Christmas Magic

Some of my Christmas cards that I'll be sending out this year is this one using the original Gumball Graphics Santa. Gumball Graphics discontinued this stamp and retired the original plates several years ago. I was very fortunate to purchase this stamp from a stamping buddy who decided to sell it.

In making this card I originally was going to go all out with details and embellishments but then decided that this image is so striking that a simple background would be better. So this is the card I came up with. Perhaps in future years when I use this stamp I'll get more elegant/fancy with it, but for now, this is this year's card.

I wanted to show you an upclose view of the image. The artist who designed this stamp gave such wonderful attention to detail and yet, even with the fine details in Santa's eyes and face you almost feel like you are looking at the jolly old elf himself.




Card Recipe:
Stamps: Gumball Graphics Santa, Sentiment stamp is from A Muse Artstamps
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black and Stampin' Up! Brocade Blue
Image colored with Copic Markers
Accessories: Cuttlebug Snowflake embossing folder, Martha Stewart Snowflake punch, Stampin' Up! Slit Punch, Ultra fine glitter, Blue Pearls and Sepia Antique Glass liquid embossing glaze.

Until next time...

Cheers!

Jennifer

Gingerbread Greetings

Mmmmm...nuthin' better than gingerbread and hot tea on a cold winter's day. This darling image is one of Whimsie Doodles digital images from the Kitchen Gingers collection.

The layout is this week's Mojo Monday Challenge offered by Julee. Here is her sketch challenge:

Card Recipe:
Image: Whimsie Doodles digital image
Colored with Copic Markers
Paper: Stampin' Up!
Accessories: Nestibilities circle and scalloped circle and tag dies, Rick-Rack, stickles

A very simple card and one I hope the recipient who receives it will cheer their day.

I hope you have a happy day too!

Cheers!
Jennifer

Easter Tree

My Christmas cards aren't finished and yet I'm making an Easter card. It is never too soon to plan ahead and perhaps you might want to ask Santa for stamps in your stocking, so over the next few days I'll be previewing some Easter and Valentine stamps from Serendipity Stamps.

The set used for this card is Easter Tree 843QCL .

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Serendipity Stamps Easter Tree 843QCL
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black
Designer Paper: Making Memories English Garden
Image Colored with Copic Markers
Accessories: Green Flower Soft for the grass, Pale Pink Organza ribbon, Nestibilities rectangle and scalloped rectangle dies, white liquid pearls and yellow crystals.

Thanks for dropping by. Now off to do some holiday baking!

Cheers!

Jennifer

Snow Angel

I posted this card a few weeks ago using Serendipity Stamps Snow Angel cling set but I thought I'd post a reminder today that with the Holidays fast approaching you won't want to miss Serendipity Stamps Sale that is going on right now.

Place an order for $25 or more and get free shipping on U.S. orders. 50% off shipping on international orders. Ends November 23rd

IMPORTANT – You must select the $0.00 shipping from the drop down “Ship Via” box during checkout.

Also – 25% off the Snow Angel Cling Set - 1188QCL

I'll be back soon to post cards I've been making.

Happy Friday!

Jennifer

Serendipity Stamps November Challenge - Shaped Card

This month's challenge for Serendipity Stamps is a really fun one. Create a shaped card! For my card, I chose to make a Christmas bulb/ornament shaped card that is also a shaker card.

I stamped my Serendipity Stamps image from the Peace On Earth set #1134QCL on a clear piece of acetate and colored it with permanent Sharpie marker. Next I added silver stickles glitter to the top of the image ornament to make it look matalic and sparkle-y. Then, using my circle nestibilities dies I cut the red circle boarder and adhered it to on top of the acetate. Flipping the acetate over I carefully placed foam tape to cover the perimeter of the circle making sure there were no gaps or spaces. Next I added a teaspoon or so of decorative flakes to give it a snow globe shaker card look. A final back ground circle of white card stock was adhered to cover and keep the "snow" inside the shaker.



Now I was ready for the card. Using my scalloped Nestibilities die I cut a circle shaped card and then adhered the shaker to the center of it. I think my ribbon covers the next step but my ornament card does have a silver top/hanger just like in the image. Finally I added a red ribbon and silver cord to hang it.

My ornament card does open to reveal the sentiment "Peace on Earth" on the inside.

I know I tend to get a bit wordy in my explanations but please don't think this was tedious or difficult to do. In fact, this little shaker ornament card was so much fun to make that I started a production line of the pieces and began making 2 dozen of them for my own use to send for Christmas. I hope you'll give shaker cards a try.

Be sure to stop by the rest of the Serendipity Stamp team's blogs to view the shaped cards they've created for this month's challenge:

Amy Cokley
Anya Schrier
Kathie Bailey
Lynda Benden
Shannon Teubner
Yvonne Hagane

Cheers!

Jennifer

A stamped Ornament

Each year at The Stamp Shack there is a handmade ornament exchange. This is the ornament I made for my Secret Sister. I hope she'll like it.


This is NOT an original idea. In fact, I copied this idea directly from Yvonne, who is a wonderful artist and who's blog is among my very favorites. Yvonne is one of my sister design team members for Serendipity Stamps and she graciously shared how she made this ornament. If you'd care to give it a try too, you can see Yvonne's post with directions HERE.

The ornament is very three dimensional but I'm afraid that doesn't show well in my photographs. I encourage you to see Yvonne's samples on her blog.



The project recipe is:
Stamps: Serendipity stamps Snowflake flourish large and small
Ink: Brilliance teal
Accessories: Nestibilities circle and scalloped circle dies and also Nestibilities Floral accent die, teal pearls, dimension tape, hardware for the hanger, white satin ribbon.

This really went together quickly and I'm sure you can find a variety of stamps other than the snowflake one we used to create a lovely handmade ornament.

Cheers!

Jennifer

Meet Gypsy!

May I introduce to you my mare, Gypsy! Gypsy is a Canadian Horse (Cheval Canadien). She is about 12 years old, 15.2 hh and is the sweetest girl a horse lover could ever dream of. We sealed the deal on her yesterday afternoon. Riding her in the photos is my friend and owner of the stable where Gypsy will live (just under 20 minutes from my house so you KNOW I'll be practically living at the barn!)

I'm so excited. This is a lifelong dream of mine, not unlike many little girls, to own, care for, ride and maintain a horse. I feel like a 10 year old (just add 45 years to that number!)

If you are interested in horses I'll give you an extremely brief description of the Canadian horse. The Canadian Horse is a little known national treasure of Canada. This hardy breed descended from horses originally sent to the “New World” by King Louis XIV of France in the late 1600’s. These Norman and Breton horses were felt to be of Arab, Andalusian and Barb ancestry – traits of which can still be recognized in the Canadian Horse today.
For hundreds of years, the French horses bred with little influence from outside breeds. They eventually developed into their own distinct breed - the Canadian Horse or Cheval Canadien. Because they evolved under the adverse conditions of harsh weather, scarce food, and hard work, the Canadian Horse remains the sturdiest and most acclimatized horse in Canada today. They are tough, strong horses, tolerant of inclement weather conditions, and are extremely “easy keepers”. Because of these traits, the Canadian Horse is often referred to as “The Little Iron Horse”.

No stamping, card making or sewing today. I just had to introduce you to my new horse, Gypsy.

Thanks for stopping by!
Cheers!
Jennifer

Soot Stamped Autumn Leaves

For the past month or so I have been making a lot more ATCs for swapping than I have been making cards. I don't know how interested you are in seeing all of the ATCs I've been making so I haven't been posting them. But today I want to share these Autumn Leaves ATCs that are for a swap I'm hosting at the Stamp Shack. I wanted to use my stamps in a different way and used the Soot Stamping Technique.


In this photo of the set of nine ATCs some look blurry but I had to take the photo at an angle to avoid the flash glaring off of the glossy cardstock. The outcome of soot stamping is that each ATC is unique.

For these ATCs I was trying out an added step to add color to the background. This was achieved by using a brayer and brayering red dye ink on the glossy cardstock. Next you hold the cardstock, glossy side down over a lighted candle. The flame must brush against the cardstock to produce soot. Move your cardstock quickly over the flame to cover with black soot being careful not to hold in one place too long as the edges will catch on fire if you linger. Next, using the stamp of your choice stamp directly onto the cardstock in the soot and carefully lift your stamp. Be careful not to let your fingers touch the soot because you will leave fingerprints. Using a spray clear glaze sealer, immediately after stamping spray your image with the glaze and let it dry. (I used Krylon Triple Thick Crystal Clear Glaze.)

A year or so ago I made these train cards using the soot stamping technique but I didn't add color to the background as I did with with my autumn leaves ATCs.

Either way this is a really fun technique to try but of course anytime you are dealing with paper and a flame you must use caution. You might want to do this technique in your kitchen next to a sink just in case of emergency.

I hope you'll give this technique a try.

Cheers!

Jennifer

Autumn Leaves and Acorns

One of the things I love about autumn is watching the squirrels busy themselves with gathering acorns and hiding them away for the winter. They work hard, fast and diligently to stockpile their winter food supply. It reminds me of how hard I worked this summer harvesting, canning and preserving our garden produce.

Today's card is made with a beautiful autumn themed stamp set from Serendipity Stamps. This set is titled Acrons and in addition to the leaf and acorn image it has two lovely sentiment stamps.

Above is a close up photo of the leaves and acorns.

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Serendipity Stamps Acorns #1141QCL
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, edges sponged with Brilliance Old Olive
Image colored with Copic Markers
Designer Papers: BoBunny and Bazille
Accessories: Nestibilities dies, brass brads, Satin ribbon, Stickles and Dimensional glaze on the acorns for shine and dimension.

It looks like it will be a rainy, windy and very cold day today where I live. I imagine the squirrels will be on the look out for more supplies to put into their storage for the winter that appears to be coming very soon.

Cheers!

Jennifer

Hope for Hooters

Another card for October Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I made these last year and decided to do some more this year pretty much the same except perhaps more stickles glitter. I love my stickles!

The owl stamp is from Heather's Stamping Haven in Ottawa, Ontario. The sentiment "Hope for Hooters" is computer generated.

Be sure to get your hooters check!

Cheers!

Jennifer

Fight like a Girl

October is Breast Cancer awareness month. There are many rubber stamp companies making some wonderful images for us card makers who want to show our support or send a card of encouragement to someone battling the disease.

This morning I learned the WHIMSIE DOODLES digital stamp company is offering this "Fight like a Girl" image and sentiment FREE! Yes, you read that right! "HOPE FIGHTS" will be available on the Whimsie Doodle site for free until Friday, October 23rd for you to download and use. You can find the image under the tab titled FREEBIES. After Friday you can still purchase this image and all proceeds will donated to Breast Cancer Research. I think this is not only a very generous show of support by Whimsie Doodles owner, Melyssa, but also an awesome way to support and promote Breast Cancer awareness and research. Big kudos and hugs to Melyssa!

Card Recipe:
Image is by Whimsie Doodles digital images titled Hope Fights
Colored with Copic Markers
Paper is by Making Memories English Garden selections
Accessories: SU Grosgrain ribbon, tiny Prima flowers, stickles glitter glue, Martha Stewart scalloped eyelet border punch, foam mounting tape.

I hope you'll take the opportunity to check out this image and make some cards or other stamped project and support Breast Cancer awareness and research and brighten the day of someone who's spirits could use a boost.

Cheers!

Jennifer

Stamped Christmas Gifts

This month's challenge for the Serendipity Stamps is to create either a gift or an ornament using Stamps from Serendipity.

I decided I'd like to create a set of candles. Have you ever made stamped candles? These are really fun to do and fast to make. Here is how I did it:
Supplies needed:

Stamps: Serendipity Stamps #1196G Snowflake Flourish Lg and #1197B Snowflake Flourish Sm.
Ink: ColorBox Cyan (Blue) and Clear Embossing Powder
Paper: Tissue paper (kind of tissue paper you use to line gift bags with)and waxed paper
Accessories: Any size or shape of candles to fit your image

Process: I stamped my snowflake stamps numerous times on a piece of tissue paper with ColorBox pigment ink and then used clear embossing powder to set the ink. Cut the snowflakes out close to the image. A little border is fine and won't show when you are finished but do try to keep it cut as close as you comfortably can. Next place the stamped tissue paper image on the candle in the position you want it. Take a piece of waxed paper (NOT parchment paper or plastic wrap - it must be waxed paper) and place it over the tissue paper and wrap it tightly to hold it in place. Use a large enough piece of waxed paper that it will wrap around the candle and you can hold your image tight by holding the waxed paper (balled up) behind the candle. This is helpful so that when you apply your heat you won't burn your fingers. Finally, let your heatgun heat up good and hot and then heat the image remembering of course that you have the waxed paper on top of the image holding it in place. You can see the image through the waxed paper and in a VERY SHORT TIME you'll see that the heat from the heatgun is melting the candle wax and your tissue paper has adhered to the candle. Carefully remove the waxed paper and .... VOILA! You have a stamped candle! If you've heated your candle a little too long and you see that the candlewax is uneven or slightly drippy, while it is still warm use the waxed paper to smooth out the image.

It is important to note that the whole heating process takes just moments and you do not want to heat too long or your candle will melt.

You can embellish your candle in many ways. I used dots of Stickles glitter at the points of the candles. You could add crystal while the wax is warm if you worked quickly enough. Ribbons, garlands, charms are all very pretty too.



Be sure to hop on over to the rest of the design team's blogs and check out their gifts and/or ornaments they've created for this month's Serendipity Stamps Challenge.
Amy Cokley
Anya Schrier
Kathie Bailey
Lynda Benden
Shannon Teubner
Sue Eldred
Yvonne Hagane

Have a creative day!

A scrapbook kit surprise

One of my favorite online Scrapbook supply shopping venues is called Scrappin' Great Deals. While I'm more of a cardmaker/rubberstamper, I find the best deals and supplies and Sheila's online shop. Her service is fast and friendly and she runs wonderful sales and deals. Well I had a huge surprise a couple of weeks ago. Sheila sent me an email and asked me if I'd like to receive a Scrapbook Kit to play with and I could keep the contents and create whatever I wanted to and just post on my blog what I'd created.

10 days ago the kit arrived and just look at the contents! How fun and it is all mine!

The kit was filled with Halloween and Autumn themed designer papers and cardstock, flowers, velvet stickon pumpkins, spookie letters and cutouts, distressed stickles, clear stamps and fun embellishments.

As I've mentioned, I'm not much of a scrapbook artist but I've had this photo of my children taken back in 1985 that I've been wanting to put in an album so this was the perfect opportunity to try my hand at a scrapbook page.
Aren't my kid-lets sweet? I made the Care Bear costume for Stephanie (my daughter). She loved Carebears and that costume was worn for years. Matthew, wearing the Superman costume wore it for the last time that year. See how small it was getting on him. I had made that costume many years before for Jonathan, who is wearing the Cowboy costume.
Do you see the cute paper pumpkin in the foreground in the picture above? I had so much fun making that with the kit papers too!
After I finished the scrapbook page I used this beautiful piece of Bo-Bunny's cardstock to make this paper pumpkin. I am planning on making enough of these little paper pumpkins to use as table decorations to hold placecards at each seat for Thanksgiving dinner.

You have to give these paper pumpkins a try. They take all of maybe 15 minutes to make and if you have various sizes of oval punches or Nestabilities you can make them in all sizes. This wasn't an original idea. I found the instructions to make this cute pumpkin on Happileigh Scrappin blog. She shared the instructions HERE.

The next project I wanted to make was a Halloween gift bag to be filled with treats. The scrapbook kit came in handy for me to make this simple candy bag holder.

The clear stamps were used to stamp tissue paper to wrap gifts for my Halloween Secret Sister.

Then I wanted to decorate a gift bag to put all of my Secret Sister's treats into. I used a couple of the different scrapbook papers and letters and velvet pumpkins to decorate the bag. I thought it turned out frightfully cute!

And this is the other side of the treat bag with just a couple of the contents that were tucked inside. It is mailed out to her so I'll look forward to knowing how she enjoyed her goodies.

I want to thank Sheila at Scrappin' Great Deals for the opportunity to play with this scrapbook kit for my own personal use. This was a lot of fun for this non-scrapbooking crafter. Oh my, I didn't even make a card. I should do that now.

Cheers!

Barn door with wreath

I'm not ready yet to begin preparing myself mentally for snow but this Serendipity Stamp called Barn Door with Wreath is such a simple and lovely stamp that I couldn't resist doing a bit of playing in the snow.

I used a lot of FLOWER SOFT product on this card. For the wreath and the snow.

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Serendipity Stamps #1190G Barn door with Wreath
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black and image colored with Copic Markers
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink white and metalic green cardstock (maker unknown)
Embellishements: Martha Sewart fern punch, Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder, Nestibilities oval die and frame die, Flower Soft product in Christmas green, ivory and snow, Stickles and red crystals.

Have you begun making your Christmas cards? I have a lot of ideas but haven't begun in earnest yet.

As I look out my window I see the pouring rain today. It is quite chilly too so who knows, maybe we will see a flake or two. I hope not. For now I'd prefer to play in the snow using Flower Soft.

Cheers!

Snow Angel

I may have been born in the city but I've always been a country girl at heart. I'm drawn to primitive and country designs in artwork, furnishings and history. When I saw this new Serendipity Stamps Snow Angel stamp I knew I had to ink her up.





Card Recipe:
Stamp: Serendipity Stamp Snow Angel #1188G
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink
Coloring Medium: Prismacolor Pencils
Accessories: Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder, Martha Stewart leaf punch, Machine stitching, buttons

I hadn't colored with my prismacolor pencils for quite some time and it was fun to have them out again. I thought Copics would be too bold of color for this primitive snow angel.

REMINDER: Serendipity has all Halloween stamps on sale through the 27th!! The Serendipity Halloween Customer Challenge goes through October 15th. So be sure to head on over to SERENDIPITY STAMPS and check out the customer challenge for your chance to snag a great prize!


I hope you are enjoying a beautiful weekend!

Cheers!

This and That....

Good Morning! Lest you think I've been completely lazy lately, I assure you that isn't the case. In fact, I've been up to my eyeballs in projects and this and that and the next thing. One thing that I have been working on finishing up is a bunch of ATCs for swaps I'd joined. It gets a bit addictive and once you start joining swaps it is hard to stop.

This first ATC is for a swap using Maryse Carrier stamps. I have a huge collection of Maryse Carrier stamps and was tickled to see this swap posted. It has been ages since I've pulled out these whimsical stamps. I'm eager to see which stamps the other participants will use.

This next ATC is for an ATC swap in which we are to create ATCs using a Christmas Song as the theme. My "Deck the Halls" ATC uses the Stampin' Up! set by the same name.

This last creation is a 6" X 6" recipe card for a recipe card swap titled "Sweets for Santa". The recipe is one from my Grandma Inman's recipe box and I just loved these bars. They are sort of like a shortbread with a chocolate bar melted on top. DELISH!! For the plate of cookies on the recipe I used Stampin' Up! set called "A Merry Little Christmas".

I have over commited myself to things lately. I'll follow through with my commitments to swaps and design teams but I think my resolution for 2010 is going to be to remember to make more time for personal projects. I haven't made a card for myself or family in ages. And my sewing machine seems to only sew on cardstock lately. YIKES!

Do you ever do this too?

Fall has definitely arrived in the Ottawa valley. It is a gorgeous crisp, chilly and sunny morning. You need a jacket but it is beautiful. I think it is time to go search for pumpkins.

Cheers!

Peace on Earth

Purrs and Pants has a wide array of cat and dog images and many just perfect for Christmas. This card uses two Purrs and Pants stamps: 2 kitties in window #16-4 and the sentiment, "Peace on Earth" # DC 210

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Purrs and Pants #16-4 and # DC 210
Cardstock: Stampin' Up! cardstock and Heather's Stamping Haven Vellum for the sentiment
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black and Colorbox Cyan, Image colored with Copic Markers
Accessories: Nestibilities rectangle and scalloped rectangle dies, Cuttlebug Snowflake embossing folder, Stickles, Crystal brads

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers!

The Fun Starts Now!

With the first day of Autumn tomorrow and our cooler temperatures and changing leave already, I couldn't resist making this card using the two playful pups. This is one of Purrs and Pants autumn stamps and you can find it listed as #17-1 Dogs rolling in leaves.

My inspiration for this card comes from my friend Traci who just got a new lab puppy, Bailey, to join her other lab, Colby. I've seen such wonderful photos of them and I just had to make this card with inspiration from Colby and Bailey.

Card recipe:

Stamps: Purrs and Pants # 17-1 and the sentiment is # DC 21-7
Ink: Momento tuxedo black, Image colored with Copic markers
Designer paper: BoBunny
Accessories: Brads (Making Memories) Stickles glitter, Stampin' Up! Ticket punch, Small Leaf punch (McGill), Satin leaf ribbon.



I hope you are enjoying your last day of summer and I look forward to beautiful autumn days ahead.

Cheers!

Witching you a Happy Halloween

Today is the Design Team monthly challenge at Serendipity Stamps. This month's challenge theme is Halloween. Mary, the owner of Serendipity Stamps and our fearless leader, has a large variety of new Halloween and Autumn stamp in the new Fall/Autumn catalog. Be sure to check out Serendipity Stamps site for some great new autumn and winter stamps.

For my Halloween card I used this darling stamp set titled Kitty & Pumpkin 798QCL The inside sentiment reads: "Witching you a Happy Halloween".

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Serendipity Stamps Kitty and Pumpkin #798QCL
Ink: Versamark ink and embossed in old gold embossing powder
Cardstock: Daisy D's designer paper, Papertrey Ink Ivory for card base, Stampin' Up! old olive green and pumpkin orange.
Coloring: Copic Markers
Accessories: Machine stitching, Nestibilities circle and scalloped circle dies, Cuttlebug corner swirl die, Stickles, Martha Stewart ribbon.

Be sure to stop by the rest of the Serendipity Stamp team's blogs to view their Halloween cards:

Amy Cokley
Anya Schrier
Kathie Bailey
Kelli Richardson
Lynda Benden
Shannon Teubner
Sue Eldred
Yvonne Hagane

Here's Witching you a Happy Halloween!

Cheers!

Jennifer

Happy BOO Day

Happy BOO Day! Hee hee...I think this makes a fun semi-classy Halloween card. Well come on...how classy is Halloween anyway. But just with a little silk ribbon, some machine stitching and buttons and of course a girl has to have sparkle with copper colored stickles glitter, I think this will be a fun card to send to one of my girl friends.

This Happy BOO Day sentiment is one of the new fall/winter 2009 stamps from Serendipity Stamps and you can locate it in the catalog as stamp number 1175D Happy Boo Day.

Hope you are enjoying as beautiful of a day as I am here. We waited all summer for some warm weather and now that it is almost fall we are finally getting sunshine, blue skies and warm temperatures. I'm not complaining.

Until next time,

Cheers!