Reindeers in love

I started with embossing the reindeers with vintage gold UTEE. I love the thick, smooth surface this embossing powder gives. To make one of the deers female I just cut off the horn on one of them. Then I made the tag with different Distress Inks and a Tim Holtz mask. The heart is die cut and I used papers from Pion both for the heart and the card base. To finish the card off I embellished with flowers, bells, ribbon, sequins, pearls, gem stones and brads (the stars I used as flower centers).

Lucia with Distress Markers

In Sweden we celebrate Lucia the 13th of December each year. It's a lovely Christmas tradition. Most of the celebrations take place in schools, hospitals and churches, but also on national television. Here is a performance in a Swedish church: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLycexat2xk
Please watch it, it's really breathtaking in all it's beauty.

Christmas card in pale pink

I'm amazed over how easy it is to work with Distress Markers. I'm still learning, but even so, it's really not hard or requier any special skills to get a great result.

I used Pion papers, different Spellbinder dies and Rock Candy Distress Glitter. Love the subtle sparkle it gives. The stamp is from Reprint, a Scandinavian company.

Christmas card with surprise flap

It's easy to stay in you comfort zone when you make lot of cards as I do, especially around the holidays, but after a while I get tired of using the same concept over and over. So I try to come up with new creative ways to use my supplies and try new techniques, no matter how uncomfortable it feels sometimes ;).

So for this card I decided to put a flap in the center with a hidden massage. I used a die for this and a rubber pad that I stuck between the cutting plate and the paper in the area where I didn't want the die to cut. I haven't tried it but I think you can use any material that would be hard for the die to cut through.

Puzzle inlay card

I'm always looking for new ways to use the supplies I already have. I don't know if this technique has a name but I call it puzzle inlay after a computer game I used to play (google pictures and you'll see the similarity). Normally I'm building my cards in layers and strive for dimension. One way of doing that is to pop up die cuts with foam adhesive. This technique however is about making the card as flat as possible, although many different papers and die cuts are involved. It's more of a challange than you might think.

I did a test run first with some papers I don't like very much to learn from my mistakes and this is what I learned: 1. Strong colors works better than pale colors because you need the contrast. 2.  Plan the card carefully and don't adhere anything down before you're absolutely certain where everything should go, otherwise you risk ruin the hole card. 3. Save every little piece, no matter how small, when you die cut the negative space. I found out the hard way that you'll need most of them. 4. Outline everything, either with distress inks or a marker (I used a marker). Thanks for stopping by!

Elegant Christmas card

I bought this gorgeous wooden deer from Kaisercraft and wanted to make a really elegant card with it. I painted the deer white with gesso and pour Distress Rock Candy Glitter over it. While it was drying I made the background. I used Salty Ocean Distress Stain and Chipped Saphire Distress Ink to create the night sky. I also stamped stars and snowflakes on the sky using white pigment ink. The trees are from a Tim Holtz die and the gray glitter paper is something I had in my stash forever. To finish it off I added some clear gemstones.

Christmas angel with Distress Markers

This is the first time I used Distress Markers to watercolor an image. It was so fun and easy!

A tip is to use watercolor paper and not regular cardstock. It makes a big difference.

I put some rock candy Distress glitter on the tree, the wings and the heart. To highlight the eyes and the buttons I added small dots of Enamel Accent. I didn't want to steal focus from the image so I kept the rest of the card fairly simple, just added small droplets of Glossy Accent here and there. The flower is actually 3 equal flowers. I cut 2 of them in half and tucked them behind the third flower to make the flower look richer and a little bit bigger. For the center I used a large pearl and smaller ones around it.

Christmas card with window

I used Maja Design's gorgeous It's Christmas time papers for this card.

I made a window in the center of the card where Santa Claus is looking in (or out).

The flower cluster is built upon layers of die cut leaves, branches and fiber. I also tucked a couple of metal snowflakes behind the flowers. The white dots are Enamel Accents.

This card involved a lot of die cutting, one of my favorite things to use when I'm paper crafting.

The inside of the card.

Window card

 

I love making window cards. It adds that extra something for the recipient to enjoy.

The inkwell and the feather pen are dies from Tim Holtz.

The papers are from My Minds Eye. The center of the flowers is Enamel Accent.

The inside. I embossed the die cut piece behind the feather pen with an embossing folder.

Have a sweet Christmas

This card was so much fun to do. I used Christmas papers from Maja Design and a stamp set from Lawn Fawn. This set has many small details you can add to the larger images and that's perfect if you are like me and love paper piecing. I started with stamping all the images on different papers, then cut them out and finally pieced everything together. As a final touch I added Glossy Accent and white gel pen to bring the details to life.

Pumkin + Happy belated birthday



This is a pumpkin and a birthday card I made for a friend. I used the new gorgeous Vintage Autumn collection from Maja Design.

 

Here's a close-up of the pumpkin.

And here's the card. The flowers are stamped on different pattern papers and then cut out.



Noel

I die cut the poinsettia, curved the petals and painted them with white Gesso. I also splattered some Gesso on the leaves. They're made with a die from Memory Box. I didn't have any white letters so I embossed the greens I had with white UTEE. The oval in the center is die cut and I put the beautiful angel image behind it.

Just because you're amazing

I've had the Lifetime paper collection by Prima in my stash for a while, not sure what to do with it. I suppose it's a collection mainly for art journaling and mixed media projects and that's a bit out of my comfort zone. I'm not even sure why I bought it, but as I was going through my paper pads the other day, I realised that some of the patterns and colors in this collection actually would be great on a fall/nature card. And as I just bought a fall themed stamp set from Simon say's stamp, I decided to combine the two. I stamped the leaves, the trees and the little critters and then cut them out. I also stamped a bunch of leaves on the ground. I always become genuinly happy when I find ways to use paper and other supplies I at first thought was a mistake to buy:).

Sleighride

The wonderful sleighride stamp is from Tim Holtz. Papers from Pion.