Christmas Cards, Projects and Cookies…ready for Santa!🎅

Hello friends! We’re here! We made it to Christmas Eve!😀 My cards have been sent out, my cookies are done and delivered as well as my other little gifts. This is quite a long post, so grab your hot cocoa or whatever your favorite beverage is and a Christmas cookie or treat and let’s see what I’ve been doing this past week:

So, starting with my Christmas cards, I usually make around 40ish cards each year give-or-take and I only like to make a handful of them at a time for not only boredom of the same design, but for product depletion as well.

So back in July, I purchased this really adorable card kit from Taylored Expressions (included was the Frosty Background Cling and Clear Combo set + more.) that came with coordinated colored envelopes as well as the seals. So, I made a set of four different colored designs in two of each one. The snowmen were popped up with foam squares over the backgrounds and I added some fun Snowflake bits that were included with the kit as well.

Next up is another set of cards I made using some more gorgeous products from Taylored Expressions. I’ve used the Seasonal Sprig stamp and die combo along with the stencil to color them in with. Some of these I ink blended the backgrounds, so I just used cardstock with a watermark effect and a white heat embossed sentiment. I used the die to cut an extra frame behind the stamped one for added stability. I made 4 of each design shown here for a total of 16.

I then made another set of four using the same products, but for these I gold heat embossed the image and sentiment and then used some watercolor for coloring it in with. I also got some of these coordinating envelope seals to use on about 10 of the 16 cards. (No longer available in store.) I’ve also partially ink blended the background behind the frame on these as well.

Here are some cards that I’ve actually made a total of 8 similar designs using the large wording background dies from My Favorite Things. I’ve used the “Sending Christmas Joy” and “I Really Miss You” dies for all eight of these, but only after I stamped the backgrounds. I used the MFT Knitted Sweater BG stamp and the Alley Cat BG stamp for a couple of backgrounds before I die cut them. Then I used the die cut letters to place into the other backgrounds on the cards to get that look. So it was like creating 2 cards with one cut and filling it all in. (For the Alley Cat background stamp, I ink blended the background and stamped it as a watermark effect over it and then took the “left over” ink from that to stamp it again to create an additional BG.) I then cut out each of the panels with the MFT Wonky Stitched Rectangle die and placed over a white A2 sized side folding card base. The penguin image is from the MFT Holiday Penguins set and the bird on the other one is from the MFT “Tweet Holidays” (Not found in store.)

And then of course you don’t want to waste any backgrounds you’ve made, so you make more cards! I’ve used a couple more images to personalize the design for people too. I combined the sets Newton’s Nook Whispering Pines and the Lawn Fawn Winter Skies. I think I took a set from them to create a sentiment to fit my cards as well. (not sure from which set.)

For the other card, I took this cute image from the Whimsy Stamps Gnome for Christmas stamp set, colored him up with my copics and cut him out with the coordinating die to pop him up over my card.

And then for these set of 4 cards, I’ve just die cut a snowflake from some glitter paper and glued in the center of the “O” on each design and popped up a sentiment over that with foam tape stamped and die cut from the Taylored Expressions Mini Strips – Holiday and Mini Strips die.

And as you remember in a previous post those “recycled Crystal Light containers” that I make, I made another set of three of them here. This time, I’ve used this snowman stamp. I just used my scissors to fussy cut those cute snowmen out as they were pretty simple to do and then I popped them up over an ink blended tag using the stencil over them. I used coordinating cardstock and silver heat embossed the sentiment strip at the bottom and of course added my “snowman soup” poem on the back of the containers. I’ve also added a layer of silver mirror cardstock behind the tags.

And I made a couple of these darling ornaments from a fairly “new to me” company that I was actually introduced to with product during my time as a {Cupcake Inspirations} sweetie DT when they sponsored a challenge a while back. P.S. There are a few more days left to enter their current challenge of “SNOWFLAKES” if you want to pop on over to join us too!!

But I was so taken with this darling image and kit from Inky Stampers from this Snow Much Fun Kit. You get the snowflake ornament (with string), the stamp set and die, papers, wobbler, along with glitter to complete it too! Well, I wanted to make more than one, so I grabbed another set of Snowflake Ornaments from the store and just added my own papers and glitter from my stash to make it.

Whew! I’m ready for that “Looong winter’s nap” now!!🥱 I hope you’ve enjoyed my post today and it has brought you some inspiration and/or a smile somehow! I have received some beautiful Christmas cards and I so appreciate them and have them all displayed by being pinned around my garland in our pass-through in the living room/dining area. I think after a bit of rest, I need to finish up my projects for the “Bugaboo Christmas Chaos” that I halted in the middle for to finish up Christmas projects….so I’ll be back soon with that.

In the meantime, I wish a MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!!🎅

“tis the Season for Holiday Chaos and Update on Christmas Cards for Danny🎅

Hello friends! This is my second post for today, so please scroll down to see it or CLICK HERE for the {Cupcake Inspirations} Reminder post.

I have several creations to share with you today because while I’m working on trying to get some last-minute Christmas projects finished, I thought that I would join in the fun weeklong “Holiday Chaos” challenges over at the Catch the Bug Blog for Bugaboo Stamps. I’ve caught up with all of the challenges up to today and then hopefully later this week I’ll be able to post the remainder of them:

This card is for the Day 1 challenge of “Reindeer Games”, so I had this really cute Bugaboo image called Little Penguin Reindeer and colored him up for my card. I had these fun reindeer papers in my stash to pair with him and then found this fun sentiment strip to add with it as well.😂

I’ve used some gold glitter paper and added some gold glitter enamel dots in the corner. The bells on the penguin’s waist were covered with a gold glitter pen and then I added some faux snowflakes along the circle image border too.

This next card was created for Day 2 Challenge of a sketch. I’ve colored up this adorable Bugaboo image called Christmas Teddy 2 Ornaments all in blue colors! Hard to tell in the photo, but I’ve used glitter gel pens to color in the stripe of the ornament and the silver tops.

I have been itching to pull out my Martha Stewart papers that have been lurking in my stash and I really love the colors in them along with the silver foil! I white heat embossed the sentiment from the Brutus Monroe “Holiday Essentials” stamp set and cut it out as a banner with my scissors and popped it up over the card with foam tape. I finished the design with some Drip Drops from Taylored Expressions.

And of course, here’s my project for today’s challenge Day 3 ABC/Anything but a Card. I make these little “snowman soup” containers every year for my family and sometimes sneak in an extra “surprise” or 2 inside! You may have recalled these on my blog before, but they’re just recycled Crystal Light containers and they fit the hot cocoa, candy cane, marshmallows and a few chocolate kisses all in there perfectly together. I’ve decorated them in many different ways. CLICK HERE to see a previous post that shows another way I’ve made them in the past. This time, I just made tags to attach around the containers. I have made another set of 3 of these containers (different images) that I will show in a future post too!

I’ve used these adorable snowmen from Bugaboo Stamps called “Snowman Snowflakes” (right) and “Snowman Snowballs” (left). I colored them up with Copics and added a sentiment that was stamped at the bottom from Whimsy Stamps Holiday Mini Sentiments stamp set.

I’ve had this “snowman soup” poem for years and years and just printed it out on my computer and attached it to the back of the containers. The top of the lids are also covered with pattern papers. P.S. If you haven’t tried the “Hot Cocoa Hershey Kisses”…oh my goodness they’re so good! 😋

UPDATE:

I also wanted to share an update on the “Christmas Cards for Danny” post you may remember that I posted about a few weeks back. I’ve actually seen an update in my own hometown newspaper about all the cards he’s received and as of December 10th, he’s received 2,544 Christmas cards from ALL OVER THE WORLD! How cool is that?! This really touches my heart and uplifts me about the kindness in the human spirit. Thank you to those that took the time to send a Christmas card his way! It’s really what Christmas is all about.

Challenges:

Catch the Bug – Holiday Chaos Day 1: Reindeer Games (card 1)
Catch the Bug – Holiday Chaos Day 2: Sketch (card 2)
Catch the Bug – Holiday Chaos Day 3: ABC Anything but a Card (snowmen soup)
Christmas Crafts All Year ‘Round – December Gifts/Containers (snowmen soup)
2 Crafty Critter Crazies – #45 Anything Goes + critter (card 2)
Crafty Animals – #45 Anything Goes + animal (card 2)
Daring Cardmakers – Animal Antics at Christmas (card 1)
The Sisterhood of Crafters – Anything Christmas/Winter (snowmen soup)
Crazy 4 Challenges – C4C565 past sketch from 2020 (I used sketch C4C553 for card 1)

Crafty Chefs Gnome Joy & FINALLY Finished Projects from Whimsy Retreat!🎉

Hello my friends! Are you getting all of your Holiday errands finished up? I’ve still got some cards to send out and get going on my cookies! I always feel behind every year…are you this way too?

