Visions of Santa - Fancy Moose

I thought the Visions of Santa stamp set was fun and playful when I first saw it in the Holiday catalog.  I was surprised to hear later on that some people thought it was weird and creepy.  So when I decided to use the set for a card swap I participated in, I opted to go with the moose and skip Santa to be sure no one's creep ed out with my card.

For something so simple, this actually took sometime because of a design flaw in my original layout. I wanted to do a no layer card with rounded corners like these two (you get to see one of the Santa after all!).

On both my sample cards, I distressed the edges with white craft ink that's why the cards appear lighter on the pictures.

Satisfied with the layout, I proceeded to cut the card stocks I need to make twenty three cards.  Then I applied the washi tapes and stamp the moose with tuxedo black memento ink.  I colored the moose with blendabilities - cherry cobbler, mocha, natural and smoky slate for the "shadow/puddle".  I was on my third card when I noticed that the ink was bleeding through the card stock and was showing on the inside of the card.  Big problem...... why didn't I notice this on my samples?

My solution was to cut all the cards I already prepped and turned them into panels and cut more card stocks for the base card.  My no layer card will now be layered to hide the "bleeding" and keep the inside of the card clean.  The irony was I wanted a no layer card to save time cutting card stocks and I ended up spending twice as much time fixing my boo boo..

On my swap cards, I sponged crumb cake ink on the edges of the panel to add dimension between the base and the panel without adding unnecessary bulk to the card.

Christmas is days away and I'm not even close to getting all my projects completed.  I'll try and share as much as I can in the coming weeks.

Until next time...........

Cheers!!!

irene

Many Merry Stars with Endless Wishes

A quick post to share with you one of the Christmas card design I'm sending out this year.  I cased one of my cards from 2012.

My card today is even quicker than my inspiration because there's no heat embossing involve.

I used crumb cake card stock for the card base.  I stamped the big stars from the Many Merry Stars stamp set with cherry cobbler, marina mist and old olive inks.  Then I stamped the snowflakes with white craft ink.  I tied the cherry cobbler seam binding ribbon to the side and added the rhinestones to the center of each star.

For the sentiment, I used Endless Wishes stamp set from the Holiday Catalog.  Photopolymer (clear) stamps make it so easy to have multi-color stamp images or sentiments..

I'm hang up on crumb cake lately so my next couple of posts are also made with crumb cake.

Thanks for stopping by.....

Cheers!!!


irene

World of Dreams - Congratulations

My boss recently got married.  Days before the wedding, I realized I didn't have a card for him.  I casually started asking for details about the wedding to get an idea for my card design.  I found out it's close family and friends only, black tie affair, ceremony at the Grace Cathedral, reception at the San Francisco Fairmont Hotel.  I'm thinking, I better come up with a nice, elegant card.  No distressing allowed, LOL!

He wasn't sure about the flowers but thought maybe  white orchids.  I'm thinking, I have an orchid stamp.  They have been together 25 years that's why their wedding date was on the 25th.  I'm thinking, a silver card.  This is what I came up with.  What do you think?  I hope it's not too girly.

I was quite pleased with how this card came together - simple and elegant.  I love washi tapes, see how it works even with a formal card?  These silver ones remind me of a tuxedo cummerbund.  If you compare the picture above with the picture below, you'll see that the small red heart is the perfect embellishment for this card.

Don't you just love it!?!  Card size is 7" x 5.5", enough room to accommodate well wishes from everyone in the office.

The card base is silver card stock, the flowers and sentiment were heat embossed with white and black embossing powders.  See supply list for stamp set information.

Thanks for checking out my creation today.  Now back to holiday cards and crafts.

Cheers!!!

irene

SUPPLY LIST - all from Stampin'Up:

Festival of Trees - Luminaries

One more Festival of Trees project then I'm moving on.  I was making boxes using the Gift Box Punch Board when I set off to find a specific ribbon that I wanted to use with the boxes.  One thing led to another and I stumbled upon my stash of flame-less candles.  An idea formed and here we are with luminaries made with the Gift Box Punch Board.

UPDATED: Start with an 8 x 8 vellum card stock and follow the direction on the Gift Box punch board for a 1.75 x 1.75 x 3.25 box, start line at S and diagonal line at L.  Then stamp the trees with cherry cobbler ink.  Use a heat gun to make sure the ink is completely dry.  Fold all the crease lines, use a bone folder for crisp folds.

Cut the "sides" leaving about 1/4 of an inch to fit sticky strip tapes, see picture below.  Adhere tape on four sides.

