Pine Bough

Hello again!  I've yet another die cut Christmas card today.  This Botanicuts Pine Bough is my only die set from The Greetery.  I've had it for more than a year and am just now using it for the first time.  I dressed the glittery swag with an oldie bow, added an oldie sentiment, and hung it on a bit of designer paper against an embossed background.  The embossing is much more 3D than it appears in the photo, tsk.

It may look a little messy here, but is pretty in real life.  I stippled with white acrylic paint, then added gold glitter.  Tucked in some gold glitter branches.  The bow is one of my first ever bow dies.  It's from Impression Obsession (out of business).  I cut two and turned one upside down and layered on top of the other.  It makes for a cute string bow.

I hope your Christmas is coming along nicely!  At this point I've done only minimal decorating.  Ridley had his neuter procedure on Tuesday and I'm trying to keep him somewhat quiet (ha!).  I don't want Ridley and Sophie to think it's not okay to play, but the two of them are like Clash of the Titans when they get wound up.  It's good exercise -- zooming around the backyard and then clashing together in an exaggerated rough and tumble when one catches the other.  I love the life they bring to our home!

Happy holidays!

Stamps:  Retired Stampin' Up sentiment  Paper:  Cougar Natural, miscellaneous colored scraps for die cuts, Memory Box Christmas Plaid designer paper  Ink:  Various Stampin' Up added to die cuts, SU Handsome Hunter for sentiment  Other:  The Greetery Botanicuts Pine Bough, Impression Obsession Large Bow, Spellbinders Classic Circles Small, Spellbinders Pinecones & Berries 3D embossing folder, sequins, white acrylic paint, Golden Rod Stickles

More Cocoa Mugs

Hello again!  I did say I was going to make more of the Spellbinders cocoa mugs, so today I have two of them.  First is the penguin.  Fun and easy with a patterned paper base I'd recently made and set aside.  It's simply a grid of squares.  It's not my favorite background ever, but it's crunch time and it was available.  On the image panel I stamped the sentiment and some pretty snowflakes from the coordinating Stay Snuggly sentiment set.

Next, is the reindeer with another sentiment from Stay Snuggly.  Papers are oldies from The Vast Hoard.  I thought I'd never get around to that deer-pattern piece, but it finally found a home.

That's all today, friends.  Things are shaping up.  Happy holidays!

Joy & Warmth

Hello there!  I believe I'm done making Christmas cards for this year, but it will take me the rest of the month to share the cards I've made.  That's plenty of festivity to see me through.  Today I'm spreading joy and warmth with Penny Black.

In the rush to finish Christmas cards it was easy to forget how restful watercoloring is for me.  This was done with Stampin' Up inks.  The background was brushed on after coloring, and I drew the border with a skinny gray marker.

In the end I decided to spray with sheer shimmer sparkle which doesn't show so much in the photo, but it's pretty amazing in real life.

I'll be sending my card to two challenges today:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge -- Anything goes or snow/snowmen.  Must use a PB product, of course.
NBUS Challenge #81 -- My never before used schtuff is the Penny Black Holly Berry Bird, a gift from a dear local friend.

 

My apologies if I'm not keeping up with visits and comments as I'd like.  Regular life stuff on top of Christmas can be a little much.  It will all smooth out soon.

Happy holidays!

Stamps:  Penny Black Holly Berry Bird, Joy & Warmth  Paper:  Fabriano Artistico Extra White 140 lb hot press watercolor,  Neenah white card base not visible  Ink:  Ranger Archival Watering Can for image, Jet Black for sentiment, various SU inks for watercoloring  Other:  Imagine Sheer Shimmer Sparkle Spray, white acrylic paint for eye dot

Double D Challenge: Christmas Wrappings

Hello, friends!  Thanksgiving is over and our sights turn to Christmas.  In my home it's more low-key these days, but the spirit and the young-at-heart delight is still evident.  At Double D we're enjoying "Christmas Wrappings" of all kinds -- bows, ribbons, tags, packages.  Even designer paper can become Christmas wrappings for our challenge.  Just have fun with it!

