Christmas Kickstart Challenge #105

Hello friends.  My Christmas cards are all done and sent out last week, but I'm still loving making new ones that I can use for next year.  The Christmas Kickstart Challenge is looking for anything "Christmassy" and I think my 2 cards and tags will definitely fit in here!

I've been having so much FUN using new product from The Greetery...I don't think you could make an ugly card with all the new products if you tried!  Here's my first card...

OK, I know this one isn't a Christmas card, but people do have birthdays either on Christmas day or around Christmas.  I used the Capsule Basics die for the scalloped piece, and then the Capsule Filigree Borders die around the edge of another Capsule Basic die that I stamped with an older SU! background stamp called Print Pattern.  I used that same background stamp on the Cherry Cobbler panel too, although it's harder to see in my photos.  The die cut Holly is also from The Greetery (Bigger Holiday Botanicals Holly No. 1) and was inked with DOX inks and then splattered with water.

I stamped my sentiment (PTI's Think Big Favorites: #22) in Versamark ink and heat embossed in gold on a strip of vellum and wrapped it around the front and Cherry Cobbler layer before adherring it all to a card base.  The gold bow is also from The Greetery (Regency Bow No. 1) and was added to the top along with a few gold gems to finish off the card.

This card was done basically the same as the first except that I used a different background stamp (SU!'s En Francais) and also used The Greetery's Bigger Holiday Botanicals: Poinsettia die.  

I just love the filigree border and bow in the matte gold cs...makes these cards so elegant.  Also finished this one off with a few gold gems.

And last but not least, using the same supplies PLUS the Capsule Quick Tags stamp set to make a few tags for some of my gifts this year.  It's hard to tell in my photo, but the berries under the To: and the From: have red glitter Stickles on them for just a POP of color.

Jo is running solo this month (no guest elf), but there is still oodles and oodles of inspiration from Jo and all the entries in the gallery...check it out right HERE.  This challenge does run till the end of the month, so still lots of time to post a card or two to the gallery.

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

The Flower Challenge #109 - USE CHRISTMAS FLORALS

Hello friends. Just a friendly reminder that there's still time to play with us at The Flower Challenge this month, and it's an easy one as we're all making Christmas cards right now...RIGHT??  And what's easier than Christmas florals?

I have a pretty simple card to share with you today using one of my favorite Poinsettia stamps from Gina K called Precious Poinsettia.  Take a look...

I heat embossed the main image in white on Pale Peony cs (PTI) and then used the coordinating stamps to fill in the color with Flirty Flamingo & Old Olive (SU!). 

I die cut my image out and used foam tape to add it to my background which was embossed with the Timeworn Type ef (SU!) and then stamped my simple joy sentiment.  

We have lots of inspiration for you to get you motivated to make those last few Christmas cards, and you can find it all right HERE.  We would love to see YOU in our gallery filled with lovely Christmas Florals!  This challenge is open till Thursday, Dec. 25th @ 5:00PM. 

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

Freshly Made Sketches #716

Hello friends.  Playing along with the new Freshly Made Sketches Challenge where my sweet friend Michele is hosting with this wonderful sketch to follow...

And here's what I came up with using a couple of oldies but favorites from my stash...

I started by die cutting the Cardinal from Honey Bee's Lovely Layers: Winter Birds from Real Red, Cherry Cobbler & Merry Merlot cs (SU!) and also added a bit of ink blending with black ink to show a little depth.  Next came the wreath from The Greetery (Magnolia Wreath) which I also added some black ink blending to.  For my background I used The Greetery's Herringbone Parquet Die.

 A closer up so you can see some of the detail on the bird, wreath and background.  I finished with the flag sentiment (die cut from Gina K's ML #5 and embossed with a really old SU! wooden block stamp Be Very Merry) and a few ruby gems from PFS.

Lots of great ideas of what you can use for the circle in the sketch from the talented DT, so check it all out right HERE and then play along.  This challenge is open till Monday, Dec. 15th @ 3:00PM.

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

Double D Challenge - Christmas Wrappings

Hello friends.  Playing along with the gals over at the Double D Challenge where they have a wonderful mood board depicting all kinds of fun WRAPPINGS!

I went with bows and tags and have a card and a tag to share with you featuring a new stamp from Unity called A Little Ho Ho Ho.  They were offering pre-black Friday sales and I just couldn't resist this little guy!  Take a look...

Doesn't he kinda melt your heart?!  He sure did mine!!  I stamped him in black and then Copic colored him before adding a PTI Bold Borders: Polka Dot Die in Real Red cs to frame him out.

I've been in love with The Greetery's Regency Bow No. 1 die and have been putting bows on everything!!  I used silver mirror cs for this bow and I think it frames my little Santa dude perfectly!!  The card is busy enough with all the polka dots, so I left the greeting off the front and saved it for the inside.

When I stamp something I'm going to color, I always stamp 2 in case I mess one up. If I don't mess up, then I have an extra for something else, which in this case was super easy to make a tag out of for one of the grands Christmas gifts.  I used an older Casual Fridays tag die  and simply tied a piece of bakers twine through the tag hole. Easy peasy and done.

The DT has some awesome inspiration for you using wrapping ideas on cards and you can check them all out right HERE.  This challenge is open till Sunday, Dec. 14th @ 8:00PM.

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

Freshly Made Sketches #715

Hello friends.  Playing along with the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge where DT member Karren has a challenging sketch for us to follow (at least it was challenging for me!).

Sometimes when a challenge is too challenging for me, it's because I over-think it, and I think that was the issue here.  Once I got an idea in my head, the card came together very easily!  Here's what I came up with...

I've been seeing a lot of these 3D snowflakes popping up in blogland since SSS and Tim Holtz revealed his 3D snowflake, and it got me to thinking that I had something similar...somewhere.  Yep, PTI put one out years ago (Tim's is more ornate) and I found it buried under a bunch of older PTI sets.  I found a sheet of dsp (I think it's SU!) with tiny snowflakes on it and die cut the two pieces to turn it into a 3D snowflake.  The die comes with a smaller snowflake die to put on top (it holds the 3D snowflake in place so it doesn't fold up on itself) and I cut it from plain white cs and then glittered it up with Tim's Rock Candy Glitter.  I used The Greetery's smallest Capsule Basic die and embossed it with SSS's Snowflake Visions ef (Yes, I know you've seen it plenty here as I'm a bit obsessed with it!!), before adding the smallest Capsule Filigree Border die cut in matte gold to go around the embossed piece.  

A strip of the same dsp as the 3D snowflake was added to the top of my card and a sentiment from PTI's Stylish Sentiments: Holiday was stamped and matted with the matte gold cs to finish off this CAS card.  Oh, and a few gold gems from PFS.  This one is definitely NOT mailable, but that's ok as I'll hand deliver this one to a dear friend in my bible study group.

The DT has some beautiful examples of this sketch to inspire you right HERE if you want to play along, but you'll have to be quick as this challenge ends today at 3:00PM.  
 

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

The Flower Challenge #109 - Use Christmas Florals

Hello friends.  Are the Christmas cards done and in the mail yet?  Mine are made but not addressed yet...need to get busy!!  If you're still in need of a few cards, we have the perfect challenge for you this month at The Flower Challenge...just use your Christmas florals!

Before I get to the details of my cards, I have a bit of news to share.  Regretfully The Flower Challenge will be closing after this months challenge.  I had already made the decision to step down because of time constraints (my 93 year old mom is requiring more of my help and time and we also babysit 2 days a week for our 2 youngest grandbabies, so time in my craft room has become more and more limited.) when Karren announced that she was also struggling to find the time to run the challenge and had decided she needed to close it at the end of this year.  This challenge has had a good run and we have seen some absolutely BEAUTIFUL floral cards during its time, so do not be sad it is leaving but be glad it was and offered so much inspiration for so long!  A very BIG thank you to Karren and all the DT members past & present for all the work they have put into this challenge over the years, and a BIG thank you to all of you who have played along with our challenges too.  I'll still be around and you'll still be seeing flower cards from me as they're at the top of my favorites list to make.  We hope you'll all play along this month so we can go out with a bang...so get out those stamps, dies & stencils and let's flood the gallery with beautiful Christmas florals!!  And now back to my regular post...   

I love Poinsettias and have quite a few stamps, stencils, dies & embossing folders with Poinsettias, so the hardest part of this challenge for me was picking out what to use!  I wanted to try out a technique that Therese Calvird did a while back (you can watch HERE) that uses embossing folders and rubbing your ink pad over the raised areas.  She started using DSP from Crafters Consortium, so I pulled out the only pad of Crafters Consortium DSP I had (Ink Drops - Dusk) and gave it a try using 2 different embossing folders.

I used Altenew's Perfect Poinsettias 3D embossing folder with a lighter piece of the DSP and then lightly ran my Delicata Gold ink pad over the raised areas.  

I matted the embossed layer with a thin piece of gold matte cs and then used the same gold to cut out my sentiment from MB's Merry Christmas Posh Script.  Both layers were attached to a kraft card base and I called it good...no bling!

I have a 2nd card using a darker piece of the DSP and SSS's Poinsettia Spray embossing folder.  I also used the embossing folder to emboss a strip of gold mirror card stock and added it to the left edge of my card.

I wish my photography skills were a bit better so you could see all the detail in this card...it is really pretty IRL!  The die cut sentiment is another favorite MB die called Special Merry Christmas.  Another kraft card base and no bling on this one either.  The Delicata Gold ink has so much shimmer to it that you really don't need to add anything else!

The DT has some absolutely BEAUTIFUL Christmas florals to inspire you to play along and you can find them all right HERE.  This challenge is open till Thursday, Dec. 25th @ 5:00PM.

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

Just Us Girls Challenge #803

Hello friends.  Playing along with the gals over at the Just Us Girls Challenge where it's anything goes stencil week.

I had been inspired last week by a sweet friend to pull out my WF Postage Collage Snowman Stencil which hadn't seen any ink since last Winter, and figured this new challenge was the perfect time to ink it up.  I ended up cutting the postage images apart and had enough that way to make 2 cards.  Take a look...

 Couldn't resist making the backgrounds a little colorful and love how they both turned out.  Here's a closer up of card #1...

I arranged the 2 snowmen and the snowflake images on a white background embossed with my favorite snowflake ef this year from SSS (Snowflake Visions).  I stamped a few extra snowflakes from the North Pole stamp set (WF), and then added my sentiment (WF's Merry Christmas Print Die) and a few PFS iridescent gems.  And also a touch of glitter.

My 2nd card uses the last 3 snowmen images and I used the book binding fold that I've been pretty hooked on lately!  I used again the same ef (Snowflake Visions) on white cs for the main portion and on some pink cs for the binding section (I used white pigment ink over the pink snowflakes to make them stand out a bit more). 

I used the same sentiment as the first card and added a few Disco Ball Sequins (Gina K) and some pink & white baker's twine to finish off this card.  I'd forgotten how cute this sweet stencil set was...thanks for reminding me dear friend!!

Lots of awesome inspiration from the DT and their special guest Leslie, and also in the gallery already, so if you like to stencil, check it all out right HERE.  This challenge is only open till Wednesday, Dec. 3rd @ 6:00PM, so check it out sooner rather than later! :0)

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

Color Hues #123 - PINK & GREEN

Hello friends.  Happy December!!  I hope you're all enjoying this wonderful season already and not stressing too much about all that needs to be done.  If your Christmas cards are not finished yet, our sweet DT member Tracey has a fun and beautiful color pairing of PINK & GREEN that will make beautiful Christmas cards. Or thank you cards. Or birthday cards.  It's a perfect pairing for so many different types of cards, so play along with us at the Color Hues Challenge!

I went with Christmas to build up a few extra cards in case I need them...if not then I have a head start on next years stash!  I used an older PFS stencil set (Holiday Botanical Background) to come up with this simple and pretty card...

I used several different green inks (Gina K) to stencil my leaves and then used a couple shades of pink inks (also Gina K) for the berries.  I used The Greetery's Crimped Rectangle Frame die to cut out my stenciled panel and then attached to a top folding white card base.  I stamped my sentiment from PB's rejoice with joy stamp set, and I just love how perfectly it fit in the center of the stenciled frame. 

  To finish I simply added a few gems from SU! and that was all this card needed!  I think I might even make a few more to add to my stash as it was so easy to make and I just LOVE the way it turned out!

We hope you all have a little bit of time this month to play along with us and fill our gallery with all kinds of pink & green cards!  Make sure you check out what the DT has come up with using this color pairing right HERE and then play along.  This challenge is open for the whole month (till Monday, Dec. 29th @ 9:00AM) to give you some extra time, so we hope to see you all soon!  And last but not least, the whole team and I wish each and every one of you a most blessed and Merry Christmas!  
 

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