One layer Christmas card

The challenge from Debbie at Merry Monday this week is to make a one-layer Christmas card. Well, I'm not very good at this type as you will soon see! I had to make this a quick card since I'm supposed to be cleaning up at the crafty supplies, not dragging them out! 

My brother is bringing his cat for a visit and Misty loves to get into things!! I have to hide anything away that she will find fascinating - ribbon, paper, dies, you name it! But I digress....

Here's my sad one-layer:

I white embossed an old Hero Arts trio of trees, added the sentiment from that set (CL241 Three Tree Christmas), then inked the trees and surrounds with Distress Inks - Tumbled Glass, Evergreen Bough, Pine Needles and Pumice Stone. I scored lines below the trees and the sentiment. Got a tiny spot of ink below my sentiment, tried to cover it up with white-out, blobbed the white-out, texturized the whole area with white-out (and below the trees too), added Stickles. Ta da! A one-layer card. OK - done now, back to "Misty-proofing" the house.

Hope you have a crafty weekend and be sure to check out all the inspiration at Merry Monday this week! Thanks for stopping!!

Thinking of you heart

Hope you're all having a great weekend! I was helping my baby sister this weekend along with my other sister, cousin Debi and Debi's husband. My brother is recovering from the flu so he couldn't join us but we got a lot done. I mailed this card to baby sis earlier in the week to let her know I was thinking about her until I could visit in person:

Supplies:

Paper: - Hero Arts punch and grenadine; Basic Grey off white (Juniper Berry), dotted (Herbs&Honey)

Stamps - Hero Arts: CG672 Paint on Canvas Bold Prints; CL574 Say it All (sentiment)

Die - floating hearts from the Hero Arts January Card Kit (sold out)

I love it when I can use a Valentine die for another occasion! The die is designed to cut the floating hearts from a panel. I left the die on the panel and traced it with a light pencil. Added the faux stitching with a white gel pen, then trimmed it out and backed it with off-white paper.

Thanks for stopping and happy crafting!

Charity Auction Birthday Cards

Hey everyone - Happy Tuesday! Today I'm sharing some cards I made over my long Martin Luther King Jr's birthday weekend. Warning - long post ahead....

Back in December we had a charity auction at work. I donated a "homemade" basket (sorry, no photo) with Salted Caramel Rice Krispie bars, Almond Shortbread cookies, Peanut Brittle, 5 Christmas cards, and an embroidered felt ornament, packaged in a fun red woven basket. I also promised the highest bidder 5 more made-to-order cards plus 2 more dozen cookies to be delivered in January. Kris, my coworker with the high bid, decided she wanted 5 birthday cards. I shared links to my blog and photostream which she reviewed and then said "surprise me". With a 4 day weekend at hand, I made her cards and then made another version of a couple of them. Here are the cards:

The focal point of card 1 is a Silhouette file: Hot Cocoa (Design ID #52762) that I cut while I was making my card for my Merry Monday Guest Designer spot (see post here). I learned, from an Online Card Class on die cutting, to fill up a page with images before cutting so I had bunches of various cups on my red page and lots of snowflakes, cup lids, and steam on my white page! Had to laugh - this photo turned out lots more true to life in the colors than my Merry Monday post. The background papers are from Basic Grey's Juniper 6x6 pad - just love the designs in this pad! The tag is the smallest of a My Favorite Things die set: Stitched Traditional Tag Stax.



For Card 2 I used a stamp Hero Arts sent me from their new catalog: K6134 Mum Stem. I recently ordered their January card kit and they sent me this lovely wood block stamp for my "trouble" with their ordering system (which wasn't a big deal to me). So when the kit came with some other stuff I ordered, plus the complimentary mum stamp, what do I grab? You guessed it - the mum!! I just knew it would be perfect on one of Kris's cards. I liked it so much I made another version for a friend who has a birthday coming up in February. Here's another case of the second card getting a better photo, plus I ended up liking the dotted paper (plus used a bit taller strip of it). I'm crazy about this stamp and have a bunch stamped to color later. Used various Copic markers for coloring. The sentiment is from a favorite Hero Arts birthday clear set called It's your Day. Paper is Authentique; card is Hero Arts Mocha. Hero Arts also included a lovely wood block thank you stamp which I will try to use this week - I definitely owe them a thank you card for these goodies!!

I used a Sizzix card die set (Circle Flip-its #4) for Card 3 but I rounded the corners . It folds down to a perfect A2 size for mailing but it's fun to have the circle flip to the inside sentiment when pulled flat. The happy die and stamped birthday word are from Hero Arts' Happy Stamp&Cut set - love! Papers are from Tim Holtz.

More Tim Holtz papers and some Spellbinders label dies were used for Card 4 and its second version. Just love the Elizabeth butterfly die - got it from my Secret Santa Karen this past Christmas. The second version uses a third die which has a fabulous pierced border. The larger frame is a pain when trying to release the paper. I have yet to get one out without ripping one of the tiny bits! Oh well, made it work....

Whew - final card! I had a great time with this one. About a week ago we had a card Scramble over on the Hero Arts Flickr group. I made a card with the above background but could only use 2 colors (part of the Scramble theme). While I was making the Scramble card, I knew I'd make another background with more colors because it reminded me of confetti! The stamp is Hero Arts Paint on Canvas Bold Print - a fun 6x6 cling stamp. I cut the balloon (part of Design ID #45489 Fun Mix) and banner (part of Lori Whitlock's 6 Banner Set) on my Silhouette. Sentiment is from an older Hero Arts clear set CL574 Say it All (a fave). I plan to make a few more of these - I love the sparkly balloon and got some great purple sparkle paper from my friend Heather I plan to use next!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a crafty week!!

Guest Designer at Merry Monday! Create a Christmas Card with your Favorite Warm Beverage

I'm excited to be the Guest Designer over at Merry Monday this week! I won the first challenge of 2016 (white-on-white) with my snowflake card here. So, the Merry Makers invited me to create an inspiration card for Deanne's fun challenge this week to feature your favorite warm beverage on a Christmas card.

No question, I had to make a Starbuck's Holiday Spice Flat White! I sipped enough of them while I was in Arizona for the holidays - so yummy with the spices and perfect amount of foam!! Most of my beverage purchases are TO-GO so that's what I made for my card. 

Supplies: 

Paper - Basic Grey Juniper 6x6 pad ("wallpaper" and "countertop"); Bazzill (cup); 

Neenah Solar White; Authentique Tidings Two from their Christmas Essentials 12x12 pad (cup cozy)

Stamps: Hero Arts - Hand Drawn Snowflakes Bold Print (on cup); Joyful Tidings Tag Set by Lia (sentiment)

Inks: Hero Arts - Unicorn White; Tim Holtz Distress Inks - Festive Berries & Pumice Stone

Embossing Powder: Ranger Clear; Embossing Folder: Tim Holtz Texture Fades - Quilted (used on the cup cozy)

Silhouette Online files: Coffee to Go Design ID #92316 and Hot Cocoa Design ID #52762 (steam) 

Die: Spellbinders - set unknown (can't find the packaging)

Be sure to head over to Merry Monday for all the inspiration from their fabulous Design Team! Thanks again to the Merry Makers for inviting me to guest design and thanks to Deanne for a delightful challenge. I hope you can join us this week or any time at Merry Monday where it's all about getting our Christmas cards finished, long before the Christmas rush arrives!!

Thanks for stopping!

A Little Plaid

Happy Friday - I'm delighted to start the weekend with today off work! Since I worked on Monday, here I am on Friday making cards for Merry Monday. This week, Colleen challenges us to use PLAID on a Christmas card. I adore plaid and enjoy using it on all sorts of cards but especially on Christmas cards!!

I ended up with two cards - not too long a story so bear with me. I just bought a Tim Holtz emboss and die Texture Fades Layered Snowflake and couldn't wait to try it. Thought it would look great on a plaid panel but I didn't like the look. So, I decided to use the negative of the die cut, backed with my plaid. I used the snowflake on a second card and made photo corners out of some of the leftover plaid paper. I inked the embossed part of the snowflake with Hero Arts Cornflower ink.

I made the plaid using a piece of My Mind's Eye striped paper, stamped with Hero Arts' Candy Striped Bold Prints cling stamp inked with the Cornflower. Just love the effect of the blue on the MME stripes. Here are my cards:

Other supplies - Tim Holtz ATC die (photo corners); Hero Arts Happy & Holidays dies; 

various small snowflake dies from unknown - can't find the packaging...

Hero Arts Hand Drawn Snowflakes Bold Print stamp and Unicorn White ink; Stampin' Up, Bazzill & Neenah card stock

I enjoyed using plaid this week and hope you can play along at Merry Monday! Be sure to stop there on Monday if you'd like to see my Guest Designer feature. I'm so excited and already have my card made and blog post written!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty weekend!

A New Year of Merry Monday!

Happy New Year and Merry Monday to all! I participated in most Merry Monday challenges in 2015 (my first year of playing along) and found this to be invaluable when it came time to mail my Christmas cards. I was addressing envelopes and getting things ready on Thanksgiving weekend! Good thing as my chorus City of Lakes Chorus partnered with Great Northern Union Chorus on holiday shows. We performed three shows on the weekend of 12/12/15 to packed houses, then I left 12/19 to spend the holidays in Arizona.

Now I'm back home and eager to start the new year of card-making at Merry Monday. This week, the challenge is white-on-white with a touch of neutral allowed. I just love this look and the Design Team did an amazing job of it - be sure to check out all their cards!

I had just the thing laying on my craft table - a white snowflake tag die cut looking for a home. I decided silver would be my neutral. Here's my card:

Supplies - Stamps: Hero Arts  CG685 (background) and DC166 (sentiment); Die: DC168 Hero Arts; 

Embossing Powders: Ranger Silver, Judikins Sticky Stuff, Stampin' Up Iridescent Ice; Ribbon: May Arts

Cardstock: Neenah Bright White and silver from DCWV's Linen Closet 4.5x6.5 matstack

I love the look of the glittery Hand Drawn Snowflakes behind the snowflake tag but, I must say, the glitter went everywhere! Part of it was not knowing how to use the Stampin' Up glitter ep - my first try, just over embossing ink, didn't stick - hence the glitter everywhere. Second try went over the Judikins Sticky Stuff and that worked great. 

Thanks for stopping and happy crafting!