Merry Monday #263 - Photo Inspiration

Merry Monday everyone!! 

Lori has a gorgeous photo inspiration this week for challenge #263.

My eyes went right to the wooden shutters with the red sign against the crisp white plank walls behind. I also loved the pines, plus the poinsettias beneath the cabinet. So, here's my take on it:

Supplies: Paper - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White; Michael's green; Basic Grey Bowties;

My Mind's Eye Necessities Wood; Core'dinations neutral A2 card

Dies - My Favorite Things Die-Namics Joy, Blueprints 20 (retired) & Bold Stripes Cover-up;

Hero Arts label (from an old stamp & cut set - retired); Impression Obsession Pine Branch

Stamps - Hero Arts CL796 Peace Poinsettias (retired)

Other - Copic Markers, foam tape

To get the white plank background, I first tried an embossing folder - no good; mine have vertical stripes and weren't wide enough for me to do the paper sideways. Then I remembered a My Favorite Things die I purchased recently. I've seen bunches of tutorials on using dies for embossing so I decided to try it - worked like a charm!! My wood plank paper looks greyish in the photo but it's really brown (although not the shade of the inspiration photo....). I stamped the poinsettia multiple times & cut one down to layer. I hand drew the veins in the petals and colored with Copics. In keeping with the rustic feel, I staged the photograph with a wood slice - they sell them in the craft section at Target (my home away from home - LOL).

Can't wait to see what elements you pull from the inspiration photo! Be sure to check out all the wonderful cards from the Merry Monday Design Team this week. My Guest Designer tenure is half over - sure is going fast! Thanks for visiting and for your kind comments!!

Merry Monday #262 - Gifts

Hey all - who doesn't love loads of presents for Christmas?!! Well, check out Linda's challenge #262 at Merry Monday to add a gift to your Christmas card.

Here's my take on the challenge:

Supplies: Paper - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Penny Black Holiday Trimmings 6x6

Lawn Fawn Knit Picky 6x6, Pop-tone Snow Cone, Authentique Summer Seasons 6x6

Stamps - Hero Arts DC217 Christmas List Stamp & Cut, CL343 Holiday Sayings
and CL644 Bring on the Merry

Dies - My Favorite Things Blueprints 13 & 20 (retired)
Hero Arts DC217 Christmas List (scroll)

Other - Copic markers, Distress Makers, Fired Brick Distress Oxide Ink, foam tape

I recently ordered another new Hero Arts Stamp & Cut set (love them - have too many? - never!). Immediately after opening the package and cutting apart the dies, I cut the cute scroll. Then I stamped it with the header Nice List. At the time, I was playing with some non-Christmas Authentique papers and one of the pages had a bunch of little rectangles with printed sayings. One of them had a check list that fit perfectly on my scroll - yay! I figured the soft blue color would work for a Christmas card. I hand wrote names of sisters and friends and checked them all off as being nice, even though they can be naughty sometimes!! The scroll laid around for a while, waiting for a home. When I spotted Linda's challenge, I knew it would look great with a pile of presents.

I used 2 presents from the stamp & cut set, then added 2 from other sets. I started by stamping the large present from the Bring on the Merry set, then masked it off and stamped it twice more. Masked those three and stamped 2 from the stamp and cut set. Colored and fussy cut the entire thing. So - five presents and eight names on the list - hmmmm, didn't add up. I stamped 4 more presents since I wanted an odd number, colored them and tucked them around the masked presents. Then I played around with some papers to pull out the present colors but not overwhelm them. Finally stamped the sentiment Ho, Ho, Ho which I thought worked well with a Santa list.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you'll make Santa's nice list this year! Be sure to check out all the inspiration from the Merry Monday Design Team; I'm really enjoying my Guest Designer slot!!

Merry Monday #261 - Ornament

Welcome! Time for another Merry Monday - Challenge #261. This week Kelly asks for an ornament on your Christmas card.

I went for a holiday set from Hero Arts that I bought back in August. I just love their Stamp & Cut sets which come with stamps and dies to match some of the images. This set has two ornaments, a branch, a bow and a hanger (with dies to match all), plus some sentiments. Here's my card:

Supplies: Paper - Core'dinations kraft A2 card, BoBunny Christmas Collage 6x6,

American Crafts Christmas 6x6

Dies - My Favorite Things Die-Namics Blueprints 20 & 21 (both retired)

Hero Arts DI198 Nesting Rectangles Infinity Dies

Stamps - Hero Arts DC215 Holiday Ornaments Stamp & Cut & K5242 Big Pine Bough (retired)

Other - Pine Needles, Hickory Smoke, and Gathered Twigs Distress Ink,

Fired Brick Distress Oxide Ink, Michael's gems, foam tape, Marvy silver pen, Wink of Stella

Instead of the branch that came with the Holiday Ornaments set, I used an old wood mounted fave from 2009 - Big Pine Bough, stamped a couple of times and filled in a bit with a colored pencil in a lighter shade. At the edge of the snowflake paper where the lines didn't connect onto the note paper, I just filled in with a marker. Do you recognize the snowflake paper from last week's card? I had cut two rectangles of different sizes when planning that card. Decided to use the second one for today's card since it worked well with the music paper. After stamping the ornament onto the matching diecut, I trimmed it down so there wasn't as wide a border. The areas on the ornament that appear darker are due to the addition of Wink of Stella - gives a nice shine in real life!

