Merry Christmas

Today's card was created for the latest Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge. I love all of the Christmas cards I create but this one was one of my favorites from the batch I created this year. I love the papers and that adorable little snowman. This adorable little card was created using pretty patterned papers from Echo Park's Merry Christmas 12x12 paper pad and the glittery My Mind's Eye Oh Christmas Tree 12x12 paper pad, PaperTrey Ink's Winter Snow Globe stamp and die set, a pierced edge tag die from My Favorite Things, Amy R's Christmas Sentiment stamp set, some pretty chocolate chip baker's twine from Stampin' UP, and a random button that I had laying around the house. I love this card and had so much fun creating it. I hope you have a safe and happy new year! 

Christmas Brings Out The Kid In Us All

Today's card was created for the latest Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge. The challenge was to create a fun winter theme. I realized after I saw the inspiration photo that I'd not used my Recollections Polar Pals stamp set all year to create a single card and thought this challenge would be the perfect excuse to remedy that. I started by prepping a piece of white cardstock with my EK Success anti-static tool and stamped the snowflakes from the stamp set using Versamark clear ink and then heat embossed them using some Recollections embossing powder in snow white. I then inked the panel to create a sky using Tim Holtz Distress Ink in broken china. I die cut a snowy slope using a Paper Smooches edge die and some more white cardstock. I stamped the polar bear and the snowman onto Copic-friendly cardstock, colored them using my alcohol markers, and fussy cut them out leaving a white border around the outer edges. I stamped the sentiment from the same stamp set onto the snowy bank, adhered the snowman behind it using my Zig 2-way glue pen. Using my Copic BG10 marker I created a small lake onto the snowy bank and popped my polar bear up using Stampin' UP foam dimensionals. I love how adorable this card turned out and hope you like it too!

You Make An Ugly Sweater Look Good

Today's card was created for the latest Fusion Card Challenge. I chose to stick to the sketch only on this one. I love the simplicity of it but chose to turn mine on its side for a landscape card. I started by layering some cherry cobber cardstock from Stampin' UP onto my white card base and then cut a smaller panel of patterned paper from the American Crafts Wish List 6x6 paper pad down and adhered it directly onto the card. I stamped the sweater image from Simon Says Stamps Ugly Sweater stamp set onto some Copic-friendly cardstock using Memento tuxedo black ink. I then stamped the Christmas tree from the same stamp set onto the image and colored it in using my alcohol markers. I die cut a fun x-stitched edge circle using a Gina Marie Designs die and then adhered it directly onto the card. Using my mini-Misti I lined the sentiment up onto the card and stamped them right where I wanted them. I fussy cut the sweater image out and popped it up off of the focal panel using Stampin' UP foam dimensionals. I added some shimmer to the sentiment and a few select images by using my At You Spica clear shimmer pen and then added some Stickles to the ornaments and some of the elements on the sweater. I love this fun and whimsical card!

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

                                                   

Today's card was created for the latest The Male Room challenge.  I started by layering some patterned papers from the My Mind's Eye Signature Christmas 6x6 paper pad onto my white card base. I love the rich, vintage, and masculine look of this paper pad. I inked around the outer edges of all of the patterned paper with some Tim Holtz distress ink in tea dye for a nice distressed and vintage look.  I then stamped the fun Stampabilities Merry Little Christmas stamp onto some plain white cardstock using Memento cocoa brown ink at the top of the stamp and some Gina K Designs asparagus ink at the bottom for a nice two-tone look. I die cut the image using a My Favorite Things pierced edge oval die and then went around the outer edges with some more distress ink. I popped the oval panel up off of the card using some Stampin' UP foam dimensionals and then added some Nuvo Crystal Drops in dark walnut to the corners and the oval panel for some additional texture and interest. I hope you like it!

Have A Cozy Holiday-Coffee And Cards With Celeste And Deb

Yes, it's another installment of "Coffee And Cards With Celeste And Deb" and we have another fun guest designer with us this month, the very talented Carly Pool. And since this month's collaboration happened to fall smack in the middle of the 2016 Winter Coffee Lovers Bloghop we thought it would be fun to do a holiday coffee card and link our cards up for the hop too! Fun, right? 

My card was created using a beautiful image from the Power Poppy Cozy Cupfuls stamp set, which I bought specifically with the winter blog hop in mind. It's full of gorgeous images using teacups and mugs combined with sweet little birds, presents, and trees trimmed for the holidays. I suspect I will be using this set for my holiday card needs for many years to come! To create my card I started with a white card base and layered on some pretty patterned paper from the My Mind's Eye The Merry Days Of Christmas 6x6 paper pad, which I pinked around the edges using a pair of pinking scissors. I went around the edges of the paper with some Tim Holtz distress ink in tea dye to give it a nice distressed, vintage look.  I then die cut a stitched rectangle using more of the patterned paper and a die from Gina Marie Designs. I inked around the edges of the panel and stamped the sentiment from the same stamp set using some Versafine onyx black ink for a nice crisp image. I matted the rectangle panel onto some plain white cardstock and popped the panel up using some 3M foam tape after adding some pretty red and white ribbon I found last year in my local Target's dollar bin to each of the opposing corners. I then stamped my pretty cocoa and presents image onto some Copic-friendly cardstock and colored it using my alcohol markers in colors that coordinated with the patterned papers. Once colored, I fussy cut the image, inked around the outer edges with my Memento tuxedo black dual tip marker for a nice clean die cut look and mounted the image up off of the panel using some Stampin' UP foam dimensionals. As a finishing touch I added some sparkle to a few of the details on the image using my At You Spica sparkling clear glitter pen for some shimmer and shine and a few beautiful red enamel dots I created using Nuvo crystal drops in rhubarb crumble. I hope you like it!

As for my coffee selection I opted for a toasty warm Starbucks Skinny Peppermint Mocha Latte because it's gotten quite cold here in southeast Missouri and I needed to warm up after my morning run this morning. And yes, it was as tasty as it sounds!

Don't forget to pop on over to Deb's and Carly's blogs and check out what fun creations they have to share with you. If you like what you see here and on their sites be sure and show a little blog love by leaving a comment and have fun hopping through all of the fun and wonderful coffee/cocoa/tea creations along the hop!

       

O Come Let Us Adore Him

Today's card was created for the latest AAA Cards Challenge. I was so excited to share this one because I just received this beautiful stamp in the mail this week after snagging it from a fellow crafter's destash online! This image is a wood mount Inkadinkado stamp and I love the quiet serenity it portrays. I'm a huge fan of fall and winter so images like this one really resonate with me. I stamped the image onto some Copic-friendly cardstock using Memento tuxedo black ink. I did some very minimal coloring using only my B60 around the trees to mimic a lightly overcast winter sky, some C0 and C1 on the rooftops of the chapel, and R56 on the door for a nice little pop of color. I die cut the image using a stitched rectangle die from Gina Marie Designs and then stamped the sentiment from the Taylored Expressions Sing Of The King stamp set using Versafine onyx black ink. I added some 3M foam tape to the back and popped the panel up off of the plain white card base. Once the panel was adhered onto the card I added some glue using my Zig two-way glue pen to some selected areas of the image and then sprinkled on some beautiful white glitter by Wow! for some additional sparkle. I love how pretty it turned out and hope you like it too!

Merry Christmas

My first card today was created for the latest Addicted To Stamps And More challenge. To create my holiday themed card I started by layering some red cardstock from Stampin' UP onto my white card base and then layered some pretty patterned paper from the American Crafts Jolly 6x6 paper pad on top. I then die cut a scalloped edge rectangle panel using a Gina Marie die and popped it up off of the card using some 3M foam tape. I stamped the stocking image from Hero Arts K5254 wooden stamp directly onto the panel and colored the ribbon in using my Uni-ball Signo white gel pen for some nice contrast. I then stamped the image again onto some Copic-friendly cardstock, colored the images using my alcohol markers, fussy cut them, and went around the edges of each one using my Memento tuxedo black dual tip marker for a nice clean die cut look. I added a few details using my white gel pen and then popped the stockings up off of the card using some Stampin' UP foam dimensionals. For the final touch I stamped the sentiment from the Papertrey Ink Winter Snow Globe stamp set at the top of the panel. I hope you like this whimsical and fun little card!