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!

May Christmas Card Challenge

This is May's Christmas Card Challenge: use flower(s) on your card.  There is no specific flower you need to use, just as long as there is a flower on the card.  For my cards, I started with a grey cardstock, cut and scored to a standard sized card.  I added a strip of patterned paper to the right hand side of the cardstock, and stamped "Merry Christmas" (Hero Arts) along the bottom of the card.  The flower, a poinsettia, is a die cut from Quickcutz, if my memory is correct.  A friend has this die, and I was able to cut several poinsettias from the die on Pink Pirouette cardstock.

April's Christmas Card Challenge

For April's Christmas card challenge,  I would like to try something different.  Rather than doing a theme, I'd like to see you do a One Sheet Wonder.  The One Sheet Wonder I have used for this month is Jessica's Taylor's OSW, which you can find HERE.  I used some white cardstock for a base, and some Wal Mart Christmas paper I picked up on Boxing Day.  The stamps are Hero Arts, Inkadinkado, and Recollections.  Jessica's One Sheet Wonder makes 16 cards, I am only showing 5 of them here.  I did find that the card looked a touch bare, so I used some Hero Arts background clings to add some interest.  The ink I used was Distress Inks, in Shabby Shutters, barn Door, and Tumbled Glass.

March Christmas Card Challenge

For this month's Christmas card challenge, you need to use Holly on your card.  I ended up making about 8 cards like this... I have to admit, I totally CASed this card from someone else, but for the life of me, I couldn't find her.  So if you see the blog post about it (it had decorating and some cards) please let me know, and I'll be happy to credit her for the idea.  I started with green cardstock for a base.  I cut the white layer to be  about 5 x 3.75 inches.  I took the Hero Arts Musical Background and stamped the white cardstock in Antique Linen Distress ink.  Using Vintage Sepia Versafine ink, I took the Hero Arts Classic Holly and stamped it in the right hand corner. I used a watercolour pencil in Mineral Green and coloured in the holly leaves.  I used red Stickles for the holly berries.  I added a bit of sheer gold ribbon on the left hand side, and finished the card by stamping Quietfire Design's "Blessed is the Season" in Satin Red Versafine.  I then adhered the white layer to the green card base.

February's Christmas Card Challenge

This is Norma's entry for the ornament challenge.  She's used ornament patterned paper, the SU ornament punch, a MS punch, and gems for the card.
For February, the challenge to make cards using pink and ribbon.  The whole card doesn't have to be pink, there just needs to be some pink on the card, as well as some ribbon.  Here are my cards:

I used a grey cardstock for the base. I added some pink glitter cardstock and left a 1/4 inch edge around the card.  I stamped an Inkadinkado stamp (I think it's called Angels and Crowns) in black ink on pink cardstock, which I then punched out using a 3 inch circle punch.  I added some sheer pink ribbon to the lower 1/3 of the glitter cardstock, and layered the circle on top.

What will you do for the pink and ribbon challenge?

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.

Christmas Card Challenge November - Cream, Brown and Gold

This month's challenge for making Christmas cards is a colour challenge: use Cream, Brown and Gold on your Christmas cards.  This is my sample.  I actually made a lot of these cards, but most of them are packed in a box to give to a family who has been helping my youngest out in Newfoundland.  I have no idea who makes the stamps, they belong to a friend, but I stamped them in Vintage Sepia Versafine ink on cream cardstock.  I rounded the corners, then layered the tree image on fawn cardstock.  I took the Merry Christmas and mounted that on fawn cardstock rounded the corners, added three gold brads, then mounted that layer on top of the tree layer.  To finish off the card, I used Gold Liquid Pearls and did the ornaments on the tree.

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!!!

Hero Arts Pairing Challenge - week one

Good morning!! Mary Dawn  from Hero Arts and I are paired up to do some Hero Art stamp challenges.  Mary Dawn's blog is MyPinkMexico .  This week, the challenge was to use the Friendship Definition  background stamp on a project.  Now I have two projects, but you'll have to excuse the ATC photo.. it's horribly blurry. I did an ATC in the same manner. For the card, I took the Friendship Background stamp and stamped it on white cardstock, cut to size, in Dried Marigold Distress Ink.  I then punch the border.  I took the larger flower in the Delicate Blossoms set, and stamped over top of the Friendship Definition in Onyx Black Versafine ink.  I then used dye markers to colour in the flowers.  The card looked too simple, so I punched two more borders, one in red, and one in green, and layered them behind the white. I mounted that piece on to a Apricot Appeal base cardstock.  The card still needed something, so I added three small gems to the card.  With this card, it can be anything from friendship to birthday to sympathy.
The ATC was done in the same manner.  I took Cool Caribbean cardstock, and cut it to 3 1/4 x 2 1/4.  I stamped the Friendship Definition stamp in Dried Marigold on the Cool Caribbean.  I stamped the smaller flowers from Delicate Blossoms on the ATC, and coloured them in with dye markers.  I mounted the Cool Caribbean layer on to some polka dot orange card stock, cut to ATC size.  Again, I added three small gems for the final touch.


Don't forget, this weekend is the HERO ARTS Flickr Group OWHBash.. making cards for the American troops.  I know Canada had Postcards for the Troops, but I've lost contact with anyone who was organizing it.  So, I thought I'd so some for the American troops.  Check out all the challenges and such HERE.  The nice thing is, you can use any stamps, for this weekends card making party, you can use any company's stamps, and still have a chance to win some Hero Arts stuff!!  Way Cool!

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 .