Winter wonderland

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great holiday so far. I had a fabulous one. This was the first year I was ahead of the game. The tree was up and decorated, my cards were done and mailed and gifts made 2 weeks before Christmas!! Unheard of!!

So with Christmas 2016 under my belt, I decided to get back to blogging a bit. This card was a last minute card that I made with a Tim Holtz die that I forgot I had. I decided to use the negative for this simple but elegant holiday card. I only sent this card to one person and will be using this idea for my cards next year.

I entering this into my alma mater  Happy Little Stampers, the "anything goes with dies" challenge.

 Another fav challenge site, Shopping our Stash is looking for "winter themed, but not not Christmas related" Do you think the star on the tree will disqualify me?!!?

Donna from Cards in Envy asked me to post my card for their "celebrate the  season" challenge. How could I resist?!!?😀

I am hoping to spend the next few days doing some serious stamping before school starts back up.

Check back in soon,

Go to your happy place

Every year I get away to the Pocono mountains in Pennsylvania  for a crafty weekend of stamping, good food and good times with my best buddies. My buddy Judy aka "the angel" has a house in the "Nos" right on a gorgeous lake. Every year the weekend seems to grow and this year all of us will be there.

To get everyone psyched, I will be sending out this card. My card reminds me of one of the views from the porch.

My card fit into three challenges so I am submitting this to Time Out Challenges where the challenge  is:

'Holidays with the Optional Twist of No Stamping' 
(stamped sentiments allowed)

 I am submitting it to my friend Kylie's Happy Little Stamper CAS challenge   

where the challenge is:

I am also sending this out to a new challenge to me: The Sisterhood of Crafters

CLOSE TO NATURE

What does that mean to you?  

This is a perfect challenge since that's what we have going in to the NO's- a sisterhood of crafters and the theme couldn't be better!!!

I used the British view of holiday- our idea of a vacation here in the states.

The inside of the card says "go to your happy place". We have a running theme of the Nos being our happy place so this card is perfect for our upcoming holiday.

 The masking was a bit tricky and took several tries to get the masking inside to line up with the outside diecut window.

Check out both of these fun challenges and join in!!

Happy Little Stampers: CASE this Designer- Joyce

 

Hi folks! Today at Happy Little Stampers we are CASEing the wildly talented Joyce. She created this simply stunning card. I have to admit, I have never really done this technique before. You see it everywhere.

I had to mess a few up until I caught on to what to do. I probably didn't even do it the right way. I stamped my Penny Black image and then I cut out a section which I colored in. I pieced it back together and there ya have it. 

I used flowers. It just seems to look better to me with flowers.  My first card I did with the cut out in the center. The cut out was to big and I felt you couldn't appreciate the uncolored section.

 

My next card was the same with a smaller circle cut out. Better, but still not quite right.

My last card I did the cut out off the paper and like Goldilocks, this one was just right.

What do you think?

I made all my cards sympathy cards cause I usually need them in a hurry and don't always have time to make one.

Let's see how you CASE Joyce's card this month over at Happy Little Stamper's CASE the Designer!

 

Happy Birthday Kim!!

Happy Birthday Kim!! Wishing you a fabulous birthday!!

Everyone check out the Linky party that Kylie at Happy Little Stampers is having for our fabulous friend and designer at her blog. Join in the fun and wish Kim a wonderful birthday!

Happy Little Stampers- March CASE the Designer: Yay Kim!!

Happy March everyone! Spring is fast upon us and I couldn't be happier! When I saw Kim's card for the CASE the designer challenge at Happy Little Stampers, I have to say I was stumped. This comic strip trend is totally new to me. But a thought popped into my head in the middle of the night- my best ideas come in the middle of the night- don't yours?

My boss is all Irish and plays in an Irish band and guess what his favorite beverage is- well I suppose it is a no brainer- BEER!!  I pulled out my Paper smooches set- "A Magical Spring" . The card essentially stamped itself and if that wasn't magical to watch!!

