Merry Christmas!!! (And a challenge as well.)

Hello, good morning, and above all,

 Merry Christmas!!!

  
There is much sadness of late (Newtown, CT being at the forefront), and my heart goes out to the victims, who are in my thoughts and prayers daily; however, there is still something about which to be joyful, and that is we are celebrating the birth of Christ, which is the whole reason for this season.   Joy to the World, the Lord is come!

This week over at Tuesday Alchemy we have Challenge #46 - Anything Goes.  That's right, ANYTHING.  There are some fabulous prizes and much inspiration, so get thee over there and play along!  The prizes are:

$10 store voucher



and

3 digital images




Today's card was made with  Christmas Candles 3 from Stitchy Bear.  It's a great line stamp, perfect for coloring.

 

I used Copics with which to color the image, then die cut it into a circle and layered it onto a slightly larger circle.  The papers I used are mostly from SU with the addition of musical paper from The Paper Studio Old World Winter stack.  I LOVE that paper.  All papers were inked on the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink, and the music paper was distressed around the edges.

I added gold glitter glue to the candle flames and red glitter glue to the holly berries.  I have very few Copics at this time and have to make do with them, hence the slightly startling visual surprise of purple ribbon on a Christmas card, but I have a feeling Santa is going to rectify that little problem.  Future images will be colored with more depth and better color selection.  By hook or by crook.

I painted the poinsettias with Creative Inspirations paints, first with Rustic Red for the veins and then with Ivory over that.  These are die cut using the SB Layered Poinsettias die.  Yellow Flower Soft completes the flower.

The greeting is computer generated and printed on vellum as I didn't want a bright white strip to detract from the centerpiece.  Red stickles decorate either side to hide the glue dots underneath.  That's the thing with vellum - adhering it without adhesive "show through" can be a little tricky, but I'm always looking for an excuse to add more sparkle, so...win/win.  I've also added a bit of sparkly burlap ribbon under the flower and centerpiece.  I discovered it hidden in a closet the other day and I think it adds the perfect touch of a little rough, yet glittery, see-through texture.  A couple of vintage buttons finish the look.

So that is my card for this week's challenge.  I hope you enjoyed it, and I look forward to seeing YOUR creation(s) at Tuesday Alchemy this week!

Happy crafting!!

Supplies:

Stamp:   Christmas Candles 3 from Stitchy Bear Digital Stamps
Ink: printer, TH Distress Ink Vintage Photo
Paper: SU Garden Green, Cherry Cobbler, Regals dsp stack, The Paper Studio Old World Winter, vellum
Accessories: SB Layered Poinsettia die, Dienamics Circles Stax 1 and 2, glitter glue, CI paints, Flower Soft, burlap ribbon, buttons, Copics

Challenges Entered:

There She Goes #187 - Last Minute Christmas 
Tammy's Scrappin' Corner #42 - Come Play Bingo (blue, image, flowers)
Anything Goes #82 - Traditional Colors
Simon Says...Merry Christmas (anything Christmassy)
Delightful Challenges - Anything Goes
Divas By Design #66 - Anything Goes 
Really Reasonable Ribbon #62 - Anything Goes plus ribbon (mine is the burlap ribbon)
3 Girl Jam Challenge #8 - Christmas Inspiration
Frosted Designs - 3rd Day of Christmas (3 mists/ink/paints - Copics, CI paints, distress ink around edges )
CI Paints - Inspired by Merry Christmas
Pile It On #49 - Pile On the Embellishments
Eclectic Ellapu - Anything Goes
Digi Darla's #43 - Peace On Earth w/ribbon
The Pink Elephant #180 - Anything Goes

Guest Designer for Digital Delights by Louby Loo

Hello! 

What an exciting day this is!  I've been invited to be a Guest Designer over at Digital Delights by Louby Loo, and I am thrilled half to death about it!  They really have some of the most delightful digital stamps, not to mention wonderful tutorials and so much paper crafting inspiration - it's one-stop shopping for stamps and ideas, and I would recommend you go check them out if you don't already know them - you will love their website!

The stamp that I chose for today's card is Winter Bird, with Warm Winter Wishes as the sentiment.

Note: post is picture heavy today.

