Online Card Classes, Holiday Style, O' Christmas Tree

I just loved all of the cards from the Online Card Classes Holiday Style,  Day 12!  I wish I had more time to try out the different styles.

I took my inspiration from Kristina Werner's adorable card.  I don't have enough of an assortment of embossing powder colors so I thought I'd go for the traditional red and green colors of Christmas along with some stripes.

I used the same two embossing powders for the striped layer as I did on the card front.  I really love how this turned out!!

It was very difficult to photograph this sparkly card.  It's a very cloudy gray afternoon here in Texas today (4-5" of rain predicted from Thanksgiving till Sunday!)

Here's a closeup of part of it showing the sparkle and shine!

This class has been just awesome!  It's the 4th one I've taken and just might be one of my favorites!!

Thank you so much for taking a look!  I so appreciate any comments!  Hugs and happy and blessed Thanksgiving to you!

Supplies:
Scribbly Christmas, Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection
Ticking Stripe Background Stamp, JustRite
Sparkle N Sprinkle embossing powder in Bullfrog
Red Embossing Tinsel (bought at Michael's several years ago)

Online Card Classes, Holiday Style, Home for the Holidays

Today was Day 9 of the Online Card Class and the cards by the instructors were oh so beautiful!!

I was feeling somewhat lacking in talent in the watercoloring department!  Haha!!  But I took my inspiration from Dawn Wolesagle and her oh so beautiful wreath!  I was really helped by her tip to use very little water on the brush.

The wreath is from a stamp set by Inkadinkadoo that I picked up on clearance at Michael's for $2.99 (HAD to buy it at that price!)  I used all Distress inks in one form or another for the coloring of the stamp.  I used the markers, re-inkers, and smooshed some ink from the pads onto my craft sheet.   I also blended gold Perfect Pearls with Ground Espresso to use on the frame and pine cones.

I also stamped the sentiment (old stamp set purchased a long time ago) in Frayed Burlap Distress Ink to continue the rustic look I was hoping to achieve.

I really love making cards for Christmas!  This class has been perfect for inspiring different ideas!

Thank you so much for taking a look!  I also thank you for any comments--hugs to you!

Online Card Classes, Holiday Style, Card 2

I really had fun with this! Because I do love sparkle and shine I made another card with the same stencil.

See my previous post for the details.  The only difference is that I used Ranger Transparent Matte texture paste.  For the spray on the white card stock I used Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Mint Green.  I love this color!!

Thanks for taking a look!  I love to hear what you think and really appreciate your comments!

Online Card Classes, Holiday Style

Day 7 was just amazing!!!!  The instructors, Kristina Werner, Yana Smakula, and Carissa Wiley showed us how to make some beautiful cards!

As it happens, my supplies aren't quite as well rounded as I thought.  No stencils to use with the embossing paste, no dies for holiday sentiments.

I started making cards several years ago with the brass templates, stylus and light box.  Anyone remember those?  Somehow I had the idea to use some brass stencils with the embossing paste.  It works fantastically!!!

Some Wendi Vecchi embossing paste and Martha Stewart coarse crystal glitter and here you go!

The stamped with Wplus9's Hand Lettered Holiday stamps and heat embossed with Simon Says Stamp white embossing powder.  Added Perfect Pearls spray mist and done!!

My photography skill are zero and this looks so pretty in real life!

Thank you so much for looking.  I love your comments and thank you!

Online Card Classes, Clean & Simple

Clean and simple is a challenge for me as I continually want to add some bling!!!  Haha!  I suppose that's why it's taken me six days to get this card done!   Also, I had to CASE Laurie Willison's  beautiful card that she did in the Day One class.

I oriented my embossed lines differently on a top folding A2 card.  I used Hero Arts Holiday Pine Branches stamps and dies for the leaves and berries.  I blended Distress Ink in Fired Brick on the bottom.  The sentiment is two different stamp sets.  I don't know what the Merry is from as it was given to me.  The word Christmas is from Wplus9's Hand Lettered Holiday set.

I did manage to get in a bit of sparkle with some Christmas Red Stickles on the berries!

Thank you for looking.  Any comments are so appreciated and loved!

Online Card Classes, Holiday Style, Merry & Bright

What a fabulous 5th day the instructors have given us!  I love all of the cards!

I have two stamp sets with any animals in them. Wplus9 Happy Mail and Tim Holtz Crazy Birds.  So I went with the cute little bear from the Happy Mail set.   (Maybe I need to do some shopping?) ;)

I didn't have a santa hat stamp so....with much anxiety, I drew it myself!!  Not bad I think!  I also created a mask for the hat and bear to do the ink blending on the background.

