Birgit, Patti, and Marcia's Monthly Challenge - Holiday Greens

Hello friends.  This month will be a little different as it is just Birgit and I...Patti is continuing to heal and taking off this month.  I hope you will all join Birgit and I in sending lots of prayers Patti's way for a complete (and hopefully quick) recovery!  Also, because it is a crazy time of year for most of us crafters, we will be taking next month off, and then hopefully all 3 of us will be back in January!  :0)

Birgit and I both fell in LOVE with Dawn McVey's Holiday Greens set this Fall, and decided this would be a great one to challenge ourselves on for this month.  I only have 3 cards for you this month, but I'm really happy with the way they turned out!  (Now if I could only be happy with the way I photographed them...none of the sparkle showed up, so just try to imagine all three of these with a little sparkle and shine to them!)

My first card is a take off of one of Melissa Phillips cards (HERE)...I loved her layout and just changed up my colors and sentiment.  I used a SSS Gingham background stamp with Scarlet Jewel ink for the bottom third of my card, and then stamped, die cut, and embossed the 3 layers at the top using the Holiday Greens images.  My sentiment is from Neat & Tangled Bright Baubles. 

This is the card I really wished would have photographed better, but there just isn't a lot of sunshine in Michigan during the Winter months.  The pine branches in the background and the holly leaves are all WOS'd to the hilt and it just looks so pretty IRL!  The ferns are embossed in white on Smoky Slate cs and then die cut.  I used Basic Gray (SU!) cs for the bottom layer and also sponged the edges with Basic Gray ink.  The berries and the pinecones are all stamped on Smoky Slate cs.  The sentiment is also from Neat & Tangled Bright Baubles.

My last card uses PTI's new Leaf & Sprig Frames and I just love the look of this die added to a card.  I used Olive Twist cs to cut out the frame, and then started building my card around it.  My sentiment comes from the Inspired: Jesus stamp and die set, and I die cut the Jesus 3 times and then blended Pure Poppy and Scarlet Jewel inks over the top one.  The fern from the Holiday Greens set was embossed in clear and then I sponged over it with Spring Moss and Olive Twist inks.  The 2 die cut sprigs in Saffron Spice are from last years Spruce & Sprigs set.  Here's a closer up view:

I really LOVE the colors in this card, and can't believe that when Saffron Spice first came out, I didn't like it!  What was I thinking?!!! 

I hope I've inspired you to take this set out and stamp up a few lovely cards with it...if you need more convincing, please head on over to Birgit's blog as I just know she will once again blow us away with her creative talents!!

We LOVE to hear from you, so please leave us a comment and tell us what you liked (or didn't like) about our challenges each month!  Thanks so much for stopping by today!!  :0)

 

Make It Monday #268 - Double Layer Tags

Hello friends.  Playing along with Dawn McVey (YEAH...she's back!!) and this weeks Make It Monday challenge where Dawn shows us some assembly line technique's for making double layered tags.  If you've visited my blog recently, you know I'm all about making tags at this time of year, so this was a FUN challenge for me!

I made a set of 4 tags using Tag Sale #3, #5, & #8 dies, Pure Poppy & White Basics Paper Collection, and the Make It Market Mini Kit: Holiday Folk, Polka Dot Basics, and Season's Greetings stamp sets.

My color theme is traditional reds and greens (Pure Poppy & New Leaf inks), so these tags will look great on my packages this year.  Super FUN and Super EASY to make...might just have to make a few more!!

Make sure you check out Dawn's cute, cute tags and her video right HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I'd love it if you come back tomorrow for Birgit and my monthly challenge (Patti is off this month to finish healing!) where we'll be showcasing PTI's Holiday Greens stamp set.  :0)

 

Merry Monday #224 - Masculine Christmas Card

Hello friends and welcome to another Merry Monday challenge.  This week Kathy is challenging us to make a masculine Christmas card, and that was a challenge for me!  I tend to struggle with any type of masculine card, and this was no exception at first!  But I persevered and was happy with what I came up with!!

And here's what I came up with:

I started by blending a few TH Distress Inks together for my background....Salty Ocean, Faded Jeans, & Chipped Sapphire.  Next I used my MISTI to stamp just one side of Penny Black's Woodland Wonder stamp to the right side of my top layer.  I had to stamp it several times to get a complete coverage of the black...gotta LOVE the MISTI in times like this!!  Next I stamped my sentiment from Penny Black's Yuletide Wishes stamp set and then added a deer die cut from PTI's In the Meadow set.  I layered my top layer to a black layer and then both of those layers to a white card base.  Not my usual Christmas card, but I think it will work perfectly for a masculine Christmas card!!


Only 4 weeks left till Christmas my friends, so let us help you get those cards done!  Come check out all the FABULOUS masculine inspiration we have for you this week, and then join in the fun!  You can check it out right HERE. 

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

25 Days of Christmas Tags - Days 20, 21, 24 & 25

Hello friends.  I have LOVED playing along with Tracey McNeely's 25 Days of Christmas Tags challenge, and so wish I had had the time to play with every days challenges, but I think I was able to do a little over half, so not too bad!  Today I'm finishing up with days 20, 21, 24 & 25.

Day 20 sponsored by Sunny Studio and Altenew

I was inspired by Tracey's tag and all her colorful lightbulbs...since I don't have a light bulb stamp I used an ornament stamp from MFT's Santa's Elves.  I embossed in black and colored with my Copics.  The black tags were embossed in white with a sentiment also from the same set.

Day 21 sponsored by Waffle Flower

I was inspired by Channin Pellitier's black with white embossing tags and I must admit also by my good friend BIRGIT, who used MFT's Santa's Elves on her tags...it was just SO cute I had to CASE!!  I used SSS Gingham background stamp and embossed with white onto 2/3 of my black tag, and then added the little elves from MFT's Santa's Elves.

Day 24 sponsored by Pretty Pink Posh

I was totally inspired by Lisa Elton's star tags and just had to CASE these also!!  I die cut my stars from red glitter cardstock and then added my embossed and Copic colored snowmen from Pretty Pink Posh's Happy Snowman set.  I also added a few glittered up snowflakes die cut from IO.

Day 25 sponsored by Jillibean Stamps

Fell head over heels in love with Amy Sheffer's adorable house tags and was totally inspired by the non traditional Christmas colors!  I made one with Smokey Slate cs and one with Basic Gray cs, and love them both...which color background do you like better?  I embossed the houses in white using a stamp from PTI's Winter Hill's and then made a banner tag for my sentiment and stamped in Real Red ink using Catherine Pooler's Candy Cane Lane stamp set.  I also added a few Hawaiian Shores snowflakes from IO.

The 25 days are over now but there is still almost a week to play along with this great challenge!  Even though I didn't have time to play along with each days challenge, I have LOVED looking at all the fabulous tags created by the designers for their respective companies...they ALL really knocked it out of the park this year with their creativity!!  A BIG BIG thank you to Tracey McNeely for all her work (and beautiful tags!!) putting this challenge together...well done Tracey!!

You can check out all the beautiful tags from the designers and from all the players in the gallery right HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by today...I love it when you do!  :0)

 

Papertrey Ink November 2016 Blog Hop

Hello friends.  Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday...I had a wonderful day celebrating with most of my family and LOTS of food!  And now it's the 25th and in blogland, that means it's time for Papertrey Ink's monthly Blog Hop!  Nichole picked a fun and bright and non-traditional inspiration photo for us to follow this month:

   
I took my inspiration totally from the colors in this photo...LOVED the aqua boxes with the gold polka dots! 

I started by blending what I thought were the 4 main colors...Hawaiian Shores, Hibiscus Burst, Green Parakeet, & Lemon Tart, and then splattered with some water.  Next I embossed in gold Heather Nichol's Snowflake Sparkle snowflakes, and then cut it out using a stitched circle die.  I inlaid the circle into a white layer, and then layered that onto Hawaiian Shores and added both layers to a white card base.  I also added a scalloped and stitched circle die cut in white to the outside edge of the circle and then stamped my sentiment in Hawaiian Shores from the same Snowflake Sparkle set.  A single enamel dot that I had in my stash was the only extra that I added so that the focus was on the colors and gold snowflakes.

Can't wait to see how every one else interpreted the inspiration photo, so I'm off to go hopping!  You can check it all out too right HERE.

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

  

Merry Monday #223 - Light Blue, Dark Blue & Pink

Hello friends.  Debbie is hosting this weeks challenge at Merry Monday and she would like to do a color challenge using Light Blue, Dark Blue, & Pink.

And here's what I came up with:

I have been in LOVE with this simple set from PTI called Warmest Wishes since it came out last year, and it seemed like a great fit for this week's color challenge!  I lightly blended my background with light blue, and then added the mountains (stamped in Not Quite Navy ink and water colored with Raspberry Fizz ink) and the bear, which was also stamped in Not Quite Navy and his sweater in Spring Rain ink.  My sentiment and snowflakes were also stamped in Not Quite Navy ink.  My white panel and the navy blue card base were both cut with a Gina Marie Designs rounded squares die set.

There's only 5 more weeks till Christmas my friends, so won't you play along with us at Merry Monday and let us help you get those cards done on time??!!  You can see more fabulous inspiration from my teammates, and find all the info you need to play along right HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by today...I love it when you do!  :0)

25 Days of Christmas Tags - Days 13, 14, & 15

Hello friends.  Playing catch up (and still behind!) with Tracey McNeely's 25 Days of Christmas Tags.

Day 13 sponsored by Lil Inkers

I was inspired by Laura Pryor's water colored tags and water colored my tag with red and green inks and then added the silver die cut bells from Lil Inkers and added an embossed sentiment from Stamplorations Christmas Reindeer.

Day 14 sponsored by Neat & Tangled

I was inspired by Daria Grushina's tag and the colors she used ...I thought the blues and greens were so pretty and festive with the pop of red!  I used Neat & Tangled's Bright Baubles set for this tag.

Day 15 sponsored by Lawn Fawn

Lawn Fawn has the cutest and most whimsical little critters, and I was inspired by everyone's use of them!  The only Lawn Fawn set I own is Winter Alpaca and for such a small and inexpensive set, I sure have gotten my money's worth from it!  For this tag I simply stamped and embossed, and then colored with my Copics.  I used a white gel pen for the dots on the scarf and some WOS on the snowflakes.

There's still time to play (and catch up!) with Tracey's challenge, and you can find all the info you need and inspiration too right HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by today...I love it when you do!  :0)

    

CAS Watercolour November

Hello friends.  Finally got a chance to put a card together for the CAS Watercolour November challenge, where Loll and Bonnie are asking for some "Text" to be used somewhere on your watercoloured card. 

 
And here's what I came up with:

I was looking for something when I found this watercoloured background in my stash (I wish I could remember what color inks I used, but I don't remember...something obviously in the green family and I also must have used some Perfect Pearls as there is quite a bit of shimmer to this piece.)  I used some Basic Gray ink to add the script to the background (SU!'s En Francais) and then added a Memory Box die cut (Blissful Bundle) and my die cut bird from SSS (Bird of Roses) that I heat embossed with copper.  I mounted this layer to a piece of black and then to a white card base.  I added a simple banner with the sentiment from PTI's Stained Glass set and also wrapped a bit of copper cording (SU!) around the edge of the banner to tie in with the bird.  Here's a closer up view of the background:

I wish you could see the shimmer from the Perfect Pearls, but I could not seem to capture it...grrrr!!  But anyway, I really like how this card turned out...it seems very busy to me though, so I hope it still qualifies as CAS?? 

There are some absolutely BEAUTIFUL cards from the DT and gallery to inspire you, and almost a week left to play along, so if you like watercolouring and mixed media, this is the challenge for you!  You can find all the info you need to play along right HERE.

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

Create Along With Us - November 2016

Hello friends.  Playing along with PTI's Create Along With Us, and once again, it was hard to pick just one project to re-create.  One of Kay Miller's cards really did stand out to me though, so I chose to try to re-create it.  Here's Kay's card:

And here's my card:

I water colored my background with Hibiscus Burst ink and then added my frame (Noted: A2 Scalloped Die Collection).  My leaves are from the Songbirds die, and then I stamped and die cut the Splits: Thank You using Hibiscus Burst and Raspberry Fizz inks.  (I substituted a "Happy Birthday" from Keep It Simple: Birthday for the "Thank You" that comes with the Splits set)  I did a little water coloring on the 3 flowers with my Aqua Painter and then finished with a few iridescent sequins.

There's still a few days left to play along...check it all out right HERE. 

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

Twelve Tags of Christmas

Hello friends.  Playing along with Loll's Twelve Tags of Christmas again...just too much great inspiration to get excited about and I do LOVE making tags!!  I'm still on a bit of the Alcohol ink and Yupo paper craze too, so I have 4 tags to show you from one piece of Yupo paper that I inked up with Watermelon & Raspberry Alcohol inks by Ranger.  This first tag is the one I'm submitting for the challenge, as it uses the Alcohol inks, a stencil, a die cut, and stamping.  Take a look:

I used the base die of PB's Burst of Red Poinsettia die and cut it out with my inked Yupo paper, and then added just a white layer of the detailed die.  I placed this on a Casual Fridays tag that I had stenciled with a TH Bubble stencil and Soft Stone ink.  My "Merry Christmas" was stamped from PTI's Christmas Blessings stamp set, and a few tiny pearls and some seam binding and silver cord finished off this tag.  Here are the other 3 tags I made from the one piece of Yupo paper:

The two bottom tags give you a better idea what the ink dropping technique looks like on the Yupo paper...it is so fun to literally watch the ink move when you drop it on the special paper!  For those of you not familiar with Yupo paper, it is a synthetic paper and not porous, so the ink does not sink into the paper.  It actually stays on top of the paper and kind of floats around.  There is not a whole lot of control using alcohol inks and Yupo paper...it's a surprise each time you do it!  Kind of like water coloring for me!  But anyway, a lot of fun to play with and always unique! 

Loll and her special guests still have more inspiration to come (till the 18th), so if you like making tags and want to play along, you can check it all out right HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by today...I love it when you do!  :0)

Merry Monday #222 - Use Gray, White & Red

Hello friends.  This week at Merry Monday Deanne is hosting our challenge and she would like you to use Gray, White & Red on your Christmas cards. 

Isn't that the cutest little graphic?!!  Makes me wish I had some stamps like that!  But anyway, being the bird lover that I am, I went in this direction:

I inked up the inside of my SU! Woodland embossing folder with Smoky Slate ink, and then added my cardstock and ran it through my Big Shot.  I stacked a few Gina Marie Design Scalloped Circle die cuts so that I could make a shaker card and added just a few small iridescent sequins along with 2 little birdies from PTI's In The Meadow dies.  My sentiment is from WPlus9's Holiday Trimmings.  This card came together fairly quickly and I really like the simplicity and colors...I usually struggle with CAS, but I think this one definitely qualifies!!  :0)

Only SIX weeks left till Christmas, so let us help you get those cards done by playing along with this weeks challenge at Merry Monday!  You can check out all the beautiful inspiration from my teammates, and then play along with us right HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by today...I love it when you do!  :0)

 

25 Days of Christmas Tags - Days 11 & 12

Hello friends.  I'm playing along with Tracey McNeely's  25 Days of Christmas Tags again today, and I'm using inspiration from Technique Tuesday's Jill Dewey Hawkins and Tracey for Day 11 with the red & white color theme, and inspiration from Serendipity Stamps and Marybeth Lopez for Day 12 with her beautiful and CAS nativity.

And here's my CAS red & white tag with a Nativity:

I used PTI's Quilted: Tag and an older wooden stamp from Stampendous Holy Family for my simple tag.  I embossed in black the image, and then added the sentiment on the banner from PTI's Stained Glass set.  A tiny diamond in the center of the star finished off my CAS tag.  I thought about adding some more bling, but like Marybeth's tag, I think the beauty is in the simplicity, so I left it alone.  :0)

SO much beautiful inspiration for tags on Tracey's blog, so definitely check it out and then play along...you can find all the info you need right HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by today...I love it when you do!  :0)

Twelve Tags of Christmas

Hello friends.  Playing along with the very talented Loll Thompson and her Twelve Tags of Christmas challenge today.  Loll is the Queen of Mixed Media and is always inspiring me to try other techniques, and the one that has intrigued me the most lately is Alcohol Inks and Yupo paper.  Between Loll's posts and video, and the class I took a few weeks ago, I have been having a lot of fun with this bold and MESSY art form!  So here's what I came up with for my Christmas tag:

I started with 3 different shades of blue ink and 1 of green ink and then when that was dry, I used alcohol blending solution and misted and splattered over my Yupo paper so the colors moved a bit.  Lastly I used a technique I learned in the class I took where you take half of a drinking straw and have it ready in your mouth, and then use your darkest color ink and squeeze out a drop and then blow through the straw to move the ink in what I call a Rorschach like splatter.  If you click to enlarge the photo, you can see this better.  You can see it under the "o" in the Joy, a little bit to the right of the larger snowflake, and to the left of the top part of the tree.  It does take some practice as you have to do quick and hard breaths through the straw to get it to move with feathering out.  Very cool when it does work though!  I started with a PTI Basic Bookmarks #3 die for my tag, and then I used a TH Woodlands die for my Christmas tree and embossed it with copper EP.  I also embossed in copper the "joy" die cut from PTI's Wet Paint Holiday Collection, and also cut one from black to offset behind the copper one...gives a little more dimension that way.  The snowflakes are from a small set of IO dies.  I also embossed in copper the edges of my Tiny Tags (PTI) where I did my only stamping with the "for you".  My ribbon I dyed with a couple of the alcohol inks I used on the tag to match.  Here's a little closer up view:

Loll and her special guests have been showing some absolutely GORGEOUS tags the past few days, so if you're looking for some inspiration, or just want to gaze at some beautiful tags, head on over to Loll's Blog to check it out.

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