A Couple of Christmas Cards

Hi, I have two Christmas cards to share with you.

Well, they are pretty much both the same just in different colors.

I created the card following the sketch this week over at

Retro Rubber Challenges.

I was looking at the sketch trying to figure out what I was going to do, I actually set up a cut file in Cricut Design space.  Then I was looking through my Christmas stamps when I ran across this Unity Stamps Christmas tree
stamp from last year, so I thought well I will just flip this sketch on its side.
I rarely do this, normally I follow the sketch to a "T" but I thought
this was the perfect stamp. 
So here is what I came up with.

Red version, trees are stamped using the trees that were in
the Joyous Season set from October of 2016.  This one was stamped
using Catherine Pooler ink "Rockin Red" and heat embossed with clear.
The Merry Christmas is from a Hero Arts set from 2014, that I heat embossed with gold.

And the green version, I stamped using Distress Ink "Mowed Lawn" and
heat embossed with clear.  The Merry Christmas on this one I cut from gold
foil paper using a Gina Marie die.

The background paper on both cards is from a paper stack
from K&Company named Yuletide.  I have had this paper for several years.

This card was easy to create and I can see mass producing these to get
ahead on my Christmas cards for this year. 

Challenges entered:

A Snowflakes Promise - anything goes - ends - 11/13

Creates and Makes - anything goes - ends 11/27

Lemon Shortbread - anything goes - ends 11/6

A PAR-fect Day

Hi, boy October and November are such busy birthday 

months for me.  

One of my son-in-laws loves to gold so using the sketch this

week at Paper Players I created this card.

When I saw this sketch I knew it would be perfect.

I was looking through my single sheets paper trying to figure out what I wanted to use and I ran across this argyle pattern paper, thought

it would be perfect for a golf themed card.

I cut all the parts with my Cricut Explore.  The circle I embossed with a 

dots embossing folder but flipped it so it looked like divets

in the ball.  I always worry about cutting text from 

paper when it is small letters, so this time I cut the

word out of vinyl and stuck them onto the pretty silvery gray paper.

As a matter of fact this SIL works at a printing place and he brought me that

paper.  It is so pretty in person.  He has brought me some

pretty unusual awesome papers.

Thanks for stopping by I hope you enjoy my card and am

inspired if you have a golfer in your family. 

Challenges entered:

Paper Players - sketch - ends 10/27

Little Miss Muffet - anything goes - ends 11/2

Birthday Party Hats

Today I have a card I made following the sketch over at

Viva La Verve sketch challenge.  

If you are a regular visitor of my blog you know that I

love following a sketch when I create cards, in fact, it is rare

that I do not follow a sketch. 

I thought this looked like a fun easy sketch, so here is what

I came up with.

I wanted to use some of my Verve Stamps, so from the 

Treasured Words set I used the little party hat and stamped it randomly

in various colors of Catherine Pooler Inks.   The happy birthday is

also a Verve stamp from the Cake & Candles set, although when I

bought it many years ago it was available as a single. 

I stamped the HB and then cut it out with a Spellbinder die

from a label set.  I added a cute party hat button to the side as

my embellishment and added a strip of lime green ribbon.

You have till November 4th to create a card of your own

following the sketch at Viva La Verve challenge so head on over

and have some fun. 

Challenges entered:

Dragonfly Dreams - Fully Loaded - ends - 10/30

Stamped Blessings - anything goes + a stamp - ends 10/29

Lil Patch of Crafty Things - anything goes - ends 11/3

Some Fun with Watercolor Pencils

My great-grandkids were here last weekend so we had some

fun using the Watercolor Pencils from MAPED.

                           When I was sent these pencils to review I knew 

                                           my great-granddaughter would love them.  

                         She loves to paint but we all know how messy that can 

                                      get with a 6-year-old, so I thought

these pencils would satisfy her love of painting.

I printed up some images on some mixed-media paper

and had them all ready for them.

Here she is all ready to dig in and color.  I didn't really tell her what

the pencils did just that I had a surprise for her.  

So I had her color in some of the pumpkin using one of the pencils.

After she had a bit colored I gave her a water brush and told her

to go over where she colored.   

I so wish I would have videoed her when she first so what

happened when she added the water, she was so amazed and excited.

Then, of course, she had to sharpen her pencils. 

She was pretty impressed that it caught the shavings and of course

she loved the pink & purple color.

And her is she with her finished artwork.

Now the lil guy had been watching his big sister all along so he

had to have his try at those amazing pencils. 

His favorite color is orange so he had to color his little 

monster picture orange.

"OK, Nana now I am ready for the water"

And just like big sister her had to try out that pencil sharpener.

Even with his little hand he could hold this sharpener. 

Aren't they just the cutest little artists.  All in all, it was a fun time for all

of us, they got to paint and Nana did not have to worry about water getting

spilled all over or paints getting tipped over. 

#mapedhelix 

Fall Wheelbarrow

Sure wish Fall would show up here is Arizona.

The temperatures around here are just awful for this time

of year, we are breaking records.  Next week is suppose to 

get up to 98 degrees, HELLO Mother Nature hasn't anybody

told you yet that is is suppose to be cooling down. 

So I had printed up this image from Power Poppy's 

Fall Haul digital stamp set and thought maybe coloring it would make

it feel like or at least remind me that it is Fall.

My daughter was born on Thanksgiving day so I thought this

might make a good birthday card for her.

I love how it came out, I have to admit I followed the very good instructions

for coloring this image from Julie Koerber from the Bloomin Brigade DT.

I had to adjust the colors a bit since I was coloring on kraft and Julie was

coloring on white.  This is my first time coloring on kraft with my

Copics, I liked it but there are some adjustments.

The sentiment is from the same Fall Haul digital stamp set

and I had printed it out side by side so I made this card the size

that will fit into a #10 business size envelope. 

I mounted it on a couple layers to bring out some of the colors and popped

the top layer for dimension.

Well that is it, thanks for stopping by.

Challenges entered:

Power Poppy - Hues to Use (Sept open-ended)

Crafting with Attitude - anything goes - ends 10/29

Creative Knockouts - Fall - ends 10/26

Moving Along with the Times - Autumn Fall - ends 10/25

Much to be Grateful For

Hi, it is that time of year when the temperatures start to 

fall (hopefully soon here is AZ) and we begin to look

at all that, we are thankful or grateful for.

So using some of the stamps from the Stamp of Approval

"Counting Blessing Collection" I put together this Fall card.

The SOA box came with all kinds of Fall goodies.  I stamped

the background on cream colored paper using Distress Oxides and

a combination of the leaf stamps that were of the stamp sets.

Then using the leaf dies that were in the box I cut out some leaves in

coordinating colors.  Even the tan stitched strip across the front of the

card came in the box.  I distressed the edges of a piece of

tan cardstock and then stamped it with the grateful stamp. 

I think all the colors worked together well and remind me of

the colors the leaves change to in the Fall.

Thank you for stopping to take a peek at my card.

Challenges entered 

Paper Nest Dolls - anything goes - ends 10/30

Scrapbook Stamp Society - anything goes optional Autumn - ends 10/22

Pammies Inky Pinkies - anything goes - ends 10/22

Crafting from the Heart - anything goes - ends 10/22

Snowman Christmas

Hi, it's time again for the next Bugaboo Crafty Challenge

over at the Crafting Circle.

This month I chose to work with this cute snowman from

Bugaboo images who is the sponsor of this challenge. 

I printed him out on kraft paper and then colored him with my Prisma Pencils.

I cut an oval from the red paper using the GinaMarie die inside/out oval. 

I embossed it with snowflake embossing  folder the place it over the 

snowman so it was like a window.

I cut the label using a Spellbinder die then stamped the Merry Christmas

with a Stampin Up stamp and ran some snowflake ribbon through the

holes on the ends of the die cut.

I was sent some pencils sharpeners from MAPED to test out, although

most and geared towards school I wanted to see how they worked with

Prismas because they can be difficult to sharpen.  I am happy to report

the one I used with the eraser attached worked great with the pencils.

Be sure can check out all the cool products they have HERE.

My 6 year-old granddaughter was sitting here on my desk,

yes I said ON my desk (her favorite place to be) when I clicked over to

the MAPED website to get the link and oh boy she went wild

when she saw all the stuff.  She saw these pens

and said "Oh Nana can we order these on-line" I had to

laugh at such a different world now these kids live in.
You can order it HERE

So head on over to the CraftingCircle and color up some Bugaboo

images and join in the fun.  You will have till November 14th to join in.

And remember Bugaboo has a Friday Freebie every week. 

Water-coloring with Pencils

Hi, I am back to share another card with you today, another

Christmas card.  Trying to get some stash saved up.

I was sent some products to review from a company called

MAPED that has a lot of crafts and school products.

I have a 6-year-old great-granddaughter that loves to

draw, color and most of all paint.  Well we all know that

painting with a 6-year-old can be pretty messy, so I thought

using watercolor pencils with give her the feeling of painting but without

all the mess.

They are called Aqua Color'Peps 

I thought I would try them out coloring a stamped image before

I had a chance to color/paint with her, so here is what I made.

It was pretty easy to do, just colored in a bit and then used a water brush to                                                                spread the color.  

I did use some glitter pens to add some accents to it.  I matted the

pieces of paper with gold paper.  I stamped on a small tag using

a Hero Arts stamp then tied it on with some twine that has gold thread in it.

Back to those pencils, one thing I really liked about them is they have

slightly flat sides which means they will not roll off your workspace. 

The flat is not so much that you have problems sharpening them.  I also

got some pencils sharpeners to review.  I really loved the one

I got that has an eraser on one side of it, so convenient and the

eraser works great. 

I received a variety of pencil sharpeners and am anxious to try them

out with my PrismaColor pencils, we all know they can be
difficult to sharpen.

#maped

Hot & Spicy - Color Challenge

What a fun challenge this is.  Over at Less is More color challenge

this time the colors are "hot & spicy".  As soon as I saw this I knew exactly what

stamp I wanted to use. 

We recently took a trip over to Hatch New Mexico to pick up some chile

peppers (they are the best from there), once you see those strings of

red chile you know that Fall is here.

First off this challenge is all about simple or less is more as the

name states so I kept these cards as simple as possible. 

The string of chiles is a stamp from Mark's Finest Stamps, I bought this several years ago with the intention to use it on a Christmas card.  Living in Arizona I thought it worked well.

I colored the chiles with my Zig Clean Color brush markers, I tried

to leave some yellow showing but got a little too heavy handed with the red but it still looks good.  The Merry Christmas is a Hero Arts stamp

that I stamped in black and then heat embossed clear.

The second one I wanted to try and add a little more sparkle or elegance

to it, so I stamped it and heat embossed it in gold. I colored this

one using several Copic markers.

I fussy cut out the peppers but am going to work on trying to

scan in the image and cut it out with my Cricut Explore or Silhouette Cameo.

I would like to mass produce these so it would be very helpful if I can

get that figured out.

So what do you think, is that Hot & Spicy enough for you.

Leave me a comment and let me know which you like better.

I am so sad to say that when I went to link up Mark's Finest Stamps I

discovered that they have closed, such a shame but glad I

have the stamps I do have.

Challenges entered:

Less is More - hot & spicy colors - ends 10/13

Aurora Winds - clean & simple - ends 10/14

Color Inspiration - hand-colored image - ends 10/31

Scrapbook Stamp Society - anything goes optional Autumn - ends 10/22

Variety of cards using inks & Water

Hi, I been busy playing around with my inks and

various mediums and water to see what I could come up with.

I will share several cards here instead of doing a bunch of 

different posts.

Over at StampNation they are having a challenge that is

"just add water" well that was perfect for me to  play with

inks and water.

This first card I used Catherine Pooler inks in the colors

Mint to Be and Pixie Dust for the background.

I sponged the colors on a piece of watercolor paper but

was not too happy with it so I thought what the heck and I 

told my water bottle and sprayed it and wow I loved the

effect that made.  This card was actually made following

a sketch over at the Unity Show & Tell Facebook page.

I stamped the flower from Unity Stamps and then I took my waterbrush and added a little more color to the flower. 

The next card is using another Unity Stamp.  

I tried the loose or messing coloring then sprayed it with water and let the water move the color around.  I was not really happy with it till I cut it out with a GinaMarie die and then mounted it on a coral colored paper.

OK, and up next is another watercolor background plus

using a stencil to pick some of the color back up using water.  I

stamped the peacock, from the Naturally Inspired using various Catherine Pooler inks and mounted it on a die count out also from the Naturally Inspired collection. 

And last but not least I attempted the no-line watercoloring technique.

I love this rose stamp from Stampin Up and thought it was simple enough to try 

the no-line technique.  In the end I outlined the rose with a 

color glitter pen and it looks real pretty in person.

Well that is it for today, I sure hope you enjoy all my card, 

let me know what you think and which is your favorite one.

Challenges entered:

Crafty Sentiments - anything goes - ends 10/9

Creates & Makes - anything goes - ends 10/30

Digi Choosday - anything goes - ends 10/17