2022 Favorites

It's become a tradition for us to look back over the last year and choose our favorite makes, so here are some of mine!  I say "some" because these are only a few!  

Just click on the caption below each card to visit the original post, and then close the window to come back to this one.  

Easter Blessings

With Sympathy

God Bless the USA!

Kinder Grad Congrats!

My Refuge and Fortress

Happy Father's Day!

"Pocket Money" Bag Tags

Deck the Halls!

Happy New Year from our family to yours!  It is our prayer that 2023 will be a year filled with good health, happiness, and lots of love!

Merry Christmas!

 

Just a few more days and Christmas Day will dawn!  It seems that there is always more to do right up until the big day arrives, so it's nice to have a couple of quick and easy cards on hand.  Maybe you still need a couple of cards, or a little "Me time" in the stamping studio but only have a few minutes.  This pair of cards is super fast to make using both the "positive" and "negative" of one pass through the die machine.  

The first step is to cut some designer paper to layer on top of your base card stock.  It is better if the print is not too busy and the stamp you choose is not too detailed.  Stamp the image on the designer paper, position the die over the stamped image and run it through the machine.  Remove the stamped image, set the "positive" die cut aside for now, and glue the remaining paper with its "negative" open space onto the card base.  Stamp the image through the opening onto the base card stock.  Color it using your favorite method (here I used Copic markers).  

Stamp a sentiment and embellishment for your card.  I stamped and die cut two of the same sentiment and snowflake for both cards just to make it faster and easier.  

Here's the super clean and simple second card with the positive die from the plaid paper set up on dimensional adhesive dots.  The shimmery gold card stock makes even this simple design feel elegant.  

A splash of diluted white acrylic paint or Snow Tex to both cards gives them a more Wintery holiday feeling.  With so much of America 30 degrees below normal temperatures this Christmas, that seems appropriate!

I hope you and your family have the very merriest Christmas! Happy Holidays!

Supplies:

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Christmas Blessings Bundle
• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Snowflake Blessings Border Strip
• Stamp Simply Steel Dies - Christmas Stockings & Mittens (tiny snowflake)
• Craft Consortium Tartan Plaid 6x6
• Luxury Pearlescent Metallic 105# Cardstock - Gold 6 ct
• Stamp Simply Steel Dies - Fishtail Sentiment Banners
• Memento Full Size Dye Ink Pad - Tuxedo Black
• Zig Wink of Stella Brush - Clear Glitter Marker
• Kaisercraft Self-Adhesive Round Pearls - Red
• Copic markers
• white acrylic paint for splattered "snow"

Time to be Merry!

I have a real soft spot for fancy fold cards and periodically peek on Pinterest for ideas.  This one was inspired by this post which includes measurements for scoring the card base.  I adjusted the size of the focal image panel to fit our lovely seasonal wreath.    

Here's a bird's-eye view of the fold so you have a better idea of the card's construction.  Lots of places to put coordinating prints of lovely, colorful designer paper.  I pulled sheets from three different pads for this one and kept the colors traditional except for the pale green of the poinsettia.  

The "Time to be Merry" sentiment gave me the idea to use my Tim Holtz dies to embellish the wreath as a holiday clock face.  The tiny numbers are from Tim Holtz's Postale die set; the clock hands are arrows from our Farmhouse dies set. 

Of course, clocks have gears and the old timey ones often need winding so I added gears and skeleton keys from our Man of Knowledge set onto the peek-a-boo panel.

Supplies:

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Seasonal Wreaths, Fall/Winter Bundle
• Stamp Simply Steel Dies - A Man of Knowledge Books (gears, keys)
• Stamp Simply Steel Dies - Farmhouse Signage (arrows for clock hands)
• Sizzix Thinlits Dies by Tim Holtz - Postale (clock numbers)
• Graphic 45 Christmas Time - 8x8
• Craft Consortium Ink Drops Rose 6x6
• Craft Consortium Ink Drops Earth 6x6
• Luxury Pearlescent Metallic 105# Cardstock - Gold 6 ct
• Delicata Non-Tarnishing Ink Pad - Celestial Copper
• Memento Full Size Dye Ink Pad - Espresso Truffle
• Zig Wink of Stella Brush - Clear Glitter Marker
• Kaisercraft Self-Adhesive Round Pearls - Red
• Copic markers

Christmas Peace

 

Hello my friends!  I hope you're having a happy December so far! I can hardly believe that Christmas is just a few weeks away. There's still so much that I want to accomplish, and I'd also like to take plenty of time to just savor the Season.  

Last week I played around with distress inks and some scraps of watercolor paper which I've incorporated into this week's Stamp Simply project, a Christmas tag.  I pressed various colors of distress oxide and metallic inks onto my craft mat, spritzed them and the paper with water for the "Spray and Smoosh" technique. They've had plenty of time to dry since then so for today's stamping session they were ready to stamp and die cut without any more waiting.  

The watercolor paper that I used for the background (on top of a die cut tag of white card stock edged with metallic inks) included various colors of green, blue-green and red with splashes of silver and copper.  The ornament, also of watercolor paper that had been smooshed with only silver and copper, was stamped with Memento ink, then given just a tiny touch of Copic marker shading and metallic gel pen accents.

So here is the ornament tucked into the branches of a Christmas tree.  The greenery was cut from textured card stock smudged with silver ink, nestled with berried branches of metallic copper card stock and splashes of diluted metallic ink and diluted acrylic paint "snow" (I'd have used SnowTex if I'd had it).    

Some of our real-life ornaments have a tiny silver tag, so I added one to this ornament, stamping it with the peace sentiment from the companion set with the candle, Christmas Peace.  So this project uses the smallest and the largest of the dies in the Tim Holtz tag collection.    

While simple sticky tags are fine for some gifts, there are definitely plenty of occasions to have something a little more elegant on hand!  This would make a pretty tag for a simply wrapped gift, or an embellishment for a nice bottle of wine to share with the host of a holiday celebration (especially on a dark green bottle of red!)

Supplies:

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Christmas Joy Bundle
• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Christmas Peace (tiny peace sentiment)
• Stamp Simply Steel Dies - Peace & Joy Word Dies
• Sizzix Thinlits Dies by Tim Holtz - Tag Collection
• Sizzix Thinlits Dies by Tim Holtz - Holiday Greens Mini
• Luxury Pearlescent Metallic 105# Cardstock - Copper 6 ct
• Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor Cardstock - 4.25 x 5.5"
• May Arts Burlap String - 400 Yard Spool - Antique Gold
• May Arts 1" Sheer - 100 Yard Spool - Silver
• Delicata metallic inks
• metallic gel pen
• various distress oxides for torn "spray and smoosh" background
• a tiny touch of Copic markers 
• a splash of diluted ivory acrylic paint (Snow Tex would be even better!)

It's Coming!

Are you ready to welcome 2023?!  It is hard to believe that it is only a month away!  I always find this time of year a little bittersweet!  Some years are easier to wish good-bye than others, and whether we want the end of the year to go by slowly (or not!) so that we can savor it, it seems to speed by!

This beautiful Ink Drops designer paper print reminded me of a glittering New Year's Eve table-scape with sparkling silver and gold decorations.  Slicing the paper for a standard sized card left just enough to stamp and die cut a Pretty Poppy for a monochromatic card design.  A touch of warm Copic marker shading and sparkly metallic gel pen accents were all it really needed.  

The Welcome sentiment from Welcome Baby worked perfectly with the small die cut numbers from Tim Holtz' Collector set (The Postale die set also has small numbers in a different font for another option).  That pop of black is such a great contrast...this color combo has always been one of my favorites!  

Here's a look at the inside.  Sponging and splashing with Delicata metallic ink makes it so simply elegant.

Supplies:

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Pretty Poppies
• Sizzix Thinlits Dies by Tim Holtz - Collector (numbers dies)
• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Welcome Baby (welcome sentiment)
• Craft Consortium Ink Drops Monochrome 6x6
• Memento Full Size Dye Ink Pad - Tuxedo Black
• Delicata metallic inks
• Kaisercraft Self-Adhesive Round Pearls - Latte
• metallic gel pen