Christmas Trees and Ornaments ~ December 19th

I hope you are enjoying the Christmas photos and word art the designers at Card a Day Blog are sharing this Christmas Break! Here is a bit more about my entry, slated to be on the CADB December 21st.

But today, the countdown is on! Six sleeps until Christmas! I have not got everything done, but am content with getting done what I can and trusting all will work out in the end. 

This year I had the opportunity to work on our staff’s Christmas tree.  I made all the ornaments on my Silhouette (excluding the garland and tree topper w. bow).  Here is what it looked like!

Hopefully you can see the Christmas train that I printed and cut, then stapled to the silver garland… in the distance, it looks really cool, like a frosty tree in the early morning. The images were from a Lettering Delights graphics file I purchased, but altered by putting each staff member’s name on one of the Santa cars. I would send a link to it, but can’t locate it, so think it must be retired…. here is a snip of what it looked like:

I do like Lettering Delights website and cut it sets, but have not figured out how to properly do a print and cut with my Silhouette and Make The Cut software… perhaps in the New Year!

I also cut out approximately 25 different sized snowflakes to complete the tree’s decorations.

We couldn’t keep the tree lit, as we did not have LED light bulbs on the tree, and the ornaments were paper… but even unlit, the tree was special to look at.

That’s it until after Christmas!

My wish is that everyone has a great time during this hectic season, and that the reason for it is not lost in at least one “Silent Night”.

Love, Peace, Joy and Happiness to you and yours!

Shelley

Simply Celebrate

Thanks for visiting for the Card a Day Blog!

Last week I was so busy, I felt I was running around with my head cut off. Kind of scary when you consider that it isn’t even December (ok… I’m out by a day LOL) It reminded me of how hectic the holiday season can be – and not necessarily how I want to enjoy it.  I wanted to make a card that would remind me that sometimes simple is best.

The cardstock I used for the card is a soft grey, almost silvery color, that I embossed with the Cuttlebug “Script” embossing folder.

I had some softly glittering cardstock, that I made an impression “sentiment” for the card front. The “Merry Christmas” from the Sizzix embossing folder “Christmas Set”.

I cut out an offset solid green piece to frame the sentiment, and anchored it to the card front with a strip of green reverse embossed with the Cuttlebug embossing borders.

I decorated below the sentiment with a few sprays of foliage I punched out with holly leaves and pine boughs. You can see that I highlighted the center leaves with felt pens and glitter pens, adding “berries” with a dimensional pen. And here is my tip! If you are short of a colored cardstock that you just need a bit of for punching out leaves and such for cards etc…. recycle those paint chips you may have picked up for choosing paint at the store! It’s a great way to get a lot of different colored greens for foliage or flowered punches!

Remember to visit the Card a Day Blog  tomorrow to see more inspiration from Patricia Logan, and a new theme - Christmas and Children!

ENTER THE CHALLENGE TODAY!

Nativity Ornament

As promised in my previous post, here is what I’ve made with parts of the embellishment I used on my most recent post at the Card a Day Blog! (The picture below is on a dark background to show off the ornament… it is not attached to it) Check out the blog candy at the end of this post!

Here are what the screens looked like on my Silhouette Studio before I cut, or printed and cut them out, notice the nativity centers are reversed – you’ll see why later:

The assembled elements:

I sprayed the doily with pearl spray… the next time I will make sure to use a gold spray to really highlight the doily (see my fix below)

Next, I cut out a small piece of mylar gift wrap for the sky.  I used my Xyron machine to make a sticker out of one of the nativity inside pieces.

Then I attached the nativity piece, and centered the mylar film on the other side of the doily.

I used a stick glue to adhere the other nativity piece on top and overlapping the mylar. I was careful to line the both sides of the nativity scene up, by holding the doily up the the light as I placed the last nativity piece onto the card.

I used my latest toy (a Tim Holtz alcohol ink applicator) to gently tint the outside edge of the doily green. It was great as it didn’t detract from the previously applied pearl spray.

My husband asked me what I’m going to do with it…. Well, the verdict is out still, but I think it may end up going into a Christmas letter as a bonus to someone (shhhhh! Its going to be a surprise!)

Now for the good stuff…. My second blog candy! Only good until December 24th, 2011

If you would like the inside nativity piece in a studio format or jpg that you can use with your own cutter (or scissors), simply leave a comment below!

Silent Night

Thanks for visiting my blog! I hope you’ve been enjoying all the great Christmas Cards from the Card a Day Blog! Here’s another card from my silhouette! This week’s theme is Christmas around the world… I mulled quite a bit about what to make, and ended up making a “reason for the season” card, that I hope you  like!
I have a few people on my list who like traditional cards. Whenever I think of Christmas, I think of the nativity, the calm peace you feel on a chilly winter night, and my favorite Christmas carol "Silent Night". I tried to make a card that was traditional, and made me think of those things too. Enjoy!

Card Base... Dark Blue. 5 1/8 inch wide by 11 inches long, folded in half.
Accent on card front... Light aqua blue 3 3/4 inch wide by 5 1/2 inch tall, embossed with Cuttlebug's snowflake folder.
Card front embellishment... sized approximately 4 3/4 inches.Silhouette store traditional doily, embellished with a circular "word art" - Silent Night's chorus. Also an inner nativity silhouette.
Starry background is actually a small piece of Mylar giftwrap. It would also look great if you did iris folding in gold, blue and red-orange papers to make the night sky in the nativity background.
Here’s what the screen looked like on Studio, when I was making the card front:

The bottom edges of the card were rounded with a 1/2 inch round corner punch.
Font used for the "Silent Night" circle phrase - front of card - Annie BTN
Font used for the inside sentiment - LD Stock
The inside phrase was printed on plain paper, and taped to the inside of the card, and trimmed to match the card shape.

If you don’t have a cutter, you can always do a basic print of the nativity and circular word art – hand cut out the area you want to have mylar showing through, and put it on a small paper doily for the same effect.

This project went together so smoothly, that I’m thinking of doing just the front embellishments and making a few paper ornaments out of them. The mylar I used is transparent, so it would look very pretty on my tree!
Make sure to visit the Card a Day Blog tomorrow, when you’ll be treated out to a creation from Cindy Foster!
Also, don’t forget to also join the fun at the challenge page of the Card a Day Blog! You won’t win if you don’t enter! We love being inspired by you too!

Gingerbread Men and Candy Canes ~ November 7th

Thank you so much for visiting from the Card a Day Blog!
This card is dedicated to using my Silhouette Cutter. I hope it inspires you to assemble similar elements using whatever cutter or digital method you choose .
I got most of the elements from the Silhouette Store. I used print and cut candy canes and gingerbread men, also a file called simply “leaf wreath”. 

The title I chose, is a design I purchased from http://www.kwernerdesign.com/blog/?p=6757

My card base was 6 inches square, and I cut the title and the wreath approximately 5 inches wide. In hind-sight, with cutting the title that small, I would opt to print it onto a card face vs cutting it and gluing it to a card face. You learn something, every card you do!
On the inside, I glued a single gingerbread man in the center of the page, and hand wrote in a white gel pen, the sentiment “Wishing you the joy of the season”. I used a clear soufle pen to highlight the icing and candy of the gingerbread men. You can’t quite see it in the photos, but it really makes the decoration on the cookies look real!
Here is the final product, front and inside.



Thanks again for coming for some card making inspiration.  Make sure to visit the Card a Day Blog for more tomorrow to see what Shirley Ross has in store for you!
Also be sure to check out the current Challenges and join in the fun and have a chance to win a great prize!

Merry Christmas SnowGlobe

One of my favorite ornaments in my home, other than snowmen, are snow globes. What could be better than to combine them both?

My Card base is an A2 size of white cardstock. The textured beige piece of cardstock actually is the backing of what I built the rest of the card front on. The “Merry Christmas” and bottom snowflake border are pieces of the CuttleBug Merry Christmas Folder, that I inked and did a reverse print and embossing with.  I got the idea of the iris fold snowglobe from looking at http://www.iris-folding.com/projectwaterglobe.html. The snowmen in the middle of the iris fold were snipped from a recycled gift tag.

Thanks for coming and seeing my card! Make sure to visit the Card A Day Blog for more inspiration! Make sure you check out another great inspiration there tomorrow to see what Tina Campbell  at http://tinasscrapcorner.blogspot.com/ has posted!

Don't forget the ongoing challenge at the Card A Day Blog! Check out the challenge page!


Until next time!
Shelley

Christmas Celebration Card

 
I wanted to design a simple, yet classy card, to celebrate the season.
Size: 4 1/4 inch x 5 1/2 inch (A2)
Colors: base – forest green, insert – white, sentiment on front – white cardstock, embossed with silver and highlighted with markers.
Cuttlebug Christmas folder used with Versamark ink on reverse side.  I’m still perfecting this method, I need to go and get an inkpot so I can brayer the ink onto the folder properly…. dabbing an ink pad on the folder does not get the effect I was really after.That being said, I do kind of like the rustic effect I did in error.  Sometimes mistakes are a good thing
Friskars crimper used for bottom third of card.  Shiny trim with dots was strips of Christmas paper from years ago.
Adhesive used was my 3M tape runner.
I just love the way the crimper makes the green cardstock look velvety. That didn’t photograph well, but sometimes you’ve got to see things in real life to appreciate them.
Enough said… here’s the card!

Oh my! I almost forgot I did this!

I work 3 days of graveyard shift at work this week.  I find this shift the ideal time to catch up on housework organization (and mine is way overdue!).  I spent most of the morning trying to get rid of stuff from our spare room / craft room / sewing room. 

I came across something I did years ago, that I’m sure someone will get a kick out of (right Mitchell?).

Now, I’ve still got the stuff to do more of them…. but where are the directions, sigh.

I do remember that I had planned to do about 10 of them for my Christmas tree . Yes, I am a craft addict.

Quilting! Quilting! Quilting!

Last week was inspiring! First off, I was able to attend the Quadra Quilters’ Guild Meeting on Tuesday! My a quilting thanksgiving post shared some of the quilts that were shared there.  I also signed up for the block of the month. It is a hand applique square called Topeka Rose.  Today, I was able to finish it!

I still have to hand wash (very gently) and steam it, but am so happy to have got it done with time to spare before the next meeting!

The other quilting event that was inspiring to me during the past week, was attending the 2011 Hands Across the Water (or HAW) event at Powell River.  It is a meeting of the quilting guilds between Denman Island and Port Hardy (North Vancouver Island), including the Sunshine Coast of the BC mainland.  Over 200 quilters attended! There were at least 5 vendors set up, and it was so hard to choose what special thing to splurge on for myself to commemorate attending the event! I ended up getting a Clover Fabric Folding Pen. I’m sure it will come in handy for my paper crafts too!

We were inspired by the guest speaker at HAW…. Courtenay Pollock, a tie-die artist. You can see some of his artwork at his website. He had 5 huge samples of his work hung on the walls. As you can see, they covered at least an 8 ft square section of wall each!

 

Below, from left to right:  Arlis, myself, & our “adopted MOM” Margie.

 

Quilts from the different guilds, for a show and tell.

 

We were also blessed to see a special quilt that Margie made. There are over 28 different fabrics in it, and it took over one year for her to make! It is absolutely stunning! Some of the squares are as small as 1/2 inch by 2 inches! And it is a King Size quilt! One year I hope to have been able to make a quilt that special for myself too!

 

And finally, off to home. After this week, I can hardly wait until next year!

Until next time!

Shelley

Snowman Joy!

Welcome! Here is my entry for the Card A Day Blog Christmas Card Blog Hop!
I just love snowmen, and have over 15 snowmen ornaments on my tree every year   So, when I was looking at the themes for cards on the blog, I was excited to be able to get one of the snowmen days!
I started out with making a white on white background by using the Spellbinders Impressabilities “Snowflake”. I couldn’t get it to impress the way I wanted it to using my Cuttlebug, so I used it as a stamp by dabbing clear versamark ink on one side, and carefully laying it down on the paper and rolling it with a pastry roller (I couldn’t find my ink roller).  I embossed it with clear gloss embossing powder, and that really brought out the snowflakes in the background.

Next, I used a soft cloth to dab onto a baby blue ink pad, and rubbed the color onto the bottom of the card, to indicate where the land was. I then covered that area with my tape roller and sprinkled it with plastic snow that I got from the dollar store. There was a bit of stickiness left, so I sprinkled some translucent glitter overtop of the “snow”, and carefully shook off the excess.

The snow people are from a card I received years ago from a dear friend. I simply cut them out and affixed them to one side of the card with 3-D glue dots.
The Joy label was hand written with a silver glitter pen with stitching highlights along the edge of the rectangle.

This was such a fun card to make, and I think I will do bulk cards with this pattern, buy making my own snow people digitally, and cutting them out for more cards.
Here is a picture of the final card, I’m in love

Thanks for stopping by, and make sure to check out the next seven days of the Card A Day Blog Christmas Card Blog Hop! The seven designers following me are:

• Karin Adamczk http://scrappercreations.blogspot.com/
• Michelle Hessler http://www.paperthreadsblog.com/
• Janet White http://www.stampingatthewhitehouse.com/
• Tina Campbell http://tinasscrapcorner.blogspot.com/
• Christine Patton http://creativegenie-ous.blogspot.com/
• Michelle Hessler http://www.paperthreadsblog.com/
• Cindy Foster http://cindyscreations-cinmfoster.blogspot.com/

Bulbs for Barb

It is hard to believe, that in just over one month, my sister Barb will have been gone for a whole year.  I miss her sweet spirit so much, and only hope that a good part of her is reflected in what I do in my life.  If that is an epitaph, I hope it is mine, to be able to inspire someone the way she had inspired me.
This is also part of the story of the picture background of my blog. It will always have a picture of the area my sister Arlis and I chose to honor Barb. At Sproat Lake.
We planted a tree in Fossli Park and scattered her ashes nearby. Her request was to have a cherry tree planted for her. We got the best looking pie cherry tree called “Northstar”, and planted it on her birthday last spring. April 30th.
We also made a promise to do some planting of bulbs or spreading seeds yearly for her, and this post is pictures of our visit to the park.
Here is a picture of my sister Arlis walking ahead of me. It is about a 3/4 of an hour hike to the lake.

There was lots of moss, mushrooms, and fall colour to appreciate along the way.

We were delighted to see that Barb’s tree survived the summer. There were lots of little trees sprouting around it. Some of the pansies that we had planted with the tree had spread their seeds and they were sprouting all around it. Also some special flowers from the family homestead we planted by it were still there!

It didn’t take us long to clear around her tree, and plant some daffodils around it. Cody supervised the whole time

Job accomplished! We enjoyed our visit, and trip to plant Barb’s bulbs.

Here is the view that is my new background of the blog.

Remember to hug the ones you love today.
Shelley