Gift Certificate Ideas

 Hi everyone!  Can't believe it's already New Year's eve.  This year has flown by even with all the craziness of Covid and now our move to South Carolina in the works on top of that.  Hope this finds you all healthy and safe and ready to move on boldly into the new year.  

It's always nice to share our love of stamping with others, especially during the holidays. So I always make up several gift certificate cards for customers to purchase for their friends or family.  The inside is always printed with the recipients name, amount of the gift, who it's from, and that it can only be used by placing an order through me.  Today I'm sharing one of the versions I made this year.

I love snowy trees at Christmas time, so that's the idea for this card.  The stamp set used is In The Pines.  Sticking with the theme, I used Whisper White and Shaded Spruce cardstock along with Shaded Spruce ink for all the trees.  It was fun stamping with this set because you can get all the shades of color right from the stamp and only the one color of ink.  The fill-in stamp was inked, then stamped 2 to 3 times to get the various shades.  That makes it so quick and easy!

Hope you can see the Wink of Stella used as snow under the tree trunks.  It's hard to see, but there is also a spattering of Wink of Stella over the entire snowy scene.  It adds a subtle bit of shimmer to the wintry trees.  An adhesive-backed iridescent star was added to one of the trees for an extra bit of bling.

The versatile Stitched Shapes dies cut the little oval for the sentiment that was stamped with Cherry Cobbler ink.  The sentiment came from the Arrange A Wreath stamp set.  The sentiments in the set are just right when you need something small to fit in the space.  The oval was popped up using Dimensionals to give it a little lift.  If you're looking for a gift certificate or card for a winter birthday, this idea would be perfect.

Thanks for coming by today.  I love sharing ideas with all my friends, both old and new.  Hope you'll stop by again soon.  Wishing you a very blessed, healthy, and happy New Year.

Sharon

 

Starting Over

  It's happening!  Some of you know how much we've been missing our daughter and family since they moved last June.  So we've decided to follow them to South Carolina.  We're moving within the month, so it's time to reinvent my business.  Who ever thought it would be a good idea to move over Christmas?  We must be a little nuts, right?   How daunting, this starting over again in a new state, new home, making new business contacts and new friends!  I thought this would be one good way to stay in touch with my Michigan friends that I'll be missing like crazy.  Of course, that means that you all need to add your comments and ideas to keep the conversations going.

  Since I'm starting this blog over new, I though this was the perfect time to start sharing the newest Mini Catalog that goes live in January 2021 and stays current through June.  One of the first stamp sets I purchased is the Dragonfly Garden along with the matching Dragonfly Punch.  Of course I had to get the Dandy Garden 6" X 6" Designer Paper to go with it!  It so happens my friend Judy's birthday was this month, so the first card I made with this was a birthday card.

Don't you love the blue and white color combo?  It's so crisp and clean looking.  The blue I used was the Misty Moonlight In-Color cardstock, ink, and ribbon.  Matchy, matchy, that's me!  The die set that I used for the sentiment layers is Stitched Rectangles.  And of course, the dragonfly punch is part of the Dragonfly Garden Bundle.  I do so love my little dragonflies.  Don't forget that by buying bundles you always save and that's a good thing.

The dragonfly set has a stamp that just colors a set of wings.  You need to flip it around to get the 2nd set of wings stamped.  I sponged both Misty Moonlight and Blushing Bride inks on the wings to give them more of an iridescent look.  The are also two tiny dragonflies punched from Blushing Bride cardstock to coordinate.

 I had to add a rhinestone to the dragonfly body to give it a little bling.  It was a clear rhinestone colored with Misty Moonlight Blends to match the card.  To give the card just a bit more bling, the wings are colored over with a light layer of Wink of Stella for extra shine.  Can't see it too well in the pic, but it really makes a difference in real life.

There you have it.  An 'almost' monochromatic card that was quick and easy to make.  Even better, it was a chance to play with new stamps and designer paper. These new items will be available January 5th in the new Mini Catalog.  Hooray!  What could be better than that?

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you come again soon.  It's good to be back.  (still a few glitches to work out, but we're working on that) 😄

Sharon