Vintage Christmas Tree

I'm just as pleased as Christmas punch with how this card turned out. I can almost smell the heavenly pine scent of a Christmas tree. (Or at least a pine scented candle as our tree is artificial!)

I was hoping for rather contradictory looks, I confess, when I was thinking about the design for this card. Both clean and simple but a bit on the vintage/shabby side as well. I think the preponderance of ivory card stock really helps lighten it up and keep that fresh, clean look I was after. But then I sponged the edges and used the speckled image from Itty Bitty Backgrounds to give it an aged look, too. I also love the Martha Stewart Doily Lace punch, it really kicks things up a notch.





The inside of the card is finished to match the front. The edges were sponged and stamped just like the front, and there is a row of little pine boughs stamped across the bottom.

As I look at this card I keeping thinking of the Victorian era. It makes me want to curl up and read "A Christmas Carol" with a cup of hot tea. :)

As always, thanks for stopping by!


SUPPLIES
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Itty Bitty Backgrounds
Paper: Always Artichoke, Vanilla
Ink: Always Artichoke, Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip
Embellishments: 1/4" brown satin ribbon, button, twine, Martha Stewart Doily Lace Edge Punch, foam tape

Noel

This is a variation on another card I recently made. I've been playing around with simple Christmas card designs that can be mass produced. Well, this one ended up being a little more time intensive than I would want to make for our entire Christmas card list, but I do like the way it turned out.

The snowflakes and sentiment were all stamped in Versa Mark then embossed in white. I thought that gave them more pop than just stamping in white. I also did a bit of layering to create a white border.



And finally I thought it needed a bit more pizzaz so, though it was super hard to photograph, the middle snowflake has a clear button at its center that is tied with a red and white baker's twine bow. It looks very festive and pretty in real life. *wink*


SUPPLIES
Stamps: Winter Post, $1 Michael's stamp (sentiment)
Paper: Real Red, Whisper White
Ink: Versa Mark
Embellishments: white embossing powder, clear button, baker's twine

Give Thanks

With all of the pumpkin goodness that has been happening in my kitchen lately, it only seemed fitting to make a pumpkin themed card to go along!

Today's card uses one of my favorite SU! sets, Carved and Candlelit. It's meant to be a Halloween set as it includes lots of jack-o-lantern faces, but I love using it for fall themed cards. To get the overlap effect for the pumpkin trio, I first stamped the tall pumpkin in the center on my card stock. Then I stamped it again on a post-it note, cut it out and used that as a mask over my project. I could then stamp the two smaller pumpkins to either side of it, remove the post-it, and have it look as though they are behind the big guy.

I used the same masking technique for the stems. The set only includes one stem image but I wanted them each to look slightly different. By again masking the pumpkins with post-its I could rotate the stem stamp around, stamping a different part of it on each pumpkin, making all three stems look a little different. Does that make sense? It's a nice way to get more mileage from your stamps.

Thanks for sharing part of your day with me!


SUPPLIES:
Stamps: Carved and Candlelit, Holiday Best
Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Always Artichoke, Chocolate Chip
Embellishments: 1/2" ivory satin ribbon, stamp-a-ma-jig, foam tape

Black Crocheted Flower Birthday Card

After all of the baking I've been doing lately I'm happy to be back in my craft room working on new card designs. Here is one I made today using more of my crocheted flowers. For this card I really wanted the flower to be a big focal element, so I layered a small five-petal black flower on top of a larger seven-petal flower. The die-cut leaves add a pop of color and the pearl center adds a touch of class. I'm really happy with how this turned out, it's sort of the little black dress of birthday cards. :)

The main image panel is popped up with foam tape and the die cut leaves actually hang off slightly, which I like, because it ties the whole design together. Thanks for stopping by!


SUPPLIES
Stamps: Warmest Regards
Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, Garden Green
Ink: Basic Black
Accessories: crocheted flowers, little leaves die, pearl sticker, foam tape