Carefully form the box and adhere all sides one by one.  Close the top.

Punch four stars from red glimmer paper and adhere to the top of the tree with glue dots.  Apply the washi tape around the box, about an eight of an inch above the bottom fold.

Open the top and drop in the candle.  Voila!!  They turned out better than I expected.  I just need to make four more to complete the set.

TIP:  If you decide to give this a try, I recommend using bright inks with vellum.  I initially used old olive for the green tree but it was too light, mossy meadow is the perfect shade of green on vellum.

Thanks for stopping by ......... until next time my friends.

Cheers!!!

irene

You can get all the Stampin'Up supplies from my store, just click HERE.

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Festival of Trees Tags

I took a couple of days off for my birthday and made time to do things I love.  I was quite productive but wished I had more time.  Next year, I'm taking the whole week off!!!

Got a head start on my Christmas tags.  I made twenty tags with these two designs.  So easy with the Festival of Trees stamps and tree punch.  The fact that I kept the layout the same and just changed the colors really made it quick to make twenty tags in no time.  One rustic and one "clean".

This first one is made with crumb cake, cherry cobbler and old olive color combination.

The second one is lost lagoon and silver.  I tried lost lagoon and cherry cobbler but opted for monochromatic.

Did I ever tell you I LOVE washi tapes?  The washi tapes really came in handy on these two layouts and I plan to use more washi tapes on the other tags I'm working on.

Have you started on your holiday crafts yet?  Christmas is only 60 days away.  WOW!!!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Cheers!!!

irene

All supplies used are from Stampin'Up and can be found here

Washi Taped Feathers

Another bundle that caught my eye in the Holiday catalog is the Four Feathers stamp set with the Feathers Framelits dies.  I also love the washi tapes Color Me Autumn.  Why not put them together?

Here's what I came up with.  Unfortunately, I can't quite capture blackberry bliss on my small camera.  The colors are a bit off.

The card base is blackberry bliss.  I stamped the feathers on the right side using blackberry bliss ink.  I covered a piece of card stock with washi tapes before die cutting the feathers.

The sentiment is the circle stamp from Let Your Hair Down.  I cut it up to fit my layout.  I love the idea of a burlap ribbon and I finally got to use it on a card.

After doing the feathers with washi tapes, I looked around my work area to see what else I can die cut with washi tape.  How about christmas trees?!!!  Well, this was not die cut but punched.  Same layout as this CARD.  The sentiment is from the Sassy Salutations stamp set.

Thanks for checking out my projects.  

Cheers!!!

irene

All supplies are available here.  

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Golden Trees

One of my favorite bundle from the holiday catalog is the Festival of Trees bundle.  You can surely get a stacked of Christmas cards done in no time with this set.  I had this layout in mind when I first saw this set and I'm glad I was able to execute it without a glitch.

The Gold Soiree specialty designer paper is perfect for what I had in mind.  The trees and the "ground" coordinate perfectly.  I love the metallic gold designs.

The card base is garden green cardstock.  I dry embossed the front with On Point textured impression embossing folder.  I punched the trees using the Tree punch.  The snowflakes are from the Frosted Sequins pack and I colored them with a gold sharpie.

The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes and the gold metallic baker's twine ties it all together!

Is it just me or did 2014 really flew by quickly?  I can't believe I'm making Christmas cards already!

UPDATE:  to see another card sample, click HERE and scroll to the end of the post.

All supplies used are available HERE.

Cheers!!!

irene

Clear Block Stamping - World of Dreams

Today I’m sharing my swap card from our latest group meeting.  Talk about daunting, we had 50 participants!  I think that’s the most swap cards I ever had to do.  I initially planned on doing a holiday card but after the final count was announced, I decided to start working on my cards using products from the big catalog instead of the Holiday catalog.

I used a simple technique called clear block stamping.  Basically, you tap your clear block directly on the ink pad, mist it with water and stamp directly onto your cardstock.  When I got bubbles, I slid my finger back and forth on the block to evenly spread the ink.  For my background, I stamped the clear block using three different colors – lost lagoon, hello honey and tangelo twist.  

Ideally, since you spritz water to your block before stamping, you would use watercolor paper for this technique but I didn't have enough watercolor paper for 50 cards so I used whisper white card stock.  I was careful not to spray too much water so there was only minimal warping.

The image and sentiment are from Stampin' Up’s World of Dreams stamp set and were stamped using tuxedo black ink.  I added the washi tape from the Sweet Sadie designer washi tape set.  I was quite pleased with how the card turned out.  And, no two cards are exactly alike.

Sadly, we had quite a few participants who didn't make it to the meeting so I’m left with about twelve card fronts.  If you want one for your sample board or just want to see it in person, email me your mailing address and I’ll send you one.  Remember this is just a card front not a full card but you can easily turn it into a card if you feel like it.

Have an awesome day!  Cheers!!!

irene



All supplies used are available HERE

Make A Wish

Recently, I saw one of the ladies at my local Paper Source demonstrate this technique.   I've also seen it on various websites.  I wondered why I haven't tried it before, then I remembered that I thought it would be messy and I would not like the clean-up.  But no, it wasn't messy at all and clean up was a breeze with baby wipes!

Start by rubbing the ink pad directly on your embossing folder, insert card stock and run it on your machine.  On this card, I embossed the black card stock using Stampin'Up's Woodgrain Texture Impressions Embossing Folder inked with Gold Encore Metallic Ink.  The result is a subtle metallic look, very nice in person but hard to capture on my little camera.

I stamped the sentiment, from Perfect Pennants stamp set, with black ink and die cut the banner using Banners framelits dies.  I stamped the starbursts in crumb cake ink and die cut using the Starburst framelits dies.  Added the candy dots and it's done.  I was going for a masculine card.

For supply details, please click the links below.

Cheers!!!

irene

Supplies List:

Woodgrain Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

$7.95

Banners Framelits Dies

$26.95

Starburst Framelits Dies

$26.95

Gold Metallic Encore Pad

$9.95

Perfect Pennants Clear-mount Stamp Set

$21.95

Brights Candy Dots

$5.95

Starburst Sayings Clear Stamp Set

$18.95

Got Bleach?

Yap, who needs ink when you have bleach!  It's a long weekend and I was excited to fill in the extra hours with some crafting goodness.  This is a technique I wanted to try for a while now and few weeks ago I remembered to get bleach so I can finally give it a try.  I had to force myself to walk away after five cards, so much fun!!!

I grabbed my pack of new In Color cardstocks to see how they react with bleach.  As you can see from the picture above, the results from each color were quite different.  I used all the new colors on my cards except hello honey because the result with hello honey was more like a watermark effect and not a distinct impression.  I was surprised that bleach doesn't work with black card stock.

First up is the blackberry bliss card.  The card base is crumb cake.  Love how the hardwood background turned out with bleach.

Next one is the mossy meadow card.  I stamped directly on the card and rubbed the edges on my bleach "pad" to get the distressed look.

Up next is the first lost lagoon card.  The base card is lost lagoon.  I stamped directly on the panel and dragged the edges on the bleach "pad" to get the matted look.  I added the twine to separate the sentiment.

On the second lost lagoon card, I used basic black cardstock for the card base.  This is the only card where I used ink for the sentiment.

And lastly, my favorite!  You'll notice that the images on this last card are sharper than images on the first four cards.  Why, you asked?  I started a new "pad" and inadvertently added less bleach than before.  The base card is blackberry bliss.  I love these three colors together - blackberry bliss, tangelo twist and mossy meadow.  The flower and leaves were stamped with bleach then fussy cut.

Here's the how to:
I placed four layers of folded paper towels inside an old SU stamp container and poured the bleach, this is what I kept referring to as my bleach "pad".  Don't soak the paper towels, start by adding a quarter cup of bleach. You can always add more if that's not enough to get a good impression.  Check out the side by side comparison, can you tell which one used more bleach?

Finally, the group shot.

One last thing, my hands needed extra moisturizer after handling all that bleach.  I think I'll lay off bleach for a while.


Cheers!!!

irene



Here are the supplies I used.  You can get them from my Online Store or by clicking each item directly.

Bloom With Hope Clear-Mount Stamp Set

$17.00

Let Your Hair Down Clear-Mount Stamp Set

$9.00

Perfect Pennants Clear Stamp Set

$21.95

Hardwood Clear Stamp Set

$13.95

2-1/2" Circle Punch

$16.95

Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack

$16.95

Rhinestone Basic Jewels Embellishments

$4.95

2014-2016 In Color 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

$6.95

Crushed Curry Baker's Twine

$2.95

Coastal Cabana Thick Baker's Twine

$3.50

Pearl Basic Jewels Embellishments

$4.95

Elegant Butterfly Punch

$15.95

Small Butterfly Punch

$15.95