Verve Visual With Gratitude

It's time for a new Midweek Throwdown challenge on the Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps blog, today's challenge is in honor of one of our retiring shippers, Dixie!  The challenge is to make Thank You cards for our heroes to send home to their family and friends.

Dixie has passed on her duties as an Operation Write Home Shipper to Caro after serving for two years - and we wanted to do something special in her honor to say THANKS for all her hard work and dedication!   I hope you'll have time to play along in our fun challenge this week.

Today's card was made with a Verve Visual acrylic stamp set, embossing powder, Spellbinders dies a Stampin' Up! Canvas background stamp and a scrap of black and white digital paper and beautiful organdy ribbon.  I love making bows with organdy ribbon!  I really like the way my card turned out except for the dots of black embossing powder in all the places I didn't want it.  Now I remember why I like black pigment ink and clear embossing powder, lol!  That's what I get for using so many digital images anymore, I'm out of practice with my heat embossing technique.  

Have a blessed day a & thanks for visiting my blog today -

Challenges:

Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps - Thank You 
Cooking It Up With Katie - Anything Goes 
Crafty Creations - Gratitude 
My Mum's Craft Shop - Anything Goes 
The Paper Shelter - A Tied Bow

Perfect Presentation & Polar Bears

I'm still on my Christmas card kick, I think I'll be done soon! The ink I've been waiting on for my Photo Printer arrived so I need to go back to work on Melissa's Wedding Album very soon. Like tomorrow morning!

My first and second card are made using the images from Stampin' Up!s Perfect presentation Hostess Set. My card stock colors are Ballet Blue, Real Red and White. I used the Cuttlebug Swirl Embossing folder on the first card because I don't have the Snowflake embossing folder yet. The Bookplate is a Sizzix Die and the Merry Christmas sentiment is from a MSE clear set.

I used the same images on this card as the first but my friend Diana in Wisconsin sent me a couple Cuttlebugged Snowflake panels. Cool! My cards are an A6 size so the panel is a little small so I adapted it to suit my needs and added a strip of wide gingham ribon to that panel.

Before I put it all together I thought the Holiday Print background stamp (retired SU) might be nice on the Ballet Blue card body. I think I like this card better than the first, what do you think?

With the last card today I feel like I've got it! I like this one the best so far. I used Diana's Bashful Blue Cuttlebugged panel, added a white piece to it that I stamped with SU Holiday Print background stamp in Brilliant Blue, tied a piece of Brilliant Blue gingham ribbon on it and used one of the images from my retired SU Polar Bears set for the focal point. I colored the image with my Prismacolor pencils and added the black dots with a Stampin' Write marker.

What do you think, number one, two or three - what's your favorite?

Fast & Fun Notes

Like I said yesterday I've had Christmas cards on my mind lately. I saw a card that Beate made on her blog Fresh & Fun and loved all the detail she used on it.

I sat down in front of my computer with a sheet of paper and sketched what she'd done and went to work making a Christmas card out of her sketch. If you'd like to see where my inspiration came from click on the link, hers is a birthday card and they look quite different, yet almost the same!

Have I told you how much I love background stamps? I love to make my own paper and really have a hard time using designer papers. I think they're so pretty but after I have them I can't figure out what to use them with!

I used 3 background stamps on this card, Holiday Print, Weathered, and Linnen all made by Stampin' Up! The Christmas tree is from Fast & Fun Notes by Stampin' Up! too.

To color the Christmas Tree I used Prismacolor Pencils, then added the details with Stampin' Write markers. I wanted to try a shadow under the tree, I needed to make a mask of the tree and punch an oval from scrap paper, I put my mask on the tree and the oval where I wanted it and then sponged some Sahara Sand ink in the oval area so I'd have a shadow.

I'm sorry if that didn't make any sense, I'd really rather be able to show you!

Enjoy your weekend!

Polar Bears

I've had Christmas cards on my mind lately. I know it's August but business is kinda slow around here... It would be an excellent time to make Christmas cards before the rush for them in November and December.

I have a stack of mostly retired Stampin' Up! Christmas sets on the table waiting for me now.
I've always loved the Polar Bears so I thought I'd start with them. I made a dozen Christmas cards today with the Fast & Fun Notes but haven't taken any pictures yet.

To color the Polar Bears I stamped the image on a scrap of White cardstock and made a stencil out of it using my craft knife. After stamping the image on the Lt. Blue cardstock I covered the image with my stencil and sponged Brilliance Moonlight White onto the Polar Bears. This has been a "coloring" technique of mine for a long time because until I discovered Watercolor Paper and/or Prismacolor Pencils I didn't like to color. Mostly I didn't like the look I got, you could see the pencil or marker lines, yuk!

Supply List: Stamps - SU Polar Bears, Snowflakes by The Cat's Pajammas, Paper - Not Quite Navy, Lt. Blue, Close To Cocoa, Ink - Brilliance Moonlight White, Noir Black, Accessories - Stampin' Sponges.