Herringbone Christmas

This card features the herringbone technique, which I learned from the Technique Junkies Newsletter. It's made with 1/4-inch strips of patterned paper (and yes, it's very time consuming). Here's the funny part. I made a 1/4-page sheet of the herringbone about a year ago, using up some scraps of Christmas patterned paper. Then I couldn't figure out what to do with it, and just left in on my stamping desk. Luckily, it didn't get lost or buried too deeply, because a few days ago someone posted a card to the TJ Yahoo group featuring this technique, and I finally knew what to do with it.

I am entering this card for 365 Cards challenge #271, to make a card that is "festive, with green and a circle". 

The paper is from a Hobby Lobby stack, which includes some glittery paper. Sentiment is from Serendipity.  I got the little holly leaves in a scrapbook kit, and used mini red stubs and green ribbon from my stash.

Ultra hip Christmas

Yesterday my husband had on a Sirius Radio station that I think was called "ultra hip Christmas," and the music was all stuff that sounded like it was from the late 50s or early 60s, so I guess it was ultra hip back then. This image from Alley Way Stamps sort of has that same retro feel to it, so I chose it for the current Inspiration Challenge #16 at The Alley Way Stamps.  You can see the inspriation comes from the colors of the inspiration photos, espcially the stockings and Santa's elves.

This is also for the Holly Jolly Christmas challenge to include "Three Rs" on your card.  My Rs are Red, Rhinestones and Rounded Corner.

Finally, this is for Victorine Originals Challenge #47, Anything Christmas.

In addition to digis from TAWS, I used rhinestones, paper ribbon from K&Co., colored pencils and OMS, and a corner rounder.

Puns and fun

Thanksgiving really snuck up on me this year. At my house, Thanksgiving means birthday, as my husband's birthday is in late November. He was actually born on Thanksgiving Day (after his mother had already fixed the whole turkey dinner for everyone, the story goes), but Thanksgiving is early this year and his birthday is next week.

I decided to try making him a card using the Be Inspired Challenge #15 at The Alley Way Stamps.  I suspect he will groan loudly when he sees the sentiment "to a fun-gi."

Image is paper pieced with the grass colored in pencils.  It's a fairly simple layout based on the current sketch challenge at SCS.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Fun in the snow

Nina, the owner/designer at Paper Cupcakes, has drawn some really cute snowmen. This one is a freebie she gave out, and the current challenge at the Paper Cupcakes blog There's Magic in the Air is to use this guy on a card, and include a snowflake.  Well, I included enough snowflakes for a blizzard here.

The image is colored with pencils, plus a silver gel pen on the buttons.  I added blue highlights to the embossed piece and sponged the edges of the main image and tag with Bliss Blue ink.  I didn't want this to be a monocrhomatic card, so I decided the mat the main image on a contrasting color.  It's a peachy shade of orange, to pick up the orange from the carrot nose.

This is one of those cards that could work as a Christmas card but doesn't have to be.  The "joy" sentiment seems appropriate in either case.

Nothing like a cup of cocoa

This is a quickie I made for the mini VSN held at Splitcoast Stampers over the weekend. The challenge was to make a card featuring a hot drink, and I had just recently gotten this free digi from The Alley Way stamps (It's free all November, so check out her blog).

The layout is from 365 Cards, the Sunday Sketch #256. 

This really did go together very quickly. I paper pieced the band on the cup -- I just hand-traced the little band and free cut it. It took a little trimming, but it seemed far more efficient than printing out the whole image for such a little piece.

Three variations on a theme

I've really had trouble feeling inspired lately, so it's quite suprising that 365 Cards's challenge #250, to make three cards that are variations on a theme, appealed to me. Maybe I just needed a real challenge, but I jumped on it. The challenge is simply to make three cards that are similar in some way but different in others, with no restrictions on what changes or what stays the same. I ended up keeping the same layout, but changing the image, sentiment and colors on each.

The images I used for this are from an old Stampin' Up set, but it's new to me as I picked it up at a consignment sale a few weeks ago. It's called Botanical Garden and features three diffeent images that are all the same size, so it was easy to swap them out in the layout.

I colored the Iris and the Leaf images with watercolor crayons. I used colored pencils on the other flower image. 

I'm really happy with how these cards came out. Hopefully my mojo is back.

Other supplies:

Sentiments: Give Thanks from Mark's Finest Papers; others are from CTMH

Embellishments: half black pearls or mini rhinestones

Nesties: Oval and Scalloped Oval.