Glitter galore

Today's Christmas card is one of my favourites that I've made this year as it combines some wonderful elements AND was super easy to make.

I started the card by putting gold peel-off stickers (the Christmas baubles) onto an acrylic sheet (the type you use in an inkjet printer) being careful to place them on the smooth side of the sheet. I then turned the sheet over and applied different colours of Stickles glitter glue onto the acrylic. By using the rough side of the acrylic the Stickles adhered better, plus I didn't have to worry about getting any glue onto the gold outline sticker since I was working on the back. It took about a day & a half for the glue to dry but once it did - wow!

Next I coloured (with Copics) and cut out this cute little elf (from Bugaboo) so she could perch on the ornaments. The card design is based on the current sketch at Stella Says Sketch. The red strip is an embossed cardstock strip matted on a gold background with a few golden tree stickers. Super easy and super cute, even if I do say so myself. I ended up making a batch of these cards cause they are so darned cute!

Challenges:

• Crafting for all Seasons - red, green & sparkle
• Crazy Challenge - Christmas
• Creative Card Crew - star
• Deep Ocean Challenge - Christmas
• Top Tip Tuesday - Christmas

Mother's day card

It's a bit late sharing, but I had to make sure my Mom had seen the card before I shared it here on the blog. This is her (late) Mother's Day card made with Basic Grey papers, peel-off outline stickers and Copic markers.

Supplies:

• Basic Grey "Sweet Threads" patterned papers
• Elizabeth Craft Designs "Tulips" peel-off outline sticker
• Copic markers
• Spellbinders "Floral ovals" die
• Spellbinders "Beaded ovals" die
• Spellbinders "Ironworks" border die
• Buttons from stash
• Pearls from stash

Challenges:

• Basic Grey - anything goes
• CMC - anything goes with Copics
• Crafts & Me - flowers
• Cute Card Thursday - pink & green
• Flourishes - use a flower

• Midnight Madness - sketch
• Pink Elephant - buttons galore
• Southern Girls - die cut or punches
• Top Tip Tuesday - dig out the old (the buttons are over a year old)
• Truly Scrumptious - anything goes

You really can colour anything with Copic markers

I took a class at Clipper Street recently and learned the coolest new technique - you can actually colour over glitter!

We started with a die cut - white cardstock and adhesive sheet, cut on the cuttlebug. A clear ultra-fine glitter was laid over the entire thing and well-burnished in. Then we used peel-off outline stickers to create a design (the butterfly/flower shape and circles).

At this point all I had was a shiny black and white label but then the magic happened. Once the glitter was well-burnished, I was able to colour over it with my Copic markers just like I would colour in anything else. The marker picked up the odd speck of glitter but this came off very easily when I brushed against some scrap paper. Because the colouring is done over top of the glitter the colours stay vibrant and clear.

To finish off the card a second larger die cut was cut/embossed for the background and 2 patterned papers were layer behind. I'm so excited to have found another use for my glitters and peel-off stickers! If you give it a try let me know what you think!

Challenges:

• Allsorts - keep it simple
• By the Cute & Girly - all things bright & beautiful
• Corrosive Challenges - die cut/punches
• Fussy and Fancy - try a new technique
• Partytime Tuesdays - anything goes
• Raise the Bar - things with wings
• Sparkles Forum - make it sparkle
• The Crazy Challenge - choose 3 colours (I used black, white, yellow)
• The Squirrel and The Fox - anything goes

Tulips for my mother

Here's another card made using peel-off outline stickers. In this case I used Copic markers to colour in the different elements - I'm really happy with how the plant pot looks against the kraft cardstock! For my design I used this week's sketch from Cardmadfairy - I can't enter the card into the challenge because I didn't use a digi but I loved the sketch and wanted to use it anyway. The papers (except for the kraft cardstock) are all from Bo Bunny.

Challenges:

• 2 Sisters - Anything goes
• A Spoonfull of Sugar - Flower power
• Crafty Purple Frog - Things of beauty
• Divas by Design - Florals
• Emerald Faeries - Anything goes
• Outlawz Copic Challenge - Anything goes
• Paper Play - Blossoms & blooms

Happy birthday Mom

The card I'm sharing today is a birthday card I made for my Mother. It was quite a lot of fun to make since it included a couple of favourite things - Basic Grey papers, outline stickers, and fussy-cutting.

I have a stack of outline stickers and rarely use them but having given them a try a couple of weeks ago for paper piecing, I think I'll be using them a lot more. To paper piece this card, I took 2 identical copies of the flower sticker and then laid them on 2 different subtly patterned papers. I fussy-cut the pink flower and then adhered it using pop dots to the blue layer. The leaves come from a different set of outline stickers and are adhered to the same blue paper and then cut out.

It isn't apparent in the photo, but the scrolled sentiment is actually popped up in the center to give the card even more depth. The sentment itself is off another outline sticker set (in this case, the letters were silver so I coloured them with a black Copic).

Challenges:

Lily Pad Lucy's Lovely Lines

• AllSorts - Birthday
• C.R.A.F.T. - Happy birthday
• Charisma Cardz - Birthdays in pink
• Crafty Catz - Anything goes
• Divas by Design - For the girls
• Lily Pad Lovely Lucy's Lines - Sketch
• Simply Create - Special day/event
• Truly Scrumptious - Anything goes

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UPDATE: I won 4 free images from Pink Gem over at Truly Scrumptious!

I actually used peel-off stickers!

If you are looking for the Ezee Pzee blog hop, then please scroll down to the earlier post.

I quite addictively buy these peel-off outline stickers but then rarely use them (a crafter buying something & then not using it??? How odd). Anyway, I pulled my stack of stickers out and challenged myself to use some. I love the Midnight Madness sketch for this week and decided that these small-sized cat stickers would be perfect.

I wanted a really dimensional look so I adhered the middle cat sticker onto green card and then took a second copy of the sticker and laid it on patterned paper. After cutting out the patterned cat, I was able to paper-piece it together with the first sticker. I did the same with the vines - putting the stickers on patterned paper and then cutting them out. I didn't have any buttons the right colour so I took 2 white buttons and gave them an uneven colouring with a Copic marker.

I'm really happy with how this worked out - I may just use my stickers and thus justify (sort of) my purchase of so many! LOL.

Challenges:

• Midnight Madness - sketch
• Top Tip Tuesday - squares

Stained glass Christmas

So tell me, do crafters ever get tired of glitter? You don't actually have to answer that because the answer is so obvious - everything is better with glitter! And with that idea in mind, I decided to experiment with some acetate, peel-off stickers and glitter.

To create these cards I started with a sheet of acetate that I cut into circles. I adhered peel-off stickers to the smooth side of the acetate and then coloured on the rough side using my Copic markers. Next I added matching Stickles glitter glue to the rough side and let dry. Next, I cut a slightly smaller circle from a piece of Basic Grey patterned paper (Eskimo Kisses) and a cardbase. Once the glitter glue was dry, I attached the acetate between the cardbase and the patterned paper so that the image showed through.

To embellish the cards, I created a swag with pine branch punches and a poinsettia flower. As you can see, I went non-traditional by using a light green and lots of pink. I think the result is a very feminine and sparkly card that suggests stained glass.


Challenges:
Drunken Stampers - no stamps
Totally Gorjuss - Christmas using non-traditional colours
Crafty Creations - Christmas
Creative Cottage - non-traditional Christmas
Stamping Vacation - start here: red glitter (see the second card with it's deep red)
ABC Christmas - "X" is for Christmas, optional: flowers
Lil Red Wagon - Basic Grey
Fussy & Fancy - Christmas with no red/green (see the first card; I used such an unusual shade of green that I hope it counts)

Everything in 3's

Lil Red Wagon's current challenge is to "do it in 3's". I took this challenge really to heart and made 3 cards with plenty of 3's.

These 3 cards were very quick & easy. First step was adhering the peel-off stickers to cardstock and colouring the images (using 3 Copic colours - R35, BG13, YG95). Next, I chose 3 background papers from the Basic Grey "Jovial" pack which I used for matting and the background panels. I love how this paper pack takes a non-traditional look at the green/red/blues of Christmas. And then I used 3 tools - an EK Success small scallop border punch (for either side of the central card), EK Success leaf punch (for embellishments on central card), and a Cuttlebug embossing folder (to emboss the white card-base).

I chose 2 sketches for my inspiration, one from Midnight Madness and the other from Mercy (oops, guess I should have used 3 to keep the theme of 3's going). The central card uses the Midnight Madness sketch. I cut each peel-off sticker image into a square and then matted them onto a lightly patterned paper. I used the border punch to create a partial frame on either side (keeping the left side much thinner than the right for added interest). When I added the matted images, I overlapped them slightly (as in the sketch) and then added some punched out leaves to fill in some of the white space and pull the images together.

The other 2 cards use Mercy's sketch. I cut around the two coloured images maintaining a narrow white outline to help them stand out. I attached them to the matted background panel using some pop dots. Then instead of a single ribbon I chose to use two thin ribbons adhered with a brad each. After pulling the cards together I decided they looked too plain so I added embossing to the white cardstock and it's hard to see but I also added some Glossy Accents to the red circles on the images to make them pop a bit more.

These were super fast cards but I like the end results. These just may end up being my go-to designs for this Christmas. After all, everyone can't have a super-special one-of-a-kind card - but don't tell them - LOL.

Challenges:

Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge - sketch

Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge - sketch

Lil Red Wagon - do it in 3's

Fab n Funky - going around in circles (the patterned papers is full of circles)

Challenge up your Life - blue & green

Paper Sundaes - use at least two: punches, ribbon, embossing, blue (hey, I used all four!)

Critter Sketch - texture (embossing, popped up panels, ribbon, stickers)