Wishing You Joy in the New Year (Christmas X 10 - Card #9)!

I'm onto Card #9 from the Christmas X 10 card event that I attend in October. . .almost at the end of the tunnel.  This particular card design had great potential, but it just didn't sit quite right with me.  It was pretty, but just needed more.  Creative thoughts jumped right on out at me. . .what if I added a three-dimensional layer snowflake and just left off the little fishtail flag, and that is just what I did.

I decided that my snowflake needed to be delicate to compliment the really pretty dainty snowflake vellum.  I decided to use two different Memory Box snowflake dies, creating larger and smaller snowflakes to layer on top of one another.  It occurred to me, as well, that if I incorporated the two shades of purple cardstock into my snowflake it might be better than just a white or silver snowflake.  I added both the Wisteria Wonder lavender and the Elegant Eggplant deep purple along with a silver and white designer paper and a little silver glimmer flake to finish off the center along with a rhinestone.  Next, I added another layer below the pale Wisteria Wonder lavender layer, repeating the rich dark purple as a new cardbase.  

I have to say, I am totally in love with my revamped card, and I thank Luci Kirschbaum for the original card design as a jumping off point to help me come up with my finished card.  Take a look and see what you think.  I'll add the original design below my card so you can see what I changed.

Here is a peek below of the original card design.  You can see that it had good "bones" and maybe what I mean by it just need more!  Of course, I do realize that many times in a "class" card, it can not be too elaborate or the participants would never get them all done, especially on a ten-card event!

Recipe:  Stampin' Up products:  Cardstock--Elegant Eggplant, Wisteria Wonder, Whisper White, Winter Wonderland Vellum (2015 Holiday), All is Calm (snowflake); Silver Glimmer.  Dies--Wonderful Wreath Framelits. 5/8" Silver Satin ribbon.  Rhinestones.  Memory Box Dies:  Telluride Snowflake (large); Snow Burst (medium).  Recollections: 5/8" Snowflake (small).  (Thank you Luci Kirschbaum for the beautiful original design, which I took the liberty of modifying and making it mine!)

Festival of Trees - Christmas X10 - Card #7!

Card #7 from the Christmas X 10 cardmaking event mentioned in several previous posts uses a stamp set introduced in the 2014 Holiday mini catalog.  It was not retired can now be seen in the current annual catalog under the Christmas section.  The set features seven variations of Christmas tree styles, which allows for lots of design creativity!

I really like the trimmed off circle that is layered with a second circle and enhanced with scallops, which is off set with the left curve trimmed vertically and offset to the left of the card front, but I decided the card itself need another layer, adding more Real Red as a cardbase.  It only had one tree and it look very lonesome and bare all by itself, so I place a different tree on the right than shown on the original design, and placed the card's tree overlapping on the right.  I also added some red dimensional stars for the tree toppers instead of an Iced Rhinestone. . .somehow a star shape just looks better to me as a tree topper rather than a round rhinestone.  I also dressed it up with three little sequins.  Somehow, the big white circle just begged for more embellishing.  I love the items I added and now I really love the card!  Take a look below:

Recipe:  Stampin' Up products:  Cardstock--Whisper White, Real Red, Mossy Meadow.  Stamps: Festival of Trees.  Ink: Mossy Meadow, Real Red.  Circle Framelits,  Tree Punch.  Embossing Folder: Stylish Stripes.  Queen & Co.: Twinkle Stars.  Stash: Red Sequins.  (Thank you Luci Kirschbaum for the wonderful card design I took the liberty of modifying a bit).

Jolly Stars (Totally Lovin' Christmas #6)!

I'm rolling along finishing another card that I started at Liz Thayer's Totally Lovin' Christmas cardmaking event!  This one if full of jolly stars, and indeed, we did have a jolly time making cards, seeing old friends, and socializing as we made Liz's superbly designed cards.

I have to confess that I can seldom make a card exactly as it is designed and presented at an event such as this.  For some reason, when I see an already designed and finished card, my creative mojo starts zinging into my mind, and I have all sorts of ideas of how to tweak or change a card just a bit to make it more me.  Everyone has their own style and ideas in cardmaking, and I hope my hostesses do not take offense if I don't end up with the exact same card as designed.  One thing I know for sure, I love larger than A2 sized cards and I also like more layers of color than many other do.  My changes usually incorporate adding layers, which ultimately makes the card a bit larger.

