WWC40 -- Joy!

I'm so excited!  This week for the Watercooler Wednesday challenge it's my turn to set the challenge.  I've decided on an "anything goes" which is always such fun, isn't it?  But wait!  For my "anything goes" challenge, you have to add holly somewhere on your creation.

Wait until you see Jean's card.  She got a bit sneaky with adding the holly.  But it just goes to show you that there are many ways to satisfy this challenge.  I know all of the Watercooler Artists had a lot of fun with it.

I got a bit ambitious with my holly.  I stamped the image from the Embellished Ornaments set and then, after colouring it, fussy-cut it out.  Somehow, and I know I had to have an Angel sitting on my shoulder throughout the ordeal, I managed to cut that intricate image out and a) I didn't lose my mind or b) it didn't fall apart.  Both options were distinct possibilities.

The ornament is cut out from the new Red Foil with one of the Delicate Ornaments Thinlits dies.  Then I cut into the die-cut ornament with one of the Bold Butterfly framelits.  After that I cut another butterfly from the Silver Foil and then inlaid the silver butterfly into the ornament.  Fussy?  Yes!  But the finished effect is everything I had hoped for.  I laced some of the pretty new Real Red Striped Ribbon through the top of the ornament as well as through the "Joy" which I had cut from Garden Green cardstock using one of the Wonderful Wreath framelits.

The reason for the sheen on both the holly and the "joy" is due to the generous coat of Crystal Effects with which I covered each of them.  The holly berries also have a bit of extra dazzle because they are actually tiny circles which I cut from the Red Glimmer paper.

I hope you enjoy my card as much as I enjoyed creating it.  For more creations using holly, check out our Watercooler Wednesday challenge.

I've also entered this card into the Weekly Christmas Card Challenge.

Since the Stampin' Royalty Challenge is having an "anything goes" challenge this week, I've also entered my card into theirs.

Sometimes I do my posts late at night and obviously my thought processes have already begun to shut down.  I posted this to the Addicted to Stamps & More Challenge using the wrong url and not linking back.  My apologies.

PCCCS168 - Happy Wonderful Christmas

I love the easily cut out images that make up the beautiful Home for Christmas Designer Series paper.  I've already cut out one of the Santa Claus images for a card and this time I chose the adorable baby reindeer.  The sketch challenge for the Paper Craft Crew just seemed to be perfect for it.

To make the image "pop", I kept my colours to a minimum.  I used the heavy weight Whisper White for my base, added a layer of Cucumber Crush and then a layer of the normal weight Whisper White.  Across the lower portion of the card I added a strip of Basic Grey onto which I added some of the pretty Cucumber Crush Dotted Lace Trim ribbon.  Then I stamped the holly branch from the Embellished Ornaments set onto a die-cut circle twice, extending onto the layer of Whisper White.   After colouring the images, I added the fussy-cut image of the young Rudolf, mounted on Dimensionals.   The sentiment from the Wondrous Wreath set completed my card.

For more cards using this sketch, I invite you to visit the Paper Craft Crew challenge.

I've also entered this card in the Weekly Christmas Card challenge.

For another fun challenge, I invite you to check out the Watercooler Wednesday challenge.

CCMC378 - Hello Fall

I've never created with Connie and Mary before although I have, many times, enjoyed the results of their challenges with the inspiration that they've given me.  But it's time, I thought, to give a bit back.  And so I've finally created something for one of their challenges and am posting it in time to play along.

I love colour challenges.  For me, however, Autumn usually brings forth thoughts of oranges, reds, yellows, browns and greens.  Connie and Mary decided to have only three of those colours in their challenge.  Well, that's what makes challenges such a good exercise, making full use of what is there.

I decided to have a base of Soft Suede followed by layers of Hello Honey and Mossy Meadow.  Finally, for my stamped layer, I turned to Whisper White and used the Sheltering Tree stamp set for most of my stamping.  For the leaves I alternated between the Hello Honey and Mossy Meadow but off-stamped the Mossy Meadow once to get a greener look.  I did the same with the grasses.  My sentiment is from the For All Things stamp set and, again, I off-stamped the Mossy Meadow once.  The card didn't look complete to my eye.  And so, rummaging through some of my retired sets, I found the Up, Up and Away stamp set, stamped the bird images using Soft Suede and was finally satisfied with the results.

For more cards using these colours, check out Connie and Mary's Challenge.

WWC39 - Today's the Day!

One of the things I love about being one of the Watercooler Artists is that I get to see everyone's creations ahead of time.  You have to understand that seeing the challenge weeks ahead makes it difficult to be patient.  The challenge for this week is a fun one.  Susan has provided a colour challenge and I had such fun with it.  The first thing I thought of was a nautical card.  What do you think?

Maybe it was in part due to those cute banners that Susan used to showcase her colours for the challenge.  No matter, the inspiration came and my card is precisely that, a nautical themed card.

I decided to use a technique which I haven't done for a while, the mirror-image technique.  The ship from the Traveler stamp set lends itself to that technique particularly well.  If you haven't tried the technique, it's actually a lot easier than it looks and it always manages to thrill the recipient.  You just stamp your image on the paper, allowing sufficient room for a duplicate image below it.  Then you use a piece of plastic (I use the Window Sheets) onto which you stamp the image once more.  Quickly, before the image dries, you line it up below the original on the paper and use it as a "stamp".  The image won't be quite as crisp as the one stamped on the paper but it will be the mirror image and works beautifully.

I used both my Stampin' Markers and my Aqua Painter and ink pads to achieve the colours on my card.  Then I used the So Saffron to sponge around the edges of the sentiment as well to balance the colours.  

I hope you'll join us this week and link up your card to the Watercooler Wednesday challenge.

PCCCS167 -- Thanks

Colour challenges are always lots of fun and the new one at the Paper Craft Crew is no exception.  The colours work beautifully for this time of the year.

I decided to heat emboss a variety of leaves in white embossing powder all along the top, right side and bottom of a piece of Whisper White.  After that I used sponge daubers to add ink in all the colours of the challenge.  I love the way the white of the embossing is emphasized with the sponged colours, don't you?

A bit of burlap, some gold baker's twine and a die-cut "thanks" complete my card.  Here's a close-up view of the embellishments.

Check out the remaining Design Team cards at the Paper Craft Crew Challenge here.

Stamps at a discount! Yay!

Every once in a while a great sale comes along and this is one of them.  From October 19th to 23rd Stampin' Up! is offering their wonderful stamps, from both the Annual Catalogue and the Holiday Catalogue, at 15% off the regular price.  If there is a stamp that you've been thinking about getting, this would be a great time to get it.  If you decide by Wednesday, October 21st by 10 p.m., your stamp(s) can be included with my order and you won't have to pay any shipping.

Or you can go to my online store and make the order yourself (not with free shipping) and have it delivered right to your door.

The Wacky Watercooler October Holiday Round-Up

It's time for another Wacky Watercooler Blog Hop and this one is such fun.  We're having a Holiday round-up.  In other words, we can make anything we want for the upcoming holidays.  When you consider that this time of year is full of holidays, that's really exciting.  You could say we have a "smorgasbord" of holidays from which to choose.

As you will remember, if you've wandered through our blog hops before, our blog hop is presented in a circular fashion.  What does that mean?  Wherever you begin in our blog hop, whether you go forwards or backwards through the participants, eventually you will wind up precisely where you began.  I hope you'll take time to visit all the participating blogs and, perhaps, leave a short message letting us know  what you've thought of our posts.

If you've been moving forwards through the blog hop, you'll have arrived here from the very talented Marsha Reed's blog.  Weren't her projects terrific?

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I like to start off simply and save the best for last.  In keeping with that habit, my first project is created using one of the frequently overlooked but ever-so-handy notecards and envelopes.  I decided to use a package of those for a make-and-take I'm doing for a charity event this weekend and so this card is doing "double duty".  If you're coming to the event, you get a preview today.

The notecards are slightly smaller than my usual cards, measuring 3 1/2" x 5".  That still leaves lots of room to create a terrific Christmas card.  I'll give you a quick preview of the inside of the card.  Yes, I've used the new and ever-so-elegant Joyful Season stamp set.

You can see I've stamped a partial cardinal in the top left corner and also partially coloured him.  The fun thing about this stamp set is that it is a "two-step".  In other words I can stamp the image and then there is another stamp which fits inside that image so it's possible to colour it in by stamping.  Lots of fun!

The notecard is Whisper White on top of which I've added a layer of Tip Top Taupe and an oval of Whisper White.  On that oval I've stamped the cardinal as well as the branch of berries upon which he sits.  I used Real Red for the cardinal and the berries.  For the branch I used Tip Top Taupe and Soft Suede.  I added a bit of sponging to the perimeter of the oval with some Marina Mist.  

Seriously, these notecards are perfect and there are twenty in a package, plus matching envelopes.

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My second project is all about Hallowe'en.  I'm not doing anything special for all the hoards of children who come to the door, but there are a few special ones for whom I like to fuss a bit.  I used the Curvy Keepsake Box thinlit for this treat holder, but not in the conventional way.  For this one I simply cut one side twice and then used adhesive to hold the bottom together.  This way it made a nice little wrap for some candy and used less of my cardstock.  

The treat holder is cut from the black diagonal striped Colour Me Irresistible Designer Series paper.  I love the subtle shine of the stripe.  The black also makes a wonderful backdrop for the images I stamped and cut using the adorable new Howl-o-ween Treat set and Boo to You framelits dies.  This is the back for which I cut "boo" out of a piece of Delightful Dijon cardstock and then sponged it using black ink before glueing it to the treat holder.

For the front I stamped and cut a Pear Pizzazz owl and Delightful Dijon pumpkin.  Yes, I had to give the little owl those spooky eyes!  It's for Hallowe'en, after all.

I finished off the treat holder by tying the top with a Delightful Dijon bow.  I love, love, love that wonderful Dotted Lace Trim ribbon!

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Time for my last project and, as promised, it's stunning.  Yes, I'm patting myself on the back, but I really do love this final creation.  What is it?  Well, it all began with a piece of corrugated cardboard from one of the Stampin' Up! shipping boxes.  I used that to cut a circle within a circle.  Yes, a doughnut, I suppose.  Anyway, I needed that so that I could wrap it up with Burlap Ribbon.

That didn't take your breath away, huh?  Well what about when I add this pretty die-cut, red foil "Noel"?  It looks a lot better now, right?

I'm sensing a degree of disappointment with my project so far.  But you have to indulge me and be patient.  I'm having a bit of fun here.  What do you think I did with these?

By the way, this was my first time playing with the Festive Flower Builder punch.  I made one small Poinsettia and a larger one.  For the green leaves on which they're mounted I used one of the Leaflets framelits.  First I cut all the petals and leaves from Watermelon Wonder and Cucumber Crush cardstocks.  Then I used the same colour of ink to stamp them with the vein images from the Reason for the Season stamp set.  After that I had fun with the pieces, using my Simply Scored stylus along the veins, folding them, crushing them.  All in the name of art, of course.  I love the resulting texture.

Be warned, I'm going off on another tangent.  We'll get back to the Poinsettias later.  What I did for the next part of this project was to take a circle of the white filter paper and stamped it using the images from the Reason for the Season stamp set.  Then I added some holly from the Embellished Ornaments stamp set.  After that, I used my Paper Snips to cut the images out, leaving a narrow white border.

What did I do with that cut out image?  I placed it on a candle, covered it with a piece of wax paper, making sure that the image was being held tightly and without buckling.  Then I took my heat gun and aimed it at the image on the candle.  I knew as the image became brighter and more colourful that it was melting onto the candle with a layer of wax from the wax paper over it. 

 I carefully peeled the wax paper away and had my decorated candle.

So, what did I do with those Poinsettia flowers that I created?  I hot glued them onto the burlap covered circle, the larger one at the beginning of the "Noel" and the smaller one at the end.  And then I slipped the decorated candle inside the pretty burlap circle.

I love the way it turned out.  The candle is wax-covered and battery operated.  In other words this will last forever without melting down.

You can see the burlap candle holder much better from this angle.  I've also turned on the candle so you can see the lovely glow of the flickering bulb.

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Well, that's it for my projects.  I hope you enjoyed them as much as I've enjoyed creating them.  If you get a moment, please leave a comment and let me know what you thought of them.

Your next stop will be with a very creative member of our group, Priscilla Ivler.  I'm sure you'll be amazed with her wonderful projects.

WWC38 - Spooky

I love Tic-Tac-Toe challenges.  The only hard part is deciding which of the lines to follow.  I can always think of so many different things to do with all the options.  For Buffy's challenge I must have gone back to the choices at least a half dozen times, making first one decision and then, as I thought about how much I liked another option, making a different decision.  Finally I just stopped over-thinking the whole thing and chose to make my card using the third line, vertically.  In other words, my card would have dry embossing, glitter and leaves.

For my dry embossing I turned to the very versatile and fun new Woodland embossing folder.   After using the embossing folder on a piece of Whisper White, I used my aqua painter to add some muted colours to the background and also took my Basic Black Stampin' Marker and filled in the lines of the birch trees.  For my glitter I chose to use Glimmer paper.  That is just chock-full of glitter and much easier to use (I'm bad about spilling glitter).  So one of my layers is cut from the new Black Glimmer paper and the spooky red eyes of the owl as well as the wicked eyes in the upper right corner were cut from the Red Glimmer paper.  In person this card is shiny and glittery.

The last requirement for my Tic-Tac-Toe line was to add leaves.  Since these are Autumn trees, there are still a few coloured leaves hanging onto several branches.  

I hope you'll try your hand at creating a card from Buffy's Tic-Tac-Toe challenge this week.  You can see cards created for the challenge by the remaining Watercooler Artists at the Watercooler Wednesday challenge site.

PCCCS166 - Home Sweet Home

Sketch challenges are always fun and this one is no exception.  I really liked the simplicity of this week's Paper Craft Crew Challenge sketch.

I debated about making this a holiday card.  After all, Hallowe'en and Christmas are on the horizon and there are lots and lots of wonderful products to use for either one.  But somehow with the wonderful sunshine and mild weather we've had lately, I just didn't feel in the holiday mood.  I had bought some cute dies to cut keys from a vendor at the Farmer's Market and really wanted to use a key in my project.  

What goes with keys?  Well, houses of course!  And so I dug up that cute retired Holiday Home stamp set.  I had such fun putting all the shapes and elements together, including, of course, the cute silver foil key.  This would be a perfect card for someone just moving into a new house, wouldn't it?

For more cards using this sketch, check out the what the remainder of the Design Team has created at the Paper Craft Crew Challenge site.

WWC37 -- Thanks (Jackie's Sketch Challenge)

This week's Watercooler Wednesday challenge is Jackie Susnik's sketch.  I love its simple lines.  They're deceiving, however, as that diagonal line down the centre complicates things.  But then that's what a challenge is for, right?  To challenge you and to make you create things that you might not otherwise create.

I decided to keep my card rather simple.  I chose the heavy Whisper White cardstock as my base and then kept the rest of my colours to Island Indigo and Tip Top Taupe---except, of course, for my butterfly.  That stands out with its Island Indigo and Daffodil Delight colours.

The patterned paper which I used between the Island Indigo layer and the embossed Tip Top Taupe layer is from the Cherry On Top Designer Series paper stack.  My stamp sets are the Wild About Flowers, Another Thank You and, of course, the Papillon Potpourri set.

I hope you'll take the time to check out the wonderful cards created by the remaining Watercooler Artists at our Watercooler Wednesday challenge.

PCCCS165 -- Hello Fall

It's time for another Paper Craft Crew Challenge and this week's sketch made me think of Fall.  I guess the four squares reminded me of a window and these days Fall is what I see through my windows.

Yes, I have the window framelit die and could have used that to complete the sketch but, instead, I chose to create the four squares and put together my little fall scene that way.  For my image, I used the beautiful Sheltering Tree stamp set.  I love that the canopy of leaves is separate from the tree trunk and branches because I was able to go wild with my Stampin' Markers and used different colours here and there to create the patchwork colours I see everywhere.  Not only was that such fun, but also the results were stunning.

For the little embellishments at the top right of the sketch, I chose to use the acorns from the For All Things stamp set.  Cut apart and coloured, they were a perfect addition.  For the bottom left, I decided to use one of the leaves from the Vintage Leaves stamp set and cut that out using its matching framelit.  The wrapped twine under the leaf?  That is one long string carefully pulled from a length of Burlap Ribbon.  I don't do things the easy way.  The sentiment is perfect and is also from the For All Things set.

I hope you'll come over to the Paper Craft Crew Challenge and check out the remaining Design Team cards.

I've also entered my card into the {PIN}spirational Challenge this week.

This also seemed like the perfect card for the Male Room challenge since it celebrates Fall.