GETTING READY FOR CHRISTMAS

Thanksgiving is over which means though the calendar says it's still fall the season says its time to get ready for winter and Christmas.  Here is a new Christmas card I made last week.  The layout is quite simple, but I think it needed to be simple to highlight the background I created.

For the background I used my Cuttlebug and the snowflake embossing folder.  In order to get a nice deep embossed image I used GinaK's heavyweight (120lb) white card stock.  The debossed image became the right side of my background.  This was so I could roll the blue ink over the cardstock using my hard rubber brayer. You can't tell in the picture, but the while layer behind the snowflakes layer has the edges painted with icicles stickles to give the sparkle of new snow when the sun shines on it.  I colored the snowman and birds with my copics and added liquid applique to the hat brim and pompom.

It was a fun card to do and really not all that difficult.

BACK TO STAMPING!

Along with other things I have been stamping.  Several weeks ago, actually probably over a month ago but who's counting, GinaK did a video on StampTV on an emboss resist technique.  I loved it and couldn't stop playing around with it.  I used it on several different cards. This is the first I came up with.  Not too impressive here in the photo, but it really does look much brighter in real life. The embossing and then inking and the resist is easy to do. 

I wanted to try something different with it and I was using my French Script Stampin' Up background stamp for the writing in the background so for one of my next cards I used my oval nestabilities and created a mask to stamp over to get the words in an oval shape.  I then used other of the oval and scalloped oval nestabilities to finish the layout. 

I like how this technique can produce what I Think of as "clean and simple" cards without being just a stamped image.  Now I want to try it moving away from the leave motif.  I think it would work with any chunky solid stamp and I'm thinking of other backgrounds.  I think it would also work with patterned or designer papers in the background under the embossed image. 

ANOTHER MONTH PASSES........

Hard to believe but another month has passed.  I just don't have very good control of my time it would seem. 
The good news for me is that though I have not been getting here to post craft updates I am crafting.  I'm still moving slow to accommodate the pain of the broken collarbone, but I can pretty much do everything except for machine quilt medium to large projects. 
The one thing I have been able to do with no problems at all because it only involves movement from hand to elbow is crocheting.  So I started making these necklaces.

They are 7 lengths of trellis or ladder ribbon yarn each one single crocheted and then all tied together at both ends.  My sister has been making these for over a year and had shown me how to do them last Christmas, but I never tried one till I was desperate to have something I could do.  They are very pretty and are so light that you are not even aware they are around your neck.  They are also quite easy and quick to make.  I made about 50 or 60 of them in about three weeks.  After today's craft festival at our church I have 10 left and now have ordered more of the ladder yarn.  People love them, which of course I love. 
I've set up a sub category of my Suzanne's Needle and Stamp craft business and call it Chains of Love.  I've want to do something to help others and have decided that I will donate $1 from the sale of each necklace to a local shelter for homeless women and children.  I chose the name Chains of Love since the necklaces are basically made up of only single crochet chains.  That they are so popular makes me very happy for that reason as well.
Up to now my efforts at crocheting have been pretty minimal.  I'm not very good at anything but single crocheting so these are perfect for me and I have now added yet another craft to my ever growing list of loves.