52 Christmas Card Throwdown: Very Merry Deer

I wanted to play along with the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown this week.  It's a sketch with a round element and I definitely had dies in my not-yet-used stash that fit the ticket.  Here's what I came up with.

In retrospect, I probably should have done him in brown - he looks a look stark in white - but just imagine him covered in snow!  I also gave him a jaunty little bow-tie because he is definitely very merry.  His nose is glitter paper and his eyes are black mirror paper.

Thanks to the group at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown for inspiring me again this week.  And thank you also for the shout out last week!

SUPPLY LIST
Stamps: A Stampin' Up single - long retired
Dies: Simon Says Stamp Ho Ho Deer Circle

TGIF Challenges: A Little Note with Bold Flowers

I just couldn't miss playing along with the wonderful colors at TGIF Challenges. I went with one of my favorite Stampin' Up die sets (retired) that includes big flowers to show off the colors.

I love the dimension on these flowers and there are so many other layers that could be added. I kept it simple so the colors could be center stage.  The two sentiments are from a different Stampin' Up set but I thought they combined beautifully - and it let me me add a bit more of the Mango Melody.

It's funny how my tastes have changed over the years.  For years I would have said I was a Stampin' Up Regals colors person, but lately I'm all about the Brights!!  I love every one of them.  Now..if I ever become a Subtles person, that would be a dramatic change.

SUPPLY LIST
Stamps: Stampin' Up Butterfly Gala (the sentiments)
Dies: Stampin' Up Botanical Builder (retired)
Cardstock: Stampin' Up Granny Apple, Flirty Flamingo, Mango Melody
Ink: Stampin' Up Mango Melody
Other: Pretty Pink Posh black gems

Freshly Made Sketches: Sending Hugs

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

Each die from Pinkfresh Studio is actually part of a rectangle so I trimmed one side off.  This made them a bit smaller than the card front so I used a frame die from Simon Says to size it down but still stay in the spirit of the sketch.

After I settled on the dies, I felt like the card had the look of an envelope so I knew it needed a "sending you" type of sentiment. I ordered some Ink to Paper recently and I tucked in some clearance Papertrey Ink sets.  I got a couple "sending you" stamp sets for just a few dollars each that had the ending part of the "sending you..." sentiment but the die that actually had the "sending you" was no longer available. Clear as mud??  Anyway, I knew it wouldn't be hard to find dies in other brands so I just had to shop again and found a variety in different fonts.  This card called out for my new die in a dainty, swirly font!!

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

SUPPLY LIST
Stamps: Papertrey Ink Sentiment Staples: Sending You
Dies: Pinkfresh Studio Frame Builder: Botanical Rectangle, Creative Expressions Mini Expressions - Sending, Simon Says Stamp A2 Thin Frames
Cardstock: Stampin' Up Petal Pink, Grapefruit Grove, Calypso Coral, Soft Sea Foam, Mint Macaron, Tranquil Tide
Other: Cartwright Pale Leaf sequins

CAS on Friday Fusion: Hugs

First, the inspiration photo from Fusion Card Challenge caught my eye because in a recent order from The Stamp Market, I had tucked in a little die set full of fun, modern flowers.  I also liked the gingham in the challenge graphic.  I really wanted to do a cascade of flowers and the sketch at CAS on Friday seemed just right for that (plus some some space for the gingham!)


I used a thin and a thicker dimensional adhesive on different flowers to give it this look. The rest was easy!


This is one of those cards that just makes me happy.  It's not a work of art, nor anything unique but I love the fresh color palette that I pulled from the Fusion challenge and I love the way the CAS on Friday sketch led me to this cascade of flowers.  Thank you to both challenges!

SUPPLY LIST
Stamps: The Stamp Market A Few Words
Dies: The Stamp Market A Few Words and Small Blooms
Paper: Stampin' Up Balmy Blue CS and Gingham, Daffodil Delight, Granny Apple Green

The Color Throwdown: Bright Birthday Flowers

The colors at The Color Throwdown just screamed at me to use my Concord & 9th Wildflower Field set, but I kept ignoring the voice in my head because I did not want to use red ink on my brand new stamps. Red ink stains and I've never found a way to completely clean it. I'm not usually fussy about stained and messy stamps - but all the samples I had seen with the wildflowers were soft and sweet and that's why I wanted them. But I have to admit - they work in red!!

Plus I just had to play along with the colors because this is their 600th challenge - congrats to the team!

I've gotten a little carried away with ordering stamps and dies the last few months.  I am making so many cards; my blog just shows a handful of them.  So any stamp set that creates a great card with little effort has shown up in my mailbox.  This is one of them.  The layering is easy, because it's loose and doesn't need to perfectly match up. It creates an entire bouquet of cheerful flowers in just minutes.  The sentiment is not from the set. There are four nice sentiments but not a birthday and that is what I needed for this week.

If you need a smile, check out the inspiration from the design team at The Color Throwdown. It's such a bright and cheerful post.  There's even a watermelon made from a rainbow!

SUPPLY LIST
Stamps: Concord & 9th Wildflower Fields, Fine Line Florals (the sentiment)

52 Christmas Card Throwdown: Peace

The challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is to cluster elements and to use at least three embellishments.  Since my very favorite thing to do is little groups of elements, how could I not play along?!

I'm not 100% certain how an embellishment is defined.  For me, I figure it's not die cuts since I'm using them as the main image.  So I used an embossing folder, glitter (using heat 'n stick on the gray frame), wooden accents, tinsel ribbon, a star sequin and Studio Katia Ice Sparkle Crystals - that's six!!

This is a fun little die set, although I think it might be retired.  It's the first snowglobe by Tim Holtz.  (I only see the second snowglobe on the website. I got the first on Amazon.)  Living in Colorado, I had to have the little mountains and trees.  I recently stumbled on Julia's blog which inspired me to use just pieces of these big Sizzix die sets - see this card but there are so many others!  So my card isn't a "snowglobe", it's just a rustic mountain scene.

Something fun about this die set is that the mountains and trees are scored down the middle so you can add dimension. I popped the mountain with thicker pieces of dimensional tape down the middle and the tree with thinner pieces (although there are so many other things on top of the tree, it's hard to tell it's popped.

Thanks to the group at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown for inspiring me to put all of these pieces together in my cluster of embellishments!
SUPPLY LIST
Stamps: Winnie & Walter Happy Christmas
Dies: Essential by Ellen Essential Circles, Sizzix Tim Holtz Snowglobe (the first one)
Other: Stampin' Up Embossing Folder and Tinsel Trim, Studio Calico wooden trees, Studio Katia Ice Sparkle Crystals, Pretty Pink Posh star

Freshly Made Sketches: You Got This

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

I turned the ovals and circles into mountains and a moose!

That smug look on his face led me to the sentiment.  This is a good one to have in my stash because surely at some point, one of my sons will have a "you got this" moment.  Plus moose are meaningful to us. The mountain church camp that we spent time at as a family and they went with youth groups often had moose sightings.  I just looked it up and there are only an estimated 2,000 moose in Colorado so it was a big deal.

The dies are from Poppystamps.  The moose and trees are from their "whittle" collection that I've used a number of times lately.  I think the whittles have been around but I only recently discovered them.  I think they are just perfect for my sons in their early 20s because the animals are cute but not cutesy. There are also a number of stamp sets to go with the animals including a variety of sentiments from sweet to snarky - but go figure, the only set I don't have is the one with the "moose" sentiment!

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

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Avery Elle Simply Sentiments

Dies: Poppystamps Mountain Background, Whittle Moose, Whittle Trees; Avery Elle Simple Sentiments dies

Cardstock: Stampin' Up Gray Granite, Basic Gray, Old Olive, Mossy Meadow, Cinnamon Cider
Other: Pretty Pink Posh Espresso Jewels