Merry Christmas

A very Merry Christmas to all of my crafty friends!

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

Distressed Chipboard with Friday Mashup

LOL, that title makes it sound like the chipboard is having a mental issue! :)

Todays challenge is brought to us by Heidi and boy, did she pull me out of my comfort zone. I rarely use chipboard, although I have a ton of it. I see it in the store or the SU catalog and think "oh thats so cute, I could do this or this"....and then it just sits in my craft area.

Today I ended up grabbing some chipboard I bought from K&Company(like 2 yrs ago, see what I mean about not using stuff). I liked how these ornaments had an old-time feel to them, and the glitter accents were also appealing. To coordinate with the glitter on the ornaments I use shimmer mist on my cardstock, after sponging some Early Espresso and Cherry Cobbler along the frame. In the light this card really sparkles and looks so pretty. I sponged the edges with those colors to give it a distressed look, like the card had been around a while and colors were starting to fade or run together...not sure if I really pulled that off or not but that was my original goal.

I hate the way the card looks in the photo, because as I said above the card really shimmers nicely and the colors are much more warm and vintage looking in person. I guess I need to get my cards done earlier in the day. We only have 5 hrs of daylight right now and this card didnt get done until sunset so I didnt have much natural light to work with.

So here we go:

Make a project featuring "Chipboard (Precut or Diecut )".

Or Make a project using  "Distressing (w/ ink, scissors or the Cutter Tool Kit)".
Or "Mash it Up" and create a "Distressed Project featuring Chipboard"

Make sure you head over to The Friday Mashup to check out all the other inspiration from the rest of the design team and then link up YOUR card. We want to see what you do with this challenge!

Snowman Fun with Friday Mashup

I just love this weeks Friday Mashup challenge, which is brought to us by Kim! She wants us to create a project featuring a snowman and use the colors Blushing Bride, Baja Breeze and Basic Gray.

I love snowmen, even though here in my neck of the woods our snow is usually very dry, its not the wet snow that makes the perfect snowman or snowball. I compensate by having snowmen decorations up in the house all year long, and during this time of year my yard has many snowman decorations also. Snowmen just make me smile, I cant help it.

These colors arent normally ones I'd grab for a winter/Christmas card but after seeing them together I think they combine wonderfully for a great winter scene! I used one of my favorite snowmen stamps, from the  Jolliest Time of Year set. I love how whimsical this little guy is! The layout is from this weeks sketch challenge over at Splitcoast. I'm also going to enter this card over at my favorite Christmas challenge blog, Jingle Belles...they are on hiatus until Jan but they have it so you can still link up any Christmas cards you might still be working on!

So here is the "Mashup" Challenge :


-Make a project featuring "Snowmen".
-Or Make a project using the colors "Blushing Bride, Baja Breeze & Basic Grey".
-Or "Mash it Up" and create a "Snowman project with the colors Blushing Bride, Baja Breeze & Basic Grey".


*With all of our Challenges that have a Stampin' Up! Color Combo, you may substitute any colors with similar ones you have on hand.

Head on over to The Friday Mashup to check out all the great inspiration from the rest of the design team and play along with us, we love seeing the way you all interpret these challenges!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Jolliest Time of Year, Bright Christmas(sentiment on front of card), Snow Flurries

Paper: Blushing Bride, Baja Breeze, Basic Gray,  Whisper White, Candy Cane DSP

Ink: Baja Breeze, Blushing Bride, Basic Gray, Pumpkin Pie, Crumb Cake

Accessories: Snow Burst Embossing Folder, Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Aquapainter, Sponge, Dimensionals

Non-Traditional Christmas

This week The Paper Players have a neat challenge....Create something Christmas (or holiday) with non-holiday stamps or colors.  I don't know why but the minute I saw this challenge I immediately thought of the Aviary stamp set. Maybe its because I love to watch the birds in my yard all winter, but the Aviary set is different enough that it doesn't scream "pick me for a Christmas card"? I don't know, but that's the set I grabbed :)

I also used some DSP from last year called Candy Cane Christmas. For me these aren't very traditional Christmas colors, as I am more of the group that uses very rich, warm earthy colors for Christmas. Using a color such as Blushing Bride on a Christmas card is definitely not something I would normally do.

Go check out the design team inspiration, these ladies got very creative with this challenge!

Supplies(all supplies are SU unless otherwise stated):

Stamps: Aviary, Forest Festivities(front sentiment), Many Merry Messages(inside sentiment)

Paper: Naturals White, Blushing Bride, Baja Breeze

Ink: Blushing Bride, Garden Green, Real Red, Baja Breeze, Early Espresso

Accessories: Paper Piercing Tool, Dimensionals, sponge

Thank you with Freshly Made

I haven't had a lot of time to stamp lately so I wanted to try and squeeze in this weeks sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. Why I chose Sunday, when my football team the NY Giants had a big game against Green Bay, is beyond me. I should have known better! Needless to say I spent more time jumping up from my desk and yelling at the TV then I did working on the card,LOL. The G-Men played a good game but alas, lost by a field goal to the still undefeated Green Bay Packers. Sure was a good game though and eventually I got my card done :0)

This is a busy time of year for me. Besides Thanksgiving and Christmas all 3 of my kids have their birthdays. My youngest just turned 13 Nov.20 and today is my daughters 16th birthday. They both received a card and gift from my step mom, so I needed to make a thank you card for them to send to her.

I went with the Forever Young set as I thought the male and female silhouettes would be perfect in representing my 2 younger ones.. The thank you sentiment came from All Year Cheer II.

Supplies(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Forever Young, All Year Cheer II, Itty Bitty Backgrounds

Paper: River Rock, Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla, Timeless Portrait DSP

Ink: Island Indigo, Versamark

Accessories: 1" square punch, dimensionals

Winter Shaking with Friday Mashup

Welcome to another Friday Mashup, and we're now into December. I cant believe how quickly this year has gone by, it's just insane to me.

This week our challenge comes from Rita and she has a great one...a winter themed shaker card! Now as much as I love winter and snow you'd think that I do this type of card all the time...nope! I think this is only my 2nd attempt at a shaker card, and it was um, interesting, LOL. I had some issues with the foam mounting tape I used to create the shaker area, it didnt want to stick to my cardstock at all, so I think I'm going to have to play around with it and see what the problem is. I did get my card made though so woooohooo for that, LOL

So here we go:


Make a project featuring "A Shaker Card".
Or Make a project with a "Winter Theme".
Or "Mash it Up" and create a " Winter Themed Shaker Card. "

Shaker card tutorial can be found here.

Dont forget to head over to The Friday Mashup Blog to check out all the great inspiration from the rest of the design team and then link up your card, we want to see what YOU do with the challenge!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Polar Party, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Punch Pals

Paper: Baja Breeze, Naturals White, Acetate

Ink: Baja Breeze, Real Red, Garden Green, Black StazOn, Tempting Turquoise, Wisteria Wonder, Close to Cocoa

Accessories: Coluzzle, Modern Label Punch, Rhinestones, Mica Flakes, Dimensionals, Mounting Tape, Sponge