and black. I love BINGO cards, so I decided with its colors, it would make a pretty feminine card. I also love to make a card style that I call vintage simple. I've named it this, because for me, it is a vintage card, but without an excess amount of extra fussy feminine this and thats that are often added. It was definitely time to breakout some fun, vintagey papers and embellishments and make a card using this style! I was excited to get started.

Between taking a peek at the Splitcoaststamper Ways to Use It challenge for the week...Button It Up, and finding our old DYMO Labelmaker about a month ago, my creative juices were beginning to flow! The challenge made it an absolute must to include buttons, as they would make perfect BINGO markers, and I decided to make the sentiment using the labelmaker and 3/8" black tape with white embossed lettering in a fishtail cut design. I have always loved that look! With the BINGO card, my color scheme would be Pool Party, Black and Very Vanilla cardstocks, along with several coordinating patterned papers.

I could not find just the right aqua flat buttons for my BINGO markers, so I decided to use clear buttons and adhere them to one of the patterned papers to jazz them up. With a dark aqua Copic marker, I drew dark aqua circles on my chosen patterned paper. I fussy-cut the paper circles and adhered the buttons in the center of the circles. Finally, I distress-frayed the edges with the sharp edge of a scissor blade. The rest of the card design fell into place quite easily, and I was really pleased with the results.

Take a peek below at my finished card inside and out. I love that perky triple-looped bow and the labelmaker tape sentiment! Don't you think my friend will be happy with her lucky birthday card?!

Ingredients: SU cardstock--Basic Black, Pool Party, Very Vanilla, SU Color Collection dsp (2014/2015/2016 - Pool Party Dots), Patterned paper scraps (3/ 3/4" x 4-1/4"). EK Victorian Corner punch. Colorbox Charcoal pigment ink (edge distressing). Pool Party seam binding ribbon. Black & White Baker's Twine. Dynamo Labelmaker/ 3/8" black tape. Stash button/ clear. Black/rhinestone trim (cut apart). Dimensional Foam tape (sentiment). Copic marker outlining (Bingo button markers). Chatterbox verse. Size: 4-3/4" x 6".

I Love Me A Christmas Tree!

Here is a one of my 2019 Christmas cards that I am finally getting posted to my blog.   I check some of the SCS Challenges to see if it would fit as I knew there are usually categories in bling, paper tearing, Christmas themes, etc. 

I remember I was running up against a tight timeline to finish my cards and get them delivered on time.  I dug out some old Liz Thayer Christmas kits that I almost forgot about and decided I really should try to use at least one of them.  I decided on this Peaceful Pine beauty.  I was excited to use the die with the pop-out branches.  I tweaked the card a bit, adding a white cardbase and a Gold Glimmer layer between the base and the card front.  I also added a popped and ink distressed Merry Christmas die-cut to the inside.  I like the end result and made several more to add to my stash of cards to give.  Here is the result below:

Ingredients:  Stampin' Up products:  Cardstocks--Garden Green, Cucumber Crush, Mint Macaron, Whisper White, Glimmer paper-Gold.  Stamps--Peaceful Pines (2016-17 annual/ verse), Perfectly Plaid (2019 Holiday/ Merry Christmas).  Dies--Perfect Pines Framelits (2016-17 annual).  Ink: Cucumber Crush (sponging), Garden Green (sentiment stamping), Crumb Cake (ink distressing).  Winter Wonderland Washi tape (2015 Holiday). Other:  Dies--Spellbinders Petite Labels One (inside).  Crystal Effects (clear droplets).  Size: 4-3/4" x 6".  (Thank you Liz Thayer for the original design, which I modified a bit).