Pink Pinecone Christmas

I had fun making this pink Christmas card today!  I don't think I have ever made one using just pink before and the decision to use this color was based on my pulling out a pink glitter card stock and thinking it would look quite festive!

So then I picked out a pink ink and pink fabric tape -  for my design I was inspired by this week's Freshly Made Sketches

I just love the pine branch and pine cones in the Festive Foliage set from Waltzingmouse - and Claire now has coordinating dies for the set!!  whoo hoo!.  I was surprised and pleased by how lovely they look stamped in pink too!  The sentiment is from Alpine Christmas - love the script font on this!

Stamps:  Festive Foliage - Waltzingmouse, Merry Christmas from Alpine Christmas
Paper:  White - PTI, pink glitter cardstock - Reflections/Michaels
Ink:  Archival Jet Black, Versamagic Pink Pearl
Accessories:  Pinecones die set - Waltzingmouse, foam dots, fabric tape - 2 Daily

It's Time to Dance on the Table

I hope everyone in the US had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday.  I know I enjoyed the wonderful meal and time with my family.  Today I have a card I made for my friend's mother who just turned 91 years old!  I used the Pinspired challenge for my inspiration.

 I wanted to make the card special for this special milestone birthday - so I used silver, gold, black and white colors.

The scallop die is Lil' Inker and the tag is Papertrey Ink.  My stamp is from the wonderful retro set from Waltzingmouse Putting on the Ritz - and I hope that's just what Evelyn will do in celebrating her birthday!  I think she'll get a giggle out of this!

Stamps:  Putting on the Ritz - Waltzingmouse
Paper:  White, True Black - PTI, Brushed Silver, Brushed Gold - SU, 
Ink:  Versamark
Accessories:  white embossing powder, Tag Sale #8 die - PTI, fan fare scalloped border - Lil' Inker Designs, heat gun, silver pearl - Michaels, foam dots.

Hanukkah Gift Basket

Tonight at sundown is the beginning of the Festival of Lights - the 8 days of Hanukkah (or Chanukah if you prefer).  Every year I try to come up with a new creative idea for packaging home made goodies that I give at Hanukkah to the 3 trauma surgeons I work for.  The holiday came so early this year I really had to get going!   I found some wonderful woven newspaper baskets at my local  Christmas Tree Shop - so I had my container.

Now, my basket appears a little empty because two of the  packages I put in them (holding  fudge and  almond lace cookies) were made using some templates from Creations by AR that aren't coming out until next week - so I couldn't show them to you! (come by next Friday on 12/6and you'll see them!)  But I can show you this fun Star of David creation.

I found a wonderful tutorial for this on Brenda Quintana's blog.  Her instructions are very clear and it goes together perfectly.  After fitting the strips together, you slip a Hershey Kiss into each triangle, add a ribbon and tag.  Here's how it looks from the back - the kisses fit quite snugly into the spaces so they all hold together without a backing!

Here's the card I included in each basket.  Stamps are from Eight Happy Nights by Cas-ual Fridays Stamps.

And here are all the confections I made -  zuchini bread, yellow rum cakes with pecans, almond lace cookies and fudge! (plus the kisses that I bought of course!)

Here's wishing all of my Jewish friends a wonderful 8 days of Hanukkah!

Card

Stamps:  Eight Happy Nights - Cas-ual Fridays Stamps

Paper:  White - PTI

Ink:  Archival Jet Black

Accessories:  Copics -B21, B23, foam tape.

Star of David

Paper:  white, Blueberry sky - PTI, brushed silver - SU

Stamps:  Cas-ual Fridays Stamps - 8 Happy Nights

Ink:  Archival Jet Black

Accessories:  small and large oval punches - SU, glitter eyelash yarn - Martha Stewart, Hershey Kisses, ScorPal, tutorial - qbeesquest.blogspot.com

Sketch it with Eight

After working on a flurry of Design Team creations last week - I'm finally able to do some 'just because I want to' stamping for a couple of my favorite challenges! I make Hanukkah cards for the doctors I work for each year and this set called 8 Happy Nights by Cas-ual Fridays Stamps is just perfect for this holiday!

Cas-ual Fridays challenge - Create with 8

 Cas(e) This Sketch -

and just for good measure - here's another card I made using the same stamp set - I drew a frame around the edge using a silver pen.

 Well - I have to go check the pumpkin pie I'm baking for Thanksgiving -  we're all snuggled down in our house tonight - the wind is howling and it's about 22 degrees F.   We MAY get a little snow Wednesday night - hopefully nothing that will interfere with us driving to my sister's house on Thursday (1 hour away) for Thanksgiving dinner!

Happy Hanukkah
Stamps:  8 Happy Nights - Cas-ual Fridays stamps
Paper:  White - PTI
Ink:  Memento - Cantaloupe and Bahama Blue

8 Hapy Nights
Stamps:  8 Happy Nights - Cas-ual Friday Stamps
Paper:  white - PTI
Ink:  Memento - Cantaloupe and Bahama Blue
Accessories:  silver pen - UniBall Gel

Waltzingmouse November Pajama Party!

Yipee!  It's here once again -  the Waltzingmouse Pajama Party that is!  Each month the challenges are announced on the WMS blog on the 1st of the month - so you have plenty of time to get your cards made up to post at the party. (you still have 24 hours if you are a procrastinator!)

The first challenge is to make a Thanksgiving/Thanks Card

Since I already have all the Thanksgiving cards that I need for this year -  I decided to make a Thank You card for my sister who is hosting the Thanksgiving meal this year.

I used my favorite set for this kind of sentiment - Join Us.  The leaves and floral spray are from Folk Art Medallion - and I used the free cut files for the shapes (although you could easily hand cut around these images!)

The 2nd challenge is to make a Christmas Card

I combined this challenge with the Waltzingmouse Fanatics Challenge which is to use non-Christmas stamps (accept for the sentiment) on your Christmas card.   So after thinking a bit -  I decided to gold emboss a couple of the strips from Heirloom Patterns along with this lovely sentiment from Seasonal Flourish.  Gold makes everything look like Christmas don't you think?!   I just added some gold sticky pearls and layered the stamped panel to a brushed gold panel and then to my white card base.  My card is 4 1/4"x4 1/4"

The 3rd Challenge is to make a tag that will tickle Claire's fancy (!)

I made two tags - both using the mistletoe stamp from Festive Foliage and Claire's new mistletoe die.  I think the 'Mwah!' sentiment will tickle her fancy....!

For the white tag - I gold embossed the stampings 

and for the red tag I used a piece of patterned paper for the background and did the stampings in black ink, accept for the berries which I stamped in Old Paper Distress Ink (which you cannot see too clearly in this pic!) I wanted them to look like the real berries on mistletoe!

The 4th Challenge is to make a Christmas/Holiday decoration.

When we were little, it was the tradition of my grandparents to have little net bags filled with ribbon candy on their Christmas tree for my sister and me.  I remember being so excited going to their house on Christmas day and searching all over their beautiful tree until we found our own little bags.  This memory inspired me to make some little treat bags for my grandnephews and grandniece for them to have on their trees each Christmas.

These little muslin bags are 3"x4".  I stamped them with the pretty deer from Claire's new set  Folk Art Christmas Additions using Gathered Twigs Distress Ink (put a piece of card stock inside the bag when stamping so ink doesn't go through to the back).  I used the Woodenheart Alphabet stamps for their names, stamping them in Archival Jet Black.  Luckily, Landon's mother calls him Lan because his full name wouldn't fit on this little bag!  I love the simple home spun look to these!

I filled the bags with little animal cookies - a slightly more healthy treat than candy since they are 3 1/2, 2 1/2 and 1 1/2 yrs old!  And so they will always remember when they got their little Christmas tree treat bags from their Great Aunt Julia - I stamped the year on the back!

And finally there is a sketch challenge just revealed today -  for this challenge you have one week from today to link up your card.

For my sketch card, I used one of the beautiful sentiments from the new set, Seasonal Flourish.  The round snowflake stamps are from Around Christmas Time

Phew, I'm tired from all this card making!  

I'm glad it's a PJ party - I might just go lie down on the sofa now.....and check out everyone elses creations!  Are you coming to the party?!  You can win some WMS stamps!!

We had a Wonderful Time
Stamps:  Join Us, Folk Art Medallion - Waltzingmouse
Paper:  Rustic Cream, white, Ripe Avocado - PTI, DP - Authentique/Enchanted
Ink:  Archival Coffee, Ranger Distress Crushed Olive, Rusty Hinge, Peeled Paint, Memento Bamboo Shoots
Accessories:  foam dots, enamel dots - My Minds Eye, Edge Distresser.

Glory to the New Born King
Stamps:  Heirloom Patterns, Seasonal Flourish - Waltzingmouse
Paper:  White - PTI, brushed gold - SU
Ink:  Versamark
Accessories:  Gold Embossing Powder, gold half pearls - Michaels, heat gun.

Mistletoe tags

Stamps:  Festive Foliage - Waltzingmouse

Paper:  white, pure poppy, ripe avocado - PTI, DP - Simple Stories/Snap

Ink:  Archival Jet Black, Ranger Distress Old Paper, Versamark

Accessories:  Tag Sale Die #3 - PTI, Peppermint twine - Divine Twine/The Cat's Pajamas, Black/Kraft twine - Timeless Twine, gold embossing powder, heat gun. foam dots

Muslin Treat Bags

Stamps:  Woodenheart Alphabet, Folk Art Christmas Additions - Waltzingmouse

Ink:  Archival Jet Black, Ranger Distress Gathered Twigs

Accessories:  muslin bag 3"x4" -  

Sketch Card

Stamps:  snowflakes from Around Christmastime, Sentiment from Seasonal Flourish - Waltzingmouse

Paper:  White -  PTI, snowflake DP - Paper Pizazz, light blue DP - Me and My Big Ideas

Ink:  Archival Jet Black, Memento Bahama Blue

Accessories:  circle Nestabilities, 1 3/4" circle punch - EK Success, Stitched Mat Rectangles Die - Lil' Inker Designs, foam dots, enamel dots - My Mind's Eye.

A Waltzingmouse Christmas - Day 4 - Christmas Decorations

Welcome to Day 4 - the final day of A Waltzingmouse Christmas!   Claire's assignment for us today is to create some Christmas Decorations to inspire you using any of our favorite Waltzingmouse stamps!

I took a plain 5"x6" burlap stocking from Pouch Mart and dressed it for Christmas with a simple wide bow tied around the top and die cut stamped holly from Festive Foliage and a tag tucked around the bow - and I just love how it came out!

 I tied on two rusted jingle bells and wrapped a piece of gold cord around the knot of the bow letting the ends hang. The stamps on the tag are from Festive Foliage and Santa's Coming to Town.

 This would look so pretty hanging on a mantel or off a little shelf OR as a small gift packaging!  And when you shake it - it jingles - just like Christmas!    I'm  entering this in the Cas-ology Cue card - Bell challenge.

My next project is a little 4"x4" framed canvas that I got at Joann's.   First I dry brushed the canvas with milk chocolate and grey wolf acrylic paints - just kind of streaky coverage so some of the canvas still showed through.After it dried - I brushed the whole canvas with Matte Mod Podge.

First I adhered the lace along the bottom.  Then I die cut 3 mistletoes from olive felt using Claire's new die.  I die cut the berries from off white felt.  I stamped the felt with the mistletoe stamp from Festive Foliage using Archival coffee ink.  I layered the mistletoe over each other using foam dots, adhered the berries with glue and attached the bow over the stems.

I stamped 'kisses' 3 times on a sentiment strip and added Tiny Twinkles to the dot the 'i's' and also to the berries.  You can barely see it in the pic - but I stamped some pine needles from one of the pine branch stamps from Festive Foliage in green over the 'kisses' sentiment.  I also brushed the edges with acrylic paint.

 Here's a side view so you can see the depth of the little canvas (1/2").  I got the little wooden easel at Joann's.

 Here is the little canvas on my dining room wall

and here it is on my bookcase - a pretty little decoration that you could actually leave up all winter if you wanted!

I can't wait to see what kind of Christmas/Holiday decorations the other DT members made - let's go see, shall we?  here are their links:

Anya Schrier 

 Becca Feeken 

 Edna Morrisedie 

 Iwona Palamountain 

 Jeanne Jachna 

 Jen Cuthbertson 

 Jennifer Holmes 

 Julia Aston - Me!

