Snowmen Tags

Hello!  I'm super happy to share today's project with you.  Each year I try to make a special tag or two for my children's gifts.  Though simple in design, I have the most fun trying to put a little personal touch on each one. 

I started by cutting the snowmen out with Pretty Pink Posh's Snowman Shaker Die, choosing colors that I knew my kiddos would enjoy.  All the papers came from Concord and 9th and as luck would have it, Pretty Pink Posh's  Luau Jewels Mix had colors that coordinate quite well with each one. 

I used clover and sea glass cardstock for the green snowman.  

I knew my son wouldn't appreciate a lot of embellishing, so I added a little twine to the hat and tied a simple knot in his scarf.  

For my blue snowman I used oceanside and aqua sky cardstock.  

This child would most definitely appreciate embellishing, so I pulled out a small strand of sequins that I have held on to for years and used that for her scarf and for the trim on the hat.  Then, I made a layered flower using a white flower and blue sequin from the 6mm Springtime Mix Sequins and another jewel.  

 Finally, for my pink snowman I used honeysuckle and ballet slipper cardstock.  

I embellished the hat with another layered flower using the 6mm Springtime Mix Sequins, but my favorite part on this snowman is the scarf.  I wanted to make each snowman unique, so for this one I braided three strands of twine loosely together hoping to make it resemble a knit scarf.  

And now one last shot of them all together...

These are the kind of projects that make me the happiest - creating something special and taylored to the ones I love best. I'm glad you stopped by today.  I hope you have a wonderful, creative week!

Christmas Candle

Good morning!  This card has been a long time coming...as in I made it more than two months ago.  First, a little backstory.  One of the things that I love about the area we live in is that people still decorate with wreaths on all their windows and candles in the windowsills.  It is something I've always loved, so I smiled immediately when I saw Pretty Pink Posh's Winter Candle Die and Christmas Candles Stamp Set.  I paper pieced the Winter Candle Die right away, made my card, and attempted to photograph it...three times.  I finally got decent enough photos, edited them....and then accidentally deleted everything.  I was so frustrated I put the card away, and didn't pull it out again until this weekend.  So here we are!  

The card itself came together pretty quickly.  After making the candle, I mounted it on a banner and stitched across the top.  I used the Layered Holly Stencils to create my background, and finished it off with a sentiment from Christmas Candles Stamp Set.

Thanks so much for visiting today and listening to me ramble.  Have a blessed Sunday! 

Christmas Joy

Happy Saturday, Friends!  We are pulling out the Christmas decorations today, and this card expresses exactly how I feel.  My heart is full of Christmas joy!  I think Thanksgiving is the most perfect holiday to precede Christmas.  There could not be a better transition into the Christmas season than having a heart full of gratitude. 

Last year I made a couple Christmas cards in red, white, and silver (you can see them here), so I decided it would be fun to make a new card in the same colors this year.  I pulled out some old and new Pretty Pink Posh products and got to work.  I started with Lattice Background Die.  After die cutting it, I cut a large circle out of the middle, so I could make my card a shaker.  I filled the shaker with Sweetheart Rhinestones, removing the pink ones to save for a later project.  These rhinestones make the best sound when you shake them!

I wanted to pull in some of the elements from last year's cards, so I used poinsettias and pine sprigs, but this time I used Poinsettia Corners Stamp Set and Dies.  I embossed it in white on vellum and backed it with white cardstock.  I used the Pine Sprigs Dies and Fall Foliage Dies to create a little extra foliage, and then adhered the arrangement to my card.  I think Christmas makes me want to decorate even my cards more, so I added Cherry Red Pearls and Metallic Silver Pearls to the centers of my poinsettias.  

I finished off my card by silver embossing two sentiments from the Holiday Scripts Stamp Set and cutting them out with the coordinating dies.  It never ceases to amaze me how easily and perfectly these dies align with the scripty words.  Well, that's all for me today.  I better head back to the Christmas decorating and there's the last slice of a lemon meringue pie calling my name. :)  Have a lovely weekend, friends!

