A Simple Merry

Merry almost Christmas!  Here is a simple holiday card that's fast and easy to put together.

I cut a 5" x 3.75" piece of cream card stock, and lightly sponged Peeled Paint Distress Ink onto this piece through one of my go-to stencils, Adornment ... love this stencil!  I went very lightly on the pouncing.  I cut the heart frame using the second and third largest hearts in the Glorious Hearts set from cream card stock and inked it with Peeled Paint.  From cream card stock, I cut the three separate snowflakes that come in the bundle, and then cut the Wintry Snowflake from dark green card stock.  I arranged this on top of and through the opening of the heart as shown.

I absolutely love how this die perfectly hugs this heart.  It perfectly hugs other shapes as well, and it's one of my favorites.  I cut another one from a rich red card stock, snipped off one of the red snowflakes, and added it to the heart center just for a pop of color.  I'll save the rest of the die cut for another card.  From the Moose Crossing stamp set, I snipped the "Merry" from the "Merry Christmoose" stamp, inked it in Fired Brick Distress Ink and stamped it as shown.  I added mounting tape to the back of the stenciled piece and adhered it to the card front.  I added mounting tape to the back of the assembled heart as well and adhered that to the top of the stenciled piece.  I added some glitter to the cream snowflakes for a little shimmer.  Easy peasy!!!

So glad you topped by.  I wish everyone the merriest Christmas and and a very Happy New Year!

Peaceful Birds

Oh my gosh, Christmas is coming so fast!  With that in mind, peace is the focus of my card today!

Clean and simple cards are my favorite style, with a little glimmer to top it off.  For the ornament frame, I used the third largest ornament from the Drop Ornament Layers set and the second smallest stitched circle from the Stitched Circle Layers set.  This circle fit perfectly inside the ornament, and I was able to cut them together from cream card stock.  I cut three of the Sketchbook Peace die, glued them on top of each other, and layered that over the frame opening.  I die cut the "fluffiest" of the three sprigs from the Floral Sprigs set, added red gemstones for the berries, and adhered that to the ornament as shown.  I added two of the birds from the Birds of a Feather Die.

I mounted the assembled ornament to a piece of light sand colored card stock that was embossed with a wood grain embossing folder, and then used foam tape to adhere it to the cream colored A2 card base.  With a few gemstones scattered around and a little Wink of Stella on the birds, this completed the card. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

 

 

Shimmery Shaker Ornament

Hello everyone!  Sherry here with a fun shaker card for you today!  Shaker cards are such a blast to make, and this one comes with lots of glitter and glam!



I wanted a shimmery background for this card, so I decided to use the Starry Night Background die.  I cut a piece of card stock to 5" x 3.75", die cut the background, and then layered it onto a piece of double sided tape, which exposed the "sticky" on the open stars.  I poured light blue Glitter Ritz on the openings, achieving the shimmer I was looking for.  I then die cut the second largest ornament from the Drop Ornament Layers from the glittered piece.  The ornament that is cut out can be used for another card.



I adhered a piece of acetate to the back of the glitter piece, then die cut another ornament from fun foam that was cut to slightly smaller than the glittered piece, and adhered that to the back of the that piece.  I gathered my sprinkles of beads, glass glitter and sequins, into the center of the card base, and then adhered the assembled front over the sprinkles to create the shaker portion.  I die cut all three of the Shimmering Snowflakes, plus one extra of the small one, from double sided tape, peeled off the top later, and covered the flakes with dark blue and gold glitter.  I did the same with the "Joy", and positioned them as shown.  



I had fun with this one, and hope you enjoyed it too!  Thanks for stopping by!

Starry Night Background

Shimmering Snowflakes

Drop Ornament Layers

Happy Fall!

Well, I'm back after a long hiatus.  During the intervening months, my mom suffered a stroke, and passed away a month later.  It's been tough for my family to accept that she's gone, and it's taken a while to get so many things taken care of, both during and afterwards. But she always encouraged us to keep on going ... in  her words, "Buck up and get over it!"  Miss her so much.

In the meantime, I've kept up with my Memory Box posts (except for a leave during the month of July), and have managed to teach a couple of classes ... I will post those cards in the days to come.  Today, I'd like to share a card featuring the Drifting Oak Leaves background stamp from Memory Box, along with a couple of other Memory Box dies and stamps.  This card can also be seen on today's Memory Box Outside the Box blog. 

A little side story … I completed the FIRST version of this card, and was about to photograph it when I noticed that something didn’t look quite right.  It finally dawned on me that I had the background upside down!  There was no way to salvage it without damage, so of course I had to make another one.  It wasn’t obvious at first, but there was no way I was going to post such a boo-boo!   

   

So on to the card.  I stamped the background using Distress Shabby Shutters on a piece of cream card stock cut slightly smaller than the base.  I cut the Autumn Border from cream card stock.  I wanted the leaves to hang down, so I trimmed the border down to two pieces of equal width, and one shorter than the other as shown.  I used daubers to color the leaves with Distress Peeled Paint, Dried Marigold, Rusty Hinge, Fired Brick and Aged Mahogany.  I shaded the open area starting at the bottom with Frayed Burlap, then Rusty Hinge and then Dried Marigold, blending each into the other. I added some Wink of Stella glitter brush to all of the leaves. 

I stamped “Happy Fall” from the Autumn Birdie Set with Versamark Black Onyx ink, and the three little leaves from the same set with Peeled Paint.  I then mounted the shorter piece to the longer one with foam tape. 

I die cut the Tippington Vine from a dark green card stock, snipped it apart at the middle curly-cue and glued it behind the leaves piece, then glued the whole thing onto the Drifting Oak Leaves background.  I mounted the assembled piece to the card base front with foam tape, added a few gem stones, and that was it. 

To those who have checked my blog from time to time, thank you so much.  It means a lot that you haven't given up on me!  Have a wonderful day!

Memory Box Evershan Branch

My design today features the beautiful and elegant Evershan Branch die, and I decided to make it a monochromatic card just for fun. 

The top fold card base is from a light tan card stock.  I cut the Bengal Background die from ivory card stock, then used one of the dies from the Open Studio Rectangle Layers set to cut out the center to leave a window.  (I will be sure to use the cut out piece on a different card.) I cut a frame of the same size from the Open Studio Rectangle Frames set, adhered that over the opening to create a frame and then added that to the card base.  I cut the Evershan Branch from the same ivory card stock, and adhered that with foam tape as shown.  I punched several tan and ivory circles using a 1/4" circle punch and used a stylus to cup them.  I adhered some of them on the flowers and scattered the rest, then added pearls to all of the centers.  

When I showed this card to my friend and fellow teacher, Nance, she just happened to pick the card up and hold it so that the Evershan Branch was positioned at the top, different from the way I had oriented the card originally.  We both said, "Ohhh, that works!"

Then we turned the card 180 degrees so that the branch was at the bottom, and said, "Oh, THAT works too!"  It was one of those "happy accidents".

This card could be used for any occasion, any way you'd like to look at it!

Be sure to visit the Memory Box Outside the Box blog starting Monday, April 13th through Friday, April 17th, for some great inspiration using the latest release of dies, stamps and stencils!

Thanks for stopping by!