Season of Simple Grace Holy Family

I really like this card - the best yet. It was quite a process of evolution for it is nothing like the card that I envisioned when I planned to use this stamp. I wanted to emboss in white and I wanted to use these colors, but the first samples that I made were so boring. Really. I had to let it sit for a couple of days and simmer. Even then, once I started working on it, it kept changing Isn't it funny how the creative process works sometimes? Of course, some people are more creative than others. I'm definitely in the "other" category. But, I am very happy with this card.

Stamps: Season of Simple Grace
CS: Bravo Burgundy, Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue, Night of Navy
Ink: Whisper White Craft, Versamark
Accessories: Silver Embossing Powder, Bravo Burgundy 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, Brocade Blue 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, scallop punch, corner rounder punch, paper piercer and pad.

Joy Journal

This altered Composition Book was intended to be made for the church Bazaar but, as you can see, I missed by just a skosh when fitting the cover. Unfortunately, it was not repositionable. I don't feel comfortable putting it on the sale table with the error, so decided to keep it for my own Joy Journal. The bow got a little squashed in the scanner but you get the idea. This example uses last year's Christmas DSP as well as Letterpress Alphabet stamps, also retired, and retired ribbon. The retired products are just fine for a sale item or a personal item. I will make another journal to donate. I also plan to make a set of cards using this lovely paper from last year. Because these are retired products they are no longer available for purchase, but I hope the sample gives you a starter idea for your own creation. It's a very simple template but the pretty papers make it attractive.

Loads of Love Spinner

My youngest grandson turns nine this coming weekend, so I had fun today making his card. He'll be much more interested in the package than the card, to be sure, but perhaps the novelty of the spinner will get his attention for a moment, anyway. The truck is colored with our water color crayons. Have you used them? I love playing with them. The truck runs on a Word Window cut-out track for most of the "hill". The truck really is more red than it looks here. I used the Really Red crayon and colored it several times to get a deep color.

Stampin' Dimensionals on the road. The foreground hills are adhered only at the edges so they also stand out to give room for the truck to move. I should put a snowcap peak in the background so it looks like going up to our Mt. Rainier. Hmmmm- maybe next time.

Stamps: Loads of Love and Loads of Love Accessories

CS: Bashful Blue, Glorious Green, Naturals White, Chocolate Chip

Ink: Always Artichoke, Black StazOn, Stampin' Up! Watercolor crayons

Accessories: Signo white pen, watercolor brush, Word Window punch, Stampin' Dimensionals

P.S. No comments about driving the wrong side of the road! (chuckle) Must be a two lane road up that mountain. He's not looking where he's going either. Yikes! I think I'll walk.

More Gift Card Holders

The last - at least for now. The gold embossed wreath is from Keep Christmas and Santa from Deer Friends. If you've been following this blog, you've seen these sets before. They are so versatile. The wreath gift card holder is the same style as the candle one on the inside - a panel with slits to hold the card. The Santa one is a pocket - very quick to make. For now, these are just samples for the gals to choose from if they would like.
We need to make some gift card holders that are not for Christmas, too, so I think I will start with Crazy for Cupcakes set. Watch for one or two of those in the near future.

The second set of cards the gals made - also embossed. Didn't they do a nice job? You'd not know they were first timers, would you?
Just as in the Snow Swirled holder, these have an internal pocket page to hold the gift card. The blue one has a white pocket and the white one has a blue pocket.
The stamp set is retired Snowflake Spot. We could have used the images from Snow Swirled and had the same nice effect.

Gift Card Holders

We're making Gift Card Holders for my church's Christmas Bazaar. Here are some samples of ones that we have made and others that we might make. The Christmas Tree is in the lovely
Snow Swirled set. The gals learned to emboss the evening we made that one - magic! What fun it is to see someone learn a new technique and get so excited! The packet opens up to find pocket page inside for the card.

The candle is from Keep Christmas. By now, you know that is a favorite set of mine, don't you?
Inside is a yellow panel with slots for fitting a gift card. I used Stampin' Up! Slit Punch.

Sock Monkey Card by Jane Giggy

Isn't this just the cutest? Did you have a sock monkey when you were a child? My brother and I did. Brings back all kinds of memories - all good! This delightful card was created by Jane Giggy, who generously sent it to me for my birthday. It makes me smile every time I look at it. Thank you, Jane.

Season of Simple Grace Card

Season of Grace is a lovely set and here is my first card. Again, I used retired colors and ribbon, but it is close to Ruby Red. The images are embossed with Versamark and gold embossing powder. You can see that I am still having fun with our scallop punch. The sentiment inside is stamped with Ruby Red.

Keep Christmas Card 2008

This week I have been working on my personal Christmas Cards and so have not posted for a while. My friend, Jane, chided me for that today, so here are two of my cards. I've hesitated to post them for two reasons. One - because some of my family and friends will be receiving them and, second, because they use some retired Stampin' Up! products.

Cranberry Crisp was one of our former In Colors. I liked it so much that I ordered several packages of it just before it was discontinued, knowing that I would use it for Christmas cards. So, here it is, along with the ribbon that is also retired. The image is actually embossed using Bravo Burgundy, which works just fine. I sprayed the card base with gold Pearl-Ex and hairspray mixture to get the shimmer effect. The sentiment inside embossed in gold on the Cranberry Crsip and mounted on Apricot Appeal. Looks nice. I will sign these cards with a gold pen. I think it is an elegant card and am very happy with it. Happy enough to make 30 of them.

Deer Friends - Infant Jesus Tag and Card

Here is another Christmas card with the stamp that I like so much. This one has a removable tag in the pocket. The recipient may use it as a gift tag or a tree decoration. Again, I believe that the stamp calls for a card with clean and uncluttered lines to emphasize the Christmas message. The same template is easily adapted to any stamp that is the right size. I will probably make some of these with the angel stamp that comes with the set, too. I can't believe I didn't start with the angel!

