Kool Kitty Musings

12 Days of Christmas - Day 3

Hello!

For today's card, I decided to give a new-to-me technique shared by Jennifer McGuire here a go.

This card is mainly made up of vintage elements - papers and ephemera die-cuts I've had a while, and definitely very vintage buttons for the spinning technique:

Paper: My Mind's Eye - Sugar Plum (r)
Snowflakes: Pebbles - Winter Wonderland (r)
Stamp: Flora & Fauna - Holiday Word Party 2
Dies: Reverse Confetti - Stitched Pinwheel Cover Panel, Hero Arts - Infinity Nesting Circle, Mama Elephant - Dainty Bow

These particular die-cut glittery snowflakes, which are Pebbles "chips" ephemera accents, already have a hole in the middle, so I thought they'd be perfect for trying out this technique that makes them spin on the card.

And yep, it worked perfectly.

I was originally going to cut the pinwheel design from several patterns of paper in the Sugar Plum 6x6 pad and piece together the segments so they would all be different, but I didn't have enough varied designs left for this to work, and I'd have had to create 7 cards in the end... so I took the easy route and just used one design per background.

I think this worked out better on this occasion, as it meant that the background isn't overly busy, and the snowflake is still the centrepiece.

I added a sentiment from Flora & Fauna to the centre and, as a finishing touch, a little bow and crystal for extra shine.

Some of the papers already have glitter on them and the snowflakes are pre-glittered, so there's definitely a frosty look to these cards.

Until next time, happy festive crafting!

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Flora & Fauna - Holiday Word Party 2 stamps Shop at: EH | SHC	Reverse Confetti - Stitched Pinwheel Cover Panel die Shop at: EH | SHC	Hero Arts - Infinity Nesting Circle dies Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC	Mama Elephant - Dainty Bow dies Shop at: MISC
Versafine - Onyx Black ink pad Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Bazzill Cardshoppe - Marshmallow Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tombow - Mono-Multi liquid glue Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	3M Scotch double-sided foam tape Shop at: AZ | EH
Lawn Fawn - Stamp shammy cleaner Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC	MISTI stamping tool Shop at: EH | SBC	Sizzix - Big Shot machine Shop at: AZ | SBC	Sizzix - Sidekick machine Shop at: AZ | SBC
Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (maxi) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC

12 Days of Christmas - Day 2

Hello!

For today's Christmas countdown card, I returned to a much loved combo.

My typewriter die set from SugarPea Designs and the Tall Snow Globe from MFT:

Paper: Crate Paper - Merry Days (r), Crate Paper - Snowflake (r), Pebbles - Cozy & Bright (r), Pebbles - Merry Little Christmas (r)
Stamps: Hello Bluebird - Typed Christmas, SugarPea Designs - You're My Type
Dies: SugarPea Designs - You're My Type, MFT - Tall Snow Globe

For these cards, I ideally wanted to use winter scene papers in the background, and thankfully I still had a few offcuts of favourites in my stash that worked a treat. Those Pebbles papers in particular have been a great resource over the past few years, I've used them on so many cards and will probably have to get the digital papers once the last tiny scrap has been used up, unless they release something equally fab!

To construct the snow globe, I cut the dome from vellum for a "glass" look. It's definitely more obvious in real life as the vellum stands up off the background a little because I only glued it down behind the typewriter and used wet glue for this, which makes the vellum sort of curl up - the perfect look for this card!

The typewriters were all created from cardstock scraps - it's always nice to actually use those scraps up!

The sentiment on the typewritten letter is from the matching You're My Type stamp set, while the sentiment on the base of the snow globe is from Hello Bluebird, and probably my most used festive stamp set last year!

Until next time, happy festive crafting!

