Warm Wishes

I haven't quite finished the number of Christmas cards for this year, so I'm trying to come up with some fun but quick makes, using elements from my UFO box.

I figured my previously stamped card base was the perfect background for a festive food/beverage type of design. For my topper, I heat embossed my NBUS stamp by Neat and Tangled in liquid platinum embossing powder and then used some acetate to do some ink smooshing (Coral Cabana and It's a boy, CP inks). I intended to do this in a controlled manner, but then one of our cats decided to give me a helping hand by jumping onto my craft table, so I just went with it.

I'm playing at:

Jingle Belles - Festive food/drink

Beccy's Month of Holiday Cards - W ... Warm Wishes

ABC Christmas - W for Wishes

CHNC - Anything Christmas goes

SSS Wednesday - Anything goes

SSS Work it Wednesday - Holiday crafting

Embossed wreaths

I'm popping in with a quick post so that I can link up my cards at Beccy's Place where there's a race going on.

I started by cutting and scoring several sheets of cardstock in green and red and stamping the SSS gingham background in tone on tone (Spruce and Rockin' Red, CP inks). I had embossed my (square panel) wreaths last year, but could not figure out how to use them on my cards. I decided to fussy cut the wreaths and blend a little ink over it, and then used a marker to add colour to the berries

I discovered that this sentiment by Penny Black fitted perfectly in the middle of my wreaths, so I used my MISTI to stamp them and heat embossed them in gold. To finish off, I adhered a strip of gold glitter washi across before popping up my wreaths using thin foam tape.

I'm also linking up my cards at:

Stamping Sensations - Getting ready for Christmas

Sparkle's Christmas - #95 Embossing (heat or dry - I used both)

CHNC - #413 Anything Christmas goes

It's the end of the month and that means 

it's also time for the November Rudolph Days

Poinsettia and Pomegranates

I have been colouring another digital image by Power Poppy today. They are just perfect for practising my Copic colouring using the additional Copics that I got for my birthday last month. Since Marcella has already put in a lot of the shading, you don't have to figure that out yourself.

I die cut my panel using my go to stitched rectangle die (SSS), stamped this beautiful sentiment by Penny Black (Holly Tweet) in Versafine onyx black and heat embossed it in clear ep, and simply adhered my panel to an A2-sized card base (Schoolhouse Red, SSS).

I'm playing at:

The Flower Challenge - #26 A Special Occasion

Beccy's Month of Holiday Cards - P ... Poinsettia and Pomegranates

Uniko - #50 Celebrate

CHNC - #413 Anything Christmas goes

Power Poppy Creative Confetti - Just color

I'm also linking up my card at 

Kathy's 30D colouring challenge

Glittering Glass Santa

Hello everyone! I'm popping in with another Christmas card.

After printing my digital image (Glittering Glass Santa, Power Poppy), I coloured it in using a mix of Altenew Artist markers and Copics. The sentiment is from the Happy Christmas set by Winnie & Walter. I blended a little Tumbled glass distress ink around the edges for a softer look and die cut my outer frames, including the skinny one, from hammered cardstock using a single SSS die (Frames). 

To finish off, I added a little sparkle to the baubles and tree and then added glossy accents.

I'm playing at:

CAS Christmas - Santa

HLS Christmas - Anything goes (option: CAS)

Beccy's Month of Holiday Cards - S ... Santa 

(and for 'skipping some letters' LOL)

ATSM - #319 CAS

Power Poppy Creative Confetti - Just color

I'm also linking up my colouring at:

Kathy's 30 day colouring challenge

Seize the Birthday - Tags

Hello and welcome! And Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who are celebrating this day!
It's time for my last installment as the Surprise Party Guest at Seize the Birthday. I want to thank Nancy and the Design Team for allowing me to party along with them. It's been great fun!

As always, you have the option of linking up any birthday-themed card or using the current Toppings, which is TAGS.

I started by die cutting the leaves (Perfect Vines, Catherine Pooler Designs) from a scrap of cardstock, and then ran my die cuts through my die cutting machine in a woordgrain embossing folder that I had inked up with Green tea ink (CP Designs). I had not yet thought about the exact placement of the leaves on my card, so I had to do some fiddling as well as cutting and pasting to make sure the embossing all went in the same direction, but I got there in the end. I die cut a tag (Studio Calico) from the same cardstock, stamped the sentiment (Say it in style, Clearly Besotted) and added some Green tea ink to the edges for a unified look. I also splattered some ink onto my cream card base and added some hemp twine to my tag before adhering all of my elements.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing my creations for Seize the Birthday these past months, and I do hope you will check out the creations by the Design Team.

I'm also playing at:

CAS Mix Up - Stamping and embossing folder

+ sponging, die cutting, splatters, twine

Christmas blues and browns

I was inspired by a moodboard challenge at StampNation to create this wintry Christmas scene.

The trees in one of the moodboard photos had a bluish tint to them, so I decided to use my soft blue embossing powder to heat emboss my tree image (Snowy village, Penny Black). To create a mirror image, I stamped the image onto a piece of plastic packaging and pressed that onto my cardstock panel. This was the first time I tried doing it this way, and it worked even better than expected. To cover up the sides of my panel, I stamped the edge of my tree image again on either side of my stamped panel before sprinkling on the embossing powder.

After blending distress inks onto my panel, I die cut the panel and my snowbank using SSS stitched dies and blended some blue distress ink onto my snowbank for a more wintry look. I used thin foam tape to mount the snowbank to my main panel, that I had adhered to a soft grey card base. The sweet deer (Collectables COL1330 by Marianne Design) was die cut from a scrap of cream cardstock. I decided to do a little experimenting with some pigment powder (in the colour Chameleon by Pentart) that I found at the (only) craft shop in my area, and I loved how this turned out. The sentiment is from Bright Baubles (Neat and Tangled).

I'm linking up my card at:

Beccy's month of holiday cards - B ... blues and browns

SSS Wednesday - Baby it's cold outside

Penny Black and More - Make someone smile

PBSC - Anything goes with Penny Black

HLS Christmas - Anything goes

Uniko Challenge - #50 Celebrate

Arctic friends

Some of you may remember this card that I shared back in September. I really liked how this one turned out so I used the same stamp from Penny Black and another quarter of my galaxy background panel to create a similar but different card.

For this one, I heat embossed my image onto a piece of vellum and used a white coloured pencil to add some 'colour' and texture to the stars, the polar bear and the penguin's belly. I created the snowy ground using puff embossing powder.

I'm linking up my card at:

Beccy's Annual Month of Holiday Cards - A ... Arctic animals

Beccy is hosting her 6th annual month of holiday cards 

this year, posting inspiration each day of the month

 and sprinkling prizes along the way, so do check out 

her blog if you still need to make a few (or many) 

Christmas cards to send out this year.

PBSC - Anything goes with Penny Black

Stamping Sensations - Get ready for Christmas

Cute Card Thursday - #556 Stars

MAWTT - #84 Winter animals

Kathy's 30 day colouring challenge

Poppies

Hello and welcome. I've been doing some colouring this month and managed to turn one of my coloured panels into a card, just in time to link up at Allsorts.

I coloured in this new to me stamp set by Woodware (Stitched poppies) using Copics markers. I was able to expand my collection of Copics last month thanks to my husband who agreed that it would make a nice birthday present. After the colouring was finished, I trimmed down my panel and blended some green ink around the edges before adhering it to my green card base. The sentiment is by Altenew and was stamped using Rockin' Red ink by Catherine Pooler.

I'm linking up my card at:

Allsorts - #493 Poppies and/or the colour red

Addicted to stamps - #168 Anything goes (optional: ribbon)

Colour Crazy - #46 Anything goes with colouring

Kathy's 30 day colouring challenge

Seize the Birthday - CAS

Hello and welcome! It's time for another guest appearance at Seize the Birthday, where this fortnight's optional theme is Clean and Simple.

I was lucky enough to win Uniko's entire August release and this bold sentiment (BIG & BOLD - Hello) seemed like the perfect stamp to ink up with some of my new Catherine Pooler inks (Tiara, Tiki Torch, Tutti Frutti) that arrived from Guernsey a few days ago. The green (Lime Rickey) from the Party ink collection was a bit too bold for my colour combo, so I used Garden Party instead. The birthday sentiment is made up of four different stamps from the Young at Heart set by CAS-ual Fridays. I picked up the stamps with my long and narrow grid block and stamped the sentiment in Versafine Onyx black. After trimming down my panel, I used foam tape to adhere it to my card base.

Please do pop over to the challenge blog to see what the talented ladies of the design team have created to inspire you. And remember that the Toppings are always optional, so if CAS is not your thing, simply link up any birthday-themed card.

Autumn sparkle

When I was creating this card earlier this month, I also stamped the flowers in a slightly different colour combo and finally managed to turn it into a card today.

I intended to adhere my panel into a different angle, but it did not look well balanced, so I moved on to plan B.

I heat embossed a sentiment from a different set by Concord &9th in rose gold embossing powder (SSS) and added some festive sparkle by touching the stamped black dots with a Zig two-way glue pen and adding foil once the glue had dried but was still tacky. Here's a close-up that shows the foiling a little better.

To finish off, I added a few gems from my stash.

I'm playing at:

The Flower Challenge - #10 Add sparkle

Stamping Sensations - Shades of autumn

Penny Black and More - Autumn splendour

Seize the Birthday - Foliage

It's time for a new and fun challenge at Seize the Birthday, where I am making another appearance as the Surprise Party Guest.

This fortnight, we are inviting you to create a birthday themed card featuring Foliage.

As always, the Toppings are optional, so feel free to link up any birthday themed card.

I used a new to me background stamp (Leaf Prints, Creative Stamps) that I placed in my MISTI and inked up with Versamark. After stamping, I sprinkled rose gold embossing powder (SSS) in various spots, tapped off the excess and then sprinkled gold embossing powder (Papermania) all over my panel to cover the remainder of the stamped image. After heat embossing my leaves, I trimmed off the white strips on either side of my panel (the stamp is intended for an A6 card size, which is the standard card size outside of the US). I used a scrap of cardstock to die cut my sentiment (Little B) and heat embossed it in rose gold ep. To make the letters stand out more, I adhered the die cut sentiment to a strip of vellum that I wrapped around the sides of my panel before foam mounting my panel to my green card base. I used a few gold sequins to add even more sparkle and shine to my card.

Don't forget to pop over the the Seize the Birthday blog to see what the talented ladies of the Design Team have created.

I'm also linking up my card at:

Stamping Sensations - Shades of autumn

Penny Black and More - Autumn splendour

Snowman blueprint

Who said a snowman could not be pink?! LOL
I love that this card is so very different from the vintage card I created over a year ago using this same stamp.

I stamped the snowman in Worn lipstick DOI onto a panel of hammered cardstock. Because the ink appeared very wet on this cardstock, I was afraid it might not dry properly, so I added clear embossing powder and heat embossed it. Love the sheen this gives. I rounded the corners of my white panel using a 1/4" corner chomper and foam-mounted it to my cardbase to which I had adhered some patterned paper. BTW, I did die cut the center out of my PP panel, hoping to create yet another pink Christmas card before today (Wednesday) 6pm EDT. I added a bit of blue to the scarf and holly on the snowmans hat to bring in the colour from the blue berries of my patterned paper. Wish all my cards were this quick to make...

By now, you will probably have gathered that this is yet another card for the Jingle Belles challenge. If not, please do check out my previous posts. This is pink card number 12, which means I have matched the number of pink Christmas cards that I linked up last year. I'm hoping I can finish at least one more, since I intended to top last year's score.

I'm also linking up my card at:

Creations in Pink - #3 Anything goes with mainly pink

Cards in Envy - Favourite holiday

CHNC - #407 Anything Christmas goes

Christmas at Sweet Stampin' - Anything Christmas goes

Allsorts - #489 Christmas

Warm mittens

I found another fun patterned paper in my stash that was just perfect for the PINK challenge that is still going on at Jingle Belles. Please see any of my previous posts for more info.

