JAI 98 - Just add sparkle

Well hello there :)
How is everyone tracking with their Christmas preparations? I'm finally making headway with mine but still have a stack of cards to write and post out.  This week at Just Add Ink we have a very appropriate challenge for the Christmas season - its Just Add Sparkle. I had a special Christmas card in mind for this challenge...here it is.

This one came together pretty quickly once I had the colour combo, I wanted something a little vintage and soft to go with the gorgeous angel die that I planned to use. So first up a Pear Pizzazz base, then a Perfect Plum mat, then the vanilla top mat. I stamped a frame of greenery around the panel, adding Plum and Blushing Bride berries. Then I die cut and stamped my angel, and added a hanger for her. Finishing touches include the sparkle (of course ;) rhinestones "berries" and glass glitter on the wings, and a sentiment - a very appropriate one in my case as the card has already made its way to my parents :)

As usual at the momment I dead knackered so that is from me!! Have a good week and check out the rest of the amazing DT offerings  - they are stunning!

Thanks for visiting,

Kim

Recipe: All SU! unless otherwise noted

Stamps: Tree Trimmings, Love Lives Here: Holiday (PaperTrey Inc)

Cardstock: Pear Pizzazz, Perfect Plum, Very Vanilla

Ink: Pear Pizzazz, Perfect Plum, Blushing Bride, Early Expresso

Accessories: Love Lives Here" Holiday dies (PaperTrey Inc), Corner Rounder punch, Silver glass glitter, Jewels - rhinestones, Tombow multi, Dimensionals, Double sided tape

Happy New Year

Good morning everyone,

I hope you all had a nice New Years Eve, we had friends over for a BBQ which was really nice.

I thought I would start the year with a quick post with some of my development Christmas cards, the ones I made before I came up with my final design.

This first one isn't my favourite - I think it would have looked better with a larger sentiment.

I really liked the effect of the All About Christmas wheel (R) on this one, something I will keep in mind for next year.

This last one is my favourite but just wasn't so practical for mass producing - so lost out on those grounds.

I won't go into construction details, it should be fairly easy to see how they came together. All details are in the recipes below.

Thanks for visiting....and looking forward to hearing from you in 2010:)

Kim

Recipe Card One: All SU unless otherwise noted

Stamps:Tree Trimmings, Best Yet

Cardstock: Real Red, Old Olive, Whisper White

Ink: Real Red, Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Ski Slope DSP, Silver brad, Eyelet border punch, 1 1/4" Riding Hood Red Striped Grosgrain ribbon, Mat pack and piercing tool, Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive

Recipe Card Two: All SU unless noted otherwise

Stamps:Tree Trimmings, All About Christmas (R)

Cardstock: Old Olive, Bashful Blue, Whisper White

Ink: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Holiday Thyme DSP (R), Silver brad, 1" double stitched Bashful Blue grosgrain ribbon, Eyelet border punch, Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive

Recipe Card Three: All SU unless noted otherwise

Stamps: Tree Trimmings, Short and Sweet

Cardstock: Real Red, Bashful Blue, Whisper White

Ink: Real Red, Bashful Blue

Accessories: Spellbinder Oval Classic and Scalloped Nestabilities, Ski Slope DSP, Kaiser Rhinestones, Scallope edge punch, Word Window punch, Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive

The Christmas card

Hello, hello, hello there,

I hope everyone had a very happy Christmas. We had a lovely time visiting my parents, the kids got to go to the beach a couple of times, Mum (me) got to go to the movies for the first time in three years! and do some shopping. I bought myself a new border punch that I have been wanting to get my hands on (Apron Lace from Fyskars). It's nice to be home though and aside from some decluttering (every surface in our house seems to attract some) and preparing for a BBQ tonight I couldn't resist posting. Actually I have a few things I'd like to post but given that Christmas is rapidly disappearing I thought I had better post my "official" Christmas card for 2009.

