Christmas card 2010- A tree stands alone

This is my Christmas card for 2010. Now that hopefully most people would have received it by now I wanted to share it with you all. It took me a long time to figure out how I wanted to do this card and it went through several trials before this mechanism worked. I wanted my friends to open the card and have the tree stand up without having to hold it. The cover is medallion in garden green and the Merry Christmas is from all holiday in red punched out with circle punch. Satin real red ribbon tops the wreath. My DH thought it was confusing to open the card - feels like you're going to rip it- he said so I added the sign that says open in whisper white craft ink.

When you open the card there is a SU retired sentiment embossed with silver EP using versamark and my - yes photoshopped again!- picture of my three little not so wise men on the right.

I added a flap of cardstock in red that you fold back and you stick it on the oval and voila the tree stands up on its own.

This is how I envisioned everyone would see the card.

I die cut the X-mas tree using the big shot and the star from the matching tree decorations sizzlet in gold cardstock. I diecut 2 of the same star with the bottom slit and glued them together so they would lay flat on the tree. I also embossed the tree using the petals-a-plenty folder- it was hard to fit the whole thing as it had variable thickness so I had to run it back and forth on 4 sides to make it emboss- it would have taken a lot more time embossing individual pieces although it would have been easier- when you are making close to 90 of these, you have to cut SOME corners!

On some of the trees I did add some sparkle with the 2 way glue - making little dots in the middle of the poinsettia with red and others in the fine cosmos glitter pack.

THe bottom piece to stand it up needs really good taper so make sure you use sticky tape to make sure it really adheres. Unfortunately this piece almost always gets too deeply cut and I have had instances where it tore.

To ensure a good and long lasting mechanism so it could be opened and closed for many years to come, I added a strip of scot tape on the other side to make sure it held well.

The tree standing mechanism was really a tough one for me. I tend to be pretty good at engineering things but I had a really hard time- I thought of a picture stand type back and played with many different variations which all failed on one account or another. My MIL brought over some pictures she had developed at Costco and I saw that the closure on the envelope was done with adhesive tape and BAM! it hit me- I could use the same type of idea.

SO I punched a oval on the bottom of the card where I wanted the tree to open and stick and stuck a piece of packing tape underneath so that the sticky part would show on top - it's the same idea as the glitter window, remember that technique?- then I stuck another piece of tape where the sticky would touch on the side of the picture opened (see picture to the right- yes I know the tape is somewhat unsightly but I embossed the words and the tape is clear so it does not show SO terribly much). When you close the card this sticks to the sticky oval.

The thing that keeps the tree up is the sticky on this side that when you stick to the oval allows for temporary stick that keeps the tree up but you can unstick and close to store flat.

This was what the card looked like completed.

This is the detail on the tree and the ornament top.

This is the detail on the tree skirt- I stamped snowflakes using bliss blue onto premium copy paper- it is thinner so it flattens out better although it costs more than regular copy paper it is definitely worth it. I cut quarter sheets of it trimmed to line inside of dark cardstock cards to have a white writing surface too.

The extra real red CS was about 5 x 3 1/4 or so scored on one side with sticky tape on it to again really stick to allow for repeated play with the tree.

This sentiment is from Peaceful Season the level 2 hostess set from the holiday mini. I love all that elegant scroll work.

I'm going to make some birthday cake cards like this too to see how well it holds. I have not been able to find a way to make this mechanism work with a standard card without it flopping all over the place but I think it is worth the extra paper and postage- what do you think?

Happy Holidays!

Lynda

To you and yours one layer card- well, almost

I really am trying to simplify my life and I guess it is reflecting some on my cards as well. The ideas of a simple one layer card especiallyf for Christmas keep coming up in my head. I also wanted to meet the SCS challenges this week: the CAS layout, the F4AFriday for a christmas card on a fly, and TLC303 to use sponging and then the color challenge of grey concord and marina mist. Thsis image(retired SU) came up to mind which I think is perfect in marina mist.

The base card is just 4 1/4x4 1/4 ( so that it could be mailed in the standard envelope). I scored te edges 1/4 " so that it would have a border without adding another layer. I then punched out a scrap piece of paper using the 2 1/2 inch circle punch and used the paper as a mask to stamp the image in arina mist. Then I sponged some grey on the bottom and some concord on top. Unfortunately some of the color rubbed onto the house image and it muddled it up a bit- and I really like the crisp white of snow on the house so I used the signo gel pen to add some white back over the roof line and in front of the house whern the snaw would be and a little on the trees where there were supposed to be snow too. I then stamped the sentiment in concord grape. I diecut a snowflake from the Northern Frost die ( actually it was a left over from another project but who would know?) and added a crystal jewel to the center then used 2 way glue pen to adhere the dazzling diamond glitter to it and some parts of the card, the roof, the snow and the trees to add a little sparkle. It is a simple card and one layer- if you don't count the snowflake that is.

One Layer Christmas Card- Medallion

This came out of a request by my friend Helen who wanted to use medallion for christmas in an easy to make card so this was what I came up with. Stamped the Medallion in Garden Green onto whisper white CS. Stamped the Merry Christmas from All Holidays set in real red onto another piece of scrap whisper white, punched it out with 1 3/4 inch circle punch and mounted it with dimenstionals. Added a 5/8 inch real red satin ribbon and it really is a simple 5 minute card that you can make on a fly. I thought you could add some red dots around the wreath but thought it better to keep it simple.

One Layer Holiday Cards

I was thinking about creating some simple one layer holiday cards and this is one I started to play with at my last workshop. I still love the Lovely as a tree set but wanted to make it more winter snow covered scene. I ripped a piece of paper to make the snow covered ground and stamped the image using versamark on top of it so that the bottom part of the stamp would be hidden by the "snow". It was stamped onto whisper white CS and embossed with clear embossing powder (but you could also use white if that's what you have) . I then sponged bashful blue- I think it had some celery in it from an old project so it had bluish green hues which was actually quite pretty.

I took sentiment Peace on Earth from Four the Holidays set and embossed with versamark with iridescent ice EP to make a simple wintery card. You could add a little gliter along the snow with 2 way glue pen if you want. Hope your day warms up!

Lynda

Greeting Card Kids winter

I just can't enough of this sweet stampset- love the little girl- I have a picture of myself when I was about 7 or 8 with pigtails in a coat just like this one. The sketch is a challenge from splitcoast SC310 herehttp://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/card-sketches-f41/sketch-challenge-310-12-8-10-a-t514333.html. The base card is Artichoke. The image was stamped with memento black and colored in with copics except for the scarf which was pretty in pink marker. After coloring, I used 2 way glue pen to add dazzling diamonds to the trim. Layered it on artichoke as well.


I used the Deck the Halls DSP to layer, then added cherry seam binding ribbon to it on top then diecut snowflakes which I glittered with dazzling diamonds as well and added some jewels for sparkleas shown.

Layered the image onto another piece of DSP paper and voila! It literally took me 15 minutes to make it- the longest was getting the little chads out of the snowflakes after diecutting!

Enjoy!

Lynda

A RAK from Tami- my version

My upline is so super supportive, when I meet my goals for the month, she sends me a little surprise. This month it was a white on white card that I thought was really cool but of course I had to do a variation of it to make it "mine"- wink wink- but the basic card idea is from her. Take shimmer white CS and stamp Always elegant on it in crumb cake. Emboss elegan lines with vellum CS then add pearl jewels and tear the top to add texture. Tie a vanilla seambinding ribbon around the cardstock and tie a ribbon . Tuna brad around the ribbons and close off to secure the ribbon (not using any holes to secure the ribbon. Stamp Mr&Mrs in crumbcake, then add a pearl. Secure onto ribbin with a dimensional.

I added a line of 2 way glue and sprinkied dazzling diamonds on the front edge to add a little subtle sparkle and easy wedding card.

Emboss Resist Foliage

The Technique lover challenge this week is emboss resist- one of my favorite techniques- . Here I combined it with the color challenge 300 from splitcoast using artichoke, cherry and pretty in pink with a little daffodil and cajun sponged in as well. The base card is artichoke. the leaves are stamped using versamark on white glossy CS using clear embossing powder and heat embossed. The cardstock is then sponged with variey of classic ink colors to blend and make the images pop out.

