Here’s a simple card for today.  It’s a remake of a card in December’s Card magazine.  I knew that I could easily remake it using Stampin’ Up! products. 

I also used a winter snowflake embossing folder (CB) done with the Big Shot on Baja Breeze cardstock.  Since SU cardstock does not have a white core, I’m not able to sand over the raised embossed areas.  To achieve the same look, I inked over the raised embossed areas with whisper white craft ink instead.  The dsp is from Holiday Treasures and felt snowflakes from Felt Flurries, the smaller collection.  Sentiment from Merry Messages, sponged in Real Red and raised with stampin’ dimensionals.

I hope you are all enjoying this amazing weather while you do your Christmas Shopping.  I got mine done weeks before Thanksgiving so that I could avoid driving in the Brandon area if I possibly could!  I did make it to Hyde Park last week after a fire alarm at the International Mall kept me from checking out at William Sonoma.  It took all my might to stay clear away from the Peppermint Bark!  Our oldest dog Oreo kept me up all night just a few weeks ago, after eating a half bucket of Costco’s Peppermint Bark.  Nick had left the candy opened on the dining room table and his chair pulled clear away so she jumped up and helped herself.  Wow, was she sick, and she’s so considerate, she goes outside to throw and go!  But we were very lucky, considering she’s only 21 lbs.   Well, flash forward to last Friday night, and I had  (5)-12 year old boys here all weekend for a Nerf Gun Territory War.  They got my 56 oz bag of M&M’s and brought it outside with them.  They left it opened in a pile of guns on the patio, which they periodically traded out, and in doing so, dumped the bag upside down on the ground and took off.  Snickers was the beneficiary this time, and she is not as considerate as Oreo. Then again, she’s half the size too.  So, I think she got sick a couple dozen times.  Again, we were pretty lucky she didn’t die too, but both dogs experienced terrible whole body tremors, and demanded pulling an all nighter for me twice in one month!  We’ve managed to avoid these kinds of issues for years while we’ve had the dogs and kids, usually I guess because we just don’t eat the stuff.  This year, I thought I would sell a number of altered containers filled with asst. candies at the Christmas Bizzarre, so I had a lot on hand.  Lesson Learned:  Don’t buy it, don’t bring it home, and don’t let your kids know where it is if you do. 

Enjoy the season!

I’m working on a couple of samples for Christmas Cards to send as samples to an engineering firm that wants 100-125 Christmas cards!  yowser!  I have to start now if I’m going to finish, especially if there’s all this embossing.  Anyway, I really got the inspiration for this card from Amanda Coughlin, a fellow Stampin’ Up! team member friend from Oldsmar.  You can see her more sophisticated and GORGEOUS card here.  I really loved the non-traditional colors she used with this set.

I love embossing cards, especially during the holidays.  It always gives that extra special wow factor.  I know it’s sometimes time consuming, but once I have all the stuff out, at that point, I may as well do a hundred!   The stamp set I used for this card is called Snow Swirled.  The main image of this card is stamped in Baja Breeze on whisper white cardstock and the smaller snowflake images are stamped in Pacific Point.  The small snowflake on the top of the tree and the larger snowflake is stamped with Encore Silver, and then embossed with Silver embossing powder.  I used our snow blossom punch which coordinates with this stamp and popped it up with dimensionals.  Besides the tree, my favorite image in this set is the largest snowflake, which I didn’t use here because it’s too big, but it’s design is simply gorgeous!  Check it out online!

The main image is distressed on the edges with Pacific Point, matted in brushed silver cardstock, and then matted again on Pacific Point.  The sentiment outside and inside is stamped with Pacific Point and matted on Pacific Point cardstock.   I used our silver cording, which I’m so pleased to have back.  I use rolls of this at christmas time for ornaments and tags, and wrapping gifts, but it really works with this card too adding just another touch of silver!

This is what the inside looks like:

I hope you take a closer look at this set using the links above. It’s so pretty! 

Lots of posts coming this weekend, so stop by frequently.  Thank you for visiting.

Another goal from my long list of business goals I wrote at convention, was to read blogs less often, and make paper creations more!    With that said, today I particpated in two of the weekly challenges for the members on the Splitcoast Stampers’ Website.  I started with the Tuesday Color challenge 186, using Chocolate Chip, Really Rust, and Baja Breeze.  Well, if I actually owned the Designer Series Paper that incorporated these 3 colors, it sure would have been easier, wouldn’t it have?  Well, there wasn’t any "easy" button on this, and it didn’t come quickly as to which color should be the dominant, the compliment, or the coordinating color.  You know, the color wheel thing?  This is what I finally opted for.

