Unscripted Sketches, Dynamic Duos, Simon Says Stamps & Jingle Bells

I really wanted to use striped paper for the background but of course did not have any on hand.  I cut 1/8" strips of white card stock and glued them onto the red base to create my own striped paper.  Time consuming yes, but I love the end result!

Thus, one lone stripe down the middle of the sketch became a gaggle/a herd/a bunch/a flock.....

The layers are popped up with dimensionals, although it is hard to see in the photo. The pine sprigs are punched three times and layered to give them some stability (Martha Stewart punch).

The berries are SU red sparkle paper (two layers).  Did you know that, in Canada, Holly berries grow on spruce trees?  Not really, but I don't have a Holly leaf die or punch and my attempt at creating my own leaf was quite pathetic.  Artistic licence trumps rules in the crafting world.


The sentiment is a rub on that I bought at Joanne's about 100 years ago!


There were so many amazing entries last week! It is great to see the number of entries increasing.  Just click to link your creation!

I am also linking this card to:
Simon Says Stamps - Anything Goes
Dynamic Duos #31 (Light Green & Red)
Jingle Bells - December to Remember

Happy crafting!

CAS-ual Fridays CFC80, Simon Says Stamps, and Stampin' Royalty Challenge #152 Tags!

CFC80: Create Clean And Simple Gift Tags

Edited 2012-11-30
Just checked out the CAS-ual Fridays blog and discovered that this tag will work for their latest challenge CFC80 - Create Clean & Simple Gift Tags.  Yippeee! This week's generous sponsor is Bossy Joscie Flair. Click on the above link, check out the details and get your Christmas tags linked up!


2012-11-29
While visiting the ever so talented fellow Canadian Barb at Kinsale Creations,  I was pleased to discover several new challenges.

Take a minute to check out THE cutest, sweetest, mini gift card set (complete with a container) that Barb has whipped up!  And check this....she is linking her project to seven (yes, 7 !!!) different challenges.  Now that is one efficient craft move!

One of the new challenge blogs is Stampin' Royalty.  They are currently  hosting a tag challenge.  I just completed the prototype for my Christmas tags, so I decided to link it up to their challenge. My Christmas theme colors this year are red, white & black (you should see the awesome r/w/b wrapping paper I found).

The bow die (without the ribbon ends) and stitched mat are from Lil' Inker Designs.  I created my own striped paper, the tree stump is the bottom portion of the SU Tiny Tag punch, the tree shapes are hand cut, snowflake embossing folder.

One tag done, nine million to go!

I am also entering this tag into Simon Says Stamps Challenge Anything Goes

Happy crafting!

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Just a Post...

No card today.....

I just finished reading another enjoyable post by the talented, entertaining, and witty Darnell (djkardkreations).  She never fails to make me smile, giggle or laugh out loud.  I have learned not to sip my coffee while reading her posts for fear of either choking on the steaming hot brew or literally blowing it out of my nose during a fit of hysterical laughter!  Hot coffee through the nose really stings!

Darnell shared a picture of the beautiful card she just made (check out the ribbon & paper!) and also a pic of   her blooming Camellia. Click on the link above to check out her pics and her blog. I can guarantee you will become a follower!

 In stark contrast to the lovely blooming flowers in the south, is the rapidly plunging temps in the north.  I snapped this picture through our bedroom window at noon today.  The Grosbeaks have arrived and love to feast on the Mountain Ash berries as well as on the ornamental crab apples in our backyard.

All fluffed up & ready for the cold!

Unscripted Sketch #186

Another fun sketch by SarahKaye! I really admire her talent and creativity! I cannot imagine trying to come up with all these different sketch ideas!  

Right side up, this sketch begged for banners!  Upside down it begged for curvy!  I chose curvy!  The options really are endless.

SU Cajun Craze, Old Olive, More Mustard on a Very Vanilla Base. The sentiment is stamped in Old Olive and is from the Happiest Birthday Wishes set. The wavy line is cut from the Bigz XL Tasteful Trims (cut once full size, moved the paper down to desired width and cut again).

