Snow Globe Cards

Happy Holidays Everyone!
These two cards came together with a bunch of different stamps and dies from several companies. I was planning to make a few cards with the "Snow Globe" from My Favorite Things, and when I saw Jennifer McGuire use Transparency Pockets to hold "snow" between two transparent sheets, I knew this would be perfect for my snow globes. I am entering this card project into the My Favorite Things Color Challenge #132. Read on to find out how I made these colorful Christmas cards!

Jennifer McGuire used a laminator to do this technique, but I used the Mink machine. She called it "Embellished Window Technique" on this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op6PI5KpARw&feature=youtu.be. I made some of these "windows" before I started my cards trying out some of the glitter and small sequins in my stash. I figured this would make the snowy background for the Snow Globes perfect. If you try this >> don't use too much glitter or you won't be able to see the image behind it! I had to make several attempts before I achieved the right look!

Before putting the globes together, I created a background panels with the MFT Candy Stripes Builder for a plaid. Then for a realistic background in the globe, I used the Mini Cloud stencil from MFT and distress ink for the clouds around the central image. This paper was placed behind the laminator sheet with the glitter snow. The second card has purple added to the traditional colors and purple stars for fun!

The Santa and Fairy images are from Gina K Designs colored with copic markers. The grouping of presents is from Lawn Fawn. I added tiny mounds of snow for Santa to stand in, but the Fairy is flying so no snow for her feet were needed.

The sentiment "Ho Ho Ho" is from MFT Pop Up Holiday Greetings (with the extra connection cut off) and "Warmest Wishes" is from Elizabeth Craft Dies.

 

Gift Card Envelopes & Patterned Wrapping Paper

Still no new cards!! but I made some wrapping paper with a bunch of small stamps - and three tiny envelopes made to hold gift cards for my 3 grandchildren who are getting "Disney Money" along with something fun to open for their holiday presents - here they are!



I love making my own design on paper. I bought some plain white wrapping paper and just got out some basic Christmas colors and a lot of little stamps to create this wrapping paper. It's not a lot so I'll just use it on the grandkids's ornaments this year.


The gift card die is from My Favorite Things. (see below) The letter stamp is from Altenew and I just love it! Of course, like everything in my life (particularly jewelry lately) I lost the lower case "c" ... but so far I have made out okay without it. (Yikes...)

Stamped Watercolor Jumpstart with S. Allnock

Hi Papercrafters!
I had to take a break from card making because I am taking an online class with Sandy Allnock called Stamped Watercolor Jumpstart which uses Art Impression stamps. I have finished 6 lessons and will post some pics below. Now, I should say that I HAVE played around with these in the past. In fact, I think it was Sandy who first introduced me to the idea back in May 2016 and I started paying attention to the water color stamps which AI produced. I really want to learn how to water color. In fact, I previously signed up for Sandy's regular watercolor into class, but never finished it. I will get back to it after the holidays, for sure! The classes are at Art Classes with Sandy Allnock
If you are on facebook, you might be able to see some of the students's work here - https://www.facebook.com/groups/390593551370390/

 

                    

        

Merry Everything

Hi,

I saw someone use this embossing folder a few weeks ago on You Tube and bought it immediately from Amazon. It's from Sizzix and it's one of the very deep embossing folders which results in tremendous dimension. As you can see I used a dark blue card stock. To enhance the snowflake design, I used my wink of stella glitter marker on some of the lines of the snowflakes after applying some white pigment ink with my finger gingerly on the raised surfaces of the snowflakes. I also used a white gel pen on some of the lines to create a more "snowy" effect. I adhered the new "Marie" snowflake die and 2 smaller dies from Simon Says Stamp (cut from white glitter paper) and add sequins from Pretty Pink Posh. The sentiment is from SSS "Merry Everything" embossed with Brutus Monroe Sterling embossing powder. Entering this card in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.

Inside - Hero Arts Snowflake cling stamp in Distress Inks and SSS "Christmas Wishes" stamp set.

 

Happy Holidays

The weekend finally arrived and even though it's busy, I am trying to finish up some holiday cards! Here is one which fits Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge "Traditional Christmas"and also fits the My Favorite Things Sketch Challenge #466. See the sketch design below. I used MFT "Trim the Tree" stamp and sentiment and cut the panel into three pieces similar to the one highlighted on the website. The background stencil is called "Scattered Bars" from MFT which I had applied to kraft card stock in three different colors, 2 greens and white pigment ink. I hope you can see the effect in this photo. I like the way it turned out.

