Christmas Cards

Since I didn't get many Christmas cards made last year (none) I am trying to make a few each month so I have some to send out this year to family and friends. I went with some very simple cards for this round of cards using items I already had on hand.

This is simply peel off stickers on card stock trimmed and put onto a card front with a little ribbon from my stash.

This one is dies with patterned paper behind the cut outs. I think the dies are from Memory Box but since I took them out of the packaging I can't be sure. To finish it off I added some twine bows and a little dashed outline for the edge of the card.

Simon Says Stamp February Card Kit

One of my favourite things to get every month is the Simon Says Stamp card kit. The box is always full of great product and new things for me to try out. I have had previous card kits and always ended up cancelling them after a few months as they were always either too paper heavy or the embellishments and stamps were lacking. These card kits are the perfect mix of both.

This is the February kit, I got a nice selection of 8x11 cardstock for my card bases as well as a great variety of 6x6 paper to use as well. I find that it is enough to make a at least 5-6 cards without having a lot of excess paper left over. The stamps are always a full size set and if you miss a kit you can buy the set separately. This month the goodies to play with were a full size container of embossing powder, a gold gelato, some sticky backed canvas and rub ons. They even include a sheet of cards made from the kit as inspiration and a yummy lollipop each  month as well. Who doesn't love getting candy in the mail each month, lol.

Valentine's for Grandma's

Since I didn't get around to making Christmas cards this year I thought I would send out Valentine's cards to the Grandma's this year. I went through my stamp stash and found this old Magnolia image that is super cute. I wanted more of a softer card so I went with more pink then red for the card and used another older Mojo Monday sketch. I printed out all the older Mojo Monday sketches so that I could use them as starting points for my cards and then change them as I wanted to.

The papers are from and old SEI pad that I found in the back of my 6x6 paper pad stash. I added some ribbon from Reasonable Ribbon and a paper flower from the Michael's dollar bins. 

Decoupage Gorguss Cards

I was watching one of my fave YouTube bloggers, The Jerodelle Show, last week and she was showing some great items that she had picked up from an online store. One of the items was a Gorguss stamp so I went over and had a look and she has some great products. The shop is called Not 2 Shabby Shop and her service was excellent, I got the parcel within a week and the postage to Canada was really reasonable.

I picked up two of the Gorguss girls decoupage sets to try them out and see if I liked it before ordering the big set she has in her shop. The sets were clearly labelled and easy to follow and the end result is really nice and dimensional.

Since the look of the Gorguss girls is more vintage I used more paper from my Gorguss collections and mounted them on black cardstock with some embellies from my stash.

I really enjoyed putting these together and the look is really nice, I am seriously considering ordering the full set of decoupage papers so I can make some more for cards and also maybe some altered items.

MFT Haul and Card

I recently placed an order with My Favourite Things for some new stamps and dies. Their new release had a great planner set and a super cute new set with lots of fun images that I can use for Valentine's Day and all year round. I have been looking for a set that I can use in my Erin Condren planner and this one had lots of great options that I really liked.

In keeping with my use what I buy motto I made a card with the new stamps this weekend. I used an old Mojo Monday sketch as a starting point and raided my stash for some papers and embellishments to use on the card.

I am pretty happy with how the card turned out but I did find out that with this set it would be easier to cut out the shape and then die cut it as the die is solid so you can't see the shape when you are placing it on your stamped image.

Gorguss Girl

This is another one of the use what you buy or what you already have in your stash cards. I picked up the Gorguss girl stamp in an online order a while back and the paper is also from a Gorguss girls paper pack that I have had since last year. I figured if I was going to colour the image up I might as well use the paper I already had, lol. I really need to start using what I have, I am great at purging my craft room and keeping only what I love but then I need to use what I have kept.

I used Copics to colour the image as I wanted to practice getting more of a softer shaded look with them. The jacket turned out well but I was not too pleased with her hat and I kept fussing with it so in real life it looks a lot brighter than I wanted. Next time I think I will use my pencil crayons to get the softer look that I wanted.
The card was sort of following a sketch that I found on Pinterest, love the site. I liked the look of the papers laid on top of each other but once I assembled it I wasn't as pleased with it. I think maybe it needs some ribbon or perhaps flowers instead of just bling and paper. But overall I am pleased with how the papers and image work together to get the look I was thinking of.

Use What You Buy

I was very lucky this weekend my hubby took me down to one of the two scrapbook stores left in Calgary. Paper Pastimes is a great little store, they always have some things I want to pick up and this time was no exception as I found a few things to add to my craft room. Carol, the owner, had just returned from CHA so I got to see some of her class projects and peeks at new items that she saw in LA. After some hunting I picked up two paper pads, the Bo Bunny double dots in the soft colours and and a Prima pad as well. I found a Prima stamp that I didn't have in my collection and a few other new items to play with as well.

Once I got home I didn't have time to play but I did get time in my craft room on  Sunday morning. The blank embossed cards that I had picked up reminded me of a steampunk image that I had coloured a little while back and that was sitting waiting to be used. While I like the look of the white cards with the embossing, I wanted more of a distressed look to go with the steampunk feel so I pulled out my Tim Holtz distress inks and got to work on making the card look more grungy. 

After three different colours of ink I was pleased with how the card blank turned out. I paired it up with a piece of patterned paper from the Bo Bunny Timepiece collection that I had in my stash. The image is from Whimsie Doodles and is called Steampunk Lizzie. The card turned out pretty close to what I had originally thought of although next time I think I will use brown and not black cs.