Joy in Teal & Gold

Materials:

• Glossy cardstock, alcohol inks, gold embossing powder, embossing ink
• JustRite stamps: Christmas Miracle Ornaments
• Spellbinders dies: 5X7 Heirloom Legacy, 2012 Heirloom Ornaments
• M-bossabilities: Imperial

Blue & Green Christmas Wishes

Materials List:

• Glossy cardstock, alcohol inks, embossing ink, silver embossing powder
• DCWV paper, Silver Sharpie
• Green glimmer paper, Cheery Lynn French Lattice cutting die
• Adhesive-backed cardstock, Spellbinders Celtic Motifs
• Spellbinders 2011 Heirloom Ornaments die, JustRite Deck the Halls Stamps
• Ribbon

Pink & Green Ornaments

Materials:

• White cardstock, alcohol inks, silver embossing powder, ribbon, DCWV paper
• JustRite Stamps: Christmas Vintage Labels One, Noel Christmas Ornaments
• Spellbinders Dies: 2012 Heirloom Ornaments

Guide Us To Thy Perfect Light

Materials List:

• White Glossy Cardstock, Alcohol Inks, Silver embossing Powder
• JustRite Stamps: Noel Christmas Ornaments, Deck the Halls
• Spellbinders Dies: 2011 Heirloom Ornaments, Poinsettia, Holly Accents
• Dazzles

Wishing You Christmas Ornaments

Materials Used:

• Glossy Cardstock, Alcohol Inks, Embossing Ink, Red & Gold Embossing Powders
• Spellbinders Dies: 2010 Heirloom Ornaments, Decorative Labels Eight
• JustRite Stamps: Noel Christmas Ornaments, Mix and Match Christmas Blessings
• Gold Liquid Pearls

Christmas Memories

Materials Used:

Fiskars Cutter 

Spellbinders Dies - 2010 Heritage Ornaments, A2 Bracket Border One

JustRite Stamps - Deck the Halls

HOTP Dazzles & Paper

Black Enamel Accents

Black Embossing Powder & Embossing Ink

Xmas Polar Bears

Rather than taking my crafting time writing up methods that are probably self-explanatory, I'm just going to write a quick materials list.  

Materials List:

• White Glossy Cardstock, Alcohol Inks, White Embossing Powder, Embossing Ink
• HOTP Small Stamps - Polar Bears, Winter Wonder
• Spellbinders Labels Twenty Dies
• JustRite Vintage Labels & Banners
• HOTP 3-D Snowflake Dazzles
• HOTP patterned paper

Christmas Magic Slider

This card magically colors itself as the slider is pulled up to show the message: 

The basics of how to make this card is detailed in the 100 Movable Parts Cards CD from HOTP.  It is called a Magic Window Slider Card, but I modified it with the Snowflake-shaped Window instead of a square one. 

Materials Used:

• Paper Artist Dies (HOTP) - 6 Layered Labels & Two Swirls
• Spellbinders Dies - Persian Motifs & Accents
• HOTP Stamp - Snowflakes Small Stamp
• JustRite Stamps - Mix and Match Christmas Blessings
• Darice Embossing Folder - Snowflakes
• Silver Staze-On
• Silver Sharpie

Xmas Cut & Emboss in Gold & Teal

Materials:

•  White Glossy Card Stock
• Glimmer paper in gold & teal
• JustRite Dies & Stamps: Vintage Labels & Banner Dies, Christmas Vintage Labels One, Mix and Match Christmas Blessings
• MaryAnn Cut & Emboss Folder - Swirls
• M-Bossabilities Folder - Asian
• Spellbinders Dies - Fleur De Lis Motifs
• Alcohol Inks - Stream, Gold Mixative & ? 
• Gold Embossing Powder
• Gold Liquid Pearls
• Gold Ribbon

This card started with a focal made from glossy cardstock as described here.  The background is embossed gold glimmer paper.  The teal glimmer paper was cut and embossed using the MaryAnn cut & embossing folder. The focal was added with foam tape for dimension. Next I added gold liquid pearls. The gold ribbon finishes off the front of the card.

The inside is pretty simple - teal cut with Spellbinder's die, and matted with gold, gold embossed message & gold liquid pearls.

Birthday Girl

Materials:

Spellbinder's Die Set - "Resplendent Rectangles"
Stamp Sets - "Janie's Girls" by HOTP, "Unlisted" by Inkadinkadoo
Black Stamp Pad
Gel Pens

Method:
Today's card highlights the fun I had playing with my new stamp set from HOTP.  This little girl with the signboard can be used for many messages.  This one just happened to be for a birthday card (message from an Inkadinkadoo mini stamp set "Unlisted").  As you can see I cut her out using one of the Spellbinder's dies and then matted it using a piece cut from pink textured paper using the same die set.  Then I colored her with gel pens, using the Dove blender to soften the edges.

Hidden Window Spinner Card

Cardstock: White, 2 pieces of  Red 12" X 12"  (one side can be a bit shorter, but must be at least 10" wide)
Spellbinders Cutting Dies: "2010 Heirloom Ornaments", "Holly Accents", "5 X 7 Elegant Labels Four"
Embossing Folders: M-bossabilities "Imperial"
JustRite Stamps: "Deck The Halls", "Noel Christmas Ornaments", "Mix and Match Christmas Blessings"
Embossing Powder: Red, White

Card Base:

1. Place card stock in front of you (if one edge is shorter, the shorter edge should be horizontal).  Measure 7" from the bottom and draw a dotted line dividing the cardstock into two parts - lower part is 7" high & upper part is 5".
2. Now rotate card stock 1/4" so 7" wide part is to your left and measure 5" from the bottom.  Draw a dotted line the full 12" long at this 5" mark.  
3. Next, on the side that is 7" wide, draw a solid line that is 5" from the dotted line (10" from the bottom edge). 
4. On the 5" wide side, draw a solid line that is 6" from the bottom edge or 1" from the dotted line.
5. Along the original dotted line (now perpendicular) draw it in solid from the 10" line to the dotted 5" line.
6. In the bottom right corner, draw a solid line from the original dotted line to the 5" dotted line (diagonal line).
7. Mark the center of this line you just drew (should be 3 1/2") and draw a dotted line from that mark to the corner formed by the crossing point of the original 7" line & the 5" line (another diagonal line).

     8. Cut on all solid lines.  Score on all dotted lines. 

      9. Using the 2nd piece of cardstock, make a mirror image of the above.
    10. Taping the two together - mirror images facing each other - use a die to cut a hole as shown below:

      11.  Line up the two pieces together with the little flaps hiding in between as you see here.

Now comes the fun part - decorating your card!

I made my "spinner" by stamping and embossing two smaller ornaments (red embossing powder on white paper).  Glue them back to back with a thread running through the center lengthwise.  Then attach the thread inside your card before gluing it together.  NOTE: You will want to wrap the thread at least once around a thin strip of card stock on either end and sandwich it between the sheets to ensure it doesn't pull through!

Then I made a couple of larger ornaments embossed in red just like the smaller ones and attached them to the two inner pages of the card. Next I cut some borders using one of the Holly Accents cutting dies (I cut each strip into two pieces. I needed 4 full strips - 8 pieces after I cut them - to decorate top and bottom of all inner pages).

The front was created in layers: - a piece of white embossed with the M-bossabilities folder - a red frame cut out using the two largest dies in the Elegant Labels Four die set - an ornament cut from red and embossed with white.

Now simply twist the "spinner" and close the card so when your recipient opens the card the spinner will start to spin!

Cat Birthday

Here's a birthday card I made for my daughter who loves cats.

Supplies:

• Alcohol Inks
• Glossy cardstock - colored pink with alcohol inks.  This was used for the stamped images as well as to mat the patterned paper.
• Stamps - Frames from JustRite's "For all You Do" and "Grateful Heart" sets, cat from small Inkadinkadoo set, name created with my Teresa Collins stampmaker.
• Black powder, VersaMark ink, and heat tool for heat embossing.
• Patterned paper - from my stash - edges were inked in black before adding
• Dark and Light Pink Jewels - from my stash

This had to be a really quick card and after I was finished I wished I had used a black ribbon or border of some kind running across the card behind the name.  I think that would have finished it off nicely and sort of "grounded" the card.

Dance Birthday

Here's a birthday card I made for one of my dance instructors.

Dancing Figures: were cut on my Silhouette.  I cut one in turquoise and one in black and offset them to give a bit of a shadow effect.  Then I added them with foam tape for extra dimension.

Greeting Focal: Starting with a piece of glossy white cardstock, I colored it with Broken China Distress ink from an ink pad to get a coordinating color.  I stamped the sentiment with VersaMark ink using stamps from JustRite's Grand Sentiments set & heat embossed it with black powder.  I framed this with a beautiful turquoise mirror Dazzle (HOTP) and then hand cut around it to leave a bit of the colored cardstock as a mat.  Next, I made a bit of a mat effect using black die cuts and punched pieces.  I cut several pieces using Spellbinders Persian Motifs and Accents dies and arranged them as you see.  Alone they didn't frame the focal as well as I wanted at the top and bottom so I added a bit from a punched strip (EK Success Medallion Chain)

"Ribbon" Strip: I found a turquoise border piece in my stash and stamped the word "Dance" in black several times.  This time the stamp was one I made myself using my Teresa Collins Stampmaker.

Decorative Strip:  The decorative strip in the upper left corner started with another piece of the mirrored turquoise Dazzle. I put this on a piece of black paper and cut around it to create a bit of a border.  I added a few flower-shaped gems from my stash before adding it to the card.

Christmas Card Focals

There are times when one needs to make some quick cards - and Christmas is often one of those times.  It helps to have card focals prepared ahead of time and ready to go.  These were inspired from a challenge on the Paper Wishes Message Board. The reindeer was a small stamp from Hot Off the Press.  The word "Magical" was a part of it, but the word "Christmas" came from another set.

These were made by stamping with VersaMark and then heat embossing in various colors - gold, copper, red.  I used Smooch inks to color in the images - and added a bit of Stickles for the nose and eyes where I wanted a bit more of a "pop".  

I look forward to using these to make some quick Christmas cards, and I hope to find time to make a lot more using other stamps.

Christmas Minis

Now that I've gotten so many Thanksgiving cards made, it's time to turn my attention to Christmas cards.  I usually want a LOT of Christmas cards, so I need to get busy with them.  I decided to start by making a couple of mini cards (3" x 3") since I had so much fun with the Thanksgiving ones.  Here is the result.

For this first card I started with a black piece of cardstock, folded it into a card, and then used a stencil (purchased from Paper Wishes) and white dimensional paint to create the focal design.  After the paint dried, I colored the design with metallic cream chalks.  At this point the card looked like this:

It was nice enough, but I decided that adding some greeting stickers would finish it off nicely.  I didn't want silver (which was the color of the only ones I had that ran vertically), so colored them gold by placing them on my craft mat and applying gold ink directly from an ink pad.

For my second card I started with a yellow card (bad choice - this technique seems to look better on a darker background).  As you can see, I outlined some of the features with a black pen to try to give it a bit more contrast.  I used a different stencil (also from Paper Wishes) but used it the same way.  After the focal was done, I added a greeting - this time using a stencil & chalk (pastel chalks this time).  I had tried to leave enough room for a greeting, but the stenciled greeting I found was a bit bigger than I expected.  All in all, it's an okay card, but not quite what I had envisioned:

3 x 3 Minis - Part 10

This is the last of the ten 3" x 3" mini-cards that I made for a swap.  I decided to make this one a Christmas theme, using a plaid card I got from HOTP and cut to size. For the focal I used a stencil I purchased from Paper Wishes.

I have quite a few family & friends who like cats, so I like making cat cards, but was not sure how this stencil would work out.  I started with a piece of white card stock, taped my stencil to it, and applied white dimensional paint just for the greeting, the eyes, the fuzzy parts of the hat, and the cat's paws (yes, those are two paws by her face - hard to tell, huh! - maybe we'll just say she's wearing a collar! LOL).  Anyway, before the paint dried, I added white fun flock to the tassel and brim of the hat, and ivory Flower Soft to the paws, leaving the greeting and eyes as they were.

After everything was thoroughly dry, I cut a rectangular shape using my paper cutter with a fancy blade. I put the stencil back on top and used chalks to color in the rest of the image.  Then I added a bit of chalk around the sentiment to help it show up better.

Next I took a green pen and outlined the leaves, adding some vein lines; and then used a red pen to outline the hat, berries, the letters in the greeting, and the outer edge of the focal.  The fuzzy parts of the hat weren't showing up as well as I liked, so I outlined them in pencil and then ran a pencil line around the cat's "face" to help better define it.

Finally, I added just a couple of dots of green stickles to make her eyes glow.

3 x 3 Minis - Part 9

This quick card started as a 3" x 3" card cut from a HOTP "Tie Die" card base.  For this card I decided to round just the upper corners of the card.

For the focal I cut a 2 1/2" square piece of white cardstock and stamped images and sentiments using purple ink and the small stamp set "Just a Note" from HOTP.  The border was longer than I wanted, so I covered a portion with a sticky note while I added ink (removing it before actually stamping) so the printed music would have a white border all around it.

