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 7 - Birthday Card

This is our final week of the Hero Arts pairing challenge.  I've really enjoyed making the cards for the challenges, and seeing how Mary Dawn does her cards.  For this final challenge,  we had to do a Birthday card... Now unlike some other challenges where I'm really really stumped on what to do for cards, birthday cards to me are fairly simple, and I love to play, trying out things and new to me techniques.  For this card, I started with kraft cardstock standard card size, and rounded the corners.  I then took some dark brown cardstock and cut it to 4 x 5 1/4 inches rounding the corners. I then took the Friend Definition stamp, and stamped it in Moonlight White Brilliance ink. I then took some Pink Pirouette cardstock, and cut that to 3 1/2 inches by 4 3/4 inches, rounding the corners.  I took Pink Pirouette ink, and stamped Antique Lettering  on the Pink Pirouette cardstock.  I went and stamped just the butterfly again in Close to Cocoa ink on Pink Pirouette cardstock, and cut it out.  I used a small SU stamp for the sentiment (stamped in Close to Cocoa ink), and foam mounted the butterfly over top of the butterfly on the Pink Pirouette cardstock.  To finish off the card, I made the foam mounted butterfly's wings bend just a bit, and added 4 pink gems to the wings.

I hope you've enjoyed looking at the cards Mary Dawn and I have done in the last 7 weeks.   This was a really, really fun challenge to do :)

Kraft, Red and Black Challenge!!

On October 7th, I hosted a challenge on the Hero Arts Flickr group.  It was a 1.5 hour challenge, and my theme was Kraft, Red and Black.  the above card is the card that I had ready for the challenge.  I used a FREE digi stamp from Hero Arts.... I got it from the Holiday Thinking Inking  week 1 HERE.  I printed the deer out on Kraft cardstock, and stamped the middle of the deer with a Hero Arts stamp from Holiday Postale set. I had stamped the background with the Happy Holidays stamp (maker unknown) and embossed in red glitter EP on black cardstock, cut to be a bit smaller than the base red cardstock.  I took a 1 inch piece of kraft cardstock, cut to the width of the card.  I used two 1/4 lengths of sookwang tape (you could use one 1/2 inch piece) and carefully taped it to the cardstock.  I then used Fire Red Glitter Ritz glitter and did the Burnished Velvet Technique.  Once the glitter was done, I taped it to the  layered cardstock.  I used Christmas Red Stickles to colour the dots and the nose.  Once the glue was dry, I used foam tape to mount the reindeer to the card.

Just because I am  loving a challenge these days, I also did a card in the 1.5 hour challenge.  This is the card I did

For this card,  I stamped the Hero Arts stamp Friend Definition in black on kraft cardstock.  I then cut 2 2.25 inch square pieces of red cardstock.  I then also cut 2 2 inch pieces of kraft cardstock. On the Kraft cardstock, I stamped the tree and falling leaves in red ink. I stamped the owl and the "Hi" in black ink All the stamps on the squares are from the Hero Arts set "Love That" Sparkle Clear set.. I mounted the kraft stamped squares onto the red squares. I then kitty cornered the red squares on to the Stamped kraft base cardstock.  I added three gems to the top square.  To finish off the card, I added some red ribbon to the side of the card.

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!!

Penny Black Giveaway!!!

Kathy is kind enough to do a giveaway of some gorgeous Penny Black stamps!!! ( you can see them on the right).  to enter into the draw, click on the title of the post, and it will take you to Kathy's page, with instructions on how to enter.  And who can resist entering to win free stuff!?

My First Card and My Newest Card

Anita from the Hero Art Flickr group has a blog challenge for us.. a blog hop of sorts.. it was to do our first card, and a card we made on World Card Making Day.  Well, the top card is a card I did for my daughter about 11 years ago.. I used Crayola markers to make the card, on text weight paper.... my how times have changed.  The bottom two cards are cards that I did using my favourite colours, pink, turquoise and brown.  All the stamps on the bottom two cards are Hero Arts ( Antique Letter Writing, Floating Garden, Birthday Greetings).  I had much fun with these cards.

