BRI Sneak Peek!

Hi friends! I'm up today on the Butterfly Reflections Ink blog with a pair of cards made with this sweet little snowman family. I hope you'll stop by and check them out!

PS~ If you haven't already shopped the BRI Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale, it continues through today! Get 20% off your ENTIRE in stock purchase using the code THANKFUL20. You're welcome! :)

Papertrey Ink Blog Hop!

So I finally have had a chance to participate in the monthly PTI blog hop... I've been missing them, and so I was so glad when I got to sit down and play a little last night! It's not my most favorite card, but I don't mind. I keep forgetting that I don't have to reinvent the wheel for every project... Sometimes, it's nice to sit and just play.

I love the size of the Fab Flakes set. The snowflakes are large enough to really make a statement. Bearing that in mind, I decided to make a 5x7 card instead of a normal A2 sized card. I stamped the flakes in Simply Chartreuse, Hawaiian Shores, Tropical Teal, and Delicata Silver. I love how they look all clustered together. The sentiment is from Christmas Cheer, die cut from Tropical Teal and stamped in Smokey Shadow. I covered the die cut in some Shimmer Pico Embellishment, added a few sequins for sparkle, and mounted it on a clean white card base. I thought about sponging some ink around the edges, but I decided I liked the way it looked as is.

Happy Thanksgiving, friends! I hope your day is full of laughter, love, and family! One of the kiddos is sick with croup, so we are probably stuck at home tomorrow. Meh. Eat some pumpkin pie for me! :)

All Through the House... Shabby Chic style.

Hi friends! I'm here today with my first project using the fantastic All Through the House kit from PTI. As soon as I saw the kit, I had an idea for a shabby chic, sparkly pastel project with the adorable house. The final product isn't quite what I'd envisioned, but I was pretty pleased with it.

To start, I die cut one of the frames from white card stock. I then used washi tape to mask off the edges of the frame that are debossed into the cardstock from the die. I took some pale blue ink from Hero Arts and blended it around the edges of the frame, leaving the center fairly pale. I then stamped some of the snowflake swirls in Delicata Silver ink.

I stamped the house in Memento Angel Pink, PTI's Aqua Mist, Soft Stone, and the new Stormy Sea for the chimney. I added the little snow drifts in the windows using the Delicata Silver again, then covered them in Glossy Accents. I die cut the snow from white card stock, adhered it to the roof, then covered it in Diamond Stickles. The pink card base (I can't remember the manufacturer of the pink, sorry) was stamped with the new Fab Flakes set in Fresh Snow pigment ink. I die cut and stamped the banner from last's years Tinsel and Tags kit. I added a strip of Aqua Mist Bitty Dot paper through the tag, then adhered everything down. 

I hope you enjoyed this card! I seem to be in an aqua and pink mood lately, but I promise to move on at some point. Have a great week, friends! 

BRI Sneak Peek!

Hello all! Happy Thanksgiving week! I'm up on the BRI blog today with a minty fresh card using new Winnie and Walter stamps. I hope you'll stop by and check it out! 

Peace Be With You

Hello, friends! I hope you're all having a fantastic weekend. We had a fairly low key weekend, and I was able to get some projects finished and photographed.

This coverplate die from Papertrey Ink is seriously one of my most favorite holiday dies ever. It looks beautiful so many ways, but one of my favorite ways to treat these beautiful cover plate die cuts is to watercolor them to bring out all of the incredible details. 

I started by die cutting the cover plate from an A2 sized panel of watercolor card stock. This one is not quite as intricate as the Garden Gild cover plate, so I didn't have to use anything besides my shim in my Vagabond to get a perfect cut the first time. I love when that happens. I took several shades of green and Deep Red and Tea Rose pinks to color the different floral elements. I simply added some color to the centers of the flowers and leaves, then pulled the color out with my wet paint brush.

For the panel behind the cover plate, I used my Twinkling H2O's to add some very subtle gold shimmer to another piece of watercolor paper. It's very slight, but in real life it adds some beautiful shimmery shine. I die cut the "peace" from Wet Paint Holiday using DCWV Glitz paper, heat embossed the "be with you" in Princess Gold, and glued the cover plate down. The last little embellishment was to add some sequins from Lucy Abrams  in shades of champagne and pink. 

I hope you enjoyed this card! It's super flat, so I (well, actually, my hubby is the one who runs things to the post office for me) won't have to actually go inside the post office, which is always a plus in my book. I'll be back tomorrow with a sneak peek for my Butterfly Reflections Ink post! Have a great rest of the weekend, everyone! 

All I Want For Christmas...

Well, it's not my two front teeth.

Don't shoot me, buuuuut.....

I can't stand the song "All I Want For Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey. I really, truly CANNOT STAND that song. I'm not entirely sure why.... maybe it has something to do with how needy she sounds? Maybe it's just because I really don't like Mariah Carey. (Though I have always had a begrudging respect for her ridiculous high range. I digress.) Anyway, yuck.

However, I love this sentiment from The Ton's Holiday Lyrics. The balance, the fonts... I just really like it. It's the kind of innocent-but-still-could-be-suggestive sentiment that I would want to put on a gift for my husband. And what better match than to pair it with a pair of those stunningly fabulous couture heels (that I would never be able to afford, much less wear) from Shoe Wardrobe. I have no experience with such high-fashion shoes, but my extensive knowledge of Sex and the City's wardrobe tells me that these are Louboutins. Someone correct me if I'm wrong...

This card is so simple; it's kind of embarrassing. I started off with a white card base on which I heat embossed some Ruby Romance Wow! embossing powder using the Polka Dot cling background stamp. I then cut another panel of plain white card stock and black heat embossed the sentiment, then added the shoes in Pure Poppy ink from PTI. I matted the white panel on a piece of black card stock, because the red, white, and black color combo just fit with the overall theme of the card. 

That's it! It's really such a simple card. I love how simple it is; sometimes I feel like giving cards to guys is a waste of time, but then I feel guilty, especially when it comes to my hubby. So here's a nice handmade card tailored just for him, but didn't take me hours to finish. Win-win! 

I hope you enjoyed this extremely simple, somewhat cheeky card! It's so nice having a bit of a crafty break in my studio... I'm just in there playing and experimenting, which is so fun. Anyway, have a wonderful Friday, everyone! 

Aurora Borealis

During my crafty "play date" with my friend last weekend, I decided to create my own version of this card by Betsy Veldman from Papertrey Ink's October release. I wanted to use some non-traditional colors that still conveyed the idea of winter, so I chose Vintage Jadeite, Winter Wisteria, and Hawaiian Shores as my color palette. 

For my main panel, I chose to heat emboss the snowflakes onto a piece of A2 sized Fabriano watercolor card stock using Hero Arts White Satin embossing powder. I then took the three ink colors of my chosen color palette and blended them over the embossed snowflakes for an emboss-resist. After it was done, it reminded me so much of the Aurora Borealis lights. I just love this color combination.

The rest of the card was fairly simple, but there are lots of different textures to add dimension. I die cut one of the scalloped quilted tags from minty foil card stock from DCWV. I then die cut the Quilted: Winter quilt block twice: once from silver glitz paper (also from DCWV), then again from regular white CS. I stamped the cut outs with the coordinating stamps for just the center section, as I wanted the lovely foil to shine through and juxtapose with the super sparkly glitz paper. 

I adhered the glitter frame on the scalloped tag die cut, then glued in my stamped die cut pieces. The stitched flag was stamped with a greeting from the Quilted: Winter stamp set, then adhered to the tag. I popped the whole tag up on the card base, then added a silk bow.

I am pretty much in love with this card, and I'm planning on recreating it with several other color combinations. I just love that emboss resist in the background. I hope you enjoyed it, as well! Have a great day! 

So, my life is crazy.

These last few weeks have been crazy. First, we had the babies' birthday party, which went so well, but took quite a bit of preparation. Then my cousin, who is also my bff, got married two weeks later and utilized my crafty skills to help decorate. I was happy to help her, thrilled to be her matron of honor, honored that she trusted me to make such high profile items for her big day, but.... It was a lot of work haha. Between my design team commitments and crafting for these recent events, then traveling with my mom, hubby, and babies five states away to attend the wedding, I've not had the time to play with the copious amounts of Christmas supplies I've been purchasing over the last couple of months like I wanted. Well, last weekend my friend and fellow PTI addict came over for a crafty afternoon, and I decided to dedicate those few hours to my PTI Christmas supplies that have been calling to me.

My first card (I'll blog about the other one later) was very heavily inspired by a card that Nichole Heady showed during one of the release countdowns. I used my favorite Hero Arts Hand Drawn Snowflakes background stamp to heat emboss the snowflakes on Fabriano hot press watercolor card stock using the new Hero Arts White Satin embossing powder. (That stuff is seriously so incredibly gorgeous. Wow.) I then used my ink blending tool and Tumbled Glass, Broken China, and Salty Ocean. I started with the lightest shade (Tumbled Glass) and blended it in the center of the panel, leaving the very center empty. I then blended a halo of Broken China around that, and finally finished with the Salty Ocean around the edges. I went back in with the Tumbled Glass and Broken China and blended the colors more seamlessly, and added a touch of the color to that empty center, still keeping  the very center the lightest shade of blue. I then die cut the Let It Snow sentiment from cobalt card stock and covered it with glossy accents after adhering it to my panel. A couple of  Glass Slippers and Light Blue Topaz sequins from The Ton finished it off.

I hope you enjoyed this card as much as I enjoyed creating it! I love having low-key crafty sessions where I can just play. Good for the creative spirit. I hope that, now that my big crafting commitments have been completed, I can have more moments of just plain crafty fun in my craft room. Have a wonderful day, friends!

The Ton Stamps sneak peek!

Hello again! This is my second sneak peek post for today. I'm up on The Ton Stamps blog today with a frosty shaker card and tag to match. I hope you'll stop by to check them out!

Butterfly Reflections Ink Sneak Peek!

Hi friends! Happy Monday. I'm up on the Butterfly Reflections Ink blog today with a watercolored holiday card and a tip about how to stretch your stamps to get more use out of them! I hope you'll stop by and check it out!

Butterfly Reflections Ink Sneak!

Hi friends! I'm up on the Butterfly Reflections Ink blog today with a set of "official" nice list stationery. I hope you'll click over and check it out!

Have a great week! Back soon with some more Christmas cards. :)

The Ton November Mini Release!

Today is the day! The Ton Stamps is having a mini-release featuring their Holiday Flourishes stamp set with coordinating dies. You may recognize this stamp set from the Catherine Pooler Stamp of Approval boxes that went out last month. Now, you have the opportunity to purchase the stamp set on its own! And, and, AND there are now coordinating dies available! Heck, yes!

Okay, let's jump into the projects. I made a card, a tag, and a card-tag (hybrid? Completely made up? Yep, probably just the latter.) This post is kinda long, so I hope you'll bear with me.

When I first received the set. my initial thought was to use all of those gorgeous flourishes (that are so nicely cut with the dies) to frame a shaker window. I haven't made very many (if any... I can't remember) pastel holiday cards this year, and this set was just screaming to be stamped in mint, pink, and silver.

After cutting all of the shapes included in the die set, I stamped them all in Silver Delicata ink. I then used Vintage Jadeite ink from Papertrey Ink to stamp the holly leaves, then stamping the outline in Silver Delicata ink. The berries were stamped in PTI's Autumn Rose ink. I die cut a circle from the mint card stock panel, then arranged the flourishes, leaves, and berries the way I wanted without adhering them. I then placed this half-finished panel in my MISTI, placed my flourish and dot stamps where I wanted them, closed the door, and removed the die cuts to begin stamping. This may seem convoluted, but it helps me to get the flourishes placed exactly where I want without the possibility of stamping on my die cuts.

Now, for the background, I heat embossed the sentiment from The Ton's Holiday Lyrics in silver embossing powder onto some Fabriano hot press watercolor. I then took Spun Sugar Distress Ink and blended a halo around the sentiment, then blended some Worn Lipstick around the edges of that to create an ombre effect. For the "shake shake" part of the shaker card, I used Glass Slippers, Pixie Pink, Mojito Sparkling Clear sequins, and Clear Pink Coral seed beads. I adhered everything to an Autumn Rose card base. 

For the tag, I was still in pastel mode, but wanted to change up the mint to aqua. Pink, aqua, and gold is one of my absolute favorite combinations in general, and I think it looks so pretty combined with the lovely holly stamps. Those flourishes are going to be SO versatile... look how gorgeous they are in gold! Anyway, this tag is super simple. Once I had the design laid out, it took maybe 20 minutes to die cut, stamp, and adhere everything. Love it. I used Delicata Gold ink and PTI's Aqua Mist and Autumn Rose. 

Now, this tag is probably my favorite project, as well as the simplest. This color combo is awesome. It looks so cute with a red and black buffalo check bag, but I just couldn't get a good photo of it, so you'll just have to take my word for it. :) I simply heat embossed the sentiment from Holiday Flourishes onto a black 3 1/2x4 inch notecard using Liquid Platinum embossing powder. I then heat embossed the leaves and berries onto black card stock, die cut them, and placed them on the card after heat embossing a few flourishes in the background. Some red Liquid Pearls really pop against that black card stock. Love it.

I hope you're still with me at the end of this super long post! Enjoy the rest of The Ton's DT's creations... I'm off to go check them out!

Sympathy cards...

They're really not my favorite cards to make. (I'm sure I'm not the only one.) I had cause to make a couple of sympathy cards recently for a good friend of ours, and I decided that I probably better get a couple in my stash, so I don't have to be put on the spot like that and try to come up with something quickly.

This one's pretty simple in design. I used the first set I ever purchased from The Ton Stamps: Fresh Cut Peonies. The blooms are so detailed... just simply stunning. I wanted a bouquet of blooms dripping from the corner on a stark black card base, so I die cut the blooms using Bazzill's Candy Hearts card stock. I chose to use colored card stock, as opposed to white cardstock, because I didn't want to bring in that unseemly white edge that comes with die cuts. (I know, I could have fussy cut them, but these blooms have intricate edges, and naptime was almost over!) I love how such a simple alteration of using colored card stock versus white makes such a huge difference in the feel of the card. I stamped the flowers using Hero Arts Pale Tomato, Altenew's Ruby Red, and PTI's Scarlet Jewel inks. I die cut the leaves using PTI's Limeade Ice cardstock, then stamped them with Limeade Ice, Simply Chartreuse, and Ripe Avocado inks. I double heat embossed the "thinking of you" sentiment (from The Ton's Large Peony 2) using gold embossing powder, then arranged and adhered my flowers in the corner. As an afterthought, I decided to add some flourishes (coming next week in a mini release from The Ton, so stay tuned!) in Delicata Gold ink. A few gold sequins finished it off.

I hope you enjoyed this rather somber card! See you in a few days.

Watercolored Mistletoe.

Hi all! I hope your week is going well.

I'm here today to show you a quick card that I made using the Hero Arts Under the Mistletoe stamp set.

To begin, I heat embossed the beautiful leaf image, sentiment, and bow on a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor card stock. (I'm not entirely sure why I did that at this point... If I remember correctly, it was getting late, and I didn't feel like digging out my Strathmore, and the TH was handy LOL!) I then used my Distress Inks to watercolor it. The Festive Berries that I used for the background is just the perfect shade of Christmas red, and the muted greens in the Distress palette are subtle and lovely. I watercolored the ribbon in Aged Mahogany, then decided it needed some shimmer, and covered it with my gold Wink of Stella, not realizing how much the WoS would change the original color. The resulting copper color was not in my original color scheme, but when I covered it with Clear Pico Embellisher, I decided that I quite liked it. 

After it had dried, I trimmed the whole panel down to 3 3/4x5, then matted it on a piece of DCWV pine green foil card stock. (Foil is SUCH a pain to photograph! I promise, even though it looks black in the photo, the foil is actually dark green.) I mounted both panels on a top-folding Kraft notecard. The whole thing took me maybe 30 minutes, start to finish. Easy peasy, nice and flat for simple mailing... my kind of card!

I hope you enjoyed this card. I will be back tomorrow with a card made using peonies from The Ton. Have a fabulous Thursday, friends! 

Massive peonies for The Ton!

I'm up on The Ton Stamps blog today with my first official design team post! I hope you will stop by and check it out! :)

Step It Up- holiday style.

Hi all! I'm over on the Butterfly Reflections Ink blog today with a holiday "step it up" tutorial using just one background stamp, one die set, and one sentiment set. I hope you'll stop by and check it out!