It's Christmas Eve!

Good morning, everyone!

It's Christmas Eve! 

Aaaaaaand:  I'm at work.  Sitting in the office in a close to empty building.  Wondering why I'm here-  I'm not doing anything except 'playing.'  I've been entertaining a few coworkers with jokes and stories.  I've been designing layouts on my brand new graph-paper-pad (Thank you, STAPLES!) and a bit of coloring some images I stamped on cardstock and brought to work with me-  so all in all, it's pretty much like I'm a pre-schooler sitting in an office. 

A moment ago, I was taking a trip down memory lane in my little lounge act on a file cabinet that I perform, daily, for coworkers.  I picked up the big plastic spoon that I use as a 'microphone,' and was remembering one of my favorite Christmas presents.  I was 11 years old.  It was a PXL-2000 from Fisher Price.

Do you know what a PXL-2000 was?  It was a little movie camera made for kids.  It recorded sound AND VIDEO onto normal little audio-cassette tapes.   You do remember cassettes, right?   Well, it could record about 5 or 7 minutes worth of sound and video on a 90-minute cassette tape.  The footage came out black and white, and fairly grainy.  But to a kid, it looked amazing.  I had my own CAMCORDER! 

You gotta Google it to get the full idea, if you don't know what I'm talking about-  I just did, to see pictures of it- and wow, even seeing a picture of the BOX brought back a heap of good memories.  And now I see that the format has been 're'adopted by filmmakers, using the cameras to create weird little movies.  There's even been film festivals devoted to short films made on the little toy camera.  Oh what I'd give to still have mine!  (If I remember correctly, it finally stopped working after much, much use...)

I've gots three more Christmas cards to share, today.  I can't say I won't be back tomorrow with more Christmas cards- I've just grown so addicted to making them.  I don't know what it is...  I've never loved making Christmas cards more than I have this season.  (And I've been making Christmas cards since kindergarten, when I sat next to a kid who would try to eat all of my paste.)

Up first is the card that I made for my great friend, Carolyn.  She's such a classy lady that I tried my best to make a classy card.  I used papers from the My Mind's Eye ALL IS BRIGHT 'Accessories Pad.'  The cream and deep red background has been one of my favorite papers from this pad and I'd been dying to use it- but it was bigger than any of the card bases that I had laying around.  I didn't have the heart to cut it smaller, so I made an A7 card base with a 12X12 sheet of thick kraft cardstock.  With the matching ALL IS BRIGHT stamp set, I stamped the '12.25.' pennant with Iced Spruce Distress Ink and cut it out.  I embossed a strip of kraft cardstock (left over from cutting the card base) with the chevron border strip embossing folder from Cuttlebug.  I layed a couple of pieces cut out from other pages in the ALL IS BRIGHT pad and layered them on with the stamped pennant and topped with a brad from the 'Decorative Bads' pack. 

Normally, I don't buy SO MUCH of one set.  Yeah, I did buy nearly two complete sets of BasicGrey's CLIPPINGS, but that collection was too great to NOT buy two sets!  But it seemed as if I had the entire ALL IS BRIGHT line sitting around!  Then I remembered- when I was at the Creating Keepsakes Convention last summer, I bought a very nicely priced package of stuff, just to get the three rolls of washi tape- and it had the rest of the set in there, too!  All for 7.00! 

More KRAFT!  I'm sorry, I don't know if this love affair will ever end.  No, no- I'm NOT sorry.  I love KRAFT and I'm PROUD, dammit!!! 

I used the Studio Calico 'Wonderland Star' pattern mask and Mister Huey's 'Calico White,' to spray the star background.  Then I just picked up random scraps and layered them on-  a dictionary page label cut from a Spellbinders set, a creamy cardstock I'd once cut out with the Spellbinders 'Lacey Circles' set, a pine branch left over from using Mr. Holtz's pinecone die...  I topped it off with my favorite HAPPY HOLIDAYS stamp over a stamped light gray chevron.  (I think I love that Happy Holidays stamp so much because of the font- doesn't that look great?!)

On my third card, I couldn't resist another of my favorite stamps- the man with the crown and a circle around his eye.  I don't 'get' this stamp, but I freakin' love it...  I colored him a bit with some Distress Inks, layered on my favorite Happy Holidays (again: THAT FONT!) and two My Mind's Eye '12.25.' banner stamps.  The retro-ey looking snowflake is from QuickKutz.  When I was at Staples, yesterday, buying anything and everything that caught my eye, I stocked up on blank tags, too.  You can't beat the price- a box of 500 for 5.97?!  Yes, please and thank you!  I stamped the tag with a woodgrain stamp (Stampabilities) and distressed it a bit.  The striped paper is from 7gypsies 'Postale' collection and the light blue paper that I used as a mat is from Carta Bella. 

I'm gonna try to get a little work done-  hopefully I'll get to leave early and go home to get ready to leave for my Aunt's home, for a little family Christmas party time. 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone!!!

-kory

Christmas Cards! More Christmas Cards!

Hi everyone!

it's Thursday!  I love coming into work on Thursday mornings- not only because I know that tomorrow is Friday, but because I love walking past the receptionist, Miss Cathy, who always shouts, "IT'S FRIDAY EVE!"

Not that I have a weekend- I'm working all the time, ladies and gentlemen.

"There's a difference between  having a job and WORKING."  -Kiki DuRane

Anyways,  I'm back this fine and COLD Thursday morning with more Christmas cards.  Yesterday was the 'White Collection.'  Today, I'll share the 'Color Collection.'  Of course, by 'color,' I mean kraft, silver, and red.  There ain't no elves shooting neon Christmas trees out their butts-  I was TRYIN to keep the cards CLASSY!  Not there's nothing wrong with color- I love it, I'm not putting it down, don't send me hate mail.  I'm just lazy.  It's so much easier to crank out the Christmas cards when you stick to a limited color scheme.  If I weren't so @!#$%& popular, I could make some colorful cards.*

*of course, by popular, I mean people I must send cards to because I've offended them in one way or another.

Alright already!  Enough rambling!  Here's the cards:

Up first:  Another card using my beloved Tim Holtz retro-Santa stamp.  Remember how I was whining about how I've had trouble coming up with ways to use him, as the stamp is so gloriously large?  Well!  It occured to me- WHY do I think I have to use the entire image?!  I went home for lunch yesterday- another perk of living four blocks from work- and made this card.  I just pressed half of him on my big ink pad and stamped him on a scrap from another card.  Look at that surprise I got when I lifted the stamp from the paper!  Because I never clean my stamps and Distress Ink takes forever and a day to dry, some Festive Berries remained on the stamp from the previous day- and it created a nice subtle effect of the black fading into the red fading into the paper.  I've got to come up with a technique to replicate this or Google for the genius who already has!

I tore the top of my stamped piece of paper and added two strips of (My Mind's Eye: All Is Bright) washi tape.  I stamped the sentiment and pop-dotted it on and THIS IS MY SECOND FAVORITE CARD!

I love Daniel Torrente's stamps from Stampotique.  Some people just say they're scary and think they're only for Halloween or deranged people.  I think they're strangely sweet and adorable.  So to turn him from Halloween to Christmas, I cut the hat from Mr. Holtz's Santa and gave it to this little guy.

Another very simple card.  I die cut one of Mr. Holtz's 'Carved Ornaments' from silver glitter paper (1.99 a sheet?! This ain't REAL silver, people!) and added a sentiment stamped from a dollar bin stamp.   The kraft background is embossed with my favorite emobossing folder set EVER,  "James' Set" from Cuttlebug.

This is the card I made for my boss.  I knew she'd like something different than the clean 'n simple cards that I prefer- so I did a few things on this one to bling it out a bit more while still keeping it classy.  After embossing with that 'frame,' I rubbed an embossing ink on it and sprinkled some 'Pewter' embossing powder all over it- after heat embossing, I randomly sanded parts of the card then colored randomly around with two different colors of Distress Ink.  I die cut the heart and rubbed Rock Candy Distress Stickles over it,  punched out a silver snowflake and added a brad from the My Mind's Eye All Is Bright brad set-  I think it's pretty lovely.

I got the idea to emboss two bingo cards- one for the base, one to cut the '25' out and pop-dot it over the '25' on the piece used for the card base.  I liked the plain silvery base with only the red '25' and the red sentiment.

I guess the previous card put me back into the embossing mood.  I clipped out a piece of December calendar from a Jenni Bowlin paper I'd picked up somewhere and added a pointy-finger charm from Hobby Lobby.  The sentiment is embossed with a new embossing powder called 'Silver Tinsel' that I picked up at Michaels.

Whaaaaat?  How'd that blue and white beat out the kraft and sneak its way onto a card?!  I picked up a 6X6 Carta Bella Christmas paper pad at Basket Market for only 3.00 and, since I bought it, forced myself to try out a card with a color other than brown.  It was tough.  It hurt a little.  But I like it and I'm a better person for it.

And we're back to the simple kraft cards!  But there's a little blue under the pennant-y shape and the dollar bin sentiment stamp.

Alright- that's it for the cards- OH WAIT, no it's NOT! 

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present to you: 

Kory K's FAVORITE Christmas Card

I love this card.  I'm proud of this card.  I used one of my most favorite stamps of all-  I call it "The Classy Guys Stamp."  It's really just another simple card- but all the pieces tricked me into thinking it's quite a work of art.  ;-)  IF you count five bits of cardstock as 'lots o' pieces.'  But I made this to be my version of the 'Perfect Gentleman's Christmas Card.'  Which then inspired me to try to make more 'manly cards.'  This evening.  That's my challenge and goal for what looks like it'll be a cold Thursday evening..  Make at least three clearly masculine Christmas cards.  We'll see what happens!

Enjoy the rest of your Thursday.  I guess the world isn't going to end.

-kory

It's Almost Christmas: So How 'Bout Some Cards?

I like making Christmas cards more than I like Christmas. 

My family doesn't really celebrate holidays.  I don't know why - or even if there is a reason- but we really don't do much of anything.  I'm the only one who even puts up a tree.  I probably wouldn't even do that if I hadn't bought a perfect vintage aluminum tree from an antiques store during a prescription painkiller induced Christmas euphoria a few years back and I'm determined to get my money's worth.

So- I like making Christmas cards.  And I like them to be fairly simple.  Because then I'm less likely to knock somebody out when they throw it away.

One of my 'design techniques' is my use of ... 'placeholders,' I guess I'll call them...  I'm sure there's an actual word for this, but I don't know it-  when I get a new die, I use it right away with some plain (or scrap) cardstock.  I keep all these 'samples' in a box on my desk- and when I'm trying to come up with a layout or card, I go through the box and pull out the pieces that grab my attention.  I move these placeholders all around on the page to see what I think looks best.  I recommend it- it definitely keeps me using the dies that I have available!

I'm obsessed with this Cuttlebug embossing folder set.  It's called JAMES' SET.  It's classy, ladies and gentlemen.  The folder I used on the above card is my favorite, but the other three in the set are fine, too.  Another great feature is that there's a slot on the top hinge- so's you can easily emboss the center of a tag OR emboss a long strip for a border.  I also used some of Mr. Holtz's TINSEL TWINE.  The sentiment is a one dollar stamp from a bin at MICHAELS.  I stamped it in Tsukineko's London Fog ink and colored in the alternating boxes with a Worn Lipstick Distress Marker. 

My next 'white card.'  I embossed the wing with a Tim Holtz embossing folder- from the nearly 3inX4in French Connection set- and cut it out.  I embossed the edge of the card with some snowflakes and added the sentiment.  Too easy!

One more 'white card!'  Even thought it's mostly red- I'm counting it.  I love this Tim Holtz Santa stamp.  Really love it.  It's always sitting in plain view.  Because just looking at it makes me smile.  But I've had trouble coming up with ways to use it- it's so big, and- well, I don't know.  But I adore it.  I added the 'seal' with a pop-dot.  It's from My Mind's Eye. 

That's it for KORY'S KARDS, today!  I'll be back soon with more!  Because every card I make is different.  As much as I intend to, and TRY to- I just can't come up with a design and assembly-line it-  even when I do attempt to do THAT-  each one still comes out different.  I just love to play with the paper too much, I guess.

-kory