World Cardmaking Day 2016

Today is the day - the day I am promising myself to make time for my passion and my love...papercrafting!

I have been through so much since 2012 - the amputation of both my small toes, almost dying from pneumonia in 2014, and now an infection in my foot, ankle, and bone that has resulted in two surgeries, not working since March, and still in danger of a possible amputation.  But you know what, out of the bad so much good has entered my life and I appreciate every moment on earth that I've been given!!  I'm not going to waste another day not devoting time to this blog and my paper!!

Papercrafting, and specifically cardmaking, is such a joyous, simple way to express love and kindness to so many friends and family members.

October 1st, 2016 is World Cardmaking Day and I am participating in a card exchange at a beautiful local scrapbooking store, The Paper Cottage, in Beavercreek, Ohio with one of my best friends, and fellow card makers, Terri Barlage.

The card exchange theme is holiday and I have created Christmas cards to trade with the lovely people this morning.  We are required to use three techniques/embellishments and I have used six.

1. Stamping
2. Heat Embossing
3. Die Cutting/Punching
4. Foiling
5. Ribbon
6. Bling

To create the card base, I stamped the snowflake background (Hero Arts) on craft paper and added gold foil stripes in the middle.  The technique I used to create the foil stripes did not utilize a Minc or a laminator.  I placed 1/8" adhesive strips on the cardstock and then pressed the foil on the adhesive strips with my finger.  I have a Minc and love it; but I wanted to use a technique that anyone could recreate.

Moving on to the wreath, I used the Martha Stewart branch punch to cut three shades of green cardstock to create the wreath on the cards.

I used a toilet paper cardboard roll, to keep the center clear and circular on the card, and then layered the branches around the roll.  I stamped "Merry Christmas" with Versamark Watermark ink on red cardstock and heat embossed the words in gold.  To jazz up the wreath, I added red jewels to mimic berry clusters and then placed a red glittered bow on each one.  I am horrible at tying small bows; but there is a technique to create small ribbon bows with a fork!  Check out Lisa's video on her Pufftique YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd8UGb5kSoY - and learn the fork technique in less than 2 minutes!

Hope you enjoy this Christmas card inspiration!  It's not too early to start working on your holiday cards - start early and make it a stress-free process by working on them just a few minutes each day.  I promise - they'll actually turn out better because you allow time for your items to dry between steps.