Five-Minute Christmas Card

Happy Tuesday, peeps!  There are a couple of Christmas card challenges out there this week; 52 Christmas Card Throwdown wants a "quick" Christmas card, and Inspire.Create also wants a Christmas card:

I got these beautiful papers from Divinity Designs at the end of last year, and they make for a very quick, beautiful card....I just trimmed them down, mounted them on a card front and stamped a sentiment:

This sentiment, stamped in Mossy Meadow, is from the retired Shine Bright:

The inside sentiment is from the retired Greatest Part of Christmas:

I did add a couple of snowflake sequins for fun, but the whole thing took about five minutes.  It took me longer to unjam my bottle of glue than it did to make the card!  Thanks for popping in today!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Greatest Part of Christmas (ret), Shine Bright (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Soft Stone (Papertrey), Vintage Winter Card Fronts (Divinity Designs)
Ink	Mossy Meadow
Accessories	Snowflake Sequins (Pretty Pink Posh)
Tools

Christmas Chickadee

Happy Thursday, peeps! I am slowly working on my Christmas card stash; my card today fulfills three challenges!  The As You See It theme challenge wants birds; the CAS on Sunday challenge is a sketch, and the Retro Rubber challenge is a tic-tac-toe grid!

I am using an old Impression Obsession chickadee stamp; I know I have had this at least ten years, along with a sentiment from SU called Shine Bright (2019),  In order to fit the bird and the rest of the sketch, my card is a little larger at 5" square.  So here we go:

I stamped the chickadee on watercolor paper and inked it in with reinkers, then used aStylish Shapes circle die to cut it out, cutting out the tail before using the die:  

For my tic-tac-toe, I chose the top row across of enamel dots, stripes or dots and diecuts.  I stamped a Shaded Spruce tag with SU's Distressed Dots background stamp (2011) and added some banners using some retired Christmas DSPs that featured dots and stripes.  The sentiment was stamped in Cherry Cobbler.  My enamel dots are from W+9.  I know I will need a special envelope to fit this card, but that's okay, it's fun to do something a little different!

Thanks for popping in toda! Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Shine Bright (2019), Distressed Dots (2011), both retired, Chickadee (Impression Obsession, 2015?)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Watercolor, Shaded Spruce, Classic Christmas DSP (ret)
Ink	Stazon Black, Real Red, Garden Green, Shaded Spruce, Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler
Accessories	Enamel Dots (W+9), Real Red Ribbon (ret), Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Stylish Shapes Dies, Tailor Made Tags Dies (ret), Aquapainter

BYSHC42 Christmas Begins with Love

Happy Friday, peeps! The Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmakers has lovely sketches for creating Christmas cards and I couldn't resist the one for this go-round:

I recently got some beautiful Mintay Christmas papers; being 6x6" square, it's often challenging to figure out a way to use them on a standard-sized card, but I was able to trim one of the pieces down, slicing it into 1 7/8" x 5" panels (although I do see that there are measurements on the sketch--duh), so here we go:

The artwork on these papers is stunning! I stamped a sentiment from the retired Shine Bright in Real Red, and added a little fussy-cut cardinal which are also included in the paper pad.  You can't see it very well, but there is also a glimmer snowflake tucked under the panel too:

Another sentiment from the set went on the inside of the Blushing Bride card, and I adhered a little strip of the other side of the paper at the bottom:

Good to build up my holiday card stash!  And since the Little Red Wagon challenge this week is looking for some "sugar", I'm entering it there as well....since all those little gingerbread goodies and that cup of hot cocoa certainly contain sugar!  Thanks for popping in today! Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Shine Bright (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Real Red, Blushing Bride (ret), White Glimmer (ret), Merry Little Christmas (Mintay)
Ink	Real Red
Accessories	Iridescent Gem (ret), Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Layering Ovals Dies (ret), Stitched Shapes Dies (ret), Seasonal Tag Framelits (ret)

FMS614 & AYSI313 Super Speedy Stars

Happy Saturday, peeps! I don't normally post on a Saturday afternoon, but I wanted to get this CAS card posted before the challenges ended!  The FMS sketch is a fun one, and the Speed Stamping challenge at As You See It is "stars"!

Usually speed stamping gives me the willies, so I avoid it, but my friend Martha just gave me a lovely starry stencil and after some practice, I felt sure I could create a CAS card with it!  I pulled out the retired Shine Bright stamp set as well, my Crushed Curry ink, a few starry sequins and went to town:

And here's my time:

Not too bad!  I used a die from Pink & Main to create my sentiment:

And my time even included stamping on the inside! Woohoo!

I think I am ready to get all my card signed, addressed and in the mail!  Thanks for visiting today!

For any of you who enjoy hearing about Longwood Gardens, their recent blog post was really fun, especially if you're a fan of the  "red trucks hauling Christmas trees" themed stuff! My brother had told us that Longwood had purchased an old farm truck and spent months restoring it.  You can see all about it HERE on their blog! We will be visiting Longwood in a week or so, so I am anxious to see it myself!  I'll be sure to get some pictures!  Meanwhile, here's a sneak peek, courtesy of Longwood Gardens:

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Shine Bright (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White
Ink	Crushed Curry
Accessories	Star Sequins (Pretty Pink Posh)
Tools	Blending Brush, Star Stencil (unknown)

JAI583 Joy to All

Hi stampers!  I am gearing up making Christmas cards...it always seems like I need one or two more!  This one uses the sketch from Just Add Ink:

And here we go:

I happened to have a half-circle of Kraft cardstock already diecut, so I used that as my starting point, matching it up with some Close to My Heart DSP and stamps.  I stamped the horse and sleigh on Crumb Cake with Early Espresso ink, then mounted it on top of a little white stitched panel that was stamped with a sentiment from the retired Shine Bright:

My final addition was a couple of vertical borders, a Stitched Snowflake and a scattering of Poppy Parade stars:

I love the warmth of these colors together!  Thanks for popping in today!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Wonderland (Close to My Heart), Shine Bright (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Poppy Parade, Kraft, Early Espresso, White Pines DSP (Close to My Heart)
Ink	Craft White, Early Espresso, Poppy Parade
Accessories	Dimensionals, Pearls
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Snowflakes Dies, Pierced Blooms Dies, Stitched Shapes Dies (ret), Wonderland Dies (Close to My Heart), Stitching Lines Dies (Ellen Hutson)

ICC058 Christmas Greetings

Every time I say I don't need any more Christmas cards, I find out I DO!  The Inspire Create challenge had a lovely color palette, so I thought I would give it a go:

The colors are Blushing Bride, Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive, and I chose the swag from Shine Bright, stamped in Stazon ink for the focus of my card:

I had a piece of Old Olive gingham DSP already diecut with a Stitched Rectangle die, so I used that to kick off my design.  I watercolored the greenery in Old Olive, added Cherry Cobbler berries and believe it or not, when you use full-strength Blushing Bride, you get this color, which I used on my bow!  After coloring and fussy-cutting the bottom portion, I popped it up with dimensionals on top of the gingham panel:

I also used Cherry Cobbler for shadowing as well as the sentiment from Greatest Part of Christmas; I accented the words with a couple of pine boughs from Winter Woods:

 I added some thick Baker's Twine as a final accent.  Thanks for popping in today!

I always try to make Cassidy a little felt ornament for Christmas; Pinterest is full of ideas, I could spend hours looking at them!  I ended up buying a pattern from Etsy to make this rather fierce-looking owl:

The colors were not as nice as the sample, but I just used what I had on hand; he also has cardstock eyes, as I didn't have any black beads...I didn't want to make a trip to Walmart just for two beads!  I did add the twine, holly and berries (SU's Quilt Builder die for the holly and French knots for the berries) on my own:

 I know Mommy likes owls so hopefully Cassidy will too!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

IB102 Warm Winter Wishes

Happy Thursday, peeps!  Hope your week is going well!  It's time for another Inspired By challenge!  I have all my cards mailed out, so this will go in next year's stash, LOL!  So here we go with today's card:

And here is Laurel's prompt!  Aren't these little lanterns and bells cute?

I chose to emboss the tree from Shine Bright on some Real Red cardstock in white embossing powder, then added some gold accents and white gel-pen "snowflakes":

I added a little sentiment, again embossed in white on kraft cardstock:

And finally, to replicate the little blue scarf, I added a light blue vertical panel embossed with the Cable Knit embossing folder:

It all went on a Naturals White card matted with a white woodgrain-pattern DSP!  And the sketch that I used is from Try Stampin' On Tuesday:

Now we want to see what you create with this pretty photo challenge!  Share it with us at Inspired By!  Thanks for popping in today!

 Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Shine Bright, Winter Fox (Lawn Fawn), Just Treats (Close to My Heart--snowflakes)
Card stock & Papers	Naturals White, Kraft (Close to My Heart), Real Red, Meadow DSP (Authentique), Wonderland DSP (Kaisercraft)
Ink	White Craft
Accessories	Gold Half Pearl (ret), Linen Thread, Dimensionals, White Embossing Powder
Tools	Big Shot, Cable Knit EF, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Stitched Shape Dies, Heat Tool

FMS414 Brightly Shining

Happy Wednesday, peeps!  This week has been a week of issues!!  Computer issues, sinus issues,  appointment issues, bank issues...you name it!  Blessedly, most of them are resolving themselves but my stamping time has been limited!  When I saw the cute sketch at FMS this week, I just sat myself down and went to work!  Here's the sketch:

I'm trying to use up the supply of DSP I have, so I went to the Night Before Christmas pack, which I find a little challenging to use, as there are so many colors in it!  I found a couple that seemed to coordinate, and as usual, once I started working with them, I ended up liking my final outcome:

I used a sentiment from Shine Bright (and after looking at the DT's cards,  I should have oriented it the other way, oops), stamped on Very Vanilla, and a little tree from Holiday Haul to accent it:

I stamped the stars on top of the tree with  Delicata Gold ink and then heat-embossed them with Gold embossing powder, and added a little scrap of Gold glimmer paper for some extra pizzazz!  I forgot to use my Embossing Buddy on my tree before sprinkling the powder on, so the whole tree itself got a little sprinkle....but it looks cool!  A happy accident!  Thanks for popping in today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Holiday Haul, Shine Bright
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Night Before Christmas DSP, Gold Glimmer
Ink	Night of Navy, Pear Pizzazz, Gold Delicata
Accessories	Dimensionals, Gold Embossing Powder
Tools	Heat Tool

More Toile Christmas

Happy Monday, peeps!  Boy, it was a cold weekend...yesterday, in the space of three hours, we had rain, snow and sunshine!  We are gearing up for Thanksgiving, too...looking forward to it!  I wanted to share a couple of projects made with Toile Tidings DSP, Toile Christmas and Nature's Beauty; they all coordinate so beautifully!  The first one is a buckle card; this is the card my club girls learned to do, and I got the idea from my sweet friend Cindy; you can see her YouTube video here!  She made a fall card, but I changed it up to make a Christmas card.  The cardinal is big, but he is quite easy to watercolor..it works up fast!  

And here is the inside of the card...you can see where the "belt" fits into the slot from the front, underneath the stitched oval on which the cardinal is attached:

I had an extra card packet cut, so I decided to make another, changing the image to the deer from Nature's Beauty because the patterned paper featured the wildlife:

I fussy-cut him out, then adhered him on top of the same image I stamped on the stitched oval, and I added different sentiments from Itty Bitty Christmas:

While I had Nature's Beauty still on my desk, I noticed a little branch stamp....I am bad for ignoring the little images in a stamp set and just focusing on the big ones!  This little branch is a real sleeper!  I lightly traced a circle on a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock and stamped the branch around it in Garden Green five times; I then stamped again, filling in the "gaps" and stamping off once on my scrap paper to get a lighter image.  It created the nicest wreath! 

I diecut it with a Stitched Shape square die and added a piece of (retired) Brushed Gold cardstock behind it.  The gold Metallic Pearls and some retired gold ribbon finished it off perfectly.  My sentiment was from Shine Bright, and it was stamped with the Gold Delicata pad:

I mounted it on some green Toile Tidings DSP and mounted it on a Garden Green card; the inside sentiment was from Shining Brightly as well!  What a gorgeous sentiment!

Thanks for popping in today!

While we were running errands on Saturday morning, Cassidy and I went to our neighbor's farm to get eggs.  She likes to go to the calf barn to see the kittens, but it was all closed up and the farmer wasn't around to open it.  When we got back in the car, we saw this:

Hmmmm...she is supposed to be IN the barn, not outside of the barn.  Someone left the gate open, so I went and got Mrs Farmer (we went to school together!) and by the time she came out to corral it, another one had escaped!  They weren't in any hurry to get anywhere...they were just eating the grass around the barn!  But we thought it was funny!  Escaping cows!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!