Happy New Year Fireworks

 

Scrap 'n Stamp Challenge Facebook page lists a prompt for each day of the month. The prompt for January 2 is black. I knew right away what I wanted to do as I needed to make a Happy New Year's card to send off in the mail.

I created this 5 inch square card by stencilling a Pretty Pink Posh Fireworks stencil with DecoFoil Transfer Gel Duo on black cardstock. It took an hour to dry. Then I laid Gina K Designs Thermoweb Fancy Foils in Sparkling Silver on top of the tacky surface and ran it through my die cutting machine. I peeled away the plastic top layer and the shimmery foiled fireworks were adhered.

Foil is notoriously difficult to photograph and depending on how the light hits this, it can look all black and silver or a myriad of colours. I finished it with a stamped and die cut HAPPY from Taylored Expressions and New Year is an old Waltzingmouse stamp. If you want to play in the challenge details are below and you can post anywhere using #SNSCHALLENGE:

Happy New Year

 

I was blessed earlier this month to receive for my birthday a Tim Holtz Sizzix die set called candle light. (Thanks, Sis!) It has dies for a lantern and two candles.While it will make great Christmas cards in the future (no time this year!), I wanted to try a New Year's greeting with it. I was going for an icy blue feel, but warmed by the candles. 

The background is made with a 3D embossing folder that has Fa La La running down the middle. Here's what that normally looks like:

There's some gluing and layering to get the candles and lantern together, but it is not difficult as there are alignment guides embossed into the cardstock when they are die cut. I used yellow vellum for the halos of light.

Had so much fun I made two more in a lighter colour way.

I look forward to playing with this some more. I think some faux patina on the lantern would be fun to try. Turns out this is a much sought after die set (now discontinued) so I am very pleased to own it. Happy New Year to you and yours! I am entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge which is "Party Time" and my New Year's Eve party is a little quieter than most - just the way I like it!

And I was one of three featured designers in the Simon Says Stamp Blog for this challenge!

http://www.simonsaysstamp.com

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!

Hello, 2015!

Today I finally felt well enough to do something, so I decided to make some happy new year cards. I have wanted to try the Bokeh technique as demonstrated on the WPlus9 Design Studio blog, and was pleased with my first effort.

The background is a watercolour technique with white circles sponged overtop. The words are from Waltzingmouse Stamps Compact Sentiments - the "well" is isolated from a Get Well sentiment with some judicious masking.

The die cut numbers are almost 2 inches high and I went over them with a Wink of Stella glitter pen but it is tough to see. The card is a 4.25 X 5.5 inch Memory Box pre-folded card base in aqua.

This is a chalkboard technique and I pulled together an assortment of stamps to create the look. I made a second one with a different background and some sequins. Felt good to feel up to playing again. Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Here is another Happy New Year card. This one features Hero Arts trees for the background stamped in Delicata gold ink and a sentiment and design elements from Waltzingmouse Stamps. 

I was happy with how I was able to match the green and purple metallic inks with the metallic cardstock used in the layers.

I have entered this in Little Red Wagon's challenge to use boxes or squares. My best wishes for 2013 to you and yours!

Chalk One Up For 2013!

Happy New Year! Here is my first card for 2013. Hope many more will follow!

This was my first try at creating a faux chalkboard effect. Lots of fun. It is a technique that is forgiving of stray embossing powder, crooked lines, and smudges. Perfect for me!

I want to try again now that all the tools and supplies are out all over my desk. A great tutorial for making this type of card is on Betsy Veldman's blog. Give it a whirl!

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!