Have a Cozy Christmas

Winding down on my Christmas cards. I still have one or two I think left in me but my mind is drifting towards getting prepared for a December Daily. I haven't done one in years so thought it would be nice to have one for this year, especially while the grandkids are so young.

Any hoo didn't want this guy to go without having some love. I think I bought him after Christmas last year or one of those last minute purchases. I have so many stamps that lately I'm thinking of purging and selling off the wooden ones. Now that most everything comes paired with dies and you can use a stamping tool with the unmounted stamps I'm feeling like I don't use them much anymore.

Falalalala

I found the falalalala sentiment die when looking for some other things when  making Christmas cards so I pulled it out to make sure it was used. Then I thought it needed something bright and pretty and found these unloved Snowmen or Snowpeople I guess if I'm being politically correct and I never use them much so took the opportunity to color them with some copics and fussy cut them out.

I think it worked rather nicely.

sneak peek

In case you're wondering how my sign is progressing I'd thought I'd share a photo so far. Mind you my ribbon, branch and bell combo is just stuck there so I'd have an idea where my lettering would fall, it's not permanent yet. Hopefully It'll all be done soon.

Merry Christmas

I've been spying my stamp set ever since I pulled it from it's storage space because I wanted to make a pine tree branch card. Finally I got around to doing it. I accidentally grabbed some stamping paper and was wowed by how crisp the image lifted off. I almost stamped the entire sentiment but at the last minute ended up die cutting some gold which I think it works really well here.

Joy To The World

Sorry it's been a few days but life calls and I have to answer. Unfortunately dr's appts, grocery shopping, house cleaning, all those pesky things that have to be dealt with have been keeping me from my craft room. Not to mention my sign which is coming along nicely.

After my last card which was so involved I opted for something quick and easy and sitting on my desk staring at me where some Doodlebug pops and enamel stickers so utilizing those items I threw together this card and just had to diecut a few things, easy enough.

Hopefully I'll be spending the rest of the day throwing some more cards and layouts together. Tomorrow I have dedicated to finishing things. I need to finish painting my kitchen, finish my sign, finish paint touch ups in my living room, well you get the idea.

Have A Holly Jolly Holiday

This card was a bit more involved than I intended.

The background was created by using distress oxide inks on distress stamping paper then using a stencil I applied a matte paste and sprinkled glitter on it while it was still wet.

I then die cut the center and then on copic friendly paper stamped, colored and die cut the snowman. I placed it inside the center then finished the card using  white embossing powder on a strip of red cardstock and popped it up.

Fun Day plus a project in the making. (Long Post)

Well sadly I had hoped to get to my crafty room yesterday but a surprise visit from my son meant I needed to but aside the craftiness and visit with the grandkids. Time is precious as they say and I don't want to miss any of it with them if I don't have to.

So that left me to work  on something today and while its just a quick layout I also wanted to share with you a home craft project that I started on. First things first the layout. I had spritzed some pages before but messed them up so using them here allowed me to cover them up with the pp and cs papers then I didn't have to toss them in the garbage.

Now on to the fun stuff at least for me right now. I have eyed those lovely plank signs you might have seen at Home Goods or Target or even Hobby Lobby. They go for anywhere from $35 to $50 (for just a plain painted plank). The one I spied was at the upper half of the price. I did not want to pay for it, but I did want it. So a search Pintrest gave me some ideas and I am meshing them together.

Sent DH down to Home Depot and tasked him with building the base sign. I'd be an idiot if I didn't send my carpenter of a husband down to build this for me, but honestly my first thought was that's too easy and I could have done it myself. If you wanted to, don't think you can't because it's easy and I know you can. After telling him my size, he bought some cedar fence posts (3) from HD for about $2 ea.

Then cut the tops off since I wanted a flat top and the post come 6 ft. Then he took another small piece of wood and just put some wood glue on that and nailed the posts to the strip (one on the top and one on the bottom). Super easy right.

 

 I also asked him to pick up a small can of grey (any color) wood stain, which he did for an addition $6. And I took a brush and coated the wood planks and then while still wet took a rag and wiped them down so my stain isn't too solid. That took all of 5 minutes. 

This is now my base grey wood. I stained it because I was going to put some chalk paint on top of the wood for a distressed look and didn't want the gold cedar wood to show through. I was going for a weathered grey look. 

A little blase on its own but after the stain dried which was like 30 min I applied with a light hand some grey chalk paint I had left over. If you want to save some $ you can make your own. Otherwise you don't need much and could buy some from Joann's for about $8. Mine was leftover from some Adirondack chairs I painted.

When I first started and you will notice on the left side I was very heavy handed the next two I adapted for the light hand barely brushing over the top to pick up the wood grain. Then going back in some heavy narrow strokes.

I think it came out great and despite that the left is not quite right, it won't matter because I plan on running a strip of ribbon up the length of the board so it will hide that imperfection.

And here is what I also have collected from Hobby Lobby on sale. The ribbon was around $5, bells around $4 and tree picks for about $2. So far I've spent less than $25, I still need to make some stencils from my silhouette and paint the letters. You could buy some stencils with a 40% off coupon..which would run you another $5 or so. I am going to use 4 inch letters on mine. My computer died so it's charging up. So stay tuned for the finished project.

Santa

And yet another page that lost it's adhesive but I pretty much remembered how it was before. I did want to add some sort of subtitle for Santa but I haven't really found anything that I like so I guess it's time to let it go just as Santa and be done with it.

Laugh

One more layout of my dgd, I realize I seem to be making a lot of these and I believe it's part of the fact I was given a box of photos last year for Christmas so I am feeling the need to scrap them all.

I am feeling a little blue thought about not creating Christmas cards so I really want to make a few more while my new products are still warm.

Beautiful Girl

Here is another layout that had the misfortune of losing its adhesive, but this time it was a good thing. Why you ask, because I had the chance to redo it. I wasn't terribly fond of the page before so this was a perfect opportunity to revamp it and I am much happier with the results.

Side Eye

Whew the past few weeks were such a blur I don't even know what happened.

In a mad rush I got my HW cards mailed, and for whatever reason I am in the midst of repainting my kitchen, and bought a new light fixture which set me off to replace my chairs, refinish my table so I will go from solid oak chairs and table to a grey base and white top for the table and my chairs are now white and less outdated as my kids tell me. And why do I decide with 3 weeks more or less to Thanksgiving so start this..no idea...hopefully I get it all back in time.

So CARDtober is done, am back to layouts on my own meaning no sketches just pts for meeting challenges. I suspect it's gonna get difficult when the end of the month occurs. Between my Disney trip and T-day things are bound to get busy.

This is a layout I already completed once but to my horror the adhesive glue can unstuck itself (a nightmare). This layout plus about 2 dozen more all fell apart. I now only use double stick tape because this isn't the first time things have fallen apart but usually it takes years and maybe one little item comes off but this time I bought scrapbook.com's tape and lets just say never again.

I don't even know how this page was originally set.

done I only know it didn't have the title yet so here it is now complete and remodeled just like my kitchen table.

Ho Ho Ho

I really tried to capture how bright and cheery this card is but I think it's one of those things you have to see IRL. The CARDtober challenge was to use Diecuts in layers so I cut about 5 for the sentiment. I like to use my scraps for these since you don't see them and it gives a nice thickness and weight to them you just can get with foam tape or pop dots. Them I glue the layers together to make sure they'll stay bonded. 

The round corner stitched dies are from Pink and Main which I used for the cardstock and pp panels. 

Feliz Navidad

This is by far one of my favorite background stamps from Stampin Up. I like to use the dark grey from Simon Says Stamp to get that washed out look. It has such a homey type feel to it and I kept it clean and simple which sometimes is hard for me to do. 

The deer silhouette is a die set from W9Plus stamps. The circle is from Papertrey Ink and the sentiment I believe is also from SSS. 

Happiest of Holidays

Another favorite stamp are these adorable elves so I couldn't resist getting to use them at least once more. This CARDtober challenge was to use scraps and stamps so the pp are all pieces from cards I have made this past week. 

I think they worked together nicely but I do believe they are from Pink and Main just 2 different pads. The images again colored with copics which I am now realizing I use so much I'm starting to run out of inks. And one marker was completely dried up and I'm guessing it's because I never used that color. Go figure. 

Have Yourselfie

I had so much fun with my last polaroid selfie stamps I decided to make one more for the CARDtober challenge which wanted us to use a pun with a cute critter or person. 

The pp is from Pink and Main and the image was colored with Copics. 

Bright Christmas

This is another new set from MFTS and the challenge was to use a stamp and die set so really pretty easy IMO. I did also buy the HOHOHO background stamp and I used several different Ranger's Distressed Inks to get the rainbow of colors. 

Of course I also colored the images with my copics and the background plaid paper is from Lawn Fawn. 

Happiest of Holidays

For this CARDtober challenge I needed to use some shiny spray and honestly I struggled with it. This was probably my third attempt and it still wasn't the way I wanted. I initially sprayed some gold on the background but it was so blah, then I wondered if I could cover it up with some blueDylusion spray color. After that I decided to add some texture paste using my snow stencil and that's how the background came to be. The trees and sentiment from MFTS, the Deer from La La Land, the stars from Lawn Fawn and the snow bank for SSS. Way more complicated than it should have been. 

Holiday Selfie

This card features brand new spanking stamps from MFTS. When I saw these Christmas sELFie stamps you know I had to have them and as soon as they went live to purchase I had them in my basket and was ready to checkout. Did not want to miss out. They are so stinkin cute. 

And of course I also had to purchase the Polaroid die with them. No regrets, I love this stamp set and already thinking about buying the Picture Perfect set, mostly cause I love those little kitties. 

So for the CARDtober challenge I was to use some textural dimension.  For my take on it I added some red glitter to Rudolph's nose. I just love how simple and easy it was to pull this card together.

Joy to the world

Another card that went in one direction and ended up another. The challenge here was to make a holiday card and add some twine or ribbon. I kind of cheated and used a sticker for the three but I'm pretty sure it still meets the challenge. 

Wishing You

For this card challenge I needed to make an interactive card. Normally I'd just go for a shaker card but I have these dies and while I have used one that makes the zip pull I have never used the other which you pull the card out so I figured I'd make a go at it.

This is the card in itself

 and when you pull the card open

All in all a pretty elaborate card that took some time. I do like the end effect and I might make one more for the grandkids but honestly I'm more of a quick and easy person of course except for watercoloring but then that's more of a therapeutic thing and not making a card kind of thing.

Believe

Another challenge and this one is for thick titles So diecut your title 5 times and stack them together which is exactly what I did on this card and I really wanted to showcase just the title word rather than images with a title.

I have done something very similar with this diecut before but every time I use it I feel it needs a little bit of sparkle so I did add a panel of a glitter card for that effect as well as some red mirror cardstock.

Monkey Christmas

This card uses about 3 different stamp sets to get the complete scene. First I stamped those trees using Hampton Art tree set then diecut the snow scene from SSS and after that I added the 2 presents from Lawn Fawn and the little monkey from MFTS Birth-yay stamp set.

Kind of an involved card but it couldn't be helped. The sentiment is also from the Lawn Fawn set.

Merry and Bright

I confess I'm not sure where this card fits into the CARDtober challenge. I wanted to use it for a thick title challenge but the card went a whole other direction and I didn't want to abandon it.

I love the bright pinks and blues for Christmas and the only reason I can think of is when I was about 5 or 6 I had a neighbor named Chantel {most exoctic name I had ever heard} and she invited me into her home and that's when I spied this beautiful white tree adorned with all kinds of pink and blue bulbs and I was hooked. Not that I would ever put that tree up in my home but in my secret closet obsession I would like to think I would in some small way find a way to perhaps display a small version of it somewhere.

So this card is of course inspired by all those bright pretty colors.

Tree Card

Another CARDtober challenge was stash and scraps. I admit my first thought when I saw this stamp is to pair it with red foil, wouldn't that look divine on a white card. But alas despite having red foil you know I had zero ways to adhere it to the stamp {plam to forehead} I used to have this stamp and stick embossing powder from Stampin Up but couldn't find it which means I dumped it, why or why. So left with no alternative but use some detailed white powder.

Then not really knowing why other than out of pure frustration since I had used a Tim Holtz matte stamping paper why not use some of his inks, I used Ice Spruce, Green Bough and then for the hell of it festive berries.

I then used one of this paper pads to seal the deal. And there you have it, one Tim Holtz inspired card.

Pair Of Cards

Back to Christmas cards, I couldn't help myself. I was actually thinking of white Christmas cards, clean and simple and that's what this CARDtober challenge was a pair of CAS (clean and simple) cards using similar material I think I crushed the challenge if I do say so myself.

This was the second of the two I made. Using the leftover pp was an easy move and so was using the blue ink for the Snow stamp (Papertrey Ink). Then the other choices from the stamp set fit right in so after remembering I had the silhouette die from IO (Impression Obsession) the rest just fell into place. The snow hill is from a SSS (Simon Says Stamp) die set. 

When I think clean and simple this stamp set from PI is one of the first ones I think of. It gives you options of a diecut or a stamp and I went for the diecut first. I used some cute blue polka dot paper from Pink and Main then remembered I had the snow embossing folder so I quickly added that, then popped placed on a nice white card for a crisp white look then left it pretty simple and only added some enamel dots. Easy Peasy, definitely a 5 minute card set.

Hocus Pocus

It was time for a little fun craft so I went shopping and bought some black fitted tees, shimmery metallic iron on transfer sheets and cranked up my Cameo Silhouette to create these fun tees for my daughter and myself.

I confess I have long been a fan of the Hocus Pocus movie when it first came out despite the cries of boring but to me it had a bit of whimsy to it and I kind of like that plus I am a Bette Midler fan.

Any hoo browsing Pinterest I saw some tees and said Hey I can do that so I pinned it but put my own shimmery twist on it.

And of course you know I had to add a little fun to the back side as well.

Daddy TIme

Another page closer to being caught up at least with the girls. I still have a whole bunch of grandson pictures I haven't even printed let alone ready to scrap. 

I think for me some of the most difficult part of creating a page is knowing what to title it. Some are pretty obvious but then others like this one I can struggle with. 

Sweet smile

Another favorite photo of mine. This little girl shows how much she loves the person taking the photo, which was my ds. She definitely does love her daddy. 

The buttons are from Chatterbox if you remember them. Still miss some of my favorite companies, like Chatterbox, Making Memories and KI Memories. 

Done

I love this photo of dgd asleep on my ds, it's such a sweet and tender moment. 

The background paper I used is from WRMK. I have collected so many papers it was nice to use up the older stuff especially when it's a leftover piece of a set. I do like how it's self distressed. And hard to see it but I actually did some sewing on the page. It's on the arrow pp, leftside edge.

Story Time

Apparently no sketch challenges this month over on 2peas so it's up to me to create pages, which I am doing and meeting challenges for the team event. I must admit it was a bit more fun when someone said here's a sketch go complete it.

However between PageMaps, Scrapbook.com and Pinterest there are a plethora of sketches to be found.

Also back in the day when we would subscribe to all those magazines I would tear out pages and save those so I also have an abundance of those which can be pretty inspiring to just have a completed page to jump start you.

Spooky Halloween

For this CARDtober challenge no 5, we were to use scraps. So my banner tag, green strip and tag topper are all out of scraps. And techniquely so is the white tag since I punched it from the leftover paper I used to stamp and diecut the wolf boy who is from Pink and Main. 

Haunting We Will Go

Well another Halloween card for the moment. This is for CARDtober challenge no 4 which was to create a scene.

I used colorburst sprinkled onto watercolor paper then heavily misted with water to get the powders to meld. After getting my background paper where I wanted it, I die cut from Stampendous graveyard dies my scene and popped up the bottom panel for some dimension then added the little velvet ghost stickers I picked up from Hobby Lobby. After everything was in it's place I wanted a sentiment and was going to use a white banner until I remembered by Bella Blvd sticker sheet and found something I think works better.

You are Fang-tastic!

This card was for CARDtober challenge #6 {Clean and Simple} I feel like I might have gone too simple with this one, but I do like the silhouette factor on it.

The die is from Tim Holtz.

Got Candy?

Well I can tell this week is going to fly by, way too much going on already and barely had some time to go play in the craft-room today, but managed to squeak out a card. I plan on working on some pages, hopefully sometime tomorrow (fingers crossed). 

This card was for CARDtober challenge no. 8 {Dimension} which I did by popping up the tag. 

The stamp is from Stampin Up, very old stamp in fact and the tag die was from MFTS. Image was colored with copics. And to get my drippy tag I first punched it using Martha Steward drippy punch then used the tag to die cut just the top. 

Too Cute Not To Sppok

Ok one more card before I leave you for a few days. I figured if I was gonna make a Christmas card I also needed a Halloween card..so for this challenge it was about layers.

Crazy Hair

A layout not previously shared here on the blog but part of the sketchtempber challenges. This was for a double page layout but I didn't have enough so I condensed it down to one page.

Will be gone over the weekend for a wedding which means no upates to the blog probably unless I manage to get something done tonight. But I should be back next week with the October sketches.