Glitter Santa

I told my girlfriend Joyce that I wanted to work on Christmas cards, so she brought over her Christmas stuff and we played for a couple of hours.  One of the things she brought was some 2 inch wide decor ribbon with glitter Santas on it; she had no idea what to do with it.  The Santas were so cool, I thought they would make great focal images, so I immediately went to work figuring out how to get them on a card.  I ended up punching a hole in both the frame and the card base - the ribbon piece is sandwiched between the two.

The background paper probably isn't the best choice, but I really like the little sleighs.  the sentiment is from the a•muse studio nordic noel set.

Challenges:
Papercraft Star - embossing
Scrapbook Sisters - one stamp
Waste Not Wednesdays - forgotten stuff (santa ribbon)
Crafter's Companion- Christmas
Pretty Little Ribbon Shop - tag

Christmas in July

My mojo has been dragging, but I have decided to devote my July to getting a head start on my Christmas cards.  I have been a challenge coordinator at Feline Playful long enough to know that Christmas in July is a very popular theme, so I don't expect to have any problems finding challenges to play in.  However, even a grossly non-Christmas challenge can be used for a Christmas card.  The challenge here is Red, White, and Blue (from Blessings Ink) :

I used the reflected image on ice technique, and burnished the sky with distress inks.  Somehow I didn't gauge things quite right - my penguins are floating in the air!   My background paper was originally a pale green snowflake pattern; I used the same distress inks to bring the color closer to my sky color.

Challenges:

• Stamptacular Sunday - red, white, blue, and sparkles (I used Stargazers on the ice)
• Stamping Sisters in Christ - use something new (first time I've used this stamp set)
• The Paper Players - Christmas in July (of course!)

I resisted the urge to slap silver and white snowflakes all over, believing less is more, but I can always add them later, if I like. It needs something - any ideas?

Snail&co

I have been using a lot of the stamps from the snail&co stamp set, but not the snail.  I decided it was the snail's turn.

I was inspired by a number of cards that I've seen lately using kraft cardstock and a white focal point, where the image runs off the white onto the kraft.  I thought it might work just as well with green. I paper-pieced the snail (it was either that or masking), and added little punched flowers to pick up the orange color and a white ribbon to pick up the white.  It was surprisingly quick to put together.  I made this using the sketch this week at Blessings Ink. and am entering it in the following challenges:

• Sketchy Colors - orange, white, green
• That Craft Place - green
• Allsorts - die (the oval is die cut)
• Less is More - paper piecing
• Raise the bar - summer

Wonder Woman

I had a girlfriend who wanted to make some patriotic cards to send to "Any Soldier", so I invited her over.  I don't really have any patriotic stamps, so we went online to find some images that soldiers might enjoy seeing.  Somehow we decided that Wonder Woman was both patriotic and fun for a man to look at without being too sleazy.  These are the cards we made:

We had a good time.

Father's Day

The panel with the wrenches was made by heat embossing the stamped image, then painting over it with Stargazers.  The embossing powder resists watercolors.  It's a nice metallic look that goes well with tools.

I didn't have a Father's Day stamp, so I hand wrote the sentiment with a milky gel - frankly, I don't think it diminishes the card one bit to have  handwritten sentiment.  

Challenges:

• Amusing Challenges - Father's Day
• Creative Inspirations Paint - Father's Day
• Dream Valley - for a special guy
• My Sheri Crafts - Father's Day 

butterfly background

I have a lot of butterfly stamps - it is just such an iconic image!  It can be realistic, stylized, cartoonish, elegant, and it can be colored in any color, or none at all.  However, most of my butterflies are large.  The one that comes in the snail&co stamp set is small, a good size to use in this particular background technique.

I started off with a textured purple paper, then clear embossed the butterflies.  Regrettably my Versamark pad is a filthy mess, so my butterflies looked more shadowy than clear.  I decided to emboss some white ones, and I like the result much better.

The sentiment is under a shimmery organdy ribbon; my scanner does capture shimmer very well.  The purple satin flowers match much better in real life.

Challenges:
Crafter's Card Circle - monochromatic
Emergency Crafters - butterflies
Polka Doodles - flowers
Southern Girls - things with wings
Creative Belli - sentiment only (no focal image)

Cheesy cliches

I was looking at a matchbox template, thinking that I had wanted to make one for years, but never had a theme, when I remembered my new snail & co stamp set that I just bought from a•muse studio.  It has a lot of little coordinated stamps!  I dug out a few scraps of cardstock, and quickly whipped up a box - it's really much easier than you would imagine.  I then made a few little cards sized to fit inside, and hand-wrote sayings to go with the images.  I thought it would be a cute little something to tuck into my daughter's purse when she goes back to college.  However, when I finished photographing it, I wasn't quick enough hiding it, because my daughter spotted it where it was laying and looked at it.

"Mom, did you make this little box full of cheesy cliches?"  Uh oh.  Cheesy cliches?  I thought they were very uplifting affirmations.

So, I'm not giving it to my daughter after all.  I am, however, entering it into these challenges:

• Crafty Ann's  - butterflies and flowers  
• Inspired By - Insp photo
• Stampavie - for a girl
• Everybody Art - not a card
• Stamps + Fun = Creativity - use a tut