A quick card perfect for those hard to make guy cards!  Now scoot on over to the Unscripted Sketches blog, get inspired and get crafty. We would love to have you play along with us this week :)

Happy crafting!

CAS-ual FRIDAYS - CFC 79

CFC79:  Create a CAS winter project featuring blue.

Card number two for this challenge.  I knew that I wouldn't stop at just one entry!

This is absolutely my favorite stamp. The softly curving swirls create infinite movement within the image, shifting from one swirl to the next, to the next, to the next....

I used the same stamp on a black card base in an earlier post. Loved the stark contrast of the b/w combo.  The blue base, however, changes the tone of the card and seems to speak "winter".

I embossed the image using SU White embossing powder. The deep blue paper reflects in the embossed image, casting a silverish sheen on the image.  Hmmm... is silverish a real word?

The challenge will remain open for two weeks so that the good folks at CASual Fridays can take a bit of a break and spend time enjoying Thanksgiving with their families and friends.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my US neighbors!

CAS-ual Fridays: CFC79

CFC79: Create a CAS winter project featuring blue.

Can anyone resist Christmas/Winter cards in beautiful cool shades of blue? Not me!

Somewhere in my Internet travels, I came across a picture similar to my card.  I tried to find it, but of course, couldn't...so this is all done from memory! 

I drew the outline of the tree as well as the inside branches, stamped the Christmas balls with SU Tempting Turquoise and Pacific Point. I found an ancient rub-on that is perfect for this card. I was quite surprised that it actually stuck to the paper!

 I drew the stem of the tree directly on the card stock, popped the tree up with dimensionals, added some Glossy Accents to the dots and snowflake, and finished with a bit of bling (on the snowflake).

I wanted the blue panel to really pop, so I doubled up the dimensional tape! I tried to photograph the card with a shadow to help highlight the raised elements.

Remember, this is a two week challenge so that our neighbors to the south can spend time with friends and family during the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.

Happy crafting!

UNSCRIPTED SKETCHES #185 and CASology #19 and Dynamic Duos #28

This week's Unscripted Sketch is an optional Piggyback Challenge to use dry embossing.

  

Click to link up your creation:  Unscripted Sketches #185

Told you I was on a roll with my Tilth flower die!  Once again, I used SU Sahara Sand and Cherry Cobbler. 

The petals of the flower are dry embossed with a SU folder, the card edges are paper pierced, SU sentiment and a bit of bling on the flower.

... a close up of the dry embossing on the petals

CASology Week #19 Thanks

and

http://thedynamicduoschallenge.blogspot.ca/2012/11/dynamic-duos-28-soft-and-subtle.html

Happy Crafting

CASology #19 and Dynamic Duos #28

Not sure which photo is better ???

Welcome! Hope your day is going well. The temperature has warmed up here a bit....however, not enough to melt the snow!

 I am entering this card in the following two challenges:

Dynamic Duos #28 (Soft and Subtle)

and

Casology: Week #19 Thanks

The Dynamic Duos colors are Sahara Sand & Cherry Cobbler.  I have used the actual SU colors although by looking at the photo you would probably think otherwise.  I have come to the conclusion that Sahara Sands does not like to have its picture taken!!!

I repeatedly stamped the small bundle of posies from SU Sweet Summer in Cherry Cobbler, then die cut the flower from that paper to form the petals.  I die cut the flower again (twice) on black paper, glued down the first black outline piece, inlaid the floral patterned petals inside and then added one more layer of the black outline. Added some Stickles and a sentiment and the card was complete.

I was on a bit of a roll with the Tilth Flower die so I may post another later today :)

Runway Inspired Challenge #23 - Chanel Spring 2013

Thanks for choosing my card as one of the :

I was skipping through some of my favorite challenge blogs trying to decide which one to try next and came upon this cool picture at the Runway Inspired Challenge Blog.

LOVE the shoes and bag! Not a chance that I would be able to walk in those puppies but they are sweet!

The red & black angles on my card are based on the soles of the shoes, the black oval represent the handles of the purse and the 'quilted' background of the oval is from the fabric of the purse.

If you check the second photo closely you will notice that I wove the red and black angle pieces through the circle before I adhered it to the card.  I struggled with the photo - perhaps the depth and the red confused the poor sensor! I hope that the close-up shows the detail better.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy crafting!

