Make It Monday #338 - Incorporating Packaging Dies Into Your Cards

Hello friends.  Lizzie is up this week for the Make It Monday challenge and would like us to incorporate packaging dies into our cards.

I have a couple cards to share today, and my 1st card is a CASE of Kim Heggins card that I just absolutely fell in LOVE with using the die from the Quilted: Winter set.

I can't seem to get enough of the Aqua/Red color combo lately, so I used Aqua Mist cs for my card base and then the die was cut with Pure Poppy Bitty Big DSP.  I was going to use the mug from the new Merry Mug set, but it was too large with the mouse when I put the tag over it, so went back to my all time favorite Fancy Tea Cup die and it worked perfectly!

And who can resist a mouse (Christmas Critters) in a tea cup??!!  I used several of the snowflake stamps from Snowfall Style with Aqua Mist ink to stamp my background and card base before assembling the shaker part of the card.  I used a little bit of baker's twine for the top of the tag and then put my sentiment on the inside as the outside was busy enough for a smaller card.

My 2nd card is more in keeping with the current season, and I used the center of the Shape Shifters: Circle 3 die along with the Tag Sale #4 die to come up with this card:

I kept my color palette pretty simple using Honey Nut and Rustic Cream cs along with the Honey Nut Bitty Big DSP.  I also used Dawn's Scallop Stackers: Medium Die for the background and the Words To Live By: Gratitude stamp and die set for my sentiment.  The little die cut banner is from the Just A Little Something set.  a few sequins and some lace, twine, and seam binding ribbon finished off my card.

You can find Lizzies CUTE card and video right HERE to play along.

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

CAS Watercolour Oct. 2018 - Orange, Green, & Brown

Hello friends.  Welcome back to another challenge at CAS Watercolour, where this month Bonnie is hosting and she would like to see you use ORANGE, GREEN, & BROWN on your CAS water colored cards!

This month is also CAS Watercolour's 2nd Birthday!  And you can't have a birthday without gifts, right??  So play along for a chance at a prize and help us celebrate our 2nd Birthday!

And now how about a little inspiration to get you started on this month's challenge?!  When I think of ORANGE, GREEN, & BROWN, I think Fall!  Do the colors change where you live?  Here in West Michigan, Fall is one of the most BEAUTIFUL seasons around because of all the glorious color!  We have a Japanese Maple out front that turns the most lovely shade of bright gold and then our neighbors have lots of trees that turn reds and oranges, so between the two of us, we have quite the colorful yards this time of year!

I had thought about doing another tree card using the challenge colors, but since we just did trees this past month, I used a large floral stamp from SSS called Beautiful Flowers.

I stamped the flower image with SU!'s Early Espresso ink, which stays wet for a few seconds, and then sprinkled clear embossing powder over it and heat set it so I could water color.  I used my orange Zig pen and an Aqua Painter to move the color around, and then used several green colors of Zigs to do my leaves.

Here's a closer up so you can see the shading on the flowers, using only 1 Zig pen...used to hate these Zigs until I figured out they weren't a marker and you couldn't color with them like a marker!  My sentiment is from PTI's Penned Elegance and was stamped in Soft Suede ink, and then layered onto a Early Espresso panel and then to a white card base.

I have a twofer for you today using a PB stamp called Peony that I had made first, but the color is a little more peachy than orange, so I made the above card for the challenge.  This one did turn out pretty though, so no reason to hide it!

For this card I used the marker direct to the stamp technique with my MISTI and my water mister to achieve the water colored look.  Such a fun but easy way to achieve a water colored look!  My sentiment is also from PTI's Penned Elegance stamp set and I used a Pierced Feature Frame die (PTI) to frame out the card.

We can't wait to see what YOU come up with using these fun Fall colors and celebrate with us for our 2nd Birthday.  Check out what our special Guest Designer Brenda came up with for this challenge and also the rest of the DT and then play along with us.  You can check it all out right HERE.

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

Make It Monday #337 - Packaging With Printed Papers

Hello friends.  This weeks Make It Monday challenge has Melissa doing a picture tutorial on different packaging techniques with printed papers to get us ready for the upcoming holidays!

I have 2 to share with you today...they're just too much fun to make to stop at one!!  My first one I did a lot of CASE-ing of Melissa's because I just LOVED her paper choices!!

I used the Pillow Box Die with the Aqua Mist Bitty Big DSP and tied a sheer red ribbon around it...LOVE aqua and red together for Christmas!!  I used the Made With Love Tags 2 die and Real Red Bitty Big DSP for the back layer and white for the top layer and then added the cup from Merry Mug, the Be Merry is from the Bold Borders: Yuletide, and the snowflake is from Fancy Flakes.

This close up shows a bit better the sparkling embossing powder I used on the whipped cream, the candy cane strip on the cup, and the snowflake.  It really sparkles IRL!!  I tied the tag to the ribbon with red & white bakers twine.

For my 2nd one, I started with Kraft Bitty Big DSP and the Pillow Box Die and some more sheer red ribbon.

I used the same Made With Love Tags 2 die with Real Red and white cs and then stamped the white part of the tag with the Quoted: Favorite Things stamp set with Real Red and Kraft inks.  I added the Dash Away All die cut from Kraft cs and sponged the edges with Vintage Photo DI, and then pop dotted it on my tag.

 
I finished by tying the tag to the ribbon with red & white bakers twine, and also added another Fancy Flakes snowflake under the sheer red ribbon.

These were both so fun to make, and I already have a couple more cut out that just need to be decorated yet.  Christmas is such a FUN time to craft for!!  Check out Melissa's 3 FABULOUS gift packages HERE and then play along!

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

Papertrey Ink Blog Hop - Sept. 2018

Hello friends.  Feels like forever since the last Papertrey Ink Blog Hop, (last month the 25th fell on their Stamp-A-Faire weekend, so they didn't have the blog hop) so I'm thrilled it's the 25th and can play along!  We had a beautiful Fall table setting as inspiration for this hop...take a look!

Isn't is GORGEOUS?!!  Loved everything about this photo, but in the end I went with a real CAS style (which seems to be my favorite style lately!) and just incorporated some of the color, the pumpkins, and the leaves.  Here's what I came up with:

My first thought was to stamp a plaid background because I just love the colors in the tablecloth, but it didn't really go with my vision of CAS!  So anyway, I used an Aliexpress die to do a white on white plaid for my background, and then added the pumpkins from Simply Gord-eous and the leaves from Leaf Prints.

I stamped both on kraft cardstock and had fun doing a bit of blending around the edges and also adding some aged copper embossing enamel to the leaves.  A little banner tag from Stemmed Statements with a piece of rustic twine and a few rainstones finished off my card.

It's always fun to see how everyone else interprets the inspiration photos, so I'm off to hop around!  You can too by clicking right HERE.

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

Washi Christmas Tags

Hello friends and Happy Monday!  Hope you all had a great weekend!  It was cool AND sunny here in my neck of the woods and I couldn't have been happier!  Actually made a roast (with all the fixings!) and apple dumplings for dinner yesterday and also had a great time in my craft room making Christmas Washi tags!  And the house smelled divine while I was crafting away!

Washi Christmas tags?  Dawn McVeigh had a FABULOUS post last week (HERE) showing Autumn tags she had made using Washi tape and they were SOOOO pretty!  Make sure you click on the link to them if you haven't already seen her post!!  Dawn said a lot of us (including me!) had asked her what she uses Washi tape for, and that was why she had done her post.  I've gotten sucked into buying the pretty rolls of tape and then they sit there, other than to hold a die in place or put across the back of an envelope, so Dawn's post really got me going.  Take a look at what I did yesterday:

Yeah, I may have gone a bit crazy, but they were so FUN and EASY to make!!  Dawn added a lot more to her tags, but I kept mine very simple so the Washi Tape and my sentiments were the stars!

I started by cutting 3 1/4 x 3 3/4 inch pieces of white cardstock and then added my strips of washi tape, starting at the bottom and going up until my piece was totally covered.  Then I used the Tag Sale #12 die (PTI) to cut out the ornament shape and oh how pretty!!  Between the edges of the die and the Big Shot, the washi tape is firmly adhered to the cardstock...I was worried that maybe the edges would start to pull up, but they are solidly attached!

My next step was simply die cutting the nesting circles (included with the die) and then stamping the sentiments.  This "be very merry" stamp is an older SU! one and the others are all from PTI's Christmas Blessings stamp set.

I did make a trip to Michael's and Hobby Lobby this weekend to grab a few more rolls and Hobby Lobby had great Christmas rolls on sale for 40% off, so that's where some of my washi tape designs are from and the rest were just what I already had on hand from collecting over the years.

Most years I do a wrapping theme of sorts for our Christmas gifts, and this year I'm going to use just plain kraft paper on all our gifts with red and green tulle for the bows...these tags are going to look fantastic on my packages!!

 
So there you have the recap of my weekend and I couldn't be happier with the head start I got on making tags!  Many thanks to Dawn McVeigh for her wonderful creativity and inspiring me to make my own Washi tags!!  :0)

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

Make It Monday #336 - Faux Gilded Leaves

Hello friends.  This weeks Make It Monday challenge has Laurie Schmidlin showing us how to combine copper, platinum, & gold embossing powders to create a faux gilded look.  You can check out Laurie's STUNNING card and video right HERE.

Here's what I came up with:

I started with a background using Winter Wisteria cs and ink with last months Text & Texture: Leaves stamp.  Rather than just a cluster of gilded leaves, I decided to make a wreath and decorate it with the leaves and a few flowers.  I used the Rustic Wreath die and then added the copper, platinum, & gold embossing powders.  It looked pretty but it was missing something, and I think it's the last step of stamping over the top of the embossing like Laurie shows in her video.  I did decide to leave it plain though and focus on the leaves from Leave It Be and Leaf Prints.  The larger leaf in the center I stamped on Scarlet Jewel cs to tie in with the flowers from Farmer's Market that I wanted to add.  I also added a little bit of WOW Verdigris embossing enamel  on the center leaf to add a bit more color.  The smaller leaves on each side were stamped on Winter Wisteria cs and embossed with the copper, platinum, & gold embossing powders.  I set my wreath die cut off center and then added the larger frame from the Pierced Feature Frames...I love these frames!!

  
Hopefully you can see the shine a bit better in this close up photo.  To finish I added a piece of twine and a Tiny Tag that was also stamped with the Text & Texture: Leaves stamp set.  Kind of different colors for a fall card, but I really like the way it turned out!

Make sure to check out Laurie's lovely card and great video (HERE) and then play along.  It's a FUN challenge!!  :0)

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

CAS Mix Up & CAS Watercolour - Sept. 2018

Hello friends.  One more card to share for this month's CAS Mix Up and CAS Watercolour challenges.  CAS Mix Up is looking for the marker direct to the stamp technique and CAS Watercolour is challenging you to use a TREE on your cards...I combined both for this CAS Christmas card.

I used a stamp from the Deep Red company called Winter Pines and colored it up with 3 different markers (2 SU! and 1 Tombow) and then spritzed it with water before stamping on my cardstock.  I love the simple water colored look of these 3 pine trees clustered together!  I die cut the panel out with a wonky stitched frame die from Gina Marie Designs and then added a die cut deer (Gina Marie Designs) that I sponged with Vintage Photo Distress Oxide ink before pop dotting to my panel.  I mounted this to a white card base and then added a piece of rustic jute and a tag from PTI's Tiny Tags. 

Both of these challenges are open through next Monday the 24th, so check out all the beautiful inspiration from both teams and then play along with one or both challenges.  You can find the CAS Mix Up info HERE and the CAS Watercolour info right HERE.

 

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