Red Christmas

...Hello!! It's a lovely day here in North Wales - no rain, blue skies and sunshine! Just fab! I'm here to share a couple of Christmas cards for this year's stash. Here they are:

Stamps: Gina K - Holly Jolly Mini

Inks: Gina K - Petunia, Red Hot, Red Velvet, Cherry Red; Versafine Clair - Nocturne

Dies: MFT - A2 Stitched Rectangles Set 1 #8, A2 Stitched Rectangles Set 2 #9

Accessories: White & Black Card; C&9/KW - Holiday Icons Stencils; Xmas Labels; Gems

I'm submitting these cards to the following challenges:

Jingle Belles - JB2604 - to use mostly Red - done!

Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge - POE#106 - it either anything Xmas goes or the graphic

Never-Before-Used-Schtuff - NBUS#83 - First time I've used these fab stencils

A Cut Above - ACA#0226 - must use dies on your card - done

This is the first time (but not the last) that I've used Kristina's Christmas Icons stencils. I only used the outline stencil for these cards because I wanted a couple of quick and simple cards. I blended several shades of red ink to give a lovely ombre effect from bottom to top of the card. I used stitched edged dies to cut a mat in black and then picked my favourite bits of each side for the main image. I finished the front of each card with a simple black greeting - I've had these labels since about 2009!! And added a few gems. On the inside, I used black mat layers and on the white panels I stencilled an Xmas tree and a candy cane, and finished with a bold, black greeting.

My cards have been inspired by Kristina's cards in her holiday card series where she gave us some ink blending tips.

I'd like to thank everyone for their lovely comments on my recent cards. It's so nice to be back making cards. That's all for now. See you again soon.

Peace, Love, Joy

... Good morning! It's the last day of my Christmas card reveal, and for Day 7 I have two sets of 8 cards each:

Stamps: Gina K - Holly Jolly Mini

Inks: Gina K - Powder blue, Passionate Pink, Key Lime, Jelly Bean Green, Fresh Asparagus, Christmas Pine, Lipstick Red, Red Hot, Cherry Red, Plum Punch, Sea Glass, Turquoise Sea, Blue Lagoon, Tranquil Teal, Stormy Sky, Applemint, Medium Lilac, Wild Dandelion, Tangerine Twist, In the Navy, Blue Denim; Versafine Clair - Nocturne

Dies: Gina K - Peace Love Joy Coverplate, Master Layout 2

Accessories: White & Black Card; Gina K Polyglaze Sheets - Tiny Dots, Celebration, Flurries, Winter Snow; ToW - Black Toner Sheets; Gina K/ToW Deco Foils - Amethyst, Silver Sequins, Glimmering Gold, Sparkling Silver, Rainbow Shattered Glass, Glass Slipper, Gold Sequins

I'm submitting these cards to Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies - HLSAGD#12, and to The Male Room - TMR#181 where the theme is Christmas.

Despite these cards being the last set I'm sharing with you, they were actually the first set made. I picked four Polyglaze designs and, taking two of each design, I foiled them in my Minc. I then used the left-over foils on eight black toner sheets - so I now had 16 panels. Next, I blended Gina K inks over the foiled panels - this was such fun, the inks blend so easily and smooth out beautifully. Once completely dry, I used the Peace, Love, Joy die to cut out the panels, along with eight plain white panels. I used colour card from my stash to make the A2 notecards. I layered the foiled panels onto a black mat layer, and adhered the white panels directly onto the coloured notecards. I then spent a couple of hours, carefully inlaying all the letters on the front of the cards. I love the simplicity and elegance of this design. Inside the cards is a plain white panel onto which I stamped a bold greeting in black ink and added some snowflakes.

And that's it - all 52 of this year's Christmas Cards shared with you. They were so easy to make - and so quick too. But next year, I'm going back to my usual method of making at least one card a week - that way I'll have lots of different designs. Thanks again for stopping by. See you soon.

More Graphic Christmas Trees

.... Morning!! Only a week to go before Christmas day - and time is simply flying by. Day 6 of my Christmas Card reveal. Today I have a set of three cards:

Stamps: Gina K - Graphic Tree, Holly Jolly Mini

Inks: Gina K - Key Lime, Tranquil Teal, Christmas Pine; Versafine Clair - Nocturne

Dies: Gina K - Graphic Tree, Master Layout 2

Accessories: White Card; Stampin' Up! Card - Lucky Limeade, Lost Lagoon, Tranquil Tide; Gina K Polyglaze Sheets - Tiny Dots, Winter Snow; Gina K/ThermoWeb Deco Foil - Glimmering Gold, Sparkling Silver, Silver Sequins; Frost Shimmer Spray

I'm submitting these cards to Time Out Challenge - TOC#253 - where the theme is sparkly, and to Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge - HLSCC#12 (skipping the optional extra).

