Be Merry - Santa in Blue and Brown

I decided that after a couple hundred years or so, Santa was bored with his red suit and wanted to update his look - so here is is with a blue suit. It may be non-traditional, but I really like it. I might just have to do more blue-suited Santas.

I am submitting this card for four (count them four) challenges this week. The info for each challenge is as follows:

Just Magnolia - Embossing - I used the Cuttlebug Victorian embossing folder for the background behind Santa and I heat embossed the sentiment.

Stamp Something - Something with Your Favorite Embellishment - That was a tough one. I'm not sure I have "one" favorite embellishment. I'm going to say it's ribbon and trim because I use that on almost every card I make. But I like punches and die cuts and pearls a lot too. :)

Sketch Saturday - Sketch shown below. I took a few liberties (fewer "circles" (snowflakes) and a circular sentiment), but hopefully it's still close enough to the original to count.

Cupcake Craft Challenge - Swirls and Pearls - I used my Quikutz Swirls die, plus a swirl in the sentiment and sort of swirls in the background paper and embossed background piece. I used pearls in the center of the die cut snowflakes, the sentiment snowflake and on the folded down corner.

Supplies
Stamps: Santa (Magnolia); Be Merry (Imaginisce)
Ink: Vintage Sepia (VersaFine); Blue pigment ink (ColorBox); clear embossing powder
Paper: Cream cardstock (Hobby Lobby); brown cardstock (scraps); DP - Fruitcake (Basic Grey)
Tools: Circle and scalloped circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders); Victorian embossing folder (Cuttlebug); Swirls die (Quikutz); snowflake die (Cuttlebug)
Embellishments: cream trim (Wright's); pearls (Paper Studio)
Techniques: Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits; heat embossing
Finished card size: 6" square

Just Magnolia and Sketch Saturday Challenges

Time for one more quick post before the weekend comes to an end. This card is for this week's Just Magnolia Challenge using the Sketch Saturday Challenge sketch.


The theme for Just Magnolia is Friendship and I chose Tilda with Bee as the image. I colored her with Prismacolor pencils/mineral spirits and popped her on top the oval for dimension. I replaced the bee's antennae with little wires and added Stickles to his wings.

The Sketch Saturday sketch is shown above and I think I followed it pretty much to the letter. I used a bit of a different color scheme for me. All the papers are from Deja Views Fresh Print Blue Raspberry Paper and Punch Out Tablet, which I got free at Archiver's last weekend. Gotta love a freebie :). The tag where I stamped the sentiment and the Delight tag in the top flower are also from the tablet. It was kind of cool to be able to easily coordinate everything.

I finished off the card with some Prima flowers and gem brads. The finished card size is 6" square.

Happy Mother's Day - Spoil Yourself Silly!!

Today is Mother's Day here in the U.S., and I want to wish a happy one to all my blog buddies! I hope everyone has a fabulous day! I'm just enjoying my day by relaxing and doing a little crafting. My DH is making one of my favorites for dinner - BBQ! Yum - can't wait!

I thought this card was an appropriate wish for Mother's Day. I'm also taking care of three of my favorite weekly challenges with this one - Penny Black Saturday Challenge, Sketch Saturday Challenge, and Simon Says Stamp Challenge.

This week's Penny Black challenge was to use black, white and one other color. This is one of my favorite color combinations, and I love it with pink, red, yellow, green and on and on. For this one I chose blue. I thought it was going to be a pretty easy challenge until I tried to figure out what image I wanted to use. It was very difficult to use only shades of black or blue on any of the images I have. For almost all of them, I needed at least one other color besides the three I was supposed to use. I finally got as close as I could with this one by coloring the cat and mouse in shades of gray and using the blue for the tub and bowl. I still had to use a tiny bit of pink for the ears and noses, but not as much as I would have had to use of other colors on the other images I have. I do have some images that I could have left uncolored, but nothing was really coming together for me on those, so this one will have to do.

The image above is this week's Sketch Saturday sketch. I pretty much followed it to the letter this time. For the circular elements, I created flowers using my punches and the different papers from the card.

For the centers of the flowers I used buttons, which leads me to the third of my challenges - Simon Says Stamp. This challenge was a 3-2-1 recipe, which called for 3 buttons, 2 papers and 1 ribbon. I'm never quite sure if the 2 papers is supposed to include the cardstock or it means 2 different patterns of designer paper. I interpreted it as the latter and used the black and white leafy swirl paper and black with white polka dots. I also used white, blue and black cardstock, so if I was only supposed to use two total, I blew it. :) Hopefully they'll still like my card.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope all the moms out there have a wonderful and joy-filled day!!

Supplies

Stamps: Image (It's Your Day) and sentiment (Penny Black)

Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine)

Paper: White cardstock (Georgia Pacific); black cardstock (scraps); blue cardstock (DCWV); DP (Me and My Big Ideas)

Embellishments: ribbon (Hobby Lobby); buttons (from my stash); flower punches (EK Success); square and long rectangle Nestabilities (Spellbinders); scallop border punch (Fiskars)

Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits

Finished Card Size: 5 1/2" square

A Little Elfin Magic

Hi all! It was a busy, busy week. Busy at work. Busy at home. Celebrated my 45th birthday on Thursday with family and friends. On Friday we went out of town for a quick overnight get away and got back really, really late last night. Today, I am just playing in my craft room. I came up with this card for this week's Just Magnolia challenge, which is pink and green. I also realized after I finished the card, that it fits this week's Sketch Saturday challenge, so I'm going to post it for that one too.
For this card, I chose an Alva image. I love the little Magnolia elves, Alva and Alf. I hope that they will come up with some additional designs for them, as their aren't very many yet. I don't actually own this stamp. My friend Susan gave it to me, along with the mushroom for Alva to sit on. I had the image colored earlier in the week and had planned to use it for a different card, but that didn't work out. So I just lucked out that the Just Magnolia challenge was to use pink and green, and I was that much farther ahead with it.

Above is this week's Sketch Saturday sketch. I really wasn't trying to follow this sketch. I was actually going for a different layout, which I ended up rotating to fit the image better. When I looked at the Sketch Saturday sketch, I realized that my card fit the sketch - pretty closely anyway.

I made my own flowers with punches and scraps of the DP I used on the card. I used my Spellbinders butterfly die to make the butterfly. I added some little gems to the centers of the flowers and the butterfly's body. I also ran the big pink flower through my Big Kick with the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder to give it a little more interest.

Thanks for stopping by. If you like the Magnolia stamps at all I highly recommend checking out the Just Magnolia challenge blog. Even if you don't do the challenges, the cards that are posted by the DT and those participating in the challenge are amazing.

Supplies

Stamps: Sitting Alva, Big Mushroom (Magnolia)

Paper: Green cardstock (unknown); Pink cardstock (DCWV); DP - Two Scoops (Basic Grey)

Embellishments: Classic and Scalloped Oval Nestabilities (Spellbinders); flower punches (EK Success); Butterfly die (Spellbinders); Scalloped border punch (Fiskars); ribbon (Target); Gems (Making Memories); Swiss Dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug)

Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with turpenoid

Finished Card Size: 5" x 7"

Life is Soooo Sweet!

I made this card for this week's House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge - Something Sweet. I also knocked out another challenge by using the sketch from this week's Sketch Saturday challenge.
I haven't participated in the last couple of House Mouse and Friends challenges. The mousie mojo just wasn't there for some reason. But as soon as I saw the theme for this week's challenge I knew I had to use my new Gruffies "Beary Full of Truffles" stamp. I don't think there's any such thing as an ugly Gruffie, but this is one of my two very favorite images. My other is the "All Warm and Furry" where he's drinking the tea. Too cute for words!

The Sketch Saturday sketch for this week is posted below. For once, I followed the sketch pretty much just like it was presented. The image fit it just right.