Playing Cards with Michele!

Good morning!  Today is such a fun day.  My dear friend Michele has invited me to play cards with her. Isn’t that the best idea?  Michele has got to be the friendliest kid on the block.  I sure hope you’ve had the chance to connect with her.  Her whit, laugh, sincerity, and hugs are second to none.   I’ve had the absolute pleasure of meeting her in person, so I thought of her happy smile and heard her voice in my mind while I was making my card.  I couldn’t stop smiling!

We are both creating cards with the theme “Giving Thanks + Leaves”.  I was delighted when she told me the theme because leaves are my favorite.  I combined older, retired, and brand spankin’ new products on my card. I started with Concord & 9th’s Thankful Leaves die and die cut it 3 times being careful to not pop out any of the pieces.  I pulled out some Pigment Craft Co inks (SO excited about these!) and blended on Seagrass, Glow, and Monstera inks using a very light hand.  As a reference for colors, the leaves in the photos not on my card are those same colors with a heavier hand blending.    One of my favorite parts about the leaves that fall in autumn are the speckles and splotches of color on them, so I used the same inks + Quince ink to add speckles onto my leaves.

Next I pulled out Pigment's Festive Fonts stamp set and dies and stamped "thanks" in their Quince, Fig, Seagrass, and Monstera inks.  I cannot tell you how much I love these colors and stamps! They are technically my Christmas present from my parents and my husband, but both gave me permission to use them early.  I just couldn't wait!  But no worries, I'll wrap them and put them under the tree when the big day arrives.  

At this point I felt like the card needed just a little something, but I have very few slimline products.  I pulled out an old (but still loved) Lil' Inker Designs Pieced Chevron die and partially die cut it, then I scooted it over and die cut again, which allowed me to cover the whole 3.5x8.5" size I needed.  And finally I splattered on some fig ink toward the edges of my card.  Such a small step, but honestly the card isn't complete without it.  

Well, that's all for me folks!  I hope you like it as much as I do!  Now make sure to head over to Michele’s blog to see her card.  It’s a surprise for me, too, and I can’t wait to see what she made.  I’m sure it will knock your socks off! :) 

Waffle Flower - Unexpected Holiday Colors Challenge

Hello!  I was delighted when my dear friend Jeanne Jachna invited me to be her guest for the Waffle Flower November Challenge.  The theme for November is "The Most Wonderful Time of The Year"  and our special twist this week is holiday cards in unexpected colors.

Hopefully by now you know that creating color combos is one of my favorite things to do, so I challenged myself to come up with not only unexpected colors for Christmas, but also a color combination that I had never used before. I had a few ideas in mind but settled on chocolate brown, teal, and warm orange-ish yellow. (How's that for a color description?  Ha!)  

I made a quick and easy card that could easily be mass produced.   By using a classic Christmas pine, you could change up the colors to pretty much any combination you could dream up and still maintain a Christmas feel.  For my card I blended all three trees using Waffle Flower's awesome Pine Trees Stencils, choosing one color of ink for each pine. (Just FYI, this stencil gives you so much bang for your buck!  It has the outline of three pines, inserts of each tree that allow you to add details or to blend the background instead of the pine silhouette, and it also includes snow drift stencils.  I'm a huge fan!)

Okay, back to the card.  After blending the pines, I flicked on gold and white paint for a little added interest.  While that was drying, I die cut and heat embossed a sentiment from Waffle Flower's Oversized Joy Word Die and Stamp Set.  I added a second layer of white under the "joy" die cut to help it stand out a bit more and popped up the sentiment for a little dimension on this otherwise one-layer card.  

And there you have it!  What do you think?  I hope you'll try experimenting with colors this week.  I get a ridiculous amount of joy doing so.  It always keeps things interesting, right?  You can head over to the Waffle Flower Blog to see what the other designers came up with for the challenge and join the fun.  Have a wonderful weekend friends!