For most of my life I have been obsessed with beautiful cards and stationary. I was always the one that wanted to send and receive thank you notes and try to manage a holiday card list for more than 300.
Since 2000 I have been making most of my own cards and have a few designers that I follow so closely and admire their work: Catherine Moore of Character Construction, Fred Mullet, Mike Strong, Holly Berry and Impress to name a few.
Several of my friends have collected these cards over the years and it is always so touching to see how they save and display them. I hope that you like them too!
For the month of June our Character Constructions Tag Swap was centered around the theme of Coffee, Tea or Me.
I chose to use the stamp set from www.characterconstructions.com, “Adventures in Tea”, plate set #1
I covered the background with paper from Recollections.
I then added the milk bottle from a dollhouse collection, along with a porcelain tea cup and plate.
As always, I do hope you enjoy!
#characterconstructions #gregsnla
For the month of May our Character Constructions Tag Exchange was “Down on the Farm”, using Catherine Moore’s new line of stamps, Blue Daisy.
I wanted to use several of the stamp plates when creating my tag, including:
I always enjoy creating these images because you start with a line drawing and stamp various papers and then color them. This month I used Copic markers to color. There is so much detail in the images:
After putting the different pieces together I then added the rifle and paper flowers to the tag, along with the white picket fence. I cut gingham fabric and ric rac to embellish the card. #characterconstructions #copic @gregsnla
It’s one of my favorite times of the year with spring well into season and the weather feeling so great. There is also a freshness in the air that comes with all things growing. I love seeing the various fruit tress and flowers starting to bloom. Last weekend the cherry blossoms were in full bloom in San Francisco.
For Easter I challenged myself to incorporate as many of the Character Constructions stamps as I possibly could.
This time I chose to color the images with colored pencils. After coloring the images I back them with various colors of cardstock to give them more umph!
The images were as follows:
Wishing everyone a very special and loving Easter holiday. May it bring great fulfillment to your heart.
“Masquerade” was the theme of our Character Construction Tag Swap for the month of March. I chose to play on Lady Gaga’s title, “Don’t be a Drag, Just be a Queen” for my tag.
For the tag I used various mediums: Italian paper from Flax, feathers, paper roses, crystals from Jan’s in OKC, crown and various ribbons.
The stamps used for the doll were all Character Construction: head- Queen of Tarts #4, dress- Paris #3, mask- Cirque #6 and matching die for dress.
I guess the meaning of this card for me was that life isn’t always as it is presented and at the same time we have to present to others what we want them to perceive of us.
Valentine’s Day has always been a favorite holiday of mine to make cards for dear friends. This year our Character Construction Tag Swap had a Valentine’s theme.
I chose to call my tags, “Love Is from the Heart”. For more than 15 years I have played on the theme of from the heart for all of my card making because of the feeling that I get when I make my various holiday cards for my friends and family. They are always from my heart that I create them.
The tag has several layers to it, starting with a base tag that is covered with a background paper with poetic words in gold. I then applied two lace hearts, one in red and one in gold.
The actual Valentine’s Lady was constructed using the following stamps from Character Construction:
I am always amazed how the different parts from the different sets end up going together so well.
I then decorated each lady with the following:
Happy Valentine’s Day!
This month’s Tag Exchange had to do with the holidays. We were to make a tag based on the theme of a favorite Christmas carol.
I chose “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” as I can still remember as a kid how big and grand they hymn would sound during the holidays. It was very jubilant and full of life.
I enjoyed coloring and decorating these tags because of the rich colors and textures that I was able to use. It always amazes me how you can start off with a beautiful foundation Character Construction Rubber Stamps by Catherine Moore and build upon them. I used stamps from three different series, Mad Tea Party #2, Bee Keeper’s Tea #7 and Bird & Bee Paperie #10.
I am very excited to do this exchange and get the feedback from fellow artists. I hope you enjoy as well.
May my angel bring you a very merry Christmas!
I spent today in Temecula at with Frank Garcia of Prima Marketing. Frank taught a Christmas Tag class at The Stampin’ Post that I have been wanting to take for over two years. Frank is amazingly talented and he is the Marketing Director for Prima and he is an incredible Brand Ambassador and teacher.
I always enjoy being the only guy in a class of 20 – 30 students. Frank was hilarious as he would refer to the group as, “okay ladies- and Greg”.
Frank has many followers that take his classes on a regular basis. What I like about Frank’s work is that he uses numerous layers on each card and has a great sense for color and detail.
I hope you enjoy as we get ready for the holidays.
Merry Christmas!
This year Anson and I wanted to do something a little different than previous years. Just to give you an idea of a few of the steps-
We started off with watercolor paper and used Distress Spray Inks to created the magical background. We masked off the moon and then stamped the haunted house and raven. From there we stenciled on the skull and crossbones so that they were barely apparent.
The highlight of the card was the very intricate gate which was cut out with a dye stamp and then embossed it with gold and patina embossing powder.
Hope you will enjoy!
I belong to this tag swap group that is obsessed with Catherine Moore’s Character Construction rubber stamps. Each year she creates a series of stamps, ranging from 6 – 24 sets that can have from 1 – 8 images per set. There is a theme each year. Some examples are: Circus, Timekeeper’s Garden, Paris, Beekeeper’s Tea, Bird & Bee Paperie, etc.
Each month our group decides on a theme that typically relates to the holiday for the month (if there is going to be one). We create 5 tags, keeping one for ourself and sending the other four to Cathy, our group coordinator. She in turn sends us back four tags from different people from all parts of the US, Canada and Europe. So much fun!
For Halloween the theme was “Witches, Witches, Witches” and you can imagine the end result.
