Soft as the new-fallen snow...

An entry to this week's Color My Heart Color Dare Challenge:

Gypsy and Sky

They seemed just the right colours for some snowflakes, given that we've had about 8" more snow fall since 2:00 am this morning. 

This is the view out my third floor craft room/study.  Grey and snowy day in the nation's capitol! Could use some of those soothing colours...

Back to the card: I used the sentiment from CTMH C1428 "Ice Crystals" which is a build-a-snowflake set, embossed with clear detail powder, then sponged on Sky and Gypsy inks to reveal the message. Also broke out some beautiful new snowflake dies from Lil'Inker, as well as using their square stitched mat dies to emboss the edge of the card.

I'll be cranking out a few dozen of these to send as Christmas thank-yous.

Happy winter,

Caroline

Whooo's Your Valentine? National Papercrafting Month: January 2013

Check out this video show-casing the January Special at Close to My Heart, "Whooo's Your Valentine?" From now until January 31st, you can order this kit (retail value of $40) for only $10 when you make a $35 purchase of paper-crafting products. Great value, and a really easy craft activity the whole family could join in on.
Once the Christmas gift-wrap is cleared away, you can get a head-start on the next big holiday! Check back here for lots of cute Valentine ideas..

Peace on Earth

In just under the wire with an entry to this week's Dynamic Duos Two-Color Challenge, which is to use gold and black:

Now Caroline, I hear you saying, I see black in that card, but no gold!  You would be right.

This beauty of a stamp arrived in the mail yesterday. 

It was a prize from the recent OnLine Card Classes Holiday Card Workshop. It is a Hero Arts cling stamp. I had not used such a thing before. Gave up on rubber stamps a long time ago because of difficulties lining things up which is much easier with clear acrylic stamps. However, this stamp gives a beautiful impression, and as it is basically all right-angles, no difficulty with getting it straight.

The above card was my first take, based on Kristine Werner's example from the Online class.I stamped in black Memento ink, then sponged on three shades of ink (CTMH Pansy, Crystal Blue and Sweet Leaf) to give the sky a northern lights look. The stitched mat is a die from Lil'Inker, as is the sentiment.

My blogger acquaintance Amy T reminded me this week with her entry that background stamps look great with heat-embossing, so take #2 took shape:

I stamped with Versamark and heat-set gold embossing powder. Again added some shading at the top of the image for a more dark-of-winter look. Great for tomorrow's Winter Solstice, right? Less is definitely more with a wonderful image like this...

I'll also be linking this up to Annette Allen's Linky party.

So final countdown with making, baking, wrapping, caroling all the way...

Happy holidays, friends!

Caroline

Oh, Christmas Trees...

This past weekend, my husband came across the Christmas letter he wrote last year, but never sent. So he decided that THIS year, he was going to send cards, sans letter. He mowed through my entire collection of hand-made cards in one evening (granted, only about 2 dozen) and was only on the G's.
So I got to work today and made him another 2 dozen. Will likely have to do more! I'm kind of gleeful, as he always thinks the card-thing is not truly crafty ("No-one will have one of your cards 50 years from now, but they would keep a hand-made quilt..."). Now he's into it!

So, with this week's Color My Heart dare in mind:  Sweet Leaf and Twilight,

I created the first card, at the top of the post, with my remaining scrap of Sweetleaf cardstock. I don't know if my fellow CTMH consultants feel the same way, but I am missing the multi-colour paper packs which used to be available. I am not keen to buy 24 sheets of some colours. May have to contact some friends and see if they want to share and split packages...
Anyway, I used a Sizzix die for the pine trees and ran them through an embossing folder, for more definition. They sit on top of a scrap of patterned paper from the "Cruisin'" pack (retired), on a Twilight card base. The "Peace" banner was cut using the Cricut Artiste cartridge, and mounted with foam tape to allow the letters to show better. I replaced part of the "P" with a little twilight "Sparkle."
Then I made multiples of this card:

It uses card-stock from Michael's and Bo-Bunny, a scrap of Avonlea paper, and the sentiment was heat-embossed with gold. That comes from the Lil 'Inker Instant Camera: Christmas Stamp set. I also used a new product from the Twinery, Platinum Shimmer twine, to wrap the tree. Star on top is a Dazzle from Paper Wishes. I added a little gold Stickles to the snow after taking the photo--it looks finished now.

Less that a week to go!
Happy crafting,
Caroline

Happy BOOthday...

This is my nephew's card, which we will deliver with his birthday gift today (TWO MONTHS LATE!) when we go over to make gingerbread houses with all the cousins (ages 5 to 21 years--it's amazing how well they all get on!).
His birthday was in October, so a spooky themed card seemed appropriate. Plus he and his male cousins are always ridding the world of zombies and other undesirables...
I saw a similar card on the web earlier this season, but the torn wrappings fit this week's Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge sketch so well:

I used CTMH champagne and black cardstock, saddle pigment ink to smudge the edges and googly eyes purchased at Michael's.
The Paper Smooches stamp sets used were:
Alphadot and
Geo-graphics.
Here's the whole card:

And the inside message:  surprise, because I'm sure he thought we'd forgotten...

Happy holiday prep, everyone!
Caroline

Buttercup!

This week's challenge at Color My Heart:
Use Buttercup, with some black and white allowed.

Buttercup is a lovely soft yellow. I thought Sarah Stone's idea (above) of keeping the design simple set off the colour well. But I wanted to add a little interest, so tried an ink/embossing technique.

I applied the Buttercup inkpad directly to my Cuttlebug embossing folder, then ran it through the machine as usual. The ink ends up in the recessed areas of the impression. Kind of subtle, but effective.
Stamps are from Paper Smooches' "We Connect." I stamped the big ampersand in second-generation black, for more contrast. Hope that still fits the challenge. Makes for a nice wedding congratulation card.
Check out the other entries at Color my Heart. Always inspiring!

Off to work,
Caroline

I HEART you--Dynamic Duos #32

Its a monochromatic theme this week at The Dynamic Duos--A Two-Colour Challenge--#32, featuring  two shades of pink:

Even the names pinks are pretty, don't you think? I used the CTMH versions: Blush and Hollyhock, and a retired stamp set (XXX) to create a card which is cleaner and simpler than is usual for me...

I also used Lil' Inker Designs' stitched mats dies for my focal image and a second smaller one folded in half for the sentiment tag. The sentiment itself is from this month's release at Paper Smooches, "We Connect". I liked the combination of the large X's and O's and the small words. Some Twinery fibre in Blossom and a felt rolled flower made with a Sizzix die. And a little Martha Stewart glitter on the hearts stamped inside the O's... A little glitter, judiciously applied, can be a wonderful thing!

Now, back to Christmas crafting...what are you working on today?
P.S.  The Dynamic Duo deadline is Thursday at noon (Dec. 13th).

Cheers,
Caroline