Christmas ornaments

Happy holidays! I've clearly fallen behind on my blog posting this month. The couple of weeks before Christmas felt crazy, school was in session until Dec. 22, and I couldn't seem to get anything done. Now this week I've been lazy and doing as little as possible: lounging in my pajamas, reading, napping, etc. Maybe next week, with the new year, I'll start to get back into more of a "normal" routine. But for now, here is a quick post to share some Christmas ornaments I made.

The base of the ornaments (thin wooden circles) and the twine are from a craft store. I painted the ornament bases with acrylic paint -- at least two coats for each ornament -- and then splattered them with gold watercolor. (The background of the candle ornaments is more red in person; the photo came out very orange.)

While the bases were drying, I used a couple of die sets and various card stock colors to die cut different focal images. I know the mushrooms aren't very Christmas-y, but they were a special request from a friend. And I actually kept one of those ornaments because I really like how they turned out. :)

I adhered the die-cut pieces to the ornaments with liquid glue and foam tape. I used a permanent marker to write "Happy holidays" or "Merry Christmas" on the back, along with my name and the year. The last step was to add on the twine.

I actually made a second batch of ornaments with different colors and images, but I finished them at the very last minute, so I didn't get to take any photos. But the basic materials and process are the same. These also would be fun to make for other holidays or occasions -- or even to use as gift tags,

The next thing I have to share will probably be the desk calendars I made; I'm just not exactly sure when that will be. So thanks for stopping by, and if I'm not back before the end of the year, I hope you have a magical, marvelous new year!

Scrap bookmarks

A couple of weeks ago, I shared some crazy quilt scrap papers I made with leftover pieces from gel press prints. I decided to cut up one of the pages to make some bookmarks, and here are the results:

I cut the scrap paper into 2-3/4" x 5-3/4" pieces and was able to get six out of the sheet. Then I looked up quotes about reading and books online and wrote one quote on each bookmark. (I tried to add a little character to my lettering, but it's mainly just printing. I would love to work on my hand lettering -- I just need to find the time and focus!) I rounded the corners of each bookmark and used black pens and a white paint pen to add doodles and details: dots, stitches, swirls, etc.

Once I was happy with each bookmark, I removed the backing paper and adhered them to white card stock. (You could adhere the entire sheet to card stock before cutting it. I wasn't sure if the bookmarks were going to work, so I decided to wait and add the card stock at the end.) 

To finish off the bookmarks, I slipped each one into a little plastic sleeve. I don't know where these sleeves are from or what their intended purpose is; I found them at work on a table of stuff that teachers were getting rid of. I took them thinking that they might work for bookmarks, so I was pleased to see I was right -- and I love that I was able to use something that would otherwise have been thrown away.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Hanukkah

I kindled my eight little candles,
   My Hanukkah candles, and lo!
Fair visions and dreams half-forgotten
    Were rising of years long ago.

- Philip M. Raskin, "Hanukkah Lights"

I created this menorah using the Essentials Arches dies from Ellen Hutson. I taped several of the dies together so there was even spacing between them and then ran them through my Big Shot with shimmery white card stock. I ended up with several skinny arch outlines that I trimmed and glued together to make the menorah. Each arch die also cuts out a very narrow frame, which I used for the candles. I used alcohol markers to color the candles two different shades of blue.

In addition to the shimmery white card stock, I added sparkle to the background by splattering metallic watercolor paint over a blue ink-blended rectangle and used a gold gel pen to draw the candle flames. I finished the card with a simple sentiment strip.

Wishing everyone who celebrates a holiday filled with peace, love, and light. Happy Hanukkah!

2023 Christmas card recap

It's December! How did that happen? I've still got a lot of tasks to check off my to-do list before the holidays, but I'm chipping away at it. I hope that I'll have more projects to share soon, but until then, here is a recap of all the Christmas cards I made this year.

Click on the name of the month to see the full post for each card design.

January: Upcycled tissue paper

February: Festive faux postage

March: Watercolor wishes

April: Quilt blocks

May: Mittens & Mistletoe

June: Nordic notecards

July: Cheery snowman

August: Simple peace

September: Seasonal Snapshot cards (also includes Halloween cards)

November: Woodland magic

If you're still working on your Christmas cards, I hope these designs bring you a little inspiration. I may have finished making my cards, but I haven't started sending them yet -- that's always such a daunting task!

Thanks for stopping by!

Crazy quilt scrap papers

I’m popping in with a quick blog post tonight so you don’t think I disappeared. Christmas is coming way too fast, and I’ve been realizing how much stuff I have left to do. And worrying that I won’t get it all done. Sigh. It happens every year.

Lately I’ve been focused on making the desk calendars I will be gifting. I can’t share those until after holidays — but I can share some fun papers I’ve made with the scraps left over from the calendars.

For the three calendars I’m working on now, I used some of my gel prints for the backgrounds. When I trimmed down the gel prints, I had all these colorful strips left. I didn’t want to toss them, but I also didn’t want to tuck them away for later (because later never seems to come). So I pulled out some sheets of double-sided adhesive and started adding the strips. I did two full sheets and four smaller pieces.

These papers remind me of crazy quilts, and it was easy to put them together while I watched TV in the evening. I don’t have any definite plans for them yet, but I think they will be great for background panels on cards or to use for die cutting. If you have any ideas, let me know in the comments. I’ll be sure to share whatever I make.

Thanks for stopping by!

November Christmas cards: Woodland magic

I didn't plan to make any more holiday cards this year, but then a couple of weeks ago I won an Instagram contest from Lavinia Stamps, and my prize was the all the stamps in their latest release. I was so surprised -- and excited! And since I had a whole bunch of new amazing wintery stamps, I had to make a small batch of woodland magic Christmas cards.

I have admired Lavinia Stamps from afar, but I've been intimidated because they're not my usual style. So for my first cards with these stamps, I stuck with clean-and-simple layouts. I used a masking stencil and Distress Oxide inks to create a deckled rectangle in the middle of a white panel and then spritzed on a bit of water.

When the panels were dry I stamped the images in black. I added sparkle by splattering metallic watercolor on the pine tree card and using a glitter Gelli Roll pen to color accents on the card with the fairy (Eve). I adhered the panels to black card bases and finished them with a few confetti sequins.

I used the same basic process/techniques for the next pair of cards, although I switched the color palette. I also added some tone-on-tone stamping with the Forest Leaf image on the background of the card with the smaller tree. To make the sentiment strip with the large tree, I stamped "Noel" on a strip of white card stock and trimmed each end into a V. Using my bone folder, I added a curve to the strip (like it was curling ribbon). I placed a double layer of foam tape behind the middle of the strip and glued the ends directly to the panel.

For the last two cards I decided to shake things up just a little -- starting with kraft card bases. I ink blended a couple shades of brown ink around the edges of the card bases to add some depth. Then to make the Peace card, I used the Fairy Catkins images stamped repeatedly in a circle to create a wreath, although mine is a bit wonky. I stamped a small flourish image in each corner of the card base and finished with metallic paint splatter and a few pearls.

For the fairy card, I layered stamp images on the card base: the Leaf Bouquet stamped in brown, small and large snowflakes in white, and the fairy (Starr) and sentiment in black. There's metallic splatter (of course), and a few rhinestones are the finishing touch.

I had a lot of fun making these cards, and I'm looking forward to adding more Lavinia Stamps to my collection. And if you'd like more inspiration, my friend Sunshine shares beautiful cards made with Lavinia Stamps on her blog!

Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. You're the Best note card set

As promised in my last blog post, I'm back to share the final set of notecards I made during craft weekend. For this set, instead of making four coordinating card layouts, I settled on one basic design (using the retired Stampin' Up! set P.S. You're the Best) and then changed the color and sentiment for each card.

I stamped the typewriters and sentiments on white card stock and colored them with alcohol markers (I used light colors, but they are a little washed out by the bright sunlight in the photo). I cut out the images by hand and used foam tape to attach them to Crumb Cake card bases, which I had stamped with the splatter and alphabet images.

To embellish the cards I glued a small linen thread bow on each typewriter and finished with three sequins to coordinate with the color of the typewriter.

I was pleased with how these cards turned out -- I would have made more if I hadn't run out of note cards! Thanks for stopping by!

Barnyard friends note card sets

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to spend a few days at a friend's house for the first craft weekend we've had in years. Yay! It was a lot of fun, and pretty productive, too: I made five sets of note cards and one 2024 desk calendar gift. I'm going to share two of the card set designs today, and they both feature some cute barnyard animals.

Each card set includes four different card designs, and I think these chicken cards are my favorite. I used two retired sets from Stampin' Up! for the images and a set from Taylored Expressions for the sentiments. The images are colored with alcohol markers, die cut, and attached to the card bases with foam tape -- except for the two large yellow chickens. They're attached with action wobble springs, so they give a little dance. :) I finished off these cards with a few clear droplets.

I made two sets of the chicken cards, as well as two sets of these cute little piggy designs:

For these cards, I stamped the images on panels of white card stock, colored them with alcohol markers, and added small die-cut accents. Tip: For the die cuts, I colored scraps of white card stock with the alcohol markers and then cut out the pieces. That way, the color was exactly what I needed (and I didn't have to pack a bunch of colored card stock for craft weekend.) I matted the white panels with black card stock, adhered them to the card bases, and finished the cards with colored sequins.

I'll share the final set of note cards in my next post, but I'm going to save the calendar until after Christmas. Thanks for stopping by!

Patterned paper and greenery

Last week got away from me, and before I realized it the week was over and I hadn't done any blog posts. Oops! I'm going to try to get back on track this week, and for my first post of the week I have a few cards that combine patterned paper and greenery.

The first two cards feature the retired Boho Indigo stamps and dies (Stampin' Up!) and a non-traditional way to use patterned paper. (At lease it's non-traditional for me.) I started by using the dies to cut out vases from two sheets of patterned paper with muted, tone-on-tone marble-style prints. Some of the vase shapes have little cut-outs in them, and the others are solid (they are the ones meant to cut out the stamped images). To add interest to those vases, I embossed them with a few different embossing folders (the results of the Subtle embossing folder are hard to see in the photo). 

I played around with the arrangement of the vases on two layers of white card stock, and when I was happy with them, I first stamped the yellow flowers and cluster of small leaves. Then I glued the vases in the back row directly to the white panels. The other vases are attached with foam tape, and I used die-cut leaves and branches to fill most of them.

I finished the focal layers with a stamped sentiment and a few enamel dots. Then I layered the white panels on black card stock and adhered them to coordinating blue card bases. I love the way these cards turned out!

I don't make a lot of sympathy cards, but I do try to keep a few on hand so I have them ready to go when needed. For this card I chose a soft light green card base that coordinated with one of the colors in the patterned paper. I stamped the card front with a splatter image to add visual interest and then adhered a wide strip of patterned paper vertically near the left side of the card front.

For the focal piece, I used a stitched rectangle die to cut a white panel, stamped "with sympathy" near the bottom of the panel, and adhered a die-cut sprig in the same color as the card base. I glued down the panel so it covered some of the card base and some of the patterned paper and finished the card with a few simple pearls.

Thanks for stopping by!

Personalizing a card kit

When I assemble a card kit, it’s never as quick or easy as I think it will be. Mainly because I usually want to change up the designs or add details to make the cards more “me.” And that’s exactly what I did when I sat down to put together a birthday card kit I received recently.

The kit included five square card bases, five circle card bases, two sheets of patterned paper, pre-printed images, woven labels, and some other goodies. I used all of the square card bases for actual cards, but I ended up using two of the circle cards to die cut some stitched circles (on the pink card above and the two cards below) and the “happy birthday” sentiment on the orange card above. I could have used my own card stock, but this way I didn’t have to worry about finding a matching color.

I trimmed some of the pre-printed pieces to better fit my card designs. For instance, the cake slices had the sentiment “Make a wish” at the bottom, and the “Enjoy” piece (top photo) was originally a tag. I also swapped out most of the embellishments included in the kit for my own rhinestones and sequins. And I used some sequins, glitter, and a piece of acetate to create a shaker for one of the cards (below). It’s a pretty simple shaker because I don’t make them often, but I still think it’s cute.

I’m planning to donate the cards from this kit to a charitable organization, although I’m not sure which one yet. I received a few other kits along with this one, so when I have all the cards done I’ll figure out where I should send the cards based on the organizations’ needs at the time.

I did have some patterned paper and other bits left after I finished the pre-cut card bases, so I decided to make two cards for my own stash:

You can’t tell in the photo, but the black background in the right-hand card is embossed with a streamer/confetti embossing folder. That panel has been sitting in a scraps envelope for ages, and I finally had the right card for it!

I still have some leftovers from the kit, but I’m not sure if I’ll end up using them. For now I’m hanging onto them, just in case. Thanks for stopping by!

 

Quick and easy Halloween cards

As promised in my last post, here is my second (and last) batch of Halloween cards. These are pretty clean and simple note cards -- great layouts if you still want to make some Halloween cards before next week.

(I apologize that the lighting on these photos is not good. It was getting late in the day, and the mostly white backgrounds were not cooperating.)

My starting point for all of these cards was the Simple Strips - Halloween stamp from Taylored Expressions. I stamped and die cut the strips and then chose images based on the sentiments. For "merry scary season," I chose a haunted house. I stamped the card base with the Halloween Scene background stamp (Hero Arts) and then stamped the moon over the background. I stamped the house on separate card stock then used a very small blending brush to add a little glow in a few windows. I cut out the house and attached it to the card with foam tape. I added the sentiment strip and a few gold stars to finish the card.

The "happy meow-loween" sentiment obviously needed a cat image, so I pulled out this old stamp with the shape of a cat made up of different Halloween words. I blended a bit of yellow ink on the background to give the cat a glow and added rhinestones for the eyes and a bow near it's collar. I added the sentiment strip and finished by drawing a border around the card front.

For these friendly ghosts, I went really simple. I stamped the card bases with the Halloween Scene Background and used foam tape to attach two ghosts and a sentiment strip to each card. I finished them with a few sequins for a pop of color.

For the last two cards I blended some light green ink on two white note cards. I stamped three small images that coordinated with each sentiment and punched them out with a circle punch. Then I added a little color with alcohol markers and matted them with black circles. Using foam tape, I adhered three circles and a sentiment strip to each card and finished them with sequins and a hand-drawn border.

Thanks for stopping by!