So, while I was “making merry” literally, I thought I’d join in the December Crafty Chefs Group Challenge and see what I could come up with for it. This cute little gnome has been wanting to jump on my craft table for a while…

Isn’t he adorable?! He came from a stamp set that I had actually got last year around this time and just never had the time to pull it to play with before Christmas rush finished up. Note to self…I have TONS of those items this year, so plan EARLIER! LOL! It seems I always get closer to a deadline and then want to come up with all kinds of things I want to try…is it the pressure or what?!

Anyway, I’ve got him all colored up with Copics and then I used the coordinating dies to cut him out with that I’ve attached with foam tape over my “Joy Fold Card“. (This was part of the challenge for the Crafty Chefs this month and I followed along with a tutorial to a link *see link above* that was given, but I changed it up slightly by making it an A2 size.) For the card design, I’ve used these Sweater Weather Papers. I’ve added some shimmer metallic ribbon and also stamped some green snowflakes from the gnome stamp set and cut them out with the coordinating dies as well. I also found some green colored pearls to add to the centers of each one too! The ribbon, pearls/gems and color green were a requirement for the Crafty Chefs challenge.

The snowflake on the left side of the gnome is popped up and actually helping to hold the top flap down, so you have to pull it out to open the card.

So when you pull open the flap, open the inside flap, this is what you’ll see inside. I heat embossed the sentiment along with a couple of snowflakes from the gnome stamp set with white EP and colored up a gift package, cut it out with the coordinating dies and attached it to the green panel. I also took the white Ink Pad and rubbed it along the edges of the green panel before attaching.

Here’s this month’s requirements for the December Crafty Chef Challenge. I used them all except for the very last one. It’s been a long time since I’ve made a Joy Fold card, so this was really fun!

I’m also VERY excited to announce that I have FINALLY finished all of those projects from the Whimsy Stamps Virtual Retreat that I took over a weekend back in October! Yep, I guess I’m pretty slow! In my defense, I took extra time so that I could enjoy each minute of it all and go back to revisit posts and tutorials! There were 23 projects total, and I made a few extras along the way. Here are my last ones:

This was for kit 19 and a wonderful coloring tutorial from the one and only Crissy who also illustrated the image of course! The sentiment I added myself is from Lawn Fawn.

This was for kit 20 and I was so thrilled to finally be able to get to these adorable gnomes! Love this fun shaker design! I put my own spin on it with the embossing folder background, stitches, twine and snowflakes.

Last, but certainly not least is this fun mixed media project by Iris for the final project. We even got to make a customized envelope to house the slimline card. She had Christmas greeting on her design, but I wanted to make it a winter birthday card. Love how it turned out!

So that’s all I have to share for now, but I know I’ll be back again on Monday to share a reminder challenge post for you! I appreciate you taking the time to stop by to see what I’m doing friends! Hope you are staying healthy and happy! Enjoy your weekend!

Challenges (ONLY for Joy Fold Gnome Card):

A Perfect Time to Craft – #12 Anything Goes
A Bit More Time to Craft – #129 Anything Goes
Crafts Galore Encore – #82 December Anything Goes
Love to Craft – LTCCB53 December Anything Goes
QKR Stampede – #409 Anything Goes
Arty Divas – #32 Anything Goes
Crafty Creations – #416 December Anything Goes
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring

Shades of Blue at {Cupcake Inspirations}

Hello friends! Hope that you’ve had a great first weekend of December and are ready to roll on with the spirit of the Season! I know the world is a bit different, but it’s been great to get out the Holiday decorations and try to keep things as “normal” as we can be. We went out and drove through our local park filled with Christmas lights while sipping some Starbuks coffee and the baking of cookies always gets me in the spirit. What do you like to do around the Holidays?

Today, I have a new challenge to share with you over at {Cupcake Inspirations}:

The new challenge for the next two weeks is a color challenge in “Shades of Blue“! You need to be sure to use at least three different shades of blue when making your project. So any theme or occasion you can think of just use these colors! We look forward to seeing what you come up with for this challenge! Here’s my project:

I think my favorite colors to decorate with for Christmas are blue and silver! So I knew I wanted to pull out this GORGEOUS stamp set from Whimsy Stamps called Elegant Ornaments and have a play with it!

I started with a Bristol Smooth Watercolor panel and took the Whimsy Stamps Beaded Curtain Stencil and went over the top with some Blueprint Sketch, Salty Ocean and Tumbled Glass Oxide Distress Inks. I ended with the lightest color and faded it into the white. I took the lightest color and also went over the top of the panel too. I then cut the panel out with the Whimsy Stamps Zig-Zag Stitched Rectangle die.

I then took a couple of the ornaments along with the sentiment from the stamp set and heat embossed them where I wanted to place them with Ranger Liquid Platinum EP. I took my Zig CC Real Brush Markers and colored in the heat embossed ornaments and blended them together with a watercolor brush. I then stamped the “curved beads” images in navy colored ink and then heat embossed the strings to the ornaments so that it all looked layered.

This image panel was layered over a piece of silver mirror cardstock and then layered over an A2 sized side folding navy cardbase. Lastly, I added some blue sequins and filled the centers with some Nuvo Dazzling Blue Glitter Drops.

Here’s a closer look at the ornaments and how that pretty embossing powder looks. I noticed that the navy beads caught some of the EP when I heat embossed the strings to the ornaments, but I don’t mind that as I think it gives a bit of shimmer over them and gives more depth to it. The card looks very pretty and sparkly and I’m happy with how it turned out.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed my “shades of blue” creation today and it has inspired you to pull out your blue colored goodies to play along with us! Please be sure to check out the {Cupcake Inspirations} Challenge Blog to have a look at the wonderful inspiration from the rest of the DT to help inspire you more!

Thanks so much for joining me here today and I’ll be seeing you soon!😉

Challenges:

Cute Card Thursday – Anything Goes
Dream Valley – #238 Christmas
Winter Wonderland – Anything Christmas Goes
52 Christmas Card Throwdown – Pick a Precious 2020 Challenge – February 52CCT6-20 3 shades of blue
Through the Purple Haze – #174 Holiday – Make it Blue
Crazy 4 Challenges – C4C564 Elvis “A Blue Christmas”
Merry Little Christmas – MLCCB29 December Anything Goes Christmas
The Paper Funday – #24 December Anything Goes optional: Christmas/Holiday
Crafty Calendar – December Christmas theme

Guest Design Post for Retro Rubber Challenge Blog

Hello friends! Really excited to share my post today as a guest designer for the new challenge over at the Retro Rubber Challenge Blog! One of the cards I had previously entered had been chosen as a top pick and I was also invited as a guest to participate for this challenge.

Please remember that when you enter your creation for this challenge blog that you MUST include a stamp that is at least one year or older on your creation

I was so inspired by the warm and cozy feeling of the image with the candle, so my thoughts turned to an older stamp set that I’ve had in my collection for several years:

Both the candle and sentiment came from a rubber stamp set by Whimsy Stamps called “Peace on Earth“. It is no longer available and I’m thinking it was circa 2010. There is ONE digital image available that derived from this set called “Peace Angel“. (If you were familiar with Whimsy Stamps as far back as I was, you may remember the whole set and that this candle image was included with it.) I obviously still love the set and won’t part with it! 😉

I’ve got it stamped and colored with Copics over the white panel along with the sentiment from the same stamp set in red ink. The ribbon on the candle was paper pieced with some old pattern paper in my stash. I also used the same paper to die cut a couple of stars for the corner.

The image panel was cut out with the Whimsy Stamps Zig Zag Stitched Rectangle die, layered with red cardstock and then popped up with foam tape over a grey woodgrain embossed panel that was also cut out with the same die set. I ran some white ink over the grey woodgrain piece to bring out the texture in it a bit more. I layered these panels over a red top folding A2 sized top folding card base.

I’ve also used the “Stampin’ Up! Pretty Pines Thinlit dies” for the accents along the edges of the image panel. I die cut the pinecone pieces as well as the pine branches and arranged them over my design. I took some Gina K Glitter Glitz Gel and added it over those die pieces as well as around the edges of the grey woodgrain panel and the top of the stars. Lastly, I’ve added a double twine bow in the center of the stacked stars.

