Christmas Cut...

...haircut, actually.  I wanted to do a little something for my hairdresser, so I went to my craft room and started to create.  Here is what I came up with. 

The candy purse holds 3 caramel Hershey kisses.  (Super Yummy!  I had to sample to make sure they were OK to gift) 

I stamped the images in Versamark for a subtle background.  Then added Red Glimmer paper to bling it up. 

The card is a lovely compliment to the candy purse.  I debated on using red glimmer paper, but it was a little too much red for the card.  Instead I used some Dazzling Diamonds glitter to make the snow sparkle.

I hope she likes it!  Looking forward to getting my hair done today.

Blessings of Service

Making cards has always been a challenge for me.  Scrapbooking comes so much easier for some reason, but I have found that practice is making it easier.  One of the blessings of making cards is that when I find a design I love it is easy to recreate it and customize it to the person I am making it for.  That is the case with this card.  (see "backstory" below for more details) I truly love this style of card using the Scallop Square die in my Cuttlebug. 

 Inside of the card with a custom made envelope.    (You always do the nicest things)

To make this card, cut a piece of paper to 4 1/2 in" by 8 1/2" and fold the paper in half.  Next place the  card onto the scallop square die, being sure that the folded edge of cardstock is below the scallops and the other three sides of cardstock covered the scallop edges. 

 Scallop Square Die  (that hole in the center comes in handy, you just poke your finger through after you run your die through the machine and your cut paper pops right out!)

Can you see how I lined up the folded card stock?  I took this picture with green paper so you can see it, but the original card was done in black cardstock. 

Picture below shows how the folded edge is just below where the die will cut.  This way you keep your folded edge.  Run through your die cutting machine (I have a cuttlebug). 

Next layer a piece of green cardstock, another of white, and a 3rd layer of green cardstock. The top layer is stamped with versamark and heat embossed with Black Embossing Powder.
Then take versamark and stamp several "thank you stamps" on the cardfront to add a thankful background.
For an added touch, punch each of the corners with a ticket corner punch and wrap a 5" piece of ribbon with a knot in the middle around the front. 

Backstory-  My son received a HUGE blessing at youth group a couple of weeks ago.  The youth pastor wanted to honor the kids for their service as a way to show them that God honors their service to/for Him.  As part of that evening they gave away a couple of prizes.  Our son, Michael, was chosen to receive a BRAND NEW XBOX 360!!!!  I was blown away!  He definitely wanted to express his thanks, so I asked him how he wanted this thank you card designed.  He said black, white and green because those are the XBox color.  The card above is what I came up with.  Thank you Stephen and LeeAnn Franklin for your service to our kids and thank you Oakville Assembly for placing such a high priority on our youth.

Mistake or Creative Embellishment?

What is the difference between a beginner and experienced scrapbooker?  A beginner makes mistakes, while a seasoned scrapbooker makes "opportunities for embellishment".  ;)  Ok, I still make tons of mistakes, but I am trying to turn them into something I like instead of just starting over.  Can you spot the mistake in the picture above?  How about in the picture below?

Hopefully not.  :)  I trimmed one picture too much, another not enough, and two mats too small.  I didn't want to trim all of them down, so instead I added some twine to all 3 pictures in the bottom left page.  It turned out to be a darling effect I wouldn't have achieved if I had done it "perfectly" to begin with.  The picture on the right is the only one I did the way I intended.  I almost gave up after messing up 3 times in a row, but instead I turned it into something I like better than the original plan.

On the right hand side my biggest mistake is covered up.  See that little tab?  If you pull on the tab you will see my journaling.  It didn't turn out pretty, so I just tucked it behind the photo.  My family and friends can pull it out to read it, but it looks much better tucked away. Originally all four pictures were going to be the same size, but I used the mats I had cut short and trimmed the top 2 photos to fit, giving me more room for that tab.  Again, I like the look better than if they had all four been the same size.

One last look at the two page spread.  What do you think?  Mistakes or Creative Embellishments?

