BLUE CHRISTMAS CARD

My last post was of my first ever Santa card, and this one is of my first all blue Christmas card. I even used blue ink for the stamping inside which says, "The Lord has come, let the world rejoice". Good words for all year long, in my opinion.

My card uses a smaller simple stamp of a dove holding an olive branch made by Stampendous 2005. I wanted the card to be CAS so the image was the focal point and not a lot of fluff, stitching or embellishments. I stamped it in Stampin Up Bordering Blue ink on a gray SU card stock. I had to hand cut the shape of the gray panel, and roughed the edges. The blue under the gray is cut with a Spellbinder 4 label die and embossed. The next panel down is a shiny steel blue CS which I ran through the Cuttlebug using the vine folder. I wrapped it with a blue ribbon that has a glitzy thread between the satin side and the sheer side. Makes it look like a present. I also used the Martha Stewart corner rounder which takes off a big bite! Last is a lighter blue paper with snowflakes scattered in the gray and steel blue. I added some Stickles to the snowflakes that show. The steel blue pearls are added in the corners. This has only the first two panels popped up. I added some white gel pen to the dove and covered it with Stickles to make it shine! It is relatively uncluttered compared to others, using simple shapes and lines. Thanks for stopping by.

Challenges:

MY FIRST SANTA CARD...EVER!

Some people make lots of Santa cards for Christmas. I never have in the 4 years of card making under my belt. I like them, but just never have. I recently bought this vintage Santa on Ebay in Sept, I think, and loved the round design of it with the holly. So I have designed my first Santa card, and now my brain wants to try some more to see what I might create.

I first stamped the image in Versa Mark onto a white card stock. I heat embossed with black ZING ebp and colored the image with SU markers and a few Copics for shadows in the beard and hat. I used my Cuttlebug to make a red smooth circle mat, then a black inverted circle mat. I cut the Santa out by hand and adhered to the Nesties and popped those up onto the doily which had been distressed with a Tim Holtz ink, and some Stickles rubbed over the edges for some glitz. The background mat is black on the white base card, then a dark green hounds tooth from a Christmas stack. I again used my Cuttlebug and cut out and embossed the red and the holly pieces and adhered them on. I added some white snowy dots to the doily and also the four corners. The red satin bow was tied using my Bow Easy. It is kind of dark in color, but very traditional. What do you think? We will always remember our first, right?

Be sure to check back about 5 postings as I added a bunch today. Thanks for stopping by.

Challenges:
Timeless Flourishes Tuesday: doilies
Tip Top Tuesday: anything goes
Tuesday Taggers: Santa
ABC Christmas:Holly & Berries, Red & Green
Marks Finest Papers: Red & Green
Crafty Ann's: Christmas
Paper Players: Christmas
Inky Impressions: Christmas
2 Sisters: Sparkly Christmas
The Paper Variety: Tic Tac Toe Christmas ( die, card, holiday)

MY TRIO FOR VERVE WINTER RELEASE

This is my first ever attempt at a "release challenge". I love the look of Verve stamps but I don't have any yet. I hope to rectify that problem really soon. Sorry for the occasional shadow from the overhead light. I am NOT a very good photographer, but you can get the idea of my projects.




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My TRIO begins with the little box on the upper right, that contains 3 tea bags in a Sugar Plum flavor. I wrote "You're TEA-rrific" on the little banner. I decorated the string on each tea bag with a piece of the plaid and a snowflake. The box I constructed with white CS, cut the plaid panels to fit, added the snowflakes with a rhinestone center on each, and put the banner across to help hold it closed. Inside I made a little card with the brand of tea, the flavor and the "caffeine free' info in case that was important and they wanted to find it again.

The plastic candy container was one of a set of 5 that I found at Hobby Lobby for $2.99...a really good deal in my book. What was cute about them was that they are a miniature of the big tubs with the flip over locks on the handles on the side. I made some peppermint bark (almond bark melted in the Microwave and crushed peppermint candy canes added and then spread out on a waxed paper covered cookie sheet. I chilled it and broke it into bite sized pieces.) I put a layer of red tissue with silver sparkle dots inside it to line the container. I made a cover of the dark green CS, added a row of the white Martha Stewart snowflake border on both outer edges, backed it with the plaid CS, and added my die cut sentiment and matted with the plaid in the next sized die. I wrote "MINT for you" to hint at the mint candy inside. On the front side, I put the small banner with "peppermint bark" so they would know for sure what was inside. I added the 3 snowflakes (also Martha Stewart snowflake punches) and a rhinestone in the center of them.

The card is the third item and pretty simple. I stamped a flourish in green over the plaid CS. I did that to all three projects. I matted the plaid with green, added the row of MS snowflakes using a border, added the "Merry Christmas" on the Die cut panel and matted with a green one the next size up. I added three MS snowflakes to the card. All the snowflakes on all three projects (except for the ones on the tea bags) were covered with the Martha Stewart "tinsel" glitter and it looks so much like snow. Love it! I made a red bow but decided it covered up too much and so chose not to use any ribbon. So that is my take on the "Trio Challenge" for the Verve Winter Release. Thanks for stopping by.

THANKSGIVING THANKS

Often times we are invited places and for some reason we don't get to express our appreciation. We recently were included in our DIL's family Thanksgiving. The food was wonderful, the company fun to talk to and a good time was had by all. I appreciate all the work and prep Johna did getting everything ready and keeping everyone on track. I did express my appreciation as we left to both the hostess and host. but sent a card too.

This card was made from a Fall collection of glittered CS. I used the corner rounder on the upper left corner and the lower right corner, and I mirrored that in the sentiment panel. I used brown and red as the matting colors. I used a red/orange ribbon behind and Matti and Emma helped make the lady bugs and Emma stamped the inside. It was a pretty quick card. Thanks Johna!

ONE MORE FALL CARD

Since I in live in the cold tundra of Minnesota (You can go back a few posts and see the snow we have already had!), there still are places in the US that have bare trees, warm weather, green grass, and alley cats on the picket fence. This one is for you.

I saw this image on ebay some time ago and had wanted it. Of course I did not manage to get it, and had to wait for the next, which was over a year coming. But I finally bid/won it and here is my card. I used my Water Color Wonder Crayons from Stampin Up, which I love. They are so easy to watercolor with.

I matted using a brick red (which has a dotted texture all ready on it) on the white base. a blue, and a black I used my new Martha Stewart Vintage Floral for punching the blue and black edges to the right. I drew a few extra leaves at the base of the picket fence to color in the brick color. The sun/yellow moon is a bright yellow...maybe Summer Sun.

The sentiment was cut out using a die and the Cuttlebug. I hand cut the black one behind it. The extra leaves are very small and hand drawn. I used some scraps of the brick red and some water colored scraps that were left from another project. I cut them out by hand and put some Glossy accents over each one to give them shine. I think they add to the fall feeling. Thanks for stopping by to see my latest projects.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BETH

This card was made for my only daughter's BD just before Thanksgiving. She had come for a visit and I had to wait to mail it, so it got to her a couple of days late. (Sorry Beth. I didn't want you to see me working on it.) I really like this small flower stamp and thought it would look good in fall colors. With three flower panels, and "happy" there three times, it kind of goes together. I tried to carry out the colors of the flowers in the matting. I liked that beige print against the brights. The card was larger than most and so I had to make it an envelope to match out of the beige DP. If you enlarge the picture you can see the red and orange thin sheer ribbon that criss-crosses behind the images and sentiments. It adds another design element to tie all four rectangles together. I am happy with it. Thanks for stopping by.

MASCULINE THANK YOU

I needed to say Thank You to my daughters BF who was in India this summer and shopped for a sari for me. He did a wonderful job of it. They tend to have bright, orangy colors with gold and I can't wear those colors successfully. He picked a dark shade of blue and another which is light blue. They both are gorgeous and I am thrilled with them. Now to learn how to wear them and get the other parts for it too. Thanks, Sujan.

This card is pretty simple. I chose the dotted CS first for the subtle manly colors. I tore the edge and layered over the gray/blue shade on the bottom. I matted with black and added a golden/brown ribbon that has ridges on it. I used the Cuttlebug to cut out the die shaped saying, edged it with a medium blue cs, and popped it up over the ribbon. I had been playing with a corner punch from Martha Stewart. I cut the pieces and slipped under the saying above and below, kind of as a metal looking piece in black. I was happy with the results. Thanks for stopping by.