James Bear in the Snow & Lili's Little Fairies candy

Hi! Blogging to you from a waiting room at the local hospital. Mom's having her other knee replaced... so that's one hip in April, one knee in October and one knee in December. Just call her Bionic Mom. LOL

She asked for another card to put in her room after the surgery, and I couldn't resist the urge to use one of my new never-inked stamps from LOTV, James Bear in the Snow. I also got to use my new, never used digital paper set from Nitwit Collections, Joyful Hearts.

I colored James with my Copics, and tried to get a furry/hairy look. I think for the next time I use this stamp, I'll go back to basic blending, then work up to getting furry techniques, but he turned out pretty cute. As I've said, it's hard to go wrong when you start with a great stamp image! =)

For James, I used the deckled-edge oval Nestie, Stardust & Waterfall Stickles and Liquid Pearls. Also making an appearance are the Martha Stewart Aspen PATP and some white pearls colored pink with an R85 Copics. Along with the snowflake and striped paper, I used a pink snowflake from the Nitwit set that I fussy cut to layer under my image and a plaid flake that I coated in Glossy Accents for something different than I've done before. I almost added some glamour dust, but waited too long to think of it and the surface was dry. I think I could become as addicted to that as I have to Stardust Stickles! hee hee 

I did a simple inside as I was running short on time, but my mom loved the snowflakes punched from the Nitwit papers. And I love textured cardstock... even a blank white space looks more interesting with all those nooks and crannies. =)                     

It was so much fun coloring James, even with the challenges of it being the first time. I have lots (and lots!) of new LOTV stamps for coloring in 2012... so one of my crafty goals this year is going to be to use at least one of my LOTV stamps every week. To help reach that goal, I'll be following the revamped LOTV challenge... Lili's Little Fairies.

To celebrate the "new" launch, they are having a fabulous candy draw to kick things off before the first challenge in January.  You can read all about it here!

Challenges for James...

Christmas Cards All Year Round - December - My #5 card! woohoo!

Digital Tuesday - #141 Winter Wonderland (Nitwit Collections digital paper)

The ABC Christmas Challenge - F is for Frosty

2 Sisters - #71 Snowflakes

Sweet Stampin' - Sparkle & Bling

Hiding in My Craft Room - Use It or Lose It

Just heard mom's out of the surgery and in post-op... great timing! =)  I expect to be back later this week with one or two last projects of the year, but if something comes up, just want to send you all my best crafty wishes for a very happy New Year!

See you soon!

Christy

Happy Holidays!

The merriest of Christmases, the happiest of Hanukkahs, the greatest of Kwanzaas and the most fantastic Festivuses (for the rest of yas) to all my fellow crafters in blogland -- and for any grinchy Scrooges, the baddest of bah humbugs!  May 2012 bring you much cheer, crafty satisfaction and the best of everything life has to offer you.

Best crafty wishes,
Christy

Embossing, embossing, embossing...

Greetings! Here's a card I've been working on the last couple nights... mostly waiting. Waiting for glue to dry. Waiting for ink to dry. Waiting for Stickles to dry. Next time, I'm pulling out the heat gun. LOL

The main inspiration for this wintry holiday card was all the gorgeous embossing I've seen this season on the blogs and challenges I've been following combined with a glue-embossing Fiskars project I'd seen last Spring.

To start, I sprinkled a lot of Glamour Dust in Crystal over a Sizzix embossing Texture plate and brushed most of it into the snowflakes.Then I poured a liberal amount of Elmer's basic white School Glue over the lot and set it aside to dry. It took two days for it to dry completely so I could peel it off the embossing plate. Then I cut it down to a square and adhered it to a really pretty royal blue cardstock. My lousy winter nighttime photos are not doing it justice. Sigh.

Anyway, I embossed a square of white plain white cardstock and some plain cardstock cut with a Labels 18 Nestie, running a silver metallic gel pen over the edges of the Label diecut. You can see those details best in some of the angle photos. (Warning, this post will be photo-full as I kept trying to capture the really pretty in-real-life sparkle of the embossed glue panel!)  I lightly sponged some Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink over several Martha Stewart snowflakes cut from textured white cardstock, added Stickles to the largest and one smaller flake I left white.

I added some bling, popped up both the middle snowflake and the Label diecut with foam dots, and put it all together over a square of pearlescent silver paper. It's pretty simple, but there's lots of texture and sparkle, so hopefully it's not too boring. LOL

Here are some more angle photos...

 

A close up of the lovely sparkles =)





These two I tried to play with the lighting, so the color's awfully yellow, but I think you can see the Glamour Dust better...

Or not... lol =)

Challenges for this project...

1 Simply Create Too - #2 Embossing

2 Christmas All Year Round - Card #4 for December

3 ABC Challenge - F is for Frosty

4 Papertake Weekly - Last Christmas Card of the Year

5 Creative Inspirations - #143 Anything Goes

6 Colour Create - #86 Blue, Silver & White

7 Paper Play Challenge - #50 Christmas

8 Glitter Geeks - #28 Anything Goes

9 Hiding In My Craft Room - #25 Embossing

10 One Stop Crafting - #162 Christmas Sparkle

So, that's it for tonight... have a few more works of art underway, but I probably won't post them until tomorrow or perhaps Saturday... crazy busy with only a couple more sleeps left! =)

Happy Crafting!

Christy

Glass Slide Christmas Ornaments

Hello again!

This year for my 13 team members at work I decided to make ornaments. I used a different image for each of them.  These are my favorites:

 

3 Snowmen from Dustin Pike's DoodleDragonStudios.com



  

 (These are Pure Innocence, Meijen, and Pink Cat Studios digital images)

I printed out my images on 24 lb. paper and colored with Copics. It took a few tries to get the hang of not overinking as the thin paper bled much more than the smooth cardstocks I’ve been using for Copics coloring. Then I chose some DCWV papers for backers and glued the fussy-cut images down. I glittered with Stardust Stickles in most cases and some have twine or ribbon and snowflake positives from the Martha Stewart Aspen punch-around-the-page punches.  I created sentiments for the backs on the computer:

I created a sandwich of these between two 2x3 plain microscope slides. (I saw ornaments made with Memory Glass, but microscope slides are much cheaper!) I used Scor-Tape around all the edges and dipped it in embossing powder. I chose some ultrasparkly powders - Blue Blaze by Recollections and Red Dragon by Stamp-N Stuff. On some not pictured I also used an opaque white with silver sparkle called Winter Wonderland by Stamp-N Stuff. Then I heated the powder to melt and set aside on a craft sheet to cool. I had originally intended to put the hanging wire in the sandwich and to seal it in, but the wire made too much of a gap, so I fudged it a bit by using some Glossy Accents to glue it to the outer edge.

When that dried, I added some more glue and dipped in embossing powder, heat and set aside to cool. It’s a little bumpy, but not too noticeable, especially when it’s hanging on a tree. =)

I did add the ornaments to a card as “gift wrap”:

These cards were simply a Penny Black stamp, Pine Silhouettes, stamped in Evergreen Bough distress inks on a parchment cardstock.  I handwrote a Merry Christmas in red pen on each one as you see and tied the ornament on with red and white twine.

I fell in love with a couple of them, so I am going to have to take what I learned and make more… for ME! LOL

Challenges…

The Dustin Pike images only for Pike’s Playground challenge - Anything But a Card

Digital Tuesday – #141 Winter Wonderland

Crafting For All Seasons – #16 Christmas Projects

Glitter Geeks – #28 Anything Goes

Craft Your Days Away – #35 Snowmen

Hiding in My Craft Room – #25 Embossing

One Stop Crafting – #162 Christmas Sparkle

Paper Crafting Journey – Christmas Challenge

Well, I’m off to get ready for work. Fun times. Will be back with a couple last-minute cards and some other Christmas gifts! =)

Happy Crafting and Happiest of Holidays!
Christy

What a [Winning!] Week

This week has been a very exciting one for me in blogland... after a really rough and sloooooooow start getting into card crafting, I can finally say, yes, I am a cardmaker. This week I won a prize and two of my cards were chosen as Top 3! Woooooooooooooooooohooooooooooooooo!

This card won me 7 free images from Bugaboo on the December Anything Goes challenge at Catch The Bug

 This card was chosen as Top 3 in the Holiday Card for a kid challenge at Send A Smile 4 Kids. I'm glad, 'cause I really loved this one! =) AND I get to be a Guest Designer for a future challenge!

And this card was just chosen as Top 3 for the White On White challenge at Crafting for All Seasons blog. I guess it wasn't 'too simple' after all... although I still do think it needs a flourish or something. haha. =) 




Thank you so much to the DTs at all the challenges - each of these honors was totally unexpected. There are so many great crafters out here in blogland and so many wonderful creations... how you ever pick is beyond me. But I'm glad I got to be picked! =) And thanks to everyone, DT and otherwise, who have left me such warm and encouraging comments, with a special thanks to Squirrel, Leslie and Delphine!

I'll be remodeling the blog a bit soon and I will be posting all 3 of my shiny new badges with pride.

Now... back to the creative grindstone!  Happy crafting, everyone!
Christy

PS.... I guess this means I don't have to pick another hobby after all. <grin>

Warm Winter Wishes - Pearl Shimmer & Sparkle

Hello!  Just finished up this beauty... I am loving this digital image from Pure Innocence this year. I think it might be the only image I've used twice so far. I don't think my first attempt at white on white did the image justice, so I thought I'd put her in pretty pink this week. I've done several blue and white cards, and although I love that combination, I also am loving the pink-white-silver I have seen on other crafters' cards  over the past month. Plus I wanted something soft and feminine for the friend for whom this is intended. =)

Apparently I don't learn from my mistakes... if you remember, on my WOW card, I dropped on Liquid Pearls for the snow and then found out that running it through the embosser with a Nestie resulted in flat snow dots. This week, just as I was finishing up my Copics coloring, a drop of gray got onto her sleeve that colorless blender just wouldn't remove. I couldn't figure out a way to cover it up or get rid of it, except to add snow over her to match her background, so I got out my never used bottle of white enamel and dotted it up. To my delight, it worked, at least well enough for me. To my horror, I realized... d'oh! I'd done it AGAIN. So after smacking myself upside the head, I realized that since I wanted to use some embossing, I could cut out a frame and emboss it and lay it OVER my image! Eureka! =)

I used a shimmery pearlescent white and a pearlescent silver/gray, both from Colorbok, and a pink scrap left over from my niece's birthday card. Can't remember what paper pack that came from. I used a Sizzix Textures snowflake embossing plate and shimmed it to get a really good, deep impression. I colored a Martha Stewart snowflake with the same pink Copics I used for my image and added some Stardust MyLifeWouldBeDullWithoutYou Stickles and layered it with a smaller MS snowflake punch and a white pearl colored with pink Copics. I used a white single-faced satin ribbon with a pearlized twine from a name badge holder from a recent conference. The computerized sentiment was done in a darker pink to match the background paper and the darkest pink Copics I used.

So, one more checked off the list. =) Challenges are being very easy on crafters this month due to the holiday, so here's the list for my shimmery, snowy warm winter wishes card:

Christmas Cards All Year Round: December (this one's #3... 2 more to go!)
Crafty Calendar: Cold and Frosty
Joanna Sheen: #1 It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
Cupcake Crafts: #172 Don't Look at the Light

Lollipop Crafts: #61 Happy Holidays

Digital Tuesday: #141 Winter Wonderland

Tuesday Throwdown: #78 For Someone Special

Papertake Weekly: I'm Dreaming of a favorite-color Christmas

ABC Christmas: Y is for Yippee - Christmas Is Almost Here!

The ABC Challenge: E is for Embossing

Paper Crafting Journey: Christmas Challenge

Chocolate, Coffee & Cards: #1 Celebrate  (my final entry - I managed 3 different types of celebrations!)

2 Sisters: #69 Christmas
and finally... Sunday Stamptacular: #142 Christmas Glitz

Whew! Well, soon it will be back to non-Christmas stuff and from what I've seen from scrolling through older challenges at these sites, I'll have a much harder time combining challenges. But this has been fun while it lasts!  I'll just have to make lots more cards in 2012! =)

Thanks and Happy Crafting, everyone!

Christy

Sweet Baby Blessings

Hello! Back again, but not with anything Christmas! One of my coworkers is pregnant and her baby is due on Tuesday. Turning away from all the snowflakes and Stardust HowdidIeverlivewithoutyou Stickles was difficult, but the papers in the Nitwit Collections digital paper collection, Waddles & Whimsy, were just waaaaaay too cute to pass up. I adore the blue duck paper especially.

Looking through the set's images, I thought it would be cute to use the ducks on either side of a main panel, so I came up with some cuts and folds to make a step card. I inked the edges with Dried Marigold Distress Ink and used my Greeting Farm clear set Build-a-Onesie Boy Set again for this baby card (see my first card here).  ProMarkers in various grays and oranges and just a bit of light blue were used for the onesie and a nice combination of bright yellows for the rubber duck. The W&W ducks were sized and printed on my PC and popped up on thin foam; they have a quilted appearance and those little stitches all the way around. I didn't like their eye color though, so I dotted on some black enamel. The flower is a Nestie with two WOC Summer Blooms and a Martha Stewart champagne pearl. I used a sheer white ribbon under a strip of baby blue grosgrain and added a computer-generated sentiment to the bottom border. And I didn't photograph the inside, but you can just see in the angle shots that I used my scraps to decorate the inside as well.

The pictures are a little off - I know winter is just beginning, but having more darkness than light every day is getting old fast, sigh - but it's bright and cheery and colorful IRL. And I've fallen in love with that blue duck paper - too cute!

Challenges for my Baby Blessings card...

   I {heart} ProMarkers - #95 Shaped Card

   Passion for ProMarkers - #129 Celebrations

   Crafter's Companion - #19 New Beginnings

   Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

   Cute Card Thursday - #194 Anything Goes

   Crafty Catz - #112 Anything Goes

   Totally Paper Crafts - #96 Anything BUT Christmas

   Chocolate, Coffee & Cards - Celebrate

One last photo of the card flat...

Well, that card was so much fun, I think I'll go see if I can get any of my other projects finished. Working on Christmas presents as our work party is coming up on Friday!

See you soon and Happy Crafting!
Christy

Toby's Sparkly Snowball

Card number two from spending the day in the craft room is this holiday card for another of my nieces. Sorry, the photo's a bit wonky, but it's sparkly, isn't it? =)

This image is Toby from the StampFairy - and Gerda happens to be having a 50% off sale right now! I used Copics again - love the Sketch brush tip! - and used a white paint pen to add a bit of accent to the ends of Toby's scarf. Smooch spritz on a white textured cardstock created the base. The snowy background is from Nitwits new Woodland Wishes with some torn white cardstock glittered up with Stickles for the snow-covered ground. Again I've used Martha Stewart punches for the snowflakes dotted here and there. I made my own sentiment on the computer, cut it out with a deckled oval Nestie before glittering the edge. Toby is up on foam dots and his snowball is glittered to death! LOL I also added a few Liquid Pearl dots to accent the Aspen punched border and the larger snowflake. A bit of Offray rickrack in baby blue hid the border seam nicely. 

 
 This one was taken without flash so it's a little blurry, but it shows off all that sparkly snow! =)

And here's a close-up of Toby...

So, off this goes into the box to be mailed out on Monday... and best of all, this snowball won't melt on the way to Arizona. =)

Challenges for this card...
Christmas Cards All Year Round - December
Crafty Calendar - Cold and Frosty
Joanna Sheen - It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas
Craft Your Passions - Anything Goes with Glitter
Kaboodle Doodles - #96 Colors of Christmas
Tuesday Throwdown - Celebrate the Season
ABC Christmas - Y is for Yippee! Christmas Is Almost Here!
Creative Inspirations - #141 Snow Much Fun
Moving Along with the Times - #127 Last Minute Christmas
Paper Craft Journey - Christmas Challenge
Winter Wonderland - Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow
Send a Smile 4 Kids - Winter Fun for Kids
2 Sisters - #69 Christmas

Happy Bir'day, Brother!

Happy Saturday!

Been crafting up a storm today and have several cards done. This one is a birthday card for one of my brothers whose birthday is coming up. He often ends up getting combination 'birthday-Christmas' gifts from family members, poor guy.

It's another Bugaboo image, this time one of her great Winter Birds set, Friend:

The papers are a mix of an inexpensive pack I picked up two or three years ago at Walmart and unearthed in the Christmas decorations box, and a new DCWV pack. I colored my image with Copics, added glitter to the snow, Liquid Pearl dots to the bird's scarf, and a little white paint pen to the bird's yellow crest feather and belly, then cut it out with a scalloped Nestie. I used the end of one of the Label Nesties for my computer-generated sentiment, which is a play on the bird theme! =) I used thinner foam dots this time, so my card is still layered, but much more subtle.  A few gems here and there, grosgrain ribbon, more Martha Stewart punched snowflakes, et voila! A wintery birthday card in some great guy colors.

 

And a closeup of my image. His wing's a little streaky (too impatient to let some of the ink dry before tweaking, I guess!) but I think my coloring is improving. =) It's easier to see in real life, but if you look closely you can see the tiny white dots from the paint pen on his belly and on his crest feather. I'll have to play with that more in the future, I think. =)

Challenges for my birdbrain brother's card, I mean, for my brother's bird birthday card (heh heh)...

Bugaboo - Twelve Days of Christmas Day 4: Birds
Crafty Calendar - Cold and Frosty
Craft Your Passion - #87, Anything Goes with Glitter
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Cute Card Thursday - #194 Anything Goes
Totally Papercrafts - #96 Anything But Christmas
Chocolate, Coffee & Cards - Celebrate
Sweet Stampin - Things with Wings

I'll be back shortly with another of my creations! Happy Crafting!
Christy

Deacon Elf Shows Up for Christmas

Greetings!

First, for a note for those worried about the possible adverse health effects of my poor Winter Fairy from yesterday's post... let me reassure you. She's a winter fairy, and thus magically impervious to cold, despite the ethereal, glittery, featherlight dress she's wearing. She thanks you for your concern but assures you she is comfortably zipping about, spreading sparkling snowflakey goodness across the northern hemisphere even as we speak. =)

Now, on to the second of my niece's Christmas cards I finished last night...

This one is a merge of two Bugaboo images featuring Deacon Elf. 

I used two sizes of the wonky rectangle Nestabilities, colored up my image with Copics, and then added three or four colors of Stickles, a bit of glitz with a Berwick gold ribbon, some green sparkly epoxy sticker dots from EK Success and a Studio G brad on my computer-created sentiment. I popped up the flag to give it some more dimension as well as foam dots here and there (will I ever run out of foam dots?), seen in these lovely angle shots (You will have to imagine the game-show hostess presentation hand wave haha):

 

Just a few challenges for this one...

Catch the Bug Challenge: December Anything Goes

PaperCrafting Journey: Christmas Challenge

Stamp, Scrap and Doodle: Holiday Card

Moving Along with the Times: Last Minute Christmas

So, off to the craft room for a few more hours before bed. Back soon with more! =)

Happy Crafting,

Christy

(Winter) Fairy Best Wishes

  

Hi! Managed several hours in the craft room tonight and worked on Christmas cards for two of my nieces... the first of which is a Pink Cat Studio fairy card in my favorite winter and Christmas colors - blue and white.

I printed my PCS digi and colored her up with just a touch of Copics and a ton of Stickles - Waterfall for her dress and Frosty Lace for her wings. I replaced the flower on her wand and added a sparkly Martha Stewart snowflake. I added a snowflake trail made of the positives from the Aspen PATP and a large snowflake made of two other Martha Stewart punches, glittered up and layered with foam dots, with a blue pearl to top it off. The paper is from my stash and I can't remember what set it came from. There are itty bitty pearls in the larger snowflakes in the Aspen border. I was having issues and lost three of those darn things while trying to get them on there. For all I know, one of the dogs is wearing them, as they park their big furry butts under the craft table while I work. =) haha  The sentiment was printed up from Word; the inside of the card reads "... for a sparkly holiday season" in the same font.

Here are some angle shots to show off the layering (love those foam dots!) and the glitter...

  

And a closeup of my fairy...

Fairies, sparkly-ness, icy blue and pretty snowflakes. My idea of winter perfection. =)

For challenges, I managed a bunch tonight... (hopefully I got it right that all these allow multiple challenges!)

ABC Christmas Challenge 2011: Y for YIPPEE! Christmas is almost here!

Kaboodle Doodles Challenge: #96 Colors of Christmas

Papertake Weekly Challenge: Anything Goes

Tuesday Throwdown: Celebrate the Season

Paper Crafting Journey: Christmas Challenge

Hiding in My Craft Room: Blue

Send A Smile 4 Kids: Winter Fun for Kids 

Totally Papercrafts: #95 Let It Snow

Simply Create Too: #1 All About Christmas

One Stop Crafting: #160 Let It Snow

Stamp, Scrap and Doodle Saturdays: Holiday Card

By the Cute and Girly: Let It Snow

Christmas Cards All Year Round: Anything Goes for December Card 1 of 5

Whew!  Ok, well, on to posting Card #2.  Happy Crafting!

Christy