       \

      

Merry Christmas To You and Yours

Below is another card project for the My Favorite Things Sketch Challenge #466.  One of the MFT designers used a window on her Christmas card so I thought I would do the same with products in my stash. This window is from Poppy Stamps entitled "Madison Window." Looking out you can see evergreens from Inkadinkado, a snow bank, and some clouds made with the "Mini Cloud" Stencil from MFT. I used "Trim the Tree" stamp from MFT for the sentiment and the gifts in the foreground and patterned paper for the wallpaper (from MFT Fresh Squeezed Chevron.) The floor is a stamp from Altenew, "Wood Pallet" and the little character is from "You Gnome Me" from My Favorite Things.  That finishes the Christmas scene for this holiday card! I am also going to enter this in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge "Traditional Christmas."

     

Make a Wish

Hello!
I was inspired by this week's Sketch Challenge #466 from My Favorite Things, to create the card below. Check out the sketch below, too. This birthday card uses the MFT stamp "Celebrate with Cake" but first I used a background stamp from Impression Obsession to create the criss cross of dots in blue. I have used this stamp before for male cards because I think it lends itself to a masculine look. In keeping with the "dots" I also incorporated the Spellbinder's Hemstitch Rectangle die which adds little circle cut outs on the rectangular panel. I used multiple layers for this masculine birthday card but no sequins or Nuvo dots!

 

Ornaments are Friends

Snowmen are a favorite during the holidays no matter how much snow falls! I love this stamp and the sentiment from My Favorite Things called "Trim the Branches." I colored the image with copic markers and used several dies to highlight the snowman in his red frame on top of some patterned paper. (dies from MFT "Stitched Square Frames and Stitched Mini Square Scallop Stax.) The ornament is from a Gina K. Design set called "Deck the Halls" embossed with clear powder for some shine and clear sequins were added for more sparkle. This is for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Traditional Christmas.

Winter Wishes

Hi Crafters!
Below is another holiday card which was inspired by another fantastic paper crafter, Nichol Spohr. I watched a video Nichol did for Simon Says Stamp during "Stamptember" using Polychromo Pencils on dark card stock. I loved the project so much, I ordered the exact same pencils and tried this technique. I did not have the stamp Nichol used, so I substituted Gina K's "Festive Flowers" which was also a new stamp set for Stamptember! The image is embossed in gold first, then colored in with the Polychromo pencils - chromium green opaque, permanent green olive, cobalt green, cobalt turquoise, prussian blue, and white. These blues look almost irredescent on the dark card stock when colored over a layer of white as Nichol did in her video. The sentiment is also embossed in gold. I am entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge "Let's Sparkle" and the Wednesday Challenge " Traditional Christmas" because of the beautiful poinsettia image from Gina K Design. Thanks for visiting my blog today.

            

Merry Christmas Trees

Thank you to Kristina Werner for inspiration on this card project. I made 6 of these for this upcoming holiday even though Kristina's card was #11 from her Christmas 2018 Series. You can view her video here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URn4ihyVPHA&t=185s

For my cards I used a Memory Box "Garden Holly Bough" stencil on the panel inked in Broken China and Mowed Lawn Distress Inks. I also used this stencil on the envelopes. Stampin' Up has a punch die of a triangle Christmas Tree which I used to cut out the trees from water color paper and followed Kristina's technique of water coloring with several cool colors, then embossing with Brutus Monroe "Sterling" embossing powder with three different designs in each tree.  For the sentiment, I used DCWV silver foil card stock and a Creative Expressions Merry Christmas die. I layered the panel on a piece of Gina K. sea glass card stock before adhering them on a white card base. This card has a lot of shine so I am entering it in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge "Let's Sparkle" and it has symbols we all recognize for the holiday so I am also entering it in the Wednesday Challenge "Traditional Christmas."

 

Greetings

Here is another holiday card for this year done in black and gold. It's similar to the red and gold one which used the same stencil from Simon Says Stamp called "Holiday Foliage. " I embossed it with SSS antique gold embossing powder, added some black & gold ribbon from Gina K Designs, with a small bow and double mounted it. First I used some heavy weight gold mylar from Elizabeth Craft Design called Shimmer Sheetz; then I used a black layer for accent. The sentiment is from Sunny Studios. Entering this in Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge "Let's Sparkle!"

