Oh Christmas Tree

After months of not blogging I've been trying to make more time to not only create but then to share my projects. I've also been making time to play with some of my favorite challenge sites!

   

I love how elegant black, gold and white are together so combined the color challenge at Color Throwdown with the sketch from MFT Card Challenges and the Christmas tree theme at Crazy 4 Challenges.

I embossed the tree from Christmas Song and the background from Timeless Textures in gold and pulled in lots of bling with gold and black sequins, gold sequin trim and gold twine.

I love this time of year and love creating holiday cards!

Sparkly Christmas

 

Sharing a super quick card today. This Be Jolly set from Technique Tuesday was another I had previously won and finally inked it up. I love this tree shape with the fillable ornaments and thought it would be perfect for the color challenge at Just Add Ink.  A simple star and bakers twine topped off the card, but it’s the bright and festive colors that make it fun.

Although hard to tell in the photo, I added dazzling diamonds to the garland across the tree.

Noel

I love making Christmas cards. You can go traditional in red and green colors or go snowy with blues - either works!  This card wasn’t my favorite but some friends said it was their favorite out of a bunch we had at my Christmas Card Class. You never know what people are going to love!

Lovely as a Tree has been one of those stamps that I’ve had for years but it’s still in the catalog! It must still be super popular since it’s still around! I have my wood mount stamp set (really need to take the time to convert my favorites to clear right?!) and used the lone pine tree for this card.

Stamp in a lighter color and then slightly stamp off in a darker color to create a shadow of your image. I used Smoky Slate and Night of Navy here, and used those same colors throughout the card. The card base was embossed with the Northern Flurries embossing folder.

Linking up today to The Card Concept for their snow/tag on a card challenge (using the Clean and Layered Style) and the Paper Players for the  tic-tac-toe challenge using the tree, embossing and glitter row, or you could say the star, die cut and glitter row works as well. ;)

 

  

Santa’s List

  

He’s making a list and checking it twice. Are you naughty or nice? Pretty sure I’m on the nice list this year. At least I hope so.

Super simple and quick card today for the Freshly Made Sketches sketch challenge.

 

The patterned paper background (Moonlight DSP) adds a fun twist as it looks like graph paper for lists and makes a pop. Fun tip – stamp directly onto your DSP, you might be surprised! This Santa is retired from last year but I loved him so much and wanted to pull him back out.

Washi tape and twine from the November Paper Pumpkin kit (washi tape also available from the holiday catalog) anchor the main image panel and tie in the gray color from the patterned paper.

I’d say I’m about 85% done with my Christmas shopping, but still have a few more things on my list!

Celebrate the Season

Brr, it’s cold in here…there must be some Torro’s in the atmosphere!

(Name that movie. I love you forever.)

I am not one made for cold weather. The fact that I’ve lived in Utah, aka the Greatest Snow on Earth, for going on 13 years should be testament enough that I love my family, friends and job because otherwise there’s no way I would live here, ha! We’re retiring to Florida with my family. For reals. I’ve decided. But to be fair, we’ll probably be Boston “snowbirds” so hubby can fulfill his retirement dreams to watch the Red Sox home games during baseball season.  I’m all about compromise. ;)

Since I’m not a cold weather fan, the closest I come is the occasional ski day and making cards with winter elements. I’m a trooper. ;)

 

Today’s card was inspired by  the Friday Mashup to create a weather inspired project with the mashup of a metal embellishment and the challenge at Inkspirational to create a Christmas card with the twist or no red of green. I used lots of my favorites on this card!

I started with a Whisper White card base, and then layered on some Pool Party cardstock that had been embossed with the On Point embossing folder. The white rectangle was stamped with the snowflakes and sentiment from the Endless Wishes stamp set in Island Indigo, Pool Party and Smoky Slate. My metal embellishment came in the form of staples securing the glitter strip and Lost Lagoon ribbon, and then topped off with a strip of washi tape. The bottom edge was torn and a few sequins and snowflake were clustered in the corner.

We’ll be celebrating Christmas this year in Florida and while that will be a change (no snow!) I’m SO looking forward to spending time with my family! As much as I don’t like the cooler weather I have to admit I love these frosty colors, and how beautifully the snow blankets everything in pristine white and glitter. Hopefully I captured a little bit of that magic in this card!

Happy Wonderful Christmas

I’m not a Black Friday shopper, but I am heading out to meet up with some friends for lunch and to make a few purchases.

Posting a quick card before I head out the door!

Playing along in more challenges today! Sketch from The Paper Players and color combo from Color Throwdown to use Kraft, Red, Aqua and Silver. Pretty straightforward card, but I did paper piece the ornament to give it a different look instead of coloring it in.

