Twinkle All the Way...

After creating this card for last weeks Less Is More, I thought I'd have a go at making a one layer card version. I die cut two stencils from clear acetate sheeting, one with the negative space from Lil Inkers Stitched Square and the other with Making Memories Country Landscape, then taped them together to use as my mask for inking. Inked up with Distress Ink in Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean and Dusty Concord, moving upwards to the deepest colour. Stamped with Mama Elephant Believe in Magic star cluster and Winter Wonderland large star in Momento Luxe Wedding ink embossed in white embossing powder then added Mama Elephant Merry Greetings sentiment in black, and Wink of Stella Clear Sparkle to the night sky. It felt like it needed a little extra boost, so I created a hand drawn outline in black fine-liner for added depth.

Playing along with Less Is More One Layer Starry Starry Night, Mama Elephant and Me Holiday Cards and Tags, Color Throwdown, The Pink Elephant CAS and City Crafter Christmas CAS.

Inspired by Online Holiday Card Workshop Homework Day 4.

This made me smile...

Traditional Christmas Tree Shaker Card...

Playing along in the Moxie Fab Word Tree-mendous Tree Challenge - join in before November 30

After so many non-traditionally coloured Christmas cards, I thought I'd bring back some real green pine needles and tinsel red glitter, together with lots of shiny baubles for the tree! As a shaker card of course for my Online Holiday Card Classes Interactive Card Homework Day 2!

Created using the gorgeous LaLa Land tree die cut, together with paper from Kaisercraft Basecoat Christmas, and Red Metallic and Birthday Party (minus the blue and purple) sequins from Neat & Tangled. The sentiment was created by sandwiching American Crafts Red Glitter paper and cardstock together, before die cutting with WPlus9 fabulous new Handlettered Holiday Merry die, and stamping the matching sentiment in Momento Luxe Olive Green. 

When the card stands up, the sequins all fall to the base of the tree - if only we could decorate and un-decorate our tree that quickly!

Layers in the shaker sandwich:

• Pine needle patterned paper on white card base
• Foam sheet with triangle cutout to match the size of the diecut tree, with sequins in the centre of the triangle
• Clear acetate
• Diecut white cardstock with negative spaced tree, stamped with Christmas sentiment
• Diecut Merry sentiment.

Playing along with Virginia's View All Things Metallic, 

Color Q, CAS(E) this Sketch and
Inkspirational Challenge Shine (thanks Loll!)

Merry Christmas Deer - Snowglobe Shaker...

You'll be glad to see I've moved on to Online Holiday Card Class Homework Day 2 LOL. Also playing along with City Crafter My Deer, Mama Elephant and Me Holiday Cards and Tags, Merry Monday Creams, Tans and Browns and ShowCASe Your Style Tic-Tac-Toe Die Cut/Red/Sequins. 

Created using Mama Elephants Believe In Magic and Winter Wonderland, together with Lil Inkers Stitched Circle die and Momento Luxe inks. Layers in the shaker sandwich are the Winter Wonderland background stamped in Toffee Crunch and Love Letter, layer of foam with Stitched Circle cutout, Clear Sequins inside the circle, Winter Wonderland deer stamped in Rich Cocoa and popped on a foam backing, clear acetate shaker front, cardstock card front with Stitched Circle opening and Winter Wonderland sentiment stamped in Rich Cocoa, base of Believe in Magic snowglobe, stamped in Love Letter.

 

ETA Playing along with The Challenge Kraft/Brown/Red too (thanks Lesley!)

This made me smile...

Christmas... Believe in the Magic

More Online Holiday Card Class Homework Day 1, the only problem with so much inspiration is, at this rate I'll be finished all my Christmas cards before I get to Day 2 homework LOL! Playing along with Virginia's View All Things Metallic, Mama Elephant and Me Holiday Cards and Tags and Craft Stamper Take It, Make It Challenge - Non Christmas Stamps. Jennifer's cool Christmas word tree, got me thinking about stamping a Christmas letter tee, using Mama Elephant Flashy Letters in Red Glitter embossing and Believe in Magic topped with Winter Wonderland large star in Super Fine Silver embossing, and backed with American Crafts Silver Glitter paper.

 

This made me SMILE...

 

Sparkle and Shine this Holiday Season...

There aren't many cards I could stand to reproduce multiple times, but I think this would have to be one of the few! Playing along with Virginia's View All Things Metallic, Less Is More Colour Challenge - Non-Traditional Christmas (even though my "white" space is blue), and Mama Elephant and Me Holiday Cards and Tags, with more homework from Online Holiday Card Class Homework Day 1. Inspired by Kristina's easy to ink background, using Distress Ink Black Soot to on navy textured cardstock to create the night sky, then stamping with Mama Elephant Believe in Magic star cluster and Winter Wonderland large star in Momento Luxe white ink and sentiment in silver super fine embossing powder. The Memory Box Countryside die cut is cut with the doors and windows having added Wink of Stella Clear Sparkle, as does the night sky.

Variation on a theme using Mama Elephant Merry Greetings sentiment.

 

PS. Tag You're Christmas!

I've been meaning to play along with the fab Tag You're It Challenge for ages, and decided to combine this last minute entry with my Online Holiday Card Class Day 1 Homework (inspired by Debby's gorgeous tag card), Less Is More Colour Challenge - Non-Traditional Christmas, Paper Smooches Sparks Anything Goes, and Addicted to CAS Tags. Created using Paper Smooches Christmas Word dies, Lawn Fawn Tag You're It (although I probably would do the next one in Paper Smooches Stitched Tag) and Lil Inkers Stitched Snowflake. Version two added a border in the same cardstock colour as the sentiment and snowflake.

HINTS for Mass Production:

• Die cut the tags first, then the "Christmas and "Merry" from the striped tag, then the negative space can be used to line up the coloured letters.
• Using striped paper makes it easy to align the word dies.
• If you die cut the white base of the tag from thicker cardstock (or even chipboard), you don't need to worry about pop-dotting the tag.

 

CAS(E) this Sketch Guest Designer

Super excited to have been asked to Guest DT over at CAS(E) this Sketch, and with this fabulous sketch from Gayatri to work with, who could say no!!!

Mixed and matched my Merry and Christmas diecuts from Papertrey Ink and Paper Smooches, together with these gorgeous felt holly leaves and berries from my stash (I think they may have been Making Memories), but you could replicate these using die cuts too. I usually find if I am die cutting more intricate shapes from felt, it helps to coat the back of the felt with Ribbon Stiffener and let it dry before you cut to give it more body. These cute background papers are from Heidi Sawpp and Kaisercraft Basecoat Christmas.

Remember to stop by the CAS(E) this Sketch Design Team blogs for more fabulous inspiration.

Hope you can get to play along too - I'd LOVE to see what you create.

Playing along with Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes and
The Pink Elephant Anything Goes too!

Having fun at Online Card Classes Holiday Card Workshop 2014 soon...

This made me smile...

P.S. Wishing you brighter days...

Had a play with my Distress Inks, Stencils and Paper Smooches stamps and dies to create today's card. Inspired by Online Classes Stenciled, CASual Fridays Over the Edge and Paper Smooches Sparks Anything Goes challenges.  Sponged a combination of Squeezed Lemon, Picked Raspberry and Spiced Marmalade to create the stenciled background, and as the base layer for the butterfly.  Die cut the Paper Smooches Fishtail Flag, Butterflies 3 and two vellum Hickory Leaf, and stamped this cute Paper Smooches Cosmos sentiment and Flap Happy butterfly in Momento Ink Morocco, before pop-dotting to the card front.

You can join in the fun at Paper Smooches 3rd Anniversary Celebrations this month.

Playing along with The Crafting Musketeers Butterfly Challenge too.

500th post with a KIS...

 "You're the only one for me."

WOOHOO welcome to my 500th post!!! A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who has dropped in to say Hi over the past couple of years!!! I am incredibly honoured to be part of this community - especially when I look at the number of comments received - almost 5,700, just amazing! THANK YOU!!! If you stay tuned, I may just have a little something up my sleeve to surprise you with soon ;) 

SO excited to be able to announce that after being a great fan of Keep It Simple since it's inception, I've been invited to be part of the Design Team - and a FABULOUS team it is! Hop on over to the Keep It Simple blog to meet the rest of the team! 

Officially I don't start on the team until Februaury 21st, but I couldn't resist playing along with this weeks Keep It Simple Square Challenge, with a card created for Online Classes Stenciled homework. Even though this may not look that simple, I promise it was!

• Secure My Favorite Things Scallops stencil over your piece of cardstock and apply a thin layer of Jo Sonja's texture paste - I use my grandma's old knife - as it has a 5 inch long flat flexible blade, so the texture paste is easy to apply evenly - and I have the added bonus of feeling close to my Gran every time I use it! 
• Remove the stencil and clean it, then sprinkle American Crafts Zing Aqua embossing powder over some sections of the applied texture paste, and Tim Holtz Distress Glitter Peacock Feather over the remainder.
• Remove the excess powder by tapping the cardstock, then heat set the texture paste with a heat gun - the texture paste will bubble and rise, creating a more 3D effect.
• Die-cut the Memory Box koi fish, add Versamark Watermark ink, sprinkle with American Crafts Zing Orange Glitter and heat set. 
• Die cut Paper Smooches fishtail flag die in coloured vellum and stamp with Paper Smooches Alphadot sentiment in Momento Luxe and heat emboss using American Crafts Zing Orange Glitter, before pop dotting to the card.

We'd LOVE you to play along with Keep It Simple!

Playing along with The Pink Elephant Love Challenge

Today is Paper Smooches THIRD Birthday too - 
don't forget to stop by and say "HAPPY BIRTHDAY"

A CAS(E) of WPlus9 and Stencils...

If you have been lucky enough to be playing along with On-Line Classes Stenciled, you too will have been inspired! I was particularly taken with Debby's fabulous inking, in combination with heat embossed vellum. Taking inspiration from the chevrons, colours, washi and dots from this gorgeous WPlus9 Monday Moodboard, combined with this super versatile CAS(E) this Sketch, and the fabulous FUSION colours and flowers too.

Created my own stencil by die-cutting chevrons from a sheet of paper, then inked the background in Squeezed Lemon Distressed Ink. Stamped this gorgeous WPlus9 bird and sentiment and embossed in mirror silver on the WPlus9 pinked square die-cut vellum, added washi tape and enamel dots to secure the vellum panel.