Birds of a feather...

I've been busy in my crafting area lately, having fun making mostly Christmas cards. Here are two that I recently completed.

This first one was made with some scraps from my stash. The back layer is made with an off-white piece cut to 4.5x5.5 and the red piece is 2.25x5.5 I then layered the front piece- cut to 4.25x5.25 on top. The bird (Young Vermillion by Stampin Up!) was stamped on bristol paper and coloured with copics. The wreath was made out of three shades of green cardstock punched with the Martha Stewart pine punch. I ran double sided tape on the back to attach the pine boughs. 

This one was stamped on bristol as well and then coloured with copics. It's hard to tell from the photo, but I have also added some glitter to the snow on the branches. This is one of my favourite cardinal stamps.

A little bit of inspiration

On a recent trip to the States, I picked up a new nestabilities die that I really loved the look of. It was an impulse, and I had a few ideas floating around in my head, but when I was checking out the galleries at Splitcoast Stampers, I came across a stunning card by Kittie, I took a closer look on her blog and was inspired to try it.

I made two attempts:

 The red was my first attempt- I cut out the frame using the nestabilities die and then hand cut the centre out os that the embossed background was behind. I then cut out the poinsettia using my boss kut die. There was a slight imperfection, so I added the sentiment.

The white poinsettia was cut out using a shiny white paper. It was a tad too stark so I rubbed some tea dye distress ink on it to tone down the white a bit. Instead of putting the frame on the embossed background, I cut out the embossed background and attached it to the frame. I love the simplicity of this card, and have a feeling that I am going to be creating many more along this same line.

Day off well spent

I was able to take Friday off, and spent most of the day in my craft area, not creating, but tiding up chaos. I haven't had much opportunity to play lately, and when I have had time, I've been stacking paper and stamps and ink and embellishments and dies and you get the idea. I decided it was time to start with a clean slate, and that included purging some stuff that will be given to my nieces at Christmas and rearranging my supplies and some of the furniture. I also decided to post the afters on my blog for future reference (and to hopefully help me keeping it tidy!)

On to the tour...

My craft area is in our basement, it's a large room, and I've got about 1/4 of it. The TV area is in the rest of the area. My desk faces the TV, with the couch dividing the two areas.

My stamps, paper and other supplies are in the white cabinet (a $40 score from Kijiji). It's made of melamine and weighs a ton, and it's perfect for stamp supply storage.

 The top row is cuttlebug stuff, specialty papers, and supplies (adhesive, colouring media, etc)
The next two rows on the left are stamps, on the right more supplies, embossing powders.
Bottom shelf on the left are completed cards, envelopes and cricut carts. The right is for my cricut and dies.

 My 8.5x11 paper is stored on the left and my inks and paper scraps are in the iris tower. The xyrons fit perfectly on top, and I picked up some 12x12 canvasses from Michaels and attached paper to them. I like it, because I can change it out when I get tired of it.

I played a bit last night, so my desk isn't as spotless as it was, but it's still a far sight better, and I can actually see the top of my table... I hope the trend continues!

I also decided that my blog needed a bit of an update for the holiday season. I've added a few things, removed a couple of things and changed the layout. Hopefully you like it!

Thanks for stopping by.