Joy to the World

The colors this week at Color Throwdown and the sketch at As You See It were are a perfect match to use this new (to me) wreath stamp I recently got. 

The gold and silver turn this rustic wreath into a elegant holiday wreath in my humble opinion.  I played around with some inky splatters to go with the sketch, but none of the ones I had were small enough and were over-powering my wreath.  So I stamped the grid image in silver and layered the wreath over it.  I used some gold foil circles to take the place of the star in the sketch and used a big sentiment for no other reason than I love big sentiments!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Wreath For All Seasons (Papertrey Ink); Hand Lettered  Holiday (WPlus9); Off the Grid (SU)

Paper:  Classic White (Flourished); Early Espresso (SU)

Ink:  Silvery Shimmer, Golden Glitz (Delicata); Dark Chocolate (Papertrey Ink)

Accessories:  Femme Frames die (Mama Elephant)

Freshly Made Sketches 165

Oh, what a wonderful sketch we have for you this week at Freshly Made Sketches!  This week our hostess is Cindy Lovell who always makes the most amazing cards.  They're so colorful, full of details and still so fresh and clean.  Every time I visit her blog my wish list grows a bit longer!

I'm sure I seem like a broken record lately because I've been making so many Christmas cards but we're approaching D-Day in the Christmas card world and aside from a few deviations lately, Christmas cards are all I can think about.  For this card I was also inspired by the last challenge of the year from Festive Friday.  I've always loved making Christmas cards from non-traditional colors and the pinks and gold in this challenge are what drove my card today.

I don't need to tell you that the Freshly Made Sketches design team have created some beautiful cards to inspire you this week. So I hope that you'll check them out.  And I thank you for taking the time to visit me here!

Supplies:

Paper:  Soft Stone (Papertrey Ink); Regal Rose, Basic Black, Gold Foil (SU)

Accessories:  Blooming Poinsettia die (Memory Box); Wet Paint Holiday die (Papertrey Ink); Blueprints 13 die (My Favorite Things); Speckles stencil (Tim Holtz); gold embossing paste (Wendi Vecchi)

colourQ 270

I'm interrupting my regularly scheduled Christmas card program to bring you a little something different, courtesy of the newest challenge at colourQ.  This week our palette is inspired by these wooden ornaments.

I'm also playing along with The Cutting Edge Challenge, which also happens to be their last.  They've decided to close the challenge, which makes me a little sad.  The challenge there happens to use some bold colors and a diagonal design so I based my card on that.  But instead of snowflakes, I used some die cut flowers and added a fun hand-written sentiment.

My colourQ teamies have some wonderful cards to inspire you this week.  I hope you'll have time to join us!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Mini Stamp Thank You (Heidi Swapp)

Paper:  Classic White (Flourishes); Island Indigo, Blush Blossom, Calypso Coral, Pistachio Pudding (SU)

Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)

Accessories:  On the Diagonal die (Lil' Inker Designs); Stitched Leaves die (My Creative Time); Pretty Petals die (Top Dog Dies); enamel dots (Freckled Fawn)

Ho Ho Ho

Today is officially the last day of my vacation (insert loud sigh here).  It's been a fun and relaxing two weeks, but all good things must come to an end.  I was quite prolific in my stamp room yesterday and today I'll show you the first of what I made.  You'll have to come back on Tuesday and Wednesday to see what else I got up to {wink}.

I've really been trying to use some patterned paper lately, especially since two small pads of paper jumped into my cart when I was at TJMaxx recently.  In order to do all this paper justice I need to make cards with layers.  Since I like to start my cards with a sketch I've been searching sketch challenges for ones that have some layers.  For this card I chose the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge and added in the tic-tac-toe challenge at The Paper Players.  (I did the left column of Tree, Patterned Paper and Star).

P.S.  Any Walking Dead fans out there?  I'm still in a bit of a daze after last night's mid-season finale.  How about you?

Well that's it for me - I'm off to the grocery store.  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Modern Christmas (Clearly Besotted); Santa's Greeting (Close to My Heart)

Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Solar White (Neenah); Smokey Shadow, Ripe Avocado (Papertrey Ink); Riding Hood Red (SU); Heidi Swapp patterned paper (there's no name on the pack - grrr)

Ink:  Riding Hood Red (SU); True Black (Papertrey Ink)

Accessories:  Pierced Fishtail Flags STAX, Fishtail Flags Layers STAX (My Favorite Things); gold embossing powder

Christmas Cheer

My vacation is winding down and I have been strangely absent from my stamp room for the last few days.  I thought I'd have lots of time to get inky while off from work, but other things seem  to have taken up a lot of my time this past week, Thanksgiving included.  But I did manage to get some crafting time in last night making a card for the Color Throwdown and Sketch Saturday challenges (I chose sketch #223).

I recently picked up some patterned paper at TJMaxx for a ridiculously cheap price.  Lord knows I didn't need any more but it was a bargain and I was weak!  I've been dying to use it ever since so I took the opportunity presented by the layers in the sketch to use some of it.  The color challenge called for some silver to I die cut this deer from Silver Glimmer paper because in the fantasy land that is my stamp room deer are also silver (as well as being the boring light brown ones I find eating the plants in my garden).

I wanted to share one more photo with you about this card.  I was setting up to photograph it and as I was adjusting the settings on my camera, someone wandered into the shot.

Talk about nosy!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Jingle All the Way (Technique Tuesday); Distressed Grid (Creative Embellishments)

Paper:  Kraft, Ocean Tides (Papertrey Ink); Dove Gray (WPlus9); Basic Black, Silver Glimmer (SU); Snow Village (Pink Paislee)

Ink:  Soft Stone (Papertrey Ink); Silver Metallic (Encore)

Accessories:  Pierced Circle STAX (My Favorite Things); Banner Trio die (WPlus9); Deer Trio die (Impression Obsession)

Freshly Made Sketches 164

My Christmas card odyssey continues this week courtesy of the latest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.  This week our hostess is Jen Brum and the sketch is so full of possibilities I had a hard time narrowing down the ideas I had for the sketch!

In the end I went with a color combo I turn to frequently at this time of year:  kraft, with just about anything else!  This time around I paired it with some blue cardstock and some silver glimmer paper.

The stitched layers add such a nice detail and the horizontal one provides an excellent space for a sentiment and some glimmery snowflakes.  And as if there wasn't enough glimmer, I added a big ol' rhinestone to the center of the biggest snowflake.  It looks fanatastic in real life!

As usual, the Freshly Made Sketches design team have created some fantastic cards for you this week, so be sure to check them out!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Think Big Favorites #8 (Papertrey Ink)

Paper:  Kraft (Papertrey Ink); Buckaroo Blue, Silver Glimmer (SU)

Ink:  Buckaroo Blue (SU)

Accessories:  Blueprints #13, Horizontal Stitched Strips (My Favorite Things); Maryanne Snowflake die (Simon Says Stamp); Make a Snowflake die (Taylored Expressions); Sparkle  Silver baker's twine (Maya Road); Basic Rhinestone (SU)

colourQ 269

This week the color palette at colourQ might make you think of fall.  Or it might make you think of Christmas.  It might make you think of hand-crafted felt items.  It made me think of all those things but in the end it inspired me to make a thank you card with an abstract background and a very on-trend social media statement.

The colors are inspired by this Leaf Embroidery Hoop Art and the layout from The Paper Players.  Although I was tempted to add a leaf to my card I used a layered star instead.  The colors initially made me think of fall but I really didn't want to do the whole autumn leaves thing so I grabbed a new stamp set I got from Ellen Hutson and layered a bunch of the scribbly circle images.  Then I overstamped it with the hashtag sentiment from Mama Elephant.

The colourQ design team have knocked it out of the park with the colors this week so be sure to head on over there to check them out!  And thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Bokeh Dots (Essentials by Ellen); Big Words (Mama Elephant)

Paper:  Bashful Blue, Hello Honey, Tangerine Tango, Holiday Thyme DSP (SU); White (Spectrum Noir)

Ink:  Always Artichoke, Hello Honey, Tangerine Tango (SU)

Accessories:  Button Stacks die (Papertrey Ink); Stitched Stars (Lil' Inker Designs); First Place Ribbon die (My Favorite Things); crochet thread

Merry

I recently came across another Christmas Card Challenge and since the inspiration was trees it gave me a good excuse to ink up my favorite triangular trees.  And I liked the layout at Wanna Sketch because it gave me an excuse to use three of them!

I added some falling snow behind the trees with embossing paste.  It looks much better in person that it shows in this picture (of course).  I love how this came out.  It's simple but has some nice texture and detail.

Well I'm off to the grocery store.  I'm in charge of the sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving and I want to get all my ingredients early before it gets too crazy at the supermarket!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamp:  Modern Christmas (Clearly Besotted

Paper:   White (Spectrum Noir); Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink)

Ink:  Pure Poppy, Ripe Avocado (Papertrey Ink)

Accessories:  Modern Christmas die (Clearly Besotted); Hand Lettered Holiday die (WPlus9); Falling Snow stencil (Simon Says Stamp); white embossing paste (Dreamweaver)