Cards for my birthday boy

You would think that, as a card maker I would always have cards ready  for my own children’s birthdays!  But again and again I get to the night before and think, “Oh no, I don’t have a card ready!”  For the girls there are always some pretty cards in the stash that I could use, but they have usually seen and maybe critiqued them for me, so what I really want is one designed especially for them.  For my boy I don’t even have any in the stash, as I don’t own many boy stamps, only one set actually, By Land.

So this year, true to form the night before the birthday arrives, I am about to go to bed and I realise, no card!  I cannot use By Land again, and besides one of my daughters used it for her card. (below)  My solution was to make a scruffy skate theme card for my skateboarding eight year old.  It came together surprisingly quickly and I popped it in with the gift.  The next day he started opening his presents, reading every card before opening and examining every gift.  It was only when he came to the one from my husband and I that I realised that the card was there, but I hadn’t written a word in it…

A little flatter

Sharon’s stamp simply challenge this week was to make a flat card.  That doesn’t mean no layers but rather that the card would sit very flat in the envelope, with no lumps and bumps.  Even before I saw the challenge I was trying to design a simple card for a workshop on Friday night.  I wanted to show off Snow Swirled but didn’t want to emboss or sponge this time.  This is what I came up with.  I did incorporate the ribbon, but as there are no bows or knots it still meets the “flat” requirements.  The snowflakes in the background are stamped multiple times without reinking to give the different tones of artichoke.

Supplies:

Stamps: Snow Swirled
Inks: Always Artichoke, Real Red
Cardstock: Always Artichoke, Whisper White
Also: Red gingham ribbon

Two favourites

I pulled out two old favourites for this card and combined them with a new favourite of mine, Riding Hood Red.  Lovely as a Tree is definitely a favourite set of mine.  I’m not sure where I read it but I believe it is the most popular set Stampin’ Up has ever had.  I admit I don’t usually stamp it in red, but I wanted to use some of another old favourite, the Cerise designer paper from a year or so back.  The patterns in this set of paper were perfect for making Christmas cards,  the designs reminded me of Scandinavian embroidery.

Other than layering the designer paper strip with red and vanilla cardstock all I did was make a tag to be tied on with red hemp twine and also drag the edge of the vanilla rectangle on the Riding Hood Red stamp pad.  I have one more gift set of cards which I will post soon, then I will be moving onto to other gift ideas.

Supplies:

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Fundamental Phrases
Inks: Riding Hood Red
Cardstock: Riding Hood Red, Very Vanilla, Cerise d.p.
Also: Red Hemp twine

Christmas gifts (2)

The second set of cards I put together as a Christmas gift were all made using Bella Rose paper and Riding Hood Red cardstock.  In my hurry to get them completed and posted off I didn’t photograph the box but it was the same style as the box in this post.  The set included cards posted here, here and here.

Supplies:

Stamps: Upsy Daisy, All  Year Cheer, Garden Silhouettes
Inks: Riding Hood Red, Pretty in Pink
Cardstock: Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, Bella Rose designer paper
Also: Red Hemp Twine

Star Wreath

This is a simple way to make a wreath using the small star punch from Stampin’ Up.  To give myself a guide circle I pressed the lid of a container of eyelets into the versmark and stamped it onto the card.  Then I punched out stars from the red and green designer paper in the Bella Rose pack, glued them down and added a  hemp twine bow.  Last year I also made star wreath cards by punching stars out of old Christmas cards.

Supplies:

Stamps: Best Yet
Inks: Riding Hood Red
Cardstock: Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, Bella Rose designer paper
Also: Red Hemp twine

Christmas Gifts

I posted off four parcels of Christmas gifts today. To send gifts to Australia by surface mail and have them arrive by Christmas they have to be posted in October.  I have lived in Canada for eight years now and I am getting better at the early Christmas routine, but I still find myself scrambling to take advantage of the surface mail prices rather than the more expensive airmail rates.  As well as sending early, packing light also keeps the postage costs down.  This year I made several packs of greeting cards in matching boxes.

I went through my stash of cards and sorted out cards made using the co-ordinating designer papers and then made more matching cards so I had sets of five cards in a box with a designer paper lid.  The cards above (along with this one and this one) completed the set I made using Le Jardin designer paper and co-ordinating cardstock.

I will post a few pictures from the other sets as soon as I can.  I plan to do a box tutorial when I get a chance but Sharon has an excellent one and so does Leslie.

Supplies:
Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Paint Prints, Art by Design
Inks: Always Artichoke, Bashful Blue,
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Le Jardin Designer paper, Almost Artichoke, River Rock
Also: Olive Organza ribbon

How Silently

After I made the Snow Laden Tree a week or so ago I wanted to make a similar card, but one that I could make more quickly and demonstrate easily.  This is what I came up with.  I have used some of the same techniques but there is definitely less sponging and less embossing steps.  I stamped the snowflakes first in versamark and embossed in clear e.p.  I then sponged with bashful blue and brocade blue, taking care to build up the sponging toward the right hand side.  Once I was happy with the sponging I stamped the tree in navy and a few snowflakes in brocade blue.  Lastly I stamped the sentiment and embossed it in white.

Supplies:

Stamps: Season of Friendship, Wondrous Gift
Inks: Brocade Blue, Versamark, Bashful Blue
Cardstock:  Brocade Blue, Night of Navy , Whisper White
Also: Clear and white embossing powders, sponges

Silver on silver

I’m not sure where I saw this first but I know someone designed a beautiful silver on silver wedding card a while ago, and I have kept it in mind to try some time.  After playing with the Snow Swirled tree and the flourish from Baroque motifs I decided they would be perfect for this colour( or lack of colour!) scheme.  It was a very quick card to make, the only real decision  was whether to stay entirely silver or add some red.  I think the red works because it is a Christmas card, but it is the silver on silver which I really like.  Thank you to whoever first gave me the idea.

Thank you for stopping by, there will be another Christmas card tomorrow.  A big thank you, also to those people who dropped in yesterday for the first time, while I was a cohost for Sharon’s Stamp Simply challenge.  I am having a wonderful time looking at all the different  takes on my “No Pictures” challenge and have discovered some inspiring blogs that I hadn’t visited before.

Supplies:

Stamps: Snow Swirled, Baroque Motifs
Inks: Versamark
Cardstock: Real red, Brushed Silver
Also: Red gingham ribbon, silver cord, silver e.p.

Stamp Simply without stamps!

Not quite “no stamps at all” just no picture stamps!

The current Stamp Simply challenge is quite a thrill for me as I am Sharon’s co-host this week.  Last month when Sharon was having a bonanza of blog candy and competitions my name was chosen.  This meant that I came up with the challenge, which is to make a card without using picture stamps.  So I refrained from reaching for the Christmas trees, snowflakes, flowers or leaves.  The only type of stamps allowed are  sentiment or background stamps.

I decided to feature designer paper instead and pulled out the Certainly Celery paper from a year or so back which is covered in pretty designs.  As soon as I did I started thinking of fabric swatches again and ended up with the shabby chic design above.  I distressed the edges of each piece of designer paper and then found a piece of white lace to fit in with the fabric theme.  I stamped the sentiment in versamark and embossed in white before adding a little white eyelet.  The sentiment is from the Upsy Daisy set.

Make sure you visit Sharon’s talented design team members’ blogs and see what they came up with.

Darlene
Julie
Dee
Jennifer
Janine
Tammy
Becky

Have a great day and thanks for dropping in.

Supplies:

Stamps: Upsy Daisy
Inks: Versamark
Cardstock: Whisper white, Certainly Celery, Certainly Celery Designer papers
Also:  White e.p. white eyelet

Simply Sharon

As I mentioned last week Sharon has been featuring her design team in her Stamp Simply challenges lately.  This week her design team took the lead and decided the challenge would be to make a “Sharon Style card”.  I am impressed with all Sharon’s cards but my plan was to CASE one of her White on White cards, which are simply beautiful.  As you can see that just did not happen.  Instead I was inspired by this card.   I even went with her colour scheme of brown and gold, why change something that works so well?

Supplies:

Stamps: Snow Swirled
Inks: Versamark
Cardstock: Brocade Background designer paper, Brushed Gold, Textured Beige cardstock I picked up at the dollar store.
Also: Gold organza ribbon, gold cord, gold e.p.