Cards for Operation Write Home!

I haven’t posted in awhile but I assure you I have been busy being crafty! Last weekend we held and Operation Write Home cardmaking event at The Haughton House where 15 awesome ladies helped make almost 200 cards for our deployed troops to send home to their families.

Want to see each design separately? Of course you do!

Sentiment by Stampendous, ink is SU! Real Red, red seam binding from Reasonable Ribbon, all other supplies are random from my stash or donations from others

Sentiment “Mom” cut using Silhouette SD digital cutter, flower die is Sizzix Daisies #2, card base is SU! Blush Blossom, all other supplies are random from my stash or donations from others

Sentiment from Technique Tuesday, Medallion stamped from SU! Artistic Etchings, Ink is SU! Cherry Cobbler, paper is SU! Love Letter design series, all other supplies are random from my stash or donations from others

Sentiment from Technique Tuesday stamped in Versafine Sepia, Flowers from Bo Bunny stamped in SU! Pool Party, die cut from Hero Arts, all other supplies are random from my stash or donations from others

Sentiment from Hero Arts stamped in SU! Old Olive ink, butterflies die cut with SU! Beautiful Wings embosslit, border punch from EK Success, all other supplies are random from my stash or donations from others

Sentiment from SU! Something to Celebrate in SU! Lucky Limeade ink, flowers from SU! Best Blossoms in SU! Rose Romance, Pretty in Pink and Lucky Limeade inks, doily from Bo Bunny, all other supplies are random from my stash or donations from others

Didn’t they do a great job? Thanks so much everyone for all the hard work!

Tags: artistic etchings, beautiful wings, best blossoms, big shot, blush blossom, bo bunny, brads, cherry cobbler, daisies #2, ek success, hero arts, love letter, lucky limeade, old olive, pool party, pretty in pink, real red, reasonable ribbon, rhinestones, ribbon, rose romance, silhouette, sizzix, something to celebrate, stampendous, technique tuesday, versafine

Holiday Card Workshop, Bonus Day 2, Cards 2 and 3

I have a two-fer for you today! I’m trying to get caught up on posting all the cards I’ve made recently so I’m going to post two at a time for a while.

These two were both from the second Bonus Day of the Holiday Card Workshop, which focused on using non-holiday stamps .   I cheated a little on the first one, because the stamp set is a mix-match sentiment set that does include a holiday sentiment.  Don’t tell on me

For this second one I decided to have a little fun! I used a holiday sentiment and then embellished with these funny, fussy cut monkeys.  I have a particular person in mind that will love receiving this card.

About the first card:  The sentiment is from Stampin’ Up! Happy Everything. I stamped the ‘happy’ in Versamark and head embossed with red glitter embossing powder, then touched it up with a little red glitter glue for extra sparkle.  The ‘holidays’ is stamped in SU! Real Red ink and I added a single adhesive rhinestone as an accent.  I hand cut the white cardstock (Hammermill) into a pennant shapes and then mounted them to my card with dimensional adhesives.  The card base is SU! Sage Shadow cardstock that has been dry embossed with a Sizzix houndstooth embossing folder. 

About the second card:  The sentiments are from the Stampin’ Up! Season’s Greetings stamp set and are stamped in Versafine Onyx Black on some blue patterned paper from my scraps bin that was die cut on my Big Shot with the Top Note die.  I stamped the monkeys from Hero Arts Playful Animals with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on white Hammermill cardstock and colored them with Copic markers before fussy cutting them out.   I die cut some branches of textured green cardstock from my scraps bin with the Sizzix Little Leaves die and added red berries with a red Viva Decor Pearl Pen. 

Tags: big shot, copics, dry embossing, glitter, hammermill, happy everything, heat embossing, hero arts, houndstooth, little leaves, memento ink, pearl pen, real red, rhinestones, sage shadow, season's greetings, sizzix, top note, versafine, versamark, viva decor

Holiday Card Workshop, Bonus Day 2, Card 1

Today’s card from the Holiday Card Workshop was from a lesson on using non-Christmas stamps for a Christmas card. This is great for stretching your stamps!

This style of card is a little outside my wheelhouse, but I thought it was really pretty and I’m pleased with how mine came out. I particularly love the effect of the white embossed flower on vellum colored with Stickles. The Stickles caused the vellum to curl up a lot, so after they were dry I had to flatten it back out, and the end result is a neat texture, which I was relieved to discover!

