Colorful Options

Can You Handle The Pressure

My card today is a Frosty Winter White card that includes a Darice snowflake swirl embossing folder, Taylored Expressions Bows die cut in a shimmer light frosty blue cardstock, Catherine Pooler’s Stamp of Approval with Cas-ual Fridays Stamps Merry labels Joy die, and multiple Martha Stewart sprig punched in shimmer white cardstock.

Using that old punch was the hardest part of this card. I made a circle frame for my wreath and then started adding the MS sprigs. The Joy sentiment and the Bow die are both layered for dimension. Liquid pearls in silver “beads” completed my wreath and this card.

I’ll be entereing this into the Colorful Options Winter White challenge

And because I used an embossing folder decided to also include it in the Can You Handle the Pressure challenge opting not to use the twist of Thanks card

And after reading the Colorful Options challenge, they are having a joint collaboration with Double Trouble Paper Crafting which this card will also be entered.

Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care and be safe. Flu season is upon us!!

Paper Dragonfly Creative Challenges

Can You Handle The Pressure

I found this Pretty Pink Posh wreath on my desk that I made for a different card but changed my mind. I figured before it got lost I should use it on a challenge or two. The Paper Dragonfly Creative Challenges — Challenge #11 is Fall Dragonfly and Can You Handle the Pressure is Embossing Folder Anything Goes + Wreath.

Most of the leaves have fallen from the trees so I thought the Cuttlebug Forest Branches embossing folder on kraft would be appropriate and the wreath reminds me of the colorful leaves that were once on the trees. Sentiment is from Taylored Expressions and the dragonfly was die cut from black and then kraft.

Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care and stay safe.

Two baby cards for twin boys who are 1 week old. The top card is for the moms of my dear friend and the bottom card is my friends, the grandparents. Identical twin boys and our prayers go out to the little one who needs heart surgery. Such a stressful time for this very close and loving family but with the skill of the physicians and medical team and God’s grace that little heart will be repaired and everyone can go home.

I don’t have any twin stamps so just duplicated each focal point. A little bit of Gina K, Denami Designs and little unknown. The designer paper was two sided and there was a big enough piece left over that I could use different sides on each card.

Thanks so much for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care and be safe.

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge

So, don’t laugh, but this mood board for the November challenge really stumped me! I felt like I was in the middle of Halloween night and there was no candy left to hand out or much less enjoy! I always like to play along with the theme and take inspiration from the mood board so I remembered a Gina K Designs stamps set with cactus (cacti) in pot which I stamped, colored and die cut. Then found some old wood block pumpkin stamps that I colored and fussy cut. The left grouping of pumpkins had no faces so I made my own. Patterned paper was from my stash. I covered up the black cat with another pumpkin and added a ephemera sentiment.

Here’s the mood board:

Maybe I should been inspired by the wreath!!! I didn’t want to miss this challenge since I’ve been playing along since they began.

Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care, stay safe, keep warm.

Holiday Card Workshop 2022 – Interactive Cards

Jennifer McGuire’s lesson on day 10 was to create an interactive Santa shaker card with a twist. Using a piece of recycled stamp bag and by not cutting off the opening but rather the bottom portion to enclose your cardstock you can add a gift card that the recipient can easily or very easily remove without destroying the card. The tip is to adhere the shaker panel to the card base except you adhere the flap to the inside of the card base. The flap has enough sticky on it to be able to open from the inside and fish out your gift card. I was lucky enough to find a stamp set not yet removed from the packaging and was very close to A2 size. The hardest part was removing the store label (Michaels) from the outside of the packaging. My Santa is ephemera from Michael’s, HO HO is Spellbinder’s and my background was one not used from a previous class.

The alternate class by Channin Pelletier was a pull tab present card. I’ll put it on my to do list but definitely must hop to my Christmas cards.

I enjoyed my Holiday Card Workshop. Our grandson’s baptism was beautiful and we had a great time with our family and our son’s friends. Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care and stay safe.

