I went on vacation to the mountains, and I knew that I should have taken "my stuff", but how do you decide what to take to create a card??? It can be more FUN to buy something new and start from scratch. Well, I did not remember how much "stuff " you have to buy just to make a simple card

Of course, one stamp leads to two stamps and before I knew it I have bought five new stamps. Most of them are Penny Black stamps. The first one is a very simple design with direct to rubber inking. The background had been sponged with brown ink. Which I ended up buying four 0r five new stamps pads plus three markers.

The paper is white, red, and black with red swiss dot ribbon. Having bought scrapbook paper that is reversible allowed me to get the effect of using two different papers. The pine cones had the reverse side of "faux wood".

I used a background script stamp in dark brown on cream paper. next I stamped on vellum using the direct to rubber method again, with a water pen I added a little color and highlighted with an inkessentials white pen. The sentiment is just a portion of another stamp as you will see a little further on.

The blue Christmas card was the most simple of all, don't you just love the designer paper??? It came already embossed and highlighted with a gel type finish on the leaves and berries. I stamped the sentiment again using just a portion of a collage stamp, ripped the edges and affixed to one side. A faux bow and I was done.

The Art Room, in Franklin N C has a lot of cool things packed into a small space. My DH was with me the first day and he was so impressed with the lady that owns, and is the only employee of the shop, that I was able to return multiple times during the one week without a "fuss" about how much I had spent.

The last card I have to show is a collage stamp by Penny Black. I inked direct to rubber ( a great technique when you have limited supplies), stamped on cream, then I used my water pen to darken and add a touch more color.

You can see now where the noel came from for the earlier card.

I have decided that I will NEVER again travel without my supplies for crafting, at least when I know I will have hours of free time without all of life's interruptions. Now I don't mind buying a few new supplies, but I don't need six different brands of stamp cleaner, three brands of glue stick when I normally use adhesive tape when I have.......well you get the idea. It sounds like I need to spend more time creating than buying...but don't let my DH know I said that!

Thank you for looking, and I will supply you with the paper company names as soon as I get home to look them up.

Chat Challenge

Have you joined us on Tuesday nights for the Chat with a Designer on SCS? Have you seen the cards submitted for Faiths Chat challenge? I do not often have a card to add to the gallery, but last weeks was an easy one to do. The challenge, red white and black NO other colors.

I know what you are saying, "It looks like some pink in there to me" Well, yes and no, the ink is real red applied with a water pen, hence the pink shades.

To start at the beginning: I started with a black base card, layered a red panel, then dry embossed a white panel using the cuttle bug folder with a snowflake design.

I used my sizzix to emboss, that is the great thing about all the die cuts, embossing folders, etc. out there. You can easily use any brand machine with Spellbinders, cuttle bug, sizzix, accu cut, you name it. I can't say one machine is any better that another, it all depends on what you are accustom to and like to use.

The red circle was cut using creative memories, I bought a Fiskers circle punch, that is how I got the edge design. The paper is the new Christmas glitter paper at Flourishes.

I stamped three of the small poinsettias, embossed with white pearl embossing powder then colored with real red using a water pen. Water pens are handy to have around, I keep three on hand filled with water at all times. They work great when I want a softer shade of color on an image. The leave for the flower are not colored in this picture, but I went back and added green to them later. I cut them all out while watching some TV show, that way I don't feel guilty watching TV and I can still get some work done....makes the cutting time go faster too!

I inked direct to rubber for the sentiment as the stamp had more on it than I wanted to use for this card. I cut with Spellbinders ribbon tags trio, added the black and white checker ribbon.

Stamps: Poinsettia and Boxwood, Holiday Sentiments Flourishes
Paper: Christmas Glitter, red, while, black
Embossing: cuttle Bug (dry embossing) Personal Stamp Exchange (White Pearl)
Ink: SU real red, Versa Mark, Nior Black
Punch: Fiskers, Spellbinders die
Ribbon: MayArts

You bet it Glitters

I fell in love with the vintage set of Christmas ornaments even before it was off the drawing board. I have seen many ornaments just like all of this, on my Grandmothers trees every Christmas. My mother has been able to preserve a few old ornaments and to this day puts them on her tree.
Granted her "treasures" are not of the design and quality of the All That Glitters set, but it is comforting to know that some things last a life time and beyond. So when I made my first card using this set I wanted a Victorian look to the card......The best way to achieve that was to start with the Damask background stamp on designer paper from BasicGrey.

I thought I would stamp white on a darker dp...well I did not choose a dark enough paper, the white did not show well enough to my satisfaction.........so I picked a color that was slightly darker than my background paper and stamped again. With polymer stamps it can be easier to realign and over-stamp the image.

