Happy Wednesday with Heartfelt Creations

I always find Wednesday a busy day, right in the middle of the week, and it is such a treat each week on this busiest of days to take a break and check out the Heartfelt Creations blog and all the lovely card and project ideas there.  This week there is a bunch of Christmas cards and projects and a few others there, which you too may enjoy.  Here are a couple I contributed this week:

First of all, a sweet birthday card featuring a teddy bear---doesn't matter what time of year it is, there is always a need for birthday cards!

Second of all, a standard postage size and mailable Christmas card, that still has a lot of Wow power, especially "in real life" when you can get the effect of the gold highlights:

Instructions and list of products used for both of these cards can be found on this weeks Heartfelt Creations Blog post.

I hope you are all having a fabulous week!

My new Australian stamps

I have a bit of a story about today's cards, feel free to jump ahead and just look at the cards if you'd like :-)

Once in a while, I get a bit burnt out from colouring.  After months and months of doing lots of cards using lots of colouring, I finally reached that point where I needed a bit of a break.  I noticed a card on SCS that I loved, and followed the link to Valita's blog to find out what the name of the stamp was.  She didn't have it listed, so I emailed her, and she gave me some information about the stamp, but she had gotten it at a local craft store to where she lives, and she is way off in Australia--a whole different continent than I!  This started a long internet hunt until finally I found that it seemed the item came from Grant Studios.  Browsing through their website, though, I couldn't find it, and realized it may have been discontinued.  Having spent all this time searching I was not ready to give up, so emailed them to inquire.  I was lucky they got back to me and told me that yes, it had been discontinued, but they'd look about and check their cupboards for me to see if they could find one (I guess I sounded kind of desperate LOL!).  They did have one and agreed to mail it all the way over to me in Canada.  I thought I was in for a long wait, but it got here within a week!  Amazing!  Anyway, here are some of the first cards I have made with it:

On this one (above) I stamped the image, cut it out with a nestie, added some colour direct to paper with a topic marker using upward brushstrokes and feathering at the end.  I bent up the edges and added metallic rub on paste, layered that over a doily, then layered the doily over a piece die cut with the Heartfelt Creations Decorative Lace Border Die.

On this one, I simply stamped the background using one of the stamps that came in the set with the silhouette, and added shading on the edges using versamagic black chalk ink.  To the main image, I used the Copic Airbrush to add a shading to the bottom left corner.

For this one, I added dots around the edge of the image using Gold Liquid Pearls, added shading with the Copic Airbrush, and layered over a frame made using the Heartfelt Creations Decorative Window Scene Die.

Graphic 45 Christmas Emporium

As you've probably noticed, when it comes to Christmas I really like quick and easy.  I wanted to give a family member a set of 10 standard size, mailable cards, and decided to try making some cards using some Graphic 45 paper from the Christmas Emporium set.  I managed to do up the set of cards in under 2 hours with very few materials needed, and they look fabulous!  Here are a few of them:

The lace at the bottom I got at the local discount fabric store for 29 cents per yard, and all I did was cut out the images, layer them on the card, and add some lace.  On some of them I added a sentiment, or curled the edges.  

I hope this gives you some ideas of how you can "cheat" with preprinted DP to make cards quick and easy :-)

Heartfelt Classic Christmas Collection

Today we've got a fabulous new release to enjoy from Heartfelt Creations.  The design team has been madly preparing samples for you using these new stamps, and today I've got two of them to share here.  Check out the HC Blog to see what the rest of the design team created.

First of all, I made this card, with the cute little book which I just LOVE!

Second of all, here is a coaster I made.  It was surprisingly quick and easy once I figured out how to do it, and the tile used was from the hardware store and pretty inexpensive.  I'm thinking a set of these would make a great Christmas gift.

Detailed instructions including supplies lists can be found on this week's HC Blog post.

The Classic Christmas Collection  features 6 new precut stamp sets that coordinate with the Heirloom Ornaments 2011 and the Labels Seven Spellbinders dies. The classic images in this collection are perfect "not only" for your Christmas projects but very versatile and you will find yourself using them throughout the entire year! Leave a comment on the Heartfelt Creations blog by October 18 for a chance to win the entire release valued at $89.99.

Christmas card swap

Happy Saturday!  And to those of you in Canada, I hope you are enjoying your Thanksgiving weekend :-)

We have no big family dinners planned, but I am always happy to have an extra day off work....more time to craft!

Today I have a card front to share with you that I made for the swap (this was the first of 10!).  This was a challenging swap as I was trying to use all SU products, and on top of that, all SU products that are current, and I am quite happy with what I came up with:

The image is stamped in chocolate chip on vanilla card stock and a panel cut out using the Top Note die.  Then I added blue shading using the stamping pastels (I used a circle punch to mask the moon).    The ribbon I started off with was vanilla, and then I realized they retired/discontinued that, so I switched to Kraft (which is now renamed something or other, but at least still current).  The only real cheat was that I added a dab of red liquid pearls on the tip of the nose of the reindeer--oh well!  For the others I used a softer shading of the brown craft ink on the edges, and didn't distress the edges, less work, and I think it actually looks better without the distressing....maybe tomorrow I'll take a photo of a later one, this was my first "prototype" (actually, second, since I discarded the first deciding I didn't like it, sigh!).

More quick Christmas Cards

Well, today is Wednesday again, which means there is a lot of freshly posted inspiration to be found on the Heartfelt Creations Blog.  This week there are a lot of Christmas projects, including a gorgeous sneak peak of the new Classic Christmas Collection being unveiled next week.

You may have noticed my big theme lately has not been for the really ornate and complicated, but the quick and easy.  It seems everyone I talk to is looking for ideas that are quick and easy and mailable, so that's what I've been focusing on.  Today I've got two great examples you may want to try out.  Remember, if you don't have exactly the same products I'm using, most things are substitutable!

First of all, here is one featuring the new ornament set.  If you wanted to make this a touch more "fancy" instead of stamping the ornament right on to the card, you could stamp it on a separate piece of card stock, cut it out, and layer it on the card with pop up dots. 

Products Used on This Project

HCPC 3420 Holiday Dove PreCut Set
HCPC 3417 Poinsettia Ornament 2 PreCut Set
HCPC 3419 Holiday Poinsettia Candle PreCut Set

Other Products Used: Tsukineko white pearl ink, black memento ink, Gold spica pens, Red copic marker, gold Encore ink, gold liquid pearls, stickles

Card size is standard 4.25x5.5. Precut base layers. Main layer is kraft coloured card stock. Stamp swirls on the top right and bottom left corner of the main layer using white ink. In Black ink, then, stamp the ornament in the bottom right hand corner and the sentiment in the top left hand corner, as shown in the photo. Colour the poinsettia on the ornament using a red Copic marker. Use gold Spica (or other glitter pen) to colour in around the sentiment and to add accents to the ornament, and then add additional accents to the ornament with gold liquid pearls as well as stickles. Rub gold ink along the edges of the main panel. Allow to dry and then adhere layers as shown in the card.

Secondly, here is one featuring a traditional Christmas candle.  I know this is one of hubby's favorites--that traditional Danish upbringing!  Here you could make a few of these, and switch them up by using different background paper, and dress up by adding a swirl or two in the background.

Products Used on This Project

HCPC 3419 Holiday Poinsettia Candle PreCut Set
Other:Copics (Candle is mainly E40 and E41), gold liquid pearls, DP is retired SU Spellbinders lacey oval Spellbinders classic oval

Card size is standard 4.25 x 5.5 Pre cut base layers and lacey oval.  Stamp main image twice.  Cut one out with oval, which will wind up cutting off a large part of the spray of flowers and foliage.  Colour.  Stamp a second one and colour just the foliage and cut out just the foliage and flower.  Cut along the lines of the flower petals and then pull up some of them and shape them.  Adhere over top of the other one that was cut out with the oval, and adhere the remainder of the card.

I've got a bunch of other projects in the works, especially some projects including ornaments and tiles that I can't wait till next Wednesday to share with you, and between now and then I'll be sure to share some more ideas for quick cards for this busy time of year. 

I hope you have a crafty (and good!) rest of the week!

Playing with flowers

Hi folks!  I hope you are all enjoying a nice weekend!

I've been enjoying my three day weekend and doing lots of creating...there is a new Heartfelt Creations release coming up that I've been creating with, but I won't be sharing those with you unit the release....and I've also been working on some other cards using flowers as embellishments, which I'll share with you today.

To start with, I remembered a tutorial I'd seen online at Lisa's website to make fabulous looking prima type flowers using ordinary flower punches.

Here was my first attempt:

After that I played some more to try and get it right and managed to make some more used here, on this card featuring a free digi from TLC:

And then in a rush to finish off the third card (dinner plans tonight...) I grabbed a flower I'd snagged from a friend of mine that she had in her sewing kit (for costumes):

Tomorrow I think we have to do yard work, so probably no crafting, sigh, but I'll be back again on Wednesday with something else christmassy to share again :-)  Happy crafting to you!