Jingling Along for a White Christmas

With Thanksgiving in the past now, and December not more than a few days off, one comes to the realization that this is the last Jingle Belles challenge for 2016.  And it's a photo inspiration challenge.

Pretty, pretty, pretty!

And you know what caught my eye?  The eyes on the tree.  What is hiding there?  

Snowy Owls!

I love snowy owls.  I've had the opportunity to see them in captivity at the Raptor Trust and the Philadelphia Zoo, but it's been on my bucket list to see them in real life - in the wild.  The last few winters there have been reports of snowy owl sightings at Island Beach State Park and Long Beach Island here in New Jersey and I've seen pictures posted on Facebook from locals there.  But ideally, I would love to see one in person.  Maybe in 2017.

From a visit to the Raptor Trust in 2012

From a visit to the Raptor Trust in 2012

It just so happens that the day this challenge was posted HWNSNBP brought me what he called a "Friday present".  (This totally was out of the blue - never had a Friday present before or since.)

We have accumulated a nice collection of white owls over the last several years.  Some are ornaments for the tree.  Truth be told, I like all birds, but at Christmas lately, these are my favorite.

So of course you know I had to try a tree full of owls.  I have a set of two tree dies that I thought I could use by dissecting them into layers to make the tree taller so I could use owls that were not too small to cut out and were proportional to the tree.  I'm showing the close-up first, because try as I might I could not get a good picture of this card and all it's sparkle.  

I had these little owl stickers in pastel shades that I thought about using, but wanted to stay true to the inspiration, so I traced a few of them onto white cardstock and added the details in silver and black before fussy cutting them out.  It wasn't really that tedious.  I eliminated all the feet and the ear tufts because snowy owls don't have ear tufts.  

Another reason I chose not to use the stickers (and I tried) was because they did not stick too well to the glitter paper, which brings me to another observation.  I did not realize that glitter paper has a nap to it.  The die that I used has both trees on it and they are facing in opposite directions and since I cut them up to stack them, you can see the difference in the paper ever so slightly.

Okay, maybe not there so much as here, where the trees are side-by-side.

Okay .............take my word for it, there is a difference.  (Who cropped that picture, Zorro?)

I was on a little bit of a roll and actually put two cards together for this challenge and as I'm usually challenged by time (even more so during the holidays), I'm putting it in this post, but I don't think I can link up more than one card from a post, so here is where it is.

The trees in the background and the rabbit (also a part of that die) are cut from the wood sheets that I found a couple of weeks ago.  It was a challenge for this particular die to get a good cut on that thickness.  I had to do a lot of snipping and cutting to fully release the trees.  But as luck would have it, not one branch broke off.

So why don't you join me in visiting the Jingle Belles to see how the others were inspired by this photo?  Click here.

Oh, and I saw that the inspiration for Our Beautiful World this week is ~White~ so I'd like to add a photo from this post to that blog also.  You have to go take a look at the pictures of "white" from around the world.  Go ahead - get inspired!

Jingle Belles One More Time

A Recent Conversation 

HWNSNBP:  Do we have enough Christmas cards made?

(yes, he said we)

ME:  I don't know, I haven't counted them, but we probably don't.

(yes, I said we with emphasis)

HWNSNBP:  You know it's getting close to December.

(I ignore that because I might say something I might regret.)

Last Night

HWNSNBP:  What are you working on?

ME:  Christmas cards.

HWNSNBP:  Are we going to have enough yet?  You know it's almost December.

(I lifted my head and gave him the look, and he backed out of the room with...)

HWNSNBP:  Okay, I'll leave you alone.  I'm not checking up on you.  

(no, I haven't harmed him.......yet)

If you read my last two Jingle Belles posts you'll know that I promised to make a card with a new stamp.  Well, I was having so much fun coloring this image that I made three.  The stamp is from Lil Inkers and I saw it used on The Daily Marker blog.  Kathy was using it for placecards, and I might do that too, but I knew that I had to have that stamp so I quickly placed my order with Lil Inkers and got it in plenty of time for this challenge to use flowers on our cards.  Of course, the bird was the big selling point for me, but the whole design really spoke to me.  

I colored them with color pencils and I did two bluebirds and a European robin.  There's another sentiment you can chose "Deck the Halls" and I'm saving that for another time.  BTW - my daughter treated me to a MISTI last Christmas and while I've used it before, but with this card, lining up the sentiments on the ribbon was so much quicker.  

I used a poinsettia embossing folder for the back panel and added a length of polka dotted ribbon (another cleaning find) behind the image that I fussy cut around.  It still needed something so I used a Sizzix die to die cut the spray of greenery for the background.  

Here's some close-ups, but the colors are really more vibrant like the first picture in the post.

Okay, now I really have to get going over to the Jingle Belles blog to get this posted and to visit the other lovely creations from this challenge.  Won't you join me by clicking here.  

Jingle Belles Floral Christmas II

I've spent the better part of the last four days sorting and purging.  When we emptied out the room I was using as my craft space we put everything into the other spare bedroom (the room that used to be our daughter's).  Of course when the major work in the craft room was done all the stuff had to be moved back in.  Problem was and continues to be that I have too much stuff.  And I've tried explaining to my husband that I just didn't want to grab the stuff and just put it anywhere in the new space.  If I were to organize things now would be the time.  

Why am I starting with this... well because I promised to come back with another card for this challenge, but I said I would be using a new stamp.  Instead, I used some things that I had that I had forgotten about. The chevron panel was in a pack of papers long forgotten.  The ribbon with the poinsettias was in the scrap ribbon bag.  The wooden piece on the bottom was among some others that I found tucked in a box.  Don't tell anyone but this one was broken in the middle and I glued it back together and then used some tea stain ink to stain the wood.  Covering it with one of those poinsettia stickers and you'd never know it was repaired.  Lastly the deer and wreath were cut from a wood sheet that I found during the purging process.  It worked well with the dies.  

It's stained with the same tea stain ink that I used on the other piece but in the picture it might appear to be gold.  I used one dimensional on the head of the deer and let the antlers go "free" as the wood was naturally curving and it gave it much more dimension.

So on the spur of the moment, as I was cleaning out that other room, I told HWNSNBP that we really should paint it while we were doing such a deep clean and he went along with it.  This meant a trip to Home Depot for paint.  Being so spur of the moment I really had no idea what color I was looking for.  And I should add that color choices are never quick with me.  The room is currently painted two colors (my daughter's teenage choice) - light green and lavendar, which sound okay and look okay for a teenage room, but since we no longer have a teenager I wanted something more subtle.  I tend to go for the blues, so while HWNSNBP was looking for something else at HD I went to the paint section to take a look.  I picked out a color and he grabbed the sample from me and went over to the counter to ask for a sample.  I handed him another card with samples of the finishes that the paint can come in and pointed to the one that I wanted.  He promptly told the clerk we wanted the matte finish only he did not pronounce it matte as in mat, but rather mattay as in latte, whereby I swatted him with the card and corrected him which the guys behind the counter thought was pretty funny and jokingly warned me that they had seen me "beating up" my husband.  And no, he was not joking around with that pronunciation.  We've been through this before, just not in the store.  We got our sample and headed home never checking the color swatch on the top of the jar they put there for you to know what's inside.  Only later, when we had been home for a while did I notice that the color swatch on the top of the jar was a mustard yellow, very definitely not blue.  Being colorblind, HWNSNBP never even noticed when he put the sample on the walls.  Nothing is ever easy is it!

But speaking of blue...........little blue eyes and his mom came to visit for a spell on Saturday.  I could just drown in those pools of blue.

So let me finish this up and encourage you to visit the Jingle Belles to see all the other lovely floral Christmas cards.  And maybe, just maybe, since my haircut appointment for tomorrow was cancelled, I might get to using that new stamp I promised I'd try.  Here's the link to the Jingle Belles.

Jingle Belles - Mele Kalikimaka

If you knew that was Hawaiian for Merry Christmas bonus points for you!  But what's that got to do with this challenge?  Well, you know in Hawaii, summer or winter, there are flowers.  And lot's of us like to bring flowers into the house at the holidays.  So the JB's asked us to make cards with flowers. 

I am guilty of reading, or I should say not reading their post thoroughly.  I saw the word "traditional" and assumed that that meant they wanted traditional Christmas flowers and traditional Christmas colors. Well you know what happens when you assume - you spend 2 nights working on a card with the wrong criteria in mind.  

I am somewhat happy with the way this turned out.  Shortly after I skimmed their post I found myself in AC Moore shopping for something outside the stamping realm and I happened upon the flower stickers like the one on the card.  The AC Moore in Manahawkin is an outlet store now which means that everything in the store is at least 40% off (and they say they get new inventory all the time).  So after I found what I was originally looking for, I didn't mind a quick turn about the store and of course, some things jumped into my basket screaming "Buy me!  I'm 40% off!"  These stickers screamed very loud.  They whispered in my ear that they would be perfect for the JB challenge this week and a lightbulb went off in my head (or maybe it was a flash of sanity after hearing voices). But anyway...........I pictured the background stamp that I had at home with the poinsettia's on it and thought I could pair them up with that.  

Of course when I took another look at the background stamp I was stymied as to how I would stamp it.  I wanted the flowers red and the leaves green and not necessarily all outlined in black or gold. There was another flash of light (and not from the eye with the recently diagnosed retina problem thankfully) and I remembered that I had some green embossing powder that might just work.  And I think it did work after I got the value that I wanted in the watercoloring.  

I hadn't used my Colorburst powders in a while so I decided to take them out.  Two shade of red and two shade of green. I started with the lighter shades and attempted to add some highlights with the darker ones but the green embossing on the leaves was getting lost in the light green watercolor.  So I went back with the darker red over the flowers several more times to try to get them closer to the sticker.  And I did several more coats of the darker green which made the embossing more visible.

The centers were quickly done with some lemon powder and then I used a VersaMark pen on the edges to be able to add the gold highlights to that red flocked paper.  I even ran my gold WOS pen around the very edge of the stamped panel.  

The last touch was adding the gold twine under the sticker.  

So now that I've reread the challenge I am definitely going to put another card together using a stamp that came in the mail today.  It was such a depressing day, but getting new toys in the mail has helped.

Why don't you click here to see all the other wonderful floral creations.

Jingle Belles - Creature Feature

Ooooooooh, I'm just barely squeaking this one in.  This is for the Jingle Belles challenge calling for creatures.  I have a tidy selection of suitable stamps but I really wanted to use this one which was a gift from my blogging buddy Sabrina.  It's a Lili of the Valley stamp - my first one - and I absolutely love it.  Those little birds of course had to be bluebirds.  Sabrina knows me very well.

I've been so preoccupied with Halloween projects that I kept putting this on the back burner and finally last night I sat down to get it going.  I didn't quite finish watercoloring the image last night when I ran out of steam so I knew I'd have to get it done first thing home from work today.  Good thing that I had stamped the image twice because I did not like the color I had originally chosen for the scarf and hat - it was blue but much too dark.  So I scoured my ink choices and came up with this Dapper Denim and, not wanting to use red, I decided to make the other stripe Pistachio.  

Of course, when you're on a tight schedule, you should decide to pick out an embossing folder such as I did and choose to highlight all those raised dots with a white gel pen to look like snow.  My hand is twitching as I type!  Yeah, but I like it - so I'll suffer through the twitching tonight.  Funny thing that as I was working in my room on this, I only had the ticking of the little clock that I keep on my table as background noise and then I could actually hear the bluebirds outside at the suet feeder - no lie.  It was quite serendipitous and made me smile.  

You probably cannot tell from the photo but the snowman and the rest of the snow on the image are highlighted with some sparkly clear Wink of Stella.  

I threw (almost literally) the silver elastic bow on mainly to hide the fact that I did not push the embossing folder up high enough and there was an unembossed 1/4" that peeved me.  

Oh yes, and another little bit of serendipity was the package of the pistachio colored doilies on my table that caught my eye as I was gathering my supplies.  Who needs trees in the background when you can have a green doily?  

Well, I see that there is a plethora of creatures to investigate over at the Jingle Belles blog.  Won't you take a peek with me and leave some love!  

Pinktober - Jingle Belles

I have to admit that I don't mind using pink or blue or purple on my Christmas cards.  Red, green and white in all shades are also pretty regular choices. Yellows and oranges are a stretch, unless of course, they're mixed with any of those other colors.  When I ordered this stamp from Amuse recently, I was picturing the poinsettias in pink - those are the ones that I gravitate to. And since it arrived here in October, it was the perfect choice to use for this challenge.

I attempted to use a technique called no-line watercoloring.  I started by stamping the image in a light color, and I could have and probably should have gone at least another shade lighter.  But my aim was not to have dark lines outlining the image and I think I accomplished that.  I used Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink and Pink Pirouette as my pink choices and when it came to the stems and sprays, I didn't think that a shade of green would look too good over the pink lines so I went with Creamy Caramel. The ink was squished onto the inside of the stamp pad lids and I used an aquapainter brush.  After I added the Creamy Caramel centers and dots to the flowers I took a marker of the same color and highlighted them with that.  On the small flowers I also added some Clear Wink of Stella.  The sequins were added at the end beeeeccccaaaaaauuuuussssssseee, and I don't know where it came from, something black and oily, but thankfully small, appeared on the watercolor paper after I added the ribbon. They're a little bit bright, but they're serving a purpose.  

Now I'm encouraging all my card-making friends to think about joining this challenge.  It's not only a Christmas card you'll be creating, but our Jingle Belles Lauren and Stephanie will be donating $2 each to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.  You have until 6 p.m. (EST) Wednesday, 10/19. Check out all the beautiful pink Christmas cards that have already been posted here.

Just sneaking in a quick pic of our little guy who just turned 6 months old.  He has stolen our hearts!

What Day is it?

I know today is almost over but somehow I lost track of my days this week.  I think it was because the staff and students had Monday off for one of the Jewish holidays and although I (and the rest of the 12 month employees) had to work that day, when they came back on Tuesday it felt like a Monday.  

I knew that my son and daughter-in-law's anniversary was Friday so I prioritized their card knowing that it would have to be mailed by Wednesday to get to them in time.  

And I had my Jingle Belles card all planned out and started even, thinking when I came home from work on Tuesday that it was Monday, so I had 2 more days to finish it and get it posted before the deadline.  Only this morning, the two days later, when I woke up and realized that today was actually Thursday and not Wednesday I was pretty annoyed at myself for not posting this by 6 last night because it was done.  

The theme was "bells" and that is a bell sewn onto the makeshift ribbon hat that I created for this die cut snowman.  I used an embossing folder that looks like falling snow and highlighted those raised dots with a glitter gel pen.  The snowman is created from 3 of those swirly dies.  The buttons are actually button brads.  

Gathering some ribbons with some quick stitches I was able to create a hat and scarf.  Oh Jingle Belles, I'm so sorry that I missed posting this.  But I am glad that I got another Christmas card done.

Monday afternoon I also worked on a couple other quick cards.  Here is one of them using a Unity Stamp on a 4x4 card.  I added the orange glitter ribbon with the brown glitter ribbon bow.  

I like that 4x4 size and I think I might concentrate on creating some more of these.  

Jingle Belles - Bringing the House Down

Well, not really, just shaking it up a bit.  This challenge was all about architecture - houses, churches, etc.  I did absolutely no stamping on this card and I actually did the shaker thing bassackwards, but I got it done.  And thanks to Martha from Verizon, I actually get to publish this before the deadline tonight because there's nothing like waiting til almost the last minute and then finding out that your e-mail service provider has had a crash caused by a Google Chrome update that prohibits you from sending yourself the picture that you needed to post.  

Whew!  So here's the scoop - starting from the top - 

The sentiment is from Impression Obsession.  The houses are from Essentials by Ellen Home & Hearth.  The trees are from SU's Sleigh Ride edgelits.  The jar and lid are from Everyday Jars Framelits (another SU die).  And darned if I didn't forget to write down the holly, berry, and branch die (I'll edit this later to add that info.).

The base is Bashful Blue cs and the raised panel is a scrap of SU dsp.  I used Cherry Cobbler, Real Red, Hunter Green, Gumball Green, Marina Mist, and More Mustard cardstock for the houses, trees, and greenery.  The faux ribbon on the jar lid (which is silver cardstock) is a strip of washi tape that I cut down to a size usable for the lid.

And then there's a ton of dimensional material on the back raising that panel so I could fill the space with glitter to make my first official shaker card!  I must watch a video or something before I try this again to figure out the right way to get that glitter in there cause I'm sure that what I did was not "the professional" way.  But I'm proud to say that it's all contained and there was very little spillage on the craft table. 

So now I have to fly over to Walmart to get some pictures of the grandson printed for my mother's birthday on Friday.  But I shall go back and visit the Belles and check out some more of the architecture.  Click on the link to see some more beautiful scenery.  

Jingle Belles, Dare to Get Dirty, and a Beautiful Surprise

The Jingle Belles challenge this go around calls for a trio.  So you see here I have three gingerbread men on a banner of three.  That Happy Holidays die is supposed to be one piece but I cut it apart to balance it out a bit better with this design.  I am also using this card for a couple of Dare to Get Dirty Challenges - DTGD16Cook22 (Sabrina's) and DTGD16StampersandeeA.    And yes, the background paper on this contains pink and so I added a layer of pink cardstock and some little pink cotton thread bows to hold my banner together.  You can't see it, but there's a little bit of cinnamon tucked in to give it more of a holiday flavor.

This next card is one of four that I'm making for some very special friends.  It's also inspired by a couple of Dare to Get Dirty challenges - DTGD16StampingQueenJAR, DTGD16albitas, and DTGD16justwritedesigns.  Again, I can't tell you specifically what the challenges were, but I really like the way this came out.  I spent way too much time playing with Brushos and watercolor paper, and someone is sure to question my blue and green fingers tomorrow at work!

I used the SU stamp set By the Tide and embossed the fish and coral in silver EP.  The Memory Box Oceana Corner die only came in the mail last week and I was so glad to use it right away for this. Those little silver "bubbles" are actually the punch outs from the diecut.  

And speaking of coming in the mail - I received this beautiful card from my blogging friend Sunshine in New Zealand.  I love that diecut and those flowers are so pretty.  I have to keep reminding myself that it's winter down there.  So I hope creating these flowers made her feel just a little bit warmer.  She also sent me that cute little piggy bank.  The flowers on either side of the money hole remind me of wings!  Thank you Sunshine!

Well, the deadline for posting the Dare to Get Dirty cards is tomorrow I think and I'm not sure that I'll get anymore done, but it was fun doing these!

Christmas in July (Hopefully Part I of II) - Jingle Belles Catch Up

SO...............if you are a regular visitor here you might have wondered what has happened to all my Jingle Belles cards for the last couple few , well for many months?  I could regale you with excuses, some of them good, some of them sketchy, but I won't.  Just let me share with you now what I've been working on this past, what I am calling "Christmas in July" weekend.  I figured if the Hallmark channel can celebrate Christmas in July, and QVC and the Home Shopping Network can also, why not do the same.  And since Saturday was a yucky weather day and we came home early, what better way to use my time than to do some catching up on my Christmas cards while watching a various selection of Christmas movies on, yes I did.... the Hallmark Channel.

I actually did this card last, but it's the current challenge at the Jingle Belles blog so I will start with it. It's an inspiration photo challenge.  (I know, you might have mistaken it for the annual use pink in your Christmas cards challenge, but no, that's not usually until October.)  

Look at this lovely hombre tree in the scene provided by the JB girls below.  Isn't it beautiful!  My original idea was to use sticky jewels as my ornaments for my card, but in the process of searching and reorganizing my craft room, I found these stickers that I purchased at the $Tree not too long ago.  I got a set each of the small and the large glittery circles.  And even after doing this card I have a lot leftover of each.

I know my tree colors don't match exactly the order of the inspiration photo, but I felt this was the way to go.  I used some Brushos for my background and loosely as a tree underneath the ornaments. I found a slice of the colorful gingham paper and used that behind the tree panel with some MS punch added to soften the transition.  With those colors, I really felt it needed a solid pink as the card base and grabbed some retired pink SU paper for that.  The sentiment was die cut from some white glitter paper using word dies from Ellen Hutson.  Wouldn't it be great to send this card to the most conservative person on our Christmas card list!

I actually started my cardmaking that day with the prompt from one of my favorites challenges - recycling.  I managed two cards for this challenge.  The one below reuses that pretty red tag with the gold foil design on it.  I found some red metallic paper and contrasted that with a sliver of red suede paper. The flower was plain red so I added some gold paint to the edges and layered the flower at the top of the tag with some gold twine.  The sentiment is a die from Ellen Hutson (it actually says enjoy and I trimmed off the "en") cut from some gold glitter paper and it's all on a kraft card base.

The owls on the card below were cut from some of those wrapping paper sample sheets that I kept from a school fundraiser booklet.  I fussy cut them and added some real ponpoms to their hats.  

Another challenge I had missed was the washi tape one.  I made the ornaments below by lining up up some Christmas-theme washi on slice of white CS and then punching out the ornaments.  The hangers are also washi as is the sentiment.  The bows on the ornaments are pink cotton twine.

I looked through my stash of washi and pulled out those with red designs.  Adding the swirly die cut as a wreath gave it a pop of another color.

And the last card I'm showing is from the "USE NO BLUE" challenge.  Don't be tempted to cry foul with the sky behind the birds. I can assure you that it is gray and I'm so sorry that I didn't think to used a pale yellow instead.  I watercolored the image with my new KOI watercolors and an aquapainter. Then I layered it with 3 coats of clear embossing powder making it very glossy and almost looking like they're on the other side of the window.  I love cardinals, but after I got done I kind of think they're kind of angry looking.  I framed them with some cork paper and added the ribbon with the pinecones which afforded me the opportuity to add the die cut pine cones and branches in the corner.  

We'll see in the weeks to come if I can get another "Christmas in July" day!

Jingle Belles - Look Who's Coming to Town

Those papers that I had to have from Hobby Lobby a couple of weeks ago also had this nice Santa graphic on it which was just what I needed for this week's Jingle Belle Challenge. If the edges of that circle look a little wonky it's because it was drawn that way on the paper.  All's I did was follow the line. 

And since I had those other coordinating papers (see there is a method to my shopping madness), I put them all together using the sketch from the Paper Players challenge 288 which I've missed the deadline on but that's okay, I really like the sketch anyway, 'cept I took a little creative license with it and turned it on it's side.

One would think that without any actual stamping or coloring on this that it would have been a quicky - ah, but did you notice all the die cut greenery.  Surely I must be nuts or having fun.  Or maybe both!

Okey, dokey, let's go visit the rest of the Jingle Belles to see all their Santa's and friends.  

Don't forget to check out my Pay It Forward Post.  

Jingle Belles Vintage Christmas

Taking a short break away from my craft room redo on Saturday morning, I managed to coax HWNSNBP to take a drive to Hobby Lobby because I just needed 1 thing.  Seriously, I only needed one little bird to finish a project I started last week and the selection was not what I had hoped for. (Not to mention that I'm sure I have some birds around here that would have been perfectly fine for the project but putting my hands on it would have been near impossible.  And the bird I did find came in a package of three - like I really need the two extra!)

