Joy To The World

My influence for this card was leftover material, the pp and card stock mostly. I liked the monochromatic tone of those two and wanted to use my NY die from MFTS so what better place than on this card. I also dug through and found some matte gold to diecut the cityscape from. Then all that was left to do was add on a sentiment. Pretty simple.

Are You Yeti

Well today I have a Christmas card and a trio of sympathy cards. Unfortunately there have been 3 more deaths in our extended family. Needless to say it has been a challenging year for us.

As you know sympathy cards aren't something I tend to have an extra one lying around, so I needed to create not one but three different cards. I suppose I could have done one card and replicated it, but I like to create a card I think fits the person receiving it.

But before I get to those cards I thought I would share my Christmas card, a cute Yeti from MFTS.

 I love the pink blue combo for Christmas so I went in that direction,

 

For the  3 sympathy cards I did one in a simple stamp, the other is stampscape type cards and the last is water color based. 

This is a stamp I completely forgot I had, it's a light image and I layered on different 

inks to come up with the final color. I always worry if you can tell what the image is but I realize its just a different type of image that has softer details.  

This stampscape type card is for a guy so I think this looks appropriate. 

 This last one I tried to keep the colors on the softer side, I still wanted it to feel somewhat on the sympathy side but also be a little different.

Believe in Magic

So I had this idea pop into my head and I am sure I am not the first person with this idea, but it led me to today's card.

I have seen the layered panel stamped cards, where the stamped image goes off the popped up panel on to the background, which I love. While I was making some ornaments with my grandkids using the Cameo double sided adhesive paper where I diecut snowflakes and glittered them, not original I know, but I loved the look and thought it would probably make a beautiful card using the popped up panel look but instead of a stamped image I would use the snowflake diecuts.

It took be a bit of time to diecut, glitter and place them on the panel. I laid the smaller panel on top of the other, laid the snowflake down then holding the edge of the part that laid on the background I pulled the top panel away. Then all I had to do was place the top panel on top, align a second snowflake on top of the other then adhere the snowflake down, and trim the excess. I do spray a bit of hairspray on my glittered snowflakes so the glitter doesn't shed heavily.

Then I fought with the sentiment, and the color but when I finally settled those two items the rest just came together.

Bring on the SNOW

Having my copics out and grabbing handfuls of stamps and dies I wanted to use for potential cards,  I found the stamped and diecut SNOW sentiment, I decided to mash it up with the cute little Yeti from MFTS. The Snow die and stamp set is from Papertrety Ink.

My selection of pp is on the limited side but I did find this circle paper that seemed to mimic the snow and I was going to try adding a snow bank under the Snow and Yeti but in my haste I forgot, but honestly I don't think it's needed.

I do love the grey and blue combo color on this card.

Happiest of Holidays

Time for the cutesy cards, just love these elves from MFTS. A pretty simple card just stamped than colored with my copics. I did a little masking with the tree and then diecut and popped up the elf with the ornament.

Sending Loads of Christmas Wishes

I guess I was on a kick for masculine themed Christmas cards because I found myself making another one. I have always wanted the truck stamp from Stampin Up but never bought it, then found this one from Stampendous with dies included along with the packages, a tree and a sentiment, so I bought it on sale at Michael's, double score.

I am also trying to use up my old Christmas pp so I can justify buying more and figure I have about 5 pads that needed to be used, most are nearing their end but a couple still had quite a few sheets left so trying to whittle those down, thus that's what led me down the road to this more antique looking card.

The truck against the pp and card base seemed pretty anemic in terms of detail so I added a scalloped stitched die from MFTS and also the sentiment bubble (die also from MFTS) was pretty bare looking. Knew I wanted some holly but it was late and I was being lazy and didn't want to cut any out so I grabbed these enamel berries and leaves from Doodlebug. I believe I bought them on sale after Christmas last year. Seems I migrate a lot to buying any embellishments after the holidays because they are usually discounted down to a nice price.

I popped the frame, truck and sentiment bubble up but left the gifts flat to give some interest to the card itself.

Merry Christmas - Deer

Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving and some family time. I thought after the passing of my Father In Law we wouldn't be traveling for the holidays anymore, boy was I wrong. So just got back on Sunday and finished up this card I had started before I left. It's a fairly simple card but for some reason I just couldn't find the right color combos for these three items. Finally after futzing around for about an hour I think I finally found something that worked.

I like the masculinity feel of this card good for those guy friends who don't go for the cutesy scene cards.

Really wish I had an expo to go to right about now. I really want to do a December Daily and would like to sort of prep for that plus get a bunch of cards completed. Right now my first two weekends in December are already spoken for so I am pretty sure the month is going to fly by and next thing I'll notice is me staring Christmas morning in the face.

Merry Christmas

I bought this stamp either last year or this year, I can't remember which but I don't like to buy things and not use them so I decided to give it a spin. The image was colored with copics and then I gave a bit of texture to the santa hat using the Copic white paint, a stylus to apply or dab it on and then a towel to give it the nappy texture. I also dabbed some onto the flakes of snow.

Using up some old pp and a previous diecut Christmas sentiment made this easy to finish.

Joy To The World

I wanted to do some stamping so I grabbed my Clearly Besotted stamps to create a background using my Altenew inks. I liked the feel of the woodsy look the stamps gave the card and decided it needed a bit of oomph factor, thus I diecut the Joy sentiment from my Papertrey Ink dies using some glitter and gold cardstocks. The banner sentiment was a leftover from last year I guess so it matched perfectly.

It still seemed a little bare so I punched some pine branches and tucked them in behind the Joy and thought it was looking better but still needed a little something extra and thus I found some red gingham checked ribbon which really added a nice punch of color.

I really love the glimmer of the Joy die, it's very festive and a perfect fit for a Christmas card.

Season's Greetings

For this card I really wanted to so something more all white. I went to use my Simon Says falling snow stencil with some Aleene's Glitter snow paste but you know what that paste was hard as a rock. So next best thing, used regular paste and sprinkled glitter on top which just goes to show you, you don't always have to have every supply they make out there. 

I then diecut a few tree borders and my snow hills from Simon Says stamp along with the fence from My Favorite Things Stamp. Then with my bunnies I used some glitter paper and die cut them using La La Land's Craft bunny die set. Then I was stumped at this point. After I had this assembled I really struggled with figuring out where a sentiment would go, did I even need one? I thought I did and luckily for me I had grabbed some stickers from Michaels for my December Daily and found what I thought was the best thing that looked reasonable.  

Peace

Having my pine branch punch out I thought I would use a few more to create something more woodsy. I am using some older pp so I love that and this was a panel I already had stamped using my Stampin Up woodgrain stamp so another bonus which all I had to do at this point was diecut the top from Lawn Fawn's curved hill die set and the Peace diecut from Papertrey Ink. Then lastly assemble and viola instant Holiday card. 

Feliz Navidad

One to my second card. Originally I was planning on making this card using some bunnies but after I diecut them out I realized the scale of the bunnies to the trees seemed off so I went with a deer instead. Look for those bunnies next week in a different scene card.

Love the scroll work on this deer. Since I was making a scene card I wanted something besides white and dug through my 6x6 paper pads from Christmas' past to find the snowflake pattern. I then diecut my snow hill, added some glitter to give my snow some shimmer, diecut the birch trees and adhered them with some foam tape to give a bit more dimension. The sentiment placement was a struggle for me both in color and just where to place it. I finally opted for a tag and used a snowflake to add a little more interest. The red seemed like the best color and actually opted to emboss it with a bit of twinkling red embossing powder from Judith.

First Christmas Card for 2017

I finally have started on my Christmas cards, this past week was a bit hectic with my mom's birthday party, the grand kids being on half days and me still with this lingering cold. Needless to say I just wasn't able to get anything out for last Wed's post, but I promise I have a card for this Wed and all next week so I promise no more mia.

Love the silver and white color scheme and not sure why but it kind of mesmerizes me, it seems just so elegant. I went with that and created my first card.

Using my Martha Stewart pine branch punch I punched out quite a few then used a circle die as my guide to create a wreath by overlapping the punched branches. I used white as my base color then layered on some more branches in silver glitter paper. I loved the way it came out.

I then cut a deer in silver paper with my WPlus9 reindeer or deer die and diecut the Merry in some shimmery red paper because I felt it needed a punch of color, then added the second half of my sentiment and finished with a couple of enamel dots.

Here is a close up because its hard to capture how glittery and festive it looks in a distant photo.

And there you have it the first of many cards to come.

Altenew - Hello (Red/Grey)

Feeling the Halloween love still but being tired of Halloween cards I decided to bring out the watercolors. And a thought occurred to me to try something in Halloweenish colors so opted for red and black. My first attempt I stamped my flowers in red but found the colors more red than black so had to try again but this time using black as my outline. A much better result.

Not sure how I feel about this but it's definitely different.

Happy Halloween - 31

Another quickie card. I used my QK Diesel font again for the numbers then found a old diecut ghost that was just sitting around and cut that circle burst from another QK die. 

Most of the pp was older stuff and even dug out my old label maker for the Halloween sentiment. 

The cute little bat was from Michaels all the HW stuff was on sale so I took the opportunity to snag some stuff. 

Its hard to go and see both HW and Christmas items together, I realize we need to start planning and creating but aye yi yi, just let me just get through HW before I'm distracted by Christmas. 

House Mouse - Happy Halloween

The flu bug or some sort of cold has hit our household, and hit it hard. All of our family members are suffering in misery simultaneously, sigh, I hoped to avoid this nasty illness but alas I was the first victim. Needless to say no blog post last week because I just wasn't feeling up to much of anything let alone time for creativity.

Now I am on the mend and back to my cards. I bought this stamp because lets face it these House Mouse guys are just too adorable not to. I have a couple of other ones as well and I always think of my mother in law when I see them because she loved mice. She had lots of collectibles all over her home so I always tried to create her a birthday card with these cute little guys.

I colored my stamped image with copics, added a bit of glimmer with my wink of stella pens and a simple sentiment, using my Simon Says Stamp die and stamp set. Easy peasy!

You are Spooktacular!

Running a bit behind after a last minute out of state trip to deal with more of my father in law's estate. I will be glad when all things have settled.

I had made this card before I left but a forgot to take a photo and post it, so alas I'm late.

This was a simple enough shaker card. I liked the idea of using the moon as the shaker and overlaid a QK tree die over it. Then just had to stamp a couple of little bats and a sentiment but it still lacked a little something so I stamped, colored and fussy cut out the little pumpkin. I think he helped add a little more to the overall card. The background is actually a grey but the camera shot washed it out I'm afraid and the background pp was from my way old stash of Halloween pp so was glad to use some of that up. 

I put a spell on you

I was putzing around in my craft room and for whatever reason this thought came into my head and figured I could implement it onto a card. I knew I wanted to cut out SPELL in some pattern paper and also wanted to use these cute bottle stamps so those were a given. I used my Quickutz or Lifestyle or whatever the company's called today IF they are even still around, dies. This was Star, one of the first ever dies I purchased. It was a big deal that font was not cheap after all it was revolutionary for its time, the first ever diecut system. 

Anyhoo I had a hard time finding another font I wanted to use with the diecuts. I tried several different stamps but nothing was quite right, then an aha moment, rubons, Yep rubons, when's the last time you used those? These were from Gin-X, lasting impressions. And believe it or not they worked perfectly despite being a good 10 years old. 

Then I added the spider web in the corner. At first I was going to use a different spider but the image on the sheet looked like it would work, wrong this thing did not stamp out anything like the the promised image, disappointment needless to say. I then added a second cuter spider from Judith. I really wished I had just used it the first time to be honest. I then corner rounded the panel. Kind of simple but kind of different. 

Sorrow Card

Well unfortunately a dear friend of mine lost her father this past week and being that I didn't have any sympathy cards on hand that meant I needed to make one. I wanted something tranquil and serene so decided to watercolor my background and then stamped some images on top.

This was an older wood mounted stamp that I really wish wasn't because I would have liked to given it a repeat stamp but alas you really can't do that with a wood mount. I also added some stampscapes birds in the sky, not sure if it really needed it but sometimes I just don't know when to stop.

A delicate and calming card that expresses my heartfelt sentiment.

Happy Pumpkin Day

This card was a complete experiment. I used my copic sprayer to spray ink over cloud diecuts. It was fun but I used almost a whole can of that spray stuff to get this background. Then wanting something more I used my copic opaque white gel and dipped a cotton swab in it then dabbed that onto the clouds which gave my clouds a bit of texture. 

I then used my Lawn Fawn and MFTS stamps and dies to complete the scene. I was going to cut the panel down and mount it on pp but I decided to leave it. Sometimes I have to remind myself a simple scene is okay. 

Harvest Blessings

I spent some time using my copics creating this background. It's a bit different from my usual watercolor background and at first I didn't think I was going to like it, so I walked away from it, came back and decided it just might work. Not sure I would do it again though it uses a lot of ink to get something this large blended.

And using my MFTS Harvest mouse stamp set along with my MFTS tree die and the scallop frame is from Papertrey Ink.

Another leftover scrap card

On this card I technically only used the happy diecut as my scrap. I had cut the sentiment out trying to use it on a previous card. It didn't work out but I hated to waste it. I also dug out that little witch that I bought eons ago when I first started scrapping and everyone started doing punch art. So I guess technically I am using up some old supplies, yeah for me!

I stamped a star cluster background that I bought from Your next stamp company at least I think that's what they were called. I also used my confetti toss stamp set from Papertrey Ink and then added a few glitter stars and enamel dots just to have a little more interest. I used half of a stamp that I think came from the Michael's dollar bin at some point. The fact that it's crooked reminds me why it was in the $1 bin. I always feel good when I use up old supplies and scraps but looking at my huge pile of scraps that I've accumulated over the years, I'm guessing that I'll never get through all of them, but hey it's a a chip at the mountain, and maybe I'll make enough chips to see a dent one day.

Halloween - Use those scraps

I have finally gotten a chance to return to my craft room which was a complete and utter mess, that led me to some cleaning before sitting down for a bit of creativity time. One thing I noticed I had a lot of leftover scraps and diecuts that I never used. This week I am focusing on using up those scraps or leftovers, just like you would eat leftovers for dinner; so lets not waste them.

I had this hexagon die shell leftover that I have no idea where it came from but figured it would be a great backdrop for some spiders. I just purchased a sheet of 3D glittery spider stickers from Jolee so they were a perfect fit. I used up 3 scrap pieces of paper, one I diecut as a tag and I even used a border strip that's on the edge of those 6x6 paper pads. Then alas I cut background pp and guess what now I have scraps from that, sigh what ya gonna do it's a semi win I guess since I used up 3 scrap pieces of paper and an extra die.

MIA - Apple Cider Donuts

I've been a little busy lately. Last weekend was my father in law's memorial service and despite driving there 7 hours we organized the event plus the potluck afterwards so it's been a bit hectic in our household. Then right back home and back to watching my grandkids hasn't given me much time to be in my craft room.

But that brings me to today's post. My grandsons love donuts, and I don't mean love them I mean they LOVE them. Normally I will stop by a donut shop to fill their desires but today I decided since our weather has been cooler and fall is settling in that this Cider Donut recipe would be a good fit.

These donuts have a crunch exterior and cake like interior, a match made in heaven.

Now my grandkids know what a warm fresh donut taste like and I am forever the best grammy ever.

Watercolor - Celebrate

Another Altenew watercolor card. I just can't get enough of these especially when I want to be creative but I just can find my muster so to speak. Watercoloring fits that bill and lets face it these Altenew stamps making stunning watercolored cards.

These Dahlias were painted with Tim Holtz Distress inks. And the pp is from Papertrey Ink along with the diecut sentiment.

Wishing You Happiness

I'm pretty sure I am ready for Fall. I bought some new clothes, I am eager to slip into my Ugg boots and that cozy flannel shirt is calling my name. But until we get Fall weather I'm just gonna have to settle for fall colors on my card. 

Again using some Altenew stamps and distress inks I quickly painted this card. Found that perfect Hounds tooth pattern paper and the rest just kind of came together. The Wishing sentiment is from Simon Says stamp and I used to separate stamps for the rest of it. Can you believe that happiness stamp is from Making Memories magnetic stamp set. That should take you back down memory lane. 

So are you ready for Fall?

Many Blessings

Still feeling a little Halloweenish despite our 100 plus degree temps lately I felt a purple black floral theme was a perfect fit

Stamped the Altenew Amazing You in Tim Holtz Black Soot distress ink then used the Dusty Concord to color in here and there. I wasn't all that impressed with my art panel sadly but after it's sat a bit and I revisited it the more I kind of liked it

The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink and the purple ink was from MFTS.

.

Happy Halloween

I have had these stamps from Stampin Up for a long long time, in fact I think they were one of my first big splurges from Stampin Up. Normally I just use one stamp but decided they warranted a scene of their own after so many years of being showcased on their own. 

Spooky

I love this little witch scene and I usually go the watercolor route but decided I needed to switch it up a bit so I decided to color her with my copics instead. 

I;m just here for the Boos

So I found this card half done in a pile on my desk, I figured I really needed to use it up. Also found these 3D ghost that were just the last of whatever else was on my K&Co sticker sheet from a few years back and thought they kind of worked so I went with it and since this seemed to be a card about using up what's laying around I had this sentiment that I thought I was going to use on another card but didn't like it so it was also sitting on my desk.