I played around with Tree Trimmings, for a few weeks trying to find a layout that I liked. I'd seen some great cards but wanted to come up with something that was easy to reproduce but looked good and was mostly mine in design. I can't remember what triggered it but I was seized by an idea and then was able to make up a prototype very quickly - hooray!! In fact I prepped up the pieces for 20+ cards and took them with me on holiday in November and then just assembled two cards a day till I was done.

I wanted to do a traditional colour version and a non traditional version, the blue/olive mix was mostly DSP inspired, the Ski Slope DSP available then used those together as did the (long retired) Holiday Thyme DSP I used on those cards. Enough blather - the design pretty simple, the base of the card is stamped with stars/snowflakes, over that is a Old Olive panel scalloped down one edge. Then the image panel goes over that. DSP at the bottom, the greeting and a bauble raised on dimensionals. A strip of ribbon goes over to blend the join.

Thanks for visiting through this first year of blogging - its been a great fun and I love to hear your comments.

Have a Happy New Year,

Kim

Recipe: Trad colours (All SU unless otherwise noted)

Stamps: Sleigh Full of Toys (R), Tree Trimming, Sincere Salutations

Cardstock: Real Red, Old Olive, Whisper White

Ink: Real Red, Chocolate Chip, White Craft

Accessories: Ski Slope DSP (R), Scallop Edge punch, wide Real Red and Old Olive grosgrain ribbon, Silver brad, dimensionals, Double sided tape, SNAIL adhesive

Recipe: Non-Trad colours (All SU unless otherwise noted)

Stamps: Sleigh Full of Toys (R), Tree Trimmings, Sincere Salutations

Cardstock:Bashful Blue, Old Olive, Whisper White

Ink: Bashful Blue, Old Olive

Accessories: Holiday Thyme DSP (R), Scalloped Edge punch, 1" Double stitched Bashful Blue grosgrain ribbon, narrow Old Olive grosgrain ribbon, silver brad, dimensionals, double sided tape, SNAIL adhesive

An Ornate Trimming

Hi there,

Well once again its time for me to load my entry for Makeesha weekly challenge – this week a sketch. Here’s the sketch.

I’m still on my Christmas card crusade so the type of card was easy to decide on, and this is what I came up with.

I’ve been doing a lot of fairly white cards lately so I decided to try something a bit richer and more ornate. With that in mind I started off with a Real Red base, on the top I added a new Cuttlebug folder I aquired recently- Victoria in Baja, which gives a nice ornatish effect that ties in with the broad stripy Ski Slope DSP (I really love this DSP - for some reason Christmas ones are often so dark and muted but this has lovely bright patterns). I also decided to crack open some new Spellbinder dies - Labels 9 which I thought would suit the feel. So I cut out a large red label 9 shape then the next size down in white (making sure it was just big enough to fit my Tree Trimming ornament on). To get the white border on the red layer I left the die on and traced around the inside edge with a white gel pen. I was quite happy with the effect. I simply stamped the largest ornament in real red on white and then trimmed it out, mounting it on dimensionals in the label 9 panel. Before doing that I did add the ribbon and white brad. The sentiment I stamped then punched out with the curly label punch, just doodled around the edges with a red marker and then slipped the end under the ribbon. Three little red pearls (timely aquired only just on Sat) finished off the card. My overall feeling about it is that I do like it (90%)but I feel like something isn't quite there but I haven't been able to figure out what that factor is. So it will just have to stay as is.

Thanks for visiting.

Kim

Recipe: All SU unless otherwise noted

Stamps: Tree Trimmings, Short and Sweet

Cardstock: Real Red, Baja Breeze, Old Olive, Whisper White

Ink: Real Red ink pad and marker

Accessories: Ski Slope DSP, Spellbinders Labels 9, Curly Label punch, Cuttlebug Victoria folder, Wide Old Olive grosgrain ribbon, Narrow Real Red grosgrain ribbon, White gel pen, Red Half Pearls (Kaiser), Small white brad (Bo Bunny), dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive