Time for Christmas Cards

For some people late August means the start of a new school year.  For me it is time to get serious about making Christmas cards.  In January I resolved to play a Christmas themed challenge each week to get a head start, but as with many resolutions, let's just say I got side tracked.  Now to recommit...  The ladies over at Jingle Belles Rock (got to love a blog with a name like that) are playing Tree Skirt Tic-Tac-Toe, a Christmas version of Beach Blanket Bingo:

Now if you have followed my blog through a Christmas season, you will know that I love sparkles and snowflakes, so it was a no brainer to play the center vertical column of Bling, Die Cuts, and Snow which I combined with this Freshly Made Sketch:

It worked out to being a double play with the diagonal of Glitter, Die Cuts and Stamping.  I started by cutting a snowflake using Close to My Heart's Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge and then stamping and clear embossing it with a stamp from the retired Frosted Cardmaking Workshop.  Next I used a sponge to rub on some Crystal Blue and Whisper inks to expose the stamped image and then some metallic Silver by Color Box to guild the edges.  While I had my stamps out I stamped a sentiment from Holiday Tags and embossed it with Ranger Silver Super Fine embossing powder which is available from Close to My Heart.  I love how smoothly it melts.  I ran the background panel through my Cuddlebug with using an embossing folder from Darice and put the card together, popping up the snowflake up with foam tape.  Finally it was time to bling up my card with some Tan Sparkles on the snowflake and Silver Stickles in the background.

I made two other versions of this but like the one above best.  Which one do you like best?

Thank you for stopping by!  Now head on over to see some other beautiful cards at Jingle Belles Rock and Freshly Made Sketches and maybe be inspired to enter yourself.  You have until tomorrow, Monday, at 12:00 PST to enter the Freshly Made Sketches challenge and September 9 for the Jingle Belles Rock challenge.  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:

Paper:  Frosted (retired), Frosted Gray (retired), Whisper, Champagne, and Colonial White cardstock

Ink:  Crystal Blue, Whisper and Versamark

Stamps:  Frosted Cardmaking Workshop (retired), Holiday Tags

Embellishments:  Silver Stickles, Tan and Blue Sparkles (retired), Ranger Clear and Silver Super Fine embossing powders

Other:  embossing folder by Darice

Freshly Made Snow

Tomorrow night we are supposed to get our first snow of the season.  (That third of an inch that melted by 10:00 in the morning we got a few weeks ago doesn't count.)  They are calling for six to eight inches which in these parts is considered serious snow, so you know where I will be tomorrow morning.

My Yankee readers can stop laughing now.  In honor of the pending snow and because I am trying to get a head start on Christmas, I used a snowflake theme for this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I started by using Close to My Heart's Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge to cut the snowflake (page 27), used Versamark to stamp it with the snowflake from the Frosted cardmaking workshop, and heat embossed it with clear detail powder.  Normally when I do resist embossing I use a sponge to dab on ink.  This time I used a sponge dauber to rub on Whisper and Crystal Blue inks to get a softer effect.  To complete the snowflake element I sponged the edges with Silver metallic ink by Color Box and embellished with a small circle cut from glitter paper using a hole punch and a blue sparkle.  The sentiment is from the "To You and Yours" stamp set.  Both the snowflake and the sentiment are popped up with foam tape.

I used a snowflake folder by Darice to emboss the center panel and embellished a few of the flakes with grey bitty sparkles.  My stitch guide made it easy to pierce the border evenly and in a straight line.

Thank you for stopping by!  Now I am going to finish my grocery list.  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted: 

Paper:  Frosted (retired), Frosted Blue (retired) and White Daisy cardstock, Silver glitter paper

Ink:  Whisper, Crystal Blue, and Slate along with Silver metallic ink by Color Box

Stamps:  Frosted cardmaking workshop (retired), To You and Yours 

Embellishments:  Blue Sparkle (retired, but you can use a ShinHan marker to color a clear one), Grey bitty sparkles

Other:  Snowflake embossing folder by Darice, Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge

A Snowflake For Atlantic Hearts

This really cool snowflake by Tim Holtz caught my eye in Hobby Lobby.  It is a die cut that is not particularly interesting until you use the accompaining folder to emboss the cut shape.  Then if you play with ink, a brayer and sponges you can really have some fun.  Now this is a Sizzix product which, according to the package, is compatible with four different machines which all happen to be made by (surprise!) Sissix, but we all know that if you experiment you can make anyone's product work in a Cuddlebug.  The sandwich for the cut is B plate, die cut with foam side up, paper, and another B plate.  To emboss, you can use the regular sandwich (A plate, B plate, folder with paper in it, and B plate) and get a respectable impression, but I found that I got a sharper impression when I added a piece of cardstock between the embossing folder and the upper B plate.  I used a brayer to spread some silver metallic ink from Color Box over the impressions and a sponge dauber to put just a hint of silver on the edge tips.  Now I was ready to make a card using this sketch from Atlantic Hearts:

I really liked how the snowflake looked against the Frosted paper, so I cut an accent shape from it using my Cricut and the Art Philosophy cartridge and then cut a second larger shape in Frosted Gray to create a layer.  When I laid everything out, I found that the shape overwhelmed the snowflake, so I decided to make the snowflake my accent shape.  I stamped the sentiment in Silver and then gilded the edges of the Colonial White pieces by pushing the edges into the stamp pad.  I was going to put a few sparkles to the upper right of the snowflake, but again it seemed to detract, so I settled for one light gray sparkle in the center of the snowflake.  This is a 5 x 6.5 inch card, but I am thinking this would work well as a horizontal card in the A2 size.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Frosted (retired), Colonial White and Frosted Gray (retired)
Ink:  Silver by Color Box
Stamp:  Snow Flurries (retired)
Embellishments:  Black and Gray Sparkles Assortment
Other:  Snowflake Die Cut and Embossing folder by Tim Holtz