Simple Christmas

I was inspired by one of my fave cards from Stamp Fest last week.  It was simple but striking.  I made a Christmas version with the new Stocking Prints set from PTI.

I love the blue for Christmas.  This one will surely be mass produced ina month or so to send out to friends.  I used a large circle nestie and cut out the mask, then sponged with bliss blue ink.  I stamped the stocking and sentiment in enchanted evening.

I "flocked" the top using fivory flower soft.  I love the soft furry look it gives.  The "flocked" stocking topper was mounted using a dimensional.

Thanks for stopping by!

{Tis the Season card supplies - PTI unless noted}

Stamps: Stocking Prints

Ink: Enchanted Evening, Bliss Blue (SU!)

Paper: (SU!) Naturals white

Embellies: Enchanted Evening satin ribbon

Operation Write Home Donations

I want to thank all the ladies at Stamp Fest last weekend who donated cards to Operation Write Home (formerly Cards For Heroes).

A bunch of us gathered at an annual event my SU! up (up  up up) line hosts.  A lot of these ladies are serious about their businesses, and have a large array of samples for their customers to look at.  With a new catalog there are always a pile of cards that use retired stamps or accessories so I thought I'd put out a call to see if  they had some to donate and I got this great box of cards . 

There were 25 people attending Stamp Fest this year and we all brought 2 shoe box type projects, so we spent all day Sautrday stamping.  Most of those cards will also be shipped in the box.  Since I am more of a hobby demonstrator I don't have a large need for swaps & samples.  This group of ladies is so talented though, that I wanted to go and be inspired and I thought they would make a  faboo addition to the donation box. 

I snapped some quick pix of my faves so I can remember them after I ship them off.

Thanks for stopping by!

Button, Button, Lets Make a Button

My great friend Kathi has developed a love for buttons (ever since I did a card with Everyday Button Bits :o)  Since she didn't have any matching buttons for a project one time, she decided she could make her own.  When she showed me I thought it was the coolest thing ever!  She gave permission for me to share this awesome technique with you ...

First punch out 6 circles.  Since the top one is the only one that really matters you can use different colors or scraps or whatever.  I've got 1" circles shown, but you can make then larger or smaller if you want.  You can also try using a circle piece of chipboard and mount the pretty circle on the top.

Then run 5 of the circles (including the pretty one) through a 1.5" Xyron (you can use regular adhesive - just make sure you get the back good and sticky ... also only do 5 (voice of experience here :o)

Next stack them all up ... making sure the the one that isn't sticky is on the bottom.  You'll have a little disk like this:

The next step is to emboss.  I have done this with Glassy Glaze (UTEE) and plain old clear EP.  The UTEE give a thicker look as it should so the buttons look more like plastic.  The clear EP give a nice sheen tho too

You'll want to emboss 2 layers of the UTEE or EP.  I also tried it with a third layer of Iridecent Ice over the 2 layers of UTEE. Nice glittery button look

Finally you take your Crop-A-Dile (or other strong punching tool) and punch 2 holes (if you have a larger button you could try and fit 4 holes)

 And there you have it!

Here is the card I made to demo this technique at a recent gathering.

The larger button in the middle is 1", the smaller ones are 3/4" circles.

Enjoy your Monday!

[Seasons Greetings card supplied - all SU!]

Stamps: Snow Swirled, Versamark

Ink: Soft Suede

Paper: Kraft, Real Red, Very Vanilla, Cristams Cocoa (specialty)

Extras: Natural Hemp, Glassy Glaze, 1" & 3/4" circle punch, Crop-a-Dile

The colors of Fall

I love fall ... the colors, the coolness in the air, the hints at the coming winter. 

I always love when I can get my fall colors back out.  Here is a card I'll be making in an upcoming stamp camp

I've been seeing a lot of color blocks lately in some online sketches.  Its a great way to get color in.  I used the wonderful SU! set Branch Out for this one.  The splatter pattern that is included to make the leaves is so awesome...

I used Old Olive and Always Artichoke for the leaves.  And since trees around these parts don't turn all at once, I added in a splash of Tangerine Tango.

And instead of cutting and layering the Top Note diecut, I again used the chisle point end of my YG97 Copic sketch marker to edge the focal layer.

Thanks for stopping by

{Friend to Friend card supplies - all SU! unless noted}

Stamps: Branch Out, Teeny Tiny Greetings

Paper: Naturals White, Chocolate Chip, Kraft, Tangerine Tango

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Always Artichoke, Tangerine Tango

Tools: YG97 Copic, Top Note die, Big Shot

From Me to You

Working my way through my latest PTI box of goodness.  I finally got up the courage to ink up my Autumn Abundance.  As much as I love this set, once I got it in my hands, I gotta tell ya I was more than a wee bit intimidated. 

I decided to really focus on the vase and leaves for coloring (I wasn't sure how to do the mums anyway)

I added a little shading to the mums and a blue shadow/sky.  I thought it turned out pretty good (considering other attempts :o) so I signed my watercolor work of art (ok its really a Copic alcohol ink work of art, but watercolor sounds so much better :o) 

Made it look like a little framed picture hanging on the card :o)

I also made a couple of score lines and put a burgundy strip between it to mirror the way I colored the vase.

Thanks for stopping by!

