Christmas Card Challenge

This week's challenge at Christmas Card Challenge blog was to use an image for inspiration. I picked the colors of blue and pink. I made the flowers from left over pink cardstock, the blue swirls was a RAK I received from Suzanne at Kitchen Keepsake and made by Cloud 9, the blue paper was from the Me and my Big Ideas's Papier Cartonne Special and the ribbon is from Really Reasonable Ribbon. If you have never used ribbon from them you really should try some, it is really awesome quality.

Gold Christmas card

The challenge this week at Christmas card challenge was to use embossing, wet or dry. I picked dry and used one of my Cuttlebug embossing folders. Sorry about the photo but gold doesn't photo well.

Some projects from the weekend

I have so much fun playing this weekend.

I used the Madeline collection by Prima to cut out the square using Spellbinders Fleur DeLis Squares die. I used two dies to cut out the center. I laid the biggest one down on the paper and then picked the next size down to lay in the middle of the big die. I fussy cut the top of the card and the flowers from the paper I used to cut out the square. I used Memory Box die to cut out Merry Christmas.

The box that I made was a juice box that I recycled into this beautiful box that I will fill with my cards and give as a Christmas gift.

I opened the box up and covered with paper. Once that was dry, I cut out the doilies and butterflies with my Cheery Lynn dies, the flowers were made using my Spellbinder flower dies. I glued the doilies to the box and then went over the box with Mod Podge to make sure it stayed down. I inked the edges of the flowers and layered them, between the layers I added some lace and fabric that I sprayed with some brown mist. To finish it off I added vines using a Cheery Lynn die and added pearls and some little handmade flowers for fillers. The small filler flowers were made using very small beads that were glued onto florist wire. The closure is something that I have had for several years and not sure who the manufacturer was.

I used Graphic 45s French Country and Farm Fresh by Paper Studio for the papers. I used Cherry Lynn Enchanted Forest die for the borders on the photo and along the left hand side. I used Martha Steward punch between the 2 pieces of paper and for the flowers I used Cherry Lynn Sunflower die to cut out the flowers, just placing the die over the flowers on the French Country paper. The flower package are real ones from flowers just too old to plant.

Christmas Card Challenge

The challenge this week at Christmas Card Challenges was a color scheme.

I used one of my dies to cut out the flower and then backed it with the green. Added the lace at the bottom and also backed that with the green paper.

Thanks for looking.

Core’dinations Design Team Call

I decided to throw my hat into the entries for DT call at Core'dinations. I love using their product but haven't challenged myself in a long time to use it. I made a card, 2 page layout and a box that I will be using for a Christmas gift and inside the box will go some of my handmade cards. All my projects were made using the Vintage Collection, Whitewash Collection and Graphic 45 collection.

For the card I used one of my die cuts to make the trellis and then stamped all the flowers on core'dination paper, cut out the flowers, added glitter along the edges,I didn't like the way they looked so I cut up the flowers to make more petals. The little white flowers and smallest orange flowers are from a punch. The barrel was cut from my Silhouette. The leaves were all cut from a couple different leaf die cuts. The dirt along the bottom was made using two styrofoam balls rubbed together and then adding some Tim Holtz ink to color it.

The next item is a 2 page layout. When we watched our GA grandkids for a couple of weeks we took them to Saugatuck to ride the dune rides. We had such a blast.

I used a stencil on both pages, using gesso mixed with paint I created the sand looking background. The page with my grandson climbing up the tree: the paper at the bottom was sanded down and I again used some of the dirt looking item made using the styrofoam balls rubbed together. The trees were cut with my Silhouette and the sun looking item was traced from something I had leftover from another layout I made using my Silhoutte. Using the sewing machine I went around the sun and the blue paper. The date on the round circle has branches made from a punch and I created the center piece with "Dune Ride" on it. The page with Saugatuck, MI: The background was made the same as the first one. The darker blue was made using a cuttlebug embossing folder and some paint was added to the lighter blue. The title was made using stickers I have had for years. The bottom grass was made using an embossing folder and then I cut them out.

My last item, Christmas box that will be filled with homemade cards:
I used a juice box that the grandkids helped me to empty :). I opened it up and using mod podge to attach the coredination paper to the box and applied it to the top. Once that was dry I misted over the top with white mist I made and some pink mist. I applied my homemade molding paste along the outside of the box. The inside was painted once the outside was dry. Then glue was applied so it could be reassembled. The flowers were made using several different punches. The biggest of both size flowers were made with the 2 biggest punches, the inside was made using the two smallest punches and then cut in half. Once cut in half, were glued around the inside. The last step to the flowers is to cut either a 1/8 or 1/4 inch strip that is 12 inches long, you cut slits in the paper, being careful not to cut it all the way through, then roll up a strip of paper using a quilling tool. If you don't have a quilling tool you can always using a toothpick to start the roll. Apply a dab of glue and then with your fingertip spread out the paper, glue to the center of the flower. I used a die cut to cut the leaves. Since this box had a gap, I attached the lace to cover that up. Lasting I stamped different phrases on the ribbon and use that to close the box. I know someone is going to love this box filled with my homemade cards come Christmas time.

Punches I used:

Challenge at Stick it Down

Time for the August card challenge at Stick it Down. Such a great sketch to work with. I hope you will give this a try.

Happy Birthday

Riley will turn two this weekend but since they will be camping his party was last Sat. I used his invitation and thank you and a photo of him wearing his t-shirt I created for him. I cut out some dinos and put them on the cardstock and then misted with 3 different colors so you can see the dinos in the background. I cut the dinos and trees from my Silhouette and used one of the misted dinos on the LO. This was for Kelly's challenge to use numbers or dates for the title of our layout. Check out some of the other challenges at Kitchen Keepsake.

Christmas card

This weeks challenge at Christmas Card Challenges was to embellish our card.

I used a wooden sticker snowman and used flocking on my Christmas trees. The trees were made using a embossing folder and then I cut the trees out. I used my punch to make the snowflakes and added a little bling to the bigger one. Thank you for looking.

My August challenges at Kitchen Keepsake

The recipe challenge this month at Kitchen Keepsake is to use some die cuts on your layout and the card challenge is to use a stamp where it can be clearly seen. Here are my examples:

The winner of my RAK for the July Blog Hop for Kitchen Keepsake is Suzanne. Congrats Suzanne.