Here’s a closer look at that candle image and how I’ve got it colored up and paper pieced on my design. I’ve also taken some Ranger Stickles icicle and added some in the center of the flame in the candle.

You can also see the “snowy glitter” effect from the Gina K Glitter Glitz Gel. It dries hard and doesn’t come off! I like how it has sort of an icy look about it.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my creation today and have been inspired in some way! Please be sure to stop on over at the Retro Rubber Challenge Blog to take a peek at the inspiration from the design team and how they were inspired by the beautiful photo as well! Hope you will be able to join along in the fun too!

Thanks for stopping in friends and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

Crafty Catz – #529 Anything Goes optional “Baby it’s cold outside”
Cut It Up – #214 Christmas + die cut
Allsorts – #600 Christmas flowers, Wreaths and Trees (hope my pines count)
Sunday Stamps – SSC245 Winter Warmth color challenge

HOliday Sweets Challenge Reminder for {Cupcake Inspirations}🥧

Hello friends! Hope you had a wonderful weekend! I first would like to say a huge thank you to those that have mentioned they were going to send out a Christmas card for Danny (mentioned in previous post below). I think it will be so exciting to see how many cards he receives and from where around the world! I think this will help bring him much needed cheer!

Today I have a fun creation with more inspiration for our “Holiday Sweets” challenge over at the {Cupcake Inspirations} blog! So, I hope that you will drop on over, check out the inspirations from the rest of the sweeties and come share your delicious Holiday Sweets creations with us!

I’m still in a “cookie” mode and looking forward to making some traditional Christmas cookies in my own kitchen soon…so I’ve played around with a recent card kit I’ve received:

I’ve created a cozy and festive table scene full of delicious Christmas cookie treats using several products from an older Christmas card kit and a few other items. First of all, the cookies from that kit were super fun to put together! It comes with all the dies and stamps you need to decorate a (craft) cookie with!

I started my card with an A2 sized top folding kraft cardstock piece and used some of the Winter Cabin Papers to create my scene for the “table” and background. The cookies were all created with the stamps, dies and some paper from the kit, but I added some White EP for the frosting and some red Nuvo Crystal Drops for decoration. There was a felt circle cut in the kit that I cut off to attach over my “table” to place the cookies on. I also heat embossed the sentiment from the stamp set in the kit with Raven Sparkle EP and die cut with a banner from my stash. I went around the edges of it with some white Ink.

The hot cocoa mug came from a previous card kit that I stamped, colored and cut out to place on my table scene. I took the whole scene and layered it over a black piece of cardstock included in the kit and added it to my card base.

Here’s a closer look at those cookies! You can see that the die cuts have cut the images out right up next to the image line. I also took a glue pen and added some chunky style glitter from my stash to make some of the cookies look like they’re sugar coated. You can also see the sparkle from the EP in my sentiment.

Probably hard to see the bit of shimmer inside the cocoa mug and on the candy cane that I covered with my glitter brush pen, but it’s all shimmery and sparkly in person. I colored up the mug with my Copic markers and fussy cut out the image.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed my cozy Christmas cookie scene here and are inspired to pull out your favorite Holiday sweets to play along with us too! Please be sure to stop by the {Cupcake Inspirations} Challenge Blog to see more inspiration from the DT Sweeties! Looking forward to seeing your creations there!

Thanks for popping in today friends! I’ll be back very soon with a special post!

Challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday – Food and/or Drink
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes
Aud Sentiments – #265 Anything Goes + sentiment
Creative Knockouts – #378 Christmas Delight
Creative Fingers – #198 Anything Goes
Christmas Kickstart – #43 ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas (cookies for Santa!)
Merry Little Christmas – MLCCB28 Anything Christmas Goes

Card for Santa’s Friend and Christmas Projects from Whimsy Retreat!🎅

Hello there friends! I hope that you enjoyed Thanksgiving Day for those of you that celebrate. It’s difficult not being able to celebrate the holiday in the usual way with sitting at the table with family and I really miss them all so much and look forward to being able to hug them tightly in the future. I did have a nice dinner with hubby and we stuffed ourselves, also enjoyed spending time with each other.

After Thanksgiving comes the “Black Friday” shopping which I don’t go out and do in the department stores anyway let alone during this time, but I do enjoy taking advantage of deals online! Did you shop any sales or plan to this weekend?

