*Simply Colourful*

The more I use these new Catherine Pooler inks, the more I am liking them.  These inks work great on the clear stamps... better coverage than other dye based inks.  And the colours are so bright and vibrant!  I have the first few colours she released already and the rest of the first set are on their way to me.

I took the idea for this card from one I saw on Pinterest....  I really love that it's colourful but still so simple.

*New Year!*

As I finished up making my 2016 Christmas cards, I was thinking about how much I was enjoying creating again.  Years ago, I would stamp many days of the week, for at least a little bit.  I made cards just because I wanted to make cards.  Then I started making cards only when I needed cards (plus Christmas cards).  And in the last couple of years, I have only really made Christmas cards.

So I decided that I would make an effort to make more cards.

I put a call out on FaceBook to my family and friends, inviting them to send me their address and birthdate if they wanted to get a handmade card from me.  I did this last year and then we decided to do the big house renovation and my craft space became a make-shift living room.  So instead of making new cards, I used cards from my stash to send out.  While there are still a few cards in my stash, most are cards I wouldn't want to send out.

So last week, I sat down to start creating.  I have some great new stamps and the new inks from Catherine Pooler and I decided to pull them out and see what I could come up with.

For this card I used an old embossing folder and some Dew Drops that I haven't pulled out in forever along with the new Catherine Pooler ink in Pool Party and a stamp from My Favorite Things.  I used my Misti to ensure that my greeting was exactly where I wanted it.  I also used my Perfect Layers Tool to cut that orange layer.

As of the day I am posting this card, I have made a total of 5 cards in two different times sitting in my crafty space... fingers crossed I stay motivated to keep this up!

*Boxing Day*

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas spent with friends and family yesterday!  We had a great day...  a few presents, some great food, games with family and friends.

Now, just in case you got some cash for Christmas....  Scrap 'n Stamp in Vancouver is having a Boxing Day Sale!!!

You can go visit them at http://www.scrapnstamp.ca/store/pc/home.asp?idaffiliate=7

*2016 Christmas Cards #33*

Well friends... I think that this card will be the last of the Christmas cards for 2016.... it's been a long time since I've stamped regularly and I am really hoping that I can get back to it in 2017.  I won't be stamping every day, but I sure do hope to stamp a few times a month at least.... and I will pop in to share those cards with you.

I needed one more card... and I got inspiration from Amy Rysavy over at Prairie Paper & Ink....

(sorry for the craptastic photo)

I never thought to do the tone on tone with the silver and gold cardstocks... but you can bet I'll be doing it again!

I stamped the image on silver cardstock with Versamark ink and embossed it with detail silver embossing powder.  I used the Perfect Layers Tool for a 1/16th edge along the silver piece and then layered it on to the red side fold card.  I then cut out the Simon Says Stamp believe die in black and put it on top.  Quick, easy and pretty!

From our house to yours.... Merry Christmas!

*2016 Christmas Cards #32*

When I saw this stamp set and dies by Simon Says Stamp, I knew I had to have them.... but the dies were out of stock.  My favourite thing about the Simon Says Stamp website is that you can easily request to be notified when an item is back in stock... so I did that (I just wish they had a wish list feature too!).  And as soon as I got the email, I went to the website, clicked on "add to cart" and finished the transaction without another thought.

Sadly, it's been about a week since they arrived...  I finally had a chance to sit down to play today.

The idea for this card came to me last night...  I should have added a gold element as I really wanted this to scream "Santa" as inspiration....

My first idea was to use the red sparkle on the black, but I really ended up loving the black on the red sparkle instead.  I ended up not using the stamp set at all, just the two dies that come in the set.

*2016 Christmas Cards #31*

I don't remember buying this snowflake and swirl embossing folder... but I am so happy I found it in my stash when I went to play the other!

I had an idea of a card from Pinterest that I wanted to play with so I cut the "merry" out of silver glitter paper.  I then started to figure out how the card would go together and realized that I, the Queen of Snowflakes, did not have a snowflake that was going to work for the design.

I knew I wanted to do silver, white and red so I pulled out a few things, put them back... pulled out a few things again and came up with this card.  I added some clear Wink of Stella pen to the embossed image and a thin line of silver glitter gel pen around the end of the embossed layer.

And you know what?  I really like it!

*2016 Christmas Cards #30*

I love love love this Telluride snowflake from Memory Box...  its just such a beautiful snowflake, with or without the "chain" attached to it.

For this card, I cut it out of red shimmer cardstock and layered it on to a piece of black.  I used my Perfect Layers Tool to cut a red shimmer layer and put it all on to a white card.  I stamped the sentiment with Versamark ink and embossed it in white to make it pop out.

*2016 Christmas Cards #29*

When I got this beautiful die, I didn't realize why there was a second piece in the package.  The second piece is a simple rectangle, a little larger than the fancy die.  Well DUH!  It's to create a panel to use on a card instead of just cutting out a piece in the front of a card.

I used a glitter paper for the fancy die, and two shades of blue shimmer cardstock for the rest of the card.  I stamped the sentiment in blue Encore Metallic ink and embossed it in blue pearl embossing powder.

I wonder if it needs a ribbon....

*2016 Christmas Cards #28*

This card was created with a little inspiration from a card I saw on Pinterest...  it turned out better than I had hoped it would considering I didn't have exactly the branch stamp I wanted.  I like the combination of craft and red.

*2016 Christmas Cards #27*

Calgary is "enjoying" a cold snap this week that is supposed to continue on to next week.  I don't think we got this cold at all last winter.  It's only the beginning of December and I am already done with winter.

This is another quick and easy card that I created when Bonnie came to visit last week.  The Memory Box die was cut out of white sparkle paper.  I added a white gel pen line to the ornaments.  I realize now that one of my bows fell off LOL!

*2016 Christmas Cards #26*

Sorry for the break for a bit there... I had a few cards made but not photographed.  And sadly now, all of the cards I have made so far are photographed and I have less than a weeks worth left to share.

I'm not sure whether it's good news or bad news that I still have to make about 16 Christmas cards.  I've made multiples of a few of my favourite designs and now I need to come up with a few more ideas that I like enough to share with people.

Last week, my friend Bonnie came over to play for a few hours.  It was SO awesome to have a friend to play with in my craft cave.... and also so very awesome to come up with some original ideas instead of borrowing ideas from Pinterest and blogs.

This is one of the cards I created that day with Bonnie.... all from my head.

I wish you could see how much sparkle is in that Impression Obsession die I used.  The paper is an embossed silver one that I've had in my stash forever!

*2016 Christmas Cards #25*

I love it when cards in your head turn out when you finally get around to playing!

I saw this great Simon Says Stamp stamp and I *had* to have it....  so very very pretty!

For this card, I used some assorted snowflake stamps from my stash to create the background on Stampin' Up! Crumb Cake cardstock using white craft ink.  I set it aside for a day to dry fully before finishing the card.  I used my Mini Misti for the Simon Says Stamp greeting to ensure I got a good deep and solid red impression of the greeting on top of the snowflakes using Red Brilliance ink.  I layered a piece of Real Red Stampin' Up cardstock behind the panel and put it all on to a side fold Crumb Cake card.

And of course, I had to add some sparkle to the card... I added some bling to the centres of some of the snowflakes.

*2016 Christmas Cards #24*

This card came to me one night as I was falling asleep...  I wanted to run down and put it together before I forgot it, but I knew that was crazy (right?  it was crazy, right?).  Thankfully I was able to get to my creative space the next day and it only took a couple of minutes for me to remember this idea....

I used a scrollwork frame Cuttlebug folder to emboss the background on a dark blue shimmer cardstock.  I cut the Memory Box hanging snowflake from white shimmer cardstock and glued it to the framed piece.  I put it all on a white top fold card and finally added a little gem to the centre of the snowflake.

Quick.  Easy.

And for the first time in forever, an idea I had in my head worked when I put it on paper!

*2016 Christmas Cards #23*

I'm not sure about this card yet.... I saw one like it on Pinterest and I wanted to try it.  I cut out two of the Impression Obsession snowflakes in white and glued them on the bottom right of a white card.  I cut the word "greetings" out of silver paper using the Tim Holtz script holiday set.  I then used my Mini Misti to perfectly place (and mask) the word Holiday... it was part of a saying from a Lawn Fawn set so I had to remove the "S" at the end of the word as well as the rest of the greeting.

Now, I will admit I fudged up a bit....  when I went to stamp the word Holiday, I started to put the lid of the Mini Misti down and realized just a tad too late that I forgot to remove the tape masks I put on while inking... so that gem on the left side is to try to hid a little black ink that got on the card.

Oops!

*2016 Christmas Cards #22*

When I first saw this Stampin' Up Stamp Set and tree punch, I thought "why bother?"....  but then I started seeing cards done with it and I *had* to have it.  And I truly do love that it is so versatile!  You can use the stamps without the punch, the punch without the stamps... and if you google it or search on Pinterest, there are SO many ideas!

For this card, I used a piece of red on red patterned paper from an old 6X6 pad I had laying around.  I used my Mini Misti to help me not only place the red baubles on the trees perfectly, but to stamp and restamp the green tree to ensure I got a good inking each time.  I added the Lawn Fawn greeting from Scrap'n Stamp in Rocket Red Brilliance ink.  The tree in the front is popped out with pop dots for some dimension.

*2016 Christmas Cards #21*

More white space on today's card....  lots and lots of white.

I love this set of Impression Obsession snowflake dies....  There are three different sized ones in the set and not only are they beautiful, they cut so nicely!

I added two strips of patterned paper to a piece of silver cardstock and stamped the Honey Bee greeting and embossed it in silver.  The snowflake is attached to the front of the card with tiny little pop dots.

Sale at Scrap'n Stamp!

Head on over and do some shopping!!!

*2016 Christmas Cards #20*

I can't believe we're a month from Christmas Eve!  I have no idea where 2016 went!

We had a big year...  we did major renovations to our house from May to mid-July, we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary in June and then did a 17 day trip to Europe to take a Viking River Cruise as an anniversary present to each other, we threw a big party to reveal our renovations to friends and family, I took a trip to visit my sister in October....  and POOF, it's almost 2017!

Another quick card for you today... I used a scrap of patterned paper from my days at the Scrapbook Pantry, layered it on a piece of red cardstock (have I told you lately how much I LOVE my Perfect Layers Tools to create even borders on layers??!!??) and put that panel on a white top fold card.  I used the Stampin' Up! tree punch on green cardstock and ran it through my Big Shot with an embossing folder for interest.  I then cut the word believe using the Tim Holtz dies I bought from Scrap'n Stamp out of the same green cardstock and attached it to the card.

I'm trying hard to not be afraid of the white space LOL!

*2016 Christmas Cards #19*

I was on a roll on the day I made this card and the card I posted yesterday.  I love both of them.  We won't talk about the first card I attempted that ended up in the garbage....

Anyway... when I made the card I posted yesterday, I managed to cut the Telluride Snowflake out of plain white cardstock when I wanted it out of shimmer cardstock.  I love this snowflake... you can use it as it comes or use it as I did here... and cut off the line of dots that connects to the snowflake.

I took a piece of snowflake washi tape and put it on to a strip of white cardstock and cut it out to size.  I then put that on to a piece of patterned paper from a 6X6 stack I've had for a few years and used my Perfect Layers Tool to create a matte.  I added the sentiment from Lawn Fawn Merry Messages stamped in black Versafine ink and put the snowflake on the card with a pop dot.  I added a white pebble to the front of the snowflake.

*2016 Christmas Cards #18*

I am so thrilled with how this card turned out!!

I started with the strip... it was white.  I used a sponge dauber with whatever blue ink was left on it and sponged up the front a little.  I then sprinkled this thick embossing powder (by thick, I mean the grains are different sizes, and some of them are large) that I think is by Stampenous on the front and heated it from the back to create the look of snow falling.  I used my Perfect Layers Tool to create the black Matte and attached it all to the card from.  I used my Mini Misti to ensure I got the placement of the Lawn Fawn sentiment.  I cut the Telluride Snowflake from white glimmer cardstock and attached it to the front with a pop dot.