Another Christmas Card

Another hot day, so why not more Christmas cards to help us all think of cooler weather, right?

Here is the card I mentioned yesterday.

I used another stamp from Unity Stamp Co for this card. The stamp is called "A caroling we go". I colored this cute snowpeep image with spectrum noir markers. I cut the image and some fun foam out with a circle die cut. After cutting some red banners I heat embossed the sentiment with metallic silver powder and set everything on a simple green and white polka dot background. The stamp set came with a sentiment that says "A caroling we go" but I decided to go with the simple Merry Christmas instead.

I love the cute simplicity of this card. In fact I think I need to get all the Snowpeep stamps that go along with this one and make a whole set like this! I guess it's time to give the hubby the pout face as I explain why I need to make another Unity Stamp order, hehe.

Challenges I'd like to enter:
Pals Paper Art #260 Sketch
SIP #5 - theme, christmas
Inspiration destination #42
Creative Knockouts #98 - Outside fun

Christmas in July

I know some of you are going to boo me but I'm already ahead of my Christmas card making. I sell cards, or attempt to because I make so many I just have too many cards. Anyways I'm already getting a nice stack of Christmas cards. I've already made 2 card sets and probably a handful of single cards. Hehe!

Today I'm only going to share one of two cards I've made today. I'll share the other one tomorrow because the challenge I used for it won't be posted until then.

For today's card I used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches #195.

I used {Oh deer} Happy Holidays stamp set from Unity Stamp Co. I think I should have gone with a more solid background but I still like it. This stamp is so cute and there are a few more deer like this one if you want to make a whole set of cards just using these cute little deer. I colored him with Spectrum Noir markers and raised his little circle off the base with some fun foam. The dps I used is from a 6x6 paper pad I bought last year on clearance from Michaels. The paper pad is from American Crafts and is called Merry Mint.

I hope you enjoy this Christmas card. Oh how I'm counting down the days until fall so we can get some cool weather again.

Challenges I'd like to enter:
Freshly Made Sketches #195
Inspiration Destination #42
SIP (stamp ink paper) challenge #5 - Christmas theme

Another beach card

As promised I'm back with another beach themed card. As I was making the Bitsy card, I remember that I had a stamp from Unity Stamp Co. that was perfectly suited for another tropical card.

The stamp set is called Beach Girl. This stamp also comes with three wonderfully paired sentiments but I decided to not use a sentiment on this card so that it is suited for any occasion. I colored the image with Spectrum noir markers and also did the background with the markers. The dps used is from my massive stash (I should post a pic one day of how large my dps stash is). And with doing my best interpretation of Mojo Monday #406 sketch I added the ribbon and bow. This card is 4.25" x 5.5" (A2) if you want a reference as to how large this particular Unity stamp is.

I hope you enjoyed the beach cards today and I hope it inspires you to create today. :)

Challenges I'd like to enter:
Mojo Monday #406
Cute Card Thursday #381 Ladies only
Pile it on #77 - by the water
Simon says Stamp Mon - anything goes

More word dies

I'm so excited by how today's card came out. I used another one of my new word dies and some inspiration from The Daily Marker. This post from Kathy last month was the inspiration for my card today. In fact now that I look at her card, I used the same "Thanks" die from Lawn Fawn hehe. I originally bought mine from Amazon but now that I look at Simon Says Stamp... I wish I had ordered it from there. Oh well I'll remember for next time.

Well now for my card:

I used a mix of stamps for this card. The flowers are from Bloom with Hope (retired Stampin Up) and the dragonfly is from Unity Stamp Co September KoTM. I colored everything with Spectrum Noir markers. Yes there was a LOT of masking for this project. But I think it was well worth it.

After I got it all stamped and colored I die cut the Thanks from the image and I also die cut the word out of fun foam. (Note to self I really need a magnetic platform for my big shot. :p) I made sure to use a good bit of tape adhesive on the card base which is just a textured soft pink from my stash. I set the fun foam cut out in the opening first and then carefully replaced the little tid bits from the h, k, and s. Then with a little Tombow multiglue on the fun foam and some patience I set the cut out on top and holy cow it just fades away into the background!

The only person who was home to excitedly show it off to was my little brother and he didn't see the Thanks at first. His exact words were "That is really awesome." I think I'll definitely have to try out this technique more. Thank you Kathy for the inspiration!

Challenges I'd like to enter:
Tues. Throwdown #252 no patterned paper (technically I created my own background so that should count as no patterned paper right?)

Inspiration Destination #41 - Anything goes

I think I'll submit this one to Unity Be inspired challenge also!

Mojo Monday & Die cuts

I love Mr. Brown (aka UPS). He always brings me lots of goodies! This week I ordered a few word die cuts from Amazon to try out a few techniques that Kathy from The Daily Marker shared last month in her 30 day color challenge. Today I didn't try out one of the techniques but I plan on it tomorrow!

Today I used the sketch from Mojo Monday #405 as inspiration and of course I used one of my new die cuts.

The upper background is a brick wall embossing folder I recently bought from Hobby Lobby. After sending it through my Big Shot I sponged Ranger distress inks on it. I used Rusty Hinge, Bard door, Vintage Photo, Frayed Burlap and Black Soot. The dps is from my never ending stash. Yes I'm addicted to buying dps from Hobby Lobby and Michael's when it's on sale.

The Thanks die cut I used is made by Die-versions and is called "Thanks" Sweet Wordlets. I die cut it out of the blue textured card stock and then die cut another from a soft yellow and placed them both on fun foam. I made sure to put lots of tape adhesive on the fun foam so the yellow die cut would stick and not come up later on. Then I filled in the holes in the a, k and s with the little tidbits from when I cut it out of the blue card stock. I looove how it came out, especially the sunken look because the textured card stock is slightly thicker.

The stamped image is from a Stampin Up stamp set called A Happy Thing. It was a Sale-a-bration item this year and is no longer available. :( Sorry. I stamped it in Momento ink and colored it using my Spectrum Noir markers.

I have to say I love this card. To keep with the sketch for Mojo Monday I added an off white button and made a little bow with some white/yellow twine.

Here is the sketch from Mojo Monday:

Hope this card or sketch inspires you as it did me. :)

Challenges I'd like to enter:
Mojo Monday #405
Inspiration Destination #41 anything goes

Freshly Made Sketches

Usually I struggle with sketch challenges but it seems this week I'm finding a lot of inspiration with them. This card was inspired by Freshly Made Sketches #192.

I've also noticed I've been going for mostly simple layered looks. I used to try and make them very embellished and beautiful like some of those really girly cards I see with tons of die cuts and flowers etc. For my personal tastes I find that those cards are just a little too ... busy. So I'm really starting to like just a clean layered look with a pretty background l ike the colorful present dps I used here. The silver layer is also a shimmer paper. The camera picked up a little of the shimmer but it's rainy here today so not a lot of light.

This cute little bear is from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps and he's called "Beary Christmas". I colored him with spectrum noir markers.

To finish up the card I just stamped the sentiment with black ink on to a strip of vellum and poof.. done! This set has some other really cute sentiments that come with it other than the Beary Merry Christmas. And you can even purchase the die cut set to go with it. I was going to die cut the wreath part and use foam tape but I decided to use some fun foam under the entire image to pop it off the busy background.

I hope you enjoy this wintery card in this awful summery heat.

Other challenges I'd like to enter:
Simon Says Stamp Wed. Anything goes
Inspiration Destination #39