Happy New Year 2011!

Soooo, I said in my last post that I found this adorable Happy New Year Anya image over at Splendid Stamping With the Greeting Farm and I couldn't help but make a card with her. Funny though, I don't give out New Year's cards so she might just be a keeper. I gave myself an extra push today and forced myself to use more embellishments than normal. They intimidate me I guess - I tend to keep things minimal, partly because I like the minimal look, but also out of a fear of messing it up! That being said, I'm glad I went with it because I love how this turned out!! I used Basic Grey Olivia paper and distressed EVERYTHING just slightly with some Antique Linen Distress Ink and an edge distresser on the dp. I even used the distess ink on the ribbon and the flowers! And then came the bling!! I used a clear Atyou Spica pen on the Happy New Year and the 2011 on her sash; Diamond Stickles on her earings, shoes and under her dress; and the rhinestone flourish (which by the way was courtesy of Monique's blog candy I won a while back). Believe it or not, the ribbon was from a pair of pj's that I got as a gift. They were wrapped in a bundle with the ribbon, and of course I kept it!! Something else I tried new today was Anya's hair. I used a different technique and I'm thrilled with how that turned out too!!

I used Sketch #134 over at Friday's Sketchers and I'm also entering this for The Crafty Pad's Challenge #102 Anything Goes.

Paper: Basic Grey Olivia dp, Stampin Up Pretty in Pink cs, kraft cs
Stamp: The Greeting Farm (digi New Year Anya)
Ink: Tim Holtz Distess Ink Antique Linen
Copics: skin E50, E21, R20; hair E25, 33, 31; hat and sash R20 RV34; dress, shoes and earings BG000, 01, 45
Accessories: Nestablilites Large Circle and Blossom, Diamond Stickles, Atyou Spica Pen, Prima flowers, BG brads, ribbon and rhinestone flourish from stash

Winter Wonderland

My last Christmas card of the year was another Andrea Walford card. This was part of her 12 Weeks of Christmas Newsletter. All products are Stampin Up except for the shimmer spray which I made using Perfect Pearls and a water mister which was sprayed on the cs behind the snowflakes and the snowflake dp. I love how this card turned out, even though it gave me quite a bit of trouble!! The instructions were to use Stampin Up's Sticky Pages for the snowflakes. I had a lot of trouble with them and my cuttlebug just wouldn't cut through it, no matter how I changed the stack or what paper I used. I wasn't too impressed but I eventually decided to just use a two way glue pen and adhere the dazzling diamonds to the snowflakes that way! I loved making the dp too by sponging the Tempting Turquoise and Certainly Celery inks onto the paper. It was toned down by sponging some Creamy Caramel to the edges. The snowflakes are from the Serene Snowflakes set and I can already tell will be used alot for holiday cards!!! Well I guess it's time to switch gears, which I'm looking forward to! I've got 10 days off during the Holidays and I plan on playing!! I might try a New Year's card since I found an adorable free image from The Greeting Farm, and I also have some birthday cards to start.

Paper: Stampin Up Ruby Red cs, white cs

Ink: Stampin Up Temping Turquoise, Certainly Celery, Creamy Caramel

Stamps: Stampin Up Serene Snowflakes, Bright Christmas

Accessories: Stampin Up Snowflake Sizzix Sizzlits, Tim Holtz Edge Distresser, Dazzling Diamonds, Ranger Perfect Pearls Heirloom Gold, Water Mister

Merry Christmas to all!!

Just a couple pictures from my tree :-) Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!!

Snow Days

Love this card and I could make many more!! I used the Snow Days CTMH set which is so pretty. This layout was inspired by this card at Stamping with a Java Junkie. I fell in love with the card. I coloured with copics and made some snow with Liquid Applique. And of course I had to add some sparkle with some Dazzling Diamonds. Hope you like it as much as I do!!

Father Christmas

Wow - time is flying by!! Just wanted to share a card I made a while back, actually it was at the Charity Stamping Event in August. This was a card by Shanna, The Stamping Banana. We used CTMH's Father Christmas and Vintage Christmas. Can you see the sparkle on the image? That was a little glimmermist. It's such a pretty card and it found it's new home this week. I'd like to make a couple more of these actually since I have both sets. I should make 1 more card at least! Hmmmm.........

Notice there's no snow it the picture? Is it ever strange to see that, since we have a Winter Wonderland right now!!

Sparkle Creations Cupid Emily - I Won!!

Well, how cool is this!! I just won this sweet stamp from Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps!! I can't wait to see her. Thank you Sparkle!! You can see her here all inked up on Sparkle's blog. It's going to seem so strange when I've finished all my Christmas cards to make perhaps a Valentine's card or maybe a birthday card, lol.

Warmest Wishes

I just wanted to share another Christmas card I made at a card Class at Dat's Scrapbooking with Donna using Stamping Bella's Polar Bear Circle and Long and Lean Presents stamps. This is a shaker card which was something new and fun to try and I love, love, love how it turned out. Aren't those tiny beads gorgeous?

Yippeee - I think I only have 3 or 4 more cards to go!! Maybe 5!! I wonder what it will be like to make non-Christmas related cards?? I'm kinda looking forward to it!! But I have enjoyed every single card I've made for the holiday season though!!

Celebrate the Season

Hi there - today I decided to do a couple cards, one I've always wanted to try by Andrea Wolford who's blog I check out all the time for cool Stampin Up ideas. I also subscribe to her 12 Weeks of Christmas Newsletter and plan to try some of her cards and tag ideas as well. First off is my take on the card - I used Night of Navy cs from Stampin Up and Wintertime Flurry dp by Echo Park. I used the stamp set from Stampin Up as well called Patterned Pines. the image is embossed with white ep on Night of Navy cs and then cut them out. I placed a small piece of the same cs behind the trees and brushed some white ink along the edges. I then stamped out the sentiment from Stampin Up's So Many Scallops set on white card stock and the dp. I punched out the dp and then made two more layers of the white cs and popped them up and finished it with some Stickles. I ran a piece of White Tinsel Trim from Stampin Up along the card under the trees and then popped up the trees as well. I just know I'm going to love that Tinsel Trim. I'm entering this card in Sparkle Creations Christmas Card Challenge #1, Monochromatic.

For the original card I used the Patterned Pines Stamp set, old olive re-inker and pewter shimmer paint. I didn't have white so I substituted with the pewter. You just mix a drop of the shimmer paint with a couple drops of the re-inker and sponge that onto the stamp. It is a nice shimmery image. I also made my own dp using the snowflake from the same stamp set with various inks on a paper from the CTMH Mistletoe dp. I love how these turned out!

Warm Winter Wishes

Here is my newest Christmas card! I used Stampin Up Deck The Halls dp and Stamping Bella's Minty Coffee stamp. I decided to try something new for me on this card and I blended Pumice Stone Destress Ink for the background. I'm very pleased how this turned out. It's a great colour. I coloured the image with copics and added some champaigne stickles to the berries and leaves and around the steam swirls. The candy cane is glossed up with Glossy Accents. I also added some Liquid Applique under the mug for a snowy effect and added some more champaigne stickles to the snow And keeping with the snowy look I added a couple white snowflake brads. I like it - I like the colours and the overall feel of the card.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Bellerific Fridays - Snow Theme
The Crafty Pad Challenge #99 - Snowflakes
Paper Sundaes Challenge #46- Adorn Those Corners
Friday Sketchers - Sketch #130

Paper: Stampin Up Deck the Halls dp, Coordinations Poinsetta cs

Stamps: Stamping Bella Minty Coffee, Amy R Winter Sentiments

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, copics, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pumice Stone

Accessories: MS Punch, Prima Poinsetta, snowlake brads from stash, Liquid Applique, Glossy Accents; Champaigne Stickles, Nestabilites Labels Three

Bosley & Milo

I had to share these pictures of my Bosley (the schnauzer) and Milo (the boxer), my sister n' law's new puppy. I'm sitting him this weekend, what a little sweety!! Just like being a new mom again, getting up through the night, letting him out, listening to him whimper ..........

Merry Christmas Dear Friend

Okay......... I'm just firing them off here! I believe this is number 15 of the 20 (which is now 22, I forgot two more I need). I decided to enter another card in The Crafty Pad's Challenge #98 Green and Red and I also used the layout from Paper Sundaes Challenge #45 - A Sketch again. In case I haven't shown you the sketch yet, here it is.This time I decided to use this SEI dsp. I'd been wanting to try it and this seemed like the perfect time. Again, I cut out the tree and used Nestabilites Labels Four to cut her out. I also embossed the larger size to frame her in red. I used Liquid Applique again on the trim of her outfit and this time threw on a little Stampin Up Dazzling Diamonds. She's so much fun to colour!

Paper: SEI Kris Kringle dsp, Stampin Up Ruby Red and Garden Green cs

Stamps: Stamping Bella Jinglebella, Stampin Up Cute & Curly, Amy R's Christmas Card Greetings

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up Ruby Red

Accessories: Stampin Up Dazzling Diamonds, Marvy Liquid Applique, Nestablities Labels Four, Red Glitter

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

This week's Bellarific Friday Challenge was to make an all white card. Only the image could be coloured. This definately required some thought, but the snowflake cuttlebug embossing folder seemed to pull everything together since I didn't have any white dp! The image was coloured with copics and then layered over Leaf coloured glitter cs and then another layer of white. The CTMH Twinkle brads matched perfectly and of course I had to add some glitter to the outside of the embossed cs! And for the final touch I added some Glossy Accents to the buttons. I have to start using that more often. I could actually make a few of these, since I didn't have to fool around with coordinating dp's and colours and designs.........Yes, I think I might do a couple of them. Maybe with the Polar Bear Circle??!!

Paper: White cs, AC Leaf Glitter cs

Stamps: Stamping Bella Snowman Circle, Amy R Stamps Winter Sentiments

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, copics

Accessories: CTMH Twinkle brads, Stampin Up Dazzling Diamonds, Glossy Accents, ribbon from stash, nestabilites large circle, large scalloped circle, petite ovals and scalloped petite ovals

A Vintage Merry Christmas

Just a quick post today - I'm happy I was finally able to use this Vintage Christmas set from CTMH. I embossed the image with Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Powder in Aged Mahogany - too bad you can't feel it! It's a very gritty rough texture, like sand paper. I also used Vintage Photo Distress Ink on the edges of the image and the CTMH Mistletoe dp. The brads and the poinsetta are also from the CTMH Mistletoe set. I am entering this card in the Paper Sundaes Challenge #45 - A Sketch and The Crafty Pad's Challenge 98 - RED and GREEN.

Paper: CTMH New England Ivy, Cranberry and Colonial White cs, CTMH Mistletoe dp
Ink: Versamark, Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink, Stampin Up Always Artichoke
Stamps: CTMH Vintage Christmas
Accessories: Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Powder Aged Mahogany, CTMH Mistletoe Assortment

Snow Friends

Here's a cute little card I made last night. I picked up the Fancy Pants dp one day because I just loved it and put it aside. Then one day I started playing with my Stampin Up Water Color Crayons and an aqua painter and the Snow Friends stamp set from CTMH, and after mixing a couple colours came up with this really cool reddish/burgundyish colour. I was only playing around and I didn't even use water colour paper as it was just supposed to be a rough go but I ended up loving it so much that I kept it the way it was and eventually realized it went great with this dp. When I began to put it together I chose the blue snowflakes in the dp to coordinate with a cardstock and came up with the Brocade Blue from the Stampin Up Rich Regals paper collection. I then did some faux stitching around the dp with the white gel pen and tied that into the scalloped square. Of course I had to add something sparkly so I pulled out the Diamond Stickles and outlined the square. I popped up the stamped image with some dimmensional stickers and once I got to the sentiment inside, I decided to try a very subtle pop and used some Glue Dots glue lines on the white paper to give it a very slight lift from the blue cs. I have to admit I wasn't sure at first about the blue cs but it all seemed to come together and I kept it fairly simple (partially because I didn't have any ribbon to match, lol). I like it!! I'm going to enter this in The Crafty Pad's Challenge #97 Christmas Sparkle as well.

Paper: Fancy Pants Holiday Sentiments dp, Stampin Up Brocade Blue cs

Stamps: CTMH Snow Friends

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up Water Color Crayons

Accessories: Diamond Stickles, Liquid Applique, Large Square and Large Scalloped Square Nestabilities, Labels Four Nestabilities, Inksentials White Gel Pen, clear Bella Bling dots