25 Days of Christmas (Day 3)

Hello,

I do so enjoy making Christmas Cards each year. Normally I pick 3 or 4 designs and make about 10 -15 of each design. This year, however I decided to cut the total amount of cards that I am making and did a unique design for each card. The card I'm sharing today was inspired by Kristina Werner's Day 3 video of her Holiday Card Series. Be sure to watch the video to see how the vellum window was made. I printed another image from the Priscilla Styles Store onto vellum and then colored in the ornaments with Copics. I embossed the top piece of New Leaf card-stock (PTI) with the Inkadinkado Polka Dot background stamp using versa mark and clear embossing powder. I also embossed the sentiment, which is from a set that I picked up at Michael's, with silver powder. I also added some red and silver stickles to the ornament strings to give it some more sparkle as well.
Have a great day!

25 Days of Christmas (Day 2)

Hi Everyone!

I hope those of you who braved Black Friday shopping yesterday survived and were able to take advantage of some of the great deals that were out there. So here we are with day number 2 for my Christmas Card series. I made this card a while back for a MMSC challenge; but I don't think I posted it. I used Ruby Red and Chocolate Chip for my solid colors. The patterned paper is from American Crafts "Merry Mint" collection. I printed the digital image from "Priscilla Style's" Store on Vanilla paper and then used a variety of Copics to color it in. I cut and matted it with Label 8 Nestabilities. I put a little bit of paint onto the silver present embellishment before attaching it.
The sentiment at the bottom is from a retired SU set "Best Yet". That's about all I can say about it really. Isn't funny how it takes so much longer to make the card than it does to write about it! Have a great day!

25 days of Christmas (Day 1)

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving yesterday! I am here to share my first card for my 25 days of Christmas Cards. I will be sharing a new card each day and I hope you like them. This cute little snowman card was inspired by Day 1 video of Kristina Werner's Holiday Card Series that she did earlier this month. I used Real Red, Aqua Mist, White and pattern papers from Martha Stewart. The snowman is also from Martha Stewart. Since there was no fancy work or techniques on this card, it only took about 20 mins to finish, which was great! Have a good day, and I'll be back tomorrow!

Warm Winter Wishes

Hi Everyone!

I have been so busy lately making Christmas cards. I'm saving them to show you until after Thanksgiving. I do have a quick one to share with you now however, because I want to post my card for this week's OCL Sketch Challenge. I did a small card measuring 4 1/4 x 4 1/4. I like to do this size card when I do a square card because it still fits in a standard size envelope. I used Pure Poppy, White and Aqua Mist all from PTI for my color palette. The pattern paper is from a 4x6 pack of holiday paper from Martha Stewart. Chances are if you've been in a Michael's lately, you've probably seen it!
The other reason I decided to do a smaller card was because I looked around and do you know the only Christmas OCL set I have is "Tweet Winter Wishes" (Gasp, I know!) I knew that the images were a bit smaller, so I decided a smaller image panel would be best. I stamped the snowman in Memento Black ink and then did some coloring a shading with my Copic markers. I added some crystal snow on my snowman because, well he's a snowman!!
Anyhow, as I said before I'm busy doing my holiday cards, so I may be in and out for a while over the next couple of weeks though. Be sure to come back the day after Thanksgiving though because I'll be ready to share my "25 days of Christmas Cards" with you!

Hello

Hi Everyone!

I spent some time yesterday working on a scrapbooking layout instead of stamping. I actually put this card together early this morning. Stamping early in the morning is one of my favorite times to stamp. It's very peaceful and quiet before everyone gets up in the morning. This is for yesterday's SCS sketch. It was a very easy sketch to work with and one that I will most likely use again. I used Ocean Tide, White and Scarlett Jewel from PTI for my papers. The large white background was embossed with the Cuttlebug Bloom Dots embossing folder. I used SU's Circle Circus for my images in the circle with The Hello stamp is from Hero Arts "Everyday Sayings"
Have a great day everyone!

Someone's Having a Baby...

But it's not me! LOL!! I'm afraid that ship has sailed all it's voyages. Actually I don't know anyone who is having a baby. However, when I decided to use these colors together from PTI, how could I not make a baby card?! I'm sure someone I know will have a baby and I'll be able to use it. I used Blueberry Sky, Spring Rain, White and Kraft for my color combination. I used yesterday's Tuesday Morning Sketch. I'm also continuing my theme of embossing this week as well. I stamped a Polka Dot background stamp from Inkadinkado with versa mark and embossed with clear powder for the background behind the kraft oval. The oval was cut using the Lacy Circle Digital Cutting kit with my Cricut. The sentiment in the middle is from another Inkadinkado set called "Baby Boy"

Hi There

Hi Everyone!

Didn't get a chance to post my card for Mojo Monday yesterday, so here it is. I actually kept it quite simple since I didn't start working on it until late in the afternoon. I'm also using this for my entry into the Color Throwdown from this past week. I'm a bit behind on that, I'm afraid. I have been trying to switch from SU papers to PTI paper and as such I don't have any of the new colors, so I used the ones I could match most closely. I chose, Kraft, Pure Poppy, Blueberry Sky and Orange Zest. I also decided to use some flowers as my focal image, instead of stamping.
For this week, I am going to be focusing on embossing, and today I used 2 Cuttlebug embossing folders, Floral Fantasy and Swiss Dots. I opted to leave out the bow at the top of the square because I thought it just competed too much with the flowers in the middle.
The card is very simple and came together quickly. I hope you like it!