 Teresa Kline  

Karin Åkesdotter  

Kelly Schirmer 

 Kim Duran 

 Lynn Mercurio 

 Renee Lynch 

 Sandie Dunne 

 Tosha Leyendekker 

 Claire Brennan - owner

Stocking:
Stamps:  Festive Foliage and Santa's Coming to Town - Waltzingmouse
Paper:  Oatmeal - WPlus9, kraft - PTI
Ink:  Memento Cottage Ivy and Rhubarb Stalk
Accessories:  burlap stocking - Pouchmart, rusted bells - from a wreath kit/Michaels, gold cord from stash, scallop edge tag die - older Spellbinders, holly die - Waltzingmouse, ribbon - May Arts

Mistletoe Canvas
Stamps:  Festive Foliage
Paper:  Vintage Cream - PTI
Ink:  Archival Coffee, Memento New Sprout.
Accessories:  olive & cream felt - Joann Fabrics, Tiny Twinkles - Taylored Expressions, Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive, glue pen, milk chocolate acrylic paint - Americana, Grey Wolf Acrylic paint - Martha Stewart, wrinkled seam tape - Prairie Bird Boutique Etsy Shop, Dienamics Sentiment Strip - MFT, mistletoe die - Waltzingmouse.
 

A Waltzingmouse Christmas - Day 3 - Christmas Tags

Welcome to Day 3 of A Waltzingmouse Christmas.  Today Claire's assignment to the Design Team was to create lots of Christmas Tags using any of the Waltzingmouse stamp sets and maybe some of the new dies for the older stamp sets she now has available in the shop.

Mission Accomplished!  For my first tag I used two of the Opera Tag dies and Claire's brand new Mistletoe die.  The mistletoe stamp from Festive Foliage is one of my favorites - it's such a great shape!.

I put my tag on a tin tie glassine bag and filled it with molasses cookies along with  kisses!

For my next tag - I went country cozy - using this sweet gingerbread man and sentiment from Candy Jar Christmas - Fillers.

I attached my tag to a tin tie kraft bag that I stamped with the hearts from Nordic Winter and filled with the same molasses cookies! (minus a few that Kent and I ate to be sure they were good enough to give away!)

I hope I've inspired you with my tags - now lets see what the rest of the Design Team linked below has to share with us!

Anya Schrier 

Becca Feeken 

Edna Morrisedie 

Iwona Palamountain 

Jeanne Jachna 

Jen Cuthbertson 

Jennifer Holmes 

Julia Aston - Me!

Teresa Kline

Karin Åkesdotter 

Kelly Schirmer 

Kim Duran 

Laurie Schmidlin
 Lynn Mercurio 

Renee Lynch 

Sandie Dunne 

Tosha Leyendekker 

Claire Brennan - Owner

Hope to see you back here tomorrow for the final day of A Waltzingmouse Christmas!

Mistletoe Tag:
Stamps:  Festive Foliage
Paper:  white - PTI, green - Coredinations
Ink:  Memento New Sprout, Bamboo Leaves
Accessories:  mistletoe die, Opera Tag die - Waltzingmouse, enamel dots - My Minds Eye, glassine tin tie bag - PTI (presently not available), wrinkled seam tape - Prairie Bird Boutique Etsy Shop.

Christmas Cookies Tag:
Stamps: Gingerbread man from Candy Jar Christmas, hearts from Nordic Winter - Waltzingmouse
Paper:  Kraft - PTI
Ink:  Memento Rhubarb Stalk, Versafine Vintage Sepia
Accessories:  ribbon - May Arts, Tag Sale #3 die - PTI, enamel dots - My Minds Eye, tin tie brown bag (google to find companies)

A Waltzingmouse Christmas - Day 2 - Christmas Cards

Welcome to A Waltzingmouse Christmas Day 2!  Today Claire's assignment for the Design Team is to make Christmas Cards using any of our favorite WMS stamps.

For my first Christmas card - I used the small and medium snowflakes from Alpine Christmas.  The Santa in his Sleigh and "Believe in the Magic" are from Twas the Night Before Christmas.  First I masked the strip where the sentiment is on a Vintage Cream panel.  I stamped the snowflakes and Santa with Versamark ink.  I removed the mask and clear embossed the stampings.  I replaced the mask and sponged the panel with Memento Rhubarb Stalk ink.  I removed the mask again and stamped the sentiment.  Then simply layered the panel to the vintage cream card.

Here's a peak at the inside of my card  - another sentiment from Alpine Christmas.

My card design was inspired by these valences from Sturbridge Yankee

For my 2nd Christmas card, I used the pine branch and pine cones from Festive Foliage and a beautiful sentiment from the just released set -  Seasonal Flourish.  I simply stamped the images on a Rustic White panel, adhered a piece of ribbon around the panel, layered it to a scarlet jewel panel and then to the card base.

The sentiment I stamped inside is from Alpine Christmas (can I say that you will never need another Christmas sentiment set if you get this set along with Seasonal Flourish??!!)

Now let's all go and see the wonderful Christmas cards the rest of the Design Team has to inspire us!  Here are their links.  I bet you have many of the stamp sets we are using today already in your craft room?

Anya Schrier 

 Becca Feeken 

 Edna Morrisedie 

 Iwona Palamountain 

 Jeanne Jachna  

Jen Cuthbertson 

 Jennifer Holmes 

 Julia Aston - Me!

 Karin Åkesdotter 

 Kelly Schirmer  

Kim Duran 

Lynn Mercurio 

 Renee Lynch  

Sandie Dunne  

Tosha Leyendekker 

Claire Brennan - Owner

Believe in the Magic

Stamps: Alpine Christmas, Twas the Night Before Christmas - Waltzingmouse

Paper:  Vintage Cream - PTI

Ink:  Memento Rhubarb Stalk, Versamark

Accessories:  clear embossing powder, hot gun, Eclipse tape

Christmas Joy

Stamps:  Festive Foliage, Seasonal Flourish, Alpine Christmas (inside) - Waltzingmouse

Paper:  Rustic White, Scarlet Jewel - PTI

Ink:  Versafine Vintage Sepia, Memento Rhubarb Stalk

Accessories:  Ribbon - May Arts 

A Waltzingmouse Christmas - Day 1 - Alpine Christmas

Welcome to the first day of A Waltzingmouse Christmas!  For 4 days the Design Team will be inspiring you with all kinds of Christmas/Holiday creations using many different Waltzingmouse Stamps. Today the Design Team is highlighting a beautiful new set called Alpine Christmas.  Claire released this set at the beginning of the month along with a die set that some of the Design Team will be using today on their cards.

Today I have some clean and simple cards to share with you.   For my first card I stamped the beautiful mountain range, the village and trees nestled in the valley and one of the wonderful sentiments on a panel slightly smaller than my card base.  Look at the beautiful mix of fonts here!

Inside I stamped the larger snowflake from the set and another one of the beautiful sentiments.

For my second card I stamped the sweet little winter cottage in red coloring the windows with a yellow Copic marker.  I embossed a square on the red panel and adhered the cottage with foam dots inside the square.

I brushed the roof and the ground around the cottage with Glitter Glaze Sheer Sparkle to look like a fresh snowfall.

 And here's yet another sentiment from the set that I stamped inside this card.

And finally -  here are two cards I made and posted last week that you might have missed using this wonderful Alpine Christmas Set!

 The background strip is from Nordic Winter.

I hope you'll check out the wonderful Alpine Christmas cards made by the following Design Team Members linked below!

Anya Schrier 

 Becca Feeken

 Jeanne Jachna 

 Jen Cuthbertson
 Edna Morrisedie  

Jennifer Holmes 

 Julia Aston  - Me!

Teresa Kline 

 Karin Åkesdotter 

 Kelly Schirmer  

Kim Duran  

Laurie Schmidlin 

 Lynn Mercurio 

 Renee Lynch 

 Sandie Dunne 

 Tosha Leyendekker 

 Claire Brennan - Owner 

Mountain Range Card:

Stamps:  Alpine Christmas - Waltzingmouse

Paper:  white - PTI

Ink:  Memento Paris Dusk and Teal Zeal, Archival Jet Black

Winter Cottage Card:

Stamps:  Alpine Christmas - Waltzingmouse

Paper:  white, pure poppy - PTI

Ink:  Ranger Distress Fired Brick, Archival Jet Black

Accessories:  Copic - Y17, Glitter Glaze Sheer Sparkle - MFT, foam dots, square Nestability

Let it Snow
Stamps:  Waltzingmouse - Alpine Christmas Paper:  white, enchanted evening - PTI Ink:  Archival Jet Black, Memento Paris Dusk Accessories:  silver half pearls - Michaels

Christmas Ornament
Stamps:  Waltzingmouse - Alpine Christmas, Nordic Winter
Paper:  Vintage Cream - PTI
Ink:  Memento Rhubarb Stalk, Ranger Distress Victorian Velvet
Accessories:  2011 Heirloom Ornaments - Nestabilities, Eclipse Tape (for masking), blending tool - Ranger