Sunflower Stamping!

Snowflake Holiday Centerpiece Using the Holiday Collection Stamp Set

Happy Monday to everyone! I spent most of my weekend stamping furiously, trying to complete all my holiday class projects so that I can photograph them and get them going. (Better late than never, right?!)

Here's one I make for each holiday and seaon. It's a mini garden flag that I change out by cutting some cardboard to size, then embellishing it for the season or holiday. If you've followed my posts, I just did a Thanksgiving flag this past week, and one for Halloween in October. Instead of making a Christmas flag this time, I went with snowflakes because I'd gotten some white buckets with snowflakes on them at the Target Dollar Spot.

 

I just love the Cuttlebug Snowflake embossing folder, so I decided to use it on my flag. Behind it is Baja Breeze cardstock adhered to a piece of 3x5-1/2" cardboard. I used the corner rounder on the bottom corners, and used jumbo eyelets on top to use to hang it. The greeting is from the Country Living Holiday Kit, as are the large and small blue snowflakes. The white snowflake with the blue background is from the retired set 'Perfect Presentation'. After that's all put together with SNAIL and Dimensionals, it was hung on the flag post with the striped Baja Breeze grosgrain ribbon, and a piece of the 1" double-stitched ribbon was tied to the corner as decoration.

"Yeah, that's great Melinda, but where do I get a mini garden flag to start with?!" Well, I can't help you there. I got mine at the end of the summer at Dollar General, when they were on sale for fifty cents! You might try asking if they have any left in the back, or maybe just check around on the shelves!

Hope you're inspired - meet you back here tomorrow!

A Winter Post Holiday Collection Card!

I just finished up a Christmas card with -- to quote a song -- "two of my fav-o-rite things": the Winter Post stamp set and Ski Slope Designer Series Paper. Aaaaaaah. I just love them. I also really like the Holiday Collection stamp set, don't get me wrong, but I'm not in love with it. I admit to my affair with Winter Post and Ski Slope. I thought I'd never get over my breakup with Soft Sky last August, but these two definitely have me saying, "Soft Sky WHO??". And I've got the ultimate revenge: I'm TWO-TIMING Soft Sky! Sweet.

 

Well, this may be plain to you, but I just don't like distracting from my Ski Slope DSP! OK, really it's just that it's after midnight, and I'm trying to hurry and get to bed! So, having said that, I'll give you the recipe and head off to la-la land! Nitey night!

Recipe -

Stamp Sets: Holiday Collection, Winter Post

Cardstock: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Ski Slope DSP

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Riding Hood Red

Accessories: 5/8" Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon, Nestabilites oval die (shhhhhh - don't tell on me!! I'm a loyal Stampin' Up! Demonstrator!)

Home for Christmas (in November!)

Here's the next of my uncomplicated cards for my upcoming Christmas card classes. See, I'm trying to create some cards that don't require too many steps or supplies for mass production in classes.

You must know - right up front - that I've cheated. Yes, I've cheated on Stampin' Up!. There. I said it. This past weekend, I actually bought a Martha Stewart punch for a specific purpose (reindeer antlers for my tags class), and I've gone and used it on this card. I feel so cheap. I'm going to have to place a super huge order with SU! to try to overcome my guilt. Yeah, that's it! I'll do it!

OK, here it is; don't say I didn't warn you...

 

See it? It's the little evergreen branches on the ribbon. Let's just pretend it's not there, and it'll just be our little secret. Oh, the shame of it all.

Anyway, the background cardstock is Cuttlebugged with Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, then the ribbon is attached to the back of the white embossed piece. Next, I stamped the image in Riding Hood Red, and mounted it on Always Artichoke cardstock. The sentiment's adhered at the top, and the infamous branches are held on with mini glue dots, then further held in place with a Build-a-Brad. The Build-a-Brad's got Riding Hood Red cardstock in it, that was punched out with the 1/2" punch.  

The sentiment on the inside is stamped in red onto Whisper White cardstock.
Sorry the picture's fuzzy :-)

That's it! Hope you enjoyed it and got some inspiration of your own!

A Holiday Collection To You and Yours

Say what? What kind of title is that?

The 'Holiday Collection' is the stamp set that comes with the new Country Living Magazine ornament and gift tag kit that's available this month through Stampin' Up! and Country Living Magazine. And 'To You and Yours' is a serene, peaceful wintery set in the current SU! catalog. Pair the two, and you get "A HOLIDAY COLLECTION TO YOU & YOURS"!

Here's mine in Ballet Blue:

 

*ALERT!*  *ALERT!* *NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART!!!*

Avert your eyes if you are as picky as I am about things being JUST SO, then PLEASE DO NOT LOOK AT THE CROOKED GREETING AT THE TOP OF THE CARD!! I DO apologize; I don't know what I was doing. And I don't know what I was thinking, just letting it slide and using it anyway! Geez. I think the reason it's crooked (here comes an excuse... wait for it; yep: here it is) is because I only inked up the top part of the stamp, and left the "peace joy love" off. That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.

