September 2011 Card Group Projects

It was our card group meeting today and we made three Christmas cards.  Last month I asked the group if they had any special requests for Christmas cards and most people wanted a repeat of the moon, Santa and sleigh sponged scene card we've made before. I didn't really want to use trees again in the scene and I saw this lovely row of houses stamp at the Glitter Pot and thought it would be an ideal substitution!

I punched a 1 1/4" circle, applied repositionable glue, let that dry and then applied the circle to the white panel as a moon mask. I tore a piece of white paper, held that in place at the bottom and then sponged the sky using Bashful Blue, Not Quite Navy and Night of Navy inks.  I then removed the paper, stamped the row of houses and sentiment and removed the moon mask.  I sponged the edges of the panel with Not Quite Navy ink applied with a dauber.  I stamped the row of houses again on a separate piece of CS, coloured the windows with yellow marker ink and a blender pen, cut out each house, added glitter to the snowy parts and popped them up.  Looking at it now, I think maybe a 1" circle might have been better for the moon!

 

Card two was this bright and cheery number I've CASEd from page 22 of the UK Stampin' Up! catalogue.  The card base is Riding Hood Red and the So Swirly wheel stamp was stamped on the bottom in Riding Hood Red ink to create a lovely tone on tone effect.  I've used the poinsettia stamp from the Season of Joy set instead of the snowflake and I've used a spiral clip with a knot of ribbon tied on for the decorative element on the Baja Breeze panel.  I also added the Merry Christmas sentiment from the Season of Joy set - punched out with the plain oval punch.  The tree and poinsettia are popped up and there are yellow gems in the centre of the flower.

The last card uses the lovely pine cone stamp from the Autumn Days set.  It's sometimes hard to use a small stamp on a card as a main image.  I find repeating the image and punching out squares gets round that problem nicely.  It's good to change the orientation of the image squares to add a bit of interest.  I inked the stamp with a Chocolate Chip marker for the pine cones and used the Always Artichoke marker for the needles and stem.  It's hard to tell from the pic but there's a touch of glitter on the pine cone images - you can click on the photo to see a larger view.  The sentiment is an old Stampendous one I've had for donkey's years but I still love it!  I used a 1 1/2" square punch to cut out my squares and I matted them on a square of Always Artichoke CS.

I decided to use a square kraft card base, I liked the rustic feel. I think this would be a great masculine Christmas card.  It's also an easy design to mass produce and as nothing is popped up it will be a doddle to pop in the post.  My design is very CAS but you could easily step things up by adding some background stamping, more layers, embellishments and dimension if you wanted to.  Hmm, after I'd finished this card I wished I'd stamped the sentiment with red ink for a nice pop of bright colour! 

Supplies for Santa & sleigh scene card:
Stamps: Hero Arts Winter Village, All Night Media Santa & Sleigh, sentiment from Personal Impressions Christmas Messages clear set
CS: PaperMania A6 white card blank, SU! Whisper White, white paper to tear and use as mask
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, SU! Bashful Blue, Not Quite Navy & Night of Navy, SU! Yoyo Yellow marker & blender pen
Tools: Circle punch, Stamp-A-Ma-Jig, sponges & sponge dauber
Embellishments & accessories: crystal ultrafine glitter, 3d foam pads


Supplies for tree Merry Christmas card:
Stamps: SU! Season of Joy set, SU! So Swirly jumbo wheel stamp
CS: SU! Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze & Whisper White
Patterned paper: Bo Bunny Clover Dot
Ink: SU! Riding Hood Red & Old Olive
Tools: SU! plain oval punch, rectangle Nestabilities die
Embellishments & accessories: olive ribbon, metal clip, yellow gems, 3d foam pads


Supplies for 4 squares Merry Christmas card:
Stamps: SU! Autumn Days set, sentiment Stampendous
CS: PaperMania recycled kraft square card blank, SU! Always Artichoke & Very Vanilla
Ink: SU! Chocolate Chip & Always Artichoke
Tools: Square Nestabilities die, Woodware 1 1/2" square punch
Embellishments & accessories: crystal ultrafine glitter