Naughty Kitty

There is a reason why we didn't have a Christmas tree last year.  I thought it would be safe to hang a few ornaments from the dining room light fixture; however, between the day after Thanksgiving and New Year's somebody grew.  If anyone knows how to share this with the motion on, please let me know.  She is jumping and the ornaments are swinging.  Needless to say, I had to take down the ornaments.

You know that when I saw that The Alphabet Challenge was "N is for Naughty" this incident and stamp came to mind.

This adorable stamp by Inkadinkado is perfect for a CAS card which aligns beautifully (purrfectly?) with the Addicted to CAS Challenge code word of creature and The Sweet Stampin' Challenge to feature an animal in honor of World Animal Day which was October 4th.  As you can see, if I placed the kitty where I wanted her to be in terms of composition, the branch would be at loose ends, so I used a journaling pen to extend the branch to the edge.  The sentiment is part of Hero Arts' Fluffy Stockings Stamp and Cut set.

Now to color the image.  I have never mastered alcohol pens, so I used my Prismacolor  pencils.  I recently discovered that they make a colorless blending pencil.  All I had to do was draw a heavy line of silver (I don't have a gray pencil) along the edge and then "color" with the colorless pencil in small circles to draw the color out into a fade.  I also used it to smooth away most of the pencil strokes after coloring the ornament.  I layered the panel on colored cardstock before attaching it to a card base because it needed the extra pop of a colored frame.  I hope it still qualifies as CAS.  In case you have noticed the sentiment in the completed card and the sample above are in different colors, I come from a family of crazy cat lovers, so I made several cards for Calli(sto) and her sister to send to their aunts and uncles.  Of course she had to supervise.

By the way, Calli is now 14 months old and is still naughty, although she prefers to say inquisitive or playful.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Peace and Snowflakes Ornament

I love this two piece die from Hero Arts.  The circle of snowflakes and the ornament outline are separate dies, so you can cut out an ornament as I have done here or cut an opening ringed by snowflakes into a card front which I will show y'all another time.

I started by dropping green, blue, silver and white Hero Arts glimmer inks onto a craft mat, misted them with water and dragged paper through it all.  I cut a solid ornament shape twice from aqua paper and once from the inked paper and stacked them before layering on the snowflake layer.   I used a Birch Press Designs die to cut the sentiment three times, stacked them and attached them to the shadow piece cut from Silver paper.  All this stacking gives the card dimension.  To help separate the ornament from the background I embossed the background with Stampin' Up's Subtle folder.  I finished the card off with some bitty sparkles in the centers of the snowflakes.

I used the Freshly Made Sketch below and drew on the Jingle Belles Challenge theme of peace on Earth and the ABC Christmas Challenge theme of sparkle and texture.  Here is a shot using a direct flash, so you can see how sparkly it is.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Hanging Ornaments

The theme for the September Christmas at Sweet Stampin' challenge is Christmas decorations and this Freshly Made Sketch seemed perfect for it:

I decided to use a wide Merry Christmas sentiment to create the illusion of the strip across.  I used a die from Birch Press Design and stacked three cut from Stampin' Up Gorgeous Grape cardstock topped with one cut from Gold foil paper slightly offset.  This gave the sentiment lots of dimension.

Now for the ornaments!  I made them using the Simon Say Stamp "Ornate Ornaments" stamp and die set with Ranger Princess Gold embossing powder and colored them with a Violet Zig Clean Color Real Brush marker.  I simply swiped it across the embossing and blotted up any bits of ink that might have been on the embossing.  No need for detailed coloring when you are only using one color!  The original plan was to use gold embroidery thread to "hang" the ornaments and place it on a Gorgeous Grape card base, but as I laid everything out the card seemed pretty boring, so I used substituted black for those elements which gave it more pop.  I wish I had used regular sewing thread because the embroidery thread is somewhat fuzzy.  I had also planned to let the ornaments swing freely, but like so many plans, that needed to be revised as the bottom two ornaments kept switching places and the round one on top of the almond one did not look right.  After I glued them all down I realized I could have left the almond one loose like a tag.  Y'all may see another version of the hanging ornaments in the future.  I had to finish the front off with (what else?) bitty sparkles.  The folks at the Winter Wonderland Challenge blog want to see my favorite embellishment.  If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know that sparkles are my favorite!

Here is the inside using a sentiment from Close to My Heart's "To You and Yours" stamp set which I stamped with Black Versafine ink and embossed with clear detail powder.  No messy black embossing powder for me!

I also plan to enter this in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Monochromatic Challenge.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

I'm Back!

Hi y'all!  Yes, I know it seems like I fell off the face of the earth.  It's not that I haven't been making cards; I just haven't had the time to photograph and post them.  It doesn't help that I have a new assistant.

My old assistant who acts more as a supervisor is not sure what she thinks of her new sister.  We don't usually adopt kittens; we adopt cats!  So this is a new experience for us, and it is a wonder I managed to complete this card at all!  

Now about the card:  It's time to crank out the Christmas cards, so I am starting with one based on this Freshly Made Sketch:

I embossed some ornaments from the Simon Says Stamps' Ornate Ornaments set in gold and colored them with Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers.  The "merry" sentiment is cut from gold foil paper using the Merry Sugar Script die from Birch Press Design.  The card panel was cut from a die set from Kat Scrappiness.com.  Here is the inside:

Please excuse the quality of these photographs.  I have a new computer and haven't loaded Photoshop which means instead of taking pictures with my good camera, I had to use my phone.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Fab Friday Ornaments

This card was inspired by this Fab Friday sketch:

The ornaments were made using the thinlet set that co-ordinates with Stampin' Up's Embellished Ornaments stamp set.  In addition to having outlines to cut out stamped images, there are some dies designed for layering.  To make the ornaments, I covered each die cut with Versamark ink, heat embossed them with Gold Superfine Detail powder from Ranger or Black Detail powder from Stampendous, and then layered them.   I looped black metallic embroidery thread  around the hangers and, once the ornaments were glued in place, wrapped the ends round to the back and used tape to secure them.  A small bow and pearls brightened up the ornaments.   Here is a close up:

The sentiment was stamped in Black Versafine ink, an intensely black pigment ink, and embossed with clear detail powder.  To gild the edges, I pressed them lightly into Versamark  and then gold embossing powder and heat embossed.  The sentiment is attached with thin foam tape.  Lastly I attached the completed panel to a card base with craft foam in between for dimension.  This card is a 6.5 x 5 inches to accommodate the ornaments and keep with the sketch.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used:
Paper:  Colonial White cardstock
Stamps:  Embellished Ornaments and Star of Light from Stampin' Up
Ink:  Versamark, Black Versafine
Embellishments:  Superfine Gold Detail embossing powder from Ranger, Clear Detail and Black Detail powder from Stampendous, Ribbon by Offray, Pearl Opaques from Close to My Heart, Sew easy Fancy Floss from We R Memory Keepers

Merry Monday Penguin

Here is the card using this sketch from Try Stamping on Tuesday posted on a Sunday for the Merry Monday challenge to use a bird on a Christmas card.  No wonder I am not always sure what day it is...

The twist on the Try Stamping on Tuesday is to include an ornament or use non-traditional Christmas colors.  Because I am posting this just under the wire, I will have to tell you more about this card later.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time.

Through the Window with Heart 2 Heart

Happy Monday, y'all!  Do you see that badge on the right?  The one that says Guest Designer for Heart 2 Heart Challenges?  That's right!  I was awarded the honor of being named Top Chick for the month of September for these cards which means I am the guest designer for the month of November.  We have some fun challenges lined up, and the first one is...(sound the trumpets)...Through the Window.  This can be interpreted a number of ways, so I chose the cut out window interpretation.

For this challenge I went all the way back to Close to My Heart's first Cricut cartridge, Art Philosophy.  It is still one of my favorites.  Is has interesting shapes that you can layer and every page has at least one and usually two cards.  This one can be found on page 47.  I started by cutting two cards, the first at 6.5 inches out of Colonial White and the second at 6.3 out of a sheet from the retired Yuletide Carol.  No, that is not a typo.  Did you know that if you go into "settings" on your Cricut you can change the size to cut in increments of tenths of an inch, centimeters, or millimeters?  I cut the front and back of the second card apart and then trimmed a quarter of an inch off of each side of the front piece.  I wanted an additional layer, but because the center would not be seen, I simply cut a 6.25 x 4.75 piece and cut out the middle with my trimmer.

I have always loved the vintage feel of this stamp set, Holiday Cheer.  No it is not in the current catalog, but it is still available.  With the exception of Workshop on the Go stamp sets and Stamps of the Month, CTMH does not retire Cricut compatible stamp sets.  I stamped the ornaments on a piece of scrap paper, cut them out, and sponged the edges with Saddle ink to "age" them to go along with the vintage feel.  I also sponged the green layer with saddle and the light layer with Saddle and a bit of Cocoa.

Here is the inside of the card:

You can see what I did with the back part of the second card.  Now when you are making the inside of a window card, you have to be mindful of what you want to show when the card is closed and what you want to hide.  I find it helpful to close the card and lightly trace the window shape in pencil, so you can see where your edges are.  I cut the holly leaves out of Fern cardstock using the same cartridge (page 46), sponged their edges with Saddle, used a scoring tool to create veins, and finally lightly sponged over them with some New England Ivy.  I used a hole punch to punch 1/4 and 1/8 inch circles of glitter paper to make holly berries and embellishments.  Yes, I have a 1/8 inch punch that I think I bought at Michael's.  I used liquid glass to glue on the "berries."  When I was done I had a very flat, easily mailed card.

Thank you for stopping by!  Now why don't you head over to the Heart 2 Heart Challenge blog for some inspiration and maybe enter yourself?  You have all month to complete any of the November challenges.  We would love to see your work!  Until next time, Hansi

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

Paper:  Yuletide Carol (retired), Colonial White cardstock

Ink:  Saddle, Cocoa

Stamp:  Holiday Cheer (B1381)

Embellishments:  Red and Green glitter paper

Other:  Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge, 1/4 and 1/8 inch punches

Christmas Doodles

The ladies over at Heart 2 Heart Challenges want to see some doodles, so with this card as inspiration, I cut some ornaments using Close to My Heart's Art Philosophy and Artistry Cricut cartridges and began playing.  This first card is more like what most people think of when they think of doodling:  lines and repetitive patterns that grow into something.

I used a sponge dauber and black ink along the edges of the ornaments and sentiment border to ground them against the white background.  The sentiment border may look like doodling, but it is actually a piece of paper from the new La Vie En Rose paper pack.

For the second card I revisited my favorite way to doodle when I was in high school.  I always liked creating designs that mess with your eyes. 

The graphic below the stamped sentiment is a sliver of the retired version of Black Paper Fundamentals.  Both cards are embellished with a few black sparkles because y'all know I like sparkles...  Although the black sparkles have been retired, you can always make your own by coloring a clear sparkle with a black ShinHan marker.  

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to my heart unless otherwise noted:

Paper:  Black Paper Fundamentals (retired), La Vie En Rose, White Daisy and Black cardstock

Ink:  Black

Stamps:  Merriest Christmas (retired), A Very Merry Christmas (retired)

Embellishments:  Black Sparkles (retired)

Other:  Art Philosophy and Artistry Cricut Cartridges

Shopping My Stash With the Jingle Belles

The Jingle Belles have teamed up with the ladies over at Shopping Our Stash for a joint challenge which is perfect for me because I have been on a Christmas card binge and Heaven knows I have a stash...  I was inspired by this card on Pinterest to make some cards using iris folding (sort of) and long retired Christmas paper, embellishments and stamps.  If you are not familiar with iris folding, this website has a description of the technique as well as a tutorial and patterns (some free!).  True iris folding requires lightweight paper because you are, well, folding it and cardstock would get too bulky.  Since I wanted to use cardstock, I  cut strips of paper and then sponged the edges to give them some of the definition that a folded edge would have.  I did not have a pattern, but after several attempts, I managed to draw my own.

 Now iris folding can be a little unnerving because you are working from the back and cannot see how your card is coming along:

I was pretty proud of myself for coming up with my own pattern until I realized that I had forgotten a critical detail that I would have noticed if I could have seen the front as I worked.  The completed card will be the reverse of the image you see on the pattern.  I had intended the red to be on the outer side of the ornament.  Oops!  Lesson learned.

If you don't have a pattern and are not not sure if you are up to drawing your own, this card uses strips of paper to get the general effect but without the iris.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

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

Card 1:
Paper: Pear and Partridge (retired), Cashmere and Colonial White cardstock
Ink:  Metallic Gold by ColorBox, Cranberry
Stamp:  A Very Merry Christmas (retired)
Embellishments:  Pear and Partridge complements (retired), Ariana assortment (retired)
Other:  Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge

Card 2:
Paper:  Frosted (retired), Silver Metallic paper by Recollections (not longer available from Michael's, Colonial White cardstock
Ink:  Metallic Silver by ColorBox
Stamp:  A Very Merry Christmas (retired)
Embellishments:  Colonial White ribbon and Blue sparkle (both retired)
Other:  Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge, Create-a-Flake Five Shapebilities by Spellbinders