Pretty Pressings' Stampavie Blog Candy!!

This is a great one! There will be three winners!! That is awesome!! Here is the link!!

OK...I lied!!

Yesterday was not my last Christmas card! I forgot to post this one! I made this card to send to 4 ladies in my Magnolia-licious Yahoo Group as part of our Raining Cards group. We sign up, and each month four ladies are chosen to have cards sent to them...I sent mine a little late, but I think that they will get there before the end of December. Next month I will be earlier! Here are the details of the card:

Stamps: Merry Christmas Garland (Tilda) by Magnolia Stamps, Holly Leaf by DRS Designs

Ink: Adirondack Pitch Black, Summer Sun for sponging

Coloring: Copic and spica markers

Paper: Riding Hood Red, Black, Wassail by Basic Grey

Accessories: Ticket corner punch, circle punches, Organdy ribbon

Thanks for stopping by for a quick look!! Have a great day!

My last Christmas Card...for now!!

I took a bit of a break over the holidays! I hope that everyone had a very blessed holiday. We had a quiet one for the most part. In fact, I didn't leave the house from Tuesday night to Saturday morning! That was a bit heavenly! We had my husband's entire family over on Christmas Eve for mostly appetizers, and of course, we ate way too much. Our daughter received the Paula Deen's kids' cookbook from her grandmother, so we have been making a lot of food lately. Today, we tried the homemade soft pretzel recipe. It was a group effort and they came out very yummy. Anyway, I digress...off to the stamping!

I won my first ever blog candy from Claudia Rosa's blog Pretty Pressings. She has so many beautiful cards and projects over there! I won a stamp from Sarah Kay called The Joy of Giving, and I decided to make a card to show off my new stamp! Here are the details:

Ink: Adirondack Pitch Black

Coloring: Copics and spicas (the clear spica to embellish a little glitter on the packages)

Paper: Black, White, Wild Wasabi, Real Red, SU shimmer paper

Accessories: Silver cord, Cuttlebug embossing folder, black grosgrain

Other: This is for SC202 from Splitcoast

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you are surviving the after Christmas hangover!

The Snowman Family

This is such an adorable stamp from DRS Designs! My friend let me borrow it when I was trying to craft a special Christmas card for my BIL, SIL and their two children. My original intent was to use the All in the Family set from SU and put Santa hats on each one, but I tried stamping the images, and after the 6th failure, I gave up. I would get three figures, then screw up the last one. In Charlie Brown's immortal words, AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!! So, this stamped popped up, and I had to use it! It's a cutie!

I colored the images with Copics and I used Twinkling H2Os for their bodies. I always have such a difficult time with all white images. My coloring addiction makes me want to color it somehow, and this is a nice compromise. In addition, I used liquid applique to pop up the snow and added a white gel pen to the trees for a little extra. The paper is Real Red, Wild Wasabi and Real Red DSP all from Stampin' Up. The ribbon is Wild Wasabi also. I think that I have about worn my ticket corner punch out this season...why do I love that thing so much?

Thanks for taking the time to stop by!

Stamp Something Challenge Card - Christmas

I found out about this challenge from Dawn (yes, I mention her a lot as she is my friend and lives so close!). It is found at the Stamp Something challenge blog. They have teamed up with DRS Designs to offer some great blog candy! You need to check it out! I've been behind the eight ball to get my Christmas cards done, and this one put me over the hump, so to speak! I love the DRS stamps...their images are great and very coloring friendly!

For this card I used all DRS Designs stamps, SU cardstock, and a bit of SU patterned paper. For the dove and olive branch image, I painted some twinkling H2Os (Oyster and Moss Green) to give some shine, and I stamped the background stamp in Old Olive to give a tone on tone effect. The red is Riding Hood Red, and I used black also. The shapes cut in the center of the card are from the MM Slice, and it is from the Noteworthy cartridge. To finish off the card, I used a silver pen from Creative Memories because I love the intense silver ink that it gives.

Thanks for stopping by to see my latest, and definitely check out this challenge!

Chins Up!!

I love this little guy!! I had him last year, so I dusted him off and made a new card for this Christmas! The image is from Firecracker Designs, and he is just so cute I can't stand it! I colored him with copics and twinkling H2Os for the shimmery effect (I know...I've got to get some real shimmerz!). In the background is some Rose Red DSP from Stampin Up, and I paired it with some Wild Wasabi ribbon.

I'm almost done with my Christmas cards...I now need to make individual ones for our families. Hopefully I can finish them quickly as some need to get in the mail! Thanks for stopping by and checking out my cards!

Nancy

Noel...no stamping required!

