Celebrating the Season

Hello everyone,

Sometimes a short break is a really good thing. Between the garden, laundry, visiting and homework, card making just didn't happen this weekend. I think I've made up for it with today's card. This card was requested by my boss (gulp - no pressure) for a visiting male colleague. I worked this card into so many challenges from the past seven days it is amazing! I never use this many challenges on one card! I started with Saturday's Unscripted Sketches. Saturday's One Stop Craft Challenge and today's Crafty Cardmakers both asked for embossing. This week's Paper Sundaes challenge was 'Let It Snow' and Wednesday's ABC Christmas Challenge was W for Winter Wonderland. Finally, the ABC Challenge for the past two weeks has been G is for glitter.

The background paper is Webster's Paper Winter Wonderland Collection "Twinkle" which was dry embossed with the Sizzix Snowflakes plate. The layers are Stampin' Up Bravo Burgundy, River Rock and Very Vanilla. The Bravo Burgundy layer was dry embossed with the holly Cuttlebug folder. The image is Gina K's Tree Silhouettes which is highlighted with Glitter Ritz Warm Micro Fine Glitter. The sentiment is Impression Obsession (IO) Christmas Sentiments. The snowflakes are cut from a scrap of Very Vanilla covered with more glitter and cut with Spellbinders Shapeabilities Create A Flake 1 and 2.

I love this card! To me, it is a perfect card for my boss to give to a visiting colleague. It is very wintry but not overly feminine even with the glitter. I think the Bravo Burgundy and River Rock are a great colour combination and with that bit of glitter, awesome! What astounds me even more is the number of challenges I applied to this card. I usually keep it to just a couple because I otherwise find the card becomes more about the challenges than the card. That just didn't happen with this card. Maybe I'm just getting better at it.

I hope you enjoy this card and come back to SPI again soon.

Gisèle

Oriental Birthday

Hello everyone,

No Christmas cards today. I was looking through my list of 'appealing challenges' and I came across last Monday's Crafty Cardmakers challenge was an oriental theme. I have some great papers and stamps that suit this theme perfectly so I didn't want to miss out.

The background paper is DCWV Far East stack. The gold layer is Anna Griffin Christmas Scrapbook cardstock pack. The middle layer is Stampin' Up Perfect Plum. The image is Hero Arts Decorative Bamboo stamped in Soft Suede and Color Box Bronze. The sentiment is of unknown origin from my daughter's craft stash.

I love the colours in this card. I didn't want to do a really girly card and I think this really works. It is all about the paper and the theme so I deliberately kept the sentiment small and unobtrusive.

I hope you enjoy this card and come back to SPI again soon.

Gisèle

2009 Favourites

Hello everyone,

Today's card is inspired by the current Crafty Cardmakers challenge which was to use a favourite from 2009. I thought this would be soooo easy but actually finding a favourite was really difficult. I've come across so many fantastic cardmaking things this year that it was hard to choose something.

Again, I started with the standard Halcraft card base. I used the Stampin' Up Medallion stamp in Bermuda Bay. The medallion was highlighted with Start Dust Stickles. The sentiment is Gina K Designs Tags Lines.
This is the first time since I started with Stampin' Up in 2006 that I absolutely fell in love with each and every In Colour. I couldn't wait to get my hands on each and every one. I also fell in love with this stamp. I find it indescribably striking. It is one of the first things I bought out of the new Stampin' Up catalogue. Another 2009 favourite is Stickles. I love Stickles and am hard-pressed not to use it on each and every card. The other thing I fell in love with this year was clean and simple cards. It has taken me a while to be able to craft a clean and simple card confidently. I've said it before but I am utterly inspired by Susan Raihala's Simplicity blog and look forward to each and every email update. Finally my most favourite thing in 2009 has to be blogging!
There are a ton of other favourite things in 2009 but I just couldn't fit them into one card. I love anything Glamour Dusted what a spectacular technique. I love Shimmerz especially when combined with a nice textured piece of cardstock. I also love the effect created by Ranger Adirondack Alcohol inks. When combined with Glamour Dust, nothing beats it. I absolutely fell in love with white organza ribbon. I stretched that recycled piece forever and am utterly thankful I found a new roll of it. I found some pretty awesome stamp sets and ribbon this year as well - far too many to name, let alone put onto a card. There is probably a whole lot more favourites from this year I just can't think of it off the top of my head.
I hope you enjoy this card and my list of favourites, may it inspire you to take out your own favourites and get crafty!
Gisèle