I was debating about playing along with the December Monthly Mix Challenge hosted by Karen at Gina K Designs. The challenge is a Tic Tac Toe one and I wasn’t sure I liked any of these combinations

Thanks for stopping in for a peek.

I’m finding a reason not to pack away my Christmas collection of stamps by entering this card into the Sunday Stamps sketch challenge by Melissa.

I found a Michael’s Recollections cling stamp set with this scripty tree and decided to use it with some non traditional holiday colors. The image was heat embossed with white embossing powder on Denami Designs vellum cardstock, then layered over a panel of Gina K Designs patterned paper and added a sentiment from Verve Stamps O Christmas Tree in Gina K’s turquoise sea ink and all mounted on a turquoise sea cardstock.

Thanks for stopping. Stay safe!

Let it Snow… Let it Snow….Let it Snow….only on grassy surfaces, please. My skating bear however would probably prefer some ice for skating. Growing up our local fire company would spray water on a section of our playground for ice skating…what fun we had! Not sure if I would attempt that now since the bones are telling me to think again.

Getting back to my card, I found this fun bear and unfortunately I do not know the stamp set manufacturer but I’m thinking I picked it up at my local Michael’s on clearance. I colored him with Arteza colored pencils and lightly added some color to the image panel too. The sentiment is a red rubber Inkadinkadoo stamp which was heat embossed in bronze embossing powder and the panel layered on bronze cardstock. Snowflakes were cut from SSS Sensational Snowflakes die, patterned paper is GKD and a little bit of sequins that were hanging out on my desk.

My card will be entered into the ModSquad Challenge hosted by Nancy and must include BEARS!

Thanks for stopping in for a peek. Make it a great day and stay safe.

by the chimney with care! My card today features Hero Arts Winter Hearth stamp & cut set and will be entered into The Sisterhood of Crafters: Anything Goes Christmas/Winter challenge. My sentiment was from SimonSaysStamp Christmas Cheer stamp set. Spectrum Noir AquaTint was painted on my background and it was layered on Gina K Designs red cardstock.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!

The final challenge of 2020 at The Card Concept is to share a photo of your Christmas Tree, favorite decorations or favorite card. Choosing my favorite Christmas card would be very difficult because if I can admit I really liked all of the cards this season. My Christmas tree is a tiny 3′ tree that was my mom’s and displays a lot of my kids and grandkids homemade ornaments. Special to me but nothing spectacular. Since I’m in snow mode, I decided to share my little display of Snow People. The years that we get too much snow these guys are put away early. We will see about this winter. This was today!

Thanks for the fun challenges at The Card Concept. Merry Christmas!

Here’s to another January birthday! My card today uses the Tim Holtz Sizzix Poinsettia Pieces die which was cut twice for the outline and all of those little tiny pieces were captured while still in the die onto a piece of press ‘n seal. The pieces were sponged lightly with some distress inks and then inserted back into the outline which was mounted on cranberry tart cardstock. This card was my second attempt. First after I inserted all of the pieces and found inky finger marks on the white cardstock…drat that slow drying distress ink….I decided to add some of the leaves to cover the smudges….mistake so that ended up in the trash. After clearing snow today, decided to give it another go and it worked better making sure the ink was dry before touching and inserting. The birthday is also a Tim Holtz Sizzix Celebrate die and hugs was stamped using GKD’s Whimsical Spring stamp set.

My card will be entered into the Double D Challenges poinsettia challenge. Pretty mood board for inspiration was included:

Thanks for stopping by and be safe.

Not the first snow of the season but possibly the biggest snow storm in years is beginning in my neighborhood. So if I have to wait for the snow to begin and getting outside to begin shoveling, I may as play along with the Dies R Us Challenge: DRU Challenge #159 Winter Wonderland. Great theme and as with all DRU challenges you must include a metal die. My die is a new to me Hero Arts Snowflake Medallion Fancy Die. The die was cut from my layering sheet and then cut a second time to give it a little raised background. The background on the card base was created using some TH Distress Oxide inks as well as a SimonSaysStamp star and snow stencil. The snow was created using Brutus Monroe’s Alabaster Glitter Glaze and the stars Delicata celestial copper pigment ink. This panel was also embossed with Cuttlebug’s snowflake embossing folder. My image an sentiment is an oldie but goodie Inkadinkadoo Christmas Characters stamp set. I picked this set up a number of years ago on clearance for $3.99….how could I resist?

Thanks for checking out my winter wonderland.

Stay safe!

Just when I thought that I had all of my January birthdays covered, I realized that those closest to me also have January birthdays. My daughter in law the beginning of the month and son in law at the end of the month with our granddaughter squished in the middle of the month. Do you think this could be feminine or masculine??

Claire from The Paper Players is challenging us to use the Color Challenge PP521 colors of Silver, Black and White.

So after googling some options, I cased my card off of Pinterest….sorry lost the original post but I used my Stampin Up “Medallion” large background stamp, Gina K Designs Petite Patterns patterned paper, Hero Arts Ribbon Messages Stamp & Cut and Recollections Foil cardstock paper. The patterned paper can also be foiled but opted to keep it natural because I wanted to stamp the medallion on top of the paper and didn’t think it would work on the foil. My image was stamped in Versamark black ink and clear embossed, mounted on a black layer, added some silver thread and the banner was die cut from the silver cardstock and stamped once again in the versamark black and clear heat embossed.

Feminine or Masculine that is the question???

This past summer, I purchased a Crafter’s Companion bundle of double cut Edge’ables and I put them aside to attempt to figure out how to use them until yesterday. So the first issue I have is that I do not have a Gemini die cutting machine but rather use my Big Shot which has a smaller cutting plate than I believe the Gemini does. With that said I think these dies were made for not only their machine using special plates and for larger card sizes especially since these are double cut dies that will cut the image on one side of the die on the edge of your card to create the edgeable design and then you can use another color cardstock on the other side of the die and it will cut out both sides of the die with one pass. Well that’s pretty neat but until I figure out a suitable sandwich for my Big Shot I’ll will be using old cutting plates to cut the die twice. Sorry for babbling…hope you can figure out what I meant:) OK after saying all of that, I can use opinions on the top card which is a regular A2 size and the one below which was trimmed to a slightly smaller A2 size to match the die ends.

My next dilemma is where do I put my inside sentiment or message?

As you can see not a lot of room to write a personal message or include a stamped one. I would add a sentiment to the front and maybe use plain not patterned paper. So I am looking forward for all your advice and opinions.

Hugs from a snowy preview of what’s to come later this week in Pennsylvania.