Saturday, April 24, 2010

Christmas with Kind Thoughts

Give-Away Reminder: To enter in the Kraft Week Give-Away, you must leave comments on Kraft Week posts from last Monday through Friday on Simplicity and My Pink Mexico. At one comment per post, you have ten chances to win our give-away of a Big Bite and $25 gift certificate for Papertrey Ink. Comments close tonight (Saturday, April 24) at midnight. The winner will be announced on Monday!

I was going to kick off selling some StampinUp sets, but I'm still not set up to accept Paypal payments yet. Sigh. Hopefully, I'll get my act together early next week because I've made some awesome cards with each stamp set and I'm eager to share them with you. I may show one tomorrow just as a teaser!

The mess in my basement distracted me from figuring out Paypal. Good news is I took a whole carload (station wagon!) to Salvation Army, organized an emergency shelter under the basement stairs just in time for tornado season, and threw out a leaf-bag of garbage. That felt wonderful!

Today's card is loosely based on a sketch from Papercrafts Go-To Sketches. I don't have a die-cut machine to cut the shape of the sketch, but I do have a few Fiskars shape-cutter templates, one of which worked just fine as a substitute on this pretty Christmas card.


For once, a card I made looked WAYYYY better on a colored base than on a white base. The white-on-white looked much too subtle with the thin lines of Cool Caribbean. The Cool Caribbean base, on the other hand, really accents the fake snowflakes (seven points...I know, I know, but I love this set used on a Christmas card!).

Supplies
stamps: Kind Thoughts (SU), Hero Arts (sentiment)
paper: Cool Caribbean (SU) White (PTI)
ink: Cool Caribbean
accessories: Fiskar's shape-cutter template and cutter, dimensionals, rhinestones, SU oval punch

29 comments:

  1. how pretty....I like the shape you cut.
    I really need to clean up too...yuk...I'd rather be crafting.
    Hope you have a wonderful weekend.
    Just curious...when you sell your stamps will you sell to us Canadians if we have a Paypal account??

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  2. very pretty... i really like the pillow shape. Fresh and different.

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  3. Holy cats, never in a million years would I have thought that set worked so well for Christmas! Thanks for the continued inspiration!! I can't believe I haven't officially followed you until now, but rest assured, you've been on my bookmark tab and I check you, er, the blog, out every morning!

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  4. I'm fairly new to your blog (most enjoyable!) and was wondering if you had a die cut machine. You seem to manage very well without.
    Long live Simplicity!! Susan G.

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  5. Terri (blindstamper)April 24, 2010 at 9:09 AM

    Very pretty. And I see your continued committment to use more colored cardstock! I've got to find some time to flip through that sketch magazine since you made me buy it! :) And thanks for posting the 20% off link.

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  6. Good for you doing the clean-up....I just perused an area in my house that is just filled with books & magazines I never look at anymore!!! Off with its head!! Cleaning up feels good, and so does my heart when I look at this sweet little card!

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  7. Love the Cool Caribbean! I still have my inkpad, but no cs -- such a lovely color for this card!
    MY cleaning task is...well, it's the whole house, but especially my craft room. I've worked my way down to just enough room on my desk for a single card to sit. Time to clear!

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  8. That is one of the stamps I have and go to repeatedly. I love the innovative way you've used it with the cut-out and snowflake theme. Great inspiration!

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  9. Very pretty. I love the unique shape! :)

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  10. What a pretty card! I love non-traditional colors on Christmas cards - I tend to use a lot of bright pink and black... now I will use blue!!! YAY for basement cleaning! (great therapy!!!)

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  11. Nice card! I, too, love that color. It will be wonderful for whoever receives this to get something so pretty and bright on a cruddy winter day.

    Regarding selling some SU stuff, would you ever take a USPS money order? Using cash keeps me more disciplined (insert embarrassed smiley face here).

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  12. i love love love your simple classic style!
    Jackie

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  13. LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!! so simple yet so fresh . . . can't wait to make one later today. thanks for inspiring me, Mary

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  14. LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!! so simple yet so fresh . . . can't wait to make one later today. thanks for inspiring me, Mary

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  15. Lovely card! I don't have any die-cutting machines, but I do have a package of Fiskar's templates I'll bet will work nearly as well......except that I'll have a lot of cutting. Which makes me nervous because I'm not that good a cutter! Thanks for a whole new look at Christmas cards!

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  16. Natalie WintersteinApril 24, 2010 at 12:29 PM

    Beautiful! I love the colored card base and the cool shape! :)

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  17. I love the curved centerpiece. It makes quite an impact in it's simplicity. Thank you for sharing your ideas.

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  18. I like the shape of the center panel. I don't have a die to cut that shape but I do have CM circle and oval cutters. I bet I can figure it out! Love that Cool Carribean. Since I just started stanping in the past year, I was too late to pick up that SU color but it sure is pretty.

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  19. Ooooooo, excellent Susan! LOVE it! :)

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  20. susan - your card for the first kraft day inspired me to do this card - http://www.flickr.com/photos/bjkne/4549137098/ - i couldn't cut 1 3/8" squares to save my soul so gave up and did this instead. thanks for a great fun kraft week.

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  21. wow! i love the shape in the middle! beautiful card!

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  22. Not only is this a beautiful non-traditional Christmas card, but you've also reassured me that I'm not the ONLY card-maker out there using the Fiskars shape templates instead of buying a die-cutting machine. :P HOW you made that shape, I'm not so sure... ;)

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  23. I love it! The non-traditional colors and snowflakes look so fun together. And the oval punch for the sentiment looks awesome here, along with the rhinestones.

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  24. ..a nice colour and I like the white shape on the coloured background too.

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  25. Love the 'cool' shape you created and what is there not to like about a seven point snowflake in Cool Caribbean! Just wonderful, may just have to 'case' this one.
    I am so impressed with your massive clear out ... hard work but doesn't it feel good when its done :)... AND you made cards!!!!!!

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  26. Love the shape - kind of a retro feel to it! And Cool Caribbean is one of my favorites!

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  27. What a cool shape for the main panel. I really like it on the cool carribean. You must have a ton of that color because you use it a lot. It's one I didn't stock up on before it retired because I didn't know how much I would like it until after it was gone. Now I hoard the few sheets I have left for "special" projects.

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment!