dashing through the snow...

I'm throwing my hat in the ring for the embossing challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays.  Gold embossing everywhere!

I started out by rubbing versamark ink all over *this* snowfall stencil.  I am having a serious love affair with that stencil.  Once it was peeled back, I was able to throw gold embossing powder over the card and heat it up.



More of the same for the sentiment and one horse open sleigh image.  I used ZING embossing powder, but I have to admit that I'm not thrilled with the coverage on the sleigh.  I think I prefer WOW powders, but I don't have that brand in gold.

I hope you like it!  If you are joining this Friday's in-my-home-card-class, I really hope you like it - you'll be crafting one of your very own.

♥.

What's black and white, with a splash of teal?

my card.

you didn't expect me to be a cardmaker and a comedienne too, did you?  Hee hee.  I'm entering this card into the Play Date Cafe Challenge.  Yesterday, I shared a last minute card I needed for Sofia's English teacher.  This one is "sliding in" for her French teacher.  Oh!  pulled that one right outta my hat.  Did ya get it?  Sigh.  You may have to see the card first.... scroll on down!

Oh, and also, this card was created for my latest papertrey princess challenge: snowflakes.

I grabbed my white mat and cut 2 mat stack 4 shapes to make this huge opening.  I then embossed it with my SU stripes folder.  The snow drifts were embossed with SU's polka dot foder, and then given a light coat along the top edges with a glittery glue (SU diamond details).  The card-base, PTI's guidelines grid cardstock, was stamped with my "splash of teal" (it's more turquoise, I know, but the point is there are snowflakes.)  They come from PTI's "in the meadow" set.  The matching dies provided my boy-on-sled silhouette.

I used lawn fawn's "sally's abcs" for the sentiment.  The entire stripe-embossed mat was mounted onto the card-base with foam squares.

And so was the sledder.

Thanks for looking!

stocking tags.

I shared a picture of our sweater-stockings a few weeks ago, but since then, the kids kept asking: "mom, which one is mine again?  Which one is daddy's?  Are you sure you'll put the right chocolate in mine on Christmas day?"

Enter: stocking tags.

I used PTI's tag sale 4 for the ornament shape, cut out of their coaster board, and stamped with lawn fawn's "schoolhouse backdrops."  I then die-cut a photo-finishers strip in kraft cardstock and used my lawn fawn alpha set to label each stocking.  The woodland animals and snowmen were cut using "in the meadow" dies.  And, for a touch of color, the holly leaves and berries, cut with PTI's holly jolly dies.

Thanks for peeking!  (I took this picture a day earlier - the day 12 isn't flipped open on our advent calendar!)

Glittery & bright

The number of family members feeling under the weather has grown to include... all of us.  I still managed to crank out a card on the weekend that I haven't shared yet:

I used the hanging snowflakes image from "friendship jar: holiday fillers" and stamped them 3 times across my white mat in versamark ink.  I then heat-embossed them all in silver.  I colored each grouping, including the rhinestones, with a different blue-green copic marker.  The main image was matted onto a sheet of silver cardstock, and then to a white card-base.

The sentiment is from "in the meadow," and was stamped in black ink.

I'm linking this card to the CAS-ual Fridays challenge - I used their sketch for my card.

Thanks for looking!

Winter birthday wishes.

I'm going to keep the writing short and sweet since I'm still a bit hopped up on Nyquil, head-swimming from hearing dry coughing in stereo sound...

Our latest Papertrey Princess challenge is to create a birthday card.  Awesome, since my dad and my sister have birthdays coming up in a few weeks, and I'm pretty sure my mom will be contacting me to create their birthday cards *wink.*

I used the "lost & found Christmas" paper-pack, from My Mind's Eye - aren't they so rich and cozy looking? The sentiment is from PTI's "in the meadow," and the mug and spoon images are from Paper Smooches' "hot concoctions" set.  To add to the cozy feel of the card, I distressed the edge of my white mat, beneath all the patterned paper, and sponged all the edges in "vintage photo" distress ink.

Thanks for looking!

PTI blog hop: christmas cozy.

Out with the turkey, in with the Christmas!  (We had our Canadian thanksgiving in October, and have been itching to have our American friends catch up - hee hee!)

Here's the PTI blog hop inspiration photo:

I'm a traditional kind of gal when it comes to holiday decorating, so this fits in perfectly with my color scheme!  I pulled the garden greenery and the bright red and white gingham from this photo and came up with a set of holiday tags:

I used this week's MIM technique to layer sentiment stamps onto my kraft tag-base.  I then stamped a whole sheet of paper with the larger gingham strip in SU's real red ink.  Once the entire sheet was gingham-ed, I was able to make fast work of running my "in the meadow" dies through and ending up with this trio of gingham cuties.

I die-cut just as many white tags as I did kraft tags, so that I could tear the bottom half to look like snow drifts.  I gave each tag the finishing touch of holly leaves - the green leaves were embossed with an SU embossing folder, and the berries were given a hit of glossy accents.  Love how they shine!

I've created 10 of them so far, but I'll definitely be needing more of these before long!  I'm also entering these into the current simon says stamp challenge: tags!

If you're interested, here's a little peek into our holiday decorating - it's still a work in progress, but I hope you like it!

our tree, complete with ribbon accents from SU's clearance rack :)

I picked up these plain white letters on the cheap, and covered them with scrap papers

embroidery hoops, leftover fabric, felt, and PTI dies.  Love!

our sweater stockings

my favorite ornament: the scary woodland owl (my hubs hates it)

If you've scrolled all the way to the bottom, thanks for looking!

MIM #42: backgrounded sentiments

This week's MIM challenge is to make a layered background, using sentiment stamps.

I layered some "think big sentiments," and a few sentiments from "tiny treats: christmas" and "friendship jar holiday fillers."  I stamped them in full strength, but kept them tone-on-tone to still treat them as a background pattern.  To add some extra depth, I opted to stamp the hero arts envelope pattern background stamp over the whole red mat.  I love that stamp so much - it's subtle, and adds the perfect amount of texture.

My snowman duo was die-cut from the "in the meadow" dies and propped up with foam squares.  The tiny snowflakes to the left of the "merry and bright sentiment" are from lawn fawn's "making frosty friends."

I also dry-brushed some shimmer paint onto my little snowmen.  They glimmer in real life, even though they may look a little dingy here...

I'm also entering this card into the CAS-ual fridays challenge - I used their lovely sketch for my card :)