Welcome, 2018!

Happy New Year! I hope this year brings health and peace and wisdom to you.

I had a haircut today to start the new year right, and I made the above goofy eyeglasses for my hairdresser as a gift for her 8 year old daughter. You can find the free SVG file at the Simply Crafty SVG site.

I also made her this card, which has lots of glittering sparkly fireworks (heat embossed glitter embossing powders) in real life.

Thanks for visiting today!

Last Two 2017 Christmas Cards

How has your Christmas season been? We have had a lovely time and I am now back in my craft room tidying up. I have two more cards I made for Sylvia Durocher's monthly Christmas Card Challenge that I can share with you today. In November the shape was Scallop Square and the colour was Navy. Here's my effort:

Stamp City Snowman with Cardinal circa 1999; Penny Black sentiment

I created the background with a slatted stencil and Clarity Stencil Brushes. I need to work on that technique some more. My soft red ended up looking pink! The Scalloped Squares are made with Spellbinder dies. The parts that might look black are actually Navy. I black embossed the Snowman with Versafine ink and coloured with Zig Clean Color brush markers.

In December the shape is Rectangle and the colour is brown. I didn't stamp anything on this card - I used Tim Holtz "Remnant Rubs" in gold foil for the Wonderland title and to add Season's Greetings up the side. The deer paper is from a small Memory Box "Tinsel" paper pad. I added glitter to their scarves.

Thanks for visiting today. I look forward to seeing what Sylvia's challenge will be for 2018!

Free Gift Card Holder File

I did not have time to make greeting cards for my staff this year, but I wanted to present them with gift cards in a novel way. Dreaming Tree has a free file to create a clever pop up gift card presentation. I made an assortment.

In the upper left is the prototype but I was rushed for time so fussing about with ribbon was a challenge. I discovered I could affix these pins, that I picked up at Winners, to close the pouches and skipped the ribbon on the rest.

I forgot to take a photo of the inside which is elegant and clever, so pop over to the Dreaming Tree site to see that and if you have an electronic cutting machine, be sure to snag this freebie!

And here is a card I made this year that made me smile. It is very simple, for my great niece who is only 18 months old. The penguins are mounted on Action Wobbles so they shimmy and make me laugh. I hope they make her laugh, too!

Dreaming Tree Christmas Card

I have not been feeling well this season so the Christmas Card production came to a bit of a halt and I feel bad some folks won't be getting a card this year.

However, I did find time to make one very special card to put in my parcel to my Mom. This is a Paperscape Box Card SVG file from Dreaming Tree that folds flat for mailing, but also works as a luminary with LED lights inserted in the base. Dreaming Tree files are a dream to work with, very well designed, and Leo provides video instructions on the website that are very clear to follow.

Here is a bit of a side view. There are four layers including the background.

A Quietfire Design stamp in Brilliance ink provided the greeting. I added crystals later.

These were supposed to be cardinals but I wanted a blue and white card, so Mom gets blue jays instead.

Finished card with gemstones.

Here is the card with the LED lights inserted, next to my Mom's Christmas tree. She is enjoying it.

Santas (yes, plural) are coming to town

I recently joined a Canadian papercrafts swap group on Facebook. Twenty years ago I was involved in a lot of swaps on Canadian Stamp Talk (a Yahoo Group) and have missed it. The cost of postage makes swapping with crafters in the USA prohibitive.

A recent swap was vintage Christmas cards. I had just got this vintage Santa stamp in a craft store garage sale and this was a great excuse to try it out. I needed to send out three cards.

Sylvia Durocher's challenge for October was a banner shape and turquoise. I used a vintage flashcard with muted turquoise trim and a matching "banner" tag, as well as a scalloped red banner above St. Nick. The message is a Waltzingmouse Stamp (retired). I "dusted" the vintage sprig with white paint to give it a bit of frost and tied it with jute.

The second Santa was a bit more subdued.

I adore the metal tokens Tim Holtz designs, and this "25" seemed just right, tied on with twine. The sentiment reads: It's the most wonderful time of the year.

Last comes the frosty turquoise snowflake Santa with a wee banner for Sylvia's challenge again.

The sentiment is stamped into metal, too, and tied with baker's twine.

So that's my tale of three Santas! I am entering them in the throwback challenge running all this month at Christmas Card Throwdown, which is:

I chose:

2-For-1 Edge Stamping Trick

Hi, stampers! Here are two birthday cards I made this week. The stamp set I used is Inkadinkado's Organic Fabric Flourish. I have had it for years and have maybe used it only once. I stamped the black swirly motifs with Memento Tuxedo Black ink because I wanted to spotlight parts with Copic markers. 

The "happy birthday" sentiment is from Altenew's Halftone Happy set. I created a cut file on my Silhouette Cameo to cut out a number of layers from cardstock to pop up the happy.

I accented the cards with heat-set Swarovski Crystals. 

Here is the video I watched where the amazing Jennifer McGuire explains how to quickly stamp two cards at once!

Art Deco Birthday Card

Here's a birthday card for a male. This male is very conservative, so that made the saying even more fun.

I clear heat embossed an art deco background stamp on the upper black background, as well as the art deco arches marching along the foiled gold rectangle. I am entering this card in Seize the Birthday's Anything Goes challenge.

While I had these retro stamps out, I made a wine bottle tag for a thank you gift for a colleague. 

Thanks for visiting today!

WCMD Autumnal Card

Yesterday (Saturday) was World Card Making Day. To celebrate, stores had sales and some even had challenges. This card is for the Mood Board Inspiration Challenge over at Kat's Scrappiness. Here is the gorgeous board:

Here's my card:

I started by stamping the Memory Box Fresh Spring Wreath in Versafine Crimson Red and clear embossed it. Then I blended some Distress Oxide inks over the background and wiped off the excess with a tissue. The Lawn Fawn Party Animal fox and the chickie were coloured with Copic markers. Happy Birthday sentiment was printed and foiled in metallic purple. I added Distress Oxide to the card stock and splotched with water drops before mounting it and the bird with foam tape. A layer of green card stock mats the works and then it is mounted on a crimson A2 card.

Beside's Kat's challenge, I am entering this in the Seize the Birthday challenge. This view shows the embossed wreath a bit better. Thanks for visiting!

Rolodex Card Swap: Birds of a Feather

I recently joined a Facebook group (Craft'n Swap Canada) that is for Canadian crafters who want to swap items without dealing with US postage. It sprang out of a Canadian electronic cutting machine group, but the use of a machine is not mandatory for the swaps. 

Quote and wreath were staped in Versafine Onyx Black and clear embossed. White gel pen was used to add some dots here and there.

Years ago I used to do swaps all the time to try out and learn new techniques. As postage got more expensive and time got more limited, I had to forego that. One of the old swaps I participated in was for Rolodex cards and I still enoy seeing those cards in my office Rolodex when I am flipping through the mundane contact info. So when this new FB group decided to do a Rolodex card swap, I jumped at the chance to increase the creative content of my office files. The theme for this swap was Birds of a Feather but there was lots of latitude in how one approached it. I chose to do some Distress Oxide backgrounds, some stamping, a Burnished Velvet tab, a distressed pocket and smaller tags for signature.

Front and back.

Calligraphy stamp, dove stamp  and "sing" Silhouette Studio cut file: Quietfire Design. The hatted bird in the wreath was a free stamp by R Maria Sabina from UK Craft Stamper magazine.

I used my Silhouette Cameo machine to cut out the cards, the pocket on the back, the large info tag inside the pocket and the wording and bird on the tag. I also used my machine to cut out the masks for the tab "sing" and musical note. These are the Memory Dex style of card measuring 3 3/4 inches x 4 inches. The ones I will receive are a bit shorter to fit a standard Rolodex file. It was really nice of the swappers to accommodate my special request for the smaller size.

Welded wording idea is from Kerri Bradford Studio, but I used my own font to recreate so it would fit the space better. Bird is KBS, though.

I love to create masks for the Burnished Velvet glitter technique and I am amazed at what a great job my Cameo does on this. The word "sing" below is barely an inch wide! It is a cut file designed by Suzanne Cannon, a calligrapher. The cut file comes with a bird and plant that I did not use. I cut the tape liner with my machine while it was still stuck to the double-sided Sookwang tape that was affixed to a piece of cardstock that was laid out on the Silhouette mat. I covered the tab (punched with a Stampin' Up! punch) with the same type of tape and laid the thin calligraphy liner on top. Then I rubbed navy microfine glitter into the exposed tape. Once the excess was brushed away, I removed the word tape liner with tweezers and sprinkled gold glitter over that tape and rubbed it in. I repeated the process for the musical note on the flip side. The glitter is smooth like velvet. As I needed to send these in the mail, I sprayed the tabs with Krylon Workable Fixative, which did not affect the sparkle, but ensured the tape would not have any stickiness left.

I made eight of these cards, but only needed seven to swap out. So right now I am enjoying the bonus card for myself, but may send it off in the mail to encourage someone. I am entering this in the 613 Avenue Create Challenge for Anything Goes/Optional Twist: Distress It.

CASology: BIG

Hi, there. Today I am playing in the CASology blog challenge, which is the prompt BIG. This A2 sized Clean And Simple welcome card for a new staff member fits the bill.

I made the hello sentiment on my Silhouette Cameo and popped it up with foam tape over a piece of homemade decorative paper that I have been hoarding for years. It has beautiful oranges and teals and is made by rubbing oil pastels into textured cardstock and burnishing until it is smooth and looks like an old oil painting. I felt bad to have covered most of it up - but it does shine through the sentiment. I also added a strip of copper foil washi tape. I am a VERY late adopter of this embellishment but it is growing on me.

Here's a close up of the sentiment background..

Still time to join!