Favorite Five Christmas Cards

12/19/15

At A Scrapjourney blog, Debby is challenging us to pick our favorite five Christmas cards of this year and then enter them at her blog. I did find it a challenge, but have chosen these cards. Below the picture is the date I blogged the card originally which you can click on to see the details on how I made the card or the supplies used.

12/12/15

11/29/15

11/28/15 

11/17/15

I am entering these cards in the Favourite Five challenge at A Scrapjourney, the 4th card in Sharing the Season challenge at Craft Stamper Magazine and the 2nd card in the Winter Wonderland challenge at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.

Anything Goes at Repeat Impressions

Happy Wednesday everyone! It's time for another fun challenge at Repeat Impressions. If there is a 5^th Wednesday in the month, the challenge is my favorite: Anything Goes! Make any card and link it up for a chance at some great Repeat Impressions rubber! For all the details on what you can win and to see the other Rock Stars cards, please visit our blog.

I made this Christmas card special for Wendy and Bill, the generous owners of Repeat Impressions. I will share more of the Deep Impressions technique I used to make the ornament in the first Project of the Week on January 4th. But briefly, it involves melting layers of embossing powders on a chipboard piece and then stamping it while it is still molten. I stamped RI’s beautiful Snowflake Orb into the molten circle of embossing powders. I die cut the top of the ornament with a Tim Holtz Sizzix die, and “hung” the ornament with thin washi tape. I embossed the navy card base with an embossing folder from Darice. I embossed the Peace wish with white embossing powder.

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenges at 613 Avenue Create and Craft Your Passion, and the Sharing the Season challenge at Craft Stamper Magazine.

**Don’t Forget: for a 10% discount on any size order at Repeat Impressions, make a note of my discount code (rr10kh), click on the blog badge on the side of my blog and go to the website here to shop and save!**

Celebrate the New Year Southwestern Style and a Huge Sale!

Happy New Year! It's my turn to post a card on Die-Version's blog and mine, and I am sharing this card featuring several dies from the November 2015 Southwestern inspired release available here on the website. I die cut the Southwestern Bison, Southwestern Cactus and Western Vases out of various patterned pieces and also out of the front of a business sized card. I slipped the die cut pieces back into their respective holes and attached the piece to a dark brown business sized card base. I added the sentiment “Thinking of You” also cut with a Die-Versions die to complete the card.

Celebrate the holidays with this awesome sale! 60% off everything at the Die-Versions website between now and December 30th! What a great deal! I love these dies and I know you will too-especially at these bargain prices!

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenges at Crafting from the Heart and Craft Your Passion.

Three Cards, Sames Dies and Sketch

I borrowed the Sending a Big Hug Semi Circle Tonic Studio die set from a friend and had so much fun playing with it this week, I made three cards! I found this card from the Tonic Studios blog in England and CASED it - it was just too pretty not to just go with the same format. I searched my room for two sided cardstock and came up with a couple pieces to start. I cut this card 6 x 9 inches and scored at the 3 inch line. Then I simply cut the die pieces in dark brown and attached. This is what the inside of this card looks like:

The left side flap opens to reveal a place where a message could be written inside the beautiful semi-circle frame. I cut a half circle with a Spellbinders die which does not exactly fit (so I changed it up below.) I also made a card with some Stampin' Up two sided cardstock I had in my stash:

Same concept- the left flap opens to reveal a semi-circle to write a message on. I cut the last two cards I made just an 1/8 inch smaller on both sides, so they slide easily into a 6 x 6 square envelope.
Here is my favorite of the three cards I made:

I decided the card was just so pretty I had to share it with my January classes and I found this Graphic 45 paper with enough sheets to cut for them too. I created this one the same way as above and this time I added some beautiful Sugared Almond Crystal Drops from Tonic to all the ends of the swirls. This "pearl-like" product is so easy to work with and does not dry the curly tops many similar products do. Here is what the inside looks like:

I decided to cut just the outside of one of the semi-circle dies in this set for a personal message to be written on. I like how this one turned out better and I think my classes are going to love this card!

The Sending a Big Hug Semi Die Set is available here on the Tonic Gold US website and the Crystal Drops are available here.  And for more great Tonic Studio ideas, visit my Tonic Pinterest board here for inspiration.

I am entering the third card in the Anything Goes challenges at Simply Papercraft and Polkadoodles.

The Last of My Christmas Cards

I did it- each of  my new Christmas dies has all been played with at least once. I cheated a bit and moved those that could be considered Winter and still used in the winter months of the new year into a different pile:) My bed is still a huge mess, but little by little I will tackle each pile and then put away. I used sparkly glitter and gilding flakes on this card. The tree on the left is a new die from Penny Black and under the holes in the die is gilding flakes. I stamped Tim Holtz's "Joy to the World" on the top of the green panel. I die cut Dee's Distinctively swirly tree and a star punch from two sided Sookang paper and applied red and gold fine glitter. Here is a close up of the two kinds of sparkle:

And here is one last card I have not blogged yet. I used Penny Black's background stamp over a Brusho background and messed it up a bit. Mostly because I used the wrong kind of watercolor paper- it was too textured, so the trees would not stamp well even with the MISTI. So I filled in the trees with a black marker, and added a dove (Die-Versions) and my wish for this holiday season and next year- Peace on Earth- from Tim Holtz for Sizzix.

I am entering the first card in the "Make it Sparkle" challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and the second card in the Winter Wonderland challenge at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.

Happy Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and New Year to all!

Noel Christmas Tree with Gilding Flakes

My pile of unused Christmas dies is dwindling and I might actually keep my resolution to play with them all before Christmas. My family Christmas is not until the weekend after Christmas so I have a little time this week to play. I made this card yesterday with new dies from Dee's Distinctively (the swirls on  the tree) and Penny Black (the Noel.) I started with an old tree die from Tim Holtz for Sizzix and die cut two in different greens, then layered together. I die cut the swirls out of two sided tape from Sookang and applied a couple different colors of Cosmic Shimmer gilding flakes from Creative Expressions.I really like this brand of gilding flakes because the flakes are smaller and there is a delightful mixture of color in each jar. I also punched a star (old punch from Tonic Studios) out of a gold gilding flake piece. I decorated the trees with the swirls of color and added a Noel die from Penny Black to finish the card.

I am entering this card in the Holidays challenge at Scrapy Land and the Winter Wonderland challenge at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.

Twas the Night Before Christmas...

...and all through the house, not a creature was stirring except that crazy Karen who swore she would use every one of her new holiday dies on a card before Christmas! In addition to getting her CHA assignments done, not to mention family visits, shopping and wrapping, etc. I am almost all done, and if I get a few more cards made this week, I will share before it is too late. Santa is on his way on a stormy snowy Christmas Eve in this scene I created with black Bister powder and water on a watercolor piece. Before applying the black Bister, I spattered on some masking fluid and let it dry for the snowflakes. I also created a mask for the snow bank on the bottom. After the black Bister dried, I  masked around the moon and pulled the Bister color out with bleach. I stamped the trees in black ink with stamps from Repeat Impressions. The Santa and Sleigh die is from Impression Obsession and the "Noel" die is from Die-Versions.

I am entering this card in the Holidays challenge at Scrapy Land and the Winter Wonderland challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.  I am also entering it into the Sharing the Season challenge at Craft Stamper Magazine Take It Make It Challenge.

Handmade Gifts for my Card Club Friends

I belong to a monthly card where we actually play cards, not make them:) We have a great time with lots of laughing and talking playing Canasta and other card games. Every December we all go out to lunch at a lovely tea shop and exchange presents. I found this calendar/notepad box with drawers perfect for candy here on Vicki Dutcher's blog and decided to give it a try. It wasn't hard- except the tutorial that Vicki linked to had a minor mistake in the measurements. It referred to 1/6 of an inch and I struggled for the longest time with that. What the heck is 1/6th of an inch on a ruler? Tried all sorts of adjustments and calculations- then I looked at the picture of a ruler and realized- she meant 1/16th (she was dividing 2 1/8th inches in half- so 1 1/16th- ohhhhh. So if you try it and go to the tutorial, keep that in mind. I also made this for the girls:

The snowflake on the front of the jar of sweet and salty snack mix was made with my favorite snowflake die from Tonic Gold and the stamp that says it all on the top is by Great Impressions.

I am entering these projects in the Anything Goes challenges at Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas and at Crafty Friends Challenge.

Crazy Bird Brusho Card for my BFF

I have been wanting Tim Holtz's Crazy Bird Accessories stamp set  forever and I finally got it! I have very little time to "play" but did make some Brusho backgrounds and one Christmas card with the Santa hat and my favorite Crazy Bird for a dear friend and her DH. I paper pieced the crazy bird and his Santa hat, and added some punched snowflakes and gems. The perfect sentiment is from Great Impressions.

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenges at Polkadoodles and 613 Avenue Create.

Just for You Holiday Card with Tonic Goodies

I wanted to make a couple holiday cards to say thank you to some special people at Tonic Gold U.S. who gave me this great opportunity to be a Tonic U.S. Blog Ambassador and who have been so generous with Tonic Gold products. They should have received their cards by now, so I am sharing the card here. I started with a background made with my favorite Brusho Crystal colors on watercolor paper. Then I die cut Tonic's Winter Snowflake out of the middle. I added some of Tonic's Mother of Pearl Nuvo Embellishment Mousse to the snowflake with a soft cloth and popped it back in. I also added the mousse to the words I cut out from one of the Everyday Squares Die Set. Then I added gold dots using Tonic's Bright Gold Nuvo Crystal Drops for the finishing touch. Both of these Nuvo products from Tonic add gorgeous metallic color so easily and the drops are round and perfect without the annoying curly tails of other similar products.

I am entering this card in the Holidays challenge at Scrapy Land and the Die Crazy challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge (of course I used Tonic dies).

Peace and Joy from Crackerbox Palace and Me!

It's Crackerbox Palace Friday and today I am sharing a Christmas card I made with Crackerbox Palace stamps, watercolor wash and embossing resist. In addition I used a pretty snowflake border die from Die’sire and some sparkly sugar glitter paste from BoBunny. I started by heat embossing the lovely snowflakes and the sentiment from Crackerbox Palace with white embossing powder. Then I mixed some distress ink and water on my craft sheet and brushed it across the snowflake piece and let it dry. I die cut the snowflake border from Die’sire out of the top fold of an A2 card and rubbed some sugar glitter paste from BoBunny on it to make it sparkle.

The wish on the card is our wish for you and yours – Peace and Joy!

I am entering this card in the Die Crazy challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and the Holidays challenge at Scrapy Land (used Die’Sire die.)

Happy Holidays from Die-Versions Dies and Me!

Happy Holidays from Die-Versions and me! It's my turn to post a card on Die-Version's blog and mine, and I am sharing the rest of my Die-Versions Christmas projects. My first picture above shows some of the tags I made with Die-Versions dies. I started with some basic tag shapes and then simply added Die-Version holiday sentiments and images, then tied with curling ribbon. The tags are so easy and fun to make with great dies. Here are a few more:

Here are pictures of two fun holiday cards I made with Die-Version dies and stencils: 

In both cards I featured the Cozy Fireplace die and “Happy Holidays” from the Holiday Complements set of sentiments. I have used and used this set of holiday sentiments (see most of the tags above.) On the first card, I sponged Fossilized Amber Distress Ink through a Memory Box stars stencil after attaching the cozy fireplace. Then I added the sentiment cut in gold paper. On the second card, I attached the cozy fireplace with temporary tape and also attached the sentiment cut in white cardstock. I sponged the same distress ink through a large snowflake stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils and also through a stencil I created with acetate and smaller snowflake punches. Then I removed the cozy fireplace, sponged ink on the edges and re-attached with pop-dots to raise it.

**Remember you can get a 15% discount on any of Die-Versions great dies by simply using my discount code karen15 when you check out at the Die-Versions website.**

I am entering this card in the snowflakes challenge at Dies R Us, the holidays challenge at Scrapy Land (I used Die-Versions dies), die crazy challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge and the Christmas challenge at That Craft Place.

Joy Snowflake Card

I am sharing another card I made with the beautiful border dies I purchased at HSN from Die'sire. I cut the snowflakes out of the folded top of an A2 white cardbase. I sponged on just a pinch of blue ink while the paper was still in the die. I added just a pinch of BoBunny glitter paste though a stencil  by Memory Box, and attached the navy blue card front when it was dry. I die cut "joy" and the snowflake from W Plus 9 and added a few pearls to complete the card.

I am entering this card in the "Just a Pinch" challenge at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and the Anything Goes challenge at Scrapy Land.

Tag It Card for Simon Says Stamp Challenge

My favorite challenge to enter is the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and this week their theme is Tag It! Today I am sharing a card I made with a die cut tag I found on clearance at Michaels or JoAnns. The butterfly was just too pretty to pass up. The butterfly tags sat on my bed for awhile and after I got a new deeply embossed embossing folder from We R Memory Keepers, this card came together easily. I embossed the black card base and added pearls in the intersection. I die cut the "for you" and added some fiber to the tag. I added a punched butterfly and a black liquid pearl for a super easy but lovely card.

I am also entering this card in the Create Your Own Challenge at 613 Avenue Create. I used sentiment, embossing, liquid pearls, pearl and fibers.

Tag It! with Dies

I made a bunch of tags this year using all sorts of my favorite dies, a little stamping and some washi tape. I also used some vellum, embossing folders and gems. Too many to go into great detail, but if you have a question about a specific product I used, feel free to email me via the contact feature on the side of the blog.

I am entering these tags in the Tag It challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and the Holly Jolly challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. 

Snowflake Flurries Christmas Card

Did I mention I absolutely love dies? Even more than my stamps lately! No stamping on this card at all, but I love how it turned out. A friend called me one afternoon and told me to check out HSN to see all the awesome dies from Die'sire and Crafter's Companion being sold at special prices. I watched for an hour or so, then my husband came home- which was a good thing because I would have bought even more if I watched the next show! I did buy a set of three gorgeous border dies from Die'sire and a great scoring board to make boxes with. The dies cut, emboss and act as a stencil if you want to add ink before removing the die from the paper. I cut and sponged the snowflake Edge'able die twice on the scored sides of a white A2 card. Then I simply added a navy blue layer to the inside and die cut "Merry Christmas Present" from Die-Versions in silver for the sentiment. Here are a couple more pictures showing the inside and the detail on the snowflake border die:

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenge at Scrapy Land and the Winter challenge at Cut It Up.

I am Thrilled to Announce...

I have been chosen to be a Tonic U.S. Blog Ambassador!! For the next six months I will be sharing projects using products from Tonic Gold U.S. here on my blog and on the Tonic U.S. blog! The announcement of the whole team of ambassadors is being made today on their blog and I am so proud to be part of this talented team of designers! Here is a link to the official announcement: https://www.tonic-gold.com/s/tonic-us-blog-ambassadors/

I was so excited to get this wonderful news recently and of course I had to play with some of the Tonic goodies I already own to share with you today. I wanted to design some boxes to give gifts in this Christmas with the box becoming part of the gift. I started this box with two 7 3/4 inch square pieces of white cardstock. I scored the top piece at the one inch line on all four sides. The bottom piece was scored just a little bit smaller. I die cut Tonic Studio's gorgeous "From Me to You" Semi Die out of the top of the box and also in blue cardstock. I cut the blue one in half and attached the side with the words "From me to you" just slightly offset under the white half. I cut the flowers out of the other half and attached them on the left side. I die cut Tonic's beautiful "Fae Ella" out of a lighter blue scrap and attached her on the top of the box. I finished the box with some blue and white gems. Here is another look at the intricate detail of the "From Me to You" Semi Die Set:

To see any of the Tonic Gold products I used today, visit here on the Tonic website.

(Edited to add- if you saw this announcement earlier, I had to pull it because the day of the official announcement at Tonic got delayed. Now that it is finally here, I can share the good news, get back to blogging daily and get to work on my Tonic projects for their blog and CHA! Woo Hoo!)

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenges at 613 Avenue Create and Crafting from the Heart.

McVodka Super Sized Please!

If you follow me, you know I love using humor in my cards and that is why I had to buy a bunch of the lol stamps from Two Lips Stamps sold by Polkadots and More in my home state of Wisconsin. This stamp cracked me up so I had to make a card with it. I cut the stamp apart into three parts of a conversation and used speech bubble dies from My Creative Time. I cut the speech bubbles out of the white embossed cardstock and out of aqua blue and peach cardstock. I spattered gold and teal ink all over the front of the card with Tim Holtz's Spatter Brush, then inserted the conversation pieces back in the die cut holes. I attached the front piece to a teal card for a completed CAS LOL card.

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenges at Art By Miran and Brown Sugar.

Winter Fun 4 Kids at Send a Smile 4 Kids!

It’s Saturday and time for another fun challenge at Send a Smile 4 Kids! This time our challenge is Winter Fun 4 Kids! Create and link any winter card appropriate for a child, and you could win one of our great prizes.

We have three very generous sponsors for this challenge: Dollar Graphics Depot is giving their winner a $15 gift certificate! Lacy Sunshine is giving their randomly picked winner 3 digis of their choice!  And One Happy Cut’s winner gets a $15 gift certificate! TEAM S.A.S will also be choosing their favorite cards for our top three and the winners will receive a blog badge and an opportunity to be a guest design team member on a future challenge.

For my first card above, I used a sweet digi by Lacy Sunshine called "Snowflakes Quality Control". I printed her on white cardstock, did a little coloring with Copics and paper pieced her dress. I cut a frame with a large snowflake die from Darice and embossed the blue card front with a Swiss Dots embossing folder from Cuttlebug.

I created a gatefold card for my second card featuring "Chili Pete Loves the Snow" from Dollar Graphics Depot. I embossed the white gatefold card with a snowflake embossing folder from Sizzix. I printed Chili Pete in color, cut him out and attached him to the left side of the gatefold. I stamped "Warm Winter Wishes" on a circle and attached it to complete the CAS kid's card.

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenges at Crafting from the Heart and Craft Your Passion, and the Let It Snow challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

Reach for the Stars Color Challenge

The first Wednesday of each month at Repeat Impression’s blog, The House that Stamps Built, is going to be a color challenge. We give you the color inspiration, and you can make a card using those colors to possibly win a great prize of Repeat Impressions rubber! Here is the color palette chosen this month:

I decided to make a card for a graduation or encouragement instead of a Christmas card with these colors. I started with a white A2 card base and then cut a cranberry front piece.  I stamped Repeat Impression’s large and small star silhouette stamps with Versamark and heat embossed them with gold detail embossing powder from Stampamania. I also stamped and heat embossed the perfect sentiment with white detail embossing powder. Then I stamped RI’s smaller star cluster with Versamark ink for the watermark look in the background on the cranberry paper.

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenges at 613 Avenue Create and Crafting from the Heart.

**Don’t Forget: for a 10% discount on any size order at Repeat Impressions, make a note of my discount code (rr10kh), click on the blog badge on the side of my blog and go to the website here to shop and save!**

Dancing the Disco Side-step with Die-Versions Dies

Happy Die-Versions Tuesday! It's my turn to post a card on Die-Version's blog and mine. Today I am sharing a side step card I created featuring the Retro Disco dies from the October release available here on the website.  I haven’t made a side step card in a while, but it seemed to be the perfect platform for my disco dancers so I found a tutorial here and made one with Tim Holtz’s Kraft-Core Shattered Cardstock from Core’dination. I die cut the Retro Dancers twice with pink and black cardstock and layered them together. They are side-stepping on the stairs of the card. I cut “Disco” and the Retro Disco Ball out of gold cardstock and attached. Makes you want to boogie the night away, right? Here is another view of the card from the front.

**Remember you can get a 15% discount on any of Die-Versions great dies by simply using my discount code karen15 when you check out at the Die-Versions website.**

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenges at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge  and at 613 Avenue Create.

BRRR- It's Cold Outside...How Cold?

That's how cold it is! I love using humor in my cards and so was thrilled this summer to discover a new company called Two Lips Stamps sold by Polkadots and More from my home state of Wisconsin. If you could use some belly laughs, click on the link and be prepared to laugh out loud at all the super funny sentiments on these stamps! Since I live in Wisconsin where it is very cold outside half the year, I could not resist this funny lol sentiment stamp. I paired it with a sweet die cut from Die-Versions which I cut in aqua blue and white. I slipped the white pieces back into the hat and gloves and added some extra snowflakes that came out of you know where:)

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and the Use a Die Cut challenge at Crafty Hazelnut's. 

Let There be Peace on Earth...

The title of this blog post is my wish for you and our world this holiday season and that wish is expressed on most of my Christmas cards this year. I cut the Nativity scene out of a white card base with a beautiful new die from Die'sire. While it was still in the die, I sponged on the blue ink. The die acts as a stencil as well as cuts and embosses. I also used a stencil (stars from Memory Box) on the navy blue card front. I applied silver glitter paste from BoBunny though the star openings. This glitter paste dries much faster than other stencil pastes. To complete the card I added my Peace wish (cut with a die from Ellen Hutson.)

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and the "Something Stenciled" challenge at Daring Cardmakers.

Three Cards - Same Stamp and Medium with Different Die-Versions Dies

I admit I am an addict. When I see great dies or stamps I cannot resist- this is a well known fact. And there are many many great Black Friday sales out there right now with 10, or 20 or 30% off. But at the Die-Versions website, all the dies are on sale and you can save 50% on almost all of them! I admit- I did go shopping there during this sale- but for 50% off, how could I resist? All the cards in this blogpost feature sentiment dies from Die-Versions.

I did resist buying Tim Holtz's Distress Stains for quite a while, until I made some cards in a class at Let's Create in Wisconsin Rapids recently with this gorgeous stamp called Hidden Lane by Penny Black and distress stains. I had to come home with the stamp and a bunch of the stains because it was so easy to apply the stains to the stamp, spritz with water and end up gorgeous watercolor looking cards. My first card above is all in blues with the sentiment die cut from Die-Versions and the card base cut in from navy blue cardstock. I am entering that card in the Monochromatic challenge at Scrapy Land. 

Here are two more cards I made with the same beautiful stamp and distress stains in greens and grey applied directly to the stamp, then spritzed with water. I attached sentiments cut with Die-Version dies and two of the cards also feature lovely ribbon found at Let's Create.

I am entering these cards in the Anything Goes challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.