Let it Snow

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I am back in the swing of things after a little break. Really.... I don't want snow. Seeing it on the news is just fine with me. Here in Atlanta two flakes shuts the entire city down and everyone flies to the grocery to buy bread and milk. Never understood the bread and milk.... but the shelves empty in no time flat!

I like how the snow turned out on this very simple card. I airbrushed the background and then used my blender pen to remove color in little white dots, which I then covered with my home made glitter/crystal lacquer concoction... with the crystal lacquer it dries but still looks like wet little glittery dots of snow. Click on the close up for a better look.

• Stamps: All Stamps by Repeat Impressions
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark and Gold Detail EP
• Paper: Curious Cryogen White, Gold, Green, Red
• Other: Nesties, Japanese Screw Punch, Home Made Glitter Glue (Fairy Dust and Crystal Lacquer), Copics/ABS

Jingle Jingle Jingle

I needed some Christmas cards to put gift cards in for my nephews.... I totally wimped out on Toys-r-Us.... I just couldn't manage to drag my tail in the store to shop in the Holiday season.... so their parent's can take them! Terrible of me, I know. But not having children, going in there is like visiting another planet for me. I can barely recognize Barbie and Ken these days! So, I wanted to make something fun and colorful for them. I saw the Jingle, Jingle, Jingle stamp in my Christmas case and it inspired the addition of the bells, and yes, they do jingle. They might jingle right off the card in the hands of a 5 year old -- but that's OK! I tied a little knot on the bells and added a little drop of Ultimate Glue to help them stay attached. On my scallop nestie I used embroidery thread and a fat craft needle to rope the thread up and over the holes (created with the screw punch). I love this look, so it will be probably be my "new favorite thing" for a few more postings. The corners are 2 sizes of photo corners, one turned opposite and the point ends trimmed. Go ahead and make fun of the lower left corner-- it is crooked, I see that now, long after the glue is dry. He's five, so I'm not gonna worry about it. I'm sure the card will be discarded quickly and present opening resumed. Thrilled to have them in town for the Holidays... Christmas is so much more fun seeing the excitement of the kids opening the gifts.

• Stamps: Chantigo and Ornament by Stampendous, Sentiment from Michael's $1 Bin
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black
• Paper: DP by DCWV Mat Stack, Bazzill Red, Bazzill Yellow, Curious Cryogen White, Aqua Embossed DP
• Other: Crystal Lacquer, Home Made Glitter Glue, Nesties, Copics, Embroidery Floss, Photo Corner Punch by SU, Dew Drops, Japanese Screw Punch, Crystals, Gold Gel Pen

Glitter Wreath

OK, I made this mix of super fine glitter/fairy dust and Crystal Lacquer, put it a little film canister with a tight lid so it does not dry up.... now I feel compelled to put it on everything. The home made glitter glue is a tip from my stamp pal Miriam. Click on the close up to see the superfine sparkle! Also in the close up you can kind of see the shimmer in the paper- Curious Cryogen, my new favorite "go to" paper, thanks to Sandy. The totally cute Tree Paper by Frances Meyer was a present from my friend Robin. I cut my image out with a scallop nestie; then I used my Japanese Screw Punch to make the holes and used wound the little red bead string up and under to get the "rope" look around the edges. The little bead rope was a find in the Christmas section of Michael's.

• Stamps: All Stamps by Impression Obsession
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamrk and Detail Gold EP
• Paper: Curious Cryogen White, Gold, Tree DP by Frances Meyer, Red, Shimmer Green, White, Red
• Other: Cuttlebug Snowflake Folder, Tiny Bead Rope, Misc. Gold Ribbon, Gold Half Pearls, White Half Pearls, Copics, Nesties, Home Made Glitter Glue, Crystal Lacquer, Japanese Screw Punch

Happy Holidays!

This ornament stamp is from Impression Obsession and just screams -- Jazz me up with some sparkle and bling, so I did. I colored with Copics and added accents with a Pentel gold gel pen. It's a Martha border punch on the bottom "Lace Doiley". The green paper actually has a gold shimmer to it IRL, so it looks a little more cohesive IRL than in the picture, and the red background has a little star burst pattern. I stamped on Curious Cryogen and it is the card base too, I love the shimmer of this paper on Holiday Cards. Added some serious bling (a lot for me) and a triple bow to top it off. Done. Finished card size is 5 1/2 Square.

• Stamps: Ornament by Impression Obsession, Happy Holidays by Inkadinkadoo
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
• Paper: Curiouos Cryogen White, Misc. Red Pattern DP, Shimmer Green
• Other: Copics, Nesties, Misc. Ribbon, Crystals, Gold Pearls, Gold Gel Pen

Basic Grey Floral

The basis of this card is a 12x12 sheet of Basic Grey, with the Big Blue Flowers all over it and the red check background. I cut an entire flower and other flower petals out and popped them up, and in between I used some gold leaves that I created with a Spellbinders die. The Happy Birthday is gold embossed and one of my most used stamps. I cut it out with a Spellbinder's label die and used my Signo pen for some little white dots. The gold cord is secured with a nail head. The center of the flower are some decorative gold filigree pieces and I popped a pearl in the center of each. Finished card size is 5 1/2" x 5 1/2".

• Stamps: Happy Birthday by Endless Creations
• Ink: Versamark and Detail Gold EP
• Paper: DP by Basic Grey "DSH-625 Centerpiece" from the Dasher Collection, Gold, White, Blue
• Other: Spellbinder's Labels Die, Spellbinder's Leaves Die, Nail heads and Filigree Accents by Bonnie's Best, Pearls, Misc. Gold Cord, White Signo Pen

Love Machine

Heeeehhheee.... this little robot just cracks me up. It is from the The Cat's Pajamas. I colored the love machine with Copics and made the dotted frame using the border of my Nestie. I used a silver sharpie marker to make some stitch doodles around the red mat. The rest is pretty self explanatory... I used some little silver sticker dots for his love struck eyes and of course some red Spica on the heart. Double bow and done.

• Stamps: All Stamps by The Cat's Pajamas
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
• Paper: Red, Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Silver, Black, DP by American Crafts #34464
• Other: Copics, Nesties, Misc. Ribbon, Ric Rac, Cuttlebug Hearts Folder, Silver Sharpie, Red Spica, Red and Black Micro Pens

In HOT water

Here I am, the bad blogger.... I could tell you that blogger has been eating my posts all week, all my paper was stolen, the cat ate my cards... but the truth is.... well,I just have not had any creativity going on here! Nothing. Clean craft desk, chores done, free time and nothing. Went on a shopping spree for new craft goodies.... sure that would spark something. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Now of course, the weekend is coming to an end and back to work in the morning..... NOW I'm feeling crafty. I knew this would happen. Anyway... this card came together pretty quick -- I used one of my new Martha Stewart Punches to create the checkerboard border. Still not a Martha fan, but here punches got through card stock like butter, so have to give the thumbs up on those. And I finally got an order of the Curious Cryogen paper ---- Love it! It doesn't show in the pictures but I really love the subtle shimmer the paper gives off and it works super with Copics. I used such a dark red and black, I tried to lighten it up with some pale pinkish ribbon, and go figure, I had pearls in that exact same color to finish it off.

• Stamps: All stamps by Lockhart
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black
• Paper: DP by Basic Grey 6x6 pads, Curious Cryogen White, Black, Rust, White Card Stock
• Other: Nesties, Pearls by Kaiser, Misc. Ribbon, Copics, Micro Black Pen, Martha Stewart Checkerboard Border Punch

Two Turtle Doves

What is a Turtle Dove anyway -- is that a real bird?? OK, it is a real bird - I just looked it up and this is what Wikipedia says..... The Turtle Dove is a member of the bird family Columbidae, which includes the doves and pigeons. So there's my trivia for the day.

The actual card base is green - I used white and red squares to color block the sides. On the gold center panel, I chose to deboss using my cuttlebug folder, which I think is just as nice of a look. I used my ATG gun to adhere the ribbon to the gold panel. These images are kind of difficult as they leave a lot of "card space" to fill up! We'll see if I make all 12 days....

• Stamps: Penny Black "The 12 Days of Christmas" clear set
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
• Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Misc. Gold, Green and Red Card Stock
• Other: Nesties, Misc. Ribbon, Cuttlebug Folder, Pearls, Gold Pearls, Homemade Glitter Glue

A Partridge in a Pear Tree

Hmmm.... can you guess what the next 11 posts will be? Penny Black came out with this totally adorable set of The Twelve Days of Christmas, and I thought it would be fun to post one each day. I'll have to say the French Hen is probably my favorite... but you'll have to wait to to see it.

The card... I had not done a suspension card in some time... and I thought it might work for this little guy. I realized it was only one little stamp... and I was left with a lot of other "space", so I cut the space away! I picked up the little jewels in the jewelry section of JoAnn's. I used fishing line to suspend them. You can click on the close up for a better view. With Nesties -- doing cards like this are soooo much easier than the olden days before we had Nesties.

I had no idea what color a partridge is.... so I googled it and the images I found were white, red, brown, blue.... so I just picked a color and went with it. I used Copics to color the image.... and just realized I did not used any Spicas-- I will remedy that.

• Stamps: Penny Black "The 12 Days of Christmas"
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black
• Paper: DP is from Basic Grey 6x6 "Boxer", Misc. Blue and Rust Card Stock, Neenah Classic Crest Solar White
• Other: Copics, Jewels, Fishing Line, Nesties