LET IT SNOW

Well, this was a fun challenge! I think I have a preference for the challenges that feature photographs, because there's always so much to draw from. For this Just US Girls Challenge #612 - Photo Week, my eye was drawn to the shopping bags on the black and white Moroccan tile floor. On closer examination, the shopping bags were printed with "Let it Snow" and "Joy" and swirls and snowflakes.

I started by creating the shopping bag out of kraft paper by first stamping the sentiments and swirls in Hero Arts "Unicorn" pigment ink and PTI "Pure Poppy" dye ink. The "Let it Snow" sentiment is a PTI product from their "Christmas Cheer" clear stamp set. I used a white gel pen to add a bit of snow to "Joy". I then cut it to what looked like the correct proportion and to make it look more like a used shopping bag, I crumpled it up and smoothed it out again and added a kraft handle. No matter what I did, I just couldn't make the tile floor work, so I opted instead for a solid black stitched rectangle stamped and heat embossed with stylized snowflakes from a very old stamp set. I attached this to a top-stitched white card, added the shopping bag with dimensional foam, and inserted a couple of packages. I lined a white envelope with kraft paper and stamped the sentiment on the envelope just below where the flap will seal.

Here is the link to the JUG challenge:

 "Just Us Girls" Challenge: Just Us Girls #612 - Photo Week (justusgirlschallenge.blogspot.com)

    

Added on December 3, 2021:

 

WARMEST WISHES

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day here in the US, so we're all in the middle of food preparations for the feast. It'll be relatively quiet in our home because all of our family members on both sides of the family are headed out-of-town for the weekend and we're on our own this year for the first time in many years. But we're doggie-sitting our son's black lab/pit bull Izzy, so maybe it won't be completely quiet!

I spent a little time this morning in my craft room and the result is a very simple card designed for the challenge at Freshly Made Sketches #513 - a Sketch by Jen B.

When I say simple, I really mean it! I glued a 3/4" strip of blue-gray scrap paper to a 4" x 5-1/4" white card stock and die-cut a snowflake from it. Then I stamped the sentiment from Penny Black's "Merry Up" with Ranger Distress Ink "Stormy Sky" and mounted it to a card base with dimensional foam. I slipped a small piece of paper under the strip on the face and glued the center star in place with dimensional foam. I added 3 tiny clear gems and lined an envelope with the last of the scraps - finished. 

Freshly Made Sketches: Freshly Made Sketches #513 - A Sketch by Jen B

Added November 30, 2021:

HOLIDAY GREETINGS

Good morning, all! I hadn't really planned to make a card this morning, but yesterday I cleaned up my craft room and I couldn't wait to get in and mess it up again! However, I exercised extreme discipline and put things away as I used them. The challenge that caught my imagination this morning is CAS Colours & Sketches (My spell-check doesn't like that spelling of colors!) #445 - Pink, Metallic Silver & Moss. 

I used a couple of my old PTI products for this card - "Lovely Layers" clear stamps and coordinating dies. I've used these dies over and over as a shamrock at St. Patrick's Day and experimented once with it as a Christmas poinsettia and that's what I decided to do today - a bright pink Christmas poinsettia. I had some scraps of pink iridescent vellum that I used for the flower. I started with a 5" x 5" square of white cardstock on which I stamped "Greetings" (PTI "Christmas Cheer") and Tim Holtz's Halloween splatter and heat-embossed them with Stampendous "Detail Silver" powder. I then die-cut PTI's "Holiday" from the face of the panel, taped it back in, and added 2 more layers of die-cut cardstock. I glued this to a silver metallic mat and onto the face of a 5-1/2" x 5-1/2" top-folded white card. I die-cut the vellum petals and moss leaves and over-printed these with heat-embossed silver. I also cut a center for the flower of some silver cardstock and over-printed it with heat-embossed silver. After assembling the flower, I attached it to the face of the card with dimensional foam. In completion I lined a square white envelope with pink vellum.

Here's a side-shot to show off the silver elements:

CAS Colours & Sketches: Challenge #446 - Colours (cascoloursandsketches.blogspot.com)

Added November 26, 2021:

  

ADDICTED TO CAS - COLOURFUL

Our new challenge #211 at Addicted to CAS is special for a couple of reasons - it's the 9th anniversary of the challenge and it's the last challenge of the year. Our host Nancy has appropriately selected "Colourful" as our theme and our followers should have lots of fun with this one!. 

I started my card by using the current Freshly Made Sketches layout as inspiration. To fit the "colourful" requirement of our Addicted to CAS challenge I chose to use some printed coordinating Christmas papers that have been in my stash for some time. I think maybe I have now used them up mostly, but there are still some scraps left. The papers featured stripes, dots, and an over-all warm red/pink/green pattern of circles and stylized snowflakes.

I side-folded a 4-1/2" x 6-3/4" white card so that it would fit my existing warm red envelopes. I then cut a slightly smaller 4" x 6-1/4" piece of white cardstock and glued on a 1-1/2" wide strip of printed stripe paper. I then die-cut an LDRS Creative "Stitched Circle" opening in the smaller card face. I stamped the sentiment from my new favorite stamp set, Penny Black's "Merry Up", with VersaMark Watermark Ink and heat embossed with white embossing powder. I next glued the circle die to the card face and layered the top panel onto the folded card with dimensional foam. I added a couple of strips of striped paper on each side of the folded card and die-cut a warm red circle and layered it on top. Finally, I die-cut two triangular Christmas trees from the coordinating papers and inserted them into the layered circles. My final "finishing touch" was a pink gem on the white tree. I also used the white dotted paper as lining for my warm red envelope.

Now it's your turn!

Addicted to CAS: Challenge #211 - Colourful

 

    I'm also entering this card in the Freshly Made Sketches #512 since I used the sketch for inspiration: 

Freshly Made Sketches: Freshly Made Sketches #512 - A Sketch by Kim

TINY TREES

Sometimes challenges come along in "bunches" that can be combined into a single card and these are SO MUCH FUN! How could I possibly resist a challenge to fit everything into a 1" space while making a scene and using a smaller-format card? 😀

AAA Cards Challenge #203 offered up the opportunity to put everything into a 1" space, Just Us Girls #610 challenged us to use a mini slim line card (3.25" x 6.25"), and Happy Little Stampers November Christmas requested that we "Make a Scene".

I die-cut a 1" square from white cardstock just slightly smaller than the mini slim-line size and I die-cut a drift of snow with a Lawn Fawn stitched wave and mounted it behind the square opening. I die-cut 3 tiny trees from Alexandra Renke #D-XX-AR-W0128 "Winter City" and layered them in the snow drift and mounted a small piece of blue and silver Japanese rice paper directly on the face of the card and placed the winter scene over this. It really doesn't get any simpler.

I had just enough of this beautiful paper that I've been hoarding for a year from which I made a custom envelope. It's Ella & Viv Paper Company from their "Spice Market Collection". 

 AAA Cards: Game #203 - One Inchie + optional twist Masculine

"Just Us Girls" Challenge: Just Us Girls #610 -- TREND Week (justusgirlschallenge.blogspot.com)

Happy Little Stampers: Christmas Challenge

FROM OUR HOUSE TO YOURS

The Thanksgiving cards are all but finished! All I have to do at this point is sign them, slip them into their envelopes, and drop them into the mail. This is probably the earliest I've had my cards finished.

I made 26 of these flat enough to go through the US mail with standard first-class postage. I started with some 120 lb. Environment "Desert Storm" cardstock from LCI Paper and matching A2 envelopes. I side-folded the cards and stamped the leaf swirl across the face of the card with PTI "Orange Zest" ink. Then I die-cut a smaller stitched rectangle and repositioned the stamp on my MISTI so that the swirl would match up when the top piece was glued to the face of the card with a dark brown vellum mat. I added some additional color to the leaves with PTI "Americana" ink. I have no idea whose autumn swirl this is, I've had it for so many years and have used it again and again. The sentiment is from Colorado Craft Company's Savvy Sentiments #SS366 - "Truly Thankful" and stamped with PTI "Dark Chocolate and heat embossed with Stampendous "Detail Clear" embossing powder to enrich the color of the sentiment and add a bit of sheen. The final step was to die cut a couple of tiny houses with Nellie's Choice #SD214 "Village" from dark brown cardstock and glue those over the leaf swirl. 

You can see that I also used the leaf swirl image across the corner of the matching envelopes. I also lined the envelopes with dark brown vellum that I had in my papers. I couldn't get a good photo of the inside but they have a matching leaf swirl, "Happy Thanksgiving", and a single tiny die-cut house.

I thought to send this over to Happy Little Stampers November "Anything Goes with Dies" challenge. 

 Happy Little Stampers: HLS November Anything Goes with Dies Challenge

SNOWY KISSES

The final CAS Christmas Card Challenge for 2021 features "Christmas Critters". I have to dig pretty deep into my stash to find very many critters - I tend to spend my Christmas stamping money on sentiments, snowflakes, and tiny houses. But a couple of years ago I did fall for these deer dies from My Favorite Things and I've used them several times.

I'm not sure who manufactured the snowy swirls embossing folder, but that's where I started with this card, by mounting it to a white top-folded card. I die-cut the little deer from kraft cardstock and smudged a bit of brown ink onto them. I cut a scrap of navy snowflake paper into a tag and layered it with the sentiment from Penny Black's "Merry Up" in PTI "Blueberry Sky", die-cut 3 hearts from kraft, and added a navy twine tag tie. I finished by lining a kraft envelope with a blue swirly snow paper scrap.

CAS Christmas Card Challenge: CAS Christmas November Challenge

 

 

CHRISTMAS KICKSTART CHALLENGE

I just recently started following a fun challenge - Christmas Kickstart Challenge - although I have yet to actually enter it until now. This new challenge is #56 "Christmas Snippets". I have some old printed paper I've had in my stash for years. I bought it on a close-out at one of my favorite local craft stores (Scrappy Craft in Phoenix, OR) years ago and have never found a use for it. It was BasicGrey two-sided card stock "Jovial Nipping" and it's dated 2010. It occurred to me that I could fussy-cut packages from the face of the paper and use them on this year's group Christmas Card as "Christmas Snippets".

I ordered my holiday papers and matching envelopes this year from LCI Paper. The cardstock is their LCI Felt 100 lb. cover in Warm Cream with coordinating A2 envelope and 70 lb. text for the inside sentiment. The plaid lining for the coordinating envelope is American Crafts "The Color of Memories" that I found at Joanne's.

I started this card by heat-embossing Stampendous "Pirate Gold" on the face of a top-folded card with an Impression Obsession  D14802 and then blind-embossing a stitched rectangle around the sentiment. I then fussy-cut a couple of packages from the printed cardstock and gluing one down directly to the card and then layering a second one popped up slightly with some dimensional foam. I then threaded a needle with some gold thread and pierced the top corner of the rectangle and tied it off like a tag. I finished by adding a couple of gold star sequins. I printed a sentiment on matching text paper and added a third fussy-cut package and gold star inside. Very simple.

 

   

After the cost of mailing this year's Halloween cards I was determined to make sure my Thanksgiving and Christmas cards would be designed for standard first-class postage. These will do nicely.   

Christmas Kickstart Challenge: Christmas Kickstart Challenge #56 - Christmas Snippets

Added on December 5, 2021:

CHRISTMAS WREATH

My second weekend card is a second entry into Just Us Girls #609 - "Merry" and CAS Colours & Sketches #444.  This card is about as CAS as they get - spare in both image and sentiment!

This wreath image is from Impression Obsession D12102. I stamped it with PTI "New Leaf", colored it with dark green and red fine markers and then stamped the sentiment from PTI's "Holiday Lights" with their "Pure Poppy" ink. I prepared a 5-1/2" x 5-1/2" card, cut out a slightly smaller square in the same white cardstock and die-cut an LDRS #8127 "Stitched Circle" in the center. I centered the wreath on the card and attached the top layer with dimensional foam and added a couple of gold sequins. That was it!

"Just Us Girls" Challenge: Just Us Girls #609- Word Week (justusgirlschallenge.blogspot.com)

CAS Colours & Sketches: Challenge #444 - Colours (cascoloursandsketches.blogspot.com)

Added November 12, 2021:

WINTER WHITES

It was a busy card weekend of playing along with a couple of challenges. This first card is for Less is More #455 - "Winter Whites". I'm also entering it into Just Us Girls #609 - "Merry". I love all white or mostly white cards, so this was a joy to make. 

I started this one with a top-folded white card. I die-cut a slightly smaller stitched rectangle and glued an oval die that I cut from a slightly off-white iridescent paper. Over this I mounted a couple of layered snowflake dies and a smaller white oval blind-embossed with Stampendous "PEARLustre Peridot" - a warm silver powder. The semtiment is Impression Obsession D14802, a rubber stamp that I've had for a couple of years but haven't used yet. I mounted the top oval over the snowflakes with dimensional foam and then punched a small hole through the center of the snowflakes and threaded through thin white satin ribbon. I had some old snow-swirl warm silver paper in my stash that I used to line a white envelope.

Since the sentiment didn't show in my photo as metallic, here's a close-up:

"Less is More": Challenge #455 - Winter Whites (simplylessismoore.blogspot.com)

"Just Us Girls" Challenge: Just Us Girls #609- Word Week (justusgirlschallenge.blogspot.com)

ADDICTED TO CAS #210 - CIRCLE

It's time once again for a new challenge at ATCAS and our host Sue has selected "Circle" as the new code word. I'm starting to put some serious thought into Thanksgiving cards so chose to go in that direction.

I started with some 100 lb. Warm Cream felt card stock I ordered from LCI Paper that arrived this morning. I trimmed the cardstock to 5-1/2" x 11" and folded it in half. Then I cut a slightly smaller square and die-cut a circle out of the center. I then cut another circle slightly smaller than the first one and stamped the tree image with PTI "Orange Zest" and "Dark Chocolate" inks. I over-printed the sentiment from Savvy Sentiments with Zing! "Copper" heat embossing powder (which doesn't show up in this photo). I then glued the circle with the images onto the face of the card and mounted the larger circle over that with dimensional foam. Finally, I die-cut a small maple leaf from some scraps of copper fabric left over from my son's wedding invitations 13 years ago and glued on three small copper sequins. 

Here's a close-up photo that shows the copper metallic sentiment a bit better:

Addicted to CAS: Challenge #210 - Circle