Simple Christmas card...

I made this Christmas card in a really short amount of time. I used a Lifestyle Crafts large fancy circle die and cut an arc on the bottom of a rectangle of pretty holiday-patterned paper. Then I made a poinsettia using an unbranded die set with each petal and leaf inked on the outer edges. I also cut the word "Joy" with a Tim Holtz/Sizzix word die.

I love the dimension I can get when using this poinsettia die set.  The gold dots in the center were made with Nuvo Drops.

To finish off the front of my card, I adhered three red sequins. Those sequins came to me from my mother's craft stash when she passed away in 1992. I'm still using them nearly 30 years later!!

I stamped a sentiment on the inside of my card and added a matted strip of DSP across the bottom.  Like I said, it didn't take me long at all to make this card, and I really like how it turned out. I hope you do, too.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Center-step birthday card...

I have a beautiful granddaughter who turned thirteen earlier this month, and this is the card I made for her:

It's a center-step card, a fold I haven't tackled in a very long time. It took a while to find the instructions that I had written down a few years ago, but once I had those, it was pretty easy to cut out all the pieces. I generally make cards that are 4 1/2" X 6", so I had taken the instructions for an A2 center-step card and modified them.

I used some Stampin' Up paper--the yellow patterned paper is actually the reverse side of the lavender pattern.

The assortment of dies I used were all unbranded. I cut the girl out of white cardstock and then paper-pieced her outfit.  You can't see it very well, but I raised the purple skirt just a hair so that it looked as though there was an underskirt, which I colored with a glitter pen to add a little sparkle. The rest of her was colored with Promarkers.

On the inside I printed a sentiment with my computer and matted it with purple CS.

It's so much fun to watch my grandchildren grow into amazing young adults. They are all involved in so many sports and other activities besides their schoolwork, that I have no idea how they keep it all straight. I think I had a much simpler life when I was growing up!

We are supposed to get a big snowfall tonight. They are predicting 10 inches or so. That means we'll be shoveling tomorrow. Oh joy!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Happy birthday in lavender and white...

My youngest sister's birthday was earlier this month, and I made a lavender and white card for her. I'm not sure if she likes shades of purple/lavender as much as I do, but the color of the DSP (Stampin' Up) was so soft and pretty, I thought she would enjoy it regardless.

This card was SO HARD to photograph. I don't know if the lighting was just bad that day or if the colors are so soft that they don't show up well or if my nonexistent photography skills are to blame. It really did look nice IRL. The center portion (the white and lavender piece with the pearls) is popped up on foam tape.

The die set I used is unbranded, as is the sentiment stamp. I heat embossed the sentiment with silver embossing powder.

There was a fancy little square die that came with the set, so I cut it out a couple of times, cut each square in half and decorated the inside of the card with three of the halves.

The inside sentiment was also heat embossed with silver EP.

I really do love having pretty die sets like this one that do a lot of the work for you. It's kind of like having some pretty paper that you really don't have to embellish very much.

For the next week we are staying with two of our grandchildren, ages 12 and 14 while their parents and sister are out East. They are absolutely wonderful young people and a delight to be around. They will only have school on Monday and Tuesday, so I have made a date with my 14-year-old granddaughter to have a pie-baking session on Wednesday. She's going to learn how to make an apple pie and I'm going to make a pumpkin pie for our Thanksgiving dinner. She's excited about it, since apple pie is her favorite.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Twofer Card Challenge #22: Holiday Greenery...

I need to finish making my Christmas cards, so I was happy to see that this month's Twofer Card Challenge theme was "Holiday Greenery."

One of the usual protocols for Twofer Card Challenges is to make two cards for different occasions. That was suspended this month, however, in light of the fact that most of us are scrambling to get our Christmas cards done.

I have a Hampton Art stamp and die set for some little trees. I chose not to use the stamps, but I did use the die to cut out the trees for my cards.

My first card started with a kraft base that was a portrait style top-fold. I admit that it had been laying unused in a drawer for months--maybe even a year.

I stamped some snowflakes on the front with Versamark and then heat-embossed them with clear embossing powder.

I added a frame that has been popped up by cutting the same frame out of foam board and gluing my plaid frame to that.

The words were die-cut using some Tim Holtz/Sizzix dies from the same kraft CS as the base. After gluing them down, I added some clear Nuvo Drops to them for added dimension.

My final embellishments were the tree (with Nuvo Drops decorations, a few red sequins and a twine bow.

On the inside of my card I added a frame from the same plaid CS (no foamboard this time) and stamped a sentiment with gold metallic ink.

This card was hard to photograph because of the foil cardstock I used. That is why the photo was taken from a top angle looking down. There wasn't quite as much glare doing it this way. I have a 12" X 12" paper pad of silver and gold patterned foil cardstock, and I struggle finding ways to use it. It's been great for making little boxes, but much harder to use when making cards. I think it worked well for these little trees, though.

I embossed my back panel with a Falling Snow embossing folder, added some plain gold strips to my center panel and a die-cut "Merry Christmas" to the top.

On the inside of this card I added a couple more strips of metallic gold cardstock and a heat-embossed sentiment.

Two more cards done! Yay! Thank you Twofer Card Challenge for the inspiration.

If you'd like to join in on the fun, hop on over to the Twofer Card Challenge Blog and add your cards to the fantastic assortment that has already been entered.


Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Inspired by a friend...

My creative friend Lynette (My Stamping Addiction) inspired me to create today's card. On her blog sometime ago, she created a lovely card that she had embossed with an EF that had been inked on one side with Versamark. She added clear embossing powder to the inked portions, which she heated to a glossy finish.

