Sparkle & Shine - November Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to another Stamp of the Month blog hop! This month we have over 50 hoppers sharing ideas for Illuminate, a set of 15 stamps sure to light up your life.  If you've arrived here from Judy's Making Time for Memories blog, or if you're just starting out, you're in the right place.  When you're done here, we'll head over to Haley's Inky Scrapper blog and see what she has to inspire us this month. If you get lost along the way, you can find the full list of hoppers here.

I had a great idea for a scrapbook layout this month, but not enough time to find the pictures and pull it all together. So I wound up deciding to make a Christmas card, and I love the way it turned out!

I used a sketch from this week's Paper Players sketch challenge. I'm also playing along with the Layers challenge at Heart 2 Heart.  Here are some details on my design:

The papers and rosette are from the Sparkle & Shine Workshop on the Go. I used washi tape for both the blue houndstooth border and the three banners. I stamped the lantern and sentiment in black pigment ink and embossed it with black embossing powder.  I added a candle stamped in Ruby, and candlelight stamped in Honey pigment ink and embossed with clear detail embossing powder.

I'm afraid I'm a little out of practice making snow and I did this a little too quickly. To make it look nicer, you want to use Liquid Applique to draw on your snow design, sprinkle on some prisma glitter, and let it dry a few hours. (The dry time is what I forgot about!) Then heat emboss it and it will puff up and look like sparkly snow.  I added a sprig of holly with Glitz glitter gel.

The circles behind the rosette are from the Sparkle & Shine chipboard elements with bitty sparkles added. I also sponged the edges of all the papers with coordinating ink. And I thought the sentiment was perfect for Christmastime. I'll add another sentiment to the inside of the card.

I hope you enjoyed my idea for you today.  Be sure to let me know what you think, then head on over to Haley's blog to see her project.

Christmas Cards with Cricut and Copics - feat Echo Park Paper and Graphic 45

Wow, I can't believe it's been two weeks since I posted!  We've had nasty colds making the rounds at our house keeping me busy... anyway, this month on the Cutters Creek blog we are featuring die-cutting.  So I decided to bust out my Cricut Expression.

One of my favorite things to do with my Cricut for cards is to make nice mats or frames for images.  So, I thought I would show you one of each on some Christmas cards I made.  Just a quick note: I use my Gypsy for this purpose, but if you have Design Studio or Cricut Craft Room, you can use them in the same manner.

First up, an elegantly simple card using papers from Graphic 45's Christmas Emporium paper pad.

5x7 card base

I started with a kraft card base.  I chose my design from the "Santa Express" sheet of images, cut it out, and measured its height & width.  Using my Cricut Gypsy, I chose a frame I liked from the Elegant Edges cartridge that had a similar height/width ratio. (Remember, Kim can special order just about any cartridge you want!)  I then "unlocked" the height and width fields so they wouldn't adjust together.  I then adjusted the height and width independently until the inner opening of the frame was approximately the same size as my cutout design.  (Slightly larger is great!)  I then cut the frame using some coordinating cardstock.

I then cut a 4.5"x6.5" mat from the green side of the "Merry and Bright" sheet.  I distressed the edges of all of my papers and my card bases using a sponge tool.  I adhered the green paper to the card, then layered on the frame using the ASI Kool Tak clear foam squares.  Next, I adhered the cutout design within the frame.  Finally, I added a touch of Polar White Flower Soft to my holly for added dimension.  VERY easy!

My second card takes a bit more time, but totally worth the effort for its beauty!

5x7 card base

I began with my vintage Santa stamp.  Mine is from Close To My Heart.  Using the transparent ruler in my Cricut Tool Kit, I measured the approximate size of my stamp image.  I then chose a doily mat I liked from the Elegant Edges Cricut cartridge, and used my Gypsy to resize it until it was an appropriate size for my image, and cut it out.

I stamped my Santa image with Memento Tuxedo Black, colored it with Copic markers, then added his hat band and pom pom using white Liquid Applique sprinkled with clear glitter.  Note: to get this effect, sprinkle the glitter while the Liquid Applique is wet, then let it dry for a couple of hours before you heat it with your embossing gun.  I then distressed the entire image by sponging on some distress ink.  I also used the ink on my Doodle Bug twine so it would match better.  I stamped a small holly image on scrap as well, and colored & cut it out to use as an accent.

I used papers from Echo Park Paper's Season's Greetings 6x6 paper pad to create my background.  I used a brick Texture Fades embossing folder to create my accent piece on coordinating cardstock, then added additional dimension by distressing with multiple colors of ink.  I edged all of my paper pieces in black ink, since my image was stamped in black - it helps tie everything together.  I assembled the card, and popped up the image using the Kool Tak clear foam squares.

If you're interested, here's a list of specific Copic colors used in the Santa image:
E000, E00, E11, R20, R24, C2, Y17, YR04, YG63, G99, R29, R35, R39, and 0 colorless blender