Happy Halloween!

LOL! Now that I got that out of the way, are you ready to see another holiday card? Thought so!

I did a little shopping at Michael's last night with my 40% off coupon (shhh... don't tell DH!). I got the Martha Stewart branch punch that I've been looking all over for, and just had to use it to make a Christmas tree for Olivia from All that Scraps to decorate.


This card is so me. I LOVE decorating the Christmas tree, and usually spend an entire day figuring out the perfect placement for each ornament. (Yes, I know I have a problem...)

I used SU Kiwi Kiss and Baja Breeze for the base and first layer of this card. The "wall" and "carpet" are 2 of the gorgeous DP's (in my all time FAVORITE colors, mind you!) from the new Be Merry line from My Mind's Eye. (Stay tuned for upcoming posts of projects using the tree and snowman patterns...) The trunk of the tree is the branch from the Olivia's Birdies set, and the pot is part of the bird bath. They were both colored with copic markers, cut out, and layered on the card for a base for my branches. The branches were all punched out of Kiwi Kiss using the Martha Stewart punch, and adhered with a bit of Tombo mono aqua. I don't remember how many I used, but trust me when I tell you it involved a LOT of punching! LOL!

I then stamped Olivia (also from Olivia's Birdies) and colored her in with copic markers in shades to coordinate with the DP. Olivia was then cut out and placed on the card with pop-dots for some dimension. Olivia needed a little bling, so she got some stickles on her outfit and barrettes (I added some to the tree stand too). Once she was all pretty, Olivia was ready to decorate the tree.
First comes the garland - a lovely velvet rick rack from Basic Grey's Urban Couture line. I LOVE this rick rack and wish there was more than 2 feet on the roll! Waaa!!! Then Olivia hung all the pretty ornaments - Bella's Baubles (with Stickles added to some for more sparkle). She's holding the final ornament as she decides on the perfect place to hang it. The gemstone star is from my misc. bling bin, so I can't tell you who made it, but doesn't it look pretty on top of the tree?

When I was finished with all that, the card still looked a little bare to me, so I added a sentiment and photo corners. The dark pink layer of the photo corners is actually white paper I colored with one of the copic markers I used on Olivia's outfit. Neat, huh? Just give it a sec to dry before punching so you get crisp edges. The sentiment is from one of those great Studio G sets you get for $1 at your local craft store. I went a little crazy buying the holiday ones this year, but you can never have too many holiday sentiments, right? LOL!

Deck the halls...

I know you've all seen this layout before, but it is one of my favorites, so it bears repeating. Instead of stamping or cuttlebugging the ornaments, I decided to go use some of the DP I've been hoarding. The ornaments were punched out of the DP with a 1 1/4" circle punch. I painted them with Angel Wings Shimmerz and then added stickles for some added oomph. Once the card was assembled, I painted the green and red border with more Shimmerz for a bit more sparkle.

Sugarplums...

I'm so excited! I was the lucky winner of the CC Designs Sugarplums Christmas Scene set as well as PJ Olivia and PJ Christopher from All That Scraps! I love these sets, and knew I had to have them when I saw the sneak peaks, so I was tickled pink to win them!


The card uses the tree from the Scene set, and a sentiment from a SU hostess set. The tree was water colored, and then I added red stickles for the garland and ribbon, and diamond stickles for the lights (click on image for a larger view). I added Bella's Baubles in gold for the ornaments. I ran the top half of the card through my cuttlebug with the swiss dots folder, and then added on ribbon. Don't you just love the red fiber? I found it at a dollar store and just had to have it for holiday cards! It has a really pretty sheen to it that doesn't come through well in the photo, but trust me, it is lovely!


When I first saw this set, I immediately knew I would have to break out of my comfort zone and make a scrapbook page for my niece and nephew. Anna and Ryan's mommy's both work full time, so I thought I would help them out a bit with a pre-made scrapbook page that they just have to add photos to. This one is for Anna.


