The Card Concept and 25 Tags of Christmas

 

Welcome to the Card Concept Challenge!  This week we have some extra-special fun for you...The Card Concept is joining our good friend Tracey McNeely for her annual holiday challenge, The 25 Days of Christmas Tags!

For specific details, you can check out Tracey's blog...but in a nutshell, there are lots of PRIZES available from companies we all know and love just for leaving a comment on Tracey's blog here...but all of the designers for the entire 25 days are each drawing a name from their blogpost for an additional chance to win one of these great prizes...so, PLEASE leave a comment for me!

  

 

   

How do you participate?  First, take a look at the inspiration photo for the challenge:

All you have to do to participate for the Card Concept challenge is make a tag...or a card with a tag that has a snowman on it in one of the Card Concept Design styles:

Clean and Simple

Clean and Layered

Clean and Graphic

Freestyle Collage

Shabby Chic

Classy and Elegant

 I can not imagine any crafter not having at least one snowman image or die...if not, what a good excuse to go out and get one! Here's the tag I made:

I used some new dies from Top Dog Dies for my tag, lucky me that there was an adorable snowman die just released.  I used Top Dog Dies Snowman Globe Die Set as well as a brand new Top Dog Dies Gift Tag Die Set .  I especially love the cute to/from diecuts...so easy now to make a very quick and easy gift tag!

You have a lot of work to do now!

Leave a comment on my blog for a chance to win a prize.

Leave a comment on Tracey's blog for a chance to win a prize.

Leave a comment on all of the other Card Concept Design Team Members posts for yet another chance to win a prize!

Finally...get busy making your own tag with a snowman and link it up over at the Card Concept Challenge Blog...I can't wait to see all the fabulous snowmen you all create!

Thank you Tracey for including me in your annual 25 Days of Christmas Tags!

Four of a Kind: January with Joyce

**I have two posts today...my Fusion Card Challenge card should be at the top of my blog roll**

Even though Christmas is over and it is nearly 80 degrees where I live, it is technically still Winter and do I have some fun Winter cards for you today!  It's time for our quarterly Four of a Kind blog hop with Joyce (this month's hostess), Kim, Renee and me.  In early December, Joyce sent us a fabulous kit...jam packed with all kinds of patterned papers, die cuts and embellishments all prepared to help us make some Winter/Christmas cards in time to photograph and then mail out for the 2013 Christmas season.  I only got two cards done before Christmas, but they are long gone now and only these photographs left in their place.  Here's the great kit Joyce sent us:

I was very excited to see that Joyce sent us stamped images from Papertrey Ink's Two Feet Deep.  It was a set I really wish I had gotten and could not wait to use it.  I also loved the patterned papers from Carta Bella Winter Fun collection.  The blue, kraft and cranberry colors looked so beautiful together.  Here are my cards:

This one is my favorite...loved those skis and the Snow diecuts.  I got to use a lot of patterned paper on this too!

Isn't that the cutest sled?  My very favorite image from the Two Feet Deep Stamp set.  I also loved the loopy border die Joyce sent us too.

You might think I did a lot of stamping on this card, but you would be WRONG!  The patterned paper already had the cute silhouettes, polka dot trees and swirls.  I just crimped the tag and added the other embellishments. 

I got to use that cute sled again as well as some of the pretty patterned paper and a large Lil Inker snowflake.

This last card was so fun to make...kind of an organized mess when you think of all the kit pieces that went into it.  I did learn that I should NEVER make my own snow shoes...they are very hard to lace!  I also added a very cute bow to the bottom of the snow shoes.  The die is from Mama Elephant and was a gift from Joyce, so I had to add it to the mix.  

This was lots of fun this month...I can hardly wait to see what Joyce, Kim and Renee have made with their kits.  Here's a link to their blogs so you can take a peek at their great cards!  Thank you Joyce once again for a really fun kit!

Joyce

Kim

Renee

Merry Monday Challenge #88 - Use An Animal On Your Holiday Card

Merry Monday Challenge #88...use an animal on your holiday card.  How about using an animal FOR your holiday card?  LOL.  That is what I did today.  I love shaped cards...they are always so different and a little unexpected for the person who opens up the envelope.  The Merry Monday Challenge for this week is to use an animal and since I didn't have too many cute little animal stamps...I decided to use a reindeer cut file from the Silhouette store and convert it to a shaped card.  First though, here's the inspiration photo for Merry Monday #88:

I sure wish I had some cute owl stamps to use...(Joyce, this one is right up your alley!).  Since I didn't have any owl stamps, I looked through the Silhouette store and found a very cute reindeer file I could use instead (Reindeer Face, Silhouette Store, ID #14808 by Sarah Bailey).  

It was very easy to make a shaped card by inverting the shape and welding the top together slightly. I cut all the pieces from patterned papers...embossed the reindeer face with an embossing folder...added a lot of tea dye stain to the edges.  I drew a Santa Hat freehand, cut it out and cut little holes for the antlers to peek out from under the hat.  The cute sentiment is from PTI Santa Stationery.  The last touch were those little jingle bells so everyone can tell just when this little guy has arrived.  

I have already mailed out my cards for this year, so this little guy is going in the Christmas 2014 box.  Wow...only 374 days until next Christmas!  I better get going.  Check out all the sweet animal Christmas cards at the Merry Monday Challenge Blog.

Fusion Card Challenge

 Every December it's a great day when you are finally done with your Christmas cards...have them addressed and ready to take to the post office.  That's the kind of day I had today.  Yay!  It did help that I have been making holiday cards since last January, and I made so many...it was fun choosing which one to send to everyone on my card list.  Today I finished the last card I plan to send this season, and it was a very fun card to make.  I used both the inspiration photo and the sketch from the Fusion Card Challenge.  Did you know they have started up their challenges again due to the many requests they received?  They even have a Design Team call out...here are the details.

I used Lil Inker stamps and dies for this card.  Do you recognize that poinsettia?  I used the leaf image from the Modern Mehndi Stamp Set, clear embossed and layered onto a Stitched Mat Circle to create my poinsettia.  I used a small circle for the top layer (worked easiest if you make the smaller top layer first) and a larger circle for the bottom layer.  Those glittery poinsettia berries are from Holly Jolly Die Set and those branches...they are the Christmas tree from Christmas Bits Die Set.  I think it totally looks like pine branch greenery...don't you?  

I have my good friend Kim Heggins to thank for the beautiful red Cover Up Christmas die cut...she was nice enough to send me a few cuts, SOS style.  What a great friend to help me out with a die I don't yet own myself.  Thank you Kim!

It's not too late to join in the fun over at the Fusion Card Challenge...this one is running for the entire month of December.  Why not play along?

Merry Monday Mittens

Less than two weeks from now, the Christmas season will officially be over...too soon for me as Christmas cards are my very favorite cards to make.  Luckily, there is a card challenge that will allow me my Christmas "fix" all year long.  I have just discovered the Merry Monday Challenge where this week's challenge (Merry Monday #87)  is to use a mitten somewhere in your card design.  I am also playing along with ColourQ 219.  The colors this week are perfect for Christmas...I had so many pieces of patterned paper in my Christmas stash, I didn't need to search too long to find just the right combination.  Here is this week's ColourQ palette.

When I think of mittens, I always think of my the sweet stitched mittens from Waltzingmouse Stamps, Sewing Box Christmas.  I love the sweet stitching and how many different looks you can achieve when stamping them on patterned papers.  

 I told you this weeks ColourQ palette was a good one...didn't I?  I used some Recollections patterned paper (Sugar Plums) and some red hand stitching to bring out the red colors in the patterned paper.  The stamps and sentiments are from Waltzingmouse Sewing Box Christmas which I stamped and embossed in a deep, rich brown.  The cute little stitched sentiment flags, stitched mat circle and square are from Lil Inker Designs.  My final touch were the cute little jingle bells tied with brown twine.

Are you still working on your Christmas cards?  If so, here's a link to the Merry Monday Challenge and if you are all done for this year...it's never too soon to get started on cards for Christmas, 2014!

A Gingerbread House...minus the mess

A favorite yearly Christmas tradition that I shared with my daughter was making a gingerbread house. Her two brothers were older and I never had the courage to undertake a gingerbread house with them, but I did bring out the gingerbread, the frosting and all the trimmings for Carly until she turned 14 and decided she was too old to be making candy houses.  After making at least 10 gingerbread houses, a rational person would think I would have a ton of pictures to look back on that time...but you would be wrong!  I swear I took some, can even picture some of those frosting covered houses in my head, but I could not find one single picture of the actual houses themselves.  Bad mother.  I must have been too busy cleaning up after the sticky event to bring out the camera...at least that is the excuse I am going with.

Carly is 22 now, way beyond making a gingerbread house with me, but it wouldn't be Christmas without at least attempting a gingerbread house, so I got to work with my papers, embossing folders, die and stamps to create a mess-free gingerbread house.

                                                               The outside of the house.

                                                      Opening up the doors of the house.

The inside of the house with the sentiment.

This project is made with all Lil Inker Designs.  I laid out all of my Lil Inker dies and started picking and choosing any one that could even remotely be used to make my house.  Here's a list of the dies and stamps I used:

House Base: Stitched Mat Square and Stitched Mat Rectangles (the square is turned on its side to create the roof.
The icing on the roof:  Stitched Scallop Border Die
Bow on top of house:  Christmas Bits Die Set
Heart Window:  Of the Heart Die Set
Window Curtains:  Stitched Sentiment  Flag Die
Holly/Berry Trim: Holly Jolly Die Set
Christmas Trees: Holly Jolly Die Set
Stars on Christmas Trees:  Balloon Dies
Gingerbread Men:  Christmas Bits Die Set
Gumdrops on the inside of the card: Holly Jolly Die Set
Jolly Sentiment:  JollyWord Die
Stamped Sentiments:  Jolly and Joyful Sentiments; Instant Camera Christmas Stamp Set

I am entering my little house into 4, yes, FOUR different challenges...three of them new to me.  First, Craft a Scene where the challenge is to create a Winter scene with an option to make it a tri-fold card.  The second is Winter Wonderland Challenge  where the challenge is to use any kind of embossing.  The roof of my gingerbread house is embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder.  The third is for Christmas Card Challenges where all you have to do is make a Christmas card...how easy is that? The last is ColourQ#219 and a challenge that was a lucky surprise for me, all my gingerbread colors matched with this weeks challenge.

Thanks for taking a look at my house...I would love to see some pictures of any gingerbread houses you may have made with your kids, I am certain at least a few people managed to get some pictures!

Fusion Card Challenge and Monday Mood Board #24

It's a cool and rainy day here and the perfect kind of weather to stay inside and use some of those stamps and dies I have bought, but not used yet.  I am playing along with the Fusion Card Challenge which may just become my favorite card challenge.  Have you ever played along?  If not, you should!  You can use any stamps or dies you want and also have three choices of how to play along.  You can use either the sketch, the inspiration photo or both to create "Fusion".  Here are the sketch and inspiration photo for this month long challenge (lots of time to make more than one if you want to!)

Since we have a month to play along this time, I decided to use just the inspiration photo for this card.  I'm going to create a little Fusion by using both the sketch and photo later this month.  

I am also playing along with WPlus9 Monday Mood Board #24 which also had an inspiration photo that included lots of red and white, very similar to the Fusion photo.

In both challenge photos, red and white just jumped right out at me and in the MMB#24, I was also inspired the by berries, greenery and beautiful pattern on the silk ribbon.  Here is my card based on both photos:

I used WPlus9 Silver Bells Stamp set for my focal point.  The beautiful bells are colored with a glittery pen and the sprigs are colored with copics.  I thought the red/white patterned paper ( Martha Stewart Cottage Christmas) really reminded me of both the ribbon and the cozy scene in the Fusion photo.  The frame is from Impression Obsession (Circle Shaker Frame Die) as is the Pine Branch greenery.  I cut the holly berries from a Silhouette Cut File.  Can you see the berries are all glittered up with stickles?

I was cutting it pretty close with the Monday Mood Board challenge, but there is still plenty of time to play along with the  Fusion Challenge...you have one whole month to make something fabulous!  

25 Days of Christmas Tags

I feel so lucky.  You have probably seen that Tracey McNeely is doing her third annual 25 Days of Christmas Tags countdown and I was so excited she asked me to join her this year.  There was lots of pressure on me...have you seen all the fabulous tags that Tracey and her crafty friends have been making?  I spent a good day and a half just trying to decide what stamps and dies to use for mine and I hope you like what I have come up with.

I made a button card tag using Lil Inker Christmas Bit Dies attached to a PTI Button Boutique card.  Wouldn't those be sweet buttons?  My favorite is that sweet gingerbread man...now, which one of my crafty friends will I send this one to?

Thank you Tracey for including me in your 25 Days of Christmas Tags this year...if you've missed any of Tracey's tags...here's a link to her blog so you can catch up.

In My Creative Opinion

12 Kits of Occasions - November with Kelly

***There's a prize up for grabs - Read about it on The 12 Kits of Occasions blog***

It's the 30th of the month and time for November's edition of The 12 Kits of Occasions.  You can find us on our blog, Facebook and our Pinterest page (I especially love seeing all the cards made this year grouped together all in one place).  This month our hostess is Kelly of Gingham Girl and wow did she come up with a great kit for us this month!  In true Kelly style, our kit was packaged in a gingham bag...I won't be surprised if I see that bag or pieces of it included in someone's project this month.  Here a peek at the cute kit we all received from Kelly.

Can't you just imagine all the fun we had with this one?  I love the color combinations Kelly sent us...red and black as well as the traditional red and green.

My first card is my favorite.  I love the little dog and matching sweater.  I also added a little bell and red sparkly collar to go with the cute sentiment.

My second card uses some of the beautiful patterned papers and one of the PTI One-Liner die sentiments.

My third card took advantage of the snowflake embossed panel that Kelly sent us and I added some Lil Inker glittery snowflakes.

This fourth card has one of my favorite Christmas sentiments all stamped in white with the chalkboard look.

My last card also uses some of the beautiful patterned papers and bright red Waltzingmouse ornament.  I used my Lil Inker Stitched Mat Circles for the base and I'm loving the gray, white and red combination.

Didn't Kelly send us a great kit?  You are going to be amazed at all the creations the other girls in our 12 Kits of Occasions group have made.  In fact, I heard Joyce made 15!  Can you believe that?  15 cards and who knows how many more she made before she was finished! 

Thank you Kelly for a great kit this month!

More details on this kit are located on the 12 Kits of Occasion Blog.

Comfort & Joy

A very quick post today...as this is what I was doing while I should have been cleaning my bathrooms and brining a turkey, not necessarily in that order.  I have been wanting to try my new On the Diagonal die from Lil Inker.  There were so many cute cards used with it during the release week...if you missed them, here's a link to their recap with all of the cards displayed all in one place.

What a fun die and it fits perfectly with Lil Inker's Connected Circles Die.  I stamped one of the new Modern Mehndi flower images in the centers and colored them with copics and a few dots of stickles for some sparkle. The cute rows of sentiments are from Instant Camera Christmas Stamp Set.

I have put my stamps away and am now probably scrubbing away at something in my home...I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I am so thankful for all of my crafty friends.

Ho! Ho! Ho! (and a little card surgery)

Have you ever done this?  Made a card which you liked, but something about it just nagged at you and you couldn't get past it?  That happened to me yesterday with a card I liked, but couldn't get it to photograph well.  I posted it and as I watched television last night I couldn't stop thinking about what was bothering me about that card.  Here's the card:

First Version of Ho Ho Ho

I loved so many of the elements on this card, but the black just looked washed out and the glittery back panel did not look glittery.  

So...this morning I got up and did a little bit of card surgery.  I carefully took the card apart and reconstructed it a little differently, but I am finally satisfied with the look.  

As you can see, I used the same products, Lil Inker jingle bells (Christmas Bits Die Set)  made to look like Santa's suit, a woodgrain texture frame (Texture Plate Collection Frame One), also from Lil Inker as well as their Stitched Mat rectangles.  I went with white instead of black and left off the twine.  I changed the "H" font and added an exclamation point.  The glitter is still tough to photograph, but overall the quality of the picture is better.  If anyone knows how to photograph glitter...please let me know!  There must be some trick to it that I have not figured out yet.

This card is much more CAS and I feel much better submitting it to this weeks CASology challenge where the cue word is Bell.

As I sign off here today, the patient is doing fine, not so much for the original card though!

Snowy Gingerbread Couple

Happy Veteran's Day to all this beautiful Monday morning.  Veteran's Day is very special at our house and we typically do nearly the same thing every year.  My husband hangs a gigantic American flag across the front of our house.  It is 15' long and was his father's flag who served in World War II and was displayed in the front of his home for more than 40 years.  He passed away 10 years ago and my husband has held up the tradition of sharing his Dad's love for our country.  We always visit the cemetery where he is buried in the section with other WWII servicemen.  We made sure to bury him near other Marines from WWII and always imagine him swapping war stories with the other soldiers just like he did when he was alive.  

I guess I should be sharing a patriotic card today, but since I don't have one of those made, what I do have to share is a project I really love.  Think Gingerbread.  Think snow and snow globe.  Put those three together and you have a gingerbread couple and a snow globe to go along with it.

First the card:

I dare you to not break into a great big smile when you see this cute gingerbread couple standing in front of their Christmas tree.  I don't think it's possible, because I smiled the whole time I was making it.  First I made a frame using two Stitched Mat Circle Dies.  The gingerbread cuties and the sweet Christmas tree are from Lil Inker's latest release (Christmas Bits Die Set).  I dressed them up with a white gel pen and a bow tie for the boy and a cute little bow for the girl.  That bow is from Lil Inkers (Flip Flop Dies).  I just trimmed it down a bit so that the scale fit the little gingerbread girls head.  

The sentiment is stamped on a Gift Bow Topper die cut using a sentiment from Jolly and Joyful Sentiments.  That beautiful script sentiment die is from the latest release too, Joy Word Die.   I also used a couple of little stars left over from using the Lil Inker jingle bells from Jingle Bell Die Set.  With such cute dies, I stamped up some matching patterned paper with the snowflake from Jolly and Joyful Sentiments and embossed it with white embossing powder.  Whew!  Are you still with me?  

As I was wandering though Michael's the other day, I saw a Do It Yourself Snow globe.  It's made from plastic, not glass and it reminded me of something my sweet 4 year old niece would love to shake up and carry around with her.  Since it's plastic, I am hoping it will be a little more difficult for her to break, so I have made a matching snow globe to go along with my card.

 This is the girl's side of the globe with the daytime background.

On the reverse side, I made a night time version with the little boy gingerbread man.

I think my little niece will love this one and hopefully I won't make her mother mad if it breaks and spills snow all over their house!  I hope you all enjoy a wonderful Veteran's Day.

I am entering this card in the Christmas Cards All Year Round Challenge whose theme this month is Winter Wonderland.

Jingle Bell Intervention

I think I need an intervention.  A jingle bell intervention.  I am sure my blog friends are saying, "Step away from the Jingle Bells Cathy!"  Like a true addict...I thought I had my jingle bell obsession under control.  I could stop any time I wanted to, in fact I had packed them up and put them away in my craft closet so I could play with some of my other stamps and dies.  Then, I took a little shopping trip to Target and saw all the cute Christmas decorations and lots of them were using jingle bells.   I told myself, just one more time and then I will stop.  Really.  I will stop.  LOL, but since I did break those bells out one last time, here is the tag I made using all three sizes of Lil Inker Jingle Bell dies:

My tag uses lots of Lil Inker products and also one of their new stamp sets.  First...the tag is the Folding Tag die (original).  I cut it twice, once in red and once in white.   Both tags are stamped with the cute snowflake from Jolly and Joyful Sentiments in red or embossed with white embossing powder creating a quick and easy set of patterned papers.  I also used the Stitched Scallop Border along the inner edge of the tag.  Now for my favorite part of this tag.  I am sure you guessed it, the jingle bells.

I used all three sizes of jingle bells from Christmas Bits Die Set and the Jingle Bell Die Set to make a miniature snowman.  I cut the jingle bells from white glittered paper and stacked them one on top of the other.  Aren't they the perfect scale for a snowman?

See those little arms?  Those are part of the arrow from Of the Heart Dies.  Real snowmen are made with bits and pieces of things that were once used for something else...right?   I drew and cut a miniature hat for my snowman and added the holly leaves from Holly Jolly Dies and a little red stickles for the holly berries along with some black pearls for the eyes,  mouth and buttons.  A little sliver of orange for the carrot nose finishes off my little snowman.  

I promise this is it with the jingle bells, at least for a few days.  Thanks for being a part of my jingle bell intervention.  Let's see how long my resolve lasts!

Holly Jolly with a Jingle

The weekend is over and I have one final card to share made this weekend using my Lil Inker's October release.  Once again,  I laid out all of my Lil Inker stamps and dies and picked one here and one there to make my card.  I have been in a holiday kind of mood lately, so this one is another Christmas card.

I started the card off with the Texture Plate Collection (Frame One).  Both sides of this die are fun to use, but I am partial to the woodgrain.  I cut out the center of the frame using a Stitched Mat Rectangle die which is the exact perfect size for this frame.  I embossed the green panel with the Circles & Diamonds Stitched Pattern Die to give a nice, crisp background to highlight the largest jingle bell in the Jingle Bell Die Set.  I suspended the bell from some silver rope trim and added a Bow Die (Small) topped with a sparkly silver gem.  The sentiment is from Holly Jolly Sentiment stamp set and that cute set of holly leaves are from the Holly Jolly Die set.  If you look closely you can tell that those cute holly berries have a nice coat of diamond glaze on them and really do pop out and shine.  This might just be a record for me...I used seven different Lil Inker stamps or dies on this one.  I wonder if the Guinness Record Book people will be calling me soon?

Jingle Joy

Happy Saturday!  It is such a beautiful day here...sunny, yet cool enough to want to spend time outdoors.  My husband and I are going on a bike ride today, the first for me in quite a while so I expect to be plenty sore by the time we are done.  I wanted to pop in and share a card I made last night using some of Lil' Inker's new release dies.  I have been wanting to use their jingle bells on a card as soon as I saw them.  They are so realistic and when you add glitter...watch out, you have yourself a shiny and sparkly card where you can practically hear the bells jingle.  Here's my card:

Lots and lots of Lil' Inker on this card, I brought out everything I had and just started choosing elements that would go together.  First, the striped frame is one I cut using Stitched Mat Square dies.  Then I cut an Instant Camera Die and and used patterned paper to add a little interest in the colors I was working with.  I cut five jingle bells from Christmas Bit Die Set and ran them through my xyron and coated them in different colors of glitter.  

Aren't the bells realistic?  I strung the bells on some jute twine and added those cute bows, also from Christmas Bits Die Set.  The final touch was the cute die cut sentiment...Joy Word Die, also from Lil' Inker.  I know I sound like an infomercial for Lil' Inker today, but that's what happens when you have so much to work with!  Hope you all have a fun day with a little time to get "crafty" and also time to get outdoors and enjoy the beautiful Fall weather.  Don't forget to turn your clocks back tonight!

I am entering this card in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge...Anything Goes.