Stable Shaped Christmas Card

ignore the smudges on the back :)

A stable shaped Christmas card ! 

It did take some "engineering",

 sketching of ideas, measuring,

paper manipulation -

I had no pattern. 

The rubber stamp images are from an old set by Stampin' Up!,

 A Gift From Heaven I think was the set name.

This is the first time I've used this stamp set. 

The barn wood background stamp was also from SU!

Kraft card stock for the wood, water color paper for the image.

Stamped with Stazon ink and water colored with inks from my ink pads.

A folk art paper punch and gold metallic card stock

for the star, attached with acetate and double stick tape.

Narrow twine to loop through a couple of holes I pierced

on each door to make the rope "handles". 

(mini brads would have been easier!)

I used an Xacto knife and straight edge to cut the door openings in the front

then glued the stamped image behind them. 

I stamped then hand cut the banner,

attaching it on the ends only just above the doors.

I started with a regular sized top fold card. 

I stamped the barn wood, figured out my dimensions,

cut out the doors. I wasn't happy with the proportions

and the "boxiness" of it, there was no angled roof

(I wanted it to fit in a regular A2 envelope).

I also had an idea to attach the star floating above the stable

on a piece of acetate, attached to the back of the card with a mini brad

so it could swivel down, fitting into the envelope.

The more I looked at it, the more I didn't like it without the angled roof

and how far up the bottom of the cut out doors were from the bottom edge of the card.

I trimmed about a half inch off of the bottom. The trimmed off pieces

were used to create the roof line. The completed card was mailed in a larger

envelope because it was bigger than an A2  (4 1/4" x 5 1/2").

The star is still attached with acetate, but no need to swivel it because I measured

each piece so that it will fit, totally assembled, in the large envelope I had on hand.

I'm entering this card in the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown

Pick Any Previous 2015 Challenge.

It will fit their Shaped Card Challenge (August 2015, #41)

as well as the Silent Night Challenge (March 2015, #37).

I'm also entering it in the final Case-ing Christmas Challenge,

anything winter/holiday. 

The challenge blog will sadly close down after this challenge.

Best Wishes to the Design Team !

Thanks for looking =) 

EDITED: 

My card was chosen as a 

Santa's Helper at

CASE-ing Christmas :) 

MMS7 Winner

There were no comments on my post for a chance to win the new My Memories Suite 7 software, so there was no winner this quarter. 

Christmas Wishes Cards

  A quick set of cards using paper from and old Die Cuts With A View Christmas stack.
The stamp image (from Stampin' Up!) was heat embossed with red then die cut, attached with
an olive green eyelet.

Thanks for looking :)

Falala Cards

A set of fairly quick to make cards: these use paper from and old Die Cuts With A View Christmas Stack plus some leftover tags and die cuts from cards I made last year. I stamped "falala".
String the tags on some bakers twine, hold them in place with some pop dots and call them done !

Thanks for looking :)

Christmas Cards

A set of cards I made from scraps that were in a grab bag I bought this past summer.
I don't know where the images came from and they were already colored by someone else with markers. I had to trim them down.  I added extra details with water colored inks and white paint. I layered them onto scraps of card stock that were also in the grab bag then added paper punch snowflakes. I did stamp the sentiment, it was from an old set by Stampin' Up!  The background papers were from an old Die Cuts With a View Christmas stack.

Thanks for looking :)

CAS Peppermint Christmas Card

This was a fun card to put to put together.

The striped paper on the bottom inside

is leftover from an old project.

It was from an old Die Cuts With A View

Christmas paper stack.

The die cut and embossed edge was created with

a die and embossing folder I bought from 

Stampin' Up! a few years ago.

The polka dot background was made with a

Texturz plate, also bought from SU! some time ago,

and an Empressor stylus tool. 

The sentiment was stamped with Versamark ink

then heat embossed with red powder

and die cut out. The sentiment stamp

and die were from SU!

The sentiment panel is attached

with pop dots / dimensionals.

Clear rhinestones were colored with a red Sharpie

marker to make them red. 

I'm entering this card in the 

Christmas Cards All Year Round Challenge

Keep It Simple 

(minimal embellishments and lots of open space).

Country Swag Christmas Card

A Christmas card I put together with a old few scraps. 

I think it would look better if there were more

greenery branches OR the star and bow 

were smaller, making them more in 

proportion and country wall swag like. 

We are our own worst critics, aren't we? 