The large note was stamped on a separate piece of card stock, trimmed around the edge, and attached with foam tape.  After rounding the upper two corners to match the base card, I inked the edges and attached my focal with foam tape.

3 x 3 Minis - Part 8

This card started with a "Confetti" card cut to make a 3" x 3" card base.

For the focal, I used another HOTP small stamp called "Pocket Watch" and stamped the watch and sentiment onto a 2 1/2" square piece of white card stock. I stamped the images with Versamark ink and then added copper embossing powder and heat embossed it.

I colored the images with chalk and a little bit of gel pen for accents.  Then I drew 2 colored lines around the edges of the card to help tie the colors together.  I decided to mat my focal on a yellow piece of card stock - cut with a wavy-edge paper trimmer.  I glued everything in place and my card was complete.

3 x 3 Minis - Part 7

I think this card is my favorite out of the 10 mini-cards that I made.  I love sparkle and this card has LOTS!

I started with another 3" square card cut from a larger "Green Marble" card from HOTP and a hummingbird stencil I had purchased from Paper Wishes.

For the focal, I traced around the stencil onto the backing paper of a double-sided adhesive sheet and cut around my traced lines.  Removing the backing from one side, I attached this to a piece of white card stock.  Next, I removed the other backing paper and carefully placed the stencil on top of it, lining up the edges carefully.  Now I was ready to add glitter!

I started with the fuchsia color and added it to the flower and breast of the humming bird.  A little got in surrounding areas of the flower and bird, but I didn't care about that - as it helped give a more blended look after I added the green to the rest of the stencil areas. If I had wanted clear demarcation between the colors, I would have used a piece of backing paper to cover the areas that I didn't want fuchsia. 

After making sure I had the green and fuchsia where I wanted it, I removed the stencil and added white glitter to cover the rest of the exposed adhesive. Then I cut around the edges, adhered it to my card, and trimmed top and bottom.  LOVE IT!

However, I wanted a little extra and wasn't sure what to add - then thought maybe a sentiment would complete it.  I cut out two little hearts - one from a scrap of the green marble and a smaller one from a piece of white.  Using a stamp from HOTP "Tiny Words and Images" stamp set, I stamped the greeting in green ink on the white heart and then inked the edges. I attached the white heart to the green with foam tape and then added them to the card to finish the look.

3 x 3 Minis - Part 6

I've had these "corrugated brown" cards (HOTP) for some time and challenged myself to find a way to use one of them as I made my mini cards.

For my focal, I wanted to use a cat border stencil that I had gotten from Paper Wishes - not sure who actually made the stencil.  I decided to stamp some flowering branches using HOTP tiny stamp set called "Cherry Blossom" as a background to set the scene for my cats.

Next, I used chalks with the cat stencil to get two cats at the bottom of the card.  I decided to use a white gel pen to add eyes and a pencil to draw whiskers and really liked what that added.

Then I took a green pen and drew in some "grass" around the cats.

I found the flowers I had stamped in pink really stood out more than I wanted them to, so I toned them down a bit by going over them lightly with a greyish chalk color.

Looking at my focal, I decided I wanted a sentiment, so chose another from the HOTP "Tiny Words and Images" set and stamped it in green.

Finally, I rounded the corners of both the focal and the card base and inked the edges of the focal with black ink before attaching the focal to the card with foam tape.

September Christmas Inspirations

This card isn't my favorite, but reminds me of a Christmas wreath.  The back layer was cut and embossed with Elegant Labels Four in dark green suede paper.  The red was cut with a Labels Four die and embossed with a Gold Labels Four die.  The green leaves and red berries were cut and embossed with the Poinsettia die and the berries were enhanced with Jewel Dazzles.  The sentiment (HOTP stamp) and frame (JustRite stamps "Antique Christmas Tags One") was stamped in green on white paper and cut with the matching Antique Tags One dies.

3 x 3 Minis - Part 5

One of the things I like about paper crafting is that I never know how something will turn out until I do it.  This card was another surprise for me.  It started as a plain 3 x 3 card cut from a "Green Marble" card from HOTP.

Using a 2 1/2" square of blue printed paper I got from HOTP and one of their small stamp sets called "Flower" I stamped the sentiment and flower in black ink.  Then I simply colored parts of the image with gel pens and also used them to draw around the edges of the blue square.

Since the green marble paper had white in it, I decided to mat the blue square with white.  Using my paper cutter, I cut a 2 3/4" square with a wavy edge to serve as a mat and glued the blue square to it.  Then I decided to add some white gel pen to the flowers to help tie the focal and mat together better.  Wow!  That REALLY made those flowers POP!

