Let it snow frame

Continuing with the snowy background that I have been creating lately for my cards, I created a framed one. I promise My next card will not be Christmas-y, lol. It feels great getting caught up on my Christmas card stash though. There are times when I want to just buy our cards, but then I look through my stamps and get inspired. Playing along with WMS's Christmas card challenges and Festive Fridays really help inspire me too. In fact, I am going to throw this on into the ring for the current FF challenge: Snow.

This time I decided to use the background as part of the framed scene I created. It was super easy to put together using the Country Landscape die by Memory Keepers. I simply die cut the image three times and cut them how I wanted. I then took a glitter pen and colored and outlined the parts I wanted to sparkle. A few punched, sparkled snowflakes and a sweet sentiment finished it off perfectly. A CAS card without the typical solid background.

Here is a close up of the sparkle.

Let It Snow

Maybe not just yet but a little cooler weather would be nice. Like maybe in the low 90's and it feels like it isn't over 100, lol. While dreaming of cooler weather, I used a few challenges to inspire today's WMS CCC catch up. Last month's theme was "snow" and I found a few challenges that worked perfectly with it too: Festive Friday's challenge this week is to be inspired by the trigger word of snow, Addicated to CAS's trigger word was 'water' (which snow is a form of, thank you elementary science class, lol). and One Stop Craft Challenge was the every popular Anything Goes. I ended up creating two slightly different cards and played with the longer, standard business size cards too.

The card on the right is a carry over from the glitter challenge of May over at WMS CCC. I lined score tape along the sides and up to where I wanted the sentiment in the opening and then rubbed in the glitter. To create the background, I covered white c/s (enough for both cards) with Chipped Sapphire DI, let it dry, stamped two sizes of snowflakes from WMS (the same ones I used here) in white ink, splattered pearlized spray and plain water. For the card on the right I cut the background apart so that I could stamp the sentiment and the frame around it (with Chipped Sapphire DI). For the card on the left I choose to use a MS snowflake punch on some computer paper and use it as the border to the design. Also, instead of the opening for the sentiment I went with heat embossing it with white directly onto the background. If I had time I believe I would have done a third one where I merged the two together...maybe I will make the time.

Santa Claus is Coming

So, he isn't coming until December 25th, but I do have a Santa card to share with everyone. I have been playing catch up with my Christmas cards and the WMS Christmas Card Challenge (CCC). The challenge from back in May was to add glitter. So I did; only I added it in small amounts for these cards (I made two of them). I was also in the mood to play with a different size card. These fit in the standard legal envelopes so there won't be any extra postage. With the longer card I thought it would be fun to use the ornament from WMS's Santa's Coming to Town set. And to play on the sentiment found in the image I added the date from the set too. It also gave that side a nice anchor and didn't make the card so heavy on the left side. The background was created by directly inking/covering white c/s with DI Chipped Sapphire and then stamping the large snowflake from Complements of the Season and the small one from 'Twas the Night Before Christmas with white ink. To complete the background I flicked some Perfect Pearl mist and then plain water for a subtle glitter and texture. The background didn't sparkle enough but I didn't want it competing with the ornament so I simply added a thin strip of sticky tape to either side and rubbed glitter into it. Perfect! The image was white embossed onto navy c/s, cut, and popped up with foam for just a touch of depth. The corners were rounded to soften up the card.

I'll be back soon with my June CCC, and then it'll be my turn to host the July challenge.

LET It Snow

Went with a very non-tradtional Christmas card for this Retro Sketch challenge. Since I've been playing with snowflakes, I saw snowflakes instead of the hearts found in the sketch. These sweet little flakes are from PTI's In The Meadow and the sentiment is from Tremendous Treats: Christmas. I embossed the flakes and sentiment so they could stand out more on the kraft c/s. The clouds are die cut out with PTI cloud dies and before I used pop dots on the clouds out sponged Weathered Wood and Stormy Sky. The edge of the card was sponged with Fresh Snow ink.

WMS Christmas time

I have now caught up with the WMS Christmas Card Challenges and I can't wait till the June one comes. Both of these cards were inspired by Etsy. The colors are very non-traditional Christmas colors, but I really like how they turned out.

This first one is a CAS card using PTI's Out on a Limb's branch and Text Background as well as WMS's snowflakes found in Seasons of Love and 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. The cardstock colors are Black, Grey, and Bordering Blue (which is a really pretty blue grey). I used a Martha Stewart snowflake border punch along the bottom of the card base (the black - I will glue in white paper on the inside to allow for writing). The snowflakes on the BB base was embossed in clear embossing powder and then stamped over it with a text background stamp using Weathered Wood. I then sponged Weathered Wood and Black Soot around the edges so that the snowflakes could pop a little more. I used WMS's Holiday Labels #14 stamped in grey for the frame around the branch (that I had added some "snow" using a white pen). The sentiment was hand written as I couldn't find the sentiment as a stamp that would fit. I used white thread to help anchor everything along the bottom.

Challenges used:
WMS CCC: April challenge to use snow
WMS sketch: sketch
Embellish: color and text challenge
Saturday Cahllenge: clean and simple
Wee Memories: be ispired by Etsy or Pintrest




My second card is really my DH's favorite of the two. I used SU! Lovely as a Tree stamp embossed in black on Bordering Blue and then sponged Weather Wood, Faded Jeans, and a touch of Black Soot. Once I was done withe the spongeing I splattered some water to give if the droplet look and then flicking watered down white pain for my "snowflakes". The whole time I was making this card I was singing "Let it Snow" (one of my favorite holiday songs). I even took a white pen to add some snow to the trees. I love how the sketch I used lent itself to a polaroid frame as that's what I used to "frame" part of the scene. The sentiment is from WMS's Seasons of Love and I thought went so beautifully with the snow scene I tried to create.




Challenges used:
WMS CCC: May challenge to use a tree
CPS: sketch
Wee Memories: be inspired by Etsy Pintrest
Lillipop Craft: Inpsired by a song, "Let It Snow"
My Partner in Crafting Crime: use an uncolored image

Snowflakes Sparkle

I thought I would try out some Christmas in July challenges this time. I wanted a more simple look but LOTS of glitter. The snowflakes and sentiment came from All That Scraps "Snowflakes" set. I added an embossed flourish for a subtle embellie on the big white background, but it doesn't really show up. This makes one Christmas card down and many more to go :) This is my last post as I am taking the weekend off to spend it with family.

Challenges used:

Paper Cutz - Christmas but NO red or green

Fussy and Fancy - Christmas

No Time to Stamp - Christmas

Taylored Expressions - sketch