2014 Christmas Card #6

~~~Don't forget about my 200,000 blog hit giveaway, win a~~~

$25 Simon Says Stamp Gift Card (See details here). 

This is one of my favorite cards. I love the simple scene and soft colors. It has tons of heat embossing, which happens to be one of my favorite techniques. 

The papers are from the Simon Says Stamp November Card Kit. The stamp set is one I purchase quite a while ago from Close to My Heart but never used it is called Captured Moments. It is retired, but there are a few for sale on etsy.com or ebay.com. I embossed the image at the bottom of this snow flake paper from Lawn Fawn's Snow Day paper pad. Using pink cardstock from the kit, I embossed the sentiment from another old Close to My Heart stamp set called Holiday Commentary, again retired, using Ranger's Liquid Platinum embossing powder that came in the kit. 

 I cut a banner tail on the end of the pink paper and added an enamel accent from the My Mind's Eye Jubilee collection.

I wanted a metallic mat for the image, but I didn't have any paper that matched the embossed sentiment, so I added a thick layer of the Liquid Platinum embossing powder around a piece of heavy-weight scratch paper. I then layered my scene on top of this and popped this entire piece up on teal cardstock. 

I added this whole piece to the front of a white A2 card blank. I finished by adding stitch lines with my Signo Uni-ball white gel pen to the sentiment banner. 

I hope you are enjoying the 2014 Christmas Card series. I have several more cards to share, even my first attempt at a shaker card (not sure how successful I was). I hope you are getting inspired to create something for you friends and family.

Have a wonderful day and happy crafting.

Dana

2014 Christmas Card #5

~~~Don't forget about my 200,000 blog hit giveaway, win a~~~

$25 Simon Says Stamp Gift Card (See details here). 

I have another card today made with the November 2014 Simon Says Stamp Card Kit. 

Using the Be Joyful stamp set, I heat embossed the snowflakes on white cardstock with white embossing powder. I did the same for the trees using green embossing powder on a heavy-weight white cardstock. I've had the green embossing powder in my stash forever and I have no idea what brand. I don't think it is great quality, as you can see it didn't emboss smoothly, but I kind of like it for this card. gives the trees a bit of dimension. #happyaccidents

I then fussy cut the trees and hand cut a couple of snow banks from white cardstock. Using Distress Ink in Broken China, Evergreen Bough, and Peacock Feathers, I created the sky portion of the card.

I stamped the greeting from the Be Joyful stamp set on one of the "snowy hill" pieces. I layer the back "hill" flat to the cardstock. I added the back tree on top of that. Then I adhered the front "hill" using foam squares. I glued the bottom half of the front tree to the "hill" and used foam squares to adhere the top half of the tree to the sky.  The kit came with a package of enamel accents by My Mind's Eye called Jubilee. I adhered one of the hearts (let's be honest, to cover an inking mishap) above the greeting. Again #happyaccident

I adhered my scene to a piece of white cardstock that was slightly larger than my focal piece. I then popped this up on a 4 x 5 1/4 piece of tree card stock from the kit and then adhere that to a piece of Riding Hood Red cardstock from Stampin' Up. Christmas Red Stickles ornaments were the finishing touch.

I hope you have a wonderful day and happy crafting.

Dana

2014 Christmas Card #4

~~~Don't forget about my 200,000 blog hit giveaway, win a~~~

$25 Simon Says Stamp Gift Card (See details here). 

Today's card features products from the Simon Says Stamp November Card Kit. It is a standard A2 card using patterned paper from the card kit. The paper is Snow Day by Lawn Fawn.

I stamped the tree image and all of the ornaments from Lawn Fawn's Trim the Tree stamp set onto Copic X-Press It Blending Card. I colored the tree and each ornament with Copic Markers. I used an awesome holiday stamp by Stampendous called Holiday Words to create the sentiment. What I love about this set is that all the words are separate, yet each has it's own character that allows you to build interesting sentiments. 

I fussy cut each ornament and adhered it to the tree. I set this aside and cut the background piece with one of my Spellbinders Label Nestabilities dies. I used my white Signo Uniball pen to add stitching. Next, I added the strip of beautiful snowflake paper to the left side of the card.

Using my Sakura Stardust gel pen, I add a bit of shimmer to the ornaments and a few Sakura Metallic pens to add "lights" to the tree.

I finished off by adding sequins trailing down the left side. These are also from the Simon Says Stamp Card Kit and faux stitching around the sentiment using the blue Metallic Sakura pen.

This was my first time using many of these products and I love them. 

I hope you have a wonderful day and happy crafting,

Dana

2014 Christmas Card #3

Giving is always the best part of the Holidays. Today's card features Mimi and her friend exchanging gifts from the Penny Black's Christmas with Mimi stamp set and papers from My Mind's Eye 12 Days of Christmas 6 x 6 paper pad.

I stamped the image with Momento Tuxeo Black ink and colored it using my Copic Markers. I matted the image using patterned paper. I attached a piece of blue patterned paper to a standard 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 A2 card base created with Neenah Desert Storm cardstock from Simon Says Stamp. I cut banner ends in a few strips of patterned paper and added them under my sentiment.

I used sequins from the Simon Says Stamp November 2014 card kit to add flurries to the left side of the card. 

I just love these Mimi stamps. They are so fun to color. Stay tuned for the next card in my 2014 Christmas Card series. 

Don't forget about my 200.000 blog hit give away, $25 Simon Says Stamp Gift Card (See details here). 

Hope you have a great day and happy crafting.

Dana

Supplies:

Momento Tuxedo Black

Penny Black's Christmas with Mimi

Neenah Desert Storm

Copic Markers

SSS Sequins Snowdrift

2014 Christmas Card #2

~~Don't forget about my 200,000 blog hit giveaway, win a~~~

$25 Simon Says Stamp Gift Card (See details here). 

UPDATE: This stamp set is available at Simon Says Stamp.

This is one of my favorite stamps sets. It's from Impression Obsession and it is called Let it Snow. I'm not sure you can purchase it any longer, but I can't make a set of holiday cards without using it on at least one card. I colored the image with my Copic markers and added Diamond Stickles to the snowmen.

All of the patterned paper and cardstock is form the Simon Says Stamp November 2014 card kit.

I used my spellbinders snowflake die and circle dies for this card.

Finally, I popped everything up on foam tape and called it complete. This card just sparkles in real life.

Thank you for stopping by and happy crafting.

Dana

Christmas Card Series Coming

I just ordered a bunch of Christmas stamps and dies from Simon Says Stamp. They should be arriving today. This weekend will be all about cards. I haven't made cards in a while. I didn't even make cards last Christmas and I felt bad for that. So this year, I'm going to go all out. The plan is to try new techniques, work with new tools, to just think outside the box. Since I don't have a ton to make, I can spend a little extra time on each. I guarantee no two cards will be alike. I cannot mass produce cards. It goes against my DNA. If a customer asks for a set of duplicate cards, I can do it, but I get bored very quickly (I think the ADD takes over after the first card, which sparks ideas for a new card. Since I am mass producing, that idea has to wait. Then the second card in the duplicate set sparks even more ideas, etc. By the time I am finished, my head is just swimming with so many ideas I'm about to burst.) Sorry, I digress.

OK, back to the Christmas cards. I will post one card a day until I run out of cards to post or Christmas arrives. Not sure which will be first. The fun part will be that my friends and family will see them, but not know which card they will receive. So, they get to enjoy all the cards and guess which belongs to them. (I'm sneaky that way).

To add to the fun, I won a surprise package from DCWV. I have no idea what will be in the package (even more exciting), but I'm sure there will be wonderful products I can use.

So stay tuned, lots of fun project shares to come. I might even get brave and do a video or two. We will just have to see how it all works out.

Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting,
Dana