Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Season's Greetings

 

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Season's Greetings to all.

Happy Little Stampers December Stencil Challenge

It is time for a new stencil challenge at Happy Little Stampers.  The challenge is always Anything Goes.

I am making Christmas cards for the December Stencil challenge - in fact - you may see lots of Christmas cards next year for the stencil challenges.

I colored kraft card stock with oxide inks.  I have examples for three different colors for the backgrounds.

The stencil is from Simon Says Stamp.  On this one I used a white pigment ink through the stencil.  It really does not show that well so in the next cards you will see another way of adding the words.  I heat embossed the sentiment and matted it with kraft with a white snowflake underneath the sentiment.  It was all put on a kraft card base.

On this card I used an embossing paste.  It shows up more and also it is dimensional.

Here is the embossing paste on a dark blue oxide ink.

Here is it on a lighter color of oxide ink.  The dark colors do show off the words much better.

I hope you will join us at the December Stencil Challenge at Happy Little Stampers.  

Thanks for stopping by.  

December Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge

This is the last Christmas Challenge of the year.  Do you have all your Christmas cards ready for mailing this year.  If not, this challenge will help you make another card.  As always the challenge is Anything Goes but we do have an optional choice and this month it is Toys.

I went the Anything Goes route for my Christmas card.  I had a brand new stencil from Sweet Poppy.  These stencils are metal.  They are very durable but they are rough on your foam pads to adding the color.  I used a distress oxide for my color.  The image was matted with a glitter paper which matched perfectly.  How often does that happen that something in your supplies matches perfectly.  

The sentiment was cut from several layers of card stock and glitter paper to add some dimension.

Here is a close up of the sentiment and some of the beautiful detailing around that area of the ornament.

Please join us for our December Challenge at Happy Little Stampers.  

Thanks for stopping by.  

Masculine Birthday Card

 I have a "birthday project" ongoing this year and probably into next year - I want to provide enough birthday cards to the nursing home where my Mom spent the last few years of her life - for all the residents.  I keep plugging away at this project.

I had a beautiful grouping of paper from Authentique which I used for masculine cards.  The nursing home is located in a rural area of Wisconsin so the hunting theme is very appropriate for this area of the state.

The current challenge at Seize the Birthday is Hobbies and Pastimes. 

My card fits perfectly for many people who love to deer hunt.

Thanks for stopping by.

Addicted to Stamps Birthday Challenge

 I am playing along with the current challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More.  The current challenge is birthday.  Since I am working on my birthday project, I have a card to share.

For this card I just let the patterned paper do all the work.  I matted it with a coordinating color of card stock and added a birthday sentiment which I heat embossed.

Thanks for stopping by.  

Stencil Fun

 Today I am playing along with the current monthly challenge at CAS Mix Up Card Challenge.  The current challenge is Stencil Monoprint.  You start by inking the stencil, spritzing with water or shimmer spray.  You turn it over onto a clean piece of card that can take water, pressing down with a paper towel to absorb any excess ink. This gives you a negative image of your stencil.  Instead of coloring the design or image on a stencil, you are coloring the background.

This is a new stencil I had just bought so I wanted to try it out.  I got out my distress inks to try the monoprint technique.  On the first card, I colored the background paper by ink smooshing.  I used one color of ink on this card.  The sentiment was heat embossed on the card front which was die cut with a rectangle die and matted with a coordinating color of card stock.

This image was put on a pure white background.  The sentiment was heat embossed.

Thanks for stopping by.  These were very easy cards to make.  I even monoprinted on the envelopes for these cards.

Happy Little Stampers November Stencil Challenge

 It is November - how did that happen - but it is time for a new stencil challenge at Happy Little Stampers.  

The challenge is always Anything Goes.  So please go be wild and creative with your stencils.  You know they don't get enough use.

I chose to do a mixed media Christmas card using a Gina K stencil.  I first did some ink smooshing on the background with an oxide ink.  After that had dried, I took a stamp and stamped randomly on the background.  I then used a large snowflake stencil from Gina K and used gold embossing paste to add the snowflake to the front of the card.  

I cut the sentiment from black cardstock - layered up several layers of the sentiment to make it stand out more and added to the card front.   I first added a black mat and then a gold mat before adhering it to a card front.  After all of this, of course, I added gold and black splatters.

Here is a close up so you can see all the different layers on the card from the ink smooshing all the way to the splatters.

Please dig out your stencils and make a fun card to join the November Stencil Challenge at Happy Little Stampers.

November Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge

 Wow - Christmas is sneaking up pretty fast on us.  How is your card making for Christmas going?  Are you ready?  Have you started?  We have a new challenge at Happy Little Stampers to help you get a few more cards made for the holiday.  

The challenge at Happy Little Stampers is always Anything Goes but we do add an option if you want to try that.  This month it is Make a Scene.

I chose to do Anything Goes for my challenge card.  I actually made three cards because they were so easy to make.  The focal points on each of the card are images from Penny Black.  They come in a pack where each pack has different images.  You just need to add some matting and sentiment to make a wonderful card.

On  this card I matted the image with a narrow black card stock, a wide red mat and this was added to a kraft card base.  The sentiment was white heat embossed on red card stock.  Clear Stickles were added to the snow in the image.  

Here is a close up of the sparkles added with the Twinkles.

This card was done basically the same as the first card.

This image actually has a glow to it with the colors.  It was matted with a gold card base and then another layer of navy blue.  Sparkles were added to the snow in this picture also.

These were fun cards to make and easy so if you can find them to buy, I would do it.  

Please come play with us at Happy Little Stampers for the month of November.  

Happy Wednesday

 I am continuing to work on my Birthday Project.  I was out looking at The Graphics Fairy site and came across still beautiful blue floral image with the birds in the center and thought it looked like it belonged on a birthday card.  Later on I was looking at challenges to jump start my card making and came across the challenge at The Sisterhood of Crafters to use a wreath.  

I die cut the image with a rectangle stitched die, stamped and heat embossed the sentiment at the bottom of the card  I found some blue cardstock to mat the image.  I thought it looked a little naked on the white card front so I dug through my scraps and found the light blue paper so added a strip of it behind the matted image.  It picks up another shade of blue in the image.  I added gold Stickles to the center of the flowers.

Thanks for stopping by.  

Be Joyful

 Actually I am feeling a little joyful.  I found a little bag of gnomes all assembled, ready to be put on Christmas cards.  This sketch challenge at AAA cards was perfect for my little man.  

It is really hard for me to make CAS cards.  I have a hard time using a plain white background but in my background box I found this very faint background.  Hopefully it satisfied CAS card requirements and it did satisfy my need for "no totally white background".  The sentiment is from Tim Holtz.

I may use this design for some more Christmas cards since I have more gnomes already done.  This is a great sketch for him also.  

Thanks for stopping by.  

Oldie Moldie Monday

It is Monday - time to show some love for your old supplies.  I am continuing to work on my birthday challenge.  The paper is an old 6 x 6 pad from Authentique.  The truck and car are old stamps from Tim Holtz.  

 Thanks for stopping by.

Oldie Moldie Monday

 It is Monday time to show some love for your old supplies.  I was going through my smaller pads of paper getting them ready to donate.  Some of the paper starting talking to me so I had to make some cards from the paper before I donated the remainder of the pad.

Floral images were cut from the paper and added to more patterned paper to make the design for the next two cards.

These cards will also be donated to a nursing home.  Double donation from that pad of paper.

Remember to show some love for your old supplies.

Happy Everything

 Happy  Halloween.  Remember to not eat all the candy in one sitting.

I am playing along with the current challenge at The Paper Players.  Their current challenge is a Tic Tac Toe board.

I chose to do Circles, patterned paper and embossing.

I used patterned paper for my background and one of the circles.  The sentiment is heat embossed and the kraft cardstock on the leaf circle is dry embossed.   The leaf circle is a leftover ATC coin I made and I wanted to use it on a card.  This offered me the perfect opportunity.  

Thanks for stopping by.  

Oldie Moldie Monday

 It is Monday - time to show some love for your old supplies.

I was going through paper to donate to a nonprofit group and the paper starting talking to me.  I had to make cards before the paper pad was donated.

Here are the cards from one pad.

Remember to show some love for your old supplies  -  they still make beautiful cards and will bring a smile to someone's face.

Oldie Moldie Monday

 It is Monday, time to show some love for your old supplies.

I recently participated in an ATC swap where the theme was fall or Halloween.  I really do not do much with Halloween but I love fall and I love to use leaves.

I took a playing card and covered it with a tannish tissue paper using matte medium.  I added some gold gesso (old supply) to add background color.  The leaf images are from fabric which has little squares in it.  I cut out the squares and adhered Wonder under to them and added them to some card stock.  I inked around the edges.  The blue is also fabric from the same fabric panel.  I prepared it in the same manner as the leaf prints.  I glued them to the base.  I glued a small piece of torn bag to the base and then added the brown checked fabric (old) and the green fabric with glue.  The bow is some old twine from my supplies.  ATC's are always fun to make.

Remember to show some love for your old supplies.  They still make beautiful pieces of art.

Thanks for stopping by.

Clean and Simple Birthday Cards

 I am continuing to work on my Birthday Project - birthday cards for a nursing home.

Today I am playing along with current challenge at The Paper Players.  The challenge is for a clean and simple birthday card.  I made two this morning.  I have a container of colored images waiting to be made into cards.  I was able to make both a female and masculine card for the challenge.

Here is my feminine card.

Here is my masculine card.

Thanks for stopping by.  

Gel Print Meets Birthday Card

 The new challenge at Seize the Birthday is to use a stencil.  I went and looked through my background box and found a gel print where I had used a leafy branch stencil on.  It made a great mini slimline birthday card.

Here is a close up.  You can see all the different layers.  I outlined the leaves with two different shades of colored pencil to give them a little more definition.

I am working on my Birthday Project and wanted to make a masculine card and I believe this gel print worked great.

Thanks for stopping by.  

Birthday Butterfly

I have been working on my "birthday project" this last year.  I want to make birthday cards for all the residents at the nursing home where my Mom resided at the end of her life.  They took such good care of her and I want to do something special for the residents.  I need to call and find out approximately number of residents and approximate number of male and females.

For my card today I used the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  

For my card I used a butterfly from a stamp set by My Favorite Things.  One day I just stamped the butterflies in many different color combinations so I can just grab one or two to use on a card.  I also went to my box of backgrounds and found this lovely pink background.  I stamped the sentiment on a scrap of the same background paper, and added a strip of black cardstock to the sentiment banner.  The small black and white circle was cut from My Favorite Things paper.  They have a black and white dot collection and also a black striped collection of paper.  I think they are must haves in your card making supplies.  The butterfly was added with foam to give it a little dimension.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  

Happy Birthday Sunflowers

 October has many birthdays with my family and friends.  I was smart this time and made the same card twice to help myself out in creating.

I was gifted a lovely sunflower stamp by a friend.  The stamp is from Unity Stamps.  She knows I love to create with sunflowers.  

I first added some light color to my background (watercolor paper) with some ink smooshing.  I then placed my stamp in my misty and started layering different colors to get the look I wanted. (I do wish I would have used brighter colors of inks rather than the oxide inks.  I added some gold splatter.

I decided to make the card into a flat shaker card.  I dug in my box of beads, sequins, etc looking for anything looking for golds, yellows, orange and browns.  I came up with a good assortment.  I like how festive it makes your card feel.  Luckily it is going in a package so I don't have to worry about the post office destroying it.  

Here is the card laying flat so you can see the shaker bits scattered over the top of the card.

I am entering the card into the current challenge at The Sisters of Crafters where the current challenge is Happy Birthday.  I think I nailed the challenge.

Thanks for stopping by.