I used the little stamp of snow from Hero Arts Color Layering Christmas tree to stamp repeatedly on the background with VersaMark before embossing with clear embossing powder.  And then inked the background using Distress Inks in Tumbled Glass and a bit of Blueprint Sketch.

I love Simon Says Stamp's Stitched Slopes and Hills dies!  I used a couple of them to for the hill, popping up the top one with some foam tape.  I die cut the snowflakes with Impression Obsession's tiny snowflakes.

It doesn't show in the photo, but I used clear Wink of Stella on the hat and snowflakes for a bit of sparkle!

Thanks so much for taking a look!  Also thanks for your comments which are so nice to get!

Online Card Classes, Holiday Style

I've certainly enjoyed all of the videos that we've been shown in the Online Card Classes this week!  Totally makes me want to shop for specific stamps!  LOL!

I haven't had much time to make a card, but I did have a bit of time today and took my inspiration from Kristina Werner's beautiful card.

Thank you for taking a look & a big hug to you for any and all comments!

Most of the supplies I used:
Hero Arts Color Layering Christmas Tree stamps
Wplus9 Hand Lettered Holiday
Ranger Stickles Dry Fine Glitter Gold
Sparkle 'n' Sprinkle Christmas Green EP,  3/4" Tear-iffic tape
Distress Inks: Frayed Burlap, Walnut Stain

My Monthly Hero Poinsettias

I received the October My Monthly Hero kit this week.  When I opened the box, I was surprised by the sweet packaging for the bundle!  Wish I'd taken a picture!  I couldn't wait to have time to play with these layered poinsettia stamps and coordinating dies!  I'll be entering this into their Holiday Cardmaking Challenge.

I used nothing but the products in the kit:  stamps, dies, bling, and five different inks in cute little cubes!  I really like how my card turned out!

I heat embossed the sentiment on vellum using VersaFine Onyx Black ink and Simon Says Stamp clear embossing powder.  I popped up the small poinsettia and added a few leaves under it.

I'm looking forward to trying other ways to use these awesome stamps!  Thank you for taking a look!

Hero Arts Color Layering Christmas Tree

Hi!  I finished this card yesterday with my new stamps and coordinating dies from Hero Arts.  I just love this set!

A blogger I follow had a comment about this contest by Hero Arts called Holiday Cardmaking Challenge so I decided I would enter my card.  Why not, right?

I love to make sparkly cards and I like how this turned out!   Thank you so much for taking a look!

Supplies:

Inks: Hero Arts Ombre Lime to Forever Green; Distress Ink: Tumbled Glass, Broken China; VersaMark, Tsukineko Encore! Metallic Silver

Embossing Powder:  Simon Says Stamp white

Liquid Applique in white

Stampendous Fuzzy Fun Flock in white

Go For The Gold

This card is for the Go for the Gold! by Sandy Allnook where she is giving 7 days of inspiration and lessons in all things gold.

My card is from Day One and how to make an Ornament Card.   I used supplies I have on hand and have a complete list of what I used below.  The cross is much brighter and sparklier in real life (I am NOT a photographer--haha!)   I really love how this turned out!  Thank you Sandy for the inspiration!!

I sprinkled some gold glitter into the paste for even more sparkle and shine!

Here is a close up of the cross with the star stamped into the paste.

My supplies were:
Heidi Swapp Metallic Texture Paste--Gold
Stickles Dry Fine Glitter--Gold
Our Daily Bread, Grunge Cross Die
Hero Arts, Holiday Pine Branches
Hero Arts Ombre green ink
Ranger Super Fine Detail gold embossing powder
VersaMark
Maya Road, star stamp

Thank you so much for looking at my card.  I love hearing from you and what you think about my card!

Online Card Classes, Watercolor for Card Makers, Day 2

I have had as much time to try out the techniques in this class as I have others, but I have managed to use the background that Laura Bassen showed us on day 2.

This background took me several tries to get it close to Laura's, but I figured out that at first I was using too much water!!

I cut down the watercolor background to use with an Impression Obsession frame.  I just couldn't leave all of the ink on my craft mat, so I spritzed it with water and laid the frame into the inks.  I like how it turned out!

I've used the Tim Holtz Crazy Birds stamps and dies and things to create this card.  I used Distress Inks and markers to watercolor the bird and balloons too.  I added some clear Wink of Stella to the balloons before adding Glossy Accents to them and the eyes.

Here's a closeup showing the Wink of Stella under the Glossy Accents.

