FINAL HOLIDAY CARD

I thought I was completely finished with all of the holiday cards, and I could finally retire all of my Christmas supplies for the year. But then I saw what was happening over at CAS Colours & Sketches for their 450th challenge. We are challenged to select one of the previous challenge sketches from 2021 and make it seasonal. Okay, I can do that!

  

The sketch I selected is #415 from April 13, 2021:

This design was almost completely made with dies - the stitched rectangle is from Pink Fresh, the circle of stars Avery Elle, the stitched circle opening LDRS Creative, and the little village images are Alexandra Renke. I added a sentiment from Penny Black that I heat embossed with Stampendous "Detail Silver" embossing powder. After assembling all of the elements I added three tiny gems. 

CAS Colours & Sketches: Challenge #450 - Celebrating a Milestone with a Clean and Simple Seasonal Challenge! (cascoloursandsketches.blogspot.com)

Added January 7, 2022:

WHAT'S UP?

What's up at our household is decorating for the Holidays - always a HUGE effort! A couple of years ago I donated our 7' tree and replaced it with a smaller 3' tree to be placed on a game table in our living room, thinking that would be so much less work. It's now easier to decorate the Christmas tree, but that did nothing to alleviate the efforts of the rest of the house! So, we are knee-deep in Christmas decorations and storage bins. The cats love all of the disruption!

I took a bit of time away from the decorations to create this mini slim-line card in response to CASology Challenge #398 - "Above". So, what's above? Well, the sky is above! And since I am using dies with this, I am also including it in the challenge for December at Happy Little Stampers "Anything Goes with Dies".

I stamped the moon image from Hero Arts #CM357 twice - once on a medium blue textured cardstock and again on a silver metallic vellum - and heat-embossed the images with Navy Stampendous embossing powder. I fussy cut the moon out and glued it over the top of the blue moon. I mounted a piece of silver vellum paper onto a 3-1/4" x 6-1/4" side-folded navy card base. I then cut a smaller piece of navy cardstock and die cut a stitched circle and a splatter of stars from Sizzix/Tim Holtz #663117 "Snowy Stars". Finally, before attaching the navy-blue card front over the silver mat with dimensional foam, I stamped the sentiment from Hero Arts #CM351 and heat embossed it with silver embossing powder.

I've now created an envelope template for the smaller mini slim-line cards to make it easier for custom envelopes. This one was made with silver metallic vellum and lined with a scrap of navy star paper.  

 CASology: Week 398: ABOVE 

Happy Little Stampers: HLS December Anything Goes with Dies Challenge

BROWN PAPER PACKAGES

This is my final blog submittal for the weekend - I really do need to get a couple of other tasks completed! I've been mulling the current photo inspiration at the Less Is More Challenge #457 and was drawing a blank, but this morning I decided to take a turn at it and keep it as CAS as I could. I was especially inspired by the cards that the Design Team created.

I didn't have any embossing folders or stamps that were knitting-based but I chose a very old stamp (old enough that I had to use a bit of tape runner to stick it to my MISTI) that suggested the gray and white knitted fabric in the photo. I stamped it three times with Memento "Gray Flannel" ink to stretch across the full width of a rectangular stitched piece of die-cut cardstock. I over-stamped the sentiment (another very old rubber stamp) and heat-embossed it with Stampendous "Red Tinsel" Embossing Power. I glued the stitched rectangle to the face of a top-folded white card and die-cut another stitched rectangle - this time in kraft card stock - and tied a red ribbon around it and attached it to the card. The envelope is lined with an interesting wrapping paper I have that is printed with red, silver, and gold silk ribbons. 

The light levels are very low on this December day, but here's a closer look at the sentiment at an angle to show off the sparkly red tinsel embossing powder:

"Less is More": Challenge 457 - Photo Inspiration (simplylessismoore.blogspot.com)

   

GETTING READY FOR CHRISTMAS

While I haven't actually started decorating the house yet (I usually don't start that until around the 10th or 12th), I have been working on my personal Christmas cards and hope to get them finished up this next week.

I made this card in response to the current Freshly Made Sketches #514. This is not the Christmas card I'll be sending out for family and friends, but it will be one of the cards I'll send to other friends and acquaintances who are not a part of our more intimate circle. I have quite a few one-off cards from challenges over the past couple of months and I usually use those for individuals.

The circle of stars is a die set from Sizzix/Jim Holtz (#663117 "Snowy Stars") that I purchased a couple of years ago and had not used yet. I've tried it a couple of times, but I ended up having to punch all of the stars and circles out individually, which is a bit of a pain in the butt! I started with a 5-1/2" x 5-1/2" side-folded white card, layering a 5" x 5" cardstock with the die-cut circle and foil mat over the face. I heat-embossed the sentiment (Impression Obsession #CL971 "Holiday Words") with Stampendous silver embossing powder on a strip of navy metallic vellum, which I cut to a banner. I glued this and 3 of the stars from the Snowy Stars die set and that was it.

Freshly Made Sketches: Freshly Made Sketches #514 - A Sketch by Cécile

Added December 7, 2021:

 

  

ALONG THE EDGE - SNOW

This morning my card challenge is AAA Cards Challenge #204 - "Along the Edge" + Optional Twist "Snow". I have a strong preference for mostly white cards so that's the direction I went on this one. I'm also sending it over to Tic, Tac Toe Challenge #142, following the bottom clues across - Embossing/Winter/White on White.

I started this card with a side-folded white card base. I die-cut a stitched rectangle out of the same 110# cardstock and blind embossed it with a Darice snow embossing folder. I stamped the sentiment from PTI's "Christmas Cheer" with Memento "Gray Flannel" dye ink and glued the rectangle in place. I layered one of the die-cut trees from Sizzix/Jim Holtz #660978 Thinlits die and trimmed it from the right side of the card. Finally, I decided to add a red die-cut cardinal for dramatic effect (Impression Obsession #DIE079-U "Birch Trees"). I lined a coordinating envelope with red metallic vellum.

 AAA Cards: Game #204 - Along The Edge + optional twist Snow

TTTC142 - Featured Designer Betty - Tic Tac Toe Challenge

Added December 11, 2021:

COLOR THROWDOWN

When I saw this morning's Color Throwdown Challenge #671 - Pink, Gray, and Silver I knew I wanted to try my hand at coming up with something. The crystal chandelier caught my attention, so I started there.

I started with a 5-1/2" x 5-1/2" white top-folded 110# card base. I went online to Lamps Plus and found a catalogue sheet for a crystal chandelier, saved it to my computer, and printed it in black and white onto a piece of the same heavy white card stock and cut it down to 5" x 5". I mounted this image to a slightly larger silver foil mat and die-cut through both layers with a Stampin' Up "Framelits - Chalk Talk" tag die. The sentiment was stamped directly onto the folded card face with PTI "Hibiscus Burst" ink before mounting a PTI "Hibiscus Burst" damask printed paper, which I had pre-cut an opening into so the sentiment would show through all of the layers. The top 2 layers (white printed stock and silver foil) were then attached to the face of the card with dimensional foam and clear gems were added. The envelope is lined with the same PTI "Hibiscus Burst" damask printed paper as used on the face of the card.

I might have stretched the challenge requirements a bit by using a black and white image (I hope this is not considered a totally digital design) to come up with the gray tones and the printed damask paper with pink and red, but I'm pleased with this very non-traditional Christmas card. My plan is to send it to one of my interior designer friends. 

Here is the link to the Color Throwdown, with the inspiration photo:

Color Throwdown: Color Throwdown #671