Color Throwdown Card for a Kid

Non-traditional colors for a Color Throwdown child's Christmas card:  turquoise, orange, gray/silver.   I chose the perennial favorite "Snowy" from Penny Black, paper pieced the hat and scarf and layered it on turquoise and metallic silver cardstock.  Turquoise dots accent the piece, with "Joy" from Penny Black.  A Wink of Stella adds some glitter to the orange pieces, although it isn't evident in the photo. 

Freshly Made Sketch -- First Christmas Card

Freshly Made Sketch 409 provided the template for my first Christmas card.  The die cut poinsettia was colored with watercolor pens, layered with white and popped on a foam dot.  I decided on an otherwise all-white background for the red poinsettia and the black sentiment.  Both white pieces were dry embossed to provide some interest. 

Getting Sketchy with Sunday Stamps

Trying to get back into the card-making after a lengthy absence... The Sunday Stamps sketch is perfect for another Christmas card, which has already gone in the mail!

When I decided to use the Memory Box pillar candles die, I knew I wanted more than just the outline.  Removing only one piece on each candle worked beautifully, and the solid red candles provided the perfect background for my often-used "merry" die from PoppyStamps. 

Christmas Color Throwdown

This Color Throwdown 519 is my favorite color combination right now!  It's fresh and vibrant.  I used a Penny Black die to cut a tree from the turquoise and a glitter silver cardstock, placing them on a layer dry-embossed with snowflakes.  The sentiment is from a collection of holiday greetings (no ID).  More silver was added to snowflake centers with tiny silver adhesive balls. 

CAS Watercolor Holiday

My CAS Watercolor Holiday card features a Stampendous poinsettia with a PoppyStamps diecut.  

Once again, I used my Peerless watercolors to color the poinsettia that I stamped and heat-embossed.  After painting the flower, I dry embossed it with dots, and then accented the image in gold and clear Wink of Stella. The "merry" diecuts are from metallic gold cardstock, which is getting a lot of use this Christmas season. (My photo is not good because the dark rainy day provided no natural light.)

Back to the real world... Mojo Monday

Amazing how a week away from home for Thanksgiving makes it difficult to get into the swing of things again!  I have three card challenges ahead of me, and Mojo Monday is the first --- here on Wednesday!

I went to the obvious Christmas theme (I actually have my 45 cards made already) and chose Penny Black for the die and the sentiment.  Embossing folders provide the texture on the background layers. 

More Stickeroo Christmas Cards

Finally, I'm using the Penny Black Stickeroos that I buy so readily!  My previous card-making stint produced 17, and I have completed 5 of this particular theme.

Mojo Monday -- Red and Silver

I love red and silver, but I guess I love many different color combinations. For this week's Mojo Monday sketch, once again, I chose specialty paper from Echo Park's Dots and Stripes, this one from the Winter Silver Dots pack. The paper is two-sided, with the solid color (dry embossed in a folder) on the reverse of the dots.  A heavy piece of Bazzill metallic silver cardstock was perfect for the PoppyStamps "merry" diecut and banner.  The card base is Slate Gray from SU!.  (I love the silver "thread" from Stampin' Up!)  

Mass Production in an afternoon

We have an old, very small congregation in our church (9 couples and 8 widows/widowers), so making Christmas cards isn't all that difficult.  I went fairly simple this year, choosing to use Penny Black Stickeroos.  Every card has multiple layers, at least one of which has been dry embossed.  All I have to do now is add the Christmas sentiment inside and a handwritten note.  This is the earliest I've ever had church Christmas cards finished. (Somewhere in the resulting mess is another pine bough but I can't find it.)

Tuesday Mailing Plus Christmas

My Tuesday cards this week are doing double duty: I made a dozen more to mail as Christmas cards, one of three designs this year.   They are definitely non-traditional colors, but I've grown to love the  kraft, for some reason.  The tree die is a new one from Sizzix and the sentiment is an old Hero Arts stamp.   Next week, my Tuesday card recipients will get a second Christmas card.

Less is More with More Than One Tree

It's a theme challenge this week on Less Is More: "more than one tree."  I can't believe how much difficulty I had arriving at this very simple card.  The trees and sentiment are heat-embossed in white and a pretty Cuttlebug embossing folder provided the design on the side.

Freshly Made with Poinsettias

A Christmas card....giving in to the inevitable.  The Tim Holtz stamp and  Sizzix die serve well for this week's sketch on Freshly Made Sketches. 

The image and the sentiment were colored with markers and spritzed with water before being stamped on watercolor paper.  The poinsettias were die cut twice and popped on foam squares to provide substance to the image.

Just in time for Christmas!

I have neglected my crafting blog because of my obsession with photography this past year.   Today, I completed a card for my cancer-fighting friend.

Needing more practice

I hesitated to post this card .... I probably should have blurred the image to help disguise the messy results!  Inspired by Jacqueline of My Scrap Basket, who makes a specialty of "grid" cards, I CASEd one of her creations that features alcohol inks in the background and images embossed in gold.  

Limited Edition Christmas cards

I think I'm making only 4 of these cards, because cutting out petals and applying them with foam dots requires a lot of time! This wonderful poinsettia image is from Stampendous, and it's perfect for creating a colorful, dimensional card. I stamped on heavy watercolor paper and heat-embossed in black. Then I used Copic markers to color the flower and leaves (which are really all leaves on a poinsettia, I believe. The yellow center is the actual 'flower' part). Repeat that process with another image and cut apart the red parts of the poinsettia. At this point, I decided to paint with iridescent Twinkling H2O's....iridescent red and iridescent green. I added gold Stickles to the center, which was also popped up on foam after being cut apart. Because I wanted to use Vintage Silver Lustre from Paper Temptress for the 5" card base, I decided to glisten things up even more, so I sprayed silver Glimmer Mist over the image and the green and black layers. It worked beautifully.