Tilda with Presents

Here is another Christmas card. I think I'm stuck on that holiday right now for some reason. I am submitting this card for SIX challenges. I think that's a personal record. Here they are.

Just Magnolia - Bev's sketch (shown below) using a Magnolia image. The image I chose is Tilda with Presents, which was a RAK from my friend Barbara. (thanks!) I colored Tilda with Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits. I added some Stickles to her wings, the holly in her hair and the ribbons on the presents. I also used a gold metallic pen on the ribbon of the middle present.

Stamp Something - Something with your favorite colors or favorite papers. This could either be easy or hard depending on how you look at it. I don't have any "favorite" colors - I love them all! For this one I chose one of my favorite paper lines - Basic Grey - and also one of my favorite BG collections of all time - Fruitcake.

Basic Grey - Embossing, plus at least one Basic Grey item. I embossed the green scalloped piece using my Cuttlebug Victoria embossing folder. I also heat embossed the sentiment. As mentioned above I used Basic Grey Fruitcake paper. The background paper is Tidings and the greenish paper behind the image is the flip side - Wintermint.

2RB Banana Split Sunday - Easy as 1-2-3 - One ribbon, two stamps, three dewdrops or gems. I think the 1 and 2 are pretty obvious. I don't own any dew drops so I used gems.

Pile it On - Punches plus combine with at least one other challenge. The only punch I used is the Martha Stewart Doily border punch -hope that's acceptable.

Cupcake Craft Challenge - Distressing. I sanded the embossing on the scalloped piece as well as the edges of the mat behind the image and the scallop behind the sentiment. I also inked the image and sentiment with Vintage Photo distress ink.

Thanks for stopping by! Maybe it won't take me a whole week to post my next card. :)

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

Final Baby Announcement

A few weeks ago, I posted some sample baby announcements that I made for some friends. Well, little Rory Beth arrived last Thursday morning - right on her due date! Here is the announcement that they chose. I made a few edits to the text and the photo is the real Rory with her real birth info. I think she's just beautiful!

I want to explain the poor quality of the actual photo. It's a low-res image that Evan sent via e-mail a few hours after she was born. And my printer doesn't like me right now for some reason. I managed to print the text fine, but the photo has all kinds of junk in it that shouldn't be there. The parents are going to supply their own, better quality photo when they send the announcements. I just wanted to put this one in there so they could see the final sample with their real baby in it. Plus I wanted to show her off because she's just so darn adorable!

I'm thinking about adding something below the text beneath the photo. I had to move it up pretty far so that I could print 3 announcements from one sheet of 12x12 paper. Any lower and it got cut off. So now I think the space below looks a little empty. I haven't decided yet though. I'm going to see what the parents think.

I'm also going to submit this for this week's Cute Card Thursday challenge. The theme this week is a color challenge - Strawberry Mint Julep - or pink and green. Can't get much more pink and green than this. I know it technically is not a card, but they do say other items are allowed. And even though it is not a card, I'm not sure it could get any cuter - at least as far as the main image goes. :)

Supplies
Stamp: Tiny feet (Stampabilities); all text is computer generated (Segoe Script and Segoe Print fonts)
Ink: Pink Pastel Chalk Ink (ColorBox)
Paper: Green cardstock (Paper Studio); pink cardstock (Bazzill); DP - 29th Street Market (My Mind's Eye)
Tools: Scalloped border punches (Fiskars); circle and scallop circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders); scalloped corner slot punch (Paper Studio)
Embellishments: Ribbon (Offray)
Finished size: 4" x 9"

Hip Hip Hooray! - Tasia's PCMB Challenge

You may remember my posting about little online community where I hang out with a great group of ladies. We talk about crafting and life in general. We are very small, but a lot of fun. Each week we have a challenge, and this week it was Tasia's turn to host it. Tasia is our newest member and I'm not quite sure how she found it, but I'm sure glad she did. She is just so fun and upbeat. I look forward to her posts every day.

Tasia's challenge was to use black and white with one other color, a sentiment and at least one non-pattern paper. For my other color, I chose lime green. I know red and yellow are often popular with black and white, and I wanted to do something a little different. The image is from Penny Black and was colored with Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits. The sentiment is Studio G. I did have to cheat and use a tiny bit of pink on the kitty. I didn't think he'd look right with green nose, ears and paw pads. Hopefully that's not enough to detract from the overall look of the card.

Whipper Snapper Halloween Card

Here's a card I made just for fun. I haven't done a lot of Halloween projects, but now that I have a five year old son, it has taken on a whole new meaning and I'm really enjoying the whole thing now.
So here is my first Halloween project for the season. The image is called Hitchin' a Ride and is by Whipper Snapper. I just love it. I colored it with Prismas/mineral spirits. I thought I would use this with this week's Mojo Monday sketch, but the image just wasn't the right size so I kind of created my own layout. I used two different halloween papers and embellished with black and orange ribbon and candy corn buttons. The sentiment stamp is by Inkadinkado.

Notealope Gift Card Holder

I've been wanting to try one of these "notealope" cards ever since my friend Susan posted one on her blog awhile back. I decided to make mine into a gift card holder. My plan was to post it for last week's House Mouse Monday Challenge, but I didn't get it finished in time.

Above is the notealope closed. The top flap tucks into the little diamond behind the image. For this part, I used the House Mouse Party Mouse image.

The photo above shows the notealope open. The image I used inside is House Mouse Mice Cream Celebration. The green piece is folded up from the bottom and stamped with the sentiment. A gift card can be tucked inside the folded piece.

Dawn Griffith (Dawn's Stampin' Studio) has an excellent video on how to make this card and envelope in one. It's surprisingly easy and is made from one 11" square sheet of designer paper.

Just Magnolia, Stampin' for the Weekend and Pile It On Challenges

I debated whether to even post this card that I made for three different challenges this week. I am just not liking it at all. But I haven't posted anything on here for over a week and I am not always the best judge of my work anyway, so here it is.

The three challenges this card is for are:
Just Magnolia - sketch by Mina (shown below); I chose Spring Tilda for the Magnolia image.

Stampin' for the Weekend - color challenge - teal, orange and pink; I wasn't too sure about this color combo, but believe it or not, I had paper that has those colors, so I decided to go outside my little box. I still am not sure it's one of my favorites, but I'm glad I tried it anyway.

Pile It On - Birthday plus combine with at least one other challenge