Merry Christmas!

Here is my Christmas card for this year. Having grown up with origami I was excited to bring a little bit of my heritage into this card. The original inspiration came from a post I saw on Pinterest. Later I googled "origami tree" since many of you asked about instructions after I posted my Christmas card preview. Here are the step-by-step instructions courtesy of "Pixie too". After making 50 of these cards I would recommend that you use a scoring board instead of a bone folder especially for the smaller pieces.

I hope all of you have a safe and happy holiday and wonderful new year!

Gift Tags

Our final swap for this year.....gift tags.

Celebrate Life

OWH - Sketch #150

Here is my take on Operation Write Home's Sketch #150. I started with a Christmas theme in mind but ended up using Stampin' Up's new Feeling Sentimental Set (available January 1st).

Christmas Card Preview

As usual my great idea for this year's Christmas card turned out to be quite an effort but the results were well worth it. Below are some preview pictures of my card.  Now I just need to get them all in the mail.

OWH - Sketch #148 and #149

Here are sketches #148 and #149 from Operation Write Home. I'm very happy with how they both turned out. The bird was recycled from another card swap and the felt ornament worked perfectly as the circular centerpiece for #149.

Tim Holtz - 12 Tags of 2012 (December)

What a great way to end a year of tags. This month's December tag is Christmas themed (of course) but there's also a bonus tag from January 2012.  Once again I'm using all Stampin' Up! products when available but there are two non Stampin' Up! items; the poinsettia bling and the crackle paint on January's tag.   Hopefully, I succeeded in demonstrating that you didn't have to go out and buy all new products to emulate Tim Holtz's technique.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and I'd like to wish you all a safe and happy holiday season.  At the bottom of my post is a link to all 12 tags.  I can't say that I had a favorite but I was amazed every month at what I could create.

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

Double Slider Card Swap

Here is the final card swap for this year's technique album, the double slider card.  I thought I would be creative and turn the card sideways which created all sorts of problems including the huge blank space on the top of the card.  Oh well.  The cake effect once you pull out the slider was completely unintentional.  I also posted some instructions here.

OWH - Sketch #147

Here is this week's sketch from Operation Write Home.  All of the colors turned out to be more muted than I had planned so I added the sentiment on black cardstock to add some interest.

OWH - Sketch #146

This week's OWH sketch was very easy.  I used scrap pieces of paper and the christmas tree left over from my glitter window card.  I tried a new Sharpie marker for the faux stitching but I'm not really loving it and may have to go back to my white Signo gel pen.

OWH - Sketch #145

Ok, I'm hooked on the acetate and tissue technique.  Here is this week's Operation Write Home sketch.  Here is a link to the technique instructions and video.

Digital Scrapbooking Day

Tim Holtz - 12 Tags of 2012 (November)

This month's tag is all about fall. I decided to do two versions since I wasn't sure the woodgrain from the Natural Composition designer series paper was going to work. Once again I'm using all Stampin' Up! products to show you that you don't have to go out and buy all new stuff. I started by embossing a leaf from the Autumn Splendor set in white embossing powder rather than clear so it would stand out more against the textured cardstock. I then added the Elegant Beginnings sentiment using black stazon ink and applied various colors of re-inkers with water, drying each time with the heat tool. I used the Cheesecloth background stamp to add additional interest. I finished each tag by distressing the edges, adding a button, a piece of burlap, and leaves cut out of cardstock.

Happy Halloween!

It's Halloween! It's Halloween!

The moon is full and bright

And we shall see what can't be seen

On any other night.

Skeletons and ghosts and ghouls,

Grinning goblins fighting duels,

Werewolves rising from their tombs,

Witches on their magic brooms.

In masks and gown we haunt the street

And knock on doors for trick or treat.

Tonight we are the king and queen,

For oh tonight it's Halloween!

-- Jack Prelutsky

OWH - Sketch #144

Here is this week's card for sketch #144 from Operation Write Home.  I used the acetate and tissue technique that I learned back in February to create the focal point for the card.  The embellishment is Stampin' Up's brushed bronze button that I adhered using mini glue dots.

Technique #9 - Double Slider Card

Hi Everyone! This is the last technique for this year, the double slider card.  The instructions are fairly involved so I'm just going to link directly to them. Click here. Hope you had a great time following along.  I'll be posting my slider card swap before Thanksgiving.

OWH - Sketch #143

This week's sketch from Operation Write Home turned out to be really tough. I thought a I had a great idea to modify the strips of paper using a framelits die but then I had a creative block.  I cut all sorts of paper and ribbon but nothing looked right. Just when I was about to give up I remembered that I had a bunch of butterflies left over from the kissing technique swap that I never used. I added a piece of whisper white cardstock to the corner to neutralize the graphic newsprint in the background and adhered the butterfly using stampin dimensionals.

Glitter Window Swap

Here is this month's glitter window technique swap. I started with Stampin' Up's Labels Collection framelits to create the window and then adhered clear packing tape to the back of the Holiday Thyme DSP. I sprinkled glitter onto the tape  and spread it out with my finger until the tape was no longer tacky.  I stamped the tree from the Flakey Friends set and cut it out using the same size framelit as the window, I just repositioned the framelit and cut it a second time to make  the image narrower.  I finished the card by attaching the DSP to the cherry cobbler cardstock using stampin dimensionals.  I would definitely recommend staying with a chunky glitter.  The fine glitter I used looks nice close up but I'm not sure if it will keep the window from sticking to the inside of an envelope.

OWH - Sketch #142

Here is this week's card for Sketch #142 from Operation Write Home. I used the tissue paper newsprint from yesterday's tag and layered it underneath two colors from the Stampin' Up's earth elements cardstock. I stamped the Autumn Splendor leaf using black StazOn and colored it in with coordinating markers and blender pens.

Tim Holtz - 12 Tags of 2012 (October)

Here is this month's tag for October. Once again I used all Stampin' Up! products with a little help from my Silhouette. I started with Ghostly Greetings designer series paper and distressed the edges. I then copied Newsprint DSP onto tissue paper and adhered it with mono multi liquid glue. Next I sponged on pumpkin pie and lucky limeaid inks. I embossed both the spider and the text with black and hologram highlights embossing powders. The tags are from the It's A Date stamp set and the speckles in the background were created using the Wonderfully Worn stamp set.

OWH - Sketch #141 + Bonus

Yesterday was World Card Making Day and I was so happy to see two new sketches from Operation Write Home.  Once again I used scraps.  The textured/crumpled kraft paper came as packing material and the labrador retriever was cut out of basic black cardstock using my silhouette.