CUTplorations December

image source: Print and Pattern

There's a new bear in town! Meet our inspiration photo for the December CUTplorations challenge. I did make a card with a bear which you'll see shortly, but today I'm sharing another use-up-some-of-that-PP-stash kinda card.

Easy peasy. Found some old October Afternoon PP with these ice skaters on it and thought Warm Winter Wishes phrase die in glossy red CS would look good smack dab in the midst of them. Added a few snowflakes for more interest and a strip of contrasting PP along the bottom!

Sure hope you'll find time to take a break at this busy time of year and join us for some die cutting fun! Any chance this winter will find you in ice skates?!?!?

I'm joining the Warm oder Kalt challenge over at Danipeuss. Got both on my card ;)

And at Dies R Us #62 where it's all about Christmas. This is going out as one of my Christmas cards this year. And at Simon Says Stamp Work it Wednesday for November - Use Dies.

day 1 ARTplorations stencil hop

Welcome to our week of fun with ARTplorations stencils from STAMPlorations!

I've got a fully-loaded Christmas card for you. Ready?

Took my Just Squares stencil and stamped a lacy BG stamp onto it, flipped it over and "stamped" it onto my CS panel, hoping it would add interest to the white areas between the squares I was going to color. Epic fail. I'm callin' it selective splatter. You're probably thinking "looks like little specks of dirt on her card!"

Taped down the stencil and sponged silver and gold Delicata pigment ink randomly. Added a few squares of silver and gold embossing paste for texture and since you can't have too much shine on a holiday card, right?

I'm diggin' the plaid that seems to be gaining popularity these days. Found a PP in an old October Afternoon pad and die cut a label. Die cut the poinsettias and created the flowers. Die cut the sentiment and heart from glitter CS. (I predicted gold and silver together as a trend for 2015. I better use it before the year runs out!) Added some bunched-up gold thread and a heat embossed sentiment from Sentiment Builders: Christmas and New Year and voila!

Take a look at your stencils and see if you can use a non-Christmas one to make a Christmas card!

Check out what the rest of the team made! You'll find links to all our projects, a flash stencil project linky and the blog hop deets here. Thanks for visiting!

I'm taking my Christmas card to the "Gold" challenge at ARTastic, inspired by the shine in this piece;

to Simon Says Work it Wednesday for November 2015;

and Happy Little Stampers Mixed Media Challenge where it's Anything Goes.

shapes and stamps and sequins oh my! (Curtain Call, PC, Stamplorations)

Fat and happy, that's me.  Fat cuz I ate too much of our Thanksgiving dinner yesterday.  And I might have just snitched the last of the chocolate mousse while writing this post... And happy cuz it went well.  And cuz it's over...

Anyhoo, where's the card, you ask?

Started out as an idea to create a blue star card.  Cuz that's what I got from the Curtain Call inspiration photo.  See 'em on the tree?

Well I knew I wanted to play at a new challenge I discovered from my pal Shirley B., Stamplorations.  I'm diggin' those stamps.  So the challenge calls for stamping and sequins.

Only problem was I got sidetracked by this nifty October Afternoon Holiday Style - great retro feel to this line.  Love the blue tone so decided to go with it.  Made a shaker star-shaped card, trapping sequins between the card and the layer of recycled packaging I stitched on.  Stamping was then limited to the embellies - the candy cane and sentiment up top - both embossed to keep up with the shiny-ness of the project ;)

Also placing this into the Paper Crafts November gallery challenge where it's all about sequins!

Happy (real) Thanksgiving week to ya'll.

Supplies for merry and bright:

Paper:  cardbase Bringmann, PP October Afternoon, recycled packaging

Stamps: sentiment WMS

Ink : Versamark

Tools: star die Sizzix, holly die MFT

Other: sequins

wms nov pajama party (wms, Stampotique)

Time for another Pajama Party over at Waltzingmouse Stamps.  A few items to share with you so I'll just get to it ...

Challenge 1 - Thank you 

Did some splattering with Distress Stain direct to paper, some stamping with grunge stamps and a big ole sentiment.  I'm  joining the fun over at Stampotique with this card too.  Challenge #126 calls for paint splatters.  Yep.

Challenge 2 - A Christmas card

I absolutely love this bloom from the Waltzingmouse Poinsettias stamp set.  Decided to let it do its thing on kraft with half of a Tim Holtz sentiment stamp from the Christmas Memories stamp set heat embossed in black.  Just a peek of Pink Paislee Luxe metallic CS along the side to tie in with the golden bling in the center of the bloom.

Challenge 3 - Tag it!

Claire, hope you're smiling ;)))  That's the mistletoe image from Festive Foliage (and there are now matching dies for this stamp set!) on a kraft tag and wearing a ruffled skirt.

Challenge 4 - Decorate the halls (or presents or tree or both!)

Remember this technique - heat embossing multiple times and then stamping in the still-warm-top-layer?  Made these as tags for presents that can later make their way onto the Christmas tree.  Used some older- but-loved October Afternoon PP along with recycled packing paper on these.

Don't stay up all night, now.  Sweet dreams ya'll...

daddy's little girl (Moxie Fab, CASOS, SSS, KIS)

Gold embossing and one specific stamp.  Having those two things in mind I whipped up this card. Well, it was "whipped up" after I spent 20 minutes deciding which PPs to use...  That's what ya get for having too much of the stuff.

Very simple, very sweet with all the emphasis on that sentiment.  Which is heat embossed in gold. As the card was laying on the dining room table waiting to be photographed, it dawned on me that it would make a great cover for a brag book for a Daddy.  Can't you picture him having one at his desk with some photos of his little girl? Can't you picture the ladies in the office going gaga over it? Hmmm, do we want the ladies at the office going gaga over the fathers of our little girls?!?!?

I'm playing at four challenges with this card:
Simon Says Stamp - Use SSS product (the Inkadinkado stamp set)
CAS on Sunday - Oh, Baby
ETA: Keep it Simple - #23 Flowers
Moxie Fab World - All that Glitters is Gold

I will forever be a fan of gold embossing powder, even if it's not trending.  I think it's that magical moment when the stuff does its thing and turns from powder into something most non-cardmakers never dreamed you could make at home ;)

As for Miss Ellie (yep, that's her name)... 12 weeks and definitely EVERYBODY'S little girl in our family.

Thanks for visiting today.

Supplies for daddy's little girl:

Paper: CS  Bringmann, PP October Afternoon

Stamps:  Inkadinkado

Ink : Versamark

Tools: scallop die Amuse

Other: gold embossing powder, crochet thread

triangles or banners or both (Moxie Fab, CFC)

Couple cards to share with you that use triangles as banners for some easy graduation cards.  I had "the sky's the limit" in mind on these...

Little detour here... You know how to hand-cut triangles that are all the same size easily?  Flip your PP over and draw yourself a grid like the one on this card.

Let's say you want your triangles 2" high and 1" wide.  Draw horizontal lines 2" apart from each other then make marks at 1", 2", 3", etc. along the first line.  Then make marks at 1/2", 1 1/2", 2 1/2", etc along the second horizontal line.  Then connect the dots and cut along the lines. Get it? Pencil lines are on the reverse so who cares ;)

Joining the Trendy Triangle fun at Moxie Fab World.  Didn't know I had such a thang for triangles. Don't remember it being that way in high school math class...  And I squeaked a button on the first one, just hope it's CAS enough for CASual Fridays Buttons challenge.

Appreciate your visit.

Supplies for hey grad:

Paper: cardbase Papermania,  PP October Afternoon

Stamps: BG Hero Arts

Ink : Distress Inks 

Tools: corner rounder, decorative edge scissors, sewing machine

Other: button, twine, letter stickers KI memories

parade of rejects: quince hues (CFC)

Back to the rejects.

So, there was this submission call to create cards using Design Seeds color palettes.  Love those.  But to create a card based purely on a color palette (no white or black allowed!) is truly challenging for me.  So many possibilities and that makes my life SOOO difficult.  I cannot wait to see the cards selected for that issue!

I went with a design I had used earlier and made a baby card cuz I thought the colors would work.

Image Credit

Some misting, some PP circles, some stitching and sequins.  A less-than-perfectly-aligned stamped sentiment... was that the kicker?  Or too many colors in the PPs.  Don't know.  Never will.  That's OK.  It's been used already :)

I'm joining the challenge at CASual Fridays #109 cuz I've got dots even if they're not doing the polka.

Thanks for watching.  More from this series to come.

Supplies welcome baby:

Paper: CS Papermania, PP October Afternoon

Stamps: Paper Smooches

Ink: Glimmer Mists spray ink, Versamagic

Tools: punch EKS, sewing machine

Other: sequins

Pattern Play Day 2 revisited (CQC)

Here's another idea from Pattern Play, this one from Laura B., queen bee of line stamping as well as one of the first cardmakers that I remember stamping on PP for that little somethin' extra.  I didn't go with lines, but rather "baby blocks."

Die cut letters, adhered temporarily, stamped "blocks", stamped sentiment, stitched letter stickers to MORE PP and adhered.  Stitched and inked panel and adhered to cardbase.

Also playing at Color Q :

Thanks for looking.

Supplies welcome baby boy:

Paper: cardbase Buttinette, PP October Afternoon

Stamps: block Hero Arts, sentiment Paper Smooches

Ink : Hero Arts, Jenny Bowlin, Aladine, Versafine

Tools: scissors, sewing machine, alpha die Sizzix

Other:  letter stickers Bo Bunny

thump (PS, ATCAS, KIS, SSS, TPE)

Don't make a lot of lovey dovey cards... This is as gushy as I get.

I do love the humor in Paper Smooches stamp sets!  The inside reads "i'm in love".  Decided upon the design of frog on a log and stamped Mr. Frog in his spot with the sentiment at his feet.  Had to give him a heat embossed gold crown.  Of course.  Ever seen a frog without a crown?  Added PP strip to the bottom and the dry embossed woodgrain piece with two cross-stitches with dimensional adhesive.  Added the two red hearts and two green blings to balance things out and make a triangle (I do remember some of what I learned in Moxie Fab design school).

Challenges I'm parking at:
Paper Smooches Sparks - Feb 4 Trend Watch polka dots
Addicted to CAS - #5 Hearts
Keep it Simple - #6 Dry Embossing
The Pink Elephant - #185 for my red/white color choice

Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes (cuz 1120 is my lucky number ;)

Happy Mardi Gras week.  Off to another "Sitzung-gucken-dass-ist-schwer"...

Supplies for thump:

Paper:CS Neenah, PP October Afternoon

Stamps: Paper Smooches

Ink : Versacolor, sentiment Versafine

Tools: embossing folder Craft Concepts

Other: twine, embossing powder, bling