Swirly Snowflakes

The winner of this week's little give-away will be announced on Monday.

This Christmas card challenge has been fun, although I seriously need to pick up the pace. I've already received three cards (one from a fellow crafter...thanks, Sue C.!), and I vaguely recall having a contest that involved my sending some uber-simple cards to some of you readers. At the rate I'm going, you might get them in 2012. Or 2013. But I promise, you WILL get them.

Today's cards are from Snow Swirled and use the snowflakes from that set. I intended to make just two cards, but after I finished them, I craved something cleaner and simpler, and so I added the third. I like them all. Purple on Christmas cards isn't so radical (especially on snowflake cards) but it is different and interesting.

Besides, all these cards gave me an excuse to use my neglected purple bling, which is a good thing.

Random with a Ribbon Ground

Pure Random

Pure Simplicity

Personal Story: The middle card reminds me of a ski trip to Sun Valley. I am a terrible skier...I do mean terrible. (In fact, I resolved after my last ski trip to McCall, Idaho, on New Year's Day 1999, I would never ski again.) That day at Sun Valley, great puffy flakes were falling onto several feet of beautiful puffy powder. I was on a blue slope--where I had no business whatsoever being, seeing as green slopes kicked my butt--when I crashed spectacularly. Imagine a cartoon crash...limbs flailing, one ski flying yards away from me, a scream piercing the peace of the snowy afternoon. That was me.

After becoming completely airborn, I landed, conveniently enough, on my back in the puffy powder and sank into it so that foot-high walls of snow surrounded me. I lay there assessing the situation. Nothing hurt inordinantly, and I could still feel everything, including my right leg, ski still attached, twisted oddly but not painfully. I figured I hadn't broken my neck or back.

Once I assured myself that nothing terrible had happened, I lay there, watching the big, puffy flakes fall onto my goggles. It was so peaceful, and I was still warm from my exertions. I appreciated the beauty and tranquility of the situation for several minutes before it occurred to me that if I didn't move, someone might ski right over me because no way would they see me lying there with one ski God only knew where, the other flat on the ground, and my entire body under the surface of the snow. I sat up, found my ski, went to the lodge, ordered a hot chocolate, and thanked God I was still alive.

Lying there in the snow, with nothing in my sight but peaceful sky and gentle puffy flakes falling on my face....that's what the second card means to me.

On another note, as I've worked on this self-imposed Christmas Card Challenge, it occurred to me that it would be a great resource for future Christmases, so I'm going back and labeling all these posts with Christmas Card Challenge 2011. You'll be able to find them all quite easily in the future using the labels on the sidebar.

Have a lovely weekend!

A Swirly Sort of Tree

Today's cards use the SU set Snow Swirled, which not only has a pretty, swirly, flourish-y Christmas tree but some lovely snowflakes that I will use on tomorrow's cards. Yep, this set is so versatile, I will make four cards from it instead of two!

First up, a clean and simple one-layer card in my favorite winter color scheme.

Memento London Fog and Rhubarb, with silver satin ribbon and lots of dark red bling added for fun, make a pretty, pretty card!

Next, a card that transforms the tree into a swirly, flourishy border that doesn't look like a tree at all.

To make the border, I masked the edges with large post-its, then used a stamp positioner to get stamp the tree repeatedly to fill the space.

The gold accents come from a Prisma metallic marker and gold lame Smooch. This is also a one-layer card, though if you had some pretty designer paper, you could edge it with a metallic marker and use that for the same layout.

My first instinct was to put the sentiment in the sweet spot (one-third of the way up from the bottom of the card), but when I laid the uninked stamp (from a Hero Arts clear set) on the card, it looked weird in the sweet spot. When I moved it to center, it looked so much better. That's one advantage of clear stamps...you can "test" them on your layout and move them around until you get a pleasing placement.

Please remember to make sure the stamp is totally clean before laying it on your card. Just sayin'.

Regarding Yesterday's PSX Tree Stamp...Kay asked if I added something to the third card to make it look like the tree was dusted with snow. No. That's just the way the stamp looks. Beautiful, no?

PSX Evergreen Tree, Three Ways

To whomever asked about the chair in my craft room, I can't find any marks on it to help you, but I bought it at either Office Max or Office Depot years ago for not a lot of money. Most office supply stores stock office chairs, and you should be able to find something comparable very easily. My apologies for losing your email and taking so long to get back to you!

To everyone else, several of you commented that I must have a lot of Christmas stamps. You're darn tootin'. Today's featured stamp is a very old one from the long-out-of-business PSX. I love this large evergreen tree and had so much fun last night doing not two but THREE variations with it.

Actually, there was a fourth variation, but it was ugly.

To quote Pioneer Woman, I'm just keepin' it real.

Anyway, here are my three good cards with PSX's large evergree stamp.

This first one is LOTS prettier in real life but suffers from my meager photography skills. Vellum trimmed with a silver metallic marker overlays the tree, which is stamped on PTI white card stock with SU Garden Green and Chocolate Chip ink. The sentiment (from Papertrey's A Wreath for All Seasons set) is stamped on the vellum in Memento Rhubarb ink.

This soft and subtle card uses Memories Soft Leaf ink for the trees and Memories Hunter Green for the sentiment (which is from Papertrey's Signature Christmas). The vellum in the first two cards is attached with little pieces of ScorTape.

Finally, I stamped the tree off the edge of the card and drew a box using a Sharpie pen and cardboard template I made years ago for this purpose. If you make this design yourself, remember to wait to stamp the sentiment until you draw the box. That way, you can center the sentiment much more easily.

I had so much fun making these cards! It's good to be back in my craft room, even if I do have to keep it unnaturally clean between creative sessions and can't quite find everything I want.

One-Layer Wednesday 72: Variations on a Sentiment

This is today's second post. Please scroll down to see the first.

This week's OLW expands on my strategy for making lots of Christmas cards fast without mass producing. There are three requirements in addition to the use of a single layer of card stock:

1) use ONLY a sentiment stamp on your card...no other stamps or embellishments allowed!

2) use a NON-STANDARD size for your card

3) make at least two cards using the same stamp that vary something (color, type of ink, technique, placement of the stamp, size of card)

NOTE: There are no limits to the theme for this challenge, so if you've finished your holiday cards, consider making thank-you cards (you know you're going to need them!) or whatever theme you find most useful.

I got a little carried away with this and love the results, especially because they make me cease regretting the purchase of this stamp from Hero Arts. It's beautiful, but too big for a standard size card. Giving it the extra space to breathe makes a huge difference.

All four of my cards are 4.25" x 7" and will fit into standard 5" x 7" envelopes.

StampinUp Cherry Cobbler

Brilliance Pearlescent Ivy

Ranger Gold Tinsel Embossing Powder

Fuzzy for a Reason: Red Doodlebug Flock and Essential Glue Pad

Some of you may find this challenge particularly difficult because a single sentiment looks so excruciatingly clean and simple. Look for really interesting sentiments in your stash, and then think how you could make it even more interesting with colors, placement, shape of card. If you must, consider embossing lines to frame your sentiment, masking and sponging, using resist techniques, etc. Just don't use any other stamps or embellishments.

If this kills you, remember you can always photograph the unembellished version for the challenge, then add whatever embellishment you feel necessary. ;-)
OLW72 Rules

1. A one-layer card is defined as a single piece of cardstock folded in half. No other layers allowed!

2. Use only one sentiment on a non-standard card size (or shape), and create at least two variations of the card. NO OTHER STAMPS OR EMBELLISHMENTS ALLOWED!

3. Upload your creations somewhere online and link back to them using the InLinkz button on the sidebar of Simplicity.

4. HAVE FUN!!!

Christmas Card Strategy and A Muse and a Little Give-Away

As I stamped on Sunday, I realized that I needed a strategy for making over 100 Christmas cards quickly and without going insane. I decided to try to make at least two cards using each Christmas set or stamp I own...two cards that look very different. Also, I'm trying to keep them all one layer, though if a design requires layers, I'll add them.

Here are the first two cards I made using this strategy and A Muse's Snow Crystals set.

The first card uses a speckled blue-gray cardstock and Marina Mist (SU) ink. Three sizes of pearls are a serene and interesting accent for these beautiful stamps.

The second card uses a little masking and is reminiscent of nordic sweaters with its cream card base and Cherry Cobbler ink.

Which do you like best and why? Just for fun, I'll send a random commenter a package of pearls! Give-away deadline is Thursday at midnight, East Coast time.