Merry Christmas

Below is one of this year's holiday cards with a red and gold color scheme. First I embossed a new stencil from Simon Says Stamp called "Holiday Foliage" with SSS antique gold embossing powder on red card stock, added some gold ribbon and a sprig of gold foliage made with Poppy dies "Tomei Branch" and Small Wispy Pine Needles." The sentiment is from Gina K, run through the Mink machine with gold foil. Check the close up photo to see the shine! Entering this in Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge "Let's Sparkle!"

Because ...

Sometimes you want to have a few cards which will work for any occasion. This card project was made for that purpose. With the simple sentiment "Because," you can use this card for many reasons. And this type of card is fun to make.

I started with some cream colored card stock and created a rainbow of colors with Distress Inks horizontally across the card. I then used a My Favorite Things stencil called "Spring Flowers" to emboss the image on the entire front with clear embossing powder which adds shine in a deeper hue in each color.

To finish the panel, I die cut it with a scalloped rectangle and added the sentiment which is from Honey Bee "Thinking of You." I love these bold sentiments which come with a shadow die as well. I heat embossed the word "because" with clear embossing powder to give it shine and adhered the whole panel onto a light yellow card base.

Entering this card in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge "Anything Goes" for this week!

Love

Today I have a card project with water colored flowers. This stamp is from Penny Black, called "Bouquet Ballet"which I water colored with Kuretake clean color real brush markers after stamping and heat embossing with black embossing powder. The black embossing gives the project some dimension and also makes it simple to color the elements with water color. I have been experimenting with different water color mediums for the last year and this was one attempt  to blend out the color from dark to light on the flower petals.

Once the image was colored, I carefully filled in the open space on the panel with the Scripty Stamp from Just Rite using a light gray ink. The panel was cut using a small scalloped rectangle die and adhered to a coral card base. The sentiment, also cut from coral card stock, is from Simon Says Stamp. The coral looks a little pink in the photo, but in real life it matched the flower color very well.

I am placing this card on the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge "Anything Goes" page. Please visit to see many outstanding card projects submitted there!

Thanks for checking out my blog today. I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving yesterday!

Big Hugs & Happy Thoughts

A few days ago I remarked that I have a few close friends who need "Get Well Cards" or similar Encouragement cards, so I am trying to add some of these to my collection. Here's a new one which I made with the My Favorite Things Color Challenge in mind. The colors can be seen below, and here is my card project -

     

I took the enlarged photo so the embossing shine could be seen! This stamp is from Simon Says Stamp called "Healing Hugs." The background stencil is from My Favorite Things "Bold Paisley." I used Vintage Photo, Spiced Marmalade, and Rusty Hinge Distress Inks with the stencil on the background. For added interest, I used Spellbinder's Hemstitch Rectangle around the large embossed sentiment. The small tag is embossed with white and popped up on the card. Lastly, I added some copper brown sequins. I am also adding this card to the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge "Anything Goes."

Happy Birthday

Adding to my birthday stash, this card project features both a large background stamp (Memory Box's "Drifting Oak Leaves" Cling) and a focal image (from Power Poppy) colored with copic markers. The card design has several layers tying in the colors and a banner from Reverse Confetti. I finished the card with a Hero Arts "Many Everyday Messages" embossed in white on the banner die. Entering this card in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge "Anything Goes."

Season's Greetings Ornaments

This is a super quick post. Some of my holiday cards take more time than others. This one was a quickie. I used a Hero Arts Stamp & Cut set so I could add a second layer with the middle ornament which is cut and adhered on top of the stamped image. The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn's "Scripty Winter Sayings." The patterned paper makes this project fast and the colored string finishes it off.
Submitting this to Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Anything Goes Challenge for this week. Check out the other projects there for fun and inspiration!

Hot Chocolate

I have several friends at the moment who are either recovering from surgery, about to have surgery or are under the weather in one way or another. This card project is for one of them, and I pushed myself to use this week's My Favorite Things Sketch Challenge #464. I found this sketch a little challenging, especially since I wanted to combine it with MFT's other challenge, Color Challenge #130! but that's good for the brain! Check out the sketch and colors below.  Here is the card I came up with:

I started with a Jelly Bean Green card base, and added pattern paper tag from MFT using the "Traditional Tags Stax" die. I punched two holes on the left side and used some orange and white twine for an accent. The three elements on the tag are from "Winter Warmth" set and the sentiment is from "Hug in a Mug" stamped in Milk Chocolate ink.

For added detail, I heat embossed the snowflake on the mug and designs on the mittens with white detail embossing powder. The snowflake is cut out of glitter paper and it's ready to send to my friend.

Jingle All the Way

This card project is a little unusual for me because of the color combination, but I figured change is good! I was following the sketch for My Favorite Things Sketch Challenge #464 (see below.)

 

I flipped the sketch on it's side, placing the Santa at the bottom and the snowflakes on top. Of course Santa is from "Jingle All the Way" one of my all time favorite stamp sets from MFT. The snowflakes are from Simon Says Stamp. I added Nuvo drops in the center of them. The center section of the panel was made with a new stamp also from SSS called "Holiday Background" which I cut to place vertically in the center of the black card base. As I said, this is a new color combination for my Holiday Cards, but in the end I loved it!

Star of Wonder (Napkin Project)

Here is my second napkin project using the Mini Mink machine from Heidi Swap. Again, I bought a set of adorable napkins while on a trip through Villach, Austria on my trip two weeks ago. After adhering the napkin to the Dessert Storm card stock, I used some Faber Castell pencils to darken the scene as it was very muted on the napkin. I have only just started using the Polychromos a few weeks ago and I think I am going to like them. For this card project I only used Burnt Umber, Brown Ochre, White, and Black. I layered the panel on dark brown card stock, used an ivory card base and added a sentiment from SSS "Merry Everything" on a strip with heat embossed white powder. I used Vintage Photo Distress Ink around the edges of the picture and the tag. This is my last entry for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge "Recycle."

Happy Holidays (Napkin Project)

While I was in Austria on my vacation last week, I picked up some gorgeous napkins which I knew I wanted to make into cards. Now I know many of you have done this technique before, but I never have! So I checked You Tube and found several ways to adhere the napkin to the card stock. One way was to use the mini Mink machine by Heidi Swap. I used it with several different napkins and it seemed to work (using the #5 setting on the machine.) One napkin, however peeled away from the card stock and I couldn't figure out why that one design reacted differently than the rest of the bunch I did yesterday. So if you use your Mink for this purpose, be aware it may not work 100% of the time. One of my cards is below. Entering this in Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge "Recycle."

I loved this penguin when I saw him! I used an oval die from MFT for the window. I used some sequins and snowflake mix in my stash around his head under the page protector which is covering the image. At first I thought I might make this a shaker card, but I changed my mind.


The sentiment is from MFT "Trim the Tree." The sprig in the upper left corner is made from Lawn Fawn's Mini Snow Flake die and Poppy's Small Wispy Pine Needle die. I coated them with clear embossing powder / glitter for more effect. The snowflake at the bottom is also from Lawn Fawn cut from glitter paper.

I made three of these to use this holiday season. Thanks for visiting!

Warmest Wishes

This holiday card started with a small stamp from Altenew called "Winter" which depicts the cabin in the snow. I masked the roof of the cabin with Fineline Masking fluid, created a moon with masking tape, and used distress inks in tumbled glass, stormy sky, chipped sapphire, and black soot to create the sky. For stars I splattered white paint on gently with a paint brush.

        

The cover die is from Mama Elephant called "Winter Forrest" and the moose is from Hero Arts "Woodland" set colored with copic markers, cut and popped up in front. The sentiment on the front of the card is from Simon Says Stamp's set "Merry Everything."

For the inside of the card, I created a frame using two rectangle dies, Simon Says Stamp's "Merry Everything" stamp set, and snow flakes from Lia Griffith's mini clear snowflakes stamp set.

I actually made 5 of these to use this year for the holidays and think they turned out very nicely. This card fits perfectly into Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge Starry Starry Night. Check out the lovely entries there!

Italy, Croatia, Slovenia!

I just got back from a 12 day tour of three countries and about ten cities, and it was a fabulous trip! Going to post a few of the pic here just for fun.

Arona, Italy

 

Vicenza, Italy

Villa La Rotunda in Vicenza, Italy

Villach, Austria, alps in distance

Carmela, Karin, and me

Tito's summer home in Bled, Slovenia

me at the Postumia Caves, Slovenia

Dragon Bridge, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Rovinj, Croatia

Rovinj, Croatia

Me, Carol and Kathie

Pula, Croatia

Pula, Croatia

Opatija, Croatia

Opatija, Croatia

Aquileia near Trieste, Italy

Me and Kathie in Trieste, Italy

WW I Museum near Trieste, Italy

City Center, Trieste, Italy

Carol, Tina, Lorraine, and me

me and Beth