Home for the Holidays

Here is my final Christmas card form this months card class. In traditional colors and with lots of glitter...you should see my basement :-) 

This card started with a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" colonial white base. I used a piece of 4" x 5 1/4" desert sand cardstock from Close To My Heart. This piece was embossed and enhanced with gold ink on the embossing images.

A piece of red and green design paper was used to create the middle part of this card. The red piece measures about 3" x 2 1/2" while the green one is 3" x 1 3/4".

I adhered the red and green paper onto the embossed piece. I used a golden ribbon to create a little bow on the right side. The bow was attached with glue dots to the right and the rest of the ribbon was adhered with glue dots over the seam of the green and red paper. The leftover ribbon is adhered on the back of the embossed cardstock. Now you can glue the whole piece in the center of your card base. This way the ribbon will be secured behind the embossed layer. 

Whenever I adhere embossed paper pieces I make sure to use a good amount of adhesive so the layers will hold together.

The oval colonial white cardstock was cut out with the Close To My Heart Cricut cartridge. The phrase comes in a straight line, but the beauty of these clear stamps is that you can bend them nicely in any other shape as well. So I bend it in a have oval and stamped it on the bottom of my cardstock piece. Now I could place the little house stamp right above it...

I colored the house in a little bit by using color pencils. Two pine trees were stamped on an extra piece of colonial white cardstock and cut out with scissors. 

I used a glue pen on the house image and the two pine trees on those areas where I wanted the extra fine glitter to be. Once the glue was a bit dry I sprinkled the fine glitter all over the images. Make sure to tap off all the extra glitter before you go on with the assembling.

The oval image was placed with foam dots in the middle of the card. For the one pine tree I used two foam dots top and bottom to place it on the left side of the oval, overlapping the house image just a bit. The second pine tree only got one foam dot on the bottom and a glue dot on the top. This one is places a bit offset underneath the other one. 

This card is also available for purchase...Let me know if you are interested.

Stay tuned for gift card holders and so much more in December...

Santa Claus is coming

This is card is just a fun card to make. Our No.3 of this months card class is the perfect card to stand on your mantle, to place a gift card in or just send some join for Christmas. 

For this layout you would need a piece of 5 1/2" x 12" cardstock . I used the slate cardstock color from Close To My Heart for this one. The doted and striped design paper is from the "Sparkle & Shine" paper pack. All stamped images are from the "Santa Claus" (C1567) stamp set which you can find in the Holiday Guide from Close To My Heart. 

Once you open the card it looks like this....

If you like to know how to score and cut the base for this card, please contact me. It is a little bit difficult to explain here on the blog.

The paper elements you need for the card are cut in the following sizes:

- (2x) Doted paper 5 1/2" x 2 1/8"

- (2x) Red cardstock 2" x 2 1/8"

- (1x) Red cardstock 3 1/2" x 2 1/8"

- (4x) Striped paper 1 1/8" x 2"

- (2x) Striped paper 1 1/8" x 3 1/2"

Adhere all paper as shown on the picture above. Make sure that the space around the papers are evenly. The two front and back papers are slightly overlapping each other. A piece of the border that comes with the paper was placed on the front.

A tag design from the Close To My Heart Cricut cartridge was used to cut out a piece of white cardstock and a slightly bigger piece of matching red cardstock. Santa was stamped on the white cardstock and embellished with a glitter pen. Both pieces are centered and adhered to each other. The Santa Claus tag is placed with foam dots in the middle of the front.

Another tag was cut out from the same cartridge and stamped with a Christmas phrase in ruby ink. A few rhinestones were added and this Santa Claus card is done.


This card is available for purchase either to assemble at home or already done for you. Let me know if you are interested in a set.... stay tuned for one more card this month..

I hope all of you will have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Enjoy your time with family and friends.

Christmas Ornament Card

This is the second card of my November Card Class. For this card I used a white cardstock base of 4 1/4" x 5 1/2".

 I stamped the "Merry Christmas" in the lower right corner in black ink. A red rhinestone was placed on top of the "i" to give it a little sparkle.
I adhered a piece of 4" square red design paper and a 3 3/4" square black cardstock piece in the top center of the card base. Make sure that the white shown form the card base is evenly spaced.

The three ornaments were cut out with the Close To My Heart Cricut cartridge. I run the grey and red cardstock ornaments through an embossing machine to give them a little bit more dimension. I used silver ink to bring out the embossing. The middle ornament was cut out from the Close To My Heart "Sparkle & Shine" paper. It needed a little sparkle for this card so I used red and silver glitter glue on every other stripe of the paper. Make sure you let the glitter glue dry completely. I always like to be on the safe side, so my glitter glue items will dry over night.


I first glued both cardstock ornaments to the black piece. Each one towards the side and top. The striped ornament is placed with foam dots over the other two, partially covering them. A bow made from a silver ribbon is adhered with a glue dot underneath the striped ornament. A little snow pearl is placed at the top of the middle ornament and your Christmas Card is done.

Do you like to create these cards at home or do you like a set pre-done? Contact me for more information... and stay tuned for more cards...   

Christmas Card of Love, Peace and Happiness

I don't know why, but this year it seems like all scrapbook companies are more into the modern paper choice. I do love the traditional Christmas colors of red, green and gold and so I had to get a bit creative. Luckily I found some papers of past Christmases ... good we scrapers keep stacks of papers on hand :-)

The card is made in a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" format. I used colonial white as my base. A piece of 4"x 4" design paper, a piece of 1" x 4" red cardstock and a 2"x 4" green cardstock was used assemble the base. I used a scallop punch on the red paper and gold ink for the stamped image on the green paper. I started to adhere the green paper first, then the red and the design paper at the end. Make sure to space the papers out so you will have an even frame around the papers.

The sentiment was stamped on colonial white cardstock that was matted with a piece of desert sand cardstock. Desert sand cardstock from Close To My Heart is awesome. This color works with almost every other color and it is the closest cardstock to a gold color. I used gold ink to edge around the square. The sentiment piece was added with foam dots to the base.

Last but not least, I stamped the pine swag on colonial white paper and colored it in with pencils. I cut it out with scissors and adhered it directly to the sentiment.  I used watercolor pencils and therefor stamped the image with StazOn ink otherwise I wouldn't be able to use the water with the pencils.

If you like a set of this months Christmas Card Class, please contact me and stay tuned for more cards to come...

Girlfriend Birthday Wishes

Sometimes we need a funny Birthday Card for someone special...I love these girlfriend stamps. So here we go...

I started with a piece of red cardstock and stamped the background chevron design on it in a corresponding color. To give the card a little bling, I used a glitter pen to underline a couple of strips.

A small 1" circle punch was used to punch out five openings in the cardstock. I stamped my phrase onto pieces of colonial white cardstock and adhered them in between the punch holes.

Next I stamped my girlfriends a couple of times and picked 5 faces for this card. With the same punch I cut them out and colored them in with alcohol markers. 
I places the red cardstock piece on top of my card base and marked each hole carefully with a pencil. I adhere the girlfriend heads on the markings, making sure that they would face each other. The top layer of red cardstock was placed with foam dots on top of the card and faces.

For the inside I stamped one complete image of the ladies and a matching phrase. I matted each one on another piece of red cardstock and colored the ladies with alcohol markers.    

A Round Pumpkin Card

Here is our last Autumn card for the October Card Class II, a round pumpkin card.

It's not always easy to find the right round card for your project, but I found an easy way to make your own. First I determined that I wanted to make a 4" card that would fit easily in a regular envelope for a 5 1/2" by 4 1/4" card, including all the extras (leaves, bow, etc).

I cut out a 4" circle from sunset cardstock (Close To My Heart) with my Cricut. I ran the circle through my Cuttlebug with a wood grain design. I edged around the circle with sunset ink to make it look more dimensional. Now comes the tricky part:

First I took a 5 1/2" by 4 1/4" card base (landscape format) and adhered the sunset circle in the middle of the card front, down to the bottom. The fold of the card (long side) is on the top. Now I marked on the top of the card, in the middle of the circle two lines about 2" apart form each other. I cut along the tow lines and around the rest of the circle. You end up with a round card and a "hinge" on the top of 2". (See picture of the back of the card).

Don't worry about the hinge itself, because we will cover this up later with leafs and bows.

 I stamped two big leafs in olive and chocolate brown, cut them out and adhered them to the top of the circle above the hing. This way I was able to cover the white hinge. Make sure the leafs stick out a big over the hings to make it look more natural.

I created a bow from bast and brown craft paper. A big glue dot holds it in place.
Two little tags wishing a Happy Thanksgiving and the round pumpkin card is done.

If you need help creating this card, have any other questions or if you like to purchase a set of these cards, please fell free to contact me.

Stay tuned for more cards, pages and other ideas to come or come and see me on Nov 16th at the Craft Show of St. Mary, Our Lady of the Snows in Milford form 9am until 3pm.

Leafs and Acorn card

Leafs and acorn, our third card of Octobers workshop II. I am sure you have a set of leaf stamps laying around. How about getting them out to create a card like this one?

I started with a Colonial White (cream colored) cardstock base of 5 1/2" x 4 1/4". The next layer is a piece of 5 1/4" x 4" Cashmere cardstock from Close To My Heart. I ran the piece through my Cuttlebug and embossed it with a writing design. Chocolate brown ink was used to go around the edges an in a couple of areas over the top. I used a strong adhesive to glue it to the base.

Three different strips of cardstock and design paper were cut to length. The barn red piece is about 4"x 1 1/2", the cocoa piece is 3 3/4" x 1 1/4" and the design paper one is about 3 1/4" x 1 1/4". You can stack the three pieces as wide or as narrow as you like.

The leafs were stamped in olive and barn red onto cashmere paper as well. I then cut them out and went around the edges with some chocolate brown ink. 

The acorn is stamped in cocoa brown and barn red ink, all from Close To My Heart, cut out and edges like the leafs.
A little tag was cut out, stamped with Thanks and edged to match the rest of the card.

I adhered the leaves first, then the tag, raised with foam dots and finally the acorn, also raised with foam dots.

Enjoy the fall and get inspired but the falling leafs....

Let me know if you like a set of Octobers cards.

Fall Thank You's

Here is the second card we made in the October Card Class workshop II. Thanksgiving is all about giving Thanks. A little "Thank you" can mean so much, so why not say it more often:

For this card I used a 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" card base of Colonial White (a cream white) cardstock. I adhered a piece of barn red cardstock from Close To My Heart in the center of the front part of the card. 

Now to the flower part:
First I stamped the flower image from the "Happy Autumn" (D1550) stamp set from Close To My Heart on a piece of 4" x 3" colonial white cardstock.
To create the multi-color stamp image I used the sponge dauber technique. So how does this technique works you might ask?

I used four different inks, barn red, autumn terracotta, gold rush and olive green. For each color I used a separate sponge dauber to avoid color contamination on the ink pads. This is very important, especially for lighter colors!
I always start with the lightest color. I sponged gold rush on the bottom on the flower. Next was the autumn terracotta and on the top some barn red. A little bit of olive was applied to the bottom. A big huff on the stamp and on the paper it went. Now all that was left was to stamp the stem in olive green.

Using the same technique, I stamped just the middle part of the flower one more time on a separate piece of cardstock. From this piece I cut out just the middle flower as seen on the picture and adhered it with some foam dots right on top of the original stamped image. This gives your flower a more dimensional look. You can layer multiple layers like this on top. Make sure you cut away just a bit more from each layer than the previous one. Flatter foam dots will make the illusion even more realistic.

At last I added a little ribbon bow and a "Thank You" tag to the card.

What a wonderful card to say "Thank You", don't you think?

If you like a set of my card class workshop pre-made or ready to finish at home, please contact me for more information.