Peace On Earth Challenge #6

Hello friends.  Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!  Ours was was a small and quiet one as we had celebrated with all the girls and grandkids a week ago, but it was still a lovely day!  And with temps in the low 50's and even a little bit of sunshine...NOT your typical Christmas Day weather in Michigan!  One more Christmas card to share with you today (maybe...you know I love, LOVE making Christmas cards all year long!!) and I'm playing along with the Peace On Earth Challenge where I fell in love with all the greenery and berries on their mood board!

I especially fell in love with the bottom right photo of the red, white, & green mason jars filled with greenery, and came up with this card inspired by the photo...

I used PTI's Farm Fresh Trees stamp & die set to come up with the red, white, & green containers and the small trees.  I used The Greetery's Nordic Frame Dies to add a decorative edge to my card, and my sentiment was embossed with Altenew's Rose Gold embossing powder on vellum.  I finished this simple card with a few small die cut snowflakes (Impression Obsession), some twine bows, and a couple gold sequins.  

This challenge is still open for a couple more days, so check out all the beautiful inspiration from Diane and Darlene and their talented DT, and then play along to get a head start on next year's Christmas cards.  You can find all the details right HERE.  

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

Peace On Earth Challenge #5

Hello friends.  Needed a couple more Christmas cards and the mood board over at the Peace On Earth Challenge inspired me to make a BLUE Christmas card!

Using one of my favorite stamp sets from this year at The Greetery, I made this card using the stamp & stencil combo called Winterberry Bouquet...

 I'm not usually much of a blue fan, but have to admit I like the blue berries on this one!  I used an older snowflake embossing folder from SU! (Winter Snow) for part of my background and also the Cathedral Die from The Greetery.  I love a white on white look!!  

My sentiment is foiled in silver (another one of my new loves this year!!) using Perfect Sentiments: Holiday from PFS.  

And because I had everything out and the Christmas Kickstart Challenge is looking for "Anything Christmassy", I made another card using the same Winterberry Bouquet stamp and stencil set and just changed up the colors!

I did another white on white background using The Greetery's Inside & Out Berry Branch die, and then added the Winterberry Bouquet over top.

My foiled sentiment on this card is gold and from the same PFS set as the previous card.  I also added a few white crystal gems (PFS) to finish off this card.

So all my cards are sent out and now I'm getting ready for Sunday when we will celebrate Christmas with all 3 of our daughters and grandkids and my mom.  Then next week I'll be free to play with whatever stamp set I feel like.  Will it still be Christmas??  I love making Christmas cards all year long, and nothing wrong with getting a head start on next years cards, so we'll see...you'll just have to stay tuned!  :0)  

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

Christmas with Michele!

Hello friends.  Last week it was my turn to travel to my sweet friend Michele's house and play cards.  As usual, we did a lot more hugging, talking, and laughing than we did making cards, but never fear...we do have a few to share with you today!  And let me not be remiss in mentioning that Michele served a FABULOUS lunch of Thanksgiving leftovers that still has my mouth watering!!  I don't know how many of you know that Michele used to be a caterer, and boy can that girl cook!  I rounded off our lunch with my peanut butter brownies, and even Michele's hubby gave them a 2 thumbs up!  But then, what's not to love about chocolate and peanut butter...the two just go together!!

OK, enough chatter and let's get to the cards.  I have two to share with you today, using a SSS die called Etched Berry Branch and a 3D embossing folder from Tim Holtz called simply Poinsettia.  

My Etched Berry Branch die cut was colored with sponge daubers and Distress Oxide inks, and then splattered with white acrylic paint.  My dry embossed background uses a MB embossing folder called Gracious Leaves that is probably one of my favorite buys of this year!  I matted this layer with a piece of black cs and mounted both to top folding white card base.  My sentiment is a die also from MB called Special Merry Christmas and was die cut from gold mirror cs.

Pretty simple, but I really like the way it turned out!  My 2nd card uses the Tim Holtz 3D embossing folder called Poinsettia and is also a very simple card.

This card would be a very easy one to mass produce, and still looks so elegant and like you spent a lot of time on it!  I used Altenew's blending brushes for this card, and their brushes are flat and not curved and rounded like most other companies.  I inked two of the brushes up with Bundled Sage and Victorian Velvet Distress Oxide inks and then brushed the inside of the embossing folder on the depressed side of the folder (NOT the raised side).  I then simply added my cs and ran it through my Big Shot, and voila!  A colored AND embossed Poinsettia!!  

I matted my embossed layer with a piece of Sweet Blush cs (PTI) and then adhered both to a top folding white card base.  I finished simply with a die cut sentiment from Gina K using a scrap of sparkling silver cs.

Make sure you head on over to Michele's blog to see what she created using the same die and embossing folder...she never disappoints, so make sure you check out her awesome creativity!  I hope you enjoyed our play time together as much as Michele and I love getting together and playing cards!

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

Color Hues #31 (RED & GREEN) and The Flower Challenge #63 (Christmas)

Hello friends.  Just a quick post sharing a card I made for the current Color Hues Challenge that is looking for cards made with RED and GREEN, and also for The Flower Challenge that is looking for a CHRISTMAS card with a flower on it.  

Here's what I came up with for both challenges...

I'm usually much more of a CAS card maker, but I really layered it on for this particular card!  All of my dies are from PTI...Bold Borders: Flurries, Into The Blooms: Dahlia, & Silver White Winters (Snowflake), and my cardstock is all SU!...Real Red, Evening Evergreen, & Soft Succulent.  I also ink blended on the flowers and the leaves, and even added some white splatters too.

The flower centers and part of the JOY die cut were embossed with Altenews Rose Gold embossing powder, and although it doesn't show up very well in either of my photos, I used Tim Holtz's Distress Mica Flakes on the one snowflake, which really sparkles in real life.  This is a pretty busy card, but I love how it turned out!

Lots of great cards from both DT's if you need some inspiration to finish up those Christmas cards...just follow my links at the beginning of my post!  

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