A stack of Christmas baubles...

 Today and yesterday I made these three cards... it is a great idea for quick stamping and sponging that I saw recently by Dawn Ferguson.

 The branches are stamped with my old favourite "Lovely as a tree" stampset.

And the centres of the baubles are stamped with the "Artistic Etchings" medallion.

I have used a clear window sheet, with three circles punched out, to mask the card while I sponged and stamped the Christmas baubles on to the tree.

 And then I changed the tree branches to swirly patterns with the Creative Elements stampset.

You can stamp the baubles in different colours and with different patterns and stamps.

The Joy at Christmas stamp is from "Perfect Punches" and fits neatly into the scallop circle punch.

 It is important to remember to keep a white circle (without ink) as you sponge your baubles.
To give them that 3D appearance.

Now that Winter is over...

 Let me show you the Winter ATC (Artist Trading Cards) swaps I received from the Crafters Anonymous group. They mostly feature snowy climates and snow flakes and icicles. Quite a Christmassy theme going on here. Lots of shiny dazzling diamond glitter favoured by some of our New Zealand neighbours.

 I like this simple silver on white on white snow flake. Will inspire me to simple Christmas cards this year.
Artist is Dee Sturgeon.

 Two of my favourite stampsets: Lovely as a tree, and Welcome Christmas.
Artist: Deb Spiejers.

 Watercoloured snowmen and sandy white snow by Artist: Bev Poultney.

I just adore the Cradle Mountain masking and snow flake.
Artist: Rebekah Kaberry, Cradle Mountain, Tasmania.
Very soon, I will show you the Spring ATCs I have made that were posted today.

Masked top note with Christmas trees

 Here is what we made at a friend's place last Friday week. (Is it already over a week ago?)
We made these by spongeing the ink over a topnote cut out. (the negative part of the die cut... the bit you throw away.)

 I cant decide which is my favourite colour combination. The Marina Mist ink and Marina mist tafetta ribbon
or the Concord Crush spongeing which kind of looks like a night sky.

 Can you see on this one we covered any irregularities in the sponging (that means mistakes or blotches) with a clear rhinestone jewell. It looks like a shining star ...

Hear is my Old Olive version on vanilla cardstock. The colour is much more vibrant in real life.
Card Recipe:
Stampset: Lovely as a tree, Snow swirled (for the words)
Cardstock: Very vanilla
Ink: Marina Mist, or Concord Crush, or Old Olive.
Ribbon: Marina mist tafetta, Concord crush poly-stitched or Old Olive grosgrain.
Two holes were made to tie the ribbon through using a two hole punch or your crop a dile.

Love Letter, Lovely as a tree

I am sharing with you a card we made at a weekend workshop just recently...

We had a lovely few hours stamping and having a gorgeous afternoon tea.

One of the best parts of cardmaking for me is the social aspect and meeting new fun and interesting  people.

The colours used are not your usual red and green but have a traditional feel with the sponging of the very vanilla cardstock edges. It gives a slightly vintage feel and softens the edges of the images.

The patterned paper used is called "Love Letter".

We stamped the "lovely as a tree" in Early Espresso ink and stamped the words from Curly Cute in Ridinghood Red on the vanilla cardstock.

The little piece of ribbon poking out at the top is striped grosgrain in Early Espresso and our star is a Rhinestone jewel.

Male card anyone?

I have a whole lot of cards that I made in the week leading up to convention. I was preparing for a workshop that didn't go ahead. Postponed I like to say. This one is a male card ... many people find male cards a challenge ... I just figure anything that is not pink and doesn't have flowers on it will work. But we all need inspiration.

Just a matter of finding a stamp set that fits the bill. I like trees, animals, boats and tool sets, nature sets like the grass image from inspired by nature would work ... or just use word stamps with patterns and texture, edge tearing, crumpling, corrugation (crimping), eyelets and rough textured stamping in your favourite boy colours: pacific point, kiwi kiss, or caramel, cocoa and chocolate.

Did I mention at conference there was a whole session on techniques and ideas for male cards and masculine scrapbook layouts ? We could do a class together or workshop it with a few friends ...

