Non-traditional Christmas cards

Hello,

Well, we had our Christmas this morning and all the presents have been unwrapped. The girls sure were excited when they did their scavenger hunt for their new bikes! I received a lot of useful things for my month long trip that I am embarking on Christmas Eve day. I will be off to Central America, spending time in Guatemala, Honduras, Belize and Mexico. You can catch the details of this exciting adventure on the blog my friend and I have set up at http://karenandstaceyadventures.blogspot.com We are sure to have an exciting time and I expect to come back several pounds lighter with all of the activities we'll be doing. It's not a 4-star comfort trip, it's a backpacking and hostel trip.

So on to the cards. I have a couple of non-traditional cards to post first. They are non-traditional in terms of the colours used. You'll also note that I got a Cuttle bug for Christmas. Whoot! Naturally, I made use of it today while working to get my cards done.

Card #1

Black and red were the colours of choice today. I decided to use some of the black Gemstone paper as my A2 card base. My friend, Tasha, had given me some pretty red paper that has embossed swirls on it. She knows I like papers that have an aged appearance. I cut it at 3.75" and 5" and used it as my first layer. Then I took smaller piece of the black cut at 2.75 x 4". I used my Cuttle bug and embossed it with the Victoria folder. I stamped the image using black ink on the ivory gemstock and cut it used my Antique scissors. I then lightly inked the edges with a dark gray to meet up with the black stamped image. I used my antique scissors to cut the edge of the paper. I used a black checked ribbon to make a bow for the front.

The inside is a piece of the ivory paper cut with my antique scissors and inked with gray.

Card #2

Using the same card stock, I made a second A2 card. For this one I used the red paper from my Mistle Toe pack (CTMH) and embossed it using Spots & Dots. As the paper has a white core, I used the sanding block from my distressing kit (I had just gotten it from CTMH and had not yet used it) to lightly sand off some of the colour off the raised circles and dots. I layered some of the ivory Gemstone paper on top of this and applied a cute dimensional snow lady sticker. The edges of the ivory paper have been distressed with a tool from my kit. Finally, I stamped "Deck the Halls" (CTMH) layering a creamy brown ink from Box Colours and a dollar store red ink to get just the right shade.

The inside of the card is a simple rectangle of ivory paper with a sticker of red boot skates on it.

Card #3

Cuttle bug fun! This is actually the first card that I used my new machine on. I used the Spots & Dots folder to emboss white paper which I layered on a card of blue Gemstone paper. A bit of ribbon to complement the blue. An interesting snowman dimensional sticker from WalMart and a simple stamped sentiment to finish it off. I was amazed at what embossing can do to fancy up a very simple card.

A few snowflake stickers from the same sticker pack and a white rectangle of paper to write on is all that was needed to finish the inside of the card.

Card #4

This card was made using papers and stickers from Close to My Heart. The tree, sentiment and strips on the top and bottom of the patterned paper are all stickers. I ran the ivory strip underneath the tree sticker through the Cuttle bug using the Victoria folder. To give it even more depth, I lightly inked the raised edges with some green and creamy brown inks. A few gemstones here and there added a little bling to this card.

The inside has some ivory paper edged with sticker strip.

Well, that's it for today. I hope to make a few more cards yet this evening. Tomorrow will be a busy day with school for the kids, taking hubby to the airport to fly back to work for two weeks and I'll start packing for my trip! At some point during that, I must get more cards done and a whack of them mailed away. Time is running out!

The Magic of Christmas in Blue

The Magic of Christmas

I decided to step away from the more traditional Christmas colours that I had been using and make a sparkly card that featured a deep blue. The paper is Gemstones from Recollection in ivory and dark blue. There is also a dark green little strip that I scalloped with scissors. The striped paper came from a pack of Christmas papers that I had purchased last year at Michael's. The dark blue ribbon has stitching on it but also some sparkly iridescent dots that really pick up the rest of the colours. Instead of making a bow, I just tied another strip of ribbon around the longer piece and clipped the ends. The sentiment was a single stamp that I found in the dollar bins and of course, I popped it up with dimensionals.



In keeping with the simplicity of the outside, I simply added a strip of paper and a small sentiment. Blue was a nice change of pace.

Ho Ho Ho Christmas Card

Ho Ho Ho

Another card made with this year's favourite papers. The Mistletoe Pack from Close to My Heart. I have made 8 cards with this pack so far and I think I have enough paper to make at least 8 more, plus bits left over to mix and match with other papers. I haven't used any of it for LO pages because I've been concentrating on cards, but maybe after Christmas!


As you can see this card has several layers. It is an A2 sized card and one of these days, I'll start keeping track of the other measurements that I use, but for now I just wing it and see what looks good to me. For this card there were 5 different layers on top of the original card stock.
The candy cane and gift box stamps were from CTMH and the Santa stamp was from a pack that I picked up at Michael's. I attempted to use my water colour pencils again, but I'm still not doing it right! Oh well, practice makes perfect, they say. I used a white gel pen to make the scroll work at the bottom.


Inside the card I added a layer of the ivory, a red square gem and some pen work. All of my papers were inked with a creamy brown Box Colour ink and I used my Antique scissors to cut some of them out to give it a different look.

Simply "Flat" Christmas Card

Hi all!

I decided to do a "flatter" and simple card this time and put my dimensionals away. This card used simple cuts and a variety of papers. The circle is embellished with marker lines since the brown paper and all of the ornaments had swirls and designs on them.



I inked the edges fairly heavily. I love aging the paper. Some few stitches and the sentiment were done with marker. The strings attached to the ornaments were actually a stamp from Close to My Heart. The stickers were also from Close to My Heart. Instead of fighting with a bow, I simply knotted the ribbon this time. The colours on this ribbon tied all the card colours together wonderfully.



I even kept the inside of this one very simple with a strip of sticker running down the edge! Another one to check off my list!

One more thing to mention before I go. I'd like to thank those people who pop in and visit my blog. I am just a newbie at this blogging thing and I don't always post on a regular basis so I really appreciate it when I hear from you. It makes it so much more worthwhile if I get to share my ideas and hear of some new ones, like the Button Candy that is featured on Sparta Savings blog! This blog is dedicated to finding ways to save money and to create memories by creating handmade gifts. A fantastic idea! So be sure to check it out.

Very Merry Tags card

Good morning, everyone! December is almost here!

This card was a simple one and I used Very Merry Tags to create the tree. I cut it at 3" using both the base and the layer. This is really an easy mini cart to use as the bases are on lines directly below the layers that fit on them. Normally there would be ribbon in the loop at the top as it is designed as a gift tag, but I put a gold rhinestone there to represent the star at the top of the tree.


The papers were all from Close to My Heart. I inked all of the edges, of course. These papers just lend themselves to inking as they are already "faded" colours and have an old feel to them. The ribbon was some I got in a dollar bin at Michael's. I chose to use it as my sentiment and the way I knotted it allowed for both sides to have the same colour scheme. I glued it down so that it had waves and then used a couple of small gold gems on the ends to imitate brads holding it onto the paper.



Of course I had to finish the inside with a strip of coordinating paper which I also inked. I decided to stamp a sentiment on the inside of this card using a Close to My Heart stamp. I didn't have the right colour of red to match the paper so I layered a brownish colour with the bright red I had and that gave it the desired effect.

I am quite pleased with this simple, yet interesting card. I am using this card as my entry for the FCCB Monday challenge today which stipulated using ribbon somewhere on your project. I think using ribbon as the sentiment is a different idea and of course, I have used my Cricut! Thanks for checking it out!

Share the Magic

Here is another card that I fashioned after one I saw in my Close to My Heart Catalogue. All the paper is from the Mistel Toe paper pack and the stamped Santa and the sentiment are from the Share the Magic set.

I love the music paper in this pack. To make the layers a little less bulky, I took a lesson from Diane at Capidia Designs and cut another circle out of the red so that it was just a ring of red under the green paper. I coloured the Santa with my water colour pencils. I need to find a tutorial on how to use these as I certainly am not doing it right! The ink used for the sentiment is a combination of two inks that I had, a green one that I picked up at a dollar store and a creamy brown CatEye stamp. Combining the two gave me the same green tone as the paper. I added gems and some ribbon that I had picked up from the dollar bins at Michael's to add a little sparkle. Some faux stitches finished off the front.

As always, I like to finish the inside of my cards. With this one I mimicked the front ornament shape using the center red circle I had cut previously and an ivory one on top so that I can write on it. I used the green music paper as a base because I love it! I am very happy with these papers and buying them in a pack makes it so simple to be coordinated!

First Christmas Card

My first Christmas card of the season!

I used the Mistle Toe Paper Pack from Close to My Heart. The idea for the card came from their catalogue. I inked all the papers as I felt they had an old school feel to them. I really like the effect and I really like the quality of the papers and the way they coordinate. It makes it so much easier if I don't have to think so hard about the paper! lol

The cute little snowman stamp is also from Close to My Heart. It is from a set called Share the Magic. The candy canes are also a stamp from this collection and I stamped them with red ink. I used water colour crayons to colour the snowman, which I had stamped in black. I have not perfected the water colour technique yet and the snowman looks more like he's just been coloured, but he is still cute.

As you can see, I popped the snowman up with dimensionals. I also popped up the layer that he is on. A couple of gems and some ribbon finish off the front while a few layers of paper complete the inside. The faux stitching was done with a forest green marker that I have had from CM for a long time.