Saturday, September 28, 2013

Shaped Christmas Card

Are you ready for a fun challenge?  If so, look no further than Jingle Belles. The current challenge is to create a card that is Not square or rectangular...but a shaped Christmas card! I haven't participated in a challenge for a few weeks (still experiencing computer frustrations), but once I saw the inspirational cards from Lauren and Steph, I just had to play along. My take was simply to use my computer to print "Merry Christmas" onto cardstock. I folded the cardstock so the top of the letter M was at the folded edge, added some holly leaves and glitter glue berries, then traced over the letters with glitter glue. Once the letters were dry, I trimmed around the letters and holly leaving the folded edge in tact over the M. This was a fun challenge so  I image my brain won't let  me rest until I attempt at least one more shaped card. So, if my computer cooperates, I'll probably be back with another card.

Supplies:
Cardbase: Recollections, Punch: Emagination Crafts Inc., Studio G Glitter Glue, Colored Pencils: Crayola, MS Word

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Black & White

Yesterday was such a perfect day here. Our weather was incredible so my husband, son and I took advantage of it and went on a family hike. The hiking trails were very busy so I guess lots of people had the same idea. The best part of our hike was when we reached an area called "Hidden Falls". My son and I had hiked this same trail earlier this summer, but we didn't catch a glimpse of the falls because of a lack of rainfall. We could hear the falls, but couldn't see it...thus the name "Hidden Falls". Fortunately yesterday's hike was so very different. Recently we've had a lot of rain (a rarity here in the high desert), so the stream was over flowing its banks and the water was rushing by rapidly as we hiked along it's edge. When we reached the falls, the water was cascading down and was a stunning sight! We felt very fortunate for the perfect weather and the spectacular view!

So...about the card:  It's one of those cards that came together very quickly! I simply cut strips of decorative tape and layered it over the center of the card. Next I punched flowers from white cardstock, added button centers and some detail on the petals and that's it. I love the contrast of the black and white and the simplicity of this card.

Thanks for stopping by! 
I hope you've had a fantastic weekend!

Supplies:
Cardbase: Recollections, Decorative Tape: Darice, Punch: Ek Success, Adhesive: Scotch Quick Dry

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

One More Christmas Card!

One more Christmas card for my growing pile of holiday cards! Thanks to the wonderful sketch at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown this card came together quickly. Right away, I decided to rotate the sketch.  I started by cutting an oval in the patterned paper, then punched the boughs for the tree. I layered the boughs over a trunk cut from brown cardstock that I inked. I added pearls and a star then finished the card with the decorative border strip, which also included a stitched strip in the center.



Supplies: Recollections Cardbase, Fancy Pants Saint Nick Patterned Paper, Lifestyle Crafts Border Die, Janome Sewing machine, Martha Stewart Bough Punch, Queen & Co. Pearls, Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive, Scotch ATG

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Crescent Moon


This is one of those cards that was inspired by a sketch. I saw the current sketch challenge at CAS(E) this Sketch and the image of a crescent moon popped right into my head. Of course, I rotated the sketch in order to put the card together. I started by hand cutting the crescent moon image. Mr. Moon needed something to wear, so I added the hand cut "Santa" hat. I added detail to the moon surface with chalk and drew in an eye with a marker. I punched stars into dark blue cardstock, added white gel pen dots to represent more stars and adhered the moon to this. I "dangled" a piece of silver thread from the hat and attached letters to spell "Merry Christmas".  Since I had a heck of a time trying to photograph the metallic "Merry Christmas" sentiment I'm sharing a close-up photo so you can see it more clearly. 

Supplies: Cardbase: Recollections, Cardstock: Fox River Co, Metallic Thread, Stickopotamus Alphabet Stickers, Star Punch, Sakura Gel Pen, EK Success Marker, Chalk, Polyfil, Scotch ATG Adhesive.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Butterflies with September Sketch

I've used the September sketch from the The Sketch File to create this butterfly card. The sketch really lends itself to using lots of texture so that's what I went for this time. This was a perfect way to use up the smaller bits of ribbon that I have been holding on to.

Kathy has posted other inspirational projects over at the The Sketch File. I hope you'll stop by for a peek and then link up a project with us.




Saturday, September 7, 2013

Folded Dahlia Flowers


I've seen these folded flowers on a number of blogs and decided it was time for me to give them a try. There is a great tutorial at The Joy of Scrapbooking.  They are really quite simple and fun to create.  You simply start with a circle punch and fold away. I experimented with different sized circles and definitely prefer the more delicate looking smaller blue flower rather than the large purple one.

Supplies:
Cardbase: Recollections, Embossing Folder: Darice, Patterned paper: ? from my scrap stash, Decorative Tape: Darice, Pearls: Queen & Co, Ink: Memento, Adhesive: Scotch Quick Dry and Scotch ATG, Ribbon: Offray, Leaf Punch: Marvy Uchida

Friday, September 6, 2013

Blogger Issues?

This is a quick post to ask if anyone else using Blogger is having issues accessing it, posting, making comments etc. The only way I can read comments, post etc. is to use the incognito screen. I'm hoping someone out there in blogland will read this and suggest an easy solution. I've already tried to contact Blogger about the issue...no help there.

I would appreciate any suggestions!
Thanks!
Brenda

Thursday, September 5, 2013

A New Sketch

September already? WOW time is really flying by! A new month means a new sketch over at the The Sketch File. Kathy has created a fantastic sketch to inspire us all. When I first saw it, I had lots of ideas buzzing around in my head and finally settled on this group of tree houses.  I colored them with markers and adhered them to black cardstock. I tore the top edge of the cardstock to recreate that fabulous wavy look that Kathy created in her sketch. To create the horizontal detail,  I used decorative scissors and cut white cardstock into strips. I also layered washi tape onto white cardstock strips.  It was a fun sketch to work with and I hope you are inspired as well. Please link up your creation with us over at The Sketch File.


Supplies: Cardbase: Recollections, Digital Stamps: The Wax Fruit Company, Washi: Darice, Cardstock: Recollections, Markers: Bic Mark It, Colored Pencils: Crayola, Adhesive: Scotch ATG


Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Sketch Challenge at Jingle Belles

If you follow my blog, you may realize that I LOVE creating Christmas cards. I also love to participate in the challenges over at Jingle Belles. This week there is a sketch challenge. The sketch was created by Allison Fillo from Stampin When I Can (another blog that I follow). I love the simplicity of Allison's sketch and her color scheme so I didn't veer too far from it. I added a bit of embossing along with a MME patterned paper and embellished it with a a small wreath.

You might have noticed that my posts are less frequent lately. I'm still crafting but I've had issues with my vision and my computer. I recently acquired new lenses for my glasses and am working through the process of adjustment. Viewing the computer screen with them is somewhat of a challenge. Also, my issues with my computer have limited my ability to post to my blog, to link up with challenges and comment on other blogs. I am continually redirected to other websites.  I've tried a number of solutions but can't seem to resolve all of the issues. For awhile, I couldn't access my blog but finally found a way in.  The security software program that I use was unable to assist me in moving forward. I think I am running out of options.  So, if I disappear for a bit, it's probably because of the computer issues.

Supplies:  Cardbase: Recollections, Cardstock: Bazzill, MME, Embossing Folder: Darice, Punch: Martha Stewart, Ribbon: Offray, Marker: ZIG EK Success, Adhesive: Scotch Quick Dry & Scotch ATG