Happy Black Friday to anyone out shopping today!

 

Merry & Bright

Sometimes you get a crazy idea.

And then sometimes you actually act on that crazy idea.

After seeing the photo inspiration at Just Us Girls I had the crazy idea that I wanted to make a snowy and frosty wreath like the one in the photo. Queue the Time Out Challenge  for embossing with the optional twist of sparkle and pull in the sketch from Case This Sketch and your crazy idea just might work. Maybe.

Now, if I’m being honest this maybe doesn’t quite fit the CAS part of CASe this Sketch with all the sequins on the sparkly wreath, but overall it’s still pretty simple in design, right? ;)

I started with a Smoky Slate base and stamped the sequins from Hello Darling. I absolutely cannot put my wreath framelits down and die cut two wreaths in Whisper White, embossed both with Dazzling Diamonds and then layered them together with dimensionals. After adhering to the card base I began adding the sequins along with a die cut bow in glimmer paper. The sentiment from Endless Wishes was stamped and embossed in silver.

Super crazy, but I think I kinda love it. ;)

Ornament Bauble

I hosted a Christmas Card Workshop for my friends this past weekend and we had a blast!

One of the cards we made used the new Christmas Bauble stamp. It’s a single wood-mount stamp, but makes such a big impact on your card!

To color this in I used an “oldie” but a goodie – blender pens! I forgot how much I loved using these pens with my ink pads to color in images. It takes a little longer but I love the messy look you can get by scribbling in the lines which is exactly the look I was going for.

I embossed the Real Red card base with the Stylish Stripes embossing folder and then layered on a doily. The main image piece got a little depth with the center being punched out on a separate piece of cardstock and then lifted with a dimensional. Washi tape, dazzling details in cherry cobbler and the sentiment from Endless Wishes all brought the main image panel together.

Although a blender pen is technically not a “marker” I’m linking this up with SUO Challenges for their marker fun challenge, and to Merry Monday for their Red, Green and White challenge! We’ll count the gray as my neutral right? ;)

Merry Christmas Wreath

Posting this quickly as we’re getting ready to head out and watch The Hunger Games (Mockingjay Part 1)!

Here’s a super simple and easy Christmas card using the Wondrous Wreath stamp set and matching framelits. There is quite a bit of texture and dimension to this card though to give it a little more pop.

I used the sketch from Pals Paper Arts and the color combo from Nacho Average Challenge to pull this together. The base is Early Espresso and the first layer is a Very Vanilla which was embossed with the Stylish Stripes embossing folder. To give the wreath added dimension, I die cut the lower layer and then stamped and die cut the top layer in Garden Green. Dimensionals adhere the two pieces together and I slightly rotated the top layer to make the wreath look fuller. I did the same treatment to the bow to lift it off the wreath. The sentiment from Endless Wishes was heat embossed with gold embossing powder on the Cherry Cobbler strip, and a Very Vintage vanilla button completed the card.

 

Very Merry Christmas

I recently held a stamp class at my house to make a bunch of Christmas cards before the holidays. This is one of the cards we made.

This combines some of my favorite things! Pool Party cardstock, the Winter Flurries embossing folder, Winter Frost DSP and the Endless Wishes stamp set.

This is a pretty straight-forward card but I do love the little flag pennants. It’s one of my favorite things to do on a card or scrapbook page. :)

Merry, Merry Christmas

I’m so glad the Friday Mashup challenge was a two-weeker because it gave me a chance to join in and share a card made with crumb cake and gingham.

The only gingham I have is washi tape (I know seriously?!) so that was my starting point along with the crumb cake color. I loved the inspiration pic of red and snowflakes with the gingham so that was my next pairing. Although the Endless Wishes stamp set is out of stock (for a second time!) you can still get these images through MDS!  I stamped the snowflakes in red, crumb cake and daffodil delight and added the sentiment to the bottom of the panel.

The Merry from the Expression Thinlits die set was layered over the snowflakes, and a strip of washi tape, lace trim and linen thread finish off the side of the card.

It has been so fun to start making and sharing some holiday cards! I love this time of year!

Joyful Christmas Wishes

I got back into my stamping groove on Sunday and came up with this card for the  Create with Connie & Mary sketch challenge and combined it with the Fab Friday color challenge.

The colors at Fab Friday are Coastal Cabana, Real Red and Gumball Green and I played up the Cabana as my primary color, followed by red and then green using black and white for my neutrals. The DSP is from the Eastern Elegance pack and for the strip on the side I used the diagonal lines stamp from Gorgeous Grunge to mimic a candy cane.

