My Crafty Alterego

January 30th

My favourite hobby, these days is scrapbooking. I make cards and have made scrapbook pages for my daughter’s wedding album and for my grandson’s album. Sometimes I take classes or attend workshops to get inspired.

Just before Christmas, I participated in a ‘card-making smorgasbord’. My Stampin’ Up representative, Ashley Sokal, designed 10 cards, prepared a lot of the elements, wrote out instructions and let the participants choose the designs they wanted to make for about $2.00 per card. Here were the ones I made:

Polar Bear/Penguin

Deer

I really need to get the ‘Top Note’ Bigz die cutter to make the design element on this card. It can be used for so many things. I have been resisting because I know my sister-in-law has it, but we don’t get together often enough for me to take full advantage of its use.

I also love the stamp set, but can’t remember the name of it. I wish I’d bought it when I had the chance.

The ‘Dasher’ stamp is featured on this card. Red card stock is used to make the ‘Top Note’ detail. Although it doesn’t show in the photo, there is glitter on the antlers and the nose is a red jewel.

Silver embossing

I love the simplicity of this design. The stamp, from the ‘Gifts of Christmas’ set, is beautiful when using the silver embossing technique. Add to that, the light chalk to accent the dove and a little glitter along the side, makes for an elegant card.

3 trees

Again, simplicity reigns. Using the triangle punch and glitter card stock was an easy way to make the trees. Add to that, the monochromatic color scheme and the Big Shot’s Snowflake embossing folder for the background, silver ink pad for the greeting and you have yourself a handsome card suitable for a man or a woman.

Merry Christmas

I love this beautiful ‘Merry Christmas’ stamp that incorporates poinsettias, holly & bells into its design. The white card stock was embossed using a flowered frame embossing folder & the Big Shot. The raised tulips were then brushed with silver embossing powder to bring out the pattern. Add a silver snowflake brad to the centre of the bow to complete the look.

Poinsettia

I never would have thought to use this shade of beige on a Christmas card, but it works well with this design. The card stock was embossed using the Big Shot and the flower embossing folder. The poinsettia was created using the Five Petal Flower Punch. The top layer was punched from glitter card stock, plain red card stock and green, layered and attached with a red brad.

3 mini squares

I like the layered look of this card. The centre green strip was punched with an edge punch to make the scalloped edge. The small squares were punched using the Postage Stamp punch and the Small Square Punch. I love the mini mittens, snowman & tree, which fit so nicely into this format.

I ended up making two of each of these cards, except for the dove one, of which I made four. I can’t wait until the next card smorgasbord! Ashley has such wonderful ideas. If you want to check out more of her designs and learn more about Stampin’ Up, her blog is listed in the blogroll.

January 5th, 2012

Here are some of the cards I made over the holidays:

Although I have a lot of scrapbook supplies, I am glad I have sisters-in-law who also share my hobby because I get to borrow their stamps and their Cricut machine to make beautiful die-cuts like the deer above. If you like crafty things, too, check out PINTEREST (http://pinterest.com) It’s a website like a giant bulletin board with all kinds of stuff on it from photography to historical stuff to crafty stuff. The first time I saw it, I was hooked and have ‘pinned’ quite a lot of sites to my own boards for future references.

In addition to the cards I have shown you here, I have been posting about my hobby fairly regularly. You can go to the ‘Search’ box and type in ‘Crafty Wednesday’ to see a lot more of my scrapbook projects. 🙂