Christmas Ornaments...

... what I love about making cards for the family that isn't part of my annual workshop, is that I can use any stamp set which is Christmas based to make them. I have a few favorites that were part of catalogues past.

This one was no exception. I whipped out a mix of snowflakes and cute ornaments, my silver emboss powder and just went to town.

Today's inspiration: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/2320958

On the front I combined old and new stamps. Swirls Around provided the main swirly and the old snowflakes from the Winter 2011/2012 catalog was the perfect background. The best pop is the Cranberry Baker's Twine.

I brought a swirl from the same set up the right hand side of the cardstock inside the card and used the sentiment from the same set as the ornaments.

Last but not least is the November Stamp of the Month: Illuminate!!

Other:
Solid cardstock (kraft & white)

CTMH:
Swirls Around
Snowflakes
Holiday Cheer
Ponderosa Pine Ink
Topiary Ink
Olive Ink
Cranberry Ink
Cranberry Baker's Twine
Silver embossing powder
Opaque Pearls - Black/Grey
Adhesive Rhinestones - Blue/Green
Itty Bitty Rhinestones

The first of many Xmas cards to come!!

Ryan's Well - Charitable Contribution

In discussion last week a friend of mine was wondering if I could donate my time and some handmade goods. She is championing the cause of Ryan's Well, and was I interested in donating my time and some cards for her to sell towards raising funds for this? Of course.

For those of you who are not familiar with Ryan's Well, it all started with a 7 year old boy who was moved to help those who did not have access to clean water to drink. He got to work and soon had the first well built in 1999 at a school in a Ugandan village. To this day, his foundation continues to bring clean water and sanitation to those impacted by the global water and sanitation crisis. Can you imagine  not having clean water? It's one of the most basic necessities of life. To learn more, click on http://www.ryanswell.ca/

So, I will be having her over tomorrow for a day of gossiping, laughter, homemade pizza and wine along with creating 10 sets of four handmade Christmas cards for sale. They are below:

The left photo is how they will look before going into a Ziploc bag and the right is all the cards that make up a set. Thanks to the following blogs and sketches for inspiration: SplitcoastStampers.com : VLVNov2011; Random Acts of Creativity : Challenge #36; Heart 2 Heart Close To My Heart Challenge Blog : H2H76; and finally, Mojo Monday : MOJO 214

I elected to keep this one simple using the layout from  Heart 2 Heart Close To My Heart Challenge Blog. The technique featured here is paper ribbons; I fold them to get a neat accordion effect and I put a dollop of CTMH's silver sparkle gel to make it look like brads. The circles are raised up and I added a rhinestone to the middle of each. CTMH's Art Philosophy cartridge has a corresponding shape to the circles from the set December 25, but I'm hoping for a Cricut for Xmas and thus they were hand-cut.

The biggest challenge for me was to keep it to cardstock and stamps. It was a self imposed challenge to see if I could break away from the dependency on pattern cardstock. I wanted to showcase the different layers here, and the blue border was punched with a EK snowflake edger punch from Michael's. This one was from Random Acts of Creativity 's template, but instead of a big bow I opted for a tiny green tie.

I dressed up the red piece with a Merry Christmas sentiment. Using the layout from Mojo Monday - MOJO214 instead of a flower I stacked three different ornaments from the set Holiday Cheer.with mounting foam tape. It's a bit slimmer than the usual foam squares. And finally, to highlight the snow I used Liquid Applique to outline the roofs and snow in the trees, then embossed it for a poofy look.

This last one from SplitcoastStampers.com highlights one of the major perks about working with acrylic stamps: you can bend them (but be gentle!) to follow curves and other funky shapes depending on what you're stamping on. I again lifted up the three ornaments from the set December 25 and curved the love-hope-peace sentiment from Snow Flurries. The blue snowflake that was cut out again by hand is better done with the corresponding shape in the Art Philosophy Cartridge.

I hope these four cards are charming enough to bring in some $$ for Ryan's Well - wish my friend luck!

Michaels:
* Mounting foam tape
* Cardstock from 'Spice Market'
* Cardstock from 'Gems'
* Cardstock from 'Primary"
* Rhinestones

CTMH:
* Snowflakes
* You and Me
* A Sip
* Pair A Phrase
* Festive Thoughts
* Holiday Cheer
* Snow Days
* December 25th
* Snow Flurries
* Silver Glitter Gel
* Liquid Applique
* Chocolate Ink
* Cranberry Ink
* Moonstruck Ink
* Ponderosa Pine Ink
* Olive Ink

Stitching on cards

In one of my previous orders I had purchased the awesome new ruler from CTMH. It has holes in it so first you pierce where the holes are, then you sew through them! How cool is that? So I thought I'd do that for this card.

The inspiration comes from Mojo Monday: MOJO 212.

Not only did I use the same floss for stitching, I also used it for the ribbon on the front. However, the threading is two strands and the cross ribbon is all six. The snowflake is from a set of Xmas buttons that I found at Michaels' while walking through. All their Xmas stuff is now out for sale.

The inside of the card was stamped with two shades of green and using the second generation stamping technique. After inking, stamp a good image on scrap paper, then without reinking stamp on your project again. Between that and the different shades of green, my second snowflake stood out really well.

Michaels:
* Cardstock from "Gems" set
* Cardstock from "Spice Market" set

CTMH:
* Snow Flurries
* Snow Flakes
* A Timber
* Holiday Cheer
* Bitty Rhinestones
* Olive Ink
* Cranberry Ink
* Honey Ink
* Piercing Kit
* Ruler

Happy Stamping,

Holiday Cheers.

This is a cute little stamp set that has a coordinating shape inside the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge :) Except I am still hoping like mad for a Cricut Expression for Christmas. However, I got a look at the latest sketch from Mojo Monday and I just had to play.

I have quite a ways to go on my individually designed Xmas card project, but it is a departure from years past when I used to design one card and replicate it in required numbers for the recipients.

Today's inspiration is from Mojo Monday : MOJO208.

The ribbon obscures it a bit, but of the Christmas ornaments in the right hand bottom corner there are 3 layers. The bottom one is stamped onto cardstock; the second gray one is a layer on top and finally the purple ornament is the third layer. To ensure my foam squares were high enough for the third one I just used two back to back. For my ribbon to stay perfectly curled, this was achieved with using wired ribbon.

This card measures 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 which fits very well in a regular A2 envelope. As you can see, I attempted to bring in the blue accent color inside the card as well.

Dollar Store Find:

* Silver wired ribbon

Michaels:

* Solid cardstock

* Cardstock from 'Gems' collection

CTMH:

* Snow Flurries

* Holiday Cheer

* Mistletoe paper pack (retired)

* Grey Wool ink

* Spring Iris ink

* Corner rounder punch