Joy to the World

 

Hi Friends!

This week we are celebrating Christmas in July at Stamp Simply! 

For the week long celebration, I decided to create a Clean and Simple (CAS) card using the Christmas Joy Bundle along with other dies/supplies from Stamp Simply.

As many of you that follow my blog know, I am working on making a card for each of the over 850+ sketches at Splitcoaststampers and I was able to incorporate the SC710 Sketch into the layout (I decided to create a CAS card so used scoring for the diagonal layers :-)).   

I also enjoy participating with online challenges and will be linking this card to the Tic-Tac-Toe #122 Challenge (Die Cut, Sentiment, Metallic), the Watercooler Wednesday Dawn’s Challenge #320 “All About Occasions” Challenge along with the Simon Says Wednesday “Emboss It” Challenge.

 If you have not had a chance to visit
the Stamp Simply blog or the other challenge sites yet, I encourage you to do so- fabulous inspiration from all!

To create this card:

De-static a piece of white cardstock, stamp the Christmas Joy ornament and ornament hanger images with Versamark ink, apply gold embossing powder and heat set with a heat tool.

Once the embossing has cooled, die cut with the coordinating Christmas Joy dies.

Score the upper left hand and lower right-hand corners of a folded white card panel (A2 size 4 ¼” x 11” folded in half).

De-static the panel with an embossing powder tool, stamp the sentiment from Christmas Joy with Versamark ink, apply gold embossing powder and heat set with a heat tool.

Die cut several sprigs from white and gold mirror cardstock using the sprig die from the Two Sprigs Dies (or the Floral Clusters and Sprigs Dies).

Add dimensional foam (or chipboard) to the back of the ornament and bow ornament hanger images.

Add the white and gold die cut sprigs onto the card front and adhere the ornament and ornament hanger onto the card front.

Add a pearl to the center of the word “Joy” to finish off the card.

Stamp Sets: Christmas Joy Bundle (Stamp Simply)

Ink/Mediums:  Versamark

Cardstock/Paper: White, Bazzill Mirror Cardstock- Gold - 8.5 x 11- 15 ct

Accessories/Tools: Gemini, Jr., Stamp Simply Dies- Christmas Joy Bundle, Two Sprigs (or Floral Clusters and Sprigs), Embossing Powder Tool, Gold Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Scoring Tool, Pearls

Thanks again for taking the time to stop by! I hope all of you have a wonderful week!

Beary Merry Christmas

Hi Friends!

I am so far behind on creating Christmas cards for this year (I normally try to create approx. ten each month so I am not behind when it I time to mail) so I decided to use the CAS(E) This Sketch #226 Sketch Challenge along with the Merry Monday #253 “Bears” Challenge and the Happy Little Stampers June 2017 “Anything Goes” Christmas Challenge for the design of this card.

I have not inked this retired Stampin’ Up! Beary Merry Christmas (2000) in years and since I collect Boyd’s stuffed bears, I love this sweet image of the bear on his rocking horse.

 If you have not had a chance to check out the challenge sites yet, I hope you will take the time to do so- gorgeous inspiration from the Design Teams as well as the galleries!

To create this card:

1). Ink the Beary Merry Christmas image and sentiment using archival black ink and stamp onto Whisper White cardstock.

2). Color the image with watercolor pencils, water soluble graphite pencil and Stampin’ Write Always Artichoke and Cherry Cobbler markers using an AquaPainter™ to blend the colors.

3). Trim the bear on the rocking horse image, mount onto Early Espresso cardstock and trim close to the edge.

4). Die cut the sentiment using the Circle Framelits™ and mount onto an Early Espresso circle die cut from the same size framelit™.

5). Emboss a piece of Whisper White cardstock using the Big Shot™ with the Tim Holtz™ Poinsettia Knit Embossing Folder, trim and mount onto Early Espresso cardstock, trim and mount onto Cherry Cobbler cardstock before adhering to the white card base.

6). Mount the bear image along with the sentiment using dimensional foam and apply a bit of shimmer to the mane, tail and saddle of the image using a clear glitter pen.

Stamp Sets: Beary Merry Christmas (Stampin’ Up!- retired 2000)

Ink/Mediums: Archival Black Ink. Derwent™ and Stampin’ Up! Watercolor Pencils, Water-Soluble Graphic Pencil, Stampin’ Write Markers- Always Artichoke, Cherry Cobbler;  Spectrum Noir™ Clear Glitter Pen

Paper: Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso

Accessories: Big Shot™, Tim Holtz™ Poinsettia Knit Embossing Folder, AquaPainter™

Thanks again for taking the time to stop by- I hope all of you have a fantastic week!  

Happy Little Stampers June 2017 Mixed Media Challenge

Hi Friends! 

Woohoo! I have been invited to be the Guest Designer for the Happy Little Stampers Mixed Media Challenge for June! What an honor and when your card is chosen as one of their monthly winners, you have a chance to Guest Design in the future- thanks HLS!!

 

I love using mixed media and I know some of you are a bit tentative to try mixed media but it is fairly simple to create a mixed media card!  Just combine at least two or more mediums- ink, acrylics, pastels, pencils, glitter, texture paste, etc. and you are using mixed media!  

Most of you probably create Mixed Media cards and did not even know it!  Mixed Media can be Clean and Simple, Vintage/Shabby, Elegant & Classy - basically any style you feel comfortable designing!

Still not sure what qualifies as Mixed Media?  Splitcoaststampers "Mix-Ability" Challenge has a great list of items to help you understand what they are looking for in a mixed media card and I have found that their description seems to apply to most Mixed Media Challenge sites.  Quote directly from the SCS "Mix-Ability" Challenge site: "Here are our guiding principles.

This is a mixed media challenge, with the goal of teaching people how simple Mixed Media can be, and how you can get a range of looks with Mixed Media - Clean & Simple, Vintage, Modern, Abstract, Grunge and much more. 

A "medium" can be any of the following:

• Pencils - wax, oil, watercolor, graphite/charcoal, chalk/pastel
• Pastels - chalk, oil
• Markers - watercolor, pigment, water-based, acrylic
• Pens - ink, glitter
• Pigments - Gelatos, watercolor crayons, metallic rubons
• Paints - watercolor, acrylic, oil, poster, tempera
• Inks - dye, chalk, distress, reinkers, pigment, hybrid
• Powders - mica, pigment, chalk
• Sprays & airbrushing
• Dimensionals - embossing paste, gesso, fabric, found items, papers (collage, piecing) & ephemera, foils
• Heated elements - encaustic wax, embossing

And a "mix" can be any two or more of these items or others."

Since the Happy Little Stampers theme for this month is "Glitter" I decided to create a Vintage style Christmas card.  I have to confess, I have a huge stash of glitter that has been collecting "dust" so I was excited to have a reason to pull it out and use it!  

I did use quite a bit of glitter in this card (two types of glitter in three different ways) and I find it is very difficult to photograph glitter, but trust me, the card just glistens in real life!

We hope that you will take the time to check out the rest of the inspiration from the Happy Little Stampers Design Team and create your own project using Glitter this month! We would love to see your artwork in the gallery!!

To create this card:

1). Using embossing ink, stamp the Inkadinkadoo Evergreen Holiday framed wreath image onto white cardstock, apply black embossing powder and heat set with a heat tool.

Use an AquaPainter™ to color the image with watercolor pencils , water-based markers and distress inks.  

Once you are satisfied with the results, fussy cut the image, mount onto black cardstock, fussy-cut along the edge again before adding a few white highlights on the floral sprays with an extra fine white paint pen.  

2). Use a palette knife to mix glitter into a small amount of crackled texture paste, use a diamond patterned stencil and apply the glitter paste to a piece of white cardstock. 

Set the panel aside to air dry before trimming and mounting onto gold cardstock.

Can you see the shimmery glitter? 

3). Adhere the strip of green satin ribbon along with the white crochet lace (wrap the edges of the ribbon behind the panel) and add the strips of pearls to cover the edges of the lace.

4). Using adhesive, add a bit here and there on the wreath and sprinkle diamond glitter over the image.  Mount the wreath onto the card front using dimensional foam.

5). Ink the sentiment from Poinsettia Stamp Set (Power Poppy) with embossing ink, stamp onto a piece of white cardstock, apply black embossing powder and heat set with a heat tool. Once the embossing has cooled, use the AquaPainter™  to apply a bit of Old Paper and Tea Dye Distress Inkto “age” the paper, trim the panel, create the banner points (I used a hexagon punch but you could also hand cut), mount onto black cardstock (trimming close to the edge) and add to the card front with dimensional foam.  Apply additional "glitter" with a clear glitter pen over the entire sentiment.

6). Finish off the card by adding a few pearls to the upper left hand corner.

Well, it feels good to have at least one Christmas card completed and while I have my glitter out, I am hoping to create another card for this challenge shortly.

Stamp Sets:  Evergreen Holiday (Inkadinkadoo), Poinsettia (Power Poppy)

Ink/Mediums Versamark™ ,  Derwent™ Watercolor Pencils, Stampin’ Up! Markers- Old Olive, Wild Wasabi, Crushed Curry, Delightful Dijon, Cherry Cobbler; Distress Inks- Old Paper, Tea Dye; Spectrum Noir® Clear Shimmer Pen, Extra Fine White Sharpie® Paint Pen

Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Crushed Curry

Accessories: AquaPainter™, Hexagon Punch, Pearls, ½” Green Satin Ribbon (from my stash), Pearls, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, Crackled Texture Paste, Diamond Stencil, Palette Knife  

Thanks again for taking the time to stop by and I hope you will join us in the Happy Little Stampers Mixed Media “Glitter” Challenge forJune! 

Hugs and have a blessed week, sweet friends!

Peace on Earth

Hi Friends! 

I had a chance to create a quick Mixed Media card using Artistic Outpost (AO)  stamp sets, Christmastime and Gloria along with ODBD Pierced Rectangles Dies (all available at Our DailyBread Designs) and decided to incorporate the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge #97 Kath's Colour Challenge into the design.

I love the elegance of this color combination and decided to create a two tone embossed card with silver and gold.  

I am also linking this card to the Inkspirational #124 Neutrals Only Challenge (hopefully gold and silver are considered neutral) as well as the CAS-ual Fridays #163 Christmas & Hanukkah Challenge :-)

If you have not had a chance to visit The Artistic Outpost Blog or the linked challenge sites yet, I encourage you to do so- gorgeous inspiration from my Design Team sisters on the AO Blog as well as the challenge galleries!

To create this card:

1). De-static two pieces of white cardstock with an embossing static tool, ink the AO Christmastime stamp and AO Gloria angel with embossing ink and stamp onto the prepared cardstock.

2). Apply gold embossing powder over the scroll area and ornaments as well as the body of the angel image, tap off the gold powder onto a piece of scrap paper (to funnel back into your container of embossing powder) and immediately apply silver embossing powder to all of the remaining areas before heating and embossing with the heat tool.

3). Trim the AO Christmastime embossed image and mount onto a piece of espresso cardstock (I die cut and embossed the espresso cardstock with the largest die from the ODBD Pierced Rectangles Dies).

4). Mount the panel onto the white card base and add the looped silver metallic thread.

5). Fussy-cut the AO Gloria angel image, mount onto a piece of espresso cardstock and fussy-cut again, close to the embossing (this gives the angel more stability to be mounted onto the card front).

6). De-static a piece of espresso cardstock, ink the sentiment from AO Gloria with embossing ink, stamp onto the prepared cardstock and heat emboss with white embossing powder.

7). Trim the AO Gloria sentiment and add the fish tail banner by hand.

8). Mount the AO Gloria sentiment and fussy-cut AO Gloria angel to the card front with dimensional foam to finish off the card.

Quick and easy and perfect for mailing or hand-delivery:-)

Thanks again for taking the time to stop by- hugs to all of you and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas week!

Gloria

Christmastime Background

Pierced Rectangles Dies

Christ Is Born!

Hi Friends! 

This Clean and Simple (CAS) Christmas card was designed for the Splitcoaststampers’ SC623 Sketch Challenge along with the AAA Cards "CAS Game #79 Christmas" Challenge and the Double “D” Challenges “Dreaming of a White Christmas”.

 

I decided to keep the card very simple and created two versions- this post has version #1 and both versions use Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps Clear Stamp Sets, Scripture Tree and Winter Blessings.

In addition  to checking out the above challenge sites, if you have not stopped by the Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps blog or FB page yet, I hope you will take the time to do so- fabulous inspiration is posted each week from the SNSS Creative Team!

To create this card:

1).  De-static a piece of white cardstock with an embossing static tool, ink the SNSS Scripture Tree Clear Stamp main tree image with embossing ink and stamp onto the upper left hand portion of the panel.

2). Apply gold embossing powder and heat set with a heat tool.

3). Repeat the same steps above with placing the individual word images from SNSS Scripture Tree Clear Stamp Set, stamping and embossing on the lower right hand side of the trimmed piece of the panel.

4). Ink just the star from the SNSS Scripture Tree image with embossing powder, apply gold embossing powder and heat set.

5). Once the powder has cooled, score double lines above and below the sentiment area (hard to see in the photo).

6). De-static both panels again with an embossing static tool, arrange various snowflakes from the SNSS Winter Blessings Clear Stamp Set, ink with embossing powder and stamp around the panels.

7).  Apply white embossing powder over the stamped snowflakes and heat set with a heat tool.

8). Adhere the panels to the white card base with dimensional foam (leaving a space in the center per the sketch) and add rhinestones to the stars to finish off the card.

Quick and easy!!  I added just another step to the “stepped up” version and will post that shortly.

Thanks again for stopping by to visit-hugs and I hope you have a great week!

SNSS Scripture Tree

Winter Blessings- Sweet ′n Sassy Stamps

Artistic Outpost New Release- Christmastime and Gloria!

Hi Friends! 

Welcome to the December 2016 Artistic Outpost New Release and Blog Hop!  

This month, Artistic Outpost is releasing the new stamp set, Gloria along with the Christmastime background stamp (all items available from the Our Daily Bread Designs website) and I absolutely love the vintage style of both Gloria and Christmastime- beautiful on their own as well as together! 

 Since I know that you will want to see the inspiration from all of my Design Team Sisters in the AO Blog Hop, I will share the individual steps taken to create each card in a future blog post.

 My first card features the AO Christmastime stamp with gold embossing powder and distressing (this card just shimmers in real life so it was a bit difficult to photograph :-)).

My second card features the beautiful AO Gloria stamp set! I used the images in the AO Gloria stamp set to create my own background paper as well as the focal images and paired it with the Ornate Ovals Dies and Beautiful Borders Dies from Our Daily Bread Designs. 

I hope I have inspired you today and that you will have time to visit the rest of the Artistic Outpost Design Team Blogs:

Arvil  *  Terry  *  Lisa  

*   Julie (you are here)

Prize Information: Just for commenting on the Design Team Blog Posts, you have a chance to win a $15 Gift Certificate to the ODBD Website.  You have until December 9, 2016 at 10:00 PM CDT to leave comments on the participating AO DT blogs for a chance to win! One random winner will be selected from the comments left on the designers blogs, the winner will be announced on the AO Blog on December 10, 2016, be sure to check back there to see if you have won! 

Thanks again for stopping by- I hope you have a chance to comment (and possibly win) plus I cannot wait to see what you create with the new Artistic Outpost December 2016 Release! 

Hugs and have a great week, my friends!

Gloria

Christmastime Background

ODBD Ornate Ovals Dies

Beautiful Borders Dies