A Winter Wonderland ...

Snow Flurries!

I know that the 'season' is over however I made this card for next year's stash as a chance to showcase the peekaboo embossing technique with the Northern flurries folder and the Serene Snowflakes hiding behind ... a quick and simple yet elegant card for the season!

Explosion Gift tag ornaments

Another offering from this months Stamp a Stack Ornament themed workshop.

Here is the front of the tag with the Serene Snowflakes and sentiment from Snow Swirled in Cherry Cobbler and Certainly Celery accents.

 Here is the back of the explosion tag ornament ...

The button holds it closed so slide  the button up the ribbon and the tag explodes into an 5 point star stamped with the large Serene Snowflake!

 The ornaments side view is all stamped up too ... for a gorgeous view from any angle!

 These are another 'quick yet stunning' gift topper ornament ... all you need is 5 pieces of 3" x 3" cardstock and 2 pieces of 1.5" x 1.5" cardstock ... stamp set of your choice. You stamp the 5 pieces with the same 'centered design' on the one side (you want this to be the same so that when it explodes the images line up at the  folds) flip over and do 5 different designs for the 'side angle.

For a tutorial on how to fold the ornament youtube has one here :)

Happy Stampin
Margaret

Freshly Made Dasher!

 Another sketch inspired card ... one of the last of my Christmas themed cards this year ... I had a Dasher sample left over from my Smooching Bleach technique class and when I saw the sketch over at Freshly Made sketches I was inspired to give him a place of honor as the  focal point on the card! 

 I just love the way the Black paper bleached out in a gold looking color and well the Gold smooch spray really helped to add pop to him ... and well than I went a little overboard on the 'bling' with the heat embossed gold glitter snowflakes and the snowburst embossed layer was spritzed with more smooch spray to give it glimmer and well than some gold around the edge of my circle and some pearls and dazzling diamonds for Dasher ... looks like he is getting ready for a New Years party!

 I added a Tiny Tags sentiment on my bow with the jewellery tag punch and a little jewellery ring to allow them the freedom to dangle like a little earring!

There is still time to play over at Freshly Made ... so pop on over and see what the Design Team and other bloggers did with this awesome sketch and get yourself inspired to spend some time down in the craft room - aka women cave!

Happy Stampin'
Margaret

More fun with Bleach ...

This is another card from my Technique Tuesday class - fun with bleach ... it is really hard to tell on the photo but this was the Bleach with Smooch twist so the snowflakes are bleached out but have a 'glitter' from the smooch spray that was sprayed onto the bleach paper towel - it is cool and shimmery in person!

Serene Snowflakes is such a pretty stamp set and I love the Cherry Cobbler, Baja Breeze and Crumb Cake color combo!

I will have another post later tonight with a sneak peek of my Guest Design over on A La Monkey Cards!

Happy Stampin'

Margaret

Clean & Simple 159

Playing along this week at the Clean & Simple Card challenge ... Challenge 159

 Here is my Clean & Simple Christmas Card ... done in 10 minutes or less .... Baja Breeze Monochromatic card done in Embossed Serene Snowflakes with the sentiment from Tree Trimmings and a few Rhinestones for some bling factor!

I love the Clean and Simple card challenges - just wish I could get them posted in time more often!

Happy Stampin!

Season Greetings Luminaries

Here are another version of a luminary we made this past weekend at our Stamp A Stack ... using the Fancy Favor die, velum, versamark heat embossed snowflakes in silver, some Cuttlebug dies snowflakes and of course some bling ;)

Unlit sample

the lit sample

Things are 'Looking Up'

Is this snowman not the cutest little thing you have ever seen - I love all the punch art ideas that are out and about on the Internet and am not sure who the original designer of this snowman was cause I have seen him used by several Stampers - but I loved him so tweaked him up with the punches I had!

So I used the 2 1/2 inch circle punch, 1 3/8 circle punch and 1 1/4 circle punch for this one with the branch from the 2 step bird. The eyes are made with two brads, pumpkin pie sliver for the nose and I drew on the coal with my basic black tip marker and tied a bit of Cherry Cobbler seam binding for the scarf! I than stamped tone on tone serene snowflakes on the Marina mist and paired it with the Ornament punch and the sentiment from All Holidays stamp set stamped in versamark and embossed with white emboss powder. A little bit of the Tinsel ribbon to make the hook for the ornament and we are as good as gold!

This is one of the offerings for this weekends Stamp a Stack at my house - we are making a combination of 5 projects ... some 3D paper crafting, a hostess gift and some cards - everything you need to get you started on your Holidays!

Joy Banner - traditional style

So here are my 'traditional' Joy Banners created from my digital template!

Horizontal Banner ... admitting I did not like the way this one hung on the wall - so I did it over again ;)Second time is a charm ... here is my Vertical Joy banner which I was happier with the way it hung ... well that and in my home I totally have more places to hang a vertical designed banner than a horizontal one.

I designed the 5 panel Banner so that if I wanted I could have the option to create one that either says Joy, Peace or Love depending on my inspiration. I went with the Joy because I wanted a 'winter' theme that could stay up past Christmas and well it allowed for the Ariel Snowman to be incorporated into the O and I am just in love with snowman this season!

So my first panel is Mr Christmas Owl in his fancy vest showcased on the polka dot embossed whisper white paper!

The letter J encased on the ornament punch which was stamped with the polka dot ornament from the Delightful Decorations set and the Serene Snowflakes in the background.

Letter O panel features a Ariel view snowman punched with our circle punch, arms are from the 2 Bird punch set with brad eyes, real red grossgrain ribbon accents.

Letter Y panel is embossed with the Northern Flurry folder and paired with the 2 Step Bird to make a Christmas Cardinal and of course some Rhinestone bling!

Final Panel with the Tags til Christmas stamp set punched out with the ornament punch in the Baja Breeze ink with a little Rhinestone bling paired with some Vanilla Smooch Spritz to add some glitter!

Joy Banner

I am preparing for next weeks Holiday Stamp a Stack and wanting to create a JOY banner as one of our projects - one of the things I really enjoy about My Digital Studio is being able to plan out a project digitally before creating it the real thing ... so here is my digital banner layout and now I am off to the craft room create the real one which I will share tomorrow to show the difference!

Lovely as a 'Winter'Tree

Here is another offering from the recent Stamp for the Cure event - a non-traditional card fold that still fits within a normal envelope!

This card was created with the Lovely as a Tree using the Whisper White craft ink on Night of Navy and that glittered with Iridescent Ice. The lower portion of the card is with the Serene Snowflakes and versamark ink.

Serene Snowflakes

Here is a fun quick card with the Versamark Resist technique ... stamp with versamark using your chosen stamp set on Whisper white and using a brayer and ink of choice roll over the stamped images until the colour effect you desire. This card is using Serene Snowflakes and Not Quite Navy ink and blinged it up a bit with 2 way glue pen and Dazzling Diamonds and a little Organza ribbon and we are all set to go!

Mojo Monday 150 Challenge

Anyone who knows me will attest that I love a good challenge ... so I think it will be no surprise that now that I have stumbled across this awesome website group that I am going to get addicted to the weekly Mojo Monday challenge :)

Below is my inspiration based on this weeks challenge - a Christmas card featuring Stampin' Up! Greeting Card kids stamp set, Snow Swirled and Serene Snowflake Stamp set. I also coloured the Whisper White taffeta ribbon with my Cherry Cobbler marker to make my bow - as I did not have a ribbon that matched and wanted one and the Whisper White ribbon did not 'pop' enough for me!

Hope you like it :)

Christimas in June

Oh my - my second wonderful box of goodies arrived this week ... and oh what fun I have been having with unpacking it and getting my craft room all organized to house the additional splurges!

My favorite new toy by far is my new My Digital Studio program ... I am in heaven with this awesome product ... which I earned for FREE with my first demonstrator workshop order ... a definite perk to hosting a qualifying workshop - FREE PRODUCT!

My first night after opening all my 'present's - I created 20 scrap page layouts from Xmas's past in less than 2 hours ... easy peasy with the My Digital Studio program ... and the great thing is that when I print them out - I can still add traditional 3-D embellishments for that extra WOW factor in my album!

Here are a couple samples of some layouts I created this week ...