The Butterfly card was an attempt at a CAS card, then I realized the stamp itself isn't CAS.  I the Antique Letter Writing stamp was done in Broken China on Pink Pirouette card stock.  I stamped the big butterfly again on PP cardstock in Broken China and cut it out, added some pearls to the wings, and foam mounted it over the original butterfly.

The bottom card has a Pink Pirouette base, with a Martha Stewart doily punch done on the open side.  Underneath that, there is a layer of dark brown paper, also done in the doily punch. The third layer is PP cardstock, with the doily punch on the edge. I used PP cardstock to stamp the Floating Garden on in Chocolate Chip ink (SU),  I foam mounted that over the layers of cardstock.  I stamped the Happy  Birthday in Chocolate Chip ink on Pink Pirouette cardstock, rounded the corners, and foam mounted that on the bottom of the card.

I also made 12 Christmas cards and a just a Note card, which I have already blogged about.  Thanks for looking!!

Caardvarks CAS Card 03

This is another World Card Making Day card.  It's another CAS Card.  This time, I did a "Just a Note" card.  I used a Magenta/ Crafty Individuals poppy,  stamped in Onyx Black on white cardstock, coloured with dye markers, and mounted on black handmade paper.  This was placed on the left hand side of the card.... the white base card stock is cut 4.25 x 11, and it opens to the side.  I used a Hero Arts stamp for the "Just A Note" stamped three time in red marker.

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. 

Cardvaarks CAS Card 01

This is a card I did for World Card Making Day yesterday.  I used some dollar store note cards to do this card.  I used a Recollections Santa stamp for the image, stamped on white cardstock and mounted on the red note card.  I used a Hero Arts stamp to stamp "Merry Christmas" three times on the right hand side in Jet Black Staz On in. It is a card for the Cardcvaarks CAS challenge.

Hero Arts Pairing Week 4 - Masculine card

my second most hated cards to make, after sympathy cards, are masculine cards.  As much as I'd like to say I like to make masculine cards, the men in my life all have very different interests, so it makes buying stamps and paper for them that much more difficult.  Thankfully, there's lots of friends all over the world who I can trade images with, so it's not quite so hard to get an image or two for the guys.  This weeks pairing challenge with Mary Dawn, we were to make a masculine card.  I have kept it simple, but I love it.  I started with Gamma Green Brilliance ink, and stamped the Watercolor Petal fern randomly on kraft card stock.  I then took  Cosmic Copper Brilliance ink, and stamped the leaf from Watercolor Petals randomly.  Lastly, I took Coffee Bean Brilliance ink and stamped the leaf from the flower Antique Engravings set randomly over the kraft card stock.  I then took the coffee bean ink again, and stamped the same leaf on copper paper, and cut it out.  On pale orange paper, I took the coffee bean ink and stamped "Best Wishes" from Essential Messages. I rounded the corners on the right side.  Once the orange paper was layered on to the card, I foam mounted the copper leaf to the left of the sentiment.  Not bad for a lady who doesn't have a lot of masculine stamps.

Changes to the Blog

Well, I am in the midst of reading "Blogging for Dummies" and decided that I needed to do something about the blinkies not working on the left hand side... so I tried a new template, Watermark, and voila!  the blinkies were fixed.... and quite frankly,  I'm much happier with this new layout.  If you like it, or hate it, I'd love to hear your comments on it.

Now that I've messed around, maybe I'll get back to reading.

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!!!

The Cards I Hate to Make.......Hero Arts Pairing Challenge Week 3

This week's pairing challenge was to make a sympathy card... ironically, I needed to make four.  This card is an Cuttlebug embossed bird and swirls on pale yellow cardstock, then run through the SU Top Note die.  I went over the top with SU Close to Cocoa ink.  I added some pale green twill across the embossed paper, and stamped "Sorry for your loss" form Hero Arts in Close to Cocoa. I layered this onto green wax paper resist (rounded the corners), then layered that onto cream base cardstock.

The second card I did, I took SU Bashful Blue ink, and stamped an Antique Engravings Flower three times on pale blue patterned paper.  I rounded the corners.  I then added so black ribbon, and stamped " Sorry for your loss" from HA on cream cardstock, and foam mounted it to the ribbon.  I then layered the blue paper to more patterned paper, rounded the corners, and mounted that layer to cream cardstock, where I rounded the corners again.
On the third card, on gold textured paper, I stamped a Crafty Individuals Dragonfly collage in Close to Cocoa, and let dry.  I layered it onto cream cardstock, then onto dark brown cardstock.  I rounded the corners on the cream cardstock, and the bottom of the brown cardstock.  I stamped "Sorry for your loss" form HA on cream cardstock, and foam mounted that to  bottom of the card.
 
The fourth sympathy card.  This time, I took white cardstock, and randomly stamped the leaf from Antique Engravings ( Flower), and the fern and leaf from Watercolour Petals. I used SU Mellow Moss, Nick Bantock Van Dyke brown and Vermilion Lacquer.  I then crumpled the cardstock, ran Close to Cocoa over the mountain areas, then flattened the card stock again.  I rounded the bottom two corners, and mounted this to Close to Cocoa card stock, rounding the corners on the bottom as well.  I then added some peach lace punch cardstock to the middle of the leaves.  Over that, I added a peach circle, edged in Close to Cocoa, and a white scalloped circle, with the "With Prayers and Deepest Sympathy" on it, stamped in Close to Cocoa.


I still have another one to make, so I'd best be off doing that.  I hope everyone has a great weekend :)

A Giveaway!!

Barbara Hache is giving away some cool Penny Black stuff.... check out her blog HERE to get more details.


I hope to get more creating done soon, but right now, it's all about cleaning up my stamping area, now that I have more shelving :)  My husband is THE BEST :)  He's even helping me with organizing stuff.. but he's the type that could make a living being a professional organizer.

Hero Arts Pairing Challenge Week 2!

Well, it's almost Friday... time for another Hero Arts Pairing Challenge card!! This week, Mary Dawn and I are doing Emboss Resist.  Now, on an earlier post, I did an Emboss and Resist card, above.   Well, this was Versamark stamping on white cardstock, then clear embossed, then distressed.  Well, for Friday's challenge, I wanted to do something a bit different... so I did. Here is my card for the Emboss Resist Challenge:  

 For this card, I started with a piece of Barely Banana cardstock.. Why do white when you can be different?  I used the Dandelion Frame from Hero Arts and stamped it in Versamark.  I then clear embossed and heat set.  I took my Cappuccino Delight rainbow pad, inked up my brayer, and brayered the colour on, making sure I got over all of the Banana cardstock.  I took my Chocolate Chip ink from SU, and stamped Hello (Everyday Sayings) three times in the middle of the frame.  I then mounted the Barely Banana cardstock on to dark brown cardstock.  Voila! You have a nice autumn card.

More Hero Arts OWHBash cards!!

OK, I have more cards to share.. I know, I think I burnt myself out doing that for a bit.. I've only done 1 ATC and 1 card since then, but, I have also been trying to organize my craft area.. it got bigger!!! So now it's a matter of trying to make it look neat and tidy, instead of looking like a tornado went through it.

These were my Use Your Stash entries... the snowman image was again coloured by kids.

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 This was my Blue and Silver entry.  I used a Stampin Place stamp to do the snowflake in Baby Blue Staz On on matte silver paper.  I then mounted it to navy cardstock, and silver embossed the Merry Christmas.

This was my Emboss and Resist entry.  I had done more of the Antique Letter Writing pieces, but only had time to do this one card. 

The shell card was my Encouragement card, and the Lighthouse on the rock was my Masculine challenge card.   Both can be used for men.  All the stamps but the lighthouse are Hero Arts stamps.

