Winter Solstice Card

Sometimes simple can be nice.  I get so involved in time consuming techniques or folds or just fancy layers and embellisments that it is refreshing to do something simple.  I have been overwhelmed by life recently, so I chose an innocent image and a simple card for winter solstice.

I received a blog award.

To accept this award, I must do the following:
1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded me this award
2. Share 8 things about yourself
3. Pay it forward to 8 bloggers that you have recently discovered
4. Contact those bloggers and tell them about their awards.


I received this blog award from  Monica at:  http://monica-fc.blogspot.com/  Thanks Monica!
 
My 8 things:
1. I am a neat freak.
2. My stamping/craft room is always a mess, but it's also hidden from view of anyone but me and I take a day almost monthly to completely clean and reorganize it, lol. This messy room drives me insane, but I can't seem to create without also creating chaos.
3. I am always either on time or 10 minutes early, people who are habitually late drive me insane. I hate waiting for people.
4. I love to travel. But only to warm places, preferably with a beach. If staying more than I few days I buy my own broom, make my own bed and heaven help the maid who steals my broom. 
5. I love animals and have 3 dogs.  I am allergic to cats.  Love them, but they make me sneeze.
6. I collect the odd, wierd, unusual, unique items which I store in a display case in my craft room.
7. I strongly dislike shopping. I abhore shopping. Even for clothes.
8. I own far too many shoes. Really.
 
Here are the 8 blogs I chose to pass this award on to that are new  or semi-new blogs to me:
http://www.suestamping.com/
http://rubyinga.blogspot.com/
http://roseblossomlegacies.blogspot.com/
http://halleshobbies.blogspot.com/
http://kateblue.blogspot.com/ 
http://sherrysimpleblog.blogspot.com/
ttp://lostincardland.blogspot.com/
http://papercraftpleasures.blogspot.com/
 
I truly have enjoyed visiting the above blogs and hope you will visit them too.

Crystal's Birthday Candy

Hop on over to Crystal's Blog and help her celebrate her birthday!  Here's a pic of what is included in the celebrations:

My entry for Vicki's Deck the Halls

Vicki over at The Cheerful Stamp Pad is having a "Deck the Halls" Christmas challenge right now and the prize for the winner is a Grab Bag package from Wild Frog Creations Rubber Stamps that consists of  15 rubber stamp images, some fancy envelopes and a gift certificate.  Yep, I'm sponsering :).  So hop on over and put in an entry!

Even tho' I'm not eligible to win, I thought I'd post an entry.  I have always loved gingerbread men and decorate with them every year.  Here is one of my Christmas cards this year.  Not my best work, done late at night without my glasses once again, lol.

Wee Memories Blog Candy Giveaway

You only have less than 12 hours to get your entry in!!


"Giveaway includes these prizes split for 2 winners: Hero Arts Antique Engravings, Bo Bunny stamp set, Inkadinkado stamp set, Hampton Arts stamps, Studio G stamp sets, Bo Bunny stickers, Martha Stewart beads, My Minds Eye lush & chipboard, Basic Grey chipboard, Thickers, Heidi Swapp stickers, Making Memories buttons, Doodlebug designs ribbon, American Crafts ribbon, May arts Ribbon, Embellishments, Set of Versamagic stamp ink, 2 wood stamps, Bazzill flowers, Inkadinkado Large stamp block, K & Co diecuts & stickers, Pocket full of Posies mat stack with 40 sheets of cardstock (heavy glitter), My fav button jar, 2 Adriondack Alcohol inks, and more that is not pictured (I like to add surprises ;)"

Hope on over and enter: http://suchins.blogspot.com/

Kimono Challenge & a Simple Kimono Card Tutorial

 

Here is the first challenge on this blog.  The theme of this one is "Kimono".  Please join me and submit any type of artwork that contains a kimono.  Folded, stamped, digital, painted, etc.  New artwork or old artwork that you still have laying around.  Anything goes! 

Entries will be accepted through Dec 2nd.   Please use the linky at the end of this post to add your submissions. Winner of this challenge will receive a  grab bag of 6 unmounted rubber stamps.  Grabbag will include 2 Christmas stamps, 1 birthday stamp, 1 corner stamp, 1 texture stamp and 1 autumn verse stamp.

Don't have any Kimono stamps, digitals or stickers?  No old cards or posts with kimonos? No problem, just use the instructions below to make a Kimono shaped card.

                                               Kimono Card Instructions

Several folks have asked me for instructions to make the tunnel card that is in a previous post.

I will make a tutorial for that hopefully next week.  It's a little complicated and I don't have the time to explain that one right now.  However, I did make a Kimono card and it's so simple that I thought I would use it for my first blog tutorial.

There are many patterns online to make fancier folded kimono cards.  If interested, just do a google search.

There are no fancy folds in this tutorial.  Also, this card can be made with your scrap pieces!  Yea!

Materials Needed:
Scraps of cardstock cut to the sizes below. I used scraps from previous projects for the sample that had already been colored.
2 pieces of cardstock that are 11" X 2 1/2"

1 piece of cardstock that is 4" X 5 1/2"
1 piece of cardstock that is 10" X 1 3/4"
1 piece of cardstock that is 9" X 1"
Scrap of Ribbon
1 embellishment (button, charm, flower etc)
Adhesive of choice

Instructions:
Fold each long strip of cardstock in half. Fold the rectangular piece in half so it is 2" X 5 1/2".

Slip one of the longest folded pieces into the 2" X 5 1/2" piece, centering it and glue it into place.

Slip the other longest folded piece over the 2" X 5 1/2" piece, aligning it with the first long piece and glue it into place. Now you have the basic kimono shape. Se it aside.

Take the 1" wide piece and slip it over the 1 3/4" wide piece and glue into place. Wrap and tie the ribbon around it.

Slip this piece over the top of the kimono that you set aside earlier and glue into place.. Add the embellishment of your choice.

If desired, round all edges. Voila! A simple kimono card using scraps.
Here is another I made:

Here is a pic of the unmounted rubber stamp grab bag:

Two More Kimono Cards

Just haven't been able to face Christmas yet I guess.  However, I will start Christmas cards tonight! Yes, I will.  Here are two more cards with kimonos.  These are not new cards.  But since I always (or mostly always) make two of everything because I just can't bear to give something pretty away unless I keep one for myself AND because I have to check and see if the linky thingy on the challenge post actually works  I decided to post these two cards, lol.

Kimono stamp from Wild Frog Creations colored with markers on both. First card  layered with  wide ribbon and lace on glossy gold cardstock.

Second card layered  on red and gold and black glossy cardstock with b&w striped ribbon.

Blog Candy Winners

Sorry this announcement is late.  Last minute visit from my grandson for the weekend and no time to post.

Chosen by looking through all comments and entries and placing names in a hat (in this case it was a bowl). One name was drawn for each prize.

Prize # 1
Blog candy package winner was Terry from CA whose website is:
http://www.terry2dogs.blogspot.com/

Terry said...


I thought I had already done this, but guess I came and forgot! Been following you, so added your BC to my sidebar! Thanks for the chance to win!


Prize # 2
One new sheet of unmounted rubber stamps of your choice from Wild Frog Creations Rubber Stamps!


Winner was Michele in WA whose website is:  
http://artfromthewell.blogspot.com/
 
Michele said...


"i hope it is not greedy to go for both giveaways! it was VERY difficult to choose a stamp sheet but i've selected African Violet Woman Rubber Stamp Set Item #RAAF504. thank you for this offer! http://artfromthewell.blogspot.com/"

Send me you mailing addresses!

3-D Picture Frame or Tunnel Card

I've heard this type of card called many different things but most commonly called tunnel or  3-D picture frame.  When making a card which uses templates, special cuts or patterns, I usually make 2 because of the time involved.  I did not follow that rule this time for some odd reason.  I simply forgot . . .*sigh* . The "tunnel" or frames are on the inside (scroll down for photo).

This card is an odd sized 7" X 5 1/4".  Card front background was made using the Texture Duet technique
from the Oct/Nov Technique Junkies Newsletter.  Image was colored with pencils, torn and attached to the top.  Added a couple flowers and will put a greeting of some sort in the upper left corner when I am ready to send this off to someone.  I'll post 2 pics of the outside. The first shows the truer colors, but at an odd angle:

The second shows full front, but the colors are too bright due to little old me trying to play with getting the colors on this one a little brighter.  Nothing seems to be going quite right this week.

