Christmas card catchup

In January, I signed up for the Christmas card challenge at SCS. I lagged behind in April after our cruise. Then it was the end of May... and well, I was two months behind. I actually had the April card done in March, but didn't get around to getting it done. I did the May and June cards a couple of weeks ago and I am up to date. It stresses me out to have missed a deadline, even if there are no consequences!

The cards:

 

This was April's card- 5 inch square cut from plaid cardstock. The stamp is from LaBlanche, which is probably one of my new faves- they are silicone stamps. They are a dream to work with and the ink cleans off of them perfectly. 

I layered the card on a slightly larger piece of green, and to tie it together, I embossed the sentiment on the same green with gold powder from Ranger.

 

This was May's entry... I wanted to try tone-on-tone, and was inspired with the patterned cardstock that I picked up on my recent trip south. The solid blue is Bashful Blue from Stampin' Up- I was quite impressed with how well the two papers went together. The snowflake was cut from shimmery white cardstock using a Cuttlebug die. I punched two holes in the snowflake and ran ribbon through it to make a slide. The sentiment was stamped in denim blue ink. 

 And this was the catch-up piece for June. I love, love, love this card. When my friend and I went to Crafts Direct a couple of weeks ago, I swore I wasn't going to get any Christmas stamps. I don't think this would classify, as there's nothing technically Christmassy about it.

The dark blue is a 5.25 square of navy, layered with Bashful Blue. The snowflakes were stamped in white and embossed. The smaller layer was one of the stamps included in the set Swirling Snow from Unity Stamp Co and layered onto navy. The sentiment was stamped on white and then cut out. I then put Versamark all over the sentiment and covered it with holographic embossing powder.

As I cannot tie a bow to save my life, I cut a small piece of ribbon, knotted it and attached it to the card with a glue dot.

Now, on to come up with ideas for July!

Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery

A couple of weeks ago, I was on Splitcoast Stampers, and came across this card and fell in love. I had to save it in my favourites folder, knowing that I would go back and look at it again and again.

I have a similar flower stamp, and wanted to create something with it... this is what resulted:

The flowers were coloured with Copics, and the butterflies were punched using a Martha Stewart punch. I punched out six butterflies, and layered two together, placing them on the card and then bending the wings to make them three-dimensional.

New fold

It's amazing to surround yourself with papercrafting friends who like to share ideas- my coworker was trying to explain a new fold to me, and I was having a heck of a time trying to get what she was saying... I am more of a visual person, and do better with hands-on than someone explaining something to me. So, after work, I went to one of my favourite sites- Splitcoast Stampers- to find the instructions for the tri-fold shutter card. It's a really pretty card, and does take some time and calculation (not my strength, but fortunately my husband comes to my math rescue!).

As this was only an experiment, I grabbed what was close at hand, and didn't really have much rhyme or reason for the materials I used.

The sentiment is Tim Holtz, the dragonfly stamp is from the $1.50 bin at Michael's, the paper flowers are from the dollar store, and the dragonfly brads are from a local liquidation store.

The only change I would make to the directions of the card is to make the 1 3/8 by 1 3/8 card pieces a little larger so they fill up a little more of the space.

Dog lover

I have several friends who are dog lovers, and I made this card for one of them.

This card was designed around the ribbon- my husband picked out the ribbon he wanted me to used, and the rest is history. I haven't sent my friend a card in a while, and decided to do one up for her- the stamp was a freebie with one of the UK stamping magazines I bought, and I coloured it in using Copics. I then cut out the dog, attached it to a 3 inch circle and adhered it to the card base. Easy, peasy, quick and dirty.

Sunday, Less is More and Mice

I was very busy at work this week, and had to work yesterday as well. I did check out the Less is More blog this week to see what the challenge was. This week, we are to pick a square- one quadrant of the card- and place the image there. I immediately had  several ideas, but had to wait until today to create. I have also saved a couple of the blogs for future ideas! I love sharing creativity with other crafters- it's such an inspiration to see what everyone else has created, and how many variations there can be on the same theme.

I created two cards for the challenge- the first is a House Mouse stamp that I have had for a bit.

The mouse is coloured with Copics and attached to red shiny cardstock. Looking at this card again, I likely could have out the sentiment up the side of the mouse, where his tail is. Ah, hindsight, what a wonderful thing! The balloons are brads I've had for ages, and the lines were drawn in.

This second card is for my cousin's wedding shower, which is next week. The mouse was stamped and coloured with Copics. The top part of the umbrellas was stamped on patterned paper and cut out, then I attached it with foam tape to make it stand out a little more. The white card was placed on a piece of the same paper the umbrella was cut from, and placed on Bashful Blue from Stampin' Up.

I am really enjoying participating in the Less is More challenge- it is pushing me out of my comfort zone and allowing me to experiment with different cards. In North America, we usually make 4.25 by 5.5 inch cards. I am really liking playing with square shapes and simple designs. Thank you Chrissie and Mandi!

Sunflowers- two ways

This is one of the new Flourishes stamps I recently bought. Coloured with copics, and layered on a dark yellow and brown cardstock.

The ruffled ribbon is held in place with tacky tape- I put small pieces on the ribbon to create the ruffles, and then used more to stick it to the card.

This second card is a recent purchase, found in the dollar bin at Joann's on a recent trip to the US with my friend.

 

The flowers were coloured with distress inks- wild honey and scattered straw. Colouring with distress ink is quite easy. I smooshed the ink pad onto an acrylic block (you can use a craft mat or piece of glass or acetate- anything really). Then, I took my aqua pen and picked up the colour and painted it onto the paper. I didn't use watercolour paper, just regular cardstock. I really like the way it turned out. The only issue I had was that I didn't let the paper totally dry before I taped it to the card base- it was slightly warped, but flattened out once it was dry. 

The dragonflies are brads, and the ribbon was adhered with tacky tape. I've left the card face sentiment-free so it can be used for any event.

Butterflies- version 2

I picked up this stamp a while ago at Scrapyard in Stonewall- I really liked the way it looked and was a unique stamp. It was lots of fun colouring and incorporating into the card.

The butterfly wings were coloured using copics. The background paper came from a tag book. I don't usually use patterned paper, but thought the it brings out the orange of the wings.