Another Holiday Card

Before I turn to thoughts of Valentines Day I wanted to share one last Holiday Card that I taught last year. This card was fun and features a Christmas tree that the students built! Those that received one loved it.

This card has a total of  9 punched triangles on it. There are three of each pattern. The triangles are layered onto white cardstock in the shape of a tree. Play with the layout of the triangles so it is pleasing to your eye. I added a piece of brown scrap for the trunk and then place in an embossing folder and emboss. (You could adhere each of the triangles to the cardstock but because of embossing it you don't need to.) 

The embossed piece is added to a green mat which was on a white cardstock card. I used foam dots between each layer. A gold star was added as a tree topper and a small banner was stamped in brown ink to match the tree trunk and placed at the bottom of the tree above the trunk.

Winter CHA 2015

The Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) held its winter 2015 show at the Anaheim Convention Center. The showroom floor opened its doors on Saturday, January 10th and this incredible show ran until Tuesday, January 13th. This show is only open to the trade; new products and collections are revealed! It is a whirlwind of activity, classes, demonstrations and reconnecting with friends. As usual it was fabulous!

Although this was held in Sunny California our poor out of town guests experienced some much needed rain. While locals didn't like driving in the rain many out of towners reminded us a little rain was much better than freezing snow. I look forward to sharing some of the make and takes I did and products used in the future.

A Fast, Easy and Elegant Holiday Card

Last year I started teaching Holiday Cards in the summer with the idea that by Thanksgiving my students would have created 48 Holiday Cards, if they took a class each month! Each month there were 3-5 different designs and they created an average of 3-4 cards of the same design. I wanted the classes to be fun and still teach or fine tune their skills.

Working from the bottom up: This card was created on a card base that has a shimmer to it and  for that reason it is important to use a strong double sided tape (like Red Line, Score-Pal etc.) Otherwise there wasn't a good adhesion and your layers wouldn't stick over the long haul. We next used a silver shimmer cardstock and embossed it with a snowflake embossing folder. I love how elegant this looks.

I used the same blue shimmer paper to create a mat for my stamping image and punched a scallop as a mat for the saying. Using a silver ink pad I stamped the trees and saying on white cardstock. The white cardstock with the trees is adhered directly to the blue shimmer paper mat and then foam tape is used for dimension. The Joy of Christmas was stamped then punched out with a circle punch and popped onto the blue scallop circle which is also popped up.

Tips: We heat set all stamped images to prevent smearing without having to wait for them to dry. Because the blue scallop circle overlaps the trees I placed a double layered of foam tape toward the bottom half of the scalloped circle and the top half rests on the popped up on the stamped tree image without any type of adhesive. Inside I adhered white cardstock so a message could be written.

For a WOW effect stamp the trees and saying then emboss them with clear embossing powder.

As we begin 2015 it is full of possibilities and potential! I am challenging myself to grow and one of the ways I can do that is by committing to a blog! I hope you will join me on my Creative Journey! I love paper crafting and have enjoyed scrapbooking, mini books, wall art, altered art, card making etc. I enjoy teaching classes in many area of paper crafting and especially cards. To watch students grow and develop is very rewarding to me. I hope you will be able to attend one of my classes in person and if not than virtually.