Pink Gem Designs all the way

Hello!

Today's card uses something I've never used before - digital papers - and are they ever so lovely digital papers.  They're from Pink Gem Designs and are sugary sweet in the nicest way.  In fact, they remind me of the hard candies one buys during the Christmas holiday season in colorful tins, and I never remember the name brand, but they're ubiquitous to the holiday season.  Yummy, soft-centered, pastel and delicious.  And that describes these papers to a T.

The papers are from the Spring collection and are named appropriately "Springtime."  There are 24 designs to a pack, and I have used 5 here, including one on the inside and one for Summer Milly's dress, socks and bow.  And that is the other thing I've done here that I've never done before - digi paper piecing.  I love paper piecing anyway, but to do it with digital papers means you can alter the size of the pattern to accommodate small images, which I've done with her clothes.  The dress and socks are one size (smaller than the original), the bow is the same paper but reduced even further.  Talk about versatility!  And I'm all about versatility.

See what I mean?  The pattern is much larger in its original form.  I think I'm going to like working with digital papers...

I colored the rest of the image with Copics and gave her a bright, sunshiney background.

I've used a sheer ribbon for the larger bow with a baker's twine multi-loop bow on top of that and a button to finish things off.  I normally add more embellishments, something in corners and on sentiments, i.e. flowers, pearls, bling, or whatnot, but today I chose to keep Summer Milly simple and fresh, just like the sweet little girl she is.  Not to worry, I'll be back with pearls and bling on my next card.

Here's a peek at the striped paper on the inside layered under a white panel, though you can't see much of it.  Trust me, it's every bit as delicious as the papers on the outside.

Thank you so much for joining me.  DH kindly took the puppy on some errands yesterday, giving me some much needed crafting time, and this was the result.

Here's wishing you a lovely day full of crafty goodness.

Happy crafting!!

Supplies:

Stamps: Summer Milly (PGD); Teeny Tiny Wishes (SU)
Ink: printer; Wild Wasabi, Blushing Bride (SU)
Paper: Whisper White, Blushing Bride (SU); Spearmint (MFT); Spring Collection (PGD)
Extras:  Dies: Framelits Labels Collection (SU), Circle Stax (Dienamics); Word Window and Scallop Oval punches (SU), baker's twine, sheer ribbon, vintage button, Copics.

Challenges entered:

Simon Says Stamp and Show - Unused Stamps (image is brand new to me)
The Pink Elephant TPE188 - Anything Goes
Love to Create #54 - Wrap It Up (baker's twine)
Tammy's Scrappin' Corner #51 - Paper Piecing
Tuesday Throwdown #136 - You're On My Mind (thinking of you)
Crafty Ribbons #39 - Buttons
3 Girl JAM #12 - Anything Goes w/Ribbon
Creative Inspirations - Anything Goes
Pile It On #8 - Sunshine

SSS#199 - Sketch

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

The Holiday Countdown

Well, here we are at the backside of Thanksgiving, and you know what that means - Christmas will be here before you can say "Already??"  It happens every year.  The year just kind of moseys on, then it's September and the kids are headed back to school, and Halloween is on the horizon.  And that's when it all happens seemingly at once.  When the last trick-or-treater trudges down the front walk, suddenly we are thrust into the holiday season with a vengeance.  "Oh, Thanksgiving is almost a month away, I have plenty of time."  Really?  Because to me, Halloween was just last week.  Yes it was.  And suddenly the television ads are all jingly and Sugar Plum Fairy-ish (which is played every third commercial), and it's time to decorate the house, and "When are you making your homemade eggnog, hon?"  And "Are you making gingerbread cookies and decorating them this year, Mom?"

Sigh.  So much to do, so little time.  And Monday and Tuesday will be devoted to spreading 3 cubic yards of compost on all the flower beds when I should be hauling the decorations down from the attic.  Because I thought I had plenty of time back in September.

Sigh.

Today's card is non-autumn, non-Christmassy, and very springlike.  It's for newlyweds and is the only such card I have in my stash at the moment.  

It's a simple, yet elegant card.  I stamped the image onto watercolor paper and colored it with inkpads and a blender pen.  I popped up the top layer using dimensionals, added the greeting and a bow made with two ribbons simultaneously, and that's it - soft, simple, yet very colorful and it still has texture and a bit of embellishment

I will be making a birthday meal today which, knowing me, will probably take all day.  The cake will take the longest, but a birthday needs a proper birthday cake.  So no time in the craft room, but there's always tomorrow.  No, that's right, there'll be 3 cu. yds. of compost waiting for me in the driveway.

Sigh.

Have a lovely Sunday, and here's to slowing time down and spending it wisely (preferably doing something you love.)

Happy crafting!

Ingredients:

Stamps: SU Teeny Tiny Wishes, Flourishes With Gratitude
Ink: Staz-On, Tuxedo Black
Paper: Elegant Eggplant, Wisteria Wonder (I think), Watercolor, Whisper White
Accessories: SB Labels 18 and Lattice Rectangles, SU Oval and Oval Scallop punches; ribbon, SU inkpads, dimensionals