Christmas card

Hello!  Here's this year's Christmas card - kind of ran out of time for more.  I'm sure people can relate to that!  Normally I try to put "make Christmas cards" on my to-do list so that I can carve out some time for myself in the mad run up to Christmas, but this year I was taking a quilting class, so I was already carving quite a bit of me-time out and didn't feel I could add stamping to that.  Well, my class quilt top is done, and I did have a bit of time to make some Christmas cards to send out this year.

I used a design from a class I took at Heather's Stamping Haven from my friend Mary.  I loved this card.  I made a tiny change - sponged the focal panel instead of using wrinkle-free distress.  I thought it would be a bit faster.  The ornament stamp is a Penny Black cling stamp from the set "ornately".  I coloured it with Tombow markers and misted lightly before stamping.  After it was dry, I added some clear Wink of Stella to the ornaments.  The snowflake on the black strip is also from the "ornately" set and stamped in Delicata gold.  The background panel is stamped in Red Royal (Hero Arts) using a Penny Black background stamp called "christmas story".  The whole thing is mounted on a black linen card base and I used Delicata gold to stamp the greeting on the inside.  I really love Delicata gold for stamping on dark cardstock - it is crisp and clean and dries right away.  Tsukineko people - if you are reading my blog - please, please make us a Delicata silver too!  Please!

Well, this blog post must come to an end.  It was off to a shaky start since I couldn't log in to Google the way the accounts are set up.  So my blogging time did get a bit eaten up by technical contortions.

I hope you get some time to stamp over the holidays.  I have high hopes of some quality time at the craft table myself!  I will be working on my January class sample for sure - will feature Penny Black stamps in the theme of Love.  Perfect for Valentine's Day, anniversaries, wedding cards, etc.  I have a lovely little stack of cardstock all picked out and ready for experimenting!  But I am not going to rush into post-Christmas thoughts. I am going to enjoy the moment and anticipating the celebrations to come.

Happy Stamping!

Chirpy Thank You

Hello!  Here's one of a number of "the same only different" cards I made for my daughter to use as thank you cards for her recent birthday.  All stamps are from the Stampin' Up set "Friends 24-7".  The bird is stamped with sepia brown Versafine ink on Very Vanilla paper and the flower is stamped in Baja Breeze.  The image is matted on chocolate chip and arranged with some scraps of designer paper and Baja Breeze on a Crumb Cake card base.  The damask stamp on the card base is also stamped in Baja Breeze.  A few accents of Dark Chocolate liquid pearls finish off the card. These were quite quick to put together and using the designer paper scraps made it easy to pull the colours together, plus it felt good to use some of the scraps for a quick project.  The layouts are all very similar, but vary a little depending on the shape of the scraps.  Some have torn edges, some are vertical.  It all depends on what the scraps are.  I'll use this "formula" again - find some coordinating stamps, designer paper scraps, and coordinating cardstocks and have a happy stamping afternoon!

I hope your December is going well.  Ours is - November birthday has been wrapped up, December birthday is taking shape.  Hubby wants us to have a party so I am planning that - the fun part is going through the cookbooks deciding on the signature drink and appetizers.  Maybe I should also be auditioning the signature drinks too!  We've been doing our shopping and everyone is busy hiding packages and being mysterious about errands.  There's a cookie exchange planned at work and I think this weekend will see us putting up the Christmas tree.  The Advent activities are preparing us for the feast of Christmas, which is now only weeks away.  This past weekend we went out to the Living Nativity, which is well worth a visit next year if you are in the Ottawa area.  On a more secular note, the Jacquie Lawson Advent calendar this year has an Edwardian theme, which is lots of fun for all fans of Downton Abbey.  I hope you are enjoying your preparations for Christmas, and taking time to enjoy the moments of preparation.

Best wishes and happy stamping!

More poppies

Hello!  I have a real weakness for poppy stamps.  I have quite a few in my collection.  Not as many as my pear stamps, but I still have quite a few.  I love to use my poppy stamps so here is a variation on a project I've taught at Heather's Stamping Haven, but in a different colourway.  I quite like the smoky sage and dark teal with the red poppies instead of the golds and oranges of the class project.  I like both, but it's fun to experiment with different colours.  Red, teal and kraft are a particular favourite combination of mine.

All stamps are from Heather's Stamping Haven's line of stamps.  The focal image of poppies is embossed in Bavarian Bronze embossing powder.  The background stamp is a Shakespearean sonnet in script, and stamped in Bundled Sage I believe, or possibly one of the soft shadow inks from Hero Arts.  The background on the poppy panel is one of the genealogy stamps from Heather's line.  The poppies are coloured with Distress Markers and some more Distress ink is sponged around the edges.  The whole panel is covered in Distress crackle paint (rock candy) and when it dried, more ink was rubbed into the cracks.  The dark teal strip was embossed with one of Tim Holtz' texture fades folders and all the card stock pieces were edged in Memories Art Print Brown.  Lastly, some dots of Adirondack liquid pearls completed the effect.

Well - it's time to get ready for church!  Must dash.  I just looked at the clock and it's 9:00 and the girls need to be there at 9:15 for choir practice.  I'd better get moving!

Thanks for stopping by.