Scenic Embossed Season

This week is a busy one!  I have my Stamps-A-Latte club on Thursday, Stamp-A-Stacks on Friday and Saturday and my Gift Tags class next Monday!  Talk about a lot of cutting to do!  Not to mention designing some of the projects!  My Stamps-A-Latte Ladies like to learn techniques, so this month we are doing two.  Today's project uses multi-coloured embossing and I love the way it turned out.  Check it out...

Holiday card using the Scenic Season set and multi-coloured embossing technique

Inside view with image from the Christmas Lodge set.

Isn't that a cool effect???  I used gold, pewter, silver and iridescent ice embossing powder on the trees...I'm not sure if all the variations in colour show up in the photo.  In looks pretty cool in real life.  I kept the rest of the card clean and simple to highlight the image.  The sentiment and the inside of the card are stamped in soft suede.  I used a bit of quilted satin ribbon in cherry cobbler and a neutrals glimmer brad to finish it off.   I sure hope my club ladies like this one as much as I do!

Stormy Weather!

WOW!  Did we ever have a storm last night!  The lightening was incredible...it looked like a strobe light, there was so much of it.  On the news this morning they said there were 1000 lightening strikes every 2 minutes in southern Ontario during the height of the storm!  That's a lot of electricity flying around and, since our hydro kept flashing of and on, I didn't want to take the chance of turning on my computer to do a blog post.  Sorry if you missed me!  Today I have another Christmas card for you.  This is one that I did while I was away up north last week.  If you recall, I was really struggling to come up with something I loved...this card is just ok, in my books, but you might love it...so here you go!

Holiday card using Scenic Season set with sentiment from Contempo Christmas

One thing I DO like about this card is the colour scheme:  soft suede and cherry cobbler are just yummy together!  I also like the Mocha Morning DSP for holiday cards...you'll see more of that in the coming months.  What I did discover is that when using the new Dazzling Details product (in the new Holiday Mini), it is necessary to let the ink dry throughly before applying the Dazzling Details.  Otherwise the ink runs and you end up with what I did:  sparkly brown snow!  I was a wee bit disappointed with that...I was hoping for a nice glittery effect to balance that sparkly glimmer paper accent.  Ah well, live and learn, no?  This way I can warn all of you and save you from the same frustration!!
On another note, tonight is the first meeting of my Christmas Club.  I am so excited to show everyone some of the new products from the Holiday Mini...I know they're going to love them!  We are going to be busy making 12 cards, so it will be a stampingly crazy night!  Can't wait!!  If you'd like to get in on the action, you can join for the last three installments in September through November.  Check out my Events tab at the top of this page for additional information.

...and after fall comes Christmas!

Yes...I'm back to doing Christmas cards.  This time the products I used are from the main catalogue...my poor neglected new purchases...left to collect dust when the Holiday mini pre-order came in!  No more!  I've resolved to use at least one of everything I ordered from the new catty before I will allow myself to go back to the mini.  We'll see how that goes...
Anyhow...this card actually uses a set I'm thinking about getting.  I borrowed Scenic Season from a friend and she jokingly asked me a week or so ago when I would post something that uses it.  Well, Christine...here it is!

Soft Suede and Cherry Cobbler make this a slightly nontraditional colour scheme.

I tried to capture a bit of the shimmer from the Smooch Vanilla Shimmer Mist...don't think I was very succesful!  But its there...really!

Three of my favourite new products:  Decorative Label punch, Chantilly Lace trim and BIG Deck the Halls buttons.

I like this card for a few reasons: 
1)  It uses a beautiful image that I have long admired in the catalogue but that hadn't quite made it to the top of my purchasing list yet (it has now, by the way!)
2)  It uses Soft Suede a fav former in-colour that has returned as a core colour in the Colour Renovation.
3) It was relatively quick and easy to make.

Here is what I did:
I began by stamping the image in soft suede ink on very vanilla cardstock.  I then cut the image into three unequally-sized pieces, cutting in spots where the image logically could be divided.  I matted each section on soft suede cardstock cut 1/8" larger than the very vanilla pieces.  I mounted all three image sections on a 5 3/8 x 4 1/8" piece of cherry cobbler cardstock.  I then spritzed the whole thing with Vanilla Shimmer Smooch and set it aside to dry.
Meanwhile, I stamped the sentiment, which I inked using Stampin' Write markers in Cherry cobbler and always artichoke.  I punched it out with my Decorative Label punch and sponged it using Early Espresso ink.  I added some Chantilly lace trim to the image panel, tied it in a knot and added a big button threaded with Linen thread.  I adhered the sentiment centred to the middle panel (not the entire card) using dimensionals.  I then mounted the whole thing on a soft suede card base.  A pretty, quick and easy card you could easily do several of.