Pointsettia

It's no fun being sick all week and especially on Christmas Week.  I have not accomplished much as I get way too tired out, but I AM pleased with this card that I made for the Queen for the Day Challenge on Splitcoast Stampers.  QFTD145 is located here.  The End of Year Challenge was to find the person who was Queen nearest your birthday and I was pleased to get Roberta.  I had not been able to make a card in her honor then.  Too much partying you think??

So I wanted so badly to play with my Tim Holtz Poinsettia and I was able to use it here.  I used a plain piece of tan cardstock for the Background that I ran through the Cuttlebug with a snowy Christmasy folder.  I hit the finished  piece with VersaMark and embossed it with some Tarnished Gold Embossing Powder.   The oval was left from an earlier project.  I touched the edges with VersaMark and also Tarnished Gold.

Then I found two pieces of K&CO cardstock from a mat that were different colors and cut out the Tim Holtz Tattered Pointsettia.  I stamped the blue petals/leaves with Hero Arts Old French Writing and the red ones with All Night Media music - two old favorites of mine that just never die.  I punched holes in the centers and was intending to attach the entire flower with a brad, but I found this button that I liked better, so I glued the flower down one section at a time and put the button on with a Zot.  The leaves and petals are all curled a little with my fingernail.  The colors are a bit richer than the picture shows, but I am pleased.

For Teri

I sure do hope everyone is getting shopping, cleaning, cooking and traveling all done in time for Christmas.  I am kind of stuck in the middle of all this and my poor dog is wondering just what is going on.  Because I am so far behind, I am posting this Birthday Card for my friend, Teri.  I will also send it, but it will be late. 

Teri is an old employee - the best ever - who moved away about 4 years ago and I still miss her terribly.  Some people you just can't get enough of and Teri is one of them.  So, Teri I hope you are having a wonderful birthday.  I love you.

Round Robin Cards

 My Paper Inclinations stamping group met on Saturday for a nice  Christmas Brunch and some fun.  A Round Robin card was to be the project - just for fun.  There were seven of us and we devided into two groups.  Each person got a blank card to "start".  You ended up with the card that you started.  We decided it should be that way because if you started the card out hot pink, some other person might not be overjoyed to get a hot pink Christmas card.  The idea worked well.  I am going to attempt to tell what happened for the ladies who were not able to attend.

Most of the cards start out white or off white, so I am going to put down the steps as well as I can.  On the above card this was the order.  The polka dot background, next the Christmas light sticker, then the corner doily and last of all the greeting, flower and gold cord.

 Card on Right: First the three pieces of patterned designer paper were glued on, then the sentiment, then the flowers and last the pinecones. All but the base on this one are stickers.

Card to Left:  This card started out red.  Green square was added, then the flower attached with a brad, then the Santa sticker and last the piercing and greeting.  These are by no means the prettiest in the bunch.  The ladies did an awesome job working together with the colors that came to them, and making each card look like a well coordinated piece of art.  I am so proud of them.  All you are seeing here are the ones I got to bring home.  All of them were very pretty.  Ladies, you rock!

Graduation Card

I have this wonderful Art Impressions graduation stamp that I just love.  So all my Congratulations/Graduation cards get made this way. I use the school colors which are usually on the announcement. This one is for a graduate from Ohio State University.  As you can see, the colors are red and white.  It's done in Print Shop Deluxe and is a tri-fold card size, but I cut off the third "flap".  "On Your Graduation" is printed on the front.  Then I glued a piece of red cardstock across from the greeting, stamped on white and glued it to the red with a border showing.  I added the piece of flower to this one because this is a girl and she is an artist.  I always love how they turn out.  They fit perfectly this size in a #9 envelope, but as you can see, you can cut off the top and bottom quite a bit for a different fit.  Try it.

Tattered Pointsettia-Just for Fun

Good Morning!  I have a day off and can play.  When I get a new stamp or die I have to play with it for awhile to see how it works best, so this card is just for fun and I am playing.  This is the Sizzix Tim Holtz Tattered Pointsettia die.  I have used a scrap of map dp that I love for background.   I cut the Pointsettia out of a piece of double sided  Close to My Heart cardstock and used both sides.  I inked the edges somewhat with Ranger Distressed Vintage Photo and Fired Brick and attached them all with a brad.

