A green and red duo.

After reading all of the lovely comments that were left on my last post I keep wishing that there was a "like" button like on Facebook, lol.  Since there isn't I will take this opportunity to thank those who left those great comments - Thank You!!!  :)

I have two more Christmas cards to post.  Sometimes I just really want to play, and make a card without really thinking about it.  In these instances I will go back to cards that I've loved previously and reuse the layout with new products.  This also makes it easier when you are trying to mass produce cards for the holidays.

Several weeks ago  on a weekend my awesome husband (have I mentioned how awesome he is?  :) ) let me craft to my heart's content while he had some father-son time with our boy.  On that day I loved my my first card so much I used the same layout.  I ended up with two cards that I really love.  Here is the first one:

When I started this card I thought I'd be making something quick as I wanted to make several.  Of course I kept adding things to the process which ended up taking longer than I had anticipated, but I really liked the result, and I enjoyed the process which is the most important thing anyway!

As always I started  with 8.5" by 11" cardstock and cut it in half to make my A2 size card (5.5" by 4.25").  I cut down a lovely sheet of berry patterned paper.  I really love the cursive writing, for some reason this feels really festive to me.  To bring out the red berries I matted it with a piece of red cardstock.  Before adhering these together I thought they looked a bit too clean for the pattern so I inked the edges of both pieces with chocolate brown ink  I thought this tied in to the smudgy parchment feeling of the pattern background.

I chose the sentiment because I thought it worked well with the paper, and I really liked it with the punch I used (one of my new favourites from this year).  Once punched I inked the edges with chocolate brown ink, added some glitter to the stamped image, and added a bit of ribbon. I adhered the sentiment with foam squares to give a bit of dimension.  I chose thin red ribbon to bring out the colour of the berries even more, and I chose some hemp twine to tie into the kraft cardstock.  A little bow adds a bit of prettiness.

 To tie in the kraft cardstock a bit more so I inked the edges of the front with chocolate brown ink, then adhered it all together.  I made six of these in total, so while it was not a difficult card to make the inking took a lot of time but it was worth it.  Here is a close up of the sparkle:

Here are the supplies I used:

Cardstock:  Stampin Up!  Crumb Cake, Real Red, Whisper White, K&C Company Tim Coffey Blossomwood 12 by 12 Designer Paper Pad

Ink: Stampin Up! Chocolate Chip, Real Red. Stampin Up!

Stamp Set:  Stampin Up! Christmas Punch

Embellishments:  Stampin Up! Dazzling Diamonds, Natural Hemp Twine, Offray 3mm wide red ribbon.

Adhesives:  Tombow Mono Permanent Adhesive runner, Stampin Up! 2 way glue pen, foam squares, Zots.

Tools:  Fiskars Paper Trimmer, EK Success Flourish Square Punch.



While it took me a bit of time to make this first card I still had some time leftover.  I really just wanted to get inky and play, so I pulled out a sheet of Pink Paislee Mistables and decided to make a card similar to the one above.  This is what I came up with:

I also pulled out some smooch spritzes, and before doing anything I sprayed the cardstock I was going to use as a base with some gold spritz, and I also sprayed the white cardstock that I would eventually stamp.  I let these dry before cutting and punching. 

I really like the Mistables sheet with the stamps and addresses on it, so I decided that would be the one I'd work with.  I used three shades of green and a blending tool to bring out the honeycomb pattern.  I then sprayed the whole thing with more gold spritz.  I let this dry before cutting it down.  I decided to mat this piece with two colors of cardstock, a light green, and some more kraft (I loooove kraft).  I inked both mats with  some green ink that matches the base cardstock, and I inked the patterned paper with black.

I thought that the postage stamp rubber stamp worked perfectly with the pattern paper so after stamping and punching with the same punch as before, I used my Stampin Write markers to colour in the image as I felt it needed a bit more colour.  I inked the punched piece with both green and black, to tie it in to the inks I used elsewhere.

I thought hemp twine worked perfectly on this card as it looks kind of package-y, and for this reason I used knots instead of a bow.  I didn't like the hemp twine by itself however, so I added some green ribbon.  I added tidbits of these to my Santa stamp cutout, and attached it with foam squares.  The whole thing was then adhered to the front of the card.  I also made six of these. Here is a better image of the shimmer (although it really doesn't do it justice):

I love how these two cards really turned out so differenly but when you put them side by side you can definitely see how they relate.

