June Christmas Card Challenge

For June's Christmas card challenge,  it's a colour challenge: Red, Cream and Gold.  These are the cards that I did for the challenge.  I used some cream and gold patterned paper, and adhered it to the base cardstock ( 3 Red, 2 Cream).  I took a sentiment from Quietfire Designs, and stamped it in either gold or red on the base card.  To finish, I adhered a Quickkutz poinsettia that was already assembled. Please link your cards in the comment section or email me HERE with a photo of your cards.

Thank you for looking!

Lisa S Photography Tutorial parts #2 and #3

These are the photos I took using different apertures and ISOs.  For the life of me, I can't remember which photo is which, but I did have fun playing with the camera.  Enjoy!

CAS-ual Friday Challenge 2

 This is my entry for the CFC2 challenge this week, which was to use twine and buttons.  Well, I needed to make some Christmas cards, so I did.  I started with some Cool Caribbean cardstock, cut to 5.25 x 4 inches.  I used my SU paper piercing set to pierce around the edges of the card, having the pokey side up for the front.  After that, I ran my Broken China Distress ink over top of the raised cardstock, and I also did a bit of sponging on the edges of the cardstock.  Then I took some Antique Linen Distress Ink, and sponged some ink on some other spots.  I took the sentiment (Inkadinkado) and stamped it in Broken China ink.  I found some hemp twine, and ran three lengths of is across the Cool Caribbean cardstock, putting it at angles.  I used a now retired SU set to stamp the poinsettia on Antique Linen Distressed cardstock, in Tea Dye and the over stamp in Walnut Stain.  Foam tape over a section of twine I taped together made  the focal point.  To finish, I cheated and used three button brads that I had in my stash on the bottom right hand side of the cardstock.  I took a white cardstock base, sponged Antique Linen Distress Ink around the edges, then I foam mounted the Cool Caribbean piece to the sponged card base.

Publication reject cards

These two cards I did for the PaperCraftsMag Holiday Card issue, with quick and simple cards.  These are easy cards to make, they only took me a bout 5 - 7minutes to make, once the idea in my head.  For the top card, I started with some Cherry Cobbler cardstock (SU), cut, scored and folded to a standard sized card. I rounded all the corners on the cardstock.  Taking some DCWV Luxury Stack cardstock in gold, I cut it to 3.75 x 5 inches for a mat on the base cardstock, again, rounding all the corners.  I used a Quietfire Stamp (When This Christmas) and stamped it on white cardstock in Aged Mahogany Distress Ink.  Using a Marvy 3 inch circle punch, I punched out the sentiment, and edged the circle in Wild Honey ink.  I finished the card by mounting the sentiment on the gold mat with foam tape.

The second card might seem a tad familiar, since I've done this sketch a few times before.  I just really, REALLY, love this sketch.  I started with some So Saffron cardstock (SU) and cut it so the card measured 5.5 x 4 inches ( I trimmed a .25 inch off so that I could get three cards done with one strip of patterned paper).  I used some Susan Wignet Christmas paper (Holly) and cut a 1.5 inch strip off the 12x 12 paper, cutting it at 4 inches, and adhered to the card base.  Next, I took the stamp "Blessed is the Season" (Quietfire Design) and stamped it on the bottom of the card in Forest Moss Distress Ink.  On some scrap white cardstock, I stamped the Ornament stamp (Hero Arts) in Aged Mahogany Distress Ink.  I used a 2 inch circle punch from Marvy to punch out the ornament.  I finished the card by foam mounting the ornament to the cardstock. 

January 2011 Christmas Card Challenge

Well, it's January 1st.... I hope everyone is doing fine.  We had a nice quiet New Years Eve, which is the way we like it.   Since it is the 1st of the month, I have the first Christmas card challenge here for you..... "What!?" you say.... "Christmas cards already? We just got OVER Christmas!!"  Well, yes, Christmas is just past, but if you're like me, you were still making cards, since the demand for your cards went way up this last year.  I had aimed to make about 60 for myself.. then my kids, sister in law and friend wanted some...... that added probably another 60 - 70 cards to the mix!  So, I think if I start early, and get 10 cards a month done, I'll be set by November.  That's the game plan.. and that's not counting birthday, anniversary and other cards I need to make throughout the year. 


This month's challenge is simple: Ornaments.. this means that you need to have at least 1 ornament on your card. It doesn't have to be the focal point of your card, but it needs to be on there.  You need to make at least 4 cards.  Since I am aiming for 10 cards a month, I will have to make more then the 5 I have.  Here is my sample:

I used very little stamping on this card.  I used the Spell Binders  Heirloom Ornament dies in three sizes on some Christmas paper, and layered them.  I then took a strip of Christmas paper ( K&Company) and added it to the left side of some Bazzil Bling cardstock in Pearl.  To the strip of paper I added a strip of Tim Holtz Tissue Tape in Symphony... since then I've learned from Tim himself that you can use Distress and Alcohol inks to colour the tissue tape... I am SO going to try that later. :D
Once the tissue tape was on, I adhered my ornament, then used a HA sentiment in Fired Brick Distress Ink on the bottom right hand corner. I am very happy how this card turned out.

