Fab Finds Friday — Coastal Christmas

It’s always such fun to discover a new stamp company! So when I checked out Flourishes, I immediately fell in love with this *Coastal Christmas set.

First, I played with the boat, which was perfect for coloring:

I used a variety of colored pencils and my Kuretake Gansai Tambi to watercolor this scene, which was first stamped in VersaMark black on watercolor paper. (The card is a 4Bar (7″x7 7/8″, folded to 3 1/2 x 4 7/8). And added a touch of Wink of Stella clear to some of the packages. It felt unbalanced, so I added a strip of a scrap paper to the left side.

The next card features the pretty beachy wreath:

Images were stamped and embossed in white on blue cardstock, colored in with various gel pens, edged with Aegean Silver glitter powder (Judikins). The pieces were mounted on a silver shimmer cardstock from Paper Source.)

That same wreath and sentiment also made quick cards with simple white embossing:

*Disclaimer: This stamp set was provided to me by Flourishes. Thank you, Flourishes!

More Ornament Cards

Once I had my ornaments cut out from Stampin’ Up’s Delicate Ornaments die set (as mentioned in my last post!) it was fast, easy and fun to create the cards. Here are some more:

First, I created the holly background using a large Hero Arts stamp, stamped in VersaMark and embossed in Judikins Detail Metallic Gold powder. The inside (or base) of the ornament was die cut from an old greeting card, then covered with the red outer piece. A few punched pine sprigs (Tim Holtz punch) gives the impression that the ornament is hanging on a tree (although to be more realistic, I should have die cut the hanger piece that comes in the die set. Sigh.)

I started here by die cutting the ornament from the plaid paper (Paper Source) and again from a scrap of white card stock, which I then heat embossed using Zing! gold glitter embossing powder. I mounted the plaid paper to a white card base, glued in the glittery ornament and added some Ranger red stickles. The sentiment (from (Stampin’ Up’s Embellished Ornaments stamp set, which matches some of the dies) was also gold embossed, layered and added using foam tape.

Thanks for stopping by! But wait … there’s more coming ….

Ornament Cards to “Die” For…

I’ve been having way too much fun with Stampin’ Up!’s ornament stamps and dies (Stampin’ Up and Sizzix.)

The first thing I did was cut various ornaments from a bunch of scrap paper found among the ruins of my desk:

Here’s the first card I made:

When I first tried to cut this die out of self-adhesive glitter paper (Cosmo Cricket) it was a bit of a hot mess — the intricate die did not cut through in some spots. I worked on it with a craft knife but the center was still not clean. So I hid the messy portion behind a decorative piece that comes with the die set! (I also went for an ombre look using Ranger’s Distress Ink Broken China with mediocre success.)

And then I learned that I needed a precision cutting pad for these intricate pieces. And oh, what a difference that made!

Here’s a detailed look and the not-so-clean piece:

(I added some Ranger silver Stickles to the middle piece, which also did not cut cleanly.)

Look how much cleaner it cut using the Sizzix Precision Base Plate:

That pretty background is made using the Stampin’ Up/Sizzix Softly Falling embossing folder. (I edged the embossed piece with Delicata Golden Glitz, but I don’t really like the edging and will leave it off others.) (The Merry Christmas sentiment is from an old Hero Arts set; everything else is from Stampin’ Up!)

Stay tuned for more cards made with this ornament set.

Fabulous Finds Friday — Fiskars Tag Maker

I love, love, love making tags. There is something so appealing about decorating tiny little surfaces. Having a creative slump? Try making a few tags as a way to prime those creative juices.

The new *Tag Maker Punch from Fiskars is right up my alley. I love that the punch has three functions: it punches the tag shape, punches the hole, and sets an eyelet. Cool, huh? No annoying hammering.

Look what I made in about 10 minutes (it took me longer to find paper scraps than it did to punch these!):

I used mostly scraps to make these tags — and we all know how much I adore using my scraps! These tags are fairly simple and quick to make. But you could easily stamp and embellish to make tags with more flair.

There are currently four tag shapes: the rounded top one I show above, a traditional tag cut (like a shipping tag, on my wish list!), and two curvy label-tags with holes on two sides. The tags measure about 2″ x 3″ and the punch handles cardstock up to 80 lbs.

The Tag Maker accommodates two sizes of eyelets: 3/16 and 5/32. According to the company, these are among the brands tested that work: Recollections (Michael’s store brand) 3/16, ColorBok 3/16, Dritz 5/32 and Sewology 5/32. I have not tried any others (because I have to dig them out! I got so tired of having to hammer them in, I stopped using them! This will solve that problem.)

I also love that the Tag Maker perfectly centers the hole.

Here are some closer looks:

These were stamped using whatever was handy on my desk, including scraps from other projects (like the bright neon tag!)

These have some chipboard embellishments (an old K&Company set).

Love these tags made using leftover watercolor paper that had been colored with Ranger’s Tim Holtz Distress Spray Stains (another must have product).

And finally, look how I used up old greeting cards:

For more info, check out the Fiskars video here.

*Disclaimer: This product was provided to me to test by Fiskars.

Fabulous Finds Friday — Technique Tuesday, Elizabeth Crafts

Playing catch up today!

Here are some random Fabulous Finds from around the craft world:

Whether you are a card maker, scrapbooker or into pocket journals, Technique Tuesday has a stamp and die to fit your needs. I thought these were cute:

Elizabeth Crafts has some fun holiday dies, including “Pop it Ups” such as this:

Have a great week!

Merry Christmas

I got in the holiday spirit with these paper trees:

The trees are built on a skewer (yes, the kind you’d use for shish kabob!). The base is made of two coasters, sandwiched together. (I covered the base with torn book pages). Poke a hole in one coaster, add a little glue to the flat bottom of the skewer (not the pointy end), and then push the pointy end of the skewer through the coaster until the gluey bottom of the skewer is snuggled inside the coaster. Let the glue dry a bit, then thread the papers onto the skewer, starting with the largest size and alternating the direction of the papers (so the tree looks fluffy!). When you get to the next size of paper, add a small piece of corrugated cardboard to build the the height of the tree. Continue like that until you reach the desired height, then cut off the skewer. Add a star or a ball or whatever to the top of the skewer. Glue another coaster to the bottom for stability.

(For added dimension you can ink the edges of the papers before you start building the tree. Or if you are lazy, like me, I just sprayed them after the tree was put together.)

I used Spellbinders Nestabilities dies for all the paper cutting.

There are several well done tutorials on this technique to be found on the Internet.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas Tags

To those who celebrate Christmas, here’s my hope that your holidays are warm and wonderful!

I realize I’m a little late to inspire any Christmas tag making, but I’d still like to share some tags I made last week. These tags all used Formica chips left over from a years-ago remodeling project.

The tags above use paper from an old Hot Off The Press book; the fancy stickers are from K&Company. The “joy” is a stamp from Hero Arts and the glitter is from Martha Stewart.

The paper on these are also from HOTP. The snowman tag is also edged with  Vintage Glass Glitter from Art Glitter (901 Krystallos Shards) and the snowman rub-ons are old ones from PSX.

These, I think, are my faves:

Papers (including sentiments) from that same HOTP pack, the fancy stickers are from K&Company. The glitter on the Believe tag is Victorian Christmas by Sparkle & Sprinkle. It doesn’t show up well here, but it is sparkly and festive!

A fast Haunkkah tag. Stickers from K&Company, glitter from Martha Stewart.

May your holidays be merry and bright!

Gettin’ that Holiday Spirit

Yes, it’s getting to feel a lot like Christmas (go ahead, sing along. You know you want to.) And Chanukah. (Hmmm…. no good Chanukah melody. Sigh.)

Here are three cards to get the season going:

The card above was made while I was working on my mixed media article for Crafts ‘n things magazine. I used Donna Salazar’s new Mix’d Media Inx, a  creamy, slow-drying pigment ink from Clearsnap (ColorBox). I stamped in white on navy blue card stock, then embossed with clear powder. (long design is a bolio from JudiKins; menorah is a very old stamp from Limited Edition.)

And something a little different … sort of seasonal, sort of wedding, sort of any time…. I dunno. I just felt this was a good time to share it.

(Spellbinders’ Nestabilities die cut flower; border punch; gold mum paper from Paper Source.)

And a similar card: (I think if I replace the “happy” with a seasonal greeting, it would work as a Christmas card.)

Thanks for stopping by!

Fabulous Finds Friday — Seasonal Distress…

… and by seasonal distress I don’t mean the anxiety kind! I mean the Seasonal Distress Inks produced for a limited time by Ranger and Tim Holtz.

I had barely enough time to play with the fall colors when it was time for the winter hues! So here we go:

I ran a piece of glossy scrap card stock through a Cuttlebug folder and rubbed it with the Distress winter inks: festive berries, evergreen bough and iced spruce. The piece was trimmed, edged in gold, be-ribboned and attached to a red card. The chipboard sentiment is from a Brenda Walton K&Company box ‘o chips that I got A YEAR Ago (gasp) and was hoarding until the right moment. That moment is now.

Another Cuttlebug-embossed background (a collage background from Tim), same process.

And because I needed to STAMP, here’s one more:

Could I have gone any simpler?  This is so plain it’s a little embarrassing and kinda dorky. But how fast and easy was this? (You can’t see it very well, but the poinsettias (Hero Arts) are dotted with Distress Rock Candy Stickles.

One final Distress Ink card, this one using the Fall palette:

(Yes, you’ve sort of seen this before. I just added a sentiment and some pearls to the card I posted here.)

Thanks for visiting!