Merry Christmas Quilled Holly Berries Card

Oh where, oh where has the time gone?! Already that happy time of year again. Are you planning anything special this Christmas? I think I will be driving to Washington DC for a few days to walk around their museums--did you know most of them are free?! I did not know that! I've driven through DC, but never gave myself enough time to be a true tourist. I expect the drive will be 4+ hrs each way as there will be a lot of people on the road for the holidays. It will be COLD too, but it's okay...if it means we have to go when the university is closed for the week, then that's when it will be!

I have here a card that was inspired from CardMaker's Notebook. Yes, lately I have been borrowing ideas from others because my brain is totally fried and unable to come up with new ideas at the moment. It's a super red card save for the quilled leaves and glitter balls of berries. Sentiment was wet embossed in gold.

Before I go, I want to mention that I joined International Directory. It's free to join if you have a blog (just read the rules for joining). It looks to be a cool new meeting place for us bloggers to let the world know of our voice on the internet.



Have a good evening lovely visitors!

Entered in:-Paper Pretties PWC 235 Christmas Inspired-Deep Ocean #40 So This is Christmas 

Christmas Quilled Card 2011 # 3

This is the 3rd wreath card I made last Xmas. This wreath was made in a completely different style. You first fringe a strip of paper of your desired length. This length will determine how large your wreath will be initially. Of course you can extend it to however long you want it later by gluing additional paper together. The larger the wreath, the longer the width you'd want the paper strips to be because you don't want it to look too awkward with the open space.

The paper behind the candles is made from a pattern stamp. Then I brushed some perfect pearls to make it shimmer without being an overpowering background.

Here is a close up of the fringed wreath:

Christmas Quilled Card 2011 # 2

This is another card I made last year. It is very similar, but can you see the difference?

I added a strip of glittered paper to add more sparkle. Also, The wreath itself was made using a different pattern of quilled marquis. It is 3 per set versus the 2. 

Happy crafting!

Christmas Quilled Card 2011 # 1

It's never too early to show off your Christmas cards. Unless you're like me and always gets a late start on holiday card making, you're probably a card crafter who is always getting inspirations and ideas for the upcoming season. My goal is to start earlier this year, so I'm not overwhelmed later. In order to get myself motivated as well, I will upload my projects from last year.

I made a few versions of quilled wreaths in 2011. I changed the style of the actual greenery, but kept the poinsettia on all of them.

Here's to a successful crafting holiday season!

Almost 2012 Quilled Snowflake

Less than 30 mins 'til New Years 2012 as I am typing this. Have a happy, happy new year to you and yours!

Here's a quilled snowflake for you!

New Year's Eve!

Another year is coming to an end. What are you looking forward to in the upcoming year? I hope to get into better shape, grow as an artist, and have a more positive outlook on life. To learn from regrets and also to be able to look past that--be free of old worries. I normally do not care to mark the new year as a starting point for a new approach to certain aspects in life because it is, in fact, a regular day in life, but this year I am attracted to the motivational trick it plays with my head when everyone else is hyped. Let's hope I come through in the end!

It is no surprise to me anymore that I prioritize everything else before the blog. I would love to get better at integrating this into my regular routine. How do all of you bloggers do it?! Would love to bum some of the energy off of you! Tonight I feel a bit more drawn to blogging, but I don't know why. Maybe I saw Dec 31 and felt the need to get in one last entry for the year. Who knows...

So tonight I want to show you one of the few items I made for the Christmas season 2011:

What I have here is a quilled snowflake card. The sentiment was wet embossed and glitter was dusted on the snowflake itself. Below is a closer look.

Best wishes to all of you out there!

X-mas Mousey '09

This was a card I attempted to imitate from Paper Crafts magazine's Nov/Dec '09 issue. It was titled, "Not a Creature was Stirring Card," and it featured a mouse.

This wasn't a card that I made recently, but I thought I'd get it up here to remind you or offer more ideas since I know another year is coming around soon enough.

It's March!

Hi everyone!

First off, congrats to one of my best friends--Jenny--on her engagement to Brian! I can't help but feel relief because this is an indication to me that the bad year is well behind us and this year is going to bring so much more happiness and good memories.

I'm going to take you back to December for a bit to show you the stocking cards that I made:

The coordinating envelopes:

Embossed Sleigh

This is a card that I might give to a guy just because of its simplicity and the color scheme that is used. You'll need a stencil of a sleigh (you can choose any stencil), embossing pen, embossing powder, as well as a heat gun. I traced the stencil in parts because I wanted the powder to stick evenly--I inked part of the image and applied embossing powder, inked another part and applied embossing powder, and etc., etc., etc...

Below, is the envelope that I made to go with the card. 

Christmas Ornaments Card

This is a very simple card made from cut outs and a few embellishments. You can download and print the cut outs for free from http://www.papercraftinspirationsmagazine.co.uk/page/papercraft?entry=free_festive_fun_papers_plus2.

Quilled Snowflake-Xmas Tree Card

I took a little break from card making and now I'm rushing to finish in time~ahhh!!!

The top left quilled snowflake you may remember from a previous entry and the tree on the bottom right, I created on my own out of desperation for another item to balance out the card. The envelope in the picture will be accompanying the card and was made from the Crafter's Companion--4"x4" envelope.

I hope you're all having a blast creating holidays cards, if you haven't done so already!!!

Free X-mas Labels

http://blog.worldlabel.com/2010/christmas-labels-for-free-by-ink-tree-press.html

Stumbled across these free X-mas labels. You can input different addresses on the labels if you'd like by clicking, "Download Different Info" to personalize them. Hope this helps your holiday crafting!

Holidays are Coming!

This is a card I made last year for my friend, Jenny.  The snowman was taken from these Inkadinkado clear stamps set and although it is hard to see, the snowman was wet embossed with black powder. The wreath of snowflakes was created from Cuttlebug die cuts and the dots on the bottom right, inner circle were dry embossed using a Cuttlebug embossing folder. Pearl-colored beads, glitter glue, and rhinestones top off the embellishing finishes.

Die-cut Machines a Must Have!

Until I got a die-cut machine, everything was done by freehand. Cutting out something as simple as a circle took a lot of time even if you drew it out in "Paint" first and traced it. Sure, each template is expensive for any machine, but if you're really getting into the world of scrapping and card making this is a real time saver! Your images are clean cut and that as a result, helps you create a neat look.

For the Practical Paper Crafter

When you are first starting your collection, it is important to decide what shapes and designs you can picture yourself using more often than not. I made the mistake in the beginning of getting things that I saw people using maybe once or twice, but realizing in the end that I should've gotten those dies that made flowers instead. This goes the same for stamps. I also buy things seasonally, so that I don't overwhelm myself with expenses. I'm not one to go for the newest items. Once I built up a nice enough foundation of supplies to make basic cards, I waited until after the holiday to buy clearance items to use for the following year. (ex. I look for things for the following Christmas right after the one that had just passed.)

Five Materials Plus Die-cut

All you need is cardstock, paper/patterned paper, glue, your die-cut machine with your choice of die-cut template, and a simple paper cutter to create a quick and simple card. Below is a quick card that I put together for one of my daycare kids last winter. It isn't elaborate and it gets the point across. The tiny snowflakes were made from the Cuttlebug and the center snowflakes were cut out from The Slice machine, Seasons Design Card. You have the option of using only solid colors or patterned paper--both create an interesting look against the white--just mix and match lighter colored snowflakes and darker ones to create a layering effect.

Optional: I had some rub-on stickers laying around, so I used it for the greeting but you can just stamp or marker it in as well. The additional glitter glue used on top, added a "wow" factor for her. The card is a child-friendly project that you can do together for fun--just be sure to supervise them while they're operating any die-cut machine as they all use blades.

Have fun!