Hospitality

I created this scene card using two different My Favorite Things stamp sets and a separate die set.

Coffee, Tea, or Me...

I created this card using a die set from My Favorite Things. Okay, so it's a tea pot, but I used mine for coffee! I cut the tea pot out of kraft card stock and also cut a channel so that the beads can flow into the cup. I stamped the sentiment and cut the cup out of brown card stock then embossed it using an embossing folder. I also cut out the MFT swirl and performed surgery on that until it was the shape I wanted. The beads are tiny seed beads in brown and they flow perfectly from the tea pot into the cup.

Flamingos!

I created this card using flamingo dies from My Favorite Things. I cut them out of turquoise card stock then covered the openings with clear acetate. Next I glued kraft paper to the bottom of the turquoise panel and dotted with a couple brown Copics. On top of that I glued the flamingo legs and also glued the black beaks and eyes to the acetate. Finally I stamped the sentiment from the companion MFT stamp set. I flipped it over and outlined the die cut openings with dimensional double-sided tape and then filled them in with pink gems. I took then stuck on the white background paper, flipped it over, and taped it to a pink card front. Job done!

Presenting: The Phelps'

On Saturday, my best friend and her longtime companion are tying the knot! My mother and I are planning a little surprise for them after the wedding and I wanted to make it official so I sent them an invitation.

This is the front of the invitation. The traditional image for an invitation would be a married couple in their wedding finery. But they aren't the typical couple. They both like to fish so I thought this image would be a little bit more appropriate. It's the first time I've tried to color a sky with clouds and I obviously need more practice, but I suppose it's passable. It's also the first time I've tried to color reflections and I actually like the way that turned out.

 This is the inside of the invitation. Of course, the black bar wasn't on the actual invitation; I just put that on there to blacken out the address. I created this in Word including the clip art of the bells. You can't tell in the picture but I colored the bells with a clear Wink of Stella glitter pen. It's subtle but adds just a little bit of sparkle.

Hopefully they like the invitation and they'll enjoy the surprise on Saturday!

Poppies

I received such wonderful gifts for Christmas and my birthday in November that I wanted to send a thank you note to my mother to let her know I appreciate them. I have recently fallen in love with poppies so I made her a poppy card:

I thought this paper was perfect and I got the poppies from Wild Orchid Crafts. The stamp is from Stamping Bella. I used Martha Stewart glitter pens for the centers of the flowers. You can't really tell in the picture, but the centers are very sparkly.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Favorite Five of 2012

Along with her Favorite Five Christmas Cards contest, Debby runs a Favorite Five Cards of 2012 contest. All you have to do is pick your favorite five cards that you made in 2012 and link back to her post.

Here are my favorite five in no particular order:

Original post HERE.

Original post HERE.

Original post HERE.

Original post HERE.

Original post HERE.

Come join in the fun HERE!

Favorite Christmas Cards

Debby, from one of my favorite card blogs, is holding a drawing for some yummy prizes and all you have to do is list five of your favorite Christmas cards that were made in 2012.

I didn't make too many Christmas cards this year, but was still able to pick out my favorites. Here they are in no particular order:

The original post for all these cards can be found HERE. Except for the Mucha-inspired "Hiver" card which can be found HERE.

Thanks for the chance to win, Debby! And merry Christmas to all!

Horses

My friend gave me some lovely gifts for Christmas and for my birthday so I wanted to make you a "thank you" card. She likes horses and reading books so I made her a card with horses and a bookmark.

I made my first gate fold card and this is the front. The horse is stamped in brown even though it looks like black or gray in the picture.

Here's the inside of the card. Again, the image is stamped in brown.

This is the bookmark I made for her. It's difficult to see, but there is a horse's head in the circle of kraft paper. I used the die from My Favorite Things for the bookmark.

Thanks for stopping by!

Last of the Christmas Cards

These are the last two Christmas cards I made this year. They are both for my mom; one from me and one from my friend.

This is the card I sent to my mother. She loves the artist Mucha so I put "Mucha stamp" in a search engine not expecting to get any good results but, amazingly, I found this one at The Paper Shelter! I wish the person in it was a more realistic woman, but since this is the only one I found, this is what she got. I was intimidated by coloring it but I used their example to work off of and it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. Those aren't really Christmas colors so I call this more of a winter card than a Christmas card.

This is the card I made for my friend to send to my mom. I didn't put any embellishments on it because I wanted the khaki snowflake to be a focal point. The scalloped border behind the image looks black in the photo but it's actually dark blue. I'm still working on being able to color hair and this image was a particular challenge.

So that's it for me for Christmas cards. I've reorganized my stamps recently and found plenty that have never seen ink so now I'm inspired to make some non-Christmas cards!

I hope you have a lovely holiday season. Healing thoughts go out to all the victims of the Connecticut tragedy and to humankind in general. Things like this affect all of us and I hope we can find a way to trust again.

Christmas Cards Galore

Hello! Boy, it's been a while since I posted. Today I have some Christmas cards that my friend asked me to make for her to send out to friends and family.

I wasn't real pleased with how this one turned out. It's kind of plain and it needs something in the lower right corner. But it is what it is, I guess.

I usually shy away from animal stamps because I don't have experience coloring fur but she wanted this one so I gave it a go. It didn't turn out too terrible but I definitely need practice on fur!

Ok, so the image looks crooked in this photo, but it's actually on straight. Silly camera! I love this digital stamp and was glad she chose it for one of her cards. Looks cozy, doesn't it?

This is another simple card using a stamp from Stampin' Up! I just stamped the image in brown onto craft card stock then put some white glitter on it so the ground looked like it was covered in snow. Easy peasy.

I love this stamp. It's from Lili of the Valley and I love using it. You can't really tell from the photo but I used white flocking on the trim of her coat and her hat and silver glitter on the blades of her skates. I toyed with putting some Crystal Accents on the ice part of the image but figured it would be too difficult to get it all around their feet.

I love the paper on this card. It's from a Lili of the Valley paper pad. I'm so glad they started offering paper pads because they're all lovely.

This is another image that I love except for the trees in the background - they look a little wonky! But for some reason I love coloring snowmen. Probably because they're easy!

I did something I'm not happy with on this one. I used Crystal Accents on the Christmas balls but then sprinkled glitter on top before it dried. I was hoping for a little sparkle but it ended up making them looked frosted. Oh well.

Here's another card with some hedgehogs on it from Penny Black. I had a hard time with the grommets and I'm not happy with how I did the sentiment, but the image is cute so it's ok.

The rest of the cards I'm actually sending out to friends and family with the exception of my mother's card because she visits my blog and I don't want her to see hers before I send it!

This card is for my nephew who just started college this year. It's super plain but since it's for a guy, I didn't want to add a lot of embellishments because they seem too feminine. Looking at it now I think I could add some pearls or rhinestones to jazz it up a bit. I'll do that before I send it.

This card will go to my niece and, yes, it's ANOTHER snowman! Told you I like them! I love that big snowflake die and, although you can't tell, I covered it in glitter so it would sparkle like snow.

I'm sending this one to my brother and his wife. This time I used the negative from the snowflake die and put some patterned paper behind it. The blue layer is popped up so it gives it some dimension.

Phew! Well, that's all the cards I can show you at this point. Later I'll post the card I'm sending to my mother and the card my friend is sending to my mother. In the mean time, I hope you're having a great holiday season!