Embellish My World: October 2016

Friday, October 28, 2016

'Tis the season......a TON of holiday stamping going on!

Well, November is right around the corner now and it's time to really start revving up the Christmas card making. This week I've been in my craft room every spare minute creating some fun cards to send to my friends and family. This year I'm also doing something a new by making a few sets of Christmas cards that I can give as gifts to my friends. When I run across a design that I love I will make up four extra cards to put in a gift box.

The first set I made was this design using The Ton's Brushed Merry sentiments and their Holiday Cones Coordinating Outlines. What a fun card to make! But making five of them was a little crazy! I absolutely love the details on this card and that giant MERRY is fantastic! Thank goodness for my ol' pal MISTI!

I started out by stamping the Merry in red and then adding a clear coat of embossing over the top for a nice shine. Next I stamped the outline pine cones and colored them with my Copic markers. Along the top and bottom of the panel I stamped the pine boughs, then I went over the top of the pine by blending a lighter color green. That really fills it in and gives it a warm glow. I added a little shine by embossing some clear sparkle embossing powder over the top of the pine boughs. There are a lot of different techniques on this card so it may not have been the easiest card to mass produce but I think it's my favorite card this year so far and I can't wait to share it.

For this card I used the following supplies:

Stamps: Brushed Merry, Outline Holiday Cones, Haute Stripes bg (The Ton).

Ink: red sangria, aspen cocoa (The Ton), forever green (Hero Arts Shadow Ink), peeled paint (Ranger Distress), clear emboss (Versamark).

Paper: black (Simon Says Stamp), white 140 lb cardstock (Neenah).

Accessories: clear embossing powder, white embossing powder, clear sparkle embossing powder (WOW!), Copic markers, dimensional tape (3M), gold sequins.

I kept some of the same stamp sets out from The Ton to make this next card. I started out forming a wreath from the smallest branch in the Holiday Cones Coordinating Outlines stamp set. I fussy cut some berries from that same set to add a little pop of red to the wreath. This time I decided to go gold for my embossing.....and lots of it!! I just can't get enough of those bold Haute Stripes!!

For this card I used the following supplies:

Stamps: Mistletoe Kisses, Outline Holiday Cones, Haute Stripes bg (The Ton).

Ink: field greens (Hero Arts Shadow Ink), onyx black (Versafine), clear emboss (Versamark).

Paper: white 140 lb cardstock (Neenah).

Accessories: Stitched Mats Circles dies (Lil' Inker Designs), gold embossing powder (Ranger), tarnished brass distress spray stain (Ranger), Kuretake watercolor markers (Zig), white Gellyroll pen, fun foam, twine.

Now, on to some more cards. Only one more month to go before I have to drop them in the mail.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Have a great weekend!

Sunday, October 23, 2016

Fun Halloween cards for the kiddos.

Happy Halloween! It's almost here and as always, I'm excited to see the cute little spooks coming up my sidewalk. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays but I'm not not really into the fright night, guts and gore side of it. OK....I'll admit it, I'm a big chicken when it comes to that scary stuff. My favorite part of Halloween is the adorable costumes that the little ones wear. I'm a sucker for a home crafted costume when mom or dad throws some imagination into it and really deck their kids out. That earns an extra candy bar from me!

I don't usually make a lot of Halloween cards but when I do, they tend to be on the cutie candy corny side of Halloween. Adorable little ghouls rule this year! CAS-ual Fridays has the perfect little spook for me! And of course a little ghoul needs a couple little ghoulfriends!

For this card I used the following supplies:

Stamps: Spooky (CAS-ual Fridays).

Ink: holly hock, blue jay, hot mama (Simon Says Stamp), lime green, orange soda (Hero Arts), tuxedo black (Memento), clear emboss (Versamark).

Paper: black (Simon Says Stamp), white 140 lb cardstock (Neenah).

Accessories: 1st Place Ribbon dies (My Favorite Things), white embossing powder (WOW!), copic markers, dimensional tape (3M).

We can can have a little more Spooky fun by using a white on black effect. Stamping with some white embossing powder, colored pencils for coloring and a little white pigment ink for a cool foggy chalkboard look.

For this card I used the following supplies:

Stamps: Spooky (CAS-ual Fridays), Boo to You (Clearly Besotted), Minor Stripe Bg. (The Ton).

Ink: white pigment ink (WPlus9), tuxedo black (Memento).

Paper: black (Simon Says Stamp), white 140 lb cardstock (Neenah).

Accessories: Tiny Tags dies (Simon Says Stamp), Blueprints #15 dies (My Favorite Things), white Nuvo Crystal Drops, silver thread, Prismacolor pencils, gamsol, dimensional tape (3M).

Of course my jack o' lanterns reflect my sissy side a little on Halloween too. My lil' punkins always have a smiley face glowing on my front doorstep to welcome trick-or-treaters. These cute little Clearly Besotted pumpkins are perfect for my cutesie cards. I made this one for a Halloween card swap with a sistahfriend over at StampNation.

For this card I used the following supplies:

Stamps: Boo to You (Clearly Besotted), Exclamations (CAS-ual Fridays), Yay Stripes (Catherine Pooler Designs).

Ink: orange soda (Hero Arts), tuxedo black (Memento)

Paper: orange peel, black (Simon Says Stamp), white 140 lb cardstock (Neenah).

Accessories: Boo to You dies (Clearly Besotted), Quilted Stitched Pattern Bg (Lil'Inker Designs), Zig Zag dies (My Favorite Things), clear Wink of Stella glitter pen (Zig), dimensional tape (3M).

Now it's off to drop these little ghouls in the mail along with a treat for my favorite little spooks. Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Halloween!

Thursday, October 20, 2016

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge - Fight Like a Girl

It's The Challenge time again over at CAS-ual Fridays! This week, in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month and all of the women who have been affected by it, we are going pink! With that in mind, our challenge for you this week is to create a card of encouragement that also includes the color pink.

For this card I used the following stamps and dies from CAS-ual Fridays:

Wonderful Words Calling All Sistahs Funky Flakes

I couldn't resist using the retired Oval Tag Fri-dies to create a place for the sentiment on this card.

I hope you'll play along with us for your chance to win!

All you have to do is make a card of encouragement with the color pink and link it up over on the CAS-ual Fridays The Challenge blog by October 31st.----------->HERE<--------------

I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Have a great Friday!

Thursday, October 6, 2016

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge - 1 in 8

It's The Challenge time again over at CAS-ual Fridays! This week, in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month we are going pink! Did you know that 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime? Our challenge for you this week to create 1 card that features 8 of something.

For this card I used the following stamps and dies from CAS-ual Fridays:

Calling all Sistahs Sistahs Fri-Dies Casual Tree Fri-Dies

My card has 8 pink stripes in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness.

I hope you'll play along with us for your chance to win!

All you have to do is make a card using 8 of something and link it up over on the CAS-ual Fridays The Challenge blog by October 18th.----------->HERE<--------------

I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

A Set of Christmas Cheer With a Layered Deer

This week I'm winding down from a crazy World Card Making Day weekend over at StampNation. I've been so busy lately doing challenges and promotions that I decided this week I was going to just take a little time to make a set of cards for fun. No guidelines to follow, no schedules, no rules. Just me and my MISTI and this beautiful new stamp set that has been sitting on my table for about a month, waiting for me to play with it.

I bought this set as soon as I laid eyes on Maureen Merritt's gorgeous card over at StampNation

I absolutely love this Color Layering Deer by Hero Arts!

To make this a cohesive set of gift cards I tried to stay with the same stamps and dies and the same colors throughout. I did try to make each card a little different though, which can be a bit tricky when working with the same focal element.

First, I set up my MISTI and just went to town stamping about 30 of these beautiful deer. Once my MISTI was loaded I figured why not just stamp as many as I could so I have enough little deer on hand to make it to December.

And I have to admit...I'm totally in love with how super simple it was to stamp such a beautiful image.

I didn't have to think hard on the color combination for this deer either because I used the

Couture Color - Cocoa Collection from The Ton. They are three beautiful browns that worked great together when stamping this layered deer.

For this set of cards I used the following supplies:

Stamps: Color Layering Deer (Hero Arts), Outline Holiday Cones, Mistletoe Kisses, Minor Stripes Background (The Ton), Gift Tag Greetings (My Favorite Things).

Ink: red sangria, warm hazelnut, found topaz, aspen cocoa (The Ton), forever green (Hero Arts), tuxedo black (Memento), white pigment (WPlus9).

Paper: black, schoolhouse red (Simon Says Stamp), white 140 lb cardstock (Neenah).

Accessories: Color Layering Deer Frame Cuts Dies (Hero Arts), Sentimental Flourish Frame dies (My Favorite Things), Birch Trees dies (Sizzix), Silly Stitched dies, Border Builders dies, Bunnies and Bows dies (Lil' Inker Designs), Wink of Stella clear glitter pen (ZIG), white embossing powder (WOW!).

Now, I'm off to box this set up, along with some coordinating envelopes. This will be the perfect thank you gift to some very special people I know.

Thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, October 1, 2016

Hello World Blog Hop!

Hello everyone and Happy World Card Making Day!

Today I'm celebrating with a special blog hop sponsored by Catherine Pooler Designs.
I'll be working with a special new stamp set and coordinating dies called Hello World that are now available in the Catherine Pooler Designs online store. For this entire week, Catherine Pooler will be donating all the profits from the purchase of these sets to a school in Boston to help them purchase computers for their classrooms.

If you're interested in more of the details on this cause, hop on over to Catherine's blog and she'll fill you in.

All of the sentiments I'm using on my cards today are from the Hello World Stamp set and have been cut out with the Hello World coordinating dies which are available now at Catherine Pooler Designs.

I'm also showcasing a brand new stamp set that Catherine is releasing today called YAY Stripes! This is a set of three awesome border stamps. I made three cards today just so I could show them all to you. I am big on borders and if I were going to design a set of stamps myself, it would be EXACTLY like this one.

Check out these chevron dots!! They are so funky and fun! And I love how the scripty "hello" stretches across my faux shaker window.

Another fun stamp in this set is a wide striped border. On this card I used it across the bottom in orange but it is long enough to run up the side of your A2 size card at 5 1/2". I diecut the beautifully scripted "hi" so that I could place it over the top of my other diecut images.

My favorite way to use a striped border is to stamp it in a crisp black to run up along the side of my card. This is such a bold look when you pair it with any bright color combination and it really sets off that awesome black sentiment. Look how fantastic that large happy "Hello" is! This is the largest stamp in the Hello World stamp set and I just love the way it pops!

If you look back on all of my cards today you will see one more thing they all have in common. All of the other stamps and dies that I used today are from the Stamp of Approval Lovely Notes Collection. That's right!! For all of you that missed out on the Lovely Notes Collection a few months ago, I'm excited to say that as of today, these stamps and dies are now available for individual purchase at Catherine Pooler Designs online store!! Woohoo!!

Now, it's time to HOP!!