Wishful Thinking Cards

I made a set of six cards from a kit I purchased from Oriental Trading years and years ago, tweaking it to make it my own:

It was fun to work with handmade papers and mulberry paper after so many years! I have so much "stash" that I'd long forgotten about, but now I'm beginning to clean things out and make all kinds of discoveries! Between these old new products, the new Occasions mini just around the corner (begins January 3rd), and pre-orders I'm getting for Sale-a-bration (starts on January 28th), I plan to be a happy and busy camper in 2014!

Productive Smiles,
Joyce Spear (a.k.a. StamperJoyce)
              

ATCs from November and December

I've made two batches of Artist Trading Cards since my last ATC post.  

The first set was a Mystery Image swap, with the surprise image being a house. Here's what I did with them:

It's hard to see unless you enlarge the photo, but the tree in the forefront is popped up on wee bits of foam to give the card some depth. I put clear lacquer (Crystal Effects) over the heart in the tree so it stands out even more.  Coloring was done with watercolor pencils.

The second set was created by using an embossing folder to create a texture on white cardstock, then coloring over the raised parts randomly with Gelatos. The sayings are stamped from Stampin' Up!'s Hope Happens set, which I think is now retired.

  

The background of this last card, mounted on Daffodil Delight cardstock rather than Gumball Green, looks a little different from the three above it because I colored on the reverse side of the embossing. I plan to use my Gelatos much more in the coming year because I enjoy working with them so much!

I have one more project to show you today, which I will do in the next post.

Smiles,
Joyce Spear (a.k.a. StamperJoyce)
         

Christmas Snowflakes

I made ten 3D snowflakes this year using Stampin' Up!'s Festive Flurry Ornament kit with the plan of sharing them with friends and neighbors who stop by to see me this year. They've been a big hit!

I made three into hanging ornaments:

and the remainder into refrigerator magnets:

Wishing the best of the holiday season to my subscribers!

Festive smiles,
Joyce Spear (a.k.a. StamperJoyce)
             

Season of Style Christmas Cards

I used the Season of Style designer series paper and the coordinating Designer Journaling Tags to make eight one-of-a-kind Christmas cards.

Card 1 

Card 2

Card 3

Card 4

Card 5

Card 6

Card 7

Card 8

Coordinating envelopes made with the Envelope Punch Board and DSP:

This batch of cards will go down in history as being the loudest Christmas cards I have ever made!

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This post completes my 2013 Christmas cards... Yay! 

Even better news: After I post my December Artist Trading Cards, I plan to start focusing on SPRING cards and cards that use products from the upcoming Occasions mini catalog and Sale-a-bration event!  HOORAY!!

Bold Smiles,

Joyce Spear (a.k.a. StamperJoyce)   

     

Merry Sparkly Christmas!

Yes, my Christmas cards for the year are finished! I created fifty to complete an order from a neighbor, and then made another 25 to send out myself. I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes!

Here's the card that I made the most (12) of this year:

I CASEd this card by Mary Brown, altering the dimensions to make it an A-2 size; compensating for my lack of Bermuda Bay DSP by stamping on plain Bermuda Bay cardstock with my ancient Victorian Lace background stamp; and using different sentiments. It was a fun card to create and assemble! The ornaments are from the set Christmas Collectibles and have a coordinating punch, which made it a snap.

I have one more batch of Christmas cards to show, and that should be the end of that -- for a few months at least!

Sparkly Smiles,

Joyce Spear (a.k.a. StamperJoyce)

         

Merry Tri-Shutter Christmas!

This year Stampin' Up!'s Winter Frost designer series paper just screamed to me to be made into a tri-shutter card. What is a tri-shutter card? you ask. It's a typical 4.25" x 5.5" card that looks like this:

and then opens up into this:

Here's another:

and another:

I made three of them because it was practical to simply switch around the three designs of DSP I chose. The individual cards may look similar, but were personalized for the recipients.  

Curious how to make one of these beauties? Check out this tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers.

More Christmas card posts to come...

Merry Smiles,

Joyce Spear (a.k.a. StamperJoyce)

    

Fun with Six-Sided Sampler

After making fifty fairly traditional Christmas cards for my neighbor to send, I felt the need to let loose and get a little wild -- as I think the following cards will attest to!

I have so many stamp sets that I haven't had a chance to ink up, so I walked over to that pile and grabbed two sets without looking, determined to work with whatever I grabbed. The two sets were Six-Sided Sampler and Too Kind, both from Stampin' Up! I pulled out some brightly colored scraps and started stamping the hexagons on them with Gumball Green, Strawberry Slush, Tempting Turquoise, and Wisteria Wonder inks, and then punched them out with the Hexagon punch. I settled on card bases of Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight, Strawberry Slush, Pistachio Pudding, and a retired purple, probably Lavender Lace. After trying to piece the hexagons into some sort of pattern on the Tempting Turquoise card base, I realized that all the angles were getting to me, so I decided to go in a totally different direction! I pulled out my Gorgeous Grunge set and stamped the splatters randomly across both the front and back of the card as well as the envelope. After loosening up the creative juices a bit, the rest of the card came together relatively quickly! Here is the final result:

Pretty cool, eh?

I used the following additional items: Sponges, a crackle embossing folder, the Big Shot, washi tape, and Stampin' Dimensionals. I flipped the embossed panel so the crackle design is actually debossed. The "hello sweet friend" sentiment on the front comes with Six-Sided Sampler, but the inside sentiment ("Sending good thoughts your way") is from Too Kind. My usual adhesive of choice is snail (Tombow Mono Adhesive), but for this project I used the green-capped Tombow Mono Multi liquid glue, and it worked like a charm; so much so that I may switch over to that as my favorite adhesive. Doesn't hurt that it smells like Froot Loops, either, lol.

Anyway, here's a parade of the cards with their insides. Note how I shaped the sides of the inside sentiments with the hexagon punch... neat, huh?

If you have any questions about these cards, zip me an email or put your question in the comments -- either way, I will respond.

Looking ahead to the next posts... I've been working on some ATCs that I'll be sharing, and I plan on starting my own holiday cards tonight. I haven't decided yet if they'll be similar to the cards I made for my neighbor or something totally off the wall. Either way, I hope you'll stop by to see them!

Happy Smiles,
Joyce Spear (a.k.a. StamperJoyce)
          

Intermission

Every now and then, between bigger projects, I have to clean up my workspace to clear my mind and get a fresh start. Thought I'd share with you what my space looks like when it's cleaned up:

I know there's still a lot of clutter, but at least it's organized clutter and things are at right angles, LOL!  

I just finished up some "wild" cards that I can't wait to share with you; I'll be taking pictures of them in a few minutes and then blogging them later tonight. They're definitely a colorful backlash to all the conservative Christmas cards I made for my neighbor. Bring your sunglasses tomorrow, you might need them!

Bright smiles,
Joyce Spear (a.k.a. StamperJoyce)