Tuesday, October 27, 2015

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~
 
 
 

Sunday, October 25, 2015

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~
 

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

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~
 

Monday, October 19, 2015

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~
 
 

Friday, October 9, 2015

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
 
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~
 
 
 
 
 

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

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
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~
 
 
 

ABC CHRISTMAS -- E IS FOR EMBOSSING, F IS FOR FAUX, G IS FOR GINGERBREAD

 Hello crafty friends!  I'm dropping by really quickly to share what I created for this month's ABC Christmas challenge , which is ...