Poppystamps: Snowflake Joy

 I'm on the Poppystamps blog today with this card wishing you Double Diamond Snowflake Joy with the Double Joy dies and the Diamond Snowflake die!

This snowflake die is stunning. I love the layers - I left the edges unadhered to give them even more dimension. And the bold Joy with the glittery outline and the vellum centers works with the snowflakes without hiding them!

Of course the glitter paper is the perfect accent for all of it. And just in case there wasn't enough glitter already, I added jewels to accent the top and bottom of the Joy.

Be sure to pop over to the Poppystamps blog for more pictures and many more details.

SUPPLY LIST

Dies: Poppystamps Diamond Snowflake and Double Joy

Paper: Memory Box Delicate Pastel Glitter (on the flakes) and Majestic Hues Glitter (the black letters)

Other: Clear Fairy Jewels

Freshly Made Sketches: A Sweet Holiday

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch by Narelle and here’s what I did with it!

I have and have used multiple times the Stampin' Up Gingerbread dies.  When I got them, I talked myself into getting the paper too, but I was really buying the paper for one particular patterned piece.  What a splurge to buy an entire paper pack for one pattern, so I promised myself I would absolutely use at least two other pieces of the paper.  Here's one of the pieces - the ornaments and the starbursts are cut out from one of the patterns.  (Which is kind of a neat concept to have dies that match the paper and then have that much detail from one die cut!)

The sad part of this whole story? The paper on the sides is the paper that I wanted and this is the first time that I've used it - and even now, only a tiny bit on the sides.  Ugh.  I have to stop justifying my purchases.

What I didn't get in this Stampin' Up suite of products is the stamps so I did have to use a Lawn Fawn stamp for the "sweet holiday".

I hope to see you playing along with us this week at Freshly Made Sketches.

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Shutter Card Holiday Settings

Dies: Stampin' Up Gingerbread Dies, Rectangle Stitched Framelits (re-sized)

Paper: Stampin' Up Gingerbread & Peppermint

Other: Glitter dots from Stampin' Up Toile Tidings Glitter Enamel Dots (red), Glitter Enamel Dots (olive)

The Card Concept: Annual Favorites

 It's a fun challenge at The Card Concept that simply invites us to share a favorite card this year or a photo of our Christmas tree or holiday decoration.

I find that picking a favorite card is hard because this hobby isn't just about the card - it's also about remembering why you created it and thinking of the person you sent it to.  There are memories attached to each card that impact our emotional reaction to the card.  But that's really why we have this hobby, isn't it?  I can't think of any other hobby that has such an impact.  We have the fun of creating cards - each of them a little work of art - and personalizing them for each of recipients. Then we impact the people we send to. We give them encouraging thoughts and hugs, we share high fives, we comfort them when needed, and we bring them joy. 

As I scrolled through my cards, I realized I wanted to narrow it down to a "hugs" card, because that's what I want to send to each of you after these last few long years. Hugs of comfort, but also a big thank you hug for being part of my blog and part of this challenge!  

Here's my favorite card (with the details found here)

I'm going to play both ends of the challenge and also share some holiday decorations but with a story.  I have been married for over 30 years.  I met and married my husband within one year so we actually never spent a Christmas together before we were married. The 30 years notwithstanding, I would not recommend marrying without understanding your partner's Christmas foibles. It turns out my husband doesn't like lights on the house - in fact, he passionately hates them.

I've been crushed all these years.  I'm not going to mention when I grew, but when and where I did grow up, we took lights seriously. Every house sparkled - you couldn't help but be filled with excitement and joy. In fairness to my husband, he grew up in an entirely different part of the country, and with the style of houses in that area, their decorations were candles in every window. 

Sadly, the house we lived in for 29 years didn't have windows that worked with candles and it most definitely did not have Christmas lights so it remained dark.  (I'm only talking about the outside - I did the insides!!)

With our children currently 21 and 25 years old, we down-sized a few years back into a ranch-style home in town (our last house was on acreage) with an easy walk to groceries and restaurants and breweries.  I'm loving it.  Not to mention that it came with an office that feels like it was made just for my cardmaking!  

Then one Christmas, I realized it had windows!!!  Big open windows!  Windows into which candles fit perfectly! 

There are five candles in that front room and eleven in the kitchen.  Say "hello" to one of my cats!

Each of the side windows has two trios of candles for 12 more candles. Then what you can't see off to the right is the candles in the craft room and the master.  And of course, the tree is in the front corner window.

It's not fancy but I smile, take a deep breath, and just feel the simple peace of Christmas every time that I come home! 

And with that - I wish you peace and also the overwhelming joy of Christmas!  See you back at The Card Concept in the New Year!

Color Throwdown: Winter Wonderland

 I am totally loving bright and cheerful colors for Christmas this year so I had to play along with the colors at the Color Throwdown.  Even with pink and blue in the combo - for some reason, trees called my name!

I've seen so many tall trees on cards this year. There's a charming set by Stampin' Up and I'm pretty sure that's why I've seen so many.  So I went looking for my own tall trees and I found this set by Alexandra Renke.  This is the "little" set but there's a regular size set too.  Of course, I got both - the regular set is the same style but ranges from around 2 1/2" to 3 1/2". For me, these will get used year round.

I love the style of the sentiment set - so clean and classic yet still fun.  It's from Waffle Flower.  Then I got the sentiment and the trees line up and it needed up some sparkle.  I couldn't believe that I had snowflakes in the same colors!!  This isn't a great card - but it was a card that was meant to be!!

I'm mailing cards today.  I have a couple more already scheduled on the blog for this week - but anything that I make after that is just for fun. Phew!!!

Thank you to the Color Throwdown for the inspiration.

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Waffle Flower Cozy Holiday Sentiments

Dies: Alexandra Renke 5 Pine Trees set (little)

Paper: Stampin' Up Polished Pink, Bermuda Bay and Granny Apple Green, My Favorite Things Black & White Stripes

Other: Kat Scrappiness Rainbow Snowflakes

Poppystamps: Time to Sparkle

 I'm on the Poppystamps blog today with this "time to sparkle" card using the Poppystamps Whittle Friendly Snowman!

I love the sweet little smile on this guy!!  I backed him with the snowflake frame from the Wintertime Sentiments set. The set includes fourteen different sentiments!

There are more pictures and more details on the Poppystamps blog - be sure to check it out!!

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Poppystamps Wintertime Sentiments

Dies: Poppystamps Whittle Friendly Snowman

Paper: Memory Box Delicate Pastel Glitter Pad

Other: Poppystamps Pastel Jewels

Freshly Made Sketches: Christmas with Holly

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch by Karren and here’s what I did with it!

I definitely strayed from sketch with my placement of the sentiment.  I just saw all of that lovely open space and wanted to fill it with a gorgeous dimensional embossing folder.  Then it was so dimensional that a die cut sentiment just didn't sit right so the sentiment moved down to the long panel.  I feel a tiny bit guilty - but I like the results.

The sentiment was supposed to be created with the Decorative Type alphabet set by Sizzix.  The set has an alphabet along with teeny tiny little decorations for each letter ranging from holly to stars to flowers.  But I cut the letters for "christmas" and it was too big, then I tried "merry" but it was too small.  So I flipped through my stash for a different "christmas" die but will used the bitty decorations.  The holly is on the "C" and if you look really closely, I added a star to the "i".

The dsp is from Stampin' Up. It's my favorite Christmas pad of the year (across all companies). The embossing folder is from Lisa Horton Crafts - the detail is amazing! So really this entire card was designed around embossing and paper!

I hope to see you playing along with us at Freshly Made Sketches.

SUPPLY LIST: 

Dies: Alexandra Renke Christmas, Sizzix Decorative Type Thinlits

Paper: Stampin' Up Tidings of Christmas dsp, cardstock in Cherry Cobbler, Evening Evergreen, Soft Succulent, Misty Moonlight

Other: Lisa Horton Crafts Holly & Berries Slimline 3D Embossing Folder

Color Throwdown: Sending you Holiday Hugs & Love

I couldn't let the challenge at the Color Throwdown go by without playing. It has pink in the color combo and I still needed to make Christmas cards for my pink-loving nieces! Here's what I came up with.

My card uses silver embossing powder and a sparkly silver star - and the pink plaid background paper is also glitter paper - so there might be enough glitter for one of my nieces.  But I'm realizing as I type that there's only three gems and that's not nearly enough - I may adhere a few more before I send it!

I got the Reverse Confetti Tree with lots of ideas to use a rainbow of colors or lots of patterns, but in this case, I think the plaid glitter paper works beautifully.  The sentiment is from The Stamp Market. The set is called Merry & Magical - it's full of fun fonts and some slightly different sentiments - mostly "magical" sentiments but in this case I love that it includes "hugs & love"!

All I have left to do for Christmas is one more niece (so expect some pink/sparkle this week) and my two sons (which will probably be snarky).  However, I still have quite a bit in my not-yet-used stash but now I can make Christmas card 100% for fun!!

Thanks to The Card Concept for the inspiration!

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: The Stamp Market Merry & Magical and dies

Dies: Reverse Confetti Tree Dies and Oh My Stars, Honey Bee Stamps Scallop A2 Card Frames

Paper: Glitter papers from Michaels, Stampin' Up Smoky Slate

Other: Taylored Expressions Silver Embossing Powder

The Card Concept: Peace on Earth

There’s a new inspiration challenge at The Card Concept and the theme is Peace on Earth. My Clean and Layered card was inspired by the gorgeous wreath with the big bow and the simple "peace" below it.

 

This stamp and die set from Stampin' Up was a little late coming into my stash so I missed all the wonderful autumn possibilities. I already have multiple wreaths so I held out as long as I could but I eventually decided that this set had so many wonderful details, I just had to have it. 

With the inspiration photo, I wanted the wreath to be fairly full so I layered up a couple of different wreaths then added pinecones, gems and some golden sprinkles in the same paper as the "PEACE". The bow is not in the wreath set but I liked the big bow in the photo so found one in my stash.

I'm actually in good shape with my Christmas card production.  I've been in very different places over the years - from absolutely in a panic when December hits to coasting in and being able to relax.  I much prefer relaxing.  Although this year, for reasons I cannot explain at this point, I am knitting some gifts - nothing big but enough that I still have some moments of panic when I look at my gifts in progress! So I seem to have substituted knitting panic for my cardmaking panic.  Oh well - the tree is up and twinkling at me and my Christmas music playlists are queued up - so it's hard to get too stressed!!

I hope to see you playing along with us this week at The Card Concept. And I hope your Christmas cardmaking (or knitting or baking or decorating) is going well!!

 SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Stampin' Up Sparkle of the Season (just the pinecones)

Dies: Stampin' Up Seasonal Swirls dies and Playful Alphabet dies, Hello Bluebird Holly and Pine (the bow)

Paper: Stampin' Up Tidings of Christmas, Cherry Cobbler (with a sparkle applied to it), Evening Evergreen, Tranquil Tide, Crumb Cake, gold cardstock unknown

Ink: Stampin' Up Soft Suede

Other: Altenew Window Slats 3D, Sunny Studio Ruby Red Jewels

Freshly Made Sketches: Make a Wish

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch by Cécile and here’s what I did with it!

 

Sadly, I missed the square part of this sketch until I was writing this post about an hour before it went live.  I really like square cards - I don't know where my head was!

The sketch is fabulous - I love little trios of accents.  I need a birthday card this week and I stuck with Cécile's stars because they were just right for a birthday celebration.  Then I found this detailed cupcake in my not-yet-used stash. The colors were picked simply to get as far from Christmas colors as possible.  My two sons have birthdays 4 days and 7 days away from Christmas so for their entire lives I've been very careful to differentiate Christmas and birthday.  Well, at least until they got old enough to want expensive electronic gifts then Christmas and birthday merged for the gift giving.

I did add a bit more in the background than the sketch had. This is an office mate that I don't know well but I feel like she would want a few more frills - so I added a scalloped edge and some embossed sprinkles. 

I hope to see you playing along with us this week at Freshly Made Sketches.

SUPPLY LIST

Dies: My Favorite Things Frosted Cupcake, Paper Smooches Teeny Stars, Honey Bee Stamps Scallop A2 Card Frames

Paper: Stampin' Up Mango Melody, Daffodil Delight, Balmy Blue; Memory Box Graceful Garden Glitter (the yellow and the orange) and Delicate Pastel Glitter (the blue)

Other: Simon Says Reverse Birthday Sentiment Strips, Taylored Expressions Sprinkles Embossing Folder