Christmas Cheer - (CTD421)

 Hello there!  I hope all of you in the US had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I haven't been blogging lately because we host Thanksgiving at our house every year and this year, between driving to pick up our daughter from college, preparing for Thanksgiving and trying to get a lot of Christmas activities done while our daughter was home, I just haven't had the time.  Can you believe that tomorrow is the first of December?  I'm hoping we can put up our Christmas tree this weekend.

There's a new color challenge over at the Color Throwdown and we hope you'll take the time to play along!

 For my card I used the Papertrey Ink stamp sets, Painted Poinsettias and Seasons Greetings to make a nontraditional Christmas card using the pretty colors from this week's CTD challenge. 

I've recently had to do an update on my Mac computer and now my photo editing is different, sometimes different is good but this is not.  I'm sure it's user error but for some reason I can't get accurate colors when editing my photos, so just imagine that what you see is lavender lace cardstock and ink along with royal velvet, hawaiian shores, simply chartreuse, handsome hunter and daffodil delight inks.  I started out by using some hawaiian shores ink to do some watercoloring onto a piece of watercolor paper.  Next I stamped my two poinsettias in lavender lace and royal velvet with the centers stamped in daffodil delight and iridescent Stickles added.  The leaves I stamped in simply chanteuse with stamping off for the first layer, then fully inked for the second and finally handsome hunter ink for the veins in the leaves.  I adhered my stamped pieces to my hawaiian shores watercolored piece popping up the smaller poinsettia, then added a black cardstock mat.  With all of the busyness with my flowers and watercoloring, I kept my card base and background simple by adding a piece of lavender lace cardstock with a strip of simply chartreuse toward the bottom.

For more inspiration, check out the design teams' blog links below OR you can go to the Color Throwdown blog for details on how to play along and you can see all the sample entries in one location.
Amy Rohl Amy Rysavy

Barbara Anders   

Broni Holcombe   

Jodi Collins 

Lisa Henke 

Lori Tecler

Lynn Put   

Vickie Zimmer 

Wanda Cullen

Marisa Ritzen - November Guest Designer

Thanks so much for stopping by! Don't forget, you can follow me on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest to see what I'm up to.

Where Creativity Meets C9

Hi there!  I'm up over on the Where Creativity Meets C9 blog today and I'm sharing a birthday set that I created.  I hope you'll take the time to pop over and check it out. And while you're there why not join in and play along in our current Sparkle and Shine challenge?

Time to Celebrate - 25 Days of Christmas Tags

Good morning!  Today I'm happy to be participating in the 25 Days of Christmas Tags event hosted by the lovely, Tracey McNeely.  I'm excited to be playing along with the Where Creativity Meets C9 team and that Concord & 9th is sponsoring our post today.

For my tag, I used the Concord & 9th stamp set, Wildflower which is one of my favorites, along with the set, Birdie Banners for my sentiment.  I started out by die cutting my tag using the Concord & 9th Bags & Tags dies, then stamped my sentiment, leaf images and mistletoe.  Next I stamped my flowers onto a piece of scrap white cardstock and colored them using Copic markers (R24,R27,R29).  After that I cut out my flowers and adhered them onto my tag, curling up the petals just a bit and used a Wink of Stella glitter pen in the centers of the flowers.  I attached my tag with a red glittered clothes pin and a cut of gold sequin thread to a parchment bag.

There are prizes to be won over at Tracey's blog so be sure to pop over for all of the details!  Thanks for stopping by!

Wildflower Stamp Set
from: Concord & 9th

Birdie Banners Stamp Set from: Concord & 9th


Bags and Tags Dies
from: Concord & 9th

Birthday Wishes - (CTD419)

Hello there!  It's time for this week's Color Throwdown Challenge!

 For my card I used the Papertrey Ink stamp set Spring Woods to create a birthday card.  I started out with a square die cut card base that I had cut out using the Don't Forget to Write scallop die, then stamped my sentiment from the Winter Woods set in black ink.  Once that was done I blended on some aqua mist ink for my background and added a strip of pure poppy designer paper along the bottom.  Then I die cut and stamped my bird and flowering branches and adhered them, popping up the bird with foam tape and added a few red sequins.

