Last-minute CAS for Christmas

I always seem to find myself making a few more Christmas cards at the last minute.  Sadly, thanks to the last minute thing, I'm far less than thrilled with how these photos came out!

Single-layer card with white embossing and clear (NOT yellow) rhinestones on Basic Gray cardstock.  
Snowflake image from Stampin' Up! Mixed Bunch stamp set.  I mixed a touch of Iridescent Ice emossing powder in with the white and it gave the snowflakes a subtle sparkle that I thought was just right for the feeling of softly falling snow against the gray background.   The photo just doesn't do this card justice.   I think I'm going to try this again for holiday thank you notes using Midnight Muse cardstock and the sentiment from Curly Cute.

Embossed the same image onto white this time and sponged each snowflake with Island Indigo and a touch of Not Quite Navy.  The sentiment is from one of the German sets available in the USA, Kleiner Wortschatz, and it's embossed in white onto the colored base.  

Hope you enjoyed these... have a peaceful holiday!

Fall-i-days Grand Finale

This is the end, my friend!   The final blog entry in the last of the llama ladies' Fall-i-days blog hops.  If you click on the banner above, it will take you to the blog home page where you will find links to all the other blogs and hops.   At the bottom of this page, you'll find the buttons to click if you want to travel forward or backwards thru this hop.

I haven't blogged in ages because I was trying to get ready for my first craft show.  So now you get a mega-post with a few of the things I made!  (pics can be enlarged by clicking on them.)

Magic Santa Keys

  

Framelits Labels and Apothecary dies, Elegant Lines embossing folder, Lovely Labels punch for belt buckle

Cardstock in Whisper White, Real Red, Basic Black & Brushed Silver

Poem printed out with MDS2+

Retired Trinket Keys and Garden Green grosgrain ribbon

Lots of Gift tags - I used a lot of retired product on most of the tags, but these were made with currently available items.  (thank you Kath & Diane for sending mittens!)

 Nicely Knit wheel stamp, Baker's Twine

Punches:  Mitten, Ornament, Owl Builder (heart), Large circle & Scalloped circle

Garden Green, Real Red & Very Vanilla card stock for the mitten tag,

Baja Breeze & Night of Navy for the ornament.  You could use Brushed Silver cardstock for the ornament, but I actually glued yogurt lids to scrap cardstock, then after they dried, punched out the ornaments and ran them thru the Big Shot with different embossing folders.

 Gift Card holder

Very Vanilla, Always Artichoke, Riding Hood Red

Everything Eleanor, Holiday Hostess stamp sets

Basic pearls, Retired ribbon, non-SU! corner punch 

Wine bottle tags - I made a few different styles, but this was my favorite.  Thanks for the color combo, Buffy!

Cardstock:  Sage Shadow(retired) & Sahara Sand 

Just Beleive & Lacy Snowflakes (retired) stamp sets 

Ink:  Crumb Cake & Baha Breeze

Pennant and Boho Blossoms punches

Silver Glimmer Paper, Purely Pomegranate (retired) satin ribbon

Christmas Pocket Planner

Cover

I used Letters to Santa Designer Series Paper and Quick Accents, which are available on the Clearance Rack right now.   This was based on an idea found at http://christmasplanner.com/tour-christmas-planner/pocket-planners.  Since I started a regular white pocket folder, then accordion folded it, I needed different sized pages than the pre-printed ones I found, so I made some in MDS2, and of course then I could make the inside sheets coordinate using miniaturized versions of the Merry & Type digital stamp brush set!  If you mention the planner in a comment before Dec 31st 2012, I'll enter you in a free drawing for one!

First two pages

Last 2 pages

 Don't miss all the other lovely creations my friends have made.  Click the links below to check out the rest of the hop.   See you next year!

MDS for Advent

No sooner than Thanksgiving had passed, my kindergartener started asking if tomorrow was Christmas!  Clearly, an advent calendar was called for, and having none handy, what is a busy crafty mom to do?  Whip one up in MDS2 of course!  Super-simple, and my little darling just colors in one ornament each night before bedtime; when the tree is fully decorated, it will (finally!) be Christmas tomorrow!

Stampin' Lllamas Christmas Blog Hop

It's here, it's here!!   That wonderful time of year when the elections are finally over and the thoughts of crafters turn to Christmas, and if you haven't started yet, it's time to get going!  I made some Christmas cards back in August, you can take a look at them *here* or click Christmas in the list of Labels in the left column to see all my Christmas projects.

I created 2 versions of my second Christmas card this year.  First a very simple version that would work well for mass-production, and then one that I've "stepped up" with dry-embossing, a colored base and a decorated interior panel.

  Stamp sets: Everything Eleanor, Delightful Dozen 

Colors: Garden Green, Raspberry Ripple, Whisper White  

Tools: Small Heart and Owl Builder punches, Framed Tulips embossing folder

Accessories:  Stampin' Dimensionals, glue dots, white taffeta ribbon

Techniques:  inked only the outer portion of the medallion stamp with a marker to create the wreath,  faux bow is punch art, fork bow dyed with Raspberry Ripple ink 

Finally, I used the same medallion stamp from Everything Eleanor with images from the Mixed Medley Hostess Set to create a square Christmas tag.  Colors are Always Artichoke and Raspberry Ripple.  

Follow the links below to see all the wonderful holiday projects in this blog hop from other Stampin' Up! Independent Demonstrators.

Fall-i-days Llama Blog Hop

The Stamping Llamas are planning a blog hop every month starting now through the holidays.   You will be treated to gorgeous projects using products from the Stampin' Up! Annual and Holiday catalogs!  I'm going to try and do one Christmas project for each hop as well as things for each of the Fall-i-days.

Back to School

My two favorite fallbacks for handmade teacher gifts are packaged cards and decorated hand sanitizer.   Pretty + Practical = Perfect!   I posted some monogrammed notecards here, but here is this year's version of something every elementary school teacher needs:

Stamps:  Four Seasons (Hostess Exclusive),  acorn from Day of Gratitude   

Ink/Markers:  Pool Party, More Mustard, Soft Suede, Early Expresso, Riding Hood Red 

Cardstock:  Pool Party, More Mustard, Early Expresso, Very Vanilla   

Tools: 3/4" and 1" circle punches, 2 3/8" Scallop Circle Punch, Perfect Pennants Bigz Die

Accessories:  Very Vanilla seam binding ribbon

Christmas

When designing Christmas cards, it's good to think about how easy and cost-effective  it will be to mass-produce the card.  I like the challenge of making something that is simple, yet still gets an "oooooh" from the recipient!   I made a few different versions of this card; do you have a favorite?   

Here, the first and most CAS version:  single layer, just stamping and punching:

The second version has the snowflake image stamped in Versamark all over the background and embossed with Iridescent Ice powder for a little extra shimmer:

On this one, I created the look of a banner using the Simply Scored tool.

On this last version I used the Simply Scored to create a simple frame around the image:

Stamps:  Four Seasons (Hostess Exclusive),  snowflake from Every Little Bit,  greeting from Curly Cute.   
Ink:  Wisteria Wonder 
Cardstock:  Whisper White 
Tools: 3/4" and 1" circle punches, Simply Scored or heat gun (depending on which version)
Accessories:  Silver Glimmer paper



P.S.  The other day I promised cards with birds, and here I've used the Four Seasons set twice and both times I covered up the adorable bird!   Don't worry, I've been busy and more birds are in this next post!

You can use these gorgeous buttons (that Stephanie designed in MDS2) to navigate the hop.

CASEing for Christmas

Catherine Pooler shared a great video series on cards that were easy to mass-produce.   I added a little to her idea, and used some retired products, because they needed to get used up, but also some things anyone can still get their hands on!    Made several versions, because everyone has different tastes, and honestly, I'm easily bored!

My vintage versions use...

Tools:  Ornament Punch, Framed Tulips Embossing Folder

Paper:  Crumb Cake CS, retired Hostess patterned paper in Concord Crush

Stamp :  Petite Pairs

Ribbon:  Whisper White 3/8" Taffeta
Ink:  Concord Crush 

 Ribbon:  retired Theater Originals in Old Olive
Ink: Old Olive

The contemporary versions use Whisper White cardstock and a Poppy Parade DSP from the same retired Hostess pack.   I embossed the lines on the edges with the Simply Scored (only had it a few weeks but I already love that thing!)  The sentiment is stamped in Old Olive using the Short and Sweet set.  Matching 1/4" grosgrain ribbon.




Did I mention that the card front with the ornament shape punched out is raised with dimensionals, while a 2"x2" square of patterned paper is adhered to the card beneath?   Yeah, that's sort of important to know if you want to replicate either of these cards!   And the cool part is, I have all the ornament shapes left to make gift tags with.  Sweet.

Finding some Christmas spirit

Been feeling utterly blah and out of Christmas spirit so far this year.   You'd think with 2 young kids I'd be excited, but I have been feeling utterly uninspired.   I've been looking at pretty cards other people have made (the Artistic Avenger in particular), and thought I should just sit down at my craft table and MAKE one already!   I knew I wanted to emboss Dasher in gold on red, and the ribbon was on the Clearance Rack last month, and the rest of the design grew from there.   Not really a card for mass production which is probably what I should be working on, but I'm happy with it!   Maybe I could open a box or two of decorations now!

This card is made exclusively with Stampin' Up! products :)


Stamps:  Dasher (golden focal image), Perfect Punches (sentiment), Triple Treat Flower (in gold on green CS)
Cardstock:  Very Vanilla, Riding Hood Red, Garden Green
Ink:  Versamark & Riding Hood Red
Accessories:  Gold Stampin' Emboss powder, retired striped grosgrain ribbon in Riding Hood Red
Tools:  Framed Tulips Embossing Folder, 1 3/4" Scallop Circle Punch, 5-petal flower punch (for leaf), Heat Gun 

I Adore Simply Adorned!

I love decorating for the holidays, and Simply Adorned lets me decorate myself without looking like I'm in the Tackiest Outfit Contest at work!  Inserts are quick and fun to make, easy to coordinate to outfits, seasons and events.

This one uses Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive Cardstock.   Stamped the spiderweb from Spooky Bingo Bits onto the orange, the spider onto the green (yes, it was tough to cut out even with Paper Snips, but so worth it!).   Colored the rhinestone with a purple Sharpie to get all the Halloween colors in!

I love this little Turkey from the Gift Givers stamp set!   I stamped him once onto Pear Pizzazz and twice onto Whisper White, colored, cut and layered to give it some dimension and interest.

Another image from Gift Givers - the cute reindeer - stamped 3 times, cut and layered and some Crystal Effects added to the nose for more dimension.   The sentiment is from Short and Sweet.

 This last insert shows how tiny these pieces are, which is why they come together so quickly!   Here I layered the cupcake from Short and Sweet, framed it with one of the images from Four Frames, and embellished with a tiny pearl colored with a Sharpie - sweet!

 

MDS Freebies unveiled

Looking for info on the February 2012 promo? Click Here!

For the next 3 days, Stampin' Up! is offering four brand-new digital downloads to everyone, for free, so of course I snatched those right up and made some stuff right away!   Gotta love how quick it is to create with My Digital Studio.

This cute card uses the free So Typefelt Stampbrush set along with a card template I got when I purchased the Owl Punch download for a mere 95 cents!   That's another thing I love about digital - the supplies are so inexpensive, and store compactly right inside my computer.  Unlike my real craft room, everything is always in it's place in the digital craft room!

This scrapbook page looks professionally done because it is!   I just popped a couple of photos into the free Delight in the Day Designer Template Page, added my journaling to the  text box, and DONE.   On the owl card, I switched up the colors and embellishments to personalize the project, or you can start completely from scratch to create your own projects.   Sometimes I like instant gratification, and sometimes I want to make something truly unique and lose myself in the process.  With MDS, I can do both.

Click here to download these free products now!  

Starting November 8th, 2011, they will still be available, but not for free!

Llama Holiday Blog Hop

You probably arrived here from Kath's blog.  If not, make sure you check out the gorgeous projects she created!

Gift Givers - cutest set in the Holiday Mini!   I love this adorable and versatile set, and it seemed like the perfect thing to showcase for our Llama all-holiday hop.

Halloween decor or treat holder

My son's teacher and his Den Mother will both be getting one of these  little hats very soon!  I was really torn this year trying to decide "witch" die to order for my Big Shot.  I finally decided on the Petal Cone die, because I was so impressed with how versatile it is.   Not just pretty Victorian-style treat-holders, you can also make hats, baskets, hearts, carrots, and maybe even more things I haven't seen yet.   Here I used 2 1/2 die cuts instead of the usual 2 to make a hat with a pentagon base instead of a square base.  Can't find my circle cutter yet (I moved a few weeks ago), so I traced a dessert plate onto the Basic Black cardstock for the brim.   Sadly, they retired all the Halloween colors of striped grosgrain ribbon, tho they do still make it in black... 

Thanksgiving napkin ring

Used the Lace Ribbon Border Punch on Chocolate Chip cardstock to make this super-easy napkin ring.   Just glue the ends together, then glue on the funny little turkey.   I don't have the Curly Label Punch yet... better put it on my next order so I can whip up a couple dozen of these for my family's holiday get-togethers!    The napkin is embossed with the Finial Press folder.

Christmas Card

I got some of these oh-so-pretty Everyday Elegance Simply Sent kits during the October promotion.   If you buy 2 kits before the end of the month you can choose one of the coordinating stamp sets FREE.   Here, tho, I'm using a sentiment from the Short and Sweet set.  I used Chocolate Chip and Poppy Parade markers to ink the reindeer from the stocking in the Gift Givers stamp set, punched out the image with the 1 3/8" Circle Punch, and accented with a Scalloped Circle in Poppy Parade and a little 5/8" ribbon.  Easy-peasy, lemon squeezie!