Infinite/Everlasting/Neverending Cozy Xmas

I've made never-ending cards before, so I just had to try my hand at another one for the current "Infinity Card" challenge at Cards und More. This time, I made a vintage Christmas card:

If you'd like to try your hand at your own Never-Ending card (also referred to as an Infinity or Everlasting card) here's a pictorial tutorial at Dawn's Stamping Thoughts, and a video tutorial by Jules from the Cards und More team.

click to enlarge

For the bases, I used a distressed-looking double-sided DP. I inked the edges with Dusty Concord distress ink from Ranger/Tim Holtz. The "Cozy Xmas" sentiment was stamped in Vintage Photo distress ink & watermark ink and heat-embossed with holographic glitter embossing powder. The letter pieces were distressed with Dusty Concord, but the other stamped pieces were distressed with Vintage Photo. The square stamps are from Inkadinkado and the ornament stamps are from Spellinders; I colored them with Marvy embossing markers and heat-embossed them with more glitter.

The pine branches were die-cut from a olive green paper & distressed with Crushed Olive ink. The printed images on page 2 are from DPs in my Xmas stash. I just adore those cute snowpeople!

Inspiration/Challenges:
Cards und More: Infinity Card + stamping
Frilly and Funkie: Tis The Season + Vintage
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Holly Jolly Stamping
WOW! Embossing Powder: Anything Goes with Embossing Powder (all stamped images are heat-embossed with holographic glitter embossing powder)

Update: I won a lovely prize for the Cards und More Infinity Card challenge!

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting!

Baby blog hop at Crafting with Dragonflies

At Crafting with Dragonflies we're celebrating all things Baby-themed with a Challenge & a Blog Hop! There are tons of prizes to be won, but you need to enter the challenge and the blog hop. One lucky commenter on each blog will be eligible to win a special prize (besides the great main prize). The sponsor for this stop on the hop is Handmade Harbour, who are offering six digis!

To complete the hop, go to every blog and collect each person's "secret words"...once you've done that, just think about numbers and Babies and maybe Google those things to find the final clue. Please don't share the secret words in the comments, but do leave a comment on each blog to let us know you visited. You'll send the final clue in an email to our wonderful blog owner, Hilde...but go to the main blog for full details. Plus, Hilde has an adorable free digi for you as well.

Order of the Baby Blog Hop

Crafting with Dragonflies

Tania

Hilde

Wynn

Sammy

CG (you're here)

Judith

Ina
Susan

Crafting with Dragonflies 

Part of the fun of this blog hop isn't just sharing our baby-themed projects...we're also sharing baby stories & photos. Here's Baby CG eating chocolate cake for her first birthday:

Because we lived overseas, and my parents' families lived in different states, I got at least three first birthday parties! My folks were always good about limited my intake of sweets, but I love that they shared this baby tradition with all of their family & friends.

Here's my project, a never-ending card:

The front features two freebie digi stamps: Baby Clothes by Crafting with Dragonflies, and Patchwork Heart by Handmade Harbour.

click images to enlarge

I stamped the sentiment (Our Daily Bread Designs) onto a die-cut piece of paper-backed fabric. The patterned papers are from my stash.

The next page features Baby in Bed with Patchwork Quilt by one of our fabulous sponsors, Handmade Harbour.

The sentiment/baby carriage digi stamp is a freebie from Bird's Cards, and the stork images are from TLC Creations.


The next page just shows off some of the pretty papers. I added some faux stitching on the striped pieces, plus some cute stickers.

I couldn't resist using this sweet Baby again for the message page.

Have you guessed my secret word yet? Please leave a comment, and then hop on over to Judith's blog to collect your next word!

Thank you for visiting,and hope you'll join our Baby Challenge & Blog Hop at Crafting with Dragonflies,

Chinese New Year never-ending card

My Crafting with Dragonflies teamie Susan is the new coordinator at UnstampaBelles, the blog that challenges you each month to create something without using any stamps at all! Quite a feat, really.

The January theme at UnstampaBelles is "New beginnings + New product/technique" so I decided to make a 30th birthday card using the new-to-me Never-ending Card technique.

I decided to make a Chinese New Year card, as it's coming up at the end of January. I used papers from Graphic 45's Bird Song collection.

Mom and I recently took a class at Scraps of Love with Leslie Foley to make a Never-ending Scrapbook page, and a fellow crafter also showed us how to make a smaller card version. I've never made my own from scratch, however, so I used the Never-ending Card tutorial at Dawn's Stamping Thoughts (she also has a video tutorial here).

Every time I make a Chinese New Year card, I have a bit of a panic about whether or not the images I'm using are actually Chinese. You'd think I'd be a bit more confident after going through this a few times, but it never hurts to do your research again (well, basically Wikipedia). As I always learn, the "Chinese" calendar New Year is celebrated throughout Southeast Asia, and was recognized by Japan until the late 1800s (Wikipedia again). One reason I was worried is that I'm 99% sure that the papers & stickers I used are Japanese-inspired, but I think it works! The larger images are fussy-cut from actual Chinese New Year gift envelopes that I got from our local Asian grocery. The banners were also cut from these envelopes.

I had a great time using the Glitter Masking with Outline Stickers technique. It's definitely time-consuming, but worth it.

The gold paper I used for the backings and the message page is really thin, so when I ran it through my BigShot in an embossing folder, some of the pieces were cut out. But I think it's definitely a happy mistake!

Inspiration/Challenges:
The Corrosive Challenges #190: New Beginnings
Digistamps 4 Joy #83: Glitter/Sparkle
Make My Monday: (C6) Embossing (heat-embossing on horse and dry embossing on gold paper)
Quick Quotes #35: A Bright and Shiny New Year
Unstampabelles: New Beginnings (no stamps!) + Optional Twist: Use new product/technique

Update: This placed in the Top 3 for Quick Quotes #35! Thank you!
My mom's friend saw this card and ordered 10 similar cards!

Thank you for visiting,