Tilda's Christmas Scene

 

This card is one I have been wanting to make for a while now, the background pond stamp I purchased (actually I think I got it when I won free stamps from Diana at Magnolia-licious, thank you! click here for it) specifically for this skating Tilda and Edwin. I made the card 5" square but I think in order to get the perspective a little better a 6" card would work better. I colored the card with Stampin' Up markers this time - they don't blend easily but I wanted to give them a try so this would be brighter than with the water color crayons. Anyway it's just a nice Winter scene and a fun one to make. Hope you are taking some time to enjoy the season- stop for a minute and think what it is all about and what is really important. I have this year and am going to make some changes next year accordingly! Merry Christmas!

Last of the Christmas Cards?

These are supposed to be all the horizontal ones but I found one more vertical one that I missed last time! These were such a pleasure to make, I love the papers Stampin' Up had this year for Christmas! Plus all the other companies like Basic Grey and Cosmo Cricket, it has been a yummy paper year :) The last card is so cool I have been wanting to make a card on Kraft paper (note to self request it on wishRAK!) and I always thought it looked cool when people colored white on it. I used the water color crayons but the white didn't really come out too white, all in all it looks cool. The card I CASEd must have used something else, maybe colored pencils or even Copic markers.

I have now discovered I need yet 3 more cards so even though these were the last and I thought I was done it looks like I will be making more tomorrow to get in the mail on Monday. Hope you aren't sick of Christmas cards! Thanks for looking :)

 

 

Ok guess which ones are my creations? Yes, number 3 and number 4, the rest are CASES from Splitcoast, although as usual I made my some changes. The baby Jesus is a gift received last Christmas from my Secret Santa on Splitcoast and it is by CTMH as well as the sentiment. The collage stamp is from Hero Arts, I added the musical note sheet to it. All of the rest is Stampin' Up, paper and stamps. Today I put the vertical cards on here and tomorrow I will put the horizontal cards. I think I am just about through with showing all of the Christmas cards!

I received my Magnolia kit club stamps just a few minutes ago and they look like Valentine images so guess that is next! Unless I sell them, not sure I like them this time. I only liked two from the last set so it may be time to order them separately when they come out then I can choose what I want. Have a nice day!

Christmas Cards Nature Theme

This year I have made a large variety of cards and only one of each. So time consuming but at the same time so enjoyable! The minimum these cards take is an hour and some as much as 3 hours, I know what takes me so long?! These have to be two of my favorites! They are made from card ideas I have seen online (CASEd but changed something(s) and today's theme is nature. I love this older cardinal stamp by Stampin' Up, and then in one of the paper packs I bought for Christmas cards this year had a whole sheet of paper with cardinals! I think it came out pretty nice. The other one is that very old standy Lovely as a Tree (by SU) and I saw how this person made the sunrise look for this stamp and it was so gorgeous I had to make it.

I am mailing my cards today! All addressed and ready. Hope they aren't too late. I made two more yesterday and need to make three more today so I will post more, even if it is getting late to make Christmas cards still - maybe you need some last minutes ideas yourself :)

My *Own* Creations

Here are two creations that just came together easily for me. I just received my Spellbinders nesting snowflakes and could not wait to use them! I liked the contrast of light and dark for the different layers so the navy and white just looked so good together. Plus I finally got to use that fancy tag that is usually too big for my cards to fit! I also found and let me tell you this was one of those things that made me EXTREMELY happy (Spellbinders you need to tell us this stuff!) that the smallest of the long rectangle Nesties fits perfectly inside of the fancy tag! Yippee! I hate to hand cut stuff to fit, I like things exactly precise so it looks professional. So that's the first card, the second is a gift card holder. Just wanted to use that cute snowman paper from Cosmo Cricket. The card stock is creamy caramel and sage shadow. I tried to distress it a little to help it blend in with the odd colored pink, is is actually more guava then pink but groovy guava was too bright for it. Or maybe not if I had sponged it down some - however I like this combo :) As an after thought I put on the snowflakes, it looks so much cheerier with them and the Stickles glitter!

Tilda and her Christmas Bell

This stamp came in last year's Winter Kit that you pre-order without having a clue what is in the kit! So sometimes you get gems like this one and sometimes you get things that may not be your style but that's ok. I have seen a lot of cards using this one this year! The layout and the background trees are from a card made by Nikki Fairbairn. She used different stamps but I just loved the trees like this! I made my ribbon curvy like a snowy hill and I think hers is straight, that was just a lucky fall of the ribbon on my part. I used the "debossed" side of the burgundy paper because the Cuttlebug embossing folder kind of cut through it and made the white inside of the paper show and I thought that looked perfect for the distressed look. The edges of the paper and the trees were distressed with the tool (razor blade). The snowflakes are layered and Stickles glitter was put in a few places plus I used a felt flower and a button sort of like her card :) Trying to branch out here! I really like Tilda though, I am very happy with how she turned out :) The card is 5.5 inches square. I made two cards completely on my own today I am going to post next - I don't know what got into me LOL! Thanks for stopping by!

More Christmas Cards

Because this year I am making one of each instead of a bunch of one! I have to say due to how long it takes me to make a card to begin with, I am CASEing my cards in one away or another. These are pretty much exact replicas. I love them! They are gorgeous cards and were fun to make. These are 2 of the 4 my friend and I made on Friday together. The rose is embossed in gold e.p. then colored in with water color crayons. To make the swirl background we embossed the stamped swirl with holographic e.p. The first card is gold, black and white and the second card is soft suede, black and vanilla which is the color combo of the week on Splitcoast Stampers. Both were made using Nesties. The Martha Stewart branch punch made the spray above the ribbon - love that ribbon from Gina K! The background of the second one is a Cuttlebug embossing folder. That's about it! I have about 4 more Christmas cards ready to post and then I have to get making some more! Never mind addressing and mailing them :)

A little Glitter

Playing with the sparkly stuff! The blue card with the large snowflake is the Stampin' Up die cut then blue chunky glitter was glued on. The paper in the back ground is Basic Grey I had around, trying to match that particular blue of the glitter wasn't easy. I punched a few more snowflakes and put some gems in them for more sparkle. The sentiment is embossed with white e.p. on the brilliant blue card stock which is also used as a base. The ribbon is an iridescent ribbon to add yet more, yes, sparkle! I saw this card all in pink that I just had to copy.

The second card of the reindeer is a sketch I followed, the snowflake is two snowflakes layered on top of each other with a pop dot in between and covered in clear chunky glitter. It is really pretty! The card stock is Riding Hood Red as is the ribbon, left over from last year's InColors from SU. I put some Stickles on the swirls in the antlers and the background paper had glitter of it's own. I love this Christmas paper pack, 40% off at Michaels for one and hello, BLUE for another! It is by SEI called Winter Song. Has a gorgeous red cardinal on one of the pages, not sure what to do with it as it is too big for a card, maybe a nice scrapbook page if I ever got back into that. I can't remember how long it has been, I have been so busy making cards! Oh but it has many pretty papers in it, you will see more as I have at least 20 more Christmas cards to make!

a Little Change of Scenery - Tim Holtz Style!

Tim Holtz is doing his 12 tags of Christmas again this year (bless you Tim!) It is 12 awesome tutorials on using many of the Ranger's/Adirondack/Stamper's Anonymous products which include distress inks, crackle paints, paint dabbers for paper crafts, etc. Each tag is Christmas themed and full of techniques and to die for ;) LOL! Gorgeous stuff, he is one of the most - if not the most, creative Stampers I have ever seen. OK 'nuf said.

Here is the link to day 3 which is what I worked on with my tag, however you can get to day 1,2 and today is day 4 etc. (Friday, Dec. 4th) by going to this link and clicking on the links at the top. I am showing this one because it is the one I did. He started doing this a couple years ago so over time I have bought nearly all of the products he uses so now this year I have no excuse but to try these techniques! This one is the plaid technique, using alcohol inks. Very easy actually. I made my tag similar to his and used the same color hardware he used but my tag was too dark and you couldn't see the hardware so I painted the pieces with white shimmer ink. My theme is "wish upon a star" and even put a little glitter in the star that is stamped on the tag. It looks cool, I even did a "Tim thing" and rubbed the ink off the tops of the brads to give it a worn look. The edges of the tag are sponged in black ink which decidedly the tag was once again too dark so then stamped the snowflake with lake colored paint dabber all around the edges on the black sponging. I didn't have white and lake is close, it is kind of an extremely light blue. The snow flakes actually look like the bleach stamping technique! All in all this is a departure from my clean, pretty and cute stuff but I like it. My plan is to do all of the techniques that I can but decided to start with this one. It's nice to get grungy every once in a while!

Snowman and Santa Boxes

Look at these cuties!!! I love them! This is the other project we made - once again we copied the project from some wonderful creative person who kindly shared it with all of us on the internet. Even my 7 year old son made them with us and he did an awesome job! They are boxes so you can put candy canes or candy bars or hot cocoa packets or whatever you like in them, the top of the box is open so you can use it as a decorative element too! Now it's your turn to make them and pass it on :)