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Saturday, December 17, 2016

Happy Fall ~ Always Use Rubber, Challenge #6

Hello friends! I'm presenting a card for the Always Use Rubber Design team, challenge #6, in the theme of summer or autumn.  We would be THRILLED if you joined us! In fact, if you'd like to check out my teamies creations, Jane & Zoe, I'll wait here. 

And, as always, once the challenge ends (two whole weeks from today) we will choose a top 3.  Then, at the end of the month all of our top 3 winners have the chance to win a gift certificate from our fabulous sponsor, Alleystamp. 

Unfortunately this is our last challenge.  A few of our members will be pursuing other adventures and I hope to be able to keep in touch with them.  I wish them both the best of luck!  I want to thank all of our guest designers and participants XO

Our faithful & generous sponsor:


If you are looking for something, be it the newest goodies, or perhaps something that hasn't been around for a while, I urge you to go to Alleystamp.  If what you need isn't in stock they can get it for you SO fast - and the prices can't be beat! 

If you are familiar with me you know I love cats (truthfully, I love all animals, but I have a special place in my heart for cats) and I am amassing quite the collection of cat stamps.  The stamp company Newton's Nook makes some of the cutest cat stamps, well, adorable stamp sets in general, but I totally fell in LOVE with Newton when I saw him.  Plus, the stamps are easy to color!

What I Used to Make my Card:
Brown Card Base
Newton's Nook Newton's Antics Stamp Set
Newton's Nook Newton's Antics Die Set
Watercolor Paper
Derwent Inktense Watercolor Pencils
Tim Holtz/Sizzix Alphanumerics, #660056
Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 17
Glitter Cardstock
Vanilla Cardstock
Adirondack Archival Ink by Ranger, in Jet Black
Bag of Fall Leaves 

The very first step I took in making this card was to stamp & color the kitty. You can see how I altered him a bit so he'd sit in the leaves:

I basically just cut him out of his box. I used the matching die cut to cut him out and then just snipped off the box.  I can SO relate to this stamp because Bud (one of my four current fabulous felines) is a total box kitty.  He will try to get into any box, no matter the size.  And it's your typical "buy them $1,000 worth of toys and all they want to do is play in the box" situation.  He does favor the square USPS Priority boxes the best.  Anyway, I could seriously talk about my cats all day and I will blather on if I am not careful.

So I stamped, colored and cut my kitty.  Then I set him aside and began to glue each leaf on the card to build the pile of leaves.  For some reason I have a hell of a time getting these to stick to the card base - it's almost as if they resist the glue, so I have to go very slowly and let each leaf that is glued on dry before I pile more leaves on or they will just stick to each other and all come off (ask me how I know this!).  I've had this bag forever and there are plenty left.  I wish I could recall where I purchased them from, but, nope.  I re-bagged them ages ago so I can't even recall what company they came from, but I do know they were made to make model train landscaping and they are made from fabric, but are a stiff fabric and a bit shiny.  

While I was in between leaf gluing, I cut out my letters for the sentiment.  I am really lacking in sentiment stamps so if anyone has a good set that they use over and over, please let me know!  I used glitter card in a copperish brown color for the letters and glued them onto a label from Spellbinders cut out of the vanilla cardstock.  I went back and forth between leaf gluing and trying to get
those letters straight for a good while.  I finally decided to use removable tape on the letters (with the letters on the sticky side, backwards, so I could glue them down while keeping them straight - I hope that makes sense) and then when the glue was dry, I carefully peeled the tape off.  I actually use a lot of removable tape, I've been using it long before washi tape became a thing and the removable tape is much cheaper (and I didn't get the "fall" as straight as I would have liked, but, like I always say, that's the charm of handmade!).

Finally, the card was finished.  I am very pleased with how it came out, even if the letters are a bit wonky.  Thank you so much for reading my very long, full of information that I told you about even if you didn't ask, blog post.  Please consider joining us at Always Use Rubber but PLEASE check out our very reasonable rules first! I hope you all have a very happy holiday, however you choose to celebrate! Hugs, Christi

I would like to enter my Happy Fall Card in the following challenges: 
Crafty Catz - #351, Anything Goes
Through The Purple Haze - #115, Anything Goes
Crafty Gals Challenge - #101, Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Work it Wednesday - December - Use Dies
Tuesday Throwdown - #323, Anything Goes
Try it on Tuesday - Celebrate!

Saturday, December 3, 2016

Join in The Festival! Challenge 5 at Always Use Rubber!

Hello friends! I'm presenting this card for the Always Use Rubber Design team, challenge #5, and we have decided the theme for this challenge is Festival! Tis the season for lots of festivities so it should be easy for you to join in this challenge.  Why not check out my esteemed teammates makes as well - here are some handy links to their blogs, Jane & Zoe.

And, as always, once the challenge ends (two whole weeks from today) we will choose a top 3.  Then, at the end of the month all of our top 3 winners have the chance to win a gift certificate from our fabulous sponsor, Alleystamp. 
Alleystamp is a fabulous store and Janine makes sure she has most all the new goodies in stock. And if she doesn't have it, she can get it to you super quick! No one likes to wait for new goodies!

Here is the card I made for this festive challenge:

This is What I used to Make my Card:
White Card Base
Small Snowflake Stamps (none of the ones I used were marked)
Distress Ink in Tumbled Glass, Mermaid Lagoon & Blueprint Sketch
Tim Holtz/Sizzix Mini Globe Die, #661598
Light Blue, Silver & White Glitter Cardstock

Glitter cardstock makes this a breeze to make! I started by stamping the background with three tiny snowflakes I found in my tiny stamps drawer (I literally have a drawer where I store all those tiny stamps) - they are very old and I have no idea how I even got them.  Using the three different blue colors of Distress Inks I just randomly stamped the white card base.  Then I went to my
cardstock pile and chose a light blue glitter cardstock that matched the blues of the snowflakes (it looks better in person - we all know how annoying glitter is to photograph!).  I die cut the word peace out of the light blue, then the world out of silver glitter card and I cut a circle out of white glitter cardstock to go behind the globe (I just cut around the outside of the globe die.  Since the world die is "see through" and I didn't want the snowflakes to show through the "holes" in the globe die I needed to back it with something).  I fiddled a bit with placement until I felt like the elements complimented each other, glued the white glitter backing to the globe, then glued that to the card, ending with the peace die cut. I hope you agree! The dies I used on this card were purchased because I could see a festive (after all it sparkles like crazy) non-denominational card.  I'm glad I followed my vision through to completion - now, I should get busy making those cards!
Just another look :)
We would love to see your Festive creations! Just pop over to the blog, Always Use Rubber, take a look at the rules (very important!!) and link up! I hope that each and everyone of you has a joyous season ~ Hugs! Christi

I would like to enter my "Peace" card in the following challenges:
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge, #310, Vintage, or Anything Goes as Long as It's Christmas
A Vintage Journey (December) Winter Magic
Quick Quotes - #70, Colors Blue & Silver (or grey)
Aud Sentiments - Anything Goes & A Sentiment
Christmas at Sweet Stampin'  - Anything Christmas Goes
Fab 'n' Funky Challenges - #329, Christmas
Sparkles Monthly Challenge - (December) #86, Christmas is Coming