October 31, 2009

Oh how we love Dasher!


Finally, this card is all my own. I came up with this one after being inspired by a post on Michelle Zindorf's blog. The colors are very simple--Not Quite Navy, Night of navy, black and white. The main image is more simple than it actually looks. I got out a sponge and started adding in the colors of the background. Not quite navy was sponged over the whole piece of white paper and then night of navy around the edges and lightly in spots in the middle and then finally black around all the edges. I used Lovely as a Tree by Stampin' Up and stamped it in the background on top of the sponging. More sponging was added just a bit to make the trees recede a bit more into the background. Accents were added to the trees with black marker and white gel pen. Then I stamped Dasher on top of the trees in the foreground using basic black. White gel pen was added for highlights and depth. The gel pen really made Dasher pop out of the background a whole lot more. The paper behind the main image is a piece of not quite navy designer paper out of a prints pack. It was embossed with the beautiful Stampin Up Sizzix impressions folder Petals a plenty. Then I took my sanding block and lightly sanded the navy off the texture to get the white texture that kind of looks like snowflakes in the background. A black mat behind the main image and a strip of black for the ribbon to rest on were the finishing papers. The ribbon is whisper white taffeta.

October 30, 2009

Serene Snowflakes


This was another case'd card I believe from Christine Creations blog, but I could be wrong. I really need to start writing this stuff down. I just case so infrequently that I don't even think about it. LOL. Anyway, the color combo was part of the challenge on her card. It's very beautiful. The colors are soft suede, pretty in pink and whisper white. Not very traditional for a Christmas card, but I like this one a lot. I did mine kind of as a one sheet wonder thing. I took one whole sheet of whisper white and stamped the snowflakes all over it in soft suede and pretty in pink. then I started cutting the pieces I needed for the front of the card. The sentiment is from Four Holidays. I used another sheet of whisper white to make the big snowflakes. They were stamped in Soft Suede and punched out with the 1 3/4 inch circle punch. The layers behind it were cut with my nesties. The larger piece of soft suede has more snowflakes stamped on it in soft suede (another one sheet wonder thing). The ribbon is a piece of white taffeta ribbon. I really love the way this card turned out.

October 29, 2009

Gift card holders cased

Okay, first let me say that these were cased or copied from other sources, but I just can't remember where I found them! So I'm sorry I can't give the credit where credit is most definitely due. These were gift card holders prepared as samples in an effort to find something to do for a class project. The birdhouse one was originally not hinged, but I made the roof hinge and the house itself is a pocket to hold the gift card. So it's a flat mailable card. I loved this little card and it was so fun to do, but a bit tricky.

this view is with the hinge open.


Here it is with the hinge closed.











These are very quick and easy to do and ended up being the class project. here are several variations of the same thing. They are made from two top notes hinged together with a brad at the top. Very simple. The inside has a pocket made of a little less than half of a top note die out of designer paper so it only takes a scrap. Each variation is a little bit different. All of the ones shown are stamped on designer paper in a matching ink. here it is ruby red, taken with teal or real red. The papers come from Stampin Up's Holiday Lounge or Christmas Cocoa papers. The final design that we ended up using is not shown here, but it was done on solid ruby red card stock. I will have to find my sample (it has been missing in action for a while) and put a picture of it up for you to see.

This one is my favorite variation of all of the ones you see here. I used my top note and made layers behind the red image that was trimmed along the dotted edge to fit inside the layers behind it. The boho punch was used to make the embellishment at the top. The ribbon is white taffeta with some red grosgrain attached to the middle and frayed.

October 28, 2009

Scallop Envelope baskets

This is the time of year for fall fun and parties. My preschooler has his fall party for his class tomorrow, and I made these little baskets to hold the treats I signed up to bring. The were really quite simple to do. They are all made of the sizzix scallop envelope die that Stampin' Up sells. Four pieces per box and a little tombow adhesive (love this stuff by the way) and voila you have cuteness! I have to say, these cats are my very favorite. They are my own creative genius. I could not find instructions anywhere for a punch art cat that I liked, so I came up with my own. For the ears, I used the five-petal punch and punched on black and one pink then I offset the pink inside the black. The head is a 1 3/4 inch circle punch. The eyes are 1/4 inch circle punch that I used a black marker and white gel pen for accents. I used the 1 3/4 inch circle punch to make the nose part. First punch one circle then punch off a part of it using the same punch to get that shape. The nose is half of a 1/4 inch square. then the accents are white gel pen. The edges are all lightly sponged with very vanilla craft ink just to make them pop out a bit. I used my boho and three flowers punches for the little flowers and added a touch of stickles to the centers for accent. I would have put in a brad, but it's not such a good idea for preschoolers. So I used the trusty silver stickles. The cardstock for the baskets is pumpkin pie. The handles are attached with staples, but if I'd thought about it, a brad would have been better so the handle can swivel. However, I don't know that I would trust a three year old with those brads. LOL

These are the pumpkin baskets. I used my sizzix pumpkin die to make these guys. Then I drew on the faces and accented with black marker and gel pen. The baskets are made of basic black card stock and assembled the same way as the orange ones.


These little candy corns on here came about one night as I was laying in bed trying to go to sleep. LOL The idea came to me so quickly that I had to get up and make them. They were quick and easy too! I took strips of yellow designer paper and orange cardstock and taped them on the base of either black or chocolate chip cardstocks. Then I cut them out in triangles and rounded the corners with scissors and added white gel pen accents. Love these things!


All in all this was a fun little project. I made 12 of these and filled them with candy in bags tied with orange or black gingham ribbon. I know the kids won't really care, but it was fun to do!

Pirate Party


These are invitations to a birthday party for my friend's twin boys. These were actually fun to do and so far out of my usual style too! I used the new pirate sets by SU. The head scarf on the pirate symbol is from Pirate Time. I stamped it first in pumpkin pie on whisper white and cut it out. The other stamp was stamped in black and then the edges were torn and then sponged with pumpkin pie and then black inks. That was truly the hardest part. The sentiment was stamped in black on the strip of pumpkin pie. The striped paper is retired designer paper from SU. I LOVE this paper and wish they would bring it back. It's so versatile it can fit a huge array of things from elegant to grunge. The ribbon tabs were stapled to the pirate portion. These ribbons are also beautiful by the way. I wish I could afford to buy one in every color! The whole thing is mounted on whisper white card stock.

October 23, 2009

Christmas cards!

Yes, it's that time of year again. I've been slowly working on Christmas cards for several months now, but I've kicked it up a notch, so to speak, to get some done for samples for this weekend's Diva Day. Both of these cards started out simple and in true form to myself, they turned into complex masterpieces. LOL I really love the angel one though. :)

This card is done using the beautiful Holy Triptych and French Script background. The angel is embossed in gold. Behind her is a piece of vanilla card stock that is embossed around the edges with iridescent ice embossing powder. Then the French Script background is versamarked onto a piece of white card stock. The whole thing is monochromatic with only gold and glitter accents. I love the elegance of the whole look. To finish it off I used a double piece of vanilla taffeta ribbon attached to the card with a rhinestone brad.




The second card uses the Holy Family set from the current mini catalog. Basically it's an emboss resist card. I stamped the image and embossed it in black on white card stock. Then I stamped the snowflakes and embossed them in white. I used sponges in not quite navy, night of navy and black to do the background. On the main image I used markers and colored them in. Then I wiped off the embossed parts so the inks wouldn't smudge where I don't want them (hate it when that happens). Would you believe this card was made entirely out of my scrap bucket? Didn't have to cut a thing! That was part of the challenge to myself in this card--USE THOSE SCRAPS! My bins are overflowing.

October 15, 2009

Halloween Spinners

Well, this year has brought about a change in me. In the past, I have not even acknowledged the existence of Halloween and completely avoided anything even remotely related. A bit harsh? Yes. So I have given it thought and mulled it over, especially since I now have a 3 year old who is old enough to show interest in it. My conclusion has become that the observance of Halloween in and of itself is not bad. It's the manner in which the observance is done. So if I stay away from the wicked, violent and evil things and veer more toward cute cats, ghosts, pumpkins and harvest symbols, then I see no wrong. I'm keeping it fun and still not conforming to the ways of the world either. That being said, I came up with some adorable spinner cards today. All of them very simple, which, if you know me, is often not even in my vocabulary. So here they are:

The ghost spinners are from a sizzix die. I added the smiley mouths with a black marker. The top note die made up the background for the spinner. Word window punch made the spinner track. These cards did use a lot of dimensionals to get everything to spin the right way. :D I tried stamping in a tree, but it got lost in the background, and all you can see of it are the tips on the moon. By the way, the moon is made using a 1 3/8 inch circle punch and a 1 3/4 inch circle punch. The background on this card is made using a rubber band background technique. The other cards do not have a background or trees on them. the boo is handwritten in on the front.

The pirate spinner was my creation. I created the pirate out of the designer label punch and an 1 1/4 inch circle punch and a partial boho blossom for the scarf. I used the three heart punch for the eye and the crossbones. The bones and the eyepatch were made using the word window punch.

October 10, 2009

A Halloween birthday?

This card was a personal challenge I issued myself. No stampin' up stamps. I LOVE those stamps and I have a lot of others I love as well, but never use. So I decided to step out of my comfort zone and use some of those others I have just hanging around. This card comes from Unity's September kit of the month. The big flower in the background is stamped with crushed curry on crushed curry paper. I overstamped that with Unity's background well-worn music. The doll is paper pieced and watercolored. The pumpkins were stamped with dusty durango on only orange and then cut out and sponged and watercolored. Highlights were added with a gel pen. I like this one even if it is completely different from my usual style. LOL

October 09, 2009

Teapot Birthday greetings


Happy Birthday to you...Happy Birthday, dear Dear ______. Happy Birthday to you. This is for a family member who's birthday is sometime this month. I decided to do a little paper piecing with this adorable teapot stamp from one of Unity's Kits of the Month. I had some retired SU Designer paper and it was perfect for these little teapots. The background stamps are the beautiful french script and medallion. the medallion is stamped in artichoke and the script is stamped in chocolate chip. The punched edge is a Martha Stewart border punch and I used a scrap of the DSP from the teapots to put underneath the punched edge to make it stand out.