This is only the second easel card with drawer I've made, and I learned from Christine Garner's tutorial over at Digital Delights.  Her instructions are excellent, practically guaranteeing great results!

I get the biggest kick out of opening and closing the drawer which works perfectly.

I colored the image with Copics, then die cut it and the background layers with various sizes of circle dies.  Then I layered the three circles onto a glittered SB Snowflake pendant die cut.

For added dimension, I applied The Rubber Cafe Puffies, a fun puffing medium that's similar to puff paint, but you don't have to let it dry before puffing it with a heat tool - you can do it immediately after applying.  In this case, I sprinkled the Puffies with SU Dazzling Diamonds before applying heat so that the trim on the hat would sparkle.

I added two seam binding bows on the top and bottom portions of the card, and from the top bow I hung a little charm that I made.

There's the second bow with the addition of a couple of more tiny jingle bells tied on with some silver metallic craft thread.  The sentiment was diecut with SB Grommet Tags and layered onto two layers of SU Framelits - Labels Collection.  A couple of blue, glittery brads finished things off.

I would highly recommend that you try one of these cute easel drawer cards.  They're very versatile and useful for presenting all sorts of tiny treasures.  And they're just plain fun to make!  

Thank you for joining me today and here's wishing you a wonderful rest of the holiday week!

Happy crafting!

Supplies:

Paper: SU Snow Festival, Winter White, Baja Breeze
Ink: printer
Stamps: Winter Bird, Warm Winter Wishes (both from Digital Delights by Louby Loo)
Accessories: SU Framelits - Labels Collection, SB Snowflake Pendant, SB Grommet Tags, The Rubber Cafe Puffies, SU Dazzling Diamonds, seam binding, custom charm, rhinestone brads, Copics, jingle bells.


Challenges entered:


Simon Says Stamp & Show - Gift-spiration
Love to Create Challenge #46 - Winter Fun
Simon Says...What's Your Favorite? (tool, stamp, product) - mine are snowflake dies and ribbon
Charisma Cards Challenges #49 - Christmas Makes
Really Reasonable Ribbon #62 - Anything Goes plus Ribbon
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge 185 - Winter
3 Girl Jam Challenge #8 - Christmas Inspiration
Creative Inspirations - Inspired By Christmas Gifts
Pile It On #49 - Pile On the Embellishments
Eclectic Ellapu Challenge 10 - Anything Goes

Shabby Ornament, and Challenge Day

Hello and good morning!

It's time for a new challenge over at Tuesday Alchemy, and this week's challenge is #45 - Anything But a Card.  How fun - you can make ANYTHING, so long as it's not a card.  The prizes are awesome:

5 digital stamps from 

and
$10 store voucher to 


So start crafting and let us see what you can do!

My project is another rosette, this time a cone ornament consisting of rolled squares of CS.  I learned this from my good friend Catherine Pooler over at StampNation (members go here, non-members here).

It was a little tricky to put together, but the end result is so worth the glue all over my fingertips.  Just ask my DD - this ornament now resides in her apartment.  

You can achieve different sizes of ornaments with different sized squares.  Mine is approximately 5.5" across, which was achieved with 2" squares.  They get a bit fiddly when trying to roll and glue them, but stick with it - it's worth the effort.  All papers except for the snowflakes were inked on the edges with distress ink.

For the centerpiece, I used Robyn's Fetish digital image "Gilded Dove." I printed it on white shrink plastic, then cut it out, shrunk it and colored it with Copics.  The jury's still out on whether it's better to color an image pre- or post-shrinkage.  I'll keep you posted.

Tip: Line art images are better for shrink plastic projects than silhouette images as there isn't as much ink to shrink.  That ink has to go somewhere, and too much of it in the initial stage can lead to smearing after shrinking.

Look closely and you can see the glasslike finish - this was achieved by flooding the colored piece with Ranger Glossy Accents.  It was my first time using it, and I LOVE it - it dries very quickly and with a wonderful hard shine.  I applied a ring of ostrich feathers behind the image, gluing it to a doily die cut (which you can barely see).

 I added some snowflakes to the lower right hand side that I first painted with ivory paint, then glittered and added pearl centers...

 ...and a soft, squashy messy bow with an antique brad to the upper left hand side for balance.  And I lightly glittered inside the points of the cones all the way around, then added a narrow gold ribbon for the hanger.

This is a Christmas ornament of the shabby chic ilk, but it doesn't have to come down after Christmas as it has winter appeal as well, and my DD plans to leave hers up until spring, unless I fail to come up with a spring/summer replacement, at which point she'll leave this up until I do.  Oh, the pressure.

Thank you for joining me today, and I hope you'll hie yourself over to Tuesday Alchemy pronto and put yourself in the running for some neat prizes!

Happy crafting!

Ingredients:

Stamp: Robyn's Fetish Gilded Dove
Paper: K & Co. Classic K dp
Ink: printer, Ranger Distress Tea Die (inked edges of papers)
Accessories: Dienamics Let It Snowflake and doily dies, seam binding, pearls, Copics, Glossy Accents, SU Antique Brads, ClearSnap Fairy Dust Glitter "Pralines and Cream," gold ribbon, Creative Inspirations Ivory paint.

Challenges entered:

Simon Says...What's Your Favorite! (tool, stamp, product) - my faves are glitter and ribbon.
Delightful Challenges - Very Blingy
Charisma Cardz Challenge #49 - Christmas Makes
Really Reasonable Ribbon Challenge #62 - Anything Goes & Ribbon
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge #185 - Winter
3 Girl Jam Challenge #8 - Christmas Inspiration
Pile It On #49 - Pile On the Embellishments
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #200 - "Deck the Tree Trimmings"
Ladybug Crafts Ink - Anything Goes at Christmas

Frosted Designs On the 8th Day of Christmas - 8 brands/products - Mine are:
Designer Paper, shrink plastic, feathers, Copics, glitter, ribbon, antique brad/pearls (counts as one), Ranger Distress Ink Tea Stain (for inking the edges of the papers).

Changes

Hello and good morning!

There are changes afoot in this little blog of mine.  I've decided to add a few tabs, or other pages, bit by bit so that I may keep the main page more focused on cards and paper crafts and move my other adventures and crafts to other pages (tabs).  Eventually I will add a tab for tutorials, perhaps a tab for interesting lessons I've learned along the way in card making, and so on.  So please bear with me and know that I am trying to improve this blog so as to make it more "reader friendly."  If all you're interested in is cards, then this main page will be for you.  If you'd like to see what other mischief I've gotten myself into, or if you'd like to see some of my other crafting efforts (mosaics and decoupage are but to name a couple), then please explore the other tabs.  For now, there are just two - "About Me" (which I haven't completed) and "Other Than Cards" which is everything....other than cards.  In fact, I posted my first entry tonight about our holiday carriage ride.  (Wait, it's 1:30 a.m. - so it was LAST night that I posted it.)

I DO have a card for you today.  It's a vivid one, so put on your sunglasses.

Told you.  I was in the mood for a colorful card, plus I had seen a card that incorporated orange and hot pink to wonderful effect, so of course I had to do one for myself.  I chose turquoise and purple as the contrasting colors, and this is the result.  (This is from the archives, hence only one picture.)  The squares are from square punches, one plain and one postage stamp, and the sentiment was heat embossed onto a die cut (SU Framelits Labels).  I traced around the same die used for the sentiment to make the purple "shadow" layer.  By doing that (tracing around the die), you get the same shape just 1/8" larger, rather than going up a whole size.  It doubles the number of die cuts you can get from one set of dies, you know?

I die cut some flowers and layered them in various ways, then glittered them as well.Two of the flowers are various layers from the Dienamics Prima Donna Petals die, and the third flower, the one tucked a little under the ribbon on the right is a "Sweetheart Daisy" from this wonderful tutorial.    I added a satin ribbon double bow and a few rhinestones, and that finished off my card.

Thank you for joining me both here and on my other page(s).

Happy crafting!

Ingredients:

Stamp: Fiskars Make-A-Wish Quotes
Paper: SU Tempting Turquoise, Melon Mambo, Tangerine Tango, Elegant Eggplant
Ink: Versamark
Accessories: black ep, rhinestones, ribbon, glitter, scallop punch, tiny flower punch (name unknown), SU Framelits Labels, Dienamics Prima Donna Petals die.

Cookie Day

Hello and good morning!  

Are you ready for Christmas?  I'm getting there.  Yesterday was Cookie Day at my house, and my DD came to help.  She's been after me for years to make my gingerbread cookies, but they are so time-consuming that I would only make them once every several years.  This year she offered to help (or maybe I pressed her into service).  I absolutely love the recipe - it's from a book by Rose Levy Beranbaum titled Rose's Christmas Cookies.  I make other cookies from that book such as the Spritz (every year), Sugar Cookies (every couple of years), and a few others.  For gingerbread cookies, there is no finer recipe in my opinion.

I prepared the dough the day before to give us a head start as we had to run out and do a little shopping first, plus it has to chill for at least two hours anyway.  Very simple to make the dough and place it in the refrigerator overnight.  We started the rolling, cutting and baking at 1:00 PM and the decorating around 3:30.  We were finished at 6:00.  I have to say it is so much more fun with a helper.

Ready for baking.

Baked.

Visiting artist at work.

Finished!

Closeup (This one's a snowflake).

We chose not to use additional candies such as dragees or cinnamon red hots as we neither care for the taste nor for the risk of breaking a tooth.  We used simple royal icing.  I told her that we would make a gingerbread cottage next year - it will be a first for us!

Thank you for joining me, and I wish you a happy Cookie Day with a loved one in your future, even if it means baking something as simple as the slice-and-bake kind you buy at the grocery store.

Happy crafting!!

In Love

Hello and good morning!

This is a short post today because the Christmas rush is upon us and time in the craft room has come to a near stop.  Not completely, there are a still a few DT cards to make and post (yay!), but there's baking to be done, presents to wrap (and finish shopping for!), and...well, you know how it is.  So some of my upcoming blog posts are going to be pulled from my recent archives which are quite simply the cards I made right before discovering the wonderful world of blogging this past Sept.  They are recent cards, and it'll be like a mini-trip down [recent] memory lane.  You don't mind, do you?  I figure cards don't always have to be submitted to challenges to count, right?

Since today's card is one from the archive, there are no extra photos of details.  I didn't start doing that until very recently.  This is the card I made for my step-daughter and her fiance who the whole family loves to the nth degree.

I love this stamp set from SU, Take It to Heart.  The images are perfect for heat embossing, which is what I did here.  Then I die cut it and the background black layer and popped them up on the white layer that was first stamped using Versamark and SU Everything Eleanor, then brushed with Perfect Pearls in Pearl.  I think it gives a great tone-on-tone appearance.

Let's talk about that white layer.  I cut the card base using the SB Lattice Rectangles die and offset it from the top just a teensy bit so that it wouldn't cut across the top, but you can't see it because I then cut a second, single layer from the same die and layered it onto the front, matching up the lacy sides.  I love the look it gives the card - very wedding-y.

Two layers of ribbon, a double bow, and a couple of Tiny Tags finish this card.  It's almost CAS, yet there is still plenty of detail.  One thing is for certain - this card is a perfect candidate for my card jewelry - pity I wasn't making them when I made the card.  NEXT TIME!

Thanks for stopping by, and here's wishing you a lovely day and a lovey with which to share it, be it a friend, spouse, child, pet...

And of course, Happy Crafting!!

Ingredients:

Stamps: SU Take It to Heart, Everything Eleanor, Tiny Tags
Ink: Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black, Real Red
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black
Accessories: SB Lattice Rectangles die, SU Framelits Heart, Jewelry Tag, Black ep, ribbon, baker's twine

Tile Coasters

Well hi and good morning!

Can you believe it's 13 days until Christmas?  WHERE did the year go?!??  Time in the craft room is starting to become a little scarce, but I still managed to put together a dozen of these coasters yesterday and today.  I got the idea from my good friend Catherine Pooler over at StampNation (YouTube video here) and had a lot of fun with them.

You can see they're similar (same background and main image stamps) yet slightly dissimilar.  I don't usually care for perfectly matched sets so I mixed up the directions in which I stamped both the background script image as well as the main medallion image a bit.  These are tumbled marble tiles, easily available from most hardware stores.  If you decide to make them, be sure and get the unglazed ones so that the ink is absorbed.  

I used black Staz-On ink, but I hear that pigment inks would work well too, though you might need to heat them or bake them for a bit after stamping to dry them a little faster.  I was going for the vintage look, though, so black was my color of choice.  I did, however, still put them in the oven set on 200 degrees for 20 minutes just to make sure the ink wasn't still sticky.  Better safe than sorry.

And by the way, larger tiles would make GREAT trivets.  Think of all the possibilities!

Back

I treated the backs a bit differently from Catherine's as I used cork instead of the felt dots.  I had a roll of it on hand and no felt dots; however, It was sufficient enough trouble that next time I'll go out and buy some dots.  I just didn't have any on hand but did have cork and didn't want to wait until I could get to the store.  

I glued the squares to the backs of the tiles with Welbond, a good, strong, water-based white glue.

And that was that - a quick, easy project that would be fun to make with children and would make great gifts for teachers, parents, and whomever.  Even my DH and DD each wanted one!

Thanks for joining me today.  Except for a few DT deadlines, I will be scaling back a little on making cards until after Christmas.  I will still be posting, just not necessarily cards.  We're going on a horse and carriage ride on Saturday night, so Sunday will surely have pictures of the adventure!  Here's wishing you a safe and merry holiday season, and as always...

Happy crafting!!

Ingredients:

Tumbled marble tiles (UNGLAZED), Staz-on ink, stamps, cork sheets or felt dots, glue.  That's it, easy peasy!

Challenges entered:

There She Goes TSG185 - Season of Giving (gifts or gift-inspired)
Love to Create Challenge #45 - Anything Goes
 

Happy Hanukkah

Good morning!

It's time for another challenge over at Tuesday Alchemy today!  Challenge 44 is Anything Goes, and there's a fab prize at stake - 4 free digital images from Sassy Studio Designs.  So head on over there and join the challenge!

I am in need of a couple of Hanukkah cards this year, so here is my first one.  It's CAS (Clean And Simple), but there is still detail and embellishment, two features that I insist on having on my cards, even if only in small doses.  (I just don't know how to leave a plain white piece of CS alone.)

I dry embossed the first layer with an SU embossing folder, Vintage Wallpaper.

The greeting was stamped onto Whisper White, using the SB Grommet Tags die.  I cut another tag from the navy blue CS, cut it in half lengthwise and "shadowed" the white layer by adhering the navy offset from the white just a little bit.  I added a bit of silver ribbon instead of using grommets.

I heat embossed the menorah using SU silver ef, then I cut it out with a circle die and cut another circle (in white) 1/8" larger, also using a circle die.  I inked the edges of the white circle with navy ink so that it would show up against the white background and popped the whole thing up on dimensionals.

And that, dear friends, is that.  Some occasions call for simple and elegant.  Thank you for joining me today, and don't forget to join Tuesday Alchemy's challenge this week!

Happy Crafting!

Ingredients:

Stamp: Jewish Celebrations (SU)
Ink: Night of Navy, Versamark
Paper:  Whisper White (SU), Nautical Dark Blue (Flourishes)
Accessories:  SU silver ep, SB Grommet Tags die, metallic silver ribbon, Dienamics Circle Stax One and Two, SU Vintage Wallpaper ef.

Challenges Entered:

Really Reasonable Ribbon #61 - White on White plus one Additional Color
Charisma Cardz Challenge #48 - Christmas!!
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge 184 - Christmas
Fussy and Fancy Challenge 77 - I Love Christmas
3 Girl JAM Challenge #8 - Christmas Inspirations
Frosted Designs 2nd Day of Christmas - 2 stamps
Drunken Stampers #109 - For the Boys (this card will be going to my former boss - hopefully he won't see this blog before he gets it!)
Love To Create #45 - Anything Goes

Golden Snowflake

Hello and good morning!

Yesterday was the day of the Annual Christmas Lunch that I've been sharing with two of my very good friends for the past 14 years.  We normally have it at my house with a full English tea, but this year we broke with tradition and had it at C's house instead.  Was a very nice change, and I was delighted to get to enjoy her Christmas decorations in her new house.  G. and I brought a dish each and C. provided additional dishes plus dessert, all of which was divine.  Afterwards, we had our gift exchange, and C's husband snapped a few pics.  We've missed our day only once in all these years, and it is something we look forward to as a break in the holiday hustle and bustle.  

Here are We Three Queens (G., C., and me!).

It was such a fun day that I was inspired to play in my craft room when I arrived back home.  Here is the resulting card.

It is one of the few CAS (Clean and Simple) cards that I have made.  CAS?  Me??  But the challenge was out there, so I did my best.  Of course there is still bling on it.  I mean, let's not get crazy here.

The color challenge was white, gold and one other color for which I used red, a classic combination.  I embossed the first layer with my trusty snowflake embossing folder.   

Frosted Designs is having a 12 Days of Christmas challenge in which I'm trying to play catch-up as I only discovered them a few days ago and they were already on the 5th Day of Christmas.  That, as we all know, means "5 golden rings."  The challenge is to use 5 gold (or yellow) items on your project, so I used a soft metallic gold paper for the strip of paper, glittery gold snowflakes (there are three layered together), ribbon with golden threads, gold embossed greeting, and a golden rhinestone in the center of the snowflake. 

Here is a picture of the snowflake showing how I've stacked three of them in graduating sizes. You can't very well see that there are three, but you can see how I've separated each one with a bit of a dimensional.  And the rhinestone center.

The greeting layers were also popped up for dimension after first heat embossing the greeting using SU gold ep.

And that's it for this card.  One thing about CAS cards - there aren't long lists of materials used.  It kind of stops me short in my description of these kinds of cards.  I do tend to ramble on, but CAS cards beg to be kept short.  Hmmm. . . 

So thank you for joining me today, and thank you C. and G. for a lovely afternoon!  

Until next time, happy crafting!

Ingredients:

Stamp: Teeny Tiny Wishes (SU)
Ink: Versamark
Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, gold glitter, gold shimmer (The Paper Studio)
Accessories: SU gold ep, gold rhinestone, ribbon, Snow Burst ef (SU), Word Window and Modern Labels punches (SU), SB Snowflake Pendant dies.

Challenges entered:

Oozak Challenge #9 - Anything Goes + Red
Paper Playtime #90 - Christmas Colors
Tuesday Throwdown #126 - White Christmas
Ladybug Crafts Ink - Sparkliscious
Simon Says.... Snowflakes
Divas By Design #64 - Let It Snow
CCEE1249 - Favorite New Dies (New SB Snowflake Pendant)
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge 184 - Christmas
Fussy and Fancy #177 - I Love Christmas
3 Girl JAM Challenge #8 - Christmas Inspiration
Crazy 4 Challenges C4C166- Favorite Holiday Stamps (Teeny Tiny Wishes is my fave!)
Allsorts #184 - White, Gold plus One
Red Carpet Studio RCS#14 - "Frosty the Snowman" (or snowflake)
Creative Inspirations - Inspired by CAS
Pile It On #49 - Pile On the Embellishments
Incy Wincy Designs - Christmas with Snowflakes
Love to Create #45 - Anything Goes
Frosted Designs - 5th Day of Christmas

Brayered Birthday

Hello and good morning!

Got just a quick post for you today.  I'll be working in the craft room later on but am also cooking for a lunch I will be attending tomorrow, plus I'm making my "famous" (among friends and family) homemade lemon curd which is so delicious I rarely eat it ON anything because it's so good I'd rather eat it right off the spoon.  Do you ever do that?  I do it with really good hot fudge sauce, too.  No excuses, I just like my lemon curd (and hot fudge) "neat."  I'm comfortable with my vices.  Ha! 

Today's very simple card is the first card I brayered where I was happy with the results.  

I'm a little neurotic about brayer lines on my cards, so I will keep after it repeatedly until I get the results I like, which I did with this card.  I do pound the daylights out of the inked brayer to get those pesky lines to blend.  I used three colors of ink (listed below), starting with the lightest first, then ran the paper through the Big Shot using the SU Top Note die.  I stamped it with the sentiment then adhered it to the black layer off which I had rounded the corners first.  I added a couple of flourish die cuts, heat embossed the sentiment, then added a seam binding "messy" bow and an antique brad (SU), and the card was finished.  Simple, but effective.

I'm showing you the inside today to show you what you can do with the negative piece left over from cutting out the Top Note die, or any other die.  Rather than throw that "window" piece away, use it to frame your inside greeting!  It's already the same color as the front piece, which ties it to the card nicely and adds continuity.

Now if only the stamper could stamp straight. 

That's all for today, but I'll be back tomorrow!  Thank you so much for joining me today, and have a lovely Saturday!

Happy crafting!

Ingredients:

Stamps: Fiskars Make A Wish Quotes
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; SU Pumpkin Pie, More Mustard, Daffodil Delight, Versamark
Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Very Vanilla
Accessories: Brayer, seam binding, SU Antique Brads, Dienamics Fancy Flourish die, black embossing powder, heat tool

Shabby Bird

Hello and good morning!


Today's card is a shabby Christmas card to play along with the challenge over at The Shabby Tea Room, "Pretty Baubles."  It's been awhile since I've made a shabby card and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Or maybe I enjoyed playing in girly, sweet, soft colors.  And glitter.  And ribbons and lace.  Whatever the reason, I had so much fun making this card.  Don't you just want to eat it up?

The challenge was to use the image below as inspiration and to include a bird.  I would LOVE to have a wreath like that!  I think I would leave it up all year.  The colors are just so delicious.

This card came together relatively quickly.  I knew I wanted to use a soft blue/turquoise with pink and white as the main contrast colors.  I embossed the white layer with the SU Fancy Fan embossing folder and sponged the top very lightly with TH Distress Ink Spun Suger using a sponge dauber.  Easy does it.  I stitched two layers of wandering straight stitch, one with pale blue, the other with pale pink embroidery threads.  I then layered two rows of pink scalloped borders, a layer of lace, then a thin velvet ribbon.

The bird was punched from pink printed paper using the SU bird punch (though it looks more coral in the photo), then brushed it lightly with Ivory Creative Inspirations paints.  Love that shimmer.  I applied glitter to the tail and wing and Gold Perfect Pearls to the beak.

The bottom tag really is a tag, I promise - it comes from the SB Antique Frame and Accents Shapeabilities set, and I stamped it with a pine branch stamp before adding the bird.  It's just a bit covered up by the bow.  

The bow isn't seam binding, it's a faux silk with a crisp hand.  I added a second little tag with the sentiment stamped in Versafine Smoky Gray.  Black just seemed too harsh.  

I inked the edges of the tag with more Spun Sugar and the edges of the blue tag with SU Marina Mist.  The stick pins are my own making, and the metallic gold thread is from my stash.

Some palest blue pearls finish this card.

Thank you for joining me today as I step out of the traditional Christmas color zone.  Sometimes you've just gotta be different.

Have a lovely day, and happy crafting!

Ingredients:

Stamps:  Christmas Classics, All That Glitters (both by Flourishes)
Ink: Versafine Smoky Gray, SU Marina Mist and Certainly Celery, TH Spun Sugar Distress Ink
Paper: SU Pool Party, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White, Annalee by Prima
Accessories: SB Shapeabilities Antique Frame and Accents, SU Fancy Fan ef, Dienamics Double Scallop Border, SU Edgelits Adorning Accents, SB Tailor-Made Dies (small tag); SU Bird Builder, pearls, faux silk ribbon, lace, thin velvet ribbon, gold thread, custom made stick pins, Creative Inspirations paint (Ivory) and Resplendence Angel Dust, sewing machine, dimensionals.

Challenges Entered:

The Shabby Tea Room Week #143 - Pretty Baubles
There She Goes TSG184 - Tag, You're It
Incy Wincy Designs - Non-traditional Christmas Colours
The Pink Elephant Challenge TPE 177 - Make It Girly
Anything Goes Challenge 81 - Tags
SCS WT404 - Brown Paper Packages (use favorite things - mine are ribbon, glitter and lace).
CCEE1249 - Use a favorite new die (I used the SB Antique Frame and Accents)
Crafty Ribbons Challenge 34 - Label/Tag, Big or Small
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge 184 - Christmas
Fussy and Fancy Challenge 77 - I Love Christmas
Speedy Fox and Friends Challenge 136 - Christmas Card, No Red or Green
My Sheri Crafts Challenge 99 - 'Tis the Season
Pile It On #49 - Pile On the Embellishments
3 Girl JAM Challenge #8 - Christmas Inspiration
Frosted Designs 12 Days of Christmas - First Day (Bird)

MOJO Monday - sketch 270