Happy New Year!

Like many, 2012 has been a year of highs and lows.  One high point has been getting comfortable with my cardmaking and altering and sharing that here with you.  I can't thank you enough for looking and listening. 
 
I would to take this time to say Thank You (now if I had been really clever I would have had a great card/project to post with this!).  Instead I leave you with tradition and my wishes for everyone a very Happy and safe New Year! 
 

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old lang syne ?

 

For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

 

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup !
and surely I’ll buy mine !
And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

 

The Creative Process

 

I know I'm not alone but I thought I should share what it takes for me to create the above!

 

 Hopefully this will all be cleared by the time we have Christmas!  That is part of the plan anyway.  Still 6 cards (4 Christmas and 2 January birthday) and at least 5 glass blocks to make (own target and only have lights for 3!) before I can put it all away until the New Year! Wish me luck!

Christmas Card 2012 - Red Nose Knows!

These are my "bulk" Christmas cards this year.  I know "Shock" "Horror" "Gasp" "How can you"?  I have my reasons.  Even when I used to buy my cards from the shop I didn't like trying to select which card went best to whom.  It just isn't me.  It is far better for my own personal well being this time of year to send almost everyone the same card.  I admire those who don't stress with these small decisions however, that is not me.  So help me celebrate me and let me know what you think.

To be honest I think the process is pretty self evident.  The stamps are Clear dollar dear stamp and the greeting from Kitchen Sink Stamps.  I did test out some combinations before I went with the black sentiment, but it was the most pleasing to my eye on this card. 

It took about 8 hours to complete 104 cards.  I will be honest I thought I was making 100 but somewhere along the line miscounted.  Better to be on the safe side right? LOL!  I cut 26 sheets of white cardstock down into four 5 x 3 3/4 rectangles. I was able to stamp both the sentiment and the deer at one time so I just kept stamping until I got to the bottom of the stack.  Then I took the stack and colored until I got to the bottom of the stack.  As I colored with Copics I made certain to move the card onto a piece of paper to color because of color saturation through the cardstock.  Once those were done, I went through and colored the noses red.  This was more of a safety feature in case the rhinestones came off the card the reindeer would still have a red nose.

At this point I scored and cut down 52 pieces of kraft cardstock for the base.  Once I folded these, I attached the top layer to the base.  Then I glued on red rhinestones.  I will be honest with you, these rhinestones were self adhesive but the adhesive was very flexible and I just didn't feel it was secure enough.  I did a test run with some Martha Stewart glitter adhesive and boy does that stick! So I used it on all the cards to adhere the rhinestones.

My next worry was the post office machinery destroying them.  So I decided to line my envelopes with cardstock.  Because it is best if the cardstock is texture I just went for it and sent all this through a wintery embossing folder before I adhered it to the inside of the envelope.

Once the envelopes were complete I set out to make my inserts for the cards I will send out and stamped the backs.  I won't go into trying to sort out my printer/computer- ok my brain so that it all looked right!

The other thing I do is try to hand address the cards.  I have had bad experiences in the past with using labels and they don't get delivered because it is assumed they must be from businesses etc.  So hand address I do.

Ingredients
Card Size - 5.5 x 4.25 inches (13.97 cm x 10.79 cm)
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Smooth, Recollections Kraft, Georgia Pacific white cardstock
Stamps - Clear Dollar Stamps - deer, Kitchen Sink Stamps
Ink - Memento
Color - Copic, Sakura Red Stardust gel pen
Accessories - 3mm red rhinestone, Embossing folder

Christmas window...

 

So my wonderful husband looks at me when I show him this card for his mother and says "Don't take this the wrong way" uh oh... now what I'm thinking "But" ok here it comes "that looks professional" What! Huh! I guess he wanted to ensure his "Husband of the Year Award" was still intact! - Now don't get me wrong I can totallly see how someone could take that the wrong way but I didn't.  I'm so pleased that I am still grinning ear to ear!  And I also know it means it is something he would have picked out for his mother so double win!

 

First things first this is a CASE of all those fantastic Madison Window dies... oh how I have pined for one.  However, I remembered that I had these die cuts going unloved in my stash so no die buying for me!  It is also specifically inspired by this card in the SCS gallery. Just how beautifully elegant is that card.

I had to make changes as I don't have that die, embossing folder, or stamps.  I hope you like what I have done.