On this Jolly Stars #5 card, I was not fond of the Iridescent embossed smaller stars, it changed the color too much, and made it so they didn't quite match the shades intended.  I thought I'd try clear embossing, which turned out so well that I decided to clear emboss the larger stars as well.  While I was at it, I embossed the Jolly greeting with Cherry Cobbler embossing powder rather than just stamping it in Cherry Cobbler ink.  Next, I decided the layers needed to have a bit more of an edge between layers, and also I felt it needed a white layer to set off the Mossy Meadow and the Red Glimmer papers.  Thus, I added white as a bottom layer making it my new cardbase.  My final addition was to add Clear Wink of Stella all over each of the stars and to the Crumb Cake band to add a bit of shimmer.

For those of you who are not familiar with the "Winks," they are a liquid brush pen that adds a coat of thin shimmer gloss to any surface by painting it on with its brush tip.  It comes in many colors, clear, black, gold, and silver to name a few.  Spoiler Alert:  the new Occasion mini catalog, which will be introduced on January 5, 2016 and run through May 31st, introduces the Wink of Stella Clear and Gold pens for purchase.  I know you'll like them.  Unfortunately, it doesn't really show up all that much in my card photo, but you certainly can see it when you view the actual card!

Recipe:  Stampin' Up products:  Cardstock--Whisper White, Mossy Meadow, Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Red Glimmer.  Merry Moments dsp.  Stamps--Oh, What Fun.  Star Framelit dies (size #1/ #2; #1 = smallest).  Decorative Label punch.  Clear Embossing Powder.  1/4" Real Red Cotton ribbon.  Other:  Clear Wink of Stella.  (Thanks Liz Thayer for the original card design).

Punch Art Angel - Christmas X10 - Card #1!

October was a busy month.  I went to another Christmas cardmaking event, Christmas X10, which was hosted by two great ladies and Stampin' Up demonstrators, Dara Peterson and Luci Kirchenbaum.  This is the first time I have been invited to one of their annual events, and I was thrilled with the ten card designs presented by these two wonderful ladies.  What a great and fun way to teach and demonstrator Stampin' Up products. . .a partnership where everything is shared.  I am sure these two have a great time together.  I met several new cardmaking ladies who love to craft as much as I do.  It surely was a fun-filled and enjoyable event.

Our first card was made from products featured in the annual catalog rather than the new 2015 Holiday mini catalog.  I so loved this card's design that in making my own card, I stuck to an exact replica of the class sample.  The cute little punch art angel and the tree were formed by using the Tree punch, and the angel's wings were formed by using the smaller round-winged butterfly from the Bold Butterfly framelit die set.  This was such a lovely card, presented in a beautifully simplistic style.  Please take a peek. . .you'll like what you see!

Recipe:  Stampin' Up products:  Cardstock--Whisper White, Shimmery White, Dazzling Diamonds & Silver Glimmer paper.  Merry Moments dsp,  Stamps: Merry Everything.  Ink: Cherry Cobbler.  Punches:  2-1/2" Circle, 3/4" Circle, Tree, Itty Bitty Accent-Star.  Framelit dies: Bold Butterflies.  (Thank you Dara & Luci for the wonderful card design).

A Delicate Ornament Merry Christmas! (Totally Lovin' Christmas #9)

This will be Card #9 from the Thayer Totally Lovin' Christmas event early in the Fall.  I have to admit that I did a little doctoring on this one.  I wanted my ornament to be as though it were hanging from the tree, so I added a narrow silver ribbon to the top, plus I raised my ornament up toward the top of the card considerably, because I very much wanted to add a sentiment under my ornament.  Because of the sentiment that I wanted to use, I decided I needed my card to be larger so that all of the elements would all fit much better.  

Because I decided to make all of these changes, I need to re-emboss top white layer under the ornament.  I was stoked because, though I did not currently have the embossing folder needed, I had already ordered it and knew that it was on its way.  I prepared all the elements I could, and then put the pieces aside until the embossing folder arrived.   I was sad to see that it was the smaller A2 size folder and not the new 6-inch size that Stampin' Up is currently offering their folder in.  This required me to emboss once, and then change the location of the folder on the paper by re-positioning and matching it very carefully and ultimately, making a second pass through the Big Shot.  It did leave a bit of a mark where the new and old embossing met, but it was well hidden by the sentiment layers.

I took my silver foil layer and adhered my newly prepared embossed layer and popped this unit up onto the pre-prepared white and red layers.  I added my prepared ornament and sentiment and voila, it was done.  I was very please with my new version of this card, and I thank Liz Thayer for the original design to use as a jump-start to my card.  I am going to attached my card and then the original so perhaps you can better understand my ramblings!

