Sunday, December 30, 2012

When Christmas Becomes New Year's

This is a Christmas card that became a Christmas and New Year's card, and if I do not get it hand-delivered soon, it may sprout a Valentine, too!
What you are looking at above is a Diagonal Double Pocket Card, and the tutorial is here. I made the base card about two years ago, using my favourite Christmas paper, but the fact that it does not stand up on its own bothered me. Plus, I did not have anything to put in its pockets! 
Then last year I made this tag. I loved this tag. I loved it so much I was not willing to part with it last year. I hung it in my studio to enjoy, then placed it in my Christmas card project box to use this year. I recently acquired a die to make card easels, so I was able to solve the upright card conundrum. The easel folds flat and will slide into a pocket in the card. The Merry Christmas tag seemed a good fit for the first pocket.

I used a Quietfire Design stamp for the card cover, and attached vellum snowflakes and Swarovski crystals to the front. A little snowflake charm was added for a bit of bling. Had I made it to my friend's house last week, a personal note would have gone in the second pocket and that would have been fine.
However, here it is Dec. 30 and I have yet to make it out to visit folks. Tomorrow it is! So I needed to add a Happy New Year tag to the affair. Enter the Tim Holtz Sizzix Cracked embossing folder. I embossed the tag, then brayered over it with glue and sprinkled on silver and teal glitter.
The sentiment was stamped on white shrink plastic in blue Stazon ink and heated to shrink it to charm size.
And that is how the Christmas Card became a New Year's greeting, too!

End of an Era- WMSC129

It is the last weekly Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge ever and so to commemorate this sad occasion I managed to make a card. I will miss the weekly inspiration. Although I often did not have time to enter I always checked it out and enjoyed seeing the creations by the Mischief Makers and fellow WMS fans. 

The 129th sketch is courtesy of Edna Morrisedie:
Here is my card:
My daughter requested a birthday card for a friend who likes all things French and feminine, so I was able to have some fun with a number of Waltzingmouse stamps.
I even made a beaded stick pin, with a hanging doodad. This was from a deconstructed wine glass marker found in the big box store clearance bin.

The paper flower is a dollar store find, and I sprayed a wee bit of shimmer mist across it. A little peek inside to show that I sometimes dress up the insides of cards, too. Farewell, WMS Weekly Sketch Challenge. I look forward to seeing what Claire dreams up for 2013 to keep us busy.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Green for Christmas

I only needed two more cards for Christmas and the Waltzingmouse Christmas Card Challenge for the month of December was to use green in our cards. The first one is a tri-shutter card:


What always amazes me about these cards is how they fold down to 4.25 X 5.5 inches. I have entered this in the Christmas Card Challenge here.

Second up is a card made using a resist technique.

I dry embossed the holly spray in a Cuttlebug folder, then white embossed music onto the raised holly. Then I coloured with Distress Inks and overstamped more music on the edges of the card with Vintage Photo ink. The holly berries are red Stickles. The text is also white embossed. 

This is my last post before Christmas so let me wish you all a very Merry Christmas. I hope it is relaxing and enjoyable, and that you find some time to create something, too! Thanks for visiting.


Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Vintage Photo


I have a sheet of Christmas portraits from Artchix Studio that I have been hoarding for a few years. I decided it was time to use one of the images.


I used Flourishes stamps to create a soft background, then matted the photo with layers of tan and red cardstocks.

The small hanging ornament is made from a very large Waltzingmouse Stamp. I stamped it on shrink plastic, cut it out with the largest Heirloom Ornament Spellbinders die, and then heated it to reduce its size to charm dimensions.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Follow Yonder Star

For the Waltzingmouse Christmas Card Monthly Challenge - November 2012, we were to feature a source of light on our cards. I recently acquired the new western themed Christmas stamp set Yonder Star, so went with that for my theme. Fairly clean and simple.
Glittery star on purple sky.

Using the cardstock left over from the first card, I backed the hole with silver paper.

Just a different angle to show how glittery the cardstock is.

Memory Box landscape die.