Happy Thanksgiving

Just sharing a Thanksgiving card today.

supplies: ivory, Sunshine, Green Leaf, Burnt Orange, and kraft cardstock, Taylored Expressions Fall Foliage Background stamp and stencils, mustard seed, fossilized amber, ripe persimmon, crackling campfire, and shabby shutters distress inks, Handlettered Thanksgiving Sentiment, Impression Obsession Leaf die, twine, tiny heart sprinkle

This Fall Foliage set is a joy to work with, and the results are perfect every time!  I simply added a framed stamped sentiment to the center of my card and some tiny oak leaves.

Thanks for coming by.  

All is Calm

Another Christmas card.  Looking back at THIS card, I wanted to try that idea with a different central image. 

supplies: white, Surf Blue, and Peacock Teal cardstock, Wplus9 Pine Frame cover die, (retired) Penny Black Christmas Cottage woodblock, dated 2013, retired sentiment, glitter pen and clear glitter, adhesive foam to pop up cover plate

I found that my old Spellbinders Oval die is the perfect fit for the center of this cover die.  So I stamped the little image inside one, colored it minimally, and shaded some ink for the sky, leaving it inside the die.  Then I added a tiny bit of glitter to the shadows and the roofline and stamped my sentiment before attaching the oval to my pine frame.  That panel was then popped above my card base.  

It's a treat digging out all these "old" supplies and using them again each Christmas!  

Christmas Jar

 I got a stamp set earlier this year, and haven't yet used one of the stamps in it - today's the day!

supplies: white and Lipstick Red cardstock, Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid Christmas dp, Stampendous Festive Season, sentiment from Simon Winter Scene

I always have a soft spot for canning jars, but I don't think I've seen one holding a Christmas arrangement - and I love that big red bow!  I didn't want to cover up a bit of this pretty image, so I opted to place my sentiment a bit off-kilter.  If you'd like to see some other cards using this same set, they are HERE and HERE.

And I'm thrilled to be able to use some of my vast collection of patterned papers - I like this tiny plaid to off-set the stamped panel.

Thanks for your visit!

Simon Says........Christmas

 

Happy Wednesday - welcome to our challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog!

This week our challenge is Christmas, and the team is featuring beautiful Memory Box products.

supplies: white, pink, and Green Apple cardstock, vellum, Memory Box Open Studio Berry Wreath, Nuvo markers to color, glue pen and prisma glitter on berries

This is a large image, and to fit an A2 card, I had to cut part of it off.  I love pink and a lighter green for Christmas, and I added some clear glitter to the berries only to make it a little more festive.  

Now it's your turn!  We have a $25.00 gift certificate 

to the amazing Simon Says Stamp store for 1 lucky random winner of this week's challenge!  I can't wait to see what you all make this week!

A Clear Christmas Card

 I used a brand new stamp set along with a cover die that I got last year.

supplies: white cardstock, clear acetate, Wplus9 Pine Frame cover die, Stampendous Festive Season stamps, markers, Small Talk Occasions sticker

After cutting the pine frame and gluing it to my acetate card base, I also cut 2 oval dies; 1 will go on the inside of the card for my sentiment, and on the very back of the card to cover the tape I used to secure it (see picture below). Then I stamped, colored, and fussy-cut the birch log arrangement, and glued it onto the front.  I wanted a sentiment that wouldn't cover up the design, so I chose a Small Talk sticker and edged it in red ink.

Here's a shot of the inside.  I used the heart and holly stamp from the Festive Season set, as well as an old Hero Arts woodblock sentiment - love the font!

I haven't made one of these clear cards in ages - it's nice to do something different for a change!

Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Cards, Take 2

Here are 5 more Christmas cards using The Greetery's beautiful Banner and Bough set of stencils and stamps.  I've really enjoyed working with this set and ended up making 15 cards with it!

As I did last time, I used some patterned papers as my backgrounds, or some framing dies which you've seen hundreds of times before here. The first card has the banner trimmed out separately and popped above the rest of the design. That's an easy thing to do because it has its own stencil.   And I kept the accessories to a minimum also,  just 4 pearls for the centers of the large flowers.  These should all be fairly flat for mailing. 

How are you progressing with your cards?

Floral Smiles

 I really loved this background cling, it's a form of scribbled flowers, which is a favorite motif for me!  I paired it with a new die sentiment for today's card.

supplies: white, beige and fold metallic cardstock, Spring Flowers Background cling, colored in reds, green, and cream, Sending Smiles Shadow die

This will be beautiful in pastels or just pinks or yellows, but because of the season right now, I chose to do it in shades of reds.  After I finished coloring the flowers and leaves on the bright white cardstock, I decided I wanted a creamier background, so I colored it in.  Then the sentiment cut from gold went nicer, too.  I attached the trimmed panel to a beige card base.

Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Cardinals

 I have lots of Christmas stamps and certainly don't need any more, but each year I add a couple more to my stash.  This year one of the sets I fell in love with was Christmas Cardinals from My Favorite Things.  It took me awhile to get them home, but I received them recently, and here are 2 cards I made for this year with them.

supplies: white and Lipstick Red cardstock, unknown Doodlebug dp inside letters,  MFT Christmas Cardinals bird, partial sentiment, and holly sprig, Simon Chunky Merry die, adhesive foam to pop up bird

I kept this one fairly simple, using the side-facing cardinal and the holly sprig, along with a partial stamping of one of the sentiments in the set.  It worked nicely with my new Chunky Merry die!

supplies: white and Lipstick Red cardstock, unknown red snowflake dp, a retired Echo Park Snow Flurry embossing folder, Christmas Cardinals bird and holly sprig, sentiment  from Pinkfresh Studio Adore Alpha dies and Wplus9 Hand Lettered Holiday

This one's lots busier.  I've used this retired snowflake embossing folder many times this year - love the scale of it!  This is the other bird in the set, and I cut apart 2 stampings of  the holly sprig and spread them around.  Everything on this card is glued down, so it's nice and flat for mailing.

This card qualifies for the current Let's Squash It challenge, to use a Christmas embossing folder and  Christmas stamps.  

I'll be sharing more Christmas cards off and on into mid-December, but I think I'm officially finished making them for this year!  That's a good feeling!

Thanks for coming by today!

Simon Says..........Thanks/Thanksgiving

Happy Wednesday, and welcome to our challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge blog!

This week our theme is Thanksgiving/Thanks, and the team is featuring Pink Fresh Studio products.  

supplies: ivory and Burnt Orange cardstock, Pink Fresh Studio Lush Vines cling stamp, Simon Circle Christmas Sentiments (dotted circle), Gina K. Designs Autumn Wreath Builder sentiment, Spellbinders Hemstitch Rectangle die, Hero Arts Infinity Circle die

I didn't want to lose too much of this pretty allover design, so I used a hemstitch rectangle die to add some subtle detail, then mimicked that with the dotted circle surrounding my sentiment.

Now it's your turn!  We have a $25.00 gift certificate 

to the amazing Simon Says Stamp store for 1 lucky random winner of this week's challenge!  I can't wait to see what you all make this week!

Blessings Wreath

 Another wreath card for the season!

supplies: beige, kraft, gold foil, Sunshine, Orange Peel, Burnt Orange, Schoolhouse Red, Lipstick Red, and Green Leaf cardstock, The Greetery Knit Wits stencils, Alltenew Coffee Break mini ink cubes, MFT (retired) Spring Wreath, The Greetery Fit to be Tied bow, Sunny Studio Autumn Greetings sentiment

I stencilled a panel of beige card, using 2 of the set of 3 stencils, then used one of them to also emboss the panel.  The Spring Wreath was cut from various fall colors, cut apart, and then glued back onto a green wreath left whole.  To finish I stamped my sentiment and lined the panel with kraft cardstock.

Thanks for stopping by!

Susan's Autumn Flora Collection

 Spellbinders allowed me to play with 2 of Susan Tierney Cockburn's new floral dies from her latest collection!

Here are my cards using them.

supplies: rust, orange, gold, green, and kraft card, a woodgrain patterned paper, Susan's Button and Daisy Chrysanthemum dies, metallic sequins

These dies come with a number on each one, which tells you how many times to cut it.  The bottom 2  are 14 layers deep, and I used 1 of each of the 6 different sizes on the gold one  I thought they looked pretty against a woodgrain backgound.

Next is Susan's Oriental Poppy set.  Since we're so close to Veteran's Day, I made them red and added some details to make it appropriate for that holiday.

supplies: white, red, green, and black cardstock, Susan's Oriental Poppy dies, red pearl centers, retired Hero Arts sentiment and script background

Also in this Autumn Flora Collection are dies for making hydrangeas, coreopsis, gaillardia, plus 2 sets of foliage, and a set of sentiment stamps!

Many thanks to Spellbinders for allowing me to play with these!  Loving flowers like I do, I know I'll use them often in the years to come.

Simon's Holly Jolly release!!

 The latest release from Simon Says Stamp is now live - it's called Holly Jolly!  

I was sent a new CZ sentiment die called Chunky Merry.  Here are 2 cards I made with it.

supplies: white, Peacock Teal, and Lipstick Red cardstock, a plaid Lawn Fawn paper, Chunky Merry die, Christmas Foliage dies, snowflake embossing folder, adhesive foam strips to lift word

For this next one, I used both parts of this die set, cutting the shadow die from striped patterned paper.

supplies: white and Lipstick Red cardstock, a striped Christmas patterned paper, Chunky Merry dies, stamped sentiment from Circle Sentiments Christmas, a stripe embossing folder

May be overkill, but I placed everything over an embossed striped background.  The outline letters are stacked 4 deep to make them stand out better against the busy stripes.

To see the entire release, just click HERE, and for more ideas using the new products, I hope you'll visit our gallery HERE.  We have planned a blog hop tomorrow, Dec 7, to showcase these products.  

Simon Says.........Thinking of You

 

Happy Wednesday - welcome to our challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog!

This week the theme is "Thinking of You", and my teamies and I are playing with Tim Holtz products.  I used his Skeleton Leaves dies and Lumber embossing folder on today's card.

supplies: white, kraft, and Audrey Blue cardstock, Tim Holtz Skeleton Leaves dies and Lumber embossing folder, distress inks and blender brushes, Simon Thinking of You Line die, sequins

I cut out a variety of the skeleton leaves from white cardstock, then sponged on various fall distress inks.  Next I embossed the woodgrain design on 2 pieces of Audrey Blue cardstock, inking them lightly afterwards with tea dye distress ink.  After arranging my leaves on the woodgrain background, I added my sentiment to cover the background seam, and some metallic sequins.

Now it's your turn!  We have a $25.00 gift certificate 

to the amazing Simon Says Stamp store for 1 lucky random winner of this week's challenge!  I can't wait to see what you all make this week!

25 Days of Christmas Tags!

                               

I'm so pleased to be participating in Tracey's 25 Days of Christmas Tags today as Simon Says Stamp joins in her annual feature!  It's her 10th year!!  All month long, she'll be featuring a different company, and today is Simon Says Stamp's day!   Simon will be offering a $50.00 gift card to the store!

I have 2 tags today using Simon Says Stamp products.

supplies: white, Audrey Blue, Peacock Teal, pink, and silver metallic cardstock, dps from Sunny Studio Classic Gingham and Holiday Cheer paper pads, Simon Christmas Foliage and Joy dies, a snowflake embossing folder, Pink Fresh Studio bow dies, My Favorite Things Stitched Tag dies, organza ribbon

I enjoy playing with this mix of pink and aqua for the holidays!  Here's another in classic red and white.

supplies: white cardstock, dps from Photo Play Kringle & Co paper pad, Simon's Lil' Gnome die and Gnome for the Holidays sentiment, My Favorite Things Stitched Tags dies, tiny cotton puff, red and white bakers twine      

Be sure to visit Tracey's Blog, In My Creative Opinion, every day to get lots of ideas for your Christmas tags, and to see how to enter your own tag inspired by what you see this month!  There are lots of prizes to be won!

Visit THIS PAGE at Tracey's blog for all the rules and to add your own tag - you can win prizes from these companies either by commenting or by entering your own tag!  The contest ends Dec 3 at midnight, and the winners will be announced on December 10 at Tracey's blog!