June Christmas cards: Winter shaker

I had my June Christmas cards made and this post started two weeks ago. Now here I am finally getting them posted on the last day of the month. Nothing like waiting until the last minute! Without further ado, here are my Christmas cards for this month:

I don't make many shaker cards because they can get a little fussy and time consuming. But these were pretty easy because I used a pack of self-adhesive shaker pouches and pre-cut card stock frames. The hardest part was deciding what to stamp on the white panel behind the shaker!

I used the Winter Wishes stamp set (Stampin' Up!) and stamped the images using Real Red, Soft Suede, Pool Party, Crumb Cake and Shaded Spruce inks on panels of white card stock. I made eight cards total, and at first I was just going to stamp two full sheets of white card stock and then cut them into panels. But it was hard to plan what would actually be visible in the shaker that way. So instead I cut the white card stock first and then stamped the images. I also stamped the shaker frames with the Wood Plank Background (Taylored Expressions) in Pool Party and added the sentiment Warm Wishes in Soft Suede along the bottom edge.

To create the shaker portion for each card I first set a shake pouch on a stamped white panel (without removing the adhesive backing) to find the right placement, and then I lightly traced around the pouch with a pencil. (When I think of a pouch, I picture some kind of bag or envelope. These are more like shallow plastic dishes with a lip that has adhesive on it. But they're called pouches on the packaging, so that's what I'll use.) I placed a little pile of the fillers in the center of the area I traced. I used several fillers: a sequin mix with silver circles and white snowflakes, little clay snowflakes, Buffalo Snow (those little iridescent pieces that fly everywhere), and glass glitter. Then I removed the adhesive backing on the shaker pouch and adhered it to the white card stock, lining it up with the traced pencil line. I adhered a frame around the pouch and glued the whole piece to a Soft Suede card base.

I wanted one simple embellishment outside of the shaker pouches, so I added a red-and-white twine bow in the upper left corner of each frame.

I was excited to finish these because I used up the package of shaker pouches as well as the frames. Yay! I'm really trying to use up some of the consumable items I have, like embellishments and papers, because I have soo many of them. Sometimes it's hard because I'm tempted to save something for the "perfect" project. But I try to remind myself that the more stuff I use up, the more room I have for new goodies. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

The return of the stamp show and a winning card

It's been three years, but last weekend we finally had a stamp show back in Minnesota. Yay! It was small -- only seven vendors, I think -- but everyone had large booths and lots of product and samples to see. Honestly, the smaller size kept it from becoming too overwhelming -- and I still found plenty of stuff to buy! The crowd was smaller, too, which was nice for shoppers -- plenty of space to spread out, and you didn't feel like you had to fight your way through the booths. I just hope the vendors made enough that it was worthwhile for them so they'll come back next year. But the best part for me was that I won first place in one of the card contests!

I entered two cards for the card contest on Saturday, and the theme was "Squirrel Away." Of course, my first thought was to use squirrel stamps. I only have a couple stamp sets with squirrel images, but they're small images, and I wanted something larger. So I decided to switch course and, after a little brainstorming with a friend, I decided to go with the idea of saving, or squirreling away, little treasures. So here is my first card:

Sorry it's not a great shot; I got a late start on my cards, and I was rushing to create and mail them so they had enough time to arrive before the deadline. Consequently, I didn't have time to take better photos.

I used an old My Monthly Hero kit from Hero Arts, and it worked perfectly. I decided to go with a monotone color scheme to create a vintage feel -- and so I didn't have to color everything. I stamped the curio cabinet on Crumb Cake card stock using Early Espresso ink (both Stampin' Up! colors). Then I played around with where to stamp all the little images. I stamped "you are a" in one of the cubbies near the top and made sure to leave space for the die-cut sentiment just below.

I colored the shelves/dividers of the cabinet with a Crumb Cake marker and the little joints with a gold Sharpie to add a metallic element. The panel still seemed a bit plain, so I decided to mask off and ink blend inside each little cubby to add some dimension. (About halfway through the process, I questioned the wisdom of that decision. But I do think it adds a lot to the card.) I die-cut the word treasure from Crumb Cake and gold card stock, layered them together, and glued them to the card front below the stamped portion of the sentiment. To finish off the card, I added three gold sequins.

And this is the card that won first place! They always announce the card contest winners about half-way through the day. I wasn't able to go on Saturday when they announced the winners for this contest (there are separate categories for each day), so when we got to the show on Sunday, I made a beeline for the contest boards and found out that I had won!

I was a little nervous about entering this card because it doesn't have a squirrel on it. (I've even seen a couple comments on the stamp show's Facebook page asking how this card won since there's no squirrel.) So for my second card I decided to go a little "safer" and went with a squirrel collecting acorns.

I created a tree trunk on a Crumb Cake card base by embossing a piece of Early Espresso card stock with a woodgrain embossing folder and then punching three circle openings. I put a punch-art squirrel peeking out of the bottom hole and stamped a sentiment in the top hole. In the larger middle hole I created a shaker element with a few sequins and acorns. Some of the acorns were stamped, colored, and die cut, and some were punched out of copper card stock. I also added a few of the acorns to the front of the card, and for a little more color, I finished off with some leaves punched out of a couple different green card stocks.

 

 

My prize for winning was $100 to spend at the show. Yippee! Here is what I picked out from Rubbernecker Stamps. The little flowery cupcake stamp was a free gift. (And in case you're wondering, I already had the set of green ink cubes that goes with that pack of reinkers, so that's why I chose the orange ink cubes. There was a deal if you got six.:) ) I'm planning to use the stamp set for my July Christmas cards, so hopefully you'll get to see that one in action soon. 

I also bought plenty of other goodies, and I'm looking forward to playing with them. I'm going to try to focus on card-making this weekend because I need to replenish my stash!

 

 

 Thanks for stopping by!

A few cards with flowers

Before I post my June Christmas cards (which are already done - yay!) I decided I should share something a little more seasonal, so here are a few cards featuring a variety of flowers.

The background and flowers on this card are images from the Flowing Florals from Gina K Designs. The background is actually one corner-style image that I stamped four times. For the colored flowers, I inked the stamps with yellow ink and then tapped a light orange ink spot on the flower centers and tips of the petals to create a two-toned look. I did the same with two shades of green for the leaves. After everything was stamped, I used a white paint pen to add tiny dots and lines on all the images (background and flowers) for a different look.

Here is a picture of the inside of the card; I had a couple of extra flowers and didn't want to waste them. Also, this is a large card (about 6" x 6"), so I made my own envelope with the Envelope Punch Board. I used a lightweight brown paper bag and decorated it with some patterned paper and punched flowers. I didn't get a photo, but it was a fun way to upcycle a plain bag!

I put these two cards together using a bunch of bits and pieces from my unfinished pieces stash -- you know, the shapes you die cut or backgrounds you stamp that end up not working for their intended projects, so you save them for something else. I put all those odds and ends in various plastic boxes (the old clamshell-style cases that Stampin' Up! used to use are great), and sometimes it's a fun challenge to pull them out and see what I can create.

This one is a very clean and simple sympathy card. I used a two-step tulip stamp set and sentiment strips for the focal point. To add interest to the background, I splattered yellow ink and rubbed a brown ink pad along the edges of the card front. Two simple enamel dots in the lower right corner finish off the card.

Here are two more sympathy cards (I needed a few when I made these last fall). These cards were also made with some pieces from my unfinished stash. I realize that the images are not technically flowers, but I think they're close enough to include them in this post. You could easily switch out these images and use flowers instead.

I'm trying to decide if I should go back to listing supplies for my cards and projects. I do enjoy not having to keep track of that when I'm creating a card. And I often use retired supplies that can no longer be purchased anyway. But it feels kind of incomplete to just have the pictures. If you have a preference either way, I'd love you to leave a comment and let me know!

Thanks for stopping by!