Merry and Bright!

Stamps:  Whimsie Doodles digi, Papertrey Ink 'Signature Christmas' sentiment.  Cardstock:  Textured green, red, Basic Grey 'Fruitcake', GP 110 white.  Ink:  Copics, Versamark.  Accessories:  white EP, circle Nestabilties, white satin snowflake ribbon, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, silver cording, red button.

Whimsie Doodles Challenge #57 is 'Button It Up!, so I thought this sweet ginger angel would be perfect with her buttons on the hem of her dress and an extra button element on this fun sketch, Mercy Tuesday Sketch Challenge #99! 

In fact, I had so much fun with this sketch that I decided to let it inspire a second card using supplies sent to me by my Secret Sister on a Splitcoast Stamper's Card Kit swap.  My sis sent me all these goodies, including the cardstock, DP, and felt tree die cut. She actually sent me much, much more, enough for several more cards -- stay tuned for those!  Thanks, Sis!!

Topic inspiration from this card started out from Sparkle's Christmas Card Challenge #49 which featured a beautiful holiday decorated room in a sort of vintage style.  I used Icicle Stickles to try and simulate a snowy effect on the tree, but it didn't really come out as expected.  It's still a neat effect, but not really snowy -- any suggestions?

Two more finished cards for my Christmas stash -- now if I could only be so prepared in the gift department!

Christmas Card Challenge #42: Distressingly Cute!

Stamps: Magnolia. Cardstock: textured black, Papertrey white. Ink: Memento black, Copics. Accessories: Long rectangle Nestabilities and snowflake dies, twill and organdy ribbon, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, distressing tool.

When I was asked to be a Guest Designer for this week's Christmas Card Challenge over at Sparkle's Creations, I jumped at the chance -- I love this challenge blog! Not only is Sparkle one of the nicest bloggers and most impressive Copic artists, but the Design Team inspiration is always stellar. All this and I feel productive, too -- by playing along, I actually complete the majority of my Christmas cards well before the holiday mailing season! Now actually getting them out in the mail on time is a completely different matter....

One amazing card kit with Sparkle's Christmas Card Challenge plus Sketch and Stash Challenge #44 equals the perfect inspiration for this card!

This week's challenge is to create a distressed Christmas card. As soon as I received this amazing card kit from my talented stamping buddy Angela (Just Monkeying Around), I knew the vintage flavor of the ingredients would be perfect for the theme. Thanks for the inspiration and an awesome kit, Angela!

Vintage/distressed/grunge is one of those styles that I always admire, but never feel comfortable with my own attempts. Perfectionism aside, I decided to give all the distressing techniques a try for this card: I shredded edges, crumpled paper, inked edges, and tore paper. Did I miss anything?

This little caroler is still a cutie, though, and doesn't seem distressed at all:


I even remembered to decorate the inside, sticking the distressed theme:

Isn't this kit amazing? And I didn't even use half of the supplies included! If you are interested in a Magnolia Card Kit Swap, check out Charlene's (scrappygma on SCS) current kit swap.

Be sure to stop by the Christmas Card Challenge and admire the Design Team's great take on the Distressed Christmas Card theme!

Tuesday Morning Sketches #56: Christmas in July!

Stamps by DRS Designs: Snowflake Wreath, Snow Background, Beauty of Nature Christmas Greeting. Ink: Night of navy, versamark. Cardstock: Textured white, Night of Navy, Bashful Blue. Accessories: Stardust EP, red organdy ribbon, glitter snowflake brads.

Welcome to the final week of our Tuesday Morning Sketches' blogoversary celebration! We're taking a look back at previous sketches with the theme this week of 'Christmas in July', sponsored by DRS Designs.

For my card, I chose the fourth Tuesday Morning sketch:


This beautiful snowflake wreath (especially nice with glittered EP sparkle which never seems to photograph well) also coordinates with Sparkle's Christmas Card Challenge #34 wreath theme:

Be sure to admire the TMS Design Team's walk down memory lane in honor of our first blogoversary:
Melissa
Theresa

Angela

Jackie

Janice

Cammy
Hollyanne, Jr. DT

Then link up your creations HERE (based on any of the previous sketches viewed HERE) to join in the blogaversary celebration and so we can admire your take on the sketch!

Christmas Sparkle in April?

Stamps: SU 'Snowflake', Papertrey 'Signature Christmas'. Cardstock: Cool Caribbean, Basic Grey 'Figgy Pudding'. Ink: Real Red, Cool Caribbean, Versamark. Accessories: Winter Wonderland EP, Ribbon.

Spring has officially sprung and yet here I am creating Christmas cards! My goal is to keep ahead of the holiday crafting rush, so you'll have to forgive my winter theme.

Inspiration came from these awesome challenges:

1) Sparkle's Christmas Card Challenge, week #18. The inspiration photo was cookies decorated as snowglobes (hence my snowflakes) and in a red and light blue color combo (isn't Cool Caribbean a holiday color??).

2) Order of the Opus Gluei challenged us to sparkle and shine with challenge #49, so I used my favorite sparkly EP (Winter Wonderland)



and fun, iridescent ribbon.

3) Last but certainly not least, is Fall-To sketch #85 with their always versatile and inspiring CAS sketches!

Now I'm off to enjoy some of this wonderful Spring weather!

Wonder of Christmas Sparkle!

Stamps: Penny Black Sentiment. Cardstock: Old Olive, Soft Sky, Silver, Basic Grey 'Eskimo Kisses' DP. Ink: Purely Pomegranate. Accessories: Chipboard deer from Li'l Davis Designs 'Tis the Season', Cuttlebug snowflakes embossing folder.

Everyone needs a little extra sparkle for the holidays; this card has the bling in both deer glitter chipboard form and inspiration from this great sketch by Sparkle for her Christmas Card Challenge #11.

I found this fun package of glitter chipboard at the local dollar-type discount store, but was disappointed once I opened it to find only eight shapes instead of the labelled 10. Sigh. Guess that makes it a $1.25 store??

Oh well, it still packs a lot of bang (or sparkle) for this buck!

Joyful Feathered Friends

Stamps: Penny Black sentiment. Cardstock: Always Artichoke, Basic Grey 'Wassail' DP. Ink: Versamark. Accessories: fine detail white EP, circle Nestabilities, Martha Stewart snowflake punches, square punch, mini primas, gold Stickles, Basic Grey buttons.

Well, I did it -- I made a Christmas card in traditional holiday colors in January! It's my plan to stay ahead of the holiday rush (way ahead!) by creating one holiday card a week with Sparkle's Christmas Card Challenge. This week's challenge was 'no coloring', so I took the easy way out and used a sentiment as the focal point.

This gorgeous DP was a gift through WRAK from Kathy (Will Stamp for Wine), as well as the gold stickles that dot the center of the mini primas. The DP made this card eligible for the WRAK challenge category 'Bird Day'. See these elegant feathered friends?


Midnight Madness sketch #38 inspired the layout; it's sort of a hybrid between their traditional sketch and the fun, new CAS sketches they are offering.

We actually have some sunshine today, our first in weeks, so it's time for me go build up some Vitamin D and enjoy the light! Hope you are enjoying some sunshine, too!!

Warmer Winters

Stamps: Stampendous 'Winter Warm'. Cardstock: Bashful Blue, Real Red, Textured white, Papertrey white, DCWV Winter Mat Stack. Ink: Memento black, Copics, Versamark. Accessories: glitter snowflake brads, heart punch, Martha Stewart snowflake border punch, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, square Nestabilities.

I'm still working on those New Year's Resolutions, like the one to actually use the supplies I buy. Case in point: I just couldn't resist this Stampendous acrylic set which was not only adorable, but 40% off $4.99, so I bought it and brought it home to collect dust. Until now! A little lighter conscience so I can enjoy these cuties:


Sparkle's Christmas Card Challenge is inspiring me to keep up with holiday cards. I'm still a bit too burnt out to tackle Santa or holly images, so I'm keeping up with winter themes. This week's challenge #7 is a sketch, so I couldn't miss out on that one!

This card also fits with this week's Saturday Spotlight challenge: Snowflakes Gone Wild! Can you spot the three different types of snowflakes making their appearance? There's still time to link your creation HERE and be eligible for the prize drawing of a $25 gift certificate towards Hambo Stamps digi images!

Time for me to go enjoy the warmer weather, which in today's case means rain, and 'enjoying' means admiring from afar with hot cocoa and a good book!

Saturday Spotlight #14: Snowflakes Gone Wild!

Stamps: Magnolia 'So Cozy Tilda', Papertrey 'Mailbox Messages' sentiment. Cardstock: Textured red, linen white, silver, Magnolia winter DP. Ink: Memento black, Real Red, Copics. Accessories: Dazzling Diamonds glitter, felt ribbon, Martha Stewart snowflake border punch, CB snowflakes embossing folder, flocking.

Let it snow! For this week's Saturday Spotlight challenge #14.....

The Spotlight Divas would like to challenge you to GET WILD WITH YOUR SNOWFLAKES!! Use LOTS of them on your creation or use them in a unique way like making a wreath or a fun snowflake flower. Just get 'wild' with them!!

For our Spotlight sponsor this week we have...

(click HERE to go to store.)

**One lucky winner from our challenge in Mister Linky this week drawn from random.org will receive $25.00 towards the purchase of Hambo's Digital Designs!** Wow! (This is enough to get as many as 6-8 images! I've been told they've just added some brand new ones too!)

For my card, I went with a snow angel theme; I'm so happy to see the Tilda angels are winged again! There are actually three different blizzards: embossed in the silver panel, the snowfall on this wonderful DP by Magnolia, and the embossed border punch on the white panel. Every angel wing deserves a bit of sparkle, and I also added flocking to keep her cozy:

This card was inspired by three other challenges as well:

1) Roses on Paper: 'Show us Winter!'.

2) Sparkle's Christmas Card Challenge week #6 encouraged us to include dry embossing.

3) The fun sketch is courtesy of Mercy's Tuesday Sketch challenge #56. I switched out the rectangle image for this circle because Tilda looked more comfortable seated here.

Be sure to check out the other Spotlight Diva's snowflakes gone wild:

Vicki (Stamped Smiles)
Chris (Twinkles Glows with Stamps)
Boni (Bonibleaux Designs)
Crystal (Crystal's Crafty Creations)
Darlene (Dar's Crafty Creations)
Dawn (My Stamping Thyme)
Erin (Scrap, Stamp and Be Merry)
Jodi (Inked Inspirations)
Maria (Joyful Stamper)

We're finally enjoying a bit of warmer weather after the frigid past few weeks, so the only snow I'll be admiring is in your creations! Be sure to link your projects HERE and show us your snowflakes gone wild!!

Trimming Down

Stamps: My Sentiment's Exactly 'Snow Fun'. Cardstock: Soft Sky, Old Olive, Textured red, Basic Grey 'Figgy Pudding'. Ink: Riding Hood Red. Accessories: Circle punch, SU scallop border punch, buttons, Stardust glitter pen.

Trimming down is my theme for the new year; in fact, 'Downsize' is the word I'm adopting as my own for 2010, a concept I first learned of from Sparkle' blog (Sparkle's Creations). Right now 'downsize' has very negative connotations in our family since my husband has been downsized out of a job, but I want to use the word for good, as in downsizing my clutter, downsizing my spending, downsizing myself so my clothing fits again, and most of all, downsizing stress about the things I can't change!

This card fits with the downsizing theme, in that it's a Clean and Simple style inspired by Clean & Simple Stamping's Fall-To sketch #73 and the Opus Gluei challenge #36: 'Let's Trim Down'. Trim in this case also refers to the buttons which is the challenge in Sparkle's Christmas Card Challenge Week #5. I went with a winter theme since not only do I not need quite so many holiday cards, but I'm also not quite ready for Christmas projects yet.

Now it's off to finish downsizing the contents of my kitchen cabinets!

Time for Holiday Thank You Cards!

Stamps: Papertrey ' Signature Christmas'. Cardstock: Basic Grey 'Figgy Pudding Glacier', white textured, Baja Breeze. Ink: Baja Breeze. Accessories: Baja Breeze dotted grosgrain ribbon, Marcella K 'Christmas Snowflake' page accents, Stardust glitter pen.

Now that the Christmas greeting card rush is over, it's time to start sending out the thank you cards! My goal is to have them finished by the 31st, so I can start the New Year with a clean slate.

Sparkle (Sparkle's Creations) is already into her fourth week of 2010 Christmas Card Challenges; now that's what I call motivated! I knew this challenge would be a great incentive to stock up on not only Christmas cards, but also holiday thank yous which always seem to be in short supply. Sparkle's inspiration photo is a yummy chocolate cupcake; I went with its white and aqua color combo and white chocoloate snowflake decorations as my inspiration.

The sketch for this card is Fall-To sketch #55, another example of Clean & Simple Stamping's wonderful design.