Tis the Season….     Of making cards even thou you do not feel like it.  I had to force myself to make a card tonight.

I really like the way Michelle Short made her card.   It was so clean and simple that I was inspired.

Of course I had to muck it up with stuff.   I wanted to background to look like the Aurora Borealis.

Ok, I was close, not quite.   Then I wanted more trees.  So I got trees.  With a little help of Zig glitter pen I enhanced the tree.     My inter creative person was screaming…STOP, STOP…you are doing to much.  Thank God I listened to her.   It is a little busy but I do like the look of it!!!

Thanks for looking!!!!

This day is all about making cute cards with critters.  I have a lot of critter stamps so this was super easy to do.

I ended up doing this card in sections.

First of all I ink blended the background, covering the lamp glow with a post-it note.   It kinda looks like a moon, but I think you get the idea that it is the lamp glowing.

Then I stamped a Christmas Music Sheet on the background in versamark.  You can kinda see it in the close up.  I wanted the feel that the rabbits were caroling.   I also used Glossy Accents in the lamp shade to give the illusion of glass.

The I added the hills and the rabbits.  And the sentiment.

I finally added snow from modeling paste.  I was ok with the snow falling on the critters and the lamp because that would happen in real life.  I am sure if you saw three bunnies caroling in the snow you would see the snow fall on them.  Please let me know if you actually see three bunnies caroling, better yet, take a picture.

Then I added some snow under the bunnies (not so sure I like this).  Then I added some music notes.

I hope you enjoyed my card.  Thanks for looking.

Please check out my Etsy site.  The button is on the left hand side.

Day three had a ton of great ideas for making cards to look elegant.    I was in awe of all the pretty choices and boy were they diverse in style.  Instead of taking inspiration from one card in particular, I decided to just go with the flow and find my own class and elegant look.

I started out with a beautiful gold shimmer card stock.  God Bless Anna Griffin for making such beautiful shimmery card stock.   I wish all the others would take note and do the the same.  I cannot, I repeat, cannot get enough of shimmer metallic card stock.

Then I took an beautiful die from Memory Box called Swirling Snowflakes to create a white snowflake overlay.   Then using Papertrey Ink Christmas Cheer Die I cut out a white card stock and glitter paper (Tim Holtz) and offset them together to create the center of the card.   To let it stand out more, I placed a band of vellum across the card.  I finished with some sequins.

Just a note on the Papertrey Ink Christmas Cheer Die.  I love, love, LOVE the retro style, 1950’s style writing of this die set.  Thanks so much Papertrey Ink.  Please feel free to design more word dies with this awesome font.  I just cannot get enough of it.

Thanks for looking!

Please check out my Etsy shop, I am selling a lot of my cards!

So excited to be enrolled in another Online Card Class.  I learn so much and it really pushes my crafting ability.

The classes for day one is able clean and simple cards.

The very first card was from Julie Ebersole.  She always does such classic looks in such simple techniques.

I took her inspiration of creating a frames scene with beautiful trees and snow.

I decided I did not want to make the lines around the picture so I ended up ink blending the edges with a blue sky.   I did not have a glue pad so I ended up using modeling paste and sprinkled glitter on it.

I really like how this card came out.

Make sure you check out my Etsy shop  (see button on the right) as I am selling off a ton of my creations.

Thank you looking!!!!

Papertrey Ink’s Make it Monday for this week was making a fabric strip christmas tree.

Although pretty, I was thinking retro, like the Christmas tree my Grandmother use to have.  A Tinsel one.   I thought it would be cool to have an all tinsel tree but in soft pastel colors.

This is similar to the tree my Grandmother had, including the color wheel that made the tree sparkle with different colors.

To get the base of the tree I took a straw and covered it with metal tape used for plumbing.  This way the base was all silver

To make the tree, I used some tinsel ribbon.  It was strange ribbon as it had two rows with little brackets every few inches, but it worked.

The original tinsel ribbon was silver, but I took a variety of Alcohol Inks to color the tinsel.   The colors came out a muted, retro color.

Then I tied them onto the straw.  After that I trimmed the tree to be more tree shaped.    I decided to use a silver foil background.  I used the Papertrey Ink Holiday Plaid paper.  They actually had a muted one that matched the colors of my inks.   Can you say lucky!!!

I then placed a foam cushion behind the silver rectangle to give it some dimension.   I then glued a Tim Holtz Idealology Star to the top.   The card base is made from Papertrey Ink Aqua Mist paper.

Sadly this picture does not do it justice.  The lighting is really bad today.

Thank you for looking at my card.

I will be selling it shortly on Etsy, but in the meantime, please click on the etsy button on the right to see the cards I currently have on sale.

Thanks so much!

Papertrey Ink has their release week challenge!

Per their instructions–Create a project utilizing inspiration you’ve seen during release week. Your project must use at least one Papertrey product.

Here is my inspiration!!!

Here is my creation

Supplies:
Papertrey Ink Autumn Abundance Paper Pack
Papertrey Ink Tea for Two and Tea for Two Additions Stamp Sets
Little B Washi Tape
Papertrey Ink pads – Canyon Clay, Summer Sunrise, Dark Chocolate, Ripe Avocado, Simply Chartreuse
My Favorite Things Harvest Mouse Stamp Set
Glossy Accents

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Stamp Challenge this week is a simple Christmas card.   So I decided to create a watercolor card.

I had fun doing this one.  I took the Online Card class for watercolors and really enjoyed the lineless watercolor technique.  I think it makes it look more hand crafted than stamped.  You can check out her stamps HERE.

I love all the topiary designs she does.  Really cute and great for watercoloring.  I did the coloring using distress inks.  So this was simple.  The card was simple.  Easy Peasy!!!

Thanks for looking!!!

This was the 2nd card kit I grabbed.  At least it is the most current one.

I really liked the bright colors of this kit!

It is hard to see in this picture but there is another butterfly under the gold one that is a soft metallic pink.  I struggle using journaling cards onto cards.  So this time I intentionally made it work.  I also did a mix of patterns which I never feel comfortable doing.  But overall I liked the card.

Since the last one was so busy, I thought I would simplify this card.  I loved how the scalloped circle worked with the words underneath.    The HELLO is several layers to give it some lift!

I loved this cardstock with arrows.  It screamed put a heart on this.   So I embossed and water  colored the heart.  I could not figure out where to put the sentiment so I ended up making a tiny tag which hung from the heart.  I like how it came out!

I had some dies of glasses and decided to make a glasses/I See You card.    Glasses always remind me of the 1960’s  No clue why, but they do.

I wanted to try another journaling card but was not sure what to do.  Sitting on my desk was some older wooden snowflakes I got from Michaels.  I picked up the ink from the kit and said, what would happen if I inked it up.   The color was pretty, but boy did it take a long time to dry.  I think I added it to my card wet because it was taking so long.    It is in the lower right corner under the journal card in case you cannot see it.

Well I did my kit this month so I deserve a pat on my back!   Pat Pat Pat!

Thanks for looking!!!

I am woefully behind in my Simon Says Card Monthly Kits.   I love each one but get so distracted by everything else in life that I never get around to making the cards.

So I grabbed out two cards kit (one being September 2015) and started to create.

One of my goals is to push myself and try something different, either a technique or a style/look.

I usually check out what others had done to make sure I am not “creating” something someone else posted.  LOL,  done that before

I was taken by the wood grain with the white triangles.  I love that look.   I decided to continue to design by adding gold embossing in both the triangles and the sentiment.  My Brother in Law said it looks like my scraproom floor.   Wood floor with scraps of paper on it.   LOL.    The card front is attached to gold foil.

This time I went Silver.   This card looked so wedding, special event to me.  The paper was grey with white florals.   I made a vellum die cut and then drew on the edges with a versamark pen and embossed in silver.  I also edged the sentiment banner.

This time I went for a different look.  When I saw this paper it reminded me of the currently popular adult coloring books.  So I decided to color it myself.   Or as I said to my sister, I am channeling my inner Laura Bassen (with the rainbow colors)

Then it dawned on me that the stamp set was all about balloons.  Opps.  then I focused on those for the next two cards.

I did this card using pastel distress inks.  I wanted it to be light and carefree.

I told myself I needed to use the white gesso that came with the kit.  Using the stencil I covered watercolor paper and then once dried I painted it with Peerless Watercolors.  I then decided to do a shaker card.  I love those sequin bags from Lucy Abrams.   They have the coolest shapes and colors.  That woman has an eye for color.   Even after adding a shaker to the card it still looked a little bland.  So then I decided to use the balloons (smaller size) to the bottom.  I used black sewing thread stiffened with matte medium.

So there is my creations for the Month of September!!!

Thanks for looking!!!

Day three was pencils and crayons.   Heck I ran out of time.  I did not even finish the videos.  But then again, I never do.

I had bought those Prima Oil Pastels that are for watercoloring.  I love the intense color.  I tried using it on a backgound stamp.  I failed.   LOL.  But I do like this simple card.  Very Bright.

Thanks for looking