Blue Santa Card

This card is another made with Santa die cuts from my stash. I started out by embossing white CS with a Sizzix snowflake EF, Then mounted that onto layers of a blue pearl paper and gold mirror card from my stash. Next, I cut some white CS and a frame from the blue pearl paper using Spellbinders Labels Four, and mounted the Santa onto the white paper. I framed the Santa with the blue frame, outlined the frame inside and out with a gold pen, then mounted it onto the embossed background.

Last, I added gold and white pearls, gold outline stickers, and a bow.

It looks quite plain in the photo, but in person there is quite a lot of dimension.

Tomorrow, my new JustRite Stamps and a new Spellbinders Die should be here. I can't wait to play with them!

Another Ornament Card

This is another ornament card I made for my shop because my customers keep buying them.

For this one, I used two stamps from Our Daily Bread Designs. For the stamped background, I used one of my favorite background stamps, Joy to the World Hymn, and for the ornament, I used the smaller stamp from their Ornaments set. I cut them out with the matching Spellbinders 2010 Heirloom Ornament, which I also got from ODBD.

All of the white paper is Core'dinations Pearl, and the colored paper is generic. I mounted these all onto a plain white 5x7 card. The stamping was done using VersaMark, and the embossing is all super fine detail gold. The coloring was done with Copics, and the shading was done with Distress Peeled Paint.

Everything was outlined with a Pen Touch Gold pen, and the ornament was mounted dimensionally. I added gold outline stickers and pearls from my stash. I made the bow and decided to twist the two tails before gluing the ends to the card to give it a nicer shape and make it frame the ornament.

Flower and Butterfly Scalloped Card

I am still making mostly Christmas cards because I need them for my shop, but in case you are tired of seeing only Christmas cards from me, I thought I would show you a flowery one I made from another of those K&Co card and envelope kits.

This one was very flowery, and I wasn't sure what to add to it. I started by stamping a sentiment from Our Daily Bread Designs Simple Things Set using Brilliance Sky Blue on Core'dinations Pearl CS. Then, I cut it out with ODBD's Elegant Ovals Custom Die, as well as cutting a larger oval at the same time. Then I ran a blue Gellyroll pen inside the die, and a gold line on the outside edge of each oval, as well as on the outside edges of the scallops on the card. I wanted the oval color to match the card better, so I used Distress antique linen to the ovals. It looks blue in this photo, but in person it looks like antique linen.

The larger oval is mounted flat on the card, and the smaller one is mounted dimensionally on top of that.

The card needed something, so I added a few K&Co dimensional flower and butterfly stickers from my stash. It's a bit busier than I usually make my cards, but it looks pretty in person.

I've been having some busy days

I've only had time to quickly post cards, but not to visit. I'll try to catch up with all of you this weekend.

Thanks to those of you who have been visiting me anyway, especially Jill and Olga. I really appreciate it! :-) Yes Jill, the tree is a Marianne Creatables. There are three of them all the same size, plus she has a few others. This is the only one I have, but I want them all! :-D

Olga, I quickly saw the picture of your marvelous squares in my following thingie. I want those so bad! I can' wait to get over and see your creation.

Got to get to work, I'll try to get caught up with all of you soon.

Joy Beyond Measure Ornament Card

In my shop, a lot of people are buying cards made with the Spellbinders 2010 Ornament die, so I needed to make more.

I decided to use this older JustRite Stamp set to make this one. Since these were oval stamps, and not made for this die, I used Dresden paper lace to decorate the parts the stamp didn't cover. I sent for some of the new JustRite stamps which were made for the Spellbinders dies a few days ago, and also have one from Our Daily Bread Designs, so I should be able to make lots of these ornament cards very soon! I did stamp, emboss and color a bunch of them at the same time with what I have for stamps, so I will have a good choice to make cards with.

I stamped this one onto Core'dinations Pearl CS with VersaMark, and embossed it with Super Fine Detail Gold. Then I colored it, and the Dresden paper with Copics. Next, I outlined it with a gold pen and shaded it with Distress Antique Linen.

I wanted it to look like it was hanging on Wallpaper, so I mounted it onto this K&Co paper. The DP was matted with a deep red, and both layers were outlined with gold and mounted onto a white card.

Last, I added a bow to make it look like it is hanging, and some deep red pearls to the corners.

Red Lace Christmas

I bought this wide red foil border a few years ago, but never used it. The other day, I decided to try making a Christmas card with it. I applied it to a 5x7 card using my Xyron, then cut around just the lacy edge with scissors, and ran a gold pen over the edge of the scallops. Next, I applied gold mirror card over it, then applied some glittery designer paper from my stash over that, leaving just a narrow gold border between the DP and the Lace.

Inside, I added another piece of white, which I matted with the gold mirror card so the gold would show underneath the lace's scallops. Unfortunately, you can't see the gold underneath the scallops in the photo, because the card was open a bit when I took the photo.

Then, I stamped and embossed the merry Christmas using an older JustRite stamp, and cut them with a JustRite custom die. The border was embossed with SuperFine Detail Gold, and the sentiment was embossed with an old red tinsel EP I have. Those older EPs don't work nearly as well as the new stuff, but it looks okay anyway. Then I ran a gold pen around the outside of the stamped images and mounted them onto the card. Last, I added a bow and pearls.

Now an update on the minks. I have a smaller bucket under the leak, and apparently one of the babies likes swimming in it. Today, he went over and climbed into the bucket and played in the water. He kept sticking his head out of the bucket and looking at me, then going back down and playing some more. It was really cute!

If you didn't read my first post about the minks, you can read it here.

Merry Christmas Tree Card

I love these tags from K&Co. They are really supposed to be tags to put on gifts, but they are so pretty I prefer using them on cards. All the DP and tags are from K&CO

I chose the christmas tree as a starting point for this card, and mounted it onto a piece of gold dp, and cut it out with Spellbinders Labels One. Then, using the same die set, I made a frame with a piece of green DP to put around it. The tree tag is mounted dimensionally onto the gold DP.

I mounted the whole thing dimensionally onto the background paper, then mounted the Merry Christmas tag dimensionally below that.

The background paper is matted with green, gold mirror card, and deep red CS and mounted onto an ivory card. To dress the card up, I added a small gold bow and some green half pearls.

ODBDSLC124 Something Musical

This is my last week as guest designer for Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge Team. It has been so much fun working with all the girls and Kelley, and designing cards using their beautiful stamps. Thank you so much ladies for this wonderful experience!

First I will tell you about the challenge.

This week's challenge: Something Musical

Create a card or project with some musical element. It can include a musical theme, some words in the sentiment or verse having to do with music or instruments, an embossing folder, dp or etc.

To make the challenge even more fun, we will be giving out a prize, a $15 gift certificate to be used toward stamps at the Our Daily Bread Designs store!! Entries for the prize must be submitted by Sunday, October 7th at 8 p.m. EST. One random winner will be chosen and announced next Saturday.

While it is not required to use Our Daily Bread Designs images and sentiments on your creations, we would love to see them if you have them. As a way of recognizing those who do use Our Daily Bread Designs stamps, we will again be choosing three or more of our participants for the Shining the Light Award . In order to qualify for this award or join the challenge, however, you must use Our Daily Bread stamps and have your submission added to Mr. Linky by Sunday, October 7th at 8 p.m. EST. If you upload your creations to Splitcoast Stampers or any other online gallery, please use the keyword is ODBDSLC124. When creating your posts on blogs please include a link to the challenge.

To see all the creations in one place or join the challenge, click here.

For more inspiration for this challenge, please visit my dt sisters:

Jan Marie Ennenga, Chris Olsen, Jan Keen, Lori Ulrich,
Kathy Roney, and Rosemary Dennis.

I look forward to seeing your beautiful entries into this challenge!

Now, about my card.

For this card, I wanted to use ODBD's beautiful Sing to the Lord set. My friends who visit my blog frequently must know that I love bluebirds, because I use them so often. When I was deciding on a color scheme, I remembered that as a child, I had always loved sky blue and gold together, and it might be pretty on this card, so I made this one a bluebird too. I stamped everything with VersaMark, and embossed it all in gold. The white paper is all Core'dinations Pearl because I love coloring with my Copics on this wonderful paper.

After coloring the bird and dogwood blossoms, I fussy cut them with scissors and mounted them dimensionally onto this sparkly sky blue paper I had in my stash. The blue was cut with Spellbinders Romantic Rectangles and mounted onto pearly white, then matted with gold mirror card, which was mounted onto a card I made with the white pearl. Then I outlined the blue with gold.

The psalm was cut with another of my Spellbinders dies, but I don't remember the name of it, and also mounted dimensionally onto the blue. Lastly, I added sky blue Liquid Pearls and white half pearls. I wish that instead of running my gold pen inside the die to outline the psalm, I had used a ruler and made the outline further from the verse, but I didn't really notice that until after I had mounted the psalm.

Creatables Christmas Tree Card

I hadn't used this Marianne Designables embossing folder for a long time, so I decided to make another Christmas card using it. I tried all my Marianne Creatables in the center, and decided to use this Christmas tree.

After cutting and embossing everything, I took Diamond Stickles and outlined some of the embossing, then used a gold PenTouch on the tree balls.

To finish the card, I added gold stickers from my stash, deep red half pearls, and a red and gold bow I made. All of the reds are actually the same deep red, but the camera's flash made the tree look lighter than it is, and made the half pearls look darker.

Roses and Lace Card

Today at work we had a lot of company, so I only had time to make a quick card.

I decided it was a good opportunity to try out some of the K&Co cards and envelopes I bought yesterday. This one was die cut with vellum behind the cut outs. I used a doily die cut from a pack made by Colorbok, and mounted it dimensionally in the center of the card.

Then, I mounted four prima leaves, with one of my Spellbinders Rose Creations roses in the center. After that, I added little roses in each corner and a bow at the bottom. The corner roses were some my local craft store sells, with some packaged cloth ones on either side.

Since I had the center rose already made, the whole card took less than half an hour to make.

I always feel like I am cheating when I start out with a ready made card background, but it is nice for quick cards, and the envelopes that came with it are very pretty and match the card.

After I made the card, I still had time to start making bows from my new ribbon. I like to have some bows made up in each color and different widths so I can try them on cards. The packs I got at TJ Maxx had 24 different colors in each pack, and I bought two of the ribbon packs, one in sheer colors, and one in solid satin, plus I had two spools of Christmas ribbon, so I've got a lot of bows to make, but it's fun and time saving when you are ready to add them to a card!

Fall Flower Card and I got some more goodies

A few days ago, my Mojo left me, so I decided to color some stamps. One of the stamps I decided to use was this old one from Anna Griffin. I've had it for years, and never used it.

I decided to use fall colors, so after stamping with VersaFine, I colored it with my Copics. The minute I finished it, I decided it needed to be mounted onto a golden yellow and lighter yellow CS.

I got it all mounted and thought I was finished with the card except for the sentiment when I decided to outline it with my gold pen. As I was outlining, the pen slipped and made a mess on one of the edges. I decided to cut a frame out of the golden yellow, and mounted that on top of the stamped design, which luckily covered up the mess. :-) Then I more carefully used the gold pen again.

Finally, I used a Spellbinders die and cut a label, then stamped Happy Birthday from one of my JustRite stamps and cut it to fit over the label. All that was left to do was add a few pearls for dimension, and it made a quick and simple card. Once I finished that one, my Mojo came back!

Today I was off the island and got to JoAnns. I was really disappointed because there were no new Spellbinders. Their selection wasn't much better than AC Moore's was a few weeks ago. Since they had 30% off, I had to buy at least two, so I got the twisted Metal tags one which I had sort of wanted, and one of the cut and tuck ones. At least the cut and tuck ones were sort of new, but since I used to do a lot of the Lacé stuff back before I had a blog, I wasn't really excited about them. I got tired of cut and fold a few years ago, and have been more into stamping and coloring lately.

They also had a lot of those inexpensive packs of Core'dinations paper on sale, so I got a bunch of colors, plus some less expensive glittery paper sheets.

Those larger packs of K&Co stickers were also on sale, so I got some of those, as well as some interesting card kit packs from them. I had never seen those kits before, and thought I'd try them and see if I liked them. Some are shaped with flowers and things, and some are die cut. They included matching envelopes. I've gotten away from kits, but sometimes it's good to have something fast to decorate.

I also got some Christmas ribbon, three more sponge daubers, and some tape for my ATG. (I usually buy my sponge daubers in bulk from Scrapbook.com, so it sort of hurt to buy a three pack, but I was desperate).

There was an interesting kit of Something called Fran Tage Embossing Enamel from Stampendous. So far, I haven't been able to find out a lot about it on the internet, but it looked interesting, so I got the kit.

Then we stopped at TJ Maxx, and they had large multi-colored packs of Bakers Twine, Jute Twine, and ribbon, so I got some of those. There isn't much ribbon on the ribbon spools, but there were a lot of colors, and I can't resist packs with lots of colors in them! I really needed the jute and Bakers Twine, and there is a lot on those.

Now, about the Spectrum Noir pens I bought a while back. I don't like them much. I don't like the point, and they seem to make every stamp pad ink I've tried them with bleed. I think I'll stick with my Copics and my Distress pens. I'm glad I tried them so I won't have to feel like I'm spending too much money on Copics though. Now I know they are worth it! I also am very happy with the few Distress pens I own.

Anyway, it was a fun day at JoAnns, and I got some things I needed!

Christmas Quad Twisted Easel Card

Since I have been selling so many Christmas cards lately, I have to keep making them.

It's been a long time since I made a quad twisted easel card, so I dug out some of my older JustRite stamps. These older two inch stamps are the perfect size for this type of card.

The top photo shows the card folded flat for mailing.

This is a view from the top looking down at the card, and the following photos show how the card looks from each side as you turn it.

Each color, and both the frame and the center design are on different layers, and I outlined each one with gold. I meant to mount the little center design dimensionally on each one, but after I finished the first little easel, I forgot and mounted it flush with the card, so I had to do them all that way.

Silent Night Easel Card

I've made a number of cards using these dies from Marianne Designs, and I wanted to do something different with them, so I made an easel card.

I used another sheet of this pearlescent textured blue as the background, and since I still don't have any silver mirror card, I outlined it with a silver Jelly Roll Pen.

The sleigh and reindeers, villages, and poinsettias are all Marianne Creatables, the snowflakes are an EK Success punch, and the saying was stamped using VersaMark and embossed with Recollections Opaque White, then cut and embossed with Spellbinders Labels Four.

I'm not really happy with the white embossing powder. The "Silent Night" is from Our Daily Bread Design's Blessed Christmas Set, and is very fine and beautiful, but every time I emboss anything with this white, it always spreads and the detail doesn't show. I need to find a white that keeps the fine details.

Anyway, after applying everything to the card, I used crystal Stickles to highlight the embossing, and to cover the snowflakes.

Elegant Dove Card

Today I was playing with this Sizzix embossing folder. First, I inked the folder in red before embossing. It came out quite rustic looking, and I was trying different things in the center of the embossed image. When I tried this dove from K & Co, I liked the dove in the center, but not with that rustic finish.

I put the inked image away for later, and decided to emboss in plain white and use red velour paper instead. After embossing the image, I cut around it with scissors, and rubbed metallic gold ink over it with my daubers. Then, I used a Spellbinders oval and cut out some gold mirror card to fit into the center. I cut a smaller oval of red velour paper and mounted that onto the gold, then placed the dove on that.

I mounted the whole thing onto more red velour which was matted with gold mirror card and placed onto a white 5x7 card.

It looked nice, but needed something, so I cut and embossed four Anja Corners from Marianne Designs, and added more of the metallic gold with my daubers while still in the stencil. Those looked quite nice in the corners. I finished up by putting some red rhinestones in the corners, and at the top and bottom of the embossed frame to match the one on the dove.

When I finished it, I really liked it. I love it when I get a card done and really like it, since so many times I'm not really happy with the end result.

ODBDSLC123 Poinsettia Christmas Easel Card

This is my third week as guest designer on Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge Team for the month of September, and I am enjoying it so much!

Here are the details for this month's challenge:

ODBDSLC123- Stamp Your Own Background

This week's challenge:

Stamp your own background on a card or project. (You can use one stamp or several...your choice)

To make the challenge even more fun, we will be giving out a prize, a $15 gift certificate to be used toward stamps at the Our Daily Bread Designs store!! Entries for the prize must be submitted by Sunday, September 23rd at 8 p.m. EST. One random winner will be chosen and announced next Saturday.

While it is not required to use Our Daily Bread Designs images and sentiments on your creations, we would love to see them if you have them. As a way of recognizing those who do use Our Daily Bread Designs stamps, we will again be choosing three or more of our participants for the Shining the Light Award . In order to qualify for this award or join the challenge, however, you must use Our Daily Bread stamps and have your submission added to Mr. Linky by Sunday, September 23rd at 8 p.m. EST. If you upload your creations to Splitcoast Stampers or any other online gallery, please use the keyword is ODBDSLC123. When creating your posts on blogs please include a link to the challenge.

To see all the creations in one place or join the challenge, click here.

For more inspiration for this challenge, please visit my dt sisters:

Jan Marie Ennenga, Chris Olsen, Jan Keen, Lori Ulrich,
Kathy Roney, and Rosemary Dennis.

For my card, I decided to make the background using the beautiful Joy to the World Hymn. I wanted my card to be 5x7, so I mounted it onto gold mirror card, and mounted that onto this metallic gold poinsettia paper I had in my stash.

For the focal point, I used ODBD's gorgeous Ornaments Set, and cut it out with Spellbinders 2010 Heirloom Ornament Dies.

For the base of the easel, I used ODBD's Blessed Christmas Set, and cut it out with their custom Poinsettia Die. This perfectly matched die, cut all of those intricate leaves and stems in just a few seconds!

All stamping was done with VersaMark, and the embossing was done using Superfine Detail Gold. The shading on the ornament was done with Distress Antique Linen, and all of the outline stickers have been in my stash for years. The pearls are Queen & Co, and all the coloring was done with Copics.

I can't wait to see all of your beautiful entries in this challenge!

PSX Church Christmas Card

This is the last card I made for my commission, but in the mean time, I've been selling a lot of Christmas cards, so I guess I will still have to make more!

I used another of my old PSX stamps to make this one. Those stamps were so beautiful, and it was a shame that they had been sitting in my drawer unused for such a long time.

For this one, I had this beautiful pearlescent, textured blue that I thought would be perfect for this stamp. I really wanted to mat it with silver miror card, but unfortunately I don't have enough left, so I used a silver JellyRoll to outline the blue CS where it was mounted on the white pearl CS. I cut around the embossed stamp with scissors so it would sit directly on the blue background, then cut the background to fit into the frame.

The stamping was all done with VersaMark and embossed with some old silver tinsel EP I've had for years. The background was cut with one of my Spellbinders dies, and the little silver things in the corners were pieces I cut out from some Dresden paper trims, and added pearls to. I added silver Stickles to some of the points in the frame.

This card reminds me of the Christmas Eve midnight services we used to have at the church I attended as a child. Those services were so beautiful and peaceful, with the dark sky and snow, and are one of the things I still miss now that I've grown up and moved away.

PSX Birds and Sleigh Card

I made this card a few days ago. All the paper was cut with Spellbinders Labels Four, and the matching Grand Labels Four. All the paper is pearlescent. The white and ivory are both Core'dinations, and the two shades of green were in my stash.

The card itself was die cut on the fold with Core'dinations pearl white paper using Grand Labels Four, then the layers were added on top of the card to make the curve at the top match the bottom. Each layer was outlined with PenTouch Gold.

The image was stamped with one of my old PSX stamps using VersaMark, then embossed with Super Fine Detail Gold and colored with Copics. (The pinecones are actually brown, but my phone's camera always seems to pick up the red pigment in the brown, and make it look more red than it is). Since the card was pretty flat, I added the pearls around the frame for dimension.

Playing with flower parts and Rose Creations

Our internet is back today, I sure hope it lasts!

Yesterday I was still taking a little break from Christmas cards, so I played with my Spellbinders Rose Creations die. The flowers on top were more that I made from Prima Flower Parts a while back, and the bottom row are the ones I made yesterday with the Rose Creations die.

For all the roses, I used one each of the three smallest dies, and two of the fourth smallest. The one on the left was done with pink paper and VersaMagic Plumaria put on the very edges of the petals. The three on the right were cut out with yellow paper, and metallic gold, Distress Crushed Velvet, and a Brilliance pink added to the petals.

They were all made by rubbing my largest embossing stylus in a circular motion from the edges to the very center of all the petals. For the three largest sets of petals, I pushed down in the centers of the front sides around the hole. For the next to smallest, I just left it, and for the smallest, I glued the petals up into a tight bud, and set it aside.

Then, I placed the next to smallest over the point of my stylus, and began layering the larger sets of petals onto that, gluing only the bottoms, and alternating the petals so they wouldn't all be lined up. Then, I shaped them while still on the stylus, until they resembled real rose petals.

After taking them off the stylus, I put the little buds into the centers of the roses and shaped them some more if they needed it.

I was quite happy with them, and would like to make some more, in more sizes and colors, but I need to do more Christmas cards first!

No Internet Again

They say they are working on it, but no idea when it will be fixed. I'm roaming on my cellphone at the moment. Got to go, this connection is really weak.

Bluebird and Blossoms

I did more Christmas cards for my commission over the last few days, but I thought I would take a break from it and make a quick card today.

I wanted to use my Spellbinders Romantic Rectangles. I tried a few stamps inside the second largest rectangle, and liked the size of this bird from ODBD's Sing to the Lord set. I colored the bird as a bluebird with my Copics, and tried to do dogwood, but I'm not good at dogwoods, so I turned them into pink blossoms instead. I stamped the image twice with VersaFine Onyx Black so I would have two sets of flowers.

Next, I die cut the white card with the largest die in the set, leaving the top partially uncut on the fold. Then I cut another of the largest die and mounted it onto the front of the card so it would have the lace completely around the card. (The white behind the card is the paper I photographed it on, the lace actually is the border of the card).

I cut a piece of medium blue to fit into the largest rectangle, then cut the second largest die out of white CS and mounted it onto the blue. Next, I cut another rectangle of lighter blue and mounted that onto the smaller rectangle.

I cut out the whole stamped image, and just the flowers from the second image with a combination of scissors and an X-Acto knife, and ran the image with the bird through my Xyron. I applied that flat against the background. Next, I shaped three of the flowers from the second image by running my embossing tool over the back side of the petals. Then, I ran the embossing tool in the center of the front side to reverse the shaping, and curved the petals some more over the metal part of the embossing tool. I applied those to the lower corner, and mounted the fourth, partially opened flower, flat rather than shaped, in the upper left corner. The flowers on the bottom look really nice shaped, it gave a lot of dimension to my card!

Last, I added pearls to the corners of the lace.

Spellbinders and ribbon gold Christmas

Wow, I didn't realize the flash made the card look like this until I got home and got ready to upload my card!

Anyway, I got this Christmas ribbon on sale last weekend, and decided to use it on a card. I wanted the card to be cream and gold, so I made a 5x7 card out of ivory pearl Core'dinations CS. Then, I made a mat with gold mirror card, and cut another piece of the Core'dinations CS to fit inside that. I added the ribbon to the cream CS, then mounted the layers onto the card.

Next, I used a Spellbinders Shapability, and cut all the pieces out of both the ivory and the mirror card and began layering to see what order I wanted to mount the colors in. I decided to use the largest ivory piece on the bottom, and outlined that with a gold Pentouch to separate it from the background. I alternated the gold piece on top of that, then added the rest of the pieces, alternating the colors.

The large gold piece needed some contrast, so I cut up some of the ivory pieces and mounted them onto the gold to break it up a bit. It still needed something, so I added some Liquid Pearls. Then, I added some outline stickers from my stash to the outside borders, and it was done. As you can see, it is very shiny!

Peace on Earth

I have a pretty Christmas mat pack from K&CO, and I wanted to make a card that worked with this paper from it. Since the paper is kind of old fashioned, sort of like wallpaper, I decided I shouldn't make it too fancy.

I antiqued around the edges of the mat with Distress Antique Linen, then mounted it onto an ivory 5x7 card, then drew around the edges with a Pentouch gold pen.

I decided to use this older JustRite stamp for the focal point. After stamping the border and the center onto ivory CS, I cut them out with Spellbinders Labels Eighteen, and went around each piece with the Antique Linen and the Pentouch. The wreath is colored with Copics, and the verse is colored with chalks.

When I was in Rochester, I got something called Fantastix because I liked the fact that I would be able to use chalks in small spaces. When I got home, I read the reviews, and many people didn't like the fantastix. They had problems blending with them. I must say, that I really liked them. I used the finer point one to color and shade the chalk on this one, and it seemed quick and easy. (I thought I'd add that in case anyone else is wondering about them. Some people really hate them, but I liked them).

Anyway, when I got the centerpiece done, I held it onto the card, and it needed something. I decided to die cut all of the Spellbinders Fancy Tags Two, and tried them around my centerpiece, to see if any of them would look good around it. I liked this one, and went over it with the distress ink, then cut it up and put the pieces around my wreath. It added just enough to the design to fill out the empty space and look nice on the card. I attached the wreath and tag pieces, then mounted the verse dimensionally over that.

Then I added Queen & Co pearls to the corners. It still looked kind of blank, but I didn't want to get too fancy, so I tried a bow on it. That seemed to dress it up enough so it looked finished. (There isn't antiquing under the bow, it's a shadow from the flash on my camera). Anyway, it looks quite different from most of my Christmas cards, but I kind of liked it when it was done.

ODBDSLC122 Sparrow at Sunset

I made this card for my second week as guest designer on the Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge team.

This week's challenge: ODBDSLC122 Use a bird or birds on your creation.


To make the challenge even more fun, we will be giving out a prize, a $15 gift certificate to be used toward stamps at the Our Daily Bread Designs store!! Entries for the prize must be submitted by Sunday, September 16th at 8 p.m. EST. One random winner will be chosen and announced next Saturday.

While it is not required to use Our Daily Bread Designs images and sentiments on your creations, we would love to see them if you have them. As a way of recognizing those who do use Our Daily Bread Designs stamps, we will again be choosing three or more of our participants for the Shining the Light Award . In order to qualify for this award or join the challenge, however, you must use Our Daily Bread stamps and have your submission added to Mr. Linky by Sunday, September 16th at 8 p.m. EST. If you upload your creations to Splitcoast Stampers or any other online gallery, please use the keyword ODBDSLC122. When creating your posts on blogs please include a link to the challenge.

To see all the creations in one place or join the challenge, click here.

For more inspiration for this challenge, please visit my dt sisters:

Jan Marie Ennenga, Chris Olsen, Jan Keen, Lori Ulrich, Kathy Roney, and Rosemary Dennis.

For my card, I used ODBD's He Watches Me for the sparrow and thistle. These were cut with ODBD's custom Sparrow Die, which made it so easy to layer the stamped image onto my sunset background. The sparrow was colored with Copics.

Inside the z-fold card, I used ODBD's Bird & Butterfly Labels, and a saying from ODBD's Faith Set. Both were stamped directly onto another sunset, and cut out with the matching Spellbinders Labels Eighteen. I colored the butterflies and bird in the label with a copper colored Jelly Roll pen to match the copper metallic paper I used to mat everything.

The patterned background paper is from the Mariposa stack, and the sunsets were my photographs, which I printed out to stamp on. I thought the beautiful sunsets were perfect for the saying "He makes everything beautiful in His time".

The top photo is the card closed, the middle one is how it looks while standing up, and the bottom one is the card fully open.

Angel Christmas Card

I made another Christmas card for my friend. This one has another of the tags from the same K&Co set as the chickadee card. These were actually designed as gift tags, but they are too pretty to be used and thrown away, so I mount them dimensionally onto cards.

Both colors of paper on this one were cut from backgrounds on the K&Co stacks which matched the tags and stickers. I diecut the paper with Spellbinders and used my sponge daubers to ink the middles while they were still in the die. Then I ran my gold Pentouch around the inside of each of them.

The DP was mounted onto gold mirror card before mounting that onto an ivory card, then I used gold Stickles, and a Christmas green glitter similar to Stickles as accents. I can't remember the brand name of the green, it's something new our AC Moore carries, and isn't anywhere near as nice as Stickles, but AC Moore doesn't have any Christmas green Stickles.

It's so disappointing to see AC Moore carrying more of the cheap stuff like Walmart, and less of the good stuff like Michael's and Hobby Lobby have, especially since we don't have any Michael's or Hobby Lobby anywhere near us. I've always tried to support the brick and mortar stores, but with no place but AC Moore and a bad JoAnn's, I can see a lot more mail order in my near future.

Anyway, I did try a bow on this one, and am still trying to decide whether or not to add it. It gives a very different feel to the card, and I can't decide which way I prefer it.

Chickadee Christmas Card

A friend who is only here in the summer was buying my cards and sending them to a friend who was in the hospital near her winter home. Her friend loved them so much that she asked my friend to commission me to make her some Christmas cards for her to send to her friends. I feel really honored! Anyway, my friend chose some that I had already made, and now I'm making more for her.

I had this pretty dimensional chickadee sticker from K&Co, and I decided to design a card around it. I chose some generic dark green, some mottled gold, which was part of the background from some K&Co paper, some gold mirror card, and some darker patterned gold which was in my stash of cut offs.

I used a scalloped Spellbinder oval under the chickadee, and two sizes of Labels Twenty Two for the other die cuts. The dark green is actually a frame over the mottled gold. The outlines were done with a PenTouch Gold pen.

The outline stickers in the corner were in my stash, and the pearls were white ones I colored with Copics.

I finally got to AC Moore again today, and was very disappointed to find out that they are discontinuing any new Spellbinders. They are only going to carry a few older ones. I did get two of the older ones I didn't have, one was the Grand 12" Rose Border, and the other was The Renaissance Hearts Border. They were only $10 each. I guess this means we won't be able to buy Spellbinders products locally.

I also got a Darice Damask embossing folder for $3.99. They actually had the Grand Calibur Raspberry plate, so I got one of those as well, and I finally got the Ranger non stick craft mat. I needed that.

I also bought a bunch of discontinued paper for .20 per sheet and since they don't sell Copics, I decided to try a set of Spectrum Noir markers. I've read on the internet that they work with Copics. I got the essentials colors, since my colorless blender was getting low, and I didn't have black or grey. Hopefully the browns are different from my browns, and the yellow looks paler than my yellows. They don't have a brush tip, and the chisel doesn't look as sharp as Copics, but I was curious about them, so now I will be able to try them out.

It was kind of a disappointment because the scrapbook department was one or two aisles shorter than it used to be, but it was fun getting new things.

Doily Santa Card

I used two different Marianne Creatables for this card. First, I cut out the doily using green and metallic gold card stock. Then I cut out the corners six times using the same metallic gold. After that, I just embossed the same corners two times with green card stock, and cut around them with scissors to frame two of the corners. I kept cutting and fitting everything together for the front of the card so it would look like two of the corners were part of the doily, and the other four would look like a large square doily in the background.

After that, I cut another large doily and mounted it on the bottom part of the easel. I stamped the sentiment from ODBD's Blessed Christmas Set onto the center of the doily with VersaMark, and embossed it with SuperFine Detail Gold.

All gold outlining was done with Pentouch Gold. The pearls were some small white ones which I colored with a Copic to match the green in the card. The Santa is one of those embossed German die cut ones from a sheet I've had for years.

Seagull Popup Card

I made this card quite a few years ago. I got the image from one of those free sites, but I have no idea where I got it from now.

I have a beautiful book on making pop ups. I wanted to do this seagull from the book inside a card, but since I had done mostly book making before I made this card, at the time I didn't have very much for card making. Anyhow, the front of the card didn't match the inside very well. I am mostly showing it here because I just found the photos of it and I have never shown any of my pop ups before. Now that I've done more card making, I can see lots of ways I could have done it better.

The Sea

This card is made by mounting a K&Co background onto an off white 5x7 card. I used a stamp from JustRite, cut it with Spellbinders Labels Twenty Two, and layered it onto more pieces of paper cut with the same die set.

Each element was outlined with PenTouch Gold, and distressed with Antique Linen before mounting them. The space just above and to the right of the ship needed something, so I cut a seagull out of the paper and added it. I have sets of those papers in various sizes, as well as matching stickers, but unfortunately the seagulls in this size were only printed flying in on direction. I know it's never good to have everything moving off the page, but I didn't have any choice with this one. I wish he was flying toward the ship instead.

I added Queen and Co pearls to the corner to finish the card.

ODBDSLC121 You Leave Me in Stitches

ODBDSLC121 You Leave Me in Stitches

Due to the holiday weekend, Our Daily Bread Designs is extending the You Leave Me in Stitches challenge giving our players another week to participate. The team, however, has another set of samples to share with you.

To make the challenge even more fun, we will be giving out a prize, a $15 gift certificate to be used toward stamps at the Our Daily Bread Designs store!! Entries for the prize must be submitted by Sunday, September 9th at 8 p.m. EST. One random winner will be chosen and announced next Tuesday.


While it is not required to use Our Daily Bread Designs images and sentiments on your creations, we would love to see them if you have them. As a way of recognizing those who do use Our Daily Bread Designs stamps, we will again be choosing three or more of our participants for the Shining the Light Award . In order to qualify for this award or join the challenge, however, you must use Our Daily Bread stamps and have your submission added to Mr. Linky by Sunday, September 9th at 8 p.m. EST. If you upload your creations to Splitcoast Stampers or any other online gallery, please use the keyword is ODBDSLC121. When creating your posts on blogs please include a link to the challenge.


To see all the creations in one place or join the challenge, click here.


For more inspiration for this challenge, please visit my dt sisters:

Jan Marie Ennenga, Chris Olsen, Jan Keen, Lori Ulrich,
Kathy Roney, and Rosemary Dennis.

For my card, I used ODBD's beautiful Worship the Lord Set.

This is my first stitched card, and I decided to make an elegant card using real stitching. First, I cut a 5 inch square from Core'dinations pearl paper, and used a Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page set to shape the panel and make the holes for stitching. Then, I used some metallic embroidery floss to stitch in every other hole in the center square, and every hole in the outside border.

Next, I stamped the church twice, and the "Merry Christmas" once on another sheet of paper using VersaMark. After embossing with Superfine Detail Gold, I cut around the whole church scene, and around only the trees on the other church scene I had stamped. I mounted everything dimensionally onto the sewn card, then cut around the sentiment and mounted that dimensionally as well.

I wanted to stitch a Christmas star, but was afraid I'd make a mess of things, so I colored a crystal Christmas button with a Krylon 18 K pen, and used that for the star instead. The background looked kind of blank, so I added some Stickles stars. The Stickles don't look as good in the photo as they do in person. On the card, they really sparkle, and look much lighter.

Lastly, I mounted the card onto a 5 inch square card I made from the same pearl paper and traced around it with the Krylon pen.