Daily Archives: November 12, 2007

A Wonderland Christmas…

I am in such a Christmas mood here! I hope you are getting there too! New Christmas stamps are so much fun to work with! Combined with some of my favorite Christmas patterned paper, Cosmo Cricket Wonderland, I’m having a blast. What is it that I love about this stamps and paper. The warm homey cozy look is perfect for Christmas. I was one of those children …ok, don’t laugh here..with a huge imagination. I always loved pretending I lived in past times when home-made gifts were the only kind and life was simpler. I was quite enamored with pioneer times and earlier and still…my books of choice are historical fiction.

I love this Thomas Kinkade Stonehearth Hutch stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms…so pretty and warm…look at those windows and the smoke coming out of the chimney. I just want to walk up the path, open the door and curl up by the fire. I’m quite sure the inside is as lovely as the exterior and smells like pine and gingerbread. LOL I told you I had an imagination!

Wonderland Cottage

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This design uses very simple stamping…I simply inked up my Stonehearth Hutch stamp in Bravo Burgundy and stamped it onto Whisper White cardstock. The monochromatic look is so easy and quick and adds to the vintage look of the design. After matting the image, I stitched around the edges with my sewing machine and then curled up the edges for a little texture and a vintage look. To add a warm glow from the windows, I carefully daubed my Copic Marker in Pale Lemon at the windows and lamppost. Be careful while doing this as the Bravo Burgundy ink is not waterproof and you don’t want to muddy up the image. To add a little sparkle and shine, I used my Sakura Gelly Roll Stardust Clear Glitter Pen to highlight the windows and where the light would shimmer on the snow.

Right now until November 15th, Cornish Heritage Farms is having a Product Spotlight and sale on these great pens. Lisa has written some great info and there are fabulous samples so have fun checking it out HERE.

Closeup – not a great pic but I tried! ;)

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For the rest of the card design…I used a 5.25″ square Bravo Burgundy cardstock base and layered it with Whisper White and patterned paper from my 8×8 Wonderland Cosmo Cricket paper pad. For my sentiment, I stamped my Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas stamp and then cut out the Merry and Christmas. After sponging their edges with Close To Cocoa ink and adhering them, I added a couple rhinestone brads from Making Memories to add a little shine. Also pulling out the green color from the design, I added my finishing touch, a knotted celery velvet May Arts ribbon.

Quick Tip: Don’t be afraid to crop down your image or sentiment to make them work in your design. I cropped both the image and cut down the sentiment to make them work with this layout.

Check back in later Tuesday morning for the winners of the Christmas Card Kits. 🙂 Have a great day!

Decking the Halls….

It is so much fun to decorate for Christmas and a fun personal touch always makes it a little special. This design is a little different from my stamping style I mostly use. I was having fun with some beautiful cool winter paper by Chatterbox and some Basic Grey chipboard and rub-on transfers. Projects like this are quick and fun and I love the wintery look….a project I’ll be able to keep up after Christmas is over and well into the winter season.

Dashing Through the Snow

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This project uses a paper mache wall hanging from Michael’s and is designed around the gorgeous large trendy snowflake chipboard shape. After sponging my chipboard with white craft ink, I sprinkled it with Iridescent Ice embossing powder from Stampin Up and heat embossed. I love how these Basic Grey chipboard shapes have adhesive on the back. It makes it so easy to adhere to your design. For a fun embellishment, I played up on the dotted ends of the snowflake and tied on a dotted Making Memories epoxy tag with some dotted Aqua ribbon from Michaels. A length of black stitched ribbon replaces the original cord to hang the wall hanging and it is tied with the aqua dotted ribbon as well.

The paper mache wall hanging is covered with layers of fun Chatterbox holiday paper. Love the fun stripes and colors…I just love aqua for winter. It looks so crisp. I like to use Alene’s Thick and Tacky glue to adhere it to the altered surface. To add some interest and sentiments to my design, I pulled out my Basic Grey Wholy Cow Rub-ons. I used the Winter Black ones. So easy to apply, I love their funky designs. This wall hanging is a great application for rub-ons as stamping on an uneven paper mache surface can be a little tricky. To use rub-ons, simply cut the image out that you want to use. Remove paper backing and rub-on to the surface. Basic Grey rub-ons are among my favorites to use as they apply so easily.

This design was part of a Craft Critique review on Basic Grey chipboard.

Wishing you a fabulous day! If you missed my Christmas Card Kit giveaway, you have one more day still to enter…just scroll down. Make sure you stop back in tomorrow as I’ll be announcing the winners. 🙂