2nd challenge card

I got some great news about my metal petal card last week. It was one of the top picks at Stamping 411!  I was so excited!!!!  So now I have 2 little awards for my cards in the side bar.  Woo hoo!
Okay, back to business!  I have already entered the challenge at Just Add Ink this week but I have been trying to come up with some more Christmas card ideas and I decided to use their sketch again, because it’s a great one.
I have used something from the new summer mini catalogue (starts Dec. 1) on this card.  It’s a new embossing folder called Square Lattice and I really like it. Perhaps because I used crumb cake, it looks a lot like I have hessian or something behind the images.  I think I will be using this folder a lot.
This card is very Clean and Simple and has no ribbon or bling (can you believe it!) So it would be a great one for posting.



Ingredients : 
Stamps :  Winter Post, Occasional Greetings, Sanded
Card :  not quite navy, very vanilla, crumb cake, naturals ivory
Ink :  not quite navy, crumb cake
Other : big shot, square lattice embossing folder, square punch

Make sure you check back here December 1 for a link to the new mini catalogue and there is also a great December sale that I’ll let you know about.  Perhaps you could buy yourself a Christmas present!
Kathy

A forest friend Christmas

I decided to make a Christmas card using an unconventional set for a change, Forest Friends.
Yes, it’s another reindeer card …… but a cute one this time!
I have also chosen unconventional Christmas colours, but I love using pinks and browns with this set.
I used this weeks sketch challenge from Just Add Ink for inspiration. It’s a great sketch but I have changed mine slightly to “make it work” with the vision I had for it. 



Ingredients :
Stamps : Forest Friends, Heard from the heart, Confetti
Card : choc chip, pink pirouette, pip, white
Ink : choc chip, pip, soft suede, real red marker
Other : choc chip ribbon (retired), buttons (retired), heart to heart punch, scallop trim border punch
I punched out pink pirouette hearts and just glued them to the background piece (which gives it an embossed look) and simply used a marker to make him look more like Rudolph.

Kathy

Metal Petals

I decided to try the faux tin metal ceiling technique again to make another Christmas card.  I used the Petals a plenty embossing folder this time, which gives it a very different look.
I used another great sketch challenge from Stamping 411 for this card.  Their design team have made some beautiful cards using this sketch, follow the link and be inspired.  I have actually “flipped” the sketch for mine, because with the elements I wanted to use it just worked better that way.



I used my poinsettia flower again, but this time I used rhinestones in the centre rather than the brads and I put a lot more shimmer paint on it.  The whole card looks so silvery and shiny; it’s pretty.
Well I think I’m up to 6 Christmas cards now (ha, ha) ……. slow aren’t I!
Kathy

Ingredients :
Stamps :  Occasional greetings
Card : black, white, confetti white, old olive, cherry cobbler
Ink  :  stazon, versamark
Other : silver embossing powder, petals a plenty embossing folder, big shot, 5 petal punch, rhinestones, heat gun, bone folder, mistletoe ribbon, scallop trim border punch, frost white shimmer paint, square punch

Sweet coin card

Sorry for the long break between blog posts.  I have had computer problems AGAIN!  Hopefully it will be good for a while now.  I have blogs to post and a lot of online shopping to do!
This card is for another challenge at Just Add Ink.
The challenge was to use Wild wasabi, River rock and Chocolate chip.  I must say, I do love all of these colours (river rock and chocolate chip are 2 of my favourites) but I did find these colours challenging to use together. But that’s the point of entering these challenges and trying something different isn’t it?
I made a few Christmas cards with the sweet treat cups last year and they were very popular. I should have made more!  So I thought I would make some again this year, but this time use a different design.
I used my new punch for the first time too; the scallop trim border punch.  It’s so pretty…. why didn’t I buy it sooner!


Ingredients :
Stamps : winter post, elements of style
Card : choc chip, very vanilla, river rock dsp (retired)
Ink : Wild wasabi, choc chip, river rock
Other : scallop trim border punch, designer label punch, circle punch, sweet treat cup, choc coins, linen thread, dimensionals

Another Dasher card

I have been looking at a few sites to challenge myself to make more Christmas cards.
It has been working!  I have about 4 now (ha ha).  I think I’d better hurry up and start mass producing a few!
I got the sketch for this card from Stamping 411.  It is another great, simple design, you should check out their site for challenges and helpful tutorials.
I was also inspired by a new site Inkspirations challenges.  Their challenge was a colour challenge, to use Real red, Old olive, kraft (crumb cake) and white.  Their design team are SO talented, you should check out their work!
I decided to combine both these challenges to make my Dasher card.