I need to say that the entire card has very deep rich tones, but I am camera challenged - among other things and I accidentally reset my picture taking  things, so need to get help getting it back where it was.  This picture looks very washed out compared to the real thing.  It IS very pretty and I'm excited about the die.

IC366

Still working on Christmas cards, so this had to be one.  This is my card for the Inspiration Challenge on splitcoaststampers.com located here

  I was inspired by a picture with beautiful soft tones of brown and white and an awesome brown tree here.  I made the background an off white because I wanted the stars to show up when I took my picture.  The tree is made of torn strips of Kraft type cardstock from a 6x6 mat stack.  Any brown paper bag would work.  This was already printed.  Next I stuck on the brown pearl flourish and some of the stars.  The sentiment is from Stampin' Up Peaceful Wishes set.  These are not falling stars, but star shaped snowflakes.  Some fell last night and we had a little white on the ground  and some of the roofs and flowers this morning.  Yes, it's all gone now.  Falling snow is so peaceful, so I captured it on my card.

SC414 Ride to Work

The Sketch Challenge on splitcoaststampers.com this week was a challenge for me.  It reminded me of a half shuffled deck of cards, and what do you do with that?  Shuffle it some more, so that's what I did.  Lately when we drive in to work in the morning, the sun is just coming up, and beside complaining because it's in my eyes, I do enjoy the beauty of it.  Some days it's been awesome.  It starts low as a big orange ball.  Then you see it through the trees and finally it's over the top.  Just glorious.  I am such a wannabe artist that I tried to capture it here.  The sun is made with a cork and PSX ink.  The other images are all Victorine Originals and you can find them here.  The flowers are silk from Michaels.  When they get to $1 a stem, I get some and take them all apart.  My background paper is Basic Grey and the tissue strip is Tim Holtz.

Snowman Unassembled

This is my card for the Technique Lovers Challenge on 12-3-12 .  This is the link.  www.splitcoaststampers.com My computer is not cooperating right now.  The challenge is to build a snowman.  The idea here was that the snow was falling and the snowman was just waiting to be built.  I think he's waiting for a body.  I used ProvoCraft dies for the snowflakes and punches for the eyes and cut out my own hat and scarf.  Cheesecloth provided the snowbank.

IC365

I am extremely behind again and am starting to think it will be this way for the rest of the year. (I was going to say "life")  We have to think positive.  This is my card for the Inspiration Challenge for Sat. 12-1-12 located here.  The inspiration site was a wonderful place called Signals and I was inspired by the Caroline Abalone Cuff .  If you are looking, you need to click on the LARGE view for my inspiration.  The brown background is embossed with an inked folder and the sides are torn.  This CS was adhesive backed, so it tore really well.

 The flowers are done with the INK SMOOSH method.  That's the only name I know to call it and I don't know where I found it, but I fell in love with it as a use for reinkers.  A short tutorial is this.  Put drops of several colors of ink on one piece of glossy cardstock starting with the lightest first.  When you think you have enough drops, take another piece of glossy CS and smash it on top.  I always get too much ink on and have to hunt some for a color that doesn't look muddy and black.  After the ink dried and I found my colorful spot, I stamped the flower on it and cut it out.  It's glued to the log and I added amber jewels.  I like it.

Golden Ornaments

Hi Everyone,  I am so pleased with this card that I just had to post it.  This was made for the Inspiration Challenge on Splitcoaststampers.com last Sat.  Took me this long to get it done.  (IC365)  Check it out.  I started with a piece of Basic Grey Aged and Confused cardstock.  I first stamped a Victorine Originals evergreen branch two timea and then two different greetings - Victorine Originals Christmas Wishes and a Stampin' Up Holiday Greetings that I think I picked up at a thrift shop.  The ornaments are the fun part.  I used a Basic Grey 6x6 paper pad print and stamped the Stampin' Up ornaments - one with Close to my Heart and one with Ranger inks.  Then I used the dies and cut them out and embossed the edges.  They were already looking pretty good to me at that point, but I wanted a bit of sparkle, so I had two square charms in a bag and I attached one to each ornament with a gold brad.  I love them and want to make more.