As soon as I found this pretty paper in my stash, I knew I wanted to pair it with the mittens die by Marianne Design that my sister gave me on one of her visits. After die cutting and embossing the mittens, I blended a little pink ink on the raised parts while I still had the die in place. The sentiment is from an Hunkydory kit and was white heat embossed (SSS) onto vellum (Bazzill). My background panels were die cut using a stitched rectangle die (SSS). To finish off, I applied white enamel accents to the white dots on the patterned paper.

I'm linking up my cards at:

Jingle Belles - Pink Christmas ... for the Cure

If you've played along with us in other years, you may already know that at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ we always devote the first theme of each October to making pink holiday cards as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and that for each card that gets linked up, we (Stephanie and Lauren) each donate two dollars to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. 

HLS Anything goes with dies

HLS Chrismas - Anything goes

Sparkles Forum Chrismas - #93 Christmas is for Kids

Pink snowflakes

Hello! I'm back with a few more Christmas cards featuring PINK. For these cards, I decided to let the patterned papers do most of the work for me.

For my snowflake cards, I trimmed a panel of BasicGrey paper down to cover two A2 (US size) card fronts. For my landscape oriented card, I used a die from Studio Calico and stamps by Winnie and Walter (The big, the bold and the merry) to create my sentiment. The die was cut from a new paper paper with subtle shimmer paper. I finished off my card with a few sequins from my stash that have a lovely gold sheen to them that works really well with the soft colours.

For my portrait oriented card, I heat embossed this beautiful and bold sentiment by Penny Black in rose gold embossing powder (SSS) and finished off again with a few sequins.

I'm linking up both cards at:

Jingle Belles - PINK Christmas ... for the Cure

From the Jingle Belles blog:

If you've played along with us in other years, you may already know that at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ we always devote the first theme of each October to making pink holiday cards as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and that for each card that gets linked up, we (Stephanie and Lauren) each donate two dollars to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. 

I'm also linking up my landscape card at:

HLS Anything goes with dies

Creations in Pink - #3 Anything goes in mainly pink

Digi Chooseday -  Wk 42  Anything goes

Cards in Envy - Favourite holiday (Chrismas)

============

I'm also linking up my portrait card at:

HLS Christmas - Anything goes

MLCCB - #3 Anything Christmas goes

Snippets Christmas trees

I wanted to create some cards using snippets for Pixie's Snippets Playground, so I digged up my plastic boxes with strips and small panels of left-over papers from many years ago and cut up some of the strips in to even smaller strips to create these fun and quirky Christmas trees.

One of the snippets had some glitter stripes, which prompted me to heat emboss my sentiments in rose gold embossing powder. For my stars, I heat embossed a snippet of white cardstock in rose gold and then die cut the stars, that I popped up with some foam tape. 

I'm linking up my cards at:

Pixie's Snippets Playground #337

Jingle Belles - Pink Christmas ... for the cure

(For each pink Christmas card that is linked up 

this fortnight – until 6pm EDT on Wednesday – 

Stephanie and Lauren will be donating 2 dollars 

each to the US Breast Cancer Research Foundation)

Merry Little Christmas (MLCCB) - #3 Anything Christmas goes

CHNC - #407 Anything Christmas goes

Watercooler Wednesday - WWC191 All about occasions

HI in black and white

Here's my last card for this year's WCMD challenges at Winnie & Walter.

I stamped the Miniscnery: Round and Round (Winnie and Walter) repeatedly onto the front of my card using a large grid block and Black Jack ink (CP Designs), which is a softer black. I thought it would make the black sentiment strip stand out more, and it did. For my sentiment, I die cut the Hi (In a word: Hi cutaway, W&W) from white-dotted vellum (PTI) and white heat embossed the words from Young at Heart (CAS-ual Fridays, Stamp of Approval, CP Designs) onto black cs and cut it into a strip. The foam tape for my sentiment strips was perfect to adhere the vellum sentiment to my card base as well.

I'm linking up my card at:

W&W WCMD - Black and white background with Crystal

W&W WCMD - Lucky 7 limit with Shay

(3 layers, 2 stamp sets, 1 die, vellum)

Mix it up (MIUCB) - #18 Anything goes (optional: monochrome)

Watercooler Wednesday - WWC191 All about occasions