Holly, Jolly Christmas

I love this Jolly Bingo Bits stamp set.  The images are tiny and a bit challenging for a card, but I've enjoyed playing with them.

I think they are well suited to these 3 1/4" x 6 1/4" cards and it couldn't be easier.  I inked the image with markers and stamped on a scrap of Whisper White 3 times, punched them out with my 1 1/4" Square punch, punched 3 scallop squares from scraps of Garden Green, adhered the images and stamped the sentiment. Rounded corners mimic the scallops.

There are 24 images that can be mixed or matched.  Quick, easy and uses scraps... What fun!

I think I'll enter this in the SU Only challenge this week to make a card using our favorite Christmas colors.

All supplies SU

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Jolly Bingo Bits, Many Merry Messages

Ink:  SU Markers (Real Red, Garden )

Paper:  Whisper White, Garden Green

Other:  Scallop Square, 1 1/4" square, Corner Rounder punches

I'm so glad you stopped by and I love hearing from you.

Enjoy!

 

Tag It

This weeks Technique Challenge at SCS  is to do a Christmas tag.

This image was in my UFO (UnFinished Objects) box.  It had a spot on the bottom corner so it didn't make it on a card. Cutting the corners for the tag shape took care of that. Then it was mounted on a scrap of Real Red trimmed to be 1/8" larger than the image.  Real Red Taffeta Ribbon finishes it off.

The image was embossed with Stampin' Up!'s new pewter embossing powder.  It's so rich looking and perfect when I can't decide if I want gold or silver embossing.

Here's the embossed image on a card.  The sentiment is embossed too.  The pewter is a perfect complement to the Sahara Sand and Cherry Cobbler card.

All supplies Stampin' Up!

Tag Recipe

Stamps:  Bells & Boughs, Winter Post

Ink:  VersaMark, Basic Black

Paper:  Whisper White, Real Red

Other:  Pewter EP, 1/4" hole punch, Real Red Taffeta Ribbon

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Bells & Boughs, Many Merry Messages

Ink:  VersaMark

Paper:  Sahara Sand, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White

Other:  Pewter EP, Ticket Corner Punch, Basic Rhinestones

I'm so glad you could stop in.  I've really enjoyed your comments, especially about Luke's turkey.  When I told him this afternoon that I put a picture of it on the computer and my friends really liked it, he gave me the sweetest smile. Three year old smiles are the best!

Enjoy!

 

 

Mistletoe or Holly

Hi there.  I managed 20 minutes of time in my craft room before Jack decided he just had to join me.  That was hours ago, and I've finally got this card finished and ready to share.

I believe this is supposed to be mistletoe.  But around here, there is an ornamental holly that has similar leaves and red berries.  So I took a little creative license and used the red berries.  They show up so much better.

I even added some Dazzling Details to give it a frosty look.

The layout is from this card that Denise did and it's the CAS challenge this week on SCS.

Card Recipe
Stamps:  Easy Events
Ink:  Jet Black StazOn, SU Markers (Garden Green, Real Red, Sahara Sand)
Paper:  Real Red, Whisper White, Garden Green
Other:  Scallop Border Punch, Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine, Snow Burst EF

Speaking of creative license.  Luke brought a Thanksgiving project home from preschool today.  It was his Thanksgiving turkey.  He pointed out that the leaf behind is his feathers and the yellow is his beak and can you spot both feet?  (I think Mr. Turkey was trying to run away and his feet slipped out from under him. LOL.)   Here's a peek at it.

I think Luke really liked those googly eyes!

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

I'm so glad you stopped in for a peek.

Enjoy!

A Bit of Bling

The Less is More challenge this week is...

A BIT OF

There's just a little bit of bling on this card, but I think the embossing adds some shimmer and shine too.  Maybe you can see it better here...

The Baroque flourishes are stamped in VersaMark and heat embossed with silver.  The ornament is stamped in VersaMark and heat embossed with Cherry Cobbler.

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Baroque Motifs, Delightful Decorations

Ink:  VersaMark

Paper:  Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler

Other:  Silver and Cherry Cobbler EP, Basic Rhinestone

Do check out all the wonderful submissions to this challenge.  What a wealth of inspiraton!

I'm so glad you stopped by today.

Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving

I wish you wonderful moments with those you are thankful for.  And if you can't be with those you love, I wish you many happy hours of cardmaking.

Card Recipe

Stamps: French Foliage, Hand-Penned Holidays

Ink:  More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White

Paper:  Very Vanilla, Rich Razzleberry Textured

Other:  White EP

SU-Only Challenge  Thankful.



Enjoy!

 

Snowman

I love snow.  Especially North Carolina snow.  It falls and looks so pretty and everything stops or slows down.  By the time we're sick of it, it's gone.  And it's amazing how the children, big and small, can make a snowman with very little snow.

On Saturday, some friends and I made snowmen.  No, it didn't snow here, but the Mica Flakes were flying!

I saw this snowman on the Sleepy in Seattle blog last year.  I didn't have a chance to build one then, but it was at the top of my to do list for this year.

We used the 2 1/2" and 1 3/4" circle punches.  By punching the center of a 3" piece with the 1 3/4" punch first, then punching around it with the 2 1/2" punch to create a donut, a Circle Treat Cup (p. 182) fits perfectly.  We filled the cups with Mica Flakes laid the "donut" on top, peeled the paper from the edge of the cup and adhered to another 2 1/2" punched circle.

The head is made of 1 3/4" punched circles, the eyes and berries from a 1/8" punch, the arms and leaves are a MS punch.

The hat is punched with the 1 1/4" Square and Word Window Punches.  We punched 2 of each then adhered them back to back with the fishing line loop between them.

For the snowflake, we mounted some scraps of Multipurpose Adhesive Sheets on scraps of Whisper White and used the Northern Frost Sizzlit Strip Die to cut them out.  Then we peeled the backing off and sprinkled with Dazzling Diamonds for some real sparkle.

I had trouble capturing the sparkle on camera.  I hope you can see it. And I hope you can follow all the directions.

All materials Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted
Recipe
Paper:  Naturals White, Whisper White, Basic Black, Tangerine Tango
Other:  Circle Treat Cups, Mica Flakes, Nortern Frost Sizzlit Strip, Dazzling Diamonds, Adhesive Sheets, 2 1/2", 1 3/4" 1/8", 1 1/4" Square, and Word Window Punches, MS Evergreen punch, Poppy Parade Ribbon, Basic Rhinestone

The Technique Challenge at SCS yesterday was to Make it Snow.  And the CAS Challenge, also at SCS, yesterday was Christmas/Winter.

I'm so glad you stopped by today.

Enjoy

 

Stately Stag

The Less is More challenge on Saturday was at theme.....

Silhouettes

n. A silhouette is the image of a person, an object or scene consisting of the outline and a basically featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black.

 

I need a Birthday card for a special brother-in-law.  I think this will do.

The frame is embossed using a small wood frame from the craft store.  By placing the cardstock in the embossing folder and adding the frame to the sandwich, it leaves the center unembossed. (Is that a word?)

I masked off the plain area with sticky notes. Then I inked the trees in Soft Suede, stamped off once on scrap and stamped.  Stamping the deer in Early Espresso took care of the silhouette that I needed for the challenge.  Sponge daubers and Stampin' Pastels finished the design off.  The silhouette is not black but I hope it's dark enough to be considered a silhouette.

Here's a closer look.

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Lovely as a Tree, Winter Post

Ink:  Soft Suede, Early Espresso

Paper:  Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip

Other:  Big Shot, Square Lattice EF

Most of the leaves are on the ground now so the ground is very colorful.  I love the way the fallen leaves smell and the 70 degree weather is pretty nice too.

I'm so glad you stopped by.

Enjoy!

 

Baby It's Cold Outside

This is a quick card made from pieces tried and discarded for a later date.  They didn't even make it into my UFO (UnFinished Objects) box.

Can you see the rhinestones in the centers of the lacy flowers.  And I love to thread ribbon, or in this case, Baja Breeze Seam Binding through the lace.

The sentiment is one word from the Peace on Earth stamp in the Four the Holidays set.

I don't know if you can see it or not, but the snowflakes are wearing a little Dazzling Details.  I do love sparkly snow!

And this is from another experiment.  I first embossed the card front with the Northern Frost Embossing Folder, then covered the snowflakes with Dazzling Details.  I love the sparkle, but the moisture from the Dazzling Details made some waves in the design piece.  I can still see the waves so I'm thinking I should have used more adhesive on the back.

Card Recipe (Card 1)

Stamps:  Northern Hearts (Retired), Four the Holidays

Ink:  Baja Breeze, SU Marker (Baja Breeze)

Paper:  Whisper White, Marina Mist, Baja Breeze

Other:  Dazzling Details, Lace Ribbon Border Punch, Baja Breeze Seam Binding, Basic Rhinestones

Card Recipe (Card 2)

Stamps: Many Merry Messages

Ink:  Cherry Cobbler

Paper:  Basic Black, Whisper White

Other:  Big Shot, Northern Frost EF, Dazzling Details

Yesterday it was almost 80 here and the temperature has dropped to 46 this afternoon and supposed to keep going down.  It's a good day to think about Christmas and snowflakes!  I hope you are enjoying the weather wherever you are.

Thanks for the stopping by.  I really appreciate your comments.

Enjoy!

 

Thankful for...

Last week's Free 4 All challenge at SCS is to make a Thank You card using the embellishment that we are the most thankful for.

Had you noticed that I really like my Big Shot and the Square Lattice Embossing Folder?  And if you stamped with me and saw my stamp room, you would know that I love punches!  I am thankful for all my tools and even more so for the people I've met through stamping.

It's really hard to stamp clearly on embossing, so my thank you will be on the inside.

This layout is from the CAS 138 last month.  This was a sketch challenge.  Here is the lovely card, by Cibele, that we were to use as inspiration.

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Creative Elements

Ink:  Rich Razzleberry

Paper:  Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, Scrap of Old Olive

Other:  Big Shot, Square Lattice EF, Lace Ribbon Border Punch, Five Petal Flower Punch, Basic Pearls

I can't believe it's taken a month to post this card!  Well, considering my days, I can.  Little boy hugs and baby smiles and sloppy kisses take a lot of time.  And Nana's don't move as fast as Mommies!

Thanks for the visit.

Enjoy!

Cool Party

I got a card made for the CAS challenge at SCS, photographed and entered in the same week!  But I was so excited about the thought of stamping that I didn't start the dishwasher!  Oh well, this was a lot more fun and the dishes are clean now.

The challenge is a word inspiration "PARTY".  Can  you hear the music? These little guys look like they're dancing!  Either that, or their feet are cold!

I tore a piece of white scrap and adhered at the bottom.  I could say it's for the effect of drifts, but truth be told, it was to cover up a boo boo.  The Dazzling Details made the stamped "drifts" run.  That's the second time I've done that.  Maybe next time I will remember not to use the Dazzling Details on anything stamped in Basic Black!  I don't know about the other colors.  I wonder if it makes them run too?  Anyway, the Dazzle works fine on plain paper to make the snow sparkle.

All supplies are Stampin' Up!

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Polar Party

Ink:  Jet Black StazOn, SU Markers (Real Red, Garden Green, Pacific Point

Paper:  Whisper White, Real Red, Garden Green

Other:  Dazzling Details, Big Shot, Snow Burst EF

Hint:  Don't use the Dazzling Details on Basic Black.  It makes the black run.

Oh, and I'd like to share a bit of news.  I won blog candy from the Butternutsage blog.  Donna has reached 500,000 (that's a half million) hits on her blog and wanted to share her excitement.  I'm so excited!  Check out her blog for some great inspiration.

Thanks for the visit.

Enjoy!

 

Leaves of Christmas

This week's Less is More challenge is....

ONE LAYER CARD

The theme for your cards this week is

LEAVES

 

I love leaves and have lots to choose from.  Since I'm mainly working on my Christmas cards, I pulled out the holly leaves.

The holly bough is stamped with StazOn and colored by swiping a marker on an acrylic block and using a blender pen to apply the ink to the design.  The berries were colored directly with the marker and the sentiment was inked with markers.

This card has more of a vintage feel without all the embellishments.  I used my Simply Scored to create a lattice below the design.  If I were to do this again, I think I would use brighter colors.

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Bells and Boughs

Ink:  Jet Black StazOn, Always Artichoke, SU Markers (Always Artichoke, Real Red, Soft Suede)

Paper:  Very Vanilla

Other:  Stamp-a-ma-jig, Blender Pen, Simply Scored

Thanks for stopping by.  I really appreciate your comments and look forward to visiting your blogs.

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Class Project

Our Papercrafting group met yesterday to do some Christmas cards.  This is one of the cards I had ready for them to do.

We had a fun time even though baby Jack was with us.  Actually, he was the star attraction!  He sure did love all the attention!