Take a Load Off

Hi Everyone! Here to share my card for this week's OCLDT 38 sketch challenge. This is my last day for focusing on pattern papers this week and this time, I chose to use papers from Crate Paper's Restoration 6x6 pad. I know a lot of people who have a hard time trying to figure out how to mix and match pattern papers. The easiest way to accomplish this is to stay within the same collection package. The papers are designed to work together, so it's easy to do. I used Smoky Shadow from PTI along with Summer Sun and Regal Rose from SU as my solid papers to match with this collection. I used Hot Betty and The Spin Cycle from OCL. I stamped each image in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and then used a variety of Copic Markers to color it all in.
Here is a picture of the inside done as well, using some more of the pattern paper and scraps from the front of the card.
I hope you have enjoyed this week's theme of using pattern papers. I for one, was very surprised to learn how much quicker cards come together when using pattern papers. It's not as time consuming as embossing etc.
Speaking of embossing, be sure to come visit me next week, as that is going to be the focus for my next set of cards. Until then, enjoy the rest of your weekend!

When you love a sketch...

Hi Everyone!

I hope you've all been having a fabulous week so far. I have two cards to share with you today because I just loved yesterday's SCS sketch challenge. I thought it was just perfect for being able to continue my theme of using pattern paper this week. It was also gave me the perfect excuse to use the new products that I picked up at Hobby Lobby yesterday morning (LOL!!) I am seriously thinking of making a whole set of cards with this layout, that's how much I like it! It was so easy to do. For the first card, I used Sahara Sand along with some papers from a new stack of DCWV papers called "Linen Closet." Let me tell you, the papers in this package are drop dead gorgeous!! Beautiful browns, aquas, blues, and greens. I also grabbed a few loose sheets of paper while I was at the store yesterday to go with the patterns and used them on this card as well. I really wanted the pattern paper to be the focus of the card, so I decided to only use the one stamp in the middle. I chose the "happiness always" sentiment from SU's Whimsical Words set because I thought this card would be good for a wedding or an engagement card. I also bought a package of Flowers by Paper Studio and layered three of them in the upper right corner.
Ok, so on to the second card. For this card I chose to use Kraft, Aqua Mist and Ruby Red and pattern paper from Cosmo Cricket's Togetherness mini deck. These papers are cute and fun to work with! I stamped the sentiment from Hero Arts Thinking of You in the center on cream paper in Ruby Red ink.
Ok, so that's all for me. Thanks so much for spending some time with me and I'll see you all tomorrow!

No One Like You

Hi Everyone!

Today I am sharing my card for yesterday's Tuesday Morning Sketches challenge. I used the Shaped Cards Digital Cutting kit by Kristina Werner to make the circle card with my Cricut I am continuing my focus on patterns paper this week also. For this one, I used papers from Cosmo Crickets Wanted mini deck. This pad of paper has beautiful blues, reds, rusts and browns in it. I LOVE IT, so expect to see more of these papers in future cards. I used Aqua Mist from Paper Trey ink and some rust paper for my solid colors in the card. The sentiment in the middle is from Hero Arts "Thinking of You" set stamped in Chestnut Roan Chalk ink on some neutral scrap paper that I had. This card came together super easily because I didn't stamp anything except for the sentiment. So, I hope you like it and thanks so much for stopping by to visit with me today.

Taking a New Direction

Oh my word, it has been almost a whole week since I've shared anything with all of you. I have actually been very busy crafting and stamping but not doing a lot of blogging. I began to think about why that was and was actually surprised to realize that I just didn't want to blog at all! So I took a little time for reflection and discovered that I had begun to think of blogging as a job (that I'm not getting paid for!) instead of a fun past time. I suspect that this is in large part to do with challenge chasing. Everyday, I read all the challenge lists and pick and choose the ones I think I can do and then create a card for it. Next comes the uploading and the linking to the various challenges and then commenting on as many cards as I can, in hopes of getting some traffic back to my blog with some comments as well. I realized that I was spending upwards of 2-3 hours everyday just doing that and that my card creating had become about doing what was appropriate for all the particular challenges instead of tapping into my own creativity.
So, I'm going to change things up a bit. I'm going to go back to participating in the standard daily challenges I participated in when I first started blogging a few years ago. That's right, one challenge per day, that is all!
I also thought it would be fun to focus on a particular theme or product each week and make my own challenge to create something around that each day. To start things off, this week I will be focusing on patterned paper. I got some pattern papers from Two Peas over this past weekend and I couldn't wait to dive right into them. The first card I am sharing today is for yesterday's Mojo Monday 163 sketch challenge. This sketch was perfect for being able to showcase some pattern paper since the image panel was small. I chose Not Quite Navy from SU as my base and then added a piece of paper from my new Crate Paper "Restoration" mini deck. The papers in this collection are gorgeous and they are double sided as well. The piece of gray around the image panel is just the other side of the floral paper. I matted it with a Regal Rose and then added a piece Vanilla. At the top of the image panel I put a piece of Basic Grey's Kraft Ribbon Doilies. I stamped the circle in the middle from Little Yellow Bicycle's "Zinnia" Collection with Regal Rose ink. The sentiment at the bottom is also from the same set and I stamped it with Charcoal Grey Fluid Chalk ink by Color Box.
Have a good day everyone!