The sprig stamp image

was colored with water based markers.

The saying is stamped with black ink.

 Both stamp images are old ones from Stampin' Up!

I then layered on some leafy branch (Martha Stewart) paper punched pieces

of green paper over the stamped images.

The red bow was made from old paper twist 

in my stash, leftover from a long ago project.

I have too much of that twist leftover,

it sure was popular for crafts many years ago. 

(See a Christmas tree top angel I made posted here)

Maybe I ought to finally purge my assorted craft stashes ?

 The star was repurposed from another old project. 

 It is a simple paper punch star that I made score lines on

then folded to create dimension. 

I also lightly water colored mustard ink along the 

edges, but it doesn't show well.

Yes, that is real stitching done with my sewing machine

around the edges of the speckled card stock.

The edges of the red card stock were distressed

before gluing it to the hunter green base.

This card looked enticing to my cat :

she reached up and drug it off the table top

as I was trying to photograph it.

That darn cat !

I'm entering this card in the Tis The Season photo inspiration challenge.

'

The colors, branches and berry sprigs,

overall all rustic country feel were my inspirations. 

Thanks for looking and Happy Holidays :)

Snow Angels - digi kit

December 1st -

time for new digital kit releases by 

JMC Designs at

Scraps-N-Pieces.com!

This one is a Bits N Pieces set and is called Snow Angels. 

I love the fresh, fun colors in this snow themed kit :) 

I used My Memories Suite to create my page

and looked at a template design for the November

template challenge at ScrapsNPieces.com to create the layout.

SNOW ANGELS

Bits N Pieces Kits Contents

Blog Hop Scrap Page - Win MMS7 Software

The above is a quick scrap page I made with the

Snowflakes digi kit by DeeDee's Digi's

as part of the House of Cards blog hop.

I used  My Memories Suite V7 software

(Use code STMMMS23251  during checkout to receive  $10 off the purchase of MyMemories Suite 7 and  10% Off Photobooks and Photo Gifts plus a code for your first month free to the Design Club!

OR keep on reading to see how you could possibly win a copy !)

The stripes and snowflake covered background papers

as well as the larger snowflake images and 

word art are included in the kit.

My Memories has thousands and thousands of 

digital kits and other content available for purchase

on their site. There are also freebies by generous

designers. However, if you find a kit from another designer

elsewhere on the internet (there must be millions of digital products out there!)

that you really like, it can easily be used in the My Memories software.

In fact, they've made it easier than ever to import designs bought elsewhere !

HOW TO:

Add custom or 3rd party content:

1. Open a desired type of content tab in the control panel. (backgrounds,

embellishments, shapes, or imprints.)

2. Click on the Custom (folder) icon.

3. Browse to the folder on your computer containing custom images.

4. Select the image, and click ok.

Display custom or 3rd party content in the gallery:

1. Open an album.

2. Click on a desired content type gallery icon. (Embellishment, background, or imprint)

3. Click on the orange browse icon.

4. Browse to a folder on your computer containing the custom images.

5. With the folder selected click Ok or Open.

6. The images within the folder will then display in the gallery on the left.

How I made the scrap page:

I used shapes included in the My Memories software

(easily altering the size and shape)

then color filled them using the color picker tool

to coordinate with the digi kit papers.

I also added shadows to each shape to create dimension.

My Memories software has been around for a few years.

Version 7 is now available and wow, 

does it have some fun new improvements ! 

I have yet to try them all out, but looking at the list

of the features, I know I can't wait to try them.

My Memories 7.0 update details:

(click above for pdf with photos)

- New user interface designed to be less distracting, placing emphasis on the project.

- Photos used in the album are now tracked through the gallery with an indicator.

- Blur the edges of photos with a right-click.

- Fill a .png image with a photo. (embellishments, imprints, etc)

- Text has been overhauled with a new Jword editor. You can now tab space, and wrap

text. The edit mode should more accurately reflect how it will display on the canvas

when exiting edit mode.

- Shapes and Imprints can now be cropped, similar to embellishments and photos.

- Browse to specific image types from within a gallery. (embellishments, shapes,

imprints, etc.)

- Force images to be the same cropped size with a right-click. The bottom layer image

will crop to the top layer image size.

- You can now right-click on an object layer to display edit options.

- Custom browse icons have been added to each content panel so it is easier to add

specific image types.

- Increased the number of items that can be added to a custom category. (Previous limit

was 40 per category.)

- Rearrange custom categories for backgrounds and embellishments using the up and

down arrow icons with the category selected.

- You can now left-click on an image layer to select it on the canvas. (Previously required

a double-click.)

- Add auto captions to existing photos from a right-click.

- Move pages within your album to a new page by right-clicking on the page thumbnail,

and choosing the new page number.

- Added a paint bucket to imprint paint options. This allows you to flood fill same color

pixels within the imprint.

- Make photo boxes the same size as embellishment objects, with a right-click while

having both an embellishment and box selected.

- Tile the applied background on the current page.

- Calendar years can now go back several years.

- Additional corner rounding styles have been added. If you round a photo with a rightclick

you can now choose from the standard round, or some new styles.

- Hide and show the control panel and page thumbnails from the View menu.

- Master page layer can be enabled from the View menu. Any objects added to the

master layer will display throughout the entire album.

- In addition to the photo icon under shapes you can now add a photo to a shape with a

right-click.

- Preferences have been updated with more defaults for text, view options, and more.

- Relative spacing guides now display on the canvas when moving or sizing objects.

- Added the cards, postcards, swatchbooks, and pages options into the share menu.

If you'd like a chance to win a copy

of the new and improved digital scrapbook

(and more!) software from My Memories,

please leave a comment below,

including what new feature you like,

 before Midnight CST on December 9th, 2015. 

I will randomly choose one person

that has left a comment that includes

what new feature they like. 

Winner will be announced on my blog

December 10th, 2015.

Good luck!

House Of Cards Blog Hop

December 1st (seriously ? the year is nearly over ?!?), time for a new challenge at House of Cards! This month it is an inspiration photo - with a blog hop and design team call. Play along, leaving comments at each of the designers blogs, and  you'll have a chance to win a prize from one of our sponsors ! The hop runs through December 15th at noon CST. Be sure to read our House Rules first ;) You should have arrived here from Emily's blog if you are hopping with us. 

Inspiration Photo

Closeup of my card to show the shimmer.

Obviously the kraft and pink colors were the biggest inspiration,

but also the glass of bubbly beverage (pearl colored shimmer paper

and clear rhinestones), fluted bowl edge (border punch)

and silverware ( almost silver snowflakes).

HOW I MADE THE CARD:

I started with the Snowflakes kit by one of our sponsors, DeeDee's Digi's.

I opened up the snowflake2 outline PNG image in Photoshop Elements 10, reduced it in size to create various size flakes. I moved them around to make a tree shape onto a 3.75" x 5" transparent background. I printed it out (ink color was charcoal gray) onto a shimmery pearl colored paper bought at an office supply store. Because the paper had a "slick" finish to it, the ink from my inkjet printer did not dry so I was able to sprinkle it with clear embossing powder and heat set it. This made for a sort of silver look to the snowflakes and sentiment (note: the paper did warp a little bit).  I did the same thing with the Season's Greetings sentiment from the digi kit.  

Both pieces were cut to the size I needed to complete my card. The card front had pink ink sponge daubed over the embossed snowflakes that I then added clear rhinestones to. The edges were pierced. It is layered over pink card stock that I paper punched along one edge with a snowflake border punch (sorry, no idea of the manufacturer as there are no markings on it). 

The card front is layered onto a top fold kraft card stock base. 

The hand cut banners were folded and glued into place. 

The inside is lined with pearl shimmer paper. 








I also used the new My Memories Suite V7 software with the digital papers that are included in the digital kit to create a simple scrap page. I'll share that project on my blog tomorrow; be sure to comment on tomorrows digi scrap page post  at craftysahmiam.blogspot.com for a chance to win a copy of this software !


Keep on hopping though the House of Cards Design Team blogs. Up next is  Jane's blog. 


Here is the entire list of design team members blogs. Remember to leave a comment on each blog for a chance to win one of the hidden prizes ! 

Barbara

Cohenna

Daen'Ys

Donna N.

Donna T.

Dotty Jo

Em
Emily

Heather - you are here

Jane
Joni

Judy

Karen

Katy

Lilian

Linda

Lisa

Merethe

Michele

Monika

Mrs Duck

Pat

Rocky

Ruza

Shawna

Steph

Sue T.

Sue N.

Tammy

Toni

Lastly, I am entering my card in the following challenges:

Technique Challenge: Sponging or Brayering at

52 Christmas Card Throwdown

Anything Goes at

Christmas Card Challenges

Thanks for looking and Happy Holidays !