Gold Elegance

I'll give you a break from the Christmas cards for today. Here is an elegant gold embossed card, inspired from the SU! Convention:

Paper: Modern Medley DSP, Very Vanilla
Ink: Black StazOn, Versamark
Stamps: Happy Day
Tools: Big Shot, Fun Flowers Bigz Die, Perfect Polk Dots TIEF, Heat Tool
Accessories: Very Vanilla Button
Techniques: Heat Embossing

I randomly stamped and heat embossed directly on the DSP with gold and did the same on the Very Vanilla pieces for my flower. I embossed the middle flower to break up all the gold embossing and instead of using the two smallest pieces from the die, I used a button that is also heat embossed in gold. Did you know you could do that?!

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

Feather Wreath

Well, it's the last day of my Christmas in July sale (check out the product here), so I thought I'd show you another Christmas card:

Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White, Silver Specialty
Ink: Midnight Muse, Island Indigo, Pool Party
Stamps: Fine Feathers, Petite Pairs
Tools: Circle Punches - 2-1/2, 1-3/4 & 1-3/8
Accessories: Jewels, Silver 1/8" Ribbon (sneak peek!)

This is likely not the last Christmas card you'll see from me (I've got TONS more and it's only July!), but one I wanted to show you sooner than later. I loved the Fine Feathers stamp set the moment I saw it in last year's catalogue. Sad to say though, I haven't used it too much as I've had trouble figuring it out.

Several months ago I did a happy dance because I had this vision of a feather wreath. I spend FOREVER executing my vision (several different ways) and all were epic fails! Last night I was perusing the internet and saw an image that was literally a few blurred swirls that formed a circle and that set off the light bulb. I ran to my craft loft, punched a hole in my paper and got to work.

This card is the result of that, and I love it! I finished it without the ribbon and liked it a lot, but felt it needed a little something else. I remembered about that gorgeous silver ribbon I pre-ordered from the Holiday Catalogue (live tomorrow!) and added a tiny bow. Perfect!

I know this turned out to be a long winded post, but happy you made it through. I thought my readers would want to know a little back story behind this card. I know it's not everyone's taste - non traditional colours and images - but I'm in love because I'm really happy with how it turned out and that my vision finally came to light!

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

Winter Sparkle

I bet it'll be hard for you to believe that I used the Dress Up Framelits for this Christmas card! Check it out:

Paper: Bashful Blue, Whisper White, Garden Green, Glimmer
Tools: Big Shot, TIEF: Snowburst, Elegant Lines, Woodgrain Bigz Die: Stars #2,
Framelits: Dress Up, Edgelits: Adorning Accents

All month long I've been showing you Christmas cards I've created using non-Christmas stamp sets and it has really challenged me in a way that makes me look at all my product in a different light. I've got so many ideas for future series and cards...

Anyway, to get back to this card, I did use the Dress Up Framelits to create the tree:

Can you start to see the tree in the right image? All I did was cut the shape out from the middle point in the bust and just shaped it to be inline with the bottom skirt. I ran three more dresses through my Big Shot, moving the Framelit up approximately 1/4 inch each time so that I got the different layers. Once I had my four pieces, I ran them through the Big Shot again with the Elegant Lines TIEF and then popped each layer up with Dimensionals.

Hope you like and this will inspire you to look at your products differently too.

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

Colour Challenge

It's Sunday and a new challenge over at Sunday Stamps! This week is a colour challenge & hope you'll play along... this combo challenged me!

Paper: Soft Suede, Whisper White, Wisteria Wonder, Tempting Turquoise
Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Wisteria Wonder
Stamps: Mixed Bunch
Tools: Big Shot, Chevron TIEF, Blossom Punch
Accessories: In Color Printed Brads (retired)

I just realized how off my picture is. Sorry for that! It's actually much more vibrant than it looks. Anyway, this colour combo really challenged me. Not a combo I've ever used before or would have used, but that's why I love this challenge! Gets me thinking and working outside of my comfort zone.

The challenge is open for two weeks and we'd love to see what you can come up with!

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

Pleated Tree

I was inspired to create this tree from a video series I'm watching called Paper Arts. It's pretty awesome actually... takes you through the basics of gift wrapping (my favourite thing to do!) to more tips and tricks when working with paper.

I was watching the segment last night about pleating for gift wrapping and I got the idea to create a Christmas tree with this technique. Perhaps there's something like this out there that exists already, but I haven't seen it, so I'm taking full credit for this! :)

Paper: Brights DSP Stack (retired), Whisper White
Tools: Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots TIEF, Ornament from Merry Minis Punch Pack
Accessories: Jewels
Techniques: Paper Pleating

This was quite simple to do. I started with a 6x6 piece of DSP and folded so that the bottom of my tree fanned out. I wanted a star at the top of the tree, but didn't have one big enough, so I thought "why not make one from the mini ornament punch?!" So, that's what I did. Pretty cool, eh?

I added some bling onto the tree and then used the remaining portion of my pleated piece on the inside of my card. I guess this is going to be my version of a paper folded tree this season. I seem to do one every year. :) Here is my tutorial for last year's folded tree.

If there's enough interest, I can do up a tutorial for this one... leave me some love if you're interested!

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

Working on the Road...

It's a busy life when you have a toddler and a newborn, so I often bring a small package of stuff to work on if I'm out and about at lessons and such. It helps me get some time to work, and it also generates interest...

As I was prepping cards for the upcoming holiday season, and building up my general inventory for sale, I created one "master" and then prepped several of the same card. I was dumping all the pieces to these cards in a bin so that I could assemble them later.

This weekend we headed up north and I brought my bin with me in the car to get working...

I pre-stamped, punched and embossed all the necessary pieces. I brought my snips, glue, Washi Tape and everything else I needed to get to work in the car ride. Here is the first of many cards I worked on:

Paper: Whisper White, Old Olive, Crumb Cake
Ink: Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler
Stamps: Mosaic Madness, Delightful Dozen
Tools: Heat Tool, Mosaic Punch, Punch Pack
Techniques: Heat Embossing

This card was inspired by one I saw on Pinterest... I just had to use my new Washi Tape (sneak peek from the Holiday Catalogue!) and the Mosaic Madness stamp set that I just received. Yet another Christmas card that doesn't use a Christmas stamp set for the main images. Have I used one yet?!

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

Using the Old

I don't know about you, but there are some items in my craft space that have been sitting there, unused, for years! I think this has happened more to me after becoming a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator (since I try to use mostly SU! products), but I thought it was high time I used some of the paper flowers that have been staring at me for so long.

These cards were quite simple to make considering I went crazy on the flowers and nothing else, and I really like how they turned out. The flowers give a lot of dimension to the card so I didn't need to add much else, I thought.

I'm so happy that I finally used these flowers to make these pretty cards (made some other versions too)... and am especially happy that they are one less thing that I have to pack when we move in 5 weeks!

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph