November Christmas Retreat, Cards 4 AND 5

I'm going to make this a Wow Wednesday kind of day and share TWO of the cards we'll be making at my November Christmas Retreat.  They both have lots and lots of sparkle.  

This first card has 3 sources of sparkle:  embossed silver images, silver foil, and white glimmer paper.  Wow!  That's a lot of beautiful sparkle.

I had a big surprise the first time I used the framelit in the above photo.  It cuts an image that I thought looked great on the inside of the card.  Isn't this beautiful?

The next card has glimmer and shimmer, as well.

I didn't realize until after I'd designed this card, that we no longer carry the red foil sheets.  I had just enough left in my 'stash' to use for this class.  It's a real wow to see the gleam of the red foil and the glimmer behind it of the red glimmer paper.  Gorgeous!

I hope I've inspired you to start thinking about making Christmas cards ... maybe creating cards with us at my Christmas Retreat or on your own.  Either way, I've shared some good ideas to get you going, so get out your 'stash' and get started!

In my next post, I'll share our sixth card we'll be making.  Come back and see what I have to share with you. 

I still have a few openings left for the November Christmas Retreat.  The deadline to sign up is the end of the day tomorrow (Thursday).  It's going to be a lot of fun and you'll go home with 18 cards --- 3 of each design.  
If you are unable to attend, kits are available for $30.

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Framed Ornament

I have another project for you today using more of our Red Foil Sheets.  This one is an ornament that I framed. 

I die cut 10 ornaments, arranged them into 2 pretty layers and attached an Antique Brad at the center. 

Here's a fun secret that you might not know.  This frame is intended to be for record collectors to display their collection of 45's.  It even has a hole in the center which I used to place my brad!  I was walking through the frame department of our hobby store one day and discovered these great frames.

I already have another project in mind for our Scraps and Prayers group for April using one of these frames.  I can't wait to get started on mine, but it will have to wait until after Christmas. 

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or look on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration. 

Iridescent Ice: The Magic Ingredient

Today, let's take a closer look at a card for my upcoming Nov. 21 Christmas Retreat that uses Iridescent Ice with Designer Series Papers (DSP).  This embossing powder adds an almost magical quality to your project.  

One of my favorite 'go to' elements of cards that beg for sparkle and glam is our Iridescent Ice embossing powder (EP).  It is gorgeous.  I actually have 2 containers of it.  One container has just the Iridescent Ice and the other container has a mixture of White EP and Iridescent Ice EP.   The mixture is great for making a sparkling snow effect.  

The DSP is attached behind the ornament shaped opening, after glamming it up with Iridescent Ice EP.

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Double the Fun... in TWO Ways!!!

I have double the fun for you today... a double ornament card and good news for two (OR MAYBE SIX) lucky people.  Keep reading to learn about the card AND the good news.  Some lucky people are going to be very surprised today!!!  First, the card: 

This is a closer look at one of the cards we'll be making at my Nov. 21 Christmas Retreat.  Instead of stamping on the inside of the card, this time I chose to add a strip of our Glimmer Paper at the bottom of the CS inside the card.  It looks really pretty on it and coordinates nicely with the card front.  

The ornaments are embossed with Silver EP onto CS and then cut out with our thinlits.

Drum roll, please.  Here comes a big surprise for TWO lucky people (per prize)... as in double the fun!!!  I mentioned at the beginning of 2015 that I would have a big surprise toward the end of the year and I'll bet no one even remembers me announcing this in my classes.  Good!  Now, it's even more of a surprise.  I wanted to do something really special this year, in appreciation for my customers who have loyally attended my classes throughout the year and have placed orders with me throughout the year, as well.  I have been saving up names for my own secret drawing.  I had the furry babies help me with the drawing.  (Talk about a challenge!)  I decided to have 3 prize categories, with two winners at each category.  Here's who the furry babies chose as our winners.  Another drum roll, please.

TWO FIRST PLACE WINNERS:
Marsha White
Elaine Beam 
FIRST PLACE PRIZES --- ATTEND MY NOV. 21 CHRISTMAS RETREAT AS MY GUEST!!!!!

TWO SECOND PLACE WINNERS:
Priscilla Snelson
Sheila Witts-Mannweiler 
SECOND PLACE PRIZES -- $25. SHOPPING SPREE AT MY $1.00 SALE.  Call to arrange your time to come shop!!!!! 

TWO THIRD PLACE WINNERS:
Cherie Lowhorn
Brenda Clark 
THIRD PLACE PRIZES --- Take $10. off a class of your choice... good through July 2016!!!

THESE PRIZES MAY NOT BE USED WITH OTHER COUPONS, PRIZES, OR TOKENS OR EXCHANGED FOR ANY OTHER CHOICES.  HOPEFULLY, YOU'LL ENJOY THEM AS GIVEN.
 
So you see... it's double fun at first, second, AND third place for our winners.  Congrats!  I hope you enjoyed my double fun post today.

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or look on the left for sneak peeks. 

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Double Ornament Card

Wow!  What a busy weekend.  It was the baby's first time to church (and he was perfect... actually stayed awake the entire time) and I had my Christmas Open House Party Sunday afternoon.  It went so well and we all had a great time.  Stamping friends are the best!  Today, I have another Christmas card for you... a double ornament card. 

The ornament on the left uses Red Foil Sheets over CS and the ornament on the right uses CS (shimmer spritzed) over Red Glimmer Paper.

This card uses a nice mix of new products and it's pretty fancy.  Mossy Meadow has become my 'go to' color of CS for my Christmas this year whenever I want a pretty green.  It looks great with both Real Red and Cherry Cobbler.

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or look on the left for sneak peeks. 

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Sneak Peek at Four of My Cards

Here's more of a sneak peek at 4 of my cards that I made for our Nov. 21 Christmas Retreat.  They each have special techniques.  I had a lot of fun making each and every one of them. 

The 2-ornament card has beautiful silver embossing.
The snowflake card has heat embossing and dry embossing.
The snowy trees card uses a dryer sheet technique.  In real life, it's covered in gorgeous sparkle.
The 4th card uses the negative image from the ornament die.  The CS is then dry embossed.  The DSP showing in the opening is covered with VersaMark ink and then embossed with Iridescent Ice EP, a favorite technique of mine.  In real life, it has a gorgeous sparkle, too.

I still have 2 more cards to design.  What shall I create next?  Oh the fun!!! 

So... who wants to party?  Don't forget to RSVP for my Christmas Open House this Sunday, November 1.  It's from 2:00-5:00 and we'd love to have you.  Don't forget about the clocks changing, too.

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or look on the left for sneak peeks. 

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My Own Special Technique... for Christmas

I have a 'wow' couple of cards for you today, using my own special technique.  They were inspired by a previous card I made, when I first came up with this technique.

Remember this card?  This is where I first came up with my new technique.   (Click here to see my previous post.)

I loved this butterfly card so much.  This is what inspired me to come up with my 2 Christmas versions.

The first Christmas version is made using the smaller ornament die.  I cut 3, scored them down the middle and then attached them (carefully), using Liquid Tombow Adhesive.

The second Christmas version is basically the same, but uses the larger ornament.

The ornament dies are absolutely gorgeous, especially when cut from our Gold Foil Sheets.

I used a larger ribbon on the larger ornament, but the backgrounds are basically the same on both cards.

I love how these turned out.  They are a bit labor intensive, but absolutely worth the extra effort.  Another nice feature about these cards is that they will fold flat for mailing.

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- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or look on the left for sneak peeks. 

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OSW Tutorial Series, Part 4

For today's OSW card, let's take a peek at Christmas.  Instead of making our own papers, we're back to using a beautiful DSP.  This one is called Home for Christmas.   

You'll be dividing this one up into 2" strips, so you'll be able to get 12 cards from one sheet of DSP!  Now, that's great bang for your buck!  You'll have 6 scraps left over (1 X 2") that you can use together on a card or other project.

Dividing your DSP this way is a great plan for making a lot of Christmas cards.  The Real Red strip behind the DSP is cut 1/4" inch wider on EACH side of the DSP.

The ornament is cut from Real Red CS and then attached over a solid ornament shape cut from our Red Foil Sheets.

If you look back at the top photo, you'll see that I did decide to color in the top of my ornament with a silver marker.  You can decide which way you'd like to make yours.  The Silver Cording is just looped behind the ornament. 
This is a very quick and easy card to make, which is a good design to use if you're planning on making a bunch of cards for Christmas, or any special occasion.

I have a few more parts to this series, so keep coming back to see what's next.  Leave me a comment if you have questions or suggestions. 

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or look on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.