Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! It's been  a while. In summer and fall any free time I had was preoccupied by triathlon training. I finished the full Texas Tri series this year including my 2nd Half Iron. For Thanksgiving I was traveling and finishing up my Christmas cards. Now I finally have some time off to create and actually post.

Kicking off with the holiday card recap. Here are few from this year.

Of course I had to get the PTI bike stamp and die cut combo and most of my tri and cycling friends got some variation of the bike card.

The second is the snowflake using SU glitter paper. My snowflake punch had a hard time punching through this paper, but I managed to make a few.

Finally, I made a few more variations of the penguin card, like I do every year. These little guys are so cute I can't pass up using the stamp.

Supplies (All supplies are Stampin'Up! unless otherwise noted) :

• Stamps: PTI Pedal Pusher, Sincere Solutations, Whipper Snapper Pile of Penguins
• Paper: Baja Breeze, Certainly Celery, Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi, Basic Grey DP, SU DP
• Ink: Sahara Sand, Certainly Celery Real Red, Wild Wasabi, Copics
• Accessories: Michael's and SU ribbon, rhinestones, brads, SIE buttons
• Tools: PTI Pedal Pusher die cut, Martha Stewart punches

~Olgy

Winter Blues

I've come down with something. Not really sure what it is, its a flu or some sort of bug, but I spent the last weekend either in bed or on the couch and had no strength or motivation to do anything else. Even stamp [gasp]! I grabbed my box of Copics and some pre-stamped images and spent 6 hrs laying in bed and coloring. It was soothing and fun at the same time and I felt like a little kid. I also came to the conclusion that I really really need to practice my coloring technique (or lack thereof). I also convinced myself that getting more markers is the key :) All in all I colored 5 images (2 of which are usable) and I bought  30+ markers - seems reasonable, doesn't it? Copics are wonderful, but most of the time I can't dedicate enough time to color and perfect an image like I see so many talented artists do so we'll see how much use my markers will actually get. Hopefully I'll be posting improved cards here over time. 

For now here's a quick clean and simple card for for CASology winter challenge with some simple Copic shading. Love the GinaK 120lbs cardstock because the Copics don't show through the single layer. And I just can't resist adding Stickles or glitter to this image. Thanks for stopping by. 

Supplies :

• Stamps: Pile of Pinguins by Whipper Snapper, SU Warm Words
• Paper: GinaK white cardstock, SU Bashful blue
• Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics: B93, B97, B32, G02
• Accessories:Backer's twine, Stickles
• Tools:Oval punches

~Olgy

Martha Stewart Microbeads

I've had a few jars of Martha Stewart microbeads for a couple of years now. They looked so cute in the bottle I just couldn't resist buying them. However, a few times I've tried them on projects in the past, I've had trouble with them staying put after some time and didn't look like they could make it intact in the mail. 

This time I was determined to find ways to adhere the microbeads and ensure they stay put. Here are a few fun results.

1. Shaker card filling. Since I originally had trouble with the adhesives I tried, the first thing that came to mind was something that didn't require adhesive at all. I wanted to make a shaker card with these for a while and it was perfect for a FS308 SCS challenge card.

You have tto flip the card on the side to uncover the 3rd pinguin. Its a fun little Christmas card. I think microbeads worked really well here, but the only plastic packaging I had was pretty thick so I'm not sure if I can send this card in a regular envelope.

2. Securing microbeads with Crystal Effects or Glossy Accents. This seemed to be the most popular method when I searched online. Definitely works better than regular glue, but I still found that some beads continued to fall off when the project was dry. Gently pressing the beads into the glue helped.

3. I didn't make a project for the 3rd example yet, but this is a Glue Dot covered in microbeads. I'd expect similar results with sticky tapes. They actually seem to stay on pretty well. 

Shaker Card Supplies:

• Stamps: Pile of Pinguins by Whipper Snapper
• Paper: Kraft, Snowfall Ice Blue by Basic Grey
• Ink: White embossing powder
• Accessories: Martha Stewart blue topaz microbeads, rhinestones, clear plastic from packaging
• Tools: EK Success snowflake punch

Bella Card Supplies:

• Stamps: Stamping Bella Pheobe Ketto
• Paper: Very vanilla, Me & My Big Ideas DP, SU Bali Breeze DP, shimmery pink cardstock from stationary store
• Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Sahara Sand (for sponging)
• Accessories: Stickles, liquid pearls, Glossy Accents, metal tag (sorry forgot the brand), lace
• Tools: Nestabilities

~Olgy

Christmas Cards

In the past years I came up with Christmas card design and then made the same set for that year. It streamlined the process and I didn't have to think who gets which card. This year, however, I just couldn't make up my mind on what I wanted and continued to make cards until I had about a dozen different ones. I finally gave up on the idea of a single design. I just hope that everyone likes the card they end up with. Here's a sneak peak.

This first one is a cute penguin by Whipper Snapper. The layout was for a clean and simple SCS challenge, so it's pretty basic, but I flocked and added glitter to the little guy for some dimension. Both the tan (ok, I know penguins aren't tan, but he was willing to make the sacrifice for the sake of color coordination) and white parts are covered in fun flock which I had to apply it in two steps. If you want to know more about using flocking see my earlier Fun Flock Tutorial post.

Supplies: (All supplies are Stampin'Up! unless otherwise noted)

• Stamps: Whipper Snapper Ice Cream Penguin
  
• Paper: Very vanilla, My Minds Eye DP
  
• Ink: Momento Black, chocolate chip, close to cocoa, certainly celery, real red, rose royal, pumpkin pie
• Accessories:  RibbonFx, Fun Flock, Stickles

Next is a quick poinsettia card using Basic Grey paper. I just added some chunky glitter for a frosted effect and ribbon with sentiment. Each card is just a little different since it was cut from a 12x12 sheet.

Supplies (All supplies are Stampin'Up! unless otherwise noted) :

• Stamps: Cute and Curly
  
• Paper: Whisper white, Basic Grey Dasher DP collection
  
• Ink: Cranberry crisp
• Accessories: Ribbon, chunky glitter

For these next few cards I was trying to use up my Vintage Violet paper stash, which was one of the first "in colors" offered by Stampin'Up!. The first few are the fun Christmas tree Fluffles images and the last is a more traditional design. It didn't show up on the picture at all, but in person the card looks a lot prettier because there's glitter mixed in with the white embossing powder, so the card sparkles.

Supplies (All supplies are Stampin'Up! unless otherwise noted) :

• Stamps: Fluffles Tree by Stampendeous, Best Yet, Snowflake spot, Cute and Curly
• Paper: Vintage violet, whisper white
  
• Ink: Vintage violet, Versamark, sage shadow
• Accessories: Silver Stickles, Diamonds EP
  
• Tools: Cuttlebug, punches

~Olgy