Recipe:  All Stampin' Up products.  Cardstock--Whisper White, Real Red, Silver Foil, Red Foil, Silver Glimmer. Stamps: Greetings of the Season.  Ink:  Real Red.  Embossing folder: Elegant Dots.  Framelit dies:  Delicate Ornaments.  Silver Cording.  Iced Irridescent Rhinestone.  Size: 5-1/2-inch square.

Snowflake Theme!

I think I'm into snowflakes this year so far.  On my second Christmas card, I'm using the Festive Flurry framelits that were introduced in last year's Stampin' Up 2013 Holiday catalog.  I made a more simple purple snowflake card at a Liz Thayer Totally Lovin' Christmas camp last year, which I really liked.  I decided to make my own purple version, which turned out to have more snowflake embellishment and some pretty white and silver organdy simmery ribbon as well.  

This card starts out by using the Stampin' Up Northern Flurries embossing folder on white cardstock to which some Dazzlikng Details silver adhesive glitter is applied and spread a bit on the embossed snowflakes to dry.  I used the Festive Flurries framelits to create my large purple and silver snowflakes and the Frosted Finishes silver star embellishment, also found in that catalog.  I have several small snowflake punches by Recollections, and I used these for my silver glimmer and Perfect Plum layered snowflakes.  My card certainly has bling . . . no doubt about it!

I've decided this one will go to mt daughter's in-laws. . .a very nice couple indeed. We hope they have a wonderful Christmas season.

Recipe:  SU cardstocks: Perfect Plum, Whisper White, Silver Glimmer.  SU stamps: More Merry Messages (2013 Holiday).  SU Ink: Perfect Plum.  SU framelits: Festive Flurry.  SU Embossing Folder: Northern Flurry.  Punches:  SU 1" Circle; Recollections: Snowflake Mini/ 5/8" Snowflake. SU Other:  Dazzling Details-Silver; Frosted Finishes embellishment (silver star); Rhinestones. Ribbon:  Ribbon: Offray- Silver/Sheer Organdy.

Christmas is Coming! #1

Wow! It is certainly time to publish a few Christmas cards that have been in the making.  My first card is a remake of some pieces I had on hand that ended up being a really cute card.  I have never made a pink card before, but as the pieces were in pink. . .a pink card it must be.  There is no patterned papers with this card; it's all cardstocks and stamps.  

I have seen lots of papers made using stamps, and on this card, I used the Holiday 2013 Festive Flurry snowflake stamp to make my own dsp with Blushing Bride ink and to make the silver glimmer snowflake.  The Boho Blossom punch was used to create the little pink snowflake.   I was actually pretty please with my re-creation of pieces in my stash.  Below is my card design for the inside with my verse completed using my computer.

Recipe:  Stampin' Up cardstocks: Blushing Bride, Very Vanilla, Brushed Silver, Silver Glimmer.  SU Stamps: Sassy Salutations, Festive Flurry.  SU Ink: Basic Gray.  SU Framelits: Festive Flurry.  SU Punch: Boho Blossoms.  SU Pearls.  Computer-made verse.

MERRY CHRISTMAS: For the Birds!

Merry, Merry Christmas to all!  

Hope your day is delightful!

Here is another card that evolved from one I started at Liz Thayer's Totally Loving Christmas in August.  The card center was Liz's design with a smidgen of layout changes.  With my seeming need to layer and enlarge everything I seem to put my hand to, I trimmed the green embossed layer to an almost-square.  I then added three more layers beneath it, starting from a new Real Red cardbase, an Early Espresso mat layer, and then some patterned dotted paper from my stash. Again, with this card, I think the pattern made the little bird pop off the card more and added a bit of interest as well.  I loved the two different types of embossing that Liz planned for the mat behind the bird's circle and the Old Olive layer.  Wonderful touches on this card!

Recipe: SU products: Stamps-For the Birds. Cardstock-Real Red base, Early Espresso, Old Olive, Whisper White. Silver Glimmer. Embossing folders: Fancy Fan, Northern Flurry. Punch: 2-1/2” Circle punch. Deco Labels framelit. Markers: Rose-Red, Midnight Muse, Old Olive. Rhinestones. SU Early Espresso 1/8” Taffeta ribbon.  Recollections Christmas Stack (pattern). StazOn Black Ink.