The ornaments were stamped from the Ornament Keepsakes set and the sentiment is from the Joyful Christmas stamp set. I finished it off with a strip of silver glimmer paper and a (retired) red button.

I really loved the rounder corners on the sketch and like that little detail it adds to the overall card. Thanks for the great sketch and color challenge CCMC and FF!

Wishing You a Merry Christmas

It’s December, can you believe it?! Although I’m still working on getting our tree up I’m excited to start sharing some holiday cards!

The sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches got me in the mood for a fun holiday card and I whipped out some of my favorite goodies to put it together yesterday.

I started with a Pool Party base and stamped an image from Ornament Keepsakes for the background. I layered on a strip of Winter Frost DSP and die cut two stamped ornaments.

I switched up the sketch a little bit and layered the silver glimmer strips and sentiment strip over the panel, and  cut the glimmer paper so it was thicker on the opposite sides for a different look. The sentiment came from the November Paper Pumpkin kit, definitely glad I still get the kit each month to have this fun stamp!

Here’s the sketch my card was based on/inspired by! Thanks FMS team!

Christmas Brunch

I hosted some friends on Saturday morning for a fun Christmas Brunch and jewelry party. I had such a blast putting it all together!

I had my table set up with lots of yummy breakfast foods, and my bakers rack served as a drink station. Come see!

 

My bakers rack: the drink station!

I decked it out with garland, beads and mini ornaments. These will definitely be staying up through Christmas!

I had a tray full of coffee cups, creamer, sugar and coffee, and also had a cute glass jar filled with Bailey’s Irish cream to add to your coffee.

I have a couple of these glass bottles, they were a fun find at Ikea a few months ago!

I did mimosas on the main table, but on this area I had everything to make Dirty Shirley’s which are basically Shirley Temple’s with vodka! (Thank you for sharing these at Bunco and giving me a new favorite drink Lyndi!)

Dirty Shirley

• 2 shots cherry flavored Vodka
• Sprite
• Splash of Grenadine
• Maraschino cherries to garnish

Add vodka over ice in your glass, fill with Sprite, add a splash of grenadine and then cherries to garnish and stir. Warning: totally good and dangerous! ;)

Now the main part of the brunch!

I kept my red table runner and wood tray centerpiece that I had out for my Christmas décor, and added a black tablecloth underneath. I accented the table with doilies, pinecones, candy cane candles and silk flowers with rhinestone brads in the center. In a few places I used mini clothespins to add the flowers to the containers.

Let’s dig into the food!

I found the mini cups (Wal-Mart) that I put syrup in and added triangles of French toast to the edges for an easy and portable treat.

There were donut holes next to the French toast…..

and a tray with silver ware, plates and candy canes.

I also set out sausage and had a container of Special K and milk for any cereal lovers!

I added a punched scalloped circle with a mini clothespin to the lid of the cereal container. For the milk carafe I tied some Christmas ribbon around it and added a silk flower with a green rhinestone in the center.

I had a metal basket filled with hot cocoa mix and more candy canes, and another clothespin flower.

There were also teas, orange juice and lemonade.

We also snacked on mini pancakes topped with blueberries and decorative picks. There was also a fruit bowl with mandarin oranges, pineapples and grapes!

One more picture of these cute pancakes!

The galvanized bucket/container held the chilled champagne for mimosas.

These little flowers came from my scrapbook stash, I’ll definitely be reusing these!

I also pulled out a few more things from my craft stash! I used bakers twine and more of the scalloped punched circles to make this simple cake topper. Christmas paper really added to the Christmas spirit and feel! :) This is Raspberry Liqueur cake that I got the recipe from my friend Sharon. It’s super moist and delicious!

 

Raspberry Liqueur Cake

CAKE

• 1 pkg white cake mix
• 1 small instant vanilla pudding
• 1 cup raspberry liqueur or framboise
• 4 eggs

SAUCE

• 1/2 lb. butter
• 1/4 cup raspberry liqueur or framboise
• 1 cup sugar

For the cake: Mix ingredients together well, bake in bundt pan at 350 degrees for 30 min. For sauce: Mix together all sauce ingredients in sauce pan, heat until melted. Don’t let it burn or get too thick. When cake is done, loosen sides and pour sauce over cake and sides. Let stand 20 minutes as sauce will soak into cake. Turn out onto cake dish.

 

A few more shots of the whole set up!

You may have noticed my “faux” chalkboard with the menu. Instead of an actual chalkboard, I used a black poster board and made it look more like a chalkboard by writing on it and wiping it off with a towel.

It’s night time and all cleaned up but I think I’ll be leaving this up for awhile longer. :)