Happy Holidays Series | Sparkling Surprise ft. Lawn Fawn "For You, Deer"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Yesterday was the first day that I haven't posted since the beginning of July. I'd like to tell you it was because I was super busy getting ready for Christmas. But I wasn't. I had coffee with a friend in the morning and the rest of the day got away from me. It wasn't until I was getting ready for bed that I even realized it. And by then I was too tired to post. So I apologize.

To make up for it, I have a super cute card featuring Lawn Fawn stamps and dies (no surprise there!). I knew I wanted to make a card where you could pull out the bookmark, but I still wanted the card to be pretty without that main focus piece. And while some may think there is too much sparkle, I think it turned out rather well.

To begin, I cut the large snowflake from Lawn Fawn's "Stitched Snowflakes" dies from the top centre of a piece of silver glitter paper. I used the panel or positive space of the cut for my front panel. Over my background, I lined up the snowflake and adhered all those little pieces that we normally just toss away.

I cut a piece of shimmering paper for my greetings banner and stamped the Happy Holidays using VersaMark ink and heat embossed with silver powder.

On a piece of 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock I stamped the front and back of the deer tag from "For You, Deer" with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and coloured him with Copics. I placed the tag inside the snowflake (as you can see in the photo above) and built up my foam tape around him.

I adhered the sparkling panel to the front of my shimmering panel and then mounted the whole piece to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

I stamped the little message on to a piece of blue shimmering cardstock and put the tag together. I then added a red gem for his nose and some baker's twine through the top of the tag.

Now, even when the recipient removes the tag, the card is still pretty enough to keep on display!

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

A Little More Autumn | ft. Lawn Fawn

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Now that the weather has broken a bit, I thought I'd recreate a fall card that I made ages ago, and share it with you. The last few years we have had some wonderful autumns, but they always seem so short.

While my house still says "Halloween", I'm starting to think about how I want it to be for the winter season, I typically do blues and silvers about this time of year, then at the beginning of December the tree goes up and gets decorated.

To begin, I used the "Stitched Leaves" dies from Lawn Fawn to cut the three large leaves from 110lb cardstock. I used Distress inks to make them look like autumn leaves.

I used a torn paper die to create my panel from the same cardstock and stamped the greeting using Lawn Fawn Black Licorice ink.

I adhered the leaves together using liquid glue, just to give myself a bit of time to have them arranged perfectly. I added a length of natural twine around the front panel, then popped the panel up on foam tape and adhered it to the front of a standard A2 sized card base, in brown.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

Muse Card Challenge

Challenge #241

 Thank you all so much for you votes and Support!

Sympathy Silhouette | ft. Distress Oxide Inks

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

A while back I did a comparison between Distress Inks and Distress Oxide Inks (you can see that post here, Distress Showdown) and I showed the most common uses for my current collection of regular Distress inks and how the Oxides compared.

This was the first time I stamped over a Distress Oxide background, and I'm beyond impressed with the results. I cannot believe how crisp the images turned out, with the help of the MISTI, of course.

I have been holding off on getting more Oxides because I didn't know if I really wanted duplicate inks that didn't come in the mini cubes taking up space - as we all know the space we have is precious. This really tipped the scales for me, and I have a list going of my most used Distress inks that I want to get in the Oxides. I was so pleased with how the background turned out and the crisp stamping on top that it is definitely worth the space they large pads will take up.

To begin, I sponged Salty Ocean and Broken China Distress Oxide inks over my panel to create a very subtle ombre look, with the darkest in the lower left corner. I then used my Distress Sprayer to spritz water over the panel, let that sit for about 20 seconds then blotted it dry with a clean paper towel.

Once the panel was completely dry, I put it in my MISTI and stamped the floral silhouette from Inkadinkado and the greeting from (Recollection, I think) with CTMH Archival Black ink. I did notice that the Archival ink stayed wet a bit longer than it normally would, as though the pigment in the Oxides created a barrier. So stamp with caution! Wait until it is dry before touching. Smearing is likely to occur.

Once the ink was dry, I used a piece of black twine to create a bow. I would love to find twine that doesn't have all these little hairs sticking out of it. I love twine, but I do not love this.

I then mounted the coloured background to a piece of black cardstock, then adhered the whole lot to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

I then used my Nuvo Crystal Drops (gloss) in Ebony Black to add a bit of detail. The more I use these drops the more I absolutely love them (foreshadow - review/comparison coming soon!) I'm less happy about the 24 hour cure time on the drops, but frankly the finished product is well worth the wait.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge

Anything Goes

Winter and Holiday Card Series 2015 - Card 16

I've done dozens of shaker cards in the past, but when I saw a technique that removes the bulk of the card I just had to try it. This card is a two way shaker, meaning that open or closed you can see the shaker.

Having less bulk in a card allows for easier mailing and a reduced risk of getting damaged while being tossed about in the postal system.

Any card maker with experience in shakers will tell you that there is nothing worse than finding out the time (potentially hours) put into making a shaker card was all for naught because of postal damage. While I personally love the dimension that a traditional shaker has, this technique is far more mail friendly.

Two-way shaker card with copic coloured winter penguin skating on glossy ice with Christmas twine accent.