Origami ornament

I was so impressed by the ornament on Shelly's blog that I wanted to make one of my own.  I had my Christmas stamps and papers out from all the cards I had been making, but I just wanted to do something that wasn't a card.  I found this pattern for making an origami ornament, so I grabbed some Christmas glitter cardstock and gave it a go.

I couldn't get the focus right for anything, but I think you can make out the glitter strips, and I thought that the embossed and popped out sentiment  looked very fun on the bare sides.  I used striped paper mostly because I was curious about how the stripes would end up, but I have some patterns that I think would be really fun used this way.

Challenges:

SweetStamps - Christmas ornament

The Paper Shelter - glitz

Ruby's Rainbow - anything but a card

Clear It Out - Christmas in July

Gift tags for summer

My son, Gordon, turned 24 yesterday, and my husband asked my youngest son, Ben to wrap his presents for him.  Ben did a pretty good job for a 16 year old, and as I was admiring his handiwork, I noticed he used a gift tag from my stash.  That isn't particularly unusual, but I noticed that it was probably one of the most clean and simple things I had made, and also that it was probably the last one of that set that I had.  I decided that I needed more summer gift tags, and whipped up a quick batch.  Here are a few.  

They are stamped in Black Soot distress ink and embossed with clear powder - it's a slightly softer look than using black embossing powder.  I then did a very quick watercolor with twinkling H2Os.  The mat layers are from my scrap stash.  Just a tiny bit of texture and color, and plenty of white space for writing names - that is exactly what my son wanted, and  I'm glad I made some more.  These tags are inspired by the tag challenge at Blessings Ink and I'm entering them in these other challenges:

• Alphabet Challenge - for men
• Dutch Dare - anything but a card
• Just Hanna - summer
• Fab n Funky -  anything but a card
• Waste Not Wednesday - scraps

My Honey

I feel in love with this stamp set from Rogue Redhead the minute I saw it!  Unfortunately, I'm too lazy to cut rubber unless I have a card in mind.  I had hoped that I could stamp a horse's backside for my anniversary card to my husband, but all my horse stamps feature the front of the horse.  This greedy liitle bear caught my eye, and I decided to use him instead.

As you can probably tell from all the silver, I have been married to Jim for 25 years.  I made the silver paper by painting white paper with silver paint - the brush marks give it an interesting texture. The bear and sentiment are embossed, and a quick silver bow was just enough embellishment.

Challenges:

• Cheerful Stamp Pad - 5 (bear toes)
• Truly Madly Crafty - animal
• Crafting when We can - monochrome
• Come and Get It - punch plus ribbon
• Craft your days away - grey (silver is sort of grey, right?)

Free digi - Season's Tweetings

It started out as a way to annoy my mother - I told her that I was going to use this sentiment with this image from Just Some Lines.  Terrible puns are a family tradition.

The image is super easy to cut out, and I whipped out some liquid applique to fluff up the birdie's hat.  The background - well, I used the sketch from Inspired by Stamping, but the papers are all scraps that were cluttering up my desk.  I really need to either clean more or stamp more, maybe both.

Would you like my sentiment?  I know I'm not the only person who likes birds on her Christmas cards.

Click for full size image.  I love sentiments that I can color to match my image!

Other challenges:

• Quirky Crafts - Christmas in July
• Sentimental Sundays - things with wings
• 2 Sisters - Christmas plus an animal
• Hiding in my Craft Room - lots of layers

Warm wishes (for winter)

Still cooking up Christmas cards - sometimes I feel like I'm making the same card over and over, and that's when I need a sketch to shake things up.  I always like the sketches at Blessings Ink - they are never too fussy; there is just enough to keep the eye moving without looking cluttered.

Stamp is from a•muse studio; it is very convenient to have the sentiment and the image together.  There is a trick to cutting the swallowtail.  I used a square punch to get that clean symmetrical angle. I used marker watercoloring (still my fav) touched up with gel pens.  All paper except the base is scraps.

Challenges:
Crazy 4 Challenges - faux stitching
Mark's Finest Papers - Christmas in July
Phindy's Place - button
Whimsy Inspiration - punch
Clear it out - use red and green scraps

Season's Greetings

Still working on Christmas in July, which is the challenge over at Blessings Ink.

There are other Christmas in July challenges I'm going to submit this to such as:

• Hooked on Crafts
• Lollypop Crafts
• The Crazy Challenge
• Totally Stampalicious
• Creative Inspirations Paint

See, I'm not the only one who likes a head start!

Die cut tree

I used to hate working with felt, because it is impossible to cut neatly.  Not any more - Felt die cuts beautifully, or at least it does with this a•muse studio die!  I tried it with three kinds of felt, from stiff to fluffy, and the tree came out crisply with every one.  When you work with felt, you have to use glue, because tape just fuzzes up and pulls away.  Not a problem for me, as I love tacky glue, and the stickles were fun to use!

The background paper is scraps, and the sentiment is double stamped, first in black, then in gold.  It gives a nice glow to the words.  The pink dotted paper is actually a valentine leftover, but I just love pink and dark green together!  I made this card for the felt challenge at Blessings Ink and these others:

• Send a Smile for Kids - Christmas in July
• So Artful - glitter/sparkly
• Our Craft Lounge - die cuts
• DRS Designs - Christmas cards