Tis The Season

When I first saw the color choices for the Play Date Cafe's challenge this week, I hesitated. My plan is to try to get holiday pieces done now and be a little prepared for the season and this sophisticated combo didn't quite say Christmas to me. By the time I put it together with the Mojo Monday sketch and some left-over Basicgrey paper I changed my mind. Here's where I started:

See, that's a beautiful color pallette and it's a pretty sophisticated sketch. But often beautiful and sophisticated go together and I think this time it worked out for me.

Although it's hard to see in the photo, I stamped the cream background cardstock with several size snowflakes from Papertrey Ink's Winter Swirls in soft blue and with a Versamark Watermark ink. It's all embossed to give it slight dimension, as are the mittens. For all my worry, I ended up liking this card a lot. Hope you do too!

A Tradition of Gingerbread

Does your family have any holiday traditions? Ours does, several in fact but one of our absolute favorites is gingerbread. For many years we had a gingerbread house making party. Seventeen to eighteen kids, candy from one end of the patio to the other and icing that hardened on to everything! Truly unforgettable. That's why I'm a sucker for anything gingerbread to this day. When I saw the weekly Card Patterns challenge I knew I had to use it for this design. Here's the sketch:

This card features the gingerbread man from Papertrey Ink's Holiday Button Bits.

He's a cutie isn't he? I made the cookie sheet by dry embossing two lines on the edges of a piece of silver cardstock, rounding the corners and folding it up. I stamped and embossed the gingerbread man but since that's the only stamping done this card goes together very quickly.

Hope your home smells of sweet gingerbread this season! 

 

Gratitude

Do you Facebook? I don't. Well not really - I farm, but that's a whole different problem. But because I have to go through Facebook to farm, I read other people's wall comments. One friend has me deciding to at least post daily on Facebook. Her suggestion, and she's already begun, is to post one thing you're thankful for a day. And she said not the obvious stuff like family. I like it. It's a good idea. Today I'm grateful that I got this card finished before it got too dark outside for photos. And that's a really big thing for me to be thankful for, believe me!

This card hits four, count'em, four challenges at once. It's a sketch, JUGS6, a Color Throwdown #68, a theme of "Thankful" from The Pink Elephant and then then adds the leaf requirement from Pile It On. It looks better than it sounds, honest.

You can already see that the colors and leaves work together and adding Thankful - logical too.

Here's the card:

I did some dry embossing today, always a good thing because it doesn't demand perfection. The templates are from Lasting Impressions and the cardstock is from a DCWV Brights stack with a white core. I try to use white core for dry embossing in case I want to distress. I made a determined effort not to use buttons on this card - been over doing those a bit! - and thought I'd gotten away without ribbon too. Not quite - the embellishment was on the clearance rack at Michaels. 

Gratitude on Facebook. I'm gonna try it. Try it here too - I'm really thankful if you read this!

More Untraditional Christmas Buttons

Even with practice, my night time photography doesn't do justice to the colors in my cards. Especially this time. The card is for Taylored Expressions sketch # 90 and the color challenge at The Playdate Cafe.It's a shame too because this sketch is sooooo usable and these colors are always going to be stunning.

See? The sketch has tons of possibilities any way you turn it and the colors are classic. At any rate, here's my card:

The stamps are from Papertrey Ink's Holiday Button Bits and the sentiment is from their Take A Bough. The papers are from the stash. If you look close, I took the lesson at Nichole's blog and layered the snowman's head up to give dimension. This stamp set is pretty much idiot proof though. I don't think you can wrong using it anyway you like!

Once again, sorry about the photo. This card is much better in real light but had to be submitted by midnight. Timing in life is everything! Thanks so much for stopping in!

A Little Less Traditional Christmas Color

Getting a head start on holiday cards and wrapping is always my plan, not necessarily well executed. This time I'm trying to apply card challenges to Christmas themes in hopes of getting at least a little bit done before the last minute. Here's a card for Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge #46 and the color challenge at Pals Paper Arts, PPA15.

My card is a smallish, 4 1/2 x 41/2 gift tag card.

 

Sadly, I don't have any grey inks. So I used a marker to ink up the Papertrey Holiday Button bits stamps. I dry embossed the check on the red cardstock and then sandpapered it for dimension. The printed paper is an old Basicgrey release and the cardstocks are from a DCWV paper stack. Enjoy!

Biscuit and a Basket

This has been exceptionally nice for a Monday morning. The weather's breezy, my husband brought me a chicken biscuit home on his way back from the gym and my stitches have stopped itching! Got time to put together this card for Scrapmaster's Paradise Color Challenge #22. This is a nice group of people to 'play' with - give'em a try if you haven't already! Here are the colors:

And here's my card:

I used cardstock and papers from my stash baskets. The basket itself is woven from 1/2 inch strips. Quick and simple card - I left it with no sentiment so I can use it whenever I need a card.

Hope your Monday is as pleasant as mine! 

 

Gone to the Dogs

As a family, we've always loved dogs. A definite preference for bigger rather than smaller, but dogs in general. Until last fall, we had been dogless since the spring of 2006. My husband took pity on me when the youngest child went to college and got me Emma, a German Shepherd. She's now 15 months old and until recently was the center of the universe. Just ask her. Now, suddenly and happily, we're a family of dogs! Nigel the wonder Corgi joined a little over a month ago and Colby, the Australian Cattle dog puppy just last week. This card is for them from Emma. She helped. And if you haven't had a German shepherd help you carry stuff out a screen door while you're on crutches, believe me, you haven't had help!

I used the Color Throwdown Challenge #67 and Mojo Monday sketch #111 for the design. Here's Emma's card:

Best part? I WON these stamps! Earlier I posted a card with stamps I won from Papercraft's blog . This set was included. And at that time, we didn't have a dog with a patch or a mask in the family. The stamps are from a set called Cosmo Pups from Gel a tins. And they come in a nifty tin too! BUT WAIT! There's more! Stamps that is. (And I'll use them another time). The papers used are from the Wild Saffron die cut mat pad from K&Company. Those pads are a nice way to get variations in papers if you're a cardmaker and not a scrapper.I made the collar embellishment and used some open holed brads that look like eyelets.

Hope you've had time to enjoy your family dogs lately! 

Colby

Pictures of Redheadedson's new Australian Cattle dog for his grandmothers!

 

I 'Heart' Trees

I love the colors of fall. Not that we see a lot of them in the true sense here in South Florida, but they're some of my favorites. So when I grabbed this little tree stamp from the dollar bin at Michaels I knew I wanted to use it for a card. This time it's for Card Positioning sketch 140.

 

 

For real, the stamp was a dollar. The sentiment stamp? A dollar too, but it came with three otherstamps. Such a deal! To make the trees multi-colored, I inked them in Papertrey Ink Summer Sunrise and then dabbed a little of their Melon Berry ink over that before stamping. Quick and easy way to get detail on a solid stamp.I smudged a little chalk at the bottom to 'ground' the trees. Terrible pun huh?

Thanks for looking - 'she shouldas' always welcome!

A Blue Christmas

It's November, the stores have their holiday decorations up and although it seems to be rushing things a bit, here's a holiday card for Card Patterns Sketch 39:

This card is a simple shaker card.

 

This is super simple to make. Just cut a hole, then cover it with acetate. To make the space for shaker pieces, cut a hole in a piece of foamboard, put in the "shaklings" and back it with the stamped cardstock. Easy as pie and a real hit with little guys! I used the Christmas Critters set for stamps, a great set made by Cornish Heritage Farms.Although most of the snowflakes are loose in the shaker, I did use glue dots to attach three of them so they appear higher in the window.

If you haven't tried a shaker card, give it a shot. Easy and fun for kids! 

Think Pink!

Combining Pals Paper Arts PPA14, In the Pink, and Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge #89 made this a fun challenge! Here's Taylor's sketch this week:

 And here's what I did with it. It's a 4x4 inch card, done in pink to support Breast Cancer research:

I know, I used Papertrey Ink's Holiday Button Bits again. But honestly, they're so much fun, they're my newest stamps and they make you look great! The buttons are from PTI as well, the Vintage collection and the paper - it would be fair to say I hoarded. I don't know who made this pretty pattern.

Thanks for looking - As always, if you have a "She shoulda done this or that", please leave me a comment!