CAS Christmas and CAS Mix Up

Hello friends.  Finally had a chance to put a card together last night and yippee...it will work for both the CAS Christmas and CAS Mix Up challenges!

I combined both the emboss resist and the stars onto my background and came up with this card:

I started with my background piece and inked up my stars with Versamark ink and then heat embossed them with white embossing powder.  Next I used Gina K's Powder Blue ink and blended over the background and the stars began to show up!  I wanted a little more pizazz in my background, so I lightly added just a touch of Cobalt Blue Brusho's and then misted with water.  Love how the background came out looking like a snowy AND starry nighttime sky!  I mounted this panel to a top folding white card base and then added another top layer that I had die cut with SSS's new Tree Frame die that I added clear acetate behind and foam tape so I could make this card a shaker.  Here's a close up so you can better see the emboss resist stars:

I added iridescent and silver stars for the shaker part and my sentiment was embossed in silver using stamps from CP's latest SOA box.

These two CAS challenges are only open till the 15th this month, so check out all the wonderful inspiration from the DT's HERE and HERE and then play along!

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

Snowflake Frame

Hello friends.  Just a quick post to share a couple cards I made with a new die given to me by my cousin from a company that I had never heard of before...Yvonne Creations...Snowflake Frame.

The die is a 5" x 5" one and larger than a normal A2 size card that I usually make.  The die is also extremely detailed and when trying to pull my cardstock from the die, I started ripping some of it...grrrrr!!  So anyway, these two cards came out of a what do I do with this torn die cut??!!

For my 1st card I ended up using the torn die cut (torn at the top and bottom but the middle section was still intact) as a stencil and placed over a white panel and then blended Gina K's Powder Blue ink over the bottom 2/3rd's of the panel.  It looked really pretty so I kept going and added my sentiment at the top from PB's Yuletide Wishes stamp set with silver embossing powder and adhered to a Powder Blue top folding note card.  I also added a thin strip of the Powder Blue cs between the stenciled portion and the sentiment portion.  I had a silver and glitter snowflake in my stash that I added to the bottom corner of my card and then added some white crochet thread to the top of the card and called it good!

The piece of die cut snowflakes that I had used as a stencil for the first card was too pretty to throw away, so I added it to a white card base and then added another white panel over the top of it that I  had die cut a window out of using MFT's Peek-A-Boo Rectangle Die.  I silver embossed my sentiment using PTI's Penned Elegance: Christmas below the die cut window and then finished with a few iridescent sequins and some more white crochet thread.

So there you have it...two simple cards made from one oops!  It sure pays to never throw away those accidents!!

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

Make It Monday #344 - Deck Your Dies

Hello friends.  Melissa Phillips has a GORGEOUS card for this week's Make It Monday challenge where she shows us how to deck out our word dies by using DSP, Glitter Paper, Felt, or any other number of different mediums.

My card is one of those that ended up totally different than what I imagined when I first started!  Some cards come together so easily, and then others like this one go through many, many renovations!!  But in the end I was happy with the way it turned out!

My first thought was to use Dawn's Say It Simply: Holly Jolly word die, but it covered my whole card so it was hard to add anything else!  I finally ended up pulling out an oldie but goodie...Wonderful Words: Snow.  I die cut it 4 times and did the top layer with the Bitty Big DSP in Aqua Mist and then coated the top of it with some Dazzling Diamonds glitter.  I used the Snowfall Style Stencil Collection stencils with Aqua Mist ink on my white panel and then with Vintage Photo DI on my kraft panel that I then die cut with the Mix & Mat: Berry Boughs.

I also added a die cut snowflake from Fancy Flakes (that I also glittered up!) and then added my deer from the Dash Away All die on top of the snowflake.  I also stamped the deer using a CP floral tree stamp with the Vintage Photo DI to give it a little pizazz!!  I stamped the "dashing through the" sentiment in Pure Poppy on a white strip to add some red to the card along with a little bit of baker's twine around the deer's neck.  A tiny drop of Black Nuvo Drops was used for the deer's eye.

Make sure you check out Melissa's lovely, lovely card and all the info to play along with this challenge right HERE.     

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

CAS Watercolour Dec. 2018 - THANK YOU

Hello friends.  This month's challenge at CAS Watercolour is being hosted by Bonnie and she has given us the challenge of creating a CAS THANK YOU card...and we all need a few of those in our stash this month with Christmas coming.  This challenge will only be open till the 15th to give the DT a bit of a break during this busy holiday season.

I created a little set of four THANK YOU cards by using the positive and negative die cuts using a Holly die that I received as a gift from a sweet friend.  Here's the 1st two:

I used a small piece of cardstock that I had added Lindy's Magicals in Ponderosa Pines Olive to die cut the Holly branch out, and realized the negative piece was just too pretty to throw away, so I die cut the image again in white and was able to make two cards between all the pieces.

I hope you can see a little bit of the shimmer in this close up...it really is magical!!

For the next two cards I used the same color of Lindy's Magicals, but used less water so I got a deeper color...

I used foam tape on the backs of all the rectangles to give some dimension and the simple THANK YOU is from PTI's Keep It Simple: Thank You set.  I really love how these turned out and how perfect to have 4 thank you's all set to write up during the busy season ahead!

We can't wait to see what you all come up with for this last challenge of 2018!  Remember to keep it CAS (LOT'S of WHITE space!!) and of course use some form of watercolouring.  Check out all the BEAUTIFUL inspiration from the DT and our special Guest Designer Michele and then play along.  Remember that this challenge is only open till the 15th this month.  Details can be found HERE.

Color Throwdown Challenge #521

Hello friends.  Playing along with this week's Color Throwdown Challenge where they're looking for Silver, Black, Gray, & White.

I'm more of a "gold" than "silver" person, but even I have to admit that that is one ELEGANT tree!!  I had fun using a couple new silhouette dies (AliExpress) for this challenge, and here's what I came up with:

Isn't that silhouette just the sweetest image for a Christmas card?!  I started with a black card base, added a layer of Smokey Slate cardstock, and then an embossed snowflake (Darice) white layer, before adding my black silhouette.  It still needed something, so I added a smaller strip of Smokey Slate that I stamped with Penny Black's Christmas Story background stamp n Smokey Slate ink.  To finish I added some silver cording and a few silver sequins.

I have a "twofer" for you today using another silhouette die (AliExpress):

Made the exact same way, just using the other die.

Lots of wonderful inspiration for this challenge, so check it all out and play along right HERE. 

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

Make It Monday #305 Revisited - Love Of Layers

Hello friends.  Because of the holidays last week, Papertrey Ink is revisiting an older Make It Monday challenge (#305) called Love of Layers with Laurie Schmidlin.  I loved the challenge then (see my post HERE), and I sure had FUN playing along again this time!  So much fun in fact that I have 2 cards to share with you today!

I started with the Bold Borders: Flurries die and cut it with plain white cardstock and layered it onto a white card base...I love white on white!!  I used a piece of Aqua Mist cs that I stamped with Aqua Mist ink and a diagonal stripe background stamp (SSS) cut to fit into the rectangle in the center and then layered a couple Snowfall Style 1 snowflakes cut with Aqua Mist and white cs.  The Aqua Mist snowflake I sprayed with some Sheer Shimmer Sparkle Spritz that you can see a little bit with this close up:

On top of the snowflakes I added the "Joy" die cut that comes with the Bold Borders: Flurries … LOVE to use this word at Christmas!!  I die cut it twice and offset it and also added foam tape behind it to add dimension.  A small gold dot in the center of the snowflake and a few Rainstones finished up my layered card.

For my 2nd card I used the Bold Borders: Yuletide die.  Actually the die cut was already done because I had saved it from using it as a stencil to make an envelope HERE, and decided to use it as a card front.  I added it to a white card base and then stamped my sentiment from Year Of Psalms: October in the center.  I had to do a little surgery on the Psalms 96:11 part of the stamp as it was too far over under the word "glad" and then was covered up by the frame...so I cut it off and stamped it separately centered under the "Be glad" part of the sentiment.  Then I started using Autumn Rose, Scarlett Jewel, and Ocean Tides inks with the Pleasing Envelopes set (I think this is one of my FAVORITE sets from this year!!) so it would coordinate with the colors I had used on the frame, and then fussy cut them out and added them to the frame.  Lots of lovely layers!!

You can see a little bit in this close up that I also added the Sheer Shimmer Sparkle Spritz to the frame before I added it to the card base...really makes the whole card shimmer IRL!!  I finished with a few iridescent sequins, and now I have a few more cards for my Christmas stash!  I think I have enough now (I send out close to a 100 cards every year) and really need to sit down and start addressing them!

Check out Laurie's beautiful card and video right HERE and then play along!  

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

25 Days of Christmas Tags 2018 - Days 24, 25, & 26

Hello friends.  Today I am happy to say that I have played along with all 26 days of the 25 Days of Christmas Tags challenge that the wonderful Tracey McNealy has put together.  Don't have a clue what I'm going to do with myself tomorrow now that this challenge is done, but here are days 24, 25, & 26!

Day 24 was sponsored by Sunny Studios and I was inspired by Mendi Yoshikawa's cute, CUTE llama tags with the DSP at the top and bottom.  I don't have the Sunny Studio llama but used my Lawn Fawn Winter Alpaca stamp instead.

I picked out 3 different DSP's from Penny Black and then colored in the scarfs and packages with coordinating Copic colors and adhered all to MFT tags.

Day 25 was sponsored by Hello Bluebird stamps and I was inspired by Tracey's adorable polar bear and snowy background.

I guess I've been living under a rock because I was not familiar at all with the Hello Bluebird stamp company but SSS helped me out and I have some new stamps coming my way...gosh are they all adorable!!  For these tags I used MFT's Polar Bear Pals and colored their scarves with Copics, and then mounted them to tags that I clear embossed some snowflakes from SSS's Frozen Fractals stamp set and then blended some Gina K Powdered Blue ink over.  The sentiment was computer generated as I needed something smaller to fit on these small tags.

Day 26 is a bonus day and is sponsored by A Jillian Vance Design company, and I was inspired by Lindsey M-p's sweet little jingle bell tags!

I don't have any Christmas Jillian Vance stamps, but I substituted a Lil' Inker jingle bell die that I cut from silver glittered cardstock, and attached to a tag (MFT) that I stamped with SU!'s Sheet Music background stamp with Real Red and Merry Merlot inks.  Very simple but FUN and FESTIVE!!

A BIG shout out to Tracey and her FABULOUS team (Kim Heggins, Joyce Mehrberg, Carol Mayne, & Lindsey M-p), and also ALL the sponsors for the past 26 days of FUN, FUN, FUN!!  I have truly enjoyed every day of these challenges and thank all of you for all the hard work and time and effort you put into this!

This challenge is still open till Dec. 3, so check out all the FABULOUS inspiration and play along...so many prizes up for grabs!  All the info to play along can be found HERE.

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