Another Red and White Christmas

I haven't had much time for making cards this week, so I'm uploading another one I did over two years ago, when I got my first Marianne Designs products, and before I had a blog.

This one was done with a Designables embossing folder, and a bunch of Creatables. I gave the card away long ago, so I don't have a clue what I used for paper.

It may be my own design, or it may be one I cased, I'm not sure. Anyway, if it is one I cased and someone recognizes it, please let me know and I will give credit. I barely remember making it, but I know it is mine, not only because of the folder on my computer it was in, but also because of the background which I cropped out.

Red and White Lea'bilities Holly Card

I didn't get a chance to make a card today, so I am posting one I made a while back and never put on my blog.

This is similar to one I made about a month ago which was in two shades of green.

This card was made with a holly die set by Leane Creatief BV. The flowers in the corners were made with small punches, and the poinsettia is made with dies from Marianne Creatables.

I accented the card with silver Stickles, but the silver glitter didn't photograph very well, which is why I didn't put this on my blog when I first made it.

I cut the Lea'bility die using wax paper since it is a very fine die. I would expect it would be difficult to remove it without tearing it otherwise.

Gold Poinsettia and Ribbon Card ODBDSLC130

I made this card for Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge ODBDSLC130 Gold or Silver.

For this card, I used Core'dinations Pearl CS and Gold Mirror Card. The Poinsettia is from ODBD's Blessed Christmas Set, and cut with their matching Poinsettia Custom Die. It is stamped using Versamark, and embossed with gold EP.

I had a roll of this Christmas Ribbon, which had a very sheer pale gold center with sparkly gold snowflakes, and gold borders. I decided to cut a piece of the gold mirror card a little wider than the ribbon and mount it onto that. In person, it looks like the gold under the ribbon is brushed gold, with gold mirror borders. If the sun comes out tomorrow, I'll try to get a photograph of it without a flash so you can see the effect. In this photograph, you can see the shine through the ribbon because of the way I photographed it. (I tried photographing it again, but it didn't come out great. Also, you can seewhere I ran my ATG to hold the ribbon down in the photo, but in person, you can't see it through the ribbon).

The poinsettia is mounted dimensionally onto the ribbon. The background paper was embossed using a Spellbinders M-Bossibility on just the edges, leaving a small strip between it and the gold paper, then I drew a gold line along the embossed edge with a pen, and mounted a saying, a bow, and some pearls.

Another Glittery Christmas Card

For this card, I used some of the ribbon and another color of the glittery gift wrap I bought yesterday. I took lots of photos of this card, trying to get one that really shows what the card looks like, but it was really difficult to photograph all that glitter. The aqua glitter paper is lighter and prettier than it looks here. It is a bit lighter than the ribbon.

Besides the glittery paper, I used silver mirror card and Core'dination white pearl CS. The ornament was stamped using VersaMark and silver tinsel EP. The stamp is from JustRite's Noel Christmas Ornaments set.

Instead of using the matching Spellbinders die for the ornament, I cut around it with scissors because I didn't want a border. The central motif is mounted dimensionally.

I added silver outline stickers from my stash in the corners, and white pearls and aqua rhinestones.

Christmas Card with Glittery Paper and Noor! Dies

I couldn't wait to try the glittery gift wrap I mentioned in my last post on my blog.

I started by choosing a K&Co tag which would match one of the colors of paper I bought. This tag had touches of glitter, and in person, the blue on the tag is the same shade of blue as the paper.

For the other papers, I used a pale gold Core'dinations Pearl paper, which matched the ivory color in the tag, and a mat of gold mirror card.

The tag is dimensionally mounted onto a die cut from one of my Noor! dies. That die cut is mounted dimensionally onto the background paper and surrounded by corners made from another Noor! die. I added a few blue rhinestones as a finishing touch.

In this photograph, the amount of sparkle makes it look like the glitter is sparse and it looks like you can see the background through the paper, but you really can't. The glitter covers the paper completely, with no background paper showing.

Inexpensive Glittery Paper

You know those sheets of glittery CS that sell for $2.00 per sheet? I'm hoping this will work as a substitute!

I was at Walmart today, and I saw this gift wrap in the Christmas section. It was in quite a few colors, but I only bought these three because they are the colors I can see myself using the most.

When I got home and opened it, it did shed some glitter. Not much, but a little. I'm hoping that it won't need to be sprayed to keep the glitter on, but so far, I don't think it will. It is gift wrap weight, so it will need to be mounted onto CS using either the Xyron, or spray mount, but that's no big deal, I do that with my mulberry and other light weight papers. I keep those rolled until I need to use them, then I just cut white CS to size, run the CS through the Xyron, and mount the thinner paper as I need it.

Anyway, it's a seasonal item, and it's so pretty, I expect a lot of people will be buying it to wrap their gifts, so it may not be in the store for long. I hope it works well, because it is a lot cheaper than the stuff in the craft stores!

Also, they had some pretty nice Christmas ribbon, so of course I got some of that too!!!

Gold PSX Church Card

I decided to make a simpler card today. I wish all the pearlescence showed in this photograph, because in person, it's very pretty.

All of the paper is Core'dinations pearl in white and two shades of gold, with some gold mirror card for matting. I did the embossing with gold EP, and added gold outline stickers and gold pearls. I only used a few simple embellishments because the pearls and metallics don't really need anything else in person.

I love these old PSX stamps, and am glad I got so many back when they were still in business.

White Filigree Blessings Card

I had so much fun playing with my corners dies from the November Amazing Paper Grace Kit, by Becca Feeken yesterday, that I had to play with them again today.

This card was done with multiple layers of Core'dinations Pearl paper. For the filigree layers, and I made a layer with the die facing inwards, and then another layer facing outwards.

The medallion is stamped onto blue pearl paper with JustRite's Vintage Rose Medallions using VersaMark and White EP, and cut with JustRite's custom Nested Medallion Labels Dies.

I finished it off with this blue and gold double bow and some pearls.

Filigree Noel Card JRC_085

Yesterday I got my first Amazing Paper Grace Kit, by Becca Feeken. I love these filigree corner dies from Spellbinders and JustRite that I got with it, and had to make a card with them.

I am entering this card into JustRite Friday Challenge #085 - Happy Holidays.

All the white paper is Core'dinations Pearl, the blue paper is a pearlized blue from my stash, and the rhinestones and snowflakes are also from my stash. As in the previous card I posted, the snowflakes and rhinestones are much lighter in person than in the photographs.

The center medallion is from JustRite's Noel Christmas Ornaments, and cut with JustRite's custom Nested Medallion Labels Dies. I did the stamping with VersaMark, and embossed it with gold.

The die cuts are layered and mounted dimensionally, and I traced around the blue one with a gold pen.

Lace and Snowflakes Card ODBDSLC129

I made this card for the Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge ODBDSLC129 Winter White.

For this card, I used six layers from two different Marianne Creatables dies, cut from Core'dinations Pearl CS. I mounted the layers onto a card cut from one of the same dies.

The Rejoice and the church on the inside are from Our Daily Bread Designs beautiful Worship the Lord set. These were stamped using VersaMark and embossed with gold EP. The church on the inside was cut with another of the same dies and mounted at the top of the inside.

I tried this with silver, but my silver is very old, and it didn't show up well enough, so I did the stamping again with gold. The old EPs just didn't work as well as the new ones, and mine stamped very flat and unevenly.

I added Diamond Stickles, but they didn't add enough contrast to the card, so I added these crystal snowflakes from my stash. On my card, they are much lighter than they appear in the photograph, and match the card much better.

Now that I have seen this card on my blog, I will probably add Merry Christmas from the same set to the bottom half of the inside.

Ornament Fancy Fold Card JRC_085

I made this card for JustRite Friday Challenge #085 - Happy Holidays. For this challenge we were to use two or more dies.

I decided to use three different JustRite stamps for this. Deck the Halls - Cling, Christmas Miracle Ornaments, and Noel Christmas Ornaments, and cut them with their matching dies: 2012 Heirloom Ornaments, 2011 Heirloom Ornaments, and 2010 Heirloom Ornaments, as well as JustRite Custom Nested Medallion Labels Dies.

After making the card and cutting, embossing and coloring everything, I found out that on this particular card, the smaller ornaments were a bit too large for the card because I had added so many, so I trimmed the white border from all except the Large ornament in the center page, and the star shaped writing space.

The papers are from my stash, and all the ornaments are mounted dimensionally. The writing space is mounted directly onto the card. The three center ornaments have a gold cord attached to a gold Stickles "nail".

Everything is embossed with gold, and colored with Copics. I also did shading with Distress Antique Linen. The gold outline stickers are from my stash, and I added more dots of gold Stickles.

Rose Border Card

I thought I would put a non Christmas card up today. (And it's a pink one Jill) :-)

A few months ago, I found out that our AC Moore wasn't going to sell Spellbinders any more. They still had a few, but nothing that I really wanted. Since I had a 40% off coupon, and I hate going to a craft store and not buying at least one Spellbinders die, I bought this Grand Rose Border even though I wasn't sure I wanted it.

A few weeks after I got it, I tried embossing it, and using a Brilliance ink pad to color it while it was still in the die. I mounted it on a piece of 5x7 Core'dinations pink pearl card. I didn't really know what I wanted to do with it, so I Stamped this ODBD Eternity saying onto Core'dinations white pearl and cut it out with the matching ODBD Elegant Ovals die. The sentiment was stamped with Brilliance pink and embossed with clear EP, but I couldn't get a good photo of the pink, so you can't read it in the photo. It's easy to read on the actual card.

I added the die cuts to the card and outlined everything with a gold pen. Then I stuck some Spellbinders corners to the card front and stuck some roses and pearls in them, and added a narrow gold ribbon and bow to the side. Then I mounted the whole thing to a card made from more of the white pearl CS.

I don't like the card at all, but at least I used the die.

Tis the Season Card JRC_085

I made this card because I wanted to try this ribbon I bought a couple of weeks ago, then I realized that it fits JustRite Friday Challenge #085 - Happy Holidays.

For this card, I started with a 5x7 white card, then cut a piece of gold mirror card for a mat, and another piece of white CS for the background paper.

I hadn't used this white mulberry paper with the gold threads running through it for a long time, so I ran the background paper through my Xyron and put it on top of the mulberry paper to adhere it.

Then I applied the ribbon and mounted it all on the card. I cut two borders from Spellbinders Ironwork Accents and cut them to size, placing one on each side of the ribbon.

I stamped Tis the Season of Love from JustRite's Christmas Miracle Ornaments using VersaMark, and embossed it with Superfine Detail Gold, onto a motif from the same die set, and layered it dimensionally onto a motif from the Ironwork Motifs set. These were both cut from Core'dinations white pearl CS.

Then I cut another motif from the Ironwork Accents set from gold mirror card and mounted them onto that. The whole thing was then mounted dimensionally onto the ribbon.

Last, I added a gold bow I made.

Holly and Pine Cone Card

This is another very simple card to make, but I like it because it is so warm and traditional looking. It's just a piece of K&Co CS and an old Anna Griffin tag. I matted them both with gold mirror card, and mounted them onto a white card. Then I added a couple of dimensional K&Co stickers to the corners of the tag, and a few pearls.

Red Ribbon Christmas

I made this card before I made the one with the green ribbon I posted the other day, and in person, this one is much prettier, and much more rich looking. When I looked at the photographs on my computer though, the green one looked much nicer, so I posted it first.

I bought this red ribbon at the same time as the green one. It is narrower and the red isn't sheer, but they are very similar.

For this one, I mounted it onto some more of this sparkly gold DP from my stash. I used a Spellbinders die to cut the two borders on either side of the ribbon, mounted the DP onto gold mirror card, and then onto a white card, then added gold holly stickers and red half pearls to each corner.

The motif in the center is another dimensional Anna Griffin sticker I've had for several years. It was a really quick and easy card!

Cardinal Card with Noor! Dies and Spellbinders

For this card, I used a Noor! die for the center, and another one for the corners. First, I cut the Noor! dies out in white CS, then laid the die cuts out in my Spellbinders Grand Labels One, and found that they would fit in the largest one.

I cut the red CS and the gold mirror card out with the Spellbinders die, and trimmed around the red so it would fit inside the gold one. Then I mounted them onto white CS and cut that out larger.

Since it's difficult to find CS larger than 12x12, I cut two more of the largest Labels One, and trimmed the top 1/2" off of one, and scored the second one the same distance from the top. Then I adhered the folded section behind the cut section, and attached that to the back of the card front to create a folding card.

I cut a piece of gold mirror card with one of the Spellbinders circles, and mounted a K&Co tag to that, then used the die to trace another circle on the tag with a gold pen. This was mounted dimensionally onto the card.

The card looked kind of plain, so I added gold outline stickers between each corner, and red rhinestones to the corners and center of the bow on the tag. It still looked plain, so I cut individual little flowers from Dresden paper lace, and used a red Sharpie to add red centers to each flower. Those were glued to the corner die cuts and the centers of the outline stickers. Then I added Glossy Accents to the bow and red berries in the tag to give it more dimension.

Lace and Christmas Flowers JRC_084

I love this Lace Background Stamp from JustRite, and I decided to make a Christmas card with it. I am entering it into JustRite Friday Challenge #084 - "Flower Power".

I stamped the lace onto red CS using VersaMark, and embossed it in white. Then I mounted it onto gold mirror card, and onto a white card.

I used pearls and three K&Co dimensional sickers in the corners, and a flat K&Co tag in the center. I wanted the center tag to look like a shiny medallion, so I glued thick gold cord around it and used Glossy Accents to fill the inside.

It would have been prettier if I didn't have a couple of small air bubbles in the glossy accents.

Creatables and White Poinsettia Card

I made this card about a month ago, before I closed my shop for the season. It was when I first got this die, and I decided to use it to make a red and white card.

First, I cut a white card with the die, then I alternated red and white die cuts and mounted them onto the card, adding this dimensional K&Co sticker in the middle and red pearls to each corner.

This die makes it very easy to create a beautiful card that looks complicated.

Today when I saw Karen's card, it reminded me that I had never posted this one. Even though her card uses more dies than mine, and has that beautiful layered poinsettia, it's purely coincidence that we both made red and white cards from the same die, with a poinsettia as an ornament. (I like her card better though).

Anyway, since I'm an admirer of Karen's cards, I didn't want to post a similar card without putting a link to her's on my blog.

Green Ribbon Merry Christmas

I may not get the details on this card posted for a while.

Our power is on and off because of the hurricane, but at least I'm hoping I can get this card up before it goes off, probably for a few days.

I'm typing and publishing every few sentences because the internet also keeps going out, so if this post stops somewhere odd, it's because of either the power or the internet, and I'll have to finish it later.

I got this really pretty green ribbon a week or so ago, and thought it would be beautiful on a card. The green on the ribbon is very sheer, so I cut out a strip of matching green paper to put under it.

The paper the ribbon is on, as well as the card are Core'dinations Pearl, in a pale gold color, using gold mirror card as a mat. The gold strips are dresden paper lace, and make the background paper look like there are strips of satin ribbon on either side of the green.

The center motif is a retired JustRite stamp, embossed with gold, and mounted dimensionally with pieces of two of my Noor! dies cut out of more gold mirror card.

Okay, I managed to finish it. I'm gone until the power and internet are really back.

Another Good Friends Card

When I was making the card for the JustRite challenge a few days ago, I stamped and colored the medallion twice. Once with gold embossing powder, and once with white so I could decide which I liked better on that card. I do that frequently while making cards, and then I put the unused stamped piece into a drawer. Today I was going through the drawer, and decided to make a card using this motif, since it's one of my favorite stamps. I also love using this pale gold Core'dinations Pearls CS shaded with pink. Next time, I think I will try shading it with either green or blue, since everyone except Jill is probably getting tired of all my pink cards lately. (Although I actually do have two more pink cards waiting to be posted at some time).

Anyway, this time I cut another Noor! die out of the same Core'dinations pearl CS, as well as a Spellbinders Decorative Labels Eight, one of Spellbinders Labels Eight, a mat of the pearl paper, one of gold mirror card, and a card made out of the pearl paper.

Then, I kept layering them and deciding where to shade the paper, where to use a gold stamp pad to stencil the pieces, and where to outline with a gold pen.

When I was satisfied, I put them all together, some dimensionally and some flat against the backgrounds, and added some pink and gold pearls.

I wish the pearlescent sheen of these cards showed up better in the photographs, because it looks really pretty in person.

Angel and Cross Card using Noor! Dies

As I was looking at this Noor! die, I decided it could make a beautiful cross, and the corner die would work well with it.

I cut the die I used for the cross three times out of Core'dinations pearl CS, and cut them with scissors to make a pleasing shape, then cut the corners from the same paper.

I decided to mount them onto this red pearl paper from my stash, and put a K&Co angel in the middle. I then added some K&Co poinsettias to the blank space, and some of their holly to the top corners. Red pearls were added to each corner, and to each point of the cross.

Elegant Santa Card

I made this card a while back. This Santa die cut fit perfectly in the Spellbinders Romantic Rectangles die. I cut and embossed the dies on Core'dinations Pearl, and tried them on various background papers. I liked this sparkly light blue, so I matted it with metallic gold and mounted it on a card made with more of the pearl paper. Then I used two shades of blue, I can't remember which ones they were, to shade them while they were still in the die. I shaded them unevenly because I thought it would add more interest than if they were evenly shaded. I wanted it to look like Santa was in a cold snowy atmosphere. Then I ran a gold pen inside the dies and added gold pearls.

I was trying to find something small to decorate the corners of the background paper with, and decided to cut these tiny flowers from Dresden paper.

Sparkly Christmas with Ribbon and Noor! Die

I made this card a few days ago. In person, it's very sparkly.

I started with the sparkly pine cone ribbon, and decided to use it on this sparkly paper from my stash. It is matted with gold mirror card.

Then I added this Noor! die, which I shaded with a metallic gold stamp pad while it was still in the die. After that, I added a sparkly gold bow I made and this sparkly Anna Griffin dimensional label which I've had for a few years.

Last, I added the pearls to the corners.

Lacy Poinsettia Card ODBDSLC127

I made this card for Our Daily Bread Designs ODBDSLC127 LEAF- Create your own letter Recipe Challenge. This week's challenge is to use three letters in the word "LEAF" and create a card or project beginning with those letters.

On my card L=Leaves, Layers, and Lacy, E=Embossing and Easel Card, A=Adhesive Pearls, and F=Flower and Fancy Fold.

The white paper is Core'dinations Pearl, the green is a generic pearlized paper, and I used gold mirror card for the mat. All stamping is VersaMark, embossed with Super Fine Detail Gold EP, and the coloring is done with Copics.

The poinsettia is from ODBD's Blessed Christmas Set and cut with their Custom Poinsettia Die. The Merry Christmas is from their Worship the Lord Set.

I also used Spellbinders Labels Eight, Decorative Labels Eight, and Fancy Tags Two, as well as some half pearls.

The poinsettia and tag are mounted dimensionally.

Good Friends and Roses Card JRC#084

I made this card for JustRite's Friday Challenge #084 - "Flower Power". This card is completely done using pale gold Core'dinations Pearl CS, and gold mirror card to mat the background layer. All the pink is done by shading with Brilliance pink on a sponge dauber after stamping with VersaMark and embossing with white and gold embossing powder. The background paper and motifs were outlined with a gold pen.

The background was stamped with JustRite's Lace Background Stamp. The Lace motif was stamped using Lace Medallion Labels, and cut with JustRite's custom Nested Medallion Labels Dies. The beautiful motif in the center is from Spring Rose Medallions - Cling , and cut with JustRite's custom Nested Oval Medallion Labels Dies.

All coloring was done with Copics. I used roses and rose buds plus a bow to finish the card.

Oh yeah Jill, this one's pink too!

December 25th

This card uses two more of my Noor! dies, and two Spellbinders dies. The Noor! dies were shaded with Memento New Sprout to match the green in this K&Co DP. I love that DP and am so glad I bought so many of the 5x7 stacks so I have several sheets of it. I will be very sad when I use it up. It reminds me of wallpaper, and seems to give a warm and homey touch to Christmas cards. The DP was outlined with a gold pen.

I wanted to use two coordinating lacy dies for this one. On the top die cut, I layered two spellbinders die cuts accented with a gold pen, with a K&Co tag on top. On the bottom, I added another dimensional K&Co tag. I didn't use any other dies over this one because I didn't want to cover up this elegant die.

As a finishing touch, I just added a bow.

Roses and Daisies Card using Noor! Creatables and Spellbinders

I love mixing and matching dies, and love showing how you can use so many from different companies on one project. This card uses Three Creatables dies from two different sets, one Noor! die, and five Spellbinders dies from two different sets.

I made it in pink, because pink cards always make me think of one of my most loyal blog friends, and that makes me happy. Hi Jill!

Anyway, for this card, I used pink and white Core'dinations Pearls papers for everything but the rose and daisies. I die cut a card from the white pearl using the largest square Creatables die, then cut another white one to layer over the card base, so the design would be full sized at the top. Then I cut the next size smaller scalloped square from the same set in pink, and layered it over the white one.

The white lacy one is one of my new Noor! dies, then the round pink one is from a different Creatables set.

I made the leaves using the Spellbinders Foliage die, cutting them twice, then used a rose I had already made using the Spellbinders Rose Creations die. The rose is made with the four smallest dies from that set. I cut the largest of the four twice to make two alternating rows of the largest petals, and the three smallest ones once each.

I made the rose a few weeks ago using ordinary white CS and a pink Brilliance stamp pad for shading. The daisies are from two sizes of daisy petals from two different punches layered with Liquid Pearls in the centers. I made those months ago.

I sort of wish the rose was closer in color to the pink paper, but I don't have a matching pearlescent stamp pad for that. This is the closest pink I have.

Christmas Cactus Card using Noor! Dies and Spellbinders

Gosh, this photo looks much brighter on my blog than it does in real life. The red and green are not quite so bright in person, and look much better together than they do on here.

Anyway, I made this card using one of the Noor! dies I got yesterday. I used a metallic Gold stamp pad to color the embossing while it was still in the die.

I used this K&Co tag mounted onto two sizes of Spellbinders scalloped circles which I outlined with a gold pen. The circles and tag are mounted dimensionally.

I outlined the red background paper with a gold pen, and added red pearls to the corners.

Creatables Gold and White Square Card

Today I received four Noor! dies, and one Creatables set. They were all so beautiful it was difficult to decide which one to use first! The first thing I did was to cut and emboss each one of them out of Core'dinations Pearl paper. Then, I decided to use the square Marianne one.

I decided to make it cream and light gold, so I cut two more of the die shapes out of Core'dinations pale gold pearl CS, and another of the centers out of the white pearl. I layered them together, and decided to use a gold metallic stamp pad and my sponge daubers to highlight the embossing on one of the diecuts, and shade the center of it, as well as to run it around the outside edge of the outside die cut to define the edges.

Then I used the outside die to cut a card out of the white pearl, and mounted everything on that.

I had originally planned on using the center medallion by alternating two of the motifs and shaping them into a flower, but it didn't work for me, so I layered two sizes of daisies instead, and colored the stamen metallic gold with a gold pen. The daisies are actually off white, and quite close in color to the pale gold. The two medallions show behind it and look like a little doily under the flower.

Marianne Creatables and Star Collection Card

This card uses a Mariane Creatables die, and a Star Collection stencil. The base is made from the stencil. I embossed it on a light table using the PD0015 stencil, and only embossed up to the line below the point. Then I flipped the stencil vertically and embossed the same half again on the opposite end. After folding in half on the line, it made a stand for the card.

Then I cut out the Marianne Creatables circle for the top. I matted everything with light blue, and cut the flourishes behind the flower with the same blue. I added a blue flower I made from Prima flower parts, and decided to shade the raised parts of the stand with a matching blue Pebbles cream chalk.

I had originally pricked the embroidery design with a needle and was going to embroider it, but in person the prickings look nice, (they are so fine that they don't show up in the photo), and I decided it probably looks better pricked than it would embroidered on this card.

Last, I added Liquid Pearls. This card stands up by opening the bottom part, but the Liquid Pearls were still wet when I photographed it, and I didn't want to mess it up if I moved it around too much, so I photographed it lying down flat.

Spellbinders and Noor! Snowflake Card

I am still waiting for my Noor! dies to get here, but I wanted to use the one I already have, so I made this card. This die came from Kamya, and got here really fast, it only took two days, but they only had one of the Noor! dies I wanted. (They did have a lot of the Star Collection stencils I wanted though).

I wanted to make a snowflake looking card, so I played with the Spellbinders Persian Accents and matching Motifs dies, and this is what I came up with. I used Pebbles Cream Chalks to color them while still in the dies. They were cut from Core'dinations Pearl CS.

I mounted them onto a sparkly light blue CS, and matted that with gold mirror card. The card itself is made from more of the Core'dinations Pearl.

The corners are the Noor! die I got last week. I love these corners, they are small enough to fit onto a lot of cards, and work really well with circular designs.

They are actually straight on this card, but the mirror card curls a bit, so I frequently have to flatten my cards that use it on. I took the photo before I flattened the card.

Reindeer Card JRC#083

I made this card, then realized that it qualifies for JustRite Friday Challenge #083 - "Three's Company", so I'm entering it there.

I was going through my K&Co stacks, and saw this paper, which matches one of their Christmas tags, and decided it would make a pretty non traditional Christmas card. I matted the tag onto a gold and a blue sheet of Anna Griffin paper which coordinated well with the K&Co paper. They were cut and embossed with Spellbinders Labels Eighteen.

Next, I stamped a sentiment from JustRite's Noel Christmas Ornaments onto ivory CS using Distress ink, and shaded the tag with that, after cutting and embossing it with the same die set. The sentiment was matted with the same blue paper as I used to mat the tag.

The front of the card was also matted with that blue paper before being mounted onto an ivory card.

Everything was outlined with a gold pen, and I added pearls to the corners.

Marianne Designs Vellum Candlabra Card

I made this card using one of the Marianne Designs Star Collection Stencils I got from Kamya this week.

The candlabra was embossed on vellum using a small stylus, then I used a white pencil to lighten the embossing. The medium green pearl card was cut with two sizes of Spellbinders Grand Labels One. The smaller one was placed on the diagonal inside the larger one to cut a window for the vellum, then the vellum was attached to the back.

Next, I cut a larger piece of dark green CS for a mat for the lighter green, and to back the vellum so the embossing showed up better. The layers were mounted onto a larger sheet of Core'dinations white pearl CS, then I did a bunch of outlining and accented the candlabra with a gold pen. My outlining could have been neater. It was kind of hard to work today because it was only 46 degrees here today, and we only have a couple of small electric heaters in the shop, and I was freezing. I suppose we will have to close soon.

Anyway, next, I made a back for the card by cutting another sheet of the white pearl CS with the same size die as the card. I folded the top inch or so of this die cut, and lined up the bottoms, and attached the top folded part to the back of the card. I had to devise a way of attaching the back because the card is over 7" square.

Last, I cut some Marianne Creatables poinsettias and corner decorations out of the white pearl CS and some gold mirror card to embellish the corners. Then I added a bow.

Lea'bilities Holly Card

For a few months I have been wanting some NOOR! Design dies. Finally, this week, I sent for a few. One of the places which were listed as carrying them was Kamya. I went to their site, but found only one that I wanted, and it's only a tiny corner die, so I'm waiting to use it. While there, I decided to order a couple of the Star Collection stencils by Marianne Designs that I have been wanting, a Cheery Lynn die, and an interesting holly die by Leane Creatief BV. Now that I have tried this die, I know I need the Holly Border one that matches it!

More of the NOOR! dies I wanted should be here sometime soon. I ordered those and a new Marianne Creatables die from Ecstacy on the same day.

Anyway, since this is a very fine die, I used wax paper when I cut it, and I had no problems removing it. Without wax paper, I expect it would tear.

The die set consists of the two holly borders, plus three small fancy squares. I altered the direction of each die, using every other one as a diamond shape, rather than using them all as squares when I put them on the paper. This gave me a few larger spaces in each corner to add an embellishment.

I used a mossy pearl paper and a lighter green linen textured paper from my stash for this card.

The four little flowers in each corner were made from small punches. They were shaped and the layers were alternated. The center flower is made from two sizes of the Marianne Creatables small poinsettias. Those were also shaped.

To finish, I added gold Liquid Pearls to the centers of the flowers and at various points on the design.

It was supposed to be a Christmas card, but with these colors, and since the flowers don't look like poinsettias, it could be used for any occasion.

Now I need the holly border that goes with it. I think the holly leaves can be cut from the border and used in the corners of this die to change the look.

I'm really happy with this die set!

I'm also making another card like this in red with white, which is almost finished, and want to do one in blue with white. Now that I think of it, pink with white would be pretty, and so would a lot of other combinations. It seems to be a very versatile set!

Wishing you Joy Card

This card is made with JustRite's Noel Christmas Ornaments set.

The ornament was stamped onto Core'dinations Pearl CS using VersaMark and embossed with Super Fine Detail Gold. Then it was cut with the matching Spellbinders 2010 Heirloom Ornaments.

The light green shading is done with Memento Cottage Ivy. I used a sponge dauber for the label part of the ornament, and a bullet point Fantastix for the smaller parts of the ornament. The darker green is Copic, and there is actually a golden yellow Copic used in the narrow outlines, but it doesn't show in the photograph.

After coloring the ornament, I tried it on different papers and decided on this K&Co one, then tried to find something to fill in the blank space on the paper. I decided on this old Wright's trim, and glued it to the DP and the gold mirror card under it, then applied the ornament dimensionally onto the card. (I used the cottage Ivy around the white card as well).

After applying the ornament, the card needed something, so I added the gold outline stickers and a bow, but I didn't really like it. I wish I hadn't added the trim. Trying to salvage it, I added some pearls. It still needed something, because the stickers looked flat and uninteresting, so I colored the holly leaves with the same dark green Copic I used on the ornament. It looked a little better, but I still wish I hadn't added the trim.

Help designer Darsie Bruno recover from a fire in her home

I have just learned that designer Darsie Bruno's home was destroyed by fire.

You probably have seen some of her beautiful cards on many sites, since she was on a number of design teams, including JustRite and Spellbinders.

For more details on the fire, and how you can help Darsie and her son, go to JustRite's page here.

Thank you.

Peace on Earth Card

I love these Spellbinders Decorative Labels Eight, and decided to cut them out with Core'dinations Gold Pearl CS. Then I had to find some paper it looked nice on.

The best paper was this Anna Griffin pine cone paper, so I made a Christmas card. I cut the pinecone paper to fit using Spellbinders Labels Eight for the largest and smallest rectangles, but since the Labels Eight don't have a size for the second largest, I traced the inside of the Decorative Labels die and cut it out with scissors to fit.

Then I used a 5x7 card, and cut another gold sheet for a mat, and another pine cone sheet to mount everything onto.

I added the K&Co sticker to the center, and added some branches made with a McGill punch. The McGill punch is almost identical to the MS branch punch, but it is quite a bit larger, and looked better for this particular card. I like having the choice of both sizes. Then I added roses and pearls to finish the card.

Ocean Tryptic Card JRC_083

Here is my second card for the JustRite Friday Challenge #083 - "Three's Company".

This one was pretty easy for me. I had done a similar card a few months ago, only that one had corners that folded down. The woman who bought it wanted me to make another card like that that didn't have corners that fold down so she could put it on her dresser and use it like a tryptic.

This fits the JustRite challenge because it uses six different patterned papers, plus two JustRite stamps.

All DP and embellishments on this card are K&Co.

This is the front. I used JustRite's Sea Shell Bay Labels Twenty Two for the stamp. All stamps on this card were done with VersaFine Onyx Black, and embossed with clear EP. The stamp looks very fine and detailed in person, but my camera's flash made it look funny in the photo. Both this stamp and the next one were also shaded with VersaMagic Aegean Blue and accented/outlined with a gold pen. On this stamp, I also colored some of the details with Copics.

Everything on the card is mounted dimensionally. I added four shells I cut out with scissors to the corners of the front. The label was cut with the matching Spellbinders Labels Twenty Two.

When you open up the front cover you see these two pages with dimensional K&Co stickers decorating them.

This is the card fully open. There are quite a few dimensional stickers here, and another label made with JustRite's At the Beach Oval Medallions.

This is the back of the card. The fish isn't a sticker, it's part of the paper design. I didn't want to put anything dimensional on the back of the card.

Gold Lace Christmas

Here is another Christmas card using JustRite Stamps. It's been a long time since I did a gold and white Christmas card, so I decided not to color this one.

For this one, I used JustRite's Christmas Miracle Ornaments, mounted dimensionally on their Lace Background Stamp.

All the white paper and the card were made with Core'dinations Pearl. Everything was stamped using VersaMark, and embossed with Super Fine Detail Gold. The "Joy to All" was stamped separately, cut out with a tiny Spellbinders oval and mounted dimensionally onto the ornament. I was planning on getting the Spellbinders Ornament Die that goes with this ornament, but I wanted the fancy die that goes with Labels Eight more, so I got that instead. I cut this ornament out by hand with scissors.

The outside of the ornament and the "Joy to All" were outlined with a gold pen. The ornament was mounted dimensionally onto the lace background, and the background was matted with Gold mirror card. Then I added gold pearls to the corners, and white pearls to the ornament.

Creatables Diorama Card

I made this card from a tutorial by Angie Crockett on the Our Daily Bread Designs Blog. At first, I was going to use a few of my ODBD stamps, but the ones I chose didn't really match up with the size.

Anyway, after trying to plan around stamps, I decided it would be easier just to use some plain paper and a DP for the outside with some Marianne Creatables inside on my first card like this.

I chose a generic dark blue CS, a piece of very old Hot Off the Press paper to cover the front and sides, and Core'dinations Pearl for all the die cuts.

I placed the Creatables villages on the back wall, the sleigh and reindeer on the second layer, and the tree and poinsettia on the front of the card. The frame was cut with a Spellbinders die.

This diorama is two inches deep, with the second layer one inch from both the back and front, so there is a lot of depth to the card. It actually was quite easy to make once I decided what I wanted to go into it.

Gold and Green Ornament Card JRC#083

I haven't entered anything into the JustRite Friday Challenge for a long time, and since I just got all these new stamps from them, I thought this would be a good time to enter again.

This time the challenge is "Three's Company", and we are to use three or more coordinating papers in our creations. This was difficult for me, since I normally don't use too many different colors or patterns of papers on the same card.

As I was going through my stash of Anna Griffin papers, I found some more of these green and gold pine cone papers, and decided to see which other ones would match. I finally settled on a holly paper which matched the green in the pine cone paper.

I stamped the "Merry Christmas" and an ornament from JustRite's Noel Christmas Ornaments set using VersaMark and Super Fine Detail gold embossing powder, then cut the ornament out with the matching Spellbinders 2010 Heirloom Ornaments. For the sentiment, I used Spellbinders Fancy Tags One to cut and emboss the tag, and outlined it with a gold pen to make it match the ornament better. These were stamped on a pearl green CS from my stash.

I cut plain ivory CS to form a 5x7 easel card, and used my Xyron to mount the holly paper onto it, then I matted the pine cone papers with gold mirror card and mounted them onto the holly paper. The ornament and tag are mounted dimensionally onto that.

The card looked kind of dark and plain, so I added some gold outline stickers from my stash, a gold bow I made, and some gold half pearls.