Merry Christmas

 Merry Christmas everyone!  My post is a little late today because we went to see my mom.  We lost my dad shortly before Christmas so this has been a hard holiday.  These two cards utilitze the triple time stamping technique.  I saw this card on Split coast and did a search until I found someone that could teach me how to do it. Which I found on Dawn Olchefske website, her original post for this technique was on 6/16/12.  She has a video which is really easy to follow.   I used this for most of my Christmas cards.  I say most because I like to change things up and I usually send out four or five different styles of cards, it makes my mom crazy because then she always wants to know about my cards.  For the first card, I used the snowflakes from the Stampin' UP! Snow Swirled set.  I stamped them in Night of Navy, Bashful Blue, and Silver.  The "Make Merry" is from a retired hostess set called Tag So Much and that is stamped in Night of Navy. I used white card stock for the panels and my base is Bashful Blue (SU), then I used a glitter blue that I purchased at my local Archiver's and the smallest panel is framed is a brushed silver that I purchased at Hobby Lobby.  It is a Paper Studios paper.  I used sheer white ribbon for the knot.  The inside sentiment on this card is also from the Snow Swirled and stamped in Night of Navy.  Punched out the sentiment with my small tag punch.  The other card I used the Scenic Season stamp set.  I used Always Artichoke ink and paper. The sentiment for the inside of this card is the one that comes with the Scenic Season and I used the same sheer white ribbon for the card.  I wrapped the ribbon around the panels before I attached it to the card base.  This card technique is a little time consuming but the end result is so worth it.  Dawn's video gives you all the panel sizes and what to do.  Hope you enjoyed this card and thanks for stopping by.  Keep calm and craft on!

Andi

O Christmas Tree!

My sister loves Christmas trees and so I sometimes buy stamps because I think, "my sissie would like that one".  So back in November my local Archivers store had a free make and take weekend and it happened to start on my birthday.  So, I gave myself a whole morning at the craft store as part of my birthday present.  I know, I know...most people go to a spa for the morning but if you are a crafter, the craft store is like the spa but different...anywho.  Normally when we go to these there are long lines and lots of people and normally I am going on the last day so the stamps and paper for the projects are usually sold out but NOT this time.  I was one of the first people there and I made the projects and then proceeded to buy everything for the projects that I needed to buy.  I had so much fun and then I made some of my own and changed them up a little bit.  That day we made a treat bag and a card.  Today, I am showing you the card we made. We used a new set from Hero Arts that is exclusively sold at Archivers called Christmas Trees Stamp & Cut set -- Archiver's/Hero Arts (6098357).   It comes with 3 stamps and a die-cut.  On this card, we used all the stamps and the die cut.  This is a standard size card so the base is 4 1/4 x 5 1/2.  The white card stock is cut smaller at 4 x 5 1/4.  The first thing you do is stamp the trees.  I used Tim Holtz Distress Ink called Peeled Paint.  You want to stamp the trees so that they are overlapping a little bit.  You can see in the picture that mine are touching.  I started stamping from the left side and the first tree you stamp off the card stock a little bit and then when you stamp the next tree keep in mind that you want it to show on the right side of the flags so these two trees won't touch.  Stamp your next tree so that it touches and so on.  You can use the die-cut 2 different ways.  You can cut the tree first and then stamp the tree and emboss it or you can stamp the tree, do your embossing and then cut it out.  Of course, I did it the harder way which was to cut my trees first and then emboss, so my tree might look a little off center.  I used a gold embossing powder from Recollections which is carried at any local Michael's store.  I did learn a little trick from the demonstrator at Archiver's.  When we were embossing the tree, she said to emboss our project from the bottom because then we aren't blowing the embossing powder off.  I had a little "well,duh" moment because I never thought of that. The other trick we learned was when we were cutting the flags.  I used a solid color on top and then a patterned piece underneath.  We cut both flags at the same time.  The solid colored flag is 1 1/2 inches wide by 6 long.  The patterned piece needed to be the same width but doesn't need to be much longer than 2 1/2 or 3 inches because you only see a little of it.  To cut the "flag"-put your two pieces of paper together so they are flush and lined up at the bottom.  Your first cut will be in the center of the two pieces, your cut will be about 1/2 inch, the you are going to cut from the bottom left corner to the cut and do the some thing on the right side.  Viola you have your 2 flags.  Layer them how you want show as much of the patterned paper as you want and adhere the patterned piece underneath the solid color.  Once you have your flag together lay that aside for a moment.  Adhere your white cardstock to your card base.  In my card, I used a burgundy.  Once you have the white adhered, attach your flag, make sure your flag is flush with the top of the card base.  I also added some small snowflakes that I punched out of some white leftover glitter paper.  The punch is from the Martha Stewart, it is part of the punch around the page set that I bought, Alpine Snowflake.  I attached those with a pop dot.  The sentiment is from an old Stampin' UP set.  You can use any colors and any sentiment.  I have not stamped anything on the inside yet.  There is a closer picture of the snowflakes, hopefully you can see the glitter shine on it.

Thanks for stopping by and keep calm and craft on.

Andrea

Getting a little twisted!!!

Here is my first official post on the new blog.  This card was made using a technique called "Twisted card".  I saw this card technique on Splitcoast stampers website and I searched the web until I found someone that had directions for this card. I became a little obsessed with finding instructions.  It looks like it would be super complicated but it is really very easy and you could make a lot of these cards quickly.  I found a video on You Tube by Kelly Gettelfinger. Search Twisted Greeting Card.  She does a step by step video for this card.  She says this is her first video but I found that she is very easy to follow which is important (to me anyway).  I think the best thing about this card is you could use it for any type of card you needed and the person getting the card will think you  are amazingly talented (always a good feeling).  I used a  retired Stampin' UP! set and the matching card stock, Cottage Garden.  The butterflies are from Paper Studios which I purchased at my local craft store.  The only problem I had with this technique was I cut the designer paper a little off.  This card can also have a "secret". You can leave the front pouch open for a surprise for the receiver or you can leave the inside pouch open for monies or a gift card or a picture of a little cutie.  I hope you enjoyed my first post.  Leave comments, questions, requests....please be gentle....creative types are so senstive.  

Stay calm and craft on,

Andrea

Hello Craft friends,

I created a new blog because I couldn't remember my account information for the my old blog www.crzstampfunwithandi.blogspot.com.  So please bear with me while I get the new site up and running.  I am going to log my information somewhere so I don't have this problem again.  Visit me tomorrow.  I will have a new card for you to see.  Thanks and I can't wait to share my card making passion with you.