The strip of designer paper is from Ski Slope in the mini catalog.  I still LOVE that paper!  I’ve used up all this stripe, I think.  The set, Winter Post, is one of my favorites, as you can tell by the number of times I posted cards done with it!  I stamped the skaters in Basic Brown and used my Blender Pen to color in their clothes with Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss and Riding Hood Red.  The Santa Post medallion is in that same set, however I punched out just the 1" circle, instead of using the entire image.  This card really came together quickly!  It is not too late to order your supplies to make your Christmas cards!  Just give me a call for some personal help with your order, or use the fast and quick Online Ordering Shop Now button on my website! 

The first one I used A Happy Heart in the Holiday mini (I bet you didn’t even really look at that set since Valentine’s Day is so far away!)  I fell in love with the little heart Tic Tac Toe board…too cute!  I started with the background.  I wanted something that would blend the colors of So Saffron, Cameo Coral and Bravo Burgundy together and  I don’t have any Stampin’ Up! designer papers with those colors.  So, I took a piece of Watercolor paper and stamped the large heart from the set randomly all over in those three colors.  Then I spritzed my water spritzer all over to make the colors bleed together.  I like the random look it gave me.  I let it dry and mounted it on Always Artichoke.  Then I took the background So Saffron layer and my scoring blade and made checkerboard scoring lines all across the background (unfortunately most of it is covered up!)  I used my markers in So Saffron, Cameo Coral and Bravo Burgundy to ink up the Tic Tac Toe board on Very Vanilla and layered it on Always Artichoke.  I took a strip of Close to Cocoa designer paper from the Frosty Day package and added three Saffron brads on the left side.  Finally I stamped I "heart" U with markers Always Artichoke and Bravo Burgundy and stamped on Cameo Coral and punched it with the large oval punch.

So…ok…I like it…I don’t LOVE it…but I do like it.

I decided to go ahead and make up another sample.  This one I went with a floral stamp set, Bloomin’ Beautiful.  I loved this set when it was in the Mini, but I’ve hardly used it since then!  When I inked it up, I was reminded how much I did like it!

I used my markers to ink up the pot of flowers with Cameo Coral, Always Artichoke and Close to Cocoa with small touches of Bravo Burgundy.  Then I used my Aqua Painter to bleed the colors together on Very Vanilla.  I like the softness of this technique.   It is hard to see, but I added a layer of acetate over top of the image with the word Bloom stamped with Black Stazon and secured with Always Artichoke mini brads.  On the So Saffron layer, I stamped the definition of Blossom and added the letter B from Defining Alphabet over top in So Saffron…sort of a shadow image.  Last, I used the Alpine stripe ribbon that is in the mini catalog along the left side.  I thought the colors in it were close enough to match.

So…those are my two color challenge cards for the DCBD 102 Color Challenge!  Which one do you like best?

 Here are the others to check out this week!

Vivian Swain
Chris Austin
Dannie Graves 
Dee Tollaksen 
Heidi Michel
Julie Semones 
Kristen Moore
Selene Kempton

I think this is the first time I’ve used the set, Spotlight on Christmas.  I bought it mainly because it matches all our punches (and you know I LOVE my punches!) and to make holiday tags. I love the Only ___ Days to Christmas stamp in it!  One of my group’s weekly challenges a (during Election week) was to create a Red/White/Blue card and send it off to my partner.  Since I’m in full Christmas Card making mode, I was trying to think of how I could link Red/White/Blue with Christmas.  Our 5 petal punch fits the Poinsettia stamp perfectly….Real Red…and I added three gold mini brads to the centers!  And I love Real Red with the new Pacific Point color (I used it on my Election Day Season of Friendship card).  And, of course, I needed to use my Big Shot Top Note Bigz Die.  I stamped the background of the Top Note with the swirl in that set.  Then I used the new square scallop punch around the December 25th image and used it like a ribbon slide with the Real Red Striped Ribbon.  In the middle of the snowflake, I placed a small blue Rhinestone brad.  Lots of bling going on this card!  I did get it mailed off to Adair yesterday…hope she enjoys it!

Oh…I’m enjoying a nice cup of Pumpkin Pie Spice tea…yummy!  Got to get off here and starting cleaning up my mess!  Hope you have a great day!

My inspiration comes from our past Christmas tree.  When we were first married, our first artificial tree was white flocked.  I used red ornaments on it to make it pop!  Even though it was messy to put up, I loved it and how it looked at Christmas. 

This card is a variation of the one my punch classes did this month.  I used three of the Photo Corner punches from my Faux Diamond Dust Whisper White cardstock to make the punched tree (three large and then two small).  The snowflake topper is also glittered with Iridescent Ice EP and punched with the 3/4 circle and cut into a snowflake shape.  The large scallop circle die cut is from Baja Breeze and trimmed to fit partially on the card.  I used the snowflake from Season of Friendship randomly across the background with Baja Breeze on Whisper White and the corners were punched with the Ticket Corner punch.  It was mounted on Chocolate Chip base cardstock.  The Joy was cut from the Join in the Cheer die strip out of Chocolate Chip, too.

I’m anxious to see what the others have done.  Hope you enjoy my card this week!

I made a few of these up for the craft fairs, hoping that they wouldn’t sell so I could use them in my family room!  I do have a couple left for my mantle.  I was excited on how they turned out!  And, they SMELL so good…every time I walk buy the spicy smell jumps out at me!

I started by adhering the Autumn Vine (in the Holiday mini) designer paper to chipboard (the backing from designer paper works great!).  Then I cut the leaves of each pattern out with my Big Shot Leaves #2 die.   These made nice, stiff leaves.  Then I sponged the edges of each one with the coordinating color.

I wrapped the candles with Sage Shadow and more Autumn Vine designer paper.  I hid the seam on the front underneath the leaves.  The leaves I placed with Pop Dots and adhesive so that the stems all came together.  Then I wrapped the Chocolate Chip Satin Ribbon (retired) around them to secure.  You could use the 5/8 Chocolate grosgrain for the same effect, I was just out of it at the time I made these.

For safety reasons, I probably won’t burn these candles, but if I did, I would just burn them down to where I could put a tea light in them.

I like these so well, I decided to get some larger holiday ones and make up gifts for my husband’s employees for Christmas!  I purchased them all at Hobby Lobby.

Enjoy! 

I was asked by Heidi Michel to join a group of talented designers to form the Diva Coffee Break Designers.  How exciting, huh?  Every Wednesday we will be posting a card that follows at sketch design or a specific color combination that Heidi has chosen.  Our first challenge was this sketch.

I recently received Happiness is a Journey with my hostess credits and decided to cut and mount it for my challenge card!  I love the train stamp because of the reverse image on it.  I’m anxious to try out a few different techniques with it!  This first one is a technique we will be doing in my Technique Classes the next few weeks, so I’m not going to share the WAY to do it just yet…although some of you may figure it out on your own!  lol!  I can tell you I used a new color combination for me, Bravo Burgundy, Mellow Moss and Almost Amethyst.  In person, you’d be surprised at how that light color of Almost Amethyst pops out from the background.

I also opened up my package of Manchester Designer Paper and pulled out this green check paper.  I used a strip of it down the left side and then ran a wide band of Bravo Burgundy 5/8 ribbon down the center and a strip of Mellow Moss 1/4" grosgrain ribbon on top of the Burgundy!  I like that masculine touch of ribbon. 

The sketch called for an oval, so I stamped my words, "Happiness is a Journey not a Destination" on a rectangle piece of Very Vanilla cardstock and used my corner rounder.  I like how it softens it just a little.

I need a card for my brother’s birthday next week…I think this will be perfect!

Check out the rest of the talented stampers who are part of the Diva Coffee Break Design Team!  I’m sure they will have some awesome ideas with this sketch!  I love seeing the different ideas!

Chris Austin
Dannie Graves
Dee Tollaksen
Heidi Michel
Julie Semones
Kristen Moore
Selene Kempton
Lisa Freeman

I missed getting last week’s Blogger’s Challenge up and posted before my company arrived last week, so I’m late putting this up.  It is a fun challenge!  I’m anxious to see what the others have come up with!  I used the same layout for both cards as my same and "A Flower for All Seasons" to represent my different.  I love the four different elements in this small set!  The Sunflower for fall and the Poinsettias for Winter are so cute!  I love coloring them.  I also used Autumn Vine designer paper with the Sunflower card (mini catalog) and Holiday Treasures for the Poinsettia card.  The Poinsettia one has green round rhinestone brads and the Sunflower one has gold diamond rhinestone brads to add a little BLING!  See…same, but different!

Well, I still have my girlfriend here today.  We are going to work on a few projects we didn’t get done over the weekend.  Then I need to prep to teach a couple classes out of town later this week and a couple classes back here next week!  Whew!  I just found out that I will probably be having Thanksgiving, too.  Oh joy!

I want to remember and thank all the veterans and their families today on Veteran’s Day!  I know they have sacrificed a lot to keep our country safe.  Thank you!

This is my swap card for the Stamping Retreat this weekend!  It is just a mini swap…only had to make 11 of them thank goodness.  With all I had to do before I left, I couldn’t have done many more than that!

First I cut the Kraft cardstock and Riding Hood Red cardstock on the Big Shot with my Top Note die.  I trimmed the perforations away on the Kraft piece and layered it onto the Riding Hood Red.  Then I embossed the Snowman from Big on Christmas with White EP on Kraft (I’m SO into Kraft these days!)  I wrapped the Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon (LOVE it!) around the Top Note.  I cut the Whisper White snowflakes with the small die and secured it to the Top Note with a red Rhinestone brad.

I layered Baja Breeze on the Riding Hood Red card and added a strip of Ski Slope Designer Paper.  Then I added the Top Note layer on top.  I’m happy with how it turned out! 

I’m away on a weekend stamping retreat, but I wanted to still share a few things on my Blog while I’m gone.  Hopefully, these are timed correctly and the server doesn’t fail like last time! 

Yes, another craft fair item…a sketchbook, small pen and a jumbo bookmark in the Ladybug theme.  I wrapped these up in a cello bag and added some black/red polka dot ribbon and a tag with a ladybug on it.  Too cute! 

The ladybug sketchbook was inspired by a swap card I received.  It doesn’t have a name on the back, so I really don’t know who to give credit to.  It was perfect to cover the round sketchbooks I had purchased a few months ago.  I took off the spiral binding and then traced the front onto Real Red cardstock and the back on Basic Black.  I punched the 1/2" circles out of Black Faux Diamond Dust so they sparkle.  I used my white gel pen for the stitching around the body and wings.  I tied some different polka dot ribbons on the top. 

Then I received the scallop circle ladybug bookmark/paperclip in a 3D swap at Convention.  Another great idea.  It is 4 Scalloped Circle punches, stamped with black dots, folded in half and then layered on a Black Scallop Circle.  A pop dot between the paperclip and a second black scallop circle undeneath holds it secure.  A 1" black circle is punched for the head and slid between the Red scallop body and the top black scallop circle.  Pretty easy!

The little red pens I had from a LONG time ago.  I wrapped a label around them after I brayed the white label with Real Red ink and then stamped the dots in black.

I think this is a great stocking gift for someone who loves ladybugs or that young girl you know!