Showing posts with label Christmas Card. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas Card. Show all posts

Friday, December 13, 2024

Skating Card

 

We have had a bit of every type of weather all week. Last weekend it was so mild we did more yard clean-up and our neighbour cut his grass. The areas about 40 minutes drive from us were digging out from the snow they got. It missed us again. Then it went from very worm to absolutely frigid and another dusting of snow. This weekend we are expecting rain. Crazy.

Today’s card was made with a die I bought without checking the size of it. I’m so bad at on-line shopping but we have no craft stores here except Michaels which does not sell stamps or dies or half the other card making items I use. So the card had to be made larger than my normal A2 size card but I was happy with it. Unfortunately, our postal workers are on strike so I cannot mail out all the cards I made for family and friends. Oh well, they will be still fine to go in 2025.

 


 For the background I just glued two pieces of cardstock together and added the green strip over the seam. The skates were cut several times so I could do each section a different colour and layer them. For the laces, I used a red marker to colour the strips. Then I just had fun embellishing the top of the skates and added the punched die with gold peel-off sentiments and bits. It was all mounted on a 5.5 x 5.5 white card base.

That’s all for a cold winter day on Friday, December 13, 2024.

Cheers

Violet

 

 

 

Friday, December 22, 2023

A Golden Card

 It looks like a green Christmas in South-Western Ontario this year… which is better than the massive snow storm we had last year that crippled everyone’s plans. Instead of snow, we are going to have a very green and rainy Christmas.

 Speaking of Christmas, here is one more Christmas card I made.

That gold background paper is about the last bit I have of it. So sad. It’s such pretty paper and I sure wish I had bought even more of it. The stamp was stamped with VersaMark and then embossed in gold embossing powder. The sentiment was die cut out of gold as well.  This would qualify for a quick and easy card.

That’s all for a dreary Friday, December 22, 2023.

 Cheers

Violet

Ps: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply over over the image until the “Pin It” symbol appears and then click …. be patient, it sometimes takes a few seconds. This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

 

 

 

Monday, December 18, 2023

Gnome Christmas Cards

 We are having both rain and snow today. It rained off and on most of the day but as soon as it cooled off around the supper hour, it changed to snow. Hopefully it won’t about to much and it won’t last long. Its iffy if we are going to have a white Christmas or no. Usually its not which is a big surprise to non-Canadians.

These Christmas cards have been received so I can post them now. I’m only showing one of them but I made several of them with different designs. This was not my pattern but I got it from a friend who has a YouTube Channel….The Pampered Stamper. Jackie used to live in Chatham and has children and grandchildren here but married a man from Holland and flies back and forth every few months. She sells Stampin’ Up in both countries. I like her videos because she doesn’t pretend to be an expert that doesn’t ever make a mistake. If something goes ‘not according to the plan’ she shows us how to correct it.

 So, I really liked this one particular video she posted and I immediately changed courses for my Christmas cards. Here is one of them. Three grandsons got different gnomes and different paper but same design.

 

 
This card lays flat and measures 4.25 x 5.5, so regular A2 card size. The flap along the left edge is glued down. The gnome is from a set I bought last year. So much fun making the gnomes….but so many little die pieces. See that candle flame - yup, that’s a die piece! I didn’t notice my gold thread went askew on the red panel but oh well, the recipient can fix it easily enough.

Now, the fun part is having that white strip between the two other flap..it’s a scored line. When you lift the flap, it ends and it sits on the sentiment banner on the inside. 

These were fun cards to make and actually were quite easy to make.

That’s all for a went Monday, December 18, 2023

Cheers

Violet

Ps: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply over over the image until the “Pin It” symbol appears and then click …. be patient, it sometimes takes a few seconds. This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

 

Friday, December 15, 2023

A Bird Christmas Card

 It has been a busy week and it has flown by once again. My computer is old and some nights its so slow I just give up on it. Some of the Christmas cards have been received so I can post a few of them. I’m not sure I have a ‘style’ of cards I make unlike a lot of card makers. I fluctuate my style depending on my mood! I make a lot of beautiful Christmas cards but then I switch to a humourous one like this one.

                                          
This picture was a free download from the Internet and seeing as I love birds, I just had to use it. This would classify as a quick and easy card. The photo was mounted on red cardstock and then onto the white card base. A strip of red (same cardstock as behind the photo but it looks darker in the photo) mounted on a very dark red that looks black. The greeting is a gold peel-off. I added some small glitter stars and called it done.

That’s all for a very mild Friday, December 15, 2023. The temperatures have been around 40F most of the week…which is about 10 degrees higher than it normally is. …no complaints from us!

 Cheers

Violet

Ps: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply over over the image until the “Pin It” symbol appears and then click …. be patient, it sometimes takes a few seconds. This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

 

 

 

Friday, December 16, 2022

Santa Pirate?

 It’s a very rainy and windy December here in Southern Ontario but it looks like we could have a white Christmas. They already have a lot of snow to the East and North-eastern part of Ontario. We don’t get as much snow here, which suits me just fine.

Today’s card is definitely a first for me to make! I had a request from a friend of a friend of a…. you know how it goes… about a little 3 year old boy who absolutely loves getting the mail out of the mailbox and they wondered if a few of us would send him a card. It’s apparently the hi-lite of his day when his parents get mail so I can imagine his surprise when he gets his own mail. Anyway, I got in touch with his parents to find out what he likes and found out he loves pirates - LOVES THEM and the parent said it would be awesome if I could make a Santa Pirate card for him. Gulp. I said I would do what I can.

So, I did a search on Pinterest not expecting to find anything. I mean, who ever thought of putting a Santa suit on a pirate - well, lots of people apparently. Some images were not suitable for a 3 year old but I found one that I think he will like and made this card for him.

 

 

I printed out the image onto photo paper and trimmed it down. It was simply matted on white; mounted on red that I placed on an angle; mounted on one of the left over snowflake embossed pieces that I didn’t use on the Christmas cards and then onto a red card base which is the same as all the red. I didn’t think even a Santa Pirate would say Ho Ho Ho so I die cut the one I thought he would say. I glued them to a piece of white cardstock and glued it across on an angle. It’s been mailed but I have not heard if he has received it yet and if he likes it.

That’s all for wet and cool Friday, December 16, 2022.

 Cheers

Violet

Ps: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply over over the image until the “Pin It” symbol appears and then click …. be patient, it sometimes takes a few seconds.This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

 

 

Friday, December 9, 2022

Six Christmas Cards Today

 Brrrrr. There is a very cold wind blowing through Ontario and it is bitter cold, at least to me! I managed to get all my Christmas cards made and in the mail today so that’s a big ‘whew’. Joe was shocked at the cost of mailing cards now so now he understands why so many people have given it up. Which, to me, is a shame because who doesn’t like to receive a card!  This is going to be a long post so get comfortable!

 But first, the backgrounds.

                                         
    These are the backgrounds I made by dipping and moving them around in various Distress inks; drying them; dipping again: and repeat until I liked them. Water was splattered on and then dried to make those lovely white splotches - one of my favourite things to do on backgrounds. I know what you are thinking - these look like a hot mess and I’ve lost my mind. Nope, these turned out exactly like I wanted them and when you see the cards you will understand.

    I had six of these pre-printed vintage Christmas images that were a free download on the Internet. They were all in the same colour ranges - pink/red and green and a bit of blue - so the backgrounds were made to pick up those colours.  Then I just cut all the images down to size and ran a gold Bic pen along the edges....but they were all mounted differently.

Here are the cards.

 Santa One

    This one didn’t have a lot of colour on the left side so a wide strip of red, same as the card base, was added about 3/4 of an inch from the edge. That grounded the image. I punched a red circle, again, the same card stock as the card base, and die cut a gold scalloped edge circle. The red was glued to the gold and then small gold peel-offs were added to the centre of the red one.

  Bunnies

   The bunnies needed a red strip down the left side as well but this one is only about 1/2” wide. I just used the left over bits I had on hand. This time I die cut some leaves; added VersaMark ink with a VersaMark pen and then heat set them with white embossing powder. The circle with Santa on the  top left was from a page with many images in various circle sizes that matched the large rectangle images. It was die cut and the edges inked with the same Bic gold pen. A fancy vertical gold peel-off was added to the right. 

  The Little Girl

    I loved this image of the old-fashioned girl and I think this background suited her just perfectly. More die cut branches; some with embossed white for snow were added to the right top and then a gold die cut star was added. This image was mounted on a red base first and then onto the background. The fancy vertical peel-off sentiment was added along with a few peel-off gold stars and the tree.  

  Angel 

    The image was mounted on red with a very think border showing. I found that fancy green with gold flecks in the stash which came from an old Christmas card. I thought it picked up the green tree so it was added down the left side. This time I decided to die cut a long border from the same red as the card stock as the base card and added the same vertical peel-off sentiment. But it needed something else. There was a small piece of the green strip left over so I die cut both ends and added them to just stick out from under the red. Perfect.

 Santa Number 2.

 This image was mounted on red cardstock and then glued to the card on an angle…why? No reason, I just felt like it. Then I punched another red circle and die cut another gold one and added ‘25’ in gold and glued that on. The same peel-off sentiment was added to the right side along with some left over peel-off bits.

  Girl in White.

    This image was again glued to a red cardstock with a very tiny border showing and then onto silver glitter. I used a fancy holly peel-off on the top left corner that brings your eye down to the girl. The same fish-tail border was cut but this time I added white glitter to the edges to pick up the white in her coat and the glitter paper she is mounted on. This time the peel-off sentiment is silver.

  Whew! That was a long post.  Well, do you think those backgrounds I created worked well with the images? Or are they still a hot mess in your mind?

    That’s all for a cold Friday on December 9, 2022. Have a wonderful, safe and creative weekend everyone and if you an extra smile, pass it on to a stranger. It may be the only smile they receive all day.

  Cheers

Violet

Ps: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply over over the image until the “Pin It” symbol appears and then click …. be patient, it sometimes takes a few seconds.This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

 

 

Tuesday, December 6, 2022

Two Cards Today

 

         Two cards today!

    This year is just flying by so fast its ridiculous. I cannot believe it’s already the 6th of December! Hubby had a birthday on the weekend, but we were under a high wind warning, and it was cold, so we put off celebrating for another day. Birthdays aren’t that big a deal anymore. We no longer exchange presents but we take each other out for supper somewhere.  I did make him a pan of brownies and a card though. His favourite dog is a dachshund, so I found a free download of a cute one off the Internet and made this card for him.

                                              
    
         I just die cut it and a piece of red cardstock using a rectangle deckled edge die and then placed the red cardstock on an angle and the image on top, but straight. Then it was mounted on the brown dotted paper and then onto the white card base. The sentiment was in the stash, but it worked perfectly for this layout. Men do not like glitter, bows or anything fussy so this suited him just fine.  

          I also made some Christmas cards. Here’s one of them.

  


    The background was made by putting a mask where I wanted the moon and inking it with some yellow inks and then placing the positive circle on top while I made the rest of the background, which was made using a variety of pink and red inks and splattered with diluted white paint. I set this aside to dry and die cut that black silhouette and the sentiment twice and glued them together. The large sentiment is from an old Tim Holtz alpha set. The sentiment on the moon is a black peel-off. The yellow strip at the bottom that holds the large sentiment is from the stash. The card needed something to break of the pink and that picked up the colour in the moon, so I decided it worked. Once the card was assembled, yellow Stickles were added to the stars. This card does not fall into the quick and easy category as there is a lot of die cutting and inking involved but still quite easy to make.

         That’s all for a mild but damp day here in Ontario.  