So I finally got to use my chunky glitter, and it is definitely chunky! It's like very thick snow, or maybe even an ice storm. My favorite ribbon is the 5/8" grosgrain, so I chose a color to stamp with that had coordinating ribbon. I adhered it with the Tombow glue, which made it thick and more dimensional than finer glitter.

I'd like to thank the creative person whose card I sorta CASEd; I think it was Mercedes, who put the greeting below the picture of the house in the punched oval. I love the look.

Here's the recipe -

Stamp Sets: To You & Yours, Holiday Collection

Cardstock: Ballet Blue, Whisper White

Ink: Ballet Blue

Accessories:  Ballet Blue 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, Stampin' Glitter Chunky Essentials, sponge, Tombow Glue, medium oval punch, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder

Hope you enjoy!

To You & Yours New Christmas Set

Before posting today's card, I just want to tell you that I will post the winner of my mini giveaway later today, along with the directions for yesterday's cards & magazine card holder.

I tried my new set tonight for the first time. It's called 'To You & Yours', and it's got two images and 4 different sentiments. I made a quick card with it, so I kept it simple. A little too simple, I think! Anyway, here it is:

 

The dove is so wispy and graceful that it was just crying out for glitter!

 

I'm not sure if brown is much of a Christmasy color, but I wanted the card to be subdued. In keeping with that, I stamped off the dove before stamping the image I used (in Chocoate Chip), as well as the sentiment. The glitter was added by drawing the lines with my 2-way glue pen, then dousing it in Dazzling Diamonds. YES - I USED GLITTER ON A CARD AGAIN!! And speaking of which, I got somee of the chunky glitter in an order yesterday, and it looks so gorgeous in the jar that I can't wait to use it! I wish I'd had it for Halloween, because the black is really neat looking. The red is gorgeous! The reason I got it was for the clear, which looks very snow-like to me.

Let me know if the brown is all wrong for a holiday card; Also, is it too "wedding-y"?? I'm curious to know if I just have weird taste!

Here's the recipe - 

Stamp Sets: To You & Yours

Ink: Chocolate Chip 

Cardstock: Very Vanilla

Accessories: Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, 2-way Glue Pen, Large and medium oval punches, 5/8" Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon, hemp twine, sponge, Cuttlebug embossing folders: Swiss Dots & Textile Texture 

Lovely As a Tree (Believe it or not, it's NOT retired!)

My card for today is an oldie but a goody. And still current, after all these years! My set says 2001, and it's still going strong!

 

 

I hope my trees turned out icy, cold, and wintery looking, because that's what I was aiming for. In fact, I was going to put a "Warmest Wishes" sentiment on it, but I really need a card to send to a friend in Houston, so 'Thinking of You' won out instead!

To make my trees look icy, I started with watercolor paper, and inked up my stamp with Baja Breeze ink. Then I took a tissue and dabbed the ink off the tree trunks and grass, then sponged on some Chocolate Chip in its place. I then took a fine mist water sprayer and sprayed them quite a few times. Since the mist was very fine and I was using watercolor paper, it actually took quite a few spritzes to get the ink to soften and start running. As soon as it did, I blotted the entire image with a tissue, and I ended up with the soft image above.

Next, I used a sponge dauber to add some Versamark ink to the tree tops, sprinkled on Heat and Stick powder, heated it just until it glistened, dumped on some Irridescent Ice glitter, tapped off the excess and heated it again. Whew - that was one run-on sentence! Then I thought there was too much glitter covering my trees, so I brushed off a bunch, and voila! Fourteen easy steps and you're done! :-)

After that, I just layered it onto cardstock & DSP using the two colors used on the trees, Chocolate Chip & Baja Breeze, and jazzed it up a bit.

Recipe -

Stamp Sets: Lovely As a Tree, Sincere Salutations

Cardstock: Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, watercolor paper, Urban Garden DSP

Ink: Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, Versamark

Accessories: Irridescent Ice Glitter, Heat & Stick Powder, sponge dauber, Vintage Brads, 5/8" grosgrain ribbon,Swiss Dots Cuttlebug Embossing Folder, Dimensionals

Hope you like it - now go forth and COPY!!

Eat, Drink & Be Scary in the House of Haunts!

I've got a couple of 4x4 Halloween cards for you today!
 

 I wanted to use some of my Ghostly Greetings DSP scraps to make a few more little Halloween cards. Since I only used little pieces, most of the base cardstock was going to show. I thought it looked rather plain, so to spice it up, I ran it through my Cuttlebug with my Houndstooth embossing folder.

For the black card, I cut a strip of the cute pumpkins from the DSP, then inked up the Eat, Drink & Be Scary stamp with the black Stampin' Memories Writer so that I could leave out the dotted line around the words. My intent was to have it look like a picture hanging from a picture wire. It's kinda hard to see the houndstooth embossing in the photo, but it looks pretty cool in person.

