Sunday, January 11, 2015

Winter birthdays!!

I'm back again with a card for the Color Throwdown Challenge #324 and another January birthday card done.

Our color challenge this week was to use Red, Black and White on our card.  I decided to do another snowflake card...



 


I decided to do a triple stamped card.  I just love the way these cards look when finished.

I used Stampin' Up's Black card stock and Gina K's Pure Luxury White Card Stock and SU's Real Red ink and Momento's Tuxedo Black ink.

The snowflakes are from SU's Endless Wishes and the very small snowflakes and dots are from Judith stamps.  The Happy Birthday is from Simon Says Stamp Birthday Messages 3x4.

I finished off the card with black and red bakers twine and a white snowflake button.











Here's the same card, but using SU's Real Red card stock, PaperTrey Ink's Snowfall Additions and a red button.












 
The last card, I went back to using the black card stock as the base, turned the card width wide and stamped Hello from Altenew's Halftone Hello set and just tied the bakers twine in a bow.  Don't you just love this Altenew stamp?  I just had to order it when I saw it, but had to be patient as it was on back order for a bit.

Let It Snow...

January is a perfect time to use a lot winter stamps and dies.  I'm glad I have many birthdays in January, because I have  a lot of winter stamps and dies.

The Merry Monday challenges are back and so am I for another year.  This week's challenge is to use snowflakes.  They could do this challenge for the whole month and I still wouldn't be able to use all the snowflake stamps and dies I have.

This card could work as both a Christmas card and a birthday card.
I started with Gina K's Pure Luxury White card stock as my base, and cut out the rectangle shape with Lil' Inkers Rectangle Stitched Mats out of another piece of Gina K white card stock.  I took another piece of Gina K white card stock and die cut out three Memory Box Frosty border dies.  With inspiration from Jennifer McGuire faux Laser Cut Card video, link here, I cut the dies up and placed them randomly inside the cut out rectangle.  I loved Simon Says Stamp's January Card Kit, and used a piece of the Bo Bunny 6x6 Altitude designer paper as my backdrop.  I ran my Clear Wink of Stella over the dp for some added sparkle, which didn't show up in the picture at all.  I also used Bazzill's Velvet card stock (also part of the SSS January Card Kit) behind the rectangle die cut and adhered it all to the white card stock base.  I then added the "Let it Snow" stamp from Hero Arts along the bottom of the card, which was stamped 3 times and used Silver Wink of Stella randomly on the frosty die.

I am also adding this card to Darnell's NBUS Challenge #3, as I haven't used the frosty die, the HA's stamp or the BoBunny dp, and Simon Says Wednesday Challenge, to use something new (new crafty stuff!), which was the Bo Bunny dp.




Thanks for stopping by and would love to read your comments.




Saturday, January 3, 2015

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year (just a tad late!)

Wow!  What a crazy Christmas season it has been.  It flew by and I know I didn't spend enough time thanking God for his gift of Jesus to all of us. I even forgot to take a picture of the whole family!  Sorry, I haven't been able to post for the past four weeks, either.

I did get my Christmas cards out before Christmas (Al wasn't sure that was going to happen).  I keep telling myself to get them done early, but for some reason, I can't make it happen.  I'll try that goal again this year!   So here's the funny part about my Christmas cards...I participated in Merry Monday's Christmas Challenge blog almost every week during 2014...I didn't use one of the cards I made for any of those challenges.  Instead, I found inspiration from Jennifer McGuire and my good friend, Marcia Hill.

The first card, I used Flourishes' "Santa, I Believe" stamp set, which went out of business during 2014.  Which it so sad, as they had beautiful stamps.  I had to use two different kinds of designer paper as I didn't have enough of either.  I bought both of these last year and forgot to write down who the manufacture was of each.



The next card is one that was inspired by Marcia Hill.  Marcia and I have been friends since I girls started preschool together 22 years ago.  She got me hooked on stamping!  Be sure to check out her blog.  I linked her blog to her name above.  She makes amazingly beautiful cards!  She made this card as a swap card for a stamping group we started going to this year.  Here's a link to the card on her blog.  http://marciasstampinpad.blogspot.com/2014/11/o-holy-night.html.  I used a different stamps and an oval die cut, but overall the same card.  Thanks, Marcia!  Your card saved me! 

My last Christmas card I sent was inspired by Jennifer McGuire.  If you haven't checked out her blog, it is well worth many visits!  She did a "My Favorites" series in December that was just awesome.  She has done them in past year's, too.  You can go to her "My Favorites" page and look back to previous years.  I fell in love with this card the moment I saw her video and wasn't sure I would be able to reproduce it, because I am very ruler challenged.  I can't draw a straight line with a ruler, ever!  But she proved me wrong, as I was able to do it...on 30 cards, too!!!  Here's a link to her card, http://www.jennifermcguireink.com/2014/10/video-stamping-patterns-giveaway.html.  I changed up the colors and used different snowflakes and Merry Christmas stamps, as I didn't have the stamps she used. 

I've been making cards throughout December, but forgot to take pictures of all of them.  That is how busy I've been.

I do hope that everyone had a beautiful Christmas and I wish all of you a very blessed New Year.  May 2015 bring us all good health, creative minds and a joyous spirit!