5 Christmas cards of 2014

I've seen a few of my favorite cardmakers (here, here, and here) share their 5 favorite cards of 2014 and link up here, a fun Christmas card linky hosted by Debby at Scrapjourney. So I'm joining in on the fun and sharing 5 Christmas cards I made this year that are my faves. Save for one, my fave cards are one layers :o)

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What are your favorite 5 Christmas cards?

Thanks for stopping by!

~Shery

Paper craft project no. 321: Merry Christmas watercolor card

Merry Christmas, everyone! Popping by here to share a Christmas card I made earlier this week. Well, I'll be making more -- and real early this time around -- because I've got a new card-making challenge blog starting on January 6 and I'm excited to have 7 amazing cardmakers joining me twice a month in creating one layer Christmas cards. I hope you can come check it out, follow the blog, and play with us in January. We promise it will be fun and it'll be a great way to get a head start on next year's Christmas cards :o)

Anyway, you'll find this card over at Time Out because it serves as reminder for our Inspired by Words challenge: "Christmas is Love with All the Trimmings." We'd love it if you could join us. Take a little time out to craft your heart out ;o) 

I stamped the poinsettia in brown archival ink on watercolor paper. I used my Japanese watercolor brush pens to color the poinsettia and the background. I layered the colors, starting from lightest to darkest. Then I stamped the Christmas word block in brown ink and partially stamped them on the panel to get a grunge, vintage, textured look. I trimmed the panel to size, stamped the sentiment in black ink, and then ran my brown watercolor brush pen along the sides to create a distressed frame. I mounted the panel onto my card base, used a black gel pen to trace over the poinsettia, and added stickles for a little shine. And the card's done. This one I made for my in-laws and it's right under the tree along with our presents for them.

Our Christmas tree this year. DH and I finished decorating it this afternoon. Our living room's a bit crowded right now, and to make it easy on the in-laws, we decided to put the tree up on the low table -- easier to see and get to the presents that way without bending over too much. I went a little crazy on the Christmas lights! But hey, it's going to be for two days only so, what the hey...it was DH's idea in the first place anyway ;o)

Linking up my card to these fun challenges:

1. Cards und More #123 - All About Christmas
2. Deep Ocean Challenge #93 - Christmas is all around
3. Holly Jolly Christmas - Anything Goes Christmas
4. Just Inspirational Challenge - Christmas
5. Card Mania #62 - Christmas
6. Dream Valley Challenge #97 - Christmas
7. Monday Morning Challenge #1 - Anything Christmas or Winter
8. Ooh La La Creations #170 - Christmas
9. Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful time this Christmas with your loved ones!

~Shery

Supplies: Stamps - Holiday Sketches: Christmas Flower, Holiday Sketches: Christmas Candles, Sentiment Builders: Christmas & New Year, and Vignette: Christmas Block from STAMPlorations; Inks/Paints - Jet Black and Coffee Archival inks from from Ranger, Akashiya Sai Japanese watercolor brush pens; Paper - 140# cold-press watercolor paper from Canson and 100# classic white premium heavy weight cardstock from Paper and More

Paper craft project no. 320: Forever love one layer card

Here's a simple one layer card I made by combining different stamps and stamping them to create a collage. I stamped the graphic butterfly first, masked it before stamping the backside of the daisy in yellow and then turning it over to stamp the image in black. Then I stamped a couple of small butterflies and then the two bold words. It didn't look balanced so I decided to stamp the heart a little slightly below and to the left of the big love.

Want to see more inspiration? Check out today's Inspiration Round-Up post at the STAMPlorations blog.

Linking my card to these fun challenges:

1. 613 Avenue Create #103 - Anything Goes (I skipped the twist)
2. That Craft Place - Anything Goes
3. Sister Act Card Challenge #87 - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!

~Shery

Supplies: Stamps - Bloom Sketches, Trendy Butterflies, Bold Sentiments: Cherish, and Sentiment Builders: Love from STAMPlorations; Inks - Jet Black Archival from Ranger / Morocco, Bahama Blue, and Rhubarb Stalk Dew Drop Inks and Mango Madness VersaMagic Chalk Ink from Tsukineko; Paper - 100# Classic White Premium Heavy Weight Cardstock from Paper and More

Paper craft project no. 319: Warm wishes one layer card

So I spent a couple of hours today making cards. Here's one of them, and it's inspired by the photo over at Inkspirational Challenges :o)

I just happened to have this cityscape silhouette stamp* and it was the perfect stamp to use for the challenge. So I stamped it in black ink and then stamped the snowflakes in chalk ink. I spattered purple ink across my card base and finished by stamping the sentiment. Gotta be one of the quickest cards I've made!

Quick one layer cards seem to be the only cards I'm able to do lately when I barely have time to do much crafting with all the work that keeps piling up. Even DH has noticed that I haven't done much crafting this past couple of weeks; he actually told me to make cards today!

Snippet of our convo this afternoon:

me: I'm hungry.

DH: Okay, I'm going to make us food, but you have to promise me that after we eat, you're going to do some art.

me: Why'd you want me to do that?

DH: Because you barely spent any time at your craft table this week. You haven't even played with the new pastels you got...

me: They're not pastels. They're acrylic paints in tubes, dear.

DH: Pastels, acrylics...all the same to me. Whatever they're called, you need to spend some time playing, okay?

I love my husband! :o)

I'm also going to link this up to the current CASology challenge, where the cue word is "snow."

Thanks for stopping by!

~Shery

Supplies: Stamps - Joyful, Vignette: Christmas Block, and Cityscapes from STAMPlorations; Inks - Jet Black Archival from Ranger, Elderberry Memento Dew Drop Ink and Aspen Mist VersaMagic Chalk Ink from Tsukineko; Paper - 100# Classic White Premium Heavy Weight Cardstock from Paper and More

*This stamp as well as a handful of others will be available in the STAMPlorations shop right after Christmas -- specifically in a new category/feature we're introducing. If you like getting great deals on stamps, you'll want to keep an eye in that category of the shop!

Paper craft project no. 318: Fa la la la la la la la la one layer card

Over at Time Out Challenges, we're doing the Inspired by Words challenge for the next two weeks. This time around, it's "Christmas is Love with All the Trimmings." The challenge is pretty easy: create a project inspired by that line. Take a word or two or a few, and then create! Done making Christmas cards for the year? You can just go with "love" and create a Valentine's day card. Really, it's up to you how you'll be inspired by the phrase. We have one of my absolute favorite cardmakers, Shirley of shirley-bee's stamping stuff, guest designing with us! I hope you can stop by the blog, check out the awesome cards my teammates made, and play along!

To make my card, I inked up my brush stroke stamp and stamped the widest part of the tree. For the next one, I covered both sides with post-it notes before stamping again, and then I repeated that until I got to the top part of the tree. I inked the same stamp with brown ink to create the trunk. For my "star", I took mustard seed Distress paint and simply made a big dot then dragged a palette knife to create the "rays". I stamped the sentiment in black ink. I spattered a bit of fired brick Distress ink to finish the card. This was an easy, quick, and fun one layer card to make!

Linking up my card to these fun challenges:

1. Addicted to Stamps & More #126 - Anything Goes with an Optional Twist (I skipped the twist, but I'm hoping I can get another card in with it before the challenge closes!)
2. CASology #126 - Snow (the white areas on my brush stroke Christmas tree look like snow)
3. Deep Ocean Challenge #93 - Christmas is all around
4. Tuesday Throwdown #225 - Christmas
5. Cards in Envy - Christmas Carols (mine's Deck the Halls -- I bet you won't be able to look at my card without singing the fa-la-la -- and yes, I stamped the right number of "la-la" in there LOL!)
6. Simon Says Wednesday - Winter Inspiration (I went with the snowy forest in the top left)

 

Thanks for stopping by!

~Shery

Supplies: Stamps - Vignette: Celebrate Artsy, Joyful from STAMPlorations; Inks/Paints - Sage and Sparrow Mix'd Media Chox from Clearsnap; Jet Black Archival, Fired Brick Distress Ink, and Mustard Seed Distress Paint from Ranger; Paper - 100# Classic White Premium Heavy Weight Cardstock from Paper and More

Getting my new blogging home ready for 2015

Pardon the dust. I'm getting my new blog ready so I can move in soon!

You'll find my original blog here. I hope you can check it out and then follow this blog because this is where I'll start sharing my projects. I've got a card to share here in a few hours :o)