Stamping Holiday with Friends

My BFF's, Fonda and Katie, are visiting me from North Carolina this week. *happy dance!* We've been yakking away while working on projects. Here's a few I did yesterday and today. Not much for quantity, but I think they turned out well.



These first two are half-sheet-wonder cards, i.e. I stamped the background randomly using several colors (Pink Pirouette, Bashful Blue, and Almost Amethyst, to be precise) and then cut it up to make several (well, in this case, two) cards. I stamped an additional snowflake over my design with VersaMark and then embossed with Irridescent Ice EP. I stamped the two trees with classic ink and stamped over them with VersaMark and embossed those as well. The ornaments on the tree are glitter brads, new to my stash since Katie and Fonda stopped at Archiver's today. The tree panel is raised on Stampin' Dimensionals. Easy peasy, but still a wow card.






This last card is similar to the one in the last post, the only differences being that it's done with Night of Navy cardstock, and this time I added a gold star in the lower right corner. Another WOW card, I think.

Black and Gold Swap Card

I tried my darndest to take a good picture of this card, but it's just not happening. I don't think my cheapie camera likes the bronze Pearl-Ex, but at least you can get an idea.



The Swirling Stars background wheel is SU!, and the central star/moon image is Judikins/Paula Best.

Snowflakes

I started out today to make a single card for a "Snow Flurries" swap in one of the Yahoo! groups I belong to; but I liked the card so much that I made a couple more to send out as holiday cards for myself this year!



I've been going through purple withdrawal these last few weeks, so it was time to work with shades of violet -- Almost Amethyst and Elegant Eggplant, to be exact. It's taken me a couple years, but I finally cracked open my retired SU! set "Snowflakes" this afternoon. I used Crystal Frost powder (kinda like Dazzling Diamonds mixed in with White) to emboss the snowflakes. The eggplant panels were then dry embossed with my Scor-Pal to create a frame. I paired gold and silver cording for the spine of the card and around the snowflake panel, then raised the sentiment with Stampin' Dimensionals.

Holiday Cards

I'll be sending off the ten holiday cards my friend in California ordered tomorrow, so I'm going to forge ahead and post them along with some I'll be sending out. Marni, if you want to be surprised, stop reading NOW!



I worked with two color sets for these cards...

(1) Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Ruby Red, Baja Breeze

(2) Soft Sky, Baja Breeze, Blue Bayou, Not Quite Navy

... with gold glossy cardstock and brushed silver cardstock thrown in for good measure.



The designer paper is mostly SU!'s Holiday Treasures, with an appearance by Urban Garden as well. The Ribbon Dove card has a layer of DSP on it, but which one is a mystery to me -- probably from last catalog.

The white and chocolate chip rub-ons are from SU!'s Chit Chat set.

Stampin' Up! sets used: Happiest of Holidays, Swirling Stars jumbo wheel, Holiday Sampler, So Many Scallops, Print Pattern background, Swirls background

Other SU! materials: Scallop circle punch, Scallop border punch, Boho Blossoms punch, 3/8" circle punch, Key Tag punch, Ticket Corner punch, Corner rounder, Not Quite Navy brads, white grosgrain ribbon, Soft Sky stitched grosgrain, gold cord, Stampin' Dimensionals



I realized after all the pictures were loaded that I neglected to put a watermark on the photos. I just don't have it in me to redo and upload fourteen photos, so you're all on your best behavior in terms of piracy. The watermark for these would include the © Stampin' Up! on most if not all the cards, since I did use SU! materials on all of them. Many of the stamps are non-SU!, so if you have any questions about what's what, drop me an email.



I didn't take pictures of the insides of the cards, but many of them are decorated. As is my habit, I also made coordinating envelopes for each card.



Okay, enough blabbering. Let's look at the pics!



Card 1 - Triple Scalloped Circles






Card 2 - Three Hanging Stars

Of this batch of cards, this is my favorite! I tend to gravitate towards blues anyway, but the Gold Fire Opal embossing powder is just stunning. This is also the first card ever that I used my new Scor-Pal on to make a double-line dry embossed border on the white panel. OOoooo, ahhhhh!!!






Card 3 - Three Gold Ornaments

All three ornaments are embossed with detail gold embossing powder.






Card 4 - Ribbon Dove

This one is also a favorite of mine. I embossed the dove with Bridal powder, so it shimmers pastel colors in the light. I broke into a bottle of Robin's Nest dewdrops for the embellishments in the four corners. The funny shaped panel was cut by my upline using the Top Notes die in the Big Shot die cutting machine. Cool!






Card 5 - Poinsettia Paper with Punched Flowers

I'm really pleased with how the Stickles in the centers of the flowers make the card pop in person. I wish I had taken a pic of the inside of the card, too, as I put a trio of the punch flowers in the lower left corner and it looks really classy!






Card 6 - Silver Peace Snowflake

I've fallen in love all over again with detail silver embossing powder! Can you see the Print Pattern stamp in the background?






Card 7 - Irridescent Peace Snowflake

I tumbled into a box of specialty paper scraps when I was putting this card together, and out came some shiny irridescent cellophane stuff (which I was saving for dragonfly wings, but hey! this works too!). I wasn't sure the greens in it go with Not Quite Navy, but the more I look at this card, the more I like it. The peace snowflake is embossed with Hologram Highlights powder. I used three different colors of dewdrops to bring out the colors in the cellophane layer.






Card 8 - Gold Peace Snowflake

I found some glossy gold cardstock in my magic scraps box, too, and decided to put it to good use as the layer under the snowflake. The outside gold border was done with a gold metallic Sharpie and a straightedge.






Card 9 - Horizontal Panel with Bow

Sweet and simple!






Card 10 - Horizontal Panel with Tie

... as if I need an excuse to use my scallop border punch. *smile*






Card 11 - Hope Dove

The swirls in the word "HOPE" inspired me to use my Swirls background stamp, possibly for the first time. Another Top Notes panel for you Big Shot fans.






Card 12 - Heart Ornament

I embossed the ornament using Chocolate Chip ink and clear powder, then colored it in with blender pens. The ornament top is colored with the oh-so-cool Sakura stardust gelly roll pen.






Cards 13 and 14 - Blue and Silver Panel

I enjoyed making this card so much that I did it twice! (and may do it again!). There's my renewed love, detail silver embossing powder, once again.










Marni, if you went ahead and read this ridiculously long post, you may still be suprised since you don't know which ten cards you'll be getting. *grin*



Any of my other fans out there, please accept my apology for a post this long. I promise (as a courtesy as well as in the spirit of self-preservation) that I will make future posts shorter or, if I have a lot to post at once, I will break it up into several smaller posts. Thanks for hanging with me this time!



I'd love to hear which card(s) are your favorite, since I'm too close to be objective on which are "best." Leave a comment?

Checking In

"So where are the cards??" you ask. Well, I *have* been stamping, really I have! I've been working on an order for 10 holiday cards for a friend of mine as well as a few of my own. I suppose I should take a break and shoot some photos, but I'm still debating if I should show the cards now or wait until after the holidays so as not to spoil the surprise for people who get these cards. Any thoughts?