Pine trees

The stamped image is an unknown stamp.
I stamped it with VersaMark.
By careful application of two different embossing powders
it is possible to emboss both the green pine needles
and the brown trunk.

The trees image was cut out with the Spellbinders
Mega Oval die. The edges were distressed
with a Tim Holtz thread cutter.
I sponged brown in a short distance and
then "burned" the distressed edge with black ink.

The tree image is mounted on a brown cards stock
Spellbinders Label die cut.
The card stock was left in the die after cutting
and the edges sponged with dark brown ink.
This leaves a definite narrow border when
the paper is removed from the die.
You are going to have to clean you die.

The card base is a parchment beige paper.
All the edges have been sponged with dark brown ink.

The pine embellishment is done with
Cheery Lynn Designs pine branch die.
Pine cones are from an old Emaginations punch.
After punching them out in dark brown cark stock
they were closely crumpled and not totally smoothed
out when uncrumbling. This gives the pine cone
looking texture.

Since I live in an area of western Nebraska called
the Wildcat Hills and see Ponderosa covered
hills everyday, these cards are NOT Christmas.

Very simple

A very very simple card. Yet it is so elegant.
The punching was done on text weight
medium gray paper.

How to make the mosaic "bar":
1. In the slot of the punch where the paper is placed,
make sure the paper is squarely against the back of the slot.
This ensure that one edge of the mosaics will be even.
2. Now to get the punched images evenly spaced from each other.
This may take a few tries so start with scrap paper.
3. I punch the first mosaic, now slide the paper through the punch
and estimate how far apart the punches will be.
Be sure to keep the paper squarely against the back of the punch.
4. Note where the edge of the punch is on the first punch.
5. Keep punching and experimenting until you have the desired
space between your punches.

I have a quilt ruler that has lots of measuring lines on it.
I used this ruler to cut an even border around the mosaic "bar".
One important trick is to be sure that you are in the same
sitting or standing position for each cut.
I also have put the no-slip plastic on the back of the ruler
to help prevent slipping when cutting.
I will also advise that you are less likely to have
the ruler slip under the pressure of cutting if you
have a light touch. I often make two cuts
to get a clean even cut with card stock.
One quilt ruler even has a Sharpie line drawn on it
that shows a frequently used measurement.

Rejoice and Be Glad

It is amazing what a big difference
a slight change in design can make.

On the above card, the pine bough
was stamped with VersaMark
and embossed with clear embossing
powder. This creates a "shadowed" look.

The same basic design can be seen above and below.
One difference is the punched pine bough.
I personally like both looks.

Super Fast Card

Need a card in a hurry? This is the basic design that you can play with and easily make your own. The card base is black card stock. I cut a piece of flocked scrapbook paper from DCWV's LaCreme stack, 4 X 5.25 inches and centered it on the card base.

The Happy Birthday was stamped and embossed with fine line black embossing powder, cut out and layered onto black card stock.

It was a bling-ie type of day when I made the card so there are three gaudy rhinestones in the upper left corner. I would have used bigger flashier ones if I had had them. (smile)

In All Things

Oh my, another scripture card. I do love them. I have certainly found some great combinations.

Our Daily Bread Designs scripture stamp, DCWV paper and Spellbinders dies. There is really no need for instructions, it is all plain to see in the picture. Have fun creating.

Called According to His Purposes

That yummy La Creme Stack from DCWV! The base layer of this card is a flocked scrapbook paper. The extreme left and right borders a cut from a striped page from the same stack.

Spellbinders created the lovely lace die cut on the left and the right. A corner punch from CM was used on all four corner of the Our Daily Bread Designs stamp.

That's it. As my friend Anne would say, "Easy Peasy". All different types of papers and borders could be used to create your very own version of this very basic design.

And We Know

Such a beautiful scripture. There are so many of these stamps available at Our Daily Bread Designs. It is well worth the time to view all that they have available.

The design begins with scrapbook paper from DCWV attached to the front of an A2 card base. Text weight black paper was used to create the scallops that were punched with an EK Success Punch Around the Page set.

The corner punch used on the cream cardstock of the scripture phrase is echoed on the one plain corner of the black layer. Another echo is found on the left side of the card is more of the scallops and a straight edges. This pulls the whole design together.

You Encourage Me

This is a white card base with orange white core cardstock from DCWV attached to cover the whole front. A Cuttlebug border embossing folder was the placed on the very edge of the cards opening edge and run through a die cut machine. (this means which ever one I had out at the moment) The raised image was then carefully sanded to let the white core of the orange cardstock show through.

I also used a matching narrower Cuttlebug border folder on the left side of the scripture. The scripture is on a Spellbinders Label. The raised daisies have been brayered with yellow ink.

I stamp my image and then die cut. Normally the die is taped down over the image after the die has been lined up. I have found that with the curved sides of the Labels dies I have to use a clear quilting ruler to get everything straight.

Tape used on my dies is a painters masking tape. There was a lavender Duck brand at Wal Mart that was just perfect. It is very low tack and does not pull up a layer of paper when removed. I did find a pale green masking tape at Menard's that is meant for delicate surfaces and it works fairly well. If I ever find that lavender masking tape again I am going to buy four or five rolls.

According To His Purpose

A very very favorite scripture that has been such a comfort in troubled and stressful times, this lovely stamp is a product of Our Daily Bread Designs. It has been cut out with a Spellbinders Rectangle Nestibilities in cream cardstock and layered onto a black scalloped rectangle. On the left side of the card is Spellbinders Borderabilities in black. There is a very narrow band of cream layered onto the black for that final touch of elegance.

The paper covering the cardbase is from DCWV La Creme Stack.

My Salvation

The stamped phrase is by Our Daily Bread Designs. The corners on the white cardstock were rounded with a discontinued corner rounder by Creative Memories. A small corner rounder was used on the dark brown layer.

The pink scalloped oval layers and the large embossed green leaf are a product of Spellbinders. The small glitter paper leaves are from a Punch Bunch punch. The dark brown branches are the EK Success Martha Stewart line. The smaller dark brown branch that is an extension on the larger branch on the left is from Punch Bunch.

Papers are DCWV.

This card reall does not require directions. It's all right there in front of you. I am sure there are many many variation on this theme. This card is a little outside my usual box. Not my favorite colors, but it was fun. We all need to stretch a little every now and then. Stay tuned for more of my stretching. Some of it was very pleasing and some of it was . . . well I'll leave that up to you to decide.

He Has Made Everything Beautiful

What can I say? More Our Daily Bread Design stamps with DCWV Tahiti stack papers and Spellbinders Labels dies. So much fun!!!!

The base oval was cut with a Coluzzle. This one was constructed from parts laying around and playing with them. I am very satisfied with the results. Hope some of you are inspired by it as well.

Stamp Camp background

When attending stamp convention in August at Loveland CO I visited the booth of Stamp Camp. I could spend hours at this vendors display, drooling over her fantastic product.

This image was stamped in dark brown dye ink and then lightly colored with colored pencils. The edges where heavily sponged with that dark brown ink to soften the borders. It was then layered on cream and then brown card stock.

The scalloped border of dark brown card stock is a border punch from EK Success Martha Stewart line. I have found the best selection of these punches at Michael's. (another product I just drool over, those are some great innovative punches) The punch around the page punches are great. (especially when you have a 40% off coupon, LOL)

Strength I Need

This wonderful scripture stamp is from

Our Daily Bread Designs. I would love to have one of every single one of their stamps. The phrases and images are great and the quality of the deeply etched rubber is perfect.

The die cuts are by Spellbinders. From their Label and Borderabilities lines.

The phrase was stamped on cream card stock. A white gel pen was used to highlight some of the bold letter.

The card base is a duplex paper of black and beige. The advantage of this paper is that I don't need an insert of light paper insert or a light gel pen to write my greeting inside. This is especially important when you give your cards as a gift. Most people that I gift with a card set don't have gel pens and won't buy one either.

Butterfly Collage Stamp

The card base of this design has been covered with scrapbook paper and the edges sponged lightly with a dark brown ink.

Spellbinders made the die for the die cut on the right side of the card. It was cut and embossed, then lightly sponged with dark brown ink to accent the embossing even more.

I can not tell you who made the stamp. The butterfly itself is accented with a clear sparkle gel pen to pop the butterfly image in the collage. The square edges have been distressed with a thread cutter and then heavily sponged with black ink to give a burned and vintage look.

You Answer Me

Layers, wow, do I like to use layers! I used the parts of the pendant that are cut out and made them accents. Spellbinders Label and Pendant dies were used. The papers are from DCWV Tahiti stack and the stamped phrase is made my Our Daily Bread Designs.

The stamped phrase has been accented with a white pen.

A black card base was used. More to come, I am still creating with my paper, stamps and dies.

The Last of the Christmas Cards

I was sorting out my stash of cards and found some older cards that I had done. The red and black card was so dramatic and elegant. I think I need to use my mulberry paper more often.

The collage stamp was used over a Glimmer Mists shimmery background. Sadly the pictures just can't do justice to the beauty of the Glimmer Mists. The stamp is unmounted and I have no idea who is the maker.

A piece of scrapbook paper attached to the front of a card base, an evergreen tree embossed with green sparkly embossing powder and a Christmas phrase. A quick, easy and elegant card.

This is a window card. The snowflake is a Sizzix cut and emboss die. Two snowflakes glued together with the fishing line in the middle. The frame hides where the glue has been applied to hold the snowflake in place in the window.

The phrase is computer generated. I have no idea who is the maker of the snowflake stamp. Another of those purchased years ago at a convention as an unmounted.

Let It Snow

Since I know very well that I can't prevent the coming predicted snow I have decided to be happy about it. Okay, not happy, but at least accepting.

Here again the Spellbinder's Impressibilites was used to create the raised snowflakes. The raised image was lightly brayered over with a medium blue ink. The oval, scalloped oval and the dark blue border on the right of the card to the left were all from Spellbinders dies. The dark blue snowflakes are from various punches and die cuts.

The second card is the same Spellbinders Impressibilites. It has been layered on dark blue and white then mounted on a meduim blue card base.

Even More Blue Snowflakes

Cut up a dry embossed panel into three rectangles, mount them on some K & Company paper from the latest Christmas stack then layer onto dark blue. Dark blue ink was sponged around the edges.

A second example of my blue snowflake frenzy is also in this post. I created the multi-shaded various blue snowflake paper. You can read the basics of how it was done in yesterday's post.

Blue, Tan and White

This color combination and the use of snowflakes was inspired by my stamping friend's blog. Carol Norby has a blog called Stampin Hot In Arizona and it is a "hot" blog. Carol has some great ideas, so stop by her blog and be inspired.

The shades of blue paper used here is from K & Company. I stamped one of my many snowflake stamps on the paper and embossed with a sparkly blue embossing powder.

The Sizzix die cut snowflake is dark blue cardstock. VersaMark ink was brayered on then holgram embossing powder was used.

The ink used on the rest of the stamped images is Blue Iris Chalk ink.

All three cards were created using Spellbinders Impressabilities. These are amazing embossing templates. They can be used as I did as a whole or cut apart.

When using any type of embossing plate or folder I would recommend that you use some type of "softener" for the paper. My preferred product is Wonder Goo. You can also spritz or mist lightly with water. This gives a much crisper finished product.

The Merry Christmas was stamped on the first card before embossing. To make the embossed snowflakes stand out even more a brayer inked with light blue dye based ink was used.

Best brayer method, a very very light touch. This keeps the brayer on top of the embossed image. I just hate it when the brayer inks the valleys.

The second card has layering and a punched out glitter snowflake that has been encased in EnviroTex resin.

This third card has an added snowflake that is covered in metal flakes. The layering here is very basic. A little darker blue ink was used to enhance the embossed snowflake design.