One More for WASHI-ing Challenge

The current "Here We Come a-WASHI-ing" challenge at Jingle Belles (a theme suggested by Lela Meinke) has my creative wheels spinning at high speed. I've already created three other cards with washi and here's one more!  This one was pretty simple to create. I  punched snowflakes from squares of  washi covered cardstock and layered the squares over black cardstock. I added a white gel pen border and that was it!  Pretty simple and ever so quick to create!

WASHI'ing for Jingle Belles

In my previous post, I mentioned that  I punched a snowflake from green and white washi covered cardstock, but didn't use it on that card. I just couldn't leave my craft room until I did something with that snowflake. So I created card 3 for the Jingle Belles "Here We Come a WASHI-ing" challenge, suggested by Lela Meinke. For this card, I used a cream colored cardbase and added the green and white polka dot border. Next I covered cardstock with red and white polka dot washi and used a snowflake punch to create snowflakes. I adhered them randomly over the cardbase and also included the green snowflake that I punched from washi covered cardstock for the previous card. I love that I could put that green snowflake to use right away and didn't have to put it away for a later date.

Washi-ing Again

This is card 2 for the Jingle Belles "Here We Come a WASHI-ing" challenge. The challenge was suggested by Lela Meinke. In case you can't tell where I've used washi on this card I'll point it out. The polka dot multi-colored horizontal strips are washi strips and so is the green and white polka dot background behind the snowflakes. I punched a snowflake from the green washi covered cardstock (I'll use that on another project). In the snowflake shaped hole I layered three punched snowflakes on top of one another. I also folded the points of the snowflake towards the center of the snowflake (just a bit) to add dimension. I printed the sentiment with my computer and added narrow strips of the green polka dot washi above and below the sentiment.

Washi Fun @ Jingle Belles

This morning I learned that Steph & Lauren from Jingle Belles are having a super fun challenge suggested by Lela Meinke. "Here we come a -WASHI-ing" is the theme for the challenge. Since I have a drawer full of washi and I love creating Christmas cards, I'm all in for this challenge.  This first card was pretty simple to put together. I already had the image of the trees stamped because I had intended to use the image for another project but didn't. So, I simply added a washi border and ta-dah...I had a focal point for the card. I layered the tree image over a brown and white polka dot patterned cardstock and created a washi frame behind it.   Fun challenge! A big thanks to Lela Meinke for suggesting it.

Thinking of You

I put this card together this morning. It will be sent off to a relative. I kept it pretty simple using punched flowers and hand cut leaves and stems. I used a computer generated sentiment and attached it to the card with brads.

52CCT Feb Sketch Challenge: Snowflakes on Red

It's time for the February sketch challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown. The sketch inspired many ideas, but I finally settled on this snowflake card. I used layered snowflakes as the focal point and also used an embossed snowflake background. I loved how the sketch had a center focal point with the holly just off to the bottom left. I position my snowflakes in a similar style.  To break up all that red, I added vertical white strips.

Tuesday Sketch

It has been a terribly busy Tuesday, so I am going to make this a quick post. This card was created based on our current sketch at The Sketch File. As always Kathy is sharing a few versions of the sketch to provide even more inspiration. We are using the sketch(es) all month long. This time around I also used Valentine's Day for inspiration because it is at the end of the week. I hope you will find some time to come play along with us. I'm looking forward to it, so please post your creation at The Sketch File.

Still Shaping Up

I've been tearing things up here to create a card that is not rectangle or square. This card is for the "Shaping Up" challenge at Jingle Belles.  I cut the penguins from white cardstock, added black detail and then cut out scarves and hats to fit. I layered the penguins on a torn paper snow field, added some glitter snow and then tore the edges of the card to create the current shape.

52 CCT: Pick a Previous Sketch

I am so glad I had time to create a second card for the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown "Pick a Previous Sketch" challenge. This time I have chosen to use the May 2012 sketch for inspiration. I decide to use red, white and green cardstock and layered them on the striped patterned paper.  I also used one of my favorite dies to create the bells. I'm not sure you can tell from the photo, but I added a little glitter over the top of each bell. I think it helped to make the bells pop.  The May 2012 52 Christmas Card Throwdown sketch is below:

It's a blustery day here with lots of snowfall! I've just finished shoveling the drive and sidewalks and it looks like I'll be doing it again later, as the snow is still falling quite heavily. In the meantime, I thought I would share this card and hopefully inspired you to play along with us over at The Sketch File. I'm determined to share at least one Christmas card each month using Kathy's sketch so that I'll have plenty of cards to mail to friends and family and still have some to donate next Christmas.  However, you don't have to create a card for the holidays. You can create whatever project you'd like based on the sketch, but if you are looking for inspiration for Valentine's Day, hop on over to The Sketch File and take a peek at Kathy's Valentine's Day card. It's simply fabulous!

52CCT Previous Sketch Chellenge

This card was inspired by a sketch at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown. The current challenge is to "pick a previous sketch" and create a Christmas card. I choose a sketch from August 20, 2013.

I wanted to keep the card simple so I dry embossed red cardstock with a snowflake pattern, cut it into rectangles and adhered it to the cardbase, then added punched snowflakes and a sentiment.

Shaping Up

After a busy and tiring week, things are shaping up, in more ways than one! I've had a chance to catch up on some much needed sleep and to accomplish a few things on my "To Do" list, including creating this card for the "Shape-up for the New Year" challenge at Jingle Belles. I started by hand cutting two pine trees from a piece of green cardstock. I inked them with dark green ink to add a bit of dimension/texture and then layered them on a card base. I added snow beneath them by tearing some white cardstock and adding glitter glue over the top. I carefully fussy cut around the trees to "shape-up" the card. I also played around with adding small snowflakes and couldn't decide whether they should stay or go. I let my husband decide...so they stayed.
Here's the version without the snowflakes:

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.

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Wishing my 

friends, family and fellow crafters 

a very 

MERRY CHRISTMAS

 and a very 

HEALTHY, HAPPY NEW YEAR!