Stamp-a-Faire: Starry Night

Good Morning,
       I started this card Sunday evening and finished it this morning. This is one of my favorite paintings of Van Gogh. However, one can not find it in his museum in Amsterdam. I was so disappointed when visiting that museum several years ago.
    I love the technique that Amy used to create this night sky.  My sky did not come out as dark because I wanted to stamp my tree in Enchanted Evening. I am submitting this for PTI's Stamp-a-Faire Starry Night challenge.

Well, that's another Christmas card down. Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

Feast of the Three Kings

   In honor of today's feast of The Three Kings, I made my first Christmas card for 2016. I have a lot of trouble with white space. When I see it on other people's cards, I love it. But when I make a card, something just doesn't look right. I had to add something around the sentiment. I took one of the stamps from O' Tannenbaum to add the small stars around the top of the card. The right side looks a little smudged in the picture, but it doesn't look bad in person.

  

There are 2 Christmas challenges I am submitting my card to: Weekly Christmas Card Challenge and ABC Christmas Challenge where the theme this week is Anything Goes.  Why don't you join either of these Christmas challenges to get a head start for 2016.

I am also submitting this to the Less is More # 27 challenge where the theme is neutrals.
Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

Merry Monday: Snowflake

 I'm so happy to be participating in Merry Monday's snowflake challenge. Last year I was able to make half my cards prior to the holiday season. However, once I started prepping for my granddaughters' birthday parties in July, making my Christmas cards fell to the wayside. Hopefully this year all my cards will be done by October especially since I will be traveling the entire month of November.

This is the insspiration photo for the snowflake challenge.

My card.

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

PTI Blog Hop November 2014": Snow

    Can you believe that Christmas is only a month away! But Today is PTI's November Blog Hop. The theme is snow.  I just recently purchased In the Meadow. I don't know what took me so  long to get this set. It is one of my Christmas favorites next to Holly Jolly. (Polka Dot tree too) I guess I have a lot of Christmas favorites.

I sponged the background using Spring Rain and Aqua Mist. I created the little stream of snow using the Edger's die on two sides with a snip here and there. The sentiment from Star of Wonder is embossed in silver. Thanks for stopping by to take a peek. Enjoy the Blog Hop!

Merry Monday Sketch

 I'm slowly (very slowly) getting my Christmas cards made. My goal is 2 a week, but I have not been hitting it lately. I am so busy making birthday decorations for my granddaughters who each have a birthday in August & September.
The sketch this week at Merry Monday is awesome.

Here's my take:

 I am really enjoying my new Craft-Dee-Bowz maker. It is fantastice. It only takes seconds to make a beautiful bow. I am also submitting this to their August Challenge: Anything Goes With a Bow

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

Merry Monday: Tic Tac Toe

        Finally found some time to create another Christmas card in order to  play along with the  Tic Tac Toe challenge at Merry Monday this week.

     One is to create a card using three in a row: across, down, or diagonally.  I chose the top row this week--animal, designer paper and ribbon.  Here's my card.

  Sorry for the poor photo. Had to take it at night. Dummy me also used the same color cardstock for the background that the card is made from. So it is hard to see where the card ends. The sentiment is from the Nativity Silhouettes Additions.

Here's a close up shot of the wise Men.  Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

Silent Night! Holy Night!

Here's another Christmas card I sent this year using the Rustic White/Ocean Tides color combination. Soft Stone was the ink I used. (Hard to see the Nativity scene in this picture)

  An up close shot.

I love how this sentiment fit on the Perfect Patches die.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! 2012 was such a great year for me that I hated to see it come to an end. I hope 2013 is just as good. Most importantly, I hope that my family & I continue to be healthy. I believe good health is one of the "riches" of the world.
I have neglected my blog for well over a month. The hustle & bustle of the holidays left me too tired to keep my blog going. During that time, I made tons of Christmas cards (over 45) Christmas hair bows, tags, party poppers and even some birthday cards. Some I photographed, others I forgot to in the haste of mailing them out.  All in all Christmas was wonderful this year. Perhaps next year I won't get as far behind with my Christmas cards as I did this year.

I think I went through tons of Ocean Tide and Rustic White card stock. The majority of my cards used the PTI stamp sets:  Star of Wonder, and Nativity Silhouettes Additions.  Here's a sample of two of them.

I used Soft Stone ink on this card. Because it was barely visible, I switched to London Fog on the other cards I made.  The 2nd card uses the Sunrise IP. It is one of my favorite IP but adhering this one is very tricky as I always manage to have a bubble along some part of the edge.

Here's wishing you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

Retroskteches # 38

  Two weeks in a row entering in a challenge by the same sponsor! That's a first for me! Once again I found the sketch in this week's Retrosketches very appealing.

 Here's my take.

 I used Rustic White and Ocean Tides card stock.  The trees were stamped in  Soft Stone.

I decided to add the sentiment in the top corner. I used Soft Stone on this too! 

Thanks for taking a peek!

Star of Wonder

I made this card a couple of weeks ago when I had received my new Sunrise IP from PTI.. I paired it with the large Perfect Patches die using the techniques from  MIM # 13 (Impression Plate tricks #2) I love this technique.

  Since the base of the card is dark (Royal Velvet), I stamped the inside sentiment on Spring Rain.

Thanks for stopping by.

