Snowman Ornament

Happy February!  It's time for another challenge from Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge.  As always, it is Anything Goes as long as it is Christmas related.  Our sponsor is the fabulous Bugaboo Stamps and the winner will receive 3 images of their choice!!  Here is my card for your inspiration:

I hope you will get a chance to play along with us.  It's never too late to get started on that Christmas card stash!!

Supplies:
Stamps: Bugaboo Digi Stamps "Snowman Ornament 1"; Verve "Peace On Earth" sentiment
Dies: YNS stitch die

Challenges:
Sweet Stampers--winter/snow
Hiding in My Craft Room #286--any holiday
Crimbo Crackers #125--something cute
CAS(E) This Sketch #206--sketch

If you Give a Crafter A Cookie #61--inspiration photo (I was inspired by the colors and the snowmen)


Creative Knockouts #198--in stitches (stitched die)
Little Miss Muffet #155--anything goes
Alphabet Challenge--W is for Winter Walk
Cutie Pie Challenge--winter warmers (he has his hat on)

Happy Retirement

My husband's immediate supervisor at work retired this past week and Friday night we went to a big retirement party for him.  Of course, I had to make a card:

Sometimes I really struggle with masculine cards, but in the end, I really love how this one turned out!  I really love this Hands of Time stamp set a die set from PaperTrey Ink.  I think it's perfect for masculine cards and it really has some awesome sentiments.  I started out with this card as my inspiration:

I liked the idea of the patterned paper strip down the side, but ended up going with a monochromatic color scheme as I really like the elegance of it.  I started out by die cutting the clock face out of a light gray cardstock.  I stamped the coordinating clock face stamp on some water color paper for some added texture and a bit of off white color.  After I stamped the sentiment, I splattered on some black acrylic paint and to get the gray, I mixed some gray gelato with some water and splatted that on as well.  Then I had to set it aside to dry, which was really hard and I didn't wait quite long enough and smeared things a little bit, but I don't thank anyone will know.  If you can't read the sentiment, it says:    Time is the most valuable thing that anyone can spend.  It is a fitting sentiment as this man was a mentor and much more to my husband.

Supplies:

Stamps: PTI "Hands Of Time"

Dies: PTI "Hands of Time" and border die

I also used PTI's Soft Stone card stock for the gray

Challenges:

Sweet Stampin--spots & dots  (I hope my splattered spots count)

Brown Sugar #235--anything goes

Aud Sentiments #172--masculine

Crafty Creations #333--anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday--anything goes

Penny's #313--anything goes

Tuesday Throwdown #327--anything goes

Cardz TV #1--anything goes

Stick It Down--sketch (it is a loose interpretation of the sketch)

Word Art Wednesday #266--anything goes with uplifting sentiment

Incy Wincy--For the Men in your life

Love to Craft Challenge #6--anything goes

Dragon's Lair Challenge--new beginnings (retirement)

Simple love

Happy Wednesday!!  It's time for a new challenge from The House That Stamps Built and this one is a fan favorite: Anything Goes!  Oh, yeah, we know how much everyone loves an anything goes challenge.  I am sooooo in love with this card!!!  The gorgeous tulips, the soft, fuzzy mulberry paper, and that adorable chevron vase!  I didn't realize until after I had already taken the photo that I hadn't used ANY embellishments on it.  Not a piece of ribbon, not a pearl, not a rhinestone . . . it just doesn't need it! The simple word "love" is all it needed.

I actually had a whole different background ready for the image, but once I added the mulberry paper, it covered up too much of the background so I decided to go with the plain gray and I'm so glad I did.

Besides paper piecing the vase, I also pieced the tulip flowers themselves after I colored them on a second piece of card and cut them out.  It adds just a tiny bit of dimension.  Make sure you check out The House blog for the full details and to see what the rest of the team did for this challenge.

Supplies:
Stamps: Repeat Impressions "Vase of Tulips" and "Love Stencil"  I used only the word part of the stamp
Dies: Spellbinders "A2 Matting Basics A" rectangle

Challenges:
A Gem of a Challenge #186--hearts and/or flowers
Sweet Stampin'--dies & punches
Hiding In My Craft Room #285--color it!
CardzTV #1--anything goes
Creative Fingers #123--anything goes
Brown Sugar Challenge #234--anything goes
Winter Wonderland--spring fever, flowers, sunshine, romance
ART Impressions #200--spring fling
Cute Card #461--cool colours/tones
Cards Galore--anything goes

Strawberries

Today is my day to post a Project of the Week over on The House That Stamps Built blog.  Pierced dies are really popular right now and I'd love to have them ALL!!  But, if you're like me and can't spend all that money, I'm going to show you how you can get the look with dies you already own.

What you will need:

Dies (they need to be open on the inside like the ones I used from Spellbinders)

A piercing tool (I used my multi tool from Spellbinders, but I also have a regular piercing tool.  You could probably also use a straight pin)

Some kind of mat to protect your work surface

Stamps (I used Repeat Impressions "Strawberries" and "Smile")

 Cut out your card stock with the die and leave it IN the die.  Using the piercing tool, pierce the card stock right along the edge of the die.

 Continue piercing right along the inside edge of the die.  I space mine out about 1/8 inch, but you could do it a little farther apart if you'd like.  I don't measure, just eyeball it; no one will be able to tell if it's not exactly even.

 Here's what it looks like once I pierced all the way around and removed the die:

 A perfectly pierced die cut circle!  You can do this with any shaped die as long as it is open in the middle.  I hope you will give it a try.  Here's my finished card:

Supplies:
Stamps: Repeat Impressions "Strawberries" and "Smile"
Dies: Spellbinders "Classic Circles, large", Classic Ovals, large" and "Standard Scalloped Ovals, large"

Challenges:
Sweet Stampin'--dies & punches
Hiding In My Craft Room #285--color it!
Cardz TV #1--anything goes
Creative Fingers #123--anything goes
Brown Sugar Challenge #234--anything goes
Inspiration Destination--anything goes
Word Art Wednesday #226--anything goes with uplifting sentiment
Fab N Funky #334--must use ribbon
Craft-Dee BowZ--anything goes with uplifting sentiment
Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2--sketch (I turned it on its side)

You're special

Happy Friday!!  It's time for another challenge from Jo's Scrap Shack: 

Our sponsor for this challenge is The Cutting Cafe.  I was given this cut file: Heart Shaped Card 2.  It comes with this top fold card template and one where the hearts are lined up horizontally and it comes with the hearts to cut out the layers as well.  

 The hearts were the perfect size to use up some scraps from one of my favorite paper packs.  Pretty much, it's only scraps now which makes me sad, but obviously they still have some use!  I thought it would be fun to create a card ON the card front, so I did.  The sentiment begins on the outside and carries on under the heart flap.

 And then, I finished it off on the inside with a "Happy Valentine's Day" and another scrap that was already the perfect size!

I hope you will get a chance to play along with us this week.  Hop on over to Jo's blog for the full details and to see what the rest of the Design Team has done.

Supplies:
Cutting File: The Cutting Cafe "Heart Shaped Card 2"
Stamps: Verve "Take Note" sentiments and "Happy Valentine's Day" plain jane; Clear Dollar Stamps flourish stamp

Challenges:
Cute Card  Thursday #461--cool colours/tones
Creative Knockouts #177--finish the inside
Inspiration Destination Challenge Blog--anything goes
Through The Purple Haze--Happy Anything
Try Stampin' On Tuesday #305--sketch

Crafty Gals #106--add a heart
Word Art Wednesday #266--anything goes with uplifting sentiment
Crafty Creations #337--anything goes
Penny's #312--anything goes

Truckload

So, in my new quest to finish up some scraps that have been hanging around for a long time, I came across this vegetable paper (and the reverse is the orange pattern).  Kind of wondering where I might go with it when I remembered I had this fun produce set from Craftin' Desert Divas and since it had corn and carrots which are both in the paper pattern, I decided to create a fun (and unusual) Valentine's Day card.  I had some vegetable shaped brads that came with the paper and I added a little green pepper to the bottom.  so cute!

I forgot to take a photo of the inside, but I added a strip of the vegetable paper along the bottom and also added one each of the extra corncobs and carrots that I had cut out and colored but didn't use on the outside.

supplies:
Stamps: Craftin' Desert Divas "Farmer's Market"
Dies: Spellbinders "Classic Circles, large"

Challenges:
YNS #55--sketch

Craft Dee Bow-Z--anything goes with a handmade bow
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper--anything goes with patterned paper
Sugar Pea #27--anything goes
Aud Sentiments #171--anything goes with sentiment
Hiding in My Craft Room #284--super scraps Saturday (the papers were scraps and all the white card stock, including the ones all the veggies and the truck were stamped on)
Open Minded--Jet-setting in January (truck, travelling)
Fab n Funky #334--must use ribbon
Penny's Challenge #312--anything goes
Crafty Creations #337--anything goes
Inspiration Destination--anything goes
Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Wonderful Wednesday--anything goes

Hello, Chickadee

It's time for another challenge from The House That Stamps Built.  As part of our revamped challenges, we have a fun color inspiration photo for you:

And here is my inspiration card for you:

I hope you can play along with us this week.  Color combo can be tough, but there are so many options in this one, I'm sure you can make it work.