Today I have a Christmas card that I’ve made for a very special individual with Down Syndrome. He has a very weakened immune system and is unable to go out and visit Santa like he usually does (6 times at least each year)! Santa is his friend, and he doesn’t understand why he can’t see him and thinks he’s been “bad” this year. 😥 Although he is an adult in age, he doesn’t understand with his mental handicap and his mother has asked if people would help in sending a Christmas card to him. Of course, THIS is the reason I love making cards! Here’s the card I made for Danny:

I was trying to go through all of my stamps that had a Santa and the first one that came to my mind was this older Stampin’ Up! stamp set called “Jolly Old Saint Nick” and it’s one of my favorite images for a Santa! I love how he’s got that “wink” going!

I colored him up with Copic markers and cut it out with a stitched round rectangle die and then layered it over a piece of red mirror cardstock that was cut with a rounder punch. For the design of this card, I’ve used a current sketch challenge (see below this post). I found some festive papers in my stash and cut the strips that I rounded the corners on with the punch as well. For the middle strip, I used some more of the red mirror cardstock and ran it through a brick embossing folder before attaching it to the other pieces. I layered them over a white A2 sized side folding card base that I also rounded the corners on as well.

For the sentiment, which also came from the same stamp set, I heat embossed it with Brutus Monroe Christmas Eve EP over a piece of white cardstock and cut it out with a banner die and cut off the edge of the card.

Here’s a closer look at Santa and how I’ve colored him in. I couldn’t resist giving him white highlights on his cheeks with a gel pen. You can see the beautiful mirror effect with that embossed middle strip as well as the pretty sparkle in the sentiment from that EP I mentioned above.

And of course, I wanted to make the outside envelope that it’s getting mailed in just as fun! I took a diagonal striped stencil and inked it up with red ink along the bottom on both sides. I also had a fun “Postal Christmas” stamp set (unknown) and stamped a few of those all over the envelope in red and green inks. I sure hope that he enjoys this card and helps to bring a smile to let him know that Santa KNOWS he’s been good! 😉

I had also told you in a previous post that I was still working on projects from the Whimsy Stamps Virtual Workshop that I participated in during October…well I’ve just been slowly enjoying completing them as I go, and I saved the Christmas projects for last for this reason! LOL! I’m getting closer to finishing up all of those projects! (Only 3-4 left to do I think!) For now…here’s some Christmas projects from the retreat:

This was for kit 8. What’s fun about this card is that there is an action wobbler behind the pile of treats she’s holding! I had fun coloring her up and I couldn’t stop playing with the wobbler! LOL! PS: This is a good reminder for the {Cupcake Inspirations} challenge too!😋😉

This was for kit 13. I slightly changed up the card, but not much. I actually made a shaker with the jar and put some acetate behind it and then I also added a tag and silver ribbon at the top of the jar. I paper pieced the fairy’s gift box instead of coloring the strips too. I love the colors in this one!

This slimline card was for kit 17. All of the dies were actually really fun to color and arrange to create a scene with. I didn’t change things up too much with this one other than covering the bottom snow with glitter and then adding a sentiment onto the bottom of the frame. I splattered the sky with white paint instead of using a white gel pen.

And this fun bookmark was for kit 18. The ink blended colors were similar to the above card, but I colored in the letters with a white pencil and then used a gel pen to trace around the letters. I white heat embossed some snowflakes and added doodles with gel pens as well as pearl drops. I also added some tinsel ribbon to go along with the twine given. I might use this as a tag…not sure yet.

That was a rather long post! I’m a bit behind and trying to catch up with my projects, posting right now. I hope that you’ve enjoyed my projects today and have been inspired to get some festive projects going! I’ll be back very soon with another project and challenge reminder soon!

Challenges for Santa card only:

Try Stampin’ On Tuesday – Sketch
Creative Moments – Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2047 Anything Goes
Always Fun – #190 Inspired On a Movie (“The Santa Clause” starring Tim Allen)
Sweet Stampers – #50 Christmas
The House That Stamps Built – N2520 Anything Goes
Sweet Stampin’ – Spots or Stripes
Christmas 24 – #22 Santa Claus

Holiday Sweets for {Cupcake Inspirations}!🥧

Hello friends! Hope that you’ve enjoyed your weekend! Thanksgiving is coming up this week and the full Holiday Season has begun and one of the things that most people are thinking about (at least my family anyway!) are those wonderful “Holiday Sweets“! Yum!😋

This is also our new challenge for the next 2 weeks over at {Cupcake Inspirations}! So I hope that you are able to start (if you haven’t already) thinking about creating something crafty with those “Holiday Sweets” in mind and join along in the fun with us! Here’s what I’ve come up with for this challenge:

I remember times with my kids when we did the “milk and cookies” you leave for Santa along with your nice letter about some things you wish for him to bring you. We always wrote the letters to Santa and made sure that we put out the cookies…and usually hot cocoa on Christmas Eve. There were always candy canes on the tree to pluck off to stir your hot cocoa with as well!

