A Couple of Sweet New Baby Cards.

We've got a new little one (a baby girl, Emily) who has arrived into our extended family.  One of my Nieces, Sara, has just had this sweet little bundle of joy.  I therefore, am making a couple of cards  to send one to her and one to the next new Mama.

The stamps I wanted to use were bought just as soon as I learned Sara was pregnant!  They are Stampin Up "Born to be Loved".  As these are no longer in the current line up of the Stamp Up product catalog, you'll have to use a substitute.  I simply heat embossed the large heart sentiment in gold onto 65# white paper.

The next step was cutting out the watercolor stripes die from Alt e New.  I used a colorful piece that I had previously sprayed with various Lindy's Stamp Gang Spray Mist colors a while ago.   I also found a duo-toned piece of paper that matched the colors so well, I used that as the card base.

Then I thought of using some specialty paper for the frame of the stamped sentiment and a neat (MFT or LF?) heart shaped die.  It was really just a line of hearts in a heart shape so then I had to cut it twice to have the hearts on the edges show up!  

Ugh, look, in the picture above , you can clearly see that it'd be a thin line of hearts!  I need to look more carefully at where the edges are on the dies before I use them on the stamped paper!  I decided to use the ECD Specialty Mylar Shimmer Sheetz in gold.  

I then began assembly and gluing down the elements to card fronts.  One of them I left without any sentiments as I can then use it when needed for a wedding shower or some such event in the future.  Here is how they turned out:

The other card I did add the sentiments; for the new baby Emily's Parents.  Now, I'm off to write a check & send it out!

Thanks for coming by.  

Hugs, Nina

A Christmas Card & CTD #509

While I had my inks out and the stamp sets available, I thought I'd enter one of the cards into the CTD#509 Color Throw Down.  The colors for this week are orange, red, & blue.  this may be a strange combo for my Christmas cards, but why not?

I started with a dark Blue card base and added the white paper embossed with the stars in Delicata Pigment Ink in Golden Glitz.  I placed the card base onto my Hampton Arts Stamp Press and use the Simon Says Stamp Christmas Circle Sayings  stamp set to place the sentiment onto the card front in Stampin Up Cherry Cobbler ink.

I then stamped the images from the Stampin Up Night in Bethlehem stamp set into the circle.  I tried to cut the edges of a post it note to cover up the parts that I'd already inked and it sorta worked.  The darn post it note was too thin and some of the ink bled through!  Yikes!

So, I ended up stamping and cutting another of the images from this stamp set to cover up this boo-boo.  I picked the two travelers and the donkey image to mostly cover up the mess.  Yeah!  

The final result which I am submitting into the Color Throw Down #509 this week:  If you haven't been to their blog, you really must go and check it out.  It is very easy to participate and fun.

Hugs, Nina

Starting my Christmas Cards.

Sorry, It has been a long while since I got to work on cards and post here.  Had some family issues to deal with and I'm now back at it.

When I told my husband, Jeff, that I was going to work on my Christmas Cards today, he laughed!  He exclaimed, "What, why now, why so early??"  Little did he realize that I was actually starting this project very late by most card makers time tables.

I decided to use my Stampin Up set of "Night in Bethlehem" as I have recently bought them and I wanted to give them some time on the craft desk.  I also have the corresponding dies of this set.

The cards were from a  big box of Ombre Cards that I found at Hobby Lobby.  

I used some Distress Oxide Inks to color up the card fronts.  

 It was then sprayed with some water to emulate stars in the night sky. 

I then began to stamp onto cards and emboss some of the images also.   I ended up using some gold some Holographic and some copper colored embossing powders in all.

I ended up with many images of the stamps and proceeded to die cut those out as well as die cutting out the buildings from papers which I had previously sprayed with many colors of Lindy's Sprays.  I keep these papers handy and use them sparingly.  I hate to use them, but then I'm just hoarding them, am I not?

I also had a Unbranded die of a Middle Eastern skyline that I found and put into use! 

Then I fooled around with the placement of the individual elements and the sentiments onto the cards.  This was quite a chore.  I had no idea how many cards would be made, but I knew it was going to be the EXCITING part so I got cracking.

Then I went onto Pinterest to see what I could see and found this card made with these stamps where the clever Gal had cut out "Noel" from the stamped image on card front and re-inserted the letters into the cut outs a bit askew, to show the shadow.  I had those large Uppercase 5cm letter Framelit Dies and so off I went to do my own version of this card.

These came out so fresh! 

Now, for the remaining cards, I thought of cutting out some of the sentiments and images that I'd stamped.   It was a fun chore just experimenting with their placement.and various colors of card stock for the card bases.  I finally got them set up like I wanted, so now all that is remaining to do is to get them glued down.

Then I realized I needed to add some stamped stars and so I did that first onto the card fronts to gussy them up a bit more.  Some of the stark white ones, especially.

This is how I ended up placing all the elements on.  Here are the first six cards!!!

And the other six cards in this other shot:

Plus the two from before (6+6+2=14).  The end result was a whopping 14 cards!!! I usually print and  need about 125 cards to send out, but I only send the handmade ones to those who'll appreciate it! 

I'd say, I'm well on my way here.

Thank you for stopping by.

Hugs,

Nina