A Last Minute Christmas Card

  I have a few Christmas cards I need to make. Besides, I needed a break from making my gift card holders.  Something simple too. Luckily, I had an extra image already stamped from the Star of Wonder stamp set.

     The image is stamped in Fresh Snow on Royal Velvet cardstock.  The sunburst from the Limitless Layer die collection is Soft Stone.  I layered it on a doily I sponged in Eggplant (Adirondack) and added a sentiment on the bottom.

      I wanted to do something different for my sentiment. This is what I came up with.

     The ribbon is Soft Stone. The sentiment is from Star of Wonder stamped on a Little Jar Label diecut. I used my copics to color the rhinestones.  This is a CAS card.
      I think this card fits perfectly for  the CHNC Challenge #51: Anything-goes.

   Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have all your Christmas cards out by now. Can you believe Christmas Day is a week from today?

Star of Wonder

          I wish I could say that I had a great weekend. It started out okay, but went helter skelter Saturday evening. My husband & I had invited another couple over for dinner.  Everything went fine until I started to clear the dishes from the table and do a quick clean up of the kitchen before I served dessert. I hadn't noticed that the 5th burner on my stove was still on.  Needless to say when I picked up the glass baking dish on top, I severely burned my left hand.  It was as if I pulled a dish from the oven without a pot holder.  The blisters on my fingertips are over an inch long.  I was told it will take 3-6 weeks to heal.  Luckily, it was my left hand.  So my crafting is going to be limited for awhile. (Maybe, we'll see).  I don't know if I'll let a little burn prevent me from crafting.

     I've had this card sitting around for awhile. So I thought I would post it today.  It is a case of a card done by Dawn McVey  during the October release. The minute I saw this card, I knew I would case it. I didn't have the background stamp that Dawn used on her card, so to me the card seems naked.

 

Thanks for looking.

Supplies: CS: Soft Stone, Plum Pudding, Royal Velvet, White
Stamps: Star of Wonder
Dies: Fillable Frame #4, Limitless Layers, Tag #5
Other: Circle punch, rhinestones, white ribbon, PTI Plum Pudding button, embroidery floss

Silent Night

     I have been using my Christmas tree die a lot this year.   In all of my past cards with this die, I always used the tree solo. I had  wanted to do something different with it. This is what Icame up with.

   The tree in the middle is propped up with dimensionals. I doubled up the dimensionals on the littlest tree. I applied glue on the edges of the trees using a Q-tip in order for the shaved ice to adhere to the trees. I have always liked the contrast between white & dark blue.

    This is one of those cards that looks great in person vs a photo.  Since I am done with my Christmas cards for this year, I will probably make 3-4 more for next year. My goal was to have my cards mailed out by Dec. 1st.  Mission accomplished. I am sure I will still receive a card or two from someone who slipped off my radar, but since I have 2-3 extras, that probem will easily be remedied.

   Thanks for looking.

Supplies: Enchanted Evening, White
Stamps: Star of Wonder
Other: Christmas tree die, Stampendous: Shaved Ice, rhinestonees, dimensionals

True Meaning of Christmas.

 Every Christmas, I like to make Christmas cards with a religious theme as many of my relatives have a deep faith.  I also like to reinforce the true meaning of Christmas and downplay the commercialism whenever possible.  Back In October, PTI released a Christmas set designed by Dawn McVey entitled, Star Of Wonder. I fell in love with it even before I saw the wonderful cards made by the design team. So many ideas flowed into my head.  I immediately knew I wanted to stamp the image in blue. Today's card is an example of one of my ideas.

      The pattern papers are from K & Co. Let it snow.  Here's a close up shot of the image from Star of Wonder.  The ribbon is 1/2 inch silk. Not having an enchanted evening button, I punched a snowflake from one of the pattern papers.

   The next card is a slight variation. I reversed the papers and used a double limitless layer doily  as a background for the stamped image.

  A close up shot of the double doily from Limitless labels.

     Thanks for looking. I appreciate all comments/feedback.

MIM #41 Tips for the Essential Glue Pad

 Today's card was inspired by Jennifer Ellefson's MIM video. I bought a glue pad about 5 years ago.  I think I only used it once. Needless to say I was delighted when I saw the topic of this week's MIM sponsered by Papertrey Ink.  I was even more delighted when I found my pad & glue to be functional. (not dried out)Lacking flock and Perfect Pearls, glitter was my only option as I have a variety of glitter.
  I liked Jenn's idea about stamping on vellum. I loved the stamp she used on Mat Stack 4, so I took a similar route. Immediately I  knew I would use the nativity image form Star of Wonder.

     One of my favorite types of glitter is Sparklets by Denami Designs. I chose the blue ice. The glue was stamped on some blue tinted vellum. The ribbon is Spring Rain Satin.

    

      BB: Twinkle was stamped in Versamark onto Spring Rain CS. The sentiment also from Star of Wonder was stamped in fresh snow on Encchanted Evening. 

  



     This close up show has less glare.

  

   When designing my card, I couldn't decide if I wanted to stamp the background in Versamark or use an IP. So I made a similar card using the Diamond IP. Another difference is the glue was stamped on regular vellum.and the Spring Rain mat is aligned differently.

         I definitely like the blue tinted vellum better than the regular one.  Still can't make up my mind about which background I prefer. I'm off to make about 4 more of these cards.

      Thanks for looking.