Frantage Christmas House Card

This is an old Stampendous stamp I've had for years. It was stamped with VersaMark, and embossed with Frantage Aged Hunter. Next, I ran the VersaMark pad around the outside and added more of the aged hunter for a border, and painted inside the oval with Twinkling H20s pearl gold. The holly berries were colored with a gold Gellyroll pen.

Gold pearls were added to two of the corners, but they still looked sort of blank, so I decided to add a bow. Most of the ribbon I had didn't look right, so I tried some old green and gold rayon stuff I've had for years. It was originally made for knitting with. The colors were perfect for the embossing powder, but it was quite thin, so I braided it and made a bow. I really wanted to add tiny jingle bells to it, but I couldn't find any small enough, so I decided on these little stars I had in my stash.

After that, the bottom corner needed something, so I added a few stars there too, then I matted and mounted it. All the paper is Core'dinations Pearl and gold mirror card.

Frantage and PSX Christmas Tree

To give everyone a break from cards made with my new Spellbinders. I am showing a card I made a couple of weeks ago using an old PSX stamp I have.

This one was done on Core'dinations Pearl CS and Gold Mirror card. All of the Frantage products were in the Gold Encrusted Jewel Kit. For the tree, I used VersaMark and detail gold EP. Next, I went around the outside with my versamark pad and added the antique gold and gold glass glitter. I also sprinkled a few bits of the antique gold around the card to add texture and detail.

For the encrusted jewel technique, I decided to use UTEE rather than the regular Frantage products, because I tend to get rather heavy handed with them. The UTEE gave a lighter look than the gold EPs. I sprinkled the UTEE between the tree and the border, then sprinkled in some gold mica flakes and glass glitter, and melted everything together.

After that, the tree looked unfinished, so I painted it with gold pearl Twinkling H20s. I did the ornaments with a gold Gellyroll pen, and they are a bit darker than the tree. It shows up more in person than it does in the photograph.

Normally I don't like messy looking cards, but the Frantage products are so much fun to play with that I use them anyway. This card really glitters and sparkles in person!

Frantage and Shells Card

I can't decide whether I like this one or not. It was one of the first cards I made with the Frantage products from Stampendous.

Last July when I was getting an oil change in my truck, I got a chance to run into JoAnns. They had stamps on sale for 40% off, so I got this one, another shell one, and the trees I used on my Moose Christmas card. This shell one was beautiful, and I decided to pair it up with a sentiment from Our Daily Bread Designs.

I wanted to use the Frantage Shabby White around it, so I stamped everything onto some pearl blue paper using VersaMark and Cobalt Blue EP. After running my VersaMark pad around it, I embossed it with the shabby white. The card is matted with darker blue CS and Gold Mirror card, and pearls were added to the top and bottom.

I think the card would have been prettier done on some distressed type light brown paper from a K&Co pad I have and stamped in a dark brown. The shabby white kind of overpowers it, but I was trying to do a seafoam type frame around it. I also think that next time I will try stamping the sentiment onto a die cut and just using the shell-stamped paper as a background. Oh well, it's not too ugly, and someone bought it almost as soon as I put it into my shop!

I finished cutting all my new dies today at the shop, and used the parts I cut to make some cards. I got one finished, and another one is almost done. The cards I've been working on are completely made with the new dies layered and shaded. It was so much fun! Unfortunately I forgot to bring my phone with me to take pictures with, so I'll have to take them tomorrow.

It's getting pretty cold up here now, so I suppose we will have to close up soon. I will miss the shop and seeing so many people, but most of my friends from away are gone now, so we aren't seeing many people at all now. On a brighter note, it means I will have some time to visit you all again. :-)

This is an infrared photo I took years ago of the building where my shop is. As you can see, it is on pilings over the ocean. It was once a clam factory, where they canned clams. It's beautiful there, but it gets pretty cold and drafty in there this time of year!

Encrusted Jewel Technique Christmas Tree Card

This is another card I did last summer using the encrusted jewel technique.

I got the Inkadinkado stamps with a magazine I bought last year, and knew I wanted to make a red and white card. I also knew I wanted to play some more with encrusted jewels, so I decided to stamp the tree and sentiment using white EP, and surround it with the encrusted jewels to make it look like you are viewing the tree through a frosty window.

I ran out of most of my Stampendous Shabby White, so this card uses what was left of it with some regular white EP and some Stampendous chunky glass glitter melted into it. A Versamark stamp pad was run around the outside of the panel and I did the embossing after sprinkling the glitter on the outside edges of the white, so it would be a little narrower than the white part. It was really fun!

Next, I added some gold Stickles "balls" to the tree.

The embossed panel was matted with more of the red and some gold mirror card, then mounted onto a white card.

The red CS is actually from a sheet of art paper. I am always really frustrated with the shades of red in the card stock in the stores. It seems like they are either orangey, purpley, or faded looking, so now, whenever I see art papers, I always look for nice reds. They usually come in large sheets, which I then cut to a manageable size using a carpenter's square and knife. They come in beautiful shades of red, much richer than ordinary card stock, and they are nice and heavy.

I have had such fun playing with the Stampendous Frantage products that I sent for some more. I can't wait to get them! Since I haven't bought anything new since last winter, I also sent for some new Spellbinders. The Stampendous products were ordered from their website, and were sent out very quickly. I ordered them on Monday, and they should be here tomorrow. (Of course they are sending them by the Post Office, so the two day priority mail will most likely be closer to a week, even though they are only coming from New Hampshire, but that isn't the fault of Stampendous, it's the fault of the strange way our mail comes now).

The Spellbinders were ordered from Cut At Home, on 30 September. Unfortunately, the very next day, they went on sale for 40% off. Since I ordered $260 worth of dies, and they haven't even shipped them yet, I wish I had waited. I specified UPS delivery, but I called to find out where my order was, and found out that they are going to be shipped through the post office, and no discount, even though they waited a week and a half to process my order. For those who have followed me for a while, you know how bad our mail delivery is, so this really bummed me out. I wish I had ordered them from Joan's Garden, then I would have had fast shipping, and talked to a person who really cares about her customers.

Anyway, it will be really fun to play with some new things!

Encrusted Jewel Technique Ocean Tryptic Card

Whenever I make these ocean tryptic cards, they are very popular in my shop. This time, I decided to try the encrusted jewel technique using mostly some of the Frantage products from Stampendous.

I had bought a few of the kits at JoAnns a while back, and had wasted most of what I had trying to emboss on wooden ware from some tutorials they had. Unfortunately, with slow internet, and no sound on my computer, I really messed them up by not really knowing what they were doing on the youtube videos.

Anyway, I decided to try again on this card just by trying to do what I thought would work. I chose a bunch of their chunky aged enamels, chunky glass glitter and mica flakes, in colors which matched the colors of oxidized copper and brass after it has been on the bottom of the ocean.

I ran my VersaMark pad over parts of the bottom, and sprinkled a bunch of the stuff onto the bottom of the card, and heated it from underneath until everything melted together, adding more mica flakes anywhere it looked like I needed them while it was still melted. It looks kind of neat!

I didn't add any to the inside of the card because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to do as good a job again though.

The DP and stickers are from K&Co, the stamps are from JustRite, and the dies are from JustRite and Spellbinders.

We will probably be closing our shop for the season in a couple of weeks, I hope to be back visiting you all soon.