Merry Mistletoe!

The current Holiday Diva Dare challenge at Verve is to make

 "A Handmade Christmas" project,

using your Verve stamps,

of course!

 I love the way the "Leafy Sprigs" die works with the "Bloom and Grow" stamps to make a perfect mistletoe branch! I simply cut and stamped 7 of the larger sprigs, and layered them with pop dots between to give it dimension. I wanted berries with some "umph" too, so I used round pearl buttons I had saved from an old sweater that had long ago been discarded.  I think it came out really nice.  I won't mind at all hanging this up over the entry during the holidays!  Off to my closet to find more buttons!  LOL!

Christmas Challenges

Simon Says Stamp  and Show has a challenge this week to "show some stars" on your card!  I pulled out this little Magnolia image from several years ago and sat her on a sparkly snow drift.  I love the Stampendous Fran*tage collection, but it doesn't show up very well in photos...

Also, this card is entered at Magnolia-licious!

(Because I could really use some new Magnolia holiday images!)

Fall's not over yet!

Let's not jump into Christmas just yet!  It's only the end of November...almost another month until Christmas.  Fall always gets cheated when it comes to celebrating.  We put up our Thanksgiving decorations and 2-3 weeks later, we take it all down.  I like to enjoy this season as long as possible.

I love owls.  I'm not obsessed like some folks (and you know whooo you are!) , but I like them.  When I moved to the desert, I was only acquainted with very different type of owls that I knew back in the Midwest.  In Arizona, you have the tiny little burrowing owls that live everywhere; in school yards, along freeways, in our subdivisions.  Then we have these amazing, huge desert creatures that fly over and leave a shadow to be feared on the ground!  I have long been aware that they could easily attack and pick up my little dog.  But, they are still so cool!

So, let's not say "goodbye" to Fall just yet!

Enjoy!

Supplies:

Papers: Jillibean Soup

Stamp; Studio 112

Die; Verve

This card will be entered in the challenge at:
Wee Memories  (woodland animal, esp. OWLS!)

Challenges Galore!

This month HAS to be the most inspiring of the year! So many challenges to help you get your Christmas/Holiday cards finished!

"Capture the Moment", has a "ruffle" challenge! I love ruffles, whether handmade out of ribbon or paper, or store bought.  I chose to make mine out of my Hug Snug ribbon to keep a soft, cream color to my card.

The sketch I used was from Card Patterns blog, flipped, of course! 

Supplies:
Stamps; Papertrey Ink, "Button Boutique"
Ribbon; Hug Snug (internet purchase)
Ink; Tim Holtz, Distress Ink, "Vintage Photo", and Quick Quotes, "Banana Bliss"

Enjoy the season, and take advantage of all the great ideas and inspiration out there!

Holiday Flourishes!

There's a new Christmas challenge at Flourishes!

The challenge is to make your card round like a wreath!

Cute idea, eh?

My Flourishes "Medallion" stamp

worked perfectly for this challenge! 

I love the romantic, detailed look of the design.

Heat embossing it in black made it really POP off the blue!

The gold tulle bow is much softer and less bulky than it looks in the picture.

The little center glass piece is one that I found at Michael's in the Dollar Bin.  It had a magnet attached to the back, but that peeled off easily!

The real bonus was the matching rub-ons!

So, I decided to finish the inside of the card by stamping the music again

and adding the vintage phonograph rub-on.

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  Bazzill Shimmer Blue

Stamps: Flourishes "Medallion"; Hampton Art, "PS0576" (Cosmo Cricket)

Die Cut: Cricut, "Art Philosophy" cartridge

Rub-Ons;  Michael's, "Vintage Finds"

Adhesive: Helmar's 450

Having a great Monday, with the weather in the 70's and sun shining all day!

Gotta love these Arizona Fall days!

Welcome Santa!

I always hang one of my Christmas wreaths on my front door, along with several others in the windows. This year may pose a bit of a problem since we have so MANY front windows...may just stick to the downstairs windows! LOL!

But this sketch from the Skipping Stones Challenge this week inspired me.  As soon as I saw it, I immediately saw a window and house siding...hmmm...I'm more a home decorator than a card maker perhaps.

So, here's my take on that sketch.  Pretty much resembles my windows...I love hanging my extra ornaments from the top and a big red ribbon holds the wreath.  Multiply that by three windows plus the front door and it makes a nice holiday statement!

The adorable wreath is part of the Skipping Stones "Everyday Blessings" set, which I embossed in deep green and then colored in with Copics.

I used an older stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms, ""Weathered Wood Backgrounder" for the house siding. I love the way the rubber is cut so deeply that the heat embossing brings out all of the detail!

Even though it's a simple card,

I think it's quickly become one of my favorites this year...

Waltzing into the holidays!

I am not a big Sunday night football fan, so I decided to start on my Christmas decorations...  I know, some of you have already finished or gotten a really good start on yours! Well, I'm a bit of a procrastinator, so I wait until one holiday gets put away before thinking about the next! With Thanksgiving and Christmas, that can be a bit dangerous.
    Waltzing Mouse has a challenge for the holidays to make place cards for our Christmas dinner table.  Whether I host at my house again this year, or we have it at someone else's, I'll be one step ahead with my cards all made for Christmas Day!

I used my Spellbinders Nestibilities Labels 18, which made it so easy to cut out the white standing cards.  Next, the coordinating Waltzing Mouse Stamp Set, "Vintage Labels 18", made the perfect highlight of gold embossing on red to turn a simple place card into a thing of beauty!  I placed a Bazzill paper Poinsettia and a few tiny sprinkles of holly and Stickles to add some sparkle to each.

I have quite a few more to go before I finish this project!

DYSU Challenge #47

Good morning and welcome to a new challenge at Do You Stack Up?! We're so glad you've joined us! This week we want to see Grass somewhere on your project!

This week's Sponsors:

Dearie Dolls Winner’s Choice of 4 Digis

Love to Stamp Winner’s Choice of 1 Little Darlings Rubber Stamp

Stitchy Bear Designs $10 Gift Voucher

Grass in December you say?

When everyone else is seeing snow outside,

those of us in Arizona are still watering our lawns and wearing short sleeves!  LOL!

I decided to go with a birthday card for a friend who's favorite color is RED!

She always comments on my red purse and is never afraid to wear a splash of color!

What better image to represent her personality?  Ladybugs, of course!

It's hard to see in the picture, but I even made the grass look "dewey" and the little ladybug's heads are 3D "puffy" paint.

Supplies used:

Digi image:  Dearie Dolls, "Ladybugs in Grass"

Cardstock: Coordinations, "Black Magic Collection"

Paper: Cosmo Cricket, "Odds and Ends"

Embossing Folder: Paper Studio, "Music Notes"

Die Cuts:  Spellbinders, Nesties, "Blossom", and Sizzix, "Flower Layers #3"

Stamp: Inkadinkado, "Paperwork Greetings"

Paint: Polymark Black paint pen

Twine and brads: my stash



I hope you enjoy the team's projects today!



Flashback Friday's - It's a Banner Day!

This week, the challenge at Flashback Friday's is to post your old first "banner" project. Well, like everyone else, I jumped on the banner bandwagon about two years ago. But before I started using the typical triangle and various shaped paper flags, I found this Christmas card that I had made using the ornaments as my "banner" hanging from a gold chain.  I still look back on it and think it was pretty nice...

Christmas 2009

 Since it IS the holiday season once again, I figured this old project would fit in nicely with the challenge.
I know you've heard me say it before, but really...these challenges are so much fun! Every time I go back into my archives of old cards and projects, I find myself laughing and sometimes crying over the memories they bring back.  Join in the fun and you will not regret it!

Vintage Handmade Christmas

I love the old, vintage look of all of the latest scrapbook products out there! One of my favorites is the "Button Boutique" set from Papertrey Ink.

I use it for all occasions, and on all sorts of projects.

This week, the Make it Monday challenge at Papertrey Ink is to put

glitter, flocking, or Perfect Pearls on your project! 

Here's my entry!

1. I started by covering a white card base with my pattern paper and rounding the two outside corners.  Attached it to the cardbase.

2. I cut my red pattern paper and rounded those corners as well to match the corners of the button card.

3. I then die cut the button card and stamped it in red.  ( Inking all the edges as I went )

4. The fun part was die cutting all of the little buttons along with the sentiment and label in chipboard and then covering them with glitter!  (Notice I slipped one little Jenni Bowlin chipboard button onto the card! And even that I clear embossed for shine!)

5. To finish, I simply layered my card, and added the gold bow and the glittered blue and green buttons and label strip.

At first, I wasn't sure I liked the vintage look combined with the sparkly glitter,

but it's growing on me!

Supplies:

Papers:  Paper Studio, "A Heartwarming Holiday", and Cosmo Cricket,

"Odds and Ends"

Stamps: Papertrey ink, "Button Boutique" and Inkadinakdo "Doodle Frames Holiday"

Glitter: Stampendous

 

Also entered at the challenge at:

Stampendous Impressions, ( Using chipboard -and used their wonderful glitter, of course)

DYSU Challenge #46

Hey everyone! Welcome back to a new challenge at Do You Stack Up?! I'm so glad you could join us! This week we want to see a Splash of Blue on your project!

This week's Sponsors:

Robyn’s Fetish Winner’s Choice of EITHER 5 Digital Stamps OR 4 Digital Stamps and 1 Paper Pack

Raindrop Echo Designs Winner’s Choice of 4 Digi Sentiment Sets

Mami Doodles 4 Digital Images

My card for this week:

The image I chose is the adorable

"Jake" from Mami Doodles playing dress up as a Pirate.

I love this paper from Quick Quotes

and the sentiment is an old ready-made by My Mind's Eye.

I just trimmed up the bottom edge with decorative scissors and inked it up!

The really cool sparkly glitters are actually the new Fran*tage Shaved Ice and Mica products from

STAMPENDOUS!

Is that not the most amazing stuff ever?! A bit of glue/adhesive,

let it set up just enough to keep the flakes from flying away,

simply hit it with your heat gun, and it melts to your card. 

The ultimate in embossing!

I was experimenting and mixed several different colors and grains,

so no one product name to give you.  Besides, I love them all!

Come on over to "Do You Stack Up"
and see what all the other Design Team gals have created!

DYSU Challenge #45

Welcome back to a new challenge at Do You Stack Up?!

 This week, we want your projects to be Inspired by a Song!

Please be sure to let us know in your post what your song is. ;)

This week's Sponsors:

JLJ Designs $10 Gift Certificate

Di’s Digi Downloads Winner’s Choice of 5 Digis

My card this week features a stamp from our sponsor,

Di's Digi Downloads, "Penguin Love".

Isn't it just too cute?

Justin Beiber

"Mistletoe"

I don't wanna miss out on the holiday,

But I can't stop staring at your face,

I should be playing in the winter snow,

But Ima be under the mistletoe.

I know, lame... but I really like this song!

(Anything with even a remotely sounding Reggae beat)

As soon as I saw the little gal and penguin on the snow drift,

I immediately thought of these lyrics!

And, I HAD to add Mistletoe, of course!

Come join the fun with us over at Do You Stack Up!
You could win a great prize!

And, as long as you're here, please add your name to my "follower" list.
I'm still aiming for that goal of 100 by December 31st!!!!

Have a great day!
Jan

DYSU Challenge #44

Now that we're moving out of the Halloween mood,

this week the challenge over at "Do You Stack Up" is especially fun!

We want to see some Teal on your project.

I know I'll be looking for teal/blue to be the main color or the POP of your project,

so pile it on!

This week's Sponsors:

The Craft’s Meow Winner’s Choice of 1 Stamp Set

Stretch ‘n Bubbles Winner’s Choice of 4 Digis

Copic Marker Scrapbooking

6 Copic Ciao Markers (North/South America),
Martha Stewart punch (rest of the world)

I was fortunate to get the most adorable stamp from one of our sponsors this week,

 "The Craft's Meow"!

I have several of their stamps and I absolutely love them all!

They lend themselves to paper piecing so well, and I can still get that little bit of Copics coloring in besides!

Sorry about the lighting. Really makes the blotchiness on her skin show up! I am working on finding a better paper... one that works with my ink jet printer.

Entered in challenge at:

4 Crafty Chicks (Die Cuts)



Hey, Neighbor!

I made a quick card for a neighbor this week. Seems like our nice, quiet street is about to grow by leaps and bounds! In the last 3 months, there have been six lots on our street alone where the builder has broken ground. The most recent is the lot directly across the street from me.  My neighbor next door to the new build is about to lose her perfect view of the mountains to the West, and the deer will have to go further down the street to cross from the golf course into our little community park area. (Of course, that may mean we lose fewer plants and flowers to them! I also suspect they drink from my courtyard fountain at night.) I will have to look OVER the new roof to see the foothills, but thankfully, it is only a single story. From our master bath, I still have a great view.

It seemed, just like this card, that someone literally DROPPED a house in the empty lot overnight!  I think it took about 2 months from frame, to walls, to stucco, to finish!

Kinda scary...

I know my neighbor will see the humor in it; besides, all you can do is laugh. The dozen or so of us couldn't have the street all to ourselves forever.

The pattern paper from DCWV, Songbird pack made this card so easy-peasy!

I simply fussy-cut the little houses and popped some up.

Dangling the new house with twine was so much fun! 

And the little birdhouses DO somewhat resemble the houses in our neighborhood! LOL!

This card will be entered into the challenge at :

Simon Says Stamp and Show (House/Home)