Have a Holly Jolly Christmas

First off I want to apologize for not posting anything the last while. We were insane trying to get everything ready for our Christmas Vacation, and then we were on the road for 2 days, then spent 5 days and we were on the road again for 18 hours. We finally arrived in Logan Utah this morning and have had a great day with family here. We will be leaving again tomorrow around noon for another 14 hours of driving before we end up in Mesa.

Before we left I made a card (a huge card) for Sevastian's Kindergarten class to sign. It ended up being 6x9, and the focal point on the card was 4x5.5. I took it into class for the class party and had all the kids sign it before we tucked the gift card for the teacher and gave it to her at the end of the party.

I love this set, and think it is a great kids set. I also decided to go a little over the top with it, and put shimmer everywhere. There is Dazzlin' Diamonds Glitter pretty much everywhere on the card. I also used Vanilla Smooch Spray to spray the background Bashful Blue piece after I embossed it with the Petals a Plenty embossing folder, and then I used Frost White Shimmer Paint to emboss the top of the petals and topped it off with 3 small Basic Pearls. I also added Rhinestones to the top of several trees.





It's late here, and I am working on almost no sleep, so I'll come back and post the recipes later.

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, and an even better time with family.

Oh Christmas Tree....

I love Christmas trees, they look so pretty, and the real ones smell so nice too. I have tons of Christmas stamps that have trees in them too. I actually cased myself with this card. Last year I stamped Dasher where I stamped this tree. I think the Snow Swirled Tree looks amazing with the retired Bride Specialty paper. I used my brayer to ink over the paper with Elegant Eggplant ink, and then took a tissue and wiped the ink off to reveal the white swirls. The rhinestones are the perfect touch to finish this card off.



Stamps: Many Merry Messages, Snow Swirled
Inks: Elegant Eggplant
Papers: Brushed Silver, Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White, Bride DSP (retired)
Misc: Large Oval Punch, Scallop Oval Punch, Elegant Eggplant Rick Rack (retired), Brayer, Rhinestones

Scenic Season

Every time I look at this stamp I think how beautiful it is, and think winter is just magical.... then I look outside and see real winter and the moment passes. I am definitely needing a break from old man winter, thankfully we leave for Az in less than a week. I got the idea for this card from the fabulous Jan Tink. If you've never been to her blog you need to check her out, she is amazing. I love the colors here, again they are not your traditional Christmas colors, but they look amazing on this card.


Stamps: Scenic Season, Many Merry Messages
Inks: Night of Navy, Whisper White, Pacific Point
Papers: Rich Razzleberry, Night of Navy, Old Olive, Whisper White
Misc: 1/4" Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon, 1 3/4" Circle Punch, Sponges, Jumbo Eyelets, Brads,

I've been making Christmas cards, cookies, and cupcakes this week and listening to Christmas music the whole time and finally getting more into the Christmas spirit. Our tree has been up for a while now, and the lights were up on the house forever ago, but it still hasn't felt like Christmas around here. I think part of it is going back and forth to the hospital daily and not visiting with Grams at her place. Her place is always decorated so well, and we usually go over in mid to late November and add a few more to the walls outside her door, and several window clings inside too. Grams and Sevastian usually take walks around the whole place to see who else has their doors decorated and then they vote on who has the best door. Sevastian always votes for Grams door since he helped decorate it. I'm hoping it will feel a lot more like Christmas after we watch the school play on Tuesday. There really isn't anything cuter than young kids singing and dancing for their parents.

Holiday Greetings

This is another card we did at one of the Stamp-A-Stack events this year. I really like using non traditional colors for Christmas cards. I will always do at least one set of cards in traditional red and green, but then I like to pick a wide variety of colors and see what I can come up with. This one uses Baja Breeze and Basic Gray.

Stamps: Season of Joy, Sincere Salutations, Snow Swirled
Inks: Basic Gray, Whisper White
Papers: Basic Gray, Baja Breeze, Whisper White
Misc: 1" Circle Punch, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, 5/8" Basic Gray Satin Ribbon, Dimensionals

Vintage Snowflake take 2

I told you the other day that I'd post the other version of the snowflake card I did, so here it is. I wanted to see what it would look like with less white and more blue. What do you guys think of it? Which is your favorite and why?