Supplies:
Stamps: Repeat Impressions "Chickadee at Rest" and "Pine Needles Sil." stamped on the background
Dies: Spellbinders "Fleur Di Lis Pendant", and "Standard Circles, large"; MFT "Smartphone" hello

Challenges:
Brown Sugar Challenge #233-anything goes
Aud Sentiments #171--anything goes with a sentiment
Little Miss Muffet #154--anything goes
Cheerful Sketches--sketch

A Bit More Time To Craft #35--anything goes
Crafting By Designs--anything goes
Crafting with an Attitude--anything goes
Card Mania #88--anything goes
Pattie's Creations--use an animal image
Cards Galore--anything goes

Scraps

Hi, everyone!  I'm here with some mid-month inspiration for you for the Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra.  As always, we are a month-long anything (Christmas-related) goes challenge.  I set a challenge for myself to use up some scraps that were all that were left from a paper pack I'd had for a couple of years.  I had finally gotten it down to these 5 pieces:

When I had mentioned this is an earlier post, someone had left a comment saying I could turn them into Christmas trees.  I thought about it for a while and this is what I came up with:

I think it was a genius idea!  Thanks, Dot!  I took the largest scrap and cut it into 1/2 in strips.  I used the full width of the first piece for the base, and then trimmed off a little bit of the rest in a graduated fashion, adding the smaller off cut pieces to add to the top of the tree.  A piece of scrap brown for the trunk, a piece of gold recycled wrapping paper for the star on top and a snowbank cut out of a scrap piece of white and this card is almost entirely made of scraps.  I love how it turned out, so much so, in fact, that I used a mirror layout and another of the scrap pieces for my second card:

This piece was smaller and so I ended up with a skinny tree, a bit like a Charlie Brown tree, but it's still cute!
On to my next card.  I was really at a loss on how to use the poinsettia scrap piece.  It was just angled a bit weirdly, and although I had trimmed it a bit earlier, it still didn't look right due to it being printed along the edge of the paper.  But, I came across the layout I ended up using and it actually seemed to fit.  Also, on this card, I was able to use some more scraps from a different paper pad.

One more to go, and we're going to switching holidays for this one.  But as I used the rest of the scraps on it, I decided to add it to this post.  I cut as many hearts as I could out of the striped paper.  It is a Christmas paper, but with the reds and pinks in it, I thought it could also work for Valentine's Day.

Since I was able to cut out 4 hearts, I found 3 matching colors of cardstock and cut the same number and shape of hearts out of each of them.  I lined them all up and actually used my sewing machine to stitch a line through each column.  A sentiment and a bit of ribbon, and a very pretty CAS card that used up the last of my scraps!!

Phew, that was a long post.  Thanks for sticking with me.  I hope I was able to inspired you with some ways to use up some of your scrap stash.  'Cause I KNOW you've got them.  : )

Supplies:

Card 1:

Stamps: Verve "Peace On Earth" sentiment

Dies/embossing folders: Simon Says stamp stitched hill die; MFT "Star STAX"; Cuttlebug Snowflake embossing folder

Challenges:

Aud Sentiments ##171--anything goes with a sentiment

Sugar Pea Designs #27--anything goes

Cuttlebug Mania--winter wonderland

Merry Christmas Challenge #15--CAS

Pixie's Crafty Workshop #264--anything goes with snippets

Love to Craft #6--anything goes

Crafting with an attitude--anything goes

Card 2:

Stamps: Verve "Peace On Earth" sentiment

Dies/embossing folders: Simon Says stamp stitched hill die; MFT "Star STAX"; Cuttlebug Snowflake embossing folder

Challenges:

Sweet Stampers #3--winter/snow

Penny's Challenge #311--anything goes

CASology #231--forest

Tuesday Throwdown #325--snowflakes (embossing folder)

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper--anything goes with patterned paper

Christmas Cards All Year 'Round--add snowflakes (on embossing folder)

Card 3:

Stamps: A Day For Daisies "A Special Gift"; PTI "Inspired: Jesus"

Dies/embossing folders: PTI "Inspired: Jesus"; MFT "Fancy Flourish"; Spellbinders "A2 Matting Basics A" rectangle

Challenges:

Hiding In My Craft Room #284--super scraps Saturday

Hanna & Friends #264--Christmas

Creative Knockouts #176--celebrations (celebrating Jesus' birth)

Little Miss Muffet #154--anything goes

Creative Fingers #182--anything goes

ABC Christmas--A is for anything goes and B is for something beginning with B (I used both anything goes and blue in my image)

Word Art Wednesday--anything goes

A Day For Daisies #158--2 or more layers

Card 4:

Stamps: Verve "Take Note" sentiment

Dies: Sweet 'n' Sassy Stamps heart dies (I used 4 of the smaller ones)

Challenges:

Brown sugar #233--anything goes

Southern Girls--Stitch me up

Inspiration Destination #110--anything goes

The Paper Shelter #278--add ribbon and/or lace

Creative Craft #79--ribbons and/or pearls

Crafty Creations #332--anything goes

Scrapper's Delight #62--anything goes

CraftDee Bow-Z--anything goes with handmade bow

Winter Day

It's time for another What If? Wednesday challenge from The House That Stamps Built.  As part of our changes this year, we have a new type of challenge for you.  This week is a tic-tac-toe challenge: choose any row, column or diagonal and use those elements to create your card.

For my cards, I was almost able to run the whole board!  I used a winter theme, glitter (on the snow), blue, ribbon AND twine, buttons, snowman and patterned paper.  I wasn't able to incorporate the fun fold or stitching.

The horizontal panel is a scrap from a pad I am now working on using up and the buttons were salvaged from a piece of clothing that my girls have outgrown and were two worn to pass on to someone else.  So, I got to use scraps and recycle on this one!  Gotta love it!  Hop on over to The House blog and check out the full details and see what the rest of the DT has created for this challenge.

Supplies:
Stamps: Repeat Impressions "Snowman, 2-sided swing stamp set" there are two images plus a compound sentiment.  I used one of the images and masked off the sentiment.
Dies: Spellbinders "A2 Matting Basics A" rectangle

Challenges:
Cuttlebug Mania--winter wonderland
Creative Craft Cottage #79--ribbons and/or pearls
Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps #363--favorite color (blue is my favorite color, specially this turquoise-y blue)
Fashionable Stamping #119--winter OR spring
Creative Fingers #122--anything goes
Crafty Catz--anything goes: ribbon
Unicorn Challenge #17--January Blues
Cutie Pie Challenge--winter warmers
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper--anything goes with patterned paper
Divas That Cut--no sentiment
Crafting By Designs--anything goes
Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2--choose your favorite sketch (I chose #91)

Chocolate makes the world go around

Happy New Year!!  We are back with the first challenge of the new year from Jo's Scrap Shack.  There have been a few changes for this year and every challenge is going to be: Anything Goes

Our sponsors are Bugaboo Digi Stamps and Little Blue Button Stamps and there are some great prizes to be one, so I hope you can play along with us this week.

I won this image from Bugaboo a little while ago and had yet to print it out, so I decided this was the perfect time.

All the papers are scraps from one of my favorite paper pads.  It's pretty much all scraps now, but I still love it.  I think I only had to trim off a little from the strip pieces and the yellow patterned piece is actually pieced together strategically so the seems are hiding behind other elements.  No one will ever know and it makes small pieces perfect for a larger element.  The lace trim I have had forever; it just happened to be the perfect color and I used the last little bit as a bow in her hair.  Here is the inside:

And here is another shot of the front.  I thought the base panel was a little boring, but I didn't want to add more patterned paper, so I took some "Chocolate" stamps in various fonts and stamped them in a light gray.  It's tough to see as it's very subtle but in real life, it adds just a bit of interest.  You can just see it a bit in the bottom corner.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps: Bugaboo Digi Stamps "Ruby: Chocolate World Go Round" digi image and inside sentiment; Verve "Chocolate" chocolate word stamps and inside melting chocolate

Dies: Spellbinders "Medallion Seven"; MFT "Blueprints 13" stitched rectangle inside

Challenges:

Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Wonderful Wednesday--anything goes
Inspiration Destination #110--anything goes
Crafty Creations #332--anything goes
Cute Card Thursday #459--what's new (I just got the medallion die the week before Christmas--first time using it.  Also the first time using the image)
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday--new something (medallion die and image)
Crafty Gals #104--use something new (medallion die and image)
Penny's Challenge #310--anything goes
Mod Squad Challenge--anything BUT Christmas
Crafting By Designs--anything goes
Mojo Monday 478--sketch

Love To Craft #6--anything goes
The Paper Nest Dolls #1--anything goes
Pixie's Crafty Workshop #262--anything goes with snippets (all the patterned paper)
Cut It Up #112--out with the old, in with the new (OLD paper, new medallion and image)

Winter Birthday

Happy New Year!!  Welcome to the first What If? Wednesday challenge of 2017.  We have a new designer and loads of new challenges this year to get you inspired, so I hope you will hop on over to The House Blog for all the details.  This week's challenge is a Designer's Choice Challenge, Shirley is the Designer and her choice is Winter Cards (But Not Christmas).  I've a family member who's birthday always sneaks up on me, so I decided to create a winter birthday card.  I stamped the jar from Contain Yourself upside down and cut out the center to use it as a fun snow globe shaker card.  I've seen this technique around and filed it away for a future time, which turned out to be now.

 I don't have the jar with the lid, so I just colored the top "threads" with silver to mimic a lid.  With the bow tied on, I don't think anyone would even notice.  I filled my shaker with white glitter, added glitter pen to the tiny snowflakes around the snowman and used my wink of Stella pen to add glitter to the die cut snowflake, so this is nice and glittery in real life.

If you NEED any of the stamps I've used today, I have a 10% off your entire order code over there in my left side bar.  And thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Stamps: Repeat Impressions "Snowflake Solid, large", "Snowflake Solid, small", "Winter Frame", "Jar", and "Birthday"
Dies: PTI "Fancy Flakes", MFT "Blueprints 13" large fishtail banner

Challenges:
Incy Wincy--celebrate (birthday)
Simon Says Stamp, Monday--start a fresh (first time I've inked up the snowman stamp)
Card Mania #88--layer it
Cutie Pie Challenge--a day in the snow
Unicorn #17--January blues
Di's Digis--celebrations
Sketch Saturday #444--sketch

Cut It Up #112--out with the old, in with the new (the snowman stamp is new, the snowflake die I've had for several years)
CAS-ual Fridays #164--celebrations
Brown Sugar Challenge #231--anything goes
Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps #362--winter
Fussy & Fancy #179--angels/fairies or winter

Football

Happy New Year!!  It's time for another challenge from Love To Scrap Challenge Blog!!  We've changed up our format a little bit this year so make sure you check out the LTSCB site for all the details.  This month our challenge to you is Anything Goes!  Our sponsors are:

DRS Designs

Bugaboo Digi Stamps

Dr. Digi's House of Stamps

I got to choose an image from Dr. Digi's to work with and as I knew football playoffs would be starting soon and the Super Bowl is in a month or so, I chose Gridiron Greg. 

It turned out that I remembered rather last minute that I needed a birthday card for my cousin and he likes football.  He is a New England Patriots Fan as are almost all males in New England so I did a quick search on Google to make sure I got the jersey colors correct and then colored up Greg to look like a Patriots player.  I had the perfect papers that I wanted to use for the card.  One small problem: I didn't have any pieces large enough to fit the size of the card base.  But a little creative cutting, piecing and layering and no one will ever know!  Except you, because I'm posting the photo of what I did maybe as some inspiration as a way to use up smaller pieces of paper:

I knew I would have a vertical panel on the right hand side, so I pieced together what I had and once I added that other panel, it looks perfect!  I had a small strip of the other paper left, so I added it to the inside.

And since this is a 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 in card, I had to make my own envelope with my envelope punch board.  I really like to use pieces of patterned paper that I will never use for anything else to create my envelopes and I thought this grass piece was perfect for a football game.  I know, Genius!!  I also made it larger than necessary as square cards cost more to mail for whatever reason.

I hope you will get a chance to play along with us this month.  I can't wait to see what you come up with.

Supplies:
Stamps: Dr. Digi's House of Stamps "Gridiron Greg" digi; PTI "Fresh Monogram" capital letters; Verve "Happy Everything" sentiment on the inside

Challenges:
Cardz TV #7--anything goes
Brown Sugar #231--anything goes
Cute Card Thursday #458--anything goes
Creative Knockouts #174--anything goes
C.R.A.F.T. #296--anything goes
Tuesday Morning sketches--anything goes
Just Add Ink #342--Just Add "N"--navy
Inspiration Destination #118--anything goes
Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2--choose your favorite sketch from the year (I chose #86)