I recently purchased a Making Memories Slice, and I have been diligently playing with it (is that an oxymoron?). I also have been playing with my 6x6 pad of Basic Grey Wassail paper. I wanted to combine the two, and I found a card that didn't require much work. However, since the machine only cuts one thing at a time, mass producing can be a problem (I only made 4 of these). The "Noel" is from the Falala cartridge, and it is a cute one! The base of the card is Cranberry Crisp and some Always Artichoke thrown in from Stampin' Up.

This is just one of the many Christmas cards that I have been slaving away on...why did I wait so long? I've had to mail them out in shifts because I can only make so many in one sitting. I should post a picture of my craft room...it really looks like a bomb went off in there! I actually can't wait to clean it, so that I can have some semblance of order in my life. The best thing in there is my sign that says, "Welcome to my loose interpretation of clean!" That is an understatement. The holidays are in full swing, and hopefully, I'll have all of my Christmas cards delivered by then. I was even so desperate as to go searching the gallery on Splitcoast for cards that I could case. Needless to say, I won't be posting a picture of that one!!! (but, it was really pretty!) Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to browse my little corner of the world.

Nancy

Christmas Poinsettia

This is another one of those impulse buys at ACMoore. They had their Sizzix dies 50% off at one point, and I saw this poinsettia die. Well, I haven't really used my Cuttlebug for die cutting that much, and I had my handy-dandy "sandwich" guide for using other dies and I thought "what the heck!" I was finally able to use it today. It was a bit tedious because it cuts three different shapes (a large leaf, a small leaf, and a center). I had to cut 9 large leaves, 7 small leaves, and one center. I used SU cardstock in Ruby Red and Always Artichoke for the leaves. From there, I sponged the edges in the coordinating ink to give some texture. To finish them, I used my clear spica glitter pen to give just the hint of shimmer to it. The center piece is cut from SU's Riding Hood Red. I used my Versamark pen and drew dots in the middle, then I used gold glitter embossing powder on it. To finish this part, I used a dark red glitter pen for the edges.

The size of the card is a bit massive because the pieces of the flower are quite large. I mounted the assembled flower on a piece of paper from my Basic Grey 6x6 Wassail paper pack and ticket corner punched the edges. Finally, I put it on a piece of SU Vanilla card stock for the base. I did have to trim the patterned paper a bit, so the card size is 6x6. There isn't a lick of stamping on the front, but I did use sentiments from an old SU set called Season's Greetings on the inside.

This is definitely a one of a kind card...too time-consuming to mass produce!! Thanks for stopping by and taking a look!

Tilda as Lucia

The more that I work with these Magnolia stamps, the more I like them!! Darn that Dawn for enabling me yet again! I am usually a little late to the game on a lot of things, so this is one of the first times that I used Twinkling H2Os. Can you believe it? I also used my brand new toy, the Slice by Making Memories. I was so excited to finally have an electronic die cutting machine. I went a little crazy with my AC Moore coupons! The paper is Wassail from Basic Grey, and I used my copic markers for coloring.

I decided that I had to have this particular stamp because this year I wanted to connect to my roots. I'm half Swedish, and I grew up in a town that was heavily populated by Swedes!! Of course, my grandfather was a Swedish immigrant from Finland (wild, huh?) who didn't speak a lick of Finnish, only Swedish! My hometown, Jamestown, NY has a Lucia Fest every year, so I do remember it well! My daughter is a bit young to dress up like Lucia, but I'm sure in the future that she will.

On another note, I want to introduce you to some great blog candy from PaperMonkey. Seriously, it is really awesome, and so is her blog!!

Rocket Man

I'm sorry that I haven't posted in a while. First it was Thanksgiving, then it was the stress of my husband changing jobs, then it was the impossible task of hosting two birthday parties back to back in my home for our daughter's 4th birthday! What was I thinking? Well, there is still plenty of stress to go around, but I'm digging my way out. I'm going to try to post some of the cards that I have managed to make on here from the past few weeks! Thanks for your patience!

The "Rocket Man" card is actually for my nephew's 6th birthday. That is getting into a difficult card making age. Everything I have seems so cutesy and geared for boys, but I think this one came out pretty well. I used the SU set All Mixed Up, and the color combination is Blue Bayou, Riding Hood Red, and Summer Sun. In addition I used SU ribbon and the SU star punch. The background is from a Cuttlebug embossing folder. I used both Faber Castell pencils with gamsol and copic markers to color in the image. To finish it off, I used Crystal Effects on the helmet to give the illusion of a glass astronaut's helmet. Thanks for taking the time to stop by today!

Nancy