Warm Circle of Family and Friends

Christmas is a day of meaning and traditions, a special day spent in the warm circle of family and friends.  I hope your Christmas was a special one.

Merry Christmas

May Peace be your gift at Christmas and your blessing all year through!  

Happy Christmas

Merry Christmas Eve

The houses B&T paper from City Sidewalks makes this a simple, but fun card.  Simply stamp the "Merry Christmas" from the Very Merry Stamp set in Black and using markers, line the different pieces with color.  3-D adhesive makes the ornament pop and the shimmer trim sparkles up the card.

JOY

This tree folding technique is easy to follow on splitcoaststampers site here.  It works great with double sided paper like our Background and Texture Paper. Add a little Kraft cardstock for the tree trunks to ground them to the card.  A zip strip or part of the striped B&T paper makes a nice "line" to stamp "JOY" from the Very Merry stamp set.

The sparkly stars at the tops of the folded trees are from the City Sidewalks Complements.

Wonderful Christmastime

Several Mondays ago, Mojo Monday dared us to use this sketch. To spruce up the card base, it was embossed with the Dots Embossing Folder and White Daisy Pigment Ink was lightly brushed over to create the idea of snow.  The building scene is super easy, because it's a sticker from the City Sidewalks Complements.

The title is a combination of two stickers form the Complements, including one that is stamped directly onto the sticker using "MERRY" from the "Very Merry" stamp set. These matte cardstock stickers are perfect for using stamps and ink or markers.

To Grandmother's House We Go!

The City Sidewalks paper packet includes two sheets of Picture My Life style cards.  These cards are great for use on the front of greeting cards.  The white "road" and house at the end was cut from a PML card and stamped using the "Very Merry" stamp set.  The trees paper from CS are great to form the illusion that the car is driving through the woods to get to Grandmother's House.

The car is a sticker, and the glitter snowflakes in the upper right hand corner, both from the CS Complements.   The "exhaust" from part of a banner of the glitter die cuts.

Pull back the drapes!

Welcome to the Everything ABC's Blog Hop!

For this hop we will be featuring the letter Z. This may be the name

of a paper, a stamp set or an embellishment. Whatever the crafter has

chosen as their Z element will be featured in their post.

If you came from Lauren Moore then you're on the right track!

 

 

 Confession...this card does not have any stamping.  But!  The City Sidewalks Complement stickers provide a great sentiment, "Let It Snow". And the round snowflake "button" is also a sticker, with a red gem in the middle.  The Zip strip (my "Z"!) is a nice valance for the drapery fold below.

 

The technique for the card is called the drapery fold card and the instructions to make this can be found on splitcoaststampers here.   This technique works best with double sided paper, like our Background and Texture paper.  The Peacock paper underneath was embossed with a wood grain embossing folder.

Your next stop on our Everything ABC'S blog Hop is Catherine Nowak of "catscrapbooking".

In case you get lost along the way…go to Catherine Nowak for a complete list of participants!

No Peeking!

One of the papers in the City Sidewalks packet has a word search pattern, and the words and sayings are all holiday themed.  You can pick which holiday saying and you can tailor your card or layout by highlighting this saying.  This card takes advantage of the "No Peeking" saying for a presents theme.

The Complements for each Reflections collection are a great deal for card making and scrapbooking.  The City Sidewalks Complements have both glitter shapes and stickers.   By combining the two, you aren't overwhelmed by the sparkle, but still feels like a festive card.

Very Merry

 

One of the goodies you get in the City Sidewalks collection is a set of skinny washi tape.  We also used the "Very Merry" stamp set that has this great saying in bold letters, "Very Merry".  By tearing washi tape in progressively bigger sizes, and stamping the "Very Merry" in Willow, the tree shape forms.  Add Kraft cardstock for the tree trunk.

The second technique is the way the card is put together.  It's called  Joy Fold card and instructions to build one can be found here at splitcoaststampers.  It's a double fold out card, and is a fun surprise when opening it.

Joy at the Theater

 

A couple of the patterns in the City Sidewalks My Reflections paper reminded me of drapes or wallpaper.  They made a great idea for a Theater fold card.  The curtain at the theater splits in the middle.  The Valance is made of the same paper, scalloped with a punch.  "JOY" is stamped from the Very Merry stamp set.  The sparkly snowflakes in the middle of the card is three alternating sparkly snowflakes stacked on top using 3-d adhesives.

 

Popping up Holidays

The biggest excitement this season in cardmaking was a technique called the "Twist and Pop" card that I believe started with Lillybits.  It takes a little bit of planning, but it is such a cool card, that the prep is worth it.  The Picture My Life card packs are PERFECT for this type of card.  The 4 X 6 cards can be used for the front and inside covers.  The 3 X 4 cards are used for the pop out part.  A little trimming is required, but this makes it super easy to put the decorations together.

Another great thing about our Picture My Life cards are the two orientations.  One side is portrait and one side is landscape.  The samples below show how the City Sidewalks kit can be used in the landscape or portrait orientations.

Inside, vary the use of City Sidewalks complements, stickers and die cuts.  Pop on a zip strip with a sentiment.

Landscape card actually pops up and down.  It worked great for adding a car to the trees paper, so it looks like Santa is on his way to Grandma's house. Or use a small tree from the folded tree technique.  Add sentiments on the inside cover area.

Coffee Cup gift card

 

Everyone needs gift card holders for Christmas, so I always try to offer at least one gift card holder in the workshop.  This year, I thought the coffee cup gift card was a  cute idea to try.  The front of the card uses Kraft cardstock, using the Stripe embossing folder to create the cardboard sleeve.  One of the zip strips from the City Sidewalks creates a nice ring around the sleeve.  The sentiment is a stamped sticker from the City Sidewalks Complements.

  

The cute part is the cup lid pulls out the gift card for the recipient.  It tucks neatly inside the bottom of the cup.  The back of the cup is used for signing your name.  The whole card is an A2 size, so it fits in a normal envelope.

A Banner Year!

The Christmas kit this year, City Sidewalks, turned out to be a festive kit to create a ton of neat cards for this holiday season.  During the month of December, I'll highlight several of the cards from the Technique Workshop that was held this year.  It takes advantage of versatile double-sided patterned cardstock that is perfect for the theme, as well as the Complements, red gems, and extra doodads.

 

This card was pretty easy to put together.  The three strips of  B&T paper are the same width and length, dovetail the ends.  Stamp a sentiment on another banner and add a sparkly red present from the City Sidewalks Complements. 

Yuletide Scrapbooking

I know we just got into the Autumn holiday season, and I'm already showing Christmas themed stamps. Many of us like to get a jump on our holiday and New Years cards. Got some photos from last year that you want to scrapbook? Warm up your Cricut and cut/stamp the images from this month's special stamp.

SOTM: Yuletide Joy

Yuletide Joy is a great stamp set but is only available during the month of October.
Get it now for $5 with your qualifying order.

Available October 1-31, 2016

All about Cards Month

Because this is National Cardmaking Month, we have loads of card ideas to share.  I love this card "Eat Drink and be Scary" above.  It uses a combination of stamping, Cricut cuts, and the Jeepers Creepers Complements to create a fun card.

Have a child who loves silly monsters?  This is a fun card using the awesome lightning washi tape, Jeepers Creepers paper, and Monster stamp sets.

Silly Spider Web is a beautifully creepy addition to a super simple card for Halloween.

Scare up some fun with Jeepers Creepers Layouts

Jeepers Creepers is a new Workshops Your Way, where you can get the paper packet, complements, and goodies all in one collection. Create several layouts with leftovers to spare from exclusive layout instructions online. 

Jeepers Creepers!

 

Autumn is here and Halloween is right around the corner. Get a jump on your spooky decorations with Jeepers Creepers, a My Reflections collection in the new Holiday Expressions Idea Book. Check out the super cute pumpkins and monsters and add my favorite embellishment, Googly Eyes!, to these fun images. Or check out the lightning washi tape and puffy stickers for your Harry Potter scrapbook pages. If you celebrate Dia de los Muertos, you'll find the Sugar Skull stamp set a real treat for the festivities. And the Silly Spider Web is a beautifully creepy addition to any project.

2016 Holiday Expressions is Here!

The new Close To My Heart Holiday Expressions is here!

All of our Autumn holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas can be found in this special edition. Sixty-eight pages of festive ideas for scrapbook pages, handmade cards, and home decor.

Make sure to get your hands on these items in the next couple months, because they are while supplies last and won't be available after December.

Contact me for your copy of the Idea Book!

Watercolor Christmas

 

CTMH Watercolor Paper and Watercolor Paints are so much fun to play with.  The card above is made with the White Pines Cardmaking WOTG stamp set.  

To make the slanted hill, I tore a scrap paper from one corner to the other, slightly bigger than the watercolor paper (I did watercolor paper at 6" square and scrap was 7" square).  I taped the top part of the scrap paper to the left of the desktop and the bottom part the right.  I slide the watercolor paper inside the left scrap and used a mixture of white, gray and tan watercolor paints to make a hill, making sure the darker grey/tan colors were at the top to create a "shadow".

 

 Once the hill dried, I slide the watercolor paper below the right scrap to stamp and paint the trees and background.  In the card above, I stamped the trees first, and watercolored inside the trees with green and the night sky outside with blue and gray.  The snow is heavily pigmented white watercolor flicked from a paint brush held high above the project.  The watercolor paper was cut down to card size and a sentiment stamped on the hill.

 

This version of the watercolor image uses watercolors first, then stamped the trees on top.  But I liked the precision of the first image instead of the artsy version.  Both have really pretty night skies and I love the texture of the snowy hill.

Santa's Wallet

Santa's Wallet is a cute card that I've seen throughout Pintrest and the web. It's a super easy card, and was also easy to make into a gift card.  The card base is a solid Cranberry Cardstock and the belt is solid Black Cardstock.  The belt buckle is a Cricut cut in CTMH's glitter paper, with a Bitty Sparkle in the center.  The center of the gift card is two simple pockets on left and right.  One side is a sentiment card to sign, while the other is the place for the gift card.