The Three Wisemen Card

     As you can see I am on a roll with my Christmas cards this year. The more I do the more intricate I am getting. This is my new favorite for the week, lol. Fortunately I had cut these out in anticipation of our possibly losing power. It is truly a miracle that THIS time we didn't. However you can still see the snow that is left over and this is 5 days later.
     This time I went with a 5x7" card base. The card stock is a cream with a nice sheen to it. The image was cut using the Inspired Heart image @ 3" and the background is from a pale blue glossy card stock.I really love using embossing of all kinds on my cards and this has both dry and heat embossing.The background is Swiss dots whereas I used heat embossing for the stars in the upper right hand corner as well as the sentiment "Unto us a child is born".  The embossing powder is a detail silver and really makes a statement! Both stamps are from Inkadinkado.

     The flower was cut from Flower Shoppe cart by ProvoCraft.  I cut them @ various sizes: 1 3/4" and 1- 1/2". I used a DCWV stack and Donna Salazar's technique with the tulle and added some of her Pixie Dust Glitter. I assembled the card by using silver thread to sew the image and background together before adhering it to the card base.

     I thought the flower would balance the stars off and the colors just seemed to fit.It gives it a quiet elegance don't ya think?

     I also added a sentiment on the inside and used a rich blue ink. It says: "Peace on earth will come to stay, when we live Christmas everyday." I just love this sentiment. It would be wonderful if we could have that warm feeling year round, don't you agree?

By The Sea

     I'm back!!! So I told you I have been busy with projects. I'm still working on the spare bedroom ( you know, the nautical themed one). I decided to make a wall plaque using a variety of techniques I have learned from my classes @ My Creative Classroom.
     The shape is from Donna Salazar's Creative Book Pages template from Spellbinders. I used Zutters corrugated card board for the base and used Donna's technique using white opaque ink and some white embossing powder. This gives such a cool effect!
      The stamp in from Inkadinkado ( I incorrectly identified this stamp in a previous post). If you want to see the color combos I used with copic markers just check out the post for the Graduate card.
     The tag is a shipping label that I used smooch spritz on and then used Beacons liquid laminate  to attach the quotes from K & Company Sea stack.I made a little pocket out of craft cork that I backed with card stock to give it a little stability. I also found these fish brads hanging around in my brad drawer just waiting to be used, lol.
     I dug into my treasure trove of embellies and found this metal art that says "Best of Times" and a small one in the corner that says " remember". The top of the tag is finished with some cotton cording and a small silver seashell charm.
     I always love to incorporate something of meaning into my art work and this piece is no exception. Do you see the seashell I used for the hanger? This is from a door tag that was on our hotel room door when we visited Hawaii back in the '90's! How this inspires you a little.

Copics class

     Well I think I'm finally getting the hang of this! For those of you who follow me regularly you know I love taking on line classes to learn all the latest and greatest in crafting. Simply Scrapping has a fantastic course on use these alcohol based markers. It's one of the most challenging courses I have taken yet. Its a lot like watercolor but using a marker like a brush. The on line teacher is a certified Copic Instructor although the course I am taking is not for certification. Let me tell you she is tough. That being said, I guess it is all about learning from your mistakes. Anyway I am felling a lot me comfortable now.
     I just thought I'd share my last attempt at my class. It's all about shading and light source as well as mastering 3 separate techniques. The original method, tip to tip and modified feathering. Are you impressed yet, lol?

     The only problem with this is you have to REALLY think about what you are doing.
     The wonderful thing about on line classes are that they are self paced and they give you up to 6 months to complete this class so if something comes up not to worry you have plenty of time to finish.
     The reason I jumped into this one so fast is that I have another class from My Creative Classroom starting this week with Donna Salazar. Her class (Artsy Fartsy II) was suppose to start last month but some supplies for the class were back ordered. So instead of starting March 12 it's starting April 13th and runs for 6 weeks.
     I love to devote my time to these classes without feeling rushed so it is great that there was a delay in Donna's class so I could get my feet wet in the copics class. Oh by the way Simply Scrapping has several great challenges going on so I'll be entering a few of these. Boy are the creative juices flowing! Just add a comment if you'd like more info about the links for these classes. Let the creativity continue!!!

Return To Bermuda

     Another challenge, yeah! The Cricut Circle Blog has both weekly and monthly challenges. The monthly challenge is the one where I submitted the "I Love Candy" shirt. The weekly challenge required you to use Baby ( Brads, Aqua, Butterfly and You). They were right with this challenge to require you to use a picture of yourself. We are the ones who take the pics but rarely do a layout of our self. I chose a picture of our trip to Bermuda back in 1999. We had gone there for our honeymoon so returned 25yrs. later with our youngest who was 11 years old at the time.
     I started with this beautiful paper by K&Company, Que Sera fera stack. This is such a beautiful aqua color and goes well with my pic.I also love this paper from Recollections I got @ M's. It's a colored core and is sand able! All my flowers were cut from Tim Holtz floral die but embossed with various cuttlebug folders and inked with distressed inks by Ranger. The centers have either rhinestone brads or mini picture type brads. If you look close the bottom center flower has a butterfly on it!
     You also needed to use cuts from your cricut so I went back to my library and pulled out one of my favorite carts Base Camp. I cut all the letters @ 1" and used the blackout, shadow and regular features. The frame was cut using Lacy Labels @ 4". I used some natural raffia so I could hang the words Bermuda on it.
     My journal ling tag is cut from Spellbinders Labels but the journal ling tag was stamped with Donna Salazar" new tag. Can I just say how awesome her stamps are? They are lightweight and stamp beautifully.

     I finished this off by adding glossy accents on the red flower for dimension and painted some petal areas with Creative Inspirations Garnet paint. The butterfly is also K&Company. I was going to make my own but the colors in this were perfect. The above picture is shot at an angle to give you an idea of the details on this LO. I really have to start doing more layouts.

Twelve Days Of Christmas Tags

The Twelve Days Of Christmas
Thanks to Donna Salazar and her Artsy Fartsy
class I took over at My Creative Classroom, I was able to create these wonderful tags to showcase my twelve days of Christmas ornaments.
     We have had these for years and rotate them to different locations ever year. Some years they are on the tree, sometimes in a window , hanging from a light fixture (you get the idea!). This year I add them to the entrance way.

           
     After they were up I felt it was missing something and thought what about tags? I made the paper tags by using my Imagine machine and printed out the music paper. Next up I cut the tags using Very Merry tags@ 2 1/2". Then it was time to get inky! I used perfect pearls copper color and Tim Holtz rusty nail, spritzed, scrunched and finally inked with tea dye. The # were cut at 1" with Base Camp out of a gorgeous gold prism paper and then tied with red raffia to the appropriate ornament.

     Now its confession time. I actually had to look up the words to the song to make sure I had them in the right order. It's funny how you THINK the song goes, lol.

My Creative Classroom!

    I've been lost in classes! I am absolutely in love with this site. I started taking classes here last spring and always find there are more I want to take!
   Right now I am taking 2 online classes with Donna Salazar. The first class is distrezz it 101. This class teaches you how to use the distrezz it all tool , its like a sander for paper, chipboard, cardboard etc.
   I'll post the final project after I finish the last class which ends with the tutorial and final techniques tomorrow.
   The other class I'm taking is also taught by Donna Salazar. Its called Artsy Fartsy. This class is way too much fun. I did purchase Donna's kit for this class. The papers are all designed by her and features wonderful watercolor paper.
   You'll notice on both of these pages there is a beautiful shimmer to the paper. This is a spritz technique that is just wonderful. I made my own spritz with reinkers, water and Ranger's perfect pearls

   One of the many things about Donna's classes is learning how to make these wonderful flowers She has made her own paper called Crafty Chronicles. I didn't want to cut the paper up because of the hilarious features she wrote including the ads.
   This page had a light lavender wash before I added the white braid and my rose bud flowers. Of course I added my own touches by using pearls, ribbon and a double heart charm.
   Even though I finish Distrezz It All 101 tomorrow, I have 3 more weeks of the fabulous Artsy Fartsy classes to go. I am also working on some projects with the Imagine and hope to complete some soon so I can share. (I had a lot of "homework" to do for my classes!)