Here are the supplies I used for the second card:

Cardstock:  Stampin Up!  Garden Green, Certainly Celery, Crumb Cake, Whisper White.  Pink Paislee Mistables.

Ink: Stampin Up! Garden Green, Certainly Celery, Kiwi Kiss. Staz On Jet Black.  Smooch Spritz Gold Glow, Emerald Sprinkle.  Stampin Up! Stampin Write Markers Real Red, Blush Blossom, Garden Green, Certainly Celery.

Stamp Set: Christmas Punch.

Adhesives: Tombow Mono Permanent adhesive runner, Zots, foam squares.

Tools:  Fiskars Paper Trimmer, EK Success Flourish Square Punch.

Two For the Price of One - A Snowman Duo.

Its getting closer and closer to Christmas and with that thought I think I will post two cards today. :)

I was on a big blue and white with snowflakes kick for a bit and so my next holiday card looks similar to the first, but most of the techniques I used were quite different.

I started out with Pink Paislee's Mistables paper.  I love this stuff!  It features many neutral office-like backgrounds like the text I used above, or old ledgers, backs of envelopes, sheets with writing, etc. and it has a clear pattern embossed over it.  The fun thing about this is when you use paint, ink, and mist sprays over the paper the clear pattern reveals itself.  Also, the paper is quite thick so it will hold up to a lot of inks and sprays without warping too much.  So much fun to play with!

With this first attempt I used Tattered Angels "Winter Wishes" set.  I cut the Mistables to 4" by 3.75" and sprayed it with the three colours included in the mist set followed by the included clear coat.  After waiting a bit I wiped the excess off of the embossed parts so that it would stand out nicely against the shimmery background. 

While I waited for that to dry I cut a piece of navy cardstock to 5.5" by 8.5", scoring at 4.25" and folding.  I sprayed the side facing out with the same Tattered Angels clear coat which also has some shimmer in it.  The gray was cut to 5.25" by 4".  I sanded the edges, and then inked with navy ink.

I sprayed some white cardstock with the clear shimmer spray as well, and stamped my image. I punched the image out with a matching tag punch, and I punched some snowflakes from the same cardstock.  I inked the edges of the snow flakes with navy and added some rhinestones.

By now I was a bit impatient so I finished drying the Mistables with my heat gun.  I sanded the edges a bit and attached it to the gray cardstock.  Once knotting and adding the ribbon, I attached the snow flakes with foam squares, added a brad to the tag, and attached the tag with more foam squares.  The whole thing was attached to the card front.

I love this card because it is so shimmery, and the text makes it interesting.  The sparkle is difficult to see in the above picture so here is another view:

Still a bit difficult to see, but if you look close you can see a bit of the shimmer, and some of the drop marks made by the spray.  This was a really fun card to make.

Here are the supplies I used:

Cardstock:  Stampin Up! Night of Navy, Whisper White, Basic Gray.  Pink Paislee Mistables.

Ink: Stampin Up! Night of Navy, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Winter Wishes set which includes: Moonlight, Frost, Spring Violet, and Glacier.

Stamp Set: Stampin Up! Christmas Punch.

Embellishments: Recollections brads (Michaels), Basic Jewels Rhinestones, Offray ribbon in gray.

Adhesive: Tombow Mono adhesive runner, Zots, Foam squares.

Tools:  Stampin Up!  Snow Blossom punch (retired), Extra Large Tag punch, Fiskars paper trimmer, sandpaper, heat gun.


I must have had snow flakes and snowmen on my mind because I put more on my next card.  Actually the real inspiration for this card was that I wanted to see if I could make a pretty holiday card with just black and white.

I started out by making my own shimmer spray using a few drops of  Tsukineko All Purpose Ink in Frost White with rubbing alcohol, and spraying on black cardstock.  I cut the cardstock to 8.5" by 5.5" and scored and folded at 4.25".

I cut a white piece of cardstock to 5" by 3.75" and inked the edges with black ink.  I cut a black piece of cardstock to 4.75" by 3.5 and stamped snowflakes in a random pattern with Versamark ink, and embossed with white embossing powder.  I inked the edges with white ink.

A final piece of white cardstock was 2.75" by 1.75".  I corner rounded the edges and stamped the image and inked the edges with black.  I added some iridescent glitter, and attached some ribbon to the back.  Once adding silver brads I adhered this to the black snowflake pattern with foam squares, the black pattern was attached to the white, and the whole thing was adhered to the card front.

I love how this card turned out.  This is not a normal colour combination I would go with and I find it festive despite the black.  I usually colour or water colour the snowman image but the glitter looks so snowy - here is a close up:

If you can't tell by now, I love snowflakes and snowmen so I really enjoyed making these two cards.  I hope the people who receive them enjoy them as much as I did!

Here are the supplies I used for the second card:

Cardstock:  Stampin Up! Basic Black, Whisper White.

Ink: Stazon Jet Black, Versamark Watermark Ink, Martha Stewart Bright White embossing powder. Stampin Up! Whisper White craft ink, Tsukineko All Purpose Ink Frost White (I purchased this from Stampin Up! as shimmer paint, but I've seen it on other websites as well)

Stamp sets: Stampin Up! Wishing You Cheer (retired), Snow Burst (retired).

Embellishments: Recollections Brads (Michaels), Celebrate It Basic Narrow gross grain black ribbon, Stampin Up! Dazzling Diamonds Glitter.

Adhesive: Tombow Mono adhesive runner, foam squares, Stampin Up! two way glue pen.

Tools: Fiskars paper trimmer, We R Memory Keepers corner rounder punch, sponge, Ranger mini mister, heat gun.

The First Christmas Card of the Season

There is something about snowflakes that get me in the mood for holiday card making, so its no surprise that the card above is the first one I made this year.  Here is how I did it:

I started with the patterned paper used in the background.  I sometimes like to make my own patterned paper, and since this was my first card of the season I didn't have any holiday paper in my stash yet.  I used the emboss resist technique here.  I started out with some 8.5" x 11" white card stock, and stamped various sized snowflakes all over it with Versamark ink, and embossed with clear embossing powder.  After this I used sponges to layer various shades of ink over the card stock. I started with the lightest and ended with the darkest so I could see where to put the dark without going overboard. When satisfied with the shading I went over the whole thing lightly with silver pigment ink.  This gave the paper a lovely sheen that is difficult to see in the photo. I made sure to wipe off the snowflakes in between each layer so they stayed nice and white.

Once the patterned paper was dry, I chose the card stock to put with it - navy for the matting, and dark grey for the card.  I cut the 8.5" x11" grey card stock in half lengthwise, so I ended up with a piece measuring 4.25" x 11".  I scored the fold line at 5.5", so my final card measures 5.5" x 4.25".  The navy card stock was cut to 3.75" x 5", and the snowflake pattern to 3.5" x 4.75".  I cut the pieces for the sentiment before stamping, the navy measures 1.5" x 4" and the white is 1.25" x 3.75".

After corner rounding the small pieces I stamped the sentiment on the white using a Stamp-a-ma-jig, and inked the edge with navy ink using a sponge, then I ran the silver ink pad lightly over the edge.  I matted the white on the navy and added silver brads.

The patterned paper was also inked with navy around the edges.  Its hard to see but I feel like it gives the pattern a bit more depth.  Once matted on the navy card stock I added grey ribbon horizontally, and grey patterned ribbon vertically.  I punched two snowflakes out of white and inked the edges with navy, added some crystals to the middle and adhered them to the card where the two ribbons meet.  I attached this to the card front, then attached the sentiment using foam squares.

And there you have it!  Once the patterned paper was done it was really a simple card to make. I think I made eight of these total.  Definitely one of my favourites.

Here is a list of supplies I used.  Many of the items I have from Stampin Up! are retired but you could easily substitute for similar items.

Card stock:  Stampin Up! Whisper white, Night of Navy, and Basic Gray

Inks: Stampin Up! Baja Breeze, Pacific Point, Going Gray (retired), Night of Navy.  Versamark Watermark Ink.  Tsukineko Brilliance Starlite Silver.

Embossing powder:  Martha Stewart clear.

Adhesives: Tombo Mono Permanent Adhesive runner, Zots, foam squares. 

Ribbon: Offray (plain gray) and American Crafts Silver and White Snowflake.

Embellishments: Recollections brads (from Michaels) and Stampin Up! Basic Jewels.

Punch:  Stampin Up! Snow Blossom (retired)

Stamp sets:  Stampin Up! Many Merry Messages and Snow Burst (retired)