Lighthouse Sympathy

Another simple card. The image stamp is from My Favorite Things. The sentiment is from Kaisercraft.

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Simple Sympathy

I've been making several cards to bring up to church for the card rack. Most are quite simple. I made two of this design. I simply matted the patterned paper with black and added the die-cut sentiment. On my sympathy cards, I usually add a stamped sentiment.

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Die-Cut Sympathy

I used a die to cut the sentiment three times and layered them for added dimension. I matted with patterned paper and then a matching gray-blue mat. The card base is ivory. I made two of these cards, which will be donated to our church for the card rack.

Edited to add: I was asked by a couple people about the die in this post. It's from Elizabeth Craft and is called "Lovebirds."

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Absolutely the Last Christmas Card for this Year!

Even if I make more Christmas cards this year, I promise this will be the last one I post. :) I had two of these sentiment panels done and laying on my table, and I wanted them gone. (I have all the parts from my table dealt with. Doesn't mean I don't still have TONS of card parts, but at least the ones that I have taken out have been used.) I used preprinted sentiments from Gina K and then used foil and my laminator to shine them up. The panel is mounted on foam squares. The patterned paper is from Gina K, also.

I am pretty far ahead in my blog posting, with all the cards that I've been making. I'm writing this a week ahead. As of today (November 6) I have my cards all finished, with 15 left over for next year. The insides are done, the envelopes are labled, and, perhaps the hardest part - the cards have been matched up with their recipients. Whew! Now we have to get the Christmas letter written. My calendars are all packaged up. I'm still panicking just a little bit, though, as I have not even thought about shopping yet. Oh well, it's early, right? :)

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I Just Can't Stop!

OK. Two more Christmas cards done - probably for next year!  I had this sentiment done and wanted to get it off my desk. I had used a Dreamweaver brass stencil, Deco Foil Transfer Gel, gold foil and my laminator to make it. I also used two die-cut frames that had been in my card parts for a while. I glued the frames together and put them around the edge of the card. The patterned paper is from Gina K. 

Of course after trimming the patterned paper for the first card down to size, I was left with a strip of it. Couldn't let it go to waste! I matted it with blue and put it on the side of this card. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

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Birdy Birthday

Three more card parts used up. The birds were die cut at our Group Gathering in June. I added them to a die-cut oval. I had stamped the background with a Darcie's stamp and Versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder. I mounted the panel on foam squares. The sentiment is from Taylored Expressions. When we visited there last June, we used a sentiment stamp and die to make several sentiments. This is one that I hadn't used yet.

Edited to add: This die is from Elizabeth Craft and is called "Lovebirds."

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Forty-Five Years!

Forty-five years ago today. Oh my! :)

Edited to add: Ah yes. After reading Bonnie's comment, I am reminded that many people commented on the dress the last time I posted this picture. I borrowed it from my sister-in-law! I agree - it's lovely.

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Those Cute Turtles Again

In my quest to use things up, I had taken the set of turtle stickers out of my drawer awhile back. It's finally gone now! I think they are so cute. :) I cut three small squares from ivory cardstock and then a green strip to mat them. I added the turtles and the sentiment, which is from Papertrey Ink. I used the last two tiny turtles on the inside of the card. Whew! Feels good to even get one small item used up.

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It's Your Special Day

In my trip to Hobby Lobby several weeks ago where I purchased a couple (three?) things at 75% off, this embossing folder/die was one of those items. It embosses the flowers and leaves and also cuts out the center. I have had this piece sitting in my pile since the day I bought the folder and finally used it last week on this card. I used textured pink cardstock and lightly sanded it down after embossing. I cut the center out of green and added it to the pink piece. The sentiment is from The Paper Company. I added three "jeweled" enamel dots.

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One Background - Two Cards

At our Group Gathering in June, I got this notecard from a friend. I cut it in half and used it to make these cards. For this first one, I added it to an ivory cardbase. I die-cut several layers of this heart and the sentiment, glued them together and added them to the base.

For this second one, I added thin strips of slightly striped patterned paper. I die-cut the "THANKS" several times and glued them together before adding them.

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They Just Keep on Coming:)

The sentiment piece on this card was stamped, scored and matted a while back. Here it is on a completed card.

The stamp is from Recollections. I stamped it with Versamark ink and embossed with detail gold embossing powder. I added lines with my Scor-Pal and matted it with gold foil. I added it to a piece of textured ivory cardstock and added thin strips of gold glitter tape to the edges. I believe the patterned background may be from The Paper Studio, but I'm not quite sure.

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Non-Traditional Christmas

I wish I could tell you that now THIS one is my last Christmas card for the year, but I already have more to post! I just can not stop making them. They are my favorite cards to make and I love Christmas stamps.

Anyway, I had this background piece in my small pile of pieces to use up. I had used a Recollections background stamp to make it. I added thin pieces of glitter tape along the top and bottom. The sentiment is from a Papertrey Ink stamp set. The cardbase and stamped panel are both ivory cardstock.

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Congrats In School Colors

I really AM on a quest to use up card parts! I pull some out sometimes knowing that I want to use them soon, and then they sit and sit. I just finished up one of those piles on Thursday when I had a friend over to "play." Just to be clear - I have no delusions of EVER using them all up - I just want to at least make progress!!