About this card:  The rose from Stampin’ Up! Fifth Avenue Floral was stamped in Versamark on vellum and heat embossed with Ranger detail white embossing powder.  I then “colored” it with Diamond Ice Stickles.  I used a Fiskars snowflake punch to punch three snowflakes from Worldwin metallic gold cardstock.  I covered them with Elmer’s gold glitter glue.  I die cut some white cardstock with the Sizzix Little Leaves die, the sponged it with Versamark and brushed on Perfect Pearls in Pearl to add shimmer.  I stamped the sentiment from SU! Sincere Salutations in Versafine Onyx Black  on Hammermill white cardstock and hand cut it into a pennant.  I added some adhesive rhinestones, Liquid Pearls, and more Stickles onto the grey background paper which was also sponged with Colorbox Silver pigment ink.

Tags: colorbox, fifth avenue floral, fiskars, glitter, hammermill, heat embossing, liquid pearls, little leaves, perfect pearls, ranger, rhinestones, sincere salutations, sizzix, stickles, vellum, versafine, versamark, worldwin

Merry Christmas

Hello all, a second post for me today! Trying to get all these Christmas cards photographed and posted before Christmas comes and goes!

This pair are from the Stampin’ Up! Holiday card class that I attended a couple of weeks ago.  They both use glossy cardstock as the dry embossed background and I really love the look! I will be doing more of that in the future!

Here’s a closer look at one of them where you can see how pretty the embossing is on the glossy cardstock.

About these cards: Everything is from Stampin’ Up! The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes and is stamped in Real Red ink on Whisper White cardstock and die cut with the Bitty Banners Framelits die.  I curled it with my fingers and adhered it with dimensional adhesive under one side to maintain the curled look.  The ornaments are from the Ornament Keepsakes set and are stamped in Gumball Green (left) and Real Red (right).  I added some adhesive rhinestones to the red ornament, and both ornaments are die cut with their coordinating Framelit die then mounted on dimensional adhesives.  The glossy white cardstock is dry embossed on my Big Shot with the Holiday Frame embossing folder.  The mats for both cards are Gumball Green cardstock.

Tags: big shot, dry embossing, framelits, gumball green, holiday frame, ornament keepsakes, real red, rhinestones, teeny tiny wishes, whisper white

O Come Let Us Adore Him

Happy Tuesday, all! I have two more cards to show you from the SU! card class I attended over the weekend.  Again these are variations on the same kit.

I love this one because it is clean and simple and it’s on kraft cardstock!  The one on the right is the first one I did, where the stamping is directly on the card base.  That makes me nervous so on my next one I stamped on a second piece of kraft instead.  On the first one the red strip is adhered to the inside of the card, on the second it’s adhered to the card front.

Closer view of both cards:

About these cards:  All supplies are from Stampin’ Up!  The kraft cardstock is Crumb Cake and the red is Real Red.  I punched the bottom of both cards with the scallop border punch.  The sentiment and image are from the Come to Bethlehem stamp set and are stamped in Early Espresso and Real Red.  A little adhesive rhinestone finishes the card.

Tags: come to bethlehem, crumb cake, early espresso, real red, rhinestones, scallop border punch

Holiday Card Workshop Day 5, Card 2

Today is the last day of the workshop, but the fun continues for me because I am only halfway through!

This lesson was supposed to be about stamp and die combos but it may shock you to learn that I have none (yes, there is a scrap supply I don’t own!) so I had to get a little creative.  For this one I used a sticker sheet from Echo Park, because it had an awesome big tree on it.  I mounted the tree on ivory cardstock and cut it out, to give it stability on the pop dots and also to give it a light border, which provides some contrast against the dark cardstock behind it.  Since it had music preprinted on it, I dry embossed my cardstock with a sheet music embossing folder.  The striped border was some coordinating paper from the same collection and the border stickers are from the same sticker sheet, as are all the snowflakes I decorated the tree with.  I added some pearls, rhinestones, and stickles and this complicated-looking card was actually pretty quick:

About this card:  The tree, decorations, and border stickers are all from Echo Park’s  Merry Christmas collection, as is the striped patterned paper strip down the left side.   I added pearls and rhinestones from my stash, along with Diamond Ice Stickles.  The brown cardstock is Stampin’ Up! Early Espresso and has been dry embossed with a Darice embossing folder, Sheet Music.  The narrow strip of red cardstock is a scrap of SU! Cherry Cobbler. The card base is SU! Very Vanilla. 

Tags: darice, early espresso, echo park, glitter, pearls, rhinestones, sheet music, stickers, stickles, very vanilla

Birthday Butterfly

Hello all – a short break today from Holiday Card Workshop projects to show you a birthday card I made for my sister! Although, since I used a technique I learned in the workshop, I’m not sure I can say this is a break!

It’s hard to see in the picture but this card is made using the shim for dry embossing that leaves an unembossed void in the center of the card.  The laser cut chipboard piece kinda covers it up.

Since this one isn’t for OWH, I used this thick chipboard and coated it with glitter – my sister’s favorite thing in the world, lol!  I colored the chipboard with markers first, and then stickles on the flowers and butterfly, and then rhinestones here and there, makes for a very sparkly, special card.

About this card:  Laser cut chipboard is Color Me Crazy by Petaloo and is colored with various Stampin’ Up! markers and accented with Diamond Ice Stickles and adhesive rhinestones.   The pink cardstock is SU! Pixie Pink and is dry embossed with the Cuttlebug Birds and Swirls embossing folder, using a shim to leave a void in the center.  I sprayed the embossed piece with some water mixed with Perfect Pearls in Pearl for added shimmer.  The mat is SU! Early Espresso and the card base is SU! Taken with Teal.  

Tags: birds and swirls, chipboard, cuttlebug folder, dry embossing, early espresso, glitter, perfect pearls, petaloo, pixie pink, rhinestones, stampin up markers, stickles, taken with teal

Holiday Card Workshop Day 4, Card 4

Has anyone noticed it’s taken me 3 days to complete Day 4 of the workshop? LOL!

I struggled a bit with this one and I wasn’t sure I’d like it until it all came together at the end.  This modern style isn’t my usual thing, but I think this card is fun and cute and I’m sure I can find a recipient that will love it.  It’s a neat take on paper piecing which is a technique I really love for using up scraps! One thing I might change is that big rhinestone on the top of the tree – I think I might replace it with gold liquid pearls instead.

About this card: The rhinestones and patterned papers here are all random from my scraps and stash.  I stamped a Christmas tree from an old Stampabilities Christmas set in white Stazon ink on a piece of an old transparency.  I also stamped it on a scrap of lime green patterned paper and cut it out to layer beneath the transparency.   I punched a scrap of Stampin’ Up! Real Red cardstock with a Martha Stewart Laurel Leaf Trim punch and adhered it on the bottom of the column.  The top of the column has a piece of SU! Crushed Curry cardstock punched with the scallop border punch.  The red baker’s twine is from Really Reasonable Ribbon. 

Tags: baker's twine, crushed curry, martha stewart, real red, reasonable ribbon, rhinestones, scallop border punch, stampabilities, stazon, transparency

There’s No Place Like Home

Happy Thursday, all!

I made this card ages ago in hopes of getting it published, but that didn’t happen, so now I’m sharing it here

I stamped the scene on watercolor paper and the colored it with a water brush and distress inks.  I used a white Viva Decor pen to create my lights, then once dry, colored them carefully with Copic markers.   The snow at the bottom is a bit of torn watercolor paper.

About this card:  The stamps are all from the Hero Arts Right at Home stamp set and are stamped in Versafine Onyx Black ink on watercolor paper.  I used an aqua brush and Distress Inks in Vintage Photo, Fired Brick, Scattered Straw, Tumbled Glass, and Broken China to color my scene.  I stamped the sentiment on a scrap of watercolor paper and tore it into a snow drift and adhered it across the bottom of the scene. I used Stampin’ Up! Whisper White ink to stamp the heart “smoke” clouds and a Sakura white gel pen to put snow on the roof of the house.  I dabbed on Viva Decor pearl pen in Pearl to create the stars and the house lights.  I smeared one of my stars so I turned it into a Christmas Star by adding some adhesive rhinestones And then bright colored Copics to color the dried pearl “lights” completed the card.   The card base is SU! Real Red cardstock.

Tags: copics, distress ink, hero arts, pearl pen, real red, rhinestones, sakura, versafine, viva decor, watercolor, watercolor paper, whisper white

Celebrate the Season

Howdy, y’all! Another Christmas card to share today! This one will be for my October 23 card class at The Haughton House.  Hopefully my students won’t be too upset about having to fussy cut out these ornaments…

About this card: The ornaments from We R Memory Keepers Peppermint Twist were stamped in Versamark ink on Worldwin red cardstock and heat embossed with Ranger gold embossing powder before being fussy cut out.  I used two generic red rhinestones from my stash to accent.   The designer paper panels are from Echo Park Seasons Greetings collection and are matted with Worldwin green cardstock.  The sentiment from Technique Tuesday Greenhouse Society 07-12 is also heat embossed in gold on more green cardstock and cut by hand into the pennant shape.  I used a Sakura gold gel pen and a ruler to draw hang lines for the ornaments.

Tags: echo park, heat embossing, ranger, rhinestones, sakura, technique tuesday, versamark, we r memory keepers, worldwin