christmas tags

Doubt that there is much traffic in blogland today, but I'm sharing a couple tags I finally got around to after being totally inspired by Tracey M.'s series 25 Tags of Christmas. Which is ending today. There is a Flickr group if you want an inspiration overload :)

There were multiple shaker tags. What a cool idea. Loved the idea of letting a pretty PP shine as the shaker backing. Used a PTI tag and Waltzingmouse sentiment. I'm joining the Anything Goes fun at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.

On this one I was inspired by some tags which were heat embossed and watercolored with shimmery paints. I didn't achieve nearly the same shimmer, but oh well.  Thought the floating vellum circle with the embossed circular Penny Black sentiment worked well with the rest of the tag.

I did heat emboss a couple of the snowflakes (PTI) with holographic embossing powder which adds some interest and a bit more sparkle. And added a big ole sparkly Marianne Creatables snowflake. Can ya see it? (tee hee hee)

It's actually a tag card. Did some simple stamping of the images on the inside and softened them a bit with my water brush. I'm playing at Cards and More #120 Simply Blue and Inkspirational #70 No Red or Green and Time Out #19 Embossing with Sparkle.

This was the result of my post-perusing (Tracey's blog) crafting session. The ornament tag is blogged here. These were such fun to make and will adorn the bags of cookies we are making for neighbors this year. Yippie! More to come soon. Thanks for visiting.

oh christmas tree... which isn't

actually a Christmas tree stamp.

See the Sweet Stamp Shop Sparkle and Shine set?

 Meet my card.

Started with a stitched rectangle die cut stamped with that gem (once in Adirondack Bottle and once in Lettuce and then swiped lightly with my water brush) and given white embossed dot trunks. Balanced with a die cut Impression Obsession cardinal and a Technique Tuesday sentiment, stamped onto the base and die cut for interest.

Now, See the Aha Arts Geometric Borders set?

Meet my card.

Get the picture.

Squeaking in before the gates close at Craft Stamper's Take It, Make It for November. Use a non-Christmas stamp to make a Christmas card. OK :)

Also joining the fun at Stempelkueche #8 Untypische Weihnachtskarte. I think this qualifies as a non-typical Christmas card.

And cuz I really do love red and green at Christmas and that's what Bonnie wished for over at Merry Monday.

Thankful... for your visit. Have a lovely Thanksgiving.

th acorn nks

We celebrated Thanksgiving last Sunday since there is no Thanksgiving holiday in Germany. But for about 20 years we've been cooking the dinner and enjoying it with friends who either are American or who have spent time in America so that they really "get" it. There were 12 of us this year and I'm still enjoying the leftovers :)

I'd like to take this chance to wish all my American blog buddies a wonderful Thanksgiving, filled with laughter and good eats. This one's for you.

Did some paper piecing with fall papers and one of my favorite MFT alpha dies. The papers are Simple Stories Harvest Lane. Substituted the acorn from Paper Smooches Falling for You for the "a". Kinda fun, eh?

Big hug to ya'll. Thanks for making me a happy blogger. And don't eat too much, at least not in one sitting ;)

I'm joining the fun at:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Thanks
AAA Cards - Thanksgiving

Catered Crop - a great challenge that is closing its doors with an Anything Goes

pti november blog hop

It's the 25th of the month and it's time.

This month it's all about snow so this is what I did. I must tell you, I spent awhile at Tracey M.'s today, perusing all the tags she and her guests have made for her series 25 Tags of Christmas. My tag is a morph of several beauties I saw over there.

Used the Snowflake Flurries from PTI heat embossed with glitter powder to give the ornament some pep. Die cut a window to create a shaker which I filled with a medley of glittery sequins and backed with some PP.  Created an ornament topper with silver glitter CS and added fuzzy silver thread through a punched hole on the back layer to hang it with.

TIP: Instead of messing with foam adhesive, die cut a "frame" from craft foam and use that between your layers. See the shadow of mine? It's red foam. I use Matte Medium to glue it all together.

A close-up of all that sparkly embossing. I'm joining the ladies at Festive Friday for challenge #45. And Fusion for Sparkly Christmas. Yep! And lastly, Uniko Studio where it's Anything Goes.

Happy hopping. Happy turkey eating. And may you have snow only if you're not travelling this weekend!

not quite leger

The adjective "leger" in German means casual. In fashion, casual and somewhat sloppy. As in, laying around the house in your sweats. Certainly not what Herve Leger had in mind with this:

If you zoom in, there's a golden sheen to the dress which made me grab my shimmer CS from DCWV. I stamped some Inkadinkado mistletoe on it and then added some bling in a nod to the pink and orange on the rest of the dress.

Then I framed the stamped piece with black CS and heat embossed some beaded corners with gold in a nod to the studs running along all the panels of the dress. A WMS sentiment from Festive Foliage finished it off.

I'm also joining the gals at Time Out where #19 is about Embossing with the optional element of sparkle. Got both! Thanks for looking.

STAMPlorations sketch #24

Time for the last STAMPlorations sketch of 2014. Crazy eh?

A sketch so much to my liking, I used it for a card I made for a multi-ink stamping submission call. It wasn't accepted. Turns out no cards were. Paper Crafts and Scrapbooking magazine is closing its doors. Bummer. Tangent.

Aren't these Trendy Leaves fabby? I inked them with Distress and Adirondack inks. Spritzed with some water. Stamped them a second time, just inking the edges of the stamps with a darker shade of ink. So much fun.

Added a sentiment from Holiday Artsy cuz I thought they looked like the last leaves of autumn. Kinda sad. And added one dew drop (Glossy Accents) to the red leaf.

The challenge will be open until December 28th. As always there are prizes to be had. You can even enter three times. Julie B. is joining us as guest designer. Check out her card and those from the DT. Join us if you have a moment.

krafty Christmas part 2

Finally got my package off to Vera Y. for the Caring Hearts card drive. Do you know about it? Handmade cards to be distributed to people in nursing homes. I spent a lot of time in one when I was a kid, visiting my Grandma. Lotsa residents don't get many visitors. It must be rough at the holidays. If you live in the US or Canada you can probably still get your cards in before the deadline on November 28!

I played along with the Curtain Call challenge.

Here is one card.

Here is the whole family. So easy using the SSS Layered Tree which I die cut from five PPs, then assembled mixing and matching. Added a sentiment from STAMPlorations (sponsoring the Curtain Call challenge) Joyful and some twine.

I'm in trouble if the recipients can read German. The old book page is from some ten cent book about why women want to get married and men don't!

These krafty cards with tags are going to The Card Concept #23

krafty Christmas part 1

I was totally inspired by the color schemes over at Make the Day Special recently.

Pulled out Paper Smooches Winter Groves, Warm Hearts and Christmas Sampler stamp sets and my Avery Elle Word Fill in the Blank and this is what happened.

First off, same design using the first and second color schemes.

Added the red glitter die cut letters to the sentiment and a silver shimmer star to the top of this one.

And some embossing paste stencilled Falling Snow to this one. So I'm hooking up at a new-to-me challenge (it's already #7) at Stempelkueche.

Next up, a card design using the first and third color schemes.

The first colored with markers, the second with colored pencils. Nothing fancy but a nod to the trend of grouping illustrated images.

I'm playing at:
AEIU challenge #18

The Card Concept #23

Thanks for looking. Enjoy your weekend wherever you may be. Sunday is Turkey Day in our neck of the woods. We'll be eating leftovers when you are eating your bird. Guten Appetit!

day 5 of STAMPlorations november release hop

Welcome to Day 5, the last day of the November Stamp Release Blog Hop here at STAMPlorations! For complete info on our hop, including how you can win stamps, click here.

Today, we're putting the spotlight on Trendy Leaves. Don't forget to leave comments for a chance to win the set.

For my project I combined this set with Typografia: Encouragement. Cuz when I saw the sentiment I thought of "mighty oaks from little acorns grow". Amazes me every time I see that power burst forth from that little nut.  (Crazy squirrels bury these things all over my folks' property. I'm talkin' from experience here!) Tangent.

Meet my mighty-oak-in-training.

Too lazy to look for a line stamp, I painted a seedling stem with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink. Inked up the two oak leaves with Shabby Shutters . Then inked just the outer edges - left leaf with Peeled Paint, right with Hero Arts Field Greens -and spritzed with water before stamping. Splattered before heat embossing the sentiment with Liquid Platinum powder.

TIP: If you use an acrylic block to dab DI onto to paint with, use your water brush to flick the leftover as teensy splatters onto the card. Thanks for the tip, Julie Ebersole ;)

Look at that shine. Purty, isn't it? I love this embossing powder. Hope you've enjoyed our week of hopping. The entire release is 15% off until November 25th. Just sayin' ;)

*** The stops in the hop*** 

STAMPlorations Blog

Debra | Deepti | Kylie | Maria | Monika | Nonni | Shery | Shirley |Vicki

simply create too 75

Challenge #75 at Simply Create Too is easy peasy this time of the year. "Snow, snow, snow" or "Make a card with just white" are the themes.

This is what I made.

Make card from CS. Trim watercolor paper panel. Apply Distress inks (blues and lilac) to large acrylic block, spritz with Perfect Pearls/water mixture and press block onto spritzed paper. When dry, die cut Kesi Art Flocons snowflake from panel, saving all tiny pieces. Die cut snowflake from chevron PP.  Adhere double sided tape to copy paper, adhere watercolor panel, snowflake and all tiny pieces. Adhere aluminum tape to scrap paper and die cut Kesi Art Avent sentiment. Adhere to panel. Adhere panel to card with dimensional adhesive. Punch snowflakes and adhere with sequins.

Voila!

Couldn't resist playing at:

Cards and More #119 - Snowflakes

Check out the DT work for some all white beauties and then simply create, too!

day 4 of STAMPlorations november release hop

Welcome to Day 4 of the November Stamp Release Blog Hop here at STAMPlorations! For complete info on our hop, including how you can win stamps, click here.

Today, we're putting the spotlight on CityGirl, another fabulous stamp set that Shirley Bampton designed. We'll be picking one commenter to win this set so c'mon fashionistas, leave a comment here and on the rest of the STAMPlorations girls' posts for a chance to win.

I made two cards. Challenged as I am when it comes to coloring, I went B/W on the first one.

Only added Glossy Accents to her shades and some pink lips. I think it works well with the doodled frame. For some pizazz I added a sentiment die cut from stamped vellum and the secondary sentiment from the set. And that smidgen of Freckled Fawn thin washi? I think it's so cool ;)

TIP: Make a dot in the corners of your card before doodling a frame. Gives you a starting point and destination for your eye/pen when you draw the lines.

More B/W on the second one, but I added some paper piecing with PP from Basic Grey's PBJ. And a heat embossed sentiment and two black gems.

Remember to comment on all the stops to increase your chances of winning stamp sets. Good luck.

*** The stops in the hop*** 

STAMPlorations Blog

Debra | Deepti | Kylie | Maria | Monika | Nonni | Shery | Shirley |Vicki

day 3 of STAMPlorations november release hop

Welcome to Day 3 of the November Stamp Release Blog Hop here at STAMPlorations! For complete info on our hop, including how you can win stamps, click here.

Today, we're putting the spotlight on TYPOGRAFIA. We'll be picking one commenter to win this set so leave a comment here and on the rest of the STAMPlorations girls' posts for a chance to win the set.

Here's my project...

I "focused" on the word "light" and decided to ink up the stamp using markers so that I could give each word/letter individual treatment. And I used a brush stroke from Holiday Artsy to create some rays of light in Adirondack Sunshine and Hero Arts Butter Bar behind my sentiment panel. I inked the edges of the panel and mounted it on black CS before adhering to the card.

Happy hopping. Hope you like what you see.

*** The stops in the hop*** 

STAMPlorations Blog

Debra | Deepti | Kylie | Maria | Monika | Nonni | Shery | Shirley |Vicki

day 2 of STAMPlorations november release hop

Welcome to Day 2 of the November Stamp Release Blog Hop here at STAMPlorations! For complete info on our hop, including how you can win stamps, click here.

Today, we're putting the spotlight on VIGNETTE: Eat Drink Be Merry. If you visited my blog last week, did you guess our special guest designer correctly after seeing the coffee images?!?!? Yep, it's the oh-so-sweet and amazingly talented Amy Tsuruta! We'll be picking one commenter to win this set so leave a comment here and on the rest of the STAMPlorations girls' posts for a chance to win the set.

I couldn't resist those martini glasses. Here's what I did.

Looks like a party to me!  Made some guiding pencil marks (which you can see did not ensure perfect placement :( ) And I used markers to ink each glass (since the image is two glasses) with a color. Spritzed once with water, then stamped. Stamped the sentiment and then dry embossed the panel with  Sizzix Christmas Dots. Added Wink of Stella to the glasses and the "bubbles" in the center.

Enjoy the rest of the hop.

*** The stops in the hop*** 

STAMPlorations Blog

Debra | Deepti | Kylie | Maria | Monika | Nonni | Shery | Shirley |Vicki

Special Guest Designer: Amy Tsuruta