Cricut Bling

Getting together with friends to scrapbook is one of the joys of my life.  We talk, laugh, cry and share.  When a few friends got together last month to scrapbook there was some serious sharing going on.  I brought my Cricut Expressions machine and all my cartridges, but mostly used the FABULOUS cart that Cindy brought.  (Sorry I don't remember the name)   I ended up using her cartridge on every page I made that day. 

When I made this page I wanted just a little something extra.  I was going to cut a snowflake, but somebody else was already using the cartridge (it was a POPULAR cartridge that day) I needed so I dug around in my stash and found these sparkly snowflakes.  They were the perfect touch to the title.  

Here is the two page spread.  I carried the snowflakes over to the second page.

Thanks again, Cindy, for sharing the gift Twyla gave you.  Thank you to Louise and Sharen for getting us together. 

Stampede Challenge #3

Joan asked me if I would be interested in being a guest designer for her monthly challenge.  I was so honored!  Who would have thought somebody would want to see my creations that isn't related to me?
Boy was this one a challenge.  The sketch was easy to work with, but the colors were more difficult.   River Rock is one of my least favorite Stampin' Up colors, but it is growing on me. Strangely enough it was getting the 2 blues to match up with the 2 nuetrals that caused me difficulties.  I love a challenge though.  I always learn something. 

Here is the Challenge



Here is my take on the sketch.  I tried to stay pretty close to the original sketch and colors for my first try.  You can see my second attempt HERE where I went completely Christmas, turned the sketch on it's side and used different colors.  (What a rebel!)

I did add a (Basic Grey Satin) ribbon knot to the card.

I couldn't leave the card like that though because it was "screaming" for some black brads up in the left hand corner.   While I was at it I added some stickles for a little sparkle, though it's hard to see in the picture. Which do you like best? 

 The inside of the card has a mat of River Rock patterned paper that I uses on the front.  I like the look of a dark background base, so I often add a light mat on the inside of the card for the greeting.

The best part of this card is that River Rock patterned paper.  I had it in a mat stack I bought WELL before moving up here to WA.  It was the one paper in that stack I thought I would never use, and it was PERFECT for this challenge.  Now I kind-of wish I had more of it because it is a nice soft neutral.

If you would like to play along, head on over to Joan's Daily Stampede and submit your card/scrapbook page or just look at what others are doing with this challenge.

Merry Christmas Sneak Peek

Tomorrow I will be showing you a card I made as a guest designer for Joan's Daily Stampede December Challenge, but today I wanted to give you a sneak peek of a second card I made using the sketch from her challenge as my inspiration. (I'm delaying posting until after midnight Joan's time, so I don't break the rules.  I want to be asked to design for her again.  :)

 I turned the sketch on it's side and changed all the colors to make a Christmas card. 

The second picture shows a close up of some of the details.  I used clear embossing powder to make the snowflake pattern you see popping out behind the image of the house.  I tried to use my white gel pen to make the snow stand out on the roof, but my gel pen was not cooperating.  (I suppose that is what happens when you don't use it for 8+ months...time for a new one)  That's when I pulled out my glue pen and Dazzling Diamonds fine glitter to make the sparkle.

I'll post the picture and details of the actual challenge after it goes live on Joan's website, so check back.  Now for the important decision, who should I send this Christmas card to?   It looks pretty good on my dining room table until I decide.

Sandi has asked for dimensions on this card, and I thought I would share them here.  Basically I stamped the main image, matted that, and then played around with the other layers until it looked right.  You can custom this to match any stamps/paper you have, but here is mine if you would like to copy it exactly...

Dimensions:Card  (A2) 5 1/2 x 4 1/4
Base (Floral Design Paper): 5 1/4 x 4
Very Vanilla (Stamped Image) 3 1/2 x 2 1/2,  Early Espresso Mat: 3 3/4 x 2 3/4
Early Espresso with clear embossed snowflakes: 4 1/2 x 2
Stripe Layer: 3 3/4 x 1 3/4, Early Espresso Mat: 3 7/8 x 1 7/8  *tip* I brought the striped layer down so that it was in line with the Base layer, and the early espresso mat kind-of melts into that background card layer. 

Stampede Birthday

My SU! demonstrator, Joan, had a birthday recently.  I wanted to send her a special card, because she has taught me so much about card making, even though we have never met in person.  Here is what I came up with.

My favorite part of this card is the tiny tags.  On the flower image I colored the stamp with markers, stamped off, then dabbed a little bit of ink in a few places and stamped my image.  I just LOVED the look.  

This card uses all Stampin' Up! products, because I was sending it to a SU! Demo, and because they all worked so well together.

Stamps: Artistic Etchings, Tiny Tags
Paper: Blueberry Crisp DSP, Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla, Pacific Point, Early Espresso
Ink: Pacific Point, Sahara Sand, Early Espresso
Misc.:  Taffeta Ribbon, Twine, Button, Decorative Label Punch, Jewelry Tag Punch, Ribbon Slot Punch (Retired, not sure that is the real name, I bought it many years ago)

Make Two, Give One

In 2010 I gave myself a challenge to make all the cards I gave out that year, unless I already had them.  My goal was to not buy any cards, and hopefully improve my skills in cardmaking.  I also wanted to use up my ever growing stash of paper, stickers, brads, ribbons and other miscellaneous embellishments. 

One thing I found very helpful was to make 2 cards at a time and give one away.  That way I would have an extra on hand for those times I needed a quick card or didn't have time to make a new one.  If I made a card that I really liked I would often make 3 or 4.

Fast forward to today.  Micheal needed a birthday card for his friend, and I didn't have time to make one.  I went digging through my stash and found my favorite young man card I have ever made.  I think I made at least half a dozen of these in 2010, but I still had one left.  Hope he likes.  Michael didn't even know this boy back in 2010, so it will be new for him. 

To make this card I tore several different pieces of cardstock in various "camo" colors, making sure to leave the edges rough.  Next I layered these pieces onto a piece of white cardstock, making sure to leave some white showing.  (If you are making several of these, you can just adhere it to a large piece of cardstock, and then trim down.)

After I had the camo look I wanted, I trimmed down the white cardstock to 3 3/4 x 5.  The sentiment in the middle was cut out using my Cricut, and cut again using the shadow feature.  I used brads through the top of the tags to add some metal to the card.  I then mounted the "white" cardstock to a black mat.  (4 x 5 1/4)  Allt his was adhered to my white card base.  It really is super simple and easy.  I think I used my xyron to adhere all the different elements, except the brads, but it has been so long now, I'm not 100% sure. 

There is just something about this card I love.  It's been sitting in my craft room for a couple of weeks and each time I see it I smile.  Perhaps it is the blue and white combo.  It may be the silky white ribbon or the darling key charm.   That soft blue pearl in the center of the flower is a nice touch too.  It could just be all the details that seem to flow together for me.
 
The inspiration for this card came from a Christmas card I saw on the internet. I thought it was a fun shape, so I decided to make something similar.

It's time for another sketch challenge on Joanie's blog.  This time she really challenged us with a sketch AND color challenge. 




The sketch is a fun one, especially if you have a patterned paper pack or double sided paper to use on a card because it lends itself to using 2 different patterns. 

Honestly, I love the color combo, but I don't have any patterned paper nor many of the inks in these colors. That certainly made it a challenge, but I rose to it.  (or at least I tried)  It's certainly not one of my best works, but it did stretch me.

I ended up using some CM patterned paper that I found in my stash.  It was lighter than the SU colors, but coordinated pretty well.

I addeed some glitter to my stamped images to "bling it up".

 This adorable little "key" charm was a fun find from "Shipwreck Beads" up in Lacey, WA.   They have so many unique items from beads, to charms, to chains, to wires and most anything you would need to make jewelry or add embellishments to almost any project.