Winter Birds for Merry Monday

It's the last Merry Monday of November.

The lovely Kathy has chosen our challenge this week.

You know I loved this challenge!

My dear friend Mary (Carolina Cards by Mary H.)

gifted me with this awesome stamp when we met in real life last Spring.

I've actually had this done for quite a while just waiting for the perfect challenge.

I stamped the image on Whisper White with Memento Tuxedo Black

and colored with Copic Markers.

After fussy cutting it out, I adhered it over a lightly stamped background

with dimensionals.

A little Dazzling Details on the snow covered branches

and Flower Soft on the pom poms finish it off.

Rudolph Days

is in it's final week for this year.  I'll just make the deadline.

Thanks Sarn for doing this challenge each month.

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge

is ANYTHING GOES.

Christmas Card Challenges

is ANYTHING GOES

Be sure to go over to Merry Monday and check out

all those fantastic Design Team cards

and the gorgeous gallery additions.

We'd love for you to add to the gallery too.

I'm glad you could stop by.

Enjoy!

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Card Recipe

Stamps:  Winter Birds, Christmas Background (Stampendous)

Ink:  Antique Linen (Distress), Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper:  Solar White (Neena), Real Red, Whisper White (SU)

Other: Copic Markers, Dazzling Details (SU), Polar White Flower Soft

Poppy Trio

I love these poppies and inked them with Distress Stain and Markers.

Then I used a damp Aqua Painter to move the color around. 

I finished off by dotting the centers with a black marker.

The aperture was cut with my Circle Collection Framelits

and embossed with my favorite embossing folder.

Heather Telford has a fantastic tutorial on this technique.

Thanks, Heather, for sharing your technique.

This month's Penny Black Saturday Challenge is

DIES AND/OR PUNCHES

Cuttlebug Mania is looking for

EMBOSSING

(I used my Big Shot to do the embossing)

Pixies Snippet Playground

because I used a snippet of black for that sentiment.

Thanks for the visit.

Enjoy!

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Card Recipe

Stamps:  Poppy Trio (Penny Black), Embellished Events (SU)

Ink:  Distress Stain (Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door, Peeled Paint), Distress Marker (Peeled Paint, Black), Whisper White (SU), 

Paper:  Solar White (Neena), Watercolor (Arches Hot Press),Whisper White, Basic Black (SU)

Other:  Aqua Painter (SU), Circle Collection Framelits (SU), White EP (SU), Square Lattice EF (retired SU)

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends.

And may the rest of you enjoy a day of counting your blessings.

Enjoy!

Calm Christmas for Merry Monday

Good Merry Monday morning.

This beautiful Christmas dove was roosting in my UFO box.

It's now winging it's way to the

Caring Hearts Card Drive


and it fit with our lovely Lesley's Merry Monday Challenge

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge

CHRISTMAS

and

City Crafter Challenge #288

Photo Inspiration

and

Addicted to CAS

I hope you'll put some blue and white and some texture on a Christmas card

and join us at Merry Monday.

Be sure to check out the awesome Design Team inspriration cards over there.

Thanks for stopping by.

Enjoy!

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Card Recipe

Stamps:  Calm Christmas, Four the Holidays (both retired SU)

Ink:  Whisper White, Island Indigo (SU)

Paper:  Island Indigo, Whisper White (SU)

Other:  White EP (SU), Northern Flurry EF (retired SU)

Last Tag

Loll's Twelve Tags of Christmas

is winding down.

I had to get one last tag in.

Loll, you have inspired me!

We'll be doing this tag in the next Papercrafting class.

I think I'm stretching the mixed media this time.

but...

I've stamped and embossed, punched, die cut, added twine and ribbon.

There's texture on the foiled vellum and mitten cuffs.

again I'll add this to

25 Days of Christmas Tags

Inspired by Tracey's tag on Day 11

Thanks for the inspiration, Tracey!

Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge

TAG

and

Happy Little Stampers Mixed Media Challenge

TAG

So glad you stopped by.

Enjoy!

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Tag Recipe

Stamps:  Holiday Snippets (PB)

Ink:  Encore Silver

Paper:  Solar White (Neena), Foiled Vellum (SU), Snippets of DSP (SU)

Other:  Stitched Tags (Lil' Inker), Mitten Punch (retired SU), Silver EP (SU), Bakers Twine (Michaels $ bin), Baja Breeze Seam Binding (retired SU)

Dashing Through the Snow

...in a one horse open sleigh.

This is a tag adaptation from one of my Christmas Card Classes.

I'm going to make one last (maybe) entry into 

Loll's Twelve Tags of Christmas

Thanks so much for this challenge, Loll, and for all the

inspiration and encouragement.

I'm finally comfortable with mixed media.

And look what I found at the thrift store to show off all my tags..

also sharing with

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge
CHRISTMAS

and

Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge
TAG

and

Happy Little Stampers Mixed Media Challenge
TAG

Thanks for the visit.

Enjoy!

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Tag Recipe

Stamps:  Teeny, Tiny Wishes 

Ink:  Real Red 

Paper:  Brushed Silver, Cardstock Vellum, Mixed Media (Strathmore)

Other:  Sleigh Ride Edgelit Die Snowburst EF (Retired SU), Softly Falling EF, Dazzling Details , Snowflake Charm (retired SU), Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine, Silver Glitter Ribbon (stash)

All supplies are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted

Triple Tag

Lots of shine in this tag.

So the camera went blurry.

Oh, well...

I've stenciled some gold embossing cream.

Then I die cut some Poppystamps tags and sprayed 

the little one with gold mist smooshing

the joy part in the over spray.

While I was waiting for everything to dry, I sponged the edges of 

a punched bit of holly and shaped it with a stylus.

A few tiny circles punched from a snippet of red provided berries.

It's all tied together with some gold ribbon that's been hanging around

for years.

Another entry for

Loll's Twelve Tags of Christmas Challenge

also

Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge

and

Happy Little Stampers Mixed Media Challenge

and

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge
CHRISTMAS

Glad you could stop by.

Enjoy!

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Tag Recipe

Stamps:  Holiday Snippets (PB)

Ink: Crumb Cake, Garden Green (SU)

Paper:  Solar White (Neena, Whisper White

Other:  Metallic Gold Modeling Cream (Viva Decor ), Pinpoint Mainstreet Tags (Poppystamps), Gold Shimmer Mist (retired SU), 1/8" Circle Punch (SU)

Gingerbread Boy Tag

I've been feeding my tag addiction with

GINGERBREAD!

I've done the recipe on the computer and printed it on 

some ancient parchment paper from my stash.

I cut it to fit a cardstock tag, adhered it and did 

some distressing and stamped some splotches

for good measure.  (That's the way my recipe book looks.)

The Gingerbread Boy was stamped on

Baked Brown Sugar cardstock

and embossed.

I colored the buttons with a Copic Marker

and covered with Crystal Effects.

I dotted the eyes with a brown Copic Marker

and his bow tie with green.

The little strip at the bottom is dry embossed with hearts.

I couldn't get them to show up in the photo.

Some burlap twine finishes the tag off.

I'm going to join in at 

Loll's Twelve Tags of Christmas Challenge

again.

also

Happy Little Stampers Mixed Media Challenge

and

Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge

Thanks for the visit.

Enjoy!

    **********

Tag Recipe

Stamps:  Gingerbread Boy (Rubber Cottage), Gorgeous Grunge (SU)

Ink:  Whisper White (SU), Antique Linen (Distress)

Paper: Solar White (Neena), Baked Brown Sugar, Cherry Cobbler (SU), Parchment (stash)

Other:  White EP, Crystal Effects (SU), Heart EF (Cuttlebug), Burlap Twine (Michaels), Copic Markers

Caring Hearts Card Drive

Caring Hearts Card Drive

Have you heard about the

Caring Hearts Card Drive?

I've sent some.

I really enjoyed thinking about the people who will receive them.

There are some awesome prizes.

The best prize of all is brightening someone's holiday season.

Do check out this opportunity.

Thanks for the visit.

Enjoy!

Merry Monday Reindeer

It's Merry Monday.

Did  you know there's only 5 more Mondays before Christmas?

This week's challenge is brought to us by Debbie.

I bought this reindeer die online late last year.

I didn't realize it was so BIG!

The fact that it was a BIGZ die should have given me a clue!

But it was fun to work with.

I used the die to cut out the reindeer then

stamped over the body with the Sanded background stamp

and Soft Suede ink.  Using an Aqua Painter, I moved the ink around

to give him a washed look.

I used the So Saffron ink pad and Aqua Painter 

to color his antlers.

A little dabbing with some Brown Sugar ink

picked up with the Aqua Painter

gave his antlers the look of texture.

I hunted for some tiny jingle bells but couldn't find them.

So I punched some little circles from snippets of Red Glimmer paper.

They won't jingle, but they will go through the postal service better.

Since I have texture on this, I'm going to take it over to

Virginia's View

I have dry embossing and glitter paper.

and

I told you I'd become addicted to tags!

This has the debossed snowflakes. (I put the adhesive on the wrong side).  Oops!

It still works for texture.  And there's stamping, watercolor, die cuts, a bell and ribbon.

Loll's Twelve Days of Christmas Tags

is open until the 22nd.

There's still plenty of time to join in.

I hope you'll go over to Merry Monday and check out 

all the fantastic inspiration the Design Team, and our Guest Designer, Rocky, 

have for  you.

Thanks for the visit.

Enjoy!

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Card Recipe

Stamps:  Sanded Background (retired SU)

Ink:  Soft Suede, So Saffron, Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green

Paper:  Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White (SU), Watercolor (140 lb. cold press Strathmore)

Other:  Prancing Deer (Tim Holtz/Sizzix), Aqua Painter, Snowflake EF (Darice), Pinpoint Main Street Tag Die (Poppystamps), Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine (SU), Paper Punch (Wal-mart)

Guest Designing for Twelve Tags of Christmas

I was so honored when Loll of Stamping with Loll, 

asked me to be a Guest Designer for her

Twelve Tags of Christmas Challenge.

It was a great excuse to order these tag dies that I'd had my eye on.

I really went for the shine!

Since Loll asked us to use mixed media on our tags,

I had an excuse to order this wonderful stencil too.

So I've stamped, heat embossed, stenciled, die cut, punched and then

 added bling for extra dimension and texture.

* For this event, Mixed Media is defined as stamps + ink, plus two other elements which add texture and/or dimension.

The inspiration tags by the designers will be showcased from the 4th-15th of November and the linky will remain open until the 22nd November so it gives you plenty of time to enter.

Here is a list of prizes! 

Winner - $40 gift certificate from STAMPlorations

Top Three - $20 gift certificate each from STAMPlorations

Random Draw - $20 gift certificate from Happy Little Stampers

Random Draw - One Christmas stamp set from Dee's Artsy Impressions

I'm going to join in at
Poppystamps Challenge #14

HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS


and

Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge



and

Happy Little Stampers Mixed Media Challenge

Thanks for the visit.

Enjoy!

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Tag Recipe

Stamps:  Festival of Trees, Holly Jolly Greetings (SU)

Ink:  Encore Gold

Paper:  Gold Foil (SU), Mixed Media Paper (Strathmore)

Other: Pinpoint Main Street Tags, Pinpoint Dome Tag Decorations (Poppystamps), Texture Scraped Paint Stencil (Memory Box), Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste, Christmas Greetings Thinlit (SU), Gold Ribbon (Offray), Gold Twine (SU)

Snowflakes Sparkle

Here's another tag for

Loll's Twelve Tags of Christmas Event

I've sponged, stenciled, die cut, heat embossed, added sparkle and a big bow.

also entering

Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge

and

Happy Little Stampers Mixed Media Challenge

These tags are really fun!

Thanks for stopping by.

Enjoy!

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Tag Recipe

Stamps: In the Meadow (PTI)

Ink:  Encore Silver, Tumbled Glass, Faded Jeans (Distress Ink)

Paper:  Solar White (Neena), Whisper White, Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer, Vellum (SU)

Other:  Silver EP, Dazzling Diamonds (SU), Snowdance Stencil (PB), White Embossing Paste (Wendy Vecchi), Snowflake Die (?), Ribbon (Offray)