Christmas Card Club - Wreaths

Rita at RMG Creations chose Christmas Wreaths, for this fortnights theme at our Christmas Card Club. I love wreaths on cards (and on my door or even on my front porch), so I was delighted with this choice! If you would like to see the others ladies wreath cards, check out the hyperlinks on my right sideboard.

I was lucky enough to have a trip into America recently, and was able to purchase 12 x 12 DP at Joann's Craft store for 15 cents a sheet. What a bargain...especially when you look for small patterns and cut them into 6x6 sheets.

My blue background DP is from that sale.   It is a Me and My Big Ideas paper, CCX340, a fairly heavy weight card with teensy white dots on it. It looks like a snowy sky to me!

With that snowy sky in mind, I pulled out a NBUS Sizzix Snowflake Frame die. I die cut a snippet of white laser photocopy paper that was trimmed off the last photocopying I did, and then painted it with Wink of Stella. Once dry, I added some diamonds in varying sizes.

Since my hands are still a bit stiff, I used a poinsettia image that I had decoupaged earlier. The image is from a 10 pack of Hallmark Christmas Thank You cards that I picked up at the thrift shop for 69 cents! I double matted the image with some snippets of red and green card, using my Lawn Fawn stitched dies. I made a bit of a boo-boo on this card, but decided that I like the outcome. I went over the poinsettia image with a Wink of Stella pen. I thought it was clear...but it was a white pen. I think the flower looks a bit like the dual coloured poinsettias!

This first card does not have a sentiment on the front as I centered the die. I liked the front as is and kept my sentiment on the inside. Once again, I used those 6x6 flimsy cards and so added another sheet of the heavyweight blue paper to help stiffen this card. Sentiment is once again Stampendous Christmas Greetings. I really like this stamp as it is impossible to stamp it crooked when I mat with a circle. Somehow it seems to me that it suits this Spellbinders circular die cut shape.

In keeping with my goal of making multiples this year, I made up two cards with this design. This second card shows the image and snowflake wreath a bit off centered so that I could squeeze a sentiment in the bottom right corner.

The envelope was stamped with snowflakes from Teresa Collins Christmas Cottage stamp set... not too pleased with the result. I think this stamp needs a versafine type ink to keep the snowflake image crisp.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Christmas Card Club - wreaths
Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets

April Rudolph Days Challenge

Once again it is time for the Rudolph Days Challenge. Here is a recap of the rules for your perusal.

 1. The Rudolph Days Challenge will start each month (January to November) on the 25th, and will close at midnight PST, on the last day of that month.
2. The theme is always Anything Goes, as long as it is Christmas.
3. One entry per person and you just need to enter one Christmas card or Christmas project.
4. You may combine your entry with other challenges (maximum of 10 in total).
5. Your card (or Christmas project) should not have been previously posted to your blog. It should be posted to your blog during the current months Rudolph Days Challenge, (between the 25th and last day of the current month)
6. Please link back to or at least mention, the Rudolph Days Challenge.
7. Please leave a comment on the challenge post.
8. The winner will be selected by random draw and announced on the first day of the following month. Prizes will be mailed anywhere in the world.
9. A special draw will be held at the end of the year, in December,  for all those who submitted a card or project every month that year, January to November.. 

Our talented designers have been so busy creating beautiful inspiration for you all.

First up is Jenny at Cardsarus blog.

Jenny has made us the sweetest upcycled Rudolph card ever! Perfect for a challenge named the Rudolph Days Challenge. I love that beautiful corner diecut...one can never have too many corner cuts!

Next up is Sam at Whispers Cards blog.

Sam's card is a pretty penguin scene with lots of realistic snow! I am looking forward to reading how Sam made that snow!  I love the snowflake die cut at the top!

Finally, my card...

I had a long snippet of blue card and wanted to make a card that relied heavy on snippets for the design. I used my trusty Martha Stewart punch and made short work of that long piece of card!

Using a paintbrush, I went over each snowflake with Waterfall Blue Stickles, just to give a little Christmas sparkle!

I folded a die cut circular snippet into halves and quarters to guide my snowflakes into a circular shape, as well as using the fold marks to guide how close together to place them.  A few larger diamond bling finished off the wreath quite nicely, and then used my scoreboard to made two sets of lines to frame the wreath.
 
The grey bow has been in my drawer for years. It came off a box of something, so long ago I can not even recall just what it was!  The merry christmas sentiment is a Studio G  stamp...it was just the right size!

The card used here is from a VOS package of 5 1/2 inch square cards and envelopes. This one, and many other card packages like it, were purchased before I made cards and learned that heavy weight card bases are better.  So I made the wreath on piece of white card and added it to the front of the card base.  I then added extra layers of DP to the inside, to make the card "stiffer". The grey snowflake DP is DCWV Frosty Holidays, and the shimmery blue sentiment mat from that paper pad as well. The sentiment was diecut from another snippet of the laser photocopy paper and the stamp is Darcies Country Crafts J1120. It is VOS...1995!

The large snowflake is Memory Box Bianca Snowflake and was cut from another snippet of the lazer heavyweight photocopy paper. I gave it a generous coat of clear Wink of Stella.

So three snippets of the heavyweight laser paper and one long snippet of the blue card and Voila! A card is born. I am taking this card over to Di's at Pixies Crafty Workshop where you must use at least one snippet.

The envelope is stamped with snowflakes from the Teresa Collins Christmas Cottage stamp. I used a blue chalk ink and would never use it again. This stamp needs something like Versafine to help it stamp every detail clearly. Live and learn...

The prize this month is a choice of this Folk script Merry Christmas Memory Box die



 or this Newtons Nook Cup of Cocoa stamp.

Christmas Card Club - Poinsettia or any Christmas Greenery

Mary at Carolina Cards blog chose the theme of Poinsettias and any Christmas Greenery for this fortnights' Christmas Card Club.

Since my arthritis is still playing up with my hands and feet, I chose to use a Bugaboo image I had coloured up over a year ago!  I had coloured it with Copics and then went over parts of the image with a clear Wink of Stella. Cut a snippet of crimson card and made a fancy mat with a Spellbinders  die. Cut an Elizabeth Craft Merry Christmas die from the same card, and TRIED to set it on the same angle as the upsweep of the high heel. As you can see, tried is the key word.

The image was set on a Penny Black Festive and Frosty DP background. I really like this Penny Black 6x6 paper pad. The white poinsettia is a layered combo of various die cuts I already had cut and on hand. The larger  blossom petals are Memory Box and I can't remember what the small ones are. The boughs are Sue Wilson Pine Twigs cut from white glitter paper and the smaller boughs were produced with my Martha Stewart Fern punch, from silver glitter paper and also a few from plain white card which had already been given a coating of clear Wink of Stella. 

I went over the two larger layers of the poinsettia with Nuvo Crystal drops and then the smaller blossom layers with clear Wink of Stella. It was fun to pick and choose which glimmer to use on the card elements. I even went over the white and red berries on the background DP with clear WOS as I enjoy sparkle on Christmas cards!

March Rudolph Days Challenge Winner

We had 63 entries and as Martha Stewart would say..."That is a good thing".

I have not quite finished visiting everyone yet, but I will get round to everyone by tonight. I have viewed such lovely cards and as always, enjoyed every minute of it.

Once again , I have used Random Org to chose our winner. The winner number is # 15 Lindby!
Drop me an email with your address, and let me know which prize you would like.

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you have a wonderful day.

Christmas Card Club - Animals at Christmas

For this fortnight's Christmas Card Club theme,  Kate at I Love Socks and Cards blog  chose the theme of Animals at Christmas.

My arthritis has been flared up for the past few weeks and my hands have been too sore to colour.  At times like this, I find there are plenty of pre-coloured images to use for cardmaking. LOTV is one of my faves and this little Deer and Bunny forest scene card front seemed custom made for the theme!

The design papers are all from my 6x6 First Edition,  Christmas Wishes paper pad. I am fond of these pads as they are stuffed full of pages and it is always possible to find sets of pages that look good together. The border was made from a snippet of one of the pages and then layered onto some kraft paper.  I thought that helped to tie in the kraft striped DP I matted the image with. I should mention that I meant to tilt the green mat the opposite way from the stripey mat, but somehow forgot about that idea...

The small poinsettias were purchased last summer at my local paper crafts store garage sale. They were just in a baggie so I do not know who makes them...sorry.  The larger poinsettia cluster in the top left corner is just a jumble of various items that were lying about in my Christmas embellies drawer, topped off by another of the poinsettias. I also added some dark green foil holly leaves, and then wished that I had matted the images with a dark green mirri paper.  In the spirit of trying to make multiples this year,  I still have another image lying on my desk. I will try the mirri mats on that card!

I often forget to leave room for a sentiment and this card was no exception. Luckily, I found this already stamped off sentiment in that Christmas embellies drawer I mentioned earlier. It has been in there so long, I have forgotten the manufacturer.  I fussy cut it out so it would fit onto the image, and then matted with red card and re-fussy cut.

My card base is a 6x6 from our local store. I was disappointed in this purchase as the weight of the card is really light.  I decided to try to increase the weight by completely covering the inside with the same DP as I used on the front. That really helped as it now feels OK. When a card is light, it seems to bend so easily and seems flimsy to me.

Stamped the Stampendous, Warmest Greetings sentiment on a circle of white card that I matted with the same green I used on the front. It has a very fine dusting of what looks like snowflakes, even though you have to look carefully to see them. This is a VOS stamp...bought in 1998!!!

I think my envelope is a bit of a dud. I used a couple of VOS Studio G stamps from Michaels. The polymer images had fused to the acetate and so I inked the stamp while still on the acetate sheet and stamped the poinsettias with red chalk ink. They are not crisp as I was thrown off by the problems with the stamp fusing to the acetate.  I then inked the Reindeer with a brown chalk ink and it sadly appears to be barely there. Drat... should have used Momento brown...

If you would like to see what the other ladies made, their hyperlinks are on my right sideboard. If you wish to join in with making a fortnightly Christmas card to a set theme (chosen by the members), just drop me an email.