Mr Cardmaker is a Non-traditionalist, Christmas-wise...

With my fall birthdays covered, I need to start thinking about my Christmas cards....Yeah, I know Thanksgiving is first, and I definitely need some cards for that, but I pulled out some beautiful American Crafts Papers, the Dear Lizzie Christmas set, to be exact-ish, as well as some DCWV Shimmer stack and Linen stack papers, and got started on some prototypes.

I made this--

As you can see, this is not your red and green kinda card.  I dig colors that you don't see so much at Christmas.  These are Christmasy-ish.  Who cares? These are beautiful papers.

I layered the teal onto some white to give it some presence, and stamped and wet embossed the sentiment in white onto some teal shimmer cs.  This sentiment is from A*muse studio, the Holiday Greetings Inside and Out set.  This is a really nice set; big, substantial letters.  I like the shadow effect on the bigger type.

The snowflakes are done with a Martha Stewart punch out of cream glitter cs and pink shimmer cs.

The rhinestones are AC Moore, and the ribbon is a scavenged one from a floral bouquet. 

Easy, I can do this idea in many paper combos, blah blah blah....

I made this one next--

I bough this sentiment stamp in Chelsea, NYC this summer, along with one that says "got snow?"  I edged the card stock strip with some pink (one of my SU stampin' spots) and popped it up on foam tape.  The pearl is from my ever trusty AC Moore.

The snowman is from Stampendous, the Holiday Home set.  I have used this set to make "New Home" cards, like the one seen HERE.  This snowman is so teeny-tiny, but I think he makes it look like a greater great outdoors.  He's colored with copics.  

The cream cs is actually glitter cs, hard to see in the photo, and that's popped off of the pink with more foam tape. The pink is a shimmer stock that I ran thru the Cuttlebug with a Sizzix folder.  The clouds are an A*muse Studio die, and I ran those thru the Cuttlebug with the swiss dots folder.  Love me some texture!!  Add some baker's twine from The Paper Source, and I'm done.  (Don't you like the way the red works here?  I gotta add some more red in with these colors.....)

So, this one is easy enough to do in other papers, colors, etc, too.  This way, I can use up MANY of the papers in my stacks, and still get the same, or at least a similar look in lots of cards without having to go out and purchase a ton of the same papers and stuff.

So, those are the first of the prototypes.  I actually have two, no, well....two and a half more to share.  Next time.

Thanks so much for stopping by!!

All Best-

Richard



Dang It All.....

I have to confess, it never is a fast process for me to make a card.  I can throw something together sometimes, but for something I really like, I usually can spend two+ hours on it. 

That's why it makes me CUCKOO when I find an error or a flaw in my project in the last ten seconds of production!  The litany of arghs and curses (yes, much as I try, the potty mouth does occur sometimes) is enough to send the dog heading for cover.

Example. 



Cute, right?  It took some time to figure out which punch on which edge, where does the ribbon happen, how about that swiss dot stuff?  Here, there, where?   Sweat, snort , layer......Carefully now with that ribbon ruffle.....whew.  Hey this looks pretty good....

Hey.....

Wait a minute....

What is THAT?
What is that LUMP on the top of my card?  LOOK at that...(it's in the pic, with the "dang it" next to it.)

What IS THAT???

I checked.  Nothing under there.  What the ...???

Apparently it's a flaw in the card stock.  Of all the crazy things.  Well, I am just OVER that!

OK, Mister Cardmaker.  Deep breath, Friend.  CLEARLY, we will not be chucking this one in the bin.  HOW are we gonna fix it?

Uh.....

Hmmm...

OH YEAH!  I have MORE PAPER!!

SO I did this--

See the extra little strip of card stock?  I'll wait while you scroll back and forth to check it out.)
How easy was THAT? 
I swear, I get my knickers into such a twist sometimes....Anybody feeling me on this out there??

Hey, thanks for stopping by. 
All Best--
Richard