Berry Birthday

My mother requested some birthday cards, so I had fun making a whole bunch of different cards for her. This one uses Kaleidacolor's Berry Blaze spectrum ink pad for a VERY pink and purple card.

The sentiment (from Papertrey...not sure the set) is enormous and only needs a little something-something to set it off. A spectrum ink pad and a few starbursts from Papertrey's Good Times set (and of course some bling) were all it took to make this sentiment rock!

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey
ink: Kaleidacolor berry blaze
paper: Papertrey
accessories: rhinestones

Christmas Cards, Christmas Books, and a Winner

Christmas Cards

Every now and then, I purchase ready-made embellishments,hoard them until I don't like them anymore, and then donate them to the preschool at our church.

Sound familiar?

Anyway, this year I purchased a sheet of glittery holly-and-berry stickers with a new resolution to use the pretty, sparkly things. One appeared on the third card in this post, and here are a few more.

Stamp; Papertrey Keep It Simple: Christmas

Stamp: W Plus 9 Silver Bells

Stamp: Clearly Besotted Ornamental Style

Stamp: Hero Arts Happy Holly Days

Close-up picture of the sparkle!

Obviously, the point in this series is to use JUST a fun sentiment and a single holly sticker on a white card base, but for those of you who get itchy with so much white space, the idea translates into layers and panels of decorative paper...and of course using more than one sticker per card. These little stickers are adorable. Get some. Use them. Don't hoard them.

If you go as clean and simple as I have done here, just remember that placement matters. I tossed a few that were too high up on the card.

Christmas Books

Now for a compilation of the books suggested by readers for Christmas. Many thanks to all who shared!

Red Boots for Christmas by Carol Greene
The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
The Greatest Gift by Max Lucado
One Incredible Moment by Max Lucado
Russell the Sheep, a series by Rob Scotton
The Snowman by Raymond Briggs
"The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry
Shepherds Abiding by Jan Karon
Lanterns across the Snow by Susan Hill
The Glass Angels by Susan Hill
The Lost Angel by Elizabeth Goudge
Sister of the Angels by Elizabeth Goudge
The Christmas Tree by Julie Salamon
The Best Christmas Present in the World by Michael Morpurgo
A Wayne in a Manger by Gervase Phinn

And last but not least, the book that spawned all the others, the Holy Bible...in particular the gospel accounts in Matthew and Luke.

A Winner

The winner of the bookmark is Carol Didier! Carol, please email me at susanraihala at roadrunner dot com with your snail-mail address, and I will send you your bookmark! It's a MAJOR AWARD!!!!

Why, oh why, didn't I buy a leg-lamp stamp at The Christmas Story house on our visit to Cleveland this summer?!?!?

Landscape v. Portrait

I'm working on a post to announce the giveaway winner and list a bunch of holiday books recommended by YOU and those on my own shelf, for any who are interested. Many thanks to all who shared their favorite holiday books!

In the meantime, let's have a little lesson on image orientation.

Today's cards were inspired by a variety of clean-and-simple printed cards I've seen at Barnes & Noble and Papyrus and other places...a simple line image floating on a card with nothing else.

It doesn't get more CAS than this.

I thought the vertical image would work best on a horizontal card. The idea was that the tension created would add some interest.

I was wrong. Again. I'm really quite used to this.

The more I looked at the first card, the less satisfied I was. The cup looks squashed or something. It's just wrong. Which brings us to card #2:

Ahhh. Much better. The placement of the cup across the line one-third down from the top of the card gives an interesting horizontal asymmetry that reinforces the vertical asymmetry of the cup.

In this case, Portrait wins!

While most of you won't make cards quite this simple, keep in mind that changing the orientation of your card might fix whatever doesn't look quite right. Sometimes Portrait wins, sometimes Landscape wins. And when you get it right, you win, too.

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Warm Happiness
ink: Memento Luxe black
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: nothing whatsoever

Happy Colors

Have any of you noticed that Memento markers have more intense color than the pads? This card is living proof of that. Colored with markers, the card has fun, bold colors that pop right off all that white.

Lady bug, rose bud, lilac posies, and tangelo are the marker colors. All give much more intense color than the pads ever yield. Normally this annoys me because I prefer them to match. But in this case, the intensity works in my favor, so YAY!

What I love about this layout is how everything is so centered and perfect...yet the sentiment throws a pleasingly asymmetrical monkey-wrench into the mix. Curves and points, long and short, round and rectangular. Fun tension is going on here.

