Happy World Cardmaking Day

Today was World Cardmaking Day. A totally fictitious holiday that - for once - was NOT created by a greeting card company. Hallmark does not make any money off of this day. As a cardmaker, I can feel good about that!

I made this card for my local stamp store. It features a Quietfire Design rubber stamp (possibly the first one of those I ever bought, it is so old) and both Spellbinders and Anna Griffin embossing folders. Hope you enjoyed - and celebrated - today!

8.5 X 5.5 inches

Peachy Keen Christmas

I am beginning to panic. Over the past two years I have managed to make quite a few Christmas cards well in advance, but not so this year. The Waltzingmouse Fanatics Challenge this fortnight is to make something for Christmas. I went over to the Festive Friday blog and was very inspired by their current photo:

So here is my card for each of these challenges:

The center is silver, not black. The ornament was stamped and embossed with silver tinsel glitter embossing powder.

The center is silver printable foil paper. I stamped with white Staz-On.

Sentiment is silver embossed, not black as it appears here.

WMS PJ Party

The Waltzingmouse Stamps Pajama Party has rolled around again after a summer hiatus. There are some fun challenges posted here.

First up is the Doodle Do Challenge, to do some freehand doodling on a stamped image. This was a tough challenge because Claire's stamps are so detailed already that they need no embellishment! I added some dotted swirls in blue and polka dots in white to this fellow's costume.

Old Pajamas is the third challenge (I am skipping the cute Halloween challenge) to use an oldie but goodie stamp set. One of the first sets of stamps I bought from Waltzingmouse Stamps is a sheet of sentiments - Fancy Phrases - including this Belated Birthday Wishes stamp. I used it on a box card file from SVG Cuts. This card folds flat for mailing!

When cutting files like this I prefer to do two at a time so I used another WMS stamp for the sentiment below:

There is also a Bedtime Story Sketch, but I have not had a chance to make a card for that and I think time is running out. If you have time, you should give it a whirl, then post your creation on the WMS blog. There are already lots of neat interpretations of this sketch to take a look at. Have fun!

                                                   

Peace and Plenty

The latest Waltzingmouse Fanatics Challenge (there are still two days to play!) is a sketch challenge. I actually made this quick little card a week ago but have not had a chance to upload it until now. Here is the sketch:

I used a pumpkin orange 4.25 x 5.5 inch base to mount the sentiment and popped-up fall foliage from the Peace and Plenty set. The sentiment is accented by a nifty thin border from the My Kind of Guy set, stamped with Creole Spice Kaleidocolor rainbow dye ink pad. Coloured the leaves with Copic markers. Thanks for looking!

Watercoloured Camellias

The thank you card stash is getting low, so I thought I would try a simple watercoloured card using one of my favourite Waltzingmouse Stamps sets: Camellia.

I stamped and clear embossed the blooms all over white Tim Holtz watercolour card stock, washed them in water and then used Distress Ink reinkers to paint them in. Just used Worn Lipstick and Dried Marigold. The background was Antique Linen. I had planned to iron off the embossing, but decided I liked the contrast of the shiny white against the matte colour.

I dusted off an old Spellbinders Ribbon Slider die to cut a frame for a sentiment from the same set, stamped in Adirondack Mountain Rose ink. Some peach and white ribbon and foam tape to lift the panel off the pink and geranium back panels and we're done! I am entering this in the Waltzingmouse Fanatics Challenge to use markers, paint or other colouring mediums.

Tomorrow is Monday. Someone mentioned online that their full-time work is impeding their part-time creativity. I can relate! Thanks for stopping by!

Vintage Sympathy Card

I think if we polled card makers, they would say the most difficult cards to make are sympathy cards. And the difficulty seems to be in direct proportion to how well you know the family or cared about the person who passed away!

I wanted to make a vintage-themed condolence card for a friend, and I recently picked up the Botanical Tea designer paper by graphic 45, which helped set my direction. These toile-inspired birds were especially nice with the matching Nantucket Blue background paper.

I die cut some kraft cardstock doilies and stamped a doily pattern from Waltzingmouse Stamps on them (see upper right). I distressed edges with Vintage Photo distress ink. I created a tag by using an interesting Tammy Tutterow paper transfer technique of placing paper on the adhesive side of a Tim Holtz ideology mirror sheet, then wetting and rubbing away the back of the paper. I distressed the edges of the tag, too. Unfortunately I ended up covering up most of the mirror tag so you cannot see how cool it is - but please check out Tammy's tutorial for more info.

I tied some mottled hand-dyed seam binding around the top of the tag and some lace and paper twine around the bottom. The flowers are Spellbinders Bitty Blossoms die cuts, surrounded by assorted leaves. I added a bit of glitter to the flowers. The sentiment is a Quietfire Design stamp that I stamped in black Archival Ink, then pounced Versamark over top and clear embossed with a couple layers of clear embossing powder. I cracked the surface and then ran Broken China distress ink over the cracks to add some character. Here is the finished card, ready for a padded envelope:

Strictly Ballroom!

Hello, friends! Long time, no see. Work has kept me away from the craft room, but I am ba-a-a-ack! The theme for the Waltzingmouse Fanatics Challenge this week is Anything Goes, and the theme at the Cut It Up Challenge is Twilight, so I am sharing a birthday card made for my daughter's friend.

This gal and her husband are ballroom dancers so I had fun with the WMS art deco themed sets and my Silhouette Cameo machine. 

The dancers are made from a file from the Silhouette online store, as are the deco borders top and bottom. I pressure embossed the lady's white dress in my Cuttlebug machine. The train and underskirt are made with glittered cardstock. This is really nice quality stuff from my local stamp store - no shedding with handling. I used it to mat the stamped sentiment and the black embossed background.

I picture these two dancing at twilight, and the purple glitter also makes me think of twilight. 

It's fun to personalize cards for recipients. Take THAT, Hallmark! Why not join in the fun at these two challenge sites?