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!