Some Hand-Made Christmas Cards

I wanted to share some of the lovely hand-made cards I've received this year, so here they are (in no particular order!):

This reindeer card is from Paula, the "punch art queen"!  I can't believe how much work went into this!  Isn't it amazing?

Treena made this beautiful bird card.  It's hard to see the details in the photo, but there is gold ink sponged ont eh embossing and around the edges - it is really stunning!

This beautiful, sparkly card is from Bea.  She used dazzling diamonds glitter over the image so it's shimmery like a snowfall.  Gorgeous!

This gorgeous card is from Susan.  I love this stamped image paired with gold and burgundy- just stunning!  Look at the shadow from the young Jesus. 

Martha made this card using a black and white photo of her yard, paired with Cherry Cobbler and Sahara Sand.  Isn't it lovely?

I hope you enjoy these as much as I have, and I hope your Christmas holiday is full of love and laughter.

Blessings,

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Everyone! Just a quick post to wish you a wonderful day full of blessings.

Here's a photo of my boys from this morning.  They woke us up before dawn because they were so excited!  We let them open their stockings before we read the Christmas story from Matthew 1.  We are thankful to be able to celebrate God's miraculous gift of His Son to us by sharing gifts with each other. 

Merry Christmas,

Some Non-Christmas Cards!

I know Christmas is only four days away, but I am honestly a little bit tired of making Christmas cards!  I started making them in August, so I'm feeling ready for something else! Luckily, my friend, Kennie, booked a stamp-a-stack last week where we made different occasions cards.  She wanted to make some cards to give as Christmas gifts so people would have an assortment to use throughout the year.  Here are the cards we made:

I love the bright colours in the Summer Smooches designer series paper!  This card screams "Happy Birthday" with Daffodil Delight, Rich Razzleberry, Island Indigo and Lucky Limeade!  The images are from Bright Blossoms, and the sentiment is from Sassy Salutations.  Some Daffodil Delight stitched grosgrain ribbon finishes off the card.

Okay, I admit the colours in this one are a bit Christmas-y, but I love Gumball Green and Raspberry Ripple!  The Gumball Green piece is embossed with the Lacy Brocade embossing folder.  The image from Fabulous Florets is stamped in Raspberry Ripple, and the greeting is from Word Play.  We also added some Raspberry Ripple stitched satin ribbon.

I've had the Apothecary Art stamp set for awhile, and I think this is the first time I've used it!  It's so beautiful!  I used Wisteria Wonder and Basic Gray as the base colours, along with some Pretty in Pink polka-sot scalloped ribbon.  The image is stamped in Basic Gray, and we used blender pens with Pretty in Pink and Wisteria Wonder ink to colour in the flowers.  Of course, the Labels Collection framelits dies coordinate perfectly with the stamp set, so I had to use those!

This is our masculine birthday card.  I used Early Espresso as the card base, along with a layer of Very Vanilla cardstock.  The 1" circles are punched from the Orchard Harvest designer series paper.  The sentiment from Petite Pairs is stamped in Early Espresso on some Cajun Craze cardstock and punched with the Decorative Label punch.  At the stamp-a-stack, I also had out the Four Frames stamp set, so the ladies could stamp that on the label piece before stamping the sentiment.  It looks a lot better with the frame border!

I hope you enjoy these non-Christmas cards!  If I don't get a chance to post before then, Merry Christmas to all of you, and all God's blessings for a safe and prosperous New Year!

Blessings to you,

December Scrapbook Club Layout

This is the layout my Scrapbook Club ladies made this week.  I CASEd the first page of the layout from my wonderful upline, Winona Semler, and added the second page to complement the first one.

The first layout has Candlelight Christmas designer series paper as a base.  We cut out some ornaments with the Big Shot and the Ornament Keepsake framelits to make stencils, then placed them on the Very Vanilla 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock.  We used the colour spritzer tool to spray Early Espresso ink around the stencils to leave ornament outlines, then we removed the stncils.  Finally, we stamped some ornaments and cut them out to add to the layout.  There is some Early Espresso baker's twine as well.

Blessings to you,

December Stamp Club Cards

Alas, it is the last month to do Christmas cards with my club ladies!  Here are the cards we'll be making this month.

This first card was designed by one of the talented ladies in my downline, Christine Burbidge-Boyd.  I tweaked it a little bit because I wanted to use the Dazzling Diamond Dust technique.  The colour scheme is Night of Navy with Whisper White.  I used the Christmas Lodge stamp set here.  The lodge image is stamped, then sponged around the edges. I then covered the whole piece with VersaMark and sprinkled Iridescent Ice embossing powder on it.  After it is heat set, the whole image sparkles!  It's really pretty in real life!

It's difficult to tell from the photo, but this card is a Fun Fold card.  When it's closed, you see the Pacific Point snowflake through the scallop square window.  When you open it up, a sentiment piece slides into the square opening so you can read "Peace on Earth".  I used Pacific Point, Bashful Blue and Perfect Plum with the Snowflake Soiree stamp set.  The scallop square piece is from the Peekaboo Frames die (the center opening square is cut out).  I also used the 1-3/8" square punch to make the openings.  Some Whisper White organdy ribbon and rhinestone jewels finish off the card.

I've shown this card before here, but I haven't done it with my club ladies yet.  It uses the Merry Minis stamp set and punches, along with the ornament paper piercing template.  I LOVE these cute little punched images!

As a bonus project/Christmas gift, my club ladies will get to make this adorable paper ornament.  If you're a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, you've seen these ornaments on the cover of the latest issue of Stampin' Success magazine.  My upline, Winona Semler, came up with this particular one.  It uses First Edition specialty paper with some Cherry Cobbler circles and Vintage Trinkets brads, along with some Early Espresso baker's twine.

Thanks for reading!

Blessings to you,

Come to Bethlehem

Has anyone else's November flown by?  I just have a quick post today as I'm in the midst of Christmas baking and prepping for a Christmas card stamp-a-stack tomorrow while my kids play with their friends whom they invited over since there's no school today.  I'm tired already!

This is one of my stamp-a-stack cards for this year.  I love this stamp set, Come to Bethlehem, and I love the simplicity of this card.  It's simply stamped in Soft Suede on Very Vanilla cardstock.  I sponged the same colour ink around the edges of the card and wrapped some linen thread around it before adhering it to the Soft Suede card base.  To finish it off, I added a bitty button over the thread.

Blessings to you,

Snow Festival Advent Calendar

My friend, Mandy, asked me to come up with a pocket advent calendar similar to one she found on Pinterest.  The idea is to put family activities in the pockets instead of treats. The one she found had 12 x 12 cardboard pieces with pockets attached.  I thought it would be easier to use a canvas as it's a bit sturdier.  I also wanted to use Stampin' Up!'s products, of course, so here's what I came up with:

I noticed that the Snow Festival designer series paper has a sheet with 3 x 3" squares on it, which would fit perfectly onto the canvas in four rows of six!  You get 16 squares from a sheet, so I just added four more squares of two different pieces of paper from the package to get 24 squares altogether. I used 3 x 3" envelopes to create the pockets for the advent cards.

Here's what you need:

• 16 x 20" canvas
• 24 small envelopes (Stampin' Up!'s 3-1/8" x 3-1/8" square envelopes)
• 24 squares of designer series paper (Snow Festival)
• Big Shot with Bigz Typeset Alphabet (or other 1 to 1 1/2" number die set)
• assorted ribbons & embellishments - I used the Ornament, Small Scallop and Large Scallop punches, rhinestone jewels, Gumball Green stitched satin ribbon, Cherry Cobbler baker's twine, felt ornament.
• Sticky Strip
• Whisper White cardstock (24 rectangles that are 3 x 3-1/2").
• Cherry Cobbler & Gumball Green cardstock.

Here are the directions:

1. Cut the flaps off of the envelopes. 
2. Adhere the designer paper squares to the back of the envelopes (not the side you would address) to cover the folds.  This now becomes the front of your pocket.
3. Glue the numbers and embellishments to the designer paper on the envelope pockets as shown in the photo (or however you'd like!).
4. Slide the Whisper White cards into the envelopes.  These cards are for you to write advent family activities or clues to where treats are hidden.
5. Once the envelope pockets are finished, arrange them on the canvas, making sure they are evenly spaced.  Attach the envelopes to the canvas using sticky strip.  It's easiest to start with the bottom row.
6. After the envelopes are all glued down, take out your Whisper White cards and write your activities or clues on them (you could also do that before you start).  There are some great ideas for family activities on the link here to Kimberly Peterson's advent calendar (the one Mandy found on Pinterest).  

Hope you enjoy this! 

Blessings to you,

November Stamp Club Cards

I was fortunate enough to participate in a swap with some very talented ladies in our large downline group, and I got some fabulous ideas for some Christmas cards, which I want to share with my club ladies.

This first card is based on the one I received from Jean Ockerman (I changed it a tiny bit to work with the stamps I have).  The bottom is a piece of Cherry Cobbler Core'dinations paper that is embossed and sanded.  The snowflake is cut out of silver glimmer paper with the new Snow Flurry Bigz die.  I stamped the snowflake from Snowflake Soiree in Cherry Cobbler and punched it out with the 1 3/4" Circle punch.  There is some Cherry Cobbler tulle ribbon gathered on the back of the snowflake image as well.

This second card is one I received from my upline, Winona Semler.  It has the lovely Natural Composition specialty paper as a background, along with the ornaments from the Ornament Keepsake bundle. 

The final card we'll be making is one I posted last week that I made based on a card by Donna Wizniuk.  You can read the details here.

I'm so excited to be making Christmas cards!  It's always difficult to narrow down the choices for my stamp club because there are so many amazing ideas out there!  I hope they will enjoy these cards.

Blessings to you,

November Scrapbook Club Layout

At our last large group meeting, I saw a gorgeous layout by Lisa Althouse, and I thought it would be fantastic for our Scrapbook Club this month.  Of course, I had planned this last month when it was still Fall-like outside, and now there's snow everywhere. Oh well, it will be a good reminder of the weather we were enjoying last week!

I love how Lisa used the 1 1/4" square punch for this layout.  You can do this with any designer series paper and matching cardstock to create any themed layout you want!  This one has Orchard Harvest designer series paper with Lucky Limeade, Cajun Craze and More Mustard accenst.  The page base is Early Espresso.  For embellishments, this page is finished off with some Early Espresso stitched grosgrain and More Mustard scallop dotted ribbon, along with a Brushed Bronze button.

Blessings to you,

Layered Snowflakes

I've seen lots of these layered cards, so I wanted to try my hand at it!  My Stamp Club ladies will be making this card this month.

I was inspired by a gorgeous card that my friend, Donna Wizniuk, made.  She used Crumb Cake with Whisper white, which was quite stunning.  I decided to change it up a bit, and I used Midnight Muse and Whisper White with the Snowflake Soiree stamp set.  I embossed the snowflakes in white and also stamped a few in our new Luminescent ink, which makes a shimmery watermark image.    To finish off the card, I used some Midnight Muse stitched satin ribbon and added a "Merry" tag with the Designer Label punch and a couple of pearl jewels.  The snowflakes on the tag are in Midnight Muse, stamped off a few times so they're lighter (ink the stamp, then stamp it on scrap paper a few times before stamping on the sentiment).

Here's a quick tutorial for those of you who haven't seen this type of card before:

1.  Cut three sizes of the same colour of cardstock that you will be stamping your collage image on (Midnight Muse here).  I used 4 x 5 1/4", 3 1/4 x 4 1/2" and 2 1/2 x 2 3/4".  (Often this card is done with white or a neutral colour as these pieces so you can stamp in a coloured ink - I did a reverse here).

2.  Layer the three pieces together on top of each other (you may want to adhere them with Dotto or another repositionable adhesive so they will come apart after).

3.  Stamp your images over the cardstock in a collage style.  Emboss now if you're embossing!

4.  Pull apart the three pieces and layer them onto mats (I used Whisper White).  Make sure you keep the layers in the same direction as when you stamped them so that your images will line up when you put the pieces back together. The card base is the largest mat, then 3 1/2 x 4 3/4" and 2 3/4 x 4" for this card.

5.  Embellish your card as desired.

I love how easy this card is, but it looks complicated!  Enjoy!

Blessings to you,

Flower Power!

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, my Stamp Club ladies had a "CASEd from the Catalogue" theme this month.  One of the items we copied was the flower featured on p. 99 of the catalogue.  Well, as I was looking at the flower, I thought we needed to do something with it.  It would be cute as a decoration in a plant or for a party favour, but with only one of them, my ladies needed a card!  So I added it as an embellishment to a card and here's what we made:

I used Rich Razzleberry as the card base and accents (from the Brights designer series paper stack).  The white piece is embossed with our new Argyle embossing folder.  The sentiment is stamped from Itty Bitty Banners and cut out with the Bitty Banners framelits dies.  I adhered the flower to the card with mini glue dots (those little suckers are strong!). 

Here's the flower before it was made into a card, as posted previously here:

I'm gearing up for Christmas now, so you'll be seeing lots of holiday ideas in the coming weeks!

Blessings to you,

Peaceful Snowflakes

I've been spending a lot of time this week preparing cards for my upcoming Christmas stamp-a-stacks.  I try every year to have an assortment of cards ready, and my hostesses get to choose four of them for her and her guests to make at their event (they make five of each card). 

This one is one I came up with using  the new Snowflake Soiree stamp set. 

I try to keep the cards simple but pretty for stamp-a-stacks since they will be making so many card, and I don't want it to take hours and hours to finish!  So this one is simply the snowflakes stamped in Marina Mist, Midnight Muse and Wisteria Wonder on some Shimmery White cardstock.  The sentiment is from Greetings of the Season, stamped in Midnight Muse.  The card itself is Midnight Muse with a layer of Wisteria Wonder under the stamped portion.  To finish it off, I added a couple of rhinestone jewels. 

Blessings to you,

Hilton Head Island

Thanks to my wonderful customers and my amazing downline, I was one of thirty Canadian demonstrators who earned a weekend getaway to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina from Stampin' Up!  My husband and I enjoyed four relaxing days last weekend at the Westin Resort and Spa on the island.  I had never heard of Hilton Head Island before I earned this trip, and I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived.  What a beautiful place!

This first photo was taken from the airplane as we landed in Savannah, Georgia.  I just loved how the sunlight came through the clouds, and you can see the lush trees below.  In Savannah, a shuttle picked us up to take us on the short trip to the hotel on Hilton Head Island.

This photo of the beach from our hotel was taken when we arrived Thursday evening.

On Friday, we took a shuttle from the hotel to Shelter Cove Marina, where we walked along the boardwalk, shopped at touristy boutiques and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

We also enjoyed walking along the beach.  There are miles of soft, white sandy beaches here!

 These are five of the six ladies in our downline group who earned the trip! 

On Saturday morning, my friend, Donna, and her husband, Dan, who had rented a vehicle, drove us to Harbour Head so we could see the lighthouse there.  It was another beautiful morning!

Saturday afternoon, we spent bike riding around the island.  Stampin' Up! had rented bikes for us to sign out and use, complete with a Stampin' Up! flag on the back, which we got to take home after!  The island has bike paths everywhere, so it is very bike-friendly.

 

 On Saturday night, Ian and I dressed up a bit and enjoyed a nice dinner at one of the hotel's restaurants.  You can see how curly my hair got because of the humidity!

Every evening, Stampin' Up! left a "pillow gift" for us in our rooms.  The first night, we got a beach tote, the second, there was a fruit & cheese platter with fancy water bottles waiting for us, and the third night we received a storage container filled with a stamp set, designer series paper, ribbon, ink pads and embellishments (that was the best one)!

On Sunday morning, we went for a nice breakfast, walked along the beach one last time, and took a few photos outside the hotel (this one is at the fountain in the courtyard).  Then it was off to the airport for our flight home.

It was a wonderful trip, and my husband and I enjoyed having some time together without the kids (my mom was kind enough to come out from B.C. and stay with our boys while we went on the trip).  So thank you to my loyal customers, my hard-working downline and Stampin' Up! for a trip we will never forget.

Blessings to you,