PP520 Christmas is in the Air

Happy Sunday, peeps!  Time for a new Paper Players challenge with the clever and talented Joanne as our hostess! Here we go:

Are you finished creating your cards yet?  This prompt has several ideas to give you a little boost!  I chose the upper right hand corner...I love the look of the lit tree against the blue background.  It was a little more challenging than I had anticipated, but in the end, I was happy with it:

I started with some Night of Navy cardstock and stamped and embossed a fir tree and snowflakes in white.  I added a scrolly sentiment: 

It looked a little odd just sort of floating groundless, so I created some sponged hills:

and stamped some bare trees behind them.  Then I added shading with some Night of Navy ink.  I don't do "scenes" very well, so this was a bit of a stretch for me!  In hindsight, I would have liked to have added some more tiny snowflakes in the sky, but I didn't want to mess it up, LOL!

Finally, on the inside, a pretty sentiment from the For Unto Us set:

I hope you'll play along with us....I know time is getting tight and people are busy, but we'd love to see your creations!  You can see the DT's cards at the Paper Players blog....stop by and get some more inspiration!

We did shopping AND wrapping yesterday:

She wrapped the dogs' gifts in Troll wrapping paper!

And we hand-stamped our tags because, well, it's just more fun....and Grammy couldn't find the store-bought ones until AFTER we finished wrapping!

Thanks for popping in today---enjoy your day and be blessed!

 

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	For Unto Us, Trees (Flourishes), Frosted Christmas (Kaiser)
Card stock & Papers	Night of Navy, Whisper White
Ink	Craft White, Night of Navy
Accessories	Dimensionals, White Embossing Powder
Tools	Heat Tool, Sponges

FMS464 Celebrate the Season

Hi peeps!  Just a quick post with a quick card and a quick little sketch!  The FMS sketch is a sweet one this week:

The prints in the Classic Christmas DSP line are so sweet; this particular one looks amazing with a W+9 diecut tree from Tiny Trees Two:

I gave my card lots of layers and polka dot embossing:

and some heat embossing of an Itty Bitty Christmas sentiment:

Now Cassidy and I are off to do some Christmas shopping for Mommy and Wayne...and probably the pups, too!  Thanks for popping in today, enjoy it and be blessed!

"Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.  This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us.  For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything."  I John 3:18-20

AYSI240 Warm Holiday Greetings

Happy Friday, peeps!  Do you have something fun planned this weekend? I am late with putting up my tree, so I think I'll work on that!  Today's As You See It Challenge is a recipe....not a cookie one but a card one!  Check it out:

 

Such a fun recipe it is, too!  So here we go with my take on it:

I started with the sketch from Christmas 24:

Next, I went searching for some fun papers....of course, I have tons of papers, particularly Christmas papers, so when I narrowed my choices down, I went to work layering some coordinating ones on a Riding Hood Red card.  I couldn't help but use another coordinating piece to stamp and diecut some cute winter wear from W+9:

I embellished them with some stamped snowflakes and hologram stickers from my stash and tied them together with a piece of Old Olive Linen Thread.  The sentiments are diecuts from Concord & 9th, also doodadded up with stickers.  I added a few more snowflakes from a past Paper Pumpkin kit just for fun:

And another Paper Pumpkin sentiment on the inside:

A fun recipe for a fun Christmas card!  Hope you'll play along with our challenge this week; can't wait to see what you create for As You See It!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Holiday Cheer (W +9), Paper Pumpkin (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Riding Hood Red, Old Olive, Naturals White (ret), Mad 4 Plaid DSP (Photoplay), Nostalgia DSP (Authentique)
Ink	Mossy Meadow, Riding Hood Red, Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive
Accessories	Holograms from my stash, Old Olive Linen Thread (ret)
Tools	Big Shot, Holiday Cheer Dies (W+9), Tasteful Label Dies, Season of Cheer Dies (Concord &9th), 1/2" Circle Punch

IB153 Poinsettia Sympathy

Hello, stampers and happy Thursday!  Time for a new Inspired By challenge...isn't this a cute one?  So clever!   

And here's the optional sketch to use..or not!

All the makin's for some fun snowman goodies!  I went in a bit of a different direction, however; I found out earlier in the week that my cousin Michael lost his battle with a rare form of cancer.  We found out only weeks ago that it was terminal, but it was still a shock when we got the news.  Our grandfather started a florist business back in the 1920s; his son, my uncle Kenny, took over it and then Michael after my uncle went into semi-retirement. Now Michael's brother Brian is running the business.  Why am I telling you all of this?  Going to the "greenhouse" and its particularly wonderful smell, is a part of my childhood that is very special to me, especially at Christmas.  There would be hundreds of poinsettias and other amazing holiday creations (along with that wonderful smell), and so I thought it would be fitting to use poinsettias on a sympathy card for Michael's family.  I chose to pull the Seaside Spray and Basic Gray from the challenge photo for my colors:

The Spot has a "CASE the Designer" challenge this week, so I chose this card and sketch of Andrea's, turning mine in the landscape orientation:

Poinsettias come in so many colors nowadays; I used the smallest one from Poinsettia Petals, stamping it in my Stamparatus twice with Seaside Spray ink to get a darker color, then filling in with the "fill" stamp:

I diecut them with the matching die; added a piece of white organdy ribbon on top of the Basic Gray DSP from last year, then finished them with silver metallic pearls.  After stamping the sentiment in Memento Black, I ran the top layer through the Pinewood Planks EF.  One of my favorite verses from an old Daily Bread Designs set was stamped on the inside:

I hope it brings some comfort to Michael's family.  And I hope you'll find some inspiration in our Inspired By photo too...the DT made some really fun cards; their creativity continues to amaze me!  

Thanks so much for popping in today!  And here's a picture from around 1962 of Michael, my sister Joyce and me at my grandmother's house on Christmas day! I particularly remember that Christmas because I wanted drum majorette boots, which I got; however as I trudged around in them all day long, the tassels began to fall out one by one, much to my dismay--and my mom and grandmother's! We were still finding them weeks later! 

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

 

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Itty Bitty Greetings, Poinsettia Petals, Scripture Collection 2 (Our Daily Bread Designs)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Seaside Spray, Basic Gray DSP (ret)
Ink	Seaside Spray, Memento Black
Accessories	Silver Metallic Pearls, Flowers for Every Season Ribbon, Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Pinewood Planks EF, Poinsettia Dies

Happy Santa for the Krafty Chicks

Happy Thursday, peeps!  I am thrilled that the gals at Krafty Chicks asked me to be the guest designer for December!  Woohoo!  Their theme for the first week of the month is Stamp Act...anything using a stamp, with Leanne (not me) as the hostess!  

Of course, this close to Christmas, I chose some Christmas stamps...good ole Santa! 

I actually had this card partially started from a stamp camp I attended last year, but never finished it!  I thought it would be a good idea to finish it up, so I stamped a CTMH Santa, colored him in with some Blends and fussy-cut him out.  The sentiment is also from CTMH and it fit perfectly on a Stitched Nested Label die:

I added some Playful Pets black and white twine and some Wink of Stella, and he's ready to go!  Here's the inside with some other CTMH sets:

I hope you'll play along with the Krafty Chicks this week and share your stamped creation!  See you there! 

My nephews LOVE their sweets.....as you can tell how they are anxiously awaiting my sister cutting her pies on Thanksgiving day.  However, they decided cherry pie was not sweet enough and cheesecake...well their little taste buds just weren't quite ready for that elegant dessert!  (But John ate the pie and I had some cheesecake!!!)

Luckily Aunt Le had some cookie dough ice cream...more to their liking!  Thanks for popping in today--enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Love With All the Trimmings, Whimsical Holiday, Christmas Script (all Close to My Heart)
Card stock & Papers	CTMH papers (unknown names)
Ink	Memento Black, Real Red
Accessories	Playful Pets Twine
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Nested Labels Dies, Wink of Stella, Blends

TCC145 Elegant Christmas

Happy Wednesday, peeps!  A new Card Concept Challenge is upon us...check out this beauty:

 

I have to admit that I struggled a wee bit with this challenge...these are just not colors that I normally gravitate to, but as I said, I have been having fun perusing my older stamps, and this Christmas Collage set came to mind, with its scrolls and elaborate designs, so I thought to emboss it in gold on black for a Classy and Elegant card:

I wanted to add some Very Vanilla to lighten it up a bit; I just got the For Unto Us set, so I stamped one of the smaller sentiments and diecut it with a Stitched Rectangle die, adding a layer of Gold Glimmer paper behind it along with some retired velveteen ribbon:

Although you can't tell here, the gold embossed poinsettia from Poinsettia Petals is actually two layers: Vellum and Very Vanilla.  I tucked it down into the corner, then layered everything on a Very Vanilla card:

Finally, I added another sentiment to the inside:

That's it for today!  I hope you'll play along with our challenge this week; you could use any of the elements, colors or theme for your creation!  Share it with us over at The Card Challenge blog!

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." 

Isaiah 9:6

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	For Unto Use, Poinsettia Petals, Christmas Collage (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Vellum, Basic Black, Gold Glimmer (ret)
Ink	Versamark, Memento Black
Accessories	Dimensionals, Gold Embossing Powder, Velveteen Ribbon (ret)
Tools	Big SHot, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Poinsettia Dies, Heat Tool, Stamparatus

RRCB149

Happy Tuesday, all! And happy December!  One more month of this blasted year, LOL!  Time for a new Retro Rubber Challenge, where we use stamps that are at least a year old!  Here's our pretty prompt for this week:

 

I have been having fun using some of my older stamps and I finally found the name of one of the sets I purchased a while back at a yard sale....Sassy Seasonals!  It is not even listed in the Splitcoaststampers gallery, but I did find it in one of my old catalogs; I believe it was from 1998 or 1999!  I used the star image and stamped it with Versamark on some plaid paper, then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder for my card today:

It's too bad you can't see the shine, but you can see the image a little bit on the red plaid one!  I added a sentiment from a past Paper Pumpkin set, some "greenery" and glimmer berries, and a glimmer snowflake:

I mounted everything on a white embossed panel on top of a Cherry Cobbler card, and added another Paper Pumpkin sentiment on the inside:

This might be one of my favorite Christmas cards ever!  I hope you'll dust off some of your older stamps and give them some love!  Share your creation with us at Retro Rubber...can't wait to see what you create!

Sawyer was enthralled by my little turkey candle holders...well, he was enthralled by the candles and the flames, truthfully!  He loved blowing them out and having Mommy relight them:

All went well until he got his wee little nose a bit too close to the flame...no burns, but it scared him a bit and we had a few tears!  Now I need to find some skinny little candles before next Thanksgiving! Thanks for popping in---enjoy your day and be blessed!

"Look around and be distressed.  Look within and be depressed.  Look at Jesus and be at rest."  

Corrie ten Boom

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Sassy Seasonals, Paper Pumpkins (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler Garden Green, Mad 4 Plaid DSP (Photoplay), Red and Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer (ret)
Ink	Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Versamark
Accessories	Linen Braided Trim, Enamel Dots (ret), Dimensionals, Clear Embossing Powder
Tools	Big Shot, Tasteful Label Dies, Holiday Greenery Dies (Tim Holtz), Snowflake Dies (Taylored Expressions), Reindeer Knit EF (Tim Holtz), Heat Tool, 1/4" Circle Punch