Holiday Button Bits

My friend Sandye from Splitcoaststampers sent me some images from PTI's Holiday Button Bits, so I have been making some projects with them today. She stamped these holly leaves in a dark green (SU's Handsome Hunter maybe) and I thought it might look fab with PTI's Raspberry Fizz. Well, (with apologies to Chris) it does! Card Base is SU Whisper White, green layer is retired Forest Foliage, corner punch is SU. Border punch is EK Success, all else is PTI. Thanks to Sandye for sending me these adorable images!

Angel card--double embossing

This card uses the double embossing technique, found HERE. I used SU Shimmer White, Allegro Cuttlebug embossing folder, and oval Nesties. I embossed the angel from SU's Holy Triptych in gold and again used the floating reinker technique to color her dress. I used Cranberry Crisp and Bravo Burgundy. I watercolored her hair with Soft Suede and her hands and face with Blush Blossom. I sponged the edges with Champagne Shimmer Paint and matted on Bravo Burgundy. I used retired SU organdy ribbon and Prima poinsettias and a gold brad. Card Base is SU Brushed Gold.

This is a fun technique and very elegant looking. Check it out! Have a great day!

Church Christmas Card

Hi, everyone, have not had much time for stamping lately, but I have been working on some things, and I finally got it more or less put together! My friend Banu is very good at combining challenges; this time I managed it. This is a 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 sized card, so everyone at church can sign it and follows this week's Mojo Monday sketch, and it is also my entry for Gina K Designs first ever customer blog hop! Here I used two of their latest releases, Festive Frame and Vintage Borders. I embossed the frame and sentiment in gold on SU shimmer white and used the floating reinker technique to color the poinsettias. Very quick and easy: I just wet the area with my Aquapainter, then picked up a little color on the end of it and touched it the the wet area. The color spreads out and after it dries, this is what you wind up with. I used an Aquapainter to watercolor the rest of the image in the usual way. Colors are Ruby Red, Handsome Hunter, Soft Suede, and Summer Sun. I used the retired SU Linen BG stamped and a mask and Sage Shadow ink to add a little detail to the blank areas of the frame. Next I used my Spellbinders Grand Borderabilities Poinsettia to cut and emboss the border in Real Red. I used SU's Champagne Shimmer Paint to sponge the central poinsettia image, tied on some gold ribbon (Hancock Fabric I think, from last year). The dark green layer is the retired SU Forest Foliage, which I think is a much prettier color than the current Handsome Hunter and so I hoarded some! I stamped an element from Vintage Borders in Champagne Shimmer Paint on this layer above the frame. Hope you've enjoyed this--I enjoyed making it!

PTI Swap Round 5--Sketch 1

This is my daughter's favorite of the three PTI swap cards I made for this round, and I have to say I think I agree with her. I wanted to do one that was not a Christmas card, and I love this little bicycle from PTI's Everyday Button Bits. I also really like this color combo. DP is PTI, CS base is SU Bashful Blue, layers are Enchanted Evening and Pure Poppy. I colored the images with Stampin' Pastels and a blender pen and sprayed with a fixative, and stamped the sentiment with SU's Craft White. You can't really tell from the pic but I did use zig-zag stitching on the DP layer. Maybe I should have used dark blue thread instead of white. Buttons and ribbon are PTI of course. You can see the sketch below. Hope you all enjoyed looking! Have a great day!

PTI Swap Round 5--Regular Card

This is my regular card for the PTI swap. It is also my entry for the CPS sketch this week. You can see it HERE. This card uses the PTI set Made of Snow. I paper pieced the hat, mittens, and scarf. DP used is last year's PTI, I think it's called Vintage Christmas. Base is Ripe Avocado, layer is Pure Poppy. I die cut two circles from Gina K's heavy base weight white CS with my inverted scallop circle Nesties, trimmed them down (it's more than a 1/2 circle), and embossed with my Cuttlebug snowflake folder. I used Real Red eyelets at the corners ( SU ret.) Small green buttons are from my LSS and pom-pom trim I found somewhere, JoAnn's or Hancock Fabric maybe, not sure.

I love this stamp set because it is so versatile. There are 2 snowman bodies and 3 heads, depending on which accessories you wish to add. I also really like this sketch and I'm pleased with how the card came out. Hope everyone likes it!

PTI Swap Round 5

Here is my card for the PTI Round 5 Sketch # 2. Not much stamping on this card. I was trying to think of something a little different to do, and I remembered I had these felt snowflakes from SU last year. I thought they went pretty well with the Rustic Snowflake DP and Holiday Button Assortment that I just got from PTI. CS is Pure Poppy. I added Stickles to the snowflakes because they looked a little plain, and the sentiment is from PTI's Signature Christmas. I'm afraid this card is a little boring--that's why I added the Stickles, to jazz it up a bit.

Here is the sketch--really cute sketch! More swap cards tomorrow--stay tuned!

Stampin Up! Workshop

Hi, everyone! Last Sunday I had an SU workshop at my house. My friend and demonstrator Karen showed us three cards and we made one, this first one here, which is my favorite. It is so elegant! She took 3 pieces of the thin chipboard used to stabilize a package of patterned paper, cut them into triangles and glued them together. She used this under an embossing folder, with the glossy CS inside the folder used various shims (each machine is different) and ran it through the Big Shot. This is the Petals a Plenty folder from SU's mini catalog. You can get a frame effect by getting a wood oval frame from Mike's and doing the same thing. Wood works better, because the chipboard compresses after a few passes. I absolutely love how this card turned out!

This next card is another of my favorites. We used the movers and shapers die from SU to create a window in the card front, then punched out the ornament (the punch is slightly smaller than the die) and adhered it behind the window. Quick, simple and stunning! Needless to say I ordered this die and the above embossing folder. (Karen's good, what can I say?) You can see the card front in the next pic. Sorry these are kind of out of order, I am still trying to get the hang of uploading pix on my new computer.

I just love that green snowflake paper, don't you? I never think to use green with snowflakes, only blues, purples and pinks. But this is just so fresh and crisp--makes me think of a cold snowy evergreen forest.

This last card uses shimmer paint on the old olive layer, though it's hard to see in the pic. (Yup, you guessed, it I ordered some of that too!). Karen showed us how to take the top note die cut and cut it repeatedly turning it each time to get this pointy circle. Very creative, if you don't have any Nesties. I also learned a new trick with my beloved blender pens. When I want to do two different colors on a stamp, I use two markers. Karen inked up the center stamp with an Always Artichoke pad, then removed the ink from the bird with a blender pen and colored it with a red marker. Turns out you can teach an old stamper new tricks!

All products used here are Stampin Up!, of course, most are from the holiday mini catalog. Hope you've enjoyed looking and maybe learned a trick or two yourselves!