Mittens in July???

Happy Monday!  It is a Bitten by the Bug 2 Monday for the design team - except for me!  I did not get to my project this weekend.  My sweet, sweet Design Team sister Penny chose the mittens cut on the Joys of the Season cartridge, hoping to stir up a bit of Christmas in July fun!

I have had a second yucky stomach thing in as many weeks and I took the weekend to finally get well.  I had designed a fun, layered card, but I never spent any time in my scrap room so the file went uncut.  I am sure I will eventually make the card - probably sometime this fall.  However, in the meantime I do have a mitten project to share.

Every Christmas I give out my fabulous yeast rolls to my neighbors and some special friends, and of course they have to be accompanied by a card.  I made this card earlier this year, preparing for next December's card needs.

I used my nesties to cut the two different sized mittens.  I then used Gina K's great mitten stamps to embellish my mittens.

I made the nexties label using the ovals and scalloped ovals.  And again I used the Gina K stamps to add the sentiment.  The phrase reads:  "Fresh Baked Homemade Goodness".  Trust me, the yeast rolls are indeed homemade goodness!!

Please do go by Bitten by the Bug 2 and look a the fabulous mitten projects the design team is sharing.  I confess that I peeked at them early and they are AMAZING!!!  

Victorian Card with Spellbinders

Happy Thursday!  Let's get to the "good stuff" right up front today - the winner of the Custom Crops sponsored blog candy.  The winner is lucky comment number 49, who is:

~JulieH~  who said...

"Wow Susan what a fabulous design! Love this card and the birds heart 

done in pink looks just gorgeous.Love all the extra details too"

Congratulations Julie!  You will be hearing from CC soon!

Now on to today's card.  This was the card I entered to round two of the Spellbinders design team tryouts.  It is the card that let me down.... :-(

This card was created using Spellbinders label 14 on folded cardstock, with the edge of the die placed just above the fold so as to not cut that end of the card.  I then cut a single layer of label 14, folded it in half and affixed it to the top back of the base card.  This created the top flap and the fold out portion.

To create the layered flap I cut the same die two more times, once in gray print and once in smooth cream cardstock which had been stamped with a GinaK stamp.   Using scissors I cut the two additional cuts in half and layered them under the front flap.

I cut the front message area with circle and scalloped circle nesties.  The closure flourish was cut from a Christmas set of Spellbinder dies. 

I decided that the top flap needed a little more detail so I cut a solid pendant shape and then trimmed it in half, affixing half to the front of the top flap.

And that flower??? That was created during flower surgery.  The netting was formerly the outer petals on the flower, but I did not like it with this card.  I took scissors and cut away the netting, reshaped it into a loose loopy bow and topped it with the flower center.

I finished the card by stamping an additional Thank You sentiment inside the card.  I actually was quite pleased with this little cutie!  And I will use my nesties to create shaped cards in the future!

Warm Mittens for a cold day

Have you heard the expression "cold hands - warm heart"?  That is what I thought of while making this adorable card.  With these adorable mittens the warm heart can also have warm hands!  This card is one of several cards that I created while on my scrappy girlfriend boondoggle to Lake Murray!

This card was created with Spellbinders Nested Mittens dies and Gina K Winter Mittens stamp set as well as the Snowflake Pendent die set and Snowflake 1 die set.  In addition to the smooth white cardstock, I also used printed and solid cardstock from my scraps.  I love using up scraps. 

I tried a self adhesive silver metallic paper/cardstock to cut the embellie snowflakes.  I had mixed results with the self adhesive aspect.  In the end I had to add Tomboy glue to a few spots to ensure that the snowflakes stayed on the card.  I will add that the metallic paper cut marvelously with my Spellbinder dies and my Grand Calibur.

I used Stampin' Up ink to stamp my mittens.  I also used Stampin' Up ribbon to create the exquisite bow.   I used a one-eighth inch hole punch on each of the mittens and suspended them on one-eighth inch white ribbon (and pop dots, of course). 

I hope this card makes you feel all warm inside when you see it.  I truly enjoyed using my Gina K stamps.  I have purchased three sets of Gina K stamps which are compatible with my Spellbinders Nestabilities and I am excited to share them with you over the next few weeks.