More Festivities

It is a big week this week, the list of stamp sets that are retiring out of the US Idea Book & Catalogue was released a couple of days ago, and wow what a list it was.  Here on the other side of the world in Australia we have our own retirement list but are always eager to see what is staying and what is going from the US, and lots of guessing happens around this time - a bit like guessing what is in packages at Christmas time!  What a great lead in to the reason for this post  ....

                     

I have been enjoying making Christmas cards recently, and enjoying using both traditional and non-traditional colours. My card this time around is being entered into Merry Monday, and Creating with Connie & Mary as the non-traditional colours!

When deciding what to do with this card I decided I wanted to try something a little bit different, so I used the lovely Velvet ribbon to make the stripes on the card backing, with the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder it really makes me think of the old wallpaper.  I quite like these colours for Christmas, and am going to miss this stamp set if it retires here in Australia like it is going to in US.

Happy Stamping

Christmas at Easter

Let me start by saying Happy Easter to all my blog visitors.

In a small twist of seasons I have made a card to enter into two challenges, Freshly Made Sketches and Festive Friday Challenge.

It did feel a bit odd making a Christmas card on the Easter weekend, but having made so many Easter projects in the lead up to now, it does make a nice change.  I love finding different colours for Christmas, not just traditional reds and greens, and this week's Festive Friday Challenge gave me just that.  Don't these colours look great together? I couldn't help adding a bit of bling with rhinestones and glimmer paper.

Happy Stamping

Simple Christmas

 I might have missed January but I am on track with my Christmas cards for February having joined the Merry Monday Challenge for the second week.

My creation is fairly simple, but given a bit of a lift with a silver Glimmer Paper enhanced star on the top of the tree.  The tree is from Seasons of Joy and the sentiment from Short & Sweet, the DSP is from this year's Letters to Santa collection.

Only a short post for me today, I have a few more projects I have done that need photographing and uploading, so pop back over the next few days.

Happy Stamping

Christmas Trees

Isn't this a beautiful elegant inspirational picture this week at Paper Lovin' Gals?  I love the way that each week people look at the picture and are inspired in so many different ways - how will you be inspired this week?  Will it be the colours, layout, content or one element of the picture?

For me it was the colours and the three little Christmas trees.  I knew what I wanted to do when I saw this and yes, it involved glimmer paper!  I cut three triangles out of card stock - 2 from Always Artichoke and one from Very Vanilla. I put them all through the Big Shot using the Lattice Embossing Folder, with the Very Vanilla one I first adhered some circles I punched out using my Crop-A-Dial and 3/8" Circle Punch.  Once they had the lattice embossing on them I rubbed the surface of each with Platinum Shimmer Paint.  I also used the Shimmer Paint directly on the rubber to stamp the sentiment.  I was really pleased with the way this card photographed, often it is difficult to pick up the look of the glimmer and shimmer on a card, but this shows it off almost as good as in real life.

Happy Stamping

Christmas Yummies

Christmas Yummies was my first thought when I saw the inspirational photo at Paper Lovin' Gals this week.  Cooking treats is one of my favourite things about Christmas, I am a little behind the cooking this Christmas, but I do have my dried fruit soaking ready to make my pudding and fruit mince pies this weekend.  Then the Rum Balls and White Christmas (the closest thing we have to snow in Australia!), my daughter and I often cook together and sing "It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas" as the aromas of baking pies and rum balls fill the air.  Anyway ... that is what this picture reminded me of ... what does it make you think of?  How does it inspire you to create? Come play along this week at Paper Lovin' Gals.

I knew I wanted to use the little snowman out of the Tags Til Christmas set, and played around with a few ideas until it came to me to use him as decoration on the icing of a cupcake!!!  The icing on the biscuits at the front of the photo reminded me of show and so I replicated this in the two snowflakes on the card.  Ever since I started playing with the Silver Glimmer paper I have not been able to put it down!  On the centre circle I have sponged the edges which I think worked quite well, though you may need to click on the photo to see it properly.

I hope you have been inspired to join in this week, if you need a bit more pop over to Paper Lovin' Gals and see what the other Design Team members have created.

Happy Stamping

Pals Paper Christmas

Don't you just love it when you see a sketch and immediately know what you want to do, grab the supplies, and within 15 minutes have completed the card???  It happens so very rarely but tonight as soon as I saw this sketch from Pals Paper Arts it all just fell into place.

I haven't used my Seasons of Joy stamp set in a while but after dusting it off it made the perfect centre feature to this Christmas card.

I inked up the image using Cherry Cobbler, and then using a cotton bud wiped off the ink on the tree, star and snowflake, then coloured them in using Garden Green, Daffodil Delight and Marina Mist.  The addition of some sponging, mini pearls, and a touch of embossing on the Cherry Cobbler layer were the finishing touches.  

Don't forget to pop over to Pals Paper Arts and check out the other great cards.

Happy Stamping