White on White Elegance

In my Online Card Class today the style we were looking at is Classic & Elegant.  This would be my style all the way.  Cutesy is definitely not my style although I am hoping to learn a bit of that so I can send cute cards to my boys who love getting cards from their Mimi.

This particular class was taught by Debby Hughes of Lime Doodle Design.  I'm a huge fan of her work.  In fact, I pretty much follow the blogs of all of our teachers so far and many of the teachers that will be coming over the course of the class this month.  This card is very much modeled after the one that Debby taught us today.  I have different dies than she does, but it's the same type of style from her class. The poinsettia is a Memory Box Die that I got at the Tulsa Scrapbook Convention in August.  The other set of dies are Simon Says Stamp Exclusive Dies designed by Kristina Werner.

This card took some time but it was pretty simple as long as I didn't try to rush myself.  I had to think about how and with what dies I would try to mimic Debby's style with my own design.

I started with a 4.25 x 5.5 inch piece of Bazzill Marshmallow for the front panel that I treated with some mists of Tsukineko Clear Shimmer Spray.  White on white can be tricky and I wanted to give my card a little extra oomph!

This card was pretty simple once I had all the elements selected. I used a T-Ruler to make a pencil line about two thirds of the way down the card front and from side to side.  Then I carefully taped the poinsettia die onto that panel using the pencil line as my guide and ran it through my Cuttlebug Machine using my precision plate.  I was very careful when I did this because there are so many intricate pieces you can lose track of when you are taking the die cuts out of the die.  I kept the cutting sandwich together and carried it to my work area before taking the top cutting plate off and taking the pieces out.

Then I lined the same die up on a piece of gold glitter card stock and cut it again, keeping all the pieces inside again so I would not lose any of the pieces I was going to inlay.  While I was already cutting, I went ahead and cut the "Christmas Blessings" die for my greeting, being careful not to lose the "i's" from it.

To assemble my card, I made another pencil line on the card front to be my guide for lining up the die cut.  I attached the white cut piece along that line and adhered it with Ranger Multi Medium Matte.  Then I inlaid all of the pieces that I wanted to be gold using Multi Medium Matte again.  I accented with a few faceted gold enamel dots and ran my gold ink just along the edge of the front panel in a very narrow line to differentiate between the card base and the front panel.  I would have liked to die cut the panel but none of my dies are big enough to not cut the greeting off at the end.  So I rolled with it.

There's nothing out of the ordinary here but I think it made a gorgeous card and my husband really likes it as well.  I hope you enjoyed this card.  If you stop by, I'd love for you to comment!

Clean & Simple II

I don't normally enter more than one card in the Simon Says Stamp Weekly Challenges but I've been anxious to play with some of my Christmas Dies.  Since that is what the Wednesday Challenge is this week, it was a good afternoon to do a little work in my studio.

I'm still trying to figure out what design I am going to use for my Christmas cards this year.  It has to be pretty simple as I will need to mass produce them. Cards just don't get much simpler than this design.

For this card I started with a landscape, side folded Lipstick Red card base.  This is one of Simon Says Stamp's 100# card stocks.  They are thick and smooth and make beautiful cards.  I treated my card front with some Shimmer Spray made by Tsukineko and set it aside to dry while I designed the rest of it.  This spray gives your paper a sparkle but you can't get too heavy handed with it or it will warp your paper.  Two light coats is far better than one saturated coat.

Next I wanted just a bit of sparkle on my card so I attached a 1/4th inch strip of gold glittered card stock from a mat stack by Die Cuts With a View onto a piece of Bazzill Marshmallow 100# Card Stock.  After that I cut the panel with my ever faithful Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Die.  That extra little touch of stitching just adds that finishing touch to whatever project you are working on and I always prefer the finish of a die cut over a trimmer cut.

A new trimmer is on my wish list as the one I have no longer has replacement blades available.  I've also learned that if you buy titanium blades, they will last much longer than a regular trimmer blade.  I cut a lot of paper, so I'm totally going for that.  The one on my wish list is a Fiskars Wire Guide Premium Cut Line Trimmer and Simon's also has Titanium Blades available for purchase.

I cut the Christmas Blessings die cut in a Die Cuts With a View Red Foil Card Stock. The little dots on the I's are very tiny, so its important to keep track of them.  For the final element on my card panel, I cut some Holly & Berries with a Martha Stewart Punch that I've had for several years out of green shimmer card stock and red foil for the berries.  My goal was to accent the greeting without overwhelming it.  To me, nothing says "Christmas" quite like Holly & Berries does.

I assembled everything with Ranger Multi Medium Matte and attached the panel with Tombow Mono Permanent Adhesive.   I have two of these dispensers and several refills on hand.  This particular card would have been a good one for the ATG because I was not using watercolor card stock.  There are 36 yards of adhesive on one roll of that and the refills come in a 2-pack for $5.99 at Simon Says Stamp.  That is the most economical adhesive that I use but the size is pretty intimidating.

I have a few more works in progress on my desk so I'll have more cards for you soon. Thanks for stopping by and please feel free to leave me a comment.

A Unexpected Surprise

It's already the middle of September!!  Wow - this year is just flying by in so many ways.  In my husband's family, we gather the whole family at Christmas every year.   My hubby is one of 6 children so by the time we all get together, there's already a dozen of us.  Then add in our kids and our grandkids--well, you get the idea.  It's nice that we still have this tradition.

Since I started making cards this year, I really want to make all of my Christmas Cards by hand. That requires planning so don't get too excited when you start seeing Christmas cards here.  I'm going to be trying several things so I can decide which one(s) I want to use.  It just so happens that the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge this week is to use a favorite technique.  I combined a couple that I really like; Watercolor and Emboss-Resist.  I first saw Jennifer McGuire use this technique and I love her style.  It is similar to my style.  

For this card I started with a piece of watercolor 3.75 x 5 inch card stock in a cold pressed 140# weight.  The first thing I did was to stamp my image in Versamark and heat embossed it with Simon Says Stamp Fine White Embossing Powder.  For the background I wanted to use my Pine Needles Distress Marker to make the color wash, so I put some color on an acrylic block, just touched the very tip of my Waterbrush into my Perfect Pearls Pigment Powder and gave it all a mist of water and mixed it up.  Next, I used my mister bottle to lightly spray my watercolor paper with water all over so that the color would soften a bit when I applied it.

Using a Water Brush, I picked some of the color off of the acrylic block and touched it to my paper.  Since my paper was damp, it makes a color wash rather than a solid color.  I love watercolor, but I've had to practice A LOT to let go of the control and let the color and water do their thing.  Not an easy thing for a control freak to accomplish! Ha ha! I still need more practice, but I did pretty okay for this card.  The Perfect Pearls Pigment Powder combines with the water and color to give a shimmery effect in the color.  It's really beautiful!  The Noel Stamp is one I have had for a number of years and I was determined to try to use it this year.  While I was letting the watercolor piece dry, I cut a card base of 5.5 x 8.5 inches scored and top folded at 4.25 inches in Simon Says Stamp Exclusive Mint Card Stock.  This card stock is a 100# weight and makes beautiful, crisp cards.  It seemed the best color match for the Pine Needles Distress Ink and I love that it's a non-traditional color for Christmas.  A little something unexpected in the recipient's mailbox.  

Next I cut the "Christmas Blessings" sentiment using a Simon Says Stamp Exclusive Die in Gold Foiled Paper.   I am pretty sure I would also like this card done in Silver and Pearly White and a combination of other shades of blue from light to dark.  I am particularly anxious to try some lovely, cool and wintry shades of blue like Audrey Blue and Seaglass, also from Simon Says Stamp. Simon has really nice 100# card stock in a great selection of colors and many colors also have matching Simon Says Stamp Exclusive Dye Inks.   It's always nice to have coordinating products in a wide variety of colors.  In fact, it's one of my favorite things about Simon Says Stamp.

  

For the final touch I cut several stars from Glittered Gold Card Stock using the Simon Says Stamp Holiday Shapes Hearts & Stars die.  That die is one that I use over and over again and I have the Simon Says Stamp Large Holiday Shapes - Hearts & Stars on my wishlist. 

Before I finished today's post, I got out my Mermaid Lagoon Distress Marker to try a blue variation that I was thinking of earlier.  I used yet another technique that I am enjoying which is paint (ink in this case) spatters using a small #2 script brush to pick up the color and then tap it over the water colored piece so it splatters on to the background in unique patterns.  There is no way to ever make two cards the same way, so each will always be unique.  

I used snowflakes and sequins for this card but I think I would like glittery stars equally well.

While I like the Blue with the Silver and White embellishments, I think I do prefer the gold better at this point so I'll be trying this in other colors over the next several days.

I confess - it's late when I am posting this, so if you see something wrong or missing, please leave a comment so I can fix it.

Have a blessed week, everyone!!