Sunday, September 20, 2020

September Twofer Challenge

One of my favorite monthly challenges, because it really is a challenge, is called the "Twofer Card Challenge." It requires the use of the exact same stamp or die to make two cards with distinctly different designs for two different occasions. The September  Challenge is named "Trees." I have lots of tree stamps but opted for one of the first ones I ever bought. Back in the late ’90s when a friend and I opened a stamp store in South Dakota, three of the first lines of stamps that we carried were Stampendous, Art Impressions, and Embossing Arts. This cute little EA tree stamp has created lots of cards over the years.
Supplies: 
·   Wood Mount Stamp- Embossing Arts (Three Trees) Company is no longer in business
Entered into: 
Twofer Card Challenge#31 Trees
 
I first made an elegant Christmas card. I printed a freebie ornament template from Birdscards (see link below) onto Neenah white cardstock, trimmed it down and inked the tree stamp with a green ink pad in the middle of the ornament. Without reinking, I stamped the image a few more times slightly behind the initial one to create depth. Using a tutorial from Pinterest (see link below) a used dryer sheet and glitter to create a super sparkly image. NOTE- I discovered the spray adhesive I’ve had for a few decades was repositionable and didn’t work AT ALL! So, I used my fingers to smear a thin layer of Tacky glue on top of the stamped image and pressed the dryer sheet on top. I laid a piece of scrap paper on top of the dryer sheet and repeatedly flattened it with my palms to make sure the glue was nicely distributed on the dryer sheet. (In hindsight, I should have used my brayer! Duh!) I finished the card with the instructions in the tutorials. When dry, I created the ornament topper with a scrap of foil paper and small paper punch. Patterned paper, a bit of ribbon and the card is finished!  
I’m entering this card into several challenges including Simon Says Monday Challenge- Frame It (silver photo corners on the pine branches paper create a frame) and Christmas Crafts All Year Round (my 2 Things that start with an S are Sparkly ornament and Silver photo corners.)
Supplies: 
·   Wood Mount Stamp- Embossing Arts (Three Trees) Company is no longer in business
·   Colored with Stampin’ Up Forest Green ink pad
·   Dryer Sheet Glitter tutorial found HERE
·   Christmas Bauble Template- Birdscards Freebie (HERE)
·   Inside Sentiment- Love SVG Freebie (All Hearts Come Home for Christmas)
·   Assorted background paper, metallic cardstock and ribbon from my stash
·   Silver photo corners available from several web sources (WXJ13 13 Sheets 13 Colors Photo Mounting Corners)
Entered into: 
Simon Says Monday Challenge- Frame It                                      
Crafty Hazelnut’s Christmas Challenge- #508 Anything Goes
Christmas Crafts All Year Round- Use at Least 2 Things starting with S
Crafty Hazelnut’s Patterned Paper Challenge- September            
Word Art Wednesday Challenge- #456-457 Anything Goes                   
Art Impressions- Handmade Holidays
Outlawz Challenge- Festive Fridays                                                
        Since I’m a DT for Beccy’s Place (sponsor), I’m entering just for fun!
Outlawz Challenge- Inlinks Challenge
 
My second card is a winter “Thinking of You” card that features a scenic ski slope with the tree stamp. The sweet little skier on the card is from All Dressed Up. I cropped the skier digi to fill just the bottom portion of an A2 card, creating the tree ridges with the tree stamp, ink pad and a torn strip of copy paper. Laying the torn paper across the top of the card front, I stamped the trees repeatedly, not re-inking between stamps. After creating the top ridge, I moved the torn paper down a bit and repeated the process two more times.
I colored the skier with bright colors, positioned and attached her to the card. I die cut the front sentiment and a large flurry of assorted snowflakes to adhere to the front and inside of the card. I think the finished card is… wait for it… COOL!
I’m entering this card into several challenges including All Dressed Up FB Challenge (I’ve embellished the snowski card with a blizzard of flakes) and Path Of Positivity Challenge- Family Ties (The card reminds me of the wonderful skiing my sweet hubby and I enjoyed on  our honeymoon. Married nearly 43 years ago during a December blizzard in the Midwest, we didn’t fly to someplace tropical. Nope! We drove to the freshly snow-covered ski slopes in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota. I remember swooshing down the slopes as huge snowflakes fell on us and around us. On our first day out, I wore a nylon ski-suit and didn’t do too much swooshing. Instead, I was on my butt sliding down the slopes quite often. Meanwhile, my hubby thought nylon ski pants were “lame” and wore jeans. We didn’t realize how often he had wiped out until the end of the day. Then, as we enjoyed hot buttered rum on the deck of our condo that overlooked the slopes, we could see several blue smudged on several if the ski runs. I wasn’t sure what they were… until my hubby said that when he took off his wet jeans after we finished skiing, his underwear was bright blue because the jeans had been new! We laughed and laughed!)
PS- I did create a tutorial for this process that I posted to my blog a few years ago. It includes five card samples that feature different scenes in assorted colors. You can find it HERE.
 
Supplies: 
·   Wood Mount Stamp- Embossing Arts (Three Trees) Company is no longer in business
·   Colored with Stampin’ Up Forest Green ink pad
·   Digi Image- All Dressed Up (Take To The Slopes)
·   Colored with Spectrum Noir Classique markers, Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen
·   Front Sentiment- Stamplorations Die (Warm Winter Wishes)
·   Inside sentiment- Imagine That Digi Set- Pandas  (Thinking of You) 
·   Gray parchment cardstock and colored scraps from my stash
·   Snowflakes- Cheery Lynn Designs Die (C146 Snowflakes) and Lawn Fawn LF995-Mini Snowflakes Die Set
Entered into: 
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends- #142 Anything Goes
Lemon Shortbread Challenge- Anything Goes #128
Crafty Catz Challenge- Anything Goes #519 (Optional twist- Make it Sporty) 
All Dressed Up- Anything Goes- #109 Anything Goes (September)          
All Dressed Up FB Challenge- Embellish It                                    
Path Of Positivity Challenge- Challenge #83 (Optional Twist- Family Ties)
A Perfect Time to Craft 2020-Anything Goes- Sept  Challenge #9-2020

14 comments:

  1. Hi Kathy, so happy to see these gorgeous cards and glad you have shared with us at CraftyCatz this week. The little skier is super cute.xx




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  2. Hi Kathy both of your cards are gorgeous. Take care. Hugs Jackie

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  3. How fun is that little skier! Sounds like you had a wonderful honeymoon and your memories are still as fresh as the new fallen snow! Great techniques on this card; wonderful tree line! Thanks for sharing with us at Path of Positivity. ~Katrina

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  4. What an elegant bauble, Kathy ... the shimmer and sense of dimension is fantastic! Such a fabulous scene you created for your sweet skier ... a lovely reminder of your fun honeymoon! Thanks so much for playing along with us at Twofer! Anita :)

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  5. Very nice glittering trees that captivate at first sight. I love using glitter paper on a Christmas card. The second card is also very beautiful, Kathy. Thanks for sharing on CCAYR. Good luck! Martina - DT

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  6. Two very beautiful and unique designs! Love them:)

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  7. GreT winter scene and a clever design Thanks for joining us ar All Dressed Up Stamps challenge love and hugs Carole x Design Team

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  8. You are always so creative, Kathy! I love that you used that old well-loved stamp for your designs! It looks so pretty stamped prominently once and then stamped off inside the ornament to create a forest of evergreens and the schparkle must be divine in person. Your TOY ski countryside card is also beautifully done with the sweet skier. This would make a lovely anniversary card for your hubby in memory of your skiing honeymoon ~ she even has a denim blue top on!! lol! Thank you so much for playing in Twofer Card Challenge #31! Keep well! Hugs, Darnell

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  9. Sweet bauble card Kathy. Thank you for entering the Include The Word Joy Challenge at CHNC.

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  10. What a great tree stamp and wonderful cards, Kathy! I love your glittery ornament and you chose a perfect background for it too! Such a cute skier - I bet she's excited to be on those gorgeous tree lined slopes! Thanks for joining in the fun with us at the Twofer Card Challenge!

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  11. Awesome card, I love that scene. Thank you for sharing at Lil Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge. Hope to see you again!
    Merja DT

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  12. Love the bauble card. Very elegant.
    Thanks for joining us at Craftyhazelnuts patterned paper challenge.
    Happy crafting!
    Catherine x DT

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  13. Pretty cards! Thanks for sharing with us at CCAYR.

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Thanks you for your comments. They bring joy to my day!