Merry Christmas Luminary

Christmas Luminary

Although this paper is very busy you can just make out the all over the page star punch outs on the two inner panels.

Here is a shot I took at night with the lights dimmed. Now, you can see the stars twinkling. I used a battery operated small tea light inside.

Tea light inside.

I found this on Pinterest, originally designed by Michelle Humphrey, and tried a few different punches until I found one I really liked. The directions are quite simple and if you want them I'll be happy to email them to you.

Luminary Envelope

I used the SU envelope maker to put the luminary in to able to give as a gift. It fits perfectly! A bellyband with a special greeting keeps the envelope closed. The card when closed makes a perfect 6x6.

I gave one of these to a special neighbor and she was thrilled. I also gave her the tea light to go with it so she could use it right away. It is a very festive addition to her dinning room table. 

Remember: Get busy, make cards, and have fun!

Craft Fair Offerings

Merry Christmas

Well, I haven't posted in a few weeks because I have been very busy creating cards for a craft fair I just showed at. There were about 33 vendors and it was the first fair for that particular forum.  As a rule I don't make a bundle of the same card, so for that reason, I have to work twice as hard to come up with new ideas. Sometimes, however, I do CAS cards I like on Pinterest, but manage to give it a twist to make it mine.

I found this layout and was instantly excited about the prospects of using it for my cards.

I embossed it with a Stampin' Up! wide rib embosser; only added the Olive Green paper part way up the base; added the silver glitter strip. I used a Stampin' Up! square punch for the white and then cut the silver paper 1/8" around the white for backing. I added a drop of silver glitter glue in the middle of each of the ornaments.

Finally, I added the sentiment at the top of the card.

Ink: GinaK, 

Stamps: Stampin' Up!, Ornaments

Paper: Stampin' Up! and GinaK: Whisper White, Old Olive

Glitter paper: Michael's

Glitter glue: Stickles

Floating Ornament

This is my second favorite card I showed at the fair. It is glitter PLUS! I have a fascination with glitter and this one just keeps me mesmerized.

Paper: GinaK, Navy blue; Stampin' Up, Whisper white; Michael's, Silver glitter

Punch: Martha Stewart; Memory Box, Christmas Ornament

Ribbon: Stampin' Up, Silver 1/8'

Sentiment: Stampin' Up

Remember: Get busy, make cards, and have fun!

See you again, soon.

Christmas Clothes Pins

This past weekend I attended my first "craft retreat." What an inspiring three days I had. I met new friends, reconnected with friends, laughed, ate, laughed, ate some more, and in general had a fabulous time.
One of the activities was to create something with the three elements we were given in our goodie bags. The theme for the retreat was "Camping." My elements were three mini-clothes pins. I thought and thought about what to create because it wasn't the beauty of the final product but how creatively could you incorporate your elements into your final product.

It was my first retreat so I was reluctant to bring too much because I didn't know how much room we had or how many projects I wanted to tackle. So, using what I brought with me I decided to hang some ornaments from a clothesline onto the front of card packet with envelopes I won in a drawing.

The base is Stampin' Up! card stock 5"x7", the dots were already on the paper. Next, I added a layer of dark brown under the branch and leaves from Memory Box (Mistletoe). Using the SU Christmas Ornaments stamp and die I stamped on brown with Whisper White and used white embossing powder for extra punch. I used the 3D Crystal Laquer to attach all of the clothes pins. Next, I used silver sparkle paper and a Martha Stewart snowflake punch and finally, I decided to add some gold to the mix with a die from Savvy to create the star. We were given SU baker's twine in our goodie bags and that was what I used for my clothesline. A Spellbinders corner die, a Swarovski crystal, and 3D Crystal Laquer on the red berries for a little extra texture finished the card.

There is a lot going on here but is isn't too busy because there is time for your eye to rest on each of the different elements. Sorry to say I didn't win the contest, but it sure was fun competing!

That's all for today...Get busy, make cards, and have fun!

Thursday's Post

Oh, My Stars!

Oh, My Stars! I am in love with this Gina K set.  It is fresh, exciting and very versatile.  I saw it on Facebook and had to have it. I played around with it for a while getting the feel of what I wanted and finally came up with a nice 'Thank You' card. There are several sentiments you can choose from in this set. I will add another card using the stars but with a different color pallet and sentiment.

This is a top-fold A2 card. I used black for my base card because it made the stars really "POP" on the Whisper White.  My focal image card is 5.25" x 4".  The rainbow effect, Real Red, Only Orange, Crushed Curry, Wild Wasabi, and Island Indigo worked really well with the stars falling down the side of the card, but by the time I got to the Lovely Lavender, there was no room. So, being the crafter I am, I took the opportunity to add some pizzaz by placing the last star off to the side above the sentiment. After adding a few extra stars and dots and a drop of silver glitter to the middle of each star, I was happy with the finished product.

Inside of card

I added a Lovely Lilac star to the inside for interest and carry the theme through the whole project.

Envelope

And again on the envelope...NO naked envelopes!

Thanks for stopping by and keep in mind...Get busy, make cards, and have fun!

Maureen

Tuesday's Post "Tiramisu Christmas Card"

Tiramisu Technique

Here is another of my CAS(ED) Christmas cards. This one comes from Lesley of alwayspalyingwithpaper.blogspot.com, she named her card her Tiramisu Technique (2010) card because the colors looks like the dessert. I agree, yummm! Now, I had to tweak it a little to make it mine, so I changed how I cut out the layers and added embossing to the base card. I used a Spellbinder's Labels # 8 to cut the layers after stamping.

This technique had me over the moon excited because when I read the directions it was so easy, but looks so intricate.  Ok, here goes...

I used Very Vanilla paper and envelope, I have a thing about a"naked" envelope...I have to add something to connect it to the card. (See picture) The base paper was prepared with my handy dandy little bag of powder so that the embossing powder wouldn't stick where I didn't want it to. I stamped the snowflakes from the Serene Snowflake set where I wanted them with Whisper White ink, quickly added white embossing powder, and heated it until it was shiny.

Next, I took another piece of Very Vanilla (4" x 5") and stamped it with the En Francais background stamp using Chocolate Chip. Then I stamped all over it with several of the snowflakes in Whisper White ink, added white embossing powder and heated it until shiny.

Then, I used a dauber with Crumb Cake ink and lightly (very important) daubed (rubbed) in circular motions around all the snowflakes giving it the Tiramisu effect. OMG, I'm in love with this combination!

On to the cutting. With die #8, the smallest and next two up from that, I put it all on my cutter and away I went. Then sat down to fussy cut the three backgrounds from Vanilla Bean brown card stock. After assembling the layers I decided to add a ribbon and a greeting which I backed in the same brown as the labels. I added a greeting inside, my snowflake to the envelope, and sat back to admire the card. WOW! I did it!

If you have any questions, you can reach me here. Get busy, make cards, and have fun!

I donated one of these cards ( in a package of 10) to an auction this past Sunday and received rave reviews.

Friday's Post

Merry & Bright

Christmas is approaching quickly and I have started to make a few cards. I am not a demonstrator for any specific stamp company, so I use a lot of different stamps and sometimes combine stamps with each other to get the effect I want.

I have been looking at a lot of different Pinterest post and find a wealth of inspiration from them.  If I CASE a card I will let you know where it is from and who designed it originally.

The card shown above is from Stamps by Judith, however, the papers are from Stampin' Up!

This is a standard A2 top-fold card.

The background paper is Bravo Burgundy cut to 5.25" x 4" and adhered to the Whisper White base card. Small snowflakes were added to the bravo Burgundy using VersaMark.
Next, I cut a piece of Whisper White 3" x 3.75" and stamped my image and colored it using Stampin' Up  and Copic markers.
    Old Olive, Bashful Blue (candle plate), Sepia and Walnut for the boughs and pine cones.
    Bravo Burgundy, Yo-Yo Yellow and Pumpkin Pie, for the candles.
    Glitter was added to the flames, although it is hard to see in the picture.
    Stickles, Frosted Lace was added to the pine needles to give it some punch.
Then, a piece of gold mirror paper was cut to 4" x 3.25" to back the focal image.
Finally, the stars and dots were added just for a little extra flavor.

Inside I stamped, "May this holiday find you surrounded by those you love."

Well, I hope this is the first of many entries I make and the first of many cards I share with you.
Thanks for stopping by and come again soon.
You can see my cards for sale on Etsy, go to grammysgreetingcards, I try to add a few new ones each week.

Maureen