Christmas Joy In My Scraproom

The last few weeks have been spent making Christmas cards, favors, wrapping gifts and enjoying this time of the year.  We have many dreary, rainy days, but they are sweater temperature days so I am not complaining!

I have purchased two new tools for my scrap room and both have made card-making so much easier.  The first and most appreciated item is the Tim Holtz version of the Big Shot Switch Plus.  I have looked at it for awhile.  Scrapbooking Made Simple had it on sale for $199, so I broke down and purchased it.  The machine has made card-making much better on my hands.  I do not miss turning the handle on my original Big Shot at all!

Then I was in Hobby Lobby and they had Spellbinders Hot Glimmer Machine for $75.  I had a gift card and decided to purchase it and some of the foils and hot foil plates.  At first, I was not impressed.  I felt like it was a lot of work to hot foil.  After playing with it for more than a few times, I found it to be very useful.  Granted, the hot foil plates are expensive but finding them on sale or by using one plate for 40 cards, it is more than worth the cost.  Not a needed tool by any means, but my Christmas cards turned out to be very pretty with the foil.  Following are two pretty cards I created using the Big Shot Switch Plus for all of the cutting and the Glimmer Hot Foil machine for the area surrounding the word "JOY" on the card to the right.   

Have a great Christmas week!

Anniversary

 A few weeks ago, Jen and Mark celebrated their 23rd wedding anniversary.  Today's card is the first one I made for them.  Then I decided I should make the same card using Rich Razzleberry~~the color her bridesmaids wore on their wedding day.  Of course, I did not take a photo of that one, so in your mind imagine this card is Rich Razzleberry, a Stampin' Up color.  I foolishly spent too much time trying to make the strips for the top layer on the scalloped heart to be precise.  Eventually, I told myself to just adhere alternate strips of white embossed cardstock and pattern paper to a piece of cardstock and then die cut that using heart dies from Stampin' Up's retired Be Mine Stitched Heart die set.  Rhinestones, hearts and ribbon completed the card.   It looks perfectly fine!

Have a great week!

Happy Halloween

 This year I purchased My Favorite Things' stamp set, Best Witches.  At first, I made the pretty Halloween cards.  I used a variety of stamp sets for the sentiment and punches for the background.

And then I saw a "Witch way to the boos" card on the internet and decided I could use that card for a few of the people on my card list.  I typed the sentiment using Word and then added the images.  Again, it is the cute little witch from Best Witches and the "boos" are from My Favorite Things' Here's To You die set.

A majority of the cards I made this year were die cut using Stampin' Up's Deckled Edges die set.  Enjoy the day and the ghosts and goblins that appear at your front door today!

Free As A Bird

Today's cards were created using Stampin' Up's Free As A Bird stamp set.  The sentiment on the square card is from the Thoughtful Greetings stamp set by Pretty Pink Posh.  The square card is one I saw on Pinterest a while ago and was by a Stampin' Up Artisan demonstrator.  The images on both cards were colored using alcohol markers.  The birds on the branch image was adhered to popped up squares.  The squares on the square card measure 2-1/4" by 2-1/4" while on the other card the squares measure 1-3/4" by 1-3/4".   Before adhering the squares, I splattered the squares with black ink and added blue backgrounds  Neither of the sentiments were on popped up squares. And finally, little gems were added to each card.

Have a great week!