Materials:
Stampsets: lovely as a tree, En francais, Wonderful favourites (word stamp). Ink: Pacific point baja breeze, kiwi kiss. Cardstock (same) with confetti white. Ribbon: Kiwi kiss and vanilla satin. Distressing tool for the edges of the baja breeze cardstock. Techniques: rock and rolling, collage background.

Floral and Linen backgrounds I am going to miss you.

After yesterday's card, I thought I would go for a more subtle approach on this one.

The soft subtles of Perfect Plum, pale plum, Certainly Celery and a little Old Olive.

And it is Autumn, so falling leaves and flowers are quite fitting for this month. I will be sending it to my Wonderful friend ... we write letters to each other (the snail mail variety).

So, I try to include a card each letter I write to her ...

I don't know how I could ever think of saying goodbye to these background stamps ... I haven't had the linen stamp for long, it gives a gorgous texture to any cardstock. You can see I have even used it on the word stamp to soften the white with a little of the certainly celery. The words are from the Boho Background stampset. I just ink up the line I want to use with a marker and stamp just the part that I want to use. The Old Olive frame is cut with the square scallop punch (top and bottom scallops cut off).

And I have sponged Perfect plum around the outside of the card edge to soften the background edges to give some shadow and depth.

Materials Used:

Stampsets: Floral background, Linen background, Boho backgrounds, Lovely as a tree. Cardstock: Perfect plum, Pale plum, whisper white, old olive. Punch: scallop-square. Ribbon: Elegant eggplant grosgrain.

Lovely as a tree with a fold out insert

In case you haven't noticed, I really like the Lovely as a tree set. At this time of year it says Christmas and other times it says Autumn, or spring ...

This card is an almost direct CASE (copy and share everything) from Felicity H. I have only changed her colours and added and subtracted the type of matting to the front. But as it is a fold out card, I love surprises ... I had to try it for myself. This is the front cover.

Difficult to show you the whole card in its entirety. So I will show it as a series of pictures. I have used Wild wasabi, Purely pomegranate and confetti white cardstock. I have stamped the background trees in mellow moss and the foreground tree in Always artichoke. The 2-way glue pen was used to hold the dazzling diamond glitter on the leaves.

This is how it looks when its opened out flat.

The centre panel is very vanilla cardstock with the Lovely as a tree stampset: using the rock and roll technique in mellow moss and always artichoke ink.

Here it is standing up (on an odd angle but that's the wide angle lens on my camera) not my photography, really!

That's it for today's post ...

Lovely as a tree with joy

I do love stampsets you can use for a number of occasions and lend themselves to different styles. Lovely as a tree is just one set.

I have seen it brayered into sunsets, sunrises, snow covered landscapes ...

in blue and green, grey and black, well here it is in rose red and dazzling diamonds glitter to make it sparkle perhaps it is dew on the pine needles, I am thinking of a hot sauna, with cold winter chills outside, difficult in our spring weather ...I know.

So the cardstock is rose red and wild wasabi and confetti white.

The back ground is stamped using (you guessed it) the "season of joy" snowflakes.

Be merry is from the "warm words" stampset and punched out with the large oval punch.

Ribbon is real red grosgrain and wild wasabi striped grosgrain.

The ribbon glide is from the styled silver hodgepodge and I have put 2 way glue and dazzling diamonds in the groove ... it doesn't quite look like a star ... but it could be.

Season of Joy

My first stampin' up order came this week ... a large brown cardboard box on my doorstep. When I opened it was just like Christmas! So here is the Christmas card I made with all my new products.

I've used a Basic Grey cardstock for the card base, Purely pomegranate and Confetti white.

The stampsets used is: Season of Joy.

Ink: Rose Red

Ribbon: Purely Pomegranate silk (from the Spring mini)

Accessories: 2-way glue pen, Dazzling Diamonds, distressing tool (for the rough edges).



This card ( I had a very productive day! My family are barely talking to me but hey? Its not every day you get your Christmas stamps ... ) was my second attempt and I was aiming for simple. Same colour cardstock: Basic grey, Confetti white and Purely pomegranate.
Ink: rose red and Stampsets: Lovely as a tree and Season of Joy!

Accessories and tools: Purely Pomegranate Silk ribbon, Cropodile, jumbo pewter eyelets, 2-way glue pen, dazzling diamonds ... It's Christmas so it had to have some bling!