Batty For You Pumpkin

Here is the "kind" sentiment in the Batty for You set. Isn't it delightful? Often with glitter, the card looks better in real life than in a scan. In fact, the scan does not do the card justice for I think it is much nicer than it appears here. Enough so that I am making more to send to friends. The first card I made was with the Old Olive card base and it is OK but I like the Certainly Celery card base better. What do you think?

Stamps: Batty for You, Hauting Halloween

Card stock: Old Olive, Certainly Celery, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White

Accessories: Scallop punch, Square scallop punch, Crystal Effects, glitter

Batty For You Scallop Punch Medalions

I'm taking a bit of a break from making tags to getting some cards made. Did you see the Splitcoast Stampers tutorial this week on the Scallop Punch Medallion? Here it is:Http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/scallopedgemedallion

I haven't made any Halloween cards yet so decided to use Batty For You and get started. I'll post my pumpkin one tomorrow after the Crystal Effect dries. Tart and Tangy stamps fit well in the medallion, too. I made an apple one today but have not made the card yet.


Stamps: Batty for You, Haunting Halloween
Card Stock: Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, Whisper White
Ink: Black Staz-On
Accessories: Scallop punch, Square scallop punch, Pumpkin Pie striped ribbon
The sentiment says, "Witching you..." and on the inside of the card: "...a Haunting Halloween" Cute.





Frankinstein
Card stock: Old Olive, Basic Black, Whisper White

Check back tomorrow for the pumpkin.

Deer Friends - Infant Jesus Tag and Card

I think this tag makes a beautiful card, so I will put cord in just a few and leave the rest unpunched.

I like the simplicity of the card for it emphasizes the message. It is more elegant than it appears in the scan. Both the image and the word are embossed.

Stamps: Deer Friends, Tres Chic background stamp

Card Stock: Creamy Caramel, Very Vanilla, Confetti Cream

Ink: Creamy Caramel Craft Pad

Accessories: Clear embossing powder, 1 1/4 circle punch, scallop circle punch, corner rounder, Chocolate Chip 5/8" grosgrain ribbon

Still Learning......

About how to use my scanner and the blog. Today I figured out how to make the photos brighter and more accurate. I was frustrated at what seemed like washed out colors. So, I've gone back through the photos already published and corrected them. They look so much better. Still don't have the copyright thing figured out, though. I'd welcome your ideas. I don't have extra software, just what comes with my Canon printer and Windows.

Deer Friends - Beaded Christmas Tree Tag

Here are several versions of the Christmas Tree stamp in the Deer Friends stamp set. All of the trees are beaded with clear beads, using Crystal Effects. This one sparkles and is very pretty.

Because the CS is dark and might be a challenge for addressing a tag, I added a Whisper White piece on the back, using the large oval punch. You can see that it just fits the scallop circle punch. I don't have any current stamps with a To and From sentiment, so have left it blank for the photo, but will probably go back and use stamps from a retired set. Shhhh. Have you used the Stampin' Up! micro beads? If not, you should give them a try. For some reason, I just started playing with them this past summer and have learned a few things. The most important - to get a nice sparkle, pick up a few beads betten your thumb and finger and just sprinkle lightly on the Crystal Effects covered image. When I first started using the beads, I poured on too many and didn't much like the result. You may prefer the heavier coverage. Try it both ways. Or, perhaps the particular design element will dictate how heavy we want our beading to be. I'm stilll learning.

All images are copyright Stampin' Up! Projects are created by Betty Vene McConnell

Deer Friends - Snowman Tag

Poor snowman's hat got crunched in the scanner, but you wil get the idea. Colors used are Brocade Blue and Whisper White. The entire stamp is stamped with classic ink and then I stamped hats with Brocade Blue Craft ink and embossed with clear EP, cut out the hat and adhered it with a Dimensional.

Deer Friends-GingerbreadMan Tag

I've been busy this weekend making tags with a some of the stamps from the Deer Friends stamp set.

This little guy is one of the stamps in the Deer Friends set. Here he is just stamped in Close to Cocoa on Whisper White CS, colored with Stampin' Write markers, punched out with the small tag punch and adhered to Chocolate Chip CS punched with the larger Tag Punch. You see him with the gold elastic cord and with the caramel gingham. I like them both, but the gingham might be less useable with most Christmas wrap, so I only made a few with the ribbon. The rest are corded.

Designer Paper Angel Tags

Aren't these cute? I have been having the greatest time playing with these little angels. They are made with Holiday Treasures Designer Series Paper.

I am a long time angel collector and had been thinking about what to do for an angel tag. So, when I first saw Tammy Howell's, I knew I had to learn how she made them. She ws gracious and sent photos of her angels along with the address of the blog that inspired her. You can see an excellent tutorial for making the angel by Jen Clendineng at http://www.crazystampgirl.com/?s=angel

Tammy added her own touch and, typical of stampers and paper crafters, I have, too.

As you can see, each one is different. As I played, the more combinations I tried, the more seemed to suggest themselves. I used pieces from only three of the papers in the package, but with two sides to each paper, the design combos seems endless.

My original intent was to make tags, but then I realized that these little gems can be an element on a card as well, so that is why many of them have halos instead of longer loops. Wouldn't a rhinestone brad be pretty at her waistline? I also think that I will add glitter to the wings of future angels.

See what you started, Tammy and Jen?

Cardstock: Holiday Treasures Designer Series Paper and coordinating solid colors cardstock
Accessories: Circle scallop punch, 5-Petal punch, 3/4" circle punch, gold elastic cord