The foam on the beer was fun, I used white opal liquid pearls. When it was completely dry, I hit it with the heat gun till it bubbled like the foam head on a beer.

So this card goes to the best boss in the world along with a growler of craft beer to celebrate St. Pat's. 

I really can't wait to see how all of you CASE Kim's card. Join us this month at Happy Little Stampers!!

The Male room Challenge #29 Monochromatic

 

All of you were champions last week with a challenge that was even a challenge for the DT. Today we ware reward you with a fun one a The Male Room.  I always like these. Monochromatic. Same color, same color family, same shades, you get the picture dontcha!??!

I think monochromatic cards are great ways to make set of cards, like I did here. I made the same card in blue, green and turquoise- manly colors. But you make it in pink, yellow, or lavender and you have a very feminine card. See how versatile monochromatic cards can be?

For my cards today I used the "mixmash" stamp set from Happy Little Stampers and mixed it up. Too busy do ya think? Sometimes I do get carried away.

So get out your favorite color and stamp away making us your best manly monochromatic card an share it with us at The Male Room!!

Happy Little Stampers CASE the Designer: February Challenge

Hey Everyone! it sure looked like you all really embrace the new CASE the designer challenge at Happy Little Stampers! It was fun huh? So let's see who is designing this month!!

Well if it isn't the fabulous Shona Chambers!! Shona has an adorable card to CASE this month. I know you all are up to the challenge because there is so much you can get out of this card!

It isn't often I know exactly what I am going to do, but today's card was a no brainer! I literally ran and grabbed the "mixmash" set from Happy Little Stampers. 

Isn't it fun!??! I can't wait to give it DH for Valentine's! Even though he is partial to cute critters i think he is going to like the bold graphic detail of this card.

So now it is your turn to show us how Shona's card inspired you. Please play along at Happy Little Stamper's CASE the Designer challenge for February!

PS- ombre just doesn't get old huh?

Happy Little Stampers CASE challenge

Happy New Year's to all my friends in the down under. It is already 2016 for them. For us in the states we have several hours yet.

This year brings a new type of challenge to Happy Little Stamper. It is CASE the designer challenge. Each month one of the CASE team will post a card for inspiration and you will CASE that design.

Kylie our fearless leader and owner of Happy Little Stampers stamp company is starting out this fun new challenge.

Here is her inspiration card:

What a CAS and yet classy card!

Here is a wee tutorial on how I made my card using my misti. 

I stamped my sentiment first on my card so I could work my butterflies around it. Next I placed a butterfly from HLS's birthday butterflies upside down on my misti so you have the flat bottom up. Make sense? Then I inked up the stamp with distress ink and lightly misted it.

I closed the misti and stamped the butterfly bottom.

Cool huh, you get a rough shape of the butterfly!

I positioned the second butterfly, closed my misti so it would attach. I opened it and inked this one up same as the first.

Closed the misti and stamped the second butterfly.

I repeated the steps for the last butterfly.

When I was done I inked the top of the stamp with black ink and added the definition. Cool huh? Your stamps can do double duty! 

Hope you try this cool technique and join in the fun for HLS new CASE the designer challenge!

Happy Little Stampers December Sketch Challenge

Thanksgiving is behind us and we have the Christmas holiday to look forward to. I gotta say this is my favorite crafting time. 

I get all of my holiday stamps out and throw on all the holiday music on Pandora and fa la la la la.... I am in the spirit!!

The sketch this month at Happy Little Stampers just made me think shaker card! 

 

My Lawn Fawn birdies are singing along to Kylie's Happy Little Stamper set- Mixed Christmas Sentiments. This set has the best assortment of holiday saying in a variety of fun fonts!

I hope you are getting in the spirit of Christmas and creativity! I can't wait to see what all of you come up with this month at Happy Little Stampers Sketch Challenge.