Ink blending and white heat embossing

This next card was just a fun way to pass the time and lighten my mood from the dreary winter cold outside. I've watched you tube videos with white heat embossed images come to life with some ink blending on top of the stamped image. For this card. I white heat embossed a flower design 5 times and then went to one of my favorite color blending trios of Squeezed Lemonade, Ripe Persimmon and Candied Apple Distress Oxide inks. I love how the images really pop once the ink is added. After wiping away any excess ink with a dry rag I mounted the image onto yellow card and then a white card blank.

Chill out- Northern lights scene

I was experimenting with making a northern lights background for some winter scene cards I was making. I got the inspiration from the Creative Stamping Issue 78 magazine. I wanted it also to appear as if it was snowing in the background, so I got out my card blanks and started with some color blending. In the card below I used Peeled paint, Fired Brick and Dusty Concord Distress Oxide inks. I then sprayed it with a mini mister that contained a mixture of perfect pearls and water to give it that snowy background look.

I added a watery snow drift and a seal that I had cut out with my scan n cut that I colored in with copic markers and attached to the drift with 3D foam squares. I trimmed off the edges and backed onto beige card, then mounted onto a neutral colored card and finally attached to a beige card blank

I added a small "Chill out" sentiment also blended with Dusty concord Distress Oxide ink and stamped the sentiment with Memento Tuxedo Black ink to the top left hand side of the card, again with 3D foam squares.

Using a template for Co workers Christmas cards

I have about 14 people in my team so when i make cards for them I like them to be the same image but just a little different. I normally hand out cards to my team around special occasions with little chocolates or candies.

This year I used a template for my cards and cut around that rather than having a regular card base. I decided on the shape of a stocking, again the inspiration came from a crafting magazine as well as the template I was using.

The first problem I encountered was the template did not fit on a normal 8" x 11" sheet of paper so I had to use 12"x 12" white scrapbooking paper for these cards.

I used the template for the stocking itself, for the top of the stockings and for the toe and heels and cut these out of a variety of Christmas themed papers, which came with the magazine. I then glued them all together. I went to my scan n cut and cut out the "Merry Christmas" sentiment and glued those to the stocking toppers. I finished the cards by adding a sentiment inside.

While these cards were cute and fun themed they lacked a certain finished or polished look that my other cards possess. I found cutting from a template challenging, so I'll have to re think how to do that in the future.

Family Christmas cards

These cards are a little more detailed in the making but if I can do it so can you. I chose the images I wanted first and came up with these adorable little kitties from a crafters magazine. I just stamped all the images cut them out with my scan n cut and then colored them in using copic markers. I wanted to have the base of the card red so I knew i had to make these little critters stand out. I cut out a bunch of scalloped circles and using my cuttlebug and the Swiss dots embossing folder got to work on embossing the circles.

Next was how was I going to place them on my card. After seeing a beautiful plaid paper at the craft store I had to pick up some and use that as a stripe along the left hand side of the card. I then found a sentiment stamp set and decided to heat emboss that onto the same colour red card I was using in the background and gold really matched the stripe in the plaid paper.

I taped down the sentiment onto the stripe, taped the stripe onto the card and then layered the white embossed circles on the right and popped up the kitties up with 3D foam squares. I then attached that to white card blanks and embossed another sentiment inside the card. You can see below that I made a bunch of these cards to hand out and mail to family members.

snowflakes that actually cut out!

I seem to have trouble with cutting out my snowflakes on my scan n cut machine. I don't know what it is but they don't want to cut out nicely for me but this year I found 3 snowflakes that cut out beautifully.

I started out by stamping out the snowflakes in various shades of blue and cut them out with my scan n cut, when that was successful I made even more :)

I usually make a variety of Christmas cards, some for friends, family and co worker's, This card is an easy make.

After I had cut out my snowflakes and had three distinct piles I went to my blue background paper. I embossed it with the Swiss dots embossing folder for my cricket cuttlebug. All I had to do next was heat emboss my sentiment in silver on some white card and trim that down. I glued the snowflakes onto the embossed paper added it to white card blanks and finish with the sentiment.

Almost Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

I was patiently waiting for the fall/winter edition of the coffee lovers Blog hop and decided to get a head start by making a few trial cards. I wanted to incorporate the fall leaf colors in my blended backgrounds and i find that squeezed lemonade, carved pumpkin and fired brick  Distress oxide inks go really well together. I blended together some backgrounds and made some cups of coffee and tea from my small stash of stamps. I cup the images out with my scan n cut and colored them in with Chameleon markers. You can see that I had decided to add a fabric doily to one of the cards while the other card was the cups stacked. I got preoccupied with another task and never came back to these starter cards to finish them off. In fact I cleaned up my craft room and misplaced these cards until it was too late. I missed the coffee lovers Blog Hop for the fall winter session but I do plan on entering again for the spring/summer hop

You are Magical

My next card is a little different from my usual. I was really into ink blending but wanted to highlight the silhouette on this card. I tried a variety of backgrounds as I'd already chosen my stamp.

 Finally after several trials and errors I came up with this combination (which unfortunately i can't recall). Apart from the ink blending this card is again a very simple one. You blend the ink until you have a highlighted area and go darker from there on out. I then stamped the image of the fairy on a swing and used a white gel pen to fill in the light on her lantern. I heat embossed the sentiment once the ink was completely dry and layered that onto pink card and then attached onto a white card base.