Tag: candy cane

It’s Christmas in July at Sparkles Monthly!

Hello friends! Have you’ve been enjoying the month of July so far? We finally got some rains, but now it’s humid and warmer. That’s OK because it’s always warm this time of year anyway and a great time for crafting indoors with the air conditoning!

Today starts up a new challenge for the Sparkles Forum Monthly Challenge Blog with the theme: Christmas in July! It’s a favorite for many card makers this month so that they can get an early start on those Christmas cards without having to wait last minute to get them all done. I don’t have an outrageous amount to send out, but I do like to donate and I have done 5 Christmas so far! So if you’re up for it, make a Christmas card and join the gallery at the challenge! Here’s the card that I’ve made:

There’s nothing like the smell of peppermint for Christmas (for me anyway!)  I had gotten this Candy Cane Lane card kit from Taylored Expressions last year and never really used it, so I thought this would be a good time to pull it out.

In the set, there came this cover plate die and I cut it out in the following, gold mirror, white glitter and white cardstock in A2 sizes.  I paper pieced each one over an A2 sized white card base front.  I added some light blue ink blending around the edges and bottom of the center panel and stamped a few “snowflakes” in the same color.

I die cut the candy canes and leaves and ink blended/stenciled those stacked together.  I used a white gel pen for the highlight over the canes, added a gold cord bow and some gold drip drops for the “berries”.  There was a stamp set with sentiments that I stamped out in red and then went over top of it with VersaMark ink so that I could emboss some Peppermint smelling embossing powder over it…that’s where the smell of peppermint came in for me!  I die cut it out with the coordinating die and glued it at the bottom of the candy canes.

Hope you can join the challenge with your Christmas cards this month!  Thanks so much for dropping in today!

Challenges:

  1. Sparkles Christmas – Include Gold
  2. Merry Little Christmas – Anything Christmas Goes
  3. Get Creative – Christmas in July
  4. Craft Rocket – Christmas in July
  5. Most Magical Time of the Year – ATG Christmas/Halloween optional:  Christmas in July
  6. Christmas Craft Creations – Christmas in July007July
  7. Little Red Wagon – Christmas or New Year?  (I hardly ever send out New Year cards)
  8. Krafty Chicks – Christmas
  9. CRAFT – Christmas

Gingerbread Christmas Tag

Hello friends!  It seems like it’s been a while since my last post!  I have been feeling a little under the weather for a few days and I’m trying to get myself back on track…so hopefully I’m getting there!  Thank you to all who’ve left comments and a big welcome to my new followers!  So happy to have you here and hope you enjoy the postings!

I have a cute Christmas tag to share with you today using an oldie but a goodie Whimsy Stamps digital image:

Vicki-Oct24-Gingerbreadman Tag

This sweet little Gingerbread Man was so much fun to color and “bling up” a bit with some accents!  I have him colored up with Copic markers in the following:

  1.  Body:  E39, E37, E35, E15, E13 (Cheeks 0blender, R20 and frosting BG000 in certain areas.)
  2. Candy Cane and circle candy:  R39, R37, R35, R32, C3, C1, C0
  3. Nose and arm accents:  G16, G09
  4. Outer Edge of image:  BG10, BG000

I used a manila tag and got out a zig zag image from an older Whimsy Stamps clear set called Basic Backgrounds & Borders (retired) and stamped it on the tag with Rusty Hinge Oxide Ink.  I also used that color along with Tea Stain and Vintage Photo Oxide inks to sponge around the edges of the tag.  I used a water spritzer to add some drops and then blotted it with a towel to get the watermark look.

The gingerbread man panel was cut to fit the tag and I used some Tumbled Glass Oxide ink to stamp a few snowflakes around the gingerbread man from the Whimsy Stamps Snow Flurry stamp set and then sponged around the edges of this panel with the same brown oxide inks listed above.   I also stamped a sentiment at the bottom of the tag from the Whimsy Stamps Penguins Winter Adventure stamp set with Archival Jet Black ink.  I then added a strip of black washi tape from Tim Holtz Ideaology Christmas collection and then added some “faux snow” flakes at the bottom of the gingerbread man panel with some liquid glue.

For the ribbon, I used some seam binding ribbon and sprayed it with distress ink sprays in the same brown colors as inks that I’ve used, crinkled up and let it dry.  I added that to the top of the tag along with some tinsel ribbon.  I thought it went well with the snow!

Vicki-WS-Oct24-gingerbread-close

A closer view of the gingerbread man and you can see the added extra details that I’ve added to him.  For the candy cane and circle candy on his head, I covered them with a Spectrum Noir Glitter Brush Pen.  I’ve added some Nuvo White Blizzard Glitter Drops to the green dots and then some Nuvo Clear Crystal Drops to the frosting lines.  (You can see how it shines in the photo!)

Thank so much for stopping in today!  Hope you’ve enjoyed my tag and I’ll be seeing you very soon!! 🙂

Challenges:

  1.  The Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge – Anything Christmas Goes
  2. QKR Stampede – Anything Goes #318
  3. Sweet Stampin’ – Chevrons or Stripes
  4. Crafting From the Heart – Anything Goes
  5. Little Red Wagon – distressing (Distress Oxide inks)