Cozy Bear Christmas

This is the card that I made for Christmas this year.  This polar bear makes me laugh and it's fun to dress him in different sweaters!  I like using acetate and it gave this card a 3-D look that I really like.  I used white acrylic paint to put dots on the acetate and on the dark blue card on the back.  There is about an inch between the two pieces that give this card a lot of depth and makes it look like the funny bear is standing outside in the snow!

It was tricky to take a photo that showed the 3-D effect.  I hope you can see it in this one!

I wanted the cocoa cup to be popped out so I stamped his hands, cut them out and then glued them on with a piece of foam tape behind the cup so it could be rounded. 

Here's a close up...

Supplies Used: 
Cardstock: Cougar Opaque white, SU Night of Navy, acetate
Stamps: My Favorite Things - Cool Day, Stampin' Up - Festival of Trees, Purple Onion - Joy to the World
Inks: Momento-Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up-Handsome Hunter
Copics: sorry, I forgot to write them down
Miscellaneous: White acrylic paint, glitter, foam tape, pink chalk

I'm glad you took the time to visit!
Janet

More Tags

Here are some tags I made using a retired Stampin' Up set called Tags for All.  

Here are some close up pictures...

Supplies Used:
Stamps:  Stampin' Up Tags for All (retired)
Cardstock:  Vanilla, white, red & green
Copics:  R27, YG09, YR68 and N2
Miscellaneous: foam tape, gold cord, Elizabeth Crafts Glitter Dots

Festival of Trees Tag

I needed a little tag for a gift I was sending up to my Dad and made this one using Stampin' Up's Festival of Trees.  I've used this set a lot this year.  The trees are a great size and look wonderful all decorated and the punch makes cutting them out sooo easy!  Here is my tag...

I used card stock from my scrap folders and stamped the tree, punched it out and then decorated it with Peel Off glitter dots from Elizabeth Crafts.  I colored some of the white glitter dots with Copics.   Then I added a greeting, a little glitter ribbon and a string and it was done!  Here's a close up picture.  

I was lucky enough to arrive at the post office during a lull and had only 3 people ahead of me!!  Imagine that on the Saturday before Christmas!  It made me a happy girl!  I was expecting to be in line for an hour :)

I hope your holiday chores are close to completion so you can enjoy family and friends at this very special time of year!

Happy Holidays!

Janet  

Let It Snow

I saw a wonderful card on the Lawnscaping Challenges blog this week and had to try it!  It is an entry in the White on White challenge sponsored by Simon Says Stamp!  I have a ton of Lawn Fawn stamps but of course I didn't have the ones used for the sample card.  I wasn't going to let that stop me from making the card though!  You can see the inspiration card by Yainea here.  You will have to scroll down a bit to find the inspiration card but there are some other great entries to this challenge for you to enjoy, too!  Here is my version of the card.  

I really like how the acetate shaker part is like looking into a snowstorm!  I took a trip to Micheals and Hobby Lobby and found a good assortment to make the snow more interesting.  I used chunky glitter, mica flakes, white and silver sequins, silver star sequins and pearl micro beads (they've been in my stash forever)!  Here's a close-up of the shaker part...

Here is another close up picture taken at an angle.  You can really see the micro beads in this one.  They help to move everything else around and tend to keep static cling in check.  Putting the letters on top of the acetate causes a shadow of the letters on top of the "snow" inside the window!  Love this effect!

I had a hard time photographing this card to show how sparkly it is...but this shot came out better.  Pretty!!!

Supplies Used:

Cardstock: Cougar Opaque 80 lb., Red and green scraps

Dies:  My Favorite Things: Stitched Rectangle Stax, Little Lowercase Letters; 

          Impression Obsession: Holly Leaf Cluster

Embossing Folder:  Cuttlebug Dotted Swiss

Miscellaneous: clear chunky glitter, clear mica flakes, silver and white sequins, silver star sequins, pearl micro beads, acetate, foam tape

Thanks so much again to Yainea for the inspiration!  And thanks to you for visiting, please come again!

Janet

Let There Be Peace

I was at the My Favorite Things Boutique in Eustis a few weeks ago and got some of the things from the November release. I used the new Die-namics Quilt Square Cover-up for this card.  It's really fun to cut the die out of coordinating papers and then mix and match the pieces to get different looks.  I kept the centers green because I wanted the contrast behind the snowman, but I changed out the corners and I middle triangles and I don't know which one I like best.  Here are pictures of the two versions...

I cut the "peace" out of card stock three times and glued them all together to make it more substantial.  Jody Morrow taught us to do that in one of her New Product Tour classes...pretty smart!  Then I used little pieces of SU Dimensionals to stick it onto the mica snow background.  
  

I also discovered something new about my MFT Darling Dots stamp set.  I use it all the time for backgrounds but usually only use one color.  What I found out is there is room between the dots to stamp more dots in another color!!!  WooHoo!  Pretty cool and pretty easy to line up, too!  Now I'm thinking of all of the color combinations that I can try!  Doesn't it look great?

Supplies used:
Stamps: MFT Happy Heart Snowman, MFT Darling Dots
Dies: MFT Quilt Square Cover-up, MFT Peace, Love, Joy
Card stock: Cougar Opaque white, SU Glorious Green (retired) and Real Red
Inks: Stampin' Up White Pigment, Glorious Green (retired), Real Red
Prismacolor Pencils: Crimson Lake, Pomegranate. Scarlet Lake, Crimson Red, Dahlia Purple, Pale Vermillion, Black, Cool Gray 50%, Cool Gray 20%, Blue Slate
Miscellaneous: Gamsol Odorless Mineral Spirits, paper stumps, Melissa Frances mica flakes, Sparkle & Sprinkle Tear-ific Tape, SU Dimensionals

Thanks so much for visiting!
Janet

Three Chickens

I was going through some cards in my stamping room and found this one that I made a while ago.  I really like the punch art chickens on this card so I thought I'd share it.  I don't have the particulars on the stamps that I used but I can tell you how to make the chickens.  They are so cute and would be a good embellishment on a scrapbook page too!

All of the punches I used were from Stampin' Up, the body of the chicken is made from the large oval punch, the wings and orange at the top of the head is cut from one of the flowers in the Boho Blossoms punch.  Both of these are still available from Stampin' Up.  The beak and wattle were made using the 3 - Heart punch.  This one is retired but any little heart punch would work. you punch a yellow heart and an orange heart and cut them both in half.  The bottom of the yellow heart makes the beak and the top of the orange heart makes the wattle!  The nesting box is just a rectangle I cut with my Fiskars cutter and I used orange and yellow tissue paper to make the nesting material.  

Thanks for visiting.  Come back again soon!

Janet

Always Something to be Thankful For

I've seen a lot of cards made with Papertrey Ink Autumn Hills and thought they were so pretty that I had to buy the set!  I moved to Florida from Massachusetts and I get a little nostalgic in the fall because I miss seeing the leaves changing colors and the smell of the air.  Coloring the image on this stamp made me happy and made me remember all the things I like best about Autumn in New England!  

I really enjoy doing paper mosaics and used a bunch of leaf stamps to make the one I put on this card.  Here's a close-up of the mosaic before I cut it into strips to put on the card.  You can't tell from the photo, but the cut pieces are very shiny and really do look like pieces of broken china!  If you are interested in the steps for making this let me know in a comment and I'll do a tutorial.

This is a picture of the stamped and embossed piece that I cut up to make it.  The leaf stamps are from a set by Impression Obsession called Wreaths and Garlands and the swirl is from a Hero Arts set called Fancy Scrolls.  I couldn't find a source for purchasing it on-line so it may be retired, but a different scroll stamp would work, especially since you cut it all up into pieces.

I used a tool that I made myself to add some texture to the background and then spritzed a little Melted Chocolate Dylusions spray and Tattered Angels spray to add some more interest and a little bit of sparkle.  Here's my tool!!

I use it like a stipple brush...pounce the ends into ink and then onto the card stock.  It gives a flecked look to your piece.  It's easy to clean, too!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Janet

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Papertrey Ink - Autumn Hills, Impression Obsession - Wreaths & Garlands, 
              Hero Arts - Fancy Scrolls
Ink: Momento - Tuxedo Black; Adirondack - Sunshine Yellow, Pesto, Sunset Orange, 
              Lettuce, Red Pepper, Ginger, Butterscotch; Stampin' Up - Bashful Blue
Copics: B21, B23, Y26, YR24, YR18, E99, YG95, YG97, W2, W3, W5, E43, E07, YR07, 
             Y18, R29, C3
Dies: My Favorite Things - Stitched Tags Die-namics; Impression Obsession - Wheat die
Cardstock: Stampin' Up: Old Olive, Basic Gray, Black, More Mustard; 
                  Little Yellow Bicycle - Hello Fall-Walnut Knit 
Embossing Powders: Judikins Amazing Glaze; 
                 Tim Holtz Distress Powder - Weathered Wood (I just read that this powder has        
                 been discontinued.  It's still available so if you would like some, you should get it 
                 now.  It makes really good grout!)
Miscellaneous: Dylusions Spray - Melted Chocolate; 
                Tattered Angels Spray - Inchworm Glimmer Mist; 
                Sparkle & Sprinkle 2 1/2" Tear-ific Tape; 
                Mark Richards metal nailheads - black

Purple Onion Happy Holidays

I'm so happy that I discovered Purple Onion Stamps!!  They are such fun to make cards with.  I'm starting to think about the holidays and decided to use Juniper, Silver, Winter Bough and Winter Adornments to make a snowy little winter scene card!  Here is how it turned out...

I'm a huge fan of stamping and coloring on Kraft card stock with Prismacolor pencils.  They work so well together.  I don't think I've ever seen a card done using this technique that I didn't love!  Hmmm...I'm thinking I might need a new Pinterest Board!!  Here are some close-up pictures.  I live in Florida now and I don't miss shoveling snow, but I do miss the storms and watching the snow falling and blanketing everything in white so adding the snowstorm to this card brought me home!  

Here is how the card looked after coloring it and before adding the snow.  I think it needs the snow don't you? The chunky embossing enamel from Stampendous does the trick!!

I hope you like this card and it inspired you to start working on your own holiday cards!  Thanks for visiting.

Janet

Supplies used:
Stamps:  Purple Onion: Juniper, Silver, Winter Bough, Winter Adornments, Winter Wishes  
                                      Sentiment Set
Cardstock:  My Favorite Things Kraft Cardstock, Stampin' Up Ballet Blue (discontinued)
Ink pads:  Memories: black, Versafine: black
Prismacolor Pencils: 
•  Medium blue - Blue Lake (1102) 

highlight color - Light blue - Powder Blue (1087) 

shading color - Dark blue - Ultramarine (902)

• Red - Crimson Red (924) and shading color- Mahogony Red (1029)

• Dark brown - Chocolate(1082)

• Medium green - True Green (910) and shading color - Dark Green (908)

• Lime green - Chartreuse (989) and shading color - Olive Green (911)

• White (938)

• Black (935)

• Pink (929)

• Sunburst Yellow (917)

• Colorless Blender Pencil

Miscellaneous: Impression Obsession: small snowflake dies, Stampendous: Shabby White Embossing Enamel

Boo-tiful Day

This adorable little Halloween card was inspired by one I saw on Kristina Werner's blog.  The stamps are from a Lawn Fawn set called, Monster Mash. I thought it would be really quick and easy but I couldn't get the monsters as bright as I wanted them.  I tried coloring with Distress inks like Kristina did but I didn't have the right colors.  Next I tried Tombo markers and didn't like that.  Then I tried Copics...didn't like that either because the purples weren't right.  I remembered that reinkers are very vibrant when used as watercolor paint so I tried that and was finally happy with the results! 

Painting with reinkers is easy and fun.  Stamp your image onto watercolor paper (I used Canson Aquarelle that I got at Micheals).  Then use a paint brush and water to paint.  You can blend colors to make new ones, you can add water to soften the color and make it look paler and you can layer colors because they are transparent.  This makes blending pretty easy to do.

Here's a pic of the inside of the card.  Isn't the little baby one-eyed monster cute?  

Thanks for looking :)
Janet

Supplies Used
Stamps:  Lawn Fawn: Monster Mash
Cardstock:  black linen, Canson Aquarelle watercolor paper, purple & green glitter paper, purple swirl paper from a Halloween paper pack
Reinkers: Tsukineko: Lemon Yellow, Poppy Red, Orange, Olive Green, Peony, Chartreuse; Vivid: Purple; Stampin' Up: River Rock
Miscellaneous: Score Tape, foam tape