Stamps: Christmas Punch
Inks: Sahara Sand
Papers: Whisper White, Sahara Sand, Bashful Blue
Misc: Snowflake #2 Die, Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder, Dazzlin Diamonds Glitter, Sponges, Wide Oval Punch, Antique Brads, Snowflake Punch, Dimensionals

Again I used a slightly different Antique Brad for the middle and for this one I put some Dazzlin' Diamonds glitter in the middle of it too. To get the depth between the two snowflakes I placed a dimensional between them and another under the last one so the whole thing would pop up from the card base.

Vintage Snowflake

I'm not the biggest fan of Vintage Style, but it's growing on me. I was over at my Grams place a while back and saw one of her doilies, and it totally reminded me of a snowflake. I wanted to do something with a very vintage feel to it that looked like a snowflake, so I started with the Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder from Stampin' Up! I went to SCS and I searched for it, and found a beautiful card by Lee Conroy that used it and the Snowflake #2 die. I fell in love with it and had to CASE it. I changed very little, only the sentiment and the blue snowflake shape. I did a few of these up for my SAS in October, and used several different Antique Brads. Depending on the brad you pick, it totally changes the mood of the card which is wonderful.





Stamps: Christmas Punch
Inks: Sahara Sand
Papers: Whisper White, Sahara Sand, Bashful Blue
Misc: Snowflake #2 Die, Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder, Dazzlin Diamonds Glitter, Sponges, Wide Oval Punch, Antique Brads, Snowflake Punch, Dimensionals

I also did another slightly different version of this card which I'll show you next time. And a quick tip for you, when you care deciding which way to cut your cardstock for a particular card keep in mind what you will be making. This card is quite front and top heavy, so it would have a tendency to fall over if I cut it to 8.5x5.5 and scored it at 4.25, so I cut it to 4.25x11 and scored it at 5.5, that way it folds at the top of the card and is less likely to fall over.

Magic Snowflake....

Only sort of.... It's not really magic, but it is cool. I love emboss resist, and it looks amazing on this card. The snowflake is done in white embossing powder and then sponged over with Night of Navy. I added a pearl to the middle for that little bit more, and it really makes the center pop. I love how much contrast there is on this card, I had originally done it in Marina Mist, but it looks a million times better in Night of Navy.


Stamps: Four The Holidays, Serene Snowflakes
Inks: Versa Mark, Night of Navy
Papers: Whisper White, Night of Navy
Misc: White Embossing Powder, Sponge Daubers, Silver Elastic Cord (retired), Pearls, Dimensionals

I had another long day today, but sadly I don't think it's over just yet. I realized I still have a ton of Christmas Cards to make, and I need to do them asap if I want to get them out before we leave. Days like today I am beyond grateful for wonderful caring nurses. My grams has been pretty out of it all day and her nurses are amazing! They have gone above and beyond what their actual duties are and I am sooo grateful for them.

Jolly Jingles

This has to be a quick one cause I am dead tired. I spent the majority of the day at the hospital with my grams. This is another one from one of my Christmas Stamp-A-Stacks.

You can see the shine, but you really can't see the sparkle in these pics, but the whole card really does sparkle in real life, and is completely gorgeous.

Stamps: Tags Til Christmas, Jolly Jingles Jumbo Wheel
Inks: Versa Mark, Old Olive & Real Red Markers
Papers: Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler
Misc: Very Vanilla 5/8" Satin Ribbon, Decorative Label Punch, Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder, Sticky Strip (to adhere ribbon), Dimensionals

CAS Seasons Greetings

I have a hard time doing CAS (clean and simple) cards for some reason, but this one pretty much can only be called CAS. It's hard to tell, but the Pacific Point is actually layered onto Whisper White cardstock. All I did for this one was emboss the card front with the Norther Flurry Embossing Folder, and then go over it with a bit of Whisper White ink, add a couple Rhinestones and a greeting and Voila, done.

