Merry Christmas

Today's card was created for the latest Jingle Belles card challenge. To create my card I started by layering some basic black cardstock from Stampin' UP onto my standard white card base. I then layered a piece of red patterned paper from the American Crafts Very Merry 6x6 paper pad on top and added some white dashed lines around the outer edge for some fun contrast. I then die cut the snow globe images from the Papertrey Ink Winter Snow Globe stamp and die collection. I prepped the die cut images with my EK Success powder tool and stamped the base of the snow globe onto the cardstock using Versamark ink and heat set it using Recollections detail embossing powder in silver. I then stamped the snowflakes using more Versamark ink and heat set them twice, once using Ranger's holographic embossing powder for a fun sparkle and again with Recollections detail embossing powder in snow. I love the little extra glimmer and shine stamping it twice gave the images. I then die cut and stamped the Santa, snowman, and tree images onto some white Copic-friendly cardstock and colored them using my alcohol markers. I then stamped the sentiment onto more of the same black cardstock using the Amy R Stamps Big Christmas Wishes stamp set and heat embossed it using more of the Recollections detail embossing powder in snow. I trimmed the sentiment down to create a fishtail banner. I then mounted the snow globes directly to the card base using the sketch as my guide and popped the focal images up off of them using Stampin' UP's foam dimensionals and the fishtail banner using some 3M foam tape. I love how adorably this card turned out. I hope you like it too!

Merry Christmas

Today's card was created for the latest Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge. I started with a kraft card base and layered a panel of plain white cardstock onto top cut slightly smaller than my card. I added 1/2" strips of patterned paper from the My Mind's Eye Holly Jolly 6x6 paper pad in a tapering line to mimic a Christmas Tree. I topped it with a punched star from the same paper collection and a strip of brown cardstock. I stamped the sentiment from Amy R Stamps Big Christmas Wishes stamp set using chocolate chip ink from Stampin' UP. To finish my card I added a small clear rhinestone from Recollections to the star and some brown dashed lines around the outer edge of the focal panel. I hope you like this quick and easy card and thank you for visiting my blog!

Merry Christmas

Today's card was created for the latest Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge. I love all of the Christmas cards I create but this one was one of my favorites from the batch I created this year. I love the papers and that adorable little snowman. This adorable little card was created using pretty patterned papers from Echo Park's Merry Christmas 12x12 paper pad and the glittery My Mind's Eye Oh Christmas Tree 12x12 paper pad, PaperTrey Ink's Winter Snow Globe stamp and die set, a pierced edge tag die from My Favorite Things, Amy R's Christmas Sentiment stamp set, some pretty chocolate chip baker's twine from Stampin' UP, and a random button that I had laying around the house. I love this card and had so much fun creating it. I hope you have a safe and happy new year! 

Let It Snow

Today's card was created for the latest Less Is More challenge. This week's challenge called for a "recipe" of emboss resist. It's been a while since I used this technique on a card and wanted to play along and challenge myself. I started with a piece of white cardstock and, after prepping the surface with my powder tool, I stamped the two smallest snowflakes from the Stampabilities Winter Wonderland stamp set using Versamark ink and heat set them using Recollections snow white embossing powder. Once dry I inked the panel with Tim Holtz distress ink in broken china and faded jeans, creating a nice ombre effect. I took a tissue and brushed off the excess ink from the snowflakes and then spritzed the panel with both water and frost shimmer spray by Tsukineko. I love using that shimmer spray on snowy scenes because of the beautiful shimmer it gives. While that base panel was drying I stamped Purple Onion's Merry Snowman out onto some Copic-friendly cardstock and colored him in using my alcohol markers. I fussy cut around the image and freehand cut the snowy slopes around him. I edged the image using my dual tipped Memento tuxedo black marker. I then adhered the image directly to the distressed panel. I stamped the sentiment from Amy R's Big Christmas Wishes stamp set and, even though you can't see it in the photo, added some pretty shimmer to the letters using my clear Spica shimmer marker. I love how adorably sweet this card turned out and may have to mass produce this one. Thank you for visiting my blog today and if this card put a smile on your face be sure to leave a comment...I appreciate them all!

Merry Coffee Wishes

Today's card was created for the Holiday Coffee Lovers Bloghop. I recently picked up a few Unity Stamps on sale during Black Friday and just had to use one of them to create a fun holiday coffee card that I plan on sending to a crafty friend. I started by stamping the darling image from Hello Love onto some 110 lb cardstock from Staples and colored the skin and hair using Copic markers. I then stamped all of the clothing onto patterned papers from My Mind's Eye's The Merry Days of Christmas 6x6 paper pad and paper pieced them onto the image, shading them with Copic markers. I die cut the focal panel using a My Favorite Things pierced oval die and added some black dashed lines with a Memento tuxedo black dual tip marker to really make it pop. I layered some more patterned papers from the same MME paper pack to create my layered card base, popped the main image up using some Stampin' UP foam dimensionals, and added more dashed lines to add more interest. I stamped the Merry and Wishes from Amy R Big Christmas Wishes using Versamark onyx black and cut them out into little panels. I die cut the Coffee sentiment from Verve Stamps coffee die using more patterned paper and popped it up using foam dimensionals. To finish the card off I added a few red sequins that I picked up at my local dollar store and some clear Wink of Stella glitter pen all over the image and the lettering. I hope you like it!

To The Perfect Pair-A Before and After

Okay, this will be my last post today...I promise! I'm just a little blog heady right now. LOL. I wanted to post a before and after, so to speak. I had made a card in a hurry the other day for a friend for her mom and dad's anniversary. She said they like the outdoors and were country folk so I instantly thought of my new C.C. Designs Spring Couple stamp I had picked up on a group destash on Facebook. Here is a pic of the first card I made. Sorry for the lighting...it was pretty overcast that day. 

Now, there really isn't that much wrong with this card but I didn't think it was my best work. I gave the card to her and she took it on her merry way without complaint. But it bugged me that I had given her what I thought was a less than perfect card and felt I could improve on it. So, the next morning I remade the card. Again, I used the C.C. Designs Spring Couple and paper pieced the clothing using patterned papers from the Heidi Grace Sunshowers 6x6 paper pad. Love how they turned out. I even added some shadowing using my warm grey Copic markers before I fussy cut the images out. I used a Fiskars punch to create the clouds, and stamped the kite and tree with the tire swing from the Avocado Arts Perfectly Perfect Day stamp set and the sentiment is from Amy R Stamps Wedding Sentiments II stamp set. On the second card I decided to leave a 1/4" white border all the way around the card and decided not to round the corners as I did on the first one. I then took my Memento tuxedo black dual marker and added some dashed lines around the edge. I think it really makes the images stand out even more. I think I like this second card much better. What do you think?