Christmas Tags!

I think it's a sign of the season that the challenges this week at CAS-ual Fridays and Stampin' Royalty were to create a gift tag or to use a tag on a project.  I've been trying to stay on top of my Christmas projects this year and I was already in tag-making mode so it was kind of fun to be able to share one of my tags on a challenge site.  To keep things interesting I used the colors from Color Throwdown and the sketch at iSpy.

The Tempting Turquoise with the obvious Christmas colors of Lucky Limeade and Cherry Cobbler threw me for a bit of a loop and I considered a couple of different images on my tag before I thought it might be fun to combine the red and green with some blue snowflakes.  There are actually two snowflakes here layered together and the top one has been covered in Dazzling Diamonds to add some glitz.  At the last minute I added an Ice Circles Rhinestone Brad, which looks way better in person that it appears here.

The holiday season is truly upon us because later today I'm off to Borderland State Park to help out at a holiday concert.  Time to Jingle Those Bells!

Christmas Has Gone to the Dogs!

So the challenge this week at The Friday Mashup was to use a stamp that has nothing to do with the holidays and make a holiday card with it.  Heidi encouraged us to get a cup of coffee and think about the challenge before grabbing a stamp set, so that's exactly what I did.  It was good advice because after a bit I remembered I had a punny stamp set that was pretty much tailor-made for this challenge.  I liked the sketch at iSpy so I used that as my layout.

My sister and her family recently adopted a pooch, so I think I'm going to send this to them!  I used some Holiday Treasures DSP to create this fun houndstooth and striped background.  The row of "buttons" at the top were stamped with the aptly named Button, Button and sort of resemble candy to me more than buttons.  (Think sugar plums dancing in my head)!

I'm so glad that I remembered this stamp because it's always fun to make non-traditional cards!  Thanks for stopping by!

Thank You For ISSC42 and CASology 19

Since Thanksgiving in the US is only a few days away and this is truly the season of "thanks" I wanted to participate in the challenge at CASology.  I've just made the challenge at the last hurrah because I couldn't think of a design.  Then the mailman delivered my brand-spankin' new washi tape, I found a cool sketch at iSpy and suddenly I had an idea!

I love the geometric shapes of this washi and I'm glad that I finally caved and bought some.  The only problem I see now is that I'm going to need more of it!  Oh, such is the life of the paper crafter!

Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Starburst for DD#28 & ISCC41

It's time to get serious about my Christmas cards I think.  After all, Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away and after that Christmas will come rushing at us like a freight train!  The color challenge at Dynamic Duos fit right into my plans and the sketch this week at iSpy is to do a starburst, which I thought would look kind of neat with these colors.

I used some retired Christmas DSP called Deck the Halls and some Sahara Sand DSP for my starburst.  And I'm going to pretend that I didn't put a couple of the scripty papers on with the writing upside down!  Hopefully whoever gets this will be so bowled-over by my fussy-cut pine bough they won't notice!

The pine bough and poinsettia are from Watercolor Winter.  I just saw a card the other day where this pine bough was stamped repeatedly in a circle to create a wreath, so I suspect that you may see something like that here soon enough!

I am officially on vacation from work for the next two weeks!  I can't wait to relax a little, get some leisurely Christmas shopping done and enjoy spending Thanksgiving with my zany family!  Thanks for stopping by!

Create With Connie and Mary 222

This week at Create With Connie and Mary we have got a great color challenge.  I think a lot of people have strong feelings (and not all good ones) about Summer Starfruit, but I actually think it's a pretty cool color so I sort of made it the focal point of my card.

When I started perusing blogland for a great sketch to go with these colors, I stumbled on iSpy Sketches where they are having a Friday Free For All.  You can pick any one of their past sketches for your card and I found one that I thought would be perfect to show off my pretty Summer Starfruit DSP.  This is the first time that I've participated over there so I thought it was pretty cool that I got to pick my own layout!  I chose #20.

I stamped my tag with the text stamp from Daring Adventure in Chocolate Chip.  Then I stamped the leaves from Summer Silhouettes in Gumball Green over that.  I added the small flower from the same set stamped with both Summer Starfruit and Chocolate Chip.  A couple of Gumball Green circles for an accent and some Summer Starfruit ribbon across the top and I had a card that absolutely loved!  Isn't that great when that happens?

The DT at Create With Connie and Mary have got some great cards with these colors to inspire you so be sure to head on over there and check them out.  I hope you can join us!