Sending Holiday Joy

 This week Gayle's gallery was the destination for the Featured Stamper challenge where I found this card That I loved so much. Now, also in the back of my mind has been the January prompt for the Christmas card challenge is a red bird. So... since there is still today to be in January. here you go.

I started by cutting a sheet of white card down to 5 1/2" square to make a change and kind of eyeballed the center for this Square leafy frame its either Memory Box or Poppy Stamps ( not certain) and it cuts the window shape. And then I cut the bird from some watercolor paper with a Sizzix holly bough die set. and colored it with some water based markers. the die is cut like what I suspect are East Coast Robin's and I colored it more like what I see in my yard where they are a darker grey color on the back and the red is farther down the chest and belly of the bird. there is a bit of Black glossy Nuvo drops on the eye. This is up on foam pop dots. now to make another change instead of exposed bricks through the window I picked up a piece of a previously made Dendritic background that was done with Acrylic paints (the how to link and other pieces can be seen in this blog post) I always make extra's when its something messy like this and set them aside for someday. on this particular one the white peeking through the paint was pretty stark so I ended up scribbling some pale blue marker on parts of that. The frame piece is up on foam pop dots over the background which gave me some room to wiggle in the sentiment between the layers. 

This sentiment is from the Simon Says Stamp CathyZ good cheer make merry set and its stamped on some speckletone pale blue cover sheet and cut with a SSS sentiment strip die. ( which I snipped off the ends after it was in place. There is also a bit of clear glitter sparkled Nuvo drops on the outside leaves and berry sprig parts of the frame. ( its really hard to see) and this was shot wet. I would probably never thought to take these things and create a holiday card with them but, I really love how this turned out. Thanks for stopping by.

Happy 80th to my fil

 Recently my father-in-law turned 80 years young. and I had picked up this Riley & Co. sentiment knowing the big day would arrive sooner or later and we have a few guys on our list that would smirk at it.

The Norm stamp is from Art Impressions, he is colored with a combination of Copic markers and Polychromos pencils with some white gel pen on the flowers of the shirt.  The 80th numbers were diecut with Taylored Expressions just a number set from some textured pale green Bazzill cardstock. There was a case your self Clean and Simple challenge at SCS a few weeks ago and I had started this card knowing I wanted to use Norm for the image and ended up picking this old card of mine as the jump start.

The stamped panel is countersunk behind the Basic Grey printed paper and this one is 6" square in real life. There are no embellishments on this version, and my fil is more of a plaid shirt guy than a Hawaiian one but, the he can fake a good grumpy look when he wants to.

Hubs dad's family had been secretly planning a surprise party for him for months but, due to the ongoing Covid situation the only people who dropped by that day were us (because, we are already in their bubble) So, we were able to drop off our things and Crystyl's families balloons. He was very surprised & tickled. He was on his way down to the lower garage with dog treats for his furbabies when we got there so, this was a taken by surprise shot.

Inspired by {Shindigz}

 This week Kelly is guesting on the Inspiration Challenge and we are taking a peek at the Shindigz site where I came across this party decoration display for a Cocoa themed party. I love the sweater prints on the chalkboard sign and the candy canes tied on the handles of the mugs, the mix of textures on the treats and plaids. And I knew I had picked up these die sets from the Ton last year that were waiting for a chance to make it out of the has not been played with yet basket.  One thing I should mention is this card is several shades of red and burgundy. and it was probably the most impossible color wise to shoot that I have tried in a good long while. worse than a white on white card from my standpoint. The base of this card is actually Simon Says Stamp school house red if you are familiar with how vibrant that red is in real life. The stripe print I think may be Basic grey and the whipped cream was cut from the smooth side of watercolor paper and the mat piece under it I had inked with some antique linen distress oxide ink but, it really didn't add the oomph I wanted to it so, I ended up adding some bisque ranger liquid pearls in those holes and it gave some color and shine to the creases, this panel is up on foam pop dots over the cup layer.

So, I loved that shot they have of the party table set up and I spent a lot of time messing around with red/green plaid prints trying all the papers I have on hand and discarding every single one of them. Which totally made me laugh at my self as I love plaids and I have a bunch to choose from so, it is still funny to me that the only green plaid here in the finished card is tying the bitty candy cane on the handle of the cup. ( that was a detail in the party staging shot I especially loved) would I do this? no, I love the idea of the theme of the party but, tying candy on the mug handles would not happen. This candy cane here is from the Ton's holiday coffee dies set ( its smaller than the one from the Christmas mug set) and there is a bit of clear stickles type nuvo glitter glue in the white space of the die cut. ( there is more of that on the snowflake sweater print on the mug.) This sentiment is from the Hero Arts Coffee cup tags set from a few years back. and is actually vibrant black in real life, that panel was cut with a memory box stitched rectangle die. This card ended up finishing out at 5 1/2" square in real life. You can find this challenge here at SCS to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by.

 

WOYWW #608 {tinkering}

 

Happy desk peeking day, if you'd like to see more spaces or play along 

the link up for this blog hop starts here at our hostess

Miss Julia's Blog.

There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW

 

what it looks like on Wed AM. ( I have had zero time to finish these, the dog card just needs an envelope and the stuff put away, the snowman card needs more nuvo clear glaze on his right eye. ( it countersunk into the space where I embedded the black cardstock when dry) not all the way but, its not as tall as the left eye so, I was going to add some more to it.
 

This is before the eye has been added to. the snowman is a really old red original sizzix die and the background is a Tim Holtz engraved folder that has some espresso and speckled egg DOX inks on the watercolor paper. This was done jump started by the January Dirty Dozen Christmas card prompt found here.

now this was done jump started by this cool card in Deb Felts gallery as she is featured stamper this week, I loved the framing on hers. but, you have to make changes and I loved the background paper I picked so, I made a corner instead of a frame. There is speckled egg DOX on the edges of the papers that were distressed on this. I though it was a fun change from browns. (which I like brown but, this was fun, and it is harder to see ) Anyways, I did turn one of those backgrounds I showed you last week into a card and its in this catch up post along with some other things made this month that just never got blogged. I was able to get the first does of a Shingles Vaccination last week and that was a really uncomfortable one for me for about 24 hours and so, it was such a relief after the 36 hours had passed and I started to feel more normal again. my husband warned me it really bothered him and I rolled my eyes so, he is enjoying his told ya so moment. Hope you all are continuing to do well. Thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by { Hot Chocolate Design}

 This week Amy has us poking around inside the Hot Chocolate Designs Pinterest boards where ( its filled with cute shoes) I came across these wing tip style Mary Jane's and fell deep into lust with them.

So, I ran this Spellbinders Candle wick card front die through a piece of black smooth card ( top layer) and a piece of white for the matting so the detail peek through. there is a bit of white gel pen on the dots of this design. There are foam pop dots between those two layers. The panel under that is some Fancy Pants black corrugate and the sentiment (Kaiser Craft Ever After) was heat embossed with some white SU powder on a scrap of black that was die cut with a my favorite things mod stitched rect. die. The dotted tulle ribbon is from Stampin Up, the Iridescent cord is from May Arts and the bitty wedding rings charms were found at Impress.

A straight on shot. This one finished out at A7 in real life when it was done, I was a little worried there was too much black to pull it off as a wedding design. I think my brain went that a way because, I got a facetime call from J's fiancee earlier in the week at the salon as she has found "the dress" ( which is really exciting) :) You can find this challenge here at SCS to play along with us.  That's about it from me, Thanks for stopping by.

A catch up post

 

The try a new technique challenge this week is  called floating elements as you raise up the diecut shape with the pieces on clear acetate sheet. so, when I was shooting mine I caught all the catch lights on the clear sheet and on the glaze I put on the heart on the flower pot here. That is a die from Penny Black called Plant our love. 

The Clean and Simple challenge this week was to stock your stash with what ever you wanted more of so, I started flipping through pads of printed papers looking for something with a scale small enough to use to paper piece this cardigan stamp from Unity Stamps that made me smile.  That center panel is raised up on foam pop dots here.

This was done for my mom's birthday earlier in the month, I loved the texture of this Crepe paper when I seen it and the Cup is from the Sizzix scoreboards 3-D set and I just cut one cup from it, not all the pieces. The love you is an Ali Edwards technique Tuesday die, the monogram is a stitched letter from MFT.

I had been spending some time earlier in the week adding inks and creams and pots of shimmer to backgrounds run through the Tim Holtz Engraved folder and so, When I seen that Anna's Mix challenge was to color something twice ( two layers of mediums) I decided that I could turn these backgrounds into simple cards easily enough. This one the panel was misted with water and run through the folder that had been inked with DOX walnut stain and then I added some inka gold & metallic rub ons over that with more distress Oxide inks. this one the sentiment is from Riley & Co. and the front of the card base has some score lines for framing on it.

This version the panel was embossed with kraft cardstock and inked with DOX Barn Door & Vintage photo inks, along with some Distress white paint, Metallic Rub ons & Inkagold. The Love is a an Mega sentiment from Altenew cut from some DCWV shimmer pink paper and the sentiment is from a pre printed sheet from Simon Says Stamp. the base of this one is some MFT vintage cream? confetti cream? (something, its speckled) and it finished out at A6 in real life. the crochet lace I think may be Making Memories.

WOYWW # 607 {embossing}

 

Happy desk peeking day, if you'd like to see more spaces or play along 

the link up for this blog hop starts here at our hostess

Miss Julia's Blog.

There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW

 

 So, I was messing around on Tuesday after work adding some color to some kraft colored cardstock that had been run through with an TH engraved embossing folder. and these are ok, I will use them. but, after this was shot I tried using some lightly misted with water first, and adding the DOX to the folder it self and running it through and the color is counter sunk into the flip side of this design and that is pretty cool too. I will probably end up making a few more of these before I clean off the table. ( but, not today. today is an ice run) So, just a quick peek and a wave, take care of your selves & thanks for stopping by.

Bare Tree Sympathy

 This week's featured stamper is Debbie, who has a lot of really cool cards in her gallery and I kept coming back to this winter tree scene because, it is just a really brilliant design. I knew I had the central tree stamp so, to make changes I did mine on Printed papers and changed the colors a little bit, made the card a square view & also made the mat a printed paper instead of a solid border of cardstock.

A closer look at the tree line stamped with some Pumice stone ink directly on the basic grey printed paper. It's hard to see, so this shot has been tinkered with to show it a little better. the actual colors of the card are more like what you see below. There is also a bit of Prisma pencils along the tree trunks of the DOX treeline in the background too.

The tree line in the background and these sentiments are from the Unity Stamps set called no better words. and the words are just teeny tiny in real life. ( I cannot read them on the index sticker of the packaging but, fortunately the stamps are larger than the index) All the stamping on this basic grey panel was cut out with a Lawn Fawn X stitched square die, the larger mat with the text print was cut with a Waffle Flower lacy layers die. ( that also has some DOX pumice stone on the edge of it)

A peek at what is stamped on the inside. This one is 5 1/2" square in real life. I do have another version of these trees using a more blue shade of ink for the grey in the background and I will probably edit this post and stick the photo in this post when its finished.

This version was one of the first trial ones I stamped on white cardstock trying to decide which grey ink to pick. and this one looked decidedly blue to me and I liked it and it wasn't quite what I wanted but, I set it aside to try to play with later. Later ended up seeing some stormy sky, pumice stone & Hickory smoke distress Oxide inks rubbed into the sheet. The sentiment is from Impression Obsession and the printed woodgrain is from MME. This one finished out at 6" square and is blank inside. You can find this challenge with a link to Debbie's gallery here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by {Tim Holtz's Sizzix board}

 This week we are taking a look at Tim Holtz's sizzix pinterest board seen here for the Inspiration destination. Where I happened to come across this pin of these Cathedral Window gift tags  By Paula Cheney and was just totally gobsmacked. It was very much an Ah-Ha moment as I had bought this die months ago when it came out and really had no plan for it at all.

Seeing her tags were built from some premade thick chipboard I did cut these window frames repeatedly, the one on the left painted black is 3 layers of white 120# cardstock glued together, and the one on the right is two layers of white under a layer of strathmore canvas paper that was painted with a gesso / pale green acrylic paint. The view through the window panes are some yupo paper that has alcohol ink backgrounds done on it. 

I loved the texture of Paula's window frames and I tried with the black paint and a foam brush but, it did end up flat when it was dry. I think the texture of the canvas does not come through very well on the other because, of the quietness of the color. ( the alcohol inks were more of a show stopper I guess)

Wanting to make changes, I did use the layered robin die from Memory Box and the Finches die from Penny black for the birds.

The wreath here was Strathmore watercolor that was done in some shades of Distress Oxide inks a while back when I was doing "coffee" type colors for backgrounds and set aside, so there are variations on the colors and it adds to the interest a little I guess. The fiber is from fibers by the yard, the eye on the bird was done with some black Nuvo drops. The sentiment is a reverse printed one from Simon Says Stamp. 

This one the whirl Wreath ( Penny Black) was cut from some gold shimmer paper and has some white nuvo drops on it. the birds were cut from cream and grey printed papers and ( I had thought they were supposed to be chickadees and I brushed some gold ink on the bellies because of that, the eyes were done with nuvo drops. I did tie some May Arts Iridescent cord through the top of this to be a hanging tag and the sentiment here is a sticker from the Tim Holtz Christmas Noel pad. You can find this challenge here at SCS to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by.

WOYWW # 606 {loot}

 

Happy desk peeking day, if you'd like to see more spaces or play along 

the link up for this blog hop starts here at our hostess

Miss Julia's Blog.

There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW

 

So, that project I started with making tags is still underway but, I am cleaning the table off in between die sessions so, late last night I received this box from spellbinders. They had a really good sale after Christmas and the bulk of my gifts were gift cards so, I have done some shopping. This morning this was all a nice tidy pile and I spread it out so you could see it all. the ones on the far left are to run through the foil press machine and the others are all dies. One thing I would mention is in the center on the lower part of the photo ( click to enlarge) I did order some rose gold jingle bells, now assuming that these were coming from a paper crafting place that they would be sized to fit on cards or small tags... ha ha they are HUGE. I never look at sizes when I buy things on line, so I hardly ever do as far as lumpy things go and yes, I will use them but, not on cards. probably on tags. ( really big tags) :) I also picked up a roll of their black twine. ( It kinda looks like hemp string through the plastic but, I have not opened it yet.

So far we are really enjoying the fiber line and the connection, even on the wi-fi things go zipping along. and if you are curious about streaming TV instead of having cable or a dish. We ended up going with Hulu Plus ( and live tv) and Hallmark Movies now, and a couple of outdoor tv apps that play things hubs wants to watch. And so far that is really fantastic to not have to go climb a ladder in the dark while its snowing to wipe the snow off the dish to see the weather report lol. That's about it from me, I hope you are all continuing to do well. Thanks for stopping by.
 

And So it begins

 Every year it seems like I need just a few more Christmas cards than I have, or that I want to mail as from me. So, the making some for the stash and the booth has commenced already and this one below was done jump started by an Ornament (seen here) in last week's featured stampers Denise's gallery at SCS.

 

You always need at least two changes so, I switched mine to be a square card and used mostly stamps to create it instead of layers of dies. I also was able to play with some new to me toys too so, that made it a double win. The lots of square die set from Paper Rose, this is the largest die, it cuts the frame and the mat at the same one pass so, it was pretty easy to me to pop up the frame for interest. The foliage is all from the Tim Holtz forest floor set stamped with some Distress Oxide inks Pine needles, rustic wilderness & pine bough. there is some polychromos and prisma pencils on that. the one to the lower right has some gold nuvo drops on the berries part of the image. The Hero Arts antique poinsettia was stamped with some distress antique linen and also colored with pencils, there are apple green nuvo drops in the stamens and some clear wink of stella on the petals. This is also on foam pop dots at the same height as the frame. The sentiment came from The Simon says stamp inside Christmas greetings set. and this finished out at 6" square in real life. 

Now this was done because, I had been cleaning my table and found the plaid print die cut drop piece and the larger white snowflake laying together in the mess as I was putting things away and I thought, ( I know so many guys who wear those black and white buffalo plaid shirts that I thought it just may work and I knew that there was a challenge a while back to create colored snow, which I never stole time to do so, I ran this Simon Says stamp snowflake die that came in the January kit through the big shot with some burgundy card scrap and added an unknown brad for the center. that texture behind the plaid is some fancy paper from Micheal's Recollections line and this one is 5 1/2" square in real life. The sentiment was stamped a long time ago on a scrap cut with an Avery elle party tags die. (so, I don't remember which set it came from I tend to collect the type writer style font and tiny word sets) And so, two more have landed into the box for next year. I had signed up in the Christmas card challenge thread found here to do 4 a month, and I am sure that like usual I will do quite a few during the winter while its cold  and slack off during the summer. and that's OK. This months prompt is to do a Cardinal ( or a red bird card) so, that is on the mental list for soon. That's about it from me, thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by { Canadian Living}

 This week Kia has chosen Canadian Living as our Inspiration destination and I came across this decorated Christmas scene and loved the colors... So, keeping the trees against the blue in the back of my mind I started playing with this enchanted forest  3-d embossing folder from Crafter's Companion.

 

I was not entirely sure what I wanted to do and I first thought to do a blue night sky and you know make it an outdoors scene, maybe add some snow and critters so I grabbed a pile of size 8 shipping tags and I did center it thinking I was going to add the white and the sparkle as a sentiment in the clearing in between the trees but, then I decided it needed something more bold white and used this Simon Says Stamp Joyful die with PTI vellum cardstock and some smooth white Bazzill.

 ( the smooth bazzill letters have some clear wink of stella on it) 

The trees were inked with Distress Oxide pine needles & rustic wilderness inks and the sky colors are blueprint sketch & stormy sky, this was misted with water a bit too.

and the whole tag was sprayed with some tattered angels glimmer mist spray, on this photo you may see a hint of that. This is actually pretty sparkly in real life but, it was being camera shy. The smaller sentiment is a sticker from the Tim Holtz Christmas noel pack. I did then run a second piece of the experimental Accent Opaque 120# card stock through the folder again and using it as a mat behind the tag, I liked the subtle out of the box extension of the look. but, what I have noticed since I finished this is that it will need glue dots under the colored tag as its not you know lined up perfectly with the layer below it so there are gaps of air pockets where the layers of card stocks meet. I am pretty tickled with this and wish you could touch it in person too. ( even hubs is impressed )

This is not a standard any size card it finished out at 4" x 7" and will fit into an A7 envelope. probably a slimline #10 envelope too. This is the accent opaque #120 for the base, and it is very heavy its hard to get it to lay flat compared to a 110# cover sheet. I do like the smoothness of the paper. I have not tried to color on it, but I picked it up because, A) its fairly affordable compared to Neenah that I love.  I remember thinking if anything I could use it to die cut but, I think I will be buying a pack of the 80# for layers inside of colored card bases because, it is so much cheaper than the Neenah and it is smooth to the touch. I will try stamping and coloring on it soon. You can find this challenge here at SCS to play along with us, Thanks for stopping by.

woyww #605 {the real internet edition}

 

Happy desk peeking day, if you'd like to see more spaces or play along 

the link up for this blog hop starts here at our hostess

Miss Julia's Blog.

There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW

It finally happened the splicer came and hooked up the router and wi-fi boxes at my house yesterday afternoon. I cannot tell you how much better this is :) We are currently looking for recommendations about streaming. the one I want to find is some service that does live tv. (like local news channels) and the other thought is, if you have any advice about DVR boxes and programing it to tape say the news when you are not home that would be really helpful too. 

Oh, and back to my desk. this was staged while the splicer was working yesterday. it really did look like this but, I kinda piled up the stuff on the left as it was more closer to the pile of other things left of it. but, I had some time on Sunday evening and I ran some printed papers and plain tags through various embossing folders not with any kind of a plan and then I started inking some of them. And I set them aside and made a Clean and Simple card on monday night ( seen below) and so, I really did push all this out of the way while the card was going on. 

The challenge was to use something new, and this gal is "new" to me she arrived late last week in the mail with some other goodies from the My Favorite Things sale they had around new years? maybe Christmas. It was when I was chopping up letters so, I ordered a couple more alphabets along with her. 

The stamps and word die in the top right corner were free gifts from them. I told my self I would resist the pure innocence line, and I have for a long long time, years in fact but, something about them this last year has really appealed to me and so they have followed me home too. ;) as you can seen I would never make through those no shop all year challenges. That's about it from me, I hope you are all continuing to do well. Thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by {fancy}

 This week Julie has pointed our attention towards the Fancy site online and their pinterest boards found here.

I 

I always find my attention wanders to exposed brick when I come across it say in a store on the wall or something. ( I have never lived in a house with bricks) and so, I just love the textures of them. and this shot with the coffee art piece on the whitewashed bricks caught my eye in the store and this is what I did from that. I started with a piece of Papertrey ink grey card stock and I smooshed some golden molding paste through a honeybee salvaged bricks stencil. I did not really do anything fancy with this although I did try to not make it so perfect on the edges so that it could look like the bricks were exposed from the wall and I really only have that in one corner here as I cut the piece down.

And then I started poking around in my new to me coffee stuffs I had not played with as of yet so, I grabbed a sheet of watercolor paper and made a brown-ish background with some distress oxide inks, Espresso, walnut stain & vintage photo. I shot this afterdark and (I think the colors are a little off in the photo, because I was trying to adjust the exposure to show the woodgrain in the white base.) I cut one of the Lawn Fawn stitched mug dies from that. ( I have both the outside in stitched mug and the stitched mug frame dies and this uses both of the sets. the frame on the top was cut from a plain brown scrap and then I rubbed on some early espresso dox, and then used my finger to add some metallic rub-ons to give it more of a older patina look. I love this sentiment, its from the Casual Fridays stay strong set & it was heat embossed with some ranger super fine black on that dox background and since it was on watercolor paper it is not so perfect. That's OK in my mind as we are all ready for the "Okayer-ness" to start ASAP right? This card was shot at an angle to show you the depth as the frame cup is up on foam pop dots but, the sentiment really is straight through the window in real life. I had originally thought to keep this as a smaller card when I cut down the brick panel and then I decided it was too dark and found a sheet of some Gmund wood grain to make an A7 sized base for this. You can find this challenge here to play along with us. That's about if from me, Happy New Year! & Thanks for stopping by.