Christmas Berry Card & Blogger Up Date

Hello again blog-land. For those two hermits out there that were not aware, Google Blogger has been down for the last two days.  It "ate" comments and scheduled future posts, in addition to locking out the blog owners.  For those of us who are far too involved in our on-line lives (can you say, Get a life, Susan?), this was very stressful!  And worst of all - It interrupted my Berry Week!  I guess you will get yesterday's berry project at some point in the future.

Today's berry card is "Christmas Berries".  And no, this is not a real plant.  I took one of the Christmas berry cuts from the Christmas Noel cartridge (which can be referred to as Christmas or Christmas Solutions) and crossed it with a pine stamp, creating a hybrid Christmas berry branch!  I then topped the branch with this sweet little red bird (wonder if he ate too many red berries?).

I went back to the Preserves cartridge and found this great shaped matting.  I cut the shape in dark brown cardstock and white with green print cardstock.  On top of that I added two oval mat cut with George .  I stamped the Merry Christmas sentiment with a Stampin' Up stamp and SU ink.  I tied a red Christmas tree ribbon around the card topper before attaching it to the cream colored base card.

Inside the card I used another Stampin' Up Christmas stamp to add a message.  There is still plenty of space to sign the card and add a personal message.

The base card was cut in speckled cream cardstock and red, green and cream stripes.  I used mono adhesive and attached the stripes to the cardstock BEFORE cutting the base card.  I then positioned the cardstock on the mat so that 3/4 of an inch of the stripes would cut with the card.  The base card was cut using Christmas Cheer.

I am hopeful that blogger continues to function properly and that this post does not get lost.  If there are no service interruptions I should be back tomorrow with another new project!!

Feastive Wreath Card with Joys of the Season & Heirloom Ornaments Nesties

Oops!  I *just* checked my blog and discovered that it never posted this morning.  So sorry.  

I was wrapped up in Christmas cards and had not anticipated that blogger would mess with  my post!

It's a festive Christmas BBTB2 Monday and I have a new project to share.  The challenge cut of the week at the Bitten by the Bug 2 blog is the wreath from the Joys of the Season cartridge.  My confession is I had never cut this wreath before.  But after this weekend it just may be one of my favorite cuts from JOTS.  Isn't it funny how we can be introduced to new cuts even when we are part of a design team?  That is one of the best parts of a design team; well that and the wonderful design team sisters!

Do I even need to tell you that I used Cricut Design Studio to design my card?  The Gypsy would have worked just as well, but I am addicted to using my laptop.  I placed two of the wreath shadow cuts onto the mat, flipping the second wreath so that it was a mirror image of the first.  I used the Hide Select Contour feature and removed the open centers from both shadow cuts.    I nudged the two shadows together and welded each so that they would cut as my base card.

I cut the top layer of wreath in a light green Core'dination cardstock, and the accent leaves in a medium Core'dination cardstock.  I added highlights with Copic markers.

For the center of my card I used the two smallest sizes of Heirloom Ornament Nestabilities.  I used a decorative stamp on a piece of smooth white cardstock and stamped in red and cut out one of each size ornament from the image.  I then cut out the center part only of the second from smallest ornament and stamped it with an ornament stamp and a Merry Christmas sentiment.  I added the three ornaments to the card using pop dots.  Pen accents were added on the ornaments and on the card to represent the ornament hangers.

From the side you can see that I used deeper pop dots for the ornaments and smaller dots forth accent leaves.  For the berries, I used a 1/4 inch hole punch and glued the dots to the wreath. As a final touch I added the fun red and white striped ribbon to the card. 

Inside the card I cut a four inch circle and stamped a Christmas greeting in black Staz-On ink.   Below is a final look at the card.  While I love the heirloom ornaments, this card would be cute with a Cricut cut sentiment in the middle of the wreath. One last comment, this card goes together quickly so if you still need to create a few cards, this card would be perfect for last minute Christmas Cards. 

Nesties and JustRite Stamps team up for Elegance

Is everyone still "stuffed" from Thanksgiving??  We are looking forward to "round 2" today with the leftovers!

Before we get into the details of today's card, I want to announce the winner of my DVD set, It's a Kid's Life, from the Kickin' Off Christmas blog hop.  The winner is

Melissa (who) said...

This card is absolutely gorgeous!

 Melissa I will need your shipping address so that I can get a package in the mail to you!!  Congratulations!

And now on to my Christmas card....  This card was created using white cardstock as a base card and green textured cardstock as a front matting.  I stamped the candle image and surrounding circle onto smooth white cardstock.  After coloring the candles, bow and greenery with Copic markers, I used my circle nesties to cut out the candle image.  I then used to scalloped nesties to cut a small red matting and a larger green matting. The three layers were glued together and set aside.

I used the base layer of my nestie charm to create the pretty printed background matting.  I attached the three layers with the candle image to the center of the charm and affixed the charm to the front of the card.

I used Peel Off Christmas phrases to add greetings to the cards, as well as two different ribbons to create a different feel for each of the cards.  Where the print ribbon creates a sassy, fun card, the solid ribbon creates an elegant card.  In both cases I finished the cards with white gel pen doodles.

Depending on my post-Thanksgiving recovery and decorating schedule I may or may not return tomorrow with a new project.  I will keep both of us guessing!

Embossed Christmas Trees With SP & Co. Stamps

Yeah, it's the weekend!!  I love the weekend - there should be fewer weekdays and more week end days!  Can any of you arrange that?

Last week I posted my first two cards made with Samantha's, SP and Company, Christmas Tree stamp set.  I mentioned that I had stamped the trees on pink textured cardstock and embossed the print.  This is the card I made with those embossed trees.

I used embossing ink and burgundy embossing powder to create these four trees.  Each stamp was loaded with embossing ink, then stamped onto the pink cardstock.  Burgundy embossing powder (from PK Glitz - formerly the Powder Keg) was applied over the ink and heated with a heat embossing gun.   The effect created with the hand mixed embossing powders is a medium thick embossing with touches of sparkle mixed in the color. 

Using micro tipped scissors I cut out each tree and saved them along with a 6 x 6 square of the pink cardstock.  Last weekend I pulled out the set aside elements and created this card.

Using the Spellbinder's Wizard and Nestie Label #1, the label shape was cut out of the middle of the pink cardstock, creating a label shaped void - and a perfect spot to layer and pop the trees!  The pink cardstock was then trimmed to fit on the front of the burgundy card.

Using assorted sized half pearl embellishments and holographic peel offs, the trees were decorated prior to being layered and attached to the card front.  A Season's Greeting peel off sentiment was added to the front of the card along with half pearls in the corners of the pink cardstock.  Finally holographic peel offs were added to frame the front of the card. 

I have enjoyed using the SP and Company stamps and will be making at least one more Christmas card using this set in the next couple of weeks.  I will be back tomorrow and start another week of Thanksgiving themed projects.

Sweet Chrismas Card with JustRite Stampers

Thanks so much for all of the super-nice comments on yesterday's Advent Calendar.  I am pleased that you liked the calendar as much as I did.  But let's be honest - that is a tough project to follow!  I realized that anything I posted today would be a let down.  So, I decided to cop-out and continue with the Christmas theme and share a fun Christmas card!

While this card does not begin to compare to yesterday's project, I really like this card.  It is sweet (ha ha ha - I crack myself up) and simple and fun.    The card was created using Spellbinder's nestabilities (label eleven and circle and scalloped circle dies), JustRite Stampers' Merry Little Christmas stamp set, and a candy cane cut from Cricut's Christmas Cheer.  The other card elements - Bazzill cardstock, snowflake paper, and the ribbon - were from my "stash". 

The candy cane was cut on the Cricut expression using smooth white and red Swiss dot cardstock.  After being tied with bit of Merry Christmas ribbon the candy cane was attached to the pink label with pop dots. 

The JustRite Stamp images were stamped onto smooth white cardstock and then cut out with a circle nestabilities.  The scalloped circle was cut in the same Swiss dot cardstock.  The layers were adhered together and then affixed to the card using pop dots.  The card was finished with a strip of Merry Christmas ribbon and bow and white dots and doodles.  

I will be back tomorrow with a new project to share - probably not another Advent Calendar - sorry!  :-)

Christmas with Nesties and Cricut

I was a bit of a slacker yesterday and did not post a new Christmas card or project.   I thought more people might see Samantha's wonderful stamps if the post remained at the top of my blog for two days.  However, it is time to move on to another fun Christmas card.  This card features fun paper with Christmas candy!

 

I am going to confess that this card began as a pile of leftovers on my desk.  I had leftover maroon cardstock, sheer pink ribbon, and the white nestie label all leftover from previous projects.  I decided to free the leftovers from a life on "the Island of Misfit scrap goods" (think Rudolph and the misfit toys) and combined them to create this cute card.  

I created a card from a half sheet of leftover pink cardstock and affixed the fun Santa & candy paper to the base card.  The ribbon, tag layers and corner gemstones were added.  Finally I added a cut candy cane to the front of the label and blinged it out with pink gems.

The inside of the card should satisfy anyone's sweet tooth; it is filled with candy and stamped with two Stampin' Up sentiment stamps.

I will be back tomorrow with a quick post showing you some of the Christmas cards I plan to send out the year.

 In the meantime, I will be spending the day with my son has he turns 25!  Happy 25th birthday Aaron!!

3-D Merry Christmas Card with Peel-Off Embellishments

I don't know about all of you, but I am SOOOO glad that all of the political ads will no longer be on the broadcast media today.   I can turn on the stereo in my minivan or the TV in my scraproom and not want to pierce my eardrums.  And with the end of the campaign season comes a focus on the coming holidays.  Speaking of broadcast media - we do all realize that some crazy radio station is going to start playing Christmas carols any day now??  Give me Christmas carols over campaign ads any day.  Hey - maybe there should be a new rule that all political ads must be sung carol style??  :-)

So on to today's Christmas card!  This card began with the center green and gold circle and it's attached gold leaves.  This piece was purchased as an open circle with the gold accent center, two gold stems of leaves, and two flowers.  I just spent the last hour trying to find the link to exactly where I purchased topper piece, but alas I cannot find it.  As soon as I spotted this embellishment I knew I was going to use it to make a Christmas card.  I added a gold peel off around the green portion of the topper and an additional flower and gem center.  I also spread out the leaves a bit and began the process of selecting paper. 

As I said above, the center of the circle was open so I began by selected paper that looked nice as a background in the middle of the circle.  I cut a 3 inch circle of this pretty red/burgundy/pink color and attached it to the back of the green circle.  I then added peel offs to the center of the circle, a single drum (from the drummer boy) and the Merry Christmas phrase.

I found this pretty antique looking paper in my stash.  I cut a large square of the red/burgundy/pink paper and affixed a small square of the antique-look paper on top.  I trimmed the edges with gold peel offs.  I then attached the circular embellie to the front of the card.

The inside of the card is white with a single Christmas red poinsettia embellishment.  This card will probably go to one of my neighbors as it is both heavy and textured (and the USPS does hate those lumpy cards!).  

I will be back tomorrow with yet another Christmas project to share.

Merry Chirtmas Card with a Recycled Stamp

Happy Tuesday! Today's Christmas themed project is another Christmas card, but the card has a bit of a twist - a recycled stamped image!

A few weeks ago my scrapping girlfriends took a four day trip to the Edisto Island.  Due to work and family conflicts I could not go along (sniff, sniff).  According to all reports the girlies had a fabulous time and even manged to squeeze in a a few Christmas cards.  Now this is where the story gets a bit blurry... Apparently they tried to make some pop up cards with the word JOY popping up inside.  Honestly I am not sure what happened (though I suspect I might have a few clues) and the girlies became silly... REALLY silly....  Somehow in the silliness they decided to send me a backwards card to show me how missed I was!!!  I received a red cardstock card with five layers of green, white and red matting.  The stamped image above was affixed atop the five matting layers!

I thought my friend Beth did a wonderful job stamping this image so I removed it from the backward card (the sillies ever signed their names backwards) and decided to recycle the stamped section only.  Using my long rectangular nestabilities, I cut out the Merry Christmas phrase.  I used the matching scalloped long rectangular nestability and cut a red cardstock matting.  Using the Just Because Cards cartridge I cut a base card in Bazzill red Swiss dot cardstock.  A front layer was added to the card using last year's Little Yellow Bicycle Christmas paper. 

The stamped and matted Merry Christmas phrase was affixed to the front of the card, over the ornament print.  I added  two more ornaments to the background paper using clear stickers which coordinate with the LYB paper set.  A felt ornament was added over top of a large printed ornament.  Using a candy cane edged red ribbon, a ribbon and bow were added to the front of the card along with thin gold rope as an accent.

A final embellishment - the cream snow flake - was added to the front of the card, over the largest ornament and the edge of the Merry Christmas message.

I know that it may seem a bit odd to recycle the front of a card, but I really like the stamped image AND I wanted to surprise the silly girls with this card!!!

Thanks of stopping by today.  I will be back tomorrow with another project for my Christmas themed week!

Rejoice Christmas Card with Cindy Loo

Hello everyone - it is a Bitten by the Bug 2 Monday with our weekly challenge kicking off my week of Christmas themed projects.  As most of you know, there is a "challenge" cut each week at BBTB2 which the Design Team must use in our projects.  This week's challenge cut is Flourish 3 from the Cindy Loo cartridge.  I have incorporated the flourish into my Rejoice Christmas card.

My base card was cut using one of two card options on the Cricut Circle cartridge, French Manor.  Each cut on French Manor has two card features - I chose the full image cut out card and selected this wonderful French Horn.  I created a French Horn base layer and using Cricut Design Studio - utilizing the "Hide Select Contour" option, I removed the inside cuts on the base layer horn.  I attached the base layer behind the green card front.  I also cut a top layer of French Horn, this time with the cut outs included and using pop dots, attached the horn over the green layer.  Between the gold and green layers of the horn you can see this week's challenge cut, Cindy Loo's Flourish 3, coming out of the horn in triple layers.  The flourish represents the music of the French Horn.

While at CHA last summer I purchased quite a few sheets of "peel offs".   I confess that I purchased peel offs in several colors and brought home peels for myself and my scrapping girl friends!!  I framed the front of the card using gold peel offs, both around the outside edges and around the plain green rectangle at the top of the card.  I added the gold peel off title, Rejoice, to the upper right front across from the flourish on the upper left..  Peel offs were also added around the mouth piece of the horn and the bell end of the horn. 

I added a scrap of lovely SEI Christmas paper behind the horn in the cut out area of the card.  I played with several color and a prints until I settled on this light blue and white print. 

The inside of the card has a white cardstock lining with a thin rim of green showing around the edges.  I finished the inside of the card with a strip of gold peel off under the signature area.

The front of the card was finished by trying a pretty silk ribbon around the horn.  I also used my Martha Stewart branch punch and added evergreen branches on either side of the bow knot, growing up the edges of the French Horn.

I really like this card and plan to duplicate it for a couple of friends to use.  I will be back tomorrow with the second of my Christmas week projects.

Dreaming of a White Christmas

I have a quick little card to share today, White Christmas.  This card was created by combining elements from the WINTER FROLIC cartridge.  I used the White Christmas word phrase, cut in several layers, the triple circle accent cut, and the stars.  Using Design Studio, I welded the word phrase shadow cut to the circles to create a shadow base on which to build the top of the card.

I cut the top two word phrase layers white bazzill cardstock, the bottom layer in light blue Core'dination cardstock..  The circles were cut in SEI winter blue cardstock.  I used tiny pop dots to build the layers, at times cutting the pop dots in half to fit behind the tiny letters.  The stars were cut in two different types of metallic silver paper; the base layers in a flat silver and the two accent top cuts in a lined texture silver. 

I mounted my card topper on a rectangular mat of black metallic. The bottom mat is the same flat silver that was used to cut the stars.

The card was finished with icicle Stickles on the word Christmas and on around the circles.  There are also icicle dots on the blue circles.  The word WHITE was highlighted with a mixture of icicle Stickles and waterfall Stickles.  I swirled the two colors together to give the word WHITE a frosty cold feeling.

The card is finished with a length of blue snowflake ribbon with a little bow.  The ribbon is distributed by Michaels. 

Remember the Christmas Cards from CKC?

Remember the Christmas card kit I purchased for $10 at the Creating Keepsakes Convention last month?  To recap, it was thirty cards, ten each of three designs.  Each card includes a wrap around jacket, a double sided insert with an acetate embellishment and epoxy sticky for the front, along with space for a photo and a personalized note on the back. While I liked the design, the paper and the concept, I was not crazy about the printed bands that wrapped around to hold the card closed.  So... I decided to give my cards a bit of a face lift.

With the help of my Cricut, the Storybook cartridge, Stampin' Up inks and Technique Tuesday mini Christmas stamps I created new wrap bands as well as stamped the tab inserts on the cards. I welded a tag and a long rectangular strip together and cut them with the Cricut.  For two of the designs I created an second smaller tag to use as an insert.  I think the stamped white topper looks great on the deep green and the blue wrappers. 

This is a close up of the deep green band.  I stamped the words and holly leaves in green ink then used Copic markers to color in the holly leaves.

I added the word JOY to the tab insert, along with a Christmas bulb on some of the inserts.

The first design I created was all in white.  In the end it was my least favorite of the three wrap styles, but it is SOOO much better than the printed bands that came with the cards.

And again a close up of the band section.

In the end the blue with the white tag was my favorite of the three.  I think the blue, brown, and green card is my favorite too.  So really it worked out well that I liked that band best.  All in all this was a very productive fact lift.  And this project had the added benefit of keeping me busy while I was waiting for the Yudu screen to develop!

ONE OTHER NOTE:  
JENNIFER - I am still waiting for you to contact me regarding the blog hop prize.  See the winner post below.