More Christmas Cards

I love making Christmas cards, absolutely love it. But right now I'm waiting on my order to come in from Stampin Up! which makes it harder to make them since I'm low on paper and a bunch of other things.

The first card is a very simple card made with the Peaceful Wishes set which is now retired. I inked the little berries in red before I added the dazzling diamonds but I think I would skip that step next time since you can't really even see it through the glitter.

Recipe:
Stamps: Peaceful Wishes
Ink: Always Artichoke, Riding Hood Red
Paper: Very Vanilla
Other: Crystal Effects, Dazzling Diamonds


I saw the idea for the next card on SCS, yes I love the site! The orginal card used clear acetate for the front, I didn't have any so I used vellum instead. It's actually a very easy card to make. I can't wait to try it with the acetate.

And here's a view of the inside of the card:

Recipe:
Stamps: stamps from LSS
Ink: White Craft Ink, white gel pen, Baja Breeze
Paper: Baja breeze, Always Artichoke, Whisper White, Vellum
Other: White Grosgrain ribbon

Peaceful days

What better way is there to spend a day then to make cards. We're having a very quiet peaceful day in our house, my kind of day.

My first card was one I made late last night. I'm really enjoying the pocket silhouettes stamp set. Very calming.

Recipe:
Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes
Inks: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, DSP Green Tea
Other: MM Brads, Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon


This next card was made using my cuttlebug swiss dots folder. I love my folders but sometimes forget to use them. Very basic card but I like how it turned out.


Recipe:
Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, So Saffron
Other: Chocolate Chip ribbon, swiss dots embossing folder

The last card was just a simple idea I saw on SCS, using your white gel pen to highlight a stamped area. Very pretty effect.

Recipe:
Stamps: Sincere Salutations, Eastern Blooms
Ink: Chocolate Chip, White gel pen
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze
Other: White grosgrain ribbon

Great week!

My excuse for not posting for so long is that I had a busy week, my sister was here visiting, I had my grand opening party and the list goes on. I haven't even had time to stamp with some of my brand new stamp sets, which has been really hard.

My grand opening party went extremely well, I sold almost $900 dollars in merchandise, including my order. I can hardly wait for my order to come in. I ordered over 20 packs of paper, stamp sets, more designer paper, and a bunch of other stuff. I really tried to keep to my rule of stocking up on paper and not going on a stamp buying frenzy. The best part of having my party was that I have a lady who wants to hold a workshop in November and she already picked which Christmas cards she'd like to make, makes my job pretty easy.

It probably also helped that I am currently offering a free ink pad for holding a party plus another one when your party reaches $400 in merchandise sales. Plus Stampin Up has a promotion on right now from October 1 - November 30, earn a free stamp set from the catalogue sampler when your party reaches $460 in sales. So she has the potential of receiving quite a bit of free stuff.

Here's simple card that I made tonight with one of my new stamps, and also one of my favorites, it's called pocket silhouettes. TFL.

Recipe:
Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes
Ink: tangerine orange, chocolate chip, whisper white, Hawaii Papaya dsp, versamark (for the stamped images on the tangarine orange)
Other: Chocolate chip ribbon

Make & Takes

I've agonized and stressed over what cards to make at my party. I'm even losing sleep over it, yeah I know. But I have my two make & takes ready and I don't plan on changing them. I wanted to showcase two techniques that I personally love but also not make them too hard for possible new stampers.

The first one is made using the new in colors and the new stamp set Upsy Daisy (which also happens to be the door prize). The technique on this one is using any ink pad to get the heat embossed look. You basically dip your stamp in a versamark pad and then straight into your ink pad. This allows the ink to stay wet enough to sprinkle your clear EP over. Love this technique!

Recipe:
Stamps: Upsy Daisy
Ink: Old Olive
Paper: Old Olive, Baja breeze, Whisper White, DSP Green tea
Other: Old Olive ribbon, versamark, clear embossing powder

This next card has caused me a lot of stress. I love this stamp set, love the brayered sky technique but had a really hard time coming up with a design that did this stamp set justice. The only thing I might change is to remove the ribbon and use three brads instead.


Recipe:
Stamps: Nature Silhouettes, Fundamental Phrases
Ink: So Saffron, Apricot Appeal, Really Rust, Riding Hood Red
Paper: Basic Black, Really Rust, So Saffron
Other: Apricot Appeal Ribbon, Versamark, Black Embossing Powder

Door Prizes

Well I think I've finally got my door prizes ready for my grand opening party next week. I will be giving away two note card boxes with finished note cards, one set of clips assorted and with every $30 spent in merchandise you will be entered a draw for a chance to win the Upsy Daisy stamp set. I'm getting more and more excited. If I receive any orders online that are over $30 in merchandise sales you will also be entered for the Upsy Daisy draw as well as the other door prizes. But your order will need to be in by Tuesday afternoon (September 23rd.). Wish me luck!

I love Stampin' Up!

I've been buying from them for quite some time, but I'm only now really beginning to appreciate their product. I love that everything matches so perfectly. I never have to hunt forever for a shade of paper that is "close enough".

I've been busy trying to come up with different Christmas cards for our local craft sale. I want the cards to be simple but still have the wow factor. I think these next few are okay, but we'll find out in November...

Recipe:
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Sincere Salutations
Ink: Old Olive, Certainly Celery
Paper: Old Olive, Whisper White
Other:Old Olive ribbon, dazzling diamonds


Recipe:
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Holidays & Wishes
Ink: Always Artichoke, Bravo Burgundy, Whisper White
Paper: Bravo Burgundy
Other: Bravo Burgundy ribbon, dazzling diamonds

This next card is not a Christmas card but I kind of like how it turned out. I wasn't sure about the color combo but now I like it.

Recipe:
Stamps: Hoidays & Wishes, Embrace Life
Ink: Always Artichoke, Chocolate Chip
Paper: Always Artichoke, Baja Breeze, Whisper white, Green Tea DSP
Other: Ribbon from Michaels, MM rhinestone brads

Silence is bliss

My mother took the kids for the afternoon which gives me some much needed silence at least for a few hours. I love my kids but they can try your patience, especially if it's on a day where all you want is some peace and quiet.

So I tried my hand at making these adorable boxes. I got the template from Split coast stampers. Although I did change the measurements so that they would hold your typical card measurement of 4 1/4 x 5 1/2. I'm thinking about making some of these for the local craft show that I'll be at this year. I was thinking I would make maybe 5 simple cards to go in the box with envies. They're so easy to make.
I won't post the recipe for these since they were made using paper that I've had laying around for ages so I don't remember where they're from.

Stampin Up!

I'm having a workshop at my house towards the end of September so these are the cards I made to hand out to everyone that I know. I'm really excited about what Stampin Up! has to offer and I love sharing with other stampers.

Recipe:
Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Sincere Salutations
Ink: Old Olive
Paper: Baja Breeze, whisper white, Green Tea DSP
Other: Scallop Punch, versamark, clear EP, ribbon from Michaels

Possible Make & Take

I've been trying to find card ideas that will interest the ladies but be simple enough for my first cardmaking party. I think this card fits the bill. I forget what the technique is called but you basically tap your stamp in your versamark pad and then straight onto your colored ink pad of choice. This allows you to add clear EP to the image. I love this technique because it eliminates the need for so many colors of embossing powder. I'm hoping that by using SU's latest in colors and DSP that it'll spark some interest.

Recipe:
Stamp: SU Upsy Daisy
Ink: Old Olive, chocolate chip
Paper: Chocolate chip, baja breeze, very vanilla, DSP - Green Tea
Other: SU ribbon in old olive, versamkark, clear embossing powder

Water Coloring

I love the look of water coloring on a card, the shading is so beautiful. So that's what I tried to do in this next card. I guess practice will make it perfect.
I first stamped the flower in stazOn black and then created a mask for the flower before I stamped the leaves. I think it makes it look prettier. Then I used my aqua painters and SU ink pads to water color the flower and leaves.

Recipe:

Stamps: Embrace Life
Ink: SU Pale Plum & Perfectly Plum, black stazOn
Paper: SU Pale Plum, Perfectly Plum, Very Vanilla, water color paper, DP is unknown
Other: Nestabilities, purple rhinestone brads (I think Making Memories) and SU Eggplant ribbon

Good Morning!

It's a rainy day over here and it's a holiday so it makes for a perfect lazy day. Which translates into lots of cardmaking...

My Christmas card today is something I've seen done by quite a few artists and have been wanting to try. I think I might have missed the boat on this one though, I don't think the colors look quite right, but you never learn if you don't try, right?
For the circles I punched out the baja breeze with my 1 1/4 punch from SU, then I stamped with versmark and the heat & stick powder, next I used my heat gun to melt the powder, while it was still warm I added the dazzling diamonds and used the heat gun once more to set the glitter.

Here's the Recipe:

Stamps: Sincere Salutations, Priceless
Inks : StazOn black
Paper: The two browns I believe are bazzil but I don't remember the names, the blue is the new In Color from Stampin Up! Baja Breeze.
Other: Hemp Twine, SU! Heat & Stick pwd, SU dazzling diamonds