Dot & Whimsy

It's time for Christmas card making!

I have two cards up on the 

using the nostalgic "Christmas Wonderland" Collection

From the simplest of cards to the more ornate, you can add as much dimension 

as you’d like with the various embellishments included in the Carta Bella collections!

  Have fun making your own one-of-a-kind Christmas cards this season!

See more photos, how I put the cards together and learn a few tips and tricks over

at the Carta Bella blog post by clicking HERE

With the new look of the Basic Grey Collections, you will find a very specifically

 themed design on one side of their patterned papers and a more basic, 

everyday pattern on the back, which is especially great for cardmaking!

 For the first card, “Winter Wishes”, I used the pretty sentiment sticker as the inspiration. 

 Next, I matched up all of the “side B” papers from the Juniper Berry collection and 

pulled aside the ones that fit the color scheme of tan, green and black.

 I matted the sentiment sticker with a speech bubble sticker and then die-cut an

 oval mat for the bottom layer.  Wanting to incorporate a bit more of the tan color,

 I attached the die-cut frame to the bottom right before adding the die cut trees and veneer owl.

 After layering the patterned paper pieces together, I outlined the edge of the tree

 paper with black/white twine from the Embellishment Pack.

 For the “Merry Christmas” card, I was drawn to the “quilted star” look of the

 “Rooftop Paper”.  I cut out a repeating hexagon design and then highlighted the

 top of the shape by cutting out two star patterns from the same paper and attaching 

with foam adhesive.

The die-cut reindeer was just perfect embellishment for such a card! 

 I even added a small red pom pom for the nose. Before adding the sentiment, 

I added a border of gold striped washi tape to the top and bottom edge of the piece.

The rest of the design was kept simple with a couple of vellum snowflakes

 (that I attached with glue dots) and green sequins from the Embellishment Pack.

I’m in love with the very masculine look of the two cards; I hadn’t planned on it going

 in that direction!  But after looking back through the “Juniper Berry” collection,

 I can see so many beautiful and feminine cards that can be created as well! 

 Have fun trying to use only the B sided papers and you will be amazed

 at how the embellishments and accents really POP!

www.basicgrey.com

 I was up this past Tuesday with a special Christmas card for 

 I created a 3-D window for Newton to peek through by stamping on a 

piece of recycled plastic packaging with Staz-On ink.

Next, I stamped the same image onto the blue snowflake paper and then the 

yellow paper for the moon.  I cut strips of paper for the window panes and adhered

them to the paper before adding the 'window' over it with foam adhesive 

(placed around the perimeter of the plastic in a thin strip).

Finally, Newton was stamped onto brown cardsock, cut out and added to the 

top of the plastic with Zip Dry Glue! 

You could get really creative and add some things inside of the window such

as sequins, beads, etc. but I chose to add dots of glitter to the background

paper...looks really cool!

Hope you had a terrific Thanksgiving!

Happy Friday and Welcome to Day #5 of the 

Holiday Release for October 2014

Today's stamp reveal is "Christmas Delivery"

I added some subtle shading by making certain areas a little darker

with the watercolor pencils.  

The card front was embossed to resemble a snowy background.

Would you like to win "Christmas Delivery”?
This set will be given away to one lucky winner! 

Here's how to win: 

Comment on the NND blog and Design Team and Guest blogs (see list below)!

 One winner will be chosen at random from the collective blogs listed below. 

Make sure to check out each  blog and comment for your chance to win.

 You will not know which blog will be chosen so the more you comment on

 the better your chances are of winning!  

You have until Friday, October 17 at 9pm CDT to comment

  -- winners will be posted on the NND blog on Saturday, October 18th. 

Newton's Nook Designs
Taheerah Atchia
Lydia Brooke
Larissa Heskett
Samantha Mann
Crafty Math-Chick
Shellye McDaniel
Jess Moyer
Stephanie Muzzulin
Danielle Pandeline
Tessa Wise
Heather Hoffman (Guest Designer)

I hope that you've enjoyed this week's New Release reveals with
Newton's Nook Designs!

Happy Thursday and Welcome to Day #4 of the 

Holiday Release for October 2014

Today's stamp reveal is "Newton's Curious Christmas"

Up next is my favorite card of mine that I did for this week's reveal!
It all came together just the way I had planned:

I stamped the image onto white textured cardstock twice.
I colored Newton separately with a gray Le Plume marker and then
cut him out, except for the paws.

I colored in the snowman's scarf, nose, and bird with Le Plume Markers
and then used a scruffy brown ink pad to distress around the edges.

If you look closely, you can see a little sprinkling of clear glitter over part
of the snowman's side!
After cutting an oval shaped piece, I distressed the edge of it
with the same brown ink and then attached some ric rac trim.
Patterned papers are by Jillibean Soup and ribbon by Martha Stewart.

Would you like to win “Newton's Curious Christmas”?
This set will be given away to one lucky winner! 

Here's how to win: 

Comment on the NND blog and Design Team and Guest blogs (see list below)!

 One winner will be chosen at random from the collective blogs listed below. 

Make sure to check out each  blog and comment for your chance to win.

 You will not know which blog will be chosen so the more you comment on

 the better your chances are of winning!  

You have until Friday, October 17 at 9pm CDT to comment

  -- winners will be posted on the NND blog on Saturday, October 18th. 

Newton's Nook Designs
Taheerah Atchia
Lydia Brooke
Larissa Heskett

Samantha Mann
Crafty Math-Chick
Shellye McDaniel
Jess Moyer
Stephanie Muzzulin
Danielle Pandeline
Tessa Wise
Heather Hoffman (Guest Designer)

Back tomorrow with Reveal Day #5....ENJOY! 

Happy Wednesday and Welcome to Day #3 of the 

Holiday Release for October 2014

Today's stamp reveal is "Flaky Family"

I selected a snowman/woman to represent each member of my family :)

I stamped them onto smooth, white cardstock and then trimmed out.

Next I decided the placement for each onto the blue striped background paper.

You can add some shading to the snowpeople with a dab of grey ink and 

a dauber or sponge.  For the faces I used pink chalk for the ladies' cheeks

and an orange pencil for the noses.  

The ribbon (by Martha Stewart) completed my sentiment and blends

in nicely with the beautiful base paper by Authentique!

Would you like to win “Flaky Friends”?
This set will be given away to one lucky winner! 

Here's how to win: 

Comment on the NND blog and Design Team and Guest blogs (see list below)!

 One winner will be chosen at random from the collective blogs listed below. 

Make sure to check out each  blog and comment for your chance to win.

 You will not know which blog will be chosen so the more you comment on

 the better your chances are of winning!  

You have until Friday, October 17 at 9pm CDT to comment

  -- winners will be posted on the NND blog on Saturday, October 18th. 

Newton's Nook Designs
Taheerah Atchia
Lydia Brooke
Larissa Heskett

Samantha Mann
Crafty Math-Chick
Shellye McDaniel
Jess Moyer
Stephanie Muzzulin
Danielle Pandeline
Tessa Wise
Heather Hoffman (Guest Designer)

Back tomorrow with Reveal Day #4....ENJOY! 

Happy Tuesday and Welcome to Day #2 of the 

Holiday Release for October 2014

Today's stamp reveal is "Holiday Hounds"

I just love this adorable set!  I stamped this ferocious little guy
onto brown cardstock and used some walnut ink and a sponge
dauber to shade around the bottom!

different papers, cutting out and then gluing into place :)

The Christmasy papers are by Martha Stewart and the ribbon by May Arts!

Would you like to win “Holiday Hounds”?
This set will be given away to one lucky winner! 

Here's how to win: 

Comment on the NND blog and Design Team and Guest blogs (see list below)!

 One winner will be chosen at random from the collective blogs listed below. 

Make sure to check out each  blog and comment for your chance to win.

 You will not know which blog will be chosen so the more you comment on

 the better your chances are of winning!  

You have until Friday, October 17 at 9pm CDT to comment

  -- winners will be posted on the NND blog on Saturday, October 18th. 

Newton's Nook Designs
Taheerah Atchia
Lydia Brooke
Larissa Heskett

Samantha Mann
Crafty Math-Chick
Shellye McDaniel
Jess Moyer
Stephanie Muzzulin
Danielle Pandeline
Tessa Wise
Heather Hoffman (Guest Designer)

Back tomorrow with Reveal Day #3....ENJOY! 

Melissa and I shared a few cards with the new "Evergreen" Collection by

Evergreen is a Christmas holiday collection filled with beautiful

colors and artwork that Basic Grey is well-known for.  

If you love the traditional BG Christmas collections as much as I do,

then you will want to add this one to your wish list :)

 

Our challenge was to use the various shaped stickers on our cards.

Now with BG you have chipboard stickers and cardstock stickers, so I used

both on my two cards!  

Come on by the BLOG to see close-ups and cards by Melissa Phillips too!

This week we're focusing on vellum for Trending Tuesday at

Vellum is one of those materials that can be a little intimidating to use.

You can easily crease the paper (which causes a white spot) and it

can be a challenge when it comes to adhering so that the adhesive doesn't show.

But all-in-all, it is a great accent that can show-off beautifully when added to projects.

You can emboss it, sew on it, chalk it, stamp on it and more!

I started with two 2.5" squares of vellum that I embossed in a Swiss Dot print. 

To adhere the two pieces together, I used the Red Chevron Designer Tape to tape up three of the sides.

 Next I added green sequins to the pocket; I didn't want all of the sequins to sink to the bottom, 

so I first spritzed the inside of the pocket with just a bit of spray adhesive. Press the sequins 

into place and then add the final strip of Designer Tape to close the pocket. For extra detail

 I machine-stitched around the edge before embellishing!

Vellum is fun to punch and die-cut! For this snowman card I used a small ornament punch for 

the top, a 1" and 1.5" circle punch for the body. I added a little 'blush' to his cheeks with

 pink chalk before embellishing with colored pearls for the eyes and nose.

His arms? They're the letter "I" from alpha stickers!
You can use a vellum adhesive to hold your pieces in place; I like the detail that
hand-stitching gives, so I chose that method instead of adhesive.

Now, wasn't that fun!?!  I had quite a good time making these cards
and thinking of different ways to use vellum :)

It's almost hump-day...have a wonderful rest-of-the-week!

What a fun day!  Whether you're looking

for cute and sweet or frilly and sophisticated, we have the ideas covered!

Just comment as you visit the blogs today :)

And don't forget to stop by the May Arts' Blog and leave a comment!

For my card I chose to create a tree made from tiered ribbon bows

From May Arts I've used the Mini Pom Pom Trim and Checked Ribbon.

Paper and birdhouse from Martha Stewart Crafts;  buttons by October Afternoon.

Time for the semi-monthly "Friday Sketch" with Bella Blvd!

This card was inspired by the blooms on this month's sketch. 

I  just trimmed my design to two flowers instead of three.

 For the stems, I adhered a strip of Pickle Juice Dot Designer Tape to a piece of cardstock

 and then cut into thin pieces. The blooms were a layer of die cuts from a mix of patterned 

papers and a few stickers. A happy bee adds a little extra whimsy. 

And what is a flower without a bee!

 I replaced the flowers with a trio of hand-cut houses from the City Sidewalks paper! 

After stitching a 'hill' onto a blue background, I added the houses with foam adhesive.

 Above one of the chimneys I hand-stitched a plume of smoke with white thread and small needle.
 I kept with the design of the sketch by adding a zig-zag border sticker and sentiment.

 Supplies: Christmas Countdown: City Sidewalks, O Tannebaum, Captions, Alpha+Bits;
 Trick or Treat: Captions

A good Friday to you all!

Today I have a very clean-and-simple Christmas card made with

and a cute print from Lawn Fawn's "Fa La La" 6X6 Paper Pad.

 The die that I used for this card is steel-rule A2 Card #4.

I really, really like the design of this die because it can be turned as I have it

shown here, opened to the right or with the flap at the top.  You could also

create a gift card holder with it or an envelope!  

First, I cut the actual card base from a white piece of cardstock.  

Next, I cut the design of patterned paper (shown above) using just the

scrolled portion of the die.  

I took the same paper from the pad and lined up the scroll piece over the other

paper so that the design matched (see above); place the layered pieces back onto the die

(follow the indentations on the die so that you will have proper placement).

Remove the scroll piece of paper and run the second piece back through to die-cut.

Adhere the pieces to the card and use a set of thin magnets to hold the flap closed.

I embellished lightly with just a smattering of small pearls to resemble snowflakes,

a die-cut sentiment from Elle's Studio and an evergreen ribbon bow by May Arts Ribbon!

I cannot wait to try out more stuff with this die...I'm thinking it would make a cool mini album too :)

Have a fun weekend!