Another Christmas Card - Merry Monday

Without any urgent need for a card for an upcoming occasion, I've been thinking about my Christmas cards.  I saw the challenge over at Merry Monday and thought I'd play along. 

I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted when I saw the challenge.  I have been waiting for a time to use gold embossing powder on vellum because the effect is so pretty.

I don't have a large poinsettia stamp, which would have made this card much easier, but I do have good 'ol Pick A Petal.  I used this stamp set before to make a poinsettia flower and it's a decent representation.  Twelve petals to stamp, emboss and cut out.  The background?  Strips of paper in the challenge colors.  Again, having glittered paper would have made this easier.  Instead, I used Scor-tape on strips to adhered the glitter.  It was labor intensive, let me tell you!  Very pretty, but labor intensive!  For that reason alone, I only made two or these cards.

Pick A Petal ....Again

Here I am, ready to give it another go!  I'm not one to give up.  Another card using Pick A Petal.  I haven't used this set in so long, it's great to get reacquainted with an old friend.  I guess I'll be keeping this one a while longer!

The sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches presented the perfect opportunity to ink this set.

Paired with this pretty color combination over at the Colour Q....

This card came together very quickly.  Well, except I spent waaaay too much contemplating which ribbon to use.  I kinda like the tone-on-tone.  I do wish it were a tad wider, but I can be happy with this result.  I really like the masking with sponging around the perimeter.  That was happy accident, trying to incorporate a bit more Calypso Coral.

I think that's it for tonight...I think!  I do have other things to do!  Thanks for stopping by!

Love You Much

I woke up this morning needing one more Valentine card ... to send out TODAY!  One for my grandma who is 90.  I scanned the current challenges and knew instantly I would use the Color Throwdown as my inspiration.  Look at this color scheme.  Those are my kinda colors!

As luck would have it, I had this bit of scrap on my craft table.

 This rarely happens to me...I had an idea instantly.  I drew out a sketch on my graph paper.

And this is what I came up with:

Am I allowed to say I'm a little disappointed?  Two things bugging me.  One, I wish I had stamped the leaves first and added the petals on top.  Second, my petal placement was so much better on my sample!  I should have used my stamp-a-ma-jig, but I thought I could do without.  I should know myself much better.  I'm waaaaay to nit-picky!  OK, not that nit-picky because I could have chose to do it over, but I suppressed that urge!

Not sure what the rest of the day will hold....maybe more cards?

Show CASE - Enjoy The Moment (Sort of!) by Nancy

When free time is in short supply, a card CASE (Copy And Share with Everyone) can be the perfect way to have a little fun!.  Show CASE is my personal attempt to have that time for stamping, without of the pressure to create something totally original.  I want to pay tribute to the many talented stampers out in the blogosphere that are so inspiring to me.  I hope you enjoy seeing my "take" on their creation.

Today's show CASE card comes from Nancy Riley @ iSTAMP.

I said "sort of" in my post title because I don't own the Enjoy the Moment that Nancy used.  I improvised by using a alphabet stamp set and the scribble circle from Pick A Petal.

My changes:
Colors ( Pale Plum, Old Olive, Baja Breeze)
DSP (Cottage Wall, Sweet Pea, Green Tea)
Pick A Petal (For the "O")
Alphabet set

Nancy's original card is HERE.  Please check it out!

Pick A Petal - Cherish

I've been wanting to create a butterfly image with my Pick A Petal for a while now. My plan was to stamp it in gold to make an anniversary card for my in-laws, who will be celebrating 50 years of marriage later this month. I had planned for it to be very elegant, but that didn't happen. So, now I don't know if this will be their card or not. I like it, I just don't know if it fits the occasion. I had fun making it. I went to my "go to" stash, my scraps! I picked out pieces of patterned paper, doing very little cutting, just went with what I had. I think this patchwork placement appeals to the quilter in me. I love mixing the patterns, colors and sizes, just like quilting.

I was stumped on how to make the butterfly body for some time. In the end I went with two gold headed pins from my quilting pin cushion! I threaded one pin with my beads then just put the second pin through the other end. I added it to the card with Tombow glue. It should hold! The shell buttons on the bottom corner are covering a goof in my sewing! I guess I'm a little rusty!

I hope you are enjoying this three day weekend! It's going to be pretty quiet around my house. I'm hoping for some more stamping!

Kristina's Color Inspiration #19

Hi once again. Day three, three days in a row and it's time for another card to catch up on Kristina's Color Inspiration challenges. Today is number 19, first posted on August 24th 2008. A challenge where we were able to choose a color to add to the inspiration colors. I love Pumpkin Pie so that was my choice. I will admit this card has done double duty. Last weekend on Splitcoaststampers' Virtual Stamping Night, this was one of the challenges. A card with both a positive and a negative. This stamp set, Pick a Petal seemed to be the best choice of the stamps I own. The sentiment on the side is from Thank You Kindly. I find I can never have enough thank you stamps. I made use of the flower brad in the center but chose to use a Pumpkin Pie brad instead of the silver that comes with them. A pretty straight forward card, simple but striking. Thanks for stopping by again today. See you tomorrow!

Pick A Petal - Pointsettia

I am obsessed with my Top Note die and my Big Shot machine. I have used it for so many cards, I think it's time I put it away for a while! But not before I post a few cards using it. Honestly, I don't have that many Christmas stamps, so I have to be imaginative. I've seen cards using the big flower in Doodle This (retired) as a poinsettias and I thought I can do that with Pick A Petal stamped on the paper is Bella Rose paper! The addition of the Summer Sun flower centers and Old Olive brads and ribbon do a pretty good job of representing a poinsettia. What do you think?

Thank You Notes Day 1

I made a set of thank you notes, cards of several designs but generally using the same color scheme. So, I'll be posting new ones for a few days. This card is my favorite but it didn't start out that way. Initially I had a scrap piece of designer paper on the left side. I just couldn't do anything with it, so I took it off. I knew it would tear up the layer beneath a bit. I went with the big white circle and it covered most but not all of the blemish. That's when I stamped the little flower from Delight in Life on the Rose Red background, to camoflage my boo-boo. Funny how things work sometimes.