Pom Flower Christmas

Wow! I have had this post queued up since the New Year.  I can’t believe it has taken me this long to get around to posting it.  As we all know life just sometimes gets in the way.  Luckily it was nothing overtly dramatic, just life itself.  So I created this card for my Mother in law for Christmas.  Now if you dust the cobwebs from my blog you will remember I did a similar felt flower pin in November.  I decided to dress it up a bit and add some beads to it.  There are plenty of tutorials on how to make the pin on the internet.  TBH it is very simple and I’m not going to re-invent the wheel here.  The big thing I had to overcome is how to adhere it to my card so the recipient wouldn’t destroy the card taking it off AND getting it into an envelope.

I was very lucky as my dear husband gave me a Grand Caliber for Christmas (when I found an incredible end of stock deal) that he let me use before Christmas.  I’m sure it helped that I explained my concept that I needed it for a card for his mother *wink, wink*  I used some of my hoarded lovingly acquired stash of Christmas cardstock that will most likely last me through my old age and then some.  I liked the idea of the repetition of flowers, even though they weren’t identical to the one I made.  I think it was more important to have the continuity of idea and colors.  I cut one of the largest sizes for the front of the card and some American Craft cardstock for the background.  I think off set the large die and cut it to fit on the front of my large card.  I used some Versamark and gold embossing powder on the edges of the die cut to make it pop from the background a bit more.  I used a smaller die to make a base for the flower pin.  Stamped and embossed the pin base and the card base.  My brain storm came when I used fun foam to create depth needed to put the pin on the small base and not mark the larger die cut on the card.  I used repositionable glue on the pin base so that it could easily be removed from the card.

My next brainwave was how to package the card.  Now it is at this point that I probably need to point out that I was sending this as part of a larger package to my in-laws with presents and other cards enclosed.  Space was a premium.  I have to admit I was rather impressed with myself for thinking about making a peek-a-boo window in the envelope itself for the pin to pop through.  My family said it was as if Rudolph got nosy!

Hopefully the pictures make it all pretty self explanatory.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Ingredients

Card size - 8.5in x 5.5in
Cardstock – Neenah Classic Crest, American Crafts
Stamps – Inkadinkado “Warm Holiday Wishes”, Kitchen Sink Stamps “Whole Family”
Ink – Versamark
Accessories – Gold Embossing Powder, Spellbinders Grand Dies, Fun Foam, Felt, pin back, Beads, wiring,
Technique – Stamping with heat embossing

All that glitters...

Hmm I guess it is rather subtle for whom I made this card. LOL!  I can't decide whether it looks too simple or not.  Though I have to be really honest and say I am chuffed to bits with how it turned out even if I couldn't get a decent photograph of it. In person is looked plain luxurious.

The tree stamp is a Martha Stewart stamp and truthfully I wasn't expecting a good image.  I had read a lot of stories about how difficult it is to stamp with her clear stamps, so I really worked on the stamp with a white eraser before stamping.  I decided to go for a luxurious look - green and gold, it is almost like Fort Knox on a card.  The cardstock is from open stock at Archiver's.  I rubbed the cardstock all over with a used fabric softener sheet (cheap embossing buddy) to ensure I didn't have any stray embossing powder.  Loaded up my stamp with versamark, stamped and heat embossed with gold embossing powder that I have had forever.  Truthfully I thought it might have gone off/tarnished as I have read some horror stories.  But it seemed fine even if I couldn't photograph it!

Hope they enjoyed their elegant card.  Maybe next year I will go back to cutesy!

Ingredients -

Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest, Archiver's open stock - linen texture

Stamp - Martha Stewart Crafts - Clear Christmas Tree Stamps, Kitchen Sink Stamps - Whole Family

Ink - Versamark

Accessories - gold embossing powder.

Cheerful Winter Birthday Wishes

Well someone out there in blogland who I knew I would remember and have now promptly forgot inspired me to get out my versamark and shimmering chalks, so a shoutout to whoever you are!  Now I had to have these chalks and I can probably count on less than one hand how many times I have used them!

This was for my mother's birthday.  I find that people with winter birthday's tend to get "winter" cards whether they like them or not so I try to step out of the norm and give them sometime a bit more bright and cheerful especially if it isn't really their favorite time of the year.

There really isn't anything too new or too unique about this card except it was going to have a white background as it was going to be a CAS card.  Maybe, it might just eek into that category.  I have had all the products stamps/chalks/inkpads and ribbon for years and it was good to break it out and use it - very satisfied feeling using up the stash of procured pretties.

So anyway - I stamped the center and the petals with versamark and then used shimmering chalks on them  I then stamped black outlines over the chalk.  Next I added the stem and leaves in versamark and again out came the chalks.  At this point I looked at the card.  It was white, pink and green with chalk halos around.  I could have stopped at this point, but I decided I wanted MORE! so I made a yellow halo around the flower to make it bright like sunshine and who doesn't need more sunshine this time of year in the northern hemisphere?  I reevaluated and decided that I may as well chalk the entire card and added the blue background.  The rest is pretty straightforward of placing the ribbon, stamping the greeting and added white gel pen for some added texture.

I think it is good to share the process every once in a while as there is no set way of making a card.  Sometimes I do make the card I set out to make but most of the time it is a creative process of adding and subtracting and deciding what would work best.

Ingredients
Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Smooth, Black from stash - I believe Waussau textured.  It's pretty lightweight.
Stamps -  Kitchen Sink Stamps- Never a Loss 4 Words and Pretty Petals
Ink - Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black
Color - Shimmering Chalks
Accessories - grosgrain ribbon

PS - if you look for a stamp set name under the wrong manufacturer you aren't too likely to find it... Think it is time to call it quits on the blogging today! Take care!