Some simple Christmas

 I had spent some time messing around coloring these Mondo Poinsettias from Ellen hutson not to long ago so, these were colored with markers. and were cut with scissors and are up on pop dots over the base. Its 6" square in real life.

 These the silver is a shimmer paper from DCWV and the fiber is very thick so, the stamped panels had to go up on thicker ( 1/8" ) foam dots for balance. the one on the left is A-2 and the one on the right is 5 1/2" square and used up one more of those premade bases. The reindeer are from a clearly besotted set called lets prance.

 These red green combo ones are flat cards there are no pop dots of foam between the diecuts and the base.

 This one ends up being #4 of 4 for November for me for the annual Christmas card challenge at SCS. That lace is vintage.
It's 6" square in real life.

 The inspiration challenge a week ago went to a board of 3" cards. and I seen some that used these colors as a combo so, since I loved the colors that was all I kept of the design. the snow angel is a retired one from Paper and Such and I have always thought it looked like vintage carved wood so, its barely colored that way. the sentiment is from Unity Stamps on a scrap of previously colored watercolor paper.
This is 3X3 in real life.

These were also inspired by something I had seen on the last weekends IC thread ( the little 3" cards had off set circles on the bases) these elves are from Hero Arts and were colored with markers.

Out on a Limb

Good Morning here is a clean and simple one using a couple of sets from Two Paper Diva's the bird is from the feel better and the limb and sentiment are from the Branching out set.  I was just pushing around this bird and limb around and actually remembered I had this paper and thought maybe the leaves would work. And so it did. The bird was colored with SU markers and a ranger white marker (for the eyes). I did paper piece those leaves onto the limb. The end of the branch is tucked under the window on the left and the bird is up on foam dots over the limb. I did use my misti to add the sentiment to the bottom of the card. I kind of laughed that the colors turned out so pretty and springy. seeing as it is seriously fall here now but, its kind of fun to mix it up and do things out of season some times too. (a small break from the Christmas is coming mindset) This one finished out at 6" square in real life. Thanks for stopping by and remember the entire Two Paper Diva's store is 30% off while they get ready to retire. when I linked to these set's this morning they were both still in stock.

WOYWW #386 & {a wing-less unicorn}

Happy Wednesday Ladies, here is a peek at my ( tuesday evening) desk. If you would like to play along with us, shoot a shot of what you are pushing around in your space and link it up here at our hostess Julia's blog.

So, this it the aftermath of the Falliday's challenges and tutorials I had done as of yesterday evening. I did not get much cleaning done after so, it pretty much still needs cleaned and looks like this today. the clearly besotted lamb is one of the possibilities I had while thinking of the unexpected and or new stamps challenge, ( I went with one of the reindeer and a elf hat) the unmounted rubber is some Halloween ones from Impression Obsession that I had found while I was looking for a witch stamp and I ended up pulling them off the blocks while I had them out and stamped some to color for the heck of it. the Tupperware container has some rock salt in it, the lids off because, some of the crystals did not feel completely dry when I tossed them back in. See that aqua thing behind the ink pads? that is the lawn fawn stamp cleaning cloth, and it works really good. ( I take it downstairs and get it wet and wring it out on days I can play) I did read somewhere to use the back side to wipe since it will stain, but still clean ( that is true) but, you should also know the stain will be visible from the front side of this eventually. so far so good, its better than baby wipes or a scrub brush pad with a dry towel after. ( no fuzz balls on the stamps ) and for clear stamps it gets them clean, ( the scrub pad on clear stamps generally makes them very dirty looking after to me)

off to the right, the scrap pile grew quite a bit this last couple of weeks, the top thing is a napkin that was to be fused to cardstock with cling wrap. ( it worked a tiny bit in the center for me so, I die cut out that part before it decided to un-fuse. ( which it did right after the photo was shot for the challenge so, mine ended up getting glue tucked in under the edges. ( and the glue did not want to stick to the plastic wrap) so, that was one of those things. Under that is a print out of the challenges list, which I had printed when there was a few days left to go so, I had to rely on my own memory for the last bunch of cards and so, that of course adds to the delay.

This was my first attempt at the salted background challenge because, I knew I had this scrap in the pile left over from something this summer and I thought oh the colors could almost be a Halloween spooky sky. and then I seen this unicorn, ( have a pile of them colored in my little pony type colors ) in that tray on the back of the table and thought I may make this another bright birthday card for the card drive. ( and then I gave the unicorn some clouds to stand on since its wings are invisible) lol and then I thought about it some more and thought maybe unicorns do not have wings? at any rate it is not floating in outer space how is that?

Falliday's {last 3}

 Lydia's second challenge was to create a salted background inspired by melted snow... so, this has some weathered wood and stormy sky for the background and the foliage is from the Penny black set called festive florals and the sentiment is from the SU set called Merriest wishes. this one finished out at A-2 in real life.

 Patty's first challenge was to fuse a napkin to cardstock with cling wrap. ( this one I turned the air in my laundry room blue doing this.) it did not want to stick, so, I finally got a small section in the center to hold. so, I die cut it smaller real quick and wrapped burlap string around it trying to keep it together. the sentiment is from SU.

Lori's second challenge was to be inspired by hard Christmas candies. ( of which I have no memories of that I can remember but, I am pretty sure I have seen candy canes with this (printed paper) pattern to it so, I cut it up and grabbed a couple of the previously stamped sentiments to finish them off as very simple ones. and I believe that puts me at 30 challenges and 5 tutorials done and loaded. There is still time this next week to do more so, now I am going to shift the focus to a few more for the card drives and clean up the mess. haha thanks for stopping by.

Last weekends fallidays cards

 Jean has a challenge for you to pick a side, are you a good witch or a bad witch as the theme... my guess is the bluntness of what comes out of my mouth some times makes me swing towards both sides of the fence. The witch shoes are from whipper snapper and the sentiment is from dylusions.

 Rebecca has a challenge to use some metal in a Milagros kind of a theme so, I decided to start with the heart and I cut it, embossed the stitching then covered it with foil tape. So, I knew I had some ken oliver liquid metals so I daubed some on, they wiped right off, then I tried some adirondack alcohol inks, also wiped right off. then I grabbed a jar of bo bunny copper glitter paste. ( ah ha success the glue decided to stick) The background is an polished stone from AI on glossy card and the sentiments are die cuts from SSS & HA.

 Ceal has a challenge to use blended colors of fall. with an landscape inspiration mug shot near her home. So, I grabbed these Hero Arts trees and the Oct. snowglobe set ( the deer and birds) and about 10 inkpads for this. ( the list is on the gallery upload if your curious)

 Dina's second challenge is to do a Kraft one layer card with white heat embossing on it. ( what ever you want) so, it looked so neekid when I was done that I ended up tying on a ribbon across the top and adding some clear wink of stella to the leaves.

 I am not all that sure you can see any sparkle even in this view but, you can see its darker.

 Kathy has a card drive challenge to do a pet holiday thank you card for the humane society in MN. so this kitty is from Penny Black ( colored with some zig and distress markers) and the sentiment is out of my previously made stash so, I forgot)

 Patty's second challenge is to be inspired by apple crisp. ( colors images etc) so, I dug out this really old PSX stamp and colored it with some prisma pencils.

 Kathy's challenge is to Create a "blue" Christmas card. So, this image is an (old retired) one from Elyzbells in the UK size that was heat embossed with white on some blue shimmery stardream cardstock, the shadows were done with a Ranger picket fence marker and the tree, scarf and star were done with glitter pens. I did then go over all the exposed blue in the scene with a clear wink of stella pen. This also was tweaked to suit the Dirty Dozen Oct. Christmas card challenge seen here.

 Joyce has a challenge to use new stamps in a new way or old stamps in an unexpected way. I think this reindeer you expect to read something sweet for the sentiment because it is cute, so having the reindeer steal an elf's hat and have a bratty sentiment is maybe a little unexpected ( maybe not by me because, I do lean snarky with things but, maybe it would have been unexpected from someone really sweet right?) The reindeer is from the clearly besotted time to prance set, the hello is from My Favorite things label maker and the behave is from Dylusions. That hat is a memory box die from a set called holiday hats.

 Yvette has a challenge called snow much glitter to create a hoar frost filled scene. so I used this Penny Black Snowy Park image and used some majestic blue to give it that frozen feel right off the bat and then daubed some crystal stickles all over. ( the paler blue is the catchlights on the glitter glue) so, it was shot wet on an easel. This sentiment is from the clearly besotted set called time to prance.

Edna has a card drive challenge that is for children ( 2-18) that have lost a parent. featuring bright colors and stars. This was hard for me, I hardly ever make kid cards and use bright colors. so, these stars are from Unity stamps and the sentiment is from Wplus9.
This leaves me with 3 more challenge cards to finish. So, having this week as a "catch up" time is going to be a really handy thing for me, because I would like to complete them all. Mainly to support the hostesses who have put this together. I don't know if I will finish the other 5 tutorials, I am thinking about a couple of them still in my head and we will see.

Hello there Chickie

Ah, I just realized it is friday. Which sounds funny because, yes I did know yesterday was Thursday and if you are used to peeking in for a Two paper diva's fix I totally spaced uploading. So, this one is a day late. sorry. The twig & berry wreath was heat embossed with Ranger Adirondack butterscotch powder on some cream cardstock and then after I added on some Candy cane colored stickles. the bird is from the fall is in the air set with the pumpkins and leaves. and I did add some nuvo glitter drops to the birds eye. The sentiment is from the new Everyday sentiments 4 set. The textured base on this is from Bazzill and this one is A-7 in real life.
At this time the items left in the store are all 30% off as the owners will be retiring by the end of the year. From what I seen as I linked these up this morning all these sets are still available.

Wednesday's Falliday projects

 Kelli has a challenge that you need to build your snowman ( not using stamps...) So, this is some Micheals ribbon that was wound around a couple of diecut circles that had glue dots on them. and the eyes are sequins, the nose is a scrap of some mixed media sheet I had left over from something ( that ended up being chicken noses when I was doing the shaped chick cards, most of the buttons have scrappers floss through the holes except the red one as it the holes were too small to thread so, I used a black sharpie to draw a line between the dots on that buttton. the Felt hat was cut free hand from a wool scrap, Now the arms are cardstock and were die cut from a echo park wintertime die set. the tag was premade and has this rustic vibe going on and so, I just tied a second piece of the same recollections plaid ribbon through the hole with knots at both ends to make it more of an Ornament than a package tag.

 I tend to make a lot of things to be given away and this is the first thing I have made that tempts me to keep it. ( I still may do so but, I think this one has moved into my most favorite project since fallidays started now)

 Ky has a challenge to use either a watercolor bokeh or a bokeh background using masking for your focal point. so, I chose the watercolor bokeh. I started with a watercolor sheet that I used some brusho's with water on it with a scrap circle diecut used as a mask. I do not have the good luck to own white craft ink that stays inky haha so, I used watered down off white acrylic paint through a Donna Downey bubbles stencil for the dots. And I added these previously colored and cut out elves ( Hero Arts) to the focal and a Unity sentiment, die cut the panel with the largest die in the new waffle flower lacy layers die, tied on the ribbon and called it done.

 A closer look at the dimensions of the elves.

 I colored the elves with distress markers & prisma pencils, and the scarves have some spectrum noir glitter pens over the top ( which will transfer glitter forever in my experience.) at some point I will have to go through and seal over all these scarves because, the sparkle the pens put out is beautiful but, they stay "messy" even when dry.

 Misti has a challenge to create a gift card holder. So, I have a pinterest board that is just ideas I want to try some day, and today I picked this one because, I had received one like this before on a larger scale and I saved it as an Oh Yeah kind of thing... so, Here is what I did. I cut 4 of the largest classic circle dies from some double sided printed paper. and I scored each circle so it would fold in half. then starting at the top. ( picture a clock here) I then lined up the second circle to the 3 o'clock position using the score lines. You need to make sure when you glue these the score lines are outside of the circles that they touch so that you can fold these into a square. ( if you have the circle in too close to the center it will try to fold not on the score line.) So, I just tucked each circle going in a clockwise pattern around until all 4 circles/flaps are there. I decided that I needed a blank space to write a note so, I used the largest stitched square die from My Favorite things to glue to the inside center of the "package". ( see below) I then folded the flaps also going in a clockwise direction and tied a ribbon around it loosely ( so it can slide off like a belly band) and then tied on the sentiment with some scrappers floss.

This is an old used gift card I saved as a photo prop and guide because, I make a lot of gift card holders I find it easier to have a card on hand to tuck into things to make sure they are going to fit. kwim? so, this was just sitting here for the mug shot, its not adhered to the inside and I removed it after.  So, I think at the end of the day I am still averaging being "behind" by about 6 projects and there will be new ones posted for a few more days. I am pretty excited about how much I have gotten done this last little while too.

WOYWW # 385 {happy mail}

These photos are a little backwards in the timeline of when I shot them. ( over the last week)

I've had more than a few deliveries of happy mail including some handmade birthday cards ( but, I am saving those shots to do one post with each of them later in the month) :) 

If you have not stopped by on a Wednesday before and are curious about the mess display you can find this blog hop's link up here at our hostess Julia's blog to play along. 

 

 

 The good news is I feel like a Hooouman again ( head has been stuffy for weeks) Its a seasonal change thing I think. at any rate I have been making a few cards here and there when there is daylight the last week. and some of my orders have been trickling in and so, I have piles of new stuff that I have played with a little and piled up the bulk of them. I have told my self that I am going to stop shopping for the next little while.( I have multiple orders of will ship in bits and pieces out from 123 stamp and simon says stamp  (but, I have already caved and ordered a couple more dies from the ellen hutson release yesterday morning) *sigh* (one of the emails claimed it is my birthday month lol) So, OK I can live with that.
in this shot the lower portion of the photo has a pile of shaving cream stenciled background which was really quick and fun to do ( a little smelly) ( studio still smells like shaving cream) there is a spread out shot of them a seen here. and below that is a pile of napkins that I removed the white layers from them to do the felted cardstock tutorial with.

 

 Monday's loot that was unpacked yesterday afternoon, a water drops stamp from Designs by Ryn and the funny people set from lil inkers just came back in stock a week or so ago so, I tossed the other things into the cart just because, I did use the leaf background die after this and that card can be seen here. Its just a simple one for the fallidays challenges.

 So, one of the things I am doing is moving stamps, dies, stencils to an evernote project. and one of the things I do is I save mug shots from the web when I order things online but, I do buy things in local stores too so, taking these shots reminds me to go find photos of things and add them to the inventory. ( its been very helpful with making upload posts mainly at scs because, you have all those boxes of who makes this tool to fill in and my mind will come up with the MFG but not the set name most of the time so being able to plug in reindeer and see all the sets with one has saved me a lot of time from running back up the stairs to dig for the set to find its name to finish the upload) (yes, that really was my old system) So, this was shot last Saturday of things that arrived in the mail after lasts wed. the Halloween stamps are from Whippersnapper and the Hero Arts Oct. monthly kit I did add in the background dies and did use the star confetti on a card seen here.  
the waffle flower die set is a companion one to the original so they can be layered ( it it recently came back in stock)

 

Now this is the third and final gift of things I received from the Fall coffee lovers blog hop. These things came from scrapbook adhesives 3-L. there are lots of foam pop dots ( which is one of my most reached for things in my space) and the cool thing is some of them are cut into shapes. so, I am excited to see what they will do. some of the foam is black also so that will be neat for darker projects. I have never bought this brand before so, It is just such a useful neat gift kwim? I still need to get the thank-you posts up on facebook and hopefully soon, ( want to play with the things first and such) I will be peeking in and out from work more than likely. Thanks for stopping by & have a good day!

More Falliday's projects

 Lisa has a challenge to use an Owl with a whoo loves you theme... so, these stamps are from the Unity Stamps set called going to be owl-right. its colored with waterbased markers and has some pencils scratched over the top for texture and finished out at A-2 in real life.

 Lori has a challenge to use texture... and I had this pile of shaving cream stenciled backgrounds laying here begging to be played with so, I cut one apart and popped it up on pop dots over the base and use an Xyron to turn the words into a sticker to be below. So, this one finished out at A-7 in real life. This only has paper on it, so its all a visual texture not a touch able one.

 Jacqueline has a challenge to use a mono gram and normally I tend to do these as Christmas tags but, I recently got this lil inkers leaf die in the mail and wanted to play with it, so I had been cutting up scraps on the table and thought, this could work as a note card for J. the letter (sizzix  is the only thing not shimmery so, I added some faux stitching to it with a stardust gelly roll pen. This one is also A-2 in real life.

Falliday's Shaker money holders

Vicki has this cool tutorial seen here that is how to turn those Avery elle plastic stamp pockets into shaker money holders.  I received a fuse tool for Christmas last year, and I had just removed it from the box to try this.The first thing I learned was that 10 minutes is not a long enough heating time if its 40 degree's outside of your house. haha. seriously, I went slow, but I also went back and forth and ended up with all kinds of tracks in the plastic that did not seal for me. So, the tool has no on off switch or any indicator light telling you its "hot " enough so, eventually I got the bright idea to plug it in and time it ( I prop up my cell phone in the tray of dies on my table) so, this one was done after about 15 minutes of warm up time and that worked much better for me.

I am thinking that snowflake charm may be from SU. ( I have all my snowflakes in one canning jar together so, I am not certain anymore on that) the snowflake die cut I am guessing is lawn fawn but, I also own a set from someone else so will double check) the metal key tag is a martha stewart one from staples office supplies. and those big snowflakes inside the shaker. they are confetti. because to me confetti looks like flat sequins. 

 This one the Ho Ho Ho (hero arts) was heat embossed on a scrap of red with white powder and then cut into this shape. the Santa hat is a Jolee's sticker.
I did use red liner tape around the tops of these pockets to hold the ribbons and lace in place.

 The sticker had a sequin on it. some of my sequins are vintage so, I really don't have a supply list of those for you all.

Now this was a variation on the them because, I had seen the tutorial Julie did here and loved that too. The sentiment is from the My Favorite things gifting fun set and was heat embossed with red powder on some gold mirror paper. it did end up being a slim window above the word for shaking doing this, and I did get some of the smaller bits in there but, they don't shake and I covered them up with the lace.
I fully intend to do a few of these as I think they are really just pure fun. Thanks for stopping by,

Christmas Fallidays items

 This was done for Lee's challenge seen here to do snowy / frosty leaves. So, I puttered around about this one in my head for a long time. And I happened across this marvy snow pen that I had never played with. It finished looking like those old liquid applique things, but its format is more liquid than that so, the waiting time to heat and puff it was shorter.  It's also more of a cream than a brilliant white so, I kept this on the rustic side. ( I also hit the leaves on the bottom right corner a tad too long and cooked them) but, it just adds to the distressed look. the printed paper did warp being heated behind these leaves as I had it all glued in place before I daubed the stuff on. ( I used a scrap and made a puddle with it and used the tip of the pen like a paint brush to get it where I wanted it) So, the panel is up on foam tape to give it some Oomph and help straighten out a few of the warps.

 A closer look at the "snow" . The holly die is from Penny Black called red and green, the Sentiment is from Hero Arts. the printed paper is from Authentique. and this one finished out at A-7 in real life.

 Now this was done for Teresa's mood board inspiration  challenge seen here. 
 So, this is a little of this and a little of that from the mood board in Teresa's challenge. I had originally thought to make this a big tag and did cut a Mama Elephant big tag from the insulation pink cardstock but, it was nearly the same sized as the scalloped panel so, you could not see the pink peeking out. This card ended up going into a clear box as it is pretty lumpy. I just tied the snowflake diecut on and that put that corner up as high as the ribbon knot so, there are 3 foam dots stacked under the center of the flake to give it a little closer of a height to the tied on corner.

A closer look at the angled (depth) view of this.

Now, this is what I did on sunday, Lydia had a tutorial challenge for making "marbled stenciled shaving cream backgrounds." (tutorial found here) and I poked around in my stencils and came to the conclusion that the majority of mine are very small highly detailed ones ha ha but I found these and was hopeful I could get some artsy streaky ones in the holes. I did start with the blue ones and I think I maybe over mixed the colors as I did them and I also tried a couple on non coated neenah milstone cardstock and what I found with that is the non coated paper if you scraped the shaving cream off while wet it did not drag the color as much as on the coated whisper white cardstock. So, the bird and leaves is unknown its green plastic, the waves is from Simon Says Stamp. and those used soft sky, not quite navy and bottle (adirondack) reinkers. the reds were done with Distress barn red, tattered rose & certainly celery (su) reinkers. And the scroll looking one is from Hero Arts doesn't that look just like that old break your teeth ribbon candy that people used to give out at Christmas time? that's what it looked like on the paper plate too. The flower is a Dalila from Club Scrap (the larger one) and I thought you know in these colors I think it can pass for a Poinsettia.

 A closer look at the bloom. the center has some Hero Arts dots on it and this was cut with scissors and is up on foam pop dots.

The crochet lace is not vintage but, I no longer remember where I got it from. ( its nearly a perfect match for certainly celery though. The base is bazzill and this one finished out at 5" square in real life.