Take a look at what happened, I got a "shadow " image that turned out better than I could hope for, in fact I love it.

As you can see when you look straight on at the card you can not tell that it is "off" by just the slightest bit, it is only when you hold it a little sideways that you can see the white shadow.

The main image was stamped on watercolor paper in burnt umber, colored with SU & a watercolor pen with Copic markers for highlights. I placed a mask over the bird using eclipse tape, then stamped the branch. I sponged blue, green and carmel around image.

The bulb ornaments is embossed with copper, glue spread over it and micro glass beads sprinkled on, it glitters just like the real thing! I can see using embossing powders, beads, luminarts micas or twinkling h2o on any of the images in this set.

I folded a paper doily in half then in fourths, attached it on the left side. I would have stamped JOY on the doily but I was not sure if it would show to my satisfaction, so I stamped on vellum and trimmed as close as I could. I finished off with a two tone ribbon and brushed brass brads.

If you have not seen all of the cards made from the Christmas release, you have to check them out. You will find all the DTs on the right side bar and just as soon as I get my blog up dated our blogging friends will be there too.

Thanks for stopping by and remember, Flourishes is having a sale!

Joy! Its almost Christmas.

Here is another of the stamp sets that are being released this week at Flourishes, and just in time for the holidays, AND with 10% off everything in the store what better time to shop.

To make shopping easy, add the promo code RSC88 at the end of your order and it will give you a line item discount on everything.

The paper, glittering Christmas, the stamp set, Poinsettia and Boxwood, even the ribbon can be found here.

I must confess that the base card is a premade one, it has brown paper bag type envelopes with it that I could not resist.

I stamped random leaves all over the dark green base card, I added a layer of brown glittered paper to the left side, chocolate paper horizontally across the card with more glittered paper on top, this time with brown pine cones on tan card stock. With the glittered design already on the paper makes for a simple, quick layout.

I stamped Joy....(Holiday Greetings) on red card stock and cut both it and the green with Spellbinders classic ovals. The tree brad at the edge is covered with green stickles, I found it to be a perfect way to dress up a plain brad.

The last, or should I say the first thing I made and added last, is the poinsettia with leaves. i stamped the poinsettia three time on red with red ink....I cut out different parts of the flower.....and layered with pop dots. Then adheared it to the right side, added a little ribbon on the left side and called it done. Oh yes, there is a little yellow stickles on the flower.

Santa's Coming To Town!

Can it really be that time of year again?? Christmas is getting ever closer, by the end of this month it will be only two months before Christmas. it seems like very year I am less and less willing to go shopping for gifts.

I have been having so much fun working with the new Christmas stamps that I have fallen behind on my work at Flourishes, that and I have been gone for the last couple of weekends.

All images on the first cards are from Santa's Sleigh.

The first card, well both of these cards, I have stamped the sleigh on clear card stock with Palette nior black ink. It does take a little time for the ink to dry so don't be in a hurry, it gives you time to stamp, color, cut, and glue the sleigh panel. The two sleigh's are stamped and colored using the same papers, ink and markers. The only difference is the design on the side.

The designs on the side panels are small, but I found it remarkably easy to color with SU markers...alas...I have found a use for the small end of all those markers.

The layers on the first card are as follows: 1. celery green, stamped with the snowflake image and Versa Mark. 2. Garden green under a white layer that had been dry embossed with the cuttlebug snowflake folder and the edge cut with decorative scissors. 3. Designer paper with a glitter swirl in red and green. 4. The clear card stock with the sleigh stamped with the decorative panels adhered to the back side of the image with Quickie Glue along the inked lines of the sleigh. 5. A red rectangle with the center cut with Spellbinders classic rectangle, then adhered over the top of the clear card stock to form a frame. 6. Ending with a bit of ribbon and "Santa's Sleigh" stamped in black, cut, and embossed with Spellbinders, and a brown brad at each end.

This second card started out as a trial piece using the leftover image when I made the first card. I stamped two sleigh's and being the thrifty person that I am...or the fact that I hate to waste anything I stamp.... The whole card is pieced together from trial and leftover pieces.

The tree stamp is from Forest of Trees, all the trees are made using the one stamp. I was trying out a stamp that was said to be flawed, they could not get a clear image in the center of the stamp. As you can see I have stamped it numerous times and had a perfect image every time. I say perfect because the shorter trees are done that way on purpose, I laid a sheet of plain paper at an angle on my white card stock as I stamped. The lighter images are from the second and sometimes third stamp off. The result was more than I had hoped for, it looked like the trees were on the side of a hill with the sleigh coming around from the bottom.

The red bird, I made a shrinky dink using one of the birds from Birds on the Vine.