Winter wonderland

OMG - it's the last day of November and I've barely started on my Christmas cards! I have a few special cards made but the bulk are sitting on my dining room table in various states of completion (and, OK, by completion I really mean that they are hardly even imagined). Panic can be a good thing sometimes - I spent the evening cranking out creating a batch of cards inspired by a gorgeous card I discovered at Splitcoast Stampers.

I started out by die cutting the frames and deer (Memory Box "Debutante Frame", "Orchard Frame", "Deer Trio") from white cardstock. I then embossed the background frame (using Sizzix "Christmas Dots #5"), first spreading distress ink (Tim Holtz "Broken China") on the folder to create the snowy background. I wanted the deer to really stand out, so I inked a second die cut with the same "Broken China" distress ink and layered it behind & slightly off to create a shadow.

The patterned papers all came from my stash - Basic Grey "Nordic Holiday" and 3 Bugs in a Rug "Snow Much Fun".To tie the reds in the snowflake paper in with the red strip and poinsettia, I added some dots of Stickles "Candy Cane" glitter glue in the tree branches and poinsettia centre. The final touches were Stickles "Star Dust" dabbed along the snowy ground and then some inking around the card edge.

Sure sounds like a lot of work but these cards actually came together pretty quickly. The most difficult aspect was keeping my cat from stepping on the drying glitter!

Anyway, off to get some sleep. Tomorrow will be a busy day of decorating the house and hopefully making more cards!


Challenges:

There are tonnes of challenges for Christmas cards right now so I'm going a little crazy with my entries.

Crafts 4 Eternity - Christmas
Crimbo Crackers - Anything Christmas
Divas by Design - Sparkle & glitter
Fussy & Fancy - Christmas
Jingle Belles - Anything holiday
Little Red Wagon - Include a tree
Oldie But a Goodie - Let it snow (plus use older item - papers are all over a year old)
Partytime Tuesdays - Anything goes
Tuesday Throwdown - Lots of layers
Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes

Note card

This evening's card was very quick to make since the bulk of it was created last year at a scrap retreat. If I remember correctly, it was a make & take that I started but never finished. I may not remember all the details but I do recall that we created a circle mask (just using a circle punch) which was placed on the card prior to stamping the background (using a script stamp). Then the scrap paper with the hole punched in it was put down so that only the circle was showing - this was coloured by blending inks. And then finally the branch was stamped over top. The sentiment was stamped separately and then after the paper was adhered, the doodle oval was stamped over top.

Sorting through the supplies, I also found the bird stamped separately on white paper plus a few odds & ends of paper. I ended up cutting out the bird and pop dotting it on the branch. The bird's eye is a tiny little bead. Next I added a bit of twine wrapped around a black base. The final step was adhering it all to a white card base that I inked around the edges.

It may have taken over a year but who says I never finish anything?

Challenges:
Alphabet Challenge - "T" for tag
Crafts 4 Eternity - tags
Crafty Creations - no flowers
Do You Stack Up - leaves & trees
Ruby's Rainbow - birds

Cooking up a set of cards

I've been trying to create some order from the chaos of craft supplies (sadly I spend more time organizing and sorting than actually creating) and came across a set of cardstock stickers & die cuts (from J Ellory Designs) that I bought/got free ages ago. One of the challenges this week at 365 Cards was to create a set of cards and so I was inspired to finally use the stickers/die cuts for just this purpose.

I chose Basic Grey's "Nook & Pantry" patterned papers along with some dark red cardstock for my papers. I really like how the darker red cardstock highlights the reds in the die cut/stickers. Two of the cards use sentiments from the die cut pack and the third has a computer-generated sentiment. I thought it would be nice to have an assortment so they are all somewhat general to be used for a birthday or "just because".

For the designs I chose sketches from 3 different sites:



Challenges:
Crafty Catz - anything goes
Pause Dream Enjoy - food & beverages
Pennys Paper-Crafty - lots of layers
Raise the Bar - birthday
Simply Create Too - use your stash

Birthday quilt

My birthday was this past weekend and one of my gifts was the Spellbinders Hexagon Nestabilities set. I used it right away to create this birthday card:

The design of the card is inspired by this week's sketch at Clean & Simple Stamping. I like the way the stars on the sketch cascade down the side and thought it would work equally well to have quilting blocks cascading. The papers are all from Basic Grey and the sentiment is computer generated (I found the saying by doing a Google search for quilting quotes). I wanted to maximize the white space and keep the overall layout simple so the only embellishment I used was a white pen to add in stitching. For some reason the photo makes it look like the bottom of the card is yellowish but actually the colour is white just like the rest.

Challenges:

• Basic Grey Challenges - anything goes 
• Card Crafters Circle - patterned paper
• Clean & Simple - sketch
• C.R.A.F.T. - birthday
• Craft Your Passion - hexagons
• Fab 'n Funky - die cuts/punches
• Moving Along with the Times - stitching
• Papertake Weekly - anything goes
• Raise the Bar - anything goes

Vintage Christmas ATC

I've decided to try my hand at making some ATC's (artist trading cards). My first ATC has a Christmas theme and uses Basic Grey papers and embellishments along with a photo of little, old me sitting with Santa Claus.

I chose a corrugated cardboard background that has been distressed with Tim Holtz' Walnut ink. The patterned papers and embellishments are all from Basic Grey. The photo was originally in colour so I converted it to black & white and then lightly inked the edges and across the front to give it more of a vintage feel. I particularly like the flower embellishment as it feels like leather - great texture. I imagine that I'll end up adding the ATC to a card base at some point - don't you think it would make a cute Christmas card?

Challenges:
Basic Grey - anything goes
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge - use 3 design papers
Crazy 4 Challenges - anything but a card
Divas by Design - festive
Eclectic Ellapu - vintage
Jingle Belles - sketch 
Just Keep On Creating - anything Christmas
Live and Love Crafts - anything Christmas