I had stamped a sentiment in the corner but it looked really flat- out of necessity as no punch shape would fit over my booboo- I tore it out which I REALLY liked. I then stamped the sentiment with versamark and embossed it with gold EP as shown.

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The other challenge was CAS96 for bows- I love mixing up the challenges and trying something different.

I auditioned the artichoke and cherry seam binding ribbon but the vanilla seem to fit better and less intrusive. I stamped the snowflake from snow swirled in artichoke and punched it with the 1/2 inch circle punch, and used the build-a-brad to make a custom brad- don't you just love it?

Mounted the torn piece onto the cherry piece, then I pierced the hole where I wanted the brad legs to go and used it to hold down the ribbon through cherry cardstock. I then mounted the whole thing on the artichoke base card and another easy card. Three challenges in one card whew!

It's almost snowing!

This is another card we made at my last workshop from a card I recalled seeing somewhere. This is how I made it - It looks tricky but it isn't. The base card is bliss blue . Emboss the sentiment from Four the Holidays with white embossing powder. Die cut the snowflakes using the shimmer white CS with the new northern frost decorative strip using the big shot.

Take a 1/2 sheet of vellum paper and fold and emboss the polka dot folder onto one side . Now I taped the back side near the fold to the back side of the blue cardstock so that the tape would not show on the front. Then I tore the vellum sheet to show the words and then taped the vellum where the snowflakes would be stuck on so the tape would be minimally visible. Then I stuck on the snowflakes. I guess I could have used

a dimensional adhesive but the parts were so delicate it was sort of hard to do. A lot of chads with the snowflakes but oh so pretty!

Falalalalaaaalalalala!

I love December! My favorite month of the year! Here is counting down to Christmas!

Lynda

Workshop Holiday Bells and Boughs

I love this set- can you tell? I love the old fashioned look about it but it is still clean and modern. Best of both worlds. This is a case from Iliana Crouse that I used for my workshop which looks complicated but it isn't. It's also pretty easy to mass produce for the holidays. I took Always artichoke CS Base, added a layer of cherry cobbler and then a layer of Deck the Halls DSP. The DSP was cut 4x 5 1/4 so I could get 6 pieces out of the 12x12. I did cut from the edge so that every card would have the border white design going around which I thought was so pretty. Then I stamped the image in stazon black and used watercolor crayon directly on paper then used the aqua pens to dilute it out some and make it a little soft watercolored look and easy peasy image. Layered that on artichoke CS then on cherry. I then ran multimono in a thin layer around the edge of the cherry after it was all mounted, then a sprinkle of champagne glass glitter. Let it dry and it will not fall off mind you!

I then took 1/2 seam binding ribbon in cherry cobbler, made a bow using 2 rabbit earys tied together and then stuck it on with a little glue dot and it was the easiest card of the 4 that we made.

Enjoy! and Happy December

Lynda

Good Morning Cup

I've been so busy with my trip to Atlanta, the school work with the kids, the office still not up and running trying to get that up I have not had time to even think about cards. But I started to feel tired, lackluster, not my usual over the top bouncing off the wall self- I needed to get some time off to stamp is what I think. I am taking just a few minutes to stamp for the CAS93 challenge and it really feels good. I got this set Morning cup few months ago and it still sat in its original package so I dug it out for this challenge. It seems so appropriate given how I've been feeling.

Take bridal bliss basecard. stamp the percolator with black and do it on several other pieces of DSP- here I took itsy bitsy pieces left over from sending love DSP retired and put it on top. the handle is too much to cut out so I just colored it in with markers. The mug was done the same way with real red colored in heart then crystal effects on top. The chocolate chip circle was cut out with the circle cutter to layer. Add a piece of chocolate ribbon and mount the circle and the mug with dimensionals. The sentiment was stamped in black, punched out then mounted with just regular double stick tape with little pieces of bling added for that just little extra sparkle.

Thanks splitcoast for your inspiration! You can find the challenge here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/clean-simple-cards-f239/cas93-sketch-ltecler-11-15-10-a-t512119.html

Lynda

texting thanq

I marvel at modern technology. I am sitting at an airport waiting for my next flight and they have wifi that allows me to get on the internet and with the picture that I took of the card that I made for a tech friend I am able to post it to you right now. What an amazing world we live in.

I have been having some technical difficulties at work to put it mildly. It is enough to make me pull out my hair and sympathize with my staff that they would want to quit. I do too, except I can't. I am learning patience and with people showing me their willingness to continue to work with you despite these difficult times is a true test of your relationship.

There is this tech guy who has been on my speed dial and he even got up bright and early on a Saturday morning before his and my little kids got up to configure my computers at home and I wanted to send him a thank you. He laughed that I am so backwards that I did not text on my phone even so I thought it would be appropriate to send him a card with a text message. The base card is real red with 0101 image from lots of bots to the right side bottom and on the daffodil piece I added behind the blackberry. I stamped the image from Stampend*us in memento black and then colored it with my copics in different shades of blue, yellow and grey and cut up some words to spell his name and the sentiment in black. I mounted it on dimensionals onto daffodil stamped with the 0101 image, then mounted the whole thing on pacific blue CS for a simple thank you card. Inside I stamped U ROCK! from PTI in versamark then embossed it in silver to make it pop then attached a gift card to Starbucks as a simple token of my appreciation.

This could work for any techie man or kid in your life with all sorts of fun messages. The set comes with a variety of texting sentiments, some I still have not figured out what it means.

I am being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century- I just got myself a texting phone- but I had to get one with a touch keyboard because my short fat little fingers keep getting those screening touchpads from typing accurately!

Lynda

A little Asian feel card

I was at Papers*urce store and they had this really sweet blossom stamp and I just had to get it. with the Peach Parfait coloring and mellow moss onto vanilla CS, it gave a really soft Asian-y feel. the word stamp is part of a koi stamp that I have that I inked with black and red marker. I have no idea what it says but it was a nice size font. If anyone knows what it says I would dearly love to know. I took a little piece of japanese paper that I had left over from another project and put it on the bottom to anchor the card and used some papercording to make the knot and I glued it in place with some small glue dots to really secure it. The whole thing is mounted on retired mellow moss CS and peach parfait card.

A really simple card that I really liked.

Lynda

witch's hat mini reese's candy holder

This was one of the projects we made at our last workshop. It is a little witch's hat treat that I cased from Stamping Moon http://www.stampingmoon.com/2010/09/wicked-witch-hat-treats.html.
Take Wicked Fun DSP paper and use circle cutter to cut 3 5/8 inch circle, cut it into half (you get 2 hats out of one circle) and put sticky strip half way up on the straight end.

Put sticky strip pieces into individually wrapped MINI reese's peanut butter cups, stick the straight sideup and down on the candy with the candy and wrap the curved side around the candy and close with the sticky strip side - try to keep the top of the hat pointy.

Take the sticky strip cover off AFTER you wrap the cone and then peel and stick it in case you have to adjust the cone while you are forming it.

(My computer does weird things and I am not sure why my horizontal pictures keep getting loaded up vertically)

Use the dimensionals to attach the reeses to the 2 1/2 inch black circle- cut with either circle #2 die or the new large circle punch.




So here is the hat bare completed. You can finish it however you wish.

Here I used the black lace ribbon. It is slippery and hard to keep the ribbon down so I did use a little clear tape to keep the ribbon in place though.

Add bats, flowers, glitter, jewels, whatever you wish to decorate it and have fun.

Happy Halloween

Lynda

a simple christmas card

I am in love with this waffle paper. I wish they would change the name though to something more glam though. I wanted to show you a very simple christmas card you can change up with any accent you wanted.

Here I took a real red basecard. Took a strip of Deck the halls DSP 1/2 inch wide, added a 3/4 inch strip of real red behind it, added sticky strip to the 2 edges in the back and used waffle paper strips to add some pleats. I also used sticky strip to stick the whole thing on to the base card. Remember that there is a shiny and matte side to the waffle paper and use the side you want to show on both sides. I stamped the dec 25 image from tags for christmas set in red craft ink onto crumbcake to sort of match the DSP, then embossed the whole thing with clear embossing powder to make it shine although hard to see here. The whole thing was punched out with the matching decorative label punch- Don't you just LOVE the matching punch thing? The tag was mounted with some dimensionals to make it pop a bit and easy peasy card for a monday. I love these really simple cards. You can add any accent piece where the tag would go, the ornament punch, a large circle, or whatever. I may try some different ones too.

