Christmas Curled Paper Wreath

Last year my friend Holly mentioned to me that she wanted to make a curled paper wreath. I wasn't very familiar with them so I googled it and thought what the heck, I'll give it a try! I bought all the supplies and was ready to go for it and then life happened and it never got made.

The bag of supplies has been sitting in a corner of my bedroom so I looked at it and said no time like the present! I brought the supplies with me to work and last week on my breaks/lunches I began to work on the wreath, cutting the strips of DSP and curling them. Because I work nights during the week I keep that schedule on the weekend, which means I'm the only one at my house awake into the wee hours. That gave me the perfect excuse to sit at the kitchen table last night and get the wreath put together!

I used a 12" green Styrofoam floral wreath and the DSP is from the retired Holly Berry Bouquet. While some people prefer to use a glue gun to position their curled strips I used pins. It's just easier for me and I like being able to re-position if I need too. The ribbon I used for the bow is from Walmart, we actually used it to wrap around the San Francisco 49er themed tree we put up on Friday. It's a very pretty design and went perfectly with the paper I used for the wreath. The box is the only thing I hot glued on the wreath.

I'm really pleased with how this came out and will definitely be making more!

Lovely as a Tree Sketch

Happy Friday! This week at The Friday Mashup Tara is hostess and she has a great sketch for us, plus she wants us to use something on our card that one wouldn't expect to see.

If you look at my card you'll notice I didn't add anything. I sat and thought and tried to figure out what I could use on my card and I drew a total blank. Looking at? The creativity just wasnt there for me :(

I used a tree from the Lovely as a Tree set for my card. I used a stamp from Kinda Eclectic down the left hand side, stamping it in Versamark. The sentiment is from the retired set Full of Blessings.

The edges of the panels and of the card are all sponged with Crumb Cake.

Head over to The Friday Mashup blog to see all the great projects from the rest of the design team and then play along with us, we'd love to see what you create!

This week's Mashup Challenge is:

• Create a project using the "Sketch". 
• Create a project using a "surprise element, something you wouldn't expect to see on a card/or an unexpected embellishment". 
• or Mash it Up! and create a project "using the Sketch and a unexpected Embellishment".

Stamps: Lovely As a Tree, Kinda Eclectic, Full of Blessings (retired)

Paper: Crumb Cake, Whisper White

Ink: Always Artichoke, Early Espresso, Versamark

Accessories: Sponge

Diamond Dust Christmas for Friday Mashup

This week at The Friday Mashup Sara is our hostess and she has a color challenge for us as well as a technique. The colors we are to use are Island Indigo, Garden Green and Rich Razzleberry. The technique is the Diamond Dust technique.

I haven't done this technique in a long time but I love it because it is so sparkly and pretty and what better technique to use for a Christmas card! I also love these dark, rich colors so I had no problem converting them into something for the holiday season. I used the Endless Wishes set and stamped snowflakes in the challenge colors. I then covered the image panel with Versamark, put some heat and stick powder over it, used the heat tool to heat it up and then added the Dazzling Diamonds. 

My layout came from the current sketch challenge over at Sunday Stamps. The film die was a bit bigger than I remembered and it covered up the strips underneath a bit more than I would have liked but overall I am still happy with how it came out!

I hope you'll come by The Friday Mashup and check out all the great projects from the rest of the design team, and then play along with us!

This week's Mashup Challenge is:

• Create a project using the "Diamond Dust Technique" Tutorial Here. 
• Create a project using the colors "Island Indigo, Garden Green & Rich Razzleberry (or similar colors if you don't have these exact colors). 
• or Mash it Up! and create a project "using the colors above and the Diamond Dust Technique".

Stamps: Endless Wishes

Paper: Rich Razzleberry, Island Indigo, Whisper White, Garden Green DSP, Rich Razzleberry DSP

Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Garden Green, Island Indigo, Versamark

Accessories: Big Shot, On Film Framelits, 1 3/8" Circle Punch, Island Indigo Bakers Twine, Heat and Stick Powder, Dazzling Diamonds, Heat Tool, sponge, dimensionals

Getting Ugly for TTS29

Wait, did I say ugly? That's right and by ugly I mean a good ol' ugly Christmas sweater! 

When I saw the Ugly Sweater set from Simon Says Stamp I had to have it. Ugly Christmas sweaters make me smile and this set is no different. There are so many great images in this set that I know I'll have fun with it for a long time to come.

This week we have a sketch at 'Tis The Season and an ugly Christmas sweater was the first thing that came to mind, the circle spot is perfect for it. I started with paper from Lawn Fawn, it is from their Snow Day collection. The crisp lines are a great way to highlight the sentiment and to also let the sweater take center stage.

Instead of a bow I just did a strip of ribbon across the middle along with a scalloped border of Garden Green. Red and green sequins scattered across the front completed the card for me.

I hope you'll come by 'Tis The Season and play along with us! Only 48 days until Christmas!

Stamps: Ugly Sweater, Sweater Words and Appliques (Simon Says Stamp)

Paper: Garden Green, Whisper White, Snow Day Collection (Lawn Fawn)

Ink: Garden Green, Cherry Cobbler, Daffodil Delight

Accessories: Big Shot, Sweaters Die (Simon Says Stamp), Sequins, Ribbon, Scalloped Edge Border Punch, Paper Piercer, dimensionals

Moose Fabulous

It's that time of year where my crafting time is greatly reduced but today I managed to actually do some challenges for fun!

Jingle Belles wants us to use a creature on our project. Of course I went to my usual, a moose! The sketch is from Freshly Made Sketches. I thought the card looked a little plain when I was done adding the images and DSP so I paper pierced along the edges for a little extra ooompphhhh. The moose jammas were paper pieced with Trim the Tree DSP.

My real life inspiration....on Friday our sunrise was just before 9:30. My boys and I had to head out shortly after that and we came across a mama moose and her baby in the brush by a creek. Mama got spooked and ran into the brush but I managed to get this shot of her baby as it made its way towards the trees. The light from the rising sun created a beautiful glow off of the frost on the trees and brush.

Stamps: Visions of Santa

Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, Trim the Tree DSP

Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Memento Tuxedo Black

Accessories: Big Shot, Banner Framelits Dies, 1 3/8" Circle Punch, Paper Piercing Pack Essentials, dimensionals

Boxed Thanks for Friday Mashup

Happy Halloween! I hope you have a spooktacular day! The high school my boys attend is putting on a carnival so tonight we'll be busy hanging out there and watching the fireworks at the end of the evening, always a fun time.

It's my turn to host the challenge at The Friday Mashup and I'm already thinking about Thanksgiving and how thankful I am for what I have. Now, I'm thankful throughout the year but at this time of year I really like to show people how much I appreciate them. It's been a year full of changes, some good and some bad, and taking the time to acknowledge those in my life who have stood by me and supported me is important to me.

I've seen a lot of cards in a box lately and I was intrigued by them, but also intimidated. However, I quickly discovered these are quite easy so if you've never made one before what are you waiting for? :) I used THIS VIDEO for inspiration. The only thing I did differently is that my card stock is 9 x6, I believe she uses a 9 x 5.

I decided to use the Holiday Home set and created a little neighborhood fall scene, with trees, pumpkins and 2 houses. I used Color Me Autumn DSP to decorate the outside of the box, and sequins dress up the inside panel and add a little more visual interest. The sentiment is from the set For All Things.

Make sure you head over to The Friday Mashup to see what the rest of the DT created, and then play along with us!

Here's your Mashup Challenge:

• Create a "Box Project". 
• Create a project with a "Thanksgiving or Thankful Theme".
• or Mash it Up! and create a "Thanksgiving- or Thankful-Themed Box".

Stamps: Holiday Home, For All Things

Paper: Soft Suede, Whisper White, Color Me Autumn DSP

Ink: Hello Honey, Tangelo Twist, Soft Suede,  Blendabilities: Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake

Accessories: Big Shot, Homemade Holiday Framelits, Modern Label Punch, Gold Sequins

Christmas Butterfly Wishes

In May of this year my sister in law lost her mother to complications due to cancer. It was very sudden and the death hit everyone hard. My SIL contacted me over the summer and asked if I could create a Christmas card to honor her mom. Her only stipulation was that it had to include butterflies somehow as her mother loved them and the family associates butterflies with her mom. Of course I was honored and said I would do my best to come up with something for her. A few days later I sent her a rough draft of the card I had in mind and got a big yes from her, so I moved forward and created 25 butterfly Christmas cards for her.

I used the large tree from Lovely As a Tree to form my hanging pine branches. I then stamped the sentiment in the corner of the card and ran the panel through  my Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots folder. Because I only wanted it to look like snow is falling from below the branches I put a shim in the folder to keep from getting a line across the card as I embossed it.

My butterflies are cut out using the Beautiful Wings embosslits in Night of Navy and Silver Shimmer paper. I used Silver Stretch Cord to create bows for the Night of Navy butterflies and a silver marker to draw the line connecting the bows to the butterflies.

The final step was to sponge the edge of the Whisper White panel and then adhere it to a Night of Navy card base. The picture really doesn't do the card justice, they are so pretty in person! I'm going to let my SIL know she can pull up the edges of the butterfly wings to make them look like they're flying off the card.

Stamps: Lovely As a Tree, Contempo Christmas (sentiment)

Paper: Night of Navy, Silver Glimmer Paper, Whisper White

Ink: Night of Navy, Silver Marker

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Swiss Dots EF, Beautiful Wings Embosslits, Silver Stretch Cord, sponge