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

Fall Colored Embossing for Friday Mashup

Happy Friday! I don't know about you all but this week seemed to drag on forever and I am SO happy to see the weekend right around the corner!

Its time for another Friday Mashup and this week Heidi is our hostess. She would like us to create a project using the colors Hello Honey, Baked Brown Sugar and Tangelo Twist and then add to our project by giving the Iron Off Embossing Technique a try.

I don't know what I did wrong but I could not get the iron off part to go my way. Each time I tried it I ended up with a smeared, ugly mess. Therefore you'll see my sentiment is embossed, with the glossy finish. If you do the technique right your embossed piece will be a nice matte finish!

I saw the new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches and used that as my starting point since this whole project had me stumped for some reason. I grabbed the Work of Art set and used Hello Honey and Tangelo Twist to create a bit of a sunset behind my trees from Lovely As a Tree, that I stamped in Baked Brown Sugar. I stamped the Hardwood background stamp in Baked Brown Sugar on a Hello Honey card base and the sentiment is embossed in Whisper White on a circle of Baked Brown Sugar. The image panel and circle were both popped up with dimensionals.

Head over to The Friday Mashup blog to see how the other DT members did not fail at the technique like I did :), and then play along with us. Go check out Freshly Made Sketches also!

Here's your Mashup Challenge:

• Create a project with "Hello Honey, Tangelo Twist & Baked Brown Sugar". 
• Create a project with the "Iron-Off Embossing Technique".  Link to technique HERE.
• or Mash it Up! and create a "Project using the colors above & the Iron-Off Embossing Technique". 

Stamps: Work of Art, For All Things, Lovely As a Tree, Hardwood

Paper: Hello Honey, Baked Brown Sugar, Whisper White

Ink: Hello Honey, Tangelo Twist, Versamark

Accessories: Whisper White Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, 1 3/4" circle punch, dimensionals

Going Pastel for Christmas

It's time for another challenge at 'Tis The Season! To help build up your Christmas card stash we have a bi-weekly challenge and this week its all about colors....Pink Pirouette, Pool Party and So Saffron.

Now as I've said before I am very traditional when it comes to Christmas and Christmas colors and this combo was very hard for me! I have a good friend who I always call a "foofoo" girl because she loves the pinks and soft colors and I always make a card tailored especially to her especially like that. Guess who is getting this card for Christmas :0)

I took the Merry image from Seasonally Scattered and embossed it in Whisper White on a piece of Pink Pirouette. I then took a panel of Pool Party and embossed it with the Lucky Stars TIEF. I then took that panel and put it on a card base of So Saffron. For a little extra I added some snowflakes from the Frosted Sequins pack and put basic pearls in the middle of them.

I know this color combo may seem a bit scary but if I can do it you can :) Come play along with us at 'Tis The Season!

Stamps: Seasonally Scattered

Paper: Pink Pirouette, Pool Party, So Saffron

Ink: Versamark

Accessories: Big Shot, Lucky Stars TIEF, Frosted Sequins, Whisper White Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Paper Piercing Pack

Going to Space for Friday Mashup

I'm back with The Friday Mashup this week and Holly has a fun technique for us to try. It's called the Galaxy Technique and you can watch videos on it HERE and HERE. She also wants us to create a project for a friend.

After asking my fellow DT members what they used I went with reinkers on wax paper. I mimicked fellow DT Sara by using Naturals White card stock instead of watercolor paper. Its a great replacement and I frequently use it for watercolor projects, even though I do have watercolor paper on hand.

For my reinkers I used Crushed Curry, Basic Black and Bermuda Bay. I also used a Smoky Slate Stamping Spot. I dropped/stamped them all on wax paper and then spritzed it with water and used a paper towel to make sure it was wet but not too wet. I then put my piece of Naturals White down to pick up the color. I did this a few times to get the desired effect, with a heat tool used to dry the paper and ink when I thought it was getting too moist. If you head over to The Friday Mashup you'll see that Tara and I were thinking along the same lines with our images :)

I then took the image and sentiment and embossed it with Whisper White embossing powder on a panel I cut out with the Window Frames framelits. I then repeated the technique on this panel, wiping the ink off the embossed portion as I went along.

To finish off the card I backed the image panel on a Basic Black panel cut out with the next size up Window Frame and adhered it all with dimensionals. It's a fun card to give to an out of this world friend!

Head over to The Friday Mashup and see all the great cards from the rest of the DT, and then give the technique a try!

Here's your Mashup Challenge:

• Create a project with the "Galaxy Technique".   Links to technique HERE &HERE
• Create a project for "A Friend". 
• or Mash it Up! and create a "Project for a friend using the Galaxy Technique".

Stamps: Love You to the Moon (retired)

Paper: Basic Black, Naturals White

Ink: Smoky Slate, Basic Black, Crushed Curry, Bermuda Bay, Craft White

Accessories: Big Shot, Window Frame Framelits, Festive Paper Piercing Pack, Whisper White Embossing Power, Heat Tool

To The Stars with TTS

I'm a few days late with my card for 'Tis The Season. My oldest has been having some medical issues and then hubby and I went away for the weekend to celebrate my 41st birthday so here I am on Monday, getting my card up :)

This week at 'Tis The Season we have a great sketch for you. You can see I took the circles in the sketch and changed them to stars. I recently got the Bright and Beautiful set from the Christmas catalog and thought this was the perfect sketch to break it out for the first time.

I embossed a panel of Whisper White with the On Point TIEF and adhered that to a card base of Smoky Slate. The big star was stamped in Lost Lagoon, the 2 smaller ones in Smoky Slate and the other big one in Silver Glimmer Paper. For my strip across the middle I used some Silver Stretch cord. For a little extra bling I added some rhinestones to finish it off. The sentiment was stamped in Lost Lagoon and is from More Merry Messages.

I hope you'll come by 'Tis The Season and play along with us!

Stamps: Bright and Beautiful, More Merry Messages

Paper: Smoky Slate, Whisper White, Silver Glimmer Paper

Ink: Lost Lagoon, Smoky Slate

Accessories: Big Shot, On Point TIEF, Stars Framelits, Basic Rhinestone, Silver Stretch Cord, dimensionals