I Spy with My Little Eye - Something with Feathers or Fur

I am so excited to be a guest designer with Elliebelle's Corner this month.  Each month, Ellie and her co-host Pauline pick their  favorites and feature the cards on the blog and then the designer of the card is asked to join them in next month's challenge.  My Stitched Sunflower card was picked by Pauline in last month's challenge.

This month's theme is "Something with Feathers or Fur".  Well even though I love all of God's creatures, I am partial to birds, so I have not one, but two bird cards to show you.  My first card is the one that will be featured on Ellie's blog.  The second one is just an extra. 

Peacock Card

My hubby, whose love language is not gifts, always gives me money for my birthday and Christmas.  I've always found this hysterical since we have a joint bank account and if I wanted money I would take it out myself.   I usually just buy other people stuff with the money or pay bills, but this year I did spend a little on myself.  Spellbinders had a huge Black Friday sale so I bought quite a few new toys.  I hadn't updated my paper crafting supplies in a while, so it was time.  Styles change in the paper crafting world just like they do in fashion and home decor, and if you want to stay relevant in the paper crafting world, you have to purchase the new toys! ha ha!

The biggest changes I noticed in paper crafting was less stamped images and more die cuts, 3D embossing, and stenciling, so I invested in a lot of dies, embossing folders, and stencils.

The dies today are so much better than my old Cuttlebug dies.  They are all so detailed with embossed features and come in so many layers/pieces.  In the old days, a die was just one shape, now a die, like this peacock die, can come in 11 pieces or more.  It does make assembling and card making a more tedious process, of which I'm still getting used to, but the results sure are beautiful.  

To make this card I used "Spellbinder's Kaleidoscope Peacock".  I cut all the pieces out of the DCWV "Royal Garden Matstack " solid and designer packs, then I assembled the peacock and put it up on dimensionals onto a white panel cut with a Spellbinder's Nestability.  Gems were added for embellishment.  The sentiment is from Crafty Secrets "Mouse Party" and is embossed in gold to match the gold foil designer paper.

Bird House Card

My next card uses one of Spellbinder's large dies sets called "Snow Capped Holidays".  This one is currently sold out so I can't provide a link for you.  Spellbinder's large die sets are HUGE.  One die set fills up an entire card and contains so many dies.  This card truly was a labor of love, but I sure do like the result.

To make my card I first embossed a light green background with a "Forever Green" Spellbinder's embossing folder (sold out), then I swiped a white ink pad over the raised parts.  All the pieces from the set were then cut out.  I ink blended and/or colored some of the pieces with Copic Markers.  Sometimes I think it's quicker and easier to just cut the little pieces (like the bird beaks and berries) all in white card stock and then color them in.  It can take a lot of time to cut all the little pieces in different colors of card stock.  I then assembled everything, and popped the bird house up on dimensionals.  The sentiment is from Spellbinder's "Winter Wonderland" sentiments. 

 I hope you enjoyed all my "Something with Feathers..." cards today.  If you're a card maker, we'd love to have you join us in the "I Spy with My Little Eye" link up this month.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

More Handmade Christmas Cards

I have a few more handmade Christmas cards to share with you.  All the cards were made with retired Stampin' Up! images.

For my first card I created a simple nativity scene by using textured card stock to make a "barn".  

I created a frame by cutting a large square in the white card stock base.  The images were stamped, colored, and cut out then glued to the black card stock.  The star was done the same way except I added some glitter glue and popped it up on dimensionals.

For my next card, the star and sentiment are from a Stampin' Up! set but the image was just googled off the internet (free coloring pages), printed, colored in, then cut out.

I cut the star out of glitter paper, then I added some crystal clear glitter glue around the sentiment.

For this card, I stamped the background image and sentiment directly on the card stock, but the Joseph and Mary figures were stamped separately, colored in, cut out, and glued on the card.

I put crystal clear glitter glue on the stars in the sky.

I even did the inside of the card too, but this time I colored the Joseph and Mary images in with pencil so they wouldn't bleed through on the other side of the card stock.

And finally, here's some easy peasy cards I mass produced.

I just stamped a sentiment and simple Christmas tree image on the card and added a little sparkle with glitter glue.

I hope you enjoyed my Christmas cards!

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

 

Gingerbread Men Christmas Cards

I've been trying NOT to send out Christmas cards anymore.   Between the time involved with making my own Christmas cards, plus the cost of Postage and Handling, it just seems an unnecessary added stress to the holiday I don't need.  On the receiving end, my Christmas cards have been getting less and less every year.  I think this is due to the older generation dying off (those are the die-hard Christmas card people!),  and the younger generation just doing the annual social media holiday post.  I always feel obligated to return a Christmas card to aging relatives who are not on social media, and if you have any of those loved ones in your family, I highly recommend sending them a snail mail card.  It will mean the world to them to get a warm holiday greeting in the mail, along with an updated family photo.

Nevertheless, despite my sad attempts to not send out Christmas cards, whenever I get a Christmas card in the mail, I still feel obligated to return one.  Here are a couple of cards I made using some gingerbread men I had in my stash.  The gingerbread men were die cuts I had made with the grandchildren on a previous project.

I cut the gingerbread men using a Circuit machine then just adhered him to a piece of coordinating designer paper.  I then cut a sentiment banner, stamped a sentiment, and adhered it to the card using brads.

My next card is an example of how you can still use broken die cut pieces to create a card.  For whatever reason, these gingerbread men didn't cut out well, so I used just a small portion of them on my card:  just the undamaged pieces.  I put them in film frames (also cut with a circuit) and added some fun sentiments stamped on black paper with white craft ink.

I adhered all the frames to a fun Christmas designer paper and added another sentiment to the bottom frame.

After a decade of seeing a declining amount of Christmas cards, last Christmas I received more Christmas Cards than ever...so much for me NOT sending out Christmas cards anymore.  I ended up scrambling to make more Christmas cards, which I will show you next week.

This year, I am once again NOT planning on sending out Christmas cards.  We will see how that goes. 😁

So what about you?  Do you still send out Christmas cards?  I'd love to hear from you.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!