The orange card is my House of Haunts card. I used Pumpkin Pie cardstock so it would match the DSP and so that I could use the marker to ink up the pumpkin stamp. The pumpkin top is done with the Old Olive marker.

Recipe -

Stamp sets: House of Haunts, Eat, Drink & Be Scary

Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, Whisper White, Ghostly Greetings DSP

Ink: Basic Black

Accessories: Pumpkin Pie marker, Old Olive marker, 1-1/4" & 1-3/8" square punches, Designer Label punch, large oval punch, Vintage Brads, black gingham ribbon, pumpkin pie grosgrain striped ribbon, Dimensionals

Hope you enjoyed these!

Mr. Twigster Gets Into a Snowball Fight!

Click here for my Mr. Twigster snowball fight card if it is not pictured below!

I know I'm late posting - what's up with that??! I was late Saturday, early Sunday, then forgot on Monday! I'm about to be fired! I was working on a card last night with Mr. Twigster having a snowball fight with his snowman friends, but didn't finish. Besides, it just wan't good enough to post on its own, so I really need another card or 2 to post along with it. I've got so much going on today that I haven't had the time to get back to Mr. Twigster, so it'll be a bit longer. By tonight, I promise! I don't want you to fire me! :-)

Back soon with new cards! No, really!

Another Card Using the Beautiful Set 'Winter Post'

I've got a pretty card for you today! It's bright red with that really pretty red striped grosgrain ribbon. I love how Real Red and the red striped grosgrain ribbon go together; they just really show each other off nicely.

 

Hmm... well, I don't think this photo does my pretty card much justice. It really is striking in person. I guess it's because in person you can see the inside and back, which are all red. But I do like the way the embossing in the background looks like snow, don't you? I've told you before how much I love each and every stamp in the Winter Post set. Well, these two are definitely 2 of my favorites. Along with the skating couple, the "Do Not Open..." stamp, and the two postage stamps. Oh - and the "to/from" stamp. Oh, gosh - that's ALL of them. hee hee. Yep - they're ALL my favorites!!

Here are the particulars: The cardstock (Real Red) is cut to a 6-5/8" x 6-3/4" [almost] square, then folded in half so that it's 6-5/8" x 3-3/8". Why the odd size? Because it then fits perfectly into the small open-end envelopes! Next, I cut a piece of Whisper White cardstock to fit the front, and ran it through the Cuttlebug twice, since it was too long to emboss the entire piece in one shot. (After running it through the second time, I had to put the cardstock back into the embossing folder, [lining up the dots, that is] then "pop" out some of the dots that had gotten squished when it went through the Cuttlebug the second time. See, if you look at the bottom of the embossing folders, the design doesn't go all the way to the bottom, so when you turn the cardstock around, that flat bottom area will smoosh the earlier embossing. I hope this makes sense.) 

OK - so after embossing the front piece and adhereing it to the card, I simply cut out 3 Whisper White squares, 1-1/2"x1-1/2". I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to center the snow flakes and the reindeer. At first, I had off-centered the snow flakes, which is an effect I like, but in this case, the squares were too small, and didn't look right. I matted the stamped squares onto more Real Red, then attached them with Dimensionals. Some people might put the ribbon behind the dotted white front piece, which is also nice, but I really do like the striped ribbon against the bright red cardstock!

Lotsa talk, only one picture - somehow that's not quite fair, is it??! Sorry! Hope you enjoyed it anyway!

A Cardinal Christmas

I hope your weekend was a good one! We had absolutely glorious weather here in northeast Georgia! I got some Halloween decorations put up outside - I figured if my neighbor was putting hers up, that I could too! I have a dead tree that I draped in orange lights, so it's a natural spooky tree!

So, have I shown you any cards using 'A Cardinal Christmas' yet? I don't think so, so here's my first.

 

I love Cardinals, so I just had to have this set. I've been trying to watercolor it, but haven't been able to get it done where it's good enough to share. For this one, I colored directly onto the stamp with Real Red and Always Artichoke markers.

The background is a Cuttlebug embossing folder called Holly. I like the simplicity of this card; it's clean and the bright red ribbon just adds the perfect touch. At the last minute, I decided to add "Merry Christmas" at the very bottom. I didn't want to matte it and layer it on top of the holly pattern, because I think too much of the holly is already hidden by the cardinal. So, I stamped it on the smooth part at the bottom, and I think it works perfectly!

Recipe -

Stamp Sets: A Cardinal Christmas *NEW* Item #111760 $23.95

Cardstock: Always Artichoke, Whisper White

Inks: Real Red & Always Artichoke Markers

Accessories: Real Red 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon, Cuttlebug Embossing Folder 'Holly', Dimensionals

I hope I've got you thinking about your Christmas cards for this year! Enjoy!