I followed these steps to start the process of creating a Thanksgiving card.

After I had melted my embossing powder, I added some Distress Ink to the embossed leaves. Since they had not been heat-embossed, they accepted the ink while the heat-embossed background area resisted the ink.

Here's a little closer look where you can see the sheen of the heat-embossed areas.

When I was all done with both dry- and heat-embossing, I added the three computer-generated words, Thankful, Grateful, Blessed.

I used an old wood-block stamp on the inside. I believe I got this stamp at the thrift store, and I have no idea who made it.

I liked giving this embossing technique a try. It was a little tricky to get the Versamark ink to cover well. I found that dry-embossing the cardstock before applying the ink to the EF and then replacing the cardstock and running it through again was helpful. I also used a colorless embossing marker to add some ink to some random areas where the Versamark ink didn't stick.

I plan to try this technique again in the near future. I hope you'll give it a try, too!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Stenciled Thanksgiving cards...

I love this stencil so much that I decided to use it for a couple of Thanksgiving cards. I chose a few Autumn colors from my ink pads and blended them, starting with yellow in the center and going to a deep orange/terra cotta on the outer edges. As soon as I was done stenciling, I brushed on some white Perfect Pearls, which I set with a mist of water. The Perfect Pearls add a gorgeous sheen.

Finally, I added the die-cut sentiment and a few sequins. Card front done!

On the inside of my card I used a computer-generated sentiment on a terra cotta colored mat.

Here is the second card I made using the same process except for the sentiment. This time I stamped "Happy Thanksgiving" with Versamark and heat set it with white embossing powder. It was then popped up on dimensionals.

On the inside of this card I added a little stenciling and a stamped sentiment. The stamp was made with a very tiny font, so I'll have to send this to someone with good eyesight!

I hope to get a few more stencils to play with in the coming months. The ink blending is just so much fun.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day. 
Cheryl

Stenciled cards...

I have come to love using stencils for quick cards. The stencils that I used on today's cards came from a wonderful card maker and friend from Northern Ireland (thank you, Lynne!) who is the owner of Ruby-Dooby-Doo Crafts. She is an inspiring cardmaker, so be sure to give her blog a visit.

For this card, I simply laid my stencil on top of a piece of white cardstock, taping it down to keep it in place, and began inking with several shades of purple/pink ink.

Once I was done with that, I added some butterfly bodies and antennae with a glitter pen. I also added a die-cut sentiment cut from glitter CS. Then I cut the stenciled CS to size and added it to my base.

It was so quick and simple!

For this card, I used a variegated stripes stencil. I placed the stencil over a piece of white cardstock and used yellow ink to create the vertical stripes. Then I turned my stencil 90 degrees and used it to create some horizontal stripes with aqua ink. I also drew in some horizontal and vertical lines with a glitter pen. If you look closely, you'll see them.

My sentiment was die-cut from some glitter cardstock that had the same silver sparkle to it as my glitter pen.

To complete my card, I cut my stenciled piece to size, added some matching aqua cardstock on the bottom and covered the joint between the two with some yellow rickrack.

Did you know that rickrack goes back to the 1860s when it was known as "waved crocket braid" or "waved lacet braid." In America, in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, rickrack was used to decorate girls' dresses made out of feed sacks. I was around in the 50s, but I don't think I ever had a feed sack dress. I certainly had a lot of dresses decorated with rickrack, though.

My final card was made with a circle stencil and several colors of ink. I just kept moving my stencil and changing ink colors to fill in the card front. 

I added a die-cut border to this card and a die-cut panel with a stamped sentiment. Finally, I used my Nuvo Drops to add some dots of color. I'm going to try this circle stencil again using just one or two colors of ink and see how that looks. It's fun to experiment.

Here's a final look at all three cards.  Yesterday I made a couple of Thanksgiving cards using another stencil that I have in my stash, but I'll save those for a later post.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Let's Craft and Create Challenge #153: Thank You (Give Thanks) or Anything Goes...

Can you believe we are sneaking up on Thanksgiving and will then have just a few weeks until Christmas? Yikes! I'm using the the inspiration from the new challenge at Let's Craft and Create to finish up my Thanksgiving cards.

I had this wonderful fall wreath die that included a pumpkin. I thought it would be perfect for this challenge.

I cut the wreath twice out of beige cardstock. I used some Distress Inks to add some color to the leaves and a brown ProMarker to color the circle of branches. After I was done coloring, I glued the two wreathes together to give it added stability and dimension. I also cut two of the pumpkins, and after coloring one with ProMarkers, I glued them together, too.

My woody-looking strip is just a strip of white cardstock that I ran through a Darice embossing folder. I inked it with Tea Dye Distress ink and then added a light coat of off-white Perfect Pearls powder. The Perfect Pearls gave it such a pretty sheen. It doesn't show in the photo, but it really is pretty.

For my "Thankful" die, I backed a piece of cardstock with double-sided tape and then cut it out. It is so fine and delicate that I didn't want to try gluing it. The double-sided tape worked perfectly for adhering it to my card.

I was hoping that an angled photo would show the sheen on my wood-grained strip.  It's somewhat visible in the photo at right, but still hard to see.

The sentiment on the inside of my card was computer-generated.

I really like how this card turned out, so I will make a couple more of them. But now it's your turn! Check out all the inspiration from the rest of the Design Team on the Let's Craft and Create blog and then try your hand at a "thanks" themed card. Of course, you can always choose the optional theme of "anything goes," too.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl