Shifting Gears

I'm still enjoying my vacation at home. Tonight I'm going to a Washington Capitals hockey game with a friend. In addition to finally seeing superstar Alex Ovechkin play in person, the number of one of my favorite long-ago players is being retired in a ceremony before the game, so it should be a fun night. Tomorrow is the not so fun chore of taking Cosmo the crazy dog for his annual check up at the vet. Hopefully this will find him in good health and not cost thousands of dollars--our late December trips to the vet have a history of being very, very expensive and involving big-time medical intervention.

Holiday cards are officially done and now I'm on to new things. Valentine's Day is the next big event in the papercrafting universe and while I have some time, I'm working on building my stash of fun cards to send and share with others.

I made this one using Taylor's Cupcake Challenge. Instead of a cupcake, I have a cutie--Basel the lamb, that is. Basel is from the DoodleFactory Animal set from Starving Artistamps. I stamped Basel in gray ink, then filled the image in with some white Fun Flock. I used a sponge (and a grass stamp) to add some scenery around him, then I stamped Basel a second time and just cut out the head part of the image. I added this to the flocked one for some dimension.

I embossed a pink panel with the Swiss Dot Cuttlebug folder, then ran a strip of rose ribbon along the left side. I created a banner for the "love ewe" sentiment and embellished one end with a felt heart. It took a while to get the banner to look wavy and stay that way, but I really like how it looks. I added the layered panel with Basel to the cardfront, then added a pair of felt hearts to finish the card.

Materials Used:

Basel and sentiment (DoodleFactory from Starving Artistamps); Real Red, Cool Caribbean, and Kiwi Kiss Classic inks, Real Red, Pink Pirouette, Baja Breeze, Regal Rose, and Whisper White cardstock, sponge, glue dots, dimensionals (Stampin' Up!); Swiss Dot embossing folder (Cuttlebug); rose grosgrain ribbon (American Crafts); felt hearts (American Crafts); white Fun Flock (Stampendous); London Fog ink (Memento)

I also have a few new year's cards planned for the next few days, including one today. I made this one for today's featured stamper challenge on SCS. I was inspired by this card in Barbara's gallery and used it for the general idea for my card moreso than the actual design or layout. I kept the theme and some elements the same.

I stamped the champagne glass from Unity's Cocktail Party kit two times on white cardstock. I covered the "liquid" part of the image with Crystal Effects. After that dried, I went back and added some Dazzling Diamonds, too. The image is matted on a pair of Nestabilities rectangles. I put a pair of gold ribbon tabs on the left side of the panel for some interest, too.

Instead of using all solid papers for my card, I used a piece of sparkly striped paper from a My Mind's Eye Christmas stack for the panel on the front of the card. I added the "celebrate" sentiment from Sentiments O' Simple on an angle, then placed a shiny, glittered star against the sentiment panel. I found it on after-holiday clearance at Michaels and it made the perfect embellishment for a new year's card.

Materials Used:

Cocktail Party and Sentiments O' Simple kits (Unity Stamp Co.); Ruby Red, So Saffron, and Whisper White cardstock, Basic Black Classic ink, Basic Black and Barely Banana markers, Crystal Effects, Dazzling Diamonds, dimensionals (Stampin' Up!); rectangle and scalloped rectangle dies (Nestabilities); patterned paper (My Mind's Eye); star embellishment (Darice); gold ribbon (Michaels)