It's been a while

Well, I haven't been blogging, but that doesn't mean I haven't been stamping!  I've been playing with some new techniques/styles.  Here are a few:

 On StampTV, Gina K had done a card similar to this using gold card stock for the background and a cross stamp for the focal image.  I hate wasting the expensive metallic paper, so I made mine by using versamark and embossing powder just around the edges of plain white card stock.  I didn't have a cross stamp, so I used two die cut labels instead.  For the cross piece, I cut it in half and overlapped them a bit behind the top piece to make the proportions better. Then I used a filigree stamp to stamp the whole thing at once wit hversamark and embossed it with gold embossing powder. Then I added pearls and an embossed sentiment.

This black and white card uses a technique shown on Splitcoast Stampers.  The center is kept smooth while the rest is embossed. I think it gives a great look.  I forgot I used it in the above card, too, but it's really hard to see.  The butterfly is also embossed, and the flowers are heat embossed.
 The pink and brown butterfly card uses the same technique, although also difficult to see. (Hopefully, when I get my new camera, I can make a light box so I can take photos instead of scanning my cards).  The butterfly here is stamped rather than embossed.  The flourish is stamped, then it and the butterfly body are embellished with my new fun toy, the i-rock.  It's really easy and lots o fun.  Sure beats brads and eyelets.  I got mine for cheap from Scrapbook Steals and I love it!  Gotta get some more colors and styles!

This card uses more i-rock gems.  It uses a waxed-paper background technique that I also learned on StampTv.  It did take several coats of ink to get the design to show up clearly, but it was worth it.  I love the way it looks.  I also used stickles on the bee wings.  The white paper is embossed using the same Cuttlebug folder I used for the waxed-paper technique.

Yet another technique from StampTv.  I used it a long time ago and recently tried it again and love it. It is an embossed line design created using rubber bands on a brayer, then inking in the background.  I did another similar one using gold embossing powder and red, green, and brown for the ink colors.  Beautiful!

The background paper here is done with a "smooshing" technique.  I've seen several variations of this online.  For this one, I split open a sandwich bag so that it would open flat.  On one side I scribbled with 3 different colors of marker, then misted it with water and closed it back up, smooshing the two sides together.  Then I opened the bag again, laid the cardstock on top of one side of the bag and gently rubbed the back of it to settle it into the ink.  I love the watercolor effect of this.  I made several different styles of waterfall cards, all with the same message, which I'll put in another post.

Hiatus

Wow!  I can't believe how long it's been since I posted.  Things have been so busy with a trip to Florida (all fun, no business!), and moving my daughter to Texas.  Plus for some reason I haven't been in the mood to make cards.  I did do up a few Valentine's, but that's about it.  Yesterday I started in on my New Year's resolution to start working on scrapbooks instead of cards.  Let's see how long that lasts!  The good part is that the pages are already put together, thanks to Assembly Line Scrapbooking from Club Scrap, to which I used to belong.  So all I really need to do is make sure I have my pictures and mementos gathered and start sticking stuff down.  I'm about 4 or 5 years behind on my son's and about 7 years behind on my younger daughter's. It would be nice if I could get at least a few years closer to being caught up!

Gifts

This week I got my order of magnetic snap closures.  I was all excited to try a new pattern for a card folder.  After I had it finished, except for the snap, I decided I didn't like it.  So I went back to StampTV to watch the video on making a Memory Keeper.  I'd made one this summer, but just tied it shut, and I gave it away.  So I decided to make new ones.  I love how easy they are.  With the snap closures, they're even better!  I also have several of the All-in-One stationery boxes.  These are a little more time consuming, but very nice.  This time when I made them, I used scraps to create matching cards and tags. In the past I've made random cards and tags to include.  They look much nicer with everything matching!  I decided to post both types on my Etsy site.  For the card box, I listed them at one price without cards, and another price with cards. I chose photo cards that went with the "theme" of the box.

  

Busy, Busy

  

Things have been hectic the last few days.  I had a wonderful holiday party here on Friday with our Italian Dinner Club.  18 people in attendance.  We had a great time!  I haven't been prone to card making this week, though, as I've spent time getting ready for the party.  Also, winter weather makes it a little harder to convince myself to get to the basement to work.  I much prefer a good book in front of the fireplace.  However, I got some new toys in the mail yesterday, so maybe today I'll play just a little.

For the dinner party, I made a fabulous dessert from Kraft's Food and Family magazine:  triple-chocolate mousse cake.  Fabulous!  I do recommend, however, that you warm both the cream cheese and milk before using for the mousse part.  I didn't have mine warm enough at room temperature (since the air temp is much cooler this time of year), and my chocolate seized.  I had to dump it and start over.  But it ended up coming out perfectly!  And it looked just like its picture.

Now it's decision time:  nap or play?  What a choice!  I love these lazy winter days!  

More Christmas

Well, I was very disappointed this weekend.  I had a table at our church's annual Cookies Galore.  I only sold 7 cards and a couple of gift tags.  And no one even looked at the stationery boxes I made.  Oh, well.

So, here are a few more Christmas cards that I made. Some are from a few weeks ago that I'm just now posting.  I also made about 40 photo cards (thinking I wouldn't have enough merchandise this weekend).  I think I need to take a break for a while now.  I have enough cards to last for every imaginable occasion for about the next 5 years!

Both of these cards used stamps from SU!s Holy Triptych. The one at the left also used  Gina K stamps.  The image and sentiment were stamped over a text stamp (Gina K).  The angel was then embossed in blue, with dazzling diamonds wings.  The BP was made from images of vintage Christmas angels that I put into a table and printed.  The card at right is also embossed.  The BP is a color core paper that was run through in a Cuttlebug folder, then sanded.

