An Ivy Christmas

Here is a quick card that I made for the Hero Arts Flickr group challenge (October2011A). One part of the challenge is to use non-holiday stamps to create cards. For this card, I chose the Silhouette Ivy K5313 by Hero Arts. I inked the image with white ink and then embossed with white embossing powder. Then I used worn lipstick and fired brick distress ink to color the paper. Then I stamped over the image with fired brick ink using the Flourish Pine stamp by Hero Arts S5247. The sentiment is a Hero Art stamp and came from the Holiday Sayings CL343 stamp set. The green panel was embossed using a flourish embossing folder by provocraft. Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate the comments.

Christmas Cards

I've started making my Christmas cards this week. I entering them into the Hero Arts Flickr Group card challenge.
For this first card, I stamped the image onto white cardstock with versa color cyan (VS-19) ink and clear embossed it. I love how the light blue gives off a sense of peace. On the bottom of the image I applied 3 layers of holographic embossing powder to give the appearance of snow around the trees. the snow is hard to see on camera. The stamps used are Hero Arts: Starry Night CG224 and Holiday Sayings CL343. I used pearlescent paper for the cardbase. For this next card I stamped the snowflake with silver ink and embossed with silver embossing powder. The stampsed used are Hero Arts: Four snowflakes CG210, Holiday Sayings CL343, and Swirl Christmas CL469.

This card is an inspiration from Jennifer McGuire's canvas leaf thank you card that is featured in the Nov/Dec 2011 papercrafts Magazine, page 61. I took the three holiday messages stamp LL956 and used all three stamps as a background for my card. There are three stamps in this set and I alternated them onto the card base. I used the flower from the frames with sprigs stamp set from hero arts/sizzix 657775 and turned it into a christmas flower. I heat embossed the flower and the sentiment onto sticky back canvas with white embossing powder and once the canvas was cool, I went over the fabric with pine needles distress ink. I used Jennifer McGuires same design but changed the colors and the stamps. I enjoyed making this card and working with the canvas was easier than I thought it would be.

For this last card I embossed the Christmas trees with silver embossing powder and also inked the trees with silver ink. The sentiment was done the same way. The silver around the edges of the panel behind the trees was also embossed with silver powder and silver ink. the background embossing folder is by provo craft D'vine Swirls 37-1142. The stamps used are Hero Arts: Three Trees LP123 and Holiday Sayings CL343.

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate the comments. Have a wonderful week.

World Card Making Day October 1, 2011

Today is World Card Making Day. It is the time of year when card makers from around the world sets aside some time on this day to make cards. I planned on spending the whole day devoted to making cards. But, a lot of cards did not get started due to other things happening. This is the only card that I made, but at least I made one and I enjoyed making this card. Actually, this card is an inspiration from Tami Hartley's card that was posted today over on Hero Arts. I CASED her card from todays posting over at Hero Arts. I used her same design but the only thing that I did different was to use different stamps and change the border slightly.

The stamps used are Hero Arts: Starry Sky S5448, Good Cheer Messages LL260 (circa 2008), and Holiday Sayings CL343.
Hope that everyone had a "Happy World Card Making Day".

Let it snow

This winter card was not suppose to be a snowman. I originally planned to use a Penny Black hedgehog stamp, but the hedgehogs did not fit in with my design. I stamped the snow man with Memento tuxedo black ink by Tsukineko. I colored the arms, the scarf, and ear muffs with copic markers. The buttons are black gems. The snowman is by Penny Black "Warm and Cold" 3260H and the sentiment is also Penny Black "Let It Snow" 30-086. I love this snowman, he looks so happy that winter has arrived and that it is snowing. I am entering this into the "pennyblackwinter" challenge over on the Penny Black Flickr group. Thank you for stopping by and I always appreciate the comments.

September2011B

I have had these 4 projects finished for about a week and I almost forgot to post them. I usually only make cards, but once in awhile I will do an occassional scrapbook layout. In this case, I did an 8 x8 page of my grandson Michael. He was 18 months in these pictures (He is now 7 years old; my how time flies by.) I used a few of the techniques from Inspiration Showcase Card Class. On the upper left hand corner, I embossed the paper with an embossing folder (used glossy paper) and then used Latte Chalk ink over the embossed area. The butterfly was stamped with Hero Arts Moments Background (E3019) stamp and I used Tea Dye distress ink. For the panel on the center right, I used the Hero Arts Fall Memories (E3375) stamp and stamped with white embossing ink and heat embossed with white embossing powder. Then I distressed the panel with distress ink (can't remember the colors). For the bottom left hand panel, I stamped a piece of layering paper with the Happy Definition Stamp (CG269) with scattered straw distress ink and then heat set it. Then I stamped the Maple leaf (CG228) with Poppy Chalk ink and used perfect pearls over the leaf. It was fun making this layout and I came to the conclusion that I need to put together more scrapbook pages of my grandchildren.
For this first card, I stamped the leaves (HA Real Leaves CL457) onto water color paper and used distress ink. After I stamped the leaves, I lightly sprayed each leaf with water so that the color would run a bit. Then I heated the paper with a heat gun. This technique is called "Wicking". To see how this technique is done, please go here to see a video.

For this second card, I stamped the trees (HA Whimsical House CL484) onto pattern paper and paper pieced the trees and added a sentiment.

For this last card I stamped my trees (Whimisical House CL484) onto white cardstock and colored them with copic markers. After I finished coloring, I took the colorless blending pen and put dots onto the tree to give it dimension. The sentiment is from the HA Friends stamp set CL351.

I am entering these projects to the Hero Arts September2011B challenge.

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate the comments. Hope that everyone has a great day.

CAS-ual Fridays -- CFC21

This week at CAS-ual Fridays the challenge is to pick three shades of the same color and add the color brown to the combo. At first I tried purple and brown and did not like the colors together. I finished the card and left the card on my work table over night. When I returned to my work table the next morning, I decided that I did not like the colors or the card and decided to make a new card in different colors.

Here is the card that I decided to enter into the challenge. I took three different shades of yellow cardstock (Stampin Up) and stamped the flowers with Tsukineko Rich Cocoa ink (the lightest color doesn't show up very well on camera). I added brown ribbon down the middle of the center panel and added scalloped edges. The flowers are from Hero Arts. They are part of the new stamps and Die cut sets that Hero Arts and Sizix are making. The set is called: Playful Flowers and Butterflies 657778. I added glossy accents to the center of the flowers and also to the little dots on the outside of the flowers.

Thanks for stopping by and I always appreciate the comments. Have a great day!!

CAS-ual Friday's CFC #20

This week at CAS-ual Friday's the challenge is to create a Clean And Simple Mini Card no larger than 4 x4. The final measurement of this card is 3.5" x 3.5" square card. I use a simple technique of dry embossing the front panel with the Sizzix Dots & Flowers embossing folder and then lightly sanded over the top of the dots until the white core of the paper appeared. Then I lightly colored the top of the dots with markers. I learned this technique from the Inspiration Showcase card class taught by Jennifer McGuire

I had lots of fun coloring the butterfly and the dots on the paper. I love making the mini cards because of their small size and that they are quick to make. The stamps that I used are Hero Arts: Sending Smiles CL490 (sentiment) and Three Artistic Butterflies LP215. I took the words from the sentiment "You Are Very Special To Me" and cut them apart so that I could use only a portion of that sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by and I do appreciate the comments.