The Play Date Cafe Challenge 55

This is my take on the PDCC55 challenge.  I started with a Kraft cardstock base and rounded the corners.  I then added a burgundy layer, which had silver web spray on it... I rounded ALL the corners on the paper and cardstock today.  I then added a pale blue panel, which was stamped with the Hero Arts Musical Background stamp in Tumbled Glass.  On the left side of that, I added a piece of bright blue paper with silver snowflakes on it.  I punched out four ornaments, two in red, and two in pink.  I put one of each colour ornament flat against the pale blue panel, then I stamped on the second ornaments, and foam mounted it over the first one.  I also added some silver thread for the ornaments to hang on.  I used a Hero Arts snowflake, and a retired SU saying for the ornaments.
Thanks for looking!! I have more photos to take and upload.. I hope to get on it tomorrow.

A Clean and Simple Christmas Card

This is the Christmas card I really mass produced this year.  I love it.  I had this poinsettia paper that I just didn't know what to do with.... until I purchased Wild Honey Distress Ink.  The colours were so complementary that I HAD to use the paper up somehow.  Well, I had this sketch from some time ago, I used it on another set of Christmas cards, but I like the idea so much I used it here too.  I used some Barely Banana and Cream cardstock for the base ( I quickly realized I would have no Barely Banana left  if  I only used that, so I went with Cream for the base about 1/4 of the way in).  The cream base cardstock is cut landscape style.  I used the poinsettia paper 1 1/2 inches wide and the height of the cardstock.  I taped it down well.  I used Fired Brick Distress Ink to stamp the Merry Christmas (Inkadinkado) on the base cardstock.  I took my Marvy 2 inch circle punch, and punched out the circle on cream cardstock (with the number of cards I made, it was easier and saved on paper to punch out first, then stamp the image on).  I stamped the solid poinsettia in Wild Honey Distress Ink, and went with the outline poinsettia in Fired Brick.  The poinsettia stamps are from SU, but I don't remember which set. I then edged the circle in fired brick, and foam mounted it so that just a bit of the right hand side was over the patterned paper.  I finished the card off by adding three golden gems to the top left hand side.

Christmas Card Madness!!

 

These are three more card designs that I have been doing lately.  I've been on a tear making Christmas cards, because my kids decided they needed about 50 between the two of them, and a set of 12 cards is a thank you gift to a family who has helped out one of the kids :)  I am still quite into the CAS mode, so the first two cards are very CAS.  The top card is a rosette patterned paper, with a Hero Arts Wise Men scene stamped on kraft cardstock, layered onto the patterned paper.  This was all done on a base blue notecard (dollar store).  The second card is also based on notecard from the dollar store, it's silver notecard.  I used some grey sparkly patterned paper as  a strip, then stamped the Happy Holidays on white cardstock and cut out with an oval punch, and foam mounted it onto the notecard. The card needed something else, so I added some sheer light pink ribbon to the sides to finish it off.  The last card I did I did for the Hero Arts 1.5 hour Scramble last Saturday.  The challenge was to use something that you DID NOT specifically buy for stamping on your card.  This was tough for me, since I seem to think of anything I buy in terms of stamping, but then realized that a used Bounce sheet would be perfect for some snow.  I tore the used sheet to fit my navy cardstock layer.  I then took silver ink and silver EP and stamped and embossed the Hero Arts Sparkle Tree. I then added the "snow" to the bottom of the tree. I needed a little something for the top of the image, so I punched out snowflakes in the colour of the base cardstock and added them to the navy layer.  I then mounted this on  to the base blue cardstock.  I used a Hero Arts stamp to stamp "Celebrate the Season" in Navy ink.

Hero Arts Pairing Challenge Week 6 - Colouring

I  totally forgot to post last week's challenge card, which was to use a non traditional stamp for a Christmas card. This week's challenge is to have colouring on a card.. The card above satisfies both challenges.  I used the bird from Hero Arts Happy Hello set, and I coloured it in with turquoise and blue dye markers.  I trimmed the image closely.  I used a Martha Stewart punch to punch out three vellum snowflakes, which I adhered to gold notecard with tiny glue dots.  I used foam tape to mount the bird over the snowflakes.  I used a Palette ink to stamp "Happy Holidays" (Hero Arts) in the bottom right corner.

I am having a lot of fun with these challenges... next week is the last week for Mary Dawn and I to do a challenge.  You can check out Mary Dawn's blog HERE.    Have a great weekend!!

Cardvaarks CAS Card 02

This is another Christmas card I did for World Card Making Day 2010.  I did another CAS card (Clean and Simple).  All stamps are Hero Arts.  I stamped the Peace stamp three times on white cardstock and cut closely to the edges.  I foam mounted them, spaced evenly, on a metallic blue note card ( from the dollar store).  I used Blazing Red Staz On ink all stamping.  I used a "Peace Love Joy" stamp onthe bottom of the note card. 

October Christmas Card Challenge!

Wow, this month has flown by so fast.. it's hard to believe that it's the last day of September already.  And this Saturday, will mark the 4th Saturday that my baby left the nest.  I'm doing well... it helps that we can chat on IM and the occasional Skype call.  It makes life much easier.. that, and I read my kid's blog... all on school life :)

On to this month's Christmas Card Challenge.  This month's theme is BIRDS.... you can use any bird, any number of birds, as long as there is at least one bird on your Christmas card.  For this card, I used a technique called Faux Linen.  I took glossy white cardstock, cut it to 3 3/4 inches square, and ran a piece of sandpaper vertically and horizontally on the glossy cardstock.  I made sure that there were a lot of grooves.  I then sponged Bashful Blue (SU) Ink over the textured cardstock, and got a nice result... kind of mixed shades of blue.  I then took two Inkadinakado stamps, one form Winter Birds, the other from..... Can't remember, but I set them up on the cardstock.  I then pressed my Fiskars stamp press on the stamps, so that I could stamp them at the same time.  I then used SU's Night of Navy ink, and inked the stamps, and pressed onto the Faux Linen cardstock.  I added a silver brad to the middle of the words, and mounted the card onto a 4 1/4 inch square card base, which is navy with silver specks in it.  You just can't see the specks in the photo.

Have a wonderful day, and don't forget World Card Making Day on October 2!!!

September Christmas Card Challenge

Well, I finally got a chance to photograph my September Christmas cards.  The theme this month is DEER.. it can be reindeer, or just regular  deer, or Rudolph.... just as long as there is one deer on the card.

For this card, I used some orange cardstock for the base, and patterned paper from Fancypants design (Frosted).  I cut the patterned paper to 1/2 inch smaller than the base in the width and height.  I then used my Hero Arts Cerulean chalk ink and stamped the reindeer and greeting ( The Stampin Place) on the patterned paper.  I then went and stamped the image again on white cardstock, and cut out the reindeer from the image.  I used dimensional foam tape to adhere the cut out reindeer over top of the reindeer that was on the patterned paper.  And Voila! I'm done.  I am very tempted to add some glitter to some snowflakes, but I wonder how much that will detract from the card.

On a side note, you have until 9pm Pacific time to join Deborah's CCC for September.. it's the Card Chain Challenge, and Deborah gives you a choice of a colour palette, sketch, or theme to follow.. you can do more than one element in the challenge, but you only need to do one.. it's quite the fun swap.  You can find Deborah's blog HERE .

August Christmas Card Challenge!!

Well,  today has been great... not only did I get to spend time with the family, a buck and his doe were in the back "yard" of our apartment building..... eating whatever they could.  There was some thunder, which unfortunately spooked them and they ran off.  It's such a blessing to me to see wildlife like that.... you certainly don't see as much of it in the big cities, and in the big cities, they don't tolerate any wildlife there, unless it's in a zoo.  Here, the deer were left alone, and hopefully they got back into the forest.

Now, on to the challenge for Christmas cards in August.. this month, your challenge is to use TAGS on your cards.  I don't care what size or colour the tags are, just as long as there's at least one tag on your Christmas cards.. here is my sample...

I used cream based cardstock, and distressed it with Old Paper and Tattered Rose inks.  I then put some embossed cardstock on the cream, leaving a 1/4 border. I also rounded two corners of the embossed cardstock and the base cardstock.  I took some Shipping tags, and distressed them in Tattered Rose, Old Paper, Worn Lipstick and Fired Brick inks.  With Versafine Onyx Black ink, I stamped a Tim Holtz Santa Claus on the tag.  I added some black and red fibre to the top of the tag, and mounted the tags on an angle to the embossed cardstock.

July Christmas Card Challenge

Well, this month's challenge is to use PURPLE on your cards... it doesn't have to be as purple as my cards are, but there needs to be some purple on the cards.  Here's my sample:

The ornament punch is from SU (I'm not sure if it retired or not), and I used some shaving cream paper I had in purple and moss green. The ornament is edged in Perfect Plum ink (SU) and mounted on white  and pale plum card stock.  The white cardstock is edged with Perfect Plum as well.  The verse is stamped in Versafine Black Onyx, and the cardstock that the ribbon is on is a dark purple.  The verse is from Inkadinkado.


If you want to enter this month's challenge please post a link in the comments section if you have a blog or email me HERE with a photo of the cards you've done.


Have fun with this month's challenge!