You Light Up My Life...

Wishing you all have a fabulous and safe Christmas / Holiday Season!  

I decided with my new job that I would step down from The Alley Way Stamps Design Team after completing my first term with them, ironically because my card making skills were taking too much time - but now with fab 10 Minute Craft Dash my cards seem to be getting made a lot quicker!  So for now this is my last official TAWS DT card - it has been a blast :) sending out a huge THANK YOU to Alison and the team!

Sweltering here in 38 degree heat, what could be more appropriate than a snowman card LOL!  Inspired by this months Trendy Twine Holly Berry Tag Challenge and Ribbon Carousel Holiday Spirit Challenge, together with this weeks Little Red Wagon Christmas Tag Challenge.

I created this tag card using The Alley Way Stamps Jolly Holiday snowman and Christmas lights - I stamped the lights onto American Crafts shimmer cardstock, cut the cardstock out roughly in a rectangle around each light, then folded the rectangle in half along the base of the light and cut around the folded cardstock so you end up with a mirror image of the light - this allows you to fold the light over the Holly Berry Trendy Twine and adhere the front and back piece together to secure the light around the twine.  The snowmans arms are die cut from a Memory Box branch and trimmed to size.  The sentiment is from The Alley Way Stamps Fa-la-la.

 

Q a CAS-ual Retro Holiday Dash...

This fortnight two of my favourites have teamed up - the 10 Minute Craft Dash and CAS-ual Fridays - and in the belief that three is never a crowd, and four is better than three LOL, I threw this gorgeous Color Q palette and flipped this fab Retro Sketch into the mix too!

Luckily I had an extra die cut kraft reindeer, left over from the tag I had made for DS teachers gift.  I used the Die-namic wavy lines to create the snow drifts - cutting with both blades at once to save time for the Craft Dash   I just love the sparkle on the American Crafts glitter paper!  I cut the Daisy D paper to size and adhered the larger snowdrift, then tied my Trendy Twine and button knot, before pop dotting the smaller snow drift.  I adhered the kraft reindeer with his feet just tucked behind the front snow drift, then stamped The Alley Way Stamps Fa-la-la sentiment in Dove Grey StazOn.  I just had enough time to underline the heading and add Rudolph's nose and eye before my 10 minute buzzer sounded!

BE Inspired Holiday Sparkles...

It's Friday which means it's time to join in the fun at The Alley Way Stamps BE Inspired!

1) You MUST use an image from The Alley Way Stamps (you can find freebies here!)
2) You must mention this challenge and link to it in your blog post.
3) The challenge linky closes on Jan 3rd at Noon, TAWS time (Mtn)!!!

I used The Alley Way Stamps Holiday Sparkles set, FREE if you order over $40 in December.  I love the nordic look of these stamps when embossed in white on a strong background colour. I love the sparkly paper snow and snowflake too!

Perfect for this weeks FAB Retro Sketch and this months Holiday Spirit Challenge at The Ribbon Carousel, and CAS Snowflakes Challenge at The Paper Players.

Seize the Day!

A quick card for today to help boost your Christmas spirit!  Inspired by Annette's recent The Alley Way Stamps BE Inspired card and created using Priceless Joy and Jolly Holiday with a Christmas Magic sentiment.  Perfect for Just Add Inks Just Add Christmas Challenge!

Have you seen the new Seize the Birthday Birthday Card Challenge blog?  I don't know about you but I never seem to have enough birthday cards in my stash - I can't wait til their first challenge begins on January 10th.  I created this birthday card to celebrate their Linky Party using The Alley Way Stamps Love Knots and sentiment created from Jibber Jabber and Bite Size.  The Love Knots background was swiped with Distressed Ink Picked Raspberry across the bottom half and Dusty Concord across the top, then spritzed with Glimmermist Denim, before stamping onto some baby pink Basic Grey paper.  The Spellbinders and My Favourite Things butterflies were diecut and the sentiment stamped in Dusty Concord before dry embossing with Tim Holtz Woodgrain, and pop dotting of course :)

The Red Pink Elephant and the Pink Little Red Wagon...

 

I created my first card drawing inspiration from this weeks photo challenge at The Pink Elephant, highlighthing the family home feel, colours, scalloped swag, vertical lines of the banisters and gingham.  The Echo Park Jolly Holiday house and Hero Arts / Junkitz sentiment are stamped in Versamark Dazzle and embossed in Red Tinsel.  

On closer inspection of the image I noticed the gorgeous pink and red colour combination on the parcels and created a second variation on my theme, using Basic Grey paper, perfect for this weeks Pink Christmas theme over at Little Red Wagon.

This made me smile...

Less is More Dashing...

As soon as I saw this weeks Less is More One Layer Ducks in a Row Challenge, I thought of this gorgeous stamp from Stamping Bella.  Simply stamped and added the hand drawn box outline, and highlighted in red Marvy Marker.  Would have been perfect for this weeks 10 Minute Craft Dash Feature Red Challenge too - but I've already entered twice this week LOL!  

Variations on a theme...

This made me smile...

Very Merry & Bright...

Had fun combining the current chalkboard & neon trends! Inspiration from The Alley Way Stamps BE Inspired Challenge - I just love the pink & green colour combination - together with the Moxie Fabuolous Keen on Neon Challenge.  Stamped these gorgeous The Alley Way Stamps Doodle Frames in Versamark Dazzle, then heat embossed in Zing White, and the The Alley Way Stamps Christmas Magic and Alphabet Soup sentiments were heat embossed in Zing Grapefruit and Cricket.  The chipboard ampersand was also stamped in Versamark Dazzle and heat embossed in Zing White too.

You have until Thursday 20 December to enter using any TAWS stamps.

Check out their fab freebies too!

Moxie Fab Keen on Neon

It's A Christmas Bling...

Inspired by Keep It Simple Washi Tape Challenge, Addicted to CAS Baubles Challenge and The Paper Players gorgeous colour combo I created these dangling washi Christmas baubles, using The Alley Way Stamps Fa-la-la and sentiment from Christmas Magic.  I stamped the front of the baubles in StazOn Dove Grey before fussy cutting them, stamped the image on the back of the baubles, and added some Kaisercrft bling, front and back.  I die cut a circle from the front of the card, and from a die cut scalloped circle.  Each bauble is hung using fine wire, sandwiched between the base cardstock and the red die cut layer, and secured with terrifically tacky tape.

Making Spirits Bright...

Another 10 Minute Craft Dash, this time with City Crafter and Paper Smooches Sparks Challenges too.  I loved the colours in this weeks photo inspiration challenge.  Die cut two Memory Box Tall Birch from MME papers, I love the painted wood finish on the tree trunks.  This gorgeous Cardinal is from Paper Smooches Warm Hearts, and I double stamped the Paper Smooches Joyful Greetings sentiment to add depth - first in black, then in Versamark Watermark which I then embossed in Red Tinsel.  I love that it almost looks like someone writing the sentiment with a red sparkler!  I know that this one was under 10 minutes as I was watching the clock - but hadn't set my timer as I didn't think this would be made quick enough!  I love that the Dash is pushing me to create faster - but I realised that I flipped the Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge, and my birches don't quite reach across the card - I'll call it artistic licence!

Dashing Through the Snow...

This weeks 10 Minute Craft Dash was too good to pass up!  Decided to make my life easier so I based my card on one I made recently.  A super quickie today - 5 minutes 34 seconds - I actually did it under 10 minutes!  I must admit though if the choosing your supplies, thinking about your design and tidying up after were included I could NEVER make a card in under an hour let alone 10 minutes LOL!

These gorgeous sentiment stamps are from The Alley Way Stamps Christmas Magic, together with the Memory Box Country Landscape die cut they make quick cards a breeze!  I stamped the sentiment using red tinsel embossing powder to add a little sparkle.  I LOVE this tone on tone MME patterned paper as the background, and I love how it makes the red POP.  I found the scalloped border in my stash - I think it was from Crate Paper - and it came with the sticky attached!   To make foam dotting easy & quick, I pull the backing from my roll of foam tape before I cut the tape, so that once the tape is adhered to the back of the card I just flip the cardstock over and stick it down, rather than having to peel off the backing adhesive once it is stuck to the cardstock :)

This made me smile...

Season's Greetings Two Roo...

I know it's not supposed to be good form to laugh at your own jokes, but making this card just made me smile.  It's as Aussie a Christmas card as I'll be making this year :)  Inspired by this weeks Paper Smooches Sparks Trend Watch Challenge Cameras or Polaroids, traditional Christmas colours from Color Throwdown and this fab sketch from Retro Sketches.

Stamps are all from Paper Smooches, A Little Lovin', He Said She Said, Swanky Snowdudes and Alphadot. Papers are a mix of old Daisy D and October Afternoon Christmas papers, finished off with a holly sticker from October Afternoon and some gorgeous Holly Berry twine from Trendy Twine.

I hope Roo have a Happy Season too!

 

Loves Me, Loves Me Knot...

The Alley Way Stamps Love Knots is perfect for CASual Fridays Knotty or Nice Challenge this week.  Inspired by the pink monochromatic shades at Dynamic Duos and this fab Unscripted Sketches sketch, I stamped the Love Knots onto a strip of white cardstock and a strip of pink cardstock and heat embossed using American Crafts Pink Glitter Zing.  I found a chipboard heart in my stash which I used as a template to hand cut the three dark pink hearts and pop-dotted them on the stamped white cardstock.  The sentiment was created using a combination of The Alley Way Stamps AdoraBOWL, Get Moovin, Tie One On and Alphabet Soup.  Added some twine to reinforce the knotty!