Decorating the Tree

I never got around to posting any of the Christmas cards I made this past Christmas. As a matter of fact I didn't send out that many cards either, too much going on at the time. This is a digital image from Maurie Manning. I have had this image printed out for over a year, along with a whole bunch of other images that I wanted to color. finally pulled some of them out and got busy.
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Fleece Navi-baa

I tried to combine a white wash technique with humor and like washing something red in with the whites I got pink sheep. A couple of years ago Gina K Designs came out with this set Fleece Navi-baa and it is just so cut I had to try it out. Well it sort of worked, pink sheep for Christmas??? Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

Joy to the World

Another Christmas card from last year. I just love the colors.  It's another Papertrey Ink set colored with Copics. Thanks for stopping by.

More Christmas Cards with Holiday Home

One of the sets I bought from Papertrey Ink was Holiday Home.  I really liked the options available with this set and the matching dies.  I had some fun making my cards and now that the thermometer has hit the eighties I thought I'd share something from those cold days.  Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

Fleece Navibaa

When I pulled out the Stamp TV kit for the Christmas cards from the previous post I found this Gina K set Fleece Navibaa ( another set I've had and not used yet) so I decided to get ahead of Christmas (that's a laugh) and make a few cards.  I had 7 red card bases sitting on my desk (remember the pledge to use up what I have sitting around) and decided to see if the white wash technique would work.  I'll let you be the judge.  I embossed the sheep, sentiment and lights in white (well except for the first one I did in clear, not sure how I'm going to handle that one, will do another post for it).  Then I white washed the bodies and colored in the lights with Martha Stewart glitter pens.  Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

Early Christmas

I made a promise to myself that I would not buy any new stamps, card stock or designer paper until I have used up the bits and pieces that are lying all over my desk ( and there is a lot of stuff). Believe me it has been very hard not to whip out the plastic and order away from Gina K and Papertrey Ink and Ellen Hutson and etc., etc., etc.

So I started yesterday with the first thing that I put my hand on.  I have several red card bases that I had made up for valentines but never used, then I found two pieces of snowflake vellum and I was off to Christmas.  I have all of my Christmas stuff in one basket that I keep on the floor under my desk and I didn't feel like crawling down there (being lazy) so I pulled out the Gina K Christmas Stamp TV kit that I got but never had time to use and inspiration was born.  I stamped the ornament and then used a stamp positioner to center the sentiment just right. I have a great ideas for the other red card bases and I just hope they turn out.  Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

PTI Blog Hop Challenge

The December Blog Hop Challenge over at Papertrey Ink is to make an all white card, pops of color or neutrals are ok but the focus is to be white.  Well I just love all white cards so I decided to play this month.  I had to make a few more Christmas cards so I decided to bring out he In the Meadows dies and the Hill dies and create this card.  I looked through all my card stock and DP's to find whites and the options I had were fun.  First off is the card base which is Papertrey Ink's Rustic White, the hills are Papertrey's Linen Vellum.  The boy on the sled is Neenah Esse Pearl card stock.  The trees were cut from some scraps of DP that I bought last year to make wedding cards with and I don't remember who's it is, to bad since it is gorgeous.  The only color I used was a Copic marker C01 to color the edges of the hills.  I love the textures and different shades of white on this card.
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

A Bit of This, A Bit of That

When I sat down to make Christmas cards I realized that I had quite a few bits and pieces left over from last year (and the year before I'm ashamed to say).  Among the bits and pieces were the makings for several cards that I had gotten at a class (I think).  I don't remember where the class was or even when.  The card bases were an odd size so I think that is why I never finished them, additional postage on off size cards is a pain in the you know what.  I decided to clear out the bits and pieces and make standard A2 cards.  For this card I used a snowflake background stamp from Stampendous with Memento Summer Sky.  The sentiment is a really old one from I don't know where and the image was included in the packet and I think it might be Penny Black, and colored with Copics.
I like how it turned out, what do you think?  Thanks for stopping by.  

Guardian Angel

I love using this Stampendous stamp for Christmas cards.  It's also one of my sisters favorite images so I made two cards using it in the dozen she requested.  I colored with Copics and a silver pen.  Then mounted it onto some silver card stock.  I decided to go with some non-traditional colors for the base, just for some fun.
Easy cards to make.  Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

Santa Loves Golf

I finally started my own Christmas cards, and I'm really loving it.  These are the cards for our golfing friends.  I started out making them on a horizontal card then switched to the vertical, using Papertrey Ink's New Leaf cardstock.  The golf hole stamp is from Nortwoods Rubber Stamp company and I stamped that in Versamark then heat embossed with Recollection's white detail powder.  The Santa is also from Recollections and also stamped with Versamark but I just let it dry, now powder, since I wanted it to appear faintly in the background. 
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Rustic Manger

These are some more of the Christmas cards I made for my sister.  I wanted to see how this Papertrey Ink set 'Nativity Silhouette' would look on kraft card stock.  It's hard to see from this photo but on the left side card I made a little goof on the card and had to stamp extra stars to cover up.  (did I go to far???).  I did like how they turned out so I hope you do too.  Thanks for stopping by.

In addition to the Hanukkah cards that I made for my sister, she also asked for some Christmas cards.  I made a dozen cards and these are three of them.  I chose to use this verse from Papertrey's 'Beautiful Blessings:Holiday' stamp set.  (Lucky choice it's one of Ann's favorite verses.)  I decided to make it the focal point of the cards and keep the card very simple so it stands out.  She called me to say how much she liked all of the cards, but these especially were her favorites.  Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

Starting Christmas Early

I mentioned in a previous post that I wanted to start making my Christmas cards early, so here's the first one.  I pulled out Papertrey Ink set Nativity to start with.  Lucky me I found some die cuts in with the set so this card went together fast.  I used Memento Cantaloupe and Morocco for the sun and the star and Rich Cocoa for the rest, took me all of maybe 5 minutes.  Love this kraft card stock from Ellen Hutson.
Hope you like it and thanks fro stopping by.

Christmas Tags

When I was done making the wedding rehearsal invitations I had 36 of these cut outs left, so I had to come up with a way to use them.  The obvious way was to use them on the front of cards but there are just so many ways to go with that idea and I wanted something different.  While talking to my sister Ann I mentioned that I was going to get started making Christmas cards (her response was 'great I get first dibs') and that got me thinking about gift tags.  I hauled out my Christmas stamps,all from Papertrey Ink, and whipped these out in no time at all, I just have to find my TO and FROM stamps and I'll be all set.  Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

A Frame for Mary

I decided to make two more frames using the Papertrey Ink In The Meadow set.  I needed one for my cousin Mary and another for friends up north.  This is the one I did for Mary.  I wanted to make this one a little different from the others so I chose to cut out two trees from Papertrey chartreuse felt and dot them with glue and glitter.  I cut out the 'hills' with felt and ran some blue stickles along the edge to give them more dimension.  I then embossed the saying on the glass, let it all cool off and assembled the picture.
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Nativity Framed

After I had worked on the In The Meadow framed scenes I decided to try using the Nativity set from Papertrey Ink also.  I stamped the stable and sentiment with Versamark and embossed with black detail powder.  (I'm learning, no burns or cuts this time.)
I used some chalkboard vinyl I found at Michael's for the Holy Family for this scene.
I think it turned out well don't you?
Thanks for stopping by.

Snowflakes Sparkle

 Well snowflakes do sparkle if the sun hits them right and it's cold enough not to melt.  These are two more of the framed In
The Meadow sets I made.  For the top one I used Papertrey Ink's felt for the meadow and the tree.  This felt is so easy to cut (yes I tried a cheaper felt and it didn't cut worth a darn).  I adhered the meadow with Scor-Tape and the tree with Zots.  On the tree I dabbed some glue and sprinkled some glitter, just a little.  I stamped the sentiment and snowflakes with Versamark and embossed with detail powder.  (Reminder to self glass gets HOT and is sharp, ouch).

This framed scene is done with black and white self adhesive vinyl and the sentiment and snowflakes embossed with detail powder.  Note to self, try not to get heat too close to vinyl cut outs since it can melt.
I think this one is going out west to a friend who can't seem to remember the joys of living in Michigan in the winter.
Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

O Holy Night

This Nativity set from Papertrey Ink is a wonderful set for Christmas.  The matching dies that let you cut out the Holy Family really make the set.
For these two cards I wanted to show the contrast of the rustic and the more elegant.
Stamping the sunrise and the stable onto the kraft paper and then adding the die cuts over top is a more earthy style.
Using Cryogen white and stamping the sunrise using Memento tear drop pads in Cantaloupe and Tangelo for a more vivid image.  After I added the Holy Family I decided it needed some angels (one can never have too many angels can one?).  I added the star and the sentiment then mounted it onto some kraft and then to the card base.  Both cards were easy to make and so quick, love it.
Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

A Boy Sledding

Papertrey Ink's October release included the In The Meadow set and has become my all time favorite Christmas/Winter set (especially since the matching dies make it so easy).  The countdown blogs leading up to release day are so much fun to read and so inspiring that I just spend way too much time on the computer (and way too much time deciding what I'm going to buy).  One of the design team is Betsy Veldman and her post using this set just blew me away.  I knew I had to copy it.  (click on 'post' above and see her work). 

So I headed over to Michael's and picked up some frames and got to work.  My frames aren't wide enough to stand on their own so I used Memory Box card stock for my background, oddly enough for a sky background the card stock is a color called Water, go figure. To me it looks like that cold winter sky that's crystal clear and goes on forever.  So I die cut my sledding boy using some black self adhesive ( that I picked up at Michael's). I placed it on the glass and then I stamped the snowflakes with Versamark and used white embossing powder.  One caution from Betsy I learned in reality, the glass gets HOT.  Another caution is that the edges of the glass are sharp so beware if you try this.

After assembling the "picture" I was very happy with the results.  Over the next few day I will post others that I did using this set and the Nativity set also released in October.

I hope you like this and thanks for stopping by.  

Chriatmas Tags

I decided to be a little more creative with my gifts this year and make my own tags.  Usually by the time I get to this point I'm so tired that I just slap on the sticker kind.  Well not this year.  I used two of Papertrey Ink's Tag Sale dies, #1 and #4.  To me Tag Sale #4 looks like a Christmas ornament anyway so it was perfect, I used #1 because it was the first one I found.
So I cut them all out using white card stock and then decided I wanted colored ones instead.  I started out to decorate them with different Christmas DP's and got tired of that real quick.  Copic air brush system to the rescue. I just started air brushing using what ever Copics I grabbed out of the collection.  Came up with quite a variety (the photo doesn't show all of them either).  After I had them all colored I started looking through my stash of embellishments and started to play.  It's very interesting what you can put together with limited resources.  I had fun doing these and I hope that the gift recipients will enjoy them also.
Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.