It's Christmas Time

Christmas time is almost here. It has always been one of my favorite times of the year. My family is in Tennessee and our kids live in Chicago and Cincinnati. We will celebrate with our church family mostly. I have just about got all my Christmas cards done. It seems like it is always a mad dash to the finish line for me. I wanted to share some of the cards that I made.

This first card was made from a sketch that I used in a class earlier of this year. The designer paper is from Graphic 45. I used a piece of both sides on the card. Red and yellow card stock became my accent colors.

This next card is a CASE from one I saw on Pinterest. Here is a link the one I saw on Splitcoaststampers. It really caught my attention since I have both of the Memory Box dies used on the card. Instead of using the lighter blue card stock, I used Pacific Pointe card stock. It sure does come together quickly.

Party Time

Tomorrow night is our Stamp Club's annual Christmas Dinner. We will meet at Olive Garden for a fun evening and a time of sharing. We will do a "Christmas Tag Swap" and a Christmas card swap.

This is my Christmas gift tag for this year.

This is my card for the card swap.

And this if a small favor that I made to go by each person's place. 

 They were so much fun to make.

Finished Table Runner and Topper

Finished up the table runner and table topper this past week end. I am still in love with this fabric. The measurement of this one 16" x 40".

 

This one measures 28" x 28".

Christmas Quilt

Sewing/quilting is my other love. Over the years I have made quilts, table runners, placemats, tote bags, etc. For the past 10 years I have taken something hand made to our Parkinson's Support Group's Christmas Auction, This year I took two table runners and three sets/boxes of greeting cards. Now I wanted to do something that would be mine. Selfish? Maybe.

Back in June, while visiting "Quilts at the Marshall House" in Marshall, Michigan I saw this Christmas panel that I fell in love with on the spot. I brought one panel. They had only one coordinating fabric to go with the panel. I got 2 yards. A few weeks later, while in Frankenmuth, I discovered that there were other fabrics in the family called "Forever Green" by Moda. I visited Missouri Star Quilt Company's web site and found that they had just about all of the different fabrics. I placed an order and ended up with a number of half yard pieces. I knew that I wanted to make a wall hanging and maybe some table runners. It took me longer to find a pattern than it took to finally make the wall hanging. Yesterday, November 20, I finished the quilt and got it hung in my living room. Now I have a spot that I can hang other quilts in the future.

And I still have enough fabric left for those table runners.

Sewing Project Just Finished

I love creating cards but I also enjoy creating things with fabric and my sewing machine. Just finished a new bag for myself.

Into The Forest

"Into the Forest" is today's CAS challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers. This challenge was the motivation that I needed to try to make the card that has been playing around in my imagination for several weeks.

After breakfast one morning at Cracker Barrel, I saw this wooden plaque that really caught my attention. Right away I could tell that it was going to be the perfect inspiration for a special Christmas card. I did not get a good picture because, at the time, there were lots of things in front of it.

The card was perfect for today's challenge. 

The card basically used dies. The trees are from Impression Obsession. The deer is from Memory Box (I think). The larger stars were made using a punch, and the tiny stars were cut from a new Stampin' Up die in the set called "Card Front Builder Thinlet Dies".I was hoping that the small tree and the tiny stars would add depth to the picture. For the background I used Night of Navy card stock. For the die cuts I used a beautiful glitter card stock from Core'dinations. The greeting is from the Our Daily Bread Designs set called "Luke 2:11" which was heat embossed with silver embossing powder.

Thanks for stopping by.

Two New Sets

Our Parkinson's Support Group Christmas auction is coming  up in a couple of weeks. I am making some sets of greeting cards to put in the auction. I think that these are the last two one sheet wonder sets that I will be making. They are all from the same pad of designer paper. (The other set of cards was posted on October 25.) I will put six cards in each box -- two cards from each set.

A card is a hug with a fold in the middle.

Send someone a hug today.

Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge

This month's challenge for the Create, Challenge, Encourage stamp club was a "Tic-Tac-Toe" challenge. You pick three things that are in a row, either across, down or diagonally, to use on your card. I chose the last row going down for my card.

My blue color was Night of Navy. I used a scalloped punch and navy and white checked ribbon. Two stamps sets were used. The first stamp was from the set called  "Thoughts and Prayers". I would have to say that this stamp set is a real classic. It has been around since the summer of 2009. The sentiment comes from a new set called "Beautiful Bouquet". I would also say that this card fits in the category called "Clean and Simple".

Thanks for visiting my blog today.

Creating A Gift Set

 Between taking my husband to doctor's appointments and finishing up a couple of table runners for our Parkinson's Support Group Christmas auction, I was able to get back to my card making for part of today. I have been working on some projects for an upcoming class this weekend. We will be focusing on making a set of cards with a matching box that could be used as a gift. I don't have the box finished because I want to do that in the class.

I used the "One Sheet Wonder" sketch that I used back in September. This is such a neat way to make coordinating cards.

I used one sheet of  6" x 6" designer paper from the "Pretty Petals" paper pad. The card bases were Mint Macron, Old Olive and Calypso Coral. Black became the accent color for all the cards, and Very Vanilla was the neutral card stock. The three sentiments were from the Stampin' Up set "Simply Sketched".

If you have trouble using your beautiful designer paper, this is a great way to create a beautiful set of cards.

A card is a hug with a fold in the middle.

Send someone a hug today.

Halloween Fun

I am not much into Halloween but my grandkids have looked forward to the event each year. I have made fun cards in the past and sent a treat (a few dollars) with their card. As they have gotten older I have not done it in a couple of years. I have one granddaughter going to college in California and her mother told me that Sarah was really into Halloween this year. So, I thought that maybe I could make a couple of mug rugs to send to her along with a card. Got the package in the mail this morning.

I really don't have much Halloween in my supplies, so I chose to go with a pumpkin theme. I made these pumpkins with the Swirly Bird dies and used the traditional black and orange color theme.

For the mug rugs, I purchased two quarter yard pieces of fabric, found some green and black in my scarp bin and made two. The finished size was about 6 x 10-inches. I was pleased with how they turned out. I hope she likes them. I just wanted Sarah to know that we love her and are praying for her each day. I hope these little mats will make her smile.

SC664 An Early Snowy Morning

Wednesday again. I love to do the sketch challenge at Splitcoast Stampers on Wednesday when I have a chance. So----------

Today's sketch

My card

I stamped the image onto watercolor paper with VersaFine Black Onyx ink and heat embossed it using clear embossing powder. I used my distress ink markers and the aqua brush to add color to the image. For the card base I used a piece of Baja Breeze card stock. I still have a few sheets of this retired color and I still love it. I found the glitter paper at JoAnnn's this past week. It is by core'dinations and so easy to use.

More

Cards from the Stamp Club meeting on Saturday September 23--

The gals had fun creating their own unique quilt block. This first picture is the card sample that I had made for the class. I purchased the glitter paper at my local JoAnn's store. It worked beautifully. We die cut several different colors and then re-assembled the block using colors of our choice. So much fun!

As I was cleaning up after class, there were lots of little pieces left from the other blocks that had been made. I started putting a block together and this is the resulting card. I love the contrasts between the blue glitter paper and the natural card stock. I know; it looks white in the picture but it is very similar to Stampin' Up's Very Vanilla card stock. This card also uses the new Quilt Top Textured Impressions embossing folder.

The next two cards are very simple.The first card is made using core'dinations card stock . The piece I used was black on one side and a blue on the back side. After embossing the paper using the new Winter Wonder embossing folder from Stampin' Up, I sanded the embossed image lightly. I just wanted to take off enough of the black so that the blue would show through. This is a very simple technique that acheives very pretty results.

The next picture shows the card that most of the gals made. Only half of the image is embossed which leaves room to add embellishments and a sentiment. The smallest snow flake was cut from the Stampin' Up's thinlet die set called "Swirly Snowflakes".

This last 4 1/4 inch square card is the 9-patch quilt block. It is  made using 1 1/4 inch squares from two different sheets of card stock. After glueing the squares together on a piece of white card stock and getting the piece trimmed, it was embossed using the "Quilt Top" embossing folder. Love that pretty quilted texture. Note: I made this card last year for a group of friends that I quilt with. They loved it.

Christmas Quilt

Sometime it is fun to create a project that really is not the traditional way of doing things. Example--making quit blocks out of paper instead of fabric. That is what I did the last few days. I was able to pre-order the Christmas Quilt Bundle from Stampin' Up a few weeks ago. Last week I had a few days to try it out. This is my latest project. The picture is not the greatest because of the reflections on the glass, but I didn't want to take it apart because it is tricky to get back together.

I used glitter paper that I purchased from JoAnn's and it worked beautifully. I had seen a few pictures on Pinterest using four blocks to create a larger unit. Finding square picture frames is a bit of a challenge. Here, I used an 8" x 8" frame that I found at JoAnn's. It turned out to be a perfect fit. I was wondering -- Could I create blocks that would represent all four seasons for the year?

Baby Card in Plaid

Monday I did a CAS challenge with the theme "Mad about Plaid". I needed a card this morning for a baby shower. The couple is not telling if the baby is a boy or girl. As I was thinking about the card I needed to make, my thoughts returned to the card that I made on Monday. I loved the color. The plaids and polka dots together were so pretty, and I had lots of paper still left. So all I really needed to do was change the image. I remembered a stamp set that I have from Gina K Designs That would be just perfect. So, now it is time for me to show you a picture-----

I stamped the image on watercolor paper with VersaFine Black Onyx ink and heated embossed it with clear fine detailed embossing power. Using my distress ink markers and aqua painted I watercolored the image and cut out several layers using my Spellinder dies. I was pleased with the result and happy to give the card to the expectation mother.

Eight-Point Quilt Block

I finally got a chance to try out the new "Quilt Builder Framelites Dies" this evening. I am so excited about the possibilities. I cut out four sets in four different colors then I re-assembled the pieces in different color combinations. Here is a picture of my finished card. Of course I had to add in some black. Pink with black is one of my favorite color combinations.

The four colors I used were black, Pink Pirouette, Rose Red and a pink I found that was just a little bit darker than Pretty In Pink. I created several layers which I really love. The sentiment is  from a retired set called "Three Little Words".  So perfect for what I wanted to do. The words on the inside say "thanks so much".

I  put together two other pieces. Just don't have the cards finished yet. Love how there are so many ways to put the quilt blocks back together. Each one becomes so unique.

Love the saying that comes with the coordinating stamp set "Christmas Quilt"--

When life gives you scraps,

make a quilt.

SC662

Today's challenge--

For today's card, I used a stamp from the "Peaceful Petals" set from Stampin' Up. Used Memento Tuxedo Black ink on white card stock, then colored the image with Stampin' Up's watercolor pencils. The Card base is Daffodil Delight. Marina Mist, used to highlight my image, goes well with the Pacific Point polka dots. For layers 4 and 5, I used ribbon and a bow also in the Marina Mist color. As always, I loved working with this sketch.

Weekly Favorite at SCS for week ending September 16, 2017

A One Sheet Wonder Set

This morning as I was looking on Facebook I came across a video and as I followed the link back to the original blog post, I fell in love with the cards. I had to try casing this set of cards.

I found some cardstock that was very close to the Wisteria Wonder from Stampin' Up. Then I took a 6" x 6" piece of designer series paper from the new Delightful Daisy package. Cut it following the layout and created my cards.

The sentiment is from the Stampin' Up set called "Peaceful Petals". Then I used a stamp from my new set "Labels To Love", stamped it with Wisteria Wonder ink and punched it out with the coordinating punch.

Only one problem.When I looked at the last card, I realized that I had not been as careful as I should have been. This designer series paper had a "nap" to it just as corduroy or velvet, and I got this one upside down. Can't change it now.

CAS446 -- "Mad for Plaid"

"Mad for Plaid" was today's CAS challenge. So many ideas started going through my head. I started to do a navy and white color combination but that idea changed quickly when I saw this paper. I had purchased the Coordination paper at JoAnn's just a couple of weeks ago. I believe there were four different designs per color. I wanted to see what I could do with it.

Pool Party card stock went well with the designer paper. I used a very simple design because I wanted the paper to stand out. To make the daisy, I used the Stampin' Up set "Delightful Daisy", Pool Party ink to stamp the flower and the coordinating punch to cut it out. I found some enamel dots that were a good match so I used them to add a little accent.

Weekly Favorite for week ending Sept 16, 2017

Give Thanks

My Thanksgiving Card--

I wanted to make a fall card.The pumpkins were made using an oval punch for the ones in the background and a circle punch for the one in front. The card stock was a yellow gold that I found at a garage sale some years ago for less than 50 cents for a large stack. After punching each piece, I sponged the edges with Cajun Craze ink. The card base is Cajun Craze. Crumb Cake card stock was embossed to create the brick wall. Before cutting the leaves, I sponged the cardstock with ink. I used the small maple leaf die from the new Stampin' Up thinlet set called "Seasonal Layers". The sentiment is from a retired Stampin' Up set called "Holiday Best".

Christmas Bells

SC661

I printed a copy of this week's Splitcoast Stampers sketch Wednesday morning. I didn't get to work on a card until late this morning. I knew I wanted to make a Christmas card. I pulled out a sheet of designer paper that I thought might work well with my new stamp set "Seasonal Bells". After trying many color combinations, this is what I created.

First -- the sketch

Now for my card. The designer paper is from Graphic 45's St. Nicholas Collection. The card base is real red card stock. The yellow was a scrap piece so I do not know what color it is. It just worked. I used Memento Rick Cocoa ink to do my stamping. The sentiment is from a new Stampin' Up set called "Snowflake Sentiments".  For the bells, I used the stamp set "Seasonal Bells" with the coordinating punch. The red bow was made using a new Memory Box die that I purchased yesterday. When I saw it, I knew that it was one I had to have.

I started to use an embossing folder on the yellow piece, but I ended up adding score lines 1/4-inch along all four sides. A simple process but it does add a little interest.

Thanks for visiting my blog today.

Weekly  Favorite for week ending Sept. 9, 2017

Christmas Cards Continued

The last few days, I have been enjoying going through my Christmas stamps and dies. I am finding some lovely stamps and dies that have never been used or used very little. These two cards were made with some Our Daily Bread Designs dies that I got a couple of years ago. I had cut it out before but never finished a card.

The die set, from Our Daily Bread Designs, is called "Delightful Decorations" released in 2015. The cardstock used in this first card is Stampin' Up's Cherry Cobbler. The top layer of the ornament is a gold foil cardstock that I found at JoAnn's. The sentiment comes from Our Daily Bread Designs set called "Christmas Mimi". I added two score lines above and below the sentiment to give a little more interest to the white background.

A special tip--When I have scraps of green cardstock left over, I try to cut as many leaves and branches as I can get out of that piece. I store them in a clear stamp box until needed. I love using different shades of greenery in a single project. I think it gives a natural feel to the card and adds more interest to the design.

This second card uses the second top layer die of the same set. The accent layer of cardstock on this card is Stampin' Up's Rich Razzleberry. The branch of greenery came from my little box. I also found the embossed piece of white card stock laying on my work space. Just had to trim one side. This is a 4 1/4-inch square card. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up's set called "Petite Pairs".

Card Sample for Christmas

I am beginning to think about my "Christmas cards" for 2018. I know that it seems a long way off. I would really like to have some ideas of what I am going to do this year so I can begin to prepare. Last year I was not able to get started until after Thanksgiving and I remember how frustrated I felt. I don't want that to happen this year. I love Christmas and I want it to be a happy time.

Here is one of my first samples. I saw a card made like this on Pinterest but when I went back to see it, I could not find it among my "pins". So this was done from my memory (which is not always right). That being said, I really do like this card. A little time consuming but quite easy.

For the card base I used Stampin' Up's Island Indigo cardstock and ink. After cutting the oval from the front panel, I wanted to add some embossing texture. So I cut a piece of  cardstock 4 1/4" x 5 1/2".  After some careful measuring, I cut out the oval to match the original card base and then used my new "Holly" embossing folder. It was then glued to the card front.

For the inside card, I started with a white piece measuring 8" x 5 1/4" folded in half. I placed the card on the inside of the card base and lightly traced some of the oval. I added my stamped image and erased the marks. Then I opened it and stamped the inside greeting.  Finally, I glued the inside card on to the inside back of the card base. I think it creates a unique fold. I don't have a name for the fold but I really do like it. Different.