I remembered this fun little Simon Says Stamp Christmas card kit (Christmas Squad) that I hardly made a dent in to use at all, so it was really great to pull out these adorable Doodlebug items with a “milk and cookies” theme in the papers and images! I had unopened packages of cut out images which is the table with the lamp, Santa letter and mug on it. I took the doggie image from the stamp set, stamped, colored and used the coordinating dies to cut it out with and popped it over the table image panel with foam tape. This panel was cut with a Wonky Stitch Rectangle die as well as the background papers. I layered everything over an A2 sized top folding red card base. The image panel was also layered over some of this red cardstock as well after sponging around the edges with some light blue ink.

Lastly, I took a sentiment from the same stamp set and white heat embossed it over another piece of red cardstock that was cut out with a banner die and popped up underneath the image panel with foam tape. (I thought it was the perfect sentiment to add especially for this year to someone you miss!)

Here’s a closer view of the images that I’ve put together onto this panel. The pup was colored with my usual Copic markers and I’ve used a silver gel pen to color in his collar tag with.

I also had some Doodlebug stickers with the kit and added the bitten cookie with a smile face next to the other cookie on the table. I also added a candy cane enamel sticker to the table as well as the heart enamel stickers above the table.

The strip of papers in the center of the card came from the backside left over piece that was cut out from the milk and cookies panel in the background. The colors matched up nicely with the images.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my “Holiday Sweets” card today and it has brought you a smile, a special memory or inspiration. If you need more inspiration for this challenge, please be sure to check out the {Cupcake Inspirations} Challenge Blog to see the rest of the DT sweeties and what they came up with! Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Thanks for stopping in and I’ll be seeing you soon!

WISHING YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY, HEALTHY AND BLESSED THANKSGIVING

Challenges:

Simons Says Stamp Wednesday – Christmas
CRAFT – Christmas
Cardz 4 Galz – Cute Christmas
Cute Card Thursday – Sentimental
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes optional Christmas

Dare to Get Dirty Has Begun with Something Festive!

Hello friends! Yes, I know, not only am I posting every single day, now I’m posting twice in one day!?! What’s going on with me?!😂 Really sorry to “bombard” you with all of these posts, but this is what I meant by me being SO busy “behind the scenes”! If I do miss a day, you’re going to wonder if I’ve left again! It sure is busy, but it’s also fun while the long days of Summer go by.

Today starts the Splitcoaststampers “Dare to Get Dirty” annual event full of fun challenges by current and past alumni from the Dirty Dozen Design Team. This is the 16th year that this special event has happened! I’m very proud to be associated with Splitcoaststampers and have been apart of the community since 2003…a lurker👀 a few years before that too! I have some LIFE LONG friends as that’s where I started putting anything I ever created online anywhere. So in June of 2016 I was honored when asked to be apart of the Dirty Dozen Design Team! They certainly have my creative heart forever. So I think I missed last years event because I was not well at that time, so I will be participating as a challenge hostess this year. You must be a “Fan Club Member” over there to be able to see the event, so if you’re interested in joining, please check out the “How to Become a Fan Club Member” page. (Otherwise you will not “see” the event details.).

So each day, there’s about 5-6 new challenges released starting today and lasting until Friday August 28th…that’s a whole lot of challenges! I obviously didn’t have time to make something for every single challenge, but I have made a few to help my fellow “Dare to Get Dirty DT friends” create samples for their challenge.

The first challenge I made a creation for was the lovely Kittie’s challenge. And obviously, I cannot reveal what the challenge is about, I can show you my creation and ask that you head on over to the event to see the details and play along with us….

