12 days of Christmas Cards - Day7

On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love of paper gave to me: 2 Happy Santas and some digi stamps from Make it Crafty.

Pretty self explanitory really. I layered and printed the images on heavy white cardstock and colored it with my Copics and Shinhan Touch markers. 

The coloring took a while, but with coffee and music in hand, I enjoyed the process.

Thanks for looking in, see you tomorrow.

12 days of Christmas Cards - day 6

On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love of paper gave me : a six panel card featuring Graphic 45 stamps and paper.

The panels are 4 x 6 inches and taped together with washi tape. So far, I've only done half of the 12 days of Christmas panels because, well, frankly, I got bored. (Hehehehe) but it is day 6 of my posts and I thought it was rather clever to include this one.

I started with double thick white cardstock, stamped and embossed images from Graphic 45.

Next I swirled on various colors of Distress Inks. Once the panels were inked to my liking, I ironed off the embossing powder between some scrap newsprint.  I love this technique, so soft and subtle.

Lastly, I fussy cut images from the 12 Days of Christmas line from Graphic 45 and adhered them with foam tape for dimension.

Thanks for dropping in today, half way there. 

See you tomorrow.

12 days of Christmas Cards - Day 5

On the 5th day of Christmas my true love of paper gave to me - a special card that turned into a 5 hour project.

I have my "Christmas Love" board on Pinterest that is my "go to" for inspiring photos. This card uses one of my favorite pictures that links back to warrengrovegarden.blogspot.ca

I knew I wanted a lot of layers, so I used 6 copies of the picture. I started cutting and layering objects that would be in the foreground until it outgrew itself!  I liked the paper layers, but it looked ridiculous just on a card panel. That's when the 5 hour ordeal came in to play.

I cut a frame and embossed it with the Tim Holtz seasonal borders and inked it up with Iced Spruce. Next I backed the frame with acetate.

Next I had to construct a shadow box of some sort, so I measured and scored and inked and taped and cursed and drank copious amounts of coffee. The picture fit right inside the little box. Then I added  "snow" and finally glued the frame to the top of the box.

To turn it back into a card, I scored and cut a folded piece of cardstock the same size as the frame. The frame and card are about a 1/4 inch bigger than the shadow box.

I hope you liked today's card. I know my friend/coworker did. And a huge thank you to warrngrovegarden.blogspot.ca.  Your pictures are Amazing and inspirational.

12 Days of Christmas Cards - Day 4

On the 4th day of Christmas, my true love of paper gave me - an accordion card using Karen Burniston die cuts.

Each panel is embossed with a different folder. I wanted to use traditional Christmas colors on this one as well as some of my favorite stamps.

All the embossing folders are from Tim Holtz for Sizzix

Stamps are (L-R) Stampa Rosa(retired many years ago), Stampers Anonymous, Stampendous, and TPC Studios.

I made it reversible too. On the backside, I used movers and shapers die cuts from Tim Holtz and the awesome alphabet die set from Brenda Walton for Sizzix. I was trying to figure out how to leave a space for signing the card, so on the "L" panel I cut and folded some paper to create a flap. I think it worked out rather well.

I really like the way the card turned out. It's super sturdy too with all the layers of paper on each panel.

It's more a decoration than a card, but that's the fun part, you can get as simple or as over the top as you want. 

Thanks for surfing by today. 

Ahhh 3 weeks til Christmas. Pass the Ativan please. (just kidding-sort of...)

12 days of Christmas Cards - day 3

On the third day of Christmas, my true love of paper gave to me, a bright red cardinal perched on a tree.

I used the winter berries embossing folder, die cut a birch tree (memory box) and circle. That gave me a good base to build my cardinal collage.  I used stamps from TPC Studios colored up with Shinhan touch markers. 

I layered everything and added in some pine sprig punches from Martha Stewart. Of course I had to add some "snow" with dimensional paint.

I love how it turned out, it's simple, but I think it screams "winter holiday wishes"

Thanks for stopping by, see you soon.

12 days of Christmas Cards day 2

On the second day of Christmas cards my true love of paper gave to me

A pair of rustic embellished skates.

I had a lot of fun with this card too. Yesterday's was a really monochromatic look with a pop of red, this one is the more traditional Christmas colors.

I used the plaid embossing folder, then inked up the areas with festive berries and peeled paint distress ink. However, when I put the skates over top, I thought the background was way too busy. I cut a smaller white panel and embossed it as well, just for texture. Much better.

The greenery on top was the same diecuts I used in yesterday's card. (Sizzix, Impression Obsession)

Rock Candy dry glitter, white dimentional paint and some metallic thread finish the look and give it some sparkle and shine.

My friend/coworker loved the card almost as much as I love hand delivering my creations.

Here's one more skate card. This time, totally monochromatic. I had a "textured" cream glossy cardstock in my stash, cut the skates and mini snowflakes (sizzix movers and shapers by Tim Holtz) with it. I added a wee bit of silver distress paint to the blades and layered it on to an embossed white panel.

That's day 2. And that's all the skate cards I made. I should mention too, that I ALWAYS hand deliver my cards. They are usually too thick to go in an envelope, but not only that, I like to play Santa's elf. My cards are a labour of love. It's my gift to the recipient, but their reaction is their gift back to me. ( plus I usually get me some good hugs hehehe)

12 days of Christmas Cards

On the first day of December, my true love of paper gave me an icy glittery pair of skates.

So I know it's not a unique layout, but I loved the whole embellished skates idea that was pictured in the Sizzix booth at this year's CHA Summer show. (Hang on, let me see if I can find a picture. Be right back...)

Ok I'm back, see this picture?

See the skates hanging there? So cool. Anyway, I wanted to make some cards like that. Festive and wintery, with a splash of color.

I make cards for all my co-workers/friends at work. I try to create a card for them that reflects their interests or favorite colors. My weekend coworker used to figure skate and red is one of her favorite colors.

I ran white paper thru the Sizzix Bigshot using the winter berries embossing folder. Next I cut, colored and glittered the TH ice skates die cuts. I added some greenery using holly and pine branch dies from obsession impression. They are colored with Iced Spruce distress ink (OMG, can i gush about how much I love that color?) the bow is also from IO - part of the mitten die set.

I pre made a few pinecones, using the TH tattered pinecone die so I had some in my stash to use as needed.

Once the elements were inked, glittered and dry, i began adhering them to the front panel. It seemed a bit flat, so I colored the berries on the background and added the "joy" stamp to the bottom.

Finally, I added some " snow"  paint and clear rock candy glitter. 

Card 1 - done.

Thanks for stopping by today, until next time...