/* */ Beulah Bee: Christmas
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

December 04, 2021

Silent Night

Greeting Card

Here's another try at a two stamp combo--this time it's a night-time version (see previous post for a look at my first try).

I lightened up the foreground stamping by using gray ink. I guess the next thing to try with this stamp might be a "no-line" watercolor version.

You might be curious to know that the dark sky was made by mixing ultramarine blue and orange lake and I lightened the tint at the horizon line to create the illusion of depth.

Greeting Card

As long as you have a tiny brush handy, painting small watercolor scenes like this one are fast, easy and very satisfying!

I mounted my stamping on bronze metallic cardstock and used champagne-colored Stickles so I'm linking up to Simon's "Sparkle Mode" challenge this week since I made something glittery.

As always, I hope this post finds you well and happy and I appreciate your visit.

Until next time, take care.

Stamp sources: Pink Fresh Happy Holidays Circle Frame, Studio Light Christmas Scenery

December 01, 2021

Peace

Greeting Tag

Two stamps, one piece of watercolor paper and paint, topped off with glitter glue, glossy accents and a Remnant Rub and I've just made another card for Christmas.

Greeting Card

I might make another one but I'd stamp the holly border much lighter or knock it back with paint because I feel it competes too much with the scenery focal point.

I'm linking up to Simon's "Sparkle Mode" challenge this week which is to make something glittery.

As always, I hope this post finds you well and happy and I appreciate your visit.

Until next time, take care.

Stamp sources: Pink Fresh Happy Holidays Circle Frame, Studio Light Christmas Scenery

September 05, 2021

Glimmersmitz

greeting card

A head start on Christmas cards? Maybe. But a call to create with "glimmer and sparkle" at the Simon Monday challenge was really the push for making this one. What's Christmas without some shiny bits--am I right?

I used Pink ombré paper (Martha Stewart) covered with Tissue Wrap (Holtz) trimmed to fit around Poinsetta Pieces die-cuts (Holtz) that were cut from a bronze metallic envelope.

Copper Liquid Pearls, some Stickles, and white Scribbles provided the glitz. I heat embossed the white text and outlined one side of the letters with an extra-fine black marker to create a 3D effect.

greeting card

As always, I hope this post finds you well and happy and I appreciate your visit.

Until next time, take care.

December 29, 2020

Merry and Bright

 
  • Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won't make it white. -Bing Crosby
  • Remember this December, that love weighs more than gold! -Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon
  • There's nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child. -Erma Bombeck
  • Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more! -Dr. Seuss
  • Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone. -Charles M. Schultz
  • When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest things--not the great occasions--give off the greatest glow of happiness. -Bob Hope
  • Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall. -Larry Wilde
Wherever you are, whatever you are facing, whatever your challenges or opportunities may be…may your days of Christmas be merry and bright.

December 23, 2020

Praying for Time

 Praying for Time 

 
I've used a favorite Found Relative for this tag, I can't explain why this image appeals to me like it does and I only use it for special pieces. 

This Christmas tag has a melancholy side as I made it to commemorate a singer songwriter who passed away four years ago on Christmas day. His name was George Michael and he wrote a song called "Praying for Time." The words to this ballad are especially poignant during the holiday season and speak volumes about this tumultuous year.

The techniques I used include fussy-cutting, distressing, stamping (hand-carved), and placement of ephemera on some Paper Stash. 

I think it's worth noting that whenever possible, I peel the backs off photos, ephemera, etc., and rub away as much of the paper as I can to make these elements nice and thin. They naturally become more fragile but I encase them with medium (applied to both sides) so they hold up well when pasted down or painted over.

As always, I hope this post finds you well and happy and I appreciate your visit.

Until next time, take care.

December 15, 2020

Happy Holidays

 

A greeting card to share today representing a milestone for me as it's my first creation since relocating my crafting space. Abandoning my old studio after almost 15 years was traumatic and because I had to downsize, I cleaned up and donated a lot of extra material. My new space is doable but I'm struggling to remember where I put stuff--I guess the easiest fix for that is to just starting making again!

For this card, I distressed the edges of printed papers and used some hand-stitching and Stickles on the border. The stamp is from Ellen Hutson (Mondo Holly by Julie Ebersole) which was altered quite a bit.

First I heat embossed it, then tinted it with Distress inks, ironed off the embossing, redrew the lines with a fine line marker, fussy-cut it and added Distress Rock Candy Stickles to the berries.

Happy Holidays, close-up

Happy Holidays, side-view

I plan to continue blogging about my creations (even though many bloggers have left the pack) because it serves as a kind of diary and good reference tool. Now that my numerous family projects/obligations are winding down, I have more time to create and will be able to post more regularly again. I also post snapshots of my blog entries on Instagram @123beulahbee for those who like to click-and-run ☺.

As always, I hope this post finds you well and happy and I appreciate your visit.

Until next time, take care.

November 12, 2019

Caring Hearts


A first for me--mass production of Christmas cards (25 to be exact)--what an experience!!

In the process, I learned what an A2 card size is (an 8-1/2" x 11" page cut in-half) and how to make my own envelopes. Woo-hoo!

I kept things simple by using animal images from a winter holiday paper pack and embellished them with dimensional paint and glitter glue.

All for a good cause as I'm forwarding them to the Caring Hearts Card Drive where they will be distributed to nursing home residents around the country.

The deadline was this Friday so I finished just in time!

September 25, 2019

Fortune Cookies


What have I been up to lately? Making Asian-inspired paper-folded Christmas box ornaments that can hold a treat--of course!

It was the project idea I came up with after being invited to a guest spot on the The Funky Junkie Boutique blog. The challenge is "Treats Not Tricks" and here's the description:
  • Choose a theme and make something that will hold a treat for someone.  It could be a Halloween treat bag, a Valentine's candy box, a birthday card for a special person that holds a treat (could be a gift card "treat" or a bite of chocolate), anything that can hold a treat.
To make my box ornaments, I found some patterns here and used the Oriental Garden paper collection by Stamperia and lots of different glitter glues for decoration.

I used tracing paper and a scoring tool to transfer the patterns and quick-dry adhesive to hold them together after folding.

They looked rather plain in the beginning, but the real fun comes when you get out the glitter glue to decorate them. Nothing says Christmas like a little bling ☺!

Ornaments before decorating - click to enlarge






For gift-giving, I can tuck a treat inside or perhaps a note with a special wish or promise (kind of like a fortune cookie). Here are a couple examples of how the boxes open.



I look forward to seeing everyone's projects and encourage you enter the challenge--you might win a guest spot like I did and it's been a lot a fun. Thanks for stopping by!

July 28, 2018

Christmas in July


Simon's Monday challenge was prompted by a special blog hop and a chance to win some crafting goodies, but Christmas in July--really?


While it was hard to "get in the spirit" when we've had record-breaking high temps this week, I accepted the challenge and here's my entry.


My card may be a little unconventional so I thought you'd appreciate a peek at the main ingredients before I applied a wash of gesso and then Distress Oxide (Peeled Paint) to create the background.


It would be difficult to pull this off without using a strong backing so I pasted the collage onto some thin packaging material which would be cut to size near the end.


Some Liquid Pearls (Ranger) were dotted around the oval, the backing was trimmed and then I pasted brown mulberry paper (because it's thin) on the back to frame it. Before mounting on folded cardstock, I stitched around the border.

The poinsettas were cut out of Graphic 45 Winter Wonderland, the bird is from Wallflower and the calendar page is from Tidings (Tim Holtz Paper Stash).

I used a glue stick for everything except the poinsetta (attached using spray adhesive) and the final mounting (double-sided cellophane tape).

November 21, 2017

Christmas Snow


I love this tag. And it was EASY to make. Perhaps this post will inspire you to give the technique a try?

Prompted by Simon's Monday Challenge Blog, where this week's theme is torn paper, I began to search for inspiration on the web and kept seeing cupcakes like this one by artist Nancy Standlee.

Her post made me realize that an easy way to start a torn collage is by using an underpainting as a pattern you can follow for matching shapes and colors.

So, using this image as my guide, I tinted several pieces of vintage book paper with red, dark blue-greens, and brownish grays and set out tearing and pasting my pieces down.


The paper on the snowman's face and body is untinted--it is the actual color of this really old paper and the darker areas are the page edges where most of the discoloration occurs.

His hat accoutrements were cut from Tim Holtz ephemera and of course there's lots of Stickles. I also covered the eyes, nose and buttons with Glossy Accents and I'm glad I did.

Making this tag put me in the spirit and now I'm now ready to tackle the job of setting up the Christmas tree!

December 21, 2014

Snow

Click to Enlarge

Far from a traditional Christmas card, this one was made for my good friend Thelma who introduced me to card making. Over the years, we have traded creations and pushed the envelope in an almost "can you top this" fashion. So it will be no surprise when she receives this year's card from me.

The group photo came from Tim's Merriment paper stash and the background is a chalkboard line from The Paper Studio. I embellished it with strips of book paper, a white Gelly Roll pen, black and white Stickles, and silver Liquid Pearls.

It's hard to see but the children in front are sitting on a toboggan, a large sled that seats many. I grew up in Colorado and my family had one. I remember the great fun of cold winter days spent speeding down hills and the long hard walk to climb back up again. I feel very fortunate to have such good childhood memories and am grateful for my parents who made them possible.

I'm linking to this week's Monday blog challenge at Simon Says Stamp which is "anything goes."

December 18, 2014

Believe


Tim introduced a new product this month called "Frosted" during his December tag tutorial.  It looks interesting and I hope he demonstrates other uses for it in future posts.

I substituted old-fashioned drafting vellum for my background and text by using the Falling Snow stencil (Simon Says Stamp) and a section from Tim's Christmas Words stamp along with some embossing ink and powder to create a similar effect.

The reindeer was embellished with Perfect Pearls and you may recognize the leaves from Tim's Wallflower paper stash. The number 25 is an Idea-ology Plaquette.

I'd like to share an embossing technique seen on the leaves as it comes in handy when you want fine details and better control.

Click to Enlarge
I used a gel pen to draw in the areas I wanted to emboss. In this case, it was the veins on the leaves.

The ink stays wet long enough to apply embossing powder. I used various pen colors and clear powder in this example.

November 13, 2014

Duchess

Click to Enlarge

My post is titled "Duchess" because it is the name of the scrapbook paper (by Kaiser Craft) that I used to make this greeting card. There's no sense providing a link to it as I bought it awhile ago and it is now out of production.

But I can show you what the paper originally looked like:


I cut out one of the design elements and pasted it to metallic bronze card stock after creating a border with a paper punch. Then I went to task embellishing it with colored pencils, Stickles and Scribbles (a 3-D paint). I mounted it to olive green card stock which was folded for use as a greeting card.



I plan to use it as a Christmas card and have linked it to the Monday blog challenge at SSS where the theme is ornaments.  I will admit, I'm getting excited about the upcoming holiday season because there's no better time to use my Stickles and I do love them so!

December 19, 2013

For Thelma at Christmas

greeting card, santa

My good friend Jan aka Thelma (I'm Louise), acquainted me with rubber-stamping a few years' ago and back then, I never would have imagined that, someday, I would have an entire drawer full of stamps myself.

We always exchange a card at holidays and this is what I'm sending her this year. The stamp is from the Tim Holtz Components Collection and the paper is from the Merriment Paper Stash by Idea-ology.

greeting card, santa

I've entered this card in both drawings over at Simon Says Stamp (Monday challenge is use a stamp, Wednesday challenge is "bling it on").

If you haven't seen a side-by-side comparison of Distress versus regular Stickles, I've used both on this card. I used colored pencils on Santa and Tea Dye Distress Stain to age the appearance.

