Whoosh....It's Almost Christmas!

Seems as though we just got started on 2016....and here we are at Christmas 2016 already!  WHERE does the time go!  I've been SO busy since Thanksgiving!  There were presents to buy, house to decorate, food to cook, presents to wrap, company coming, baking yet to be done, birthdays galore...and more! I hosted the annual Christmas party for the widows group from my church...we had 16 in attendance.  I cooked a great meal for everyone, we played games, wrote Christmas cards to the home bound folks from church, and did a lot of talking and visiting.  After 4 hours, I was exhausted!...but a good kind of exhausted ♥

In between all these chores (okay, some of the chores were fun☺), I managed to make a few Christmas cards (which I've yet to address and mail!)...Thought I'd share them with you today.  This will be a PHOTO HEAVY post for sure! To view any of the cards larger, just click on the image.

 
I'd list all the products used for the cards, but you'd still be trying to read through this blog post next week!  So....if you have any questions about products or techniques on any of the cards, just click on the envelope at the top of the blog that says contact me, and shoot me an email with your question and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!

If you've hung in this long...you're a real trooper!  Thanks a $Million!

As always, thanks so much for stopping in.  I appreciate your visit...and I appreciate each and every comment!

Addicted to Stamps and More #167

This week's challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More is one of my favorites - Make your Mark.

I've been practicing with my Copics and wanted to try the no-line coloring, so this is what I ended up with....

I used the Penny Black Blooming Garden poppy stamp and stamped it in HA Very Vanilla ink before coloring it.  I colored it with Copics in several shades of yellow.  The sentiment is from a small set of stamps from SSS which also includes the die to cut out the word "prayers".  I love this stamp set.  Been needing one like this for a while.  I cut the word "prayers" from white card stock, then colored it with the same shades of yellow that I used on the poppy.  I mounted the colored panel on a piece of yellow card stock and then adhered it to a white card base.  The coloring took a while, and I still need LOTS of practice, but I really enjoyed giving this technique a try.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by for a visit!  Hope you'll come back soon!  Your comments are greatly appreciated! Until next time...

Watercolor Card Class...practice, practice, practice...

Warning...Warning....This post covers the first 5 days of class and is photo heavy! I have learned quite a bit, but I think the biggest lesson I've learned is that I'll never be very good at water coloring.  I'm too much a perfectionist to let thing "bleed" into each other!  I keep trying to get the colors to "line up"...which is totally NOT what I'm suppose to be doing! Anyway...off to my cards.  

This first card was made using techniques shown by Kristina Werner on Day 1.  I heat embossed the stamped image...but for some reason my embossing powder didn't seem to want to melt on the watercolor paper.  Then when I tried to "smush" the colors together, I got some muddy looking areas! I finally had to call it quits on this method (we won't talk about how much ended up in the trash!). The happy die cut is a Simon Says die.  I tried to heat emboss the word "birthday" but couldn't get good coverage with the white powder. Popped the whole thing up on a deep purple card base and called it good.

For this card, I tried to use a color wash background by coloring with watercolor pencils as we were shown on Day 2...I'm showing you this card...but I'm not really crazy about it!  I had to draw my flower pot with pencils, then tried to blend...that didn't work too well.  The flowers were made by stamping a stem stamp from PTI repeatedly, then added some blooms to some of the stems.  Sentiment is from HA. Popped the water color paper onto some pink card stock then called it finished! I also used some of the distress marker techniques from Day 3 

This card was me trying to stamp and color with distress markers....Pfff~!  This was similar to what I did above...and I still wasn't too crazy about the finished card!  I did, however, finally pull out my TH spritzer gizmo and give it a whirl to add a little color to the background...it's not too bad...but I do need practice!  I think the flowers are a HA stamp.  

The techniques for Day 4....hmmmmm...I finally gave up!  Everything I tried was just to "messy" looking for me.  So..here's a card which was inspired by the logo for the class...

I love the look of this....I just need to learn to "blend" my watercolors a little better!  

This card is just something I was playing around with.  I think I got my blending down a little better.  Funny thing is...I did this water coloring on a piece of plain card stock that I found in my scrap box. I had dry embossed it with a hexagon die at some time to use and then didn't use it, so I thought I'd see what water color would do to plain card stock.  It bucked and buckled like you wouldn't believe...but I zapped it with my heat tool after it was completely dry and it mostly flattened out.  The word "thanks" is a die from Simon Says. I cut it out 4 times and glued the layers together.  Then added a bit of sparkly with my wink of stella pen.  The stamped part of the sentiment is from a VERY old stamp set...no idea who makes it.  I added a few sequins and some pearls and popped the water colored piece on to a dark blue card base.  Kinda like how this one turned out.

Finally...you've seen just a few of the cards I kept...but oh so many went into the trash!!  On to my

FAVORITE!

This card was a technique shown by Shari Carroll...and I LOVE how this turned out. I heat embossed a partial background, then colored the shapes with my distress markers and added water....WA-LA....LOVE it!!  I popped it up on a dark orange card base and added a banner.  The "happy" is the same die cut I used in the above card, only I cut the top layer for this one from a teal card stock (even though you can't really tell that in this photo!).  The 'birthday' was from a PTI set.

WHEW!...That's a lot of cards, isn't it?  Which is your favorite...and why?  

Thanks so much for stopping by! Your comments and your visits are always appreciated!! Until next time...