The missing Christmas cards

Here I am again! It's all about feast or famine! ;D
I thought I'd just post a bunch of the Christmas cards which I never managed to get on here over the last month. I don't think I'll do much of an explanation of each, but of course I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have!

This first one has a removable ornament (wooden, Kaiserkraft) that was decorated with distress inks, glitter & bling. I made it so that it could be used as an ornament on the tree.















Here's a decent shot of what it looks like with the ornament removed.

















This particular card is not really a Merry Christmas card - but then it's for a Jewish friend so it's better to be non-denominational, right? :) The tree (SU!) was stamped on watercolor paper & embossed with a clear ep. The 'snow' was done with glittery ep and rock candy distress stickles. Love the feeling this gives me!









I made this one using a technique I saw on SCS last year at Christmas. I loved the card and just twisted the tech a little bit (by only using white ink & white perfect pearls). The angel was trimmed out of another sheet, painted and then coated with glossy accents.










This one was all about the fun stamp & coloring with Copics. Although there is a little Flower Soft on the hat & boots.













So there you have it. A last final blast of Christmas! Not that I managed to put all my cards up - in fact, several of my favorites never even got their picture taken (there's that Christmas rush again!). On the other hand, you must be terribly tired of Christmas Cards by now, anyway! :)
Thanks for dropping by!

Aftermath

It's been nearly a month since I last posted! While I won't say that I'm sorry (remember that whole Blogging Without Obligation thing?) I do feel like I've been neglecting one of the things that I enjoy.
December was, to say the least, a bit hairy (literally!). We started out with the idea that dh was being laid off, but found out on his *last* day that he was offered another position. It was quite the relief! Then, since the job thing had be secured, we went and adopted a dog. Every boy needs a dog, right? Well, it seems that we may have gotten DH a shadow instead. ;)
This is our new addition, Lila. She came to us from the Humane Society - she was owner surrendered. She is a very good dog (so far, at least) and we haven't had very many problems at all. If I had to list the problems she has, it would be that her previous owners just didn't do well by her. She doesn't really know how to play (ball? what's that?) and she is quite timid (backyard? by myself?? um, no!). I can't really tell yet who is more wary, the boy or the dog! :) At least she isn't wrestling him to the ground!
In other pet news, our kitty is desperately ill. I think it's time to let her go - very, very soon. She's lost so much weight that she weighs less than five pounds. Although we've tried the medication, she is not recovering at all. I'm horribly saddened by it, but trying to remember that it's a part of life - and she's had a good, long life. She has quite the personality (not *exactly* loving, and she bites!) - anyone who says that animals are interchangeable hasn't ever met *my* kitty!
Then, of course, there was the Christmas madness. Let me tell you, the week(s) leading up to Christmas are hell on a 4 year old's attitude! ;) Although we did take time to go see Blue Man Group (thanks to my dad) and everyone had an awesome time - even said 4 year old! If you ever get the chance to see them, do it! Way more of a 'show' than a concert. Highly entertaining!
I think I'll post a second time today - adding cards to this post seems like not a good idea. Look for that one in a few minutes!
Thanks for dropping by!

Are you tired of Christmas cards yet?

I hope not! Especially since I said that you would be seeing this stamp from Unity some more! :) Today I'll show you two different takes on the same thing.
For this first version I marked off a quarter inch on all sides of this kraft cardstock base with a white pen before stamping the greeting with Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink. After covering the edges with post it notes I added some snowflakes (from Katzelkraft) in Tumbled Glass and Frost white. Then I added more Frost White (being careful not to get any on the sentiment) using a cotton ball. Yes, a *very* expensive tool! :D I painted the inside of the tree with more Frost White and a water brush - but it wasn't as opaque as I liked so I added some white chalk pen.
Can you see the slightly darker snowflakes? Those were added once the Frost White was dry by stamping with Versamark Frost. It added some glimmer, but took away some white - it was a sacrifice I tell ya! You can also see a scattering of white half pearls that were added just before I called it done.
This one has an entirely different look. This was stamped with a red DI (Barn Door, I think) on an off-white base. I found some ribbon in a similar color of red and used the same technique I learned at Archivers to attach it (using Tim's Tiny Attacher). The only thing you really can't see in the picture is that (once again) I painted the tree white - this time I used Ranger's Pearl dabber. IRL it makes the pearl look like it belongs there!
The base actually came from a blog candy that I won a while ago. I think I forgot to mention it here - but it was AMAZING! Quite the stash of goodies! Here, look:
A gorgeous card, some stamps, bling, buttons, inchies & a book of inchie images and a lovely set of square cards with envelopes. WOW. Ali does some really beautiful things - you should go check out her blog. (and I would like to note that I do *not* enter blog candy things UNLESS I already subscribe to the blog in question - so, yes I *do* love her schtuff!) (not that anyone has ever questioned me but I felt like I should be clear!) :)
Two totally different cards, eh? Except that they both fit (mostly) into the CAS style and they'll both mail exceptionally well!
On a completely different note - if you look on the sidebar you'll see a new button. I'm taking a free Skinny Mini ecourse on textures using PSE. So far so good. We're only on day three (of 10 days) so we'll see if I manage to do anything worth sharing! Wish me luck!
Thanks for dropping by!

More Christmas cards

I really have gotten into the Christmas spirit! :)
A couple more cards are done and there are a few more coming down the pipe. I'm impressing myself!
This one may end up being my favorite of the year. I love how the embossing came out! The angel was stamped on a really light brown/cream cardstock with Distress ink (Brushed Cord, I think) then colored with white and french gray pencils. I added some Spica pen to parts of the dress (although you can't see the sparkle in the picture) and edged the panel with Walnut Stain. The second layer was colored with Brushed Cord and a blending tool, then overstamped with the same color. I brushed on some perfect pearls & spritzed with water - uber shiny IRL! The white panel is watercolor paper which was stamped with versamark and clear embossed. Finally I mounted it all on a base made from the same brown/cream cardstock as the first panel. Although there is no sentiment (or ribbon!) I really like the elegant feel of this card.
This card has a totally different feel! Much more scrappy - even though it's not *at all* what I had in mind when I started. The stamp is from Unity (one of their Itty Bitties - great buy!) and is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. You'll be seeing more of this one for sure!
So, stamped in Brushed Cord on kraft cardstock. I filled in the tree with stickles (one of the clear ones, but it has a green tint which was perfect for this). Originally, I had planned to leave this on a kraft card base - imagine my surprise when I discovered that I had stamped it *upside down*! Grrrrr!
That was when everything took a left turn.... I used a nestie to frame the image with some paper by MME. It has tons of glitter - in a very similar color to the stickles I used. You can see that I added a double layer of ribbon - but did you see that I also added beads? Yup, hand stitched!
Hope you enjoyed a little peek into what my Christmas cards are looking like! Thanks for dropping by!