Simon Says Stamp December 2014 Card Kit - Winter Twinkle

Hello! I hope your Christmas was as wonderful as mine! My holiday season is still in full swing! Christmas Eve was spent at my parent's house as well as Christmas morning. Then Christmas evening we went to my husband's parent's house. I worked Friday and Saturday and I'm heading in to work again shortly. Tomorrow we will be making a return visit since more family is coming in. Tuesday we're going back up to my parent's house. Then New Year's Eve will be spent there as well and New Year's Day at my grandma's house! Whew! I feel like I haven't slept in ages!!

...Hence the reason that the cards for this card kit are being posted so late - I've made a few cards, but not as many as usual. This kit was all about embossing - something I'm relatively new to, so it was nice that 2 very nice powders came in the kit. I'm starting to build up my stash of powders!

I want to start by saying that I took inspiration for this card from Lucy Abrams - you can find the blog post on her card here. Okay, now that that's out of the way - I started with a top folding A2 card base from Neenah cardstock (do you ever get tired of hearing that?). Next, I used the tiny hearts stamp from the stamp set to stamp two rows of hearts. I used my embossing ink and sprinkled on some of the Ranger Liquid Platinum powder. This powder is simply WONDERFUL! I love it! I stamped the "yay" rectangle sentiment on a piece of scrap Neenah cardstock and heat embossed that with the Liquid Platinum powder as well. I used my scissors to fussy cut around the sentiment leaving a small white border.

I've been playing around with the thread thing that everyone's been doing lately...and I think I'm finally getting the hang of it! I took some silver thread and wound it around my fingers and placed it onto my card base and played with it a bit until I got the look I wanted. Then I applied some foam squares to the back of my sentiment and pushed it down onto the card. The foam squares will adhere the sentiment to the card, as well as hold the thread down.

That's it! I hope to start bringing you more cards on a regular basis after the new year. I've bought myself a planner and I'll be using it daily! I always loved planners in college, but after I graduated I never used one. Now they seem to be all the rage again, so I figured I should jump on the bandwagon! Have a great day!

Studio Calico December 2014 Card Kit Video #1

Ahh! Can you believe only two days left until Christmas! I started out this year so far ahead of the game, and now I feel so far behind! I find myself needing just one more Christmas card....over and over again! I wanted to use the Park Avenue card kit from SC to create a Christmas themed city card. Even though this kit is for December, there's definitely not a holiday or even a winter vibe. So I thought I'd just make it Christmas-y!

As always, I started out with a top folding Neenah card base. I used various inks to stamp out the houses onto more paper (Well Red and Glass Slipper (stamped twice for a darker image) inks from SC and Memento Tangelo and Dandelion inks). I then stamped the accent images for the buildings in Memento Tuxedo Black and cut out the buildings using my Cutter Bee scissors.

I stamped the sentiment onto a piece of scrap red cardstock from my stash and embossed it with Zing! White Opaque embossing powder. The sentiment is from a Simon Says Stamp set. I just love the skinny font!

I used my Scotch ATG gun to adhere the teal paper from the kit onto my card base (cut 1/8 inch smaller than the A2 base). I used the same adhesive to stick down my buildings onto the house paper from the kit (cut 1/2 inch smaller than the card base)- overlapping them and putting some in front of the others for depth. I mounted the red sentiment strip onto the paper, covering up the bottoms of the buildings, using foam tape and trimmed off the excess paper.

Next, I dug out my Studio Calico wood veneer trees and stuck a few of them down with my new favorite adhesive - Ranger Multi Matte Medium. This glue dried almost instantly! It's so great! I then adhered the house paper panel to my card with my ATG gun.

Since this is a Christmas card, I thought a little shimmer was in order! I used my Stardust Stickles to add glitter to the tops of the houses and the trees. It's hard to catch it in the video, but you can see the shimmer here in the photo.

This video is a little different. I had my heater on in my craft room and it was just too loud to cover up. So I did a voice over. I don't have a professional microphone, so it sounds a bit weird. Let me know what you guys prefer!

I won't see you guys until after the holiday, so everyone have a merry Christmas! I hope to get back into a regular posting schedule after the craziness is over!

Studio Calico November 2014 Card Kit Video #2

Hi, there! How has everyone been? Me? Well....I've been around! Have you ever lost your crafting mojo? I feel like I have this past month or so. I've been working so hard on Christmas cards for friends and family. I guess I feel pressured to produce cards and it's really affecting me (effecting? I don't know. I never could keep them straight!). Every card that I make is a dud. One that I would never want to share! I feel so behind on my crafting. I'm putting in more hours at work, so when my "weekend" (Tues/Weds) finally arrives I'm exhausted and I can't get up the crafty juices to work! Please tell me this happens to you guys as well!

I took a short break from card making this last week or so and worked on some projects for my family and friends using wine corks. I'll share them with you after the Holidays! But for now, I have a video using the Studio Calico November Card kit. I get a fall feel from the kit (it is from November, after all), but I tried to use non-fall colors to make it more current!

So. I have a confession to make. The only Distress inking tools that I have are what I've received from my SSS card kits - one mini Distress Ink Pad and two markers. UNTIL NOW!! I was recently at Michael's and found a few ink pads on clearance and my good friend sent me a package of four mini ink pads. I LOVE THEM! I don't know why I haven't invested in them before! I used Spiced Marmalade and Worn Lipstick along with a mini ink blending tool to create my background. I used my Scotch ATG gun to adhere that panel onto a standard A2 Neenah card base.

I cut a strip of the triangle paper 2" wide and used my Fiskars Apron Lace border punch to create a decorative edge. I punched a 3" scallop circle from the green chevron paper also included in the kit. I adhered both of these items to the card with tape runner adhesive. I also used one of the larger kraft labels from the kit.

I don't know about you, but I find it helpful to create a bunch of stamped images as soon as I get my kits. That way I can have them all set to go when I want to make a card. I had used the rock and roll technique (shown in my previous video) to stamp the apple. It's just a solid image, so I think that you have to cheat a bit to give the image some dimension. The lighter green is SC Going Green ink and the darker is SC Lime Light ink. I stamped the stem in SSS Khaki ink and the outline in SC Doc Brown ink. The leaves are stamped first in Yes Peas and then in Emerald City ink. The detail part is stamped in Doc Brown ink.

I used Tombow Mono Multi Glue to adhere the various pieces of the apple together and then used foam squares to adhere the apple onto my card.

And that's my card for today! Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things and really begin making some cards for you guys again!

A Wee Bit Weird.

Hi, friends! Well....I've done it again...I let the time get away from me! Tis the season, I suppose. More work hours, more exhaustion, but of course more laughs and togetherness with friends and my family :) I just have a quick non-Christmas card to break up all the holiday cards you've probably been seeing everywhere!

See - so simple! I cut and folded an A2 card base from Neenah 110lb cardstock to start with. I used my 2 inch Fiskars circle punch to punch out a circle from some scrap flowery paper. Next I used the Monster Mash stamp set from Sweet Stamp Shop and some Versafine Onyx Black ink to stamp a few little monsters. I used my BIC markers to color in these cute little monsters. I think this stamp set is so super cute!

For some reason, the picture makes the coloring look blotchy. It's not like this in real life and I didn't catch it while I was photographing the card. I guess I'm just noticing it now because I'm staring at all of the imperfections!

The sentiment is from the same stamp set and I stamped it onto more Neenah cardstock with Versafine ink. I used my scissors to trim the strip into a banner shape.

I used my Scotch ATG tape runner adhesive to adhere the circle and the larger monster straight onto my card. Next, I used some foam squares to pop up my sentiment and used a "wee bit" of glue to adhere my smaller monster onto the banner.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope to have another post for you soon! I have tomorrow off of work and we are supposed to get another winter storm with 6-8 inches of snow...so I guess we'll see! Stay safe!

Studio Calico Walden Card Kit Video #1 !!

Hi! I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! Mine was incredible. There's nothing better than spending time with family! We got about 8 inches of snow the day before Thanksgiving, so this card may seem a bit out of place, but I made it with my dad in mind. He loves the woods and the outdoors and the changing leaves. When I saw this card kit I immediately thought of this card!

This birch tree paper is gorgeous! I love it so much! I thought it would be great to use as a background and add a pop of color....so I did! I cut a card base from Neenah cardstock and then cut the paper to fit the whole front of the card.

I used a bunch of inks for this project. I didn't want any one leaf to be the same. I used Well Red, Orange County, Sunny Day, and Doc Brown inks from Studio Calico. From Heidi Swapp I used Mustard and Coral inks. And I used some new Memento inks in Rhubarb Stalk, Potters Clay, Tangelo, and Dandelion inks.

I used the rock and roll technique to give color and dimension to my stamped leaves. I first inked up my stamp in a lighter color and then (without stamping) inked up just the edges of the stamp by rolling it in a darker ink color. I stamped all of my leaves on Neenah cardstock and also stamped the outlines (Doc Brown ink) and then cut them out with my Cutter Bee scissors.

I adhered one of the kraft colored banners from the kit in the middle of the card and then began gluing my leaves around it. I tucked some behind the banner and put some on top. I used my Tombow Mono Multi glue to stick them down. Once they were all glued down I added some foam tape to the back of the acrylic sentiment and stuck it down.

Here's the video:

That's it! It's so simple...but I really love it! It's probably one of my favorite cards that I've made! I hope everyone has a great start to their work week! I'll see you next time!