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)