This class has been a good one and has helped me feel more comfortable using watercolors!

Thank you for looking at my card, and a big thank you for your comments!

Online Card Classes, Watercolor for Cardmakers

Here is my card inspired by Jennifer McGuire's from the first day of class.  I have a grand total of eight Distress Markers!  Haha!  I was happy that I could learn to use them to watercolor.  It only took three of the markers to color this card.

I used Abandoned Coral, Twisted Citron and Mermaid Lagoon for the coloring.   I was also happy that I had one stamp set from Clearly Besotted that had this floral stamp and sentiment.

Jennifer sure made it look easy to color the blue background.  That was my struggle and I will be giving it some more practice.

Thank you for taking a look!  My thanks to you for any comments too!

Carol :)

Create With Heart

Here is a card I made for a Facebook group called Crafting with Darsie.  She posts weekly challenges for us.  The Wednesday challenge that began last Wednesday is a clean and simple inspirational card. I struggle mightily with this style.

I used a stamp set that I received at a Fun Stampers Journey make and take at the Scrapbook Expo last February.  The inks are Abandoned Coral Distress Ink and Leaf Green Archival Ink by Wendy Vecchi.  The sentiment is stamped in black with my favorite Versafine Onyx Black.

It was the most difficult thing to stop at this point!  I so wanted to add glitter, some ink splatters or SOMEthing!  LOL!

Please say hello if you are here & thanks for looking!

Celebrate

I have had this stamp set from JustRite called Multi-Step Lilac Bouquet for a few months now.  I've loved it ever since it came out and bought it on sale as JustRite was closing.

I used various inks from Hero Arts, Momento, and Distress Inks.  I should have written the exact one down.  Oh well, next time.  I stamped the sentiment from Spellbinders onto velum and heat embossed with Recollections Pearl embossing powder in Eggplant.

I did lots of masking for the orange flowers and the butterfly which is from Heartfelt Creations.  I covered the butterfly in Glossy Accents and sprinkled a little Crystal Ultrafine Transparent glitter by Art Glitter.  More masking was done for the blue around it all using Tumbled Glass Distress Ink.

I really don't know if anyone ever looks at the things I post that aren't related to a blog hop or Online Card Class.  Would love for you to say hello if you are here!  Thanks for looking!

Eyelash Lines

I've recently started following Kathy at The Daily Marker and she showed us how to add "eyelash" lines to stamped elements.

I'm back to making scrapbook pages after making more cards than I need.  I wanted a tag for my page and I used a manilla tag swiped with some Distress Stain in Fossilized Amber.  I stamped the flower and leaves with a Wendy Vecchi Stamp-it Stencil-it called Build a Blossom.  I used the stencil to add some color with Fired Brick, Mowed Lawn, and Forest Moss Distress Inks.

I remembered the "eyelash" lines and added them to the flower.  I have to say I am just AMAZED at what effect it has!  I love it!!  Thank you Kathy for this technique!!

Kathy said if we added popcorn to our photo we could win a goody bag.  As it's almost time to fix dinner, I didn't want to pop a bag, so what you see is my crude popcorn drawing.  LOL!

I added larger "eyelash" lines around the edge of the tag.

I will definitely be using this technique many more times!!

Anniversary Card

This is an anniversary card I made for my sister's 30th wedding anniversary!  I thought 30 years deserved a special card.

I used velum for the flowers, Spellbinders dies, and SEI paper.

I like how this turned out!

Online Card Classes, Background Check

Here is a card I made from Day 2 of the Online Card Classes using glossy paper.  I totally love this technique and can't wait to try it more!

I really like how this turned out.  After searching through my dies I decided on this Heartfelt Creations die from the Butterfly Medley and matching stamp from the Botanical Wings set.  I used glossy paper and the same technique with the stamping and inking on the butterfly.

I love spinning the butterfly and seeing the two different colors!  What fun!

I'm loving my sequins from Pretty Pink Posh--just a bit of sparkle makes me happy!

This card will be going in the mail tomorrow to our niece who gave us a big scare but is on the mend!  I thank you and appreciate you looking at my cards and love any comments you may have!

Online Card Classes, Background Check, Day 6

I used Simple Numbers die and the word dies with the Balloons set by Simon Says Stamp on this card.   I added a few Pretty Pink Posh sequins from my recent purchase with them.  I was keeping my husband's October birthday in mind when I was making this one.  I really like how it turned out!

The panel is actually navy blue--don't know if it shows that way in this photo.

Thanks so much for checking out my card!

Online Card Classes, Background Check, Day 6

Here is one of the cards I've made from the last 2 days of creating backgrounds.  This was a Spellbinders embossing folder.  I colored with Distress Inks and Wink of Stella pens in yellow, pink and green.

This was a fun card to make!  Thank you so much for looking!

Online Card Classes, Background Check, Day 5

Here is my take on Jennifer McGuire's lovely colored and embossed background.  Yes, I started out thinking I would imitate the pretty, soft tones like Jennifer's.  

I was done, then I thought let me use my yellow Wink of Stella to add sparkle to the flower centers.  Then I added green Wink of Stella to the leaves and just a touch of the pink Wink of Stella to the flowers.  Poof!  Gone, bye-bye to the soft colors!  Haha!  That's ok because I do like bright happy colors!

I like this photo as it shows the dimension.

I appreciate you looking at my creations!

Online Card Classes, Background Check, Day 4

I really loved all of the techniques from this day.  However, try as I might, I could only come up with ONE background.  I tried many of my dies to substitute for various ones used in the videos and it just didn't work.  You can imagine my happiness when I discovered that Laura Bassen was using THE EXACT die that I have!  Woohoo!!  Lol!

So there you have it.  Thanks for looking :)

Online Card Classes, Background Check, Day 3

Here is another card from the Day 3 inspiration.  I love this background technique and I like how my card turned out.  Yay! :)

I don't know if it shows in the picture, but the pink has a glittered stripe.  I don't really need an excuse to add some sparkle, but that gave me one.  I like how the black glitter looks on the die cut word!

Online Card Classes, Background Check, Day 3

Day 3 is the day the awesome and crazy talented teachers Kristina Werner, Laura Bassen and Jennifer McGuire showed how to use the backgrounds made in Days 1 and 2 classes.

Here is the first card I've made from one of my Day One backgrounds.  I've used the adorable WPlus9 Happy Mail Stamp and die set.

I can think of a few people I'd like to mail this to!  Thank you for looking!

Online Card Classes, Background Check, Day 2

My final background for this day was a totally new one for me.  I had no idea you could use glossy paper in this manner!!  I used a background stamp from Heartfelt Creations called Large Elegant Word.  The leafy background was stamped with an old favorite from Hero Arts.

The blue ink is Hero Arts Neon Blue.  It's just magic to me how this works!!!  LOL!

Online Card Classes, Background Check, Day 2

My second background for day 2 is the embossed resist with ombre inking.  I used Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink with a Ticking Stripe background stamp by JustRite.

Ink blending is SO much more difficult than I imagined!!

Online Card Classes, Background Check-Day 2

I have to say that I've been really wowed by these techniques!  Day 2's class has had some of my favorites.  Here is the first of three I did for Day 2.

This one is the embossed resist over patterned paper.  Honestly when I saw this I didn't think I would like it at all.  But after trying it, I have to say that I was amazed at how much I love it!  It's so cool when you apply the black ink and then wipe it off the embossed areas.

I just totally LOVE this technique!!  

Online Card Classes, Background Check

I have to say that our class leaders, Jennifer McGuire, Laura Bassen, and Kristina Werner are master ink blenders.  They make it look SO easy!  Well, for me it certainly isn't!  A bit of a learning curve going on here.  Haha!

I managed to get four different backgrounds done today.  One I combined 2 techniques but it doesn't show up that much.  Regardless, it was fun trying!!

This one uses a Tim Holtz stencil and a baby wipe.

This is Jennifer's technique with a background stamp and Perfect Pearls.

Same as the one above but I added another background stamp with a script--doesn't show up that much.

The last one is my FOURTH attempt--LOL!  Laura sure makes it look simple!

Add caption

Thanks for checking out my backgrounds.  Say HI if you are here!

The Best of Both Worlds

Here's my dilemma: I have a nice collection of stamps and dies and I have a Cricut Explore.  If I use my stamps and dies, I feel like I should be using my Cricut more, and vice versa.

So for this card, I used both!  I cut the tree with leaves and the grass with the Explore.  The Explore did the writing for me too.  I really love using it this way when I don't have a stamp for a sentiment I want!  For the other elements I used 2 sets from WPlus9, the Happy Mail and Sending Sunshine stamps w/dies.  I also used Spellbinder's Celebra'tions Pierced Rectangle dies.

I used watercolor paper so I could watercolor the sky and ground.  I colored the bear, birds, banner and flowers with my newly purchased Spectrum Noir pens.  What fun!

I added a bit of clear Wink of Stella to the sunshine and some of the leaves.