Ingredients :
Stamps : confetti, occasional greetings, dasher, winter post
Card : kraft (crumb cake), real red, old olive, whisper white
Ink :  crumb cake, versamark
Other : white embossing powder, clear embossing powder, old olive dsp (retired), ribbon (misteltoe), build a brad, circle punch

I clear embossed the little “snowflake” stamp from the confetti set on the real red (it hasn’t shown well in the photo but looks very pretty) and clear embossed dasher too. I embossed the saying in white.
Hope you’ve managed to make a few more Christmas card than me!
Kathy

Faux tin ceiling skaters

Last Saturday I met with one of my clubs and we made a little Christmas door hanger treat box.  I decided to get all my Christmas stamps out for them to use, so that they could choose whatever they liked to decorate their boxes. I wish I had thought to take a photo of them because they were all beautiful. Anyway, quite a few chose the skaters stamp from the Winter Post set. I was surprised! I had never inked it up, it just seemed too “un-Australian” to me.  But it looked so beautiful, I decided that I was going to make a card with it this year.  So thank you club members for inspiring me.

Then this morning I got more inspiration from Just Add Ink and their challenge to make a Christmas card.  At the start of their post they mention how we still like to incorporate flourishes, sparkles and snowflakes on our Christmas cards even though it’s so hot here. Although in Tassie it isn’t that hot (which I am very glad about actually!)

So that skater stamp was calling out to me yet again to be used this Christmas.





The third piece of inspiration for this card was from seeing a tutorial on Faux Tin Metal Ceiling technique by Dianna Gibbs. I have wanted to try it for a long time and I thought it might go nicely as a background for the skaters.  Her blog is called Stampin’ with Di and it is one of my favourites, she is so talented and has some wonderful tutorials on there too.  If you’d like to try this technique here is a link to the tutorial that inspired me so much.



Ingredients :
Stamps : Winter Post
Card : black, whisper white, confetti white, bashful blue, sahara sand
Ink : stazon, bashful blue, versamark
Other : frost white shimmer paint, big shot, silver embossing powder, heat gun, rhinestones, blender pen, dauber, vintage wallpaper embossing folder, timeless type alphabet, organza ribbon

I stamped the snow flakes with the shimmer paint and daubered some on the edge of the letters too. I used a blender pen to very lightly add some bashful blue to the skaters’ clothes to tie in with the letters and the rhinestones add that extra bit of bling. (Which I haven’t captured well enough in this photo unfortunately).
Kathy

Dasher challenge

This week at Just Add Ink they have a wonderful sketch challenge.
It is a really good one and I thought that there was no better time than NOW to start some christmas cards.  (Yes I know before NOW would have been an even better time to start but…..).
I knew the Dasher stamp would work beautifully with the sketch and I have been busting to use my Petals a Plenty embossing folder too.
So I used them both and of course I had to use the shimmer mist again.     I sprayed the embossed background piece with it and its also on the poinsettia and dasher.  It looks very pretty in real life but you can’t really notice in the photo unfortunately.
I inked Dasher first in river rock and then daubered champagne mist shimmer paint over the top of that.
I also daubered it onto the edges of my poinsettia.  I showed the ladies in one of my clubs how to make these flowers on Saturday and they all loved them.  They are very easy, but very effective.
I noticed when I visited Just Add Ink this morning to see all the entries, that there are a few “Dasher cards”.  Anyway here’s mine -



Ingredients :
Stamps : Dasher
Paper : very vanilla, old olive, cherry cobbler
Ink : river rock
Other : champagne mist shimmer paint, gold brads, 5 petal flower punch, bone folder, big shot, petals a plenty embossing folder, old olive 1.6cm grosgrain ribbon.

I hope I’ve inspired you to start your Christmas cards too (if you haven’t already).
Kathy

Butterfly birthday

 

I have had the template for this cute butterfly bag in my Splitcoast favourites for what seems like forever, I thought it was so sweet.  So when we got the Bigz butterfly die in our catalogue I just knew that was a treat I was buying myself.

I have had the die for a few months now but hadn’t got around to making the bag, so when I saw the challenge at Just Add Ink this week was all about birthdays I knew just what I wanted to make and it turned out very cute if I do say so myself.

I also made a little gift card to go with it and I made it small enough to pop inside the bag. With a selection of hair ties or girly jewellery inside this would make a gorgeous present.

The template was created by Brenda Quintana if you’d like a copy see here.

 

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : short and sweet

Card : pink pirouette, whisper white, brights dsp stack

Ink : regal rose, stazon

Other :  big shot, beautiful butterflies bigz die, rhinestones, stampin write journaller, regal rose ribbon, sticky strip