Holly Berry House Stamp Ornament

My friend has this stamp and found a wonderful ornament that someone made with it so we decided to CASE it and wow, it came out so nice! We had to stamp and emboss the image 6 times on 6 different pieces of paper - then CUT OUT each layer LOL! Not the funnest one I have ever made - but not too bad :) The paper is Wassail by Basic Grey and that made it all the better, love that gorgeous paper. There are pop-dots or dimensionals between each layer and we used the Martha Stewart branch punch next to the holly. Not really much to say, stamp. emboss, cut, assemble! In the picture of the one we copied she had a picture of her daughter. I haven't put a picture on it yet but may if I decide to put it on the tree. I have another project to show tomorrow! Love all these Christmas projects to make and if you see some let me know - leave links in the comments so I can make even more!

Christmas Card and Final Card from Quick Cards

Here is the final card of the 6 quick CASEs for the Survivor castoffs. Talk about clean and simple! And it looks nice, not just quick and easy! I love the twine and button, it adds just the right "oomph" to the card.

The Christmas card is very interesting. It is a piece of designer paper from the Wedding package of paper from Stampin' Up. This is a card that had directions on how to do this technique, you brayer or sponge the color ink you want over the white paper and go back and wipe it off with a paper towel and the shiny part of the pattern in the paper comes clean! It leaves it white and the color you put on remains in the background. Very cool. Sort of a reverse of the emboss resist technique. Then the rest is pretty straight forward, used card stock in reverse colors on each side to add some interest and then stamped the bulb and punched it then put it on with a dimensional. There is a jewel in the center also. The sentiment was stamped and cut to fit. Nothing fancy other than the paper and technique!

Today another friend came over and we made two fabulous projects I will show you next time. I just love it when friends come over and we make these projects and cards together! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and didn't gain any weight from it!

Card # 5 and More Christmas

Here is card #5 in the series of 6 and one more of the fabulous Christmas card CASEs we did recently. The first card is using orchid opulence which has been embossed with a Cuttlebug folder, the ink used is perfect plum and mellow moss and the strip of patterned paper is an older one from Stampin' Up. The butterflies are from a Martha Stewart punch and I painted in dots on the center with the white glimmer paint from SU.

The second card is from the Gina K. set - the window card she has on her site. The background white card stock is embossed with another Cuttlebug folder, for the main image panel the background is brayered with Kaleidecolor ink on glossy cardstock then stamped with Versamark and embossed with white e.p. Then cut into 4 squares and placed on the black card stock to give the window pane effect. We put a little bit of Stickles glitter on the tree branches. The sentiment is from the same set and I used Nestabilities dies to mount it. There is a tiny blue jewel in the center of the sentiment. That's about it! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, I hope you have many things to be thankful for :)

Card #4 and Christmas Card

The first card is one of the pretty cards my friend and I made the other day. It is a CASE of a card - I think it may be one of Gina K.'s design team cards. It was interesting trying to make the trees look like that, going down a hill and with some looking like they are in the distance in the background. The sponging was tricky too to get it to look kind of like it is glowing like the original. The card stock is all from Stampin Up but the designer paper is from Cosmo Cricket - Jolly by Golly again.

The Father's Day card is one of the quick cards, it is simple but nice. It is of course a CASE also, I used different stamps and colored papers. I started doing these because on Splitcoast every Sunday they have a featured stamper and you CASE one of that person's cards but must change two things about it and state what you changed. I got hooked on how quickly you could make a card without having to think so hard on all the details of what stamp, embellishments, colors, papers, technique, layout etc. I find it really hard to create, it takes me hours! It is not easy and natural for me so I really am amazed at the creations people come up with. I have been making cards for 5 years now and on occasion can come up with cool stuff on my own but not without hours of work! Oh well, I still enjoy it immensely :) Hope it is easier for you to make cards than me!

Card 3 of Quick Cards - Christmas

Here is card #3 of the 6 I made for my Survivor cast offs. Just love this retired set, I never used it on my own at home but went to many workshops and used it on candles and such and now mounted it and made one for myself. The sentiment is from that teeny tiny wishes set again. I really like the lavender and green together on this card. That's all for today, I have 3 more of the quick cards and 3 Christmas cards that were a lot more work that I will post along with them in the next few days. I got a chance to "play" yesterday with my stamping buddy and friend, we worked on those cards all day! Well with a little break for lunch :) Until next time, have a GREAT day!

Lori

Two for today, One Quick and One Magnolia

Here are two cards today. I made a Magnolia Tilda with Kitty card today and wanted to share it along with one of the quick cards I am posting. I have a snowflake theme going here. The first card is one of the new Stampin' Up's Christmas papers, it is shiny and pretty but it doesn't show well here. I used the snowflake stamp from the latest collection also. I tried to find a good way to cut it out after I stamped it, I used Soft Suede for the ink. The pattern paper strip across the center is the back side of the larger pattern paper. I wish I didn't send this one off, I really like it! I guess I can always make more :)

The second card is using non-traditional colors for Christmas. The pattern paper is Jolly by Golly by Cosmo Cricket. I decided to use the ugly striped paper from it (my opinion LOL you may like it!) because well I always seem to want to save the pretty paper LOL! Next time I will use the pretty paper from the set. Yellow does not conjure up images of Christmas for me but I though with the kitty and all it would work. It is interesting anyway. The red cardstock is riding hood red, it is the exact red in the stripe of the paper! I used the Cuttlebug snowflakes and put chunky glitter on them and then a green gemstone in the middle. The sentiment is from circle of friends by SU, I still like them - they fit on these cards with large images real well.

Quick Cards

I am going to show a series of reasonably quick cards that I made for my "Survivor" players that have been voted off. All of them are cases from various cards I have seen in the last few months and most of them are different stamps and paper than the original but I want to let y'all know they aren't totally original. They all also have to be Stampin' Up stamps.

The first one I used River Rock card stock and ink. I bought a whole pack of the card stock when it was the "Incolor" and still like it. An easy color to work with. The lighthouse stamp is one of my favorites and looks great with this monochromatic theme. I used pop-dots to raise the whole panel up. The sentiment is one of this awesome little set of sentiments called Teeny Tiny Wishes. I think I used them on all the cards in the series! That's the first, hope you like it!

I am sad...

My kitchen got rain damage again. This is the 5th time. The builder cant figure out how to solve the problem on all of the models of this house that face the same direction. When we get driving winds from Hurricanes/Tropical Storms the water pours into our kitchen ruining the hardwood floors and the ceiling and walls. They have to rip it all out and put dryers and dehumidifiers (very loud!) in for several days then come back and repair and replace everything. Two weeks before I am supposed to have Thanksgiving at my house! Not going to this year now. I am sad because we thought it was solved last time. We have only lived in this house for 1 year and 5 months and this has happened as I said 5 times! So here are some pictures. Anyway I must say I am grateful that the builder is taking care of this again, a lot of them because of the economy are dragging their feet and also going bankrupt so we are very fortunate they are on top of this :)

A link to some fabulous blog candy

One of the best IMHO (in my humble opinion) Card creators is having another awesome blog candy here: http://jacquesmagnolias.blogspot.com/2009/11/papilio-and-some-sweet-stuff-for-you.html Just a few days left to sign up and have a chance to win!

I realized this morning I haven't made one card this week and well not last week either! I have not been in the mood to create. I don't know why though! Just one of those mojo comes and goes things that a lot of crafters talk about. I signed up for a "mingle" on one of the yahoo groups I belong to and I have the whole month of November to complete it. However, knowing me I better do it now or I will be doing it Nov. 30th! I am trying to change my procrastinating ways :) The rules are: has to be a Magnolia and a thanksgiving theme (I think or Fall theme...) I wanted to use the chef Tilda and Edwin since I haven't used them yet and they seem sort of related to Thanksgiving in that they are cooks... ok it's a stretch. I saved the theme by adding the sentiment though. I used a K & Co. paper pack and some paper flowers from Memory Makers, build a brad and ribbon that may be from Stampin Up. The sentiment stamp is from Stampology. The sketch is a week ago's sketch challenge on Splitcoast, except I kind of goofed. The sketch is made for a 4.25 x 5.5 card and this card is 5.5 x 5.5 square. I measured the pieces for the smaller card so when I put them on my card they don't go all the way to the edges like the sketch planned. Oh well, I like it just as well :) Call it creative license I guess - yeah that sounds better than I goofed, huh?!