Mat Stack 2 & Doily Christmas Card

Today I made my last Christmas card. I used Mat Stack 2 again and made my own little background for it. I used the dotted circle from Take Note, little embellishments from Vintage Labels 4 on the edges and a few red rhinestones to bling it out a bit. I punched a 1 1/2" scalloped circle and stamped it with a music background. The sentiment is from 2010 Holiday Tags and a little red/white twine wraps around the doily. The picture isn't clear, but the Pure Poppy cardstock is embossed with the Linen Impression plate. I have found that 4 1/4" square cards go really well with 4" doilies. Thanks for taking a look at my final Christmas card of 2010.

Mat Stack #2 Tag

This little tag is going to help me make it through the December PTI release. This will be the first month I have not placed a PTI order on release night. I love everything they are going to release, but am going to force myself to "think" a little longer before I frantically order so much at midnight on the 15th. This little tag using Mat Stack #2 was made to try to create something in place of the new Mat Stack #2 and music background stamp sets being released this month. I decided to use what I already own and stamped a music background circle in Pure Poppy. This is a very large rubber stamp by Stampendous called Music Score. I used a nestability mat cut in Pure Poppy behind the circle and adhered it to the Mat Stack #2 die cut. Next, I die cut a snowflake and stamped it with a snowflake from Snowflake Serenede. This stamp actually fits the snowflake die from Peace Be Still very nicely. I sprayed it with some adhesive spray and dunked it in Prisma Glitter. It was added to the music circle with some dimensional tape. A few extra snowflake stamps I had from past years (Michaels) were added to the ends of the Mat Stack. I tied it onto some ribbon with red/white bakers twine. I am certain the Mat Stack #2 stamp set is going to be wonderful, so let's see how long I can refrain from ordering. I am already starting to go into withdrawals.

Sleigh Ride

I made a tag the other day that brought out the obsessive-compulsive in me. I must have gone into my craftroom to look at it every time I walked past the door. It was just so soft and sparkly with all the glitter. I decided to make a card based on that tag. I used Blueberry Sky paper and inked up the Sunshine embossing plate with Fresh Snow Ink. I don't have a brayer, but I just patted the ink pad all over the plate and ran it through my cuttlebug. I love the look it gave! It was my first time giving that technique a try. I had to turn the fillable frame image on its side, which I don't think is as pretty as the tag, but it was necessary for it to work on this card. I used some silver wired ribbon to break up the card a bit and that was all. I still like the tag better, but was glad I tried out a new technique. Thanks for taking a look.

Sketch Challenge #306

This card was made using SplitcoastStampers Sketch Challenge #306. Lately I have found that I have a much easier time coming up with card ideas when using a basic sketch. When I saw the circle image I immediately thought of a snow globe and although I didn't have a snow globe stamp, the snowman from Friendship Jar Holiday Fillers does remind me of an image you might find in a snow globe. I used some wide ribbon I had left over from last Christmas and some Martha Stewart Glitter on the snowballs. I love the new Pinefeather color and to add a little something to it, I stamped a pattern in Versamark with the Holly Jolly border and a snowflake from Snowflake Serenade with a little stitching around the edges. Thanks for taking a look at my little snowman card!

Papertrey Ink November Blog Hop- Holiday Tags

Happy Thanksgiving to all my PTI friends! This blog hop has been my favorite this year because our challenge was to create some holiday tags, a task I love to do. Tags are fairly simply to create and I wanted to challenge myself a bit, so I remembered an issue of PaperCrafts Magazine ( Card Style). This whole magazine was dedicated to finding your Card-Making Style among four very different styles. I challenged myself to create a tag in each one of the four styles, Fun & Cute, Clean & Graphic, Classy & Elegant and Shabby & Vintage. I was able to create the first three tags very quickly and easily as those styles are the ones I am most comfortable with. The last one, however (Shabby & Vintage) took for-ev-er! It is the style I struggle with the most and almost never make a card in this style (actually this is the second) I used lots of PTI stamp sets as well as a music stamp from Stampendous called Music Score to make all of these tags and I have to admit the very first one, with the little stocking, white cotton balls and mini green clothespin is my favorite. I loved making the background paper using a sentiment in Tiny Treats Christmas. The clothespin was dyed with green food coloring. Enjoy the blog hop and Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Christmas Tag #3 of 12

I've been making tags, tags and more tags. This tag is #3 in a series of 12 and I made 100 of them! Again. I have more than gotten my money's worth from my Tag Sale #1 die, Woodgrain stamp set and Peace Be Still Dies. I went through 2 rolls of Vintage Cream felt making the doves and I don't know how many red beads. I love how this one turned out. The sentiment is embossed and in person is so bright and shiny. I love the feeling I get when I have completed all the steps it takes to make so many identical tags. Making tags are definitely running a very close second to my love of cardmaking.

Bookmark

I would like to thank Michelle for organizing the very large purchase of bookmark plastic sleeves for all of us. I got my sleeves yesterday and decided to make a Christmas bookmark, FOR MYSELF. I rarely make anything that I keep and use for myself, but I will definitely be making lots of bookmarks now. For this bookmark, I made my own patterned paper using lots of Christmas sets from PTI. I have been wanting to use the new Blueberry Sky paper and since I was using the largest bookmark sleeve, all I had to do was cut a rectangle 2 1/2 x 7" and start building my pattern. I used Holly Jolly and Snowflake Serenade stamp sets. I have found a perfect ink match for the new Pinefeather paper too that is perfect to stamp the holly images onto. It is Adirondack Ink "Bottle". I saw a card that Debbie Olsen created and she was nice enough to share the ink color with me. It comes in both dye and pigment ink and since I want to be able to use it for embossing, I got the pigment type. It is beautiful and stamps so nicely. Something else I would like to mention is about the vellum I stamped the Vintage Label image on. I had never owned any PTI vellum, thinking that velllum was, well vellum. It's not. PTI's vellum is so much nicer than the vellum I usually buy in my local craft store. It die cut with Spellbinder Labels so crisply and I slightly heat-dried the images to make sure they would not smear. I used a glitter pen, stickles and some rhinestones to bling up the front and back of the bookmark, tucked in the plastic flap, puched a hole and added a little ribbon and a button to finish off the bookmark. I love it. Wish I had some Christmas themed book to read with it!