So many snowmen

Hi there!

I have a just-for-fun card to share with you today, for the love of snowmen:

I rarely find the time to craft outside of my design team assignments, but I picked up the Mama Elephant Little Snowman Agenda stamp set and thought it would be a cute addition to the kid-in-snowman costume that I illustrated (from Christmas Pageant.)

I love him holding the hands of his teeny snowman friends, and they are all dressed up in their red scarves and winter hats. Can we talk about his skin color? I just think it's so striking to see a darker skin in contrast to the white of the snowman costume. Like a darker skinned bride in a glorious white dress. So beautiful! As opposed to how pasty I looked on my wedding day, haha. I need to make more of an effort to show more diversity in my coloring, and I will make a point of being more conscious of it. My husband is Indian, and my own kids have darker skin. Every single time I color an image to "look like them" they comment on how cute it is.

That being said, I do find it harder to find a good copic combination for darker skin. If you color, can you share your faves? I used E55, E57 and E59 here and I think it's perfect.



I added some green trees (from Bunny Slopes) and a few stamped snowflakes to the background, and then popped everything onto a green plaid background. It's my favorite card of the season so far!

Thanks for stopping by!

♥.

Advent calendar extravaganza (with Taheerah Atchia)

Hi there!

Advent calendar extravaganza is the festive event of the season! This "hop with a twist" was dreamed up by Taheerah Atchia and features surprise destinations each day. Joining in the fun with Taheerah are 100 special guests - each serving up some fantastic Christmas inspiration. Just like an advent calendar, you'll never know where you're going to be visiting next until you "open the door."

And that's not all! With 25 amazing sponsors taking part as guests, your crafty wish list is bound to get a boost with a chance to win a prize every single day!

Join in the fun every day at taheerah-atchia.com to see what special surprises await behind the door.

I have a couple of cards to share today, using stamps and dies from today's sponsor: Neat and Tangled.



I volunteered to make a Christmas card with Maia's 2nd grade last week, and was able to share how I illustrated all of the images, and how we build our cards from start to finish. We made the one on the right, but it was fun to show them how with only a few tweaks, you can make 2 entirely different cards.



This was a fun full day, cutting out enough card pieces for 25 students, plus another 10 of everything because we all know some of the kids will be needing second chances here and there!

Santa and the North Pole sign are from Santa's Wonderland, the little penguin is from Get Yeti, and the candy card is from Beary Merry. I printed out the french greeting to fit into the banner from Mermazing so that I could have them all die-cut to match the rest of the images. I kept thinking: I designed these stamps, and I couldn't have included a french greeting? gah! I need one for sure next year. Most of Maia's classes are in french!



I showed the kids how to sponge ink onto a piece of patterned paper to add dimension. They really enjoyed doing that!



I snapped a pic of Maia's card to show you the kids' finished product. She was a little upset she didn't have copics to work with in class, but I think it turned out great! I brought a glue pen and glitter too, so they could add shine to their snowbanks. It's hard to see here, but  Maia's card is a shimmering masterpiece!



Here is my variation card: I kept the same layout, but switched out the patterned paper and images to create something new. The little boy/snowman from Christmas pageant is out pulling his dog-on-a-sled (from Get Yeti.)

I hope you like what I've created for you today! Before you go, don't forget to leave a comment! By leaving a comment on both my blog, and Taheerah's, you'll be eligible to win a prize today. And be sure to check out the Neat and Tangled blog today too, as they are sponsoring the prizes today!

You will have until 23:59 EST on December 31st to enter.

♥.

We wish you (with Neat and Tangled)

Hi there!

I'm here and on the NT blog this morning with another Christmas Pageant card. These little kids are so fun to color!

The card is pretty straightforward, but I like that it came together so quickly. The fun part of card-making for me isn't in coming up with a fancy card design, it's the coloring. I colored my 3 favorites in a classic red-green holiday combo and created a frame for them to sit inside.

The sentiment fills in the space at the bottom so well. I love a larger-scale sentiment!



The little Christmas tree girl looks like she has an arm around the snowman. so cute!

I hope you like it and thanks for stopping by!

♥.

Joyful Sentiments (Neat and Tangled release week)

Hi there!

Welcome to Neat and Tangled's November release week. All of the products that we feature throughout the week will hit the store on Friday morning!

So far:

Day 1: Wishing You Love

Day 2: Christmas Pageant

Today, we're showing off another hand-lettered set, this one designed by Miriam. Joyful sentiments will have you singing while you stamp!



I used the little boy from Christmas Pageant and did some ink blending in blues and yellow to highlight the star.

Using Distress Inks I started at the bottom, with Black Soot, working up to Faded Jeans, Peacock Feathers, and into Tumbled Glass. For the yellow I used Squeezed Lemonade.

I wanted the sentiment to sit on either side of the focal image, so I carefully snipped it apart and heat embossed both parts. I used a dark blue copic marker to give the boy a little shadow underfoot and popped him up using foam adhesive. To finish off, I dotted the background with a white gel pen and mounted the panel onto a folded white card.

I hope you like it!  There's more to see on the NT blog this morning - click!

Christmas pageant (Neat and Tangled release week)

Hi there!

Welcome back to Day 2 of this month's Neat and Tangled release week. In case you are just tuning in, be sure to check out:

Day 1: Wishing You Love

Today, we're all showing off my latest 4x6 stamp set, Christmas Pageant.

It features 4 cute kids in costume, snowflakes and stars that you can hang from the auditorium ceiling, and a few fun sentiments.



Can I have a favorite? The red-headed snowman kills me.



The card layout is basic, because I really wanted the kids to be the stars of the show (pun completely intended.)

I colored all of them, and set them onto a wood-grained background. I used the dotted line from the set to hang snowflakes and then created falling snow by way of a white gel pen. This is an upscale production, obviously. They had a budget for falling snow. ha.

Having been to my share of Christmas pageants, I would have to say that a few players are missing: the kids picking his nose, and the girl who keeps lifting up her skirt. The hotter the mess, the better the production, amirite?

I hope you like these little cuties! I love them all lined up, but wouldn't they be perfect on their own, on Christmas tags?

Let me know what you think before you hop over to the NT blog this morning - click!

♥.