Good Tuesday evening!

Hello bloggers!  I hope all is well with you.  I'm back again to share 2 more Christmas cards for my stash:

 

 

The top one features George, one of my favorite characters from the now closed Stamp Fairy store.  I had this image printed out just sitting around, waiting for the perfect coloring opportunity.  I found that opportunity today when I saw the challenge for Merry Monday:  Christmas Lights and Glitter!  George is extremely happy with his festive tree, decorated with gold glittery balls and blue lights enhanced with clear Wink of Stella.  There is more glitter added to the snow in the form of Star Dust Stickles, but of course, none of said glitter is visible in the pic...sigh.  Well, it IS visible IRL, so please take my word for it!

 

On the second card, I used the Tim Holtz Townscape die for the first time since I bought it last year (gasp!)  I was inspired by these cards Patty Bennett made here.  I used white glitter paper, inked the sky the same way as on this card, and used Squeezed Lemonade ink for the windows and doors.  A couple of the houses are burning wood stoves to keep warm, and the smoke is made with clear Sakura gel pen.

 

Challenges:

 

Merry Monday #177:  Christmas Lights and Glitter

Jingle Belles:  Do you Sketch what I Sketch? (please forgive me ladies, I put my pink piece on the wrong way!)

12 Months of Christmas Link Up #10:  Anything Christmas or optional "for a child" twist

CHNC October Extra:  Anything Christmas

Holly Jolly:  Snowman

The Cutie Pie challenge:  Pretty in Pink

CHNC Patterned Paper:  Use patterned paper (obviously!)

 

Thanks for stopping by tonight.  Be safe, and God Bless!

 

~Marie~

 

 

 

It's lovely weather for a sleigh ride...

together with you!  OH YEAH!  2 months until Christmas as of today, people!!  Are you panicking yet?  Do you have enough Christmas cards for the people on your list this year?  Here's another one for my stash, bringing me to a total of 50:

 

I love this silhouette image!  I have a few of these vintage-type images from the Silhouette Store, but this is the first one I have used.  It cut so beautifully out of the black cardstock...I always worry about such detailed images when I size them down.  The winter night sky background was created using Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Dusty Concord, and Black Soot.  The snowflakes/stars were made with a white gel pen.  I hand cut the snowy ground, and edged it with Star Dust Stickles (I swear!)  The itty bitty sentiment comes from the Partridge in a Pear Tree stamp set Martha Stewart sold at Walmart several years ago.  I am so pleased with how this one turned out!

 

Challenges: 

 

Christmas at Sweet Stampin':  Christmas travel or transport

12 Months of Christmas Link up:  Anything goes or optional "for a child"

Sparkles Christmas:  Distress it!

CHNC October Extra:  Anything goes

ABC Christmas:  "U" for unusual Christmas colors

Christmas Card Challenges:  Anything goes

 

 

Thanks for stopping by today!  God bless!

 

~Marie~

 

Purple Peace, and Pink Snow!!

Tuesday greetings, bloggers!  I hope the week has gone well so far, and will continue to do so!  Here is what I have to share with you this evening:

 

 

I have added to my "collection" of monochromatic inked background Christmas cards with these two.  I really love how the purple one turned out!  I decided to try a new technique on that one with the stacked Papertrey Ink die cut.  I really like the look of it, but in hindsight, I wonder if my "stacks" should have been cut from black instead of white.  Ah well, next time!  On the PINK card, I used the same layout as on this green version here.  I added some Wink of Stella to the pink portions of the Fred, She Said snowflake, and I heat embossed the Cloud9 Design sentiment on vellum.  These backgrounds also have the same yummy shimmer as their predecessors do.

 

Spending some time looking at the purple card, I'm thinking it looks too plain.  Should I scatter some sequins, perhaps?  Please let me know in your comments!

 

Challenges:

 

Jingle Belles:  PINK for the Cure

The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up #10:  Anything goes or "for a child" twist

Sparkles Christmas:  Distress It!

CHNC Extra:  Anything goes

ABC Christmas:  "U" for unusual Christmas colors
Classy Cards 'n Such:  Pretty Pink Christmas

 

Thanks for stopping by, and God bless!

 

~Marie~

 

PINK for the cure!

It's nearing the end of October already, and this is the only PINK card I have made for this year's PINK for the Cure prompt over at Jingle Belles:

 

The challenge isn't over yet, so I may get another one or two made...this year has just not been a very good one for craft room time!  I punched all these MS snowflakes out of the scraps from a baby girl project, die cut a open circle to glue them onto, then just started adhering!  I smeared some Cotton Candy Stickles all over the wreath, put a burlap string bow at the bottom, added a few pearls, and heat embossed the Papertrey Ink sentiment in white in the middle.  Voila!  Pretty simple.

 

Challenges: 

 

Jingle Belles:  Deck the Halls...in PINK!

ABC Christmas: "U" for unusual Christmas colors

The 12 Months of Christmas Link up #10:  Anything goes OR optional "for a child" twist

The Glory of Christmas #70:  More than one fold OR anything goes

CHNC Extra for October:  Anything goes
C.R.A.F.T Challenge:  Christmas
Classy Cards 'n Such:  Pretty Pink Christmas

 

Thanks for stopping by, and God bless!

 

~Marie~

 

 

A Quickie Post!

Just stopping in to the 'ole blog to share my latest Christmas card:

 

I threw this one together this evening specifically for the challenge over at Merry Monday:

as I thought about what I could do for this one, I didn't think I had anything that would fit, until I remembered this cute little pair of hedgies, sharing a cuppa.  I always thought of it as hot chocolate, but it works for coffee too!

 

Challenges:

 

Merry Monday #174:  Java time

CHNC October Extra:  Anything goes

The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up #10:  Anything goes or optional "for a child" twist 

The Glory of Christmas #69:  Green and gold or anything goes

Papertake Weekly:  Anything goes

CHNC October Patterned Paper:  Anything goes

 

OK, this took longer than I intended, so I'll get this linked up, and hit the hay!  Thanks for stopping by, and God Bless!

 

~Marie~

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Tuesday evening!

Just checking in really quickly this evening to share a few cards for the Christmas stash:

 

 

 

 

I was playing around with distress inks for the first 3 cards pictured; I still wanna do a purple version too!  All 3 cards feature three shades of the chosen color.  After I applied the colors, I used the darkest shade to splatter drops all over the pieces.  Then after thoroughly drying that process, I strategically sprayed/splattered water on them.  After another drying, I sprayed them with homemade shimmer spray in metallic pearl white.  I had lotsa fun during this process, and wore LOTSA ink on my hands!

The final card features another pre-colored image from the Winter Fairy Wee Stamps topper set.  Who can resist a bunny on a sled with gifts??  For something different, I put matted dp in 2 corners, and then repeatedly stamped the sentiment and a couple of snowflake images in the leftover white space.  Not quite as nice as Jennifer McGuire does it, but it'll do.  To match the sparkle on some of the dp stripes, I added clear Wink of Stella to parts of the image as well.  Three small blings in the same corners, and this was done.

 

Challenges:

 

The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up #10:  Anything goes or optional "for a child" twist

Sparkles Christmas Challenge:  Distress it!

CHNC October Extra:  Anything goes

Jingle Belles:  The Hanukkah Song,  aka cards that don't necessarily celebrate Christmas

CHNC #249:  All wrapped up

ABC Christmas challenge:  T is for "transport"

Papertake Weekly:  Anything goes

CHNC Patterned Paper:  Anything goes

 

Well, that's all for me this evening.  Thanks so much for stopping by my blog, take care, and God bless!

 

~Marie~

 

 

 

Happy Fall Greetings!

According to the calendar, it is now Autumn here in PA, but the weather is still pretty warm at about 75º.  Nice and sunny, with a breeze a-blowin' intermittently...ahhhh, beautiful!  The weather tomorrow is also supposed to be wonderful for the Selinsgrove Street Fair that Chad and I are going to attend.  Lotsa food, local vendors, local politicians, music and entertainment...a great way to spend a few hours on a Saturday!

 

As for today, right at this moment, I have another Christmas card to share:

 

 

This cutie is from a topper sheet from Sylvia Zet for Wee Stamps called Winter Fairy.  I love these images, so adorable!  I went with all dark blue for my card and designer paper to really set the image off.  Invisible in the pic (as usual!) is lotsa Wink of Stella on the snow, earmuffs, bells, and snowflakes.  I added three iridescent white sequins in the upper right and lower left corners, all topped off with tiny iridescent bling.

 

Challenges:

 

CSAYL #56:  Lots layers or different texture (this card has 6 layers of paper between the base and image!)

The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up #9:  Anything goes with optional Christmas tree twist

The Christmas Challenge #68:  Christmas Dinner or Anything goes

CHNC September Extra:  Anything Christmas

Jingle Belles:  The Hanukkah Song (celebrating other winter holidays or general winter cards)

CASE-ing Christmas #29:  Be inspired by this card made by Mynn (I liked all the blue and white)

ABC Christmas:  "S" is for Silent (no sentiments or text)

Papertake Weekly:  It will soon be here (Christmas, of course...3 months from today!)

CHNC Patterned Paper:  Use patterned paper (mine is from Jack Frost American Crafts 6x6 pad)

 

 

Well, thanks for stopping by my blog today!  Have a blessed weekend!

 

~Marie~

 

 

Joy to the World!

Happy Sunday afternoon!  As I had hoped, I'm back on the blog today to share another Christmas card done:

 

 

This one features the music background stamp from Recollections that I bought after last Christmas.  I inked the heck out of it with Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap to age it, and then added some gold Stickles around the edges with my finger for a festive feel.  The cute little caroler in the left corner is a digi from Fred, She Said called Emma the Caroler, Pre-colored set.  The sentiment, also inked all to heck, comes from the Signature Christmas set from Papertrey Ink.  LOVE that sentiment set!!

 

Challenges:

 

The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up #9:  Anything goes with optional "Christmas tree" twist

The Glory of Christmas #67:  Anything goes with optional "no stamp or digi" twist (I don't seem to be following that one very well anyway!)

CHNC Christmas September Extra:  Anything goes

Holly Jolly:  Use a die (Spellbinders ovals and scalloped ovals)

Crafty Calendar:  Anything goes

 

That's all for today!  Thanks again for stopping by!

 

~Marie~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happiest of Holidays

to you and yours!  Here's my latest Christmas card share:

 

 

This card is done exactly the same way as the card in this post here.  Sweet and simple.  The challenges I'm entering:

 

 

The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up:    Anything goes with optional "Christmas tree" twist

The Glory of Christmas #67:  No stamp or digi OR anything goes

CHNC September Extra:  Anything goes

Merry Monday #170:  Use Holly

CHNC #246:  Festive trees or greenery

Holly Jolly:  Use a die

Crafty Calendar:  Anything goes

Penny Black:  Anything goes (stamp from Recollections)

 

Thanks again for stopping by...I hope to be back tomorrow with another Christmas card!

 

~Marie~

 

 

 

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree...

...how lovely are thy branches.  Are you singing yet?  LOL!  I hope you find the branches of my Christmas tree at least cute:

 

 

It took me 2 days to complete this one, what with all the switching of papers on my cutting mat, gluing, glittering, and inking...lol!  All in all, I like my end result!

The designer papers come from the Merry Little Christmas MME 6x6 pad.  I tried to make it look as though the paper is wallpaper and a floor...maybe I shoulda hung a picture on the wall...nah.  A sweet sentiment from Signature Christmas stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa, and the card was done.  I'm going to enter this card into the following challenges:

 

The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up:  Anything goes with optional "Christmas tree" twist

Christmas at Sweet Stampin':  Festive Décor

Glory of Christmas:  No stamp or digi OR anything goes

Sparkles Christmas:  Oh! Christmas tree

CHNC Christmas September Extra:  Anything goes

CHNC #245:  T'was the Night before Christmas

Crafty Calendar:  Anything goes

Creative Card Crew:  Christmas

CHNC Patterned Paper:  Anything goes

 

Thanks for taking a look at my blog...have a wonderful day!

 

~Marie~

 

 

 

Family

Good Sunday afternoon bloggers!  I trust all is well in your neck of the woods, as it is in mine at the moment.  I'd like to share this Christmas card with you today:

 

 

I made this specifically for the One Layer Christmas Card challenge, which is asking for an optional "family" twist:

 

 

And as the challenge graphic suggests, what better family than the Holy Family to showcase?  My image is a Silhouette cut file that I printed out, cut a circle mask for, and inked with Mustard Seed distress ink.  I wasn't intending for my "glow" to be so dark, but it is what it is.  The sentiment comes from the Stampendous Nativity Christmas set, and I stamped it with a Studio G glitter ink that matched pretty well.  I added some clear Wink of Stella pen to the Holy Family and the Star of Bethlehem above the manger, but of course that isn't visible in the pic.

 

Challenges I'm adding this to:

 

One Layer Christmas #17:  Anything goes with optional "family" twist

CSAYL #55:  Anything goes

Winter Wonderland:  Add a sentiment

The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up #9:  Anything goes with optional "Christmas tree" twist

CHNC #245:  T'was the Night Before Christmas

CHNC Christmas Extra for September:  Anything goes

 

 

Thanks for stopping by again!  Take care!

 

~Marie~