Rudolph Red Card

Lots going on this evening here in NC!  Lots of different crafting and trying to watch the UNC Women's soccer team play in the National Semifinal against Stanford.  Go Lady HEELS!

Now, on with the crafts!  A quick little card for the sketch challenge at The Sweetest Thing.  I just fell in love with that little Rudolph stamp.  He's so adorable!  I stamped him then colored him with Copics, added some white liquid pearls to his tail and some crystal Stickles to make his nose glow.  And trying to come up with a ribbon or something beside him, I found this infrequently used red garland ribbon, which I thought would give the impression of reindeer reins and wrapped one end around Rudolph's neck. 

I also went out of my comfort zone a bit on this card.  I know that Karen Giron at Sweetest Thing stitches her cards and so I decided to add a little stitchery with mine.  I not only used the stitch emboss folder on the background paper, I added some "x's" on each corner.  Sewing, just not my forte so I dont' think about putting it on my cards much, but not bad this time.

 

 Supplies:

SPIES:

Stamps:  Rudolph (Imaginesce).  Greeting(Taylored Expressions).

Paper:  DP-Yuletide (K& Company).  Tan textured cardstock and red cardstock.

Ink:  Blazing Red.  Copics.

Extras:  Embroidery thread; red garland ribbon.

Back with more later if I'm not too distracted by the soccer game!

Star Santa

An easier card tonight after all that bling today!  I found an old sponge stamp in a drawer.  It's one of those from Michaels you use with your kids to make Christmas crafts.  I stamped it up, then bumped him up with triple pop dots so that the green star behind him would stand out a bit more.  Those neon green stars are bright aren't they?

I embossed the stars with an old snowflake emboss folder and bumped out the smaller one also.  This card is for Chocolate, Coffee and Cards Challenge and Daring Cardmakers.

 Daring Cardmakers Challenge - Twinkle Twinkle

SPIES:

Stamps:  Santa sponge stamp(stash).  Sentiment (REcollections).

Paper:  White and neon green cardstock.  DP Secret Santa (K & Company).

Ink:  Azure (Staz On); Frost White (Colorbox).

Extras:  Snowflake emboss folder (Cuttlebug). Nesting star dies (Sizzix); small star die (Sizzix Framelits); snowflake ribbon, buttons.

Not Too Shabby HOME

Good Afternoon!  So, three days ago I cleaned up my craft room, re-organized some of my things so that I could be more productive and less messy.  HA! I know there are many of you out there laughing along with me!  So, back to disaster area!  Of course, I have good reason for it to be messy---I've been a craftin' away all week and busy getting photos ready to FINALLY put on my Etsy shop.  YES!  It IS going to happen!  But, I digress.

I have to brag a little now ---- I looooooovvvvveeeeeee this card!  It's an ornament!  No, it's a card!  No, it's an easel card!  NO, it's all three!  I had too much fun making it.  I think it may be illegal to have had that much fun!  LOL!  I'd have to say I am on a craftin' high right now!  However, no one can ask me how long it took me to come up with this or get it together because I'm not confessing!  You can ask all you want.  And, I won't tell you how much sleep I lost with it either!  :)
 
I am afraid I don't have a picture of all the supplies I used with this card because frankly, they are ALL over my room at the moment and to gather them up for a photo would have just taken too long and I only have about 30 minutes to post this to the challenge at Scrapbooker's Paradise, which is one of the key challenges for this card!  If I miss it I may just have to have a VERY large glass of wine!

I haven't made an easel card in a while and since City Crafter has it as their current challenge, #137, I decided to refresh my creativity.  It wasn't as hard this time around, just time consuming with all the elements I added.

I also got inspired by the challenge at JUGS, Just Us Girls Challenge #164, this week with their photo of a house.  I have had these chipboard houses for I don't know how long and I can't remember for the life of me where I got them.  Maybe Taylored Expressions.  I'm thinking they were a freebie or a freebie from somewhere else.  I'm calling "senior moment" for now! Everything I used on this card has been sitting somewhere for a very long time.  That poor little Christmas light stamp has been collecting dust on my shelf for two years since I didn't make many cards last year.  So, this card is also right up the alley for Shopping Our Stash challenge.  Whew!  Oh, and if you are wondering, that's pink tulle in the chimney for smoke.

You can't see much of it but I distressed the edges of the paper on the house and added distress crackle paint.  I colored the Christmas lights with Copics and then added crystal Stickles to them to make them pop.  The wreath is a small scallop oval Spellbinders die with flower rhinestone gems around it.

Anyway, I decided to make a house easel card and right in the middle of doing so, wouldn't you know my brain sparked and got the great idea for a gingerbread house easel card (another time, I'm exhausted!).  Yet, since Drunken Stampers' challenge is "Not Too Shabby" and there you have it --- a shabby chic xmas house easel card/ornament!

City Crafter Challenge #137 - Easel Card

Shopping Our Stash #79-Odds and Ends

SPIES:
Stamps:  Christmas lights(Recollections).  Flower sprigs(Inkadinkadoo). Sentiment (Inkadinkadoo, I think).
Paper:  White cardstock.  Soft pink cardstock.  DP Follow Your Heart (My Mind's Eye).
Ink:  Teal green(Hampton Art).  London Fog and Angel Pink (Memento).  Flesh Pink, Rose Pink, Coral Sea Sketch markers(Copic).  Distress crackle paint in picket fence(Ranger Ink).
Extras:  Glossy Accents; crystal Stickles; tattered square die (Spellbinders); lace border punch; scallop border punch;  Emboss folder (lifestyle crafts); Chicken wire impression plate (Taylored Expressions); picket fence die (Taylored Expressions); white felt; pink tulle; green rhinestone flowers (for wreath); snowman button; Christmas tree sticker; melon raffia ribbon; snowflake ornament; pink brad;.  WHEW!


I think I will now go take a little nap before going for round 2 of crafting!

Ornamental JOY

Being a night owl tonight.  I spent the day cleaning up my craft room and reorganizing to get ready for major crafting over the next few weeks.  So, that makes me late in actually crafting, but I have  been able to post a couple cards already tonight without rushing too much!  This card is for challenges at Skipping Stones Design and Repeat Impressions Designers Choice Challenge.

I love this card now that it is finished!  And really love that big ornament die I just purchased at JoAnn's last week!

I decided to start posting a photo of some of the more particular supplies I use on each craft post.  Below is a detailed list of these supplies:

SPIES:
Stamps:  Nativity (Stampendous).
Paper:  White, light pink, dark pink cardstock.  Silver paper.  DP --Victoria Garden (Echo Park) and Homestead Companion (Sei).
Ink:  Peppermint dye ink. Flamingo liquid pearls(Ranger Inks).
Extras:  Ornament die (Spellbinders); Border die (Taylored Expressions); mini dot emboss folder (cuttlebug); Royalty emboss folder (Couture Creations); lime green baker's twine; plastic letters; white button; green brad.

Skipping Stones Design Challenge #155

DCC1121 - Holiday Card with Non-Traditional Colors

Wreath of Encouragement

An encouraging card for Shopping Our Stash tonight.

SPIES:
Stamps:  Leaf (Taylored Expressions).  Sentiments (Jellibean  Soup).
Paper:  Kraft and white cardstock.  DP:  Lost and Found (My Minds Eye).
Ink:  Teal Zeal (Memento). Deep orange (Hampton Art).
Extras:  Emboss folder (Lifestyle Crafts); Framelits Flower Die(Sizzix); Leaf die (Taylored Expressions); Maroon ribbon.  Fabric brad.

Grow Where U R Planted!

Happy Black Friday!  Hope all in the U.S. had a wonderful Thanksgiving, I know my family and I did!  The first time in two years both of my boys were home again.  We've had a great week but now it begins to end, with our oldest and his fiance flying back to Oklahoma tomorrow.   Thought I'd share a couple family photos we took earlier in the week when my brother was here with us.  Seems fitting with this post.

My family were real troopers and humoring me by letting me set up these photos.  I'm now thinking I should have had everyone rake up the leaves when we were done.  Our yard is nothing but a blanket of leaves and of course, the leaf sucker truck came by today!

So now onto my card, a fall themed card for this week's Drunken Stampers challenge.  Oh, and btw, check out my previous post --- I was Life of the Party for last week's Drunken Stamper's challenge!

I've had some fabric pieces that I bought at a local flea market that I have been wanting to use.  So, I had the idea to make some fabric trees.  I used my Sizzix ovals die to make the tree tops, using the smaller of the three dies.  I made the trunks out of brown cardstock, made a v-cut for branches on one end and then ran all of them through my paper crimper for more texture.

I inked the white card front with Distress ink, using Mustard Seed and Tea Dye colors to get a kind of vintage look to the background and the background of the sentiment.  I used more fabric to make the ribbon background for the sentiment.  Final touches were the purple brads and the dragonfly brad.

SPIES:
Stamps:  Sentiment - TPC Studio.
Paper: White and brown cardstock.  Fabric.
Ink:  Timber Brown (Staz On).  Mustard Seed & Tea Dye distress ink (Ranger Ink).
Extras: Purple brads.  Dragonfly brad.  Paper crimper.  Oval die (Sizzix).

