Christmas Card Club - Nativity Scene Card 50

It is Sue J at  Olliesmam 's turn to choose the theme for our Christmas Card Club.  Sue chose Nativity Cards as our theme this fortnight. This is a great theme for me as I like to make a religious themed card that captures the true spirit of Christmas.  So thanks for this great challenge, Sue! If you would like to check out the other girl's cards, the links are on my right sidebar.

My mojo was a wee bit tired...so I took my inspiration from this card on Taylored Expressions blog.

I did not have that exact ribbon on hand and remember that I have not been purchasing consumables...so I used what I had on hand. This was a very enjoyable card to make as I think it captures the true meaning of Christmas! Thanks again Sue J for the wonderful theme this fortnight.

Here is my take on the pinterest card...

I am skipping this card number ahead of my other finished cards posts as I wanted to be able to share with you that this in my 50th card! 50 cards without purchasing any consumables was quite easy to do. I even went to the scrapbook shops a few times...bought a couple of dies and a stamp for a friend. I did purchase my exceptions... Sook Wang tape and the heavy weight paper that I usually cut my cards from. I managed to get both for 40% off so that was a bonus.

I did not actually use much of that paper as I decided to try and make an effort to use the precut, folded card sets that I have on hand. They are thinner and flimsier, but that does allow some leeway for adding embellishments and still getting the card through the regular mail slot! Once I use these thinner cards up, I will switch back to cutting my own cards as I sure like the look and feel of the heavier weight paper!

I am going to come out of the freezer tomorrow for one day. It is the scrapbook store's garage sale. Bargains abound at these sales and I plan to shop there tomorrow. The shop itself has 25% off everything in the store for the day. I plan to purchase some Memory Box dies and perhaps a new style Spellbinders set. Then I am placing myself right back in the freezer until I make 50 more paper projects! Stay tuned to this blog for my next 29 posts and you will have seen all of this first 50!!!

****************This is card #50 of 50. I am on a consumables spending freeze until I have made 50 cards (Sook Wang tape and heavy weight card stock are exempt).***************

Recipe
Card Base and Envelope - from my stash
Card Stock - snippets of Kraft and white
Stamp - Stampendous, manger
Ribbon - twill ribbon from stash
Twine - snippet of jute twine

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
1. Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets
2. Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - must be Christmas
3. MFP Speedy TV Christmas Card Challenge - must be Christmas
4. Two Peas In A Bucket - Christmas in June - must be Christmas
5. Christmas Card Club - must be Christmas

May 2014 Rudolph Day - Card 19 and Card 20

Once again, it is the 25th of the month (British time) and time to join Sarn over at Stamping For Pleasure. From the  25th till the end of each month,  Sarn hosts a Rudolph Day challenge on her blog. You must submit two cards on the same post, and they must be Christmas themed! Pop on over and check it out. She usually has a lovely little prize you can win...

Made these two Christmas cards while I was helping out at my Mum's. Her next door neighbour is the kindest lady. She loaned me a folding banquet table which I set up in Mum's guest room. I was then able to make a couple of cards while I was there.

Card 19
The sand is made by freehand cutting some sand dunes from kraft card stock and inking the edges
I then matted the Three Wise Men with glitter//shimmer paper. I thought it was fitting for their stature!
I wish I had stamped the image onto a larger piece of cardstock as I feel that the image is tucked too low on the card. I only had one image with me, so I was stuck with the look of this one...
 I placed a clear diamond bling in the Star...trying to make it look like the Star of Wonder, Star of Light.

Sorry about the glare off the RV window...it is very sunny here today! The light is catcching on the purple glitter paper and this was the best photo of the bunch...

Recipe
Card base and envelope - hand cut card and envelope from my stash
DP - Best Creations, Christmas Wishes
Card Stock - snippets of kraft card stock
Ink - ColorBok  Chalk Ink, Chestnut Roan
Stamp - Stampendous, Travelling Far
Sentiment Stamp - Hobby Art Wise Men

Card 20
The topper is by Wild Rose Studio, matted on some very dark green glittery plaid paper. The card base is covered in a snowflake patterned kraft look DP and the Merry Christmas is from my stash. I kept this card quite simple and just added the sentiment and one layered poinsettia from my stash. That is one more stash flower used up, so I have adjusted the flower ticker at the top of my blog!

Recipe
Card base and envelope -  from my stash
DP - Best Creations, Christmas Wishes
Sentiment - from a sheet of preprinted Xmas sentiments, from my stash
Flower - layered poinsettia from my stash
Image - Wild Rose Studio Bluebell topper from my stash

Once again,  I had to leave the inside of these cards till I get home again. I just could not bring everything with  me that I would need to stamp and finish those too.  I have quite a pile of cards to finish up...will have to do a catch up post of them all completed!

