Merry Monday #101

Check out this quick and easy Christmas card.  It went together super fast thanks to a couple of cheats.  ;)   I used the Simply Fabulous Simply Sent kit for the white die cut panel.

Next I pulled out my Christmas Lodge stamp set.   I'll be selling it soon, so I wanted to use it one last time.  The Merry Monday challenge chose the colors for me.  All I needed was a little pop of red.  To turn my basic rhinestones red I swiped my Copic R29 over the top and it was instantly turned into a ruby.  So easy!  Now I want to color all my rhinestones.  :)

MM#101

Not only did I get my creative juices flowing again, I have another card to add to my Christmas stash.  This would be a great card to mass produce and lays fairly flat for shipping.  No extra postage required.   There's no glitter on it, so it is also OWH safe.  In fact it might just go straight into my OWH Holiday pile. 

Stamps: Christmas Lodge (SU)

Ink: Versamark, Copic- R29
Paper: Simply Fabulous Simply Sent (SU), Smoky Slate

Misc.:  Silver Ribbon, Basic Rhinestones, Silver Embossing Powder

Simply Fabulous Simply Sent Kit

1/8" Silver Ribbon

Oh Christmas Tree

Last year my favorite holiday stamp set was Christmas Lodge.  I was so excited that SU kept it as a part of their annual catalog.  This year though it has sat lonely on my shelf.  I decided to pull it out and give it some ink for today's card.

I used two challenges to help me create this card.  The first was a sketch from Try Stampin' On Tuesday.  It's perfect for this nice big tree.

I was trying to decide which shade of green I should use for the tree and thought a color challenge might be in order.  This time of year it's pretty easy to find a Christmas color challenge, but most of them I found were in shades of blue.  Then I clicked on Color Throwdown's site and fell in love with their color combo this week!  It is perfect!

The only snag I ran into was the bow.  I wanted to use Baker's Twine, but all my twine uses White as a base. It was too stark against the crumb cake.  I tried linen thread, but it was so similar to the crumb cake that you couldn't really see it.  So, I took out my crumb cake ink pad, a sponge dauber and the Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine.  I placed the twine on my ink pad and with the sponge dauber pressing into the twine I pulled the strand across my ink pad.  I did this several times, turning the twine to get all the sides inked.  It worked pretty well.  I did let it dry for awhile, as my ink pad is super juicy.

The sentiment is embossed with black embossing powder and all the layers a sponged with crumb cake, except the black mats.  You could leave off some of those black mats, but I really like the look of all those layers.  :)

The banner is popped up using Dimensionals.  Mostly to get it to lay across the front of the card.

I like to decorate this inside of my cards to match the front.  Instead of embossing the greeting, this time I used Black Staz-On.

Creative Blessings,
Heather North

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Christmas Lodge
Ink: Crumb Cake, Gumball Green, Versamark, Staz-On
Paper: Crumb Cake, Basic Black, Fan Fair
Misc.: Black Embossing Powder, Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine

Christmas Duo

For my ACAD (A Card A Day) blog challenge we were asked to make a Christmas card using Non-traditional Christmas colors.  

The colors for my first card were chosen because they are this week's Dynamic Duo.  Color challenges are usually EXTREMELY challenging for me, but not this one.  Having just two colors actually helped me and challenged me to try 2 colors together I might not have.  I'm bookmarking this site, for sure!

My second card colors were inspired by one of the WCMD challenges.  I pulled together Bashful Blue and Pink Pirrouette to make the second card.  The Bashful Blue cardstock was run through the Big Shot using the Lacy Brocade embossing folder. 

Sorry about the photo quality.  I took these pictures at night and it is difficult to get good pictures at night with my camera.  My next investment is probably going to be a light box. 

Time for you to make a card using non-traditional Christmas colors.  What will you choose?

Creative Blessings,
Heather North


October Christmas Gift



Lacy Brocade Embossing Folder



Ornament Keepsakes Bundle



12 Months of Christmas 2-25-12

My 12 months of Christmas continues.  In case you are new to my blog, each month on the 25th I post the Christmas cards I made the previous month.  I figure if I make 4-10 cards each month on (or near) the 25th, then by the time December rolls around I will be well on my way to having a handmade Christmas card to send to each person on my Christmas list.

My plan is to film videos on most of these cards and show them to you in late Novemeber and early December so you can make them too.  If you want to get a head start on your Christmas cardmaking, feel free to draw some inspiration from my blog.  :)

Here is February's card. As you can hopefully see it uses a Z-fold.

It was hard to decide which colors to use, so I experimented with a couple.  Each card is a little different, but that is the beauty of handmade creations.

Here is the card open.

Whisper White as the base.

Another view of this interesting fold. Sorry about the glare, we actually had SUN when I took these pictures.  :)  A rare thing in the Pacific Northwest.

For my Cherry Cobbler card bases I added a journal panel so I could write a message

It will be so much easier to film a video than to type out how to make this card, so I think I will.  Think outside the box, and I'm sure you can find a stamp set in your stash to use for this fun Z-Fold card.

Card Recipe:
Stamp Sets: Christmas Lodge, Come to Bethlehem

Paper: Cherry Cobbler Textured Cardstock, Whisper White, Early Espresso, Letters to Santa Designer Series Paper

Misc. Cherry Cobbler Bakers Twine, Early Espresso Bakers Twine, Simply Scored Tool

Come to Behtlehem

Letters to Santa DSP

Simply Scored

Cherry Cobbler Bakers Twine

Early Espresso Bakers Twine

Creative Blessings,
Heather North