Black Friday Savings

Happy Friday friends! I hope everyone in the US had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Now that we're coming out of our food comas make sure and head over to the Power Poppy shop for an AMAZING Black Friday sale! Now it the perfect time to pick up some of the new stamp sets or grab some of the ones you've been eyeing for a while!

Don't forget to go by THIS POST to see how you can win a $20.00 voucher to the Power Poppy shop! 

A Very Meowy Christmas

Over at the Jingle Belles blog they are all about a creature Christmas right now. I was going to do a moose card (of course) but I recently got this fabulous stamp from Mama Elephant and just had to color it up. I adore cats, and have many friends that are cat lovers also so this is the perfect Christmas image for me to have! It's hard to see but I added some Wink of Stella to the hats and ornaments.

Thanks for stopping by!

O Christmas Tree

It's time for a new challenge over at The Merry Christmas Challenge and as always it's an Anything Goes theme, with an optional theme of trees this week.

I decided to use a one tree image and make that the focus of my card. This sketch, which was on Die Cuttin' Divas a few weeks ago, was the perfect layout to showcase the image. I did some layered stamping to create my tree image and then I cut it out with a SU oval die. The DSP is retired SU and I just adore it, I love the green and black together! I kept it all really simple because I didn't want the paper to overpower the tree image. I also chose to keep a sentiment off the front and just stamp one inside.

Make sure to head on over to The Merry Christmas Challenge blog to see what the rest of the DT created and then play along with us. You'll love seeing your Christmas card stash grow throughout the year!

Blue Christmas

I've missed several of the last challenges over at Jingle Belles so this weekend I set aside time to play along with my favorite Christmas challenge. Their current challenge is to create a Christmas card that predominantly features the color blue. While I'm normally very traditional when it comes to Christmas colors I love the color blue so I was ready to dive right into this challenge!

I also played along with the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches again. I love this sketch, it's very versatile and I know I'm going to be using it a lot!

I had the patterned paper in my stash, it's from Carta Bella and the portion I used for the bottom has just a touch of red and brown, so the blue is still the main color of the card. The white polka dots made me think of snow so for my circle behind the tree I embossed it with a snowy embossing folder that is from SU. The tree is popped up with dimensionals. I made a set of 5 because I liked this design so much!

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Peaceful Pines (SU)

Paper: Midnight Muse (SU retired), Neenah Solar White, Carta Bella All Bundled Up

Ink: Midnight Muse (SU retired)

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Softly Falling TIEF (SU retired), MFT Blueprints 20, SU Perfect Pines Framelits, SU 2 1/2" Circle Punch,  Dimensionals

Silent Night in Threes

Whew! It's amazing how time slips away from me. I've been wanting to play along with the Jingle Belles latest challenge and just realized it closes this Weds so I got to work on a card.

This week the challenge is to create in multiple of three...3 circles, 3 reindeer's, 3 ribbons......anything like that as long as there is three. This stamp set from SU immediately popped into my head because it's one of my favorite images and it has 3 trees, perfect to use for this challenge!!

Here in southcentral Alaska our trees have lost their luster and some leaves are already starting to change. Fall is on it's way but I've definitely got winter on my mind. Today's card was inspired by my favorite thing....dark snowy nights.

I love to sit out on my porch at night when it's snowing and watch the flakes fall around the landscape. We have woods around us and there is just something magical to me about watching the snow fall and dance upon the branches of the trees. It's something that never gets old to me!

I wanted the 3 threes to be the highlight of the card so I decided to heat emboss them in white, and then I took a stamp from the Gorgeous Grunge set and stamped it to look like big snowflakes falling down around the trees. I added the simple sentiment at the top of the card and stamped it in red just to give a pop of color against the black and white. The picture really doesn't do the card justice, it is so pretty and serene in person!

Stamps: Wonderland, Gorgeous Grunge (both SU)

Paper: Basic Black, Neenah Solar White

Ink: Versamark, Real Red, White Craft Ink (all SU)

Accessories: White Embossing Powder, Cuttlebug, MFT Die-Namics 20

Green Trees for TTS

It's time for another challenge at 'Tis The Season and this time we have a color challenge. I love the colors this week...2 shades of green, white and silver/gray.

For my starting point I used a recent sketch from The Paper Players and used the SU set Festive Trees for my 3 trees. 2 of the trees are stamped in Mossy Meadow and the front one is stamped in Garden Green. They are adhered to a circle base cut out of Smoky Slate and embossed with the Falling Snow TIEF. My sentiment is from the set Scenic Season.

Head on over to the 'Tis The Season blog to see what the rest of the DT came up with and then play along with us!

Dashing with a Christmas Tree

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend...mine involved some rockin' and rollin'.....we had an earthquake of 7.1. Our house shook pretty violently but thankfully other than a few things knocked off shelves we were spared any damage. 4 homes were lost 4 hours south of us though due to a gas explosion caused by the quake so please keep those folks in your thoughts.

Today I wanted to hurry up and get a card made for the Jingle Belles challenge that will be ending on Weds. They want to see Christmas trees on our projects. No problem, I love Christmas trees, they are one of the best things about Christmas!

I have a lot of fond memories of going to get our Christmas tree as a kid so when I saw this Avery Elle stamp I had to get it. It reminds me of my dad securing our tree to the car and heading home. When I was in high school my parents had a van and one year my dad put the tree in the back of the van and had to leave the back doors open as we headed home. Well, Daddy forgot that he had his bowling balls towards the back and when we had to come to a stop along the way 2 bowling balls, in their bags, fell out of the van! I yelled at my dad to pull over and he ran and grabbed them. Thankfully traffic wasn't too bad and he got them safely and we made it the rest of the way home with no more issues. My dad passed from cancer in Oct.2010 and I sure do miss talking to him about Christmas escapades.....

Make sure you head on over to the Jingle Belles blog and check out the challenge before it ends!

Stamps: Dashing (Avery Elle)

Paper: Early Espresso (SU), Nennah Solar White, PP

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Real Red (SU)

Copics: R27, R29

YG09, G09, G17

E15, E18

Y18

C1

N3

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Softly Falling TIEF (SU), Early Espresso Ribbon (SU), MFT Blueprints, dimensionals

O Christmas Tree For TTS

We've entered the month of December and Christmas is just a few weeks away! This means the last challenge of the year is upon us at 'Tis The Season and we have an inspiration photo to carry us out for the year.

I was inspired by the tree and colors on the tree. MFT had the perfect stamp to use in the Merry Christmoose set so I stamped that and colored it with copics on a piece of cardstock I die cut using one of the dies from the MFT Blueprint 15 set. My card base is Real Red and I layered a piece of patterned paper on it and then added my image panel. To bring in the colors from the picture I added sequins for decorations on the tree.

The picture doesn't do it justice, it's so cute in person, I love it!

Head on over to the 'Tis The Season blog and play along with us, I'd love to see what you create!

Stamps: Merry Christmoose, 

Paper: Real Red, Neenah Solar White, AC Patterned Paper 'Merrymint'

Ink: Real Red, Memento Tuxedo Black

Copics

Accessories: Cuttlebug, MFT Blueprints 15, PPP Classic Christmas Sequin Mix

Wonderland Banner

After watching some football I decided to get crafty and play along with the sketch at Freshly Made, which ends tomorrow. I had the idea for this card as soon as I saw the sketch and really like how it came out. The popped up banner gives a nice separation from the row of trees stamped on the card base. I embossed the card base with the Softly Falling TIEF and then used a white gel pen to accentuate and add falling snow. My area is supposed to see the first snow of the season on Tues and I am SO excited! If it doesn't pan out for some reason I will be super sad. I am all about the snow!

Stamps: Wonderland

Paper: Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler

Ink: Always Artichoke, Cherry Cobbler

Accessories: Big Shot, Banner Framelits, Softly Falling TIEF, White Gel Pen, dimensionals

Silent Night

I sat down this afternoon to play along with a certain sketch challenge blog and when I actually started working on my card I went way off from the sketch and came up with this card instead. Sometimes things just come together like that :)

One of my favorite things to do in the winter is sit outside in the yard when it's snowing and just watch the snow blanket the trees. There is such a peace and beauty about it that really speaks to my soul, and that is what inspired this card.

Stamps: Wonderland

Paper: Always Artichoke, Whisper White Thick CS

Ink: Always Artichoke, Real Red

Accessories: Big Shot, Softly Falling TIEF, dimensionals

A Christmas Glow for TTS

It's time for a new challenge at 'Tis The Season and  it's a beautiful inspiration photo. I just love the glow of the Christmas lights and that's what I drew my inspiration from.

Here in my neck of the woods we have a lot of black spruce trees. I really love them when they're covered in snow and I always imagine hanging Christmas lights and ornaments on them. I decided to do it on paper instead, using various SU makers to create lights on the trees. I kept it simple by stamping a row of trees across the card with some slight watercoloring done along the bottom to give the ground a little more definition. After using markers to add the lights I stamped the sentimen in Real Red across the bottom of the card. I really love how simple and beautiful this one layer card came out!

Head over to the TTS blog to see what the rest of the DT came up with and then play along with us!

Stamps: Wonderland

Paper: Whisper White Thick, Real Red (strip inside card)

Ink: Always Artichoke, Crumb Cake, Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise, Real Red

Accessories: Aquapainter

Summer Colors for Tis The Season

This week at 'Tis The Season we have some bright colors to use, colors that totally made me think summer. I've said it before, I am all about the traditional Christmas colors so I had to sit and think about this for a bit.

I ended up grabbing the Lots of Joy set and stamped the tree in the set 3 times...once in Strawberry Slush, once in Daffodil Delight and then once in Pool Party. I punched them out with the tree punch and adhered them to a panel of DSP that is backed with a panel of Pool Party. To incorporate the Always Artichoke I stamped the sentiment in that color. The card still seemed a bit plain to me so I did my favorite thing to add a little extra to a card, paper piercing around the edge.

Head over to the 'Tis The Season blog to see how the rest of the DT used these colors and then play along with us! 

Stamps: Lots of Joy

Paper: Pool Party, Whisper White Thick Cardstock, All is Calm DSP

Ink: Pool Party, Strawberry Slush, Daffodil Delight, Always Artichoke

Accessories: Paper Piercer, Dimensionals

A Retro Christmas for TTS47

This week at 'Tis The Season we have an Inspiration Photo and I won't lie, this was a hard one for me. If you've stopped by my blog before and have seen previous Christmas cards you'll know that I am very traditional when it comes to the holidays. I love my red, green and brown for Christmas. That's why we call them challenge blogs though, right? To push us out of our comfort zones and well, this photo does just that for me!

I decided to pull inspiration from the tree and pastel colors. I grabbed the SU stamp Star Tree (retired) and used 4 colors to color it...Pink Pirouette, Blushing Bride, Soft Sky and Pool Party. I then used an oval framelit to cut out the panel and did paper piercing around the edge. My card base is Pink Pirouette and I lightly stamped the snowflakes from the set White Christmas all across the base. I then did a strip of Soft Sky DSP from All is Calm (retired) with a scallop strip of Pool Party going along the bottom. To finish it off I put a strip of white ribbon across the DSP and popped the image panel up with dimensionals over the ribbon and DSP. The sentiment was stamped along the bottom of the card in Pool Party.

Head over to the 'Tis The Season blog to see what the rest of the DT did and then play along with us! I'd love to see how YOU interpret this photo!

Stamps: Star Tree (retired), White Christmas, Warmth and Wonder (sentiment-retired)

Paper: Pink Pirouette, Pool Party, Whisper White, All is Calm DSP(retired)

Ink: Pink Pirouette, Blushing Bride, Pool Party, Soft Sky

Accessories: Big Shot, Oval Framlelits, Scallop Edge Border Punch (retired), Occasions Paper Piercing Pack, White Ribbon, dimensionals

One Layer Green Christmas

Today I came across a blog I haven't seen before called One Layer Christmas Card Challenge. We all know how much I adore Christmas so of course I had to play along!

Their challenges every week are always "anything goes" with a twist to them. You don't have to do the twist, it's just another option. This challenge their twist is "green".

I pulled out the retired SU set Evergreen, one of my favorites! I stamped the solid trees in Mint Macaron and the tree made of song lyrics was stamped in Cucumber Crush. I then scored just above and below the images. In person it's very pretty and I'm very happy with how it came out, considering I don't do many one layer cards!

Stamps: Evergreen (retired)

Paper: Neenah Solar White

Ink: Mint Macaron, Cucumber Crush

Accessories: Simply Scored Tool

Christmas Trees for Paper Players

I had a bit of time yesterday afternoon to stamp so I grabbed my November kit from Simon Says Stamp and sat down with The Paper Players current sketch for inspiration.

The kit came with Lawn Fawn Snow Day papers, I just love these papers, they are adorable! I used one of the papers that reminds me of big fat snowflakes as my main square and then added a banner of red and a scallop border, both from the same paper.

I stamped the trees in SU Garden Green and arranged them where the circle in the sketch is. I grabbed a retired SU Real Red button and some bakers twine and adhered that to the banner. On the white cardstock I added falling snow in Pool Party and the sentiment is stamped in Real Red.

Stamps: Be Joyful (SSS)

Paper: Lawn Fawn

Ink: Real Red(SU), Garden Green (SU), Pool Party (SU)

Accessories: SU Button, Bakers Twine, Scallop Edge Border Punch

Silent Night for Tis The Season

This week at 'Tis The Season we have a beautiful inspiration photo! Don't you just love the white with just a touch of teal?

As soon as I saw this photo I knew I wanted to use the set Evergreen. I love trees, and I especially love Christmas trees. I made my card base Bermuda Bay and embossed one of the trees in white in the middle of the base. I then took a panel of Whisper White, embossed it with the Stripes EF and cut out a window using the Window Labels Framelits. I created a frame around the window by using 2 of the dies next to each other in size. Next I grabbed a piece of vellum and stamped the lyrics tree in Lost Lagoon. I had originally used Bermuda Bay but the darker ink looked much better against the embossed image underneath. These lyrics forming the tree speak for themselves so I didn't want to fill the card with accessories that would take away from that, therefore I just added some Basic Pearls to finish off the card.

We hope you'll come by 'Tis The Season and join in our Christmas fun!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Evergreen

Paper: Bermuda Bay, Whisper White, Vellum

Ink: Bermuda Bay, Lost Lagoon, Versamark

Accessories: Big Shot, Stylish Stripes TIEF, Window Frames Framelit Dies, Basic Pearls, White Embossing Powder, Heat Gun, sponge, dimensionals

Single Tree for Merry Monday

Whew, talk about getting something done in the nick of time! I wanted to make sure I played along with Merry Monday and tonight(Sat) was the only chance I've had all week to sit and stamp. I manged to get this card made for this weeks sketch and I was so happy because the minute I asked hubby if he knew what inspired it, something from our area, he knew right away! Points scored for the husband LOL

In the area I live in the road system is very limited. There is the main highway that goes between Fairbanks, Wasilla, and Anchorage. As you leave Wasilla and head towards Anchorage the highway is known as the Glenn Hwy, and as you pass the road known as  the Old Glenn there is a solitary spruce tree. Every Christmas this tree is decorated with battery powered lights and since most people are leaving for work in the dark and coming home in the dark(our shortest day in the winter we have 5 hrs of daylight) seeing a tree lit up along an otherwise dark highway is a welcome sight. For quite some time it wasn't known who was decorating the tree but a year or two ago the local paper asked the elfs behind the Christmas tree to come forward. They did and it was one of the most talked about articles, we are all excited to learn the story behind the Glenn Hwy Christmas tree and you can read about it HERE.

Since our winters are dark I knew I wanted the sky dark but I didn't want to use black so I stuck with brown. I embossed the snow with the CB Swiss Dots folder, but used a white gel pen to draw in falling snow. I colored the tree stamp with markers, cut it out and then popped it up with dimensionals. It's so pretty in person, the picture doesn't do it justice!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

 The tree that inspired this card(photo © Bill Roth/Anchorage Daily News)

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Star Tree(retired)

Paper: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Whisper White, unknown SU DSP

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Cherry Cobbler, Baja Breeze

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Swiss Dots EF, White Gel Pen, sponge, dimensionals

 

O' Tannenbaum for Merry Monday

I finally got my card done for Merry Monday! This sketch was a toughie and I ended up pulling out an older retired SU set called O'Tannenbaum. I thought the tree was a good image for the left side of the card and I kept the rest of the card simple since I wanted the focus on the Christmas tree.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend, thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Bingo with Jingle Belles

This week over at the Jingle Belles blog they have a BINGO challenge for us. I immediately saw the bottom row and knew that would be the choice for me....dry or heat embossing, tree and ribbon.

I used the SU set Evergreen, which is in the holiday catalog. I just love this set! I stamped the first tree in Lucky Limeade and then took the lyrics tree stamp(the lyrics are from Silent Night, beautiful song!) and stamped them in red over the green tree. What can I say, I am a sucker for the traditional Christmas colors.

I dry embossed some Lucky Limeade with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and completed that layer with a bow, therefore completing the challenge requirements :)

Such a fun challenge, head over to their blog and check it out!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise stated):

Stamps: Evergreen

Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Lucky Limeade, Very Vanilla, Festival of Prints DSP, Be of Good Cheer DSP

Ink: Lucky Limeade, Cherry Cobbler

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Swiss Dots EF, Cherry Cobbler ribbon, dimensionals

Friday Mashup Sketchy Watercoloring

Thanks for joining us for another Friday Mashup challenge. It's Dec.23rd, Christmas Eve Eve :), so I'd like to take a moment to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. I hope your day is filled with lots of love and laughter!



Because so many people are busy with the holidays right now I wanted to keep this challenge pretty simple, so I think I have an easy challenge for everyone. I dont know about you but I always like a nice simple sketch to give me a starting point, and I also like to watercolor my images. I thought it would be great to combine 2 of my favorite things for a challenge that people wouldn't have to think too hard about, because goodness knows this time a year our minds are already getting quite a work out!


I hope you'll join us and I look forward to seeing what everyone comes up with! Make sure to check out all the great inspiration from the design team! This challenge will also be open until JAN.4TH! Like I said, we all know what a crazy time of year this is so we figured we'd extend the end of the year challenges, so maybe you can sneak away from the hustle and bustle for a bit for some stamping :)

All of my Christmas cards have been done and mailed for a few weeks now but what does that mean? That I need MORE Christmas cards for next year of course :0)  I grabbed the tree from the Christmas Lodge stamp set to make this card. I love this tree! I watercolored it with Garden Green and Always Artichoke, and added in some Early Espresso for an outline of a tree trunk. For a little extra sparkle I added ornaments with Stickles in red, green and gold(and boy, did that turn into a big discussion in my house...the hubby and daughter didnt want me to put it on, but I wanted too, and well, its my card so they were overruled HA!). I added in some Crumb Cake ribbon, some layers of Frostwood Lodge DSP and called it good.

So here is the "Mashup" Challenge :


-Make a project using the "Sketch".
-Or Make a project using "Watercoloring".
-Or "Mash it Up" and create a project using the "Sketch & Watercoloring" .

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Christmas Lodge, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Flannel Plaid

Paper:  Riding Hood Red, Crumb Cake, Not Quite Navy, Watercolor Paper, Frostwood Lodge DSP

Ink: Garden Green, Always Artichoke, Early Espresso, Riding Hood Red, Not Quite Navy, Crumb Cake

Accessories: Top Note Die, Scallop Trim Border Punch, Crumb Cake ribbon, Oval Punch, Stickles--Candy Cane, Gold and Green, sponge, Aquapainter