Author: Gayle Chrvala

Season of Blessings

| Gayle Chrvala
SSC244 – Sunday Stamps In The Middle

No Black Friday in person shopping today for me! Just having fun making my Christmas cards and joining in some challenges. For today’s card, I stamped my sentiment using an older Inkadkinadoo Warm Holiday Wishes stamp set cutting it out with a combination of circle dies from Spellbinders and Gina K Designs. After adding some gold twine and Christmas Foilage using the Simon Says Stamp die set, it was mounted on a piece of Recollections paper pad plaid then GKD Key Lime and attached to a white card base.

This card will be entered in to the Sunday Stamps Weekly Challenge #244 which is a sketch challenge by Amy.

Happy Black Friday and Stay Safe!

Star Clean & Layered

| Gayle Chrvala
The Card Concept Challenge 144

It seems like my Christmas cards for 2020 are a little out of my “normal” traditional color and design choices just like the year it’s been. However, I am enjoying spreading myself in different directions.

The challenge at The Card Concept this inspiration photo:

and to define your style. Well defining my all over the place style is a little more difficult than making the card. But for this card I’m thinking Clean & Layered For the card I die cut my star using Spellbinders Nestabilities star die set from Recollections Christmas paper pad. I also die cut my greens from CherryLynn dies and added a red raffia ribbon bow. The sentiment is SSS Peaceful Christmas. The card is mounted on GKD Kraft cardstock and the layering panel is also kraft, scored with white pigment ink swiped over it.

Thanks for looking. Stay Safe.

Shaped Little Reindeer

| Gayle Chrvala
The Sisterhood of Crafters: Shaped Projects

The challenge with The Sisterhood of Crafters blog is a Shaped Projects challenging us to create anything but a rectangle shaped card project. I started with a regular A2 rectangular card then added the curved shape using Pretty Pink Posh eyelet border die. After cutting through both layers of the card base, I created the same layer using some plaid patterned paper. My Little Reindeer is a Gerda Steiners Designs stamp set which was colored in using some SU colored pencils. The image was fussy cut and mounted on a Spellbinders nestabilities circle die and I curved the two sentiment strips for the front and inside is rest of the sentiment Christmas along with a bird and penguin. Cute set and a fun challenge. Of course I smudged the “HAVE” a bit. The yellow star above Little Reindeer was hanging and glued down to the same location as the “have”. I should have attempted to remove the glue a little better but oops…accidents happen.

A fun challenge and I won’t show my first attempt using a tee-pee card…..turned out ok but with no rhyme or reason to it.

Happy Thanksgiving 2020! A year to remember or maybe forget!

Please stay safe.

Gray — Not My Jam!

| Gayle Chrvala
As You See It Challenge #239

The challenge for the As You See It Challenge blog is a fill in the blank: The color I avoid using most is ________. and then use that color. GRAY!! I normally do not use gray and I don’t wear alot of gray either as I am “tawny spring” on my personal color wheel which are more warm tones. I did finally find some nice gray shades of cardstock from GKD in Stormy Sky and Slate. My white snowflakes were die cut using a Tim Holtz Sizzix die and the top is one that GKD sold at one time and I cannot remember the name of the company. Anyway there is a snowflake in between the two die cuts from a 2017 StampTV kit which was stamped and heat embossed in silver (kind of gray). The background was created using SU’s Snowflakes stamp set and clear embossed. Merry is part of a Penny Black sentiment die that I cut apart from the Christmas and the Christmas stamped and white embossed is a SSS Christmas sentiments set. Since I cannot just use the gray my red card stock was calling my name!

challenge 239 not my jam 1

Thanks for looking. I’m in Christmas card making mode and am halfway completed and they may get in the mail by December 1st or maybe not!

Stay Safe.

Embossing Take Two

| Gayle Chrvala
The Sisterhood of Crafters – Embossing (wet or dry) challenge

I really am working on my Thanksgiving cards and I do believe I can sneak this one in for the season too as a non traditional card. After watching Jennifer McGuire’s recent YouTube on inking 3d embossing folders, I decided to give it a try and enter my card into the embossing challenge at The Sisterhood of Crafters blog.

Using my brayer and Distress inks, I inked up my Tim Holtz Alterations Sizzix 3d textures fade embossing folder. I tried inking both the outie and innie sides of the folder and this was the result of the ???? oh gee I forget I think the raised side. My sentiment is from Gina K’s Autumn Silhouettes stamp set which was stamped in Versafine Black Onyx and clear heat embossed. My frame is an Impression Obsession die; added a white vellum paper strip and some sequins.

Rainy, chilly day in Pennsylvania so I’m hoping to get a lot more cards made today. Focus, Focus, Focus!

Have a great day. Stay Safe.

Baby Sofie

| Gayle Chrvala

Welcome to the world little Baby Sofie! My girlfriend was blessed with another grandchild and this little one gave everyone quite a scare. With a collapsed lung and air filling her chest she was rushed to a larger nearby hospital with a NICU unit. Thankfully the doctors and respiratory therapists took wonderful care of Sofie and she came home from the hospital in two days. Everyone is doing extremely well. The top card is for the grandparents and while I liked the concept of the open window it took a little while for me to figure out the how to after almost sealing the card shut:) Middle card is for the moms and thought it was such a cute image. And the bottom is for big sister who is 9 years old and was adopted from birth. Happy day for this family.

Plus Gold

| Gayle Chrvala
The Paper Players Colour Challenge: PP516

Another beautiful day in Pennsylvania with temperatures in the 70’s. I think one more day of outdoor winterizing before the fall chill and rain returns to us. In the meantime, I created a card for The Paper Players Colour Challenge: PP516 using these pretty Christmas (to me) Stampin Up colors.

However, since I’m still not anywhere near ready for Christmas cards I decided to turn the colors into another fall/autumn/Thanksgiving card. My green is Distress evergreen bough ink and a Gina K stamp from the Petals & Wings set. I pulled out one of my favorite SU silhouette sets Garden Silhouette to gold emboss. The sentiment FAITH is also a GKD stamp from Triple Play Frame which also was gold embossed. So this is normally where I run into problems adding another color and I was looking to go minimalistic and used a strip of Recollections Christmas Plaid paper pad for Real Red. A punched butterfly in gold was added to finish off this card.

Thanks for looking and have a great day. Stay safe.

Red and Grateful

| Gayle Chrvala
November Monthly Mix Challenge ModSquad Challenge – So Grateful

The November Monthly Mix Challenge hosted by Arjita is to create a card that is Red and White and includes a tag! The challenge at the ModSquad Challenge hosted by Judy is “So Grateful” and you must use the word GRATEFUL.

My card uses the negative GKD FoilMates Swirls & Flourishes foiled panel adhered to a white cardstock layer. The tag was created using Gina’s ThermoWeb Decorative Tag Set and was stamped with a flower and sentiment from GKD’s A Happy Hello which includes GRATEFUL in the sentiment. A few of Gina’s sequins and it really needed some green leaves to complete this look.

Pine Cone Thanks

| Gayle Chrvala
DRU Challenge #156 – Give Thanks Double D Challenge – Pine Cones or Trees

I do like when challenges help motivate me to get hopping on seasonal cards. My card for today will be entered into the DRU Challenge #156 – Give Thanks and the Double D Challenges of Pine Trees and/or Pine Cones Challenge.

My pine branches and cones are from GKD’s Seasonal Sentiments stamp set and dies. The sentiment stamped in brown is also a Gina K Designs Thermo-Web Stamp n Foil set called Thankful Leaves. The copper foil embossed layer is from Michael’s Recollections and Sizzix Embossing Folder. The other metal dies used were my go to Waffle Flower A2 Layering dies. A few GKD sequins added just because!