Happy Monday!

Lynda

belles and boughs variation

The SCS color challenge this week is Concord, cherry and Olive and it looked so Christmas I had to bring my belle and boughs set out and of course the Christmas collage just fit right in.

The Sketch challenge was interesting too. I turned it sideways to make this card.

Base is Cherry, with strips of concord, one embossed with the poinsettia and the other tied with olive ribbon. Added the christmas collage- inked just the bottom and colored it in using watercolor technique using the lids of the inkpad with cherry, olive and daffodil inks. Cut out the circles using coluzzle- remember that? for cutting outside the box for circles or ovals nothing beats that because you can just skip that part as you cut.

Raised the circle using dimensionals and pretty straighr forward card.

Lynda

Fancy Favor Box easy with no waste!

October is a hectic month in my family. In the last week there had been 5 birthday celebrations, my DH, FIL, my own father and my twins. To top it off there are these superstar things in school where you are supposed to do something special and with going to work, meetings after work, baking cupcakes after meetings after work, getting up early to make favors for the twins birthday party where I think everyone in the class came, I am done for.

But I did want to share with you a little trick for using the fancy favor box. You know I hate waste and to

use the fancy favor box the "right way" I would have to use 12x12 CS and waste a lot of paper- but the real problem was that I did not HAVE any 12x12 enough to make treats for 40 favors. So this is what I did. Take 8 1/2 x 11 CS and cut it longways- so 4 1/4x11 -and lay it on the die (I took a silver sharpie and marked the edges so I knew where it ended) so that the bag flap and the bottom flap are shortened- it should look like the picture on the left after you diecut it.

I then take a piece of matching CS about 2x3 ( I did use a 12x12 for this so that I got 24 pieces out of one sheet). I stuck some sticky tape as shown. (the tape on the box side goes on the side that will be outside of the box by the way.)

I was going to use this specialty Rockability DSP strip (retired that I bought extra just for this occasion) so I used it to guide the areas I wanted to stamp. The sentiment on the back is from a hostess set More the Merrier. The names are made from simple alphabet from PTI.

The boys picked out a pirate cake so I made the thme pirate and used the sword from Pirate time (retired) and embossed it with silver EP. Simple but I thought really cute. The boys gave me thumbs up.

Once I have everything stamped then I put the box together.

First I put the side together. Instead of picking it up and trying to stick it, it aligns better if you just put it down and close the other side down onto it. It will be perfect everytime if you do it this way.

The size of 81/2x 11 allows for just over 1/4 inch overlap perfect for the sticky strip to hold it strong anyway.

This is how it looks closed.

I then put the strip around the center because it does need some extra space for the folds. I find it always easier to glue things on when they are flat. I like to use sticky strip for this as well as it is really secure. I also like a small strip at the end to keep it really securely on.

Start from one edge and wrap it around while you fold the box over and over to accomodate the ends.

Keep going around the edges until you come to the edge and tape it securely so it does not fall off.

This is how it should look when you are done.

Now take the rectangle piece and tape it on . I did fold the shorter ends in first then with the angled cuts on the side on top of that before I attached the bottom unlike the picture.

This is how it looks when you have it attached. I did push it from the inside to make sure it was really stuck. On one of my favors, I stamped the sword in black so that I could pick it as a special one that could win a prize.

I used my crop-a-dile to attach textured black CS 8 1/2 x 3/4 inch strips as handles using some red eyelets.

This is what it looks like from the back. It was not too hard and for less than 1/2 the cost of those store bought cheesy favors I was able to give a personalized gift. I filled it with crayola crayons that I bought at start of school year just for this purpose when it was dirt cheap, crayon erasers, slap stick, pirate stickers, and a little candy treat for the kids ( I know it is bad for you but what birthday favor is complete without something that is bad for you but still yummy!)

Now to have these kids write thank you cards for all the things they received from their friends....sigh. I have to go make 40 thank you cards.... The things we do to teach our kids good manners! I do think it is worth it. You just have to start young so that they think there is no other options.

Lynda