So he helped me pick out the bird and then somehow we got separated.  If it wasn't for the fact that he had the basket, I would have thought that he would have gone out to the car because he did bring the newspaper with him.  Sadly, even though I'm cleaning out my craft room and have become overwhelmed and almost sick to my stomach at the amount of paper that I have accumulated, I did walk down the paper aisle.  I don't go out to Hobby Lobby too often so I wanted to see what their stock was like and that's when I spied this vintagey Christmas paper. The background and the image panel came from two separate sheets.

But I liked the colors and knew there would be something on the image sheet that I could highlight.  I found the Cherry Cobbler netting in my stash as well as the crocheted trim that was a purchase from the dollar spot at Target, um, yeah, well a while ago.  The leaves are from a Sizzix holiday greens die and I used a textured coffee sleeve from Panera.  (Ya never know what you're going to find in my stash!)  Not sure if you can see that I took some gold shimmer paint to the edges of that holly.

And let me just add that when I did find him, he had picked out a couple of things (for the yard) and actually spent more than I did!

Okay, let me mosey on over to the Jingle Belles blog to see all the beautiful vintage creations.

Jingle Belles Layers, Paper Players Sketch, Christmas Card Challenge Photo Inspiration Combined

I don't think I've done this before.  Combined three challenges that is.  But they kind of all came together synchronistically. 

The Jingle Belles wanted layers - at least 3.  Then there was the inspiration photo from Christmas Card Challenge 13 - I had this SU set I hadn't used yet with these great trees.  And in my feed I saw the sketch from the Paper Players which caught my eye because it pulled it all together with the layers and the color and how I could use that tree.

I wish I had a source for paper the color of the inspiration photo, but I didn't so I decided to use all of the dark purples that I did have on hand. I hope you see colors that look well together because they do IRL, but computers differ so much, especially with dark purples and dark blues.  I checked this out on my screen at work and it didn't look quite as nice.  That makes me sad a little.  

Christmas Card Challenges #13

And I took a little close-up so you could see the stars embossed on that Concord Crush panel.  I used a word bubble die trimmed down for the sentiment.  I was trying to find some silver ribbon to use instead of the purple glitter ribbon, but it was not to be.  Then after I finished the card I looked over at my stash of washi tape and saw my silver tape that would have been perfect. Have you ever done that?  Doesn't matter now though because I do like the way this came out without it.

So here is the recipe for this card:

Paper:  Blackberry Bliss, Concord Crush, Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White

Stamps:  SU Wonderland

Ink:  Blackberry Bliss, Concord Crush, VersaMark

Additional:  SU Star EF, Silver EP, Word Bubbles Framelits, 2" and 1 3/4" circle punches,

Celebrate It Glitter Ribbon

And the links to the challenges so you can join me in admiring all the other creations!

Jingle Belles - All Bundled Up

Christmas Card Challenges #13

Paper Players - PP284 Sketch

Jingle Belles *TEXT* Me

Our mission this time is to "make a holiday card with the emphasis on the words".  So for my first card I chose to highlight this Memory Box die I cut from white glitter paper which really is very sparkly, just not in the picture.  I used a pine bough embossing folder for the background and layered the green on the red then the white card back.  I came across this ribbon in my stash and just had to add it somehow to this card pulling the colors and the embossing motif together.  I only regretted not using gold glitter paper for the sentiment afterwards which might have been a little better with the gold in the ribbon.  

I managed to get a second card done a little quicker.  I used some papers that I had picked up on clearance last Christmas.  The deer are already printed and glittered on the paper.  I cut the panel from a different sheet and knew that I wanted to add some jingle bells along the bottom.  When I first laid it out, the bells seemed to disappear so I took a portion of a kraft-colored doily to put beneath the bells so they might stand out more and I think it worked pretty well.  I'm thinking that maybe I should have darkened it with a little VersaMark first, but I'm keeping it the way it is.

Now it's time to check out all the other Jingle Belles and what they've been "texting" these last two weeks.