I attached the matted focal to the card with foam tape for dimension.

3 x 3 Minis - Part 4

Next up is a card made using one of the "Pastel Quilt" cards from HOTP.

I once again used a stencil and dimensional paint - this time a light blue.  (For tips on using dimensional paint, see yesterday's post.)

After the paint was thoroughly dry, I used a Spellbinder's Labels 4 die to cut and emboss the edges and used a blue gel pen to run along the embossing line.  I used the same pen with a ruler to frame the edges of the mini-card itself.  Since the die-cut piece extended beyond the edges of  the card, I decided to glue the piece to the card front and trim along the edges.  I then ran my gel pen along these edges.

Finally, I took a tiny butterfly outline sticker and glued it to a piece of blue paper. I trimmed around it, leaving a small edge of blue and then fastened it to the card just along the butterfly body, so I could fold the wings up for added dimension.

3 x 3 Minis - Part 3

Today I have another mini-card.  This one started with a tie-die style card cut to 3" x 3" size.

The focal started as a 2 1/2" square piece of red printed paper.  Using a quilt stencil and white dimensional paint I bought from Paper Wishes, I was able to quickly get the pretty white pattern on the red square.

For those of you who haven't used dimensional paint with stencils - I've got a couple of tips:
  1) Tape your stencil to the paper using stencil tape or painter's tape - both of which are designed to remove without causing damage.
  2) Apply the paint by scraping lightly across the stencil to get a uniform depth of coverage.
  3) Remove the stencil IMMEDIATELY and wash it.  The paint is hard enough to remove from your stencil if you do it right away, and if you leave it on your project for any length of time, you won't be able to remove it without tearing something!

Using a ruler to keep my edges neat, I ran a black pen around the edges of both the card and the focal before gluing the focal in place.

Deciding that I wanted some sort of greeting on the card, I used a stamp from HOTP "Tiny Words and Images" set and heat embossed the sentiment using fine black powder.

3 x 3 Minis - Part 2

This cute little owl is a mini-stamp called "Hoot Hoot" from HOTP.  The sentiment is from the same little set.

For this card, I stamped them in silver on a cream-colored card stock, then colored in the owl with sparkly gel pens.  After rounding the corners with a punch, I used a silver pen to go around the edges of both the focal and the card itself.  I adhered the focal using foam tape to give it some dimension.

The card itself was cut from another of those printed cards I got in a pack of ten from HOTP.

3 x 3 Minis - Part 1

This next series of cards combines two fun things - mini cards and swaps! Swaps can be fun for at least three reasons: 1) It's fun to get things in the mail! 2) They inspire you to do things you might not have done otherwise, and 3) You get new ideas as you see what you get from others in the swap. Miniature cards can be a lot of fun because even when you do special techniques and add details they don't take long and you can feel like you accomplished a lot.

Today's card is one of ten different 3"x3" cards I made for a swap - I'll be showcasing the others over the next few days.  Since the swap was on the Paper Wishes Message Board (hosted by Hot Off the Press), most of the supplies used were theirs. All ten cards started with a printed card base from Hot Off the Press (sold in packs of 10 cards - quite inexpensive).  This one came from this pack:

I found I could get two 3 x 3 cards from one of these printed cards. 

The focal was made using the "Small Cupcake" mini stamp set from HOTP.  I stamped it first on white card stock, colored it using sparkly gel pens and chalks, then embossed the edges with an embossing stylus.  It still didn't have the dimension I wanted, so I stamped the image again, colored it, fussy cut pieces of it, and popped them up with foam tape.

Most of the cards I left blank inside, but for this one I fussy cut some candles from scraps of the card and glued them to the inside of the card:

Mini Thank You

I had so much fun making Mini cards for that swap, that I looked around to see what else would work for them. This one started as a piece of glittered card stock from a 4.5" x 6.5" mat stack (DCWV "All Dressed Up"). I cut it to 3" x 6" and scored it to form the base for this 3" x 3" card.

The Focal was stamped with JustRite Stamps from "For All You Do Vintage Labels Three" and cut with the matching die.  This was mounted with foam tape on a mat cut from a silver glimmer paper with a die from Spellbinders "Decorative Labels Twenty-Seven".

The butterfly was from a set I got at the dollar store.  Some of the sticker sat past the edge and I didn't want it sticking to the envelope, so put a touch of baby powder on it to get rid of the "sticky".