Burnished Velvet Holly

Here's a card I made with my Silhouette Cameo and the Burnished Velvet technique. It makes for a great Clean and Simple design.

The sentiment is from Waltzingmouse Stamps. I cut the holly and berries with the Cameo, then backed the holes with a strip of tape and rubbed in green and red glitter. It sparkles in real life.

This is a 5 inch square card. I am entering this in two challenges: Christmas Card Challenge #4 - Anything Goes and the last Waltzingmouse Fanatics Challenge, Anything Waltzingmouse Goes.

Tidings of Comfort and Joy

Here is the Christmas card design I liked so much I made seven identical cards to send out. Tonight I am addressing them and sending them off. I always include a Happy New Year greeting inside just to cover off the lateness of (ahem) Canada Post.

The sentiment is gorgeous hand-lettered calligraphy that Suzanne at Quietfire Design turns into rubber for those like me who are penmanship-challenged!

I mounted the entire front panel onto a piece of thin foam to uniformly lift it up off the white back panel. I edged the raised panel with gold ink and included a few spatters of gold amongst the red to tie it all together.

I carried the folksy Scandinavian theme inside, too. I am entering this over at the Waltzingmouse Fanatics Challenge Blog, which is singing its swan song this fortnight. I will miss Deb, Tara and Kathy's fabulous inspiration pieces, but will bookmark their personal blogs so I can keep up with their new adventures in papercrafts.

I originally was going for Clean and Simple (CAS) for this mass-produced card, which would have made it ideal for the Christmas Card Challenge, but they are pretty forgiving over there, so I will enter it anyways!

Speaking of mass-producing (7 of one design is a record for me, I think) my MISTI (Most Incredible Stamping Tool Invented) Precision Stamper from My Sweet Petunia has been such a joy to use to enable me to stamp crisp, clear images and serial stamp. After 25 years of stamping, I did not think I would find a new tool as useful and clever as this. Works with unmounted, clear and cling-mounted stamps. Watch the MISTI designer's videos on YouTube and you'll soon see what I mean!

Thanks for stopping by!

WMS Fanatics Sketch Challenge

 Here is the fun sketch for this week's Waltzingmouse Fanatics Challenge:

Sketches can really help kickstart one's creativity. I am exhausted from a tropical vacation - well, not the vacation, but the gruelling travel to get back home - and so my mojo is flagging. Like a drowning man reaching for the life preserver, I was happy for this sketch to get a needed birthday card accomplished.

5 X 6.5 inches

That's a white one layer card. There is no natural light in my basement so I have asked Santa for a light box this year. The flower is from the Waltzingmouse Stamps You're a Doll set, and the sentiment is from the new-to-me Teeny Trees set. I just eyeballed the flower placement, and stamped each one in Brilliance Pearlescent Sky Blue. Small dollar-store sequins finish them off.

Still lots of time to play in this sketch challenge. I am entering this card in the Seize the Birthday Challenge, too.