Creative winners are by team vote, and there's a fabulous prize for a random winner:

I went with an oldie but goodie die for this one.  It's an out of business Die-namites die called Hanging Presents.  It couldn't be easier and I suppose that's why I've used it many times over the years.

Cut in gold and hung on Christmas plaid, it makes for a festive card with little effort.  I placed the pop out pieces below each present with a couple more stars down by the sentiment.  I could have made a bunch of these, but I'm terrible about producing multiples... it just doesn't happen.

Do pop over and visit the team at our Christmas Wrappings Double D Challenge.  You'll love the samples and I hope you'll enjoy this theme as much as I did!

Happy holidays!

Just Us Girls #803 -- Stencil Week

Hello and welcome!  This marks my fourth and final post as guest designer with Just Us Girls.  It's been fun and the team has been very gracious.  Before I forget, I'd like to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends as we all observe the day.  Things aren't always perfect, but there's generally something to be thankful for.

Today the prompt is "anything goes with a stencil".

I don't often remember to use my stencils, but I sure enjoy them when the time comes.  In this case I intended to go very light with the retired (?) SU River Rock ink, matching the River Rock cardstock.  If any of you have this color, you know it's a very soft, gentle green, almost a neutral -- not the near neon it appears in the photo.  My camera goes a little wonky with anything that has a yellow undertone.

In real life it made a nice background for my Penny Black Poinsettia Trio which was stamped in the same River Rock.  The lines were nicely visible long enough for me to color, and then they obligingly disappeared.  Copics did the job on Strathmore Vellum Surface Mixed Media paper, with some of the fine lines and details added courtesy of the skinny tip of a Tombow marker.  The poinsettia pot rests on a sweep of Penny Black's Graceful Holly, with gold accents to finish.

How about you and your stencils joining the JUGS team for a little play this week?  It's been fun for me!

Thank you all for your time.  Have a lovely day!

Stamps:  Penny Black Poinsettia Trio  Paper:  Strathmore Mixed Media Vellum Surface for stamp, Neenah 80 lb for stenciled background, Stampin' Up River Rock (green)  Ink:  SU River Rock  Coloring:  Copic markers, fine tip Tombow for skinny details  Other:  Penny Black Graceful Holly, Impression Obsession Holiday Bottom Word Edgers, Lawn Fawn Outside In Stitched Scalloped Rectangle Stacklets (for scalloped edge), stencil from collection found on Amazon, gold pearls, gold self-adhesive trim, Goldenrod Stickles

Gingerbread Couple for Peace on Earth Challenge

Hi again!  It's Thanksgiving week and I'm grocery shopping and cleaning house and setting out some Thanksgiving decor.  Our son will be here to visit through the weekend and I like it to be homey.  Speaking of homey, the Peace on Earth mood board is just about the cutest, most homey looking inspiration I've seen in ages!  Have a look:

I just had to play along!  My gingerbread couple are a long retired and out of business Die-namites die.   The cookies and mug are from a Cottage Cutz set, and the perfect sentiment is retired Power Poppy.

Of course, I had to add the Ric Rac Border.  I'm surprised those dies are not worn out yet, I've used them so often over the years.  The sparkly gold bow and stars have punched glitter centers for low dimension.  Oh, and how about that gingham and polka dot background?  I can't help but smile!

Not one bit of anything new was used on this card, just this and that from the toy box.  What fun!

Our friends at the Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge are celebrating their 100th challenge.  Congratulations Diane and Darlene and all the team designers who create such wonderful samples!  There are two prize packages kindly being shared, too.  The Two D's put an amazing lot of work into the bazillion challenges they run, and I would just like to say "thank you"!

Happy holidays, everyone!

Stamps:  Retired Power Poppy sentiment  Paper:  Neenah 80 & 110 lb white, other scraps, mixed designer papers from The Vast Hoard  Ink:  Memento Rich Cocoa for sentiment, other Stampin' Up for die cuts  Coloring:  Ink blending with brushes, Copics for small parts  Dies:  All oldies -- Die-namites Gingerbread Couple, Memory Box Stitched Circle Layers and Stitched Scalloped Circles, Cottage Cutz Warm & Cozy Cocoa, Taylored Expressions Ric Rac Borders, Impression Obsession Small Snowflake Set, Bow from a TH Sizzix set  Other:  1/8" hole punch for tiny circles

Joyful Moose

Hi there!  I'm still working on Christmas cards.  It's a time consuming process and delightful, though I won't be sorry when I'm done with them for this year.  I need to simplify, but I have all these new toys yet to use, sigh.  Today I'm playing along in Jo's Christmas Kickstart Challenge:

I wanted to make something fun for the "Just Add Antlers" prompt, and use something from my NBUS basket in the process.  In this case it's the Tim Holtz Forest Shadows set (trees and stars), which made a good background for my previously enjoyed TH Merry Moose.

It's mostly retired Stampin' Up sandable cardstock.  Love that stuff and have a tendency to hoard it, tsk, but it's so fun!  The trees are plain cardstock, SU Basic Gray in the front, black in the back.  I wanted to make the very dark Basic Gray more interesting so I swiped the Basic Gray ink pad directly over the trees, bottom to top.  The darker patches are the ink.  I was pleasantly surprised at the result.

Patches of snow were added with sparkly flocking.  There is Stickles sparkle on the stars and on the moose accessories.  The "joy" is plain cardstock and also TH Sizzix.  I'm gradually adding to my Tim Holtz collection when it's on sale.

Many thanks to Christmas Kickstart for heading me in this direction.  I thoroughly enjoyed it!

I mustn't forget Darnell's NBUS Challenge #80, either.  She's a cheerleader in our efforts to reduce our piles of never before used schtuff.  As mentioned, my NBUS today is the Forest Shadows die.

I appreciate all of you for stopping by to visit.  It's nice to take a moment now and then.  Be well and stay crafty!

Stamps:  Only inside sentiment  Paper:  Various retired Stampin' Up sandable cardstock, black, other various scraps  Ink:  SU Basic Gray, Copics to color moos accessories  Dies:  Tim Holtz Sizzix Merry Moose, Forest Shadows, Holiday Words Script  Other:  Diamond Stickles, Sparkly Fluff (flocking)

Just Us Girls #802 -- Mood Board Week

Hi friends!  Here I am again with my third guest appearance with Just Us Girls.  This week they have a fun mood board for our inspiration.  I love a mood board!  How about you?

Here's a bigger look at the inspiration:

When you look at my card you may wonder where the inspiration is.  Honestly, I was thinking of the mug and the stars.  Somewhere along the line I forgot this Santa is a mug (see the handle?) and I made his hat red and even added a pom pom which I thought Spellbinders must have forgotten.  It wasn't until the card was done and photographed and up on the blog that I realized where I went wrong.  I suppose we can pretend you remove his hat to sip the cocoa, sheesh.

He's still cute, though.  The die set is Spellbinders Cocoa Greetings, and it includes the makings for a penguin and a reindeer mug.  I'll have better luck with those and you'll be seeing them shortly.

The card base was pulled from my stash of made-ahead card bases.  This one was complete with the embossed panel and all I had to do was add the peppermint stripe paper to make it ready for my focal panel.  A closer look below... you can picture in your mind's eye the much greater degree of sparkle than the camera picked up.

That's all for today!  Come along to Just Us Girls and be inspired by the fabulous team cards, and then show us yours.  You all amaze me with your ideas!

Have a happy day!

Stamps:  Spellbinders Stay Snuggly clear stamp and die of the month (July this year)  Paper:  Neenah Classic Crest Super Smooth Solar White 80 & 110 lb, scraps colored CS, copper glitter CS, scrap designer paper  Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Dies:  Spellbinders Cocoa Greetings small die of the month (July this year), Spellbinders Essential Stylish Ovals, Sizzix Primitive Stars  Other:  Spellbinders Christmas Wrap embossing folder, Diamond Stickles, dimensional foam dots