I used two stamp sets in this card: SU Blended Seasons (2018) and GKD Christmas Greenery (2016). This card has a lot of gold on it as it is also part of the MISTI Monday Challenge at Splitcoast Stampers where the celebration of the 50th challenge is going on and gold is the theme.
The Blended Seasons stamp set is red rubber, so the foliage will not curve easily, so my wreath is not as round as a photopolymer stamp would produce. The gold in the bells and foliage were colored with a gold gel pen. I made my own gold paper with embossing powder.
I created a card to honor Rita at Split Coast Stampers as she is the Featured Stamper. I settled on a Christmas Wreath card to provide inspiration. I am posting this card to Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge where embossing must be used. I used heat embossing on this card.
I used the Stampin Up Arrange a Wreath die and a Spellbinders kit called Sparkling Christmas. In the kit are patterned papers, stamps, dies, foam adhesive, and double sided adhesive. I used the patterned paper and a matching piece of cardstock from the kit for the greeting. The solid green came from SU Subtle cardstock. Here is Rita’s card where I took the inspiration: https://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/3017509?&cat=500&ppuser=70873
Christmas in July is happening on many websites and video channels. I am joining with Gina K Designs Challenge and Shopping our Stash Weekly challenge with a poinsettia card.
I used Christmas Flower stamp and die set from Gina K Designs for this card. I layered the flower by stamping it 3 times and cutting layers from the flower and piecing them together with foam adhesive and glue dots. I added pearls to the center that I had colored with a gold gel marker.
I have been playing with Pearlescent watercolor paint. It is quite shiny and has a lot of shimmer when dry. This card will be posted to the Double D Poinsettia challenge and the Watercooler Wednesday challenge.
There was challenge at Splitcoast Stampers to watercolor using black watercolor paper. I wanted to try this, but didn’t want to make the purchase till I decided if I might enjoy the process. I used Hobby Lobby Extra Heavy Weight cardstock, which is at least 100 pounds. It held the watercolor nicely. When the images were all dry, I splattered the front with gold shimmer spray. I like the card and it will be mailed next year.
Each month, I make a card based on a theme with the Crafter’s of Faith group on Splitcoast Stampers. December is based on Matthew 2:10 When they [the Wise Men] saw the star, they were overjoyed beyond measure. The challenge is to use stars on your card.
Rejoice
I used many items from The Stamps of Life. The nativity is from extras4snowglobe along with matching dies. The palm trees are from flamingo2stamp, which I stamped in Versamark ink, embossed with clear powder, then fussy cut out. The stars in the sky are from a star background die also The Stamps of Life. I needed a greeting for the front, so I found the word Rejoice in Christmas Sampler from Paper Smooches. I had gold foil paper which I had ran through my Xyron machine giving it self adhesive for the backing. It made it easy to create the background as well as the small nativity pieces.
I made another card on Friday with the same star theme. There was a challenge to use an older Christmas stamp set, so I searched through my mother’s stamps and found one I hadn’t really used and it was perfect for the star challenge.
Joy to the World
The stamp set used is called The Sounding Joy from Stampin Up. I stamped the star with Memento Pistachio Ink, then the word Joy with GKD Cherry Red ink and Versamark Ink, clear embossed. I added a star around the star with a stitched star and only embossed rather than cut. I cut small stitched stars for the corners. The papers used are GKD Fresh Asparagus, SU Real Red for the stars and card base, and the white was layout out, so it could be any. I enjoyed creating this card as it is something different and I was using a beloved set of my mother’s.
I saw this idea on Pinterest and followed the colors and placement of the flowers, holly leaves, pine leaves, and berries. I am not sure if I will make many as this is a time consuming process. It does make a lovely card.
I have been busy with a few challenges with Splitcoast Stampers that were focused on pine trees and pine cones. I submitted these to the Double D Challenge from the posts at SCS. I thought I would share these here.
I linked those photos to my gallery at SCS. The Peace card was created for a Faith challenge and I shared a quite a bit about the photo at that link. The Thanksgiving card was created with all Stamps of Life products. The paper is Gina K and SU along with the inks used on the pinecone.
Following are a few other photos that I made recently. We had a birthday, I worked on a Christmas card, and a card with dogs for a young man.
Birthday card
This card is my husband’s birthday card. He really liked it as it is all about guitars. These are acoustic and are not usually colored, but I needed the spread of color and it worked. All were fussy cut.
Christmas Ornaments
I have new product that I wanted to play with. This is a Spellbinders die and stamp set. I followed an idea on the Spellbinders blog using supplies that I had on hand. I didn’t have silver foil paper, so I made my own. I took a small piece of gray cardstock, swiped Versamark ink, then silver embossing powder. I used two layers of the ink and embossing powder to make it thick and look more silvery. It is not as shiny as foil, but for giving this idea try, I think it works. Since then, I purchased silver foil. I will try this card again soon. I pulled the colored paper for the ornaments from my large stash of scraps.
Doggy card frontDoggy card inside
This doggy card went to a 7 year old boy who had a surgery then got an infection which went septic. His aunt requested a card and he loves dogs, so I got busy with my doggy stamps and dies. The outside part is from a Stephanie Bernard/Sizzix set. It is retired but Stephanie is selling the Sizzix product still remaining in her warehouse on Amazon and the price was right, so I picked it up. I think every piece of this card came from my large scrap pile. That makes me happy to find uses for the pieces in that never ending pile.
Thanks for reading this long post. These were not made in the same day, but over one to two weeks.
The stamp set I used is lights4Christmas from The Stamps of Life, dated September 2013. I’m sure I have inked it up, but can’t remember when. The Falliday Fest Challenges at Splicoast Stampers had a challenge to make a Christmas Card with light. I found a similar idea on the gallery at TSOL, so I tweaked it a bit and followed the idea. This twine has been in my stash for several years and it matched the blue cardstock. Gluing it down was the hardest part of this card as it kept wanting to come up. I used SU cardstock for the cardbase and lawn fawn inks for the lights. The embossing folder is a Darice one. There is a lot of sparkle on the lights. Thanks for looking!
These merry mice are from Stampin Up heading to a Christmas tree. The tree is a Gina K Designs stamp. The colors used are SU Highland Heather, Mint Macaron, and Gorgeous Grape. The mice are colored in Crumb Cake. I used a Stitched Rectangle dies from The Stamps of Life to add a bit more to the simple design.
