Silver Bow

This card was inspired by one found on Pinterest. I would love to give proper credit, but the name was hard to read and the picture wasn't linked... may be Debby Hughes? Anyway, here is my card:

Paper: Smoky Slate, Whisper White, Always Artichoke, Glimmer Paper
Ink: Versamark (for heat embossing)
Stamps: Greetings of the Season
Tools: Big Shot, Stylish Stripes TIEF, Heat Tool
Techniques: Heat Embossing

Isn't this fun?! So simple too! The bow is made from two punched ovals, a banner & a button. Pretty eye-catching if you ask me. At first I just embossed my white with the Stylish Stripes TIEF, but felt it was too bland, so I added some cut strips of the red Glimmer Paper.

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

Using Scraps

If you saw my series on scraps, then you know that I save every little piece of paper. :) The other day I showcased a card and today's post uses scraps from that card. You can check out the post here.

Paper: Silver Specialty, Whisper White, Real Red, Silver Glimmer Paper
Stamps: Greetings of the Season
Tools: Big Shot, Petals-a-Plenty TIEF, Lattice Bigz Die, Artisan Label Punch, XL Oval Punch

Usually I don't save the tiny scraps from the Lattice Bigz Die, but because I cut it out using Glimmer Paper, I thought about saving them and using them in another cutout. I chose Whisper White and went with the Silver Specialty paper for my card base.

I wanted this card to be shimmery and simple, so I stuck with similar tones, and added a pop of red (also a scrap, by the way!). I heat embossed the sentiment and at the last minute decided to emboss my red banner. Glad I did it.

Until next time, stay crafty!

Steph

Christmas Scraps

Can you believe that Christmas is less than two weeks away?! I can't! Like every year, this time is always crazy busy and I've been in full Christmas production crafting mode for many months now. With all the crafting and cutting, I'm left with a ginormous pile of scraps... so I decided to make some cards using mostly scraps I had lying around. Take a look:

Paper: Very Vanilla, Poppy Parade, Whisper White
Ink: Cherry Cobbler
Stamps: Greetings of the Seasons, Jolly Bingo Bits
Tools: Big Shot, Petals-a-Plenty TIEF, Scentsational & Labels Framelits

I was able to make four identical cards using these scraps: a cutout from the Labels Framelits, tree cutouts from the Scentsational Framelits because I had made many tags with the negative cutout of this image and a piece of Poppy Parade card stock left over from making my Santa Gum casings.

After a little stamping and embossing, this card came together quickly! Why not try making something with the scraps you have lying around? You'll be surprised what you can make!

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

Peace on Earth

Wouldn't that be nice?! Today's card is a CASE of Connie Stewart's card I found on Pinterest. I just absolutely fell in love with it.

Paper: Whisper White, Midnight Muse
Ink: Gumball Green
Stamps: Merry Minis, Greetings of the Season
Tools: Scallop Punch, Merry Minis Punch Pack, Heat Tool, Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots TIEF
Techniques: Heat Embossing

I changed out the sentiment she used because I just found this card so peaceful and thought the sentiment I used from Greetings of the Season fit perfectly. I heat embossed it in silver for some added texture and elegance. I just love this card!

What do you think?

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

Christmas Circles

Here's a non-traditional Christmas card for ya! It uses Circle Circus, along with some Silver Glimmer Paper. I really like how this turned out... and it's thanks to a CASE of Leena Girsa's card seen here.

Paper: Real Red, Naturals Ivory, Silver Glimmer
Ink: Gumball Green, Basic Gray
Stamps: Circle Circus, Greetings of the Season
Tools: 3/4" & 1", 1-1/4" Circle Punches

Unlike Leena's card, I decided to stick to just a couple of colours for a more muted look. I used some Naturals Ivory for a bit of texture and then just randomly stamped images from Circle Circus. For some added bling, I punched some circles from Glimmer Paper and then popped up some images that I stamped in Gumball Green.

What do you think?

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

O Tannenbaum

I made some of these folded tree cards last year too, but this year, I thought it would be cute to make them much smaller and what better tool to use then the 2-1/2" Circle Punch?!

Paper: Cherry Cobber, Basic Gray, Gumball Green, Early Espresso,
VV, WW, Christmas Lane SS, Jolly Holiday DSP, Merry Moments SS,
Be of Good Cheer DSP, Glimmer Paper
Ink: Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler
Stamps: Seasonal Sayings, Greetings of the Season
Tools: Big Shot, Delicate Designs TIEF, Star Punch from Merry Minis Punch Pack,
2-1/2" Circle Punch

I swear I had never seen such small, cute folded trees before. I thought I was being smart by using my 2-1/2" Circle Punch too, to create these little guys. After I had made these a while back, I was surfing the net and of course came across someone else who had done this. So I guess you can never be sure if the idea was yours or one you saw somewhere else at some point in time!

Anyway, after punching, I cut the circles in half. You can get two trees from one punch. I know there are templates out there for larger trees, but I just played around with it until I got the fold I wanted. I created my own template on my Grid Paper - basically marking where the first fold should be and then I just folded free-hand.

I wanted a little texture, so I used the Delicate Designs Textured Impressions Embossing Folder in the background. Before gluing my trees down, I added tiny trunks in coordinating card stock. To finish things off, I added some glimmer stars, punched from Silver Glimmer Paper and with the star from the Merry Minis Punch Pack and added a sentiment.

What do you think?

Until next time, stay craft!
Steph

Christmas Swap

I recently participated in and organized swap from Leena Girsa. The goal was to showcase products from the Holiday Catalogue. I chose to focus on Christmas, using the Merry Minis stamp set. Here's what I came up with:

Paper: Cherry Cobbler Core'dinations, Whisper White
Ink: Crumb Cake
Stamps: Merry Minis, Greetings of the Season
Tools: Big Shot, Vintage Wallpaper TIEF, Sanding Block, Window Framelits, Merry Minis Punch Pack
Accessories: Crumb Cake Seam Binding Ribbon, Glimmer Brads, White Bakers Twine

I just love the new Core'dinations card stock! Not only do you get texture, but get different colour tones too. I didn't think this card needed too much more when I featured the Cherry Cobbler Core'dinations card stock. It's just so beautiful on it's own.

I also knew I wanted my ornaments to hang, but didn't just want to glue them to the paper, so I got the idea to hang them in a "window" using the Window Framelits.

To finish off, I added a banner with a bow and my Swap was done. I hope the group liked it.

What do you think?

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

Have You Ever...

Have you ever placed an SU! order and once receiving it, you were stumped what to do with it?! Well, that's exactly what happened to me! My order was set to come on Friday, my Mr. Brown usually comes between 5 and 7 p.m. Well, he surprised me at 8 a.m. on THURSDAY!! I was so excited... I wanted to give him a BIG hug, but he ran away. :)

Anyway, I opened it all up, mounted my stamps, organized everything and sat down at my workspace later that day. And I just starred. I picked up a stamp set, set it down. And starred. This process repeated several times with different stamp sets until I gave up and had to go relax...

Now here we are Monday and I'm now sick, BUT, I did manage to get in some stamping time yesterday! Yippee. My creative block was over! Here's what I came up with:

Paper: Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Glimmer, Festival of Prints DSP Pack (avail. Aug. 1st)
Stamps: Greetings of the Season (avail. Aug. 1st), Stylin' Snowfolk
Ink: Baja Breeze, Black
Tools: Big Shot, Snow Flurry Bigz Die (avail. Aug 1st), Adorning Accents Edgelits, Adorning Accents EF
Accessories: Vintage Buttons, Sweater Trim (avail. Aug. 1st), Tiny Black Brads (non SU!)

I thought the Vintage Faceted Buttons would be perfect to create a snowman with. I used some non SU! brads that I stuck through the button holes for the eyes and buttons. I added some Sweater Trim (available August 1st in the Holiday Catalogue) for the scarf and stamped and popped up the had from Stylin' Snowfolk.

I got the idea for the snowy hills from Amy White. You can see Amy's card here. I just thought it added so much dimension to the card. Lastly, for a bit of whimsy, I made a large snowflake with the Snow Flurry Bigz Die (available August 1st in the Holiday Catalogue), cutting one snowflake in Silver Glimmer Paper and the other two from Whisper White. I then added the smallest Vintage Faceted Button to the center.

What do you think?

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph