Spellbinders Contest Inspiration

Hello Everyone!

Stacey (Scrapbook Essentials BC) is having a Spellbinders Contest! It was decided that I could help get everyone excited to participate and win, if I created a sample for some inspiration. So here is the inspirational contest card! (This contest is only local, here in Victoria, BC).

Because I am need of more Christmas cards I choose to create one, so I hope you do not mind. To create this card I used five different die sets. I will list them below if you want to know which ones they are.

In the close up below, you can see that I lightly inked Poinsettia and the cream leaves from the "Little Plants: die set. I used two colours on the Poinsettia, and I love the effect. The dark centres of the Poinsettias, really are not that dark. They are still wet with Silver Stickles at the time the photos were taken.

The Oval Ironwork die cut was cut twice. The sentiment is stamped on the back layer, while the top layer has an oval cut out using the Classic Oval dies. This was glued onto the the one with the heat embossed sentiment. By giving this piece two layers, it keeps the piece from disappearing into the fancy scroll work of the Cascading Grace die cut under it.

The "Merry and Bright" sentiment was double layer heat embossed in silver which gives the sentiment more dimension and a smoother finish.

The next two photos show you how everything was layered and put together.

I lucked out at Stacey's sale a few weeks ago and bought this beautiful silver grey ribbon with "Merry Christmas" stamped onto it. It goes beautifully with my colour choice for this card.

Her is an even closer look at the inking, sentiment, and Stardust Stickles added to the lightly green inked leaves.

I hope those of you that live here in Victoria, are now excited to experiment and enter the Spellbinders Contest at Scrapbook Essentials, BC. Remember, you can enter as many times as you like to get some of those Spellbinders Prizes! Register each entry with Stacey -  sbebc2011@gmail.com or 778-533-4290. 

Here is a link to the Contest Description and Rules!

Would it not be wonderful to see your creations on display in the Studio, or even on the SBEBC Facebook page! And, to win some Spellbinders as Christmas gift to yourself from SBEBC!

Well thank you for stopping by today to view the inspirational card for the contest! I wish everyone that enters all the best in winning some free Spellbinders product!


Happy Creating!

JFYI - It may be a few days again before there will be another post. I will be busy for a while with non-card-making/scrapbooking stuff.

Cascading Grace (S6-045)
Oval Ironwork (S4-739)
Little Plants (S3-303)
Classic Ovals (S4-110 & S4 112)
Layered Poinsettias (S5-055)

More Cute Cards

If you are here again after yesterday's post, you must love this cute paper too! You saw eight cards I created for my eight grandchildren with the paper is called "Wonderland" and designed by Helz Cuppledicht. Today I have two more cards I made, using one of the beautiful papers that is great for a background, along with some of the pieces I fussy cut and die cut for the past four cards you saw yesterday.

Here they are. You will have to forgive the lighting on these photos. It was evening and with low light, a chandelier for light with cream walls and gold guilt frames, everything has a bit of a yellow hue to it.

If you saw yesterday's post, you will know about the layered word die cuts and the fussy cutting I did. These cards where made using those items.

I love the trees sitting onto of the word 'merry'. The white letters act as the snow covered ground. You can't see in the photo, but the trees in this paper are covered with clear embossing and glitter, so it looks real pretty in real life.

The layering of the card can be seen in this next photo, in case you wish to create something like this.

The second card is very much like the first one, but I was running out of fussy cut trees and did not feel like cutting more that day. So I used one of the cute little Penguins that I had die cut out in between the last two trees I had left.

Again, the layering....

That is it for these two cute Christmas cards, and I hope you were inspired with them.

I am going to be making another card, a sample for a contest, and hope to have it done for tomorrow's post. So drop by to see. It not it would only be another day or two to see it.

If you have your own blog, you know the time it takes it edit your photos, and to blog about your projects. So I am thankful for your patience when I do not have anything for a number of days for you to see.

Happy creating everyone!

Cute Christmas Cards for Grandchildren

Glad that you are checking in a again today.

Today is Grandchildren Day! Well, not really, but I have eight grandchildren, and 1/3 of them are a little old for this kind of card, but I think still young enough to think they are cute and appreciate them.

Stacey had in the store some real cute 8 x 8 Christmas paper that caught my eye. I have a great fondness for animals illustrated in a real cute way like these ones. The paper is called "Wonderland" and designed by Helz Cuppledicht. It has texture and glitter on some sheets as well. Any way, as soon as I saw it I knew I had get it and make cute Christmas cards from this paper.

Here, in the first photo, you see all eight cards together.

You will note that I made two of each card, with the first four being identical but using a different die cut word. Then three of the next and the fourth, or eighth if you will, being slightly different.

Viewing the first card, you see the die cut word 'merry'. I used the Altenew "Bold Alphabet" die set for the letters. On each card I die cut enough letters to make the word three layers of card stock thick. Yes, it was a lot of work for so many cards, but I am so glad I did, because it looks great!

On the top layer, I used my Clear Wink of Stella to coat the letters to give them a bit of a glimmer to them. I found an old Christmas sentiment stamp set that I happened to have two of, and cut out the word "Christmas" to stamp in red ink on the sentiment strip

This next card shows the word 'snowy' instead of 'merry'. The snowflake you see on all four cards are bronze metal ones that I heat embossed with white powder twice. I love. how they look!

Here in the next photo, you can see how the first four cards are layered.

The next three cards I made, I used the red strips that were left after cutting parts for the first four cards. I then added the white ovals cut from the centre of the oval frames from the first four cards. I did cut a bunch of circle and oval images from one of the other papers, and fussy cut a whole sheet covered in Christmas trees. Stamping a sentiment in red onto a banner, and all the parts were ready to create these three cards, and the next card I made.

You can see the caring for these cards in the photo below.

This card is much like the last three with some differences. The plaid oval is from the cut out of the first four cards, and the trees and Penguin on the sled, are from the prep of the previous three cards. Just love those little Penguins!

And in this side view, you can again see how this card was layered and assembled.

Aren't these cards adorable! Now you may be wondering about the rest of the papers I have left. Well I hope to create some more cards from this collection, mainly for those that are young at heart. However, there are some papers that could work well for more mature Christmas cards.

A few days after completing these cards, I was again drawn to the paper, and have created a couple more cards, which I will share with you tomorrow.

Thank you for stopping by, and hope to see you tomorrow, too.

Happy creating!

Christmas Cards from Leftovers - Kaisercraft "Letters to Santa"

Welcome back!

Today I am showing you some real easy cards to make with leftover paper from other projects. For those that live here in Victoria, BC and attend classes at Scrapbook Essentials BC, you will be particularly interested in this post. If you take the Kaisercraft "Letters to Santa" Sampler Triptych class, you will have some beautiful paper left to create what ever you like. If you want to make some quick and easy cards with that paper, then this post is for you!

The photo I took of all the cards together was no good enough to use in a post, but I was too lazy to take another photo. But, I think the individual photos will be just fine for you.

For this first card you see, I used the wood slats as a mat, and a piece of the holly paper as the background. Then from the sheet that has all the large poinsettias and roses, I fussy cut one out and trimmed it to fit over the 4" x 5 1/4" holly paper, and popped it up with from tape.

The sentiment is stamped onto the black strip with Versamark and heat embossed in white. I love how striking a tiny sentiment can look on black like this!

Next I used my Clear Wink of Stella on all the berries, and when try added Glossy Accents over top.

This next card is the easiest of all four! A Red Brick card stock mat and the image cut to size right from the paper! I then stamped in red, my sentiment on a white narrow strip and popped it up! That's it! Real easy, and very mailable!

If you wanted to the some Gold Liquid Pearls to all the gold balls of the garland, that would be a lovely added touch. I did not this time, because I was in a real hurry the day I made these, but I still might when I go to use them.

I am a little partial to this next card because it brings out the little girl in me as well as fond memories of all the German Christmas traditions we used to do as I grew up. The image is very European and makes me think of St. Nicholas Day!

Again, I used the wood planking as a mat for the music paper this time. I fussy cut this image from one of the sheets of paper and cut it to size with straight edges where needed, and popped it up with foam tape.

I used Clear Wink of Stella on his white hair and beard to make it shimmer. Once again, I did the sentiment with white heat embossing on a narrow strip of black, and popped it up with foam tape.

Next, and last, another card similar to the first one. It just has a different rose form the paper, and has no straight sides/edges. It is popped up and the sentiment strip is popped up over the rose.

So there you have some real simple, easy, and lovely Christmas cards.

Be sure to check in again tomorrow. I created some real cute cards for my grandchildren and for those of us that are still young at heart (because I like cute things too).

Altenew Bold Blossom Personal Challenge

Glad you stopped by again!

Yesterday I posted a card created for the Altenew November 2017 Challenge. I enjoyed challenging myself by using different colours than I normally would for the roses (Bold Blossom) and while making that card, wondered if it would be possible for me to use the same stamp set to create a Christmas card!

So as soon as I was done with the challenge card, I created this card!

By using one of the brown Tombow markers to draw naked branches, and adding some gold drops onto the card, along with a Christmas sentiment, I believe a achieved the look of a Christmas card! Hope you think so too.

Need I say that I had a whole lot of fun making it? By stamping the 2nd layer stamp of the leaves alone without the base, and fussy cutting them out, I think it hints towards pine or evergreen a bit. Don't you?

I am loving the layered stamps, and especially the ones at Altenew. I so look forward to getting many more of their stamps and die sets!

Tomorrow I will be posting some of the new Christmas cards I created with leftover papers from the Kaisercraft Samplers class coming up on December 2nd. So be sure to stop by to see some of those cards.

Happy creating!

Altenew November Challenge

Welcome back!

It has been a long time since I have entered a challenge, and right now I have a little time to create something that is not for a class. Because I got some of my first Altenew stamp and die sets a couple of weeks ago, I searched for a challenge to enter and I stumbled across the Altenew November 2017 Inspiration Challenge; a colour challenge. You should go check out all their challenges! Great inspiration!

Since this is a newly discovered stamp company for me, I was excited to see that they also have challenges that you can participate in!

This is the inspiration image for the challenge.

I used the Bold Blossoms stamp and die set and the Super Script sentiment stamp set for this card.

I have to laugh a little at myself because I was so excited about getting the card made that I forgot to follow through with some of the ideas I had in mind for creating this entry!  I wanted to include some copper metallic thread and ink blend around the edges a little with one of the colours. Even though, I think this card could would look better with those ideas, it still looks real good for my first Altenew card.

The next couple of photos show side views so that you can better see the layering and construction of the card.

I do not know if I would have ever come up with the idea to use these colours for a rose, had it not been for this challenge. Thank You Altenew.

I also used my fairly new Tim Holtz Tonic Stamping Platform to make this card. It sure is much easier to "layer stamp" using this tool!

For those of you local followers, Scrapbook Essentials BC is planning on having classes in the new year using your choice of stamping tool (MISTI, Tonic Stamping Platform, or your new Stamping' Up Stamparatus), where we will start to introduce layer stamping and...Altenew stamp sets! So look for those classes in January if you want to really use your MISTI!

Thank you all for stopping by to have a look. Be sure to stop by tomorrow for another take on this card in Christmas colours!

Happy creating everyone!

Watercolour Pencil Class #3 - Watercolour Backgrounds Focusing on the Sentiments

Welcome back! Hope you are enjoying creating cards and things for Christmas. I know from experience that sometimes you are creating so much Christmas stuff, that on occasion you mojo is hindered and you run out of ideas. Here is one that anyone can do if you are in need of a few more quick and easy Christmas cards.

I can not give you the details at this time for the Heat Embossed tips and tricks until after the class, but if you are not living in this area and would like to know, just make a comment or email me, and I will let you know what we are doing with these the sentiments on these cards.

Now, on to the class. For this last minute Christmas card class, we will focus on the sentiment a little more, and learn some sentiment techniques while creating some beautiful Christmas backgrounds. These cards are quick and easy to create. And, you do not need to be an artist!

WHEN: Saturday, December 9th
TIME: 10:00 - 12:30
COST: $30 + GST

This class is a great introduction to free hand painting and not relying on a stamp. Lots of water is the key to these faded Christmas background cards created using watercolor pencils. With backgrounds like these, detail is not important and that means making this type of card quick and easy. Yes, easy. Because they are easy, we will be able to create four cards! Great for those last minute cards, too. 

BRING TO CLASS: Watercolour pencils, small bottle of water, fine water mister, palette or plastic lid, non-stick craft mat, brushes and Aqua brushes if have, a few sheets of paper towel, Washi tape or Removable tape, a wood cutting board with handle, heat tool, VersaMark ink pad, fine gold embossing powder, if you have the Penny Black "Yuletide Wishes" stamp set bring your MISTI or TH Tonic Stamping Platform (can borrow mine if needed), Gesso, and Clear Wink of Stella.

To register for the class, contact Stacey - sbebc2011@gmail.com or 778-533-4290.

Here is an individual, closer look at the cards.

The sentiments for these cards are from the Christmas sentiment stamp set from Penny Black - Yuletide Wishes. It is a great set of Christmas sentiments to have!

Thank you for stopping by again today, and hope you have received some inspiration and mojo back if you needed it.

Happy creating!

Spellbinders Educator Class #8 - The Beloved Layered Poinsettia

The die that we are using in this class is not a new one, but a well loved one. As Stacey just recently taught a class using some of the new beautiful Christmas silhouette dies, I decided to go with a well loved die.

These are the three cards that we will create in the class.

Spellbinder Educator Class #8

Need some last minute Christmas cards! Check out these beautiful cards!

We will be using a favourite Christmas die by Spellbinders - the Poinsettia! Using the negative piece for one card, and the positive for another and inking while in the die to get the leaf lines. For another we will heat emboss the edges of the leaves to go with vellum blooms, and use the first die used for this series of classes, the "Tuscany Strip". We will get ink and glitter all over our fingers, too! Fun, Fun, Fun! Come create these beauties with us.

Bring to Class:  Die Cutting Machine, All plates and tan rubber foam, Non-stick craft mat, your "Tuscany Strip" die if you have (I will have mine there if you need it), double sided adhesive tape, liquid glue (matte if you have), mini-glue dots, foam dimensionals or foam tape, Silver Stickles, Watermark Versamark ink pad, fine silver embossing powder, Embossing buddy - Anti-Static Pad, red alcohol marker to colour white pearls or bring red pearls, Buttercup Liquid Pearls, scissors, flower shaping stylus and foam pad, Following ink pads - Oxide Worn Lipstick & Peeled Paint, Ink blending tool, Die brush tool, and heat tool. Oh, and wipes for our fingers and dies.

WHEN: Wednesday, December 6th
TIME: 6:00 - 8:30
COST: $40.00 (includes $28 die)

To register for the class, contact Stacey - sbebc2011@gmail.com or 778-533-4290.

A closer look at the cards -

Edging leaves in silver embossing powder adds a lovely look with the silver Stickles edging the vellum Poinsettias.

The inked Poinsettia on the die embossed background gives a graceful look to this card.

This more contemporary card with the die cut shapes and added leaves to look like holly is a simply but striking card. (The Poinsettia die cuts from this next card, were used for the card above with the exception of the 2 leaves) I love how you can make the holly looking leaves from the Poinsettia die when cut from green.

The first two cards use a Christmas sentiment stamp set from Penny Black - Yuletide Wishes. (The sentiment used for this last card is from an old stamp set no longer available. Sorry)


Well that's it for these cards. There will be one more class to post for December, and then that will be it until we start posting classes for January 2018! Where has this year gone?


Happy creating!

Spellbinders Dies -

• Layered Poinsettia - S5-055
• Tuscany Strip - S4-655
• Cascading Grace - S6-045