Well, I had fun making this card and my husband really liked it too!

I don't know if anyone actually looks at what I post (if it's not an Online Card Class) but if you are looking, I thank you!!!!

Floral Watercolor

I decided to do one more card for the Pretty Pink Posh Watercolor Blog Hop.  There have been so many beautiful cards posted--I'll be looking at them for days!

I've been wanting to do a pink card and I believe I've accomplished that!  I used Heartfelt Creations Botanical Rose stamps and coordinating dies.  The background was stamped with JustRite Ticking Stripe background stamp.  The sentiment is from JustRite as well.

I used Spun Sugar Distress Ink for the background and flowers.  I don't think it shows in the photo but I used a yellow Wink of Stella for the flower centers.  The leaves are Distress Inks in Mowed Lawn and a touch of Twisted Citron.  I love using these inks for watercoloring!

I had to add just a touch of bling with Distress Stickles in Clear Rock Candy!

Here is a close up of the flowers and leaves embossed in white embossing powder.

Thank you so much for taking a look!  I love comments and all are so appreciated!  

Freezer Paper Mask!

Yes!  I did it!  I actually used the freezer paper mask that I pulled off of my card shown in yesterday's post.  When I took it off, I just thought it was so pretty so I set it on my desk instead of trashing it.

I'm posting this in the Online Card Class, Mask-erade, Day 4 gallery.  Also, I'm stepping outside my comfort zone, and posting it in the Pretty Pink Posh blog hop.  Because, after all, the mask was watercolored too!!

So today, I took a Scor-Tape sheet, stuck it to white card stock, peeled off the other protective sheet and  (carefully!) stuck down the freezer paper mask!  THEN, I used the same die with freezer paper and cut it again.  I used all the little freezer paper pieces to mask the holes/open areas.  I hope that make sense!  :)

And because I LOVE glitter, section by section, I peeled off the little bits adding the different colors of glitter.

I used the same colors of Distress Inks to die the seam binding ribbon.

I guess the glitter wasn't quite enough bling!  So I added a few bits of bling from Want2Scrap.

Here are the two cards.  The differences are interesting to me.

I know glittery cards aren't really on trend, however, I do like sparkles on my cards. :)   I am really enjoying watercoloring too!  The Online Card Classes are totally awesome.  I have learned a lot from them.  The great thing is that you can sign up and take previous classes too!

Online Card Class, Mask-erade, Another Day 4 Card

Thought I'd have some more fun with the technique using freezer paper as a mask.  I cut a mask using Spellbinder's die called Butterfly Magic.  I then used several colors of Distress Ink to do the watercoloring!  I really enjoyed this!

The pretty pearl swirl is from Want2Scrap

I added some clear Wink of Stella to the butterfly for a little sparkle!

I've really enjoyed these classes and can't wait to see what class they offer next!

Thank you for checking out my card.  Comments are very appreciated!  :)

Online Card Class, Mask-erade, Another Day 5 Card

I decided to attempt Laura Bassen's technique of heat embossing clear powder on the balloon and star images.  I didn't have a tag die or a stripe stamp. Sometimes you just gotta go with what you've got!

I used my Cricut Explore to cut the cute tag onto striped paper.  (Because this was truly paper, I cut an additional tag from white card stock with Stick It to reinforce the paper.)  The balloon and star stamps are from a cute Simon Says Stamp set and also the word "birthday".  I used Broken China Distress Ink to ink over the striped paper.

I also used the Explore to cut out the "Happy" sentiment.

This technique was fun!  When you wipe the ink off of the embossed areas, it really is like magic!! :)

Thank you for checking out my card.  I'm very thankful and appreciative of your comments!

Online Card Class, Mask-erade, Day 5 Card

Well, I sure thought this technique of Jennifer McGuire's wouldn't, and shouldn't, be too difficult.  Even though I feel like this card is missing/needing something I decided to go with it to keep it all one layer like Jennifer's.

I wonder, is there such a thing as bad and/or low quality embossing powder?  After heating the first layer of clear embossing powder, it had an orange peel, dimpled look.  The overlapping layer's ink soaked in.  So for the 3rd! attempt, I used my embossing pen for a 2nd and sometimes 3rd layer of embossing powder.  I love this technique, but my embossing powder made it very annoying!  LOL!

I used masking paper to mask the little label that holds the sentiment.

This angle shows the embossing powder.

Well, that's it.  Not totally happy with it, but it is what it is!  :)

Thank you for looking at my card.  If you have an idea of what this card is missing let me know!

Any and all comments are appreciated so much!