P.S. We prepped for winter — shrubs and flowers all cut back, patio furniture stored away in shed, snow shovels and snowblower in place. Only thing left to do is to paint the zoysia grass. LOL.

My card today is for our youngest grandchild. Owen is 3 months old (already) and is getting baptised on Sunday.

It’s a special time for all of us. I’m taking a “sick” day from Holiday Card Workshop classes tomorrow to help with preparations.

Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care and stay safe.

Holiday Card Workshop 2022 – Day 9 – Snowflakes

Today’s class by Kristina Werner instructed us to create a Faux Embossed Snowflake background by die-cutting snowflakes and stacking four on top of each other for dimension. My faux embossed snowflake background is more of an older style embossing folder instead of the 3D embossing folders since I only stacked 2 snowflakes. LOL. Snowflakes, and focal layer are cut from shimmer paper and Joy die cut was layered and topped with a scrap of glitter cardstock. I needed a pop of color.

The second session by Caly Person was a beautiful Snowflake Easel card. That will need to wait for another day.

Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care and stay safe.

Holiday Card Workshop 2022 – Day 8 Foiling

Day 8 classes were all about foiling. Yana Smakula instructed hot foiling using the glimmer machine and the different types of paper to use and other useful tips. Beautiful cards but I don’t have a Glimmer and won’t be making the investment into one. Yana’s cards are always beautiful and I enjoyed her presentation.

The alternate class was taught by Gina K and this one I could participate in as I do have decofoil, deco transfer gel and toner sheets. I don’t do a lot of foiling because it is usually hit or miss with the foil but my top card was made using SSS In the Round stencil, transfer gel and then cutting strips of green and red foil, layering them across the dried transfer gel and send through the laminator. The bottom portion was also foiled using foil on a transfer sheet. My Santa is from an ephemera pack I picked up at my local Michael’s. The pack was all inclusive of a dark toned Santa and a light toned Santa. I thought this Santa was extra cute and he was standing the correct position for my card. Inside card has a layer of patterned papers with the works HoHoHo throughout.

My second card was made with toner sheets. The striped was one from Gina K/ThermoWeb a few years ago but the small panel was made using the foiled sheet on a toner sheet and running it through in two different directions to create a trellis like effect. I added another piece of ephemera to an oval vellum die cut to complete my card. The only method that was a FAIL was stamping snowflakes in versamark, heat embossing, inking and running through the laminator with foil. I only achieved partial foiling.

Another fun class. Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care and stay safe.

Holiday Card Workshop 2022

Day 7’s sessions were all about embossing folders. Koren Wiskman’s session was Spotlight Ink Blending + Embossing Folders. Using SSS A2 Masks, I ink blended Distress Oxide inks in Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn and Rustic Wilderness going from light in the center to dark outside. This panel was then run through my Big Shot (still working with protest — LOL) using SSS Holiday Greenery embossing folder. The die cut sentiment is Spellbinders and added a SSS Christmas Foilage die in red. The embossed panel is very subtle but it’s nice that the entire panel is embossed.

The “extra credit” session was presented by Laura Bassen in which to create an ink blended pattern + embossing folder. For this card, I went back to a Taylored Expressions Plaid stencil using DO Evergreen Bough, Festive Berries and Black Soot. My first thought was to use versamark and gold embossing powder on the black lines but I was too impatient to wait for the ink to dry so went with black soot.

The embossing folder is from Sizzix. I embossed a piece of white card stock and fussy cut the center section of this embossing folder and adhered it to my card front. The stamp set is AI Penguin Joy and how surprised was I when my upper and lower flourish nestled the sentiment very nicely. Using the same inks, I added color to the holly and berries.

A very traditional Christmas color day for me. I think I like the second plaid card the best and, wow, I actually think my lines look straight. It was a good day!

Thanks for stopping for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care and be safe.