Starburst Card / It's Your Day

The challenge last week over at ScrapZee.com was to create a card using the starburst technique. I used paper by Cosmo Cricket to create a sun ray  / sky effect using this technique. The clouds were made using dies from Memory Box and the picket fence is a Martha Stewart punch.

Have you heard about ScrapZee.com? It is a new paper community for inspiration, challenges and sharing. It is just kicking off and getting started but it already is a fun place to share your love for paper crafting. Check it out!

Thanks for stopping by.

A Peaceful Christmas / Christmas Card and Tags

 As promised earlier, I am back with another Christmas card. I made 4 different designs this year and this was my favorite of the four. The sky is made with blending 4 inks from the Tim Holtz Distress Ink collection. I used Tumbled Glass, Weathered Wood, Chipped Sapphire and Black Soot. The village and star are  dies from Memory Box. Very clean and simple but I thought elegant looking...most certainly my favorite this year.

And what does the perfect gift need? A pretty tag of course! Below is a tag that I made using the embossed resist technique and the same village die from Memory box that I used on the above card.

 For a fun tag I used a cuttlebug embossing folder, Sizzix alphabet die and a Santa hat rubber stamp to create the tag below.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas. May it be safe, joyful and spent with family and friends.

Believe in the magic of Christmas / Christmas card

The magic of Christmas is upon us and I couldn't help but make this adorable card. This is a design that I first saw a couple of years ago and have had on my "to try" list since. It uses the top note die from Stampin Up. While there are several how to tutorials on the web, this is my favorite and the one I used to make my card : Elf Shoe Tutorial. Every Christmas I'm looking for a card design that I can mass produce and will be flat enough to require only one postage stamp. This fit the requirements! Also made one other design that I will be back a little bit later to post.

Thanks for looking!

Christmas Wreath Card / Martha Stewart Pine Branch Punch

It's my turn to host the weekly member challenge over at the CardSwaps forum on the CardMaker site. I'm challenging everyone to make a card with a wreath on it. It can be stamped, made with punches or die cuts, made with ribbon or buttons etc. Any holiday, season or colors but you must showcase a wreath on your card. I chose to use the Martha Stewart pine branch punch to make my wreath as the example for the challenge. I used Bazzill cardstock to punch the branches. Gemstones and ribbon are from my stash.

Why don't you come join us over at CardSwaps for the weekly challenge? Would love to see you there!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Halloween - Dreamweaver Bare Trees Brass Stencil

I'm not one that gets into Halloween but I do enjoy seeing all the spooky, creepy and cute cards that all my crafty friends make. I got this idea to take one of my favorite Dreamweaver brass stencils...Bare Trees...to make a Halloween card. Using black cardstock I stenciled different shades of gray to create the night sky. I used a mask and frosty white pigment ink to create the moon. All inks I used are pigment inks by Colorbox. The bats were created using a stamp by Martha Stewart Crafts and then cut out. The label tag is by Spellbinders and the sentiment is computer generated.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope everyone has a wonderful October!

A Chest of Drawers Tag

Just a quick post to share a tag with all of you that I recently made for a swap I hosted on the Card Swaps forum of the CardMaker site. Using a tag die by Sizzix, I cut three layers... two from Kraft cardstock and one from a kleenex box. I sandwiched the kleenex box piece between the two Kraft cardstock pieces. Using a label die from Spellbinders I cut the bottom piece out to form the legs of the dresser. All pieces were inked on the edges using  Tim Holtz's walnut distress ink by Ranger. Strung some pearls on thread to make the necklace and added a bit of lace trim for the bottom drawer. It was a lot of fun to make!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Autumn to all my crafty friends!

Asian Inspired Tag and a Cute Little Purse

If you didn't get to join in on the Treat Yourself Crop week before last at Card Swaps...then you missed out on a lot of fun challenges! I still have a lot of things going on in my life right now so I was only able to do two of the challenges. Meredith asked us to make a tag using a specific technique of coloring and embossing. The idea is to ink your background and then stamp it in another color. You then stamp your main image with versamark ink and then clear emboss. Then you apply a darker ink all over your tag. The embossed area will reject the darker ink causing the lighter ink and stamping to show through. For Meredith's full tutorial click HERE.

I was inspired by the Japanese Shinto wood charms for my tag. I used 3 different colors of distress ink, a Japanese script rubber stamp, a Japanese crane rubber stamp and a Japanese symbol rubber stamp. For my tag base I used a kleenex box that I cut the tag shape out of to give some stability as if it were wood. I then cut two more tag shapes out of a manilla folder. After inking both pieces I then placed one on each side of the tag cut out of the kleenex box. The back of the tag is inked with black walnut distress ink to help make the tag look like wood. I then chose to top off my tag with a Japanese Omamori Tassel knot. For a tutorial on how to make one, click HERE.

The second challenge I did was hosted by Margaret. She had us make these adorable little purses.

I kept mine super simple but you can embellish them as much or as little as you want. They are super simple to make. They would be absolutely adorable for a bridal shower or to house a small gift of jewelry or something for someone. You can find the tutorial on how to make these adorable purses HERE.

If you missed the crop this time....don't fret! The next one is coming up in November.  There will be lots of challenges, games, a blog hop, prizes, not to mention all the fun and inspiration!

Thanks for stopping by!