Partridge and pear

 

 I don't know how many millions of times I've heard "a partridge in a pear tree," but I had no idea what a partridge looked like until starting this card. They are an interesting and colorful bird, based on the photos in Google image. I took cues from a couple of photos when coloring this partridge, but they tend to be brown and a blueish-gray, sometimes have a black and white band around the neck, and sometimes have colorful feathers on their head.

The image I used is a digi from The Alley Way Stamps.  The sentiment came with it, but I cut it into two sections for a more interesting layout. The images are colored with pencils, with a little wink of Stella on the pears. The image and sentiment were stamped on a white snippet, cut with a Sizzix die, and mounted on a red snippet. The sentiment panels are mounted on more of that same red snippet. The tiny die-cut pear on the sentiment (from the Frantic Stamper) was cut from a ridiculously small snippet, that was essentially a bit I of paper that I had left on my desk rather than cleaning up.

 

This card is for these challenges:

ABC Christmas -- A is for anything Christmas

Christmas Crafts All Year Round -- a partridge in a pear tree

Christmas Craft Creations -- January theme Snippets

Rudolph Days for January -- Christmas

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #230 -- anything goes

Word Art Wednesday #579 -- anything goes

 

LIght up my life

 When I hear "You Light Up My Life" I think of my college roommate who absolutely loved that song. She played it SO MUCH...I couldn't stand hearing it for a while.

I'm calling today's card a masculine valentine -- no girly hearts and lace. Instead, it's got electronics!

It features a Bugaboo image, which I divided into thirds and mounted on black card stock. The image is colored with pencils, yellow highlighter marker, and silver gel pen. 

This card is entered in these challenges:

CRAFT #664 -- Song

Time Out #230 -- inspired by quote

Word ARt Wednesday #579 -- anything goes

Pattie's Creations #202 -- anything featuring an image

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2302-- anything goes

Birthday flowers

 

I remember when this flower pot design was all the rage, and I'm revisiting it. It's basically a simple fold to create a pocket to hold a tag decorated with flowers. When the tag is fully in the pocket, all you see is the flowers, so it looks like a pot of flowers.

My flower pot has a birthday theme, with a sparkly tag that says "Celebrate" and a Happy Birthday sentiment on the tag.Aside from the pocket itself I used a lot of snippets for this card, including an assortments of blues and prints for the flowers. For added texture, I embossed a matching piece  of card stock with a baskety-looking pattern to put over the body of the pot.  I also embossed all the flowers with a Sizzix EF to make them look more interesting.

This card is entered in these challenges:

Double D -- Birthday

Can you Handle the Pressure -- use an EF folder

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2301 -- aything goes

Word Art Wednesday #577 -- anything goes

Crafts Galore Encore #107 --  anything goes

Vellum and stitching

 

I haven't been feeling very inspired recently, so I'm trying to get back in the groove. For this card, I used am image a friend sent me and added a little faux stitching, a sentiment and some sequins. The sentiment is stamped on a pale pink vellum, and since it's so hard to discreetly attach vellum, the right hand side of the sentiment is wrapped around and taped to the back of the panel. I used a brad on the left side to hold the strip down. 

This card is entered in these chales:

Word Art Wednesday #575 -- anything goes

Double Trouble #128 -- something, anything

Use Your Stuff #474 -- stitching faux or real

Debossed Snowflakes

 

I'm not a big technique stamper, but I decided to try a technique I found on SCS featuring debossing (which is  using the reverse side of an embossed piece of card stock, so the design is a hollow rather than a raised area.) To do this particular technique, you cover the raised part of the EF with Versamark and emboss the paper, which transfers the Versamark to the hollows in the paper. Then, cover the paper with embossing powder to fill the hollows and heat.

I used an old Stampin Up snowflake folder. The EP was a glittery white but the photo doesn't show the glittery aspect (which is too bad as it is quite glittery). After embossing, put distress inks on a mat, spritz with water and dab the card stock (actually watercolor paper in this instance) to get color on the card. 

Finished the card with matting, an embossed sentiment and a few silver snowflakes.

This card is for these challenges: 

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- Ice Cold

Can You Handle the Pressure -- Christmas Twist (US)

CRAFT # 661 -- Christmas

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2250 -- anything goes

Word Art Wednesday #573 -- anything goes

Festive Foliage

 

Today's card is a fairly quick one using a pretty printed paper for most of the design, since I wanted to showcase the pinecones. I cut the paper on an angle, and adhered it to the card base. The sentiment is from Whimsy stamps, stamped on a white snippet cut with an oval die and matted with an oval scallop circle cut from a brown snippet. I have admired some cards where people use die-cut sprays of foliage as an accent to the sentiment, so I cut a couple of different leaf and berry shapes -using snippets of both white vellum and a goldish glittery paper. They were placed on the card before the sentiment so everything could be adhered in one swoop.

This card is for these challenges:

Snippets Playground #443 -- use snippets (all the die-cut elements)

Creative Inspiration  -- festive foliage

CRAFT #661 --  Christmas the last stretch

Die-Cut Divas -- anything for winter holidays

Pammie's Inky Pinkies # 2249 -- anything goes

Winter Wonderland -- anything Christmas

Word Art Wednesday #573  -- anything goes

I like big books

 The Double Trouble Challenge is to mix patterns.  Here I mixed a couple different dotted patterns of snippets with a larger plaid snippet, using the Try Stampin' On Tuesday sketch.  The image and sentiment are from Bugaboo (RIP, miss you) colored in pencil. I created the pink dotted panel by stenciling pink dots onto a white snippet. The green dotted panel (a snippet that fit perfectly with no trimming) picks up the green from the pink plaid, a patterned paper I have had for ever. (Funnily enough, it came from a very "Big book" pad of patterned papers, and I will probably not use up the last of the snippets in my lifetime.)

This card seemed to be calling for rounded edges, so the corner punch got a big workout.

Entering these challenges:

Double Trouble #126 -- Mix patterns

Try Stampin' on Tuesday -- sketch 584

Snippets Playground #442 -- use snippets

Word Art Wednesday #571 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2247 -- anything goes

Pattie's Creations #200 -- anything goes

Crafts Galore Encore -- anything goes