Twofer Challenge #11 - Wreath

Hello friends.  Playing along with this month's Twofer Challenge and Darnell would like us to use a WREATH in two different ways.

Here's what I came up with using SU!'s Painted Harvest stamp set:

For those of you familiar with the Painted Harvest stamp set, you know it's not a wreath at all but meant to be a sunflower!!  However, when this stamp set first came out, many clever people started using it as a wreath by changing up the colors to greens instead of yellows and oranges, and voila!  A wreath!!

And of course I chose the obvious like most people and made a Christmas wreath, because well, you can never have enough Christmas cards at this point in time!!  I stamped the wreath/flower on my white card base with a couple shades of Gina K green inks and then added some red Nuvo drops for the berries.  It seemed rather plain even after I added the top layer using MFT's Peek-A-Boo Rectangle Die and my sentiment using PTI's Penned Elegance: Christmas in Cherry Cobbler ink.  I wanted to add a bow, but a few months back I did some major purging and threw out most of my ribbon thinking I never use it anymore...BIG MISTAKE!!  But then inspiration struck and I pulled out some dark red tulle that I use when wrapping gifts and made a tiny bow...

I tied the tulle in the middle with some gold thread and used a glue dot to adhere it to my wreath...it was the perfect finishing touch!!

After the Painted Harvest set had been out for awhile, another clever person figured out how to make a Hedgehog using just half of the flower and it was absolutely ADORABLE...just check out Painted Harvest on Pinterest and you'll find all kinds of them!!  So anyway, I got to thinking about the Hedgehog and what it would look like if I changed the colors, and when I thought about blues, I thought about my grandson (he's 18 mos) and how we call him a little monster and my little "boo"...

I used the same flower/wreath stamp in the shades of blue (Gina K inks again) and there was my little monster!  I added some eyes and mouth from an Avery Elle set called Sweetest and a couple paws from Avery Elle's Polar Peek A Boo Pals, and my perfect sentiment is from PTI's Sentiment Staples: Halloween.  And here is the little monster himself:

He's actually a blue Triceratops here for Halloween and my daughter said she couldn't get a very clear picture of him because he wouldn't stand still...loved knocking on all the doors and then running to the next house before anyone could come to the door and pass out candy!  Bahaha...he'll figure it out next year!!  But anyway, the inspiration for my 2nd card!

This challenge is open till the 24th, so you still have another week to join in the FUN!!  Check it all out right HERE.

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

CAS Watercolour Nov. 2018 Reminder Post

Hello friends.  Just a friendly reminder that you have just over a week to play along with us at CAS Watercolour this month.

We're looking for Christmas Florals and Greenery (NO tree's please!) on your CAS cards this month, so join in and play along with us!

I'm sharing a card today that uses Altenew's Festive Poinsettia stamp that my friend Michele let me stamp a few of to play with and came up with this:

It was a perfect image for me to get my Zigs out and use to color up this beauty!  I used yellow, orange, and red for the flower leaves, and a couple shades of green for the leaves and stems.

My Aqua Painter also helped me with moving and blending the color together a bit.  I did a little bit of ink splattering with black and then added my sentiment from Altenew's Blessings stamp set.  I also used a Gina Marie Designs Wonky Stitched die around the edges of my panel and then adhered to a white card base.  Just a couple iridescent sequins finished off my card.

We would love to see you in the gallery and help you get those Christmas cards done, so hop on over and see all the lovely inspiration we have for you from the DT and our special guest designer Maura this month, and then play along.  You can find everything right HERE. 

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

25 Days Of Tags 2018 - Days 13, 14, & 15

Hello friends.  Still having FUN being inspired and playing along with the 25 Days Of Christmas Tags challenge!

Day 13 is sponsored by Technique Tuesday, and I was inspired by both Tracey & Kim and their Christmas lights tags.

I don't own any Technique Tuesday stamps but I substituted PTI's Corner Adorner: September stamp set and came up with the brightly colored tags.  I also added a little bit of silver glitter paper like Kim did to bling it up even more!!  The DSP at the top is from Reverse Confetti's new Winter Solstice 6 x 6 pad.

Day 14 is sponsored by Muse Christmas Visions and I was inspired by 2 different tags from Kim Heggins and Kimberly Wiener.

 
These tags were inspired by Kim's BEAUTIFUL water colored tree's...I used SU!'s Winter Woods stamp set and inked up the stamp, spritzed with water, and then stamped on my tags.  Next I went over them with a WOS pen and it made it even more water colored looking plus added the sparkle!!

I was also inspired by Kimberly Wiener's lovely mistletoe tags and used a Stamplorations set called Layered Mistletoe.  I stamped my berries in white ink and then went over the top of them with a bottle of Smooch Pearlized Top Coat that I've had for like forever and it actually still worked...it's quite lovely IRL!!

Day 15 is sponsored by Stamplorations and I was inspired by Joyce Mehrberg's and Tracey McNealy's beautiful tags.

My tag on the left was inspired by Tracey and her lovely blended background.  Tracey had an angel on her tag, but I just really LOVE the Stamplorations Christmas Reindeer set...they are so whimsical and fun to use!  They're embossed in white and I also did some splattering with white acrylic paint.  The tag on the right was inspired by Joyce's tag on kraft using these FUN deer...just stamped them along with the sentiment and snowflakes in Soft Suede ink and then did some splattering on these too!

Make sure you check out all the inspiration and FUN and play along for your chance at some of the wonderful prizes that are up for grabs.  You can find all the info to play along right HERE.

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

Create Along With Us - Nov. 2018

Hello friends.  I feel like all I've done for the past 2 weeks is post to my blog and IG daily to keep up with the tag challenges, but I do have to admit that I am having a blast!  There are some regular challenges that I like to play along with though and I feel like I am trying to just cram them in, so excuse me if you feel like I'm posting too much...this will all change in another 2 weeks and then you will wonder if I've fallen off the face of the earth!  JK!!  But I won't be posting as much once the tag challenges are done.

Because this is a release week at Papertrey Ink, I am playing along with their Create Along With Us challenge where we pick a card from one of the designers to try and CASE.  Every month it's hard to pick just one, but I knew on the 1st day that I had to copy Lizzie's card using the new Enchanted Forest set...I totally fell in LOVE!!

Isn't this just the prettiest card?!!  I fell in love with the nighttime sky and the colors: Ocean Tides, Pine Feather, & Mint Julip.  Here's what I came up with:

I started by blending my sky with Blueberry Sky and Enchanted Evening inks and then splattered with a bit of water and then splattered again with a bit of white acrylic paint.  For my trees I used In The Meadow and O'Tannenbaum and then added my snowbanks using the In The Meadow dies and running them through a hardwood embossing folder before adding Dazzling Diamonds glitter.

I love the way Lizzie did her sentiment and I used a rectangle die to cut out and stamp and emboss my sentiment (Penned Elegance: Christmas) in gold and then laid it back in with foam tape on the back to give the dimension.  My little rabbit is also from the In The Meadow set and I pop dotted him for some dimension too.

LOTS of inspiration as usual to choose from, so play along and you might win a $25 gift certificate!  You can check out all the details right HERE.

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

Twelve Tags of Christmas and 25 Days of Christmas Tags

Hello friends.  Yep...still continuing to make more tags!!  I'm actually combining these two tag events today because Shari Carroll of SSS did a video (HERE) for the 1st day of the 25 Days of Christmas Tags event showing a mixed media (collage) type of tag that I absolutely fell in LOVE with, and I just had to make one...well ok, I made three!  But anyway, I thought these tags would work great for Loll's Twelve Tags of Christmas tag event too because they are a mixed media tag.

I CASE'd a good portion of Shari's tag because it was just too pretty not to, but also added a few of my own touches!  Take a look:

I used quite a bit of Tim Holtz products to make my tags including Holly Collage paper, Holiday Flash cards, and the Christmas 8 x 8 pad.  I started by using Ranger's Texture Paste and rubbing it with my fingers (messy!!) over my PTI Basic Bookmark #2 tags and then adding torn bits of the Holly tissue paper and pieces from the Christmas 8 x 8 pad.  Once they dried I started adding my layers.

My greenery sprig is from TH's Holiday Greens dies and I sponged it with some Mossy Meadow ink and then some Delicata Golden Glitz ink.  I also did some gold embossing to the edges of the PTI Fancy Flakes snowflake, but it didn't show up real well so I added some of the Delicata Golden Glitz ink to the snowflake as well.  I sponged Tea Dye ink around the edges of the Noel flashcard and then stamped a few small snowflakes over that too.

One of the papers in the 8 x 8 pad is clear acetate that has white snowflakes on it and I die cut a 2nd tag to lay over the base tag and I love the look it gives with all the extra snowflakes on the tag!  Wish I could take credit for that idea, but that is Shari's idea too!  Make sure you check out her video on how to do a tag like this...she has all kinds of helpful tips and the link is right HERE.  A few red sequins, a button, and some very fine gold thread finished off my tags.

If you like making tags, be sure to check out both events (HERE and HERE) to play along...so much wonderful inspiration from both!!

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

CAS Christmas Nov. 2018 - SANTA

Hello friends.  Playing along with this month's CAS Christmas challenge which is to add a SANTA to your Christmas card.

I have many Santa stamp images, but my favorite has always been Flourishes Santa I Believe.  Sadly this company is no longer in business, but I still use this image every year!  I had wanted to try the new (to me) technique of inking up your stamp with Versamark and then using a damp paintbrush to "paint" on Lindy's Magicals powder (or any other powder form of paint like Brusho's) and then lightly spritzing with water before stamping onto your cardstock.  One of my favorite colors of Magicals is the Cattail Copper Brown and I thought the shimmery copper would look so cool on this vintage Santa stamp but I wasn't real impressed with my results, so I ended up just using Soft Suede ink...

Isn't that just the sweetest vintage Santa image?!!  I just kept it very CAS so as not to take away from the image, and matted it with some Soft Suede cardstock and attached to a white card base.  I stamped the "Believe" sentiment from the stamp set in Early Espresso ink and then finished with some baker's twine and a wooden snowflake.

I did make a card from the Lindy's Magicals, but again, not real impressed with it.  I think because once you add the water (and I didn't add much!) you don't get a real clear image and you lose a lot of the details.

You can still tell it's Santa, and there is quite a bit of shimmer that is part of the Lindy's Magicals, but it just didn't thrill me!

Oh well, you have to experiment sometimes, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't!!  But either way, the process is FUN!!

Check out all the FABULOUS Santa cards from the DT and be inspired to play along!  You have until the 24th to play in this challenge and you can check it all out right HERE. 

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

25 Days of Christmas Tags - Days, 10, 11, & 12

Hello friends.  Here are tags from Days, 10, 11, & 12 of the 25 Days of Christmas Tags.

Day 10 was sponsored by Studio Katia and I was inspired by ALL of Tracey's DT and their sweet, sweet little snowy village tags!!

I do not own any Studio Katia stamps, but I did have Lawn Fawn's Winter Village that worked beautifully for this challenge.  I used PTI's Tag Sale #8 to die cut my tags and Copic markers to color all the little houses.

Day 11 is sponsored by Winnie & Walter and I was totally inspired by Shay and Joyce Mehrberg's lovely kraft tags with the all over floral design.

I have several Winnie & Walter stamp sets but nothing with tiny Christmas florals, so I substituted a couple Catherine Pooler Christmas sets (Festive Trimmings & Tis The Season) to come up with these.  The joy die cuts are from PTI's Wet Paint Holiday Collection.  I also added Pale Gold Nuvo Drops to the centers of the Poinsettias.

Day 12 is sponsored by Pretty pink Posh and I was inspired by Nicky Meek's adorable pastel tags.

I adored all the sweet little critters on Nicky's tags, but the only Christmas Pretty Pink Posh set I have is the Happy Snowman set, and I think he looks just as cute on these pastel tags!  I embossed with white an older snowflake background stamp on my Gina Marie Designs square scalloped tags and then fussy cut out my little snowmen with their matching scarves.  Simple but they'll look great on the grandbabies Christmas gifts!

Still lots more inspiration to come, so check it all out and play along (HERE) for the chance to win one of the MANY prizes being offered!

 

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!