Wednesday, October 24, 2007



I've always loved Old Olive and Real Red for traditional Christmas cards. I was very happy with this card. I think some of my influence came from a friend of mine (you always make such classy cards, Gwen).

Here I used my Print Pattern background stamp with old olive ink on my old olive card stock. I then used a sponge (again with old olive ink) for the shading all around the card base as well as the white cardstock. The stamp is from the level one hostess set, Sidekick Sayings. I used my Stampin' Up! markers to colour the words in real red and old olive, then used my basic black ink pad to ink the tree. After stamping the image, I coloured it with my Stampin' Pastels chalk set using a blender pen as my application tool. I then added the wide grosgrain real red ribbon, adhered the white cardstock to the base with Stampin' Dimensionals. Finally, to balance the card with colour, I added the three real red brads in the top left corner of the card using my handy dandy Stampin' Up! Mat Pack to help me line them up nice and evenly.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

My First Shaker Card


A friend of mine gave me some stuffing from inside a pillow. She used it for snow in a shaker card, so I thought I'd try it for myself. After making the shaker portion of my card, I needed to figure out what to do with it. I was a bit bored with my usual card layouts, so I headed off to the Splitcoast Stampers web site and looked at their Card Sketches weekly challenges. I came across challenge #110 and thought I'd give it a try.


I fell in love with the combination of colour on this card; particularly the purely pomegranate with the old olive. They are such a beautiful and rich colour combination, don't you think? I also used soft sky and textured certainly celery which, unfortuneately takes away a little bit from the rich colour, but I still love how it turned out.


So, thank you Splitcoast and thank you Melanie for your inspiration!

Monday, October 15, 2007

And now for something completely different...


This is a slight deviation from stamping, but I did use Stampin' Up! wide old olive grosgrain ribbon.


I was in my garden trying to get some things under control and I began cutting back one of my lavendar bushes. As I was trimming it, I was thoroughly enjoying the scent of the leaves and remaining flowers. I thought "how can I just throw these in the compost bin?" and I decided then that I would do something with them so we could enjoy the scent in our home. I found some old floral wire and began aimlessly bunching and wrapping until I ended up with a wreath. Then with some manipulation and adjustment I managed to make it look pretty good. I did a final wrap with a thin black satin ribbon that I got at Walmart mostly to distract from the wire. Then, of course, I used my SU olive ribbon as an accent.


My husband insisted that we hang it upstairs where we can always enjoy the fragrance! I love bringing the outdoors into my home. Eventually the colour will fade and it will get dusty, but the scent will hold for quite a while, even after it's dried, I think. I'm pretty happy with it for a first attempt at making a natural wreath.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Origami Box

I thought I'd try the origami box, but with an acetate lid. I think it turned out quite pretty. I used the Real Red cardstock for the base and embellished the lid with wide old olive grosgrain ribbon and a buckle from my pewter Hodgepodge kit. I attached the buckle with the same method I showed you in one of my earliest posts, then used a couple of glue dots strategically placed to keep it secure. This box would make a great gift filled with chocolates.
Check out the directions for an origami box from kwernerdesign. She has been doing video on her blog for mini tutorials!

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Little Christmas gift boxes



Last year I did a grand Christmas Stamping party in my home. Here are a couple of the gift boxes I made to give as door prizes. I love being able to have a door prize for every person who attends.

Hmm...I'm pretty tired at the moment. My son had a one hour nap this afternoon and now is unable to sleep (it's 90 minutes past his bedtime) so I haven't been able to accomplish much this evening. I'm afraid I haven't anything intelligent or inspirational to say...

I hope you like my boxes.