Falling for the Holidays - Gina K and Couture Creations

 Wow, the week of Falling for the Holidays Linky Party is going by so fast! Join in the fun if you haven’t already! Enter your cards for a chance to win a giveaway from one of the sponsors of this party!

Created another card using stash I’ve never touched before! I’m on a mission to try out new things… so here goes! I pulled out an old red metallic paper and a discontinued Scrolled Tomentosa Couture Creation's die set. Then I went on the hunt for paper that would match! Found an old metallic striped paper I thought matched well and a cute cardinal design paper. Well… then I had to find a cardinal! And I found an older discontinued Gina K kit called Peace and Joy that I used for the image and sentiment. 

I watercolored the image using a cheap watercolor paper and an online picture of a cardinal. I ended up fussy cutting him out! I stamped the sentiment and added silver embossed leaves from a Unity Kit around the sentiment. After that it was just a matter of die cutting the pieces and adding sequins and red crystals.

Must admit, this is far from my usual style, but I’m having fun trying out new (but really old) stuff! Well, thanks for stopping by! 

Falling for the Holidays Unity Card

Here’s another card for the Falling for the Holidays Linky Party!

Watercolored these poinsettias from the All Kinds of Holiday membership kit. I added white and gold spatters to the image. Decided to back the watercolored image with textured gold paper. I used the same paper to back the gold embossed sentiment from an older Unity Kit. I ended up mounting everything on a square card base. I found an old paper rosette package that I’ve never used. Somehow, adding a few helped jazz up the card, along with a bow and sequins. 

Not my favorite card, but I think it’ll pass muster! Thanks for stopping by… hope you are also taking time out to “fall for the holidays”!

Stamperia Home for the Holidays + Penny Black

 Day 3 with the Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmakers Falling for the Holidays Linky Party!

Today’s card was made with Stamperia’s Home for the Holidays paper collection and Penny Black’s Berry Branches die set!

I started by figuring out how wide the paper needed to be as juxtaposed with the fence die and cut down the selected paper. I then fussy cut out some ephemera pieces included in the papers. I then die cut out the fence and added shading and white spatters. I also spattered the paper. I then die cut out the brackets and bird with 2 colors of red papers. I added shading and low and highlights around the branches. I then assembled the pieces around the paper. I white embossed a sentiment from a random kit. I added the bird and sentiment with foam tape, backed the image with red paper, added foam strips and mounted that on another paper from the set. Finally, I pulled the card together on white card stock and called it done. Another fun card to assemble!

Having a lot of fun, playing with new dies, papers and stamp sets this week! Join in the fun and add your holiday cards for a chance at great prizes! Thanks for stopping by!

Mistletoe and Holly, Christmas Cookies + Unity

 It’s time for my second Falling for the Holidays Linky Party entry! Check out all the participating vendors and prizes if you haven’t yet!

As you may know, I’m a patterned paper lover! I spied a beautiful paper in my Blue Fern Studio Mistletoe and Holly collection that I couldn’t resist! (Available on Etsy!) I pulled out my Tim Holtz Christmas Cookies set and one of my coffee stained papers and a white paper. I first created and glued all the cookie layers together and spattered those and the paper with white ink. I then cut out the paper and added a striped Washi tape and then TH velvet ribbon on one side. I created 2 tags, one using another Mintay paper pad and the other a Kraft tag. I stamped and white embossed the Unity sentiment from Unity’s Christmas Cookies. I cut down the tags to equal size, added lace and a white and candy striped bow. I also fussy cut another Mintay ephemera piece to add. I arranged, used foam tape and glued all pieces down and added it to a red card base.

I absolutely love how this card turned out, first, cause I’m a cookie fan and second, I just love how it all came together! Gosh that paper is beautiful… and the cookie dies go so well with it! 

Be sure to check out the Linky Party and all the great cards! Thanks for stopping by!

Falling for the Holidays Linky Party

 How fun, it’s time for another Build Your Stash Holiday Cards Linky party! Check out all the the details, participating vendors, and how to join in the fun here: https://byshcardmakers.blogspot.com/!

For my first card of the hop, I pulled out a pretty paper set, called Mistletoe and Holly from Blue Fern Studio. I then started pulling some dies: TH Sizzix, a SSS die, and various background dies. I also used a sentiment kit from SSS to stamp the Joy using red inks and holographic powder. Created a bit of a hodge podge card and ended up adding glitter and crystals to complete it. Will be playing some more with these papers as they are gorgeous!

Be sure to link up your holiday cards for a chance at one of the daily prizes! Check out all the other ways of winning and all the prizes and discounts being offered on the blog! Thanks for stopping by!

Friends of Unity October Blog Hop

 Hello, fellow crafty friends - welcome to the spookiest season of the year and another blog hop! This month’s theme is…

As you, maybe, can tell from my intro, I’m a big fan of Halloween! Movies, decorations, crafting… I get into it all! So, I focused this month’s efforts on Halloween cards! But before I start, I wanted to let you know that I’ll be doing another giveaway this month! And, as promised last month, I wanted to congratulate - 

*** Sue D ***

on being last month’s winner of my September giveaway! Yay! Please PM me your address and I’ll be sure to send some Unity goodies your way!

Now, on the first card, I began by stamping the image from RIP onto greyscale sketch paper. I used pencils and white pen to add dimension and a little color to the image. I then cut the image down and stamped the cat from the Toil and Trouble on another sheet and fussy cut it out. I did use a white pen to add some highlights and watercolors for the pumpkin! I added corrugated cardboard for the background and a patterned paper. I made my own bottom layer inspired by Tim Holtz wallpaper paper using an old SMAK kit containing an eerie chandelier and other images and my coffee stained paper. I embossed the sentiment from Halloween Chatter with a grainy Seth Apter powder. Finally, I added a couple ephemera and called my haunted house done!

For the second card, I pulled out Bristol paper, liquid/dry shimmer inks and paints (Colorburst, Primary Elements, Perfect Pearls) and oxide inks to create a spooky background. I added paint spatters as a final touch. I then used a Sizzix Haunted Bare Tree embossing folder and used my Gansai Tambi watercolors and a metallic ink pen to color in the tree. I then embossed the witch from Unity’s August Phases membership kit, fussy cut her out and added silver highlights. I silver embossed and cut down a sentiment from the kit and part of the faces of the moon stamp. I added background papers, twine and Stampin Up puffy ephemera pieces.

 

So, when I was putting the pieces together I noticed the card base I chose was set up to be an easel card! Well, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to use it, so I pulled another Halloween paper from my stash and stamped sentiments and an image from these kits: Hey boo, Toil and Trouble, and Hallow Eve’s Tree!

I added a Recollections lenticular ephemera piece to create the easel effect!

As you can tell, I had fun this month! Hope you enjoyed these card ideas! Before you leave, a reminder to add a comment if you wish to be eligible for this month’s giveaway! Be sure to leave your name, as otherwise you show up as anonymous! I’ll announce winners in next month’s post! Now on to the rest of the hop… 

Next stop is:

Dawn’s blog

And if you wish to start from the beginning, go here:

Crystal’s blog

{BYSHC} October Sketch Challenge 38 - A Super Holiday Sketch!

 Love, love, love this sketch so much that I couldn’t wait to create cards for it!

For the first card, I decided to use a Penny Black stamp called, Snow Trails. I started by stamