Red Bird Singing for JOY

Hello and Welcome!

This is a quick post to let you know I'm making Christmas cards like mad but don't have a lot of time to post them! I had this card front done where I mixed Wendy Vecchi translucent paste and green distress and Elizabeth Craft Designs microfine cool diamond glitter and added the mixture through a stencil to make this 3D tree! I added this little bird from a Memory Box die cut and made him shimmer with red Wink of Stella glitter pen. I stamped my new favorite company, Neat and Tangled, JOY and glittered it up with the same pen and put the panel on a Gina K Designs heavy weight black card base. I added clear Wink of Stella around the image on the black to bling it up too!

Stay tuned in the New Year for lots of giveaways! I'm purging and have won some crafting items that don't suit my style and will be doing giveaways to share! So follow my blog or on Instagram to know when that happens!

Thanks for stopping by and God bless!

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Challengers entered:
CASology Week #173: Tree
The Male Room Challenge: Christmas
Addicted to Stamps: CAS

Birds on the brain... and on Christmas cards Part 1!

Hello and welcome!

I had some time to play before teaching a Christmas card class about two types of embossing (dry & heat embossing). I hadn't had time to make cards with these leftover pieces and decided it was time to pull out the bird stamps that I have and make some Christmas cards! I am a bird lover especially on cards! I adore chickadees and love cardinals as well (even though I see chickadees a lot here in Alaska, I've only ever seen one real cardinal!). 

On the blue card, I used Impression Obsession "Birch Trees" stamp on 120 lb heavy weight Gina K Designs white card stock in Versamark ink then sprinkled it with Stampendous PearlLustre Sapphire blue embossing powder and heat set it. I used a red Wink of Stella glitter pen to color the bird in so he's all shimmery. I used the Clearly Besotted "joy" die and cut it out of TPC Studio bright red shimmer paper. It didn't quite match the red of the glitter pen so I colored over it with the red Wink of Stella glitter pen too. I adhered it with Ranger Matte Multi Medium.

For the second card I had used the We R Memory Keepers trees embossing folder to emboss on Gina K Designs base weight kraft card stock. I stamped this little unknown cardinal stamp on Gina K Designs base weight card stock and colored him with the red Wink of Stella glitter pen. I cut him out by hand and adhered him with Ranger Matte Multi Medium. I did the "joy" in the same way as above to match the red of the bird. I also used a sponger to lightly run ColorBox white pigment ink across the embossed trees to highlight them just slightly and make them stand out better. The glitter pen makes these so shimmery in the right light!

I have two more bird cards to show you but they'll have to wait for the next blog post!

Thanks for stopping by and God bless!

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Challenges:

Merry Monday Christmas Challenge: Birds

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Let It Snow

Uniko Challenge #27: Christmas with a twist of CAS

AAA Cards Game #33: Anything Goes

CAS  on Sunday #72: Christmas

Addicted to CAS #37: Dimension

Virginia's View Challenge #21: Glitter (my pics don't show it very well but it's there!)

Muse ChristmasVisions #31: Inspiration card (one bird, one die cut sentiment, slight embossing)

Holiday Card Making Class for November 22: Two Types of Embossing

Hello and welcome!

I want to invite you to a holiday card making class at the Joann's craft store in Anchorage, Alaska next Sunday, November 22nd from 2:30-4:30 pm! It's the start of card classes I'll be teaching at Joann's for the next three months!

Dry embossed cards

I'm starting off simply with showing two types of embossing... the first is dry embossing (above). I have a lot of holiday embossing folders for you to use if you don't own any yourself! It's fun to "dress up" the embossing with die cuts, Stickles, sentiments, ribbon, and a holiday sentiment finishes it in just your style! 

Heat embossed cards

The other type of embossing is called heat embossing. It is where you use a sticky ink on a stamped image and cover it in embossing powder to be melted with a heat "gun" or tool. The different types of embossing powders can be colored, clear, white,  black, metallic, glittery, etc., and gives you many different opportunities to create unique cards! You can heat emboss the whole card as on the right, just a background (middle card) or just the sentiment (card on the left although hard to see). 

These are two types of techniques you can do to cards to give them a WOW factor! 

Please come join me for this fun class! Call the Joann's store in Anchorage at (907) 277-3620. The cost is $30. Bring supplies that you have (card stock, stamps, embossing folders, ink for embossing, ink for sentiments, embellishments) and what you don't have I may have or you can purchase there!

Thanks for stopping by and God bless!

Home again... Share Handmade Kindness Challenge!

Hello and welcome!

Lots of things happening now after being gone for a week to help my youngest daughter move from Colorado to California! I've been home two weeks today but then moved a week ago myself!  So this is a catch-up post!

I'm starting to settle in to our new place (a 1940's log cabin) and even got my art table set up so I could make this card for Jennifer McGuire's Share Handmade Kindness Challenge!

Share handmade kindness

And I was channeling my inner Jennifer on this card after watching her recent video of tone on tone stamping. She used white accents with a colored pencil or pigment ink to highlight areas but I didn't in this case. The cardstock and ink is Hero Arts Tide Pool and the butterflies are from Papertrey Ink's Beautiful Butterflies set. I used some dotted confetti from Winnie & Walter's Big Bang Confetti set and an open heart (which is hard to see in this photo) is from Avocado Arts. The sentiment is from My Favorite Things Heart Balloons set and I cut the sentiment to fit it on this vellum that I heat embossed in Hero Arts white powder. (I must do more vellum sentiments! I really like the way it shows the card background through it!) I then colored some clear gems with the same Hero Arts Tide Pool ink so they matched and adhered them with some Ranger multi medium in matte to help hold the sentiment piece in place!

I'm giving this card to my new landlords as a thank you for the hard work they did getting the cabin ready for us so quickly! We love our new place and wanted them to know it!

I'll be teaching a Christmas card making class at the Joann's in Anchorage on November 22nd so if you are in town that day stop to see me... or come play! I plan on showcasing two kinds of embossing... dry and heat!

Thanks for stopping by and God bless your day!
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Challanges:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Thanks/Thanksgiving