Now I'd better get it in the mail, there's only five more days till Christmas!

December 16, 2013

Gelli Noel

christmas, tag, gelli plate

This, my final entry into the Ellen Hutson 12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Twist contest, was inspired by Ellen herself, on Day 12.

I've had a Gelli Plate for just a few weeks now and it was fun trying to duplicate the bokeh background Ellen created for this tag. I learned quite a bit about my plate during the process and actually had a light-bulb moment or two.  Thanks, Ellen!

I'm wishing all participants a very Merry Christmas, I really enjoyed viewing everyone's tags and can't wait to see who wins.  Good Luck!

December 14, 2013

Christmas Angel


tag, angel, christmas, believe

I made this tag using the resist technique presented by Jill Foster during Day 10 of Ellen Hutson's 12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Twist event for a chance to win a $150 store credit (fingers crossed).

For color, I used oil pastels after embossing a stamped image onto a tag primed with gesso. A bit of washi tape, some glittered snowflakes and text stamped onto tissue paper, completed the tag.

Thanks Jill, your instructions were terrific and I was glad to try this new method.

December 13, 2013

Compliments of the Season


tag, Christmas

The best part of making cards and tags at Christmas--you can never have too much glitter!

This tag was made by pasting gold-printed mulberry paper (Black Ink brand) on a manila tag, color was added with Distress inks, it was mounted on pinkish-red card stock and glitter was placed around the border.

The poinsettia was made by printing a page of leaves on vellum which were cut out after painting the back side. The leaf edges were embellished with glitter and diamond bling was used for the center.

The greeting (an image from Graphics Fairy) was pasted on card stock and it also received some glitter. A simple red bow became the topper.

I think the best feature of this tag is the gold-printed mulberry paper. I never tried using it with Distress inks but I applied it gently (the paper is soft and thin) and it helped break up all that gold and gave it an antique-like quality.

My inspiration came from the Tim Holtz December tag and Simon Says Stamp Monday blog challenge, which was tissue paper.

December 10, 2013

Christmas Carols

By Paula Cheney
I am posting another tag for the Ellen Hutson's 12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Twist contest, not only for one more chance to win a terrific prize ($150), but also because the lovely examples are so inspiring. Per Ellen's suggestion, I went back to a tag from last year, Day 9 by Paula Cheney, because it is one of the prettiest Christmas tags I've ever seen. I only wish I had all the supplies she used but you can guess what I'll buy if I happen to win the contest!
I made the wreath out of sheet music, used mirror cardstock in the center, stamped the scrolls and wording on vellum and embellished with lots of glitter. To emphasize the Christmas carol theme, I embossed the face of the mirror with a sheet music stamp.
To see more examples of wreaths made from sheet music, check out this search on Pinterest
sheet music, christmas, tag


I have to thank Paula who blogged about her trip to Wendy Addison's studio last year and admit that Wendy's dreamy creations also influenced some features of this tag.

December 08, 2013

Santa Baby's Got Bling

Santa, tag

This tag was created for Ellen Hutson's 12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Twist challenge and was inspired by Julia Stainton's "shabby chic" tag from Day 6.

I used an emboss resist technique to create the background on a plain manila tag with a Tim Holtz Christmas stamp (placed in multiple areas to cover the entire surface) and some Distress Inks (Dusty Concord, Vintage Photo, Tea Dye and Spun Sugar). To keep it looking shabby, I lightened the colors here and there with Picket Fence Distress Stain.

bling, santa, tag

Santa's image (another Christmas stamp by Tim) was tinted with Distress Inks and placed in a glittered frame. I used my sewing machine to attach the lace trimmings then added strips of home-made washi tape and some glittered stars.

Thanks for the inspiration, Julia! I really like shabby chic and my whole house would be in this style but the king of this castle is none too crazy about it. If you like it too, then check out Crooks & Nannies, a favorite spot of mine.