Here is the photo of the inside of the card where the "tunnel" comes into play.  The outer 3 layers of the frame were not stamped.  Instead I used some 3 different scrapbooking papers from Art Impressions, cut and glued onto very light weight cardstock.  I found the lighter weight cardstock works better than heavier weight for this in the past.  Thanks goodness I remembered that. Inside scene was colored with both pencils and chalks. Cottage and tree stamp from Wild Frog Creations, pine tree stamp from StampinUp.

Western Cowboy Card

It's ok I guess, so I'll post it.  I decided I should put up both the good and the bad.  Couldn't find my glasses when I started making this, but just kept at it and was not able to see any of the mistakes I made, lol. Stamps are from an unmounted sheet of 10 western stamps that I used to carry, but took off the website as they weren't such a good seller.  I chose 5 from the set, colored them with pencils and attached to a piece of craft paper that I put though my corragating tool.  The corragating does not show up on the scan.

Wrapped raffia around it, mounted it on burgundy added two star charms and a piece of a button from old blue jeans.

GC77: Haute Couture Entry Card

Here is my entry for the GC77: Haute Couture  Challenge over at Gingersnap Creations

Bricks on the house were hand drawn (with a ruler, I'm not quite that good, lol).  The house is my own template from years ago (see previous post for exact year).  It a 3 fold card to create the room behind the window.  Lace scraps for the curtain and wallpaper for the interior wall,  Dried flowers were added.  The window fram, beehive and woman were stamps and I can't quite remember what company made them at the moment.  I'll have to go back to the stamp room and check later.

SCD House Entry

I've decided to play along with the House Challenge over at Something Completely Different.  Actually, this challenge fell right into my lap.  I was already making a house card, actually 2 house cards.  I always make two. Had the house already cut out and half decorated.  The first house is for a different challenge and I will hopefully be posting it tomorrow.  But I digress . . .so anyhow, this was my own house template designed back in 1984, not that any house templates are very different I guess, just that this one is sorta 3-d, not quite as thick as a shaker card but thick enough to give the impression of a room behind the window. I keep going off on tangents here, it's been that kinda day. . . sigh.  Made my own bricks with a ruler. Cream cardstock sponged with burgundy, couldn't quite duplicate the color of the brick on my home that I was going for but I didn't try real hard.  The window frame, window box and welcome friends sign are from a retired StampinUp set.  The tulips were from a generic foam kids set.

The window is acetate, of course, the wallpaper on the wall  inside the house is actually, well, just wallpaper from my wallpaper sample book, lol.  The drawback lace curtains are lace scraps.  I think the kitty in the window is StampinUp.  There are real dried flowers in the  3-D flower box.  

VooDoo Wall Hanging

I think I've had way too much coffee, as most of the pics I took turned out blurry.  At least some of the close ups are decent.

At any rate, this was made from a piece of a used priority mail box.  Spray painted black then sprayed again with black webbing spray and the webbing only shows up on the close up of the verse.  All of the voodoo doll stamps, rune stones etc are from Wild Frog Creations Rubber Stamps. Here's a close up pic of the front, scroll down for a pic of the entire piece:

This is a close up of the bottom left with the verse and the shrink plastic rune stones and rune symbols.  Hmmm, guess I should mention that I stamped all the images, enlarged them and printed out on the shrink plastic to get thicker embellishments, the earrings and pendant.  Only the doll in the pocket is NOT shrink plastic.  This is the only pic that shows the webbing spray clearly.  Click on the picture to read the verse better:

                                                           

The big center thingy at the top is a piece of copper metal hand engraved (well, I did use engraving tools) and heated with a heat gun to get the color changes in the metal.  I'm afraid the face doesn't show very clearly either.

And here is the entire finished piece. It has jute wrapped around the edges and the earrings and pendant are removable.  The doll in the pocket is removable also.

It's a little late, but this was to be given to my daughter to add to her Halloween decorations.

Intended to be comical and use some of my stamps, NOT poking fun at any religion as I respect everyones individual religous beliefs.