Oh Christmas Tree

Good morning!  It's a cool, brisk, and breezy morning here, and I can almost believe the holidays are coming.  I'm still making Christmas cards so I will have plenty to send out to friends and family in a few short weeks.  One of the cards I made recently is this quick and easy Christmas tree card.  This is just one piece of white cardstock folded in half - that's it.  This one will be super easy to mail!

I started with a white cardstock, 4.25"x11, folded in half.  I placed the new Christmas Tree Edger 1 stencil from A Colorful Life Designs about 2/3rds of the way up the card.  I then inked up my blender brush very lightly with some Rustic Wilderness distress ink and very lightly applied the ink over the stencil.  I picked up the stencil, moved it slightly over to the left, and placed it just under the first row of green trees.  I brushed some more ink over this second row, making this one just a little bit darker than the first row.  I repeated these steps for the next three rows, moving the stencil left or right and adding more color to each row as I went down the card.

The sentiment from Technique Junkies was stamped at the top with the same green ink.  Once everything was dry, I sprayed over the whole piece with an iridescent glitter spray.  It's very hard for the camera to pick that up, but there is a subtle glittery sheen on this card.

Please feel free to use this code, HollyFan10, when you shop at A Colorful Life Designs.  You will save 10% off your entire order, so have fun shopping!

 

Snowflake Wishes Trio

Good morning!  I'm thinking cool thoughts with this trio of snowflake cards because yesterday was over 90 degrees here.  As I type this, some places like Colorado are getting 6 to 12 inches of snow.  That's crazy, isn't it?  

I used the beautiful new Elegant Snowflake stencil from A Colorful Life Designs to create these little works of art.  I placed the stencil down on some gray cardstock and then spread three different colors of a glittery paste over the stencil.  After the three panels dried, I added the die cut sentiments (Elizabeth Craft Designs) and adhered them to white card bases.  

The close-ups of each card are shown below.  Which one is your favorite?  Is the pink calling your name, or does the teal make you swoon?  Do you melt for the classic white snowflake with the palest touches of pink?  I love all three of them mostly because I'm all about the glitter!  Hahaha!!

Please feel free to use this code, HollyFan10, when you shop for stencils at A Colorful Life Designs.  You will save 10% off your entire order and you'll have some great new stencils to play with.  Happy Shopping! 

 

 

Retro Aqua Ornaments

Doesn't this card just scream 1970?  I love these nostalgic ornaments on this Retro Ornaments stamp from Technique Junkies.  I stamped this background with some aqua ink onto aqua paper and then used a silver gel pen to color in some areas of the ornaments.  For the sentiment, I found this smaller holiday sentiment on the Christmas Ornaments Trio set.  I didn't want to cover up these awesome ornaments in the background, so that's why I chose a smaller sentiment.  I embossed this with white powder onto a strip of vellum and wrapped it around the aqua ornament background.

You can use this code, TJ10Holly, to save 10% off your entire order when you shop at Technique Junkies.  You can stock up on Christmas stamps, Shimmering Bliss sprays, the new Catherine Pooler ink pads, and tons of stencils.  Have a great week!

 

Moonlit Village in Teal

Good morning!  Do you have your Christmas cards ready?  Here is an easy idea for you using the new Village Edger 1 stencil from A Colorful Life Designs.    I sprayed the back of the Village Edger 1 stencil with some Pixie spray and then placed it down on some black cardstock.  With a plastic spatula, I spread some gorgeous glittery teal paste over the stencil and the rest of the exposed black cardstock.  I carefully lifted the stencil off and left the piece to dry for a few hours.  While that was drying, I cut the moon from a circle die and the Santa and reindeer from a Frantic Stamper die.  After the paste was completely dry, I glued down the die cut pieces and adhered the panel to a white card base.

You could easily do this in an assembly line format.  Have all your black cardstock cut first, then stencil as many pieces as you want.  While the pieces are drying, die cut your elements or stamp your sentiments, whatever you want to add to your cards.  Then all you have left to do is glue things down and address your envelopes.  

Feel free to use this code, HollyFan10, when you shop at A Colorful Life Designs.  You will save 10% off your entire order, so fill up your shopping cart and have fun!

 

Beyond the Blue #38 - Autumn Leaves

Happy Friday!  Today's Beyond the Blue challenge is all about autumn leaves.  I pulled out some stamps and dies from The Greetery and stamped the various leaves with Distress Oxide inks.  I tried to choose colors that were different from the regular yellow, orange, and red fall colors.  The oxide colors I used are Fossilized Amber, Bundled Sage, Crackling Campfire, Dusty Concord, Aged Mahogany, and Gathered Twigs.  After I cut these out, I arranged them onto my white card base and glued them down.  

Check out today's Beyond the Blue challenge and share your creations with us.  I hope you're enjoying some wonderful fall weather today!

 

Blue Green Fa La La Trees

Good morning!  Remember how I was in a pink mood on Monday?  Well, today I'm in a blue-green mood.  I pulled out some blue and green distress inks and made this fun mix-up of trees with a cute holiday background.  The fun background was stenciled with the new Fa La La stencil from A Colorful Life Designs.  How cute is that?  I love the tiny little hearts all over the letters.

The trees (a very old stamp set from PTI) were stamped with green and teal distress inks and then cut out with scissors.  I had fun arranging them on the card, adjusting for the different heights and colors and widths of the trees.  After I glued everything down, I sprayed the card with an iridescent glitter.  It's a very subtle glitter and, therefore, very hard to capture on camera.

This would be a fun and easy card to mass produce.  If you haven't made your Christmas cards yet, this card came together in about 10 minutes.  Set up an assembly line to stencil the background, stamp and cut the trees, and you could have 50 to 100 cards done in an afternoon.

Feel free to use this code, HollyFan10, when you shop at A Colorful Life Designs.  You'll save 10% off your entire order and you'll have some fun to stencils to play with.  Have a great day!

 

Holiday Joy with Pink Trees

Good morning!  I'm in a pink mood today, so I'm sharing this holiday card with pink trees.  I used the new Christmas Tree Edger 1 stencil from A Colorful Life Designs to brush three different colors of pink distress oxide inks onto some white cardstock.  I started with the lightest color of pink and placed the Christmas Tree Edger 1 stencil in the middle the paper.  Then I picked up the stencil and moved it down just a little bit and used a slightly darker color of ink for the second row of trees.  The bottom row of trees is the darkest color of pink and I used that ink to stamp the sentiment as well.  

To add a little shimmer to my holiday card, I flicked some clear shimmer spray over the whole piece.  It looks like it's snowing with these shimmery snowflakes.  

To save some money, please feel free to use this code, HollyFan10, when you shop at A Colorful Life Designs.  You'll save 10% off your entire order.   Have fun shopping!

 

Framed Joy in Black and White

Today I am sharing a rather non-conventional Christmas card.  I love the new Christmas Frame and the Light of Faith set from Technique Junkies, and I wanted to try something different with them.  I stamped the beautiful Christmas Frame with some white pigment ink directly onto a black card base.  Then I carefully arranged the Joy sentiment from the Light of Faith set and stamped it right in the center of the frame with the same white pigment ink.  I set this aside to dry for about 30 minutes before I dared to touch it with my finger.  LOL  I added some tiny red rhinestones around the frame for a tiny pop of color.  

This card is a true one-layer card.  It's just the black card base, no extra layers at all.  That's the beauty of this Christmas Frame.  It has the blank space in the middle built into the stamp so you can just add your sentiment right to the same paper as the frame.  You can use this frame in either orientation - horizontal or vertical, whichever way works best with your sentiment.  Fun fact - all of the sentiments from the new Light of Faith set fit perfectly inside this Christmas Frame!

Please feel free to use this code, TJ10Holly, to save 10% when you shop at Technique Junkies.  You can stock up on new Christmas stamps, Shimmering Bliss, the new Catherine Pooler ink pads, and tons of stencils.  Have a great week!

 

Let it Snow Village

Good morning!  I just saw on the news today that there is snow in Montana and Wyoming and Idaho, so how about I share a snowy card with y'all this morning?  :-)

I used a new stencil set from A Colorful Life Designs called Village Edger 1.  There are two pieces in this set - the general outline (top half) and the mask with the windows (bottom half).  I used the general outline to sponge the gray houses onto my white cardstock first.  Then I placed the mask over my gray houses and used a little sponge dauber to carefully ink up the black windows.  While this mask was in place, I also brushed on some blue ink for the sky.

To give this a fun snowy look, I pulled out the Falling Snow stencil and sponged white ink all over the piece.  You can't see it very well in the blue sky, but the snow really shows up against the gray and black of the houses.  I added the die cut sentiment from Elizabeth Craft Designs to the top of the card.

Feel free to use this code, HollyFan10, to save 10% when you shop for stencils at A Colorful Life Designs.  There's so many fun stencils to choose from, so take your time and have fun shopping!  Have a great day!

 

Moonlit Sleigh

We are celebrating Christmas in October over at Technique Junkies this month, and there are lots of wonderful new Christmas stamps waiting to jump into your cart.  I used two of the new stamps on this card today, Santa's Sleigh and Merry Christmas to All.

I started by stamping an older stamp called Hillside Pines on the bottom left corner with a permanent black ink.  I then angled the Santa's Sleigh to look like the reindeer were gliding over the pine trees, and then I stamped it with the same black ink.  I set this aside to dry for a few minutes because I didn't want any of the black ink to smear while I was adding the blue and purple inks over the background.

Once I was sure the black ink was set, I used a small circle punch to cut a circle from a sticky note.  I placed this sticky circle over Santa and the sleigh, and then I brushed on some blue and purple inks all over the card.  When I was done, I removed the sticky circle mask and very lightly added a little bit of blue ink to the "moon."  I let this piece dry for about five or ten minutes before I moved on to the sentiment.  Because I wanted to emboss the sentiment with white embossing powder, I needed to make sure my card panel was completely dry.  I stamped the Merry Christmas to All with Versamark and covered it with white embossing powder.  Then I tapped off the excess powder and heated the sentiment until the white powder melted.

Please feel free to use this code, TJ10Holly, to save 10% when you shop at Technique Junkies.  If you are a fan of Catherine Pooler inks, they have just been added to the Technique Junkies store (yay - I can't wait to try these!).  You can also find stencils and Shimmering Bliss and Aladine glitter paints.  Have fun shopping!

 

Beyond the Blue #36 - Alcohol Ink and Vellum Fall

Good morning!  It's Friday and the weekend is almost here!  Do you have plans for a fun fall weekend?  It's actually going to be in the 90's here so we'll probably be staying inside with air conditioning.  LOL 

This week's Beyond the Blue challenge is a little bit different.  We are using alcohol inks and vellum, so I went for a grunge-y fall look.  I picked out four really dark Copic markers (BG07, R59, YR27, YG99) and scribbled them onto some vellum.  Then I filled a mini mister with some rubbing alcohol and lightly sprayed the vellum, allowing the marker colors to blend and run.  After my vellum panels dried, I used one to cut a bunch of leaves and I glued the other one to a white card base.  On the leaves, some of them were left alone and some were put on some white cardstock.  You can see the variations in the colors on the leaves - some are transparent and some have that white backing.  It's so fun to see the different colors.

I hope you pull out your alcohol inks and your vellum and play around with them.  Share your creations with us over on the Beyond the Blue blog.  Have a great weekend!

 

Glittery Red Christmas Lights

Good morning!  I'm sharing these glittery lights with you today.  I used the new Layered String Lights stencils from A Colorful Life Designs to create the background on this card.  This stencil is a set of two - the rows of strings is one stencil and the lightbulbs are the second stencil.  I started by sponging green ink over the strings.  Then I carefully placed the lightbulbs stencil so they fit right underneath the green "sockets" on each row.  I spread some glittery red medium over this stencil and then set it aside to dry.  I love the glitter on these bulbs!

Think of all the great colors you could use with these lights.  You could use these for just about any holiday just by changing the colors and the sentiment.  I used some dies from Elizabeth Craft for my sentiment today.  If you'd like to save some money on stencils, please feel free to use this code, HollyFan10, when you shop at A Colorful Life Designs.  There are so many wonderful stencils to choose from.  Happy shopping!

 

Beyond the Blue #35 - Layered Merry Christmas

This week's Beyond the Blue challenge is to show off your layered die cuts.  This is a fun and easy technique.  Just cut your sentiment or shape from several different colors of paper and then glue them slightly off center so you can see each color underneath each layer.  You can see on my card above how I have a white layer on top, and then you see the red and green layers peeking out below.  The sentiment die and the holly leaves die are from Hero Arts and the subtle holly leaves embossing folder on my black cardstock is from Taylored Expressions.

This is a fun and easy way to make a bunch of cards.  This will come in very handy for holiday cards and birthday cards.  Give it a try and share your creations with us over on the Beyond the Blue blog.  Have a great week!

 

 

Elegant Winter Blessings

Good morning!  This month is all about Christmas in October, and I'm sharing this icy stenciled snowflake card with y'all today.  I used the new Elegant Snowflake stencil from A Colorful Life Designs, and I love this gorgeous stencil.  I sprayed this with Pixie spray and placed it onto some dark blue cardstock.  Then I spread some Sparkle Paper Glitz (Picket Fence Studios) over the stencil and let it dry.  This is so glittery and gorgeous!  I added some sheer ribbon and the sentiment (Honey Bee Stamps) to complete this sophisticated look.

Check out all the great new stencils at A Colorful Life Designs this month.  You can use this coupon - HollyFan10 - to save 10% off your entire order.  If you're working on your Christmas cards this month, now is the perfect time to stock up on some great holiday stencils.  Have a great week!

 

Technique Junkies October 2021 Release

Happy October 2021 Release Day!

We have new stamps and stencils in the Technique Junkies store today.  All of the October 2021 release stamps are 15% off through October 8.  No codes needed - just add the stamps to your cart and the discount will be applied at checkout.

You can save 10% off everything else in the store by using my code, TJ10Holly.  Stock up on some previously released stamps, Shimmering Bliss sprays, stencils, ink pads, and more.

For my first card today, I used the beautiful new Christmas Frame and a sentiment from the new Light of Faith set.  I stamped the Christmas Frame with a dark green ink right onto the green card base.  I used the same green ink to stamp the sentiment and I added layers of green and gold cardstock under the sentiment.

On my second card today, I decided to go with a soft and sweet color combo.  I stamped this wreath from the gorgeous new Poinsettia Wreath Wishes set with a metallic brown ink onto some kraft cardstock.  Using my MISTI tool, I stamped the sentiment from the Poinsettia Wreath Wishes set inside the wreath - you can see it fits perfectly!  I stamped the wreath again with kraft ink onto some white cardstock, colored the poinsettia with pink Copic markers, and cut out just the poinsettia.  I paper pieced the poinsettia onto the stamped wreath on the kraft cardstock and added a chocolate pearl to the center of the flower.  

For my third card today, I went bold and dramatic with black cardstock and gold embossing powder.  This fun new Retro Ornaments background was stamped with Versamark, covered with gold embossing powder, and heated with a heat tool.  The sentiment is from the new Light of Faith set.  I love this new Retro Ornaments background - it's giving me those 70's vibes!

Looking for more inspiration?  Check out what the rest of the Design Team has created with these new release stamps:

TJ Blog

Pam Stang

Erin Short

Holly Brown

Patti Gilliam

Tracy Schulz

Beth Norman

Judy Jackson

Pat Huntoon

Remember, you can use my code, TJ10Holly, to save 10% off when you shop at Technique Junkies.  Have a wonderful day!