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.