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Hello Bluebird - Typed Christmas stamps Shop at: MISC	SugarPea Designs - You're My Type stamps Shop at: MISC | SHC	SugarPea Designs - You're My Type dies Shop at: MISC | SHC	MFT - Tall Snow Globe dies Shop at: EH | SHC
Versafine - Onyx Black ink pad Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Versamark ink pad Shop at: AZ | EH | SHC	Bazzill Cardshoppe - Butter Mints Shop at: AZ | EH	Crate Paper - Merry Days - Frosty Days paper (r) Shop at: MISC | SBC
Crate Paper - Snowflake - Village paper (r) Shop at: MISC | SBC	Pebbles - Cozy & Bright - Santa Land paper (r) Shop at: MISC | SBC	Pebbles - Merry Little Christmas - Snow Day paper (r) Shop at: MISC	Lawn Fawn - Vellum Shop at: SBC | SHC
Hero Arts - White embossing powder Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC | SHC	Ranger - Multi-Medium Matte adhesive Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Scor-Tape - 1/4" Shop at: AZ | SSS	Tombow - Mono-Multi liquid glue Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
3M Scotch double-sided foam tape Shop at: AZ | EH	EK Success powder tool Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Lawn Fawn - Stamp shammy cleaner Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC	MISTI creative corners Shop at: EH | SBC
MISTI stamping tool Shop at: EH | SBC	Sizzix - Big Shot machine Shop at: AZ | SBC	Sizzix - Sidekick machine Shop at: AZ | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (maxi) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC

DCM - December elemental inspiration

Good morning!

Well, December has finally arrived, so as it's the first Friday of the new month, there's a new elemental inspiration challenge over on the Daring Cardmakers blog.

This month's picture features lots of festive elements, but there's scope for a colour scheme other than red, green, and gold!

The elements I went with were hot chocolate, stripes, winter foliage, and the wooden star:

Paper, stickers, and glittered snowflake: Pebbles - Winter Wonderland (r)
Stamp: The Greetery - Sentiment Suite: Christmas
Dies: The Greetery - Sentiment Suite Basics, Avery Elle - Double Pierced Squares (r), Lil' Inker Designs - Stitched Mats: Circles (r), Sizzix - Tim Holtz - Mini Holiday Greens

I noticed that the wooden star in the photo had a similar geometric shape to the inside of some of the snowflake ephemera in this collection, so instead of my original plan of having the hot cocoa mugs in the centre of the aperture, I created a little snowflake window and offset my sentiment and embellishment cluster so that the centre of that snowflake would still be visible.

The striped background was cut first with the pierced square die and then a stitched circle die was used for the aperture, so there's some extra interest with the different textures. It brings everything nicely together, despite the "busy" paper patterns.

The mini holiday greens dies from Sizzix were cut from Evergreen C&9th cardstock and really make those cocoa mugs stand out against the papers.

Finally, I added a teeny sentiment from The Greetery that is white heat embossed on Midnight cardstock, also from C&9th.

Slowly, but surely, I am chipping away still at my large collection of random bits of 6x6 papers, ephemera, and stickers that I still have from this collection by Pebbles that came out back in 2015. I tend to make at least one Christmas card a year with it, and there are plenty of bits left to go. ;)

Make sure you check out the fab projects from the rest of the design team here, and play along if you can!

Happy crafting!

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The Greetery - Sentiment Suite: Christmas stamps Shop at: MISC | SHC	The Greetery - Sentiment Suite Basics dies Shop at: MISC | SHC	Avery Elle - Double Pierced Squares dies (r) Shop at: MISC	Lil' Inker Designs - Stitched Mats: Circles dies (r) Shop at: MISC
Sizzix - Tim Holtz - Mini Holiday Greens dies Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Versamark ink pad Shop at: AZ | EH | SHC	Bazzill Cardshoppe - Marshmallow Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Concord & 9th - Assorted cardstock pack Shop at: EH | MISC | SHC
Hero Arts - White embossing powder Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC | SHC	Tonic Studios Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	3M Scotch double-sided foam tape Shop at: AZ | EH	EK Success powder tool Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Lawn Fawn - Stamp shammy cleaner Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC	Sizzix - Big Shot machine Shop at: AZ | SBC	Sizzix - Sidekick machine Shop at: AZ | SBC	Thermoweb iCraft - Purple tape for die-cutting - 1 1/2" Shop at: AZ | SBC
Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC

12 Days of Christmas - Day 1

Hello and welcome to what will be this year's Christmas countdown series on my blog.

Last year I aimed to make a Christmas card a week and shared them all in the run-up to Christmas 2020.

This year I wasn't really feeling the Christmas crafting spirit in the early months of 2021 and by the summer, I definitely wasn't in a Christmas mood.

So, instead, I decided that I would try my hand at making at least 5 cards in one sitting in 12 different designs inspired by my favourite card makes from previous years and some new designs thrown in for good measure.

As many people will know, I am not very good at bulk cardmaking. I often find assembly line cardmaking sucks the joy right out of it for me, and many of my card designs don't really work for making multiples.

So I've chosen a few clean and simple projects that use up papers that are to hand (so they aren't all necessarily matchy, matchy) as well as lots of dies and stamps of course!

Kicking us off, we have the return of a Christmas card staple - mini houses!

Here's a closer look at one of the cards:

Paper: Crate Paper - Bundled Up (r), Basic Grey - B-Side (r)
Stamp: Mama Elephant - Holiday Messages
Dies: Lil' Inker Designs - Stitched Stars (r), Neat & Tangled - Skinny Strips (r), Poppy Stamps - Townhouses, The Stamp Market - Jumbo Tag

I cannot tell you how much I love this combo of the Jumbo Tag from The Stamp Market being used to showcase the snowy nighttime street with those Poppy Stamps town houses.

The tag works great against any patterned paper background you have in your stash, especially from old 6x6 pads like the Bundled Up collection from Crate Paper that I used here.

It's also great for adding a really long sentiment strip to your card to divide up the space on the tag, and thankfully the Holiday Messages stamp set from Mama Elephant has the perfect sentiment to fit that strip.

I covered up the hole of the tag with a stitched star popped up on 3D foam tape, and as a finishing touch, each of the cards in this collection has coordinating enamel dots to decorate the sentiment strip. I have a lot of enamel dots in my stash, but really wish manufacturers would just release sheets of these small ones, as those are the ones I use aaaaall the time.

Until next time, happy festive crafting!

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Mama Elephant - Holiday Messages stamps Shop at: MISC | SHC	Lil' Inker Designs - Stitched Stars dies (r) Shop at: MISC	Neat & Tangled - Skinny Strips dies (r) Shop at: MISC	Poppy Stamps - Townhouses dies Shop at: MISC
The Stamp Market - Jumbo Tag dies Shop at: MISC	Versafine - Onyx Black ink pad Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Neenah Classic Crest 110 lb smooth Solar White cardstock Shop at: AZ | EH | SSS	Lawn Fawn - Glue tube Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC
Ranger - Multi-Medium Matte adhesive Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	3M Scotch double-sided foam tape Shop at: AZ | EH	Lawn Fawn - Stamp shammy cleaner Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC	MISTI stamping tool Shop at: EH | SBC
Sizzix - Big Shot machine Shop at: AZ | SBC	Sizzix - Sidekick machine Shop at: AZ | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (maxi) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC

2021 Card Challenge - December Prompt

Good evening all!

I'm posting this a little early, as I'll be starting a new series on my blog tomorrow as we count down to Christmas.

The last prompt for this year's card challenge embraces the festive season here in the Northern Hemisphere:

{Pinterest pin}

And of course the focus colour had to be festive too, because it's: Red

As always, I have a few ideas to get you started, but as you can see from the image, there are lots of everyday elements that can work for clean and simple designs or really glammed up creations, and not just Christmas cards:

• Stars - whether as an aperture opening, cookie, starry sky, dimensional ornament, or lots of stars in sequin/confetti format for a shaker card, stars are such a versatile design element this time of year.
• Baubles - you could cut several circles in the same size and score and crease them to make dimensional baubles similar to honeycomb paper, use ephemera or stickers to create "ornaments" that hang from a branch, add a button and twine to the top of a circle aperture to create the look of a bauble, or how about taking inspiration from the images/patterns on the baubles hanging on your tree and featuring them on your card?
• Pine boughs and pine cones - there are so many pretty papers, dies, stamps, embossing folders, and stencils that you can use to create a focal point, border, or background for your card with this staple winter foliage design element.
• Snowflakes/a dusting of snow - the snowflakes on the biscuits and that dusting of icing sugar could be easily interpreted with snowflake patterns, die-cuts, sequin mixes, glitter, even 3D puffy paint.
• Winter village/church scene - keep things super simple with white silhouette houses/buildings against a blended sky/contrasting paper, or do you have gingerbread houses and other wintry embellishments that would fit the bill?
• Lace/stitching/twine - feature a decorative lace edge, some hand stitching, anything with that embroidery look, twine on tags/buttons - so many possibilities to make your card look truly handmade or to bring some extra detail and dimension to your project.
• Coffee pot - a vintage coffee pot certainly is a great vessel for a festive floral/foliage display, but there's no reason you can't use a trough/window box, jar, watering can, vase, or bottle to hold winter foliage, branches, poinsettias, etc. You could even create a mini wreath to hang from a door or tree.
• Gift box - include some presents on your card, or perhaps create a dimensional card similar to an exploding box. With some nifty scoring, there are many types of pop-up cards that will fit in a standard envelope, ready for the recipient to pop them up on their mantelpiece.
• Sparkle, sparkle, sparkle - those fairy lights are a great reminder that festive crafting is the ideal time to get the sequins, glitter, and even tinsel twine out. Glam up a tag and use that as the topper on your card or go to town adding Stickles, Glossy Accents, and other media as the finishing touch to your creation.

Happy crafting!

DCM - Show us your stockings!

Good morning!

This week over on the Daring Cardmaker's Blog, it's all about stockings - including those of the Christmas variety. :)

Surprisingly, I didn't have as many Christmas Stocking items in my stash as I thought, but I did have three on a sticker sheet from Crate Paper's Merry Days collection that were just perfect for creating a festive little scene:

Paper: Honey Bee Stamps - Fresh Brewed, Crate Paper - Falala (r), Crate Paper - Merry Days (r)
Stickers and ephemera: Crate Paper - Merry Days (r)
Dies: Honey Bee Stamps - Wood Frame Builder, MFT - Tiny Houses

I created a little wooden shelf using woodgrain paper and a woodgrain die (for added texture) from Honey Bee Stamps.

Then I found some papers that would work as a good wallpaper background.

I hung the stockings from the shelf and added the sentiment to look like a hanging picture, plus little green trees as ornaments on the shelf.

Definitely a nice quick make which is very welcome this time of year, and it's always good to make a dent in the sticker and paper stash!

Make sure you check out the lovely projects from the rest of the design team here, and play along if you can!

Happy crafting!

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Honey Bee Stamps - Wood Frame Builder dies Shop at: EH | MISC | SBC	MFT - Tiny Houses dies Shop at: EH | SHC	Neenah Classic Crest 110 lb smooth Solar White cardstock Shop at: EH | SSS	Honey Bee Stamps - Fresh Brewed 6x6 paper pad Shop at: EH | MISC
Crate Paper - Falala - Very Merry paper (r) Shop at: MISC | SBC	Crate Paper - Merry Days - Tinsel paper (r) Shop at: MISC | SBC	Crate Paper - Merry Days - Ephemera (r) Shop at: MISC | SBC	Crate Paper - Merry Days - Cardstock stickers (r) Shop at: MISC
Tonic Studios Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	3M Scotch double-sided foam tape Shop at: AZ | EH	Sizzix - Big Shot machine Shop at: AZ | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (maxi) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC