Christmas in July...

 When a fellow crafter, Poet Spice, challenged me to make 10 Christmas cards between June 24th and July 10th, I jumped on that like white on rice.  When she saw how quickly I did 8 in June, she upped my goal to 20.  HA!!  I did 23 by the end of the challenge!! 

 

The flames are punched from the SU Bird Builder punch.  I used Distress Ink to give them depth.  The branch is a die-cut and the twine is in my Etsy shop... link HERE

 

I had made this design before from something I saw on Pinterest but changed the banners from 4 to 5.  I always thought that in design, numbers were supposed to be odd.  This made the figuring of 5, very difficult for me.  I'm just horrible, horrible, horrible at math.  But, once I figured out one, the rest were relatively easy...

 

The sentiment is heat embossed and the banners are dry embossed with a snowflake folder.  I've added lace and silver edged red ribbon, punched snowflakes and bling...

 

These are Mod Podged napkins.  I added some modeling paste with stencils on the four on the right.  I loved that detail...



This is my favorite of the six napkin cards.  I LOVE the word stencil I used with white modeling paste.  It really stands out...

 

Fifteen for July... SCORE!!

 

♪♫ Christmas Cards, OH Christmas Cards ♪♫

 So, yesterday started out with no MOJO.  It was an amazing beautiful day and I was sooo sad to be wasting it and being unproductive.  I wasn't giving myself the freedom to grieve my friend who had passed away last Sunday from ALS.  After talking with her son, and laughing over some "Toni-isms", I found my MOJO and was able to create again.  These are for you Toni... :)

 

 Both of these cards were CASED from cards I found on Pinterest.  Using what I had and thinking I could do this without instructions, they came out great!!  The hand drawn smile looks like he's got wicked thoughts going thru his head.  I made four of these and they all have the crooked smile...

 

Incredibly simple, but elegant.  I made four of these.  Now, June is in the books with EIGHT cards made fulfilling my monthly challenge... yay!!

 



The last of the "Cards with Dimension" class for awhile...

 What a busy day I've had finishing up this "Cards with Dimension" class thru Craftsy!!  Trying to make and use things in my stash that were as close to what was used in the class, turned out to be quite a challenge.  For now, I'm moving on to another class but I'll ALWAYS know I can come back to this one for inspiration.  I definitely think I got my money's worth out of this... :)

 

 These papers were something Dana and I split up when I met her in FL back in February.  FINALLY getting to them...

 

Same papers as above and lots of miscellaneous pieces from my stash...

 

This was probably the most challenging as I didn't have a gold frame.  So, I made one from two different dies, the star one and the scallop one.  Now, maybe I should clean the house as the Ernman is due in from Ohio in about an hour?  Sorry honey, crafting comes first... :)

 

"Craftsy" class, Lesson 2...

 After being away on a cruise to Bermuda for a week, I was itching to return to the Studio.  I'm behind on my correspondence too, so I went back to my "Craftsy" class and went at it again.  Some of these will be sent to people who made me feel so special on my birthday.  Every card I receive, I try my best to reciprocate.  I KNOW how great it feels to get happy mail... :)

 

 I heat embossed the sentiment with Pirate's Gold embossing powder, dry embossed the under panel with a Sizzix honeycomb embossing folder, used washi tape and flowers, stars and hearts from my stash.  The whole panel is raised with dimensional tape...

 

 Same class, different lesson.  The flowers are dimensional stickers by Recollections that I clustered together.  Added some twine from my Etsy shop, link HERE...

 

I used Wooden Icons, also by Recollections, from Michaels dollar bin as my sentiment, which is now $1.50... LOL.  They are very fragile and I broke this one.  Semi-ok repair job.   It is a pretty effect but I wonder if it'll make it thru the mail.

 

SOOO, off to send some cards.  I'd be pleased as punch if these were ALL in today's mail...



My Five for May... woot, woot!!

HA!!  You thought you beat me, eh May?!!  Can't get any closer than this to "under the wire"!  I prepared and made six of these yesterday and did it on a Scope.  I used #save so it'll stay in my Archives forever if you wish to watch it...



Backgrounds using a Cereal box...

Another new technique for me was learning to make a background on a cereal box.  Wicked fun!  This was taught by fellow crafter Deb (this woman is an encyclopedia of cool techniques).  There are so many steps to this that I'm thinking it would make a PERFECT Scope, so be on the look-out...

It became quite the joke at Cozy that everything I used, everything I tried, belonged to Susan.  What can I say?  Susan has neat stuff.  The crazy birds and dies were hers.  The paste I used was hers.  The stencil I used was hers.  But HA!  the sentiments were Deb's... LOL

 



Isn't he a riot??
 

 And another guy (finished up 5-23-16)...



The "Drapery" card...

One of many things I learned at Cozy Crop the last week of April.  Fellow crafter, Deb and I, made a # of these following a YouTube video.  She brought some lovely double-sided paper and delightful sentiments to use.  Other than the folding, which I did at Cozy Crop, I assembled mine when I returned home.  THIS card was what I used for my Mother's Day card to mom...