These cards were my Quick One Layer 1.5 hour challenge cards.  The only stamps that weren't Hero Arts are the Friend stamps, those are Kaiser Crafts.

These two cards are my entries for the Floral Birthday 1.5 Hour Challenge.  All the stamps are Hero Arts, except the Happy Birthday stamp.

Well, that's it for all the unique cards I did.  It was a really fun weekend, and I look forward to another time of mass challenges.

Hero Arts OWHBash!!

Well, September 10- 12 was Hero Arts Flickr Group's  Operation Write Home Bash.  There were challenges to be had, cards to be made, and a lot of fun.  There were even prizes to be given out :)  Well, I was on a tear on the weekend, and made 31 cards from Friday night to Sunday night.  There were duplicates, but I didn't make 31 of all the same card.  That would have been a bit much, even for me.   The first two cards I did were for the Black, White and One Colour One Hour challenge.  And yes, I did both cards, and just squeaked them in. :)

This was my 3 of a Kind and Tag card.   By the time I made this card, I was getting tired..  

This was my Hearts Challenge card.  I was pretty pleased with the result, as I don't have a lot of heart stamps..... and none that suited me on the weekend.

These were my Die Cut / Punches entries.  I used leftover coloured images that kids had done for a school fundraiser. These also qualified for the Use My Stash Challenge.

These two cards were for the Simple Sketch Challenge... I used shaving cream backgrounds  instead of patterned paper.

More on the next post.

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!

More Hero Arts ( Blog Hop)

These are two more cards I did this week in honour of the blog hop ( I mean, why do one card, when you can do 5!?) :)  The first card I did, I used the Dandelion Frame Cling stamp in Hero Arts Chalk ink Cerulean and stamped the dandelions.  I then took some Purely Pomegranate ink (SU, retired) and stamped "Be Kind be You" from Anytime Messages.  A nice one layer card, which always challenges me, because I want to add some layering on a card ALL THE TIME.


The second card, is also a one layer card.  I took the Antique Brocade stamp, and inked it in Seascape Palette ink, and stamped it all over the kraft  base cardstock.  I took the fern from Watercolour Petals, and repeat stamped it all across the bottom.  Using Purely Pomegranate ink again, I stamped the butterfly ( Watercolour Petals) then I stamped Hello ( Essential Messages) in the top left corner. 


Since I don't have a ton of money for gifts, card sets are probably what I'm going to give my non stamping family and friends for Christmas this year. 

Hero Arts Blog Hop!!

These are some cards that I did this week.  The top two cards  use the Hero Arts Antique Letter Writing stamp.  The first card, I inked the stamp in Versamark, then clear embossed it.  I then sponged Worn Lipstick, Dried Marigold and Broken China distress inks all over it. I mounted the piece onto pale pink cardstock.


The second card is using the same stamp (Antique Letter Writing) that I stamped on white cardstock in Lovely Lilac ink (SU).  I then took an X-acto knife and cut around the wings of the biggest butterfly.  To add a little more to the card, on the two butterflies, I did the purple parts of their wings in purple Stickles.

The third card is using a left over piece of cardstock that had some embossing powder on it... I had done the faux batik technique( I think that's the correct name for it), and I used the piece that covered the original embossed piece.  I went and added Tattered Rose, Worn Lipstick and Victorian Velvet distress inks to it., rounded the corners, and mounted it to a piece of pink cardstock.  I took the scrap of the pink cardstock, and stamped a Hero Arts butterfly (Antique Engravings) in Victorian Velvet and cut it out, and foam mounted it to the card.  I stamped 3 tulips (Antique Engravings flowers) over the piece.  I then stamped the sentiment (Essential Messages)  on another piece of scrap pink cardstock in Victorian Velvet and attached it to the side of the card.  The background is the Antique Brocade stamp.

From here, hop on over to Clare's blog  HERE to see some more Hero Arts goodness.

To go to the beginning of the Hero Arts Blog hop, go  HERE.