More Snow :)

Yes, there's lots of snow here!! I was also looking at my discontinued stamps and samples. I'm sad that almost all my wheels are now discontinued... I love this snowman wheel. Here's one of my favorite cards made with it...

The card base is Going Gray and the snowmen are done in Night of Navy ink. I used the Letterpress Alphabet to spell out SNOW on Bashful Blue and Brocade Blue CS. I rolled the snowmen on white CS too and cut a couple of them out. I stapled on a couple pieces of blue gingham ribbon & adhered all the elements. Ta da! All done :)

Wintergreen Again :)

Phew! I think we've been buried in snow!! My shoulder is very sore today! We got about 2 feet of snow yesterday and with drifts, there was some serious shoveling to do!! The schools & daycares are closed today and the snowbank outside my window is level with the sill. We've started kitchen reno too, so things are getting hairy!

I have another Wintergreen card to share today. I wanted to used the snowflake pattern from the set but I only had a little left. My personal challenge was to design a card with just a little strip of it. Here's the result. I think it's a little plain but I still like it.

The card base is Always Artichoke. The two pieces of Wintergreen DSP are matted on Soft Sky and the square piece has faux stitching around the edge. I distressed the edges of both pieces. The snowflakes, from All Through the Year, are stamped in Soft Sky on Whisper White. They're punched out with the 1 1/4" circle punch and matted with a 1 3/8" circle of Soft Sky. Matted again on a scalloped circle punched from Always Artichoke. I stamped "winter wish" from Everyday Flexible Phrases in Always Artichoke on Whisper White and punched it out with the small oval. This was matted on a large oval of Always Artichoke. A piece of double-stitched Soft Sky ribbon, hodgepodge hardware buckle and two brads finish off the card. I'm liking the subtly of this card.

3D Flower Frame

Good morning again. Today I'm sharing one of the most gorgeous things I've ever made. I entered it into one of the Stampin' Up! contests but I did not win. It was, however, on display at Convention in Denver this summer. Go me! I was really excited.
The frame is a mini shadow box type. The background is Cranberry Crisp stamped with Linen in Cranberry Crisp. The next layer is True Thyme, which is zigzag stitched onto the Cranberry Crisp. I used two ribbons from last years' Ribbon Original across the bottom third. The next layer is Confetti white CS with French Script stamped in True Thyme. I also distressed the edges of the white to make it curl up from the background a little. Next is the easy but time consuming part. Stamp lots of flowers on Whisper White CS in Cranberry Crisp & Bravo Burgundy and lots of leaves in Mellow Moss and True Thyme. Now start cutting. For this layout I chose three of the middle sized flowers, three buds, three bud holders and four leaf collections. Each piece was laid out in the design I wanted and adhered to the background. Next I took more of the same image & cut away part of it. Attached it on top of the previous one with a dimensional until I thought I looked properly popped up. The flowers are about 3-4 layers, the leaf collections are 2-3 layers and the stems for the buds are stamped directly on the background. This project is definitely not for people who dislike cutting out stamped images!!!

My original frame is larger and has more flowers on it. It was made about a year ago during a trip to Nakina (about 4 hours from home). I went to train some (real job) clients. Nakina was a railway town of 250 until a few years ago when they built a sawmill. Now there's more people but it's still in the middle of nowhere and there's nothing much there. Not even any restaurants open for supper, so I went to the Northern Store to buy supper. (The Northern Store is the only store in town... food, hardware & clothes) Knowing the lack of entertainment, I brought all my stamping stuff to work on, alone, each night.... it was a good option for evening entertainment. I think the large frame took about 10 hours total. This smaller on took around 3 1/2 hours to make. I'm doing a class on this frame November 30, so we'll see how it goes :)

Mitten Strings

Good morning again! This is another of my older cards from my stash that I think is pretty cool. I really like the hanging pair of mittens. The card base is Brocade Blue and the background is done with the Snowflake wheel in white ink. The long string of mittens is stamped on Whisper White with black ink & colored with the Stampin' Pastels and a blender pen. The central image is matted with a larger piece of Mellow Moss which is folded over the top & ripped. I used white crochet cotton to wrap around the top & then tied a bow. This is mounted on a piece of So Saffron. Last step was to stamp two of the larger mittens on Whisper White, color them with Stampin' Pastels & blender pen and cut them out. I took another piece of crochet cotton, tied a loop in the center & attached each end to the cut out mittens. Attached them to the card & your done! Funny how your tastes change each season. I still think this is a cute card, but I don't think I'd come up with it now. Well, happy evolving all you stampers :)

On Board Jumbo Snow

I love making up titles for these posts... Most of the time they're pretty boring but today's title makes me laugh. Sounds like it should be a snowboarding post or something :)

So this is a card I used at one of my last parties. I wanted to show off the On Board stuff & I still had all these circle/flower things I ordered during convention. Great chance to do multiple projects with the same piece of On Board shape, don't you know. Also, I've been dying to use my Jumbo Snow Wheel. So here we go. This card was actually completely original, which is rare for me. Usually I like to look at layouts & color from other projects until something sticks, then make my own. This time I just set rules & waited to see what would happen.
Rule 1: must use a piece of On Board.
Rule 2: must use patterned paper.
Rule 3: must use Jumbo Snow Wheel.

I started with my Wintergreen DSP. Chose my card base (Certainly Celery) from the DSP. Decided to use just a little strip of DSP so I'd only use up one page. Decided it needed to be matted, so put Whisper White behind it. Chose Always Artichoke as the accent color because of the DSP. Decided that the "Snow" should be wheeled across the bottom in Always Artichoke... Didn't have a jumbo cartridge in Always Artichoke so had to hand ink it... hmmmmm... Next grabbed the only On Board shape of which I had enough for everyone, sanded and inked it in Always Artichoke Craft ink. Started looking around for a matching snowflake to put in the center & chose the one from All Through the Year. Stamped it in Certainly Celery on Whisper White and punched it out with the 1 3/8" circle punch. The whole thing looked OK, but then I sat there because it needed more..... didn't know what.... just more. I was going to pierce along the top but then I started to think "snow" and decided to make white dots with the gel pen instead. While I was doing that I noticed that the wheeled image also had some nice polka dots that would look lovely if I added white gel pen to them too. Now it looked better!

So, this is not my most favorite snowflake card I've ever done, but I think it's pretty cool and a little unusual. I like the idea of green snowflakes. Reminds me of Bartholomew Cubbins and the Ooobleck :) Hope this was fun!

Little Cards & the Tab Punch

These two little cards are my take on a samples I saw on the Stampin' Up site from one of the confrences. They're very cool, showing the use of many punches :) Both cards are 3x3.

The fall card has a Pumpkin Pie CS card base and the front is covered with a piece from the Close to Cocoa Pattern Prints DSP. The circle in the front of the card is made using the Tab punch. Punch the first tab by placing the front of the card as far into the punch as it will go. Next turn the card 90 degrees, put the paper in as far as it will go and punch again. Because the bottom of the tab is rounded, you end up with a nice circle when you punch twice. As a bonus, you end up with two nice tabs you can use on something else :) Next step is a scalloped circle punched from the same Close to Cocoa Pattern Prints DSP, in a different pattern from the card front. Punch a 1 3/8" circle from Close to Cocoa CS & stamp an acorn from the All Through the Year set onto Very Vanilla. To get the multicolor acorn I coloured the stamp with Old Olive, Chocolate Chip & Close to Cocoa markers. Punch the acorn out with the 1 1/4" circle punch & attache all the circles together. Attach that to the inside of the card in the center of your punched circle. To embellish, I stamped "for you" from the All Holiday set in Close to Cocoa onto a little strip of Very Vanilla CS and rounded the end with my 3/4" circle punch. I punched a little hole in the end with my 1/16" punch and strung a piece of crochet cotton through it. Last, but not least, I tied a little piece of hemp around the side of the card & attached my tag. Fabulous, if I do say so my self :)

This Chirstmas one is even easier! The card base is Real Red and the patterned paper on the front is from the Dashing set of DSP. The circle in the center is punched the same as above and then I stamped two of the flowers from the In the Spotlight set in Real Red on Very Vanilla CS. Next I punched them out with the flower punch. I layer the two together and secured it with a vintage brad. The scallop is punched from Dashing DSP & the flower is attached with a Stampin' Dimensional. Finished! Wasn't that quick? So love the repeating polka dots on this card :)

Thanks for looking... you should leave a comment :) (that's very subtle, subliminal messaging...)

In-Laws' Birthday Cards

As is usually the case, my newest card is my MOST favourite one! These cards are the most totally gorgeous things ever! My in-laws' birthdays are only two weeks apart. The first is my mother-in-law's & the second is my father-in-law's. Both cards are based on Beate's October Stamp Club.
This first card was inspired by the Porcelain Prints DSP. I love the colors in this paper! The card base is 5 1/4" square and made from Not Quite Navy CS. The base was matted with Wild Wasabi & the top portion was stamped in Wild Wasabi with the leaves from the Wild Rose set. The bottom corners were clipped with the 1/2" circle punch because I don't have the ticket corner punch. Next the two pieces of DSP were cut & the smaller one matted on Not Quite Navy. Both pieces were faux stitched using the Not Quite Navy marker. The focal piece's leaves were stamped on Very Vanilla CS and matted with River Rock & Not Quite Navy. The rose was stamped with Blue Bayou & Not Quite Navy, then cut out & attached with a Stampin' Dimensional. The leaves were done in Wild Wasabi, but I stamped off once for the first leaf stamp. The dots around the rose were made with the piercing template and the Not Quite Navy marker. The ribbon is from last year's Ribbon Originals and the sentiment uses last year's Warmest Regards hostess set. I stamped the sentiment in Not Quite Navy on textured River Rock and punched it out the the 1 1/4" circle punch. It's matted with the 1 3/8" circle punched from Wild Wasabi and a large oval punched from Not Quite Navy CS. All the brads are from the vintage set. Under the brads at the top are 1/4" circles punched from River Rock.

This card is much closer to Beate's card. I only switched the bear for a reflected moose. The card is 5 1/4" square again. The Really Rust base is stamped with the small & large medallions
from the Wanted set as well as the Canvas background stamp in Really Rust ink. The moose in the center is from the Yukon set that's discontinued. I inked it with Chocolate Chip craft ink & then rolled my Brayer over it. Then I rolled the Brayer over Very Vanilla CS to transfer the reverse image. Next I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig to place the "real" moose. This was matted on Chocolate Chip CS and embellished with a photo corner of Really Rust & vintage brads. The green paper behind is from the Outlaw series of DSP, but I'd used all my Sage & Chocolate paper so I stamped the medallion in Chocolate Chip on the plain Sage paper from the same package. Next I drew the lines between images with a Chocolate Chip marker. This was also matted on Chocolate Chip CS. I used the buckle & brads from the Pewter set of Hodgepodge Hardware with the middle size of twill tape and attached it over my Sage Shadow paper. Finally I stamped the "Happy Birthday" from the All Holidays set in Chocolate Chip on Very Vanilla paper, cut it into a strip & trimmed each end with the 3/4" circle punch.

I keep emoting about theses cards :) I can't believe how classy the larger square cards look! Until another day then...