Santa's sleigh 3

I'm determined to get my money's worth out of this stamp!  This time I thought I would try a portrait orientation - yes, it fits.  I heat embossed black on the blue background, then used metallic pencils to add some color.  The paper was chosen to echo the harvest colors of the pencils, and it was looking pretty dark, so I whipped out another diecut foam snowflake, put a white offset behind the punched edge, and perked up the coloring with a white gel pen.

Challenges:
4 Crafty Chicks - diecut
CCEE Stampers - 4 different embellishments
Crimbo Crackers - anything goes (Christmas)
Paper Play - Button
Stamp with Fun - Button

Santa's sleigh 2

Santa flies at night, right?  I knew I needed to try and work in a dark background for this stamp, so I embossed it in white on a dark blue, then I embossed the sentiment in dark blue on white for the bottom part of the card.  it just was too flat-looking, so I used a little distress ink to develops some texture, and finally built up an embellishment combining ribbon, a button, and a foam snowflake.

Challenges:
More Than Favors - Button
The Paper Shelter - Christmas fun
Whimsy Inspiration - Monochromatic
PaperMinutes - Blue and white
Stamp-n-Doodle - embossing

Santa's sleigh

I bought a stamp last month that I thought was the perfect Santa's Sleigh stamp - it is sold by A*Muse.  I thought it was time for this stamp to see some ink, especially if I want to have anything to mail out this year.

The ivory background is the card base.  The ribbon is some leftover from previous year's giftwrapping.  There is a tiny touch of glitter added with glitter pens.


Challenges:
Creative Craft Challenges - Fancy edges
Ribbon Carousel - anything goes
Catered Crop - colors, theme, ink
Christmas Inspirations - Bow
One Stitch at a Time - Christmas

More Joy

I had leftovers cut for my shoebox swap, so I made a few more cards.  When I was coloring one of them, I made a real mess; I couldn't stay inside the lines for anything.  In desperation, I cut the letters out, and decided after I cut them out, I didn't need to glue them on white; Kraft would look just as good.  I also forgot to put brads in the cardstock before I glued it down, so I tucked in a foam snowflake instead.

I might even like this more than the original card I designed!  It was a lot of work, though.  I wouldn't mass-produce this one.

Xmas shoebox swap

We did a Christmas-themed shoebox swap this time, and our little group has grown to 7 members, so we were instructed to not make the cards too complicated.  Here are the cards - can you guess which one was the one I designed?  (people who were in attendance are not allowed to play)

This is such a great group of ladies!

You will know which one is mine the next time I post - because my next card is one made from leftover scraps from the shoebox.

Cardinal Necklace

This isn't me, it's a friend of mine.  The cardinal is the mascot for the university where she teaches; I had to make her a school spirit necklace.  I had never done square stitch or a row of fringe before, so it was a lot of fun to make.

I would love to make a spirit necklace for my daughter, but I think a cavalier is a lot harder to bead.

More Spiders

I love making these spiders!  I made three today - one this morning, that I gave to a friend, and these two.