Autumn Splendor

We've had snow for about three weeks now, and I'm already wishing I could go back to our beautiful Autumn days!  Our winters here are way too long!  So on that note; I'm sharing a Fall layout using Carta Bella's beautiful "Traditions" collection.

I love the colors in this line, perfect for the golden tones of Autumn.  Other than the coordinating sticker elements and alphabet, the only embellishments were flowers and swirls die cut from the patterned paper.  I used a mixture of Sizzix, Cheery Lynn and Spellbinders dies for those.  Some of the smaller flowers were stickers and the rest were hand cut.  I pop dotted the title and to finish off the flowers, added liquid pearl to the centers.
 I enjoyed working with this line so much, here's a card I made with it too:

Again, this is just "Traditions" paper and the coordinating stickers, finished off with a Carta Bella brad and liquid pearls.  I think I'm becoming addicted to liquid pearls, I seem to be using them on everything!

Until next time,

Jan

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Happy Holidays

I've been making some cards for Urban Scrapbook's store display and thought I'd share a couple today. These two were made with Sizzix's embossing and framelit sets.  This one is called Ornament Set #2.  The sets come with two embossing folders and matching framelit dies.  After embossing, I just inked over the raised area with Tim Holtz Distress inks to bring out the designs.  The smaller embossed designs have matching framelits so you can cut them out as I did for the greenery behind the bow and the "Happy Holidays."  For the center of the embossed card, I made a poinsettia from Tim Holtz's Tattered Poinsettia die.  After cutting it out, I used his matching poinsettia texture fade (yes, it matches the die perfectly!), inked the edges, covered the petals with Rock Candy Crackle paint and threw a bit of glitter on top while it was still wet.  I certainly will be using this die and embossing folder a lot!

The cream paper and poinsettia patterned paper are from Glitz and the card base patterned paper is from Authentique.  The ribbon is from 7Gypsies, an old one from my stash.

This next card is made with Sizzix's Framelits set, "Ornaments".  The Merry Christmas is embossed and then cut out with the matching framelit, then pop dotted.  The Merry Christmas, birds, and a few areas on the ornament are highlighted with Ranger's burgundy stickles.  The patterned paper is from Pink Paislee.

Hope you enjoyed my cards, I'm busy making more!  

Until next time,

Jan

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Perfect Moments

I can't believe it's the middle of November already!  We went right from a beautiful warm fall to full winter weather in such a short time.  Last week it started raining in the middle of the night and four hours later, this is what we woke up to:

It did not stop snowing for two days!  Even for us, this is too much snow, too early.  Those beautiful fall colors and warm weather are now a distant memory!  

I used one of my fall photos (a good reminder that we do get some nice weather!) for Urban Scrapbook's November monthly challenge.  We were out at my in-law's lake house and I captured these trees on our early evening walk.  In the monthly kit this month, it's filled with Teresa Collins paper and embellishments from her Vintage Finds collection:

There was also some die-cut muslin flowers in it, which I had fun playing around with.

I stamped them first with Archival ink, then stained and inked them.  After they were dry, I dabbed them with Ranger's Embossing dabber and then applied clear UTEE.  Immediately after it had melted, I pressed my rubber stamp into the melted utee (you have to work fast!) and that's how I got the embossed look.  To finish them off, ink or stain, then wipe of the excess, so just the crevices are tinted.  There's a chipboard keyhole in the kit, which I embossed with Ranger's Antiquities Rust embossing powder.  Love this powder, it looks just like rust!  The little tiny leaves that were cut out from the black tag were cut out with Memory Box's Leaf Swirl die.
Hope you check out what the other design team members have created with these kits, we have a very talented team!
Have a great day,

Jan

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Christmas Carry All Box

Today I have a tutorial on the Sizzix blog on how I made this Christmas Carry All Box:

These are so easy and fun to make, and also addictive!  Hope you visit me there!

Jan

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Pop 'N Cuts Snowflake Card

Hi everyone, this weekend on the Sizzix blog, they are featuring one of their very talented designers, Karen Burniston.  Karen is the creator of the Pop 'N Cuts dies that create pop-up and interactive cards. With the card base die and different magnetic inserts, you can create different pop-up elements to your cards.  

I created this card with the Base Die and the circle label insert, which is included with this die.

I wanted my card a bit bigger, so I cut out a 6 x 6 base and rounded the corners.  I used a variety of snowflake dies (can never have too many snowflakes!) and papers from Bo Bunny's Snow Day and Basic Grey's Aspen Frost.

The large snowflake is an older Sizzix die, but it is one of my favorites.  I've done this a few times with it; cutting it out of chipboard and patterned paper, inking the edges, then covering with clear micro beads.  The other large snowflakes are cut from paper and acrylic(tinted with alcohol ink) using the Sizzix Bigz Snowflake Border die.  The smaller ones are cut out from Sizzix's Snowflake#3 set.  I topped them off with a snowflake charm.

For the inside of my card, I used the same snowflake dies, plus the mover's & shapers Tim Holtz Mini Snowflakes die.  I glued some of the large snowflakes to the edge of the circle label first, so my platform was larger.  I added a couple of tags and my card was done. It doesn't show well in a photo, but there is so much dimension to the snowflake pop-up when you open your card!
Hope this inspires you to create your own pop-up cards.  Don't forget to visit the Sizzix blog and the other Sizzix Designers for more Pop-Up inspiration!  Also, you have until midnight (PST) Friday, November 9th to add a photo of your Pop 'N Cuts creation and/or leave a comment on the Sizzix blog for a chance to win a Pop 'N Cuts prize!
Have a great weekend,

Jan

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