Holiday Card Workshop 2013 #4 (Day 3)

Day Three of Holiday Card Workshop encouraged CAS card making for the holidays. In reality, I usually don't do CAS except at holiday time when I am mass-producing enough cards to send to our friends and family. I would rather spend the majority of my crafting time making "special" cards geared to specific individuals who really appreciate the effort. (You know who you are ;)

This card is absolutely the simplest ever. The design is from Julie Ebersole, which I saw her do last year in the Ellen Hutson Classroom, if I remember correctly. 

I just love this die - Memory Box Country Landscape. There isn't much stamping involved. Drawing the "road" to look realistic and splitting the paper after die cutting was the most difficult thing about this whole card. I was able to whip up six of these in under an hour! A little glue pen and glitter along the edges and on the roof-tops and trees and it's good-to-go!

Die: Memory Box

Cards and matching envies: Impress

Ink, stamp, twine, glitter: Papertrey Ink

Holiday Card Workshop 2013 #3

Day Two of Holiday Card Workshop opened up a who new love for me - inlayed die-cutting using woodgrain veneers!  These or so easy and so much fun! I've had woodgrain veneer in my stash for awhile, but have used it mainly for die cutting images - those same images can be colored and reinserted into the sheet of veneer from which they came. Who knew?!!  The most difficult aspect is hanging onto all the little bits and pieces that come out after die cutting - you have to reinsert them onto the sheet after coloring and replacing the die cut - even down to the tiniest dot of veneer. No matter how hard I tried to contain them, I spent a lot of time searching for those little bits after die cutting. =)

 

Supplies: Dies from Memory Box, Impression Obsession and Papertrey Ink

Ink - Copic markers

Cardstock: PTI

Woodgrain veneer: Ellen Hutson

Holiday Card Workshop 2013 #2

Day One part two - another effective technique for the inside of a card is to carry through the theme from the outside of the card to the inside. Using both the negative and positive from die-cut words makes this technique fairly simple. I also created the panel that Peace is die cut into using quarter-inch strips of blue card stock. 

Stamps, die, ink, card stock, glitter (on single snowflake) from PTI

Other supplies: Cuttlebug embossing folder, Simon Says snowflake die 

Holiday Card Workshop 2013 #1

I love taking classes at Online Card Classes. Jennifer and Kristina are awesome instructors and bring together designers who are well known throughout the crafting world. There are always new techniques to learn and I am often reminded me of old ones I haven't used a ages.

Day One Card focused on creating insides for holiday cards, though much time was spent working on the outside as well. This is a quick card using Papertrey Ink's Winter Penguin. Isn't he just the cutest penguin ever. The new-to-me technique involved partial embossing using embossing folder, so you get a strip of un-embossing area to use for stamping.

A lesson learned:  This embossing folder was a cheapy I picked up for a couple bucks at JoAnn's. I threw it away after I made this card, as it absolutely ruined several pieces of card stock before I finally found some 110lb white that didn't rip apart getting it out of the folder. It is true what they say, all embossing folders are not created equal! (A similar Tim Holtz folder is on order...)

All products are PTI except as stated above.

Papertrey Ink October Blog Hop - Tag It Challenge

Welcome to the Papertrey Ink October Blog Hop! This month is is all about Tags for gift giving. Several of our designers have been sharing holiday tags for the past few weeks which has inspired me to get started on gift tags much earlier than usual. These today were created specifically for the October Blog Hop.

I have owned Vintage Ornaments for several years but sadly it has seen very little use. Now that we have dies, there are no excuses! This is such an awesome set, so versatile. Several card design ideas came to me while designing these tags so Vintage Ornaments is staying on my stamp table for a while!

Supplies:

Stamps: Peaceful Pinecones, Fillable Frames #9 (To/From on inside of tag)

Dies: Vintage Ornaments, Peaceful Pinecones

Card stock: PTI Vintage Cream

Designer Paper: PTI Holiday Flourishes and Swirls (I just love this entire pad!)