I guess you could call this a leftover card.

Disney - Animal Kingdom

Still working on my Disney pocket pages as well as my layouts. Slowly but surely I hope to get them all done

Happy Boo Day

This little puppy dog is from Simon Says stamp. I used a big ol honkin moon stamp from Papertrey Ink ad the circle die cut it. The graveyard silhouette die is from Impression Obsession.

The Happy letters are from MFTS and I didn't want the typical Happy Halloween sentiment so I mixed a couple of stamps together to give me the BOO Day sentiment.

Boo To You!

Well darn it all, I meant to post this this morning but plum forgot as busy as everything was this past weekend.

So another Halloween card. I have decided I really need some updated Halloween stamps. Still love my Kraftin Kimmie ones so I do continue to use those.

And really lovin this plaid paper that was in my 6x6 pebbles inc paper pad it was a perfect fit for my stamped card.

Also using a nice enamel clay kind of embellishment for the pumpkin. I am always hunting for clearance items after the seasonal period and just hang on to them until the following year. I figure eventually I'll need them.

Happy Trick Or Treating

Well I know here it is barely August and I've gone and done a Halloween card. I couldn't help it, it's one of my favorite holidays and I have no idea why. I decided to indulge my passion and stamped a few images at the expo and colored them which makes throwing a card together afterwards pretty darn easy.

I opted to give Frank here a bit of  a graveyard scene with my Memorybox die. The stamp itself is a way old stamp I picked up at Michaels when scrapbooking and stamping were just amping up to their hey day. I then used my Tim Holtz inks to give a bit of a sunset feel to the background, using candied apple, ripe persimmon, carved pumpkin and some wild honey. My sentiment stamp is newly purchased from Stampendous along with my Pebbles Inc pp. And the stitched die is from My Favorite Things Stamp co.

So there you go one way too early Halloween card.

Disney Love

I finally got around to printing some of my Disney pictures and started scrapbooking them. This was the first one I've done so far.

Not much to say other than this was the trip I took with my hubby to WDW for my birthday. We had an absolutely great time.

I did pick up a bunch of those Paper Wizard titles and laser diecuts. I really love to use them in my pocket pages. This title was just a bit too big like a quarter of an inch and stuck out so I just decided to use it on a layout page.

Altered Rolodex

I was at Joann's one day and spied this Heidi Swapp Rolodex on clearance. Always looking for a bargain I picked it up, not quite sure what I would do with it. So there is sat until I thought it would make a cute gift for my dd and I would use pictures that I have taken this past year watching the boys.

I did have to order her punch so a little annoyed about that but I wanted to be able to add in my own papers.

Right now it's about half full, depending on how much you wanted to slant or lean your cards. My hope is to keep adding to it until her birthday which is in a couple of months.

And best thing about a project like this is for a hoarderlike me all those little bits and pieces I save were used on this project. I knew I was holding on to them for some reason.

Obviously there are a ton of cards and thought I'd share a few because if I did them all it would slow down people's connections trying to load all those images.

So another finished project. Love getting things done and crossed off my to do list.

Altered Frame

This week I will be sharing two altered projects. I have wanted to get a couple of projects done so I took the time at the expo to get a jump start on completing them. 

Up first, I take zero creativity for this frame since I basically was inspired by Shari Carrols's Mixed Media Love project. Hers is certainly beautiful enough to inspire anyone. Mixed Media

I just put my spin on this project because lets face it I didn't have all the same supplies and wasn't going to go purchase them so I did use up what I had. Although I did have to go purchase the overall frame and canvas pieces. Clever me bought a child's 5x7 canvas paint project and then just flipped it over to hold my 4x6 photo. 

I had all the flowers and even those swirls of pearls embellishments that I wrapped around my frame and also up the edge on one side. Although I didn't have nearly the variety that Shari used. But I made do. 

The Love die and butterfly I picked up at the expo, they're from Melissa Frances and had to paint the love die but left the butterfly as is.

And this was some old Making Memories pp that I deiced to use along with some other script paper sitting around in my stash. Two gone and about a 1000 left

I did feel that this pp was a bit more busier than Shari's but I think it worked. And I didn't have much in the way of stencils and do you know I couldn't find any at the expo, so went with what I brought which was a honeycomb design. 

And here it is framed and ready to hang on the wall. And the nice thing about no glass is if I decided to tweak it some more it's simple to do. and the photo I used is of my great grandparents.
Check this off as done, and now I am ready to move on to my other project for my dd.