Sending Hugs and Kisses

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  Christmas is over and I am done with Christmas cards this year.  But, I still have my December card kit from Simon Says Stamp.  I only got to make a few cards with it, so I thought I would revisit it.   I wanted to make something with it even though Christmas was over.  It was a stretch, but this is what I came up with. 

The stamp set that was in the kit was for Christmas, but I was sure I could pull something else out of it.  It had these big X's and O's,  aka hugs and kisses, and this cute little heart.  I kind of pieced them all together to send a non-Christmas message.  I stamped the hearts in Memento Luxe ink, Love Letter.  I love this ink.  I had seen several people use it in videos and decided to try it for myself.  Glad I did.  The silver striped border is the washi tape that comes in the kit.  It's very thin, making it very handy for borders and such.   The patterned paper was also from the kit.  The little girl is from Stampendous.  I found her in a stack of images I had previously stamped, colored, and cut out.   In this photograph the reds on her look much more orange than that of the paper and the hearts.  In my craft room, they look great together.  Thank you modern technology and not-so-great lighting! Lol.   To rectify the situation I coated the little heart I put in her hand and her skirt with the Wink of Stella glitter brush.  Glitter makes everything ok, right? It's kind of like ice cream?

I left the inside blank so it could be for any occasion that you just wanted to send someone some love. I have always used the O's and X's as hugs and kisses.  My daughter came back here and looked at my card.  She studied it for a minute and finally said, "hugs and kisses?"  Hmm..yes, it has nothing to do with anything bovine.  Although, I'm sure someone would appreciate some oxen, just no one I know..lol.   I guess I should have done it XOXO, but then that would be kisses and hugs, and I always say hugs and kisses.   

Ok, so maybe I missed the mark with this one, but it was fun to make.  The new January card kit has already come in and I can't wait to get to work on it.  I also have the new card kit from Close to My Heart, Cloud 9, I am getting ready to play in as well.  As soon as I get some more done I'll be sure and post. 

 I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful New Year's holiday!  Thanks for stopping by!

Merry Christmas!

A quick post tonight.  I hope everyone has had a safe and enjoyable Christmas.  I thought I would share my last Christmas card of the season.  I'm kind of sad to see the last of my wintry friends.  I had to get one more penguin card in this season.

The stamp is Penguin Pair from Stampendous.  I just think these guys are adorable.  I colored them with Copics.  The snowflake border on the White Daisy strip was made with a Martha Stewart border punch.  My new found love are these little poinsettias.  This is a die from Poppystamps.com.  These flowers are just the right size for cards.  My only complaint, and it is a very small one, is that all the pieces are connected.  But they are tiny, and if they weren't connected  I would never find them all. 

I used prisma glitter on the big snowflake, Eliza, and I used it on the fallout from the boarder punch.  I took the tiny snowflakes from there and coated them with glue and then prisma glitter.  The red cardstock is our retired Tulip.  The blue snowflakes paper was from my stash and I have no idea where it came from. 

Because this card also has sparkly, glittery things on it I'll be posting it on the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge. 

Once again, Merry Christmas everyone!  Thanks for stopping by! 

Magnolia Christmas Card

Happy Sunday everyone!  I have another Christmas card I wanted to share with you.   It is a Magnolia card, but not the big southern flower you may normally think of.  It's Tilda from Magnolia Stamps.  I love these little stamps.  I have an Easter/Spring stamp and then this Christmas stamp.  I have waited all year to make a card with her!  Much like the last card I posted it's not my normal style, but I think it's in me somewhere deep down.  I try to coax it out with cookies.  It doesn't always work, but who doesn't like cookies ? So, it's a win win situation as far as I'm concerned. Lol.

This is a 6x6 card.  I did a stash raid on this one.  The papers are from an old DCWV Christmas stack.  I love the dotted gold paper in there.  The stamp is from Magnolia stamps.  I colored her with my Copics and then, as usual, I covered areas with my Wink of Stella glitter brush.  The snowflakes were cut with some of the new snowflakes dies from Simon Says Stamp.  I believe these are Ashlynn, Eliza, and Maryanne.  I'm absolutely in love with them all.  The snowflake border trim is a Martha Stewart border punch.  The sentiment is from CTMH stamp set  Perfect Fit-Holidays.  I stamped it in New England Ivy and Tulip (retired).  The red cardstock is also retired Tulip.  The poinsettias were in my stash, too.     

By the time I got to the inside of the card, I didn't really think it needed much.  The sentiment is from a Hero Arts set of Christmas sentiments and I stamped it in New England Ivy.  The papers and snowflake are repeated from the outside.  It's hard to tell from the photo, but the gold paper I used has a polka-dotted pattern that almost makes it twinkle.  

Because this card features a Magnolia stamp and snowflakes, I'm going to enter it into the Stamp & Create with Magnolia blog challenge: Winter Snowflakes.   And because it does have a bit of shine and some sparkle,  I'm going to enter it into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Bling it On. 

That's it for me for the moment.  I'm going to head to the craft table and see what I can get done before my house starts getting busy again.  Thanks for stopping by!

More Whimsy for Christmas

I got a few new stamps from Whimsy Stamps and I have just been dying to use them.  This past weekend I stamped up several images and tried coloring them in all different ways.   I originally was going to try my hand at distress marker watercoloring.  But for the life of me, I can't seem to make that work.  I'm sure it's operator error, but I'm going to blame the paper!  I'll try that again at a later time.  I had stamped this little image on watercolor color paper, so I used my watercolor pencils to color her in.    This Wee stamp is called Berry.   Isn't she cute?

This is a 5x7 card I cut from White Daisy cardstock. I stamped my image using Versafine Onxy Black ink on some 140# cold press watercolor paper I got from HL.   I used both my CTMH and Derwent watercolor pencils to color her in. And even though you can't see it in the photo, I used my clear Wink of Stella glitter brush on her scarf and boot cuffs. (I'm absolutely in love with my Wink of Stella glitter brush!) I think it gives just the right amount of delicate sparkle.  I cut out several snowflakes using my new Simon Says Stamp snowflakes dies.  These dies cut beautifully. I used Ashlynn, Kate, Eliza, and Maryanne (yes, these are snowflake names, how cute!) Some I cut from White Daisy cardstock and then brushed on some Mod Podge and dusted them with CTMH's Prisma Glitter.  I added a couple of small sparkle flourishes from CTMH along with some ribbon and roses from my stash.  The sentiment is from the CTMH stamp set Christmas Love and is stamped in Crystal Blue.   

I was trying another angle to see if it would pick up more sparkle.  Not sure I was successful, but I tried.  This card was a different kind of card for me, but it was certainly fun to make.  Because my card has snowflakes I'll be entering it on the SSS Wednesday Challenge Blog.   The theme this week is "Let it Snow!"  

That's it for me tonight.  I'm hoping to have some more coloring and cards done soon. Back to the craft table for me!  

Thanks for stopping by!

Merry & Bright Snowman

Just a quick post tonight.  Here's another one of the digi stamps I printed out and colored this past weekend.  I thought this little guy was cute, too.  Sadly, I'm not sure where he came from.  If I had to guess he was a Pinterest find.

I was inspired by a card from Kristina Werner's Holiday 2013 series.  I used Neenah Desert Storm for my card base.  It's a standard sized side fold card.   The sentiment is from SSS and called Merry Trees.   I colored my little guy with Copics after printing him out.  I fussy cut him and attached him with some 3d foam adhesive.  I used the little snowflake stamp from CTMH Polar Bear Holiday set to make a trail of snowflakes across the card face.  It's hard to tell from the picture, but I used the Stardust Glitter Glitz Gel again on the snowflakes for a little added twinkle. I finished the card off with some CTMH Cranberry baker's twine and some faux stitching with my white gel pen.  

This was another fun card.  This little fellow makes me smile.  That's it for me tonight.  Thanks for stopping by! 

My Whimsy Owl

This weekend, in between the thousands of other things I had to do,  I found a little time to color some digi stamps I had that I had never used.  The first one I just recently acquired from Whimsy Stamps.  They have Friday Freebies and  that's where I nabbed this little guy.  

I think he was called something about camping out.  I thought he needed to be a Christmas owl.  My daughter asked me why his wings were red.  Hmmm...because he has on a Christmas cardigan to match his hat.  That's my story ..and I'm sticking to it!  

I colored him with Copics , fussy cut him, and then coated his eyes with liquid glass.   I had a piece of  scrap craft cardstock on my desk, so I used my scissors and cut out a little branch.  Using a fine tip pen, I drew the Christmas lights around it, then colored them in with Copics.  I used the same pen to draw the border. The little snowflakes are from the Polar Bear Holiday stamp set.   I second generation stamped them in Dutch Blue.  The sentiment is from the Simon Says Stamp December card kit stamp set appropriately named, Big Holiday Wishes.  My daughter told me it lacked sparkle, so I added just a little Stardust Glitz glitter gel around the snowflakes.   I think it was just enough sparkle to give it what it needed.  This was one of those cards that didn't really start out with a plan.  I just kept adding and doing until I thought it was done.  

That's it for me tonight.   Hope everyone had a great start to their week.  Thanks for stopping by!