Joy to the World with Scrapbook Nerd

Hello friends,

Christmas is only one week away and I'm happy to say that all my Christmas cards are finally in the mail! Normally I'm way ahead of the game on shopping, decorating and mailing my cards, but this year Christmas has taken a backburner due to our kitchen renos. I'm thrilled to announce though that the kitchen is finally ready (except the backsplash...minor detail) and I was able to carve out a little time this week to create these simple Christmas cards for the Scrapbook Nerd Design Team.

These cards were created using some new products that just landed in the Scrapbook Nerd shop! I've been a fan and collector for a long time now of Pretty Pink Posh products and I was so happy when Joy (the owner of SN) recently decided to carry their products in her shop. Ironically enough, the name of the stamps and dies that are featured in my cards today is called Joy. ;)

This stamp set is so whimsical and fun and it took very little time to create these cards. I first trimmed some white cardstock to 4" x 5.25" and dry embossed the Whimsical Christmas Stencil by Pretty Pink Posh. This is achieved using a die cutting machine and a rubber embossing pad.

Next I ink blended Wilted Violet, Picked Raspberry and Spun Sugar Distress Oxide inks onto Neenah Solar White cardstock. I used a heat tool to dry the ink blending quicker. I then mixed a little bit of Ranger Perfect Pearls with a drop of water and splattered it over my ink blending.

I then die cut the JOY letters from the ink blended cardstock. I die cut them 3 more times from plain white cardstock and stacked them together for a dimensional look. I stamped a few of the cute images from the stamp set with Versafine Onyx Black Ink and embossed them with Ranger Clear Embossing Powder, then coloured them in with Copic markers.

I stamped and white heat embossed the sentiment using Versamark Ink and Brutus Monroe White Alabaster Embossing Powder onto black cardstock. I adhered the sentiment below the JOY letters and added the trees and the Santa hat with foam dots.

For my second card, I stamped the JOY letters with Versafine Onyx Black Ink and used clear embossing powder to heat emboss them. I coloured all the tiny images with Copic markers.

I then dry embossed a white card panel with the Whimsical Christmas stencil and from that I die cut the JOY letters. I added Brutus Monroe foam tape all over the back of my die cut panel, lined it up with the stamped letters and adhered it down.

The sentiment was white heat embossed on black cardstock and added to the right side of the card along with a cute little candy cane from the stamp set. I flicked some more Perfect Pearls on the white background to give it some shimmer.

Thank you for stopping by my blog. I appreciate you taking the time to do so.

Don't forget to stop by the Scrapbook Nerd online shop to shop the supplies I used in my cards today. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to leave me a comment below.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas/Happy Holiday season. Enjoy this special time with your loved ones. :)

For the Love of Poinsettias with Scrapbook Nerd

Hi friends!

I absolutely adore poinsettias! The white ones are lovely but it's the red ones that capture my heart. Up until recently, I had no idea that this plant had a religious connotation. I know they're popular at Christmas time, but I didn't know that the star-shape leaf pattern is said to represent the Star of Bethlehem and that the red coloured plant symbolizes the blood of Jesus Christ when he was crucified. 

This week my card projects for the Scrapbook Nerd Design Team are centered around this beautiful plant. The five cards I created all feature the gorgeous and realistic looking Paper Layering Poinsettia die set by Hero Arts. Let's take a look at my first card.

The white card panel was trimmed to 4" x 5.25" which I dry embossed using the Hero Arts Poinsettia Stencil. Dry embossing with stencils creates such a lovely, subtle texture to your backgrounds. I then die cut and assembled the pieces of the poinsettia, including a gold glitter center out of Lawn Fawn Sparkle Cardstock (Holiday) and glued it to the center of my card. I die cut the sentiment banner using the Lawn Fawn Fancy Wavy Banners along with a white heat embossed sentiment from their Winter Wavy Sayings stamp set. I adhered it just under the poinsettia. I then adhered the panel to a white A2 sized cardbase.

On this next card, I embossed onto a 4" x 5.50" ivory card panel the Hero Arts Noel Print Cling Stamp using Lawn Fawn Gold Embossing Powder.  I mounted that onto black cardstock and adhered it to a white cardbase.

I arranged the poinsettias diagonally, added a black sentiment banner in the middle and called it done!

This next card uses the same stencil which I dry embossed onto the panel. You can see the raised texture in the close-up photo. I added the poinsettia to the bottom left of the panel along with some pretty gold metallic thread by DMC for some more gold. I can never get enough gold on my Christmas cards!

The sentiment is from the Lawn Fawn How You Bean? Christmas Cookie Add-On stamp set which I white heat embossed onto black cardstock and cut into strips. I then foam mounted the strips onto the card aligned to the right. I added some Pinkfresh Studio jewels as a final touch.

On the following card, I used clear embossing powder with the same Hero Arts cling stamp onto Lawn Fawn Rainforest cardstock. From that panel, I trimmed out the ornament shape using the Poinsettia & Ornament Fancy Die by Hero Arts and set aside the positive piece which I used on my last card. From the same die set, I die cut an ornament from white cardstock. I adhered the Rainforest cardstock to a white A2 sized cardbase.

I then adhered the white ornament to the opening in the middle. I embossed the sentiment in the center of the ornament, added the poinsettia and some jewels from Pinkfresh Studio.

For my final card, I used Gold Mirror Cardstock by Tonic Studios to die cut the ornament and some trim for the sides of the panel. 

I backed the ornament using the positive piece from the previous card's embossed panel so that it could stand out from the rest of the cardstock. I adhered the poinsettias, sentiment and jewels to the card. Lastly, I added gold stretchy craft cord to the top of the ornament.

Thank you for stopping by my blog today. I hope my card projects inspire you to create your own cards using these gorgeous Hero Arts products. They can even be used on scrapbook layouts, mini albums or home decor projects.

Check out the Scrapbook Nerd online shop for the supplies I used in my cards today. 

Hope you're having an awesome day! And stay warm! It's a cold one today. :)

Oh Christmas Tree - Sketch Week with Scrapbook Nerd

Hi friends,

I'm back with another card project for Scrapbook Nerd. This week the Design Team was given a sketch to work with. Naturally, since it's the Christmas season, I interpreted that triangle to be a Christmas tree and created two cards using two very different techniques for my trees. Here's the sketch I was inspired by:

For my first card, I was totally inspired by a Kristina Werner video that she posted recently as part of her 2019 Holiday Card Series where she created a tree with very simple watercolouring. I included some step-out-photos below so you can see just how easy it was to create. You can also watch her video by clicking here. 

Rather than sketching out the tree as Kristina demonstrates in her video, I thought better than to trust my shabby drawing skills and decided to create a template on my computer instead. I opened up a Word document and created a text box the same size as my card panel (4" x 5.25"). Next I created the triangle shape and centered that in the middle of my text box. I printed it out on regular printer paper and cut out the triangle.

I then cut a 4" x 5.25" panel from Strathmore Cold Press 140 lb watercolour paper and placed the triangle over the middle of it temporarily.

Using Therm-o-Web Removable Purple Tape, I masked all around the triangle. I then removed my paper triangle template and set it aside for another project.

I then grabbed my Pinkfresh Studio Liquid Watercolours, a brush and two jars of water. One jar for rinsing the dirty brush and the other with clean water to slightly dilute the watercolour. I added a few drops of the following colours into a paint tray; Key Lime, Emerald City, Aquamarine and Sky Blue. I drew random diagonal lines using the first colour. I then used my heat gun to dry it. I went back and forth with the different colours, always making sure to dry between each colour application.

Once I was happy with my colours, I carefully removed the purple tape to reveal my tree. I then sprayed the entire panel with Thermo-o-web Silver Glitter Dust spray to give it some sparkle and shine.

Next, I mounted my card panel using fun foam to a red A2 sized cardbase to give it dimension. I stamped and white heat embossed the Merry Christmas sentiment from the Lawn Fawn Winter Wavy Sayings stamp set and die cut it with the coordinating Wavy Savings die. 

I attached foam dots to the back and adhered it across the middle of the tree. As a final touch, I added Nuvo Drops in Autumn Red.

My second card uses the Lawn Fawn Large Wreath die set to create the tree. This die set is meant to create wreaths but I like stretching my supplies and finding new ways to use them so I thought why not use the sprigs from the wreath to mimic foliage on a tree? I die cut multiple sprigs from two different coloured cardstock.

I also die cut the holly berries that come with the set from Lawn Fawn Sparkle Holiday Cardstock. I used a random die I had in my stash to die cut a star also in red glitter cardstock.

Using the same paper template of the tree, I traced it onto light green cardstock and trimmed it out. I glued all the branch pieces in a random fashion to that piece. I then adhered the berries to the tree.

I then glued the tree to a 4" x 5.25" Lawn Fawn Fog Cardstock panel that I heat embossed with clear embossing powder and the Hero Arts Noel Print Cling Stamp. I white heat embossed the sentiment from the same Lawn Fawn Wavy Savings stamp and die set and adhered it over the tree. I adhered the panel to an A2 sized white cardbase.

And those are my completed card projects for today! If you're interested in creating your own version of these cards, head on over to the Scrapbook Nerd shop to check out the supplies I used. I've conveniently included links to all the products in this post.

Thank you so much for stopping by! I hope you're having a wonderful day. :)