The card at the left used no stamps.  The patterned paper is divided with a piece of ribbon.  The music is a piece I copied from a music book of mine onto a piece of parchment colored paper.  The snowflake was die-cut and embellished with a green stick on jewel.

At the right is a tag made with a combinations of stamps and embossing.  The stamps are all Gina K.  The BP is embossed with an SU texture plate, then rubed over with red and gold stamp pads.  The
poinsettias were stamped in solid, then the veins were embossed with Red Dragon embossing powder.  The end of the tag is punched with an SU! punch.




These three cards all use the Gina K. Heirloom Ornaments set, as well as sentiments from Fanciful Tags. The BP of the focal image at the left is another piece of scanned music.  For the bottom card, I stamped in red on SU! wedding paper, then clear embossed it.  Then I brayered over it with Glorious Green ink.  The sentiment is embossed in red.  Pearls add embellishment
                                                      The card at right is just stamped.                      

 These cards are both made with SU!s vintage Christmas stamp.  I stamped in versamark and embossed in gold.  The card on the left was then colored with ink and sponge, with the ribbon held on by an antique brad.  At right the BP is a dictionary page I scanned and printed on parchment colored paper.  The sentiment is embossed in red, with a red & gold ribbon added for accent.

 Both these cards are made from copies of vintage postcards.  I then used versamark on the tops of them to be able to add gold embossing powder.  The card on the left has a gold border also made with embossing powder.

Happy Almost Thanksgiving

Wow!  I didn't realize it's been so long since I posted.  I've been busy making cards, as usual.  Our church is having a cookie/craft sale in a couple of weeks, and I'm going to set up a table.  Unfortunately, I've given away so many of my cards that I only have about 80 or so to put out.  I may have to get busy and make a few more.  I want to make sure I have plenty to choose from

I did actually sell a couple of Hanukkah cards on my Etsy website. I don't know why I keep selling to people in California, but I'll take it!

So, here are a few of my latest cards.

This card is all computer generated.  I created the background by replicating a design.  The strip was created by cutting a design apart and then putting it back together horizontally.  The flames on the menorah are gold Stickles.

While there are technically no candles on this menorah, I thought it looked more complete with "flames".  I used the leaves from a set of flowers.










For this card, I distressed the top layer before stamping.  The candles have iridescent Stickles.  The menorah has red Stickles and a rhinestone.  The flourishes at the side are stamped in versamark and embossed with red glitter embossing powder.  The ribbon is scrunched up on adhesive. The red background is embossed with a Cuttlebug folder.

I

I have to give my BFF, Lisa, credit for this card.  We were playing with the distressing and the stamp.  She came up with this and I shamelessly copied her!  The flames are gold Stickles.  The red glitter is embossing powder.  The pearls were white, but I inked over them lightly to darken them as they looked too stark against the distressed background.








Can you tell we played with distressing techniques?  These were stamps I used at Lisa's also (she has forbidden me to borrow things anymore because they tend to have trouble navigating back to her house!)    The bottom holly strip was stamped to match the main design, while the side ones were stamped in green and given red Stickles berries.

Nothing terribly exciting here.  I found the paper in one of my paper packs and realized that the design on the upper piece was the same as my Gina K stamp.  So I had to use it.  The snowflake background is made from two labels punched with my new Decorative Label punch from Stampin' Up!

I made this card for a challenge at Stamp TV.  The challenge was to use turquoise, red, and white.  I made the glitter snowflakes as on a previous card by using my Stampin' Up! snowflake die cut strip and cutting them out of a sheet of label paper.  After removing the backing, I glittered the sticky side, then adhered them with foam squares.  The white background is embossed with the Stampin' Up! snowflake folder, then stamped in red with my Gina K snowflake stamp.

I was going for a more victorian feel here.  I don't like the way the oval fits with the scallop.  The scallop is from Spellbinders, but the oval is cut with my system from Creative Memories.  I'll have to invest in the Spellbinders ovals one of these days.  Anyway, the poinsettia is from another Stamp TV set.  I dusted it with dazzling diamonds after stamping.  The pine branches are from an old SU set called Christmas minis.I masked the flower and stamped around it with the pine boughs.  I added brown glitter to the pine cones. The sentiment is from a Stamp TV set that coordinates with Spellbinders Fancy Tags.  The background is embossed with a Holly Ribbon folder.



Another distressed card.  This is from my Heirloom Ornaments stamp set from Stamp TV.  I'm impatiently waiting for the matching Spellbinders die cuts to arrive.  In the meantime, I'm sticking with stamping. I entered this in a sketch challenge at Stamp TV.  The green paper is SU always artichoke.  The lighter paper is SU naturals Ivory.  The sentiment and red ornaments were then distressed with soft suede ink.

I'm a Wanderer

Busy weekend of travel.  My son was due for his every 3 month check up at Mayo today.  So, as we did 3 months ago, we went to my mom's first.  This time, though, it was just Rick and myself.  We left Saturday morning, got to my mom's that afternoon.  Stayed overnight, took my mom to church, then left that afternoon for Rochester.  When we got to Rochester, we went to eat at an Indian restaurant.  My first time having Indian food, so luckily they had a buffet so I could sample. Back to the hotel to bed.  Up early this morning for breakfast, pack, and off to Mayo where Rick got another clean bill of health.  Then the long drive back home, stopping in Normal to pick up our favorite sandwich from Avanti's.  I got 4 of them so there'd be enough for dinner tonight and maybe a lunch or two tomorrow.

Although I lost a weekend of card-making, I did manage to get 2 more in before I left.  I decided to take part in a color challenge from StampTV to create a Christmas card using non-traditional colors.  I'd say these count!