That's it for today. Be sure to stop by Merry Monday and check out the rest of the fabulous inspiration from the Design Team. Thanks for visiting my blog and for your kind comments!!

Merry Monday #260 - Sketch Challenge

Hi all - at Merry Monday this week, Debbie created a sketch for Challenge #260. Yay - I love sketches and had loads of fun with Debbie's! With all the layers, I enjoyed finding the perfect combination of papers!!

Supplies: Paper - Hero Arts PS572 Earth Mix Folded Cards (Latte shade), 

patterns by My Mind's Eye "All is Bright" & American Crafts "Christmas"
Michael's brown, scrap of Neenah Solar White
Dies - Hero Arts DI198 Nesting Rectangles Infinity Dies
My Favorite Things Die-Namics Blueprints 21 (retired)
Gingerbread by former Lifestyle Craft's QuicKutz
Stamps - Hero Arts CL343 Holiday Sayings and CL644 Bring on the Merry (both retired)
Other - Fired Brick Distress Oxide Ink, Gathered Twigs Distress Ink,
Clear Embossing powder, Marvy white gel pen, Copic Markers, foam tape

Instead of the stars I changed the shapes to a pair of gingerbread people, in keeping with my resolution to show love to my stash of never-before-used-stuff (NBUS). Hey - the die's only 5 years old - give me a break LOL... For the bow on the gingerbread girl, I stamped just the bow portion of the candy cane from the Bring on the Merry set, then fussy cut it to remove the tails. I played around with different media for putting "frosting" on the gingerbread people - a bunch of them would never have made the cookie plate, that's for sure! I tried some copper Nuvo drops my friend Betty sent me but I couldn't get my dots small enough, despite several attempts. The white gel pen gave me the best results. I'll save the Nuvo for another project - thanks again, Betty!

Please visit Merry Monday for more Christmas inspiration with this sketch from the wonderful Design Team. Thanks to Debbie for creating a fabulous sketch and thanks to all of you for stopping by!!

Another Christmas Tree

Hey everyone - back with another Christmas card! This week at Merry Monday, Deanne challenges us to make a card with a Christmas tree. For my Design Team member card I used some supplies I found during a crafty clean-up. Today I spotted another pile of stuff including a stamped car with a tree atop and couldn't resist making another card.

Supplies: Paper - Poptone Snow Cone; white watercolor paper, Neenah Classic Crest Solar White

Stamps - Hero Arts car with tree (retired); Lawn Fawn Winter Scripty Sayings, 
Simon Says Stamp Falling Snow

Dies - Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Borders

Inks - Tumbled Glass Distress Ink; Memento Tuxedo Black

Other - Distress Markers, Marvy white gel pen, Icy Stickles

I colored and fussy cut the car image, adding glossy accents to the windows & headlight and white gel pen & Stickles to the tree. While digging through my box of Christmas stamps for sentiments, I found a fun Lawn Fawn set that I can't remember using before. I thought one of the scripty messages would be fun as car exhaust. To keep the background simple, I stamped falling snow on the card base, tone on tone, then colored in the dots of snow with a white gel pen. Done - another Christmas card ready for the stash!

Yesterday's MM post was written long before I heard about the horrific events in Las Vegas. My heart goes out to all the victims & their families and to all the kind & sane people in this world who would never dream of inflicting such horror on innocent people! Many of my Sweet Adeline friends are headed to Vegas next week for our International convention & competition and I pray for a wonderful experience for them there, while still grieving the tragic events of Sunday! I'm grateful for all the lovely people I've met singing and card making - those activities bring joy rather than pain to the world!!

Thanks for stopping and thanks for the kind comments! Hope to see your Christmas tree card in the gallery over at Merry Monday!!
 

Merry Monday #259 - Christmas Tree

Hi everyone! Deanne brings us Merry Monday Challenge #259 to add a Christmas Tree to your card.

Wow - love all the lights on the inspiration tree! Here's my take:

Supplies: Paper - DCWV Ms Sparkle A2 green card, Authentique Festive 6x6, 

My Mind's Eye Merry Little Christmas 6x6, scrap of Simon Says Stamp 12/2015 card kit paper

Sticker - Doodlebug Designs 3051 O'Christmas Tree Doodle-pop

Brad - Doodlebug Designs 2039 Gift Wrapped Braddies

Dies - Spellbinders S4-295 Lacy Squares

My Favorite Things Die-namics Blueprints 21 (retired)

I've been determined to use up some of my accumulated crafty stash! This brought me to a Doodlebug Designs scrapbooking kit I've had for ages (copyright 2011 according to the package). Besides some gorgeous papers (12x12 so I'm saving those), the kit contained bunches of yummy stickers and brads. Huh - I can't remember the last time I used a brad! You? Anyway, a cute Doodle-pop Christmas Tree sticker and a present brad became the focal points of my card. The kit's Doodle-pop had gems on it - others I've seen are plain. I spotted a bedazzled tree in a Doodlebug kit at Simon Says Stamp if you want to see it - online stores I checked didn't seem to have single trees in stock.

I decided to show some love to an old set of Spellbinders and cut two lacy squares to layer beneath the tree & present. A stitched rectangle & strip of snowflake paper on a green card, plus a leftover sentiment strip from last week's Merry Monday card - done!

Be sure to check out the fabulous creations from the rest of the Merry Monday Design Team and I hope you have a chance to play along this week! I'd love to hear how you're coming on your Christmas card production - playing at Merry Monday will definitely help you along!!

Thanks for stopping and have a crafty week!