The blue swirls on this card were cut out at our Group Gathering in June. The piece was actually larger, but this is all that would fit on a standard card. I believe it was part of a layering die set and there were problems with this layer, so of course I had to try my hand at getting it to cut nicely. :) At any rate, it's been sitting out since June and here it is. I did not know what to do with it. I was looking through my small stamp sets and found one from Technique Tuesday that had this little stamp. I decided to stamp it in yellow and make the card the school colors of our local grandsons. The older of the two was recently accepted into the gifted and talented program so I added a Congratulations and will send it to him.

Of course I couldn't send to one of them and not the other, so I used up another card part on this card! :) I had gone to Hobby Lobby in the past month or so and picked up a few things that were 75% off. One of them was the die that cut the stars for this background. I immediately put the die in my die storage and threw away the packaging and I don't remember who it is from. Sorry. I had cut it in silver. I matted it with yellow and then blue. Then I used the blue to cut out some stars to add to it. I used a Cuttlebug alphabet die set to cut the letters. Go Wyatt!

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Another Glittery Christmas

I made two cards just like this. Now I have 80 Christmas cards! 

I used an Echo Park stencil for the center panel. I had first tried using the stencil directly on double sided sticky paper. MISTAKE! The stencil stuck horribly! It took a while, but I was able to salvage the stencil. Whew! :) Plan B. I brushed distress ink through the stencil on to the cardstock. Then I cut it in half and ran the pieces through my Xyron machine. After making sure the sticky was stuck really well, I added microfine glitter over each entire piece. I added glitter tape on each side of the panel. The sentiment was done with a Dreamweavers stencil and Deco Foil Transfer Gel. I used platinum foil over the transfer gel.

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November Calendar Page

Goodness - it's November already!! Here is my calendar page for the month. The image is from a Hero Arts set. The sentiment is from Impression Obsession. I used detail gold embossing powder and Versamark ink.

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Glittered Anniversary

This is the card I made for our son and daughter-in-law for their anniversary, which was on Monday. I used an Anna Griffin brass stencil, double-sided sticky paper and ultrafine and microfine glitter. I die-cut the sentiment. It is SO sparkly in real life!

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Die-Cut Christmas

This is the last card I made as a set of five cards for the craft sale at our church. I used different colors of glitter cardstock for the matting. The die was a gift from a friend at our Group Gathering last June. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink, is matted with matching green and is mounted on foam squares.

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Dashing Through the Snow

The stamps and dies that I used for these four cards are from a Recollections set. It consists of twelve stamps and five dies. I just used the reindeer and the sentiments. I stamped, die-cut and colored the three reindeer, then had to figure out what I was going to do with them. Of course my results are clean and simple!

On this first card, I trimmed down a piece of white cardstock, stamped the sentiment, matted it with red and die-cut a hole for the reindeer to show through. I thought it needed more, so I embossed it with a Darice folder. I mounted it on foam squares and added it to the card front. Then I placed the reindeer in the hole.

These next two cards are even simpler. I mounted the reindeer on foam squares this time, and added three snowflakes that have been around my stamping room for so long that I honestly don't know if they were punched or die-cut! I had come across them recently and left them out to make sure they got used. They are cut from some Crayola "holographic" cardstock that I got MANY years ago at a dollar store. At any rate, they finally made their way on to cards.

And, since I decided to cut a hole on the first card AFTER I had already made the three reindeer, I ended up with another die-cut reindeer, which of course couldn't go to waste. So I stamped the image on it and colored it and he made his way to this card. I covered the entire card front with patterned paper from Gina K. (I bought three packages of different patterns last year and I have used almost none of it so far. I really have to start using some of my tons of patterned paper!) I stamped the sentiment, added the reindeer on foam squares, and then added a few dots with Nuvo drops.

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Glitter Ornaments

I love this technique, but haven't done it for many years. I was reminded of it by a video by Jennifer McGuire. I am linking this card up to the STAMPlorations Stencil challenge.

I used double-sided sticky paper, glitter and a brass stencil. I also have a sort of special kind of soap to rub on the brass stencil before sticking it to the paper. (Important, and I will share more on this in a later post!) With the stencil on the sticky paper (which was already added to cardstock), I added the blue-ish glitter. Then I removed the stencil and added the white glitter. The glitters are ultra-fine and micro-fine. I matted with the best matching cardstock that I had. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink and is matted and mounted on foam squares. The ink is not a perfect match, but it does match better a little bit "in real life" than it appears in the photos.

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Green and Gold Christmas

Well, I just can't stop making Christmas cards!! :) I now have some more to share with you. I guess I'll have to either send out a few more this year or I'll have to figure out someone else to send to!

For this card, I used a Sizzix embossing folder. I brayered Versamark ink on it and ran it through my BIGkick. Then I added sparkly embossing powder and heat-set it. I matted that layer with gold foil. The sentiment (from Recollections) was embossed with gold detail embossing powder on a semi-shimmery gold paper, matted with gold foil and mounted on foam squares. In real life, the sentiment is much easier to read and the card is more sparkly/shiny. I'll have more Christmas cards to share with you in the next few days.

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