I stamped the tree on a bit of cardstock and colored it in.  If you look carefully it is a very "British" tree with crackers and a fairy on top.  There is lots of bling and sparkle on there too with my Sakura stardust and metallic pens.  The whole scene is colored with copics.

I then placed my window die over the tree to get the best fit and cut the tree scene to window size.  I then cut some acetate packaging down to be the window panes.  When placing it on the scene I didn't like it directly on the scene so I used another window die cut to create depth and then adhered it all together.

As this was drying, I worked on the background.  I created a mask so the stamp wouldn't leave sharp edges and then stamped it in the middle of some red card stock.  The red was really too red so I knocked back that color with some copic reds and greys that I airbrushed on to get the effect I wanted.

After I placed the window on the scene, I wanted the foliage to come out of a window box so I just hand cut and layered a few bits of scrap cardstock using an edge from where I had cut a die to give some interest to the very top layer.  I punched a variety of green branches and then adhered them to the box.  To finish this off I tied a small red bow and a stardust pen to give the greenery sparkle.

I generated the sentiment on my computer.

 

Ingredients
Card Size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Smooth, Recollections red,
Stamps - tree unknown bought in England, Bricks - Cornish Heritage Farms
Ink - Memento
Color - Copics, Sakura stardust and metallic pens
Accessories - Window diecut (unknown), Acetate packaging, Martha Stewart branch punch

 



 

Tilt - a Ho Ho Ho!

This card looks simple right... well let me tell you.... it took forever to make!

Now a single tilt probably wouldn't have taken so long but I needed these to line up and then I needed them to be bottom heavy to actually tilt so that required and extra weight on the bottom of each "Ho" to help it swing.

The "HO"'s are a Justrite alphabet that I stamped in versamark, embossed with zing glitter embossing powder.  They really do sparkle.  Like my Christmas Cod Card I stamped 3 hats on a sheet of red scrap and cut them out and applied liquid applique which I heated to puff up.  These were mounted together on a diecut green circle. 

The front panel was run through my Grand Caliber twice to cover the card.  This type of situation is exactly what I bought it for - when I want to emboss the entire front of a card and the embossing is at 90degrees from the panel and needs a larger platform.  Luckily I didn't get rid of my cuttlebug.  I use it most for smaller things, however it is great to still have those plates to run my embossing folders through my Grand Caliber without messing about with shims.

Ingredients
Card Size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Smooth, Bazzill
Stamps - Justrite Stampers, High Hopes Stamps (santa hat off a santa image)
Ink - Memento, Versamark
Accessories - Zing green glitter embossing powder, Liquid Applique, 9 pennies, Spellbinders circle dies.


just wanted to show off the texture and dimension on this card in this last picture.

The stockings were hung

This is for my nephew and his girlfriend, they have recently set up house together so I thought I would acknowledge that with their 1st Christmas card together from us.

I will be honest.  I'm not happy with this.  Maybe it needed more white space or solid color.

What I do like is the velvety texture of the stockings/and the dark green sections on the DP.

The stockings are die cut.  I die cut the tops of the stockings and then split the paper to get the soft, fabric texture. 

Ingredients
Card Stock - Neenah Classic Crest, Solar White, SEI velvet paper, Bazzill, Me & My Big Ideas
Color - Sakura metallic gold pen
Dies - Quickutz stocking dies, Spellbinders circles.

Christmas Cod

 

Does anyone else have trouble making special cards for those in your life that you haven't seen in forever?  I guess you don't if you don't make them for specific people.  I know that I am out on a limb in that way because I try to make a card to someone's interest.  I can categorically say that this isn't Zoe's interest.  But I went with punny!  Zoe has a cracking sense of humour and I am hopeful she will like this card.  And yes, I know I have basically done a variation of this card as a Birthday Cod but that is why I got these stamps to do punny, fun cards.

So basically this is all stamping, copic coloring, airbrushing for the scene.  The cod I stamped on a scrap and colored him in then cut him out.  I then covered him all over in glitter glue. This serves two purposes, it makes him blingy AND scaley which is pretty much the ultimate in being the coolest fish ever on a card!  I printed out the speech bubble on my printer.  The santa hat is actually off a santa hat I have.  That was stamped directly on red card and liquid applique was applied and heated.

I hope she likes it.

 

Ingredients
Card Size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White smooth, red scrap unknown
Stamps - High Hopes Stamps
Ink - Memento
Color - Copics
Accessories - Glitter Glue, Liquid Applique.