Autumn Days Christmas Card

I've always loved this pinecone image from the Autumn Days stamp set, earlier in the year I used it to make another Christmas card.

What I used:

Card:  Certainly Celery, Very Vanilla, Riding Hood Red, Crumb Cake, Holly Jolly DSP [retired]

Ink:  Old Olive, Chocolate Chip

Stamp Sets:  Autumn Days, Best yet [retired]

Tools and other fun stuff:  Top Note die, Spellbinders die, 1/8" Old Olive ribbon, Square Rhinestone Brad, Cuttlebug embossing folder.

Happy Fathers' Day!

It's Fathers' Day here in NZ and Australia (and quite likely a few other places as well) - so I made this card for my husband as he is a wonderful father!

I used an 'oldie but a goodie' which is this origami shirt - I can finally make one without referring to instructions - I was rather origami-challenged there for a while, especially when it came to the collar.  Anyway, the tutorial I used when I was learning to make it can be found here, pop over and pay the creator a visit if you like.

What I used:

Card:  Pacific Point, Old Olive, White, retired DSP

Ink:Old Olive, Pacific Point

Stamp Sets:  Teeny Tiny Sentiments, Autumn Days

Tools and other fun stuff:  Square Lattice embossing folder, Word Window punch.

Autumn Days Christmas

A card in traditional Christmas colours using the conifer stamp from the Autumn Days stamp set, using Stampin' Write markers to colour in the stamp this time.  Kept it quite simple with a spot of embossing, a little piercing and that's about it.

What I used:

Card:  Real Red, Old Olive, Whisper White

Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Old Olive Stampin' Write Markers.

Stamps sets:  Autumn Days, Teeny Tiny Sentiments

Tools and other fun stuff:  1 3/4" circle punch, Word Window punch, piercing tool and template, Scallop Border punch, Square Lattice embossing folder.

With Sympathy

Now, I'm very grateful I don't need any sympathy cards at the moment but I'm counting on "Sod's law" that if I have some already made I won't need to use them!  On the other hand, I'm also pretty sure that if and when the time comes that I do need one I probably won't feel like making one so this morning I made a couple.  I actually made one yesterday and liked the layout so much I made two more in the same vein, just varying the stamp sets and very slight changes to the overall composition.

What I used:

Card:  Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Whisper White

Ink:  Old Olive, Certainly Celery, Pumpkin Pie

Stamp Sets:  Autumn Days, Petal Prints (retired), Teeny Tiny Sentiments

Tools and other fun stuff:  Word Window punch, corner rounder punch, Scallop Border punch, Certainly Celery 1/4" grosgrain ribbon (retired), Old Olive 1/8" taffeta ribbon, Stampa-ma-jig.

February birthdays

Second post of the day!

For some reason February seems to be rather full of birthdays in our family, a niece, a nephew, my brother, two of my sister-in-laws plus a cousin of Carlos (and I may have even missed some off that list!).

Anyway, both my brother and one of my SILs are turning 50 this month, I've already posted one card off to Chile, and today I got stuck into the enjoyable task of creating a card for my brother who lives in Melbourne.  It is quite a different thought process when you are creating with a specific person in mind, I spent an enjoyable hour reminiscing about teenage years whilst I created, yet all the time bearing in mind that the last card I sent him arrived in pieces!!   Not sure what the postie did but this time it is NOT going to happen!  I glued, then I sewed, then I glued it again all together with WOODWORK glue (I know, terrible thing to admit to!....).  Now, if this birthday card falls to bits in the post I know what he is getting next year - a single layer card!

It was great to have an excuse to follow a sketch on Stamping 411 AND ink up a new set called Autumn Days - I tend to choose nature inspired stamp sets so this was perfect when I saw it in the catalogue.  Not sure if you can see it in the photo but I embossed the DSP and then sponged it a little with Old Olive, I also did some tone on tone stamping on the bottom area of the card for an added layer of interest.  All I needed to really be true to the sketch was three little brads but I don't own any - yet - so will leave them off 'till next time.

(I think the camera was playing tricks today, the card is definitely square and trim, it looks a bit strange in this photo!)

What I used:

Card:  Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Pumpkin Pie, Play Date DSP

Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive

Stamp sets:  Autumn Days, Teeny Tiny Sentiments (I'm getting a lot of mileage out of this set!)

Tools and other fun stuff:  Scallop border punch, Large Oval punch, Scalloped Oval punch, swiss dots EF, Stampin' Sponges, 1/4" Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon (retired), Stampin' Dimensionals, sewing machine.