One Layer Christmas Cards–StampTV challenge

OLCC challenge–easy to mail! VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

One thing I love about making cards is having the ability to make them easy to mail (that is, not bulky or heavy that requires more than one postage stamp).  Here are some cards I made this weekend with a few ladies who came over to stamp Christmas cards (I will share that in a future post). 

These cards are One Layer Christmas Cards for Giovana's Free For All Friday challenge at StampTV!   While the ladies were stamping, I decided to check out some of Gina K’s videos at StampTV to show them all the great things STV has to offer and they are thrilled about the videos!  We actually watched about 7 of them together.  I loved the simple one layer card she made just swiping a few distress inks on it and placing a Christmas image over it in black ink then placing a sentiment at the bottom.  I was able to whip up these cards in no time at all and the ladies enjoyed watching and even making one of their own! 

I used stamps from Blessed is the Season and Holiday Cheer for my cards.  Base weight white cardstock, Memento Tuxedo Black ink and the distress inks are: Bundled Sage, Crushed Olive, Fired Brick, Tumbled Glass.  I need to get Stormy Sky now so I can make a card EXACTLY like the one Gina did though!  I also blinged up my images with stickles, Inkssentials white opaque pen and gold smooch!  You can click on the collage of photos to see them bigger.

Hope you will play along in the challenge for your chance to win a free stamp set from Gina K valued up to $24.95!  The drawing is random, you have until Thursday evening to upload your creation and you have nothing to lose – in fact, you can knock out a few Christmas cards for your stash like I did!  Most importantly, you should have fun doing it!!  

Mix It Up Monday: Clean & Simple Sketch!

I made a little time to stamp last night – yea me!  I remember a time not long ago I would have the energy to stamp or do something craft every day of the week but it seems like a thing of the past since my office moved 50 mins away from our house!  I really miss it, but sometimes there’s not enough hours in the evening to care for my house, cook and still spend time with John and get to bed at a decent hour since I get up so early in the mornings. 

So, I will try to post more during the week, it seems I may have lost some of my readers over the past week who knows why though. Here is a card for this week’s StampTV challenge Mix It Up Monday: Gettin’ Sketchy! which is hosted by the Lovely Lee Murphy! I am totally impressed the layer queen made a clean & simple sketch so I just had to play & give her a shout out! Great job, Lee! I used the new set The Vine for my clean & simple card.

Card details
Stamps: The Vine
Cardstock: Ivory, Green Apple, Just Peachy Pure Luxury
Inks: Rich Cocoa, Pear Tart Memento
Accessories:  brown satin ribbon, copic markers, spicaatyou glitter pen

Free for all Friday–Get Krafty!

Happy Friday!!  I am so glad it’s finally here!  Seems the week went by a tad slow.  I am excited because tonight is the Friday Night Sew In so I plan to hunker down and sew as much as I can as soon as I get home from work,  I plan to share with you what I make tomorrow so I hope you will be back to see!

Cat is today’s challenge hostess on StampTV and you know she loves kraft cardstock so her challenge is for us to use it on our project.  I love kraft too, especially to stamp on it with white craft ink and color with colored pencils (my ‘krafty’ version of ‘Black Magic’ technique where you do the same but use black cardstock).  That is super fun too!  I used the new StampTV kit Springtime Silhouettes, white, key lime and kraft pure luxury cardstock.  I finished off my card with a small embellishment of a white button with a little green cotton thread.  This card came together pretty quickly since I kept it clean & simple – don’t ya just love that sometimes? 

I will be the hostess for Monday’s challenge; hope you will play along then too!  You really should if you are not, because we draw a random winner of each challenge to get a FREE GKD stamp set valued up to $24.95!  You don’t have to have GKD stamps to play either, but if you do you get your name in the drawing twice!!

‘See’ ya tomorrow!!

Follow Your Dreams night sky

Here is my attempt at a sponged night sky using Theresa’s beautiful set Follow Your Dreams.  Since I wanted the night sky to take center stage, I framed it with black onyx and placed it on white pure luxury cardstock, which makes it a great clean & simple card!  I love those in case I hadn’t told you lately. 

Sorry this post is so short; it’s past my bedtime as I write this and I have had a long week – this weekend I will be busy working on my quilt and a card order so I may not have anything to share.  Hang in there with me though because I will be back again soon, promise! 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Simple Crazy Daisy card

Here is a simple card I made using Melanie’s Branching Out set and her first digital paper pack called Crazy Daisy!  I used the 1/4 sheet pack for my card – how quickly a card can come together using it!  All I had to do was stamp my focal image and cut it out and adhere it all with some double-stitch 5/8” grosgrain ribbon.  I really like this card too!  Sorry this post is so short but this card was so easy, there’s not much to explain!  All Supplies used can be found in the Gina K Store!!

Supplies
Stamps: Branching Out
Cardstock: White, Black Onyx, Red Hot Pure luxury
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Ladybug
Accessories: 5/8” double-stitch black grosgrain ribbon

Gina K. March release - time to shop!!

Happy Friday everyone!  Well depending on when you're reading this post *wink*  I have been waiting for this day all week!!  This time change has been a little rough for me - I prefer the FALL back where we seem to get an 'extra' hour as opposed to losing one!  Did you make it to the Gina K release party last night??  We had a lot of fun - at one point we had 700 people at StampTV and we crashed for a bit!  But it came back up.  The videos by Gina were wonderful, the samples by the design team inspiring, and the excitement over the sets by our fans was contagious!  We even had a few surprises *more about that later in my post*  We are celebrating the 2-year anniversary of StampTV in style!  With a purchase of $35 you will get the trendy Celebrate in Style for free!  And with a purchase of 3 stamp sets, you will get the beautiful new Stenciled Silhouettes for free!!  Don't forget as always you will get FREE priority shipping with a $50 purchase.

Here is the snippet of Tami's Perfect Pennants I shared yesterday, the full card!  I adore how this card turned out, using some scraps on my desk and a clean & simple design with black accents that create a POP that I love!  In the set is a long straight line you can ink up and hang the pennants from which I did here.  I didn't try to line up the pennants though, I stamped them on scrap cardstock and cut them out to place them perfectly in a row.  I also added some rhinestone accents in between them for a little bling. 

Now here is another Clean & Simple card I made using Nina's Lovely Labels 3  .  I love this set, it can lend itself to some beautiful vintage designs and she made the set to work for nice masculine cards.  This makes for a nice Father's Day card.  I used black detail embossing on the image so it really pops off the white. 

**So about the exciting SURPRISE last night**
We have hired a Stamptv Talentscout who will be cruising galleries on Stamp TV!  Every Monday this Scout will feature a gallery on the Stamp TV Facebook Fan Page for the entire week! An Emmy Award Winning Gallery that is!  Various GKD only cards will featured throughout the week and Gina will send a little surprise Grab Bag to the Featured Stamper!  So show us your best work and fill your gallery with Gina K. gorgeousness!!!!  And check each Monday on our Facebook Fan Page to see who the Next Big Stamp TV Star will be!

Thanks for stopping by today; I will be back no later than Tuesday with a Gina K new release hop although ALL the stamps are available for purchase NOW!!  Including a beautiful new cardstock color Wild Lilac!  After stamping for this release, I want to take some time sewing, reading and hanging out with my DH this weekend.  If the sewing goes successfully, I will share what I made with you! 

FTL90 Blooms

I just love the clean & simple style especially when I am on a time crunch and the mojo may be lacking a little!  I always love a good sketch too, so for my card today I went to the Fall-to-Layout blog and grabbed my TE stamps Garden Party Blooms and made this card using the FTL90. 

Supplies: Garden Party Blooms; Cardstock: Parakeet & Lagoon (Bazzill Basics); Inks: Palette; Accessories: Caribbean Swirl organdy; Moonlight, Siren, Gold Lame, Green Apple,  and Taffy Smooch

CAS17 & 18: Pretty Bear

I managed to miss last week’s Clean & Simple Challenge so I figured I would combine it with this week’s so I can stay current. It’s the only challenge at SCS I have been committed to so I may as well follow-through!

For last week’s challenge {CAS17}, we were to draw inspiration from beach totes/towels and I used the little bear hooded towel below so I could use my newly released Giving Tree sets Whimsical Wishes Beary Special & Beary Special accessories, by Taylored Expressions!

For this week’s challenge {CAS18}, we are to use pinks/corals, kraft & one other color cardstock. I chose to use pattern paper, prism cardstock colors & embellishments from the April Key Ingredient Subscription kit by Taylored Expressions, because it fit the feel I set out to achieve for my pretty bear!

I colored my bear with prismacolor pencils and blended with odorless mineral spirits and placed a paper-pieced bow by the bear’s ear to make her pretty! I can’t help but smile when I look at this bear!

Remember, a portion of the sale of each of these sets goes to a worthy cause, The Hospital for Sick Children (Sick Kids) a health-care community dedicated to improving the health of children. Their mission is to provide the best in family-centered, compassionate care, to lead in scientific and clinical advancement, and to prepare the next generation of leaders in child health. The hospital is located in Canada, but is known around the world for its innovation and leadership in research. You can read more about their much needed and very effective work by visiting their website. I just knew when I first saw this set it was going to become my favorite and you will see another reason why soon when I have a special Stamp a Sweet Impression project to share with you!

CAS07: Punched Blooms

The Clean and Simple challenge for today was posted late last night so I was able to play but knew I wouldn’t upload until today (I’m on my lunch break on my laptop). I am so excited about the Marvy Flower punches I got from Gina K Designs which coordinate with the Bold Flowers from the Floral Frenzy stampTV kit. If you’re not interested in purchasing the whole kit, never fear…the sets will be available to purchase separately after the new kit debuts.

CAS07 is to use Punches but keep it Clean and Simple still! I grabbed a few bright colors {Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun and Pink Passion} to stamp my flowers and punch, adding a coordinating Fire rhinestone brads by SU! on top of a 3/4” Black Onyx center. To tie in the black, I stamped my sentiment from Tag Lines and outlined the flowers with a black pen. I used Kurtis' sketch challenge {STVSC4} at stampTV for this card too!

Since I loved those colors so much, and it never hurts to do 2 cards in one sitting rather than just one, I decided to include a slightly stepped-up card. I love the pop of black, so I used the larger flower punch for a black onyx layer. The centers of these flowers to add more white accents are white metal dots I got at Joanne’s last year. Of course I had to add some embossing since that is a no-no with CAS but since this is MY stepped-up card it was o.k.!! I added a few swatches of ribbon {pumpkin twill and pink grosgrain} from Taylored Expressions to coordinate and chose to use another punch for my sentiment from the set. I just love BOTH cards!!

P.S. if you would like to see a bigger view of the cards I post, you can click on them.

P.S.S. Gina K has some nestability blog candy to giveaway in honor of her last video on stampTV
using Nestabilities in your Cuttlebug!

Thanks for visiting today!