I had such a fun time creating this fun Holiday themed slimline! I pulled out an old favorite “Santa’s Elves” stamp set from My Favorite Things for this one. I’ve stamped and colored several images from this set using Copic markers and cut them out with a coordinating die. For the scene, I’ve taken a piece of white cardstock and used a wave border die to cut out the different snowy hillsides and before attaching them down, I’ve used a blending tool to add some blue ink to the edges. I then took each individual hill and embossed them with an embossing folder.

I arranged the “hills” over a piece of brushed gold cardstock that was cut out with a stitched slimline die from Trinity Stamps. I “tucked in” the cut out images in between the hills. The gold layer was attached over a red stitched scallop slimline piece that was mounted over a 3.5 x 8.5 slimline card side folding white card base. I’ve also used one of the banners from that Trinity Stamps die set to white heat emboss the sentiment from the stamp set and then popped up the little elf over top of that with foam tape over the bottom of the card front. I also attached that little holly image at the end of it.

Lastly, I topped the card off with holiday colored sequins filled with gold Stickles in the centers.

Here’s a little bit of a closer view of the images on the card. I’ve taken a glitter brush pen and went over the stars on the trees as well as the ornaments and the bell on the elf’s hat for a bit of shimmer. I also covered the holly berries on the bottom sentiment with some glossy accents. (Hard to get all details in there!)

Hope you’ve enjoyed my Christmas slimline card today as well as all of the daily posts I’ve been sharing! I look forward to either seeing what you create during the “Dare to Get Dirty” event or anything else you may be working on! The end of the year is coming soon and I know everyone will be creating lots of fun things!

Thanks for joining me today friends! I’ll see you again tomorrow! Stay well and happy!

Challenges:

Merry Little Christmas – Anything Christmas Goes for August
Jingle Belles – Cardstock Christmas
Crafty Cardmakers – Lots of Layers
The Pper Girls – Emboss Like a Boss (both heat and embossing folder used)
Shopping Our Stash – Pile it on! (layers)
Cute Card Thursday – Embossing

Interactive Fun for Crafty Chefs + Video

Hello friends! We are nearing the end of July and I wanted to be sure to try and get at least ONE “Christmas in July” project in before the month is gone, so I thought I’d keep things fun and simple as well as “kill 2 birds with one stone” so-to-speak!

Now we’re given one “must do” item from the previous chef to use on our recipe. My item from Nana Connie was *”die cut” and so here is the project that I’ve made for this month’s “Crafty Chefs” group:

Vicki-DDSElves-squarefold

I have used a scallop square (cut from gold metallic mirror cardstock) and stitched square die cuts for layers on my project here. I’ve taken this really cute elf image from the Christmas Elves Pairables digital set from Digi Doodle Studios on the front of my design.

I’ve printed out and colored the present from the same digital set along with another elf image (for his arm only) so that I could cut them out to make it look like he’s holding the gift. His cut out arm was popped up with foam tape. I’ve colored with Copic markers, added details with gel pens, liquid applique and Stickles glitter under his feet for snow affects. I also stamped extra snowflakes for the background as well as add three snowflake rhinestones for accents.

Here’s the Crafty Chef’s August Recipe:

MUST DO:

*Die Cut (can also use electronic machine like Cricut, etc)
Interactive (More than 1 fold eg: easel card, gatefold, etc.)
Specialty Paper (foil, vellum, glitter, etc.)
ribbon/twine/raffia

CAN DO:

Color an image
Add THREE of something
**add glitter/sparkle – (this one I’m passing along to the next chef)

It doesn’t appear to be very interactive by looking at it, but when you untie the ribbon along the side, this is what it looks like when you open it up:

Vicki-DDSElves-squarefold-open

I have decorated two of the opposite panels with a greeting and then I’ve added a pocket to the top left panel so that I could include a gift card or cash to the recipient for Christmas! I thought it was a super quick and fun interactive design to do!

If you are interested in learning how this project comes together, I’ve made a video sharing the measurements on how it’s done: (CLICK HERE to see the video on You Tube.)

During this time of the year when it’s pretty warm over my way, it’s sort of a nice thought to think about some snow! Plus, it always nice to get a start on some Christmas too! (It’s not necessary for the “Crafty Chefs” to use a Christmas theme…it can be anything.)

I hope you’ve been inspired by my project today and have learned something fun in my video with it too! (I have even more interactive tutorials on my You Tube video channel if you’d like to see other ideas!)

Thanks so much for stopping in today friends and I’ll be seeing you again soon!

Challenges: