Wednesday, November 27, 2013

ABNH: Dear Santa, Week 4


It's week four of our Dear Santa month over at A Blog Named Hero, and week four is "quickies", or things you can make in just a few minutes.

Do you ever get a holiday card from someone to whom you didn't send one? Or did you get a gift and you need a quick thank you card? Well, my project satisfies both!  Here they are, side by each:


Yep, washi tape to the rescue! I took a 4x5.25 piece of Neenah White card stock, stuck on three pieces of washi tape, stamped a sentiment, and done. Both cards use the new Kelly Purkey washi tape. For the holiday one I added a piece of old MME Christmas tape, and the one on the right uses all Kelly Purkey tapes from the package. I layered the white card stock onto some Hero Arts mixed pool cards, and seriously, like 5 minutes each, people.

Why not head over to the ABNH blog to see what other quickie projects my fellow DT and guest DT peeps have cooked up for you?

Thanks for stopping by!



Tuesday, November 26, 2013

SOS #129: Holiday or Winter

Welcome to a new challenge at Shopping Our Stash. Since most of my USofA peeps are in the throes of Thanksgiving preparation, this is a TWO WEEK CHALLENGE.

This week we ask you to make a holiday- or Winter-themed card. That can be Chanukkah (if, like me, you do things at the last minute), Christmas, Winter Solstice, or any other Winter holiday that happens around this time of year. Or, if you don't want to do holiday, just make something with a Winter theme: hot cocoa, sleds, snowmen ... LOTS of options!

As I mentioned, I just made my Chanukkah cards, and here is this year's version:



Note: It's important when you are just playing around, and you think you might come back to a project later, to keep track of what you did. You see, I made a few of these at my crafty retreat back in October, and when I pulled them out today to try to replicate them, I failed, miserably. Thus, I am about to tell you my road to too many layers of goop.

Please notice the shine on the candelabra/menorah:



I thought I'd used a silver gelly glaze pen like i did on the candles, but nope ... that just came out all wet and warpy. Then I remembered I'd used Copics for the flames and the menorah, so I did that, then went over it with a clear glitter pen. It was shiny, but still not right. THEN I remembered I'd gone over it with a Versamark marker and clear-embossed it. That was it!  So this guy has many layers, but --- BONUS --- it's glittery under the embossing now. yi yi yi

So, I used the Bright Glaze pens (linked below) on the candles, Copics for the flames and the menorah, a clear glitter pen on the menorah, then clear embossing powder on the menorah.

Next, because I felt this was very minimalist, I decided to break out a piece of Mike's glitter paper. I bought it in every color one day several years ago when my LSS wasn't open as early as I thought it was, and I was forced (FORCED) to go down the street to Mike's to kill time. With all the cards I make for OWH, we all know glitter is verboten, but for friends and family it's totally okay! :)  I cut it into mostly 1/4" strips and stuck it to the edges of the card bases.

Then, breaking all the rules, I put the 3D adhesive on the base instead of the back of the top layer. I tried to line it up, but it started to look like work. By putting the foam squares on the base, I could get them close to the glitter strips and the corners and make sure I minimized saggage.

So that's it. My Chanukkah cards for this year. Now it's YOUR turn. Have you started your holiday cards yet? Don't do holiday cards? Then how about a Winter theme? Snow? Hot cocoa? Icy trees? Cute little deer in a snowy field? Go forth and create, then come back to Shopping Our Stash and link us up so we can see what you've made.

Thanks for stopping by!

Products used: Vat of clear embossing powder I got from Viva Las Vega Stamps a bazillion years ago, Mike's blue glitter paper, and the following:



Thursday, November 21, 2013

CASEing Jennifer McGuire

Jennifer McGuire is my main enabler, and she is very, VERY good at it. When I saw this video on the Simon Says Stamp blog, not only did I immediately purchase the stamp, I inked it up as soon as it arrived.

I didn't go as crazy as Jennifer did, but I did do the double stamping part, and it ROCKS! I made six cards out of three stamped panels. Here's the first one:


I used Hero Arts Pale Tomato and Red Royal. I stamped the whole panel, but cut it into two pieces so I could make two cards out of it.

Here is the second one, and it's a Happy Accident:


It was going to be two blues, but I obviously did a very poor job of getting all the red off the stamp, so my light blue turned into lavender. ;/ I decided I meant to do that and embraced it, as most of you know I would not choose to use lavender.

Then I cleaned the stamp better and did the two blues I'd originally planned:


These may be the quickest six stamped cards I've made in quite a while! I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, too.  Oh, and they will all be MAILED. Yes, I said MAILED! *feels forehead* Yeah, I know. Retirement has apparently affected my brain.

Thanks for stopping by!

Products used: Bazzill textured black card stock, Freckled Fawn Skipping5 heart stripe puffy stickers, and the following:



Wednesday, November 20, 2013

ABNH: Dear Santa, Week 3



It's week three of the A Blog Named Hero Holiday event, and today I'm hosting over at the ABNH blog. The theme for week three is decor items, and I got this bug up my butt that I'd make a candle. I haven't made one of these in years - YEARS - and let me just say it's not my best work, but I think it looks okay. My heart was certainly in it!

In addition to my rusty skillz, I was also hindered by the fact that I'd just moved and had like zero supplies. I even had to beg for white tissue paper! Ack!

Here is the candle:


It's round, so I took three pictures to try to capture the parts-is-parts. Those are left-to-right, around the candle. You might need to embiggen the photo to see it.

The cool thing about stamping on candles is you don't really stamp on the candle. Nope. You stamp onto white tissue paper. That gives you the ability to color to your heart's content, including GLITTER. Almost anything you put onto the paper will show up on the candle.

You can't tell because of my crack photography skillz, but the baubles on the tree and all the words are very sparkly, since I went over them with a glitter pen before I melted it into the candle. I'm kinda happy with how this turned out.

Here is the tutorial from Splitcoast on how to stamp on candles.

Why not stop over at the ABNH blog to see what other decor items the ladies and guests have prepared for you? We'll be doing decor items all week!

Thanks for stopping by!