Crafted by Nicole LeBlanc

Spreading happiness... one card at a time.

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Snowflake Season – Making cards with the January 2021 SSS Card Kit

Let me start off by saying that this is one of my favorite Simon Says Stamp card kits of all time. I love the theming of the kit as it can be used for holiday or just general winter cards. Since I am Canadian, I personally feel like winter themed cards can be used for a large portion of the year.

All four cards that I made were of very similar design and technique. All cards were started by embossing either the large snowflake collage or a collection of snowflake stamps in some silver embossing powder onto the the patterned paper from the kit. I then trimmed down the panels to about 3.75×5″ using the Waffle Flower A2 Layers Die. For the “snow glad we are friends card”, I decided to ink up the put of the panel with some shaded lilac distress oxide to intensify the ombre look. The panels were then mounted foam tape onto some card cases. The exception to this was the card with the purple card base. Full disclosure: I had originally intended this to be on a white A2 card base like the others, but had accidently glued my panel on upside down! I needed to perform some card surgery and then that turned into using the lavender cardstock from the kit as the card base.

For the snowflake die cuts and the embossed sentiments, I created dimension by gluing three layers of cardstock underneath. I decided to dress up the teal card a bit by adding a snowflake diecut from the holographic cardstock to the top.

As far as embellishment goes, I went with a less is more approach for these. I did add some wink of stella clear glitter brush marker to some of the snowflakes and around some of the edges of the patterned paper layers for some extra sparkle… but that’s it. Since these patterned papers are already so detailed, and I did use a metallic embossing powder, I didn’t think it was necessary to add anything extra.

There were definitely some all star products in this kit. My favorite item was by far the Whimsy Stamps Blurry Flurries 6×6″ paper. This paper is beautiful! It was high quality, and I just fell in love with the colors and patterns. The SSS Eliza die and the holographic cardstock were also starts in my book. I will definitely need to play with this kit some more, as I still have a ton of goodies left that I didn’t get to use in these projects.

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today. I would love it if you would comment below and let me know what your favorite card was from this post!

Disclaimer: All products mentioned in this post were purchased by me with my own money.

Let’s Party!

Let’s face it… most people are experiencing hard times right now. And as silly as it may sound, birthdays are hard. Most of us are used to celebrating with our loved ones gathered around… so I wanted to make an extra fun card to spread a little extra happiness during these crazy times.

The background was created by masking off some bristol smooth cardstock with a strip of post-it memo tape and creating an ombre blend using some seedless preserves distress oxide. I then layered the Simon Says Stamp large dot stencil on top and layered on another layer of the distress ink on top, once again applying a heavier layer to the masked tape edge. I really like to use stencils with repeating patterns like this, as they are easy to line up for either A2 or slimline projects. The background was die cut using some the Nesting Slim Layers Die set from Waffle Flower.

The cute pandas were stamped and die cut using the Pandamonium set from Mama Elephant and the Let’s Party word die is from SSS. I folded a card base sized 8.5×7″ and scored at 3.5″. Die cut elements were adhered with foam tape, and that’s it. It’s time to party!

Missing you at Christmastime

This card is a beauty and the sentiment really spoke to me. Let’s be honest, 2020 was not the best year for most people. And a 2020 Christmas is looking very different than most of us imagined. This year I have really seen the “magic” that sending a card can do, and since I will not be seeing my loved ones this year, I have been on a mission to make as many cards as possible to send in the mail. Not only is this a classy, sentimental card, but it also uses relatively few supplies and was easy to replicate.

I started this project by embossing the houses stamp from the Simon Says Stamp We Believe stamp set and the “Missing you at Christmastime” stamp from the December SSS card kit in white on kraft paper. I then colored the images using some inexpensive Crayola crayons. I then very roughly masked off the house fronts and the sentiment with some masking tape. I used a SSS falling snow stencil and some Gina K Designs Iridescent glitz to add the beautiful falling snow. Once the snow had dried, I trimmed down my card front 4×5.25″. I wanted to make the scene look a bit more snowy, so I inked the edges of my card panel using a foam tool and some picket fence distress ink. I then mounted my card panel using foam tape onto an A2 card base (from 120lb SSS cardstock). And voila, complete!

On an unrelated note, I would also like to say thank you so much for checking out the website. This is my very first project shared on here, and it means a lot to me that you stopped by to take a look. If you like what you see, I would also encourage you to follow me on Instagram or Pinterest for more crafty inspiration.

Welcome!

My name is Nicole and I am so glad that you stopped by!

I have been a hobby paper crafter for well over a decade. In 2018, I decided to set up a dedicated Instagram page where I could share new projects and ideas. Since then, I have received numerous questions such as “how did you do that?” or “what stamp is that?” After all this time, it seems like the best way to answer those questions would be to set up a blog.

I like the idea of archiving my projects and how I did them for a couple of reasons. First of all, sometimes I look back at a project and can’t remember exactly how I made it. After all, card makers know that something as simple as using a different type of ink or cardstock can drastically alter our results. And secondly, it will also be a place where I can look back at the projects I have made. Cardmaking is funny in that way… we spend a bunch of time making this piece of art, only to give it away and never see it again.

I hope that this site will eventually become a place where you can look for inspiration or even just a smile.