Cheers

Violet

Ps: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply over over the image until the “Pin It” symbol appears and then click …. be patient, it sometimes takes a few seconds.This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

 

 

Thursday, December 1, 2022

Six Christmas Cards

     I’m back with more cards made from Tim Holtz dies - this one is from a few years ago. I love moose. Once summer we drove all through Algonquin Park in Northern Ontario that has a lot of moose - and saw none. We drove through the East Coast Provinces a few years ago - and saw none. My granddaughter now lives in New Brunswick and she sees them all the time on their property and even crossing the roads....I need a visit to see her.

     So, I made all my immediate family moose cards. It was quite the process and I’ll quickly walk you through how I design my cards. Sorry, not a follow a sketch person but if you just want to see the finished cards, scroll on past to the end. Sorry for the poor photos. These were taken in the basement (aka the lower studio) with my cell phone and the lighting is terrible.

    The first thing I had to do was assemble the moose with his accessories which you can see in the finished cards. Very tiny pieces once again. 

And then I die cut the trees.

                       

A couple of the trees were cut from brown cardstock; some white cardstock and dipped in brown ink. There was not enough difference that made dipping them in brown ink worthwhile so next time I make them, brown cardstock it is. The green branches are cut separately and glued on in various branches. I have seen some cards on Pinterest that die cut them from white and used them as snow. I did mine different.

Adding snow.

                      
    T
o add snow to mine, I used Cosmic Shimmer (shown in picture) which I bought last year from Stamp Art in London, ON. Great store, great, helpful staff and I can order on-line. This product reminds me of the old Liquid Embroidery product which I haven’t seen around in years. So, you squirt on the Cosmic Shimmer and then hit with the heat gun, and it puffs up. I was going for the grunge organic look and that is exactly what I got.  

Next, I wanted to work on the sky. 

The first thing I tried was running a snowflake embossing folder through blue cardstock and then going over the embossed snowflakes with a roller that was inked with white ink. The blue was too bright for what I wanted so that one was set aside for another project.

 Next:

 Next was this background using the same embossing folder but inking the flat side with some blue ink the background was a nice colour but then I realized that the snowflakes were way too large for the scene I was creating. Another one in the stash to be used later, likely much later but it won’t go bad in the stash.

 Next failure...

... was the good old Swiss Dot embossing folder. I think one of the first ones I ever bought so many years ago. The background was okay and the dots were okay but not very snowflake looking. (Terrible photo I know)

 And then I remembered……          

I remembered I had the snowflake falling embossing folder from Stampin’ Up. It’s larger than the other ones so I have it, and other larger ones, sit off to one side and I have a tendency to forget about them.

 

 It’s a little hard to see in the photo but the dots are heavier at the top and then thin out on the way down. Perfect on a light blue sky.

 Next: I wanted some hills, so I used the curved hill dies from another die set; die cut them and inked the edges in Distress Speckled Egg - love this colour.

                         
     And then it was assembly time. I seldom make cards the same but once in a while I do. Before adding the elements, the sentiment was stamped on the bottom left corner. I used my Tim Holtz stamping platform and it was very quick to do.

     So, here are the cards all assembled but with a few different designs. I added some die cut trees from other die sets. Double click to enlarge the photo.

 

That is all for a very cold Thursday, December 1, 2022. I didn’t leave the house at all today, but Joe had to take the recycle bins out, and he told me it was very cold. I took his word for it.

  Cheers

Violet

Ps: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply over over the image until the “Pin It” symbol appears and then click …. be patient, it sometimes takes a few seconds.This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, November 30, 2022

A Quick and Easy Christmas Card

 Sorry, the photo didn't show up, but I have corrected that.


Cold and very windy here today in Ontario….with a chance of snow (yuck) overnight.

After making a few cards using the many pieces from the Tim Holtz dies, I decided to make a few simple cards. This one is using a free download I found on the Internet.

 


This is definitely a quick and easy card. First, I layered the striped cardstock onto an A2 card leaving a very tiny margin. Then the plaid strip was glued to the left. Then the focal picture was trimmed to size and mounted on a piece of red cardstock which is the same as the card base. Then the holly and berries were added. Sometimes, you just need to create but don’t feel like fussing with little pieces.

That’s all for a cold Wednesday, November 30, 2022.

 

 

  Cheers

Violet

Ps: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply over over the image until the “Pin It” symbol appears and then click …. be patient, it sometimes takes a few seconds.This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, November 28, 2022

Christmas Card

 Today I’m posting another card made from a Tim Holtz die…more little pieces. If you don’t like doing puzzles, you will not enjoy these dies.

 

    This little old-fashioned card was fun to put together....but time consuming. Each tire has four individual pieces to fit together. The main part of the car had two, plus three trim pieces. The set comes with a die for those little presents and and bows as well as the skinny tree, the rolling hills and sentiment. It’s from 2019 I think so not sure if it's still available. I think I made the car once before and sent it to my brother but put Happy Birthday instead of Merry Christmas.

Once everything was die cut and the edges inked… snow bank and car … it was quick to put together… but not quick assembling each piece. I made two of these and it took me hours. That is velum between two die cuts of the car for windows. I like to double the main pieces up as the cardstock is not very heavy. I used Cosmic Shimmer artificial snow around the car and once everything was assembled and dry, diluted white paint was splattered all around the card for snowflakes. It was then mounted on a dark blue card base.

That’s all for a cold Monday, November 28, 2022.  

  Cheers

Violet

Ps: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply over over the image until the “Pin It” symbol appears and then click …. be patient, it sometimes takes a few seconds.This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

 

 

 

 

Sunday, November 13, 2022

A Starry Night Card

 Brrrr… Yup, our cold weather has returned. It’s just around the freezing mark. Yesterday we had a few flurries of snow, but it melted before it hit the ground. Just about a couple of hours drive here though they had a huge snowstorm. That area is known as being in a “snow belt” and they get a lot of snow that no one else gets. It's something to do with the proximity of the lakes.

So, seeing as the weather is getting colder every day, I’ve started my Christmas cards. Here’s one that I made this week.

                        
This is a Tim Holtz die and yes, lots of little pieces but still rather fun to finish. Instead of doing a colourized version of the people, I decided to do a silhouette version. I still added all the little bits though to give it dimension. See the little strings on the tree - yup, each one is die cut separately and glued in place. The background was inked with several colours of blue ink and then diluted white paint was splattered on for snow. I had masked off the moon area and it was inked in. The trees were from another set and inked and die cut with sow splattered on them as well. The snow hills were die cut as well. The sentiment is a peel-off on a die cut banner that was glued on with a dimensional strip. Then tiny stars were die cut and a few added on. I like this die set even with all the little pieces and I think I’ll use it quite a bit this year.

That’s all for a cold Sunday night, November 13, 2022.

 Cheers

Violet

Monday, October 24, 2022

Two 'JOY' cards

 

         The weather network was correct – we went from freezing cold weather to temperatures around 70F within 48 hours! Saturday was the first day of the beautiful weather and wouldn’t you know it, I ended up getting hit with some virus/bug; not sure what but I ended up sleeping most of Saturday and Sunday. Today was a little better so we took our yard waste to the city’s depot to have it composted….we do not like to put it in the garbage when there is a free alternative! We’ll have another couple of rather nice days – likely in the 60’s – before the temps start going down again.

         I’ve begun making my Christmas cards. I’m posting two of them today because I used the negative on one card and the positive on the other.

 


     This is the one I made first. The blue background was created on water colour paper and a variety of water colour paint. Then I splattered white paint on it and let it dry. I made several of these in different colours a few weeks ago. I should have made more blue ones for snowy backgrounds.

         The ‘JOY’ was die cut from white cardstock a couple of times and glued together. Then it was die cut out of the blue and the positive word was glued into the negative space. It was glued to a white card base with a border of white showing at both ends. Then a variety of die cut leaves and berries in white and silver were glued on with a hand cut poinsettia glued in the middle. The poinsettia was hand cut from a piece of patterned cardstock from another card. It was okay but a little bland. So, I pushed it gently in the VesaMark pad and then dipped it in clear embossing powder and heat set it. Much better. The banner was die cut and the sentiment was stamped in blue ink and it was adhered with dimensional glue tape.

Next card

                    

          When I tried to duplicate this by using the blue ‘JOY’ in the white background it was just too blah for my liking. So, I die cut ‘JOY’ out of thick white glitter paper. I wasn’t sure it was going to die cut but it worked just fine. The blue 'JOY' was glued in place. It was then glued to a blue card base with just a hint of a blue border at the bottom. It was decorated in the same way.

         Of course, I still had the ‘JOY’ cut from the thick glitter paper but unfortunately, although it die cuts well, it stretches something awful. I ended up throwing it out.

         Wow, that was a long post. Hope you like the cards and that is all for Monday, October-24-22.

  Cheers

Violet

PS: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply hover over the image until the ‘Pin It” symbol appears and then click…it sometimes takes a few seconds. This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

 

 

Friday, September 23, 2022

Three Cards Today

 It’s definitely fall weather here in Ontario. On Wednesday we had the A/C on as it was close to 100F; this morning I had to turn the furnace on to get the chill out of the house. Crazy, crazy weather. This afternoon it turned quite nice as long as you were out of the cold wind and we actually ate lunch in the backyard which is fenced all around and less windy than the front porch which is not. We had a monarch butterfly and a hummingbird around the zinnias today as well. They will be gone soon.

So, last week I decided to make a few Christmas cards. I’m showing three today because they are the same except the sentiment.

                        
    The image was die cut out of black cardstock and set aside. Then a piece of white cardstock was sponged with various Distress inks and Distress Oxide inks to create a background. Once I liked the background the die cut piece was glued in place. Here’s a gluing tip - I’ve mentioned this tip before but in case you didn’t read it, here it is again.  When you are gluing a large intricate die cut piece like this one; or alphabets; or anything really, the easiest way to do it is on the pages of an old magazine. Just lay your image on the bottom of the page; squirt out glue somewhere on the top and use a sponge to go over the image. Remove the image and close the magazine. Those pages will now stick together so when you glue the next piece, you will be on a new page - no more glue sticking to the right side of your image.

    Back to the card! I glued the finished image to a piece of yellow striped cardstock - it looks brown, but it’s yellow - and then on to a pink card base that really picks up the background colour. Yellow Stickles were added to the stars to make them stand out.

The other two cards were done the same, but I added different sentiments.

                   

            No sentiment on this one, just a ribbon.


 That’s all for a nice, but cool, Friday, September 23, 2022. Have a wonderful, safe and creative weekend... and be kind, always.

Cheers

Violet

PS: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply hover over the image until the ‘Pin It” symbol appears and then click…it sometimes takes a few seconds. This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Two Cards Tonight

  It’s only 3 days until Christmas and it looks like it will be yet  another green Christmas here in South Western Ontario. We’ve only had a dusting of snow a couple of times so far and not much predicted in the near future, which suits me just fine.

 As this will likely be the last post until after the holidays, I decided to post two cards as they were both made the same way but with different focus elements.

  The backgrounds for both cards were made the same…strips of various of paper from the same paper pack…mostly…of various widths with thin silver strips between each one. Once they were glued down, dried and trim to size they were run through a snowflake embossing folder and then onto the card base.

                                   
Then it was simply a matter of adding a focus point. For this card I took a frame that came with the paper pack; glued a left over square in the middle because I didn’t care for what was printed there and then added a silver peel-off. The white seals were part of the square but the other two were hand cut and glued on with dimensional strips.

This focal point square was also from the same paper pack but featured animals instead of marine life. The two animals were hand cut. The deer needed something to stand on so I hand cut a small snowbank and glued it on and then the animals. The sentiment is a silver peel-off.

That’s all for a cold Wednesday, December 22, 2021. Merry Christmas to all who celebrate Christmas and Happy Holidays to all the others. May 2022 bring you all peace, happiness and good health.

 

Cheers

Violet

PS: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply hover over the image until the ‘Pin It” symbol appears and then click…it sometimes takes a few seconds. This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

 

 

 

 

 

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