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Just Playin' - New Christmas Stamps

12/20/2016

I saw the Christmas Sojust-one-more-card.comldiers stamp on one of the posts at "Just One More Card" and just HAD to have it. SO I searched for a US supplier and, in the course of my search, found two more "must haves"! AS a rule, I'm not muc into "cute" but these staps are truly "cute" and still...

They arrived a few days ago and I decided today to test my ability to stamp and color with a still-wonky left hand. It was also a chance to test a new tool: The We R Memory Keepers precision press. It's a riff on the MISTI and I thought it would be bigger than it is, but it has one feature that the MISTI does not have: it is "open" on two sides so papers larger than5 x 8 can be used in it... I can see uses for it on larger cards, scrapbook layouts, etc. Have to say, though, that I still prefer the MISTI becasue of it's magnetic feature which keeps paper in place.

I made one card with each stamp set...

First up was "Christmas Soldiers". (If your card is large enough, you could stamp it twice and have "10 Lords a Leaping", I think...). Anyway, I stamped in Archival "Jet Black" using the precision press. (I had to make several passes with it --- for some reason, the stamp wasn't happy with Archival "Jet Black" and wasn't stamping solidly. I gave up after 6 impressions!). I then colored the image with Inktense Pencils and a detail water brush and stamped the sentiment from the set using Archival "Vermillion":

Products used in the making of this card were:

Stamps: Stamping Bella "Christmas Soldiers" (cgr119)
Inks: Archival "Jet Black" and "Vermillion"; Inktense Pencils "Cherry" (0510), "Poppy Red (0100), "Sun Yellow" (0200), "Ink Black" (2200), "Madder Brown" (1920) and "Baked Earth" (1800)
Papers: DCWV Card Stack "white"

Next up was "Caroling Chicks" I stamped and colored as in the "Christmas Soldiers" card but, in this instance, only two impressions with Archival "Jet Black" were required. (Sadly --- the paper shifted so there is a slight doubling of the image which makes teh photo look slightly out-of-focus...Sorry!):

Products used in the maing of this card were:

Stamps: Stamping Bella "Caroling Chicks" (eb319)
Inks: Archival "Jet Black" and "Vermillion"; Inktense Pencils "Poppy Red (0100), "Sun Yellow" (0200), "Ink Black" (2200), "Madder Brown" (1920), "Baked Earth" (1800), "Apple Green" (114) and "Tangerine" (103)
Papers: DCWV Card Stack "white"

The third card used the stamp set "Rudolph, The Christmas Lights and the Chicks". Stamps and colored as before, although there was a third chick stamp in the set that didn't fit on the card in portrait. This stamp set worked perfectly with the precision press and the Archival "Jet Black... but the Vermillion wasn't as crisp. Also, my watercoloring leaves something to be desired... too many small bits on that large deer and my shading on the deer didn't come out how I wanted.

Products used the making of this card were:

Stamps: Stamping Bella "Rudolph, The Christmas Lights and the Chicks" (eb428)
Inks: Archival "Jet Black" and "Vermillion"; Inktense Pencils "Poppy Red (0100), "Sun Yellow" (0200), "Ink Black" (2200), "Madder Brown" (1920), "Baked Earth" (1800), "Sea Blue" (1200) "Apple Green" (114) and "Tangerine" (103); Uniball Sigma Broad "white" pen
Papers: DCWV Card Stack "white"

All in all, a learning experience. I find that my left hand cannot yet hold my ruler solidly when trimming with a craft knife, and handling that HUGE Archival "jet Black" pad is nearly impossible (it was hard enough with two functioning hands) without getting ink all over me and the precision press and the paper... Still, it was fun to stop watching bad television and playing games on my iPad to actually craft!

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Challenge: Song Lyrics

12/13/2016

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“Any song that moves you, that ear worm you can't get rid of, Christmas carols that make this time of year merry and bright, anything you like. “

That is what the Creative Carte Blacnhe team want us to use as inspiration for December 2016 !

So here’s my holiday ear-worm:

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Written by Hugh Martin, Ralph Blane • Copyright © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, as sung by Judy Garland in the film "Meet Me in St. Louis"
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
Next year all our troubles will be out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the yuletide gay
Next year all our troubles will be miles away
Once again as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Will be near to us once more
Someday soon we all will be together
If the fates allow
Until then we'll have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now

(Alternative lyrics, requested by Frank Sinatra circa 1957 because he thought the originals were a little too “sad”)

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
From now on, our troubles will be out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the Yuletide gay
From now on, our troubles will be miles away
Here we are as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more
Through the years we all will be together
If the fates allow
So hang a shining star upon the highest bough
And have yourself a merry little Christmas now

There’s a story behind this one. I know that it was first sung by Judy Garland in “Meet Me in St. Louis” but when it started sticking in my head was back in 1994, on September 29, when Rosemary Clooney guest-starred in an episode of ER’s first season (“Going Home”). She played Mary Cavanaugh, an Alzheimer patient who takes a liking to Carter. She believes it's still 1948 and tries to get Carter to appreciate the music of her day. On December 15 of the same year, she returned in “The Gift”, same character, same illness and she closed the episode with “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”. From that point on, this was MY FAVORITE Christmas song, EVER!

Now I’m not sure which version Rosemary sang in that episode - I suspect it was the SInatra version as that is the one most her post 1950. However, given the year we’ve had (broken wrist dying car ... among other things), I’m opting for the one in the movie here… and muddle through somehow!

I made a card (don’t I always?) because it was easier to do one-handed (my wrist is improving but I still have no hand strength to speak of and the wrist isn’t very flexible so carting heavy tools like die-cutting machines and paper cutters around isn’t easy…).

I started with a music background on a scrap of distressed ivory card which I masked (with the shape traced from the outline of the sentiment stamp), using a medium grey ink and blended “Antique Photo” Distress Ink on the edges to age the image. I then stamped the sentiment in red ink… After trimming the scrap to fit my card front, I matted it on metallic card, added some wire holly berried and leaves:

and a 1.25” punched embossed image of some lyrics from the song

I need to get some detail gold EP --- regular kind of overwhelmed the detail here

The fcard base was mountd to a pr-folded ivory note card:

Products used in the making of this card were:

Stamps: Stampers Anonymous “Mini Doodle Greetings” (CMS287); Hero Arts “Music Background” (CG222) and “Kelly’s Warm and Cozy” (CL996)
Inks: Altenew Crisp Inks “Moon Rock” and “Ruby Red”; Distress Ink “Vintage Photo”; Versamark
Embossing Powder : Creative Beginnings “Gold regular”
Papers: The Paper Copay Value Pack Note Pads “ivory”; scraps of distress ivory, metallic gold and forest green card
Embellishments: Paper Bliss “Swirl Holly” (39053-PE-000)
Tools: MISTI; Stampin’ Up! 1 1/4” circle punch
Adhesives: Scotch Tape; Glossy Accents; Viva Las Vegas “Miracle Tape”

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12 Tags of 2016 - December

12/13/2016

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The tag for December 2016 in the Tim Holtz monthly challenge is a remix of two earlier techniques: Shadowpress from May 2014 and Burlap and Punches from December 2015. Since I use a smaller tag than in the demo, I skipped a few pieces of each technique but I think it fills the challenge.

I used the Shadowpress Station and one of the “Wishes” letterpress embossing folders on a strip of red-and-white striped paper and followed the technique as shown in May 2014. I covered my tag with a strip of white burlap ribbon (I didn’t use a stencil and spray - getting the lid off the spray with my broken wrist was an issue I didn’t want to fuss with), attached the letterpress strip to the right side and added a “‘tover” greeting. Finally, I selected some more “‘tovers”: greenery from various Sizzix greenery dies (I don’t have punches for greenery). I assembled the greenery pieces using Tombow adhesive, attached them to the tag with three red brads and finished off with a dyed length of crinkle ribbon (a freebie from The Funky Junky Boutique).

Products used in the making of this tag were:

Papers: small white tag; Ideology 8 x 8” Paper Stack “Tidings” (TH93325); scraps from various green card (“‘tovers” from an earlier project)
Embossing Folders: Shadowpress “Wishes” (659859)
Inks: Versamark
Embossing Powder: Creative Beginnings “god regular”
Embellishemnts: The Paper Studio “white” Burlap Ribbon; Hot Off the Press “Autumn Brads”; Crinkle Ribbon
Adhesives: Tombow ruler; Xyron 500 sticker maker

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Author

Born in New Jersey, I grew up in Southeastern Ohio. Attended university at Bowling Green State University (B.Sci in biological science, 1964), University of Southern California (M. Sci in biological science, 1967) and University of Florida (Ph. D in zoology, 1971).
Worked in environmental consulting for a little more than a decade and then seven years as an instructor in biological science at various community colleges in California and Texas. Moved to London in 1992, then Beijing (1996) and Saudi Arabia (1998), before returning to NW Ohio in 2002. I am currently living in NW Ohio with my husband and three Bombay cats. I love to read (mystery, science fiction, history) and stitch (have done crewel, currently experimenting with free embroidery and needlepoint but blackwork and cross stitch are my main genres); have been known to knit; and now I'm heavily into papercrafting!
Retired upon the return to the US so lots of time for our hobbies...