Ink: PTI Pinefeather, Dark Chocolate

Red/White Twine, KaiserKraft Red Rhinestones, Diamond Stickles

 

Mighty Oak

Oh how I love this new set from PTI - Might Oak.  I've made six cards with it this week and finally forced myself to put it away last night. For this card, I cased a card posted by Debbie Olson last week in which she used clear card stock. I've never worked with acetate card stock, but a friend sent me some pre-folded acetate cards for my birthday this year, so I really didn't have an excuse to not give this technique a go. Tip: By leaving the die cuts in the cover plate and applying a drop of glue to the back of each cut, it was a fairly simple process to just lay the acrylic card front over the cover plate and Voila! Easy peasy!

 

                               

PTI Make it Monday #135 - Layered Emboss Resist

Enjoyed Heather Nichol's MIM yesterday where she demonstrated an old technique that I first learned many years ago, but have not tried in quite some time. I forgot how effective the clear-emboss resist can be. I pulled out a couple of older PTI sets - Leaf Prints and BB: Text style and am pleased with this results.

Supplies:

Stamps: PTI BB Text Style, Leaf Prints, Meadow Greens, Mighty Oak

Ink: PTI Scarlet Jewel, Ripe Avacado, Colorbox Chestnut for sentiment

PTI Card stock, button, twine

PTI September Blog Hop - Wreath #4

I have to stop making wreaths and get my chores done! But I wanted to show a little love to Rustic Branches, one of my very first Papertrey sets. I stamped these tags last night and used glitter-gel pen to color the leaves and make the red berries. I used PTI white adhesive sheet and unfortunately, gel ink does not get absorbed into this medium as well as it does card stock. These still were not dry this morning! I finally used tissue to blot the images so I could complete the project without smearing ink!
If you'd like to view all entries while you are here, just click on my "Freshwater Stamps" blog header.

 Supplies:
Stamps: PTI Rustic Branches
Card stock: PTI
Adhesive paper: PTI
Limitless Layers Circles and a 1-3/4" circle punch
Ink: Memento Black, Brilliance Rocket Red
Gel Pen - American Crafts "The Ultimate Glitter Gel Pen"
Twine - PTI Red Poppy

PTI September Blog Hop - Wreath #3

Well, if you know me at all, you knew you'd see this one! Papertrey's Wreath for All Seasons contains the most versatile wreath stamps available. IMO.  I have used this set a lot, but never grow tired of it. It is appropriately named, as it makes beautiful summer wreaths as well as winter holiday versions.
If you'd like to view all entries while you are here, just click on my "Freshwater Stamps" blog header.

Supplies:

Stamps: A Wreath for All Seasons

Card stock: All Papertrey Ink

Designer Paper: Fall Prints and Patterns

Dies: Papertrey Mat Stack One and Mat Stack 4 Layerz

Copper ink: Colorbox with Fine detail copper embossing powder

Copper mesh, copper sheer ribbon from my stash

PTI September Blog Hop - Wreath #2

For my second wreath I again used the Martha Stewart branch punch - but this time I punch three shades of green to make a more traditional wreath. I had fun making the embellishments for this one, using the Santa image and die cut from Papertrey's Winter Snow Globe and white Shrink Plastic. Aren't those little Santa's just the cutest!! I also used the snowflake image from the same set to stamp around the outside frame with Fresh Snow ink.
If you'd like to view all my Blog Hop entries while you are here, just click on my "Freshwater Stamps" blog header.

Supplies:

Stamps: Winter Snow Globe, Think Big Favorites #20

Card Stock -Papertrey Ink

Shrink Plastic - Suze Weinberg Bright White

Prisma Colored Pencils for Santas

Red Stickles

PTI September Blog Hop - Wreath #1

I love making and giving seasonal wreaths to friends and family. So when the theme for this month's PTI Blog Hop was announced, it really peaked my interest.  I have many wreath stamps and dies, and couldn't decide on just one to enter into the Blog Hop, so I made a few. If you'd like to view all entries while you are here, just click on my "Freshwater Stamps" blog header.

Here is my first entry. I used the Martha Stewart Branch punch and adhered these to a wreath-shaped circle base I die cut. I think My favorite aspect of making wreaths, both the real mccoy and paper-crafted is the embellishments you can use to really make a statement.

Supplies:

Stamps: PTI Think Big Favorites #9

PTI Impression Plate: Woodgrain

Martha Stewart Branch Punch

Card Stock: All Papertrey Ink

KairserKraft rhinestones color changed with Copic Marker

Papertrey - MIM #132 - Layered Border Dies

I so happy to finally get this card made. I had this idea rolling round in my head since purchasing this Princess Dress die a few weeks ago, and when I saw Dawn's MIM video for this last week I knew I had to make this card!

I started with the dress die from Memory Box. As you can see, it actually is a short-dress die and I simply adhered it to card stock and free-hand drew an extension to make it a long dress. Using Bitty Dot Paper and the small border die, I cut several strips and began layering.  I am very pleased with how the dress turned out - but don't think I'd try mailing it as the little scallops would surely arrive flattened.

Supplies:

Stamps: Mini Blooms, Make a Wish

Designer paper - Bitty Dot Sweet Blush

All card stock Papertrey Ink

Sizzix Swiss Dot Embossing Folder

Dies: PTI Small Scallop,  Memory Box Princess Dress

Stamp-a-faire 2013 Post 3: Tea Staining Techniques

This is my third challenge for Stamp-a-Faire, and probably the last I'll have time to post.

This one involves using household supplies to stain paper, fabric or trim. Suggested household products were coffee, tea and unsweetened Kool-aid. I went to my cupboard and found a very old box of food-coloring that hasn't seen the light of day in years. On the box are the instructions for using food-coloring to dye Easter eggs - so I followed these instructions to make up my dies. 

I am very pleased with how this turned out. I was tempted to stamp a little detail on the leaves, but in the end decided to leave them plain so they didn't detract from the focal point.  

                  

 
Receip:
Stamps: Fillable Frames #3
Dies: Bloom Builders #3, Fillable Frames #3, Turning a New Leaf, Twist
Card stock: PTI Harves gold, Shimmer cream
Watercolor Paper: Cold press by Canson

Stamp-a-Faire 2013 Post #2 - Rolled Dough

My second card was so much fun! That is once I got my dough to dry so I could work with it. 

I worked with two types of dough, the original PaperClay and the Delight version. I actually preferred working with the original PaperClay though it did take it much longer to dry. (I helped it along with a 30 min stint in a 250 degree oven.) I could have stopped right here and worked with Paperclay all day, but made myself move on to some of the other challenges. 

 Oh and I got to use my new Delicata Golden Glitz ink - oh my, what a pretty, glittery gold that ink is! I will definitely be reproducing this card for some of my holiday cards this year.

Recipe:

Creative PaperClay

PTI Cardstock

Ink: PTI and Tsukineko

Stamps & Dies: Holly and Mistletoe

Red Stickles glitter glue

PTI Stamp-a-Faire 2013 Post 1 Bake and Take

Oh my goodness, I have been so looking forward to participating in this year's PTI Stamp-a-Faire! So much so that I've had it marked on the calendar since it was announced in February and delayed a family camping trip by a couple days so I could participate. I didn't get to complete all the challenges, (we have to leave today) but will have more to look forward to when we get home.

Whipping up recipes using paper and ink is this year's theme.  My challenge was a Bake and Take in which several color schemes and designs were provided from which to choose. This is the color scheme and design I chose and the card I made:

             

 

My Recipe: 

Stamps: Tag It's #1, Mega Mixed Messages

Paper: All PTI, DP: Green Boutique

Fresh Snow Ink and detail white embossing powder

Dies: Polka Dot embossing plate, Limitless Layers Circles

Pearls: Kaisercraft