Stamps: Many Merry Messages
Inks: Whisper White
Papers: Whisper White, Pacific Point
Misc: Rhinestones, Northern Flurry Embossing Folder

I actually managed to get the Christmas Tree up tonight. I offered to take my sister in laws kids for a sleep over, and they had so much fun putting up the tree at their house that we did it here too. It was awesome. I barely had to do anything, except the top part of the tree, since none of them could reach it. Hubby was thrilled that all he had to do was get the tree down, plug in one cord, and put the topper on (that's tradition around here). We are making homemade tortillas and scrambled eggs in the am for breakfast, so I'd best be going to bed. I need to be up early with this many kids in the house.

Bethlehem

I love this card, I got the idea from a fellow demonstrator, Dawn Griffith. This makes for such a wonderfully simple card, but it is so striking too. I actually did 2 versions of this card, one with the silver glass glitter that you see here, and another with the Silver tinsel trim that I will post later. I embossed the main image with black embossing powder to add a little bit more shine to the card. I also used sponges to color the Whisper White cardstock with Bashful Blue and Marina Mist, then I ripped the edges.


Stamps: Come to Bethlehem
Inks: Night of Navy, Bashful Blue, Marina Mist, VersaMark
Papers: Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Marina Mist
Misc: Black Embossing Powder, Silver Glass Glitter, Sponges

I love making Christmas cards, they really do seem to put me into a Christmas Spirit. I'm hoping to get the Christmas tree up soon, since we leave for our Christmas holidays in about 2 weeks. I highly doubt I'll be able to convince my hubby to put up Christmas decoration outside this year, so I really want to get the inside ones up soon.

Many Merry Christmas'

One of my all time favorite Christmas stamps is called Many Merry Messages. It is fantastic for both the outside and inside of any Christmas card. I use it at pretty much every Christmas SAS I do and most club nights that have anything to do with Christmas too. The rest of this card uses the new Northern Flurry embossing folder and the Level 1 hostess set from the current mini. If you like these stamps you need to host a qualifying workshop or party before Jan 3rd. I still have a few dates available, so contact me today.




Stamps: Many Merry Messages, Northern Hearts
Inks: Pacific Point, Crushed Concord, Whisper White
Papers: Whisper White, Pacific Point, Crushed Concord
Misc: Northern Flurry Embossing Folder, Rhinestones, Sponges, Dimensionals, Rhinestone Brads

I'm not sure you can see it real well in the photos, but the ribbon of paper with the saying Merry Christmas is actually curved outwards, and does not lay flat. I love the look it gives the card.

Shimmer snowflake

My mom reminded me of a card I made last year, and I went looking for it and could not find it on my blog, so I made a new one up using this years colors, and tweaked it a little bit. I absolutely love the Shimmer Paint from Stampin' Up! You can use it for so many things, but the easiest way to use it is to simply put it on your stamps and stamp with it. That is what I did here. I used Markers to ink up most of the stamp and then used a sponge dauber to put the Platinum Shimmer Paint where I did not color. This card is so shimmery and pretty in real life, it looks nice in the photographs, but no where near as awesome. If you are ever trying to figure out what could make your card stand out just a little more, use some shimmer paint on it.


Stamps: Serene Snowflakes, Four The Holidays
Inks: Pacific Point
Papers: Whisper White, Pacific Point, Night of Navy
Misc: Platinum Shimmer Paint, Sponge Daubers, Filigree Brads, Rhinestones, Rhinestone Brads, Silver Elastic Cord (retired) Dimensionals

Northern Flurry...

Sadly that about sums up our weather lately.... cold and snowy!! I am really not a winter type of gal.... I think that snow is the worst of the 4 letter words, and about this time every year I wonder why we live in a place that gets winter for 6 months at least every year. I really do want to move somewhere (someday) that only has 1 season.... warm! The only good thing about snow and winter is that is makes for really pretty cards. If we never had snow, we would not have snowflakes to stamp and emboss onto cards, and that would be a shame. I was playing around with the Tags til Christmas stamp set the other day and made several cards with it, and then I decided to see what it looked like paired with this new embossing folder. I really do like how it turned out. Sometimes when you are just playing around with no particular idea in mind you end up with surprising results, and this time the surprise was a nice one.


Stamps: Tags Til Christmas
Inks: Real Red, Old Olive, Whisper White
Papers: Sahara Sand, Whisper White, Real Red, Old Olive
Misc: 1/4" Real Red Grosgrain Ribbon, Sponges, Decorative Label Punch, Northern Flurry Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Basic Rhinestones