two wreaths...

Hey there!!  I have two cards to share today and both have wreaths on them.  First up is a card for the November Where Creativity Meets C9 challenge of Christmas.  I have had the beautiful C9 Magnolia Wreath stamp and die set for about a month and have been dying to make something with it and the new challenge was perfect chance.  Since this was my first time using the set I kept things pretty simple to get a feel for how the images work together.  I used Memento Pistachio and Stampin Up! Always Artichoke inks for the wreath and then added in the berries with SU!'s Real Red.  The banner was also stamped in Real Red and then trimmed out.  The wreath was die cut with the matching die.  I stamped the pine border from the C9 Seasonal Borders stamp set in kraft on the bottom of my kraft cardstock base for a subtle tone on tone look.  The red cardstock panel was partially embossed with SU!'s Decorative Dots embossing folder and then I added the wreath and banner.   Can't wait to use this stamp set again!

Card number two is for the current Inspired by All the Little Things, as well as the November Sketch for You to Try.  I got seriously sparkly with this card, lol!!  I'm also going to add this to the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of snow white.  Lots of RC die cuts used on this one.  I managed to incorporate the tree portions of the Inspired by All the Little Things inspiration photo by using a piece of patterned paper from the RC Very Merry paper pad.   I die cut the RC wreath from silver glitter cardstock and then used two of the little dies that come with the wreath to die cut the little white pine branches.  Once those were adhered I added "berries" using the Pretty Pink Posh Sparkling Clear Confetti mix.  I layered up the glitter cardstock, vellum strip and the white tag then added the wreath.  The sentiment from the RC Tinsel 'n Trim stamp set was embossed in white on a banner that was die cut with the banner from the RC Tag Me die set.  Finished by adding a bit of white twine.

Hope you have a wonderful day!!  We are having some crazy wild weather today... super strong winds... not my favorite!

Supplies:  Card #1:  Cardstock:  PTI kraft, SU! Real Red; white; Stamps and dies:  Concord & 9th; Inks:  SU! Crumb Cake, Real Red, Always Artichoke, Memento Pistachio; SU! embossing folder

Card #2:  Cardstock: MFT white, MFT silver glitter, PTI vellum; Patterned paper:  Reverse Confetti; Stamps and dies:  Reverse Confetti; Ink:  VersaMark; Embossing powder: Hero Arts; Pretty Pink Posh Sparkling Clear Confetti mix

Christmas cards!!

Hey!!   Hope your week is going well.  I have two Christmas cards to share that use lots of fun AJVD products.  First up is a card for the current Merry Monday Christmas challenge and Freshly Made Sketches.   The challenge at Merry Monday is to use kraft and red.  I used red glitter cardstock and red foil cardstock to create my poinsettia using AJVD Poinsettia dies.  I brought in the kraft part of the challenge by die cutting a panel of kraft cardstock with an AJVD Stitched Dot rectangle die and then die cutting one corner using an Elegant Stitched Dot border die.  The panel was then stamped with kraft ink using the AJVD Dainty Dot Background stamp.   I die cut the word greetings from the Poinsettia Greetings die set and adhered that to the panel.   Now here is where I made a mistake.  I attached my panel to the cardstock base per the sketch (which I flipped on it's side and turned into a rectangle) and then added my poinsettia.  At that point I realized I had not stamped the word season's... YIKES!!  Thankfully I had put enough foam dimensionals on the back to make it sturdy enough to stamp the word!!

The second card is for the current Inspired by All the Little Things challenge.  I have been trying to play along with their challenges over the last few weeks, but always run out of time.  I was determined that I would get something made for this week's challenge as I absolutely loved the inspiration photo.  I die cut my pine branches using a newly released AJVD die set from a dark green cardstock and layered them on a black cardstock base.  The sentiment was stamped in white ink.  I stamped the Christmas stocking in VersaFine Onyx Black ink and then colored it with Kuretake Gansi Tambi watercolors.  Once it was dry I trimmed it out.  A snowflake was die cut and adhered to the pine branches along with the stocking.  Love how this one turned out and now I have two more Christmas cards made!!


Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI Pinefeather, True Black and kraft; Stampin Up! Real Red; Ranger watercolor paper, Stampin Up! red glitter; red foil; Stamps and dies:  A Jillian Vance Design; Inks:  VersaFine, Simon Says Stamp white pigment, Stampin Up! Crumb Cake and Real Red; Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors

merry poinsettia

Hello!  Have a card to share for several different challenges today.  When I saw that my sweet bloggy friend, Anita, is the creative guest for Inspired by All the Little Things I knew that I had to play along!  It also helped that the inspiration photo is that of a gorgeous dahlia and I absolutely love dahlias!!  I decided to team this up with the current Essentials by Ellen Pin-Sights challenge.  I pulled just a few colors (peachy pink, blue and gold) from the pin-sights inspiration photo and the inspiration I took from the Inspired All the Little Things photo is the positioning of the flower.  I would have loved to have a large dahlia image to color, but I thought my EE Mondo Poinsettia would make a lovely substitute.  I stamped the large poinsettia on watercolor paper with watermark ink and then heat embossed with gold embossing powder.  The same was done with the smaller poinsettia on a separate piece of watercolor paper.  I then colored both images with two ZIG clean color markers (Light Carmine and Flamingo Pink).  The center of the flowers were colored with another ZIG marker (Mustard).  Once the flowers were dry I die cut the smaller one with the matching die.  I added a light coloring of blue (pulled from the EE Pin-Sights photo) with a ZIG marker.  Once everything was dry I trimmed down the main panel and adhered the smaller poinsettia.  I added the foam tape to the back and then remembered that I had not stamped the sentiment!!  So... I stamped it on vellum and heat embossed in white.  A few dots of Nuvo Crystal Drops in Morning Dew were added to finish things off.   I will also add this to the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.

Thanks for stopping by... please remember to keep everyone in Las Vegas in your thoughts and prayers as they deal with this awful tragedy.

Supplies:  Cardstock:  SSS Fog, Ranger watercolor; Stamps and dies:  Essentials by Ellen; Inks:  VersaMark watermark ink; Hero Arts white embossing powder, Ranger gold embossing powder; Watercolor medium:  ZIG Clean Color Markers; Nuvo Crystal Drops

guesting at inspired by all the little things!

Hello!!  Well... I have something fun to share!  Today I am guesting at Inspired by All the Little Things!!    Last month I was contacted by the super talented Karren about guesting with her for today's challenge.   I was so excited that she contacted me about being a part of this fun challenge that I said "yes" immediately. Karren is a super talented colorist and paper crafter.  If you want to be inspired you must check out her blog!  You can find out all the details about participating in the challenge here.  This week's inspiration is a fun photo of a set of old fashioned skis with a wreath (see photo below).  When I saw the inspiration photo I immediately thought of making something with skis, but unfortunately I don't own any stamps with a set of skis in them so I had to go a different route.  I decided to focus on the wreath in the photo, as well as the colors.  Since the colors are rather muted I looked through my stash of patterned papers and settled on some papers from the Pink Paislee Yuletide 6x6 pad.  My layout is based on this month's Reverse Confetti Sketch for You to Try.  I die cut the wreath using the RC Leafy Wreath die from the green patterned paper twice and then layered them together slightly offset.  I used the two small sprig dies from the Leafy Wreath set to die cut some brownish patterned paper for my "pinecones" and adhered them to my wreath.  The banner (from the RC die set Tag Me) was also die cut from some paper from the Yuletide pad and then stamped with the word "believe" (from the RC set Walk by Faith) in black ink.  The banner was then adhered to the wreath.   After layering up everything as you see I added some little leaves to the banner and Ice Stickles for a bit a sparkle.  I hope you will check out Inspired by All the Little Things and a big thank you to Karren for asking me to be the guest designer this week!!

Hope you have a wonderful day...

Supplies:  Cardstock:  white; Patterned paper:  Pink Paislee Yuletide; Stamps:  Reverse Confetti; Dies:  Reverse Confetti and AJVD; Ranger Ice Stickles