The orange enamel dot subtly reinforces the focal point of the orange petal. And orange is such a happy color!

Happy Hump Day!

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Modern Basics
ink: Hero Arts intense black
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: Memento markers, enamel dot

Modern Basic Squared

It's a late night. We sent our younger son off for his eighth grade trip to Washington DC. If you're the praying kind, please pray for their safe travel, safe exploration of our nation's capital, and safe return. Oh, and for the sanity of the chaperones and teachers and nurses because, dang, those men and women are brave!

Thanks.

Tonight's cards take full advantage of bright, glowing colors and fun enamel dots.The stamps are Papertrey's Modern Basics...same as on yesterday's card.

inks: Impress Fresh Ink sky blue, Memento Luxe Bahama blue

Inks: Impress Fresh Ink ginger, Memento Luxe Morocco

Layering the large and medium leaf shapes for these flowers was pretty easy with a gridded acrylic block and careful alignment. I found doing this same layering with the small leaf shape was a nightmare. Couldn't get them lined up consistently at all. Whatever. These two bold, beautiful cards more than make up for that failure.

The blue enamel dot has sparkle in it, while the orange one is a standard shiny dot. The world needs more sparkle dots, doesn't it?

Blessings to all. And good night.

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Modern Basics
ink: listed in captions
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: enamel dots

Making Lemonade out of Lemons

Not sure what prompted me to pull out Papertrey's Modern Basics set and play around, but that's what happened this weekend. I thought one of my cards might make a good lesson in rethinking a failure.

First up, the failure. I really hate two-step stamping that's hard to line up.

If you zoom in, you'll notice that the middle butterfly is poorly aligned. In real life, it's VERY noticeable. The top one isn't perfect, either, but much less noticeably so. The bottom one is as close to perfect as can be, and as I sat staring sadly at this failure in both alignment and design (which is very meh), it occurred to me that the bottom butterfly and sentiment COULD be salvaged.

And then this card happened.

While it's not perfect, it is solid. I prefer my butterflies to fly free, and that green line sort of restricts flight, but it also points up, which is good. The green and white is also quite cheerful and upbeat, and the bling is, well, blingity. So there's that.

A definite improvement over the first effort, wouldn't you say?

Don't forget to enter the giveaway from yesterday's post!



Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Modern Basics, Clearly Besotted A Little Sentimental
ink: Hero Arts green hills, charcoal; Archival emerald
paper: Papertrey white, StampinUp green galore
accessories: craft foam, glue, rhinestones  

One for Three, or Maybe Four, and Thus a Little Giveaway

Let's revisit this year's personal challenge to make three cards from as many different Christmas stamp sets as I can tolerate. Today's spotlight lands on Papertrey's Silent Night set. I've made three cards and a bookmark.

My favorite of all four projects is this unexpected aquamarine and red card. I've always used this sentiment with subdued blues and silvers...nighttime colors...and I've always thought the resulting cards turned out boring. (See third card below.) But this time, I decided to make it more energetic and celebratory and fresh. And I love it! Plus, check out the bling, small to large, arranged in a visual triangle and ever so sparkly!

*happy sigh*

Ink: Archival aquamarine and red geranium

Then I went VERY minimalist with the "Wise men still seek Him" saying. This sentiment usually accompanies an image of camels and kings traveling in a desert, chasing a star. The only things I kept were the sand dunes, hand cut with a craft knife, highlighted with gold marker, and the star.

Ink: Archival deep violet, Delicata gold

Finally, the last card uses the giant star in the set, highlighted by three small stars. I love the arrangement of the stars, but wish I'd left off the sentiment or put it inside. The color combo of silver and navy is kind of boring.

Ink: Delicata silver, Hero Arts navy

And now the fourth project: a fun bookmark that I'd intended to use with my Advent study. But after talking with my pastor, I ended up buying a study on my Nook and therefore don't need a bookmark. (Since some of you will ask, I am reading The Case for Christmas by Lee Strobel this December.)

So I will send this bookmark to a randomly selected winner from the comments on this post. Just tell me what your favorite holiday book is. If, like me, you don't have a favorite, just share a random one you really like a lot. For me, what popped into my head first was Ann Voskamp's The Greatest Gift. A minute from now, Olive, the Other Reindeer might pop in there.

You just never know with me. Which Susan will show up? The compassionate, kind, spiritual-fruit growing, mature Susan who loves Jesus, teaches Bible studies, and practically lives at the church; or the intellectual, cynical Susan who drinks red wine, reads boldly and widely, and might occasionally swear a little; or the laughing, silly, utterly juvenile Susan who almost lost it when her younger son pointed at a giant mercury-glass pear at the Macy's furniture store and said, "I really like that glass pear."

Giant glass pears, people! On sale at Macy's! Why do I not have one?!?!

Anyway. I hope you'll play along with the giveaway so we can amass a long list of holiday books because Heaven knows I don't have enough books.

Deadline for the giveaway will be Wednesday night at midnight, Eastern Daylight Savings Time.

IC568 It's a 3 x 3 Party!

This week's inspiration challenge is to make a 3" x 3" card inspired by this Pinterest board. It's been quite a while since I played around with this size card, and it was so much fun!

My first card was inspired by this pin. I was inspired by the black-and-white colors and simplicity of one image with one sentiment.

Size 3" x 3". Stamps: Penny Black Peace and Harmony,
Papertrey Winterberry; Ink: Memento Luxe tuxedo black

The next two cards were not inspired by particular pins, though I had looked through all the inspiration board, so similarities between mine and any of them are likely subliminally influenced!

Size 3" x 3". Stamps: Papertrey Peaceful Poinsettia;
Ink: Ranger Archival red geranium. Accessories:
Swarovski crystals, glue pen, tweezers 

Size 3" x 3". Stamps: Winnie and Walter; Ink: Ranger Archival
red geranium; Accessories: holly glitter sticker

All three cards have craft foam behind the raised panel.

My plan for these is to wrap gifts in white paper and use these as tags with coordinating ribbon. I'll probably use silver ribbon with the black card.

Playing around with this smaller format is extremely fun. I hope you'll join in with the challenge and enjoy!

Primary Trees

Experimenting to solve a problem can yield great results. It can also be a total bust. As Adam Savage of Mythbusters says, failure is always an option.

But we've discussed how there really is no failure in papercrafting. There are opportunities for embellishment and learning experiences. It is, after all, only paper.

This time, my experiment worked. As I mentioned yesterday, the tree in Hero Arts' Color Layering Fall Tree set is just a bit too big and also a bit too small for a single image to work on a standard 4.25" x 5.5" one-layer card. It's perfectly sized for layering, though, which is--let's be honest--what most card makers do. Being who I am, however, I'm always looking for the simplest minimalist design that works, and this set wasn't working for me with a standard one-layer card.

By downsizing the card base to 3 3/8" x 4 7/8", I was able to get much better proportions, and the results let me play around with primary colors and bling in ways that make my heart happy!

These three cards are also proof of my hypothesis that you can never have too many shades of ink.

Never!

Inks: Hero Arts fresh peach, pale tomato, red royal;
Archival coffee

Inks: Hero Arts soft vanilla, lemon yellow, butter bar;
Archival saffron, coffee

Inks: Hero Arts charcoal, soft sky, dusty blue;
Memento Danube blue

Each card stamped all five layers of leaves, although there were only three shades of red, four of yellow, and three of blue. I duplicated colors as I layered to make up the difference. The darkest layer was always the stamp at the bottom of the set. Clearly, however, I need more ink so I can have five shades of every color.

Because that would be fabulous.

The image also looks good with different colors on a single tree, but definitely experiment before stamping on a project. I found that some color combos looked chaotic rather than harmonious if there was too little or too much of one color. Find the right balance on cheap scrap paper first, and you won't regret it.

Since bling makes everything better, I added two shades and two sizes of bling to each card. The effect is lovely, don't you think?

To arrange the bling, I put three medium rhinestones in an irregular triangle and added tiny rhinestones in two irregular triangles...one on each side of the tree. The results look random but are in fact carefully planned. As you do this, try not to let three rhinestones line up perfectly, at least for the majority of them. There's one trio in the yellow card that's actually pretty lined up, but the middle one is larger than the two ends so it doesn't throw off the random feel. Even just a tiny deviation in spacing and angles keeps it random-looking.

The bottom corners looked too pointy given the curves of the tree, so I rounded them.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Have an amazing weekend. We're getting pumpkins and apple fritters tomorrow. It's finally feeling like fall in Ohio. YAY!!!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Color Layering Fall Trees, Wplus9 Silver Bells (sentiment on holiday card)
ink: see captions
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: rhinestones, corner rounder

Thanksgiving Crusade Gets Layered

I'm sure NONE of you knows ANYTHING about impulse purchases. No. You're all so restrained and sensible when it comes to craft purchases. You walk right past the Hero Arts Color Layering Fall Trees set and think, "Well, now isn't that pretty! But I don't need it so nope, nope, nopity-nope nope."

You're better people than I am.

Or perhaps not. Perhaps you DO know a thing or two about crafty temptation.

Isn't it delightful? Of course, it is.

Anyway. Here's my first successful card with this very cool set.

I can't tell you what joy it is to play around with every color of the rainbow with this set. Oh, my. I need more shades of ink for sure. Oh, wait. I did just order a whole bunch of Archival and Distress ink pads that should arrive early next week. Yay!

Abandoning myself to consumerist culture is so. much. fun.

Design Note
This image presents a design dilemma for the CAS stamper. Its size is both a bit too big and a bit too small to stand alone on a standard 4.25" x  5.5" one-layer card. The proportion of inked space to white space simply doesn't work as well. There must be something else to carry the design...layers, a ribbon, embellishments, something. My next experiment with this set will be to try it on a smaller note card...maybe 3 1/2" x 4 7/8", for which there are ready-made envelopes.  I'm hoping for success there, because, as much as I love these white-on-white layers, I really want this beautiful image and the colors it showcases to be the whole focus.

A Personal Note and My Soapbox
My plan was to finish this post last night while my son Jack was getting ready for bed. Nick, my older son, was going with a school group to see Jersey Boys, the Broadway touring show about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.Well, at 7:10, Nick called to tell me that some kids were no-shows, and the extra tickets could be used by parents who wanted to go. The only catch...the doors to the Schuster Center would close at 8:00. George couldn't go (he needed to get up extra early for work this morning) but I WAS ALL OVER THIS! After a mad dash into Dayton, I sprinted through the doors just before they closed, sat down amidst a bunch of teenagers (some of whom had no idea that Frankie Valli was a real person) and enjoyed a FABULOUS show. I got home way too late to blog about anything but my pillow.

What a great opportunity, but it revealed a serious shortcoming in our culture. How in the world are teens not learning about their parents' and grandparents' music? I grew up listening to my grandparents' favorites on vinyl played on a massive stereo cabinet that took pride of place in their small home and to my parents' favorites played on smaller stereos and 8-track tapes, and now there are my favorites, played via CD or bluetooth for my children much of their lives. Our elders' music becomes the soundtrack of our childhood.

We drag previous generations' music forward in this way, yet some children appear to be denied this heritage. It made me sort of sad, in a first-world kind of way.

And while we're on the topic of music, let me go on record (pun alert!) as saying that the Nobel committee's choice of Bob Dylan for the prize in literature was fabulous, and I'm not even a big Dylan fan. The objections to him smack of cronyism and snobbery, neither of which should carry any weight in the arts.

Whew. I feel better for having gotten all that off my chest. Thanks for listening. Or reading. Whatever we want to call this. Feel free to share your thoughts about the card, the design note, or my soapbox in the comments. I promise you I read and appreciate every comment!

Blessings to all. I'm off for a nap.

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Color Layering Fall Trees, Clearly Besotted A Little Sentimental
ink: various Hero Arts and Archival
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: rhinestones

Emboss Resist and Ribbon

There's a LOT of emboss resist with watercolor going around the magazines and blogs right now. And it's beautiful. So here are my efforts using these beautiful sentiments from Simon Says Stamp's set called For to Us. A technique and ribbon on two cards...what have I been drinking?!?!?

Coffee. And lots of it.

Supplies
stamps: Simon Says Stamp For to Us
ink: clear embossing ink, various water-based inks (mostly StampinUp)
paper: watercolor 140lb
accessories: ribbon, craft foam, paint brush, hole punch (top card)

IC567, Take Two

My second stab at the Inspiration Challenge #567 at Splitcoast took a turn for the merry. My inspiration piece was THIS Thank-You CARD by tweedcurtain.

Tweedcurtain's card uses a watercolored multi-colored die cut over an antique handwriting background to fill the card, and a sentiment in darker ink nestled into the background. As with yesterday's card, I shrank the inspiring design to a smaller portion of the card to leave more room for white space because, well, I'm me. Since I don't have a die cut machine, it was simple enough to stamp the holly using a Kaleidacolor spectrum ink pad...not as colorful as the inspiration piece, but fitting nicely with my theme.

Then, where to put the sentiment? At first, I wanted to put the sentiment up near the berries...knew it would look weird on the top right where tweedcurtain's was. But the sentiment near the berries made the card unbalanced and top-heavy, so I shifted it to bottom right of the text area. Now, there's nice movement between those two strong spots of red and a much better sense of balance.

Tweedcurtain's lovely card is more organic and free-flowing than my linear card, but the influence is still plain to see. Thanks for the lovely inspiration!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Vintage Christmas Postage and Holiday Pine Branches
ink: Kaleidacolor green and red spectrum pads, Archival shadow grey 
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: water spritz bottle

Inspiration Challenge #567

I love me some Inspiration Challenge over at Splitcoast Stamper. This week's challenge is to get inspired by Audrie's Pinterest board of her favorites from previous IC entries. I made two cards today based on this challenge and will post the second one tomorrow.

Today's card was inspired by this card by Julia Aston.

My version shrinks the design down (which gives the whole thing more white space) but keeps Julia's delightful sponged strip, black images, and double sentiment. The sponged strip uses Ranger Distress Ink broken china and water splatters (a direct mimic of Julia's inspiration with just a color change).

I love how the butterfly, stamped simply in Hero Arts intense black ink, reminds me of a glass butterfly. Isn't God amazing?

Source

Click on over to the Inspiration Challenge and play along if you feel like it. It sure is fun!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Antique Engravings, Clear and Simple Thinking of You
paper: Papertrey white
ink: Distress Ink broken china, Hero Arts intense black
accessories: not a one

One to Three: Mistletoe and Holly

Sometimes, sets are designed with a whimsical sense of movement and fun. It's all in the line. Such is the case with Mistletoe and Holly from Essentials by Ellen and designed by Her Royal Rubberness Julie Ebersole.

One set.

Three cards.

Lots of movement to make a recipient merry.

Bling and gold outline on the raised panel add to the fun.

Stickles on the mistletoe berries gives this card
festive sparkle.

Gold Stickles didn't photograph very well but adds
festive sparkle to this very simple card. 

Have a beautiful weekend full of pumpkins and stamping!

1 for 4: Clearly Besotted Holiday Sentiments

Let's take a look at the fabulous set called Holiday Sentiments from Clearly Besotted. Wow, did I have fun with this set or what?!?!

To get my creative juices flowing, I checked out some color pins on my Color My World board on Pinterest. I used this one, this one, and this one.

This combination of Memento Luxe nautical blue and Impress Fresh Ink
pool and basil is soft yet fun.

These natural colors of Hero Arts field greens, soft stone,
and stone washed, along with Archival library green, are earthy, soothing,
and perfect for a card emphasizing the season's message of peace.
I cut this card down a bit to fit the stamped panel.

This combination took a few tries to get the balance right. The colors
are Hero Arts soft pool and Memento lulu lavender and pear tart.
The pear tart is the strongest of these pastels, so it has to be the focal point.

This simple two-color card uses Memento Luxe Danube blue and
Impress Fresh Ink grass. As the only one-layer card of the bunch,
the card gains extra interest from its long, low size (3.5" x 6.5")
 and a single large bling, which pulls the whole thing together.

All four cards followed a basic pattern of stacked layers, which the set is perfectly designed for. Playing around with colors keeps this look fresh and provides endless variation. Since I experimented with the multiple color combinations on large scraps of card stock for the first three cards, I used white-on-white layers to create a "stacked" frame for the "stacks" of words and images. The results made me happy!

Once I'd put the rhinestone on the fourth card, however, I wondered what the two cards with holly would look like with blinged-out berries. I love the addition of a bit of shine to these cards.

Bling is beautiful!

Whew. That was a long post! Hope you like these cards...I sure do!

Another Fall Birthday Card...and I Used a Technique!

Gina K's set Sun-Kissed Autumn has outline images like yesterday's gorgeous leaves but it also has a block flower image that is so very gorgeous.

I colored the stamp directly with Memento markers using a pouncing technique. First, both blossoms are completely colored with dandelion, and then tangelo and lady bug markers are pounced onto the image at random. After a few spritzes with water, the colors blend a bit but still have a mottled effect that is just fabulously interesting.

I added a trio of bling, a red sentiment, and two mats of white card stock complete this crisp, colorful, autumnal card.

This card went to live with a dear friend whose birthday was today. It's always so joyful to give a special creation to a special friend.

Happy Thursday!

Supplies
stamps: Gina K Sun-Kissed Autumn, Papertrey Birthday Basics
ink: Archival red geranium
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: Memento markers (dandelion, tangelo, lady bug, bamboo leaves), water spritz bottle, rhinestones

Fall Birthday Greetings

Not sure about you all, but my family and friends sure have a LOT of October and November birthdays.

A LOT.

Count back nine months, and that might explain it. Winter gets long sometimes, and just as spring starts to, well, spring, so do other things.

Lo! where the rosy-bosom'd Hours, 

Fair Venus' train appear, 

Disclose the long-expecting flowers, 

And wake the purple year! 

The English major in me would like to dwell on the symbolism and imagery of this quaint passage from Thomas Gray's "Ode on the Spring," but perhaps not. The current political climate here in the United States makes all that innocent springing seem tawdry and vulgar. We are much fallen since Thomas Gray's 18th century.

Or perhaps it just seems so.

Anyway, I found myself needing to make a few extra birthday cards, on account of all the birthdays, and decided to play around with a Kaleidacolor ink pad and Gina K's lovely set called Sun-Kissed Autumn. The outline images in that set make me so very happy, and here's proof that outline images don't have to be colored in. No, sirree. They sure don't.

Awww, isn't that pretty? The spectrum of fall colors, highlighted by the matching, very tiny bling, says autumn in a light and airy way...which mimics how I feel about autumn. It's my favorite season. We get to celebrate the fruits of the year. Like apple fritters and pumpkin spice lattes.

*happy sigh*

Happy fall, y'all.

Supplies
stamps: Gina K Sun-Kissed Autumn, Clearly Besotted A Little Sentimental
ink: Kaleidacolor
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: rhinestones, dimensionals, scallop scissors (to round the corners of both panels for a more finished look)

The Difference Bling Makes

In honor of my friends in Canada who celebrate Thanksgiving today, I'm posting two versions of a Thanksgiving card. These two cards illustrate how bling makes a difference in a simple design, adding interest and kicking it up a notch.

First, the unembellished card.

This version gains interest from the three colors for three elements. The bright pop of gold accented with a burnt orange and dark brown sentiment keeps your eye moving. BUT the design is a bit flat and matte-feeling, so I added some bling to see what the difference would be.

There's more to look at, more movement with the bling. Note there are five total rhinestones, an odd number, and they are arranged in a visual triangle. The close-up photo shows the bling colors better than the full-card shot, and you get a feel for how the bling adds dimension and shine to the flat card.

Whenever you've made a card that feels a little flat or dull, sprinkle some bling around. It makes a huge difference.

Happy Thanksgiving Day, Canada! Y'all are great neighbors!

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey First Fruits
ink: Hero Arts butter bar; Memento potter's clay; Memento Luxe rich cocoa
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: rhinestones

Winter Wishes: One for Three

Using Hero Arts' set Winter Wishes, I made three very different cards.

The first two show clean-and-simple ways to use a large image and smaller images. The large snowflake in this set is huge, so I used it by itself

A banner sentiment with notched ends placed over the snowflake made sense...after all, this huge snowflake is a showcase. More than one on a card by me would be too much, don't you think? Of course, other stampers could happily scatter three or five across a card without batting an eye and make it look gorgeous. Just not me.

The large snowflake's color is a new-to-me inkpad from Ranger Archival called deep violet. It's a gorgeous, deep purply-blue...very rich and festive!

Next up, the two smaller snowflakes in the set (and an old snowflake from a discontinued Hero set) make a lovely aqua flurry around a very appropriate sentiment.

Three shades of aqua add depth to the flurry, as do three shades of rhinestones. The inks are Archival aquamarine, Hero Arts soft pool, and Ancient Page Neptune. The sentiment is stamped in Memento Luxe black.


And finally, a cute snowman scene. To add some dimension, I stamped the hat a second time onto a scrap, cut it out, and popped it up. A heart-shaped rhinestone add to the hat created a visual triangle of red on the card and brought the design together. And just for fun, I added tiny black gems to his coal buttons!

And those are my three cards from Hero Arts' Winter Wishes.

How are you progressing on your holiday cards?