Scrapping by Design

Here are three more Christmas cards that I made this year.

The top picture shows two cards made with glittery embossed backgrounds, reindeer die cuts made from velvet paper, ribbon and gold stickers spelling Merry Christmas. The reindeer have a red nose made from glitter glue.

In the middle card, I used blue Bazzil card stock and a paler shade of blue scrapbook paper with snowflakes. I stamped a pine cone from a rubber stamp and black die ink. The ornament is a Memories die cut using sparkly paper. I used a blue and winter-white string to “hang” the ornament. The words Christmas Joy are stamped with a stamp from Quietfire Design.

The bottom card was more or less an experiment. I used red card stock, and cut a large label shape from the middle of it. The inside of the card is lined with green card stock, which is showing through the hole.  I cut a couple of holiday tree shapes using a die and patterned scrapbook paper.

The corner die cut was given to me in a swap, but it seemed to work well for this card. The words Merry Christmas are gold stickers.

I made this greeting card as a RAK (random act of kindness) for a member of one of my groups.

The card blends distressed, vintage styles. I have torn the edges of the green scrapbook paper, and added distress inks to the edges of the background card stock.

The vintage image is cut from scrapbook paper, and replicates a little girl showing an outfit in a mail order catalog.

The text at the bottom, also cut from scrapbook paper, reads, “practice twirling in circles.”

I added a few paper flowers as embellishments.

It’s a bit late to be posting Christmas cards, but oh well, what can I say? I am a slacker from time to time.

Anyways, I made these two kid’s Christmas cards for my friend’s grandchildren.

The boy gets the train one and the girl gets the other with the rocking horse.

Both of the die cuts are made using the Cricut and the Joys of the Season cartridge.

I put double sided sticky tape behind the cut outs and then sprinkled with clear glitter.

The green card is dry embossed using the Big Shot and an embossing folder.

The “rick rack” is cut using a Bigz die and the Big Shot. I used glittery chip board to make the die cuts.

Merry Christmas is a gold peel away sticker.

I made this birthday card at a class at Scrap Arts in North Vancouver. The instructor and designer was the hugely talented Dee Filmore. The card is suitable for masculine tastes, but I think many women would like it as well.

The background is card stock that has been scored at half inch intervals then colored with Distress Ink.

The desert image is stamped and colored with water colour pencils.

The Happy Birthday Text is also a stamp.

I am falling in love with water color pencils. You can get such a lovely, muted pastel effect with beautiful blending.   I have 36.  You can get them at Amazon: water color pencils

I noticed a challenge at Scrapbookers Paradise. The challenge is to create a card using THREE old items from your stash.

With this attempt, every component was created from my stash.

The card uses three scraps of leftover scrapbook paper, one chunk  of Bazzill Bling card stock, a VERY old 3-D sticker and an old floral shaped brad.

I sort of cut the scrapbook paper into various shapes, then assembled.   I used a Nestabilities die cut to cut one paper into a scalloped circle.

I tried to jazz up the sticker a little by putting some clear glitter on top.

I also punched tiny flower shapes out of  the corner of the blocking scrapbook paper, then glued the tiny flowers elsewhere.

The word “enjoy” is a stamped image.

It’s unusual but it certainly meets the criteria of using three items from the stash. 🙂

At a make and take last week, at Making Memories with Scrapbooking in Burnaby, I realized that brass templates are great tools for creating heat embossed images. This came as a wonderful surprise, since I have a stack of brass templates that have not used very often.

If you have never done heat embossing, you are missing out on a great technique. I have a video demo showing how to do heat embossing at this link.

Here is a video demo showing how to do heat embossing using brass templates:

I bought tons of brass stencils or templates at eBay. This link goes to the current auctions for brass templates.

This is the front and back view of a snowman card I made using the paper layering technique.

I drew the snowman shape on printer paper, then traced that shape onto white card stock.

I am not sure if you can tell from the picture, but the snowman is a cut out shape with a flat enough bottom that the card will stand upright when opened slightly.

After cutting out the snowman shape from the white card stock,  I cut pieces of scrapbook paper and card stock to form the clothing on the snowman.

The fun thing about this card is that you can decorate it almost endlessly, using all sorts of embellishments.

On this card, I have used a real button on the front of the sweater.  I used felt fabric (available at Michaels and other craft stores for less than a dollar) for the scarf and for the cuffs around the sleeves and the “fur” trim on the sweater bottom.  The red trim on the “gifts” is ribbon.  The white bulky material on the basket and on the snowman’s body is made with a product called Snow Writer.

The band around the hat is made made with a strip of fabric and the feather is a real feather that came off my friend’s budgie.

The broom handle is made with some scraps of “cork” paper.  I made the broom bristles with card stock and a colored pencil.

The basket handle is gold elastic, also available at places like Michaels Arts and Crafts store.

I drew the eyes with black pen and used a bit of orange card stock for the carrot nose.

The sweater is cut from scrapbook paper that has a knitting design.  Unfortunately, I made an oopsie when  was cutting the sweater. The cable stitching should be going vertically rather than horizontally. My knitting friends will be sure to point this out. LOL

The snowman card is a good way for using up scraps of papers and ribbons and so forth. It could be used as a card, or as a decoration. Smaller ones could be used as place cards for the holiday table.

I will be giving mine to a couple of kids at Christmas time.

Those Christmas cards from the CST group are still coming.

This beautiful silver and blue card features snowflake embossing on the metallic blue paper and a swirly embossing on the silver paper.

The star at the card top is a punched shape, I think, and the Merry Christmas is stamped in blue ink.

Another interesting feature of this card was the gorgeous envelope it came in. The envelope is hand made out of a calendar. The outside has an attractive design that could be any kind of paper, but when you open it you can see the calendar boxes inside.

I plan to save calendar pictures to make envelopes from now on. What a great idea.

Thanks to Melanie Wortman for making and sending this lovely Christmas card.

Today’s mail brought these two lovely stamped Christmas cards from the CST stamp exchange.

The elegant  top card features hanging balls or ornaments stamped in navy ink on a light beige card stock. The beige is matted  on a slightly darker  brown card stock, which in turn is bordered with a silver frame.

The card itself has a solid navy card stock on top and a light brown card stock with tiny navy triangles as a border.

The sender, Christal Dueck,  included a note saying the border stencil is by Creatis.

“Seasons Greetings is a silver sticker along the right-hand side.  The card’s  inside is beautifully and simply stamped with the word Peace.

The second card, equally lovely, was a bit of a mystery to me.  That is, it was a mystery in that  didn’t know if the background paper came with the subtle shading or if the card maker colored the paper.

The card creator, Dianne King from Montreal,  kindly shared the secret: “I used smooth, white card stock and with a sponge built up layers of different blue dye inks, beginning with the lightest shade.  If I recall, the image itself was colored with alcohol markers and then I added some Twinkling H2Os to give it a bit of a shimmer,” she wrote.

Tastefully applied glitter also  appears here and there.

Tiny silver snowflakes, which I believe are stickers,  enhance the card further, and a delicate band of gold highlights the layers.  “Celebrate the Season” is stamped inside.

Thanks, ladies. These two stamped Chrismas cards are simply lovely.

It’s such fun knowing the mail carrier is bringing these lovely, hand made holiday cards instead of the usual collection of bills and junk mail.

Yesterday, I received this lovely Christmas card from Ardelle McFarland, a member of the Canadian Stamp Talk (CST) Yahoo group. We are participating in a Holiday card exchange.

As always, Ardelle’s card is perfection. It combines  Cuttlebug embossing, a Spellbinder Nestability shape, stamped images, a small punch art flower with a beaded center and striped ribbon. The inside is just as lovely.

All elements in this card are perfectly color coordinated. Even the gray and maroon striped ribbon is an exact match of the card stock and the stamping ink.

Thank you Ardelle! Yours was the first card to arrive.