Country Chic Christmas Card

Hi Everyone!  Hope this finds you all enjoying the holiday season! 

I've been shopping like a crazy lady, getting ready to host Christmas at my house this year!  I cannot wait--I am SOOOO excited!  My daughter and son-in-law and all of my grand kiddies will be here this year!  This will be the BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!!  :o)

 

This is my "country chic" Christmas card for today.  I used the same santa image as in my last post, but I colored them different.  The last one was in color and this one is in a sepia tone effect. I wanted to share more photos, but for now I seem to be out of storage here on google.  I will investigate the matter and get back to you.

I hope you've enjoyed my post for today.  Thank you for visiting my blog and I'll be back soon with another card to share.

Have a great day!

Merilee




 

Elegant Santa Christmas Card

Hello Everyone!  This week is Thanksgiving and I hope you are all enjoying the holiday season! 

We live far away from our family so we won't be celebrating with them this Thanksgiving.  Our kids may be grown now with families of their own, but my husband and I still have each other and we will have a cozy little Thanksgiving of our own, just the two of us.

When our home was bustling with children, I wondered what it would be like someday when our kids were grown.  I must admit that it can be lonely sometimes; however, there are wonderful things about it, too.  My husband and I really do enjoy each other's company and have lots of fun together.  Our life isn't quite as serious as it used to be when we were raising our family, which means we don't worry like we used to.  We are having fun dating again, too--something I thought was long over, and now we actually have time to stop and smell the roses!

We thank The Lord for our wonderful family and all of our beautiful grandchildren, but we are also thankful for our little family of two.  God has blessed us with so many gifts, and among them a most precious gift--the gift of us.  Together we've lived through a lifetime of experiences and we're looking forward to many more adventures to come! 

In the spirit of the holiday season, I'm sharing a Christmas card I made using one of the Santas that I shared with you in my last post here.  I decided to do an elegant card with this image and I really like the way it turned out.  I entered this card in the Cardz TV Design Challenge #21, "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas".

My card base is a bit larger to accommodate the image and its mat.  I folded an 8-1/2x11 piece of cardstock in half to create a finished size of 5-1/2 x 8-1/2.  I used my Cricut Expression and Elegant Edges Cricut Cartridge-Stamp (Pg. 37) to create the "stamp" mat for Santa.  You can read more about that in my last post here.

Santa is mounted on foam tape to set him apart from the card base.  I also added two strips of silver embossed foil cardstock to the left edge, topped with a silver snowflake cut from a Martha Stewart punch.  A rhinestone was added to the center for a little sparkle.

Just right of Santa is matted cardstock tied with a bow.  I added two more rhinestone studded snowflakes, along with a small ornament that I cut with my Cricut Expression using the Christmas Cheer cartridge (HohohoS - Pg.89).  Here is a closer look:

The ornament base is cut from silver embossed foil cardstock and topped with a circle from black sparkle cardstock.  Centered on that is a Merry Christmas stamp from the Whimsy Holiday Postmark set.

For the inside of the card, I followed a similar layout to the card front.  The sentiment is stamped in black and embossed with silver metallic embossing powder.  Hopefully you can see the shimmer below...

For the right edge, I tied a small bow and added three rhinestones in graduating sizes.

 

Well, that's my card for today.  I hope you enjoyed it!  I'll be back soon to post another card using the same Santa image, only this time in sepia tone.  You can view the image in my previous post here.  I plan to do a card with an entirely different feel.  It will be fun to compare the two once I'm finished.

I'm sending you wishes for a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving, whether celebrating with a large family or simply among yourselves.  May God bless you all with health and happiness this holiday season!

I hope to see you again soon!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Merilee

Recipe

Cardstock:  Best Occasions Glitter Paper Pack; Fancy Pants Designs-My Family Collection; AC Specialty Paper-Foil; Recollections Cardstock; X-Press It-Blending Card
Stamps:  Flourishes-Santa I Believe SS085; Whimsy Stamps-Holiday Circle Postmarks
Inks:  Memento-Tuxedo Black; Tim Holtz-Black Soot, Festive Berries
Markers and Pens: Letraset Promarkers - Sets 1 and 2, Skin Tones and Skin Accents; Sharpie Extra Fine Point Markers; Sakura Stardust Galaxy Gelly Roll Pens and Classic Bright White Gelly Roll Pens
Ribbons and Cord:  Really Reasonable Ribbon-November Assortment; Cousin-Waxed Linen Cord
Embellishments:  Rhinestones-In Bloom by Bead Design; Snowflakes-Martha Stewart Snowflake Punch
Cricut Cartridges:  Elegant Edges-Stamp (Pg. 37); Christmas Cheer-HohohoS (Pg. 89)
Adhesives:  Zig 3-Way Glue Pen; Pop Dots; Zots Mini Glue Dots; Scor-Tape; Scotch Mounting Tape; Scotch ATG
Tools:  Tim Holtz Blending Tool; Martha Stewart Score Board; Fiskars Paper Trimmer; Fiskars Easy Stamp Press; T-Square; Ink Daubers; Heat Gun; The Paper Studio Paper Snips; Scotch ATG Gun; Becca's Peg Bow Maker; Martha Stewart Snowflake Punch; Martha Stewart Self Healing Mat; Bazzill Basics Splat Mat

 

 

Santa Image Stamps

Hi Everyone!  I hope this finds you all doing well on this rainy, chilly Wednesday in November.  With all this gloomy weather, I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing than working in my art studio!

Today's post is about different ways to use one stamp in order to achieve various diverse results.  In this case, I'm using the Santa stamp from "Santa I Believe" (SS085) by Flourishes.   You can purchase it here.  I bought this stamp set last year because I love the vintage feel of this Santa image.  It conjures up fond memories of when I was a little girl, anticipating Santa's arrival on Christmas morning!  Sorry, nostalgia has struck me as it always does at this time of year.  :o}

I began with stamping the image twice and used my Letraset Promarkers to color them in different ways.  I wasn't sure what I was going for, so I wanted to try a couple of techniques.  Here are my results:

And here are close-ups of each one...

The first is done in rather muted colors to create an aged appearance.

The second is colored to create a sepia tone effect.  I like both images and decided to create a unique mat to showcase them.  Here are photos of the matted images side by side:

I really love them both--each one has a different feeling, even though the image is the same.  Here are some close-ups:

The mat that I chose is from the Cricut Cartridge, Elegant Edges, Stamp (Pg. 37).  I cut it twice, once with the shift function in white cardstock and then with the shadow function in gray cardstock. Then I cropped the stamped image in a square with my paper trimmer to fit just inside the mat.  The edges are inked in Tim Holtz Black Soot Distress Ink.  I really love the way it enhanced the image.

The second mat is cut exactly the same, but I substituted cream and brown cardstock instead, even though I stamped the image on white.  Once I softened all of the edges with Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink, it unified the colors and brought them all together.  As you can see, I left just enough white to highlight Santa's face.

Today I will create the final cards using these as my focal images.  I've been toying with several ideas for card layouts and haven't been able to choose.  I don't know about you, but I sometimes need to separate myself from the project for awhile to gain fresh perspective. I will put it all together and share the results with you in tomorrow's post.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope to see you again soon!

Merilee

Recipe:

Cricut Cartridges:  Elegant Edges - Stamp (Pg. 37)
Cardstock:  Recollections
Blending Card:  X-Press It
Stamps:  Flourishes - Santa I Believe #SS085
Ink:  Memento - Tuxedo Black; Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Black Soot, Brushed Corduroy
Markers and Pens:  Letraset Promarkers - Sets 1 and 2, Skin Tones and Skin Accents; Sharpie Extra Fine Point Markers; Sakura Stardust Galaxy Gelly Roll Pens and Classic Bright White Gelly Roll Pens
Tools:  Tim Holtz Blending Tool; Fiskars Paper Trimmer, Easy Stamp Press, ; Cutter Bee Paper Snips; T-Square; Martha Stewart Self Healing Mat; Bazzill Basics Splat Mat

 

Fun Halloween Photos to Share!

Hi Everyone!  Hope your Halloween was wonderful.  Can you believe it is November already?!?  Time sure does fly when you're having fun!

Today I'd like to share some pics of my sweet grandchildren.  They are Nana's little angels and they make my life wonderful!

From oldest to youngest, the first is Missy.  She loves cats so, of course, what else could she be??

Papa and I were out shopping one day and found this darling hot pink, sequined mask that we thought she'd love.

 



Next is Sissy.  She wanted to be an Egyptian and I can't imagine a cuter one!

We found this darling Egyptian headdress to go with her costume and thought it would be perfect.

 And here they are together...

You've all seen my fierce ninjago, Sammy!  He asked Nana to sew his costume this year and then he and his Mommy added the finishing touches.  Doesn't he look great?

And, last but certainly not least, is Baby Sissy!  Doesn't she make the cutest little cowgirl?  This was a costume I sewed for her big sister when she was little and it has been handed down to each girl to wear on Halloween!  :o)

I wish I could have been there to help them celebrate, but they live very far away.  At least I had an opportunity to take a small part in making their day great.  I always send them a treat box with lots of goodies and they carried their Halloween buckets to collect more candy. 

Being a grandmother is so much more than meets the eye--I just couldn't imagine life any other way.  I love each one of them so much.  They have very different personalities and are very special in his or her own way.  They have unique gifts to share with the world and bright futures ahead.  God has blessed us in so many ways with these little angels!

Thanks for stopping by today and sharing in such a special part of my life.  I hope to see you again soon with another project to share!

Merilee