Christmas cards

I have a few Christmas cards to share with you.  Yes, I said Christmas - it's not too early to start.  If you do a few each week, you'll be ready when the hectic holidays arrive!

This card is so simple to make.  I did a watercolor swish on a panel of watercolor paper.  I watered down the ink from my reinkers and used my Aqua Pen to paint the 3 colors.  I stamped the ornament from Sparkly Seasons onto Vellum paper and punched it out.  Next the "falala" was punched out from the thinklets in red glitter paper and applied over the ornament.  The final touch was the Red Pom Pom trim stapled in the corner.  Really easy!

This is a set we received at convention - Your Presents.  

Another card using Sparkly Seasons stamp set but this time as a snow globe with a snowman inside.  The DSP is from the paper stack, Merry Moments.

This card uses the Woodlands embossing folder.  I love it!!  This time I embossed onto Smoky Slake and used my dauber to highlight the trees in white craft ink.

Sleigh Ride Edgelits

I have been having fun with the stamp sets, framelits, punches, DSP, etc. from the Holiday Mini Catalog.  There are so many great sets and bundles in this catalog.  But one item I do not want to ever be without is on page 43 - the Fine Tip Glue Pen.  OMG!!  It is fabulous!  I used it earlier on a swap I am making to run a fine line of glue and put glitter on a flower.  So much easier than anything else I have used.  I suggest you put that on your list of things you have to have from this catalog!!

Here are a couple of cards I have made using the Sleigh Ride Edgelits (pg 12).  They were on my list from the beginning and I love them.

For this card, I cut the Santa apart and adhered it under the Vellum that I embossed snowflakes in sliver.   The "jingle" sentiment is from Jingle All the Way which is bundled with the Sleigh Ride Edgelits.

On this card, I sponged the Tip Top Taupe with white ink to tone it down a bit.  I did the trees in Mint Macaron and the embossed sky (using a new embossing folder - Softly Falling, pg. 24) is Pool Party. I mounted the whole card onto Lost Lagoon.  I like the varying shades of blue and green.

These are the bundles available in the Holiday Mini:

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If you are putting an order in on-line, please use my Hostess Code for this month  - TPJ9XSDC

If you are interested in the Paper Pumpkin Deal, TODAY is the last day to take advantage of the HALFPRICE deal!


There are some great items for this week's Weekly Deals - I don't know about you, but I can always use some pearls!  And the sequins will go great in a Halloween Shaker card!  And what about that silver ribbon and glimmer paper?  Great for the holiday stamping!

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New items have been added to the Clearance Rack this week also.  Remember, these items can be used for your club order too.

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Paper Craft Crew Challenge

Here is the card I made for the Paper Craft Crew Challenge this week.  (Yay!  I remembered to submit it AND to blog about it!!)

Here is the sketch:

Check out the other cards made by the Design Team HERE.

Holiday Lodge MDS Christmas Card

I spent a lot of time last week working on My Digital Studio finishing up some projects.  I have made calendars (several different ones), tags, journals, cards, etc.  This time of year is when MDS is a life saver for me.  I designed all my pages for MDS Monday so I won't have to worry about that the next couple of weeks.  I even made the cards for the rest of the month for Paper Craft Crew's blog.  I made my card last week but forgot to put it on the site!  Here is last week's card - better late than never!:

I love using the traditional red and green colors.  The house is a retired stamp called Holiday Lodge. It really is a pretty one.

Christmas Stamp a Stack 2014

I've been busy getting ready for my Christmas Card Stamp a Stack which is Saturday.  I still have a couple of seats left if you are interested.  But I need to know ASAP so I can get your supplies cut out!!  Here are the cards to choose from:

Endless Wishes

Festival of Trees

Star / Joy

Holiday Home

JOY

Lovely Trees

Bright and Beautiful Stars

Wondrous Wreath

White Christmas

Snowman

Gentle Peace

Let Earth Receive

Little Letter Thinlets

I really like Stampin' Up's Little Letters Thinlets.  They are easy to use - especially with the Magnetic Platform and the Big Shot.  And they are a good size without taking up the whole card.  They are just 3/4" high.  I used them to make both of the cards below.

For this card, I used the negative are of the letters to spell out JOY.  The DSP is from the stack of decorative paper that is in the Holiday Catalog and the little pine cones are from Lovely As A Tree. The embossing folder is actually one I've had before SU came out with their Stylish Stripes.  They are both almost exactly alike.  I really like the traditional red, white and green in this card.

For this card, I embossed the white card with the Stars embossing folder (Holiday Catalog).  I punched the star using the Itty Bitty Accents Pack.  The word "season" is from Everyday Occasions Photopolymer - one of my "go to" stamps for Christmas.  The strip of DSP is from the stack in the Holiday Catalog.

Suspended Festival of Trees

Whew!  Just finished pulling the Steelers through to a Monday Night win against Houston Texans.  We didn't look so good at the beginning of the game and let Houston score on us twice right off the bat with a touchdown and a field goal.  Even the fans at Heinz Field were booing their team!  But then the Steelers woke up and got three touchdowns and a field goal in less than three minutes at the end of the second quarter to turn a poor start and a 13-0 deficit into a 24-13 halftime lead.  I was whooping and hollering with Sammie trying to sleep on my lap.  She didn't know what was going on!!  We ended up winning with a score of 30-23.

Here is another "suspended" card using the Festival of Trees this time.  You can get the directions for the basics to making the card from yesterday's post.

Don't let my husband tell you he doesn't like cats!  Check this out:

Suspended Stars

Happy Monday!  I had a nice relaxing weekend.  Sonny and I went to the movies on Friday and saw The Judge.  It was very good - I would recommend it.  Saturday night we went to some friends house and played cards.  And Sunday, I got a lot of Christmas cards made.  I still have a lot to go but at least it is a start.

This is a fun card.  I guess you could call it Suspended Stars.  The starts are suspended between the top and bottom pieces of cardstock (which is covered with DSP). This card uses the stamp set, Bright and Beautiful.

Suspended Star Card

Inside of card

You cut your card base at the normal 5.5" x 8.5"; then trim it down to 5.5" x 5.75" and score at 4.75".  From the piece that is left over, cut a strip at 1.5" x 5.5" for the bottom.  Stamp your star and adhere it at the top to the top piece of cardstock and to the strip that you cut for the bottom.  The star holds the top and bottom together.

I have made a similar card to this one using Festival of Trees which I will share with you later.

Christmas Fun Fold

Brrr was what we were saying this morning!  A cold front moved into our area Friday night.  Yesterday was a beautiful fall day - crisp and cool!  Loved it!  We opened all our windows and about 5:00 pm, we were shutting all of them because we were both really cold!!  This morning I think it was in the 40s when we got up and the temps were in the 50s all day.  But I think it is going to be short lived.  The rest of the week I think it will be in the 70s which is ok with me.  We are going to Pittsburgh later this week and I'm sure it will be pretty cool there too.

Saturday was National Cardmaking Day.  I tried to get Sonny to come up and make a card with me but I wasn't successful!!  But I made several cards.  I found this fun fold card on Sandy Hancock's blog.  It was made by Cheryl LeFore.  She used All Is Calm DSP and I changed it up and used the Trim the Tree DSP stack.

Here are the instructions if you want to make one:
Cut base cardstock (Real Red for mine) 8"x 8".  Use the Simply Scored Diagonal Plate and score all four sides at 3".  Cut out the small triangles where the score lines criss-cross.  Flip the cardstock over.  Use the regular Score Board and score at 1" on all four sides to the triangle.  Fold the large flaps in toward the center and fold the small flaps in the opposite direction.  Decorate with DSP.  Trim one end of DSP diagonally and adhere to the small flap.  Close the card clockwise and place the fourth flap under the first flap.  (Note:  I may have done mine backwards because I had to close the card counter clockwise to get it to work.  Just try it and see what works for you.)

Belly Band:  3/4" x 9 3/8" cardstock.  Score at 1/2", 5/8" and 5-1/8".  Decorate.  (since the DSP stack is not long enough to go around the belly band, I cut two pieces and put one on top and one on bottom.)


I found out today that the vintage scrapbook page I made this week for MDS Monday was selected as a challenge winner.  I loved that page with the picture of my mom.  Check out the nice comments and the other challenge winner HERE.

Our house guest is still entertaining us!  Sammie loves my Stampin' Up boxes and I always keep one in the family room for her to curl up in.  Well, of course now Bogart wants the box and I know if I put another one out, they wouldn't have anything to do with it.  So they just have to take turns!

Whose turn is it?

Where are you Sammie?  Lookie - I'm in your box!

I'll show that white cat whose box this is!

 Today I caught them exchanging cat kisses!!

Just hanging out!  Bogie thinks he's king of the mountain on the scratching post!

