Merry Christmas! -- March installment

As you know, I have joined a group of ladies on Stampin' Addicts that are encouraging each other to create Christmas cards before they are needed! I typically go through about 150 Christmas cards! My husband is a pastor and we give cards to the active people in our congregation! We do have a few friends and family too. This is why I have decided to create 16 cards each month so that I will have enough and not stress come December! These are the cards that I made for March.

Stamps: Season of Joy

Ink: Purely Pomegranate, Garden Green

Cardstock: Purely Pomegranate, Garden Green, Crumb Cake, Whisper White

Accessories: Purely Pomegranate satin ribbon, Garden Green marker, 5-petal punch,

 corner rounder punch, More Mustard marker, dimensional

Here's a close up of one of them!

Yes that is Purely Pomegranate! I LOVED this color when it was an In Color and I think I hoarded a few sheets of this color! I have been trying to use up some of my retired colors. This is a great way to use them too!

Happy Stampin'!

Shelley

Christmas Cards?

On my favorite site for chit-chatting with others that LOVE Stampin' Up!, Stampin' Addicts, I joined a group of ladies that have committed to making at least 4 Christmas cards each month so that come November and December we are scrambling to get them done or just crossing it off the to-do list!

I know that I have been guilty of not sending cards the last couple of years just because I didn't get them made on time. Well, that's not entirely true. Last year, 2009, I had the cards made and even address labels printed and ready to go. My hubby told me he would take care of them. He put family pictures in the cards, labeled them, and signed them. Then he placed them on the desk and never mailed them! The stamps were right there too! So there they sat for a whole year! He finished them up, wrote a Christmas letter and mailed them off this year! Well, at least they went out!

This is my set of cards that I made for January. I chose to make 16 cards. I tend to use over 100 cards every Christmas. My husband is a pastor and I need to give out cards to many of our members. They really appreciate the handmade cards too. I have little old ladies telling me how they are going to keep my card but not the others that they received!

This is an up close picture of the card so that you can see some of the detail. I did use some retired colors as I am realizing just how much cardstock I own! Definitely need to use it!

Stamps: A Flower for All Seasons, Season of Joy

Ink: Basic Black, Ruby Red, Kiwi Kiss

Cardstock: Kiwi Kiss, Ruby Red, Whisper White

Accessories: Petals a Plenty embossing folder, Ruby Red, Old Olive, Close to Cocoa

markers, 1 3/4" circle punch, Blossom Party die

Happy Stampin'!

Shelley

New technique!

I found this technique on someone's blog. I'm sorry I don't remember who's. I'm not very good at that! Anyway, to do this you take a piece of wax paper and run it through your Big Shot in an embossing folder. Take 2 pieces of glossy cardstock and make a sandwich with the embossed wax paper and the glossy sides of the paper in the middle. Take a piece of copy paper and lay it over the top of your sandwich. Using an iron, iron over the the sandwich. Take out the glossy papers and brayer over them with whatever color you want. I chose Real Red for these cards. When you are done, your glossy cardstock has a little different pattern on them. These cards are CASEd with a little of me added to them!

Here's the other piece of glossy all put together!

Stamps: Season of Joy

Cardstock: Glossy, Whisper White, Real Red, Basic Black

Ink: Basic Black, Real Red

Accessories: Wax paper, Plenty of Petals embossing folder, Basic Black grosgrain ribbon, brayer, dimensional

Can you see the differences in the flower layer of these cards? Try out this fun and easy technique but remember to NOT use the iron that you use to iron clothes! Sometimes the wax paper can get onto the iron and then all over you clothes, ask me how I know! (My hubby wasn't too happy with me either!)

Happy Stampin'!

Shelley

Candy Cane Christmas

Playing around again! This is for more Stampin' Addicts challenges. Paula does a great job with the sketches. I only wish I could print them all out and add them to my creative binder that I have. Oh well. This card is for sketch challenge 74 and color challenge 73. I like Trina's color challenges too. May times I have to think outside the box (maybe that's just my box that I have to get out of!) to get them to work for me. This color challenge was based on the new Candy Cane Christmas DSP that can be found in the mini.

What do you think? 

Stamps: Season of Joy

Cardstock: Baja Breeze, Real Red, Blushing Bride, Garden Green and Whisper White

Ink: Garden Green, Real Red

Accessories: sponge, Baja Breeze, Real Red and Garden Green markers, white grosgrain ribbon

Thanks for looking!

Shelley

Stampin' Addicts Challenges

Sorry I haven't posted for several days. I had way more going on than should be allowed! Tuesday night I signed a new recruit to my Stampin' Up! team of demonstrators! Welcome to Tracy! When I got home from Tracy's house, I got a phone call from my manager at Curves. The owners decided to close the club that I'm working at and merge it with the other club that they own. I decided that when my club closes, I'll be done working for them! Wednesday was my husband's 40th birthday and my daughters and I threw him a surprise party! Boy, was he surprised! He told me that I shouldn't frighten the old people as they might have heart attacks!!!! Silly man! Thursday I had a workshop and Friday was my monthy hostess club meeting. Saturday I had a vendor fair! I also signed another recruit on Saturday! Welcome Deb! Needless to say, I didn't even have time to schedule a posting!

Two weeks ago, we didn't have anything to do over the weekend so I spent the whole day on Saturday stamping! This is one of the cards that I created. I used a sketch challenge and a color challenge from Stampin' Addicts It's hard to see but under the little girl's feet is Dazzling Diamonds. I think this is my favorite card that I made that day but I'll let you judge. Keep watching as I will be posting the others soon.

Stamps: Greeting Card Kids, Season of Joy

Cardstock: Soft Suede, River Rock, Early Espresso, Whisper White

Ink: Early Espresso, Baja Breeze, Soft Suede, River Rock, Sahara Sand

Accessories: Early Espresso 1/8"Taffeta ribbon, Aquapainter, Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, Big Shot, Scallop Circle die, Circle Scissors, 2-way glue, sponge, Dazzling Diamonds, dimensionals

Happy stamping!

Shelley