Holiday Cheer Tag

I should be concentrating on my Christmas cards since I'll need to get mine addressed and mailed in a few weeks, but I got distracted by the Tag challenge at Addicted to CAS.  So I took the colors and sketch from Viva La Verve and made them into a tag.

I added a bit of falling snow with some embossing paste then layered on some card stock and patterned paper in the layout of the sketch.  The trees were stamped over a couple of grungy background stamps.  I wanted them to have some texture and I didn't have any patterned paper in Cherry Cobbler or Mossy Meadow so I improvised.  My stash of patterned paper is already bursting at the seams and I don't want to add to it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Textures 1, Textures 2 (Florileges Design); Joyous Noel (Verve); Jolly Holiday (The Alley Way Stamps)

Paper:  Kraft (Papertrey Ink); Naturals White (Neenah); Cherry Cobbler, Mossy Meadow (SU)

Ink:  Cherry Cobbler, Mossy Meadow (SU)

Accessories:  Pierced Traditional Tags STAX, Pierced Circle STAX (My Favorite Things); Falling Snow stencil (Simon Says Stamp); Antique Brass jumbo eyelet, Crumb Cake seam binding, Cherry Cobbler baker's twine (SU); white embossing paste (Dreamweaver)

Freshly Made Sketches 161

Before I get to my card for this week's new Freshly Made Sketches challenge I wanted to tell you about a little glitch with my blog post yesterday.  And by glitch I mean I forgot to hit Publish!  So you may have missed my little tag for Tracey's 25 Days of Christmas Tags and a chance to win a fabulous prize.  Click HERE to go to that post.

Today's post is all about the new sketch designed by Linda at Freshly Made Sketches.  It's clean, simple and just chock full of white space.  And it's also got lots of room for interpretation!

I started out my card by trying some watercoloring and I really don't know why I bothered.  I was watching a video tutorial on YouTube about creating a watercolor background against a collage of embossed sentiments and my first attempt predictably looked pretty bad.  But the good news is that I realized I didn't need an embossed background and fancy watercolors to create a cool look with lots of sentiments.  So I scrapped what I had and recreated the look by stamping the Christmas greetings in lots of colors.

You also will have noticed that my card is sort of a reverse image of the sketch.  My bow and poinsettia are on the opposite side and it's only because I used a piece of blue painters tape to hold down the cardstock while I lined up and stamped the sentiments.  When I took it off it ripped the cardstock a bit and the poinsettia covers up the blemish perfectly.  To balance it out I just put the little bow on the opposite side too.  I'm such a rebel, but I think Linda will be ok with it!

Don't forget to check out the amazing inspiration from the Freshly Made Sketches design team.  I hope you can join us in the gallery this week!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Tis the Season Sentiments (Papertrey Ink); Joyous Noel (Verve

Paper:  Soft Stone, Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink); Whisper White (SU

Ink:  Pure Poppy, Dark Chocolate, Ripe Avocado, Ocean Tides (Papertrey Ink)

Accessories:  Basic Rhinestones (SU); baker's twine

colourQ 266 and 25 Days of Christmas Tags

Sorry this post is late :(  I hit Save instead of Publish!  Boo!

Today I'm especially excited to share with you a project I made for the new palette reveal at colourQ because we are teaming up with Tracey McNeely for her 25 Days of Christmas Tags project!

Each day Tracey is featuring Christmas tags for your inspiration and she's got prizes to give away!  Check out all the details HERE.  You can also leave a comment on my blog post today for a chance to win a prize from these great companies.

• Reverse Confetti
• Clearly Besotted
• CAS-ual Fridays
• Neat and Tangled
• Paper Smooches
• Lawn Fawn

How cool is that!  Be sure to leave a comment here and also at Tracey's blog for a chance to win a prize!  And, of course, we'd love to see you at colourQ too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Toyland (The Alley Way Stamps); Perfect Presentation (SU)

Paper:  Kraft, Pinefeather (Papertrey Ink); Peach Parfait, Whisper White (SU); X-Press It Blending Card

Ink:  Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Poppy Parade (Papertrey Ink); Copics

Accessories:  Pierced Traditional Tags STAX, Pierced Rectangle STAX (My Favorite Things); Crumb Cake seam binding ribbon (SU)

Happy Thanksgiving

Now that Halloween is done and over with it's time to look ahead to Thanksgiving.  To me cards celebrating fall and cards celebrating Thanksgiving are very often the same thing because the two things call to mind the same warm color palette.  I love the colors of fall and Thanksgiving happens to be my favorite holiday so when I saw the fall challenge at Cupcake Inspirations I wanted to play along.  I dipped into my stash for some leafy die cuts so that I could also play along with The Cutting Edge Challenge and also managed to squeeze in the sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch.

Give me a colorful leaf and I'm a happy camper.  And if those leaves have a stitched detail on them then I love them even more!  I added a few branches and another round leafy die cut to complement the leaves.  Once I had everything roughly assembled I thought the background was awfully plain so I added a few grungy splatters.  Die cuts make everything easy peasy!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Gorgeous Gunge (SU); Fall Colors (Precious Remembrance)

Paper:  Early Espresso, Crushed Curry, Old Olive, Tangerine Tango, Very Vanilla (SU)

Ink:  Early Espresso, Crushed Curry, Old Olive, Tangerine Tango (SU)

Accessories:  Grove Branch die (Memory Box); Stitched Leaves die (Lawn Fawn); Leaves die (Penny Black); Pine Sprig Cluster die (Impression Obsession); Sentiment Strips die (My Favorite Things)

Merry Tag

Rainy days are apparently good for the crafting soul.  Yesterday was quite rainy and windy and even though I needed to run some errands, the weather convinced me to stay home and get busy in my craft room.  I'm happy to report that I was very productive in there.  The first thing I made was a tag combining the challenges at Festive Friday and Tag You're It.

I usually stay away from inspiration challenges because they kind of freak me out.  I never know exactly what I'm supposed to be inspired by.  But the Festive Friday inspiration photo jumped out at me because of all that red and the patterns on the wrapping paper reminded me of some of the patterned paper in my stash that never seems to get used.  So I grabbed some shades of red, plus some gray because I can see one gray gift in that pile, and made this fun tag.

The tag is actually bigger than it needs to be and if I CASE myself later, I'll definitely shrink it down and make the patterned paper triangle bigger.

Today promises to be rainy and windy again, but I can't afford another whole day neglecting the house in favor of some quality crafting time.  The cupboards are nearly bare and I need to get to the grocery store in plenty of time to watch late afternoon football and later The Walking Dead.  There just aren't enough hours in the day to accomplish what I want to do!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Paper:  Basic Gray, Real Red, Ski Slope DSP (SU)

Accessories:  Hand Lettered Holiday die (WPlus9); Traditional Tags STAX, Pierced Traditional Tags STAX (My Favorite Things); silver organdy ribbon, real red grosgrain ribbon, silver cord, jumbo eyelet, frosted sequins (SU); Wink of Stella pen  

HYCCT1430 Spread Your Wings and Fly

Today my friend Jen Timko is hosting the Hope You Can Cling To challenge at Splitcoast Stampers.  A few weeks ago she asked and along with some other talented stampers to make a card for the challenge.  The theme is Hope Soars inspired by this quote:  "When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it..." - Henry Ford.

Now, for those of you who don't know, Jen is a pilot so I knew I just had to use an airplane on my card.  Especially with that quote!

 

When she first asked me to join in her challenge I started searching my favorite stamp companies for an airplane image then I remembered this adorable bunny image and bought the digi.  I colored it up and added this hopeful sentiment against some rolling hills.  All the stars aligned with this card because I also had this cloud-filled patterned paper too!

Are you playing along with us?  If not, you're missing out on the chance to lift the spirits of women battling breast cancer at MD Anderson and also on more than $5,000 in prizes from your favorite crafty companies.  So what are you waiting for?  Get to stamping!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Chatterbox (The Alley Way Stamps); Rabbit Traveler Airplane digi (Zlatoena Designs)

Paper:  Classic White (Flourishes); Bermuda Bay, Welcome Neighbor DSP (SU); X-Press It Bending Card

Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine); Copics

Accessories:  Snow Drift die (My Favorite Things)

Freshly Made Sketches 160

Happy Wednesday!  It's time for a brand new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.  This week our sketch is designed by Rita and I'm pretty sure you're going to love it!  It's got a big ol' banner on it and I love banners!  This is also my last week guesting over at Colour Me...!  They really put together some gorgeous color combos and this week there are two palettes to choose from.

I chose to use the second color combo.  It's got Chocolate Chip in it and I really love that color.  It's been ages since I've used it so I dove right in to my supply of cardstock and even used a little ink too.  I love how it looks with Lost Lagoon and although pink isn't really my thing, I think both colors look pretty with the Blushing Bride.

The little butterfly seems a little weird on my card considering it's fall and butterflies seem better suited for spring and summer.  But I love using them on my cards and these colors reminded me of spring so there you go.  They're kind of timeless, don't you think?

Thanks for stopping by here and don't forget to check out the challenges at Freshly Made Sketches and Colour Me...!  Both design teams have totally rocked their cards!

Supplies:

Stamps:  So 80s (WPlus9); Many Thanks (Simon Says Stamp)

Paper:  Classic White (Flourishes); Chocolate Chip, Lost Lagoon, Blushing Bride, Whisper White (SU)

Ink:  Blushing Bride, Chocolate Chip (SU)

Accessories:  Horizontal Stitched Strips, Pierced Fishtail Flag STAX, Pierced Circle STAX (My Favorite Things); Chrissy Butterfly die, Leanna Butterfly die (Simon Says Stamp)

colourQ 265

Halloween is fast approaching and I figured I had one last Halloween card in me.  Lucky for me the new palette up at colourQ fit right into my plans.  The colors are based on these custom made designs.  How cute are they!  As I thought about a design for my card I decided that I wanted to use my favorite Halloween set and that the design of the Pals Paper Arts sketch would allow me to show off the focal image of my idea perfectly.

I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out the best way to cut those angled layers without wasting a lot of cardstock.  What I ended up wasting was a whole lot of time.  I should have just cut some rectangles, layered them on the card base and trimmed the excess off the edges.

This card features a Herman Munster like dude (or Frankenstein, if you're picky) and he's from my beloved Best Fiends stamp set.  I love his runway pose as he shows off his trick-or-treat bag.

So will you create a crafty Halloween card with these pretty colourQ colors or something else entirely?  I'd love to see you in the gallery!  In order to spark your creativity, our design team has got some beauties to share with you so be sure to check them out!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Best Fiends (SU)

Paper:  Basic Black, Tangerine Tango, Concord Crush, Howlstooth and Scaring Bone (SU); X-Press It Blending Card

Ink:  Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Copics

Accessories:  Frightful Enamel Dots (My Mind's Eye); Enamel Dots (Studio Calico)