I really goofed up this week though!  When I cleaned out the litter box on Thursday, I mistakenly put the lid on backwards .... the lid with the hole that they go in to do their business.  Sonny noticed it Friday I think and fixed it.  He told me about it and we checked around but didn't find any surprises UNTIL I was folding the laundry on Saturday.  The laundry basket had been in the laundry room and I carried it up to our room to fold the clothes.  Normally, I just dump it out on our bed.  Well, glad I didn't this time!  Guess where they did their business?   As I was reaching in to pull some clothes out, my fingers touched something squishy .... ugh!  I couldn't blame them but I did wonder why they were both sniffing around the laundry basket when I brought it upstairs!  So, yesterday I got to do the laundry all over again!  Never a dull moment with these cats!

Watercolor Winter Kit

I have found the best deal ever in the SU Holiday Catalog!  It is the Watercolor Winter Simply Created Kit (page 37).  With this kit and a few stamps (that you might have on hand or you can purchase), you can make at least 20 cards.  I made a lot more than that and just used additional card stock that I had on hand for the card bases.  The kit includes 20 cards, envelopes, die-cut letters and shapes, linen thread, watercolor brush and cardboard accents - all for just $24.95.  

At Convention this summer I attended a specialty class where we were able to play with the new Card Kit.  I loved this class and getting to work with the watercolor projects.  (I used a few drops of reinkers mixed with water to do the watercoloring.)  When I came home, I just had to finish all the cute cards.  The kit has enough stuff to make 5 each of 4 different card designs.  However, I didn't want the same cards so I decided to see what else I could make with it. As you can see (below), there is so much you can do with this kit and I still have stuff left over!!  These are the different cards I made with the kit.  I think I have made a total of 30 cards with the kit.  I also used the stamp set, Watercolor Winter Too.  (pg 37 - $11.95).

Stamp Club Cards

I had Stamp Club this week and we made these cards:

Our first Christmas card!

This was such an easy card to make!  The sentiment is from Everyday Wishes which will be available to order from the Holiday Catalog in about a week.  It was offered last year and I purchased it then so I was happy to see that it was carried over to the Holiday Catalog.  The strips of DSP and the yarn are retired.  The Cherry Cobbler Sweater Trim has been on the Clearance Rack for a long time.  But I just checked and this color is gone but Gumball Green is still available for $3.59.  First I used the Mosaic Punch to punch the ornament shape into a piece of Silver Glimmer paper and then used the 1 3/4" Circle Punch to punch out the circle shape.  The pretty Cherry Cobbler 1" Sheer Linen Ribbon is also from the Holiday Catalog.  It ties like a dream!

Flower Frenzy Die

 I won this Flower Frenzy Bigz Die at the Late Night Stampers event in Salt Lake City.  It makes a really cute flower.  The dots are stamped in white ink with a stamp from Kinda Eclectic.  The "happy birthday" sentiment is from another photopolymer stamp - Endless Birthday Wishes.  It is not in the catalog but is available for sale for $13.95.  It is a very versatile stamp for birthdays.

Endless Birthday Wishes - #137553

Kinda Eclectic

I was given this stamp set at Convention - Kinda Eclectic.  I have seen a lot of cards made using this stamp.  I used all the new In Colors on this card!  And the inside .....is a detachable bookmark!

Kinda Eclectic card - opened to reveal a bookmark

I cut the Mossy Meadow card stock 5.5" x 10.5".  Score it at 4.5".  Perforate a score line at 8.5".  Click HERE to watch a video showing you how to make a similar card:

I had a Card in a Box planned for us to make but one of the gals who wanted to do that card was unable to attend so we will do it next month.  Instead I substituted the next card.

The final card we made uses a darling hostess stamp set Hello Love.  You can only get this set by being a hostess at one of my clubs or by hostessing your own workshop.  (I would love to do a workshop for you!)  I try not to purchase many of the hostess sets each year for my own use but this year, I will be breaking that rule for sure!  I already have two of them and have my eye on a couple of more!  They are so cute.  Another feature of this card is the DSP.  I used Back to Black  (pg 187) and used my Blendabilities to color the DSP.  It is so cool and you can coordinate your DSP to your card!

This is the front of the card with a 1 3/4" circle punched so you can see the bird.

I used the lightest Melon Mambo Blendabilities to color the DSP.

This is the inside of the card.  This is a small 4" x 4" card with Melon Mambo as the backing for the white card.

Here are two strips of Back to Black DSP - one is colored with the dark Melon Mambo Blendability and the other with the light Calypso Coral.