Here's a close-up of the stamped portion. Everything was water colored, and then stickles were added to the tree, presents, stocking, flames, and Anna's hair bows for a little extra sparkle. The fireplace was placed on 3d-dots so that the fire looks like it is sitting in it, and then has the stocking attached with a mini brad. The DP I used for Olivia's pajamas was leftover from my September 3 Little DReaMs kits. I've been itching to use it on a holiday project since I first laid eyes on it! I added more stickles to it, because every girl needs pretty pj's for Christmas.

If anyone has tips for photographing 12x12 layouts, I'd love to hear them!

2 more holiday projects...

I love the rustic, old fashioned Christmas feel of the new Home for Christmas set in the SU holiday mini, and had to have it as soon as I saw it. It brings back happy memories of sledding at Grandma's house when I was a child. They have a nice big hill out back, and my uncles would always flatten out a path from the top of the hill out into the field at the bottom. It was quite the hike to get to the top, but worth the rush you got going back down!

The image was colored in with copic markers, and the designer paper is all no-name I picked up at Joann's. For the snow, I used liquid applique, poofed it with the heat gun, and then added stickles on top for some sparkle.

The next project I have for you involves no stamping whatsoever. Oh my! I found the pattern for a gift card holder in a craft magazine, and had to make one of my own. I always need at least one gift card holder over the holidays, and this one can do double duty as a ornament for the tree.


I used a pigma micron pen to draw the frame and snowman, and then colored everything in with an aquapainter and SU ink refills. I added red and green stickles for a finishing touch. The eyelets were custom colored with a green copic marker before being added to the project with my crop-a-dile.

Hmmm... looking at it now, I think I need to add a tag to the ribbon...

67 days til Christmas!!!

That's right, there are only 67 day left until Christmas! Ack! Guess I'll have to buckle down and get to work on my holiday cards, eh? Here's one I made a while ago, but didn't get around to sharing yet.


After seeing all of the adorable holiday cards featuring Tilda on various blogs that I read, I was itching to make a Tilda holiday card. Unfortunately, the Magnolia winter/christmas 2008 stamp club hasn't shipped yet, and I don't own any winter Tilda's. I went digging through my stash of pif images, and found Tilda with flowered jeans. Doesn't she look cute in holiday colors? I used copics to color her, and then added stickles to her wings.

Tilda needed something to sit on, so I masked off the cat on Whiskers & Fur by Penny Black so I only stamped the present. This was also colored in with copics, and then the gold ribbon had Beeswax Shimmerz painted on it to make it sparkle. It didn't photograph very well, but trust me, Shimmerz are so pretty in real life! I'm hoping Santa will bring me a few more colors for Christmas...

I debated about what to use for embellishments on this card, and decided on little pieces of tissue paper. After all, what says Christmas morning better than bits of tissue / wrapping paper on the floor? LOL!

holiday card & a copic tutorial

Today is World Card Making Day, so I thought it would be appropriate to share a holiday card I made recently.

I found this adorable stamp from Stampendous, Penguin Games, at Michael's a while back. I have several friends and family who had their first child this year, so I thought this would be perfect for holiday cards for them. I've had the DP (Jolly & Bright by Heidi Grace) in my stash for a while, and decided to base my colors on it for a non-traditional holiday card.

The image was colored with copic markers (I used RV10, R46, YG11, Y38, W5, W7), and then I added some stickles to the pompom on the hat and the lights. I stamped an extra baby penguin, and put him on popdots for some dimension. While I was waiting for the stickles to dry, I bent beading wire into the shape of the string of lights. Once the stickles were dry, I put crystal effects on the lights and used this to hold the beading wire in place. I love how the crystal effects makes the lights look like actual glass bulbs. :)


I dug into my stash of bling for the pretty gems. They were brads, but the prongs on them are too big to lie flat, so I snipped them off with my crop-a-dile, and attached them with glue dots. Much better!

Copics are great for coloring on more than paper. The gems weren't the right color for the card, so I took my RV10 and YG11 copics, and colored each gem to match the colors used in my image. Neat, huh?



Want to see something else neat? You can also use your copics to make custom colored ribbon WITHOUT the mess you get with reinkers or other methods of coloring ribbon.

I wanted to use satin ribbon on this card, but the red I had didn't go with the card. I used white ribbon and a R46 copic to color it the shade I needed to match the card.

To do this, place your ribbon on a piece of scrap paper so you don't get ink on your stamping surface. Then, using the wide nib, color your ribbon in a straight line. Repeat until no white is showing.

Now flip your ribbon over, and do the same thing to the back of the ribbon for even coverage.


Note that your color might look a little splotchy at first, but will even out once it is dry.

The ribbon will dry in seconds and be ready to use. And see how little mess it leaves? Gotta love it! This will make your ribbon just slightly stiffer than it was before, but otherwise there is no difference.

Storage

There have been a bunch of threads on SCS about storage for various stamping supplies, so I thought I would share what I do.

We turned an unused guest bedroom into my craft room a while back, and organizing it has been a work in progress. When I am working on a project, I like to have everything I need in arms reach so I don't have to get up and possibly lose my focus (or lose my seat to one of the cats...).

My "desk" is just one of those hard plastic tables with the folding legs you can find at Wal-mart or Sam's. I believe mine is the 8 foot model. I have a Sterlite 2 drawer file cabinet at each end, which I use to store my cardstock. The cardstock is in hanging file folders, divided by color family / brand, and then by color.

On my desk, (starting from the left) I have my paper cutter , my box of SU markers, dollar store flower pots repurposed into holding various other tools, markers, paint brushes, etc, and then 3 towers of drawers (also by Sterlite) that serve as catch-alls for anything small.

On the wall above the desk, I have my ink pad / copic marker holder, and 4 metal strips that I use to display projects. I purchased the metal strips at Staples, and got the ink/marker holder from www.kingdom.com (note that it is actually a cassette tape holder).


I've caught the copic bug, and wanted storage for them that not olny was easy to reach, but also made it easy to see what color I was reaching for. After doing a lot of research, I decided that donating 2 rows of my ink pad holder for my copics would work best for me. The slots in the holder weren't quite deep enough to hold the markers in place, so I bought super thin wood sheets at ACMoore (I think it is used for modeling?) and used my exacto knife to cut them to the correct length. The sheets are 4 inches wide, so they are perfect for holding the copics in place.


Now on to the problem of knowing what color marker I am reaching for... I own a mixture of Copic Ciao and Sketch, and as you know, the Ciao markers don't have the number on the end like the other styles do. My solution was to scribble each marker on a piece of cardstock, write the number in the scribble, punch it out with a 1/4" circle punch, and glue the punch out to the end of the barrel. This has the added benefit of showing you what the actual marker color is, so I went a head and did the same thing to my Sketch markers too.


I highly recommend printing out a blank color chart for your Copics and coloring it in each time you get a new marker. Not only will it let you keep track of what colors you already have, but it also makes a nice reference when you are trying to match marker color to ribbon or paper. Sharon at Paper Fection has one that is all but identical to the one I use (I forgot where I downloaded mine from, sorry). Make sure to print it on whatever cardstock you usually use as the color can vary slightly from cardstock to cardstock.


Now onto punch storage. I don't know about you, but I just can't have enough punches! I got tired of digging through a drawer looking for the right one, and decided to wall mount them instead. After looking at various options, I decided that curtain rods were the best option for my space and my budget. The rods shown below are mounted on the wall on the left side of my stamp desk, so now my punches are at arms length whenever I want to use one. I got mine at Target for around $5 each. I started out with two, and quickly needed to buy a third. I think I'll be picking up another one soon - I'm almost out of space again. I swear those things multiply like bunnies!