Christmas in the country

Hello and happy Monday! Today I made a Christmas card, slowly adding to my stash. Now I have 4! Yay! So, the warm color challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown was tripping me up, and I couldn't think of how to work it. But then I saw the barn challenge at Merry Monday, and I knew immediately what I wanted to do. In addition to those two challenges, I'm also entering this into the Holiday (No birthday) challenge at Pile It On.

I used the whimsical barn stamp from one of my favorite stamp sets. I stamped it in black ink and colored it with Cranberry, Sunset, and Sunny Yellow inks using a paintbrush and water. Then I stamped two trees to make it look like winter time, and I gave it all a thin coat of fine white glitter.

The inside says "...for Christmas comes but once a year."

I hope you can make your own Christmas card this week using some of these fun challenges!


Materials used:
Cardstock: White Daisy, Cranberry
Stamps: Howdy, Cityscapes, Card Chatter-Christmas
Ink: Black, Sunny Yellow, Sunset, Cranberry
Other: glitter (not CTMH)

For Him

Welcome to my second post of today! This time I have created a card for a man. I was inspired by the challenges at:

CAS-ual Fridays - Boys of Summer
Crazy 4 Challenges - Masculine
As You See It - Masculine inspiration board
Your Next Stamp - Sketch and colors

For this card I used 4 of the 5 colors from the Your Next Stamp challenge; I also used their sketch. I used a Champagne card base. I cut a circle out of a square of Dutch Blue, and then ran it through a woodgrain embossing folder. I stamped a tree in Desert Sand and centered the squared over the tree. I affixed it with foam tape to give it some dimension. To make the scallop, I cut circles and then snipped them in half. Then I layered on the sentiment. I meant to make the light blue Glacier, and I just pulled a scrap out of my scrap bag, but I think it's actually Sky or some other light blue. Glacier would be a little greener, and I think I would have liked it better, but it still looks nice. I kept thinking it needed a little something more, and I finally found some twine from the Wooden Mini Medleys. I think it gave it just the right touch!

I hope you are able to join in some of these challenges with me this week!


Materials used:
Cardstock: Champagne, Dutch Blue
Stamps: Country Born
Ink: Dutch Blue, Desert Sand
Other: Wooden mini Medleys, woodgrain embossing folder (not CTMH)

Rainbows, Flowers, and Friends

Happy Saturday! I spent the last two days cleaning my house and getting ready for a party, which we hosted last night. We had a great time, and today I'm relaxing in my nice clean house and spending some time creating. I had a great morning of swimming and knitting at Starbucks. It was Worldwide Knit in Public Day, in case you didn't know. I haven't knit since Christmas time, so it was nice to get it out again.

Today I made a colorful card for some Clean And Simple challenges. The challenge theme at Addicted to CAS is rainbows, and the trend technique at Just Us Girls is to use alcohol inks. So I decided to get out my alcohol markers and messily scribble over my panel a pretty but messy rainbow. I contained it to the top panel in order to keep it CAS. I'm also adding this to the friendship theme at Less is More, and the sketch is from CAS(E) This Sketch.

After I colored the panel, I cut a circle out of a portion of it, then stamped the flowers directly onto the card base. I attached the panel with foam dots. I stamped the sentiment onto a scrap and glued it to the panel.

I hope you can spend some time on this beautiful Saturday creating something beautiful! Here are some challenges to get you inspired.


Materials used:
Cardstock: White Daisy
Stamps: Bunch of Love, Happy Times
Ink: Holiday Red, Pear, Sunset
Other: Touch Twin Markers - Cherry Pink, Marigold, Golden Yellow, Leaf Green, Turquoise Blue, and Lavender

Christmas Angels

I've been meaning to make a Christmas card every week this year. So far, I've made 3! Ooh boy, I have some catching up to do. The challenge at Merry Monday is very helpful for inspiration. This week they're asking you to create a card with angels on it. I'm using the tic-tac-toe color board from Color My Heart. I've chosen the left Column - Sapphire, White Daisy, and Bashful. The sketch is from Sunday Stamps.

I stamped the angels onto White Daisy cardstock with Baby Pink ink (I don't have Bashful yet). Then I stamped Gloria in Baby Pink onto my oval, and stamped the verse under it in Sapphire. I used velum for the banner panel to keep the look soft. I matted the oval in White Daisy instead of Sapphire for that monochromatic look. I used a touch of Canary in second generation stamping for the star, and a touch of Smoothie in the baker's twine

I hope you'll come join me in these challenges this week. The tic-tac-toe is so fun!


Materials used:
Cardstock: White Daisy, Sapphire
Stamps: Angelic Blessings, Everlasting Life, Glory to God
Ink: Sapphire, Baby Pink
Other: Paradise Baker's Twine, Vellum (not CTMH)

For an Anniversary

Hey all! Today I decided to make a card to play along with some Wednesday challenges.

Freshly Made Sketches
Simon Says - Wedding/Anniversary
Word Art Wednesday - Psalm 1:1
Color Throwdown - Black and White plus Aqua

I used a Lagoon card base and layered  with White Daisy and a Black and White Daisy vertical panel. I stamped the sections of the cake in black onto White Daisy and the topper in Lagoon, then I fussy cut it and affixed it with foam tape. The sentiment was stamped in Lagoon and also affixed with foam tape. I was so tempted to add ribbon or embellishments, but I thought it would take away from the clean, modern look of the wedding cake, so I resisted the urge, and left it plain.

My printer isn't working right now, so I couldn't add the bible verse, so I stamped Proverbs 3:5 in White daisy on the inside. It is also a wonderful piece of advice for a married couple.

Come and play along with me at these challenges this week!


Materials used:
Cardstock: White Daisy, Lagoon, Black
Stamps: Happy Couple, Everlasting Life
Ink: Black, Lagoon, White Daisy

The Early Bird

So I found some interesting challenges today that I combined to create one card. I enjoyed the challenge of putting them all together. It was quite fun.

The first is CASology with a Clean And Simple assignment and a farm theme. The second was CAS Colors and Sketches with the colors Melon Mambo, Garden Green, and Pumpkin Pie. I used Close to My Heart colors Smoothie, Topiary, and Sunset. The third was Shopping our Stash to use some of your favorite things. My current favorite thing is this stamp set I used: Catch You Later. I've had it forever, but have not played with it much, so I challenged myself to use it this week. The fourth challenge was Tuesday Morning for the sketch. I altered it just a little to fit the CAS assignment. The fifth and final challenge was the banner challenge from Heart 2 Heart. So I made a cute little banner out of cardstock scraps. I hope you like it!

I chose a White Daisy cardstock base, and layered a White Daisy triangle over top of it. Then I cut out 1-inch colored squares and folded them at the bottom, and cut them into triangles from the fold point. They became dimensional that way, so I popped them up with foam dots. Then I stamped the rooster with the sentiment on White Daisy and cut it out into a circle. The little pin clip is stuck into the foam tape for the small circle element of the sketch.

I hope you can join me at these challenges today!
 

Materials used:
Cardstock: White Daisy, Topiary, Smoothie, Sunset
Stamps: Catch You Later
Ink: Black
Other: Pin Clips

Summer!

Today marks the first day of my summer break. Hopefully I can work on some cards a little and I'm excited! We have moved, and I have a great craft room in my new house (pictures to come). Today was the first day I got to work in there, and it's so roomy, I love it!

Today I made a card using the colors from Color My Heart and the sketch from Atlantic Hearts. I didn't like the sketch at first, but after I put my card together I realized that it works! Here you go: I'd say my first attempt at creativity was a success!

I used chocolate instead of nutmeg, since I don't have any nutmeg paper or ink yet. I will probably send this card to my dad, or give it to my husband as a father's day card.

Come play along with me at these challenges:

Materials used:
Cardstock: White Daisy, Chocolate
B&Ts: Flirty, Frosted
Stamps: Catch You Later
Ink: Chocolate, New England Ivy
Embellishments: Studs and star chipboard shapes