****************These are cards #19 and card #20 of 50. I am on a consumables spending freeze until I have made 50 cards (Sook Wang tape and heavy weight card stock are exempt).***************

I am entering these cards in the following challenges:
1. Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets
2. Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - must be Christmas
3. MFP Speedy TV Christmas Card Challenge - must be Christmas
4. Stamping for Pleasure Rudolph Day - must be Christmas and two cards on one post
5. Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - must cover card with paper

Handyman Card - Card 18

Do you have a handyman in your family? Seems every extended family has at least one.  Found this stamp in my recent tidy up of my craft room and decided to put it to ink.

I inked a lot of the dies this time as they wrinkled and tore so badly on my inky last card. This worked out so much better on the big frame around the image. That was the bit I had the most trouble with last time. Not getting it damp seemed to be the answer.

I am planing to do a few more of these cards. I will use watercolour paper for the dies next time. That should solve the paper problems I encounterted.  I don't think I would use the script Happy birthday with these again. Now that I see it blown up for the computer, I think it looks too girly!!! Not to mention, slightly crooked! lol

I am also going to try the image embossed with black EP next time. I think that will help it pop off the card a bit as it seems to blend in  too much on this card.

I will finish the inside of all the cards I have made both at Mum's and while up at the lake, once I am home again. I just did not have enough room to bring verse style stamps and do not have access to a printer here to do computer generated verses.

****************This is card #18 of 50. I am on a consumables spending freeze until I have made 50 cards (Sook Wang tape and heavy weight card stock are exempt).***************

Recipe:
Card base - Kraft corrugated card and envelope from my stash (originally from Michael's)
DP - snippets of Scrabble tile paper from my stash. Will have to update the name of the measuring tape paper once I am home, as I did not jot it down.
Card Stock - Snippets of cream for the dies cuts
Jute - from my stash (given to me by my friend)
Dies -Spellbinders Cogs and Elizabeth Happy Bithday
Stamp - Stampin' Up
Enamel dots - black dots from my stash

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
1. Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets
2. Crafty hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - must cover card with paper

New Baby - Card 17

This new baby card was made with some Vos (very Old Stash). It feels good to use some of it up as I have had this design paper since Little Mr P was born...well, maybe even about 7 months before!

These were scraps from 12x12 paper I used in his scrapbook layouts. I believe it is K&Co but I am not sure anymore as he is now 6 years old. The chipboard BOY and Cute pieces are also VOS from the dollar store. Again from his baby layout leftovers.

Anyone remember those vellum quote booklets? Well, I managed to hold onto them long enough that it seems vellum is back in. I am sure it now supposed to be used in a different way, but this little verse seemed perfect for this card. Only 7,000 various quotes left to use up! Here is a photo of it...

Recipe
Card Base and Envelope - from my stash, given to me by a friend while I was in England
Design Paper - I think it is K and CO...snippets from my stash
Card Stock - snippets of turquoise from my stash
Chipboard - From my stash, originally from the Dollar Store
Vellum quote - Booklet of vellum quotes from my stash

****************This is card #17 of 50. I am on a consumables spending freeze until I have made 50 cards (Sook Wang tape and heavy weight card stock are exempt).***************

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
1. Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets

Christmas Card Club #11 A Button, Two Brads, Ribbon And One Other Embellishment - Card 16

I had a fun time making this card for my fortnightly Christmas Card Club. It was Zoe at Stamping Scene's turn to pick a theme and it sure was fun!  Many of you know that I am on a stash busting mission. This theme was right up my alley as I was able to choose items I wanted to use up. I'm sure you all have those kind of bits and bobs hidden away in your craft rooms too.  Little bits of 2 or 3 items left over from larger packets. It is a good feeling when we manage to use up the last of these little treasures!   lol

I tried hard to break my mitchy/matchy mold and combine some colours that I do not usually put together. I wanted the image and the pink die cut I chose, to stand out on the DP.  The two design papers are quite heavily embossed with opalescent snowflakes. It seemed that I would have to introduce a third colour or those papers would have dominated my card.  Hope I was right!

I have a bit of a confession. I had to stray a bit from the brief! I made up some card kits at home and took them with me to Mum's. Her neighbour kindly loaned me a folding table and I set up a little craft area in the guest room. Somehow I managed to lose the third snowflake brad.  It was going to sit on the large snowflake to the left of the image. I had to shift the image over to hide that it was missing! The brads are my VOS item. I think they are at least 10 years old...felt good to use them. The green sparkly self adhesive ribbon is another golden oldie...originally from the dollar store.

As you have probably guessed, the pink diamonds are my "other"  embellishment.
The chipboard button is a NBUS item from a recent RAK win.  I liked that it was a self adhesive style. Easy peasy!

I was not able to finish the inside of the cards I made at Mum's. I will have to finish them once I am home again. There was a limit of what I could manage to carry on the bus. lol

****************This is card #16 of 50. I am on a consumables spending freeze until I have made 50 cards (Sook Wang tape and heavy weight card stock are exempt).***************

Recipe:
Card base and envelope -  from my stash
Design Paper - Best Creations, Christmas Wishes glitter embosssed papers
Card stock - snippets of pink and white card from my stash
Dies - Spellbinders
Snowflake brads - VOS, from my stash
Button - NBUS, from my stash
Bling - pink diamonds from my stash
Ribbon - VOS, from my stash
Stamp - forgot to jot down the name...sorry

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
1. Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets
2. MFP Speedy TV Christmas Card Challenge - must be Christmas
3. Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - must be Christmas
4. Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - must cover card with paper
.

Guys and Trucks - Card 15

I made a couple of masculine cards for my girlfriend. Remember that gift set of purple cards I showed you a couple of posts ago? Well, these are the masculine cards I made for her as well.  I made the purple cards for the feminine cards, as that is her favourite colour; and rusty metal cogs and wheels for the guy cards, as she works in an Auto Parts store.

Some of her auto parts come wrapped in new burlap bags, so I used a bit of the burlap she has kindly given me.
I ran a Spellbinders cog die through my Big Shot and then smooshed the paper through the TH stains on my craft mat. I think I did something wrong as the paper seemed to get soaking wet and lose it's crispness. Perhaps I should have used the watercolour paper...I will try that next time. When I dried the cogs with the heat gun, the paper seemed ready to tear and actually did on the pointy frame around the image. Probably would have been better to just let it dry...but wanted to get them finished to take up to her when I am at my Mum's on Monday.

I used my old Stampin Up truck this time, but will check out the internet for some images of old antique trucks for the next card. Yes, there will be a next card...batch baking I think! On the next ones I think I will drag half sheets of the paper through the stain and let it dry thoroughly....and then cut it with the dies. Should prevent tearing, methinks! If it still tears, then it will have to be back to the watercolour paper, I guess.

I kept the inside fairly simple. Just the sentiment verse with a cog tucked in behind! Forgot to take a photo of it. Drat...Here is a photo to show the look of the Wink of Stella |Pen. I used it on the truck body, and the dies. You can see from this closeup how the paper kind of lost it's crisp look and got tattered looking...

****************This is card #15 of 50. I am on a consumables spending freeze until I have made 50 cards (Sook Wang tape and heavy weight card stock are exempt).***************


Recipe
Card Base - corrugated Kraft square card from my stash
Design Paper - don't have my book handy that I record the deets in...will update this when I am home
Card Stock - snippet of Kraft card, snippets of cream heavy weight card for the cogs and sentiment
Dies - Spellbinders Cogs; Elizabeth Crafts, Happy Birthday
Stains - Tim Holtz Frayed Burlap, Spiced Marmalade, Bundled Sage
Burlap - from my stash (given by my friend)
Ink - Ingvild Bolme black chalk ink
Stamp - Stampin Up Truck
Enamel dots - from my stash. I got these for 80% off, after Halloween

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

1. Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets

A Butterfly and doily for Mrs A and Mothers Day - Card 14

Happy Mothers Day to all my friends. Hope you got thoroughly spoiled today!!!
.
Our plans had to be put temporarily on hold. My youngest has a terrible cold and I leave tomorrow to look after my Mum (for a week again).  Mum just got over double pneumonia, so we can't risk me bringing any germs her way. Eldest daughter has been helping out her sister so has been exposed to the germs as well! Drat...We had a buffet brunch planned and had all the food in...even Strawberry Shortcake for dessert.

We shall celebrate Mothers Day together with Fathers Day when we are home again in June! Sounds good to me as it is going to be a very busy day here anyway. We had our annual perennial plant sale yesterday and so were kept busy Friday and even early Saturday morning, getting ready. We managed to finish the packing, set up the watering system for our gardens here and did a last minute shop! I must confess that I have a bit of a mountain of laundry to catch up on as well!

Here is the card I am taking to my Mum. We will have our own little Mothers Day celebration tomorrow.  This card fits in with Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge theme this fortnight. This is a true snippets card. The pink doily was punched from snippets and filed away in the photo albums I use for die cut storage. The scalloped circle is from those die cut snippets as well. The "You Are Special" is from a bunch of sentiments I stamped out for the grandkids to use, and then snitched one back for myself! lol I love to have prestamped items filed away, ready to be pressed into service. If I am inking a stamp, I like to stamp a few pieces before I clean it and put it away. How about you?

When I set the pink felt flowers in the corners, they looked lost. Everything I tried under them, didn't look right. Finally I found something that worked...hope Mum doesn't notice that the white flower I used to ground them is the smallest piece of a Memory Box Poinsettia die. lol I'm pretending it is a daisy!

I used 4 more of my flower stash on this card (the felt flowers). I am adding 4 more to the ticker on my header. I am not counting the poinsettias I die cut, as I am tracking the number of flowers I manage to use from my existing stash! It is good to see my progress so far...keeps me committed to use them up.

Here is the inside...I had already signed it when I remembered to take the photo! Sorry about that...

Recipe
Card base and envelope - from my stash
Design Paper - Card front is Wild Rose Studio, I think. Inside of card is from the Dollar Store
Card stock - snippets of pink dotted texture paper and snippet of white card
Butterfly - K&Co
Flowers - White felt flower and pink one layered overtop are both from my stash
Dies - The pink one is a Marianne doily die; the white is a Martha Stewart precut doily
The green leaves are a Memory Box die; the white flower is M/B as well
Stamp - Will look them both up once I am home

****************This is card #14 of 50. I am on a consumables spending freeze until I have made 50 cards (Sook Wang tape and heavy weight card stock are exempt).***************

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
1. Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets
2. Butterfly Challenge - #7 Butterfly and a doily
3. Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge -  must cover card with paper

Home Sweet Home -Card 13

Here is a very quick and easy "New Home"card,  made from my stash. I am sticking to my frozen status...no consumable purchases for this lady! I have been having fun rediscovering papers and elements in my craft room! In other words, I am still shopping...only it is shopping from my stash!

I managed to use some fairly old snippets of aqua card stock and some newer brown snippets as well. But the best part was that I got to use some NBUS for a treat.

The elements on this card are BoBunny 3D elements from a Christmas open house day at my LSS (back in Dec, 2013). They had grab bags you could buy that day...for a small price! They were chock-a-block full of papers and full collections. Great fun!

I left the inside blank so I could write a letter!

****************This is card #13 of 50. I am on a consumables spending freeze until I have made 50 cards (Sook Wang tape and heavy weight card stock are exempt).***************

Recipe:
Card base -  from my stash
Design Paper - snippets of design paper from my unmarked snippets pile
Card Stock - snippets of brown and aqua
Ink -  Colorbox chestnut roan chalk ink
Embellishments - 3D stickers from Bo Bunny

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
1. Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets

Christmas Card Club - Challenge 10 - Poinsettia - Card 12

It was Karen P at Stamping in Pink's turn to choose the theme for our fortnightly Christmas Card Club. She chose Poinsettia's!

I was caught a little off guard with this card as it is only a week since our last challenge. We had to adjust and tighten our timeline down to a week this time, to accommodate our yearly schedule.

In decided to keep with my current goals to use my stash on hand, and to incorporate NBUS (never before used stash) as well as VOS (very old stash).  I chose this NBUS embossing folder, Couture Creations A Magical Time,  for the background of my card.

I embossed a piece of Co-Ordinations black card and then used the green flip side, to showcase my focal point.  I lightly sanded the embossed piece of Co-Ordinations black card, and the lovely green showed through.

I have wanted to try this type of embossing for a while...and I really like the outcome. Kept the rest of my card quite simple as the embossing sort of steals the show.

Die cut  Penny Black Holly leaves die out of a snippet of white card, and inked it with Ingvide Bolme Gunsmoke chalk ink...then over inked it with some of her dark green chalk ink as well. Added some 3D K&Co branches, required poinsettia, and their 3D Cardinal, to create my focal point.

I used Marah Johnson Christmas Swatch Impress Ons (rub ons) to create the inside. They are my VOS item. I have had these for a few years now and have been trying to remember to use them on my cards this year. Had a little trouble with the rub on not completely transferring...so I did a little fine ink pen touch up. You can see a slight difference in the sheen. Thought I might try a little hairspray to even out the sheen, after I sign the card!

No recipe tonight as I have given it in the descriptions above!

****************This is card #12 of 50. I am on a consumables spending freeze until I have made 50 cards (Sook Wang tape and heavy weight card stock are exempt).***************

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
1.  Christmas Card Club - Poinsettia
2.  Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets
3.  MFP Speedy TV Christmas Card Challenge - must be Christmas
4. Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Card Challenge Extra - must be Christmas