Christmas Snowglobe

As someone who often writes about her animosity towards glitter, I seem to be using an awful lot of it lately! However, to be fair, how can you make a snowglobe card without glitter looking like it is floating around in there?

For this card, I colored the snowglobe (Impression Obsession Snowy Tree Globe D8285) with copic markers and then added about 3 layers of clear ultrathick embossing powder the the globe to make it look like glass. To do this, I covered the globe with Versamark, added the powder, heated it, and while it was hot, added more powder. (Repeat this at least three times). I added some glitter during one of the layers so that it would look like glitter was floating around in the "glass." Here is a close up of the globe:

To finish the card, I added some twine, some Memory Box pearls and paper, and stamped a saying I made from the IO Sentiments 1 clear set (WP16). I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Pumpkin Card

I promised to post a card using my pumpkin Nestabilities, so here it is! When you cut out the pumpkins using the dies, you get the outline of a pumpkin (umm....duh). However, I thought it looked a little too 2-D. I decided to add a bit of dimension by drawing lines onto the pumpkin using a brown Copic marker. I thought it helped my pumpkin look a bit more realistic. If you follow my blog, you know that I have an ongoing love affair with Basic Grey's Indian Summer line of paper. I used some of the papers from that 6" x 6" pack to layer my pumpkin onto an acetate card. I finished the card by adding some leaves I cut from one of the Nestability Maple Leaves dies. I drew the veins into the leaves using a fine detail green pen.

In other crafting news, many of you know that I am not too fond of glitter. I love the look, but hate how glitter can get onto everything you own within 2 seconds of opening a jar. I made a card on my other blog and experimented with mixing Diamond Glaze and glitter onto acetate. I keep rubbing that card, and the glitter isn't coming off. Woohoo! I just wanted to share that idea with every other glitter-phobe. You can see the end results here.

Don't forget, tomorrow (Sun) is the last day to get 25% off of everything at Angela's. You cant beat that!

IO DT challenge....shaker cards!

Have you tried the new Impression Obsession Shake It pouches yet? I have to say, this was the easiest shaker card I have ever made. With older shaker cards, I would make a square out of foam mount tape to hold whatever I wanted to be "shaking" in the card. I always had to make sure that there weren't any gaps in the foam mount or the shaker material would escape.

The new Shake It pouches from IO are nice because they are self-adhesive plastic shape forms that fit on top of your background image. For this card, I shaped the cake from the CL203 Birthday Cakes set onto white cardstock using black Versafine ink. I colored the cake with colored pencils and gamsol and then piled a bunch of beads onto the cake. After I peeled off the adhesive background of the oval shaker, I stuck it over the cake and beads. For the oval overlay, I used an overlay from the Paper Cut that was designed to fit over my oval shaker. The overlay came in white, so I colored it with a YG03 Copic marker to match my card. To finish the card, I added some Basic Grey Lime Rickey paper and stamped a saying from the same clear set. Easy!

If you want to check out other shaker card ideas, visit Deborah, Dina, Jenny, Julie, Kathy, Kelli, and Shirley's blogs to see what they created.

Also, don't forget that you can make your own shaker card and enter it to win a $25 Impression Obsession gift certificate. You have till Saturday night to submit a card, and all the information can be found here.

Pumpkin Place Card

Thanksgiving is approaching, and I was inspired by Sharon Harnist's idea to cut 9 pumpkin Nestabilities, fold them in half, and glue them together to make a 3-D pumpkin. I sponged the stem and the edges of the pumpkin with brown ink so they would stand out better. I have enjoyed playing with the pumpkin nesties, and I plan to post a card with a pumpkin cut out real soon.

Ho Ho Ho

It seems like a hard time to find things to post. I have started working on Christmas presents, but it might be a bad idea to post what I am making before the 25th. I have made a couple of birthday cards, but the recipients haven't received them yet. I am working on a couple of things to try and have published, but you aren't supposed to blog about them until you know they aren't going to be used. Humm...not much else is left! So, I decided to post another card from my upcoming 10 in 10 holiday card class. I promise to think of something else to post soon.

For my card, I used images from the Impression Obsession Ho Ho Ho set (CL248). So cute! I colored the Santa with watercolor pencils and a blender pen and added some decorative paper from Bo Bunny Press.

I feel as though I have been a Christmas card making machine lately. The good news is that I think I have all my cards made for this year. If you need more Christmas ideas, I have posted quite a few cards on my Color Whimsy blog.

On an unrelated note, I wanted to thank the anonymous person who called Angela's Monday morning and left a message saying that they had seen my name on the 97.1 Wash FM website. I emailed the station to collect my Panera Bread gift certificate. Woohoo! Man, I love Panera's, and I think I will like free Panera's even better!

IO DT Challenge- Make a Wreath

It is time for another Impression Obsession Design Team challenge, and this time the theme was "make a wreath." The irony of my card is that I used a clear stamp set (CL238 Fall Wreath) that has a wreath image in it. Essentially, I put that wreath aside, stamped a bunch of individual leaves from the set, and made my own wreath. The good thing about doing that is that I got to use up lots of my Basic Grey Indian Summer scraps. It also allowed me to make a much larger finished wreath. To finish the card, I added my favorite new saying (Share Gratitude A5517), some gold pearls, and a gold ribbon.

Do you love wreaths as much as I do? Check out what Daniela, Deborah, Dina, Jeanne, Jenny, Julie, Kathy, and Shirley created.

10 in 10 Christmas Classes

It is that time of year again. I just scheduled my 10 in 10 holiday card classes. I was a little slow in reserving dates to teach at Angela's, so I ended up with weekday nights. I apologize to all the weekend class people that I wasn't able to get a weekend date.

The card I am posting today is one of the quick cards we will be making in the class. The stamps are by Impression Obsession, the paper is by Bo Bunny, and the image was colored with Copic markers. It is hard to tell from the picture, but I used a gold Spica pen on the package to add a little sparkle.

I hope to see some of you in class!

And it continues...

Yep, another card using the Which Witch set. And yep, I paired it again with some Basic Grey paper. That is my theme, and I am sticking to it!

There really isn't that much to say about my card. I cut the circle from one of my Nestability dies and colored the witch with Copic markers. Wow, I really didn't have that much to say!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Continuing a Theme

While I had my Which Witch set out from Impression Obsession, I decided to make a couple more cards. For this card, I stamped the spider from the set three times onto cream cardstock using black Memento ink. I colored the spiders with my Cool Gray 5 Copic marker and then added a saying from the same set. I chose my Copic markers for the saying to match the Basic Grey paper I used in the background.

I am running out of time to post Halloween cards, so I guess I better post the others soon!

Okay, Okay...

I can take a hint. A person doesn't blog in a week and a half, and the phone calls and emails start to arrive. I guess it is time to post something.

Sorry I haven't shared anything on the Stamp Journal blog, but I have been working on a few classes rather than personal stamping or participating in challenges. I am almost done with my annual "10 in 10 Christmas" class, so I will be posting info about that soon.

In the mean time, I wanted to share a treat bag I made for Halloween. I was inspired by the eyeball border from the Impression Obsession "Which Witch" set (CL241). I knew it would be fun (and a little gross) to pair with some eyeball candies. The only problem was that once I designed the bag in my head, I couldn't find any eyeball candies. My good buddy Marilynn found some at Harris Teeter for me so that I could finish my project. Thanks Marilynn! Of course, I had to ask her, "Doesn't it creep you out that I brought plastic bags to your house to collect eyeballs?"

Here is a side view of the bag:


I used the Accu-Cut machine at Angela's Happy Stamper to make the bag, but if you don't have access to an Accu-Cut machine, it should be easy enough to fold a paper tent of your own and punch a window with a square punch. I stamped the eyeballs onto cream paper with black Memento ink and colored the irises with E53, B12, BV02, and YG11 Copic markers. I spelled out my saying with Technique Tuesday's Williamsburg font and glued all of my pieces down. I thought it was a fun project and different from the candy corn and "Happy Halloween" bags I usually do.

On an unrelated crafting note, I went to Great Country Farm's annual pumpkin glow to see the 1,500 lit jack o'lanterns. It was truly a fun thing to see, even though it was hard to photograph!