CASEd Christmas Card

For my aunt to send as her cards, I CASEd this card from the Stampin' Up! 2010-11 Idea book.  I used Home for Christmas set last year for my cards and this year I'm rotating the sets around so everyone gets a fresh look on their cards.  I'll also make cards for my Mother and for me to send.

I did change the colors some since I had quite a bit of this Scarlett Jewel paper and had more green ribbons to work with.  Project notes:

• The catalog card had little jewels for dotting the 'i' in Christmas and on the wreath.  To keep the bulk down for mailing, I used a silver pen from Creative Memories. 

• The wreath is colored in with a combo of markers and watercolor crayons.  Since marker colors run with water, I used the marker first and then went over everything with a crayon and blender pen for a 'blended' effect.

Thanks for visiting!

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Home for Christmas by SU!; pine branch from Inkadinkado
Ink:  Staz-on Timber Brown, various markers and crayons from SU!; Scarlett Jewel from PTI
Cardstock:  Scarlett Jewel from PTI; Garden Green and Crumb Cake from SU!
Ribbon:  Fabric Store

Fall Bargains!

Who doesn't love a deal?!  Stampin' Up! has a bunch of stuff on close-out from the last catalog at http://www.stampinup.com/  Go to Store and Clearance Rack.   Remember that several of last year's In Colors are part of this year's current colors so the marker pack and the paper pack are especially great deals if you don't alreay have them.  There is a link on my site to my demonstrator Jean.  Use a demonstrator's store for the lowest price.

Also http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/  is having a free shipping on orders over $25.  This is just for a couple of days.  What a great time to pick up a few of those things on your wish list!  My problem is that my wish list just grows and grows! 

Finally, last year http://www.addictedtoscrapbooking.com/ had a big Thanksgiving weekend sale.  I don't know if they are doing that again this year or not but it is something to think about.

Happy shopping!

TIPsy Tuesday - Marker Storage

Yesterday, I was wondering what I would do for TIPsy Tuesday today.  About a half hour later I was frustrated that I couldn't find a new SU! marker amid my marker chaos drawer of loose markers and ones packaged with the old color families.  I've been wanting to get them out of that drawer and more at hand.  Seemed like the perfect time.

Here's my fast and very cheap solution for marker storage:

• I bought plastic drink cups at Dollar Tree - 3 cups for a $1.
• I lined part of the inside of the lip of each cup with several folded layers of felt.  This is to build up this edge so the markers will lay more level keeping both ends moist and keeping them from falling out.  I sewed the layers of felt together before gluing in place to reduce the amount of glue.  One row of Glue Dots Continous Line held each in place.
• The cups are then screwed through the bottom to a board supporting a shelf over my work table. 

So far my arrangement is using the new color families with the old markers mixed in where appropriate - example:  Soft Subtles are with Subtles.  Earth Elements will go together with Regals since I never bought the  Rich Regals markers.  

Hopefully, I'll use my markers more now that they are at hand.

Happy day!  Thanks for visiting.

DSP Day - DSP Background and Foreground in 1

Don't you just hate to cover up so much of your pretty designer paper with other card layers?  Well, cut it out!  That is, cut out the some of the design being covered up and use it somewhere else on the card.

Here's an example using the Candy Cane Christmas paper from Stampin' Up! These little trees are just perfect to cut out and use separately.  Yet the rest of the paper's smaller elements are very pretty too.

I cut this out carefully starting in the middle of the paper.  Then I colored in parts of the tree since it was just a line drawing.  Often you can use the cut out element without further embellishment.

The only thing to be careful of is to use good cardstock behind the are you have cut out.  You don't want a 'hole' to shine through if someone handles your card with light shining behind it.  Otherwise, no one will be the wiser of your frugality.

Thanks for visitng today!  Hope you'll find lots of creative ways to use those pretty papers.

Ingredients all by Stampin' UP! except ink:  Stamps:  A Cute Christmas

Ink:  Staz-on black, Real Red

Cardstock:  Garden Green, Real Red, Whisper White

DSP:  Candy Cane Christmas

Catch a Wave

One of the joys of scrapbooking is getting to relive an experience through the pictures and process of putting together a layout.  I remember the hot sun, cool sand, and big smiles of everyone playing in the waves this summer.

I didn't have any pattern paper to really compliment these photos so I pulled lots of blue cardstock from my stash.  For the sunshine, I was wary of painting or stamping right on my background figuring yellow would not show up that much.  I remembered a technique from Erika Ghumm, contributor to Scrapbooks, Etc. magazine.  Print or stamp a line art design on the front of a transparency and then fill in the lines with paint on the back  You don't have to be overly precise as the lines hide the edges of your painting.  I hand drew my sun and rays with a Sharpie before painting.  Then just cut everything out and glued in place.   The transparency gives a nice finish that doesn't show in the photo.

The whitecaps are chipboard elements I've had forever from Oriental trading.  They are painted and then sponged with Whisper White craft ink. 

It was wonderful to remember such fun summer days and nice to work through some of my stash.

Week 2 of Distress Class

Following this week's video by Jennifer McGuire, I did two samples of inked backgrounds and then stamped and embossed trees on them.  This smaller sample fit perfectly into Splitcoaststampers card sketch for the week.  

Here's the second card.  Project notes below...

Project Notes:

• For both cards, I inked my acrylic block with Weathered Wood and Peeled Paint distress inks and then misted.  I can not find my water mister!  So I used Angel's glimmer mist instead for a nice effect.
• Then I pressed the block to watercolor paper and repeated as necessary to get enough ink coverage.  I probably would not had to have repeated if I'd had just water.  I then spread the ink with my fingers which caused a lot of staining - my fingers, not the paper.  The paper looked very nice.  Next time I think I would spread the ink with something other than my fingers!
• I let all this dry overnight since I wanted to do some embossing.
• The trees on the first card and the main tree on the second are stamped in Versamark and embossed in white.  The shadowed trees are just stamped in Whisper White.   
• The ribbon is raveled and inked as well to go with the aged look. 
• To create the background for the first card, I stamped some images - script words and flourishes in Versamark and then inked the entire card in Weathered Wood.

I really enjoyed this inking technique for the background.  Check out Jennifer's videos at http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/ .  I'd like to try this again when I find my water spritzer!

Ingredients:  Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, All Holidays from Stampin' Up!;  Text basics from Papertrey Ink; Flourishes from Paper Studio

Cardstock:  Bordering Blue, Soft Suede

DSP:  Soft Suede by SU!; Periphery by Basic Grey

Ink:  Versamark, Whisper White by SU!, Not Quite Navy; Peeled Paint, Weathered Wood, Vintage Photo by Ranger

Brad:  Oriental Trading

Ribbon: Old Olive by SU!; Gold source unknown.

Trick or Treat

Here's my one Halloween card for this year.  It's not really my holiday.  There is one special Trick or Treater to honor and he will find a treat on the inside of this card in the pocket...

Project Notes:

• The front of the card is mainly a designer paper from Basic Grey.  It was heavily distressed and really perfect for Halloween.  I just stamped the skull and bones.
• The letters are cut with SCAL software on the Cricut from a font I downloaded from dafont.com.
• The sheer ribbon was meant to disguise a mistake I made on the front but I really love the effect.  It looks like a pirate's bandana or whatever the head wrap thing is called.

Now I just have to figure out what the treat is going to be and get this in the mail.  A 9 year old boy - what would he like?  Halloween treat suggestions welcome.   Thanks.

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Inkadinkado

Ink:  Basic Black, Dusty Durango, White gel pen

DSP:  Basic Grey Periphery; Creative Memories for the orange

Font:  Mary Jane Windlin from dafont.com

Ribbon:  Hobby Lobby fabric dept.



TIPsy Tuesday - Holiday Cards with non holiday supplies

This is the first holiday season that I have actually purchased an entire paper collection themed for the holidays - Candy Cane Christmas from Stampin' Up!  It's very pretty and I'm enjoying working with it.  However, it is very holiday themed so come December 26 it will get put away for a year.  What I normally do is pull papers, embellishments and even some stamps from my regular stash.

Look through your paper stash and I'll bet you have lots of things you can use for Christmas or other holiday cards that aren't specific to the holiday.  The only thing specific to Christmas on the card above is the tree stamps that were part of a Christmas set.  The other ingredients are:

• designer paper from Pink Paislee 365 degree paper pad
• naturals white cardstock from Stampin' Up!
• DMC cord bought on close out at Hobby Lobby.  It is kind of a mustard color but it matches the paper and the 'lights and star' I colored in for the trees.
• the message stamp is from Mailbox Greetings - an all purpose set from Papertrey Ink.

I love to buy Christmas stamps but they can get limiting and it really adds up for one holiday.  So 'shop your stash' and find many great things to use for this year's holiday cards.

One project note:  To keep the trees light enough, I used watercolor crayon and blender pen for coloring the base and then markers for the decorations.

Thanks for visiting today!