CASology #18: Orange

...all was well at 11:28am....until I  DROPPED THE GREEN STAMP PAD ON THE FINISHED CARD!

Yep...a quick redo entirely (which included six separate layers of ink on the flower and then a quick photo shoot with NO editing, and here it is!  I think there was 3 minutes left when the photo finished uploading! Crazy, eh?

Stamps are SU Punched Posies, sentiment is Stampabilities

Just thought that I would share our lovely Manitoba weather with you.  The snow started mid afternoon yesterday and hasn't stopped. Love those Colorado lows!
 

Unscripted Sketch #184

No, you're not seeing double (again).  Same card, just with a bit of a re-do of details.  I wasn't sure if I liked the look of a white backdrop, so I snapped a few with black, couldn't decide which to use, so I posted both options :)

This week's sketch had my head spinning [in a really good way] with endless possibilities.  Check out what the rest of the DT have so lovingly prepared for your viewing pleasure!  Then, get craftin' and strut your stuff at the Unscripted Sketches blog.

The coffee cup is paper pieced and popped up on small dimensionals (hard to tell in photo)..

Now where did I get this sweet, sweet image you ask?  Why, at The Alleyway Stamps blog and IT WAS FREE!!!  They have some really cute digital images in their Freebies section and this is one of them! The ribbon is SU, paper is CTMH, Hello stamp is SU Tiny Teacup;

Hope you have some time to get crafty with us this week at Unscripted sketch.

Happy crafting!

OLW112 Song in My Heart

My inspiration was form the Christmas carol "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" - specifically the line Peace on Earth, good will to men (hmmm....what about the women?)

I embossed the image (Scroll Tree - Denami Designs) with White Pearl embossing powder and added  nice bright magenta rhinestones.  The Peace sentiment (look close and you will see it) is a Making Memories rub-on. A bit odd to use black for a Christmas card but this beautiful stamp seemed to need a dark color to keep with the contemporary feel of the image.

Ardyth from Toronto, Ontario, Canada is hosting this week's challenge.  She is one amazing lady who oozes talent and creativity and has a genuine & sincere love of this craft that has captivated many of us who visit her  blog regularly.  You can find all the challenge details by visiting Ardyth at  Maskerade.  I can guarantee that you will be back to visit often!

CASology: Week #17: SUGAR

Remember the Sweet Hearts candy?  Loaded with SUGAR and sweet, sweet messages of love!  You have until Sunday and noon to show your sweet stuff. Check it out here.

I had initially started with a black card base which really looked good with the pastel colors.  However, is black considered lots of "white space" ??? I wasn't sure so I switched to the white card base.

I carefully edged the hearts with a Sharpie and then mounted them on a single layer of craft-a-board (edged with a Sharpie as well).  The black crochet cotton seems to anchor the hearts.  I debated about a sentiment, but decided the hearts say it all.

Supplies:  SU Heart die, SU  & CTMH card stock, DMC crochet cotton

Happy crafting!

Unscripted Sketches #183

Hello strangers!  A very busy week = no time spent in my craft room. I was on a bit of a painting roll in the house this past week. Everything and anything that was white got painted (baseboards, doors, window casings, kitchen cupboards),  Honestly, I really do love painting!  Everything looks so tidy with a fresh coat of paint.

I even managed to squeeze in some volunteer time (yes, more painting) at the Habitat For Humanity house that is being built in town. It feels great knowing that a few hours of my time will help make a local family very happy :)

You "might" have noticed that I totally strayed from this week's sweet sketch!  The potential is endless and yet I struggled.  The only thing I like on this card is the stitched snowflakes and the sweet Pink Cat Studios digi stamp.  What?  You don't have red snowflakes where you live?  

The rest of the DT, however, have created incredible cards.  Skip on over to the blog, get inspired and click to link your creations!

By the way folks, if you are looking for some really cool new dies, like faux stitched mats, then you have to head over to Lil' Inker Designs and check out their selection of goodies.  Reasonable prices on merchandise, reasonable shipping rates and AMAZING customer service!

Happy crafting :)