I used coloured card from my stash to make the A2 size notecards and spritzed them all with a frost shimmer spray. I used the left-over die cut pieces of foiled toner cards, layered them onto a white mat and added them to the front of each card. I used dimensional pads to add the Graphic Christmas trees and finished each card with a die cut sentiment. On the inside, I cut white panels to size and stamped a bold Christmas greeting in black and added a few snowflakes stamped in matching colours.

The photos above really don't show the shimmer and shine very well at all; they are so pretty in real-life. That's all for now. See you again soon.

Merry & Bright

     Good Morning!! It's Day 4 of this year's Christmas card run through. I have a set of ten cards for today - they are all one layer - simple and bright:

Stamps: Gina K - Festive Phrases, Blizzard, Holly Jolly Mini; GK/ToW - Penguin Pals

Inks: Gina K - Wild Dandelion, Peach Bellini, Light Carnation, Light Lilac, Applemint, Ocean Mist, Soft Stone, Lovely Lavender; Memento - Angel Pink, Summer Sky; Versafine Clair - Nocturne

Accessories: White Card

I'm submitting these cards to Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge - HLSCC#12 where it's Anything Christmas goes (I've skipped the optional extra), and to Cupcake Inspirations Challenge - CIC#584 - Winter Wonderland.

Having a MISTI stamping platform makes it so easy to create multiple cards with the same layout. I set out the snowflakes stamps in the MISTI and then, using different colours, stamped the images directly onto A2 white notecards. Once finished I light inked the edges of the cards to soften the look. I finished each card with a bold Christmas greeting in black ink, again stamped directly onto the notecards. Inside I added a panel of white card onto which I stamp a bold Christmas greeting along with a few snowflakes - the colour matching the front of each card.

These cards were fun to make - sort of rainbow colours, with two sub-sets - warms and cools. That's all for today. See you soon.

Graphic Christmas Trees

... Gosh, I've just realised how long it's been since I posted on my blog - largely because my mojo went AWOL!! Normally, by the end of November, I've made all the Christmas cards I need to send - around 100 - 120 cards in total. This year - nah! For some reason, this year has been hard. Then I had a brainwave on 1st December - I'll make Christmas cards said I!!! I think I'm mad.  But, not so much. I made 52 cards in a week and have posted them all out - so they should make it to the recipients on time.

Here's the first set of Christmas cards I made:

Stamps: Gina K - Graphic Tree, Holly Jolly Mini

Inks: Gina K - Blue Raspberry, Wild Lilac, Red Velvet; Versafine Clair - Nocturne

Dies: Gina K - Master Layout Sets 1 and 2, Graphic Tree

Accessories: White & Black Card; Gina K Poly Glaze Sheets - Winter Snow, Tiny Dots; Gina K/ThermoWeb Deco Foils - Glimmering Gold, Sparkling Silver, Silver Sequins

I'm submitting them to Happy Little Stamps Anything Goes with Dies - HLSAGD#12, Time Out Challenge - TOC#253 - where the theme is sparkly, and to Never-Before-Used-Schtuff - NBUS#57 - all this is new!

All 52 of the cards I made were very quick, largely because I used similar products on them all. I picked four different Polyglaze designs, foiled them using my Minc machine and then used the left-over foils on toner sheets. This set of cards uses three of the left-over sheets. I cut the panels using a die to fit the front of an A2 note card. Before adhering them to the card, I used a smaller die from MLO2 to cut out a piece from the centre of each panel - more of them later. I used dies to cut a black mat layer and white panel on which I stamped a simple greeting. I finished by adding a diecut Graphic Christmas tree to each panel - mounted with dimensional pads. Inside each card I added a panel with a bold greeting. I stamped the little snowflakes to match the colour of the tree on each card.

That's all for now. I'll share more cards during the week. So happy to be back making cards. Mind, I've not stopping crafting - only it's more mixed media in my Dylusions Dyalogs. See you all soon.