Luscious Little Layers 1

It's time for a new sketch at The Sketch File. We've back after taking an extended winter break and it's time for us to share the new sketch. It's actually the sketch that we'll be using for the entire month of February but Kathy has posted it a week early to give you plenty of time to create with it. You can create any type of project based on the sketch. Remember to share your creativity with us by posting it over at The Sketch File. Kathy's calling this sketch "Luscious Little Layers" and you can see why. We can't wait to see what you come up with for this sketch!I decided to use a star theme for my card and kept the color scheme simple by only using two colors.  I dry embossed my stars and added a bit of glitter to the "tails".

CASE-ing Christmas Challenge 4

Are you ready for some fun? If so,

head on over to CASE-ing Christmas. DT member, Rocky has posted a fabulous card for us to CASE (at right). I couldn't resist using her layout as inspiration for my card. I loved the way she layered her snowflakes on the darker purple and matted them with white and then used the dark purple at the base of the card to hold the sentiment and a few brads. I used the same layout but used dark green for my trees and a dark green strip at the base. I love the way my card turned out and am especially happy because my husband and son liked this one as well. My husband said it reminded him of a Christmas blanket (it must be that plaid) and my son liked the geometric style and simplicity of the card. Gotta love that!

Seeing True Colors

The TRUE COLOR of my
post-holidayTulle purchase.

It's time to play along with the "Bring in New" challenge at Jingle Belles. We've been challenged to use all those new supplies that Santa brought us for Christmas or use supplies we gathered from post-holiday sales. For this card I am using an item that I purchased at a post-holiday sale. I purchased two rolls of tulle, one green and one red. When I saw them at the store, I immediately thought that I might be able to incorporate them into a card or two, but I hesitated to purchase them, knowing that I would need multiple layers to see the true colors. (I am trying to create fewer cards that require extra postage because of weight or dimensional elements.) Anyway, I ended up purchasing the tulle and stored it on the shelf for future use. When I saw the current challenge at Jingle Belles, I knew it was time to see what the tulle would look like on a card. Just as I suspected, multiple layers were required in order to see the "true" color of the tulle. I only used two layers for the background of this card and it still looks pink rather than the bright red. I probably should have added one more layer to see that true red color especially since it doesn't weight much and really doesn't add too much bulkiness, but I didn't. So to break up that pinkish background, I layered dark green punched trees over it and added the gingerbread tag for a focal point.

Gingerbread Man

I'm playing along with the current challenge at CASE-ing Christmas. DT Judy created a fabulous card to offer inspiration. My card has several similar elements. First, I've used a very similar layout and used traditional Christmas colors as well. Like Judy, I placed my focal point on the right hand side of my card and layered it on an oval that is matted with a larger oval. Instead of using a tree, I used a gingerbread man that I drew and cut from cork. I decorated my gingerbread man with red brads and white paint. I thought the gingerbread man would provide a bit of dimension just as Judy's tree adds dimension. In the upper left hand corner, I used brads with snowflakes behind them. I also wrote my sentiment on red cardstock and positioned it to the left of the oval. Thanks for the inspiration, Judy!

Bells for 52CCT

This is the second card I've created for the current bells
themed challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown. I drew bells onto golden rod cardstock, then added highlights with colored pencils and fussy cut around them. I matted the bells on a piece of cardstock that started out as cream color, but I inked it with tan ink so that it would look similar to the background in the bell patterned paper. (Don't you just love that patterned paper?) I finished by adding some punched holly leaves and berries and used red to mat each layer.

JOLLY Christmas

It's time for another fabulous challenge at
 52 Christmas Card Throwdown. This
time the challenge is BELLS. I chose to use a jingle bell as my focal point. I used a Lit' Inker Design die cut and cut it from silver paper, then wrote the letters jlly on white cardstock with a green marker. I fussy cut the letters from the cardstock and adhered them to a white embossed background using the jingle bell for the O in jolly. I added green punched boughs (Martha Stewart punch) at each corner and attached this to the cardbase.
(Sorry about the shadowy photo, I struggle to take quality photos when the card is mostly white.)

Always and Forever

 Lately my creativity has resulted in a number of Christmas cards, so just to prove to myself that I can still create for other occasions, I've decided to participate in the 100th challenge at MUSE. The card at right was created by Michele Ferguson, the current MUSE. Her fabulous, casual and very elegant card inspired me to create a Valentine's Day card. I really love the clean and simple style that Michele used and I tried to keep my card clean and simple. I also liked that she kept the color scheme simple and used a white heart over a white background. Instead of using white, I used cream on cream for my punched hearts. Michele placed a colored heart in the center of her heart, l adhered a series of colored hearts in the center of my punched hearts. Lastly, Michele's sentiment was inspired by a song. I also used a song title for my sentiment (Always and Forever by Luther Vandross).  Thanks for the inspiration Michele!

Snowman Card

I am really enjoying participating in the current Christmas challenges out there in blogland. My husband, on the other hand, thinks I'm a bit premature, (after all Christmas is eleven months away!) I know he will appreciate my on-going card making once Christmas rolls around.
My snowman card is actually inspired by two challenges. I've based the layout and use of a monochromatic scheme on the phenomenal card created by design team member, Pat at CASE-ing Christmas.  My inspiration for the color came from the January color challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown. I bet you already guessed that it's SHADES of BLUE.
I began by selecting the snowman background paper. Once I knew that I wanted to use it for the background, I decided to continue with the snowman theme and use it for the focal point on the banner. I punched and decorated a snowman, then dressed him in a blue hat and scarf, stamped some trees in the background, added snowflakes and a snowfield.

Mynn from Great Impressions (and CASE-ing Christmas) recently stopped by my blog and suggested I also link this card up with the SNOW FRIENDS challenge there. If you haven't checked out this blog, head on over. The DT has incredible talent and this month challenge inspiration creations are phenomenal!!!

CASE-ing Christmas

For all the bloggers out there that love to create Christmas cards all year long, you are in for a treat. Earlier this week Mynn from On a Stampage and CASE-ing Christmas topped by my blog and let me in on some exciting news.  CASE-ing Christmas is a new blog devoted to holiday weekly challenges. I was thrilled to learn about this! The idea behind the challenges is to create a Christmas card based on some element of a card created by one of the design team members. Inspiration can be from the color, image, layout, technique, etc. This means there are endless opportunities to be creative.

For my card, I decided to use the layout as my inspiration. I used multiple layers as well.  However, I ended up rotating the image so that  the bell would look like it was hanging.

I am looking forward to the weekly challenges at CASE-ing Christmas and hope to find time to play along. During the month of January, they are also have BLOG CANDY to give away!

Star Tree

January 2015 Sketch for
52 Christmas Card Throwdown

This is my third card for the current sketch challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown. I  handcut a tree from green cardstock, added a tree trunk, then punched stars in the tree. Although it is hard to tell from the photo, I used gold embossing thread to represent garland. I continued the star theme on one triangle and added just a touch of green ink around the outer edge of the cardbase.  This has been one of those challenges that keeps my brain working on overtime. I keep coming up with more and more ideas!

Snowman Gift Wrap Re-Visited

52 Christmas Card Throwdown Sketch

The first challenge of  2015 over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is a fabulous sketch challenge. This is the second card that I have created based on the sketch. It's one of those sketches that offers endless possibilities. For this card, I began by cutting the snowman image from a piece of gift wrap. I inked around the outer edges of a piece of white cardstock using blue ink, then attached the snowman image to this with blue brads. It's been awhile since I've used brads to attach anything to one of my cards. I really need to start using them more often. I cut a white snowflake embossed piece of cardstock into two triangles and layered these over a blue mat. I used only blue and white to maintain that winter feel. It's a great combination for a Christmas card.

Snowman Gift Wrap

Here is another card for the "No Time Like the Presents" Jingle Belles challenge. Lauren and Steph have challenged us to re-purpose tags or gift wrap from Christmas 2014. I am so fortunate because in January 2014 I hit the local stores to purchase wrapping paper on clearance. I was able to pick up several rolls of gift wrap and spent next to nothing for them. When Christmas 2014 rolled around, I had plenty of beautiful new paper to use for wrapping gifts. Since I am one of those gift recipients who carefully unwraps the gift so I can save the paper,  I was able to recycle this image of the snowman.  I love that the image already had a silver border. I trimmed around it and layered it on white cardstock, then on a piece of blue cardstock that I had designed for another project (I think I stamped the blue with acrylic paint, but it was so long ago that I can't even remember what technique I used to create the blue pattern).  I finished by punching snowflakes from white cardstock and using them as a second border.

Folded Star Tree

I am determined to participate in many creative challenges throughout the coming year. During previous years, I participated in the creative challenges at the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown blog.  This blog not only offers a great place to get inspiration, but it encourages me to create Christmas cards throughout the year so that I am fully prepared by the time Christmas rolls around. The first challenge for 2015 at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is a sketch challenge. It's a fabulous sketch with endless possibilities.

For my card, I began by creating a tree image from a 1/2 circle cut from the green polka dotted paper. Since this paper only had a pattern on one side, I used green ink on the reverse side to add a bit more color. I folded this paper into a tree shape, punched stars into the various layers and adhered white cardstock behind each layer so the stars would pop. To make them "shine" I added a bit of glitter glue over each. I centered the tree on a fringed circle and used green ink on the edges of the fringe. I layered the tree and fringed circle over two triangular pieces of cardstock and added the sentiment at the bottom.

"Presenting" Silver Jingle Wrap

Happy New Year! 

If your New Year's resolution involves participating in more creative challenges or being more prepared for the 2015 Christmas season, I've got the perfect blog for you to visit. Not only will you be able to express your creativity throughout the year, but if you participate regularly you will have a collection of Christmas cards already prepared for Christmas 2015.  I am referring to the amazing Jingle Belles blog. Co-creators Lauren and Steph offer wonderful, inspiring challenges throughout the year. I've been following this blog for several years now and it is wonderful to be challenged and so fully prepared for Christmas each year.The first challenge for this year involves using wrapping paper or gift tags from Christmas 2014.  I knew immediately that I had to use the jingle paper that I had used to wrapped several packages. This beautiful, shiny paper made the packages just so very pretty, especially with the lights reflecting on it as lay under the lit Christmas tree. All I had to do was add a bit of ribbon and a bow and the packages looked fabulous.

For my card, I simply cut a piece to the shiny, jingle gift wrap and matted it on black cardstock. I fussy cut around several of the letters, a tree, a package and holly leaves and mounted them on white cardstock, then used dimensional adhesive to attach them on top of the matching shape. I made an attempt to add red ribbon, but it was a bit too much so, I left it as you see it.