All of these are using Heartfelt Creations Holiday Star paper, and the first two also use the Small Festive Poinsettia, and the Holly Berry stamps and dies.
The second card uses the same sets, and as you can see, is a very winter cool, ice color – the picture, unfortunately, makes the poinsettias look all blue, but they are in fact, only stamped in light blue (on fomiron) but it gives a very icy feeling.
This last card uses only the Holiday Star collection. I personally think the lovely silver and blue lend themselves delightfully well to Hanukkah cards, as silver and blue are the traditional Hanukkah colors (at least in my house) – so wintery it could even be used as a birthday card!
Work has been so crazy lately, I forget to post my photos! I craft all weekend (like a crazy woman!) so I have two to share with you today – insides too. I found some VERY large shaker box kits from Creative Embellishments and was trying to figure out a way to use them.
The first card is from Heartfelt CreationsSweet Peonies paper – my all time favorite (so far! have you seen the sneak peak of the Elegant Rose? woah!)
I fussy cut this from one of the 12×12 sheets – such gorgeous artwork!!I didn’t add a sentiment, because I’m not sure what this card will be used for.
and the second card uses their Rustic Sunflower from last fall.
It has been a long long summer! I don’t remember ever having felt this way before, but this year has been very difficult, especially for my sweet husband, David. He lost his mother in June, and his father at the end of August. We also had a long (but wonderful!) trip overseas – and came home to find out that the pool man AND the lawn guys hadn’t come to our house for 3-1/2 weeks! The pool was greenish-brown, the lawn was a ragged little jungle, and we had jet lag! On top of all that, earlier in the summer, we had the (white privilege, I know) joy of getting our air conditioner replaced! So I did my best to prepare items for this blog before we left on our trip, but have fallen behind since coming home. . . .
The old saying “absence makes the heart grow fonder” certainly applies to crafting (and swimming!!) – but I’m back in the swing of it now. I was excited to see G45 have a Birthday challenge, as their founder celebrates a birthday this month. This card uses their Fairy Wings collection & some fomiron flowers I crafted.
I veered from my usual pink and purple themes (it is September) and aimed to match the pale orange/ coral color with my flowers – I edged the white flower with a Zig marker, as I have NO coral or apricot type color among my ink pads.
For the inside, I got lazy and used one of the cut-aparts. The sentiment is a Sue Wilson die from Creative Expressions.
We finally succumbed to opening up the Christmas paper packs this weekend. It’s hard, when you live in Florida, to think about Christmas much before Halloween, as it stays warm here 10 months of the year. But as crafters, we know that we need to get a head start on our Christmas cards, or we’ll be resorting to Hallmark cards in December!
Sometimes I think the hardest part of sending Christmas cards is addressing all the envelopes. Nowadays, it’s the cost of postage – especially with dimensional cards! Fortunately, Heartfelt Creations came up with a collection that lends itself to a more flat card (= less postage) this year. I think my long distance cards will have Shaker Boxes on them as the most embellished part this time. (Close friends/neighbors & those I’m sending a package to, will still get the dimensional flowers – because I just don’t feel like my card is complete without them!
I just love the paper colors in this collection – purple and blue – a nice step away from the traditional colors – it has a very “cool” look to it – like ice or snow. This first card has two different colors of shiny metallic paper to add to the glitz.
My second card is my take-off from one that was demonstrated by the HFC design team – note to self, that corrugated white glitter paper on there requires hot glue to get anything to stick!
The shaker element for the second card did NOT come from a kit – the die cut set has several nesting stars that made it possible, with a little foam tape — I’m just not a fan of making my own, so I have several kits coming in the mail!
It seems like everyone is focusing on Christmas Cards right now (late August) – but I am not in the mood. Yet. I have ordered some paper, and have been drooling over the idea of some star shaped shaker boxes, but for now, it is HOT outside, in the mid 90’s in Florida, and I’m not quite ready to give summer up.
I’ve been playing with my flowers, and being frustrated at not being able to obtain some of the very, very fancy flower stamens that I see on others cards, I have decided to improvise. Additionally, I have added some fussy cuts to lay under my dimensional flowers, to hopefully enhance the look.
I’ve used paper from the Heartfelt Creations “Floral Borders” collection, and my flowers are from HFC Classic Rose – although I didn’t exactly fashion them like a classic rose, did I? The little lacy edge is a paper punch from Martha Stewart that is probably 15 years old, and not available anymore.
The little woodchip clock is adorable – too bad some of it had to be covered up! I ordered this (probably) from Little Birdie Crafts a while ago, when they were having a sale on a lot of chippy elements – the sentiment is also from them – I just tapped it lightly with a little pink dye to help it blend in better.
Here is a little close up of one of the flowers – since I couldn’t find the fancy stamens, I added some dots to the petals by hand in pink and brown – it kind of looks like something you’d find on a Tiger Lily or an Orchid, doesn’t it? Anyway, its amazing what a 5 minute detail can add to the look of something.
Another close look at the flowers, I’m very pleased with how it turned out, and although the fussy cut flowers (from Mintay’s Graceful papers) don’t match exactly, they do have the same color scheme & add to the dimension.
Thanks so much for stopping by! (Comments always appreciated!!)
A little late this week, meant to post this yesterday! This is a simple card using Mintay’s “Graceful” paper, a couple of pressed wood accents, and of course my favorite Heartfelt Creations handmade flowers, using a peony, some wild roses, and some dark pink blossom. I just love pink!!
The inside has one of the cut aparts from the paper pack – they generally have about 12/page – so cute, I suppose they might even be made into little mini-cards, or even gift tags (Ha! Just thought of that!).
A close up of my flowers, especially the peony & wild roses
Sweet Hydrangea from Heartfelt Creations….inspired by a card from the ubiquitous Kathy Clements. I haven’t used this collection for quite some time, but spent part of my Sunday playing around with it. I have fallen in LOVE with shaker boxes — it’s hard to tell without a video, but behind the little window are some tiny silver sprinkles (star shaped!) – shaker boxes are so easy when you have a kit! Thank you Creative Expressions!!
This starts off with generic cardstock -about 5×7” for front and back, with a 1/2” gusset, and a 1-1/2” pocket inside. I cheated and die cut the window from the paper pack, and used a kit for the shaker box (hidden behind the window), that made things super easy!!
The flowers were fussy cut from the paper pack, as I (stupid stupid!!) didn’t purchase the die that goes along with them, and used light blue small pearl stamens for the centers. The bows are cute little ribbon found at a local craft store, and the lacy piece on top is one of HFC dies as well.
Inside I have a couple of interactive pieces, including a card with mini tags, and there is room on the pocket for a treat, like a honey stick, or slip candy bar, as well.
Thanks so much for stopping by & I hope you’ve enjoyed it!!
Aqua is one of my favorite colors – and this beautiful paper from Lemon Tree, Forget Me Not just screamed at me to play with it!
This is my first card from this paper, and I had a lot of fun roughing up the edges, and creating some aqua colored wild roses out of fomiron. The gossamer bow isn’t quite the perfect color, but it does seem to bring out the rose centers!
The yellow and blue remind me of Swedens colors (my husband served a mission in Sweden, so I know these things), so perhaps I will save it for him for his birthday…..which is in November!! Probably not! Better come up with a more manly card by then!
So I know of someone who is moving soon, on to bigger and better things! and wanted her to have something to remember me by! This paper comes from a 6×6” pad from Crafters Companion, called Rustic Cottage.
I used a lot of generic die’s on this card: my large flowers are “fantasy flowers”, as are their leaves, the light blue are small wild roses, and the white leaves/vines, again just something that looked pretty, which I found on Amazon!
The window is a Spellbinders die, and the sentiment from Tim Holtz, so you can see this particular card is not part of a sponsorship, but a hodgepodge of sorts, nonetheless I feel it is pleasing to the eye, and I enjoyed putting it together!
Here is a peak inside, with plenty of room for a message. Thank you so much for stopping by!
I so love this beautiful paper from ScrapandMe, Meadow Impressions, to me it looks like the flowers are kind of like the Purslane (in the Portulaca family) or Moss Rose, which I love! after all I live in Florida, and our flowers must be very hardy to endure July and August! I am sad that I cannot obtain (or at least have not found a vendor for) the type of stamens that I see in my European friends paper flowers, but I do my best with what I have (if any of you have info, please leave me a note!!).
This card is actually an apology card, not a sympathy card, and I didn’t really know how to do the sentiment on the front, so what you see is what you get!
The flowers are made from fomiron, which I’m finally getting used to using, you have to be very careful not to overheat the fomiron, or it will not only curl your petals, but may actually burn your fingers!! I sometimes will cover part of the petal and only curl one side, then come back to it, cover the curled edge with my finger, and reverse curl the other side, hoping to have it look more natural – but I think I might need some really thick gloves to protect myself!
The card base was cut from a Heartfelt Creations die (Gateway Arches) using 110 lb weight paper – much too thick, in my opinion, but I bought the paper, and I will finish using it – but only for square and rectangle bases, I suppose, as it was too too thick to run through my Sizzix machine, and actually kind of curved or bent, the die! I do enjoy heavy paper for making flowers (and HFC has some lovely paper specifically for this purpose) but it is just too thick for most of the things I do.
I have a couple of pearl sprays (Wedding dept at craft store) to add some dimension, and on the inside, I have a cutout placed on a die cut doily.
Thanks so much for stopping by! And please leave me a message, especially if you know where I can purchase cool stamens!
My Celestial Creations 