Vintage Santa

I have made a vintage Santa card for the month-long sketch challenge at the private Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmakers Facebook group. They have a blog for inspiration, but the gallery of cards submitted for this sketch is over on Facebook. I always struggle to remember that's where we need to go to enter a card! Here is the sketch.

When I saw this I immediately thought of the cover image for a Pink Paislee 8X8 inch pad of printed cardstock that I have loved to use over the past decade. It was called City Sidewalks and I am down to my last three sheets, and the cover, which featured snippets of all the paper styles in the pad. So this card is a bit of a cheat because all the "brickwork layout" in the background was done for me!

The Santa and girl is a paper coaster I re-purposed here in a nod to the Peace on Earth Day challenge at Jingle Belles to create a holiday card that features re-cycled, re-used or up-cycled elements. A red ribbon and tiny ruby gems were accents. The sentiment seemed best stamped in red.

I have a modern version of this sketch card coming in a second post. Very different vibe!

Vectoria Designs Peter Rabbit

Recently I was in a swap in a Facebook papercrafting group. The challenge was to create a Cute and Cuddly Mini Album or booklet. I recently bought some paper designs from an Etsy shop called Vectoria Designs with a Peter Rabbit theme that seemed perfect. Here's what I sent my partner:

Here's the booklet opened to first page with pocket stuffed with tags and the first page of the well-loved childrens story. I included a pyramid box, also a Vectoria Design PDF.

Here is the book fully opened showing the back, the left panel that folds inside and the front cover at right.

Front Cover with ribbon tied up at fore edge. 

Personalized invitation tag slides up from pocket.

Inside left pocket with assorted tags.

Inside right page with the beginning of that favourite childrens story.

I did a little stamping on the center spread.

Another pocket with some stamped tags.

Some great vintage ephemera from Vectoria Designs.

Back cover. What a handsome fellow!

Rinse and Repeat!

Yesterday I posted a card for the Seize the Birthday Anything Goes #159 Challenge and I am back today with a second entry. You can never have too many birthday cards.

The patterned paper and Spellbinders dies did most of the work here. The small cluster of flowers (W Plus 9 Very Vintage Florals) was stamped and fussy cut with scissors and popped up with foam tape.  The clear-embossed sentiment is a retired Waltzingmouse stamp. A strip of dollar store gemstones finished it off nicely.

Still time to play along.

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:

Hello

Who hears Adele right now? :-)

When I made my Mother's Day card, I also made a second card using the reverse combo of a paler background and more vibrant center panel. To soften the panel so the "Hello" would stand out, I laid a piece of pink vellum over top and stamped the Hello there.

This is an A2 sized card and I stamped the white envelope to match.

CCT02 Colour Challenge

The second Christmas Card Throwdown Challenge of 2017 is a colour challenge using these hues:

I pulled out an oldish Hero Arts wood-mounted stamp called Collage Merry and Bright to put together this simple vintage card:

You should check out the lovely cards the Design Team uploaded for inspiration. There are 4 days left to enter so why not join in?

Mojo Monday 470

The Mojo Monday 470 sketch challenge is about to close and here I am screeching in at the last minute. Here's the sketch.

Here's my new baby card:

Both the pram (Pink Persimmon)  and the sassy sentiment (Waltzingmouse Stamps) are retired stamps. The vintage button strip is from Lost Coast Designs. Thanks for visiting!

A Vintage 50th Birthday Card and Gift

Quite some time ago I purchased the 12X12 pad of graphic45's Botanical Tea Collection and I am going to be sad when it is all gone. I needed a special birthday card for a colleague who likes vintage things, and adores gardening, so this was my go to stack.

I dusted off my Tim Holtz caged bird die and used some Creative Chemistry techniques to give the bird's home a patina. The flowers were made using the Spellbinders Bitty blossoms dies. I had to make a box to go with.

Sentiment: Waltzingmouse Stamps

I added Rock Candy Dry Glitter to the dollar store flower. I used Distress Crackle Paint and inks and stains on the papier mache box. I made some wrinkled rayon ribbon with Distress Stains. The label frame was silver, but I antiqued it to match the really old key using alcohol inks. I forgot to take a photo of the inside, but I lined the box with the same background paper as on the card. Here's the set:

I am entering this in the Seize the Birthday challenge.

Vintage Red Muff

Here is a card I made just by taking an assortment of items and playing around until I got a pleasing composition. It's red and turquoise again. I like the contrast of the black and white girl image (Oxford Impressions) and that red muff.

I put the glitter paper on red cardstock and then started layering ribbon, felt, some vellum and a die cut star doily. Once I knew how it was going to work, I stitched the horizontal elements together and then mounted Miss Red Muff overtop with foam tape. 

The snowflakes are a few Waltzingmouse Stamps die cuts, a plastic button and a felt snowflake freebie from an old magazine.  I like the contrast of the soft felt and the other sturdier shapes. A red heart and red thread help tie it all together.

Thanks for stopping by today!