Life of the Party!

I was "Life of the Party" this week at Drunken Stampers!  WooHoo!

50 Shades of Santa

Grungy Thanks

Happy Monday!  Never been happier for a Monday for it means our house is full of family and the holidays are upon us!  So very thankful that my son and his fiance had a safe flight here yesterday.  Now I can relax a bit more and enjoy.

I have been needing to make some thank you cards and this one is for SOS (Shop Our Stash) and Repeat Impressions Designer Choice Challenge. I chose a pastel type color pallete to go along with the teal color that PKD Foundation has adopted.   I love making my own backgrounds with spray inks and paint and so I did some more on water color paper.  I was going for a grungy feel this time.  After all the painting, I distressed the edges.  I stamped the sentiment  in Teal Zeal.  I used a Spellbinders die border on the one edge and added ribbons and buttons in various teals and pale yellows.  The flowers are Prima flowers with a felt white flower and pale yellow button.

SPIES:
Stamps:  Thanks.
Paper:  Watercolor paper and white cardstock.
Ink:  Teal Zeal (Memento); Scotch Blue, Robins Egg, Blue Skies, Sea Glass Glimmer Mist (homemade and Tattered Angels.
Extras:  Ribbon, button, flowers, Spellbinders die cut, rope.

50 Shades of Santa

My first time playing with the Drunken Stampers!  Funny, seems like I should have opened a bottle of wine when I started.  But, then again, who knows what the card would have looked like at the end!  hahahaha  That really didn't put me in a good light, yet I do enjoy a good Merlot!  Who knows, maybe it would actually help me get more organized so I'm not always posting at the last minute for a challenge.  <sigh> 

Too many challenges, too little time!  Today the Hubs and I went grocery shopping for the Thanksgiving week, leaving the store with two carts of food.  Two hungry college boys coming home to be fed!  We rushed home just in time for me to drive to Chapel Hill to take Ben to dinner and then attend Round 2 of the NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament.  UNC women trampled (sometimes literally) the women from Illinois 9-2.  In all fairness, one of those 9 goals was actually made for us by one of the Illinois players!  It happens.  Course it was freezing out and of course, Ben wore NO jacket, NO gloves, and NO hat!  What's a mother to do?  Warned him about getting sick next week on his break and then made him promise to take a hot shower when he was back at the dorm. 

So back to the card ---

I really like it now that it is done.  It's a shame I didn't have time to do more to post for the challenge, but I'm thinking I will still make some more like this. 

SPIES:
Stamp:  Santa (Stampers Anonymous).
Paper: White and black cardstock.  DP-Me&My Big Ideas Black and White Flock.
Ink:  Versamark and black emboss powder.
Extras:  Black ribbon, snowflake, silver cap button.

Thankful Napkin Holder

One week til Thanksgiving in the U.S.  Two, Three and Four days from now we will have different members of our family coming to North Carolina to celebrate with us!  One in particular, our oldest, Patrick, who hasn't been home in over 2 years and we are so excited to have him AND his fiance, Helen, fly in to spend the entire week with us!  YEA!  No, I'm not excited at all!  :) Along with them, my youngest brother will be arriving from Myrtle Beach on Saturday with his two dogs in tow, and then Monday night after a nice celebratory dinner at Top of the Hill in Chapel Hill, our youngest son, Ben, will come home with us.  So by Monday night our house will be bustling and busting with people and dogs --- four dogs to be exact!

So, the Hubs and I have been very busy for the past couple weeks trying to get the house in order, menus and grocery supplies bought and of course, I've had to do my crafting.   I'm finally getting ever so much closer to finally stocking my Etsy shop.  It's only been five months, one of those out of town and then two of those recovering from surgery.
Yet, I digress from the task at hand --- my first ever napkin holder tag.  I've made one, have five more to go. 

Just Us Girls had this cute ribbon wreath tutorial with their technique challenge this week and I fell in love with it!  So, all the tags will have these ribbon wreaths.

And, as I was putting it all together, I realized one of the Moxie Fab challenges includes burlap.  Double challenge!

Moxie Fab Challenge - Canvas, Cork and Burlap

SPIES:
Stamps:  Sentiment (Inkadinkadoo).
Paper:  Tag.
Ink:  Versamark and maroon emboss powder; Alcohol ink (Adirondack): Butterscotch, Lettuce, Ginger, Latte, Currant.  Glimmer Mist:  Pearl, bronze.  Distress Ink:  Mustard Seed, Barndoor Red, Tea Dye.
Extras:   Burlap, orange ribbon; leaves (Prima); wheat stalk; berries, button, rope, black elastic band (attached to back of tag to slip napkin through).

I'm so thankful!