Christmas lamp post

I'm continuing to work on Christmas cards to build up a stash.  This one features an image from Pattie's Creations, colored in pencils with a little dimensional paint. The sketch is from the Catch the Bug blog. The sentiment, from an unknown source, is stamped in Forest Foliage

This card is entered in these challenges:

February Rudolph Days -- anything Christmas
Catch the Bug -- Stella Says Sketch #403
Winter wonderland -- Must use a Sentiment
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge #269 --  Cute or anything Christmas
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge extra --
anything Christmas
HollyJolly Challenge -- add a sentiment

Time to decorate

I went into Christmas overdrive yesterday, doing my first round of shopping and decorating the Christmas tree. I also made one more card, so hopefully I have enough now.

The card was inspired by the photo inspiration at the Share The Joy challenge, and the sketch is from Mojo Monday.  The ornaments are from a set by Hero Arts (maybe... it has disappeared in the current mess) and they are silvere mbossed on green snippets (the green paper has a slightly raised stripe pattern that showed up in the embossing, but I'm calling that texture...).  The sentiment is from the dollar bin at Michael's, also on snippets, with the silver paper recycled from some advertising brochure that arrived in the mail and got added to the snippets bin.  The red, still another snipped, is cut with a Marianne border die.
I am entering these challenges:

Mojo Monday #427 -- sketch
Simon Says Stamp Monday -- Christmas
Share the Joy #14 -- inspiration photo
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge #259 -- anything Christmas
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Extra -- anything Christmas
Holly Jolly Christmas -- Merry Christmas
Word Art Wednesday #213 -- anything goes
Pixie's Snippet Playground #207 -- use those snippets

Celebrating leftovers

I made this card with snippets left over from a 6x6 Echo Park Christmas stack. (I didn't actually save anything this small, I cut them to fit). I arranged the snippets on a snippet of adhesive paper, leaving space between for "grout," or in this case, gold EP.  On edges where I didn't leave enough room to add embossing powder, I just edged in gold ink.

The poinsettia is from The Ribbon Girl, and the sentiment was a clearance special, embossed in glittery gold.

I am entering these challenges:
Rudolph Days -- November
Bunny Zoe  -- sparkle
Inky Impressions #278 -- traditional Christmas colors
Holly Jolly Christmas -- embossing
Pixie's Snippet Playground #204  -- use snippets
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Extra -- anything Christmas
Craftyhazelnut's Patterned paper Challenge -- use patterned paper
Kraftin Kimmie's Wonderful Wednesday -- anything goes
Word Art Wednesday -- anything goes

All that Glitters

I pulled out two different glitter EPs for this card, Pirate's Gold and Winter Wonderland.  The card really has a lot of sparkle in real life.
The stamps and die are from Prickly Pear. The center of the ornament is a snowflake shape so I carried the snowflake theme through with the dp and snowflake embellishment.
I've seen people using multiple rows of twine all pushed together, and I like the effect, so I used gold cording over gold washi tape to mimic the look.

The card is for these challenges:
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge #243 -- use gold
Holly Jolly Christmas #54 Snowflakes and Sparkle
Rudolph Days August -- anything Christmas
Die-Cut Divas August -- favorite holiday
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Extra Challenge -- anything Christmas

Nature's AC

The heat continues unabated here in the South, so let's think cool thoughts. Like snowmen.
I think this guy is so cute.  The image is from Paper Cupcakes, which sadly is no longer in business. He's colored with pencils, and the image panel is sponged with Colorbox Chalk Ice Blue ink (I used to use that all the time for sky, then kind of forgot about it when I got SU Bliss Blue).  There are stickles on the snowflake. 
The layout for this is the current Mojo Monday sketch, and I used domed snowflake stickers for the circular elements. The white strip is embossed with snowflakes, which didn't show up well -- between the embossing and reflective domes on the stickers, this was a hard card to photograph.
Everything on this card is a snippet, so I'm finally back at the Snippet Playground this week.

this card is for these challenges:

Holly Jolly Holly Jolly Christmas Card Challenge -- Inspired by a song (Frosty the Snowman)
Papertake Weekly -- Build it up (dimension from embossing, layering and domed stickers)
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge -- I is for (Ice Blue ink)
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge #238 -- spots or stripes
Mojo Monday #407  -- sketch
Pixie's Snippet Playground #186-- snippets
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Extra -- anything Christmas
Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge  -- use patterned paper
Word Art Wednesday #193  -- anything goes

Shaker in the snow

I've been trying out shaker cards, and I made this Christmas version.
For the shaker area, I started by diecutting a snowflake. I took the negative leftover, cut it in a circle, and that is the bottom of the shaker area.  I used a circle of fun foam to create the "box."  It has blue and silver sequins in it, covered by a circle of acetate framed with a navy scalloped circle. (You know that saying about mistakes being an excuse to embellish? Yeah, I had a glue problem so I added the snowflake brad.)
The snowflake-printed strip is actually a sample of wrapping paper (stashed away since some long-ago PTA wrapping paper drive), and the silver paper behind it is recycled from some envelope. So, it's a blue card and a "green" card.

Entering these challenges:

Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge #232 -- use blue
 Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for June -- anything Christmas
Holly Jolly Christmas -- Frame It
Clear it Out -- blue with blue embellies (sequins).

Krafty Christmas

Here's another for the Christmas card pile, using the coffee and cream color combo from 53 Christmas Card Throwdown.  The tree (which I think is CTMH) is white embossed and mounted o a frayed burlap layer for texture. Sketch is the current Sketch Saturday layout.

I played in several challenges to create this card:

Sketch Saturday #356
Crafty Hazelnut Christmas challenge #224 -- add texture
Crafty Hazelnut Christmas Extra -- anything Christmas
52 Christmas Card Throwdown -- coffee and cream colors
Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge -- trees
Inky Inspirations #205 -- Kraft it
Creative Inspirations #309 -- seeing stars
The Ribbon Girl -- any image plus ribbon
CRAFT Challenge #307 -- Christma

Wrapped up in sparkle

I used this image for a Christmas card once before, but I thought it would work well with these evergreen tree die-cuts I got as an RAK. It seemed like a good project to start the Christmas card stash for 2015.

The stamp is from Clear Art Stamps, colored in pencils.  I added superfine white glitter to the trees on the image as well as to the die-cut trees.  The bigger one is popped up in the foreground and adds some dimension that isn't showing well on my photo.

This is my entry for this year's first round of Rudolph Days, which has moved to Scrappymo's blog for 2015.

I'm playing in these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge -- winter stamping
The Paper Shelter #187 -- all wrapped up  (the woman is wrapped up in quite a coat)
Rudolph Days, Jan 2015 -- Christmas
Holly Jolly Christmas -- Lots of Sparkle
Crazyhazelnut's Christmas Extra -- anything Christmas
Word Art Wednesday #167 -- anything goes

Ornamental

I worked at a booth at a stamping/scrapbooking show two weekends ago. I had planned to take an hour off to shop the show, but it was pretty busy and the only place I got to shop with the booth I was working at. One of my purchases was a set of Christmas stamps from Kaisercraft, and I put it to use making a couple of quick cards.
The cards are based on this week's challenge at The Paper Players, and it was a great excuse to utilize a bunch of snippets I had stuffed into a stack of Christmas paper from Echo Park. I really shouldn't save 1-inch strips, but with 6x6 paper, I end up with a lot of them.
The ornament is silver-embossed on red paper and popped up on foam adhesive. I used a little silver cording for something for the ornament to dangle from, and added a bow of sparkly fiber on each. (Those are snippets, too, the last I have of both the silver and gold versions of that  fiber).
I made the one with the black background first, then tried putting the banners at a slight angle -- I think the angles look a little jauntier, and I think I prefer that one.

I'm entering these cards in these challenges:
Rudolph Day July -- 2 cards
Papertake Weekly -- It's a jolly holiday
Holly Jolly Christmas -- Deck the Halls
Clear It Out -- Christmas with something sparkly
Pixie's Snippet Playground #135 -- lots of snippets here

Ivory and Gold

Last week Di featured a card in the Snippets challenge that was made from a variety of white snippets. It was gorgeous and sort of  inspired me to try this card.
I had a snippet of vellum that was just the perfect size for the wreath die. The rest of the card is just bits and pieces of different ivory and white card stock.  I created a chance for additional layers when I tried embossing the sentiment on the linen texture layer.  I don't have detail gold EP, and the gold EP ended up as an unreadable blob rather than a nice sentiment, so I decided to stamp it in gold ink on a little slip and layer it right below the ribbon.
There are gold stickles on the wreath in place of berries. Each layer is also edged with gold ink.

I'm entering the card in these challenges:
Ribbon Girl June Color Challenge -- use ivory
Feeling Sketchy -- Sketch #93
CRAFT Challenge #263 -- Christmas
Holly Jolly -- 3 layers or more
Pixie's Snippet Playground #129 -- All paper is from the snippet file
Clear it Out -- Anything Goes
Simon Says Monday Challenge -- Anything Goes
Word Art Wednesday -- Anything Goes

How crunchy do you like your cookies?

I am such a nonconformist. Everyone is making spring/Easter cards, and I decide to make a Christmas card. As you might know, I love playing with paint sample cards and I came up with this idea of doing gingerbread men on some brown paint chips. What do you think? Does it look too much like a chart telling you when the cookies should come out of the oven?

The gingerbread men (it's a stamp by DRS, I think) are white embossed, and the ribbon allowed me to cover up most of the paint names.  (I have no real problem allowing the names to be visible, especially if they sound related to the card. Wouldn't it be funny if one of the paints was called "gingerbread"?)

The sentiment is red embossed, and there's a gem on either side of the smaller "merry," although they aren't terribly visible on the photo.  The red piece was from the scrap file, already embossed; the color isn't the same as the ribbon, but I think they are OK together.

This card is for these challenges:
Simon Says Wednesday: Sweet Treats
Holly Jolly: Ribbon and Bling
CRAFT 254, Christmas
Word Art Wednesday #127, Anything Goes
Sister Act #52, Anything Goes

House Mouse Christmas

This image makes me smile. I find it particularly funny because we have one of those "prelit" artificial trees, and currently about half the lights aren't working -- the tree looks like it's striped, with bands of working and non-working lights, kind of like a bunch of mice got in there and ate some wires.

The mice are black-embossed and colored in pencils. They are matted on a Spellbinders die, and I made a little embellishment out of a little designer paper and a ribbon. I was hoping to combat the unrelenting red and green-ness of this card, but I don't think I succeeded.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Papertake Weekly, Christmas Creatures
52 Christmas Card Throwdown, revisit a 2013 challenge = Christmas animals
Holly Jolly Christmas, Anything Christmasy
Created With Love #70, Anything Goes
Word Art Wednesday #110, Anything Goes

Christmas time

It's time to start making Christmas cards.  I just got the new 'Tis the Season stack from Echo Park and wanted to play with it. This is what I came up with.

The paper is double-sided, so I only had to cut into two sheets to make this patchwork design. (Yes, I hate cutting into brand new paper, a common but terrible quirk for a paper crafter).  After I had everything glued together, I figured out how I could have made a pinwheel design, but then it was too late. The patchwork is mounted on a silver metallic paper layer

The tag features a couple of adorable stamps from Hero Arts. I added red fibers and a metallic silver bow, then popped it up on popdots.

This card is for the following challenges:

Simon Says Monday Challenge, patchwork
Created With Love #65, Christmas Red and Green
Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge, Red and Green with gold or silver
C.R.A.F.T Challenge #232, Christmas
Word Art Wednesday #105, Anything Goes.

"His and Her" Christmas tags

This is VSN weekend at Splitcoast, and the theme is "Opposites Attract."  One of the challenges called for us to make mini tags showing both a masculine and feminine side.  Since I wanted to make Christmas tags anyway, I made little gift tags.

My "masculine" tags are done on manila shipping tags. I sponged the edges with brown ink to give them more of a vintage look, and used simple, nature-inspired images on them. (I couldn't decide for sure it that Stampin' Up image was holly or mistletoe, so one tag has red berries and the other white).  I used the white string that came with the shipping tags.

The "feminine" tags are bright white with images of the more "commercial" side of Christmas -- candy canes and stockings. These images are both parts of larger stamps, so I ended up coloring the stamps with markers so that only the part I wanted to use would be inked up, and I didn't have to worry about stray partial images. I used coordinating ribbon and fibers on these tags.

I made all eight tags in the 45-minute time limit imposed by VSN, so I feel like I did well. Personally, I prefer the so-called masculine tags.

I am  entering these tags in the Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge "Anything But a Card."  The are also for the CRAFT challenge #223 "Christmas."

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.