{Me to You card supplies}

Stamps: (PTI) Autumn Abundance, Polka Dot Basics,

Paper: (SU!) Kraft, Bravo Burgundy, white

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, (SU!) Bravo Burgundy, Sahara Sand

Copics: R59, E53, E33, E35, YG93, YG95, B41, B11, C1, C0 Y35, Y38, YR18

Another CFH Button Bits card

Most of the cards I make, if they are not for a specific person, are now going to Cards For Heroes.  I feel its important to encourage our service men & women.  They are risking their lives for our freedom and its awfully easy to forget about them while we are safe and sound at home.  Their families also make sacrifices while their soldiers are away.  Words can not express the gratitude I feel - and also the desire to help.  I remember when my brother was overseas and my SIL was home alone with 4 young children.  There wasn't a lot I could do then, but I know others helped them.  There still isn't a lot I can do, but if making /sending cards to CFH so a soldier can let his or her family know that they are missed and loved - well I just have to do that.

Here is one I was playing around with.  I have wanted to recreate the topiary card that Nichole Heady made for the sneak peek of Everyday Button Bits.  So here is my attempt

I used Background Basics Text Style for the background on the focal layer and the card base.  I ended up getting a burgundy fingerprint on the base so turned it into a "new technique" lol - introducing fingerprint background

Don't know if I'll ever repeat it (hopefully I'll be more careful next time :o)

I also wanted to point out the avocado strip.  I used the Bitty Dots paper, but I didn't like how much the white dots stood out since most of this card is muted colors.  So I whipped out my YG97 Copic (the darkest from the Ripe Avocado Copic trio over at PTI) and colored over the whole strip of paper.  The dots still show through but are much more muted.  I really liked how this turned out.

Thanks for stopping by!

{Topiary Card supplies}

Stamps: (PTI) Everyday Button Bits, Background Basics: Text Style

Paper: (SU!) Kraft, Bravo Burgundy, White, (PTI) Bitty Dot patterned Ripe Avocado

Ink: (SU!)Bravo Burgundy, Chocolate Chip, (PTI) Vintage Touch Tea Dye Duo, (Tim Holtz) Distress Ink - Tea Dye, (Copic) YG97 marker

Embellies:(SU!) Burgundy grosgrain, (PTI) Scarlet Jewel satin & bitty dotted satin ribbon, new leaf vintage buttons, white button twine

Sweet Hello

Hi again - I'm on a tear with these button bits ... I love this set.  Its great for quick cute cards or more elaborate ones like the Design Teams samples when this set was released!

My card today is quick and cute (I think anyway :o)

I made a little matchbox layer for the focal image (more to cover up a spot I messed up on than because I'm a creative genius :o)

For the background I used my Scor-bug.  I laid the paper on my Scor-Pal with the opposite corners aligned on the same groove.  Then I just zipped the scor bug over it every half inch, rotated it to do the opposite direction and voila!  cool background pattern

Thanks for stopping by!

{Hello card supplies}

Stamps: (PTI) Everyday Button Bits, Mega Mixed Messages

Ink: (SU!) Pink Passion, Always Artichoke

Paper: (PTI) White, Raspberry Fizz, Dark Chocolate

Tools:Scor-pal, Scor-bug

Embellies: (PTI) Rasperry Fizz vintage buttons

Gathered Ribbon Flower

Hi everyone! I had a couple of days off this week to have some work done on my house so I got some extra time to stamp (yay!)

I wanted to try Lisa Johnson's ruffled ribbon trim technique.  I kept having the ribbon curl up on me so I had the idea to create a ruffled ribbon flower.

I used the Lemon Tart stitched grosgrain ribbon and gathered it by pulling on one of the stitched lines (I pulled/gathered from both ends after a "mishap"  where I pulled the stitch completely out of the ribbon - makes for a nice shabby look, but doesn't gather it very well :o)

For the rest of the card I stamped a sentiment from Autumn Abundance and the large flourish from Fancy Flourishes.

I finished it with some messy stitching .

Thanks for stopping by!

{Thinking of you supplies}

Stamps: (PTI) Fancy Flourishes, Autumn Abundance

Ink: (SU!) Old Olive, Chocolate Chip

Paper: (SU!) Kraft, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, White 

Embellies: (PTI) Lemon Tart saddle stitched grosgrain, wood vintage buttons, black rhinestones.

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge

Dawn's Color challenge this week is right up my alley - I love the colors of fall and couldn't wait to get my stuff out to play (I am home again today getting a patio door and windows installed.  Yesterday did not go as well as it could have as there was a lot more damage from a leak than originally anticipated, but thank the Lord no structural damage)

So in anticipation of the changing colors here is my card:

I did a spotlight using the yellow orange.  I also used just the little piece of ground under the tree stamp and carefully extended  it across the whole layer.  I used the splatter stamp from the set for the leaves on both the silhouette image and the spot light as well as the background splatter stamping.

And instead of cutting out and layering that Top Note die cut, I used my E57 Copic and just edged it up to to the perforation line (same great layered look without all the cutting!)

Thanks for stopping by!

{Thinking of You card supplies}
Stamps: (SU!) Branch Out, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Paper: (PTI) Dark Chocolate, Kraft, Cream, Summer Sunrise, Bitty Boxes patterned
Ink: (SU!) Chocolate Chip, Summer Sun, (PTI) Vintage Cream
Tools: E57 Copic, Sizzix die - Top Note , Big Shot