For more inspiration, check out the design teams' blog links below OR you can go to the Color Throwdown blog for details on how to play along and you can see all the sample entries in one location.
Amy Rohl Amy Rysavy

Barbara Anders   

Broni Holcombe   

Jodi Collins 

Lisa Henke 

Lori Tecler

Lynn Put   

Vickie Zimmer 

Wanda Cullen

Marisa Ritzen - November Guest Designer

Thanks so much for stopping by! Don't forget, you can follow me on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest to see what I'm up to.

Hello - Sparkle and Shine

Hello there!  We have a new challenge for this month up on the Where Creativity Meets C9 site and we hope you'll take the time to play along!  This month it's all about Sparkle and Shine!

 For my card I used the Concord & 9th stamp set Flourish and was aiming for a richer vintage look with some sparkle, so I used warmer colors.  I started out with a square of white cardstock and stamped the images from the Flourish set in chocolate chip, espresso, close to cocoa, kraft, pure poppy and scarlet jewel inks.  I blended some kraft ink over the whole piece and some espresso along the edges.  Then I used a Versa Mark ink pad over the whole stamped piece and dusted on some iridescent embossing powder and heat set with my heat tool.  Next I used a piece of kraft cardstock and using the Concord & 9th stamp set Sophisticated Script Uppercase & Sophisticated Script Lowercase I stamped my Hello sentiment.  After that I added a mat of scarlet jewel cardstock to my embossed piece and adhered it to my kraft panel, tied on some twine and adhered it using foam tape to a vanilla card base.

 In real life this card is actually very shimmery and at different angles picks up the iridescent sparkle.

Thank you kindly for your visit!  I hope you'll join us over at Where Creativity Meets C9  blog and don't forget to check us out on Instagram and Facebook! 
Flourish Stamp Set
from: Concord & 9th
Sophisticated Script Uppercase Stamp Set
from: Concord & 9th
Sophisticated Script Stamp Set
from: Concord & 9th 

So Thoughtful - (CTD418)

Hello!  I'm hostess for this week's Color Throwdown Challenge and I've chosen some fall/Thanksgiving colors that I hope all of you will like.  I pulled the colors from the photo below and went with orange, rust, teal and copper (either metallic copper or a color close to copper).

For my card I used the Altenew stamp set Bamboo Rose and did some heat embossing with copper embossing powder.  Once I stamped and embossed my roses onto watercolor paper, I used some pumpkin pie, terra-cotta tile, tropical teal and aqua mist inks to watercolor.  I used the Papertrey Ink stamp set, It's the Thought for my sentiment and heat embossed that in copper onto tropical teal cardstock.  

For more inspiration, check out the design teams' blog links below OR you can go to the Color Throwdown blog for details on how to play along and you can see all the sample entries in one location.
Amy Rohl Amy Rysavy

Barbara Anders   

Broni Holcombe   

Jodi Collins 

Lisa Henke 

Lori Tecler

Lynn Put   

Vickie Zimmer 

Wanda Cullen

Marisa Ritzen - November Guest Designer

Thanks so much for stopping by! Don't forget, you can follow me on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest to see what I'm up to.

Fairy Friends - (CTD417)

Hello everyone!  It's time for this week's Color Throwdown Challenge! Before I get to my card, I'd like to welcome this months guest designer, Marisa Ritzen.

For my card today, I used the Lawn Fawn stamp set Fairy Friends along with the Fairy Friends Lawn Cuts.  I started out by stamping my images onto white cardstock and coloring them with Copic markers then die cutting each image.  I used white cardstock for my card base then used some Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid Fall designer paper for my background which I stamped my sentiment on.  Next I die cut a white stitched square and blended on some tumbled glass distress ink and then built my scene using the Lawn Fawn Puffy Cloud Borders, Grassy Hillside Borders and not only my images from the Fairy Friends set but the snail and gift from the Gleeful Gardens set.  I adhered all my pieces down, popping up the top fairy with foam tape and then added some Wink of Stella glitter to the wings and flowers. For more inspiration, check out the design teams' blog links below OR you can go to the Color Throwdown blog for details on how to play along and you can see all the sample entries in one location.
Amy Rohl Amy Rysavy

Barbara Anders   

Broni Holcombe   

Jodi Collins 

Lisa Henke 

Lori Tecler

Lynn Put   

Vickie Zimmer 

Wanda Cullen

Marisa Ritzen - November Guest Designer

Thanks so much for stopping by! Don't forget, you can follow me on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest to see what I'm up to.