Thanks for checking out my card. I'd love it if you'd leave a comment to let me know you were here. This may be the last card I post this week. My parents are coming for Easter weekend and I may not get to the craft room until they leave. You never know though - I may have one of those nights where I have trouble sleeping and find a challenge I can't resist. :)

Supplies and Info

Stamps: Gruffies - Beary Full of Truffles (House Mouse Designs - Stampabilities); How Sweet (Studio G)

Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)

Paper: All papers are scraps from my stash

Embellishments: Brads (Making Memories); flower (unknown); ribbon (unknown); scalloped border punch; circle punches

Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with turpenoid

Card Size: 6x6 square

Cute Card Thursday, Penny Black and Sketch Saturday Challenges

My card fits all three of these challenges today. I tried for four, but the fourth was a color challenge, and the colors weren't coming together with what I wanted to do.

The theme for Cute Card Thursday this week is Family Affair, and the object was to make any card for any family member. I made this card for my aunt. She is going through a very hard time right now and needs to know that there a lot of people who care. We have always been very close - sometimes more like sisters than aunt and niece. She loves my cards, so I think this will help lift her spirits.

The theme for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge is Spring. I thought this cute little Hedgie with the flower and bees was a perfect spring image. I carried the flower theme through with the DP and the flowers along the bottom. I made those with a scalloped circle, plain circle and flower punch and then put a brad in the center. I'm really needing some spring today. We are having a "winter" storm. We have had sleet and ice all day and now it's snowing. Yuck!

Below is the Sketch Saturday Challenge sketch for this week. I love all the circles and it worked really well for the card themes and the image I was working on. I also tried another different color combination that what I usually use. I think I have made maybe a couple of cards with yellow and orange. I really like this paper and am very happy with how it turned out. I also used some white so the colors weren't too overwhelming.

If you visit my blog on a regular basis you might notice that I photographed my card this time. I still don't have my light box made yet, but decided to go ahead and photograph it anyway just to see how it turned out. I think better lighting will help, but it's not bad. I do like that the colors look more true and things don't look all out of whack from being squished by the scanner.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today. Come back and visit again soon!

Supplies

Stamps: Buzz in the Air! (Penny Black); sentiment (Hero Arts)

Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine); orange and yellow Souffle Pens (Sakura)

Paper: white cardstock (Bazzill); orange cardstock (Club Scrap); yellow cardstock (scraps); DP - Nana's Kitchen (DCWV)

Embellishments: classic circle and scallop circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders); circle punches (Creative Memories); scallop circle punches (Paper Studio); flower punch (EK Success); scallop border punch (Fiskars); lace scallop border punch (Martha Stewart); ribbon; brads

Technique: Prismacolor Pencils blended with turpenoid

Two Saturday Challenges - Penny Black and Sketch Saturday

There are certain challenges that I try to do every week - House Mouse, Mojo Monday, Cute Card Thursday. This week, I got all my regular challenges done a little earlier than usual and found myself with no cards to make. I'm one of those people that needs a reason to make a card - an occasion, a swap, a challenge - something. I can't seem to just sit down and make a card for the heck of it. So I decided to try the Penny Black Saturday Challenge, using this week's Sketch Saturday sketch to create my card. This is my first time to do these two challenges.

The challenge for Penny Black is called "3, 2, 1". These challenges require you to use three of one item, two of another, and one of a third on your card. In this case, it was three brads, two ribbons and one flower. One of the ribbons is tied around the rectangular piece on the left side of the card. The second one is tied through the button in the center of the flower. The three brads are pretty obvious. :)

The sketch challenge has the sentiment on the lower right side of the card, but I decided to place my flower there instead and stamped the sentiment on the image.

This card started out as yellow and green, but I wasn't feelin' it. I switched it to red and yellow - one of my favorites, which you can probably tell from some of my other cards. I did keep some green accents in there to pick up the green in the paper. The DP I used is from one of my very old DCWV paper stacks. I have so much paper! I'm trying to find uses for some of my older paper. Hopefully, my cards won't start looking "dated."

I enjoyed making this card. It's cute and spring-y. Thanks for stopping by to take a look at it.

Supplies

Stamps: Peek-a-Boo Hedgehogs (Penny Black); Friends (Studio G)

Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine)

Paper: All cardstock and DP (DCWV)

Embellishments: Ribbon (scraps); brads (Making Memories); flower (Making Memories); button

Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with turpenoid