Card Recipe
Stamps:  Bells and Boughs, Stitched Stockings, Hand Penned Holidays
Ink:  Real Red, Lucky Limeade, SU Marker (Real Red)
Paper:  Whisper White, Real Red
Other:  Stocking Builder Punch, Blender Pen, Basic Rhinestones

I took some pictures of some of their creations.  When I get them in the computer, I'll share some of those.

Thanks for stopping by.

Enjoy!

No Stamping Allowed

What?  No stamping?  How can that be?  But this is the Technique Challenge at SCS this week.  What a good excuse to pull out some of that Decorative paper that has accumulated.

I used some retired Stampin' Up! Designer Series Paper.  This paper is two sided so it makes it really easy to mix and match.

The card base is Rich Razzleberry.  The flower is scraps of Razzleberry and DSP cut with the retired Sizzlit Birds and Blooms and the Little Leaves die.  The center is punched with the Boho Blossom Punch.  A lacy border punched with the Scallop Trim Border punch and Basic Pearls finish it off.

Quick and easy.  Just the ticket these days.

Thanks for stopping by.

Enjoy!

Hot Colors

Hi Stamping Friends.  I finally got some stamping time over the weekend, so I can share some cards with you.  Yay!!!   I love to stamp!

All of these are for the Less is More challenge...

Our first week of the month is another Colour challenge and redolent of bonfire flames we have chosen

Red and Orange

The first card is something I've wanted to do for a while and these colors were perfect for it.  I first stamped the flowers from the Upsy Daisy set with River Rock ink.   I used the little cluster of leaves from the Just Believe set to add some foliage by inking just a bit of the stamp.  Then I used my Tangerine Tango and Real Red markers to color the flowers. Sponging around the flowers added some depth to the design.  I also sponged a bit of Whisper White over it all and it gave it a misty look.

It has a narrow mat of Tangerine Tango on a whisper White card and a sentiment stamped in red.

On this next card, I stamped the flower from the Faith in Nature set with Timber Brown StazOn after stamping off on scrap paper.  I brushed ink from the Tangerine Tango and Cherry Red markers on an acrylic block and applied it to the flower with a blender pen.  I really did use Tangerine but in this picture the flower took on a rosy look.

I used Tangerine Tango and Cherry Cobbler to mat it and mounted it on some Whisper White embossed with the Square Lattice Embossing Folder.  Fancy corners were done with the Scallop Trim Corner Punch and a scrap of Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding fit behind the design.

This last is a bookmark from a Show and Tell at the Newcomers Meeting last week.  I was asked to show what we did in our Papercrafting group and had bookmarks for people to stamp so they could see how fun it is.  We used Dusty Durango and Kiwi Kiss for the stamping.  After the meeting I added the Cherry Cobbler piece to the back.  It was just sitting there begging to be added to this challenge.

Well, it's taken me almost 5 hours to do this post.  Hopefully I can find some time to get a post in again tomorrow.  I have quite a few cards to share if I can get some time at the computer to edit photos and blog.

By the way, Chrissie and Mandi, I love orange and red together.  Thanks so much for the challenge.

And thank you for visiting my blog.  Your comments mean so much in my busy life.  As much as I love those little boys, it's nice to have a few words from you ladies to brighten my day.

Enjoy!

 

Seeing Stars

The Less is More challenge last Saturday set me thinking.  Well, the more I thought, the less I knew what I was going to do.  Finally, I was able to get to my stamps and play a bit and now have a few minutes to share with you.  The challenge is
 

*STARS*

I only have one star stamp of any size and it's a long retired stamp from Stampin' Up!'s Ornate Ornaments.  The date on the stamp is 1997.

Using my Stamp-a-ma-jig, I stamped with VersaMark ink and heat embossed with Cherry Cobbler Embossing Powder.  The sentiment is from the Many Merry Messages and I inked the noel without the tails with my Cherry Cobbler Marker.  A bit of Linen Thread finished it off with a Folk Art feel.

Then I went glitzy and punched an ornament out of some silver Glimmer Paper and a small star from the red Glimmer Paper.  This paper is wonderful.  The glitter stays put so I don't have sparkles all over the house.  That's a basic rhinestone in the middle.  The embossing is with the Snow Burst folder that is in the Holiday Mini catalog.

The last card was made from the stars I punched to do a wreath that just didn't work out.  I think this card needs something else but I haven't decided what.  Maybe you can give me some suggestions.

Thanks so much for visiting today.

Enjoy!