I started the second challenge too, which was to go back to yesterday and try the Monday Technique challenge.  It was a batik technique (hey, say that 10 times fast!)  So I did the technique entirely, but didn’t use the background which I had created.  I stamped and embossed many snowflakes with clear embossing powder on watercolor paper.  Then I took 3 colors of our Stampin” Up! re-inkers and put a drop or two into a water mister spray bottle.  You then spritz each color separately and dab off any blobs, and go on to the next color, until you’re satisfied with the results.  When you get the colors the way you like, you fold a piece of copy paper in half, enveloping your watercolor paper inside, embossing face up.  Heat your iron without steam, and iron on top of the copy paper, which removes the embossing, and leaves the natural color of the paper showing from underneath.  Basically, it forms a resist between the color spritzed paper, and the original stamped images.  This used to be achieved with wax on silk; don’t know how long ago I did that.  lol  Take my word for it, this is a lot easier!  Anyway, I used baja breeze, pacific point, and kiwi kiss.  The colors are pastel around my snowflakes, which I was trying to achieve with the less is more principle.  We’ll see what a fresh set of eyes can do for me tomorrow!  Til then, I hope you enjoyed seeing my card.

 Well, after making this card, I realized it’s a good thing I have only one best friend!    I wouldn’t spend this time for just anybody, but then again, as one of my stamps reads, "this ain’t no stinkin’ off the rack kind of card either." 

Some people may not feel that brown belongs in any collection of Christmas colors.  Recall last year, that our Christmas wrapping paper combined iced blue with chocolate chip, which is a great color pair!  My favorite color combination pairs my favorite color, which is green, with brown,  so when you add my second favorite color, red, to the mix, it’s certainly a hit with me! The designer series collection I used to make this card is called Holiday Treasures.  Since it uses the same combinations of colors,  I realized why I have been so drawn to the Bella Rose collection of papers since their release!  Believe it or not, the entire card was built around using the very vanilla frame and brads from the Hodgepodge Hardware collection.  That was the first component, and the rest just fell into place. 

This card base starts with a 10" x 5" piece of very vanilla card stock, folded in half the long way, and scored.  I used a 2.5" x 5" piece of the striped paper adhered to the bottom of the card base, and a 2.5" x 5" piece of Riding Hood Red adhered to the top of the card base.  I used a 1.5" x 5" piece of olive green cardstock adhered over the seam between the two.  Then I even added one more pattern to the mix from the Bella Rose collection.  I adhered the .75" x 5" piece of  polka dotted piece of chocolate chip over the olive green.  I stitched the entire square perimeter of the card, as well as across the card at both margins of the olive green. 

Then I started building the layers for the for what started as my focal point, the very vanilla frame.  I made the first layer from Riding Hood Red cardstock, punched with the label punch.  I punched a circle from old olive cardstock for the second layer, which was popped up with dimensionals.    The next layer was the Merry Christmas stamp from the Curly Label Punch Bundle stamp set.  I stamped it first in chocolate chip and again in old olive.  I cut the middle part, "Christmas" from the green image, and adhered it on top of the chocolate chip image.  I cut out the oval, and adhered it with stampin’ dimensionals on top of the old olive circe.  I cut two small pieces of our beautiful new Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon.  I cut the two ends inwards, like a banner.  I inserted the very vanilla brads through the card top.

I cut out flowers and leaves from the poinsettia paper, and layered them on top of each other with stampin’ dimensionals.  I used the versamark marker’s brush end to "paint" the middle section of all of the poinsettia flowers, and embossed with irridescent ice embossing powder.

To finish the card’s interior, I placed another piece of Riding Hood Red cardstock, cut 4 7/8 x 4 7/8 and adhered it over the inside of the card’s top, covering the threads and the brads.  I dislike having any messy ends or hardware showing on the inside of my cards, so it’s just a last finishing touch.

Even though I have only one best friend, I consider myself really lucky because we met in the 7th grade, spent every day together for years, got married the same year, and were pregnant at the same time.  When I moved to FL in 1996, I only saw my best friend at Christmas, when my family would make the long trip up north and visit with everyone.  Four years ago, my best friend and her husband moved to Lake St. Charles in Riverview, FL.  Wow, what a surprise!  Now, we don’t need to wait until Christmas to see each other, and it’s as though we never were apart.  I’ve known Laurie for 35 years, and the best part is that she still likes me!  lol

You can see what I made for Laurie’s new home office last year for her Christmas present at my Stampin’ Up! gallery. It took two pictures to get the entire collection of desk accessories I made her.

I hope she likes her card.

Enjoy!