A Scramble and more Merry Monday cards!!

Happy Saturday, everyone! Janet hosted a Scramble on the Hero Arts Flickr group - her theme: Use a solid and an outline stamp. How fun!! I have plenty of those, in fact - just got a new Hero Arts Stamp and Cut set called Merry. This set will be out on Hero Arts shopping site starting 9/1 (I bought mine at Simon Says Stamp). Here's my card:

The red dotted and bitty green stars were in the same set; the green Merry is stamped, the red one is the matching die. The outline star comes from a Hero Arts clear set called Year Round Sentiments. This was actually card #2 - I started out with this one:

I used Hero Arts CL787 Holiday Petals and Leaves. I was inspired by Janet's card featuring a strip of stamping on plain white - it looked very cool, see it here. I first clear embossed the sentiment, then swiped it with Twisted Citron Distress Stain. Dried that and stamped the rest using my MISTI for positioning. The funny part - the light green holly leaves are stamped in Twisted Citron ink - it looks very different from the stain!

Here's a card I made on Thursday with another new Hero Arts set Color Layering Wreath; I also got the matching die set. I do not have the hang of this set yet but here's what I did with it on the first go:

I'm just finishing up on my sister's birthday card which I need to get in the mail today. I'd better head out to the PO. Thanks for stopping and happy crafting!!

Snowy Trees

Happy, or should I say Merry, Monday! Ahhhh, it's great to have a Monday off and the first thing I did was check out Merry Monday. Debbie's challenge for the next two weeks is to use Light Green, Dark Green, and Red on your card.

I just love the inspiration photo with the colorful M&Ms. Yummy! Well, I had several different ideas running through my mind but ended up white embossing a trio of snowy evergreens and watercoloring them the two shades of green, using Mowed Lawn and Pine Needles Distress Markers. The stamp, Three Tree Christmas, by Hero Arts was from their 2009 release. I just love the sentiment from this set: "May your holidays be filled with happiness and good cheer." I use it on a lot of card interiors. Then I decided to add a Polaroid frame (Simon Says Stamp's Holiday Frames) cut in red for the red element of my card. Behind the "Christmas" is some dotted lime green BoBunny paper. The other patterned papers are also BoBunny from their Christmas Collage 6x6 pad. I cut a stitched circle (by Sizzix) as a base for a snowflake gem. 

Here's my card:

Now that I look at it, I wish I had placed the polaroid up a bit further up on the card - oh well... I was happy with the watercoloring, though - I thought the Hickory Smoke Distress ink made a lovely shadow and I used Tumbled Glass for the sky.

Be sure to check out all the merry inspiration using Light Green, Dark Green, and Red over on Merry Monday - the DT over there rocks it every time!! By finding Merry Monday, I'm now at 54 Christmas cards! Really feels good to be ahead of the game!!

Thanks for stopping and have a crafty week!

A Pastel Christmas

Happy Monday everyone! It's time for pastel colors over on Merry Monday for the next two weeks. Deanne likes her non-traditional colors and there are plenty of pastel Christmas papers out there. One of them is from Lawn Fawn - Peace Joy Love. I had the stamp set and just found the paper at this fun stamping store in my hometown. I also bought a couple other 6x6 Lawn Fawn paper pads (Let's Polka & Beachside) so I used all three for my card. The guest DT this week is Vicki  who had another post recently sharing a card using a sketch at La-La Land Crafts. It's for a square card but I modified it a bit for an A2 card. Here's my card:

The card base is stamped with Falling Snow by Simon Says Stamp. I stamped it from the top and then reversed the card and stamped again to fill the bottom using Hero Arts Soft Pool Shadow Ink. On the sentiment (from a Hero Arts clear set called Family and Friends) I tried to create a bit of a shadow with the same soft pool ink. It's a little further off than I would've liked - oh well.... The poinsettias are by Hero Arts but I've had them a while and don't see them in their current line. I added an enamel dot to the center from Doodlebug; the pool gem and pearl are from Hero Arts. 

Thanks for stopping and I hope you're having a crafty day!!