Deer Christmas

I have wanted to make more Christmas cards throughout the year so that I’m not struggling at the last minute to get them made in December. CAS is not usually my style, but I am seeing the advantages of it when a quantity of cards is needed. This card took me about 10 minutes to make. It would be fairly easy to mass produce. The Deer and the Christmas word die cuts were cut using dies from STAMPlorations. The word Merry was stamped with a Hero Arts sentiment stamp.

I’m linking this to the following challenges:

CAS Christmas March Challenge-Deer

STAMPlorations March CAS Challenge

STAMPlorations Never-ending Anything Goes Challenge 

Mod Squad Challenge-One or more Metal Dies-No Digital

Faux Glass Tea Cup

I wanted to try the faux stained glass technique that is part of this month’s challenge over at CAS Mix Up March Challenge. There are some good tutorials on the challenge post. I needed a birthday card for my sister and she loves coffee and tea. I had the alcohol ink background from a previous alcohol ink session, where I played with the inks on different Yupo papers. I cut the background with the smaller die from Pretty Pink Posh Scalloped Square dies and found some card stock in a plum tone to cut the outer frame. I picked a tea cup die from The Cat’s Pajamas Cups Duo Dies and cut 5 cups from white card stock. I glued 4 of them together, then glued that to the background. I filled the inside cut out spaces with Glossy Accents. After drying overnight, it was below the level of the layered die cut, so I filled it up again with Glossy Accents. After it dried, I glued the 5th tea cup die cut on the top, to cover any Glossy Accents that I had gotten on the top of the layered cup.
I picked the sentiment from the Layered Watermelon stamp set over at STAMPlorations and stamped it using Versa Magic Eggplant chalk ink. I added WOW Clear Embossing powder and heat embossed the sentiment for a bolder appearance.
I cut the tea cup from the alcohol ink background and added it to the envelope.

I’m linking this to the following challenges:

CAS Mix Up March Challenge

The Cat’s Pajamas-March TCP Tuesday Challenge #355-Envie Envy Challenge

STAMPlorations March CUTplorations Challenge

TIME OUT Challenge #131-5th Birthday

STAMPlorations March Theme and Sketch Challenge

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge-Feminine/Girly

Yes, Virginia...March Show & Share

Edit to add: TTCRD/Through the Craft Room Door-Anything Goes Week of March 11

Simple Birthday

This is one of the cards that I made for a guest designer spot on the Twofer Challenge this month. The prompt is Balloons and you can find the main challenge post Here.

Products used:

My Creative Time Stitched Circle Balloon Dies

Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid Spring 6 x 6 paper pad

My Favorite Things Inside and Out Stitched Rectangle Stax dies

Versa Magic Turquoise Gem Chalk Ink

WOW Ultra Fine Clear Embossing Powder

Ribbon Resource Iridescent White String

Unity Happy Birthday Stamp

Recollections Puffy Heart Stickers

I’m linking this to the following challenges:

Freshly Made Sketches #378

Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #465-Plaid

STAMPlorations March CAS Challenge-Anything CAS Goes

Virginia Lu’s March Show and Share Challenge

Dare2BArtzy March Challenge-Anything Goes

Twofer Card Challenge Guest Designer

I was honored to have been chosen as one of the winners for the January Twofer Card Challenge and thrilled to get the invitation from Darnell to be a guest designer for the challenge. Thank you to Darnell and the Twofer Design Team for such amazing inspiration each month. I have always enjoyed challenging myself to think outside of the box, which is what the Twofer Challenge is all about; making two differently designed cards, for different occasions, using the same stamp or die. This month’s prompt is balloons and the link to the challenge post is Here.

For some reason, I don’t seem to have many balloon stamps. I did find several balloon die sets in my stash.The die set that I used is My Creative Time Stitched Circle Balloon dies. I used the smallest die.

I often like to look for a sketch to stimulate my creative mojo. This week’s sketch on the Freshly Made Sketches Blog was perfect for my first card (oops-I have them out of order in the photo-first card is on the right side). I flipped the sketch upside down so that my balloons could “float”along the strip of plaid paper from Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid-Spring 6 x 6 pad. The balloon strings are from a roll of May Arts Iridescent Cord. The sentiment stamp is from Unity Stamps (not sure if it’s from a set or if it was in a grab bag). I used Versa Magic Turquoise Gem chalk ink to stamp the sentiment, then sprinkled some WOW Clear Embossing powder on top and heat embossed. The card was a little too plain for me, so I added some Recollections puffy heart stickers on the balloons. 

For the second card, I thought that the upside down balloon would make cute ornaments. I used paper from Kaisercraft Holly Jolly 6 x 6 pad and cut the 3 ornaments. I was trying to think of a sentiment for this card, but decided to let the printed paper do the work, as seen on on the middle ornament. I used some gold metallic thread to “hang” the ornaments. I thought the card needed a bit more decoration, so I cut a little valance from the same paper as the red bottom panel, using a die from My Creative Time Fun Stitched Edges die set. The top panels on both cards was die cut using My Favorite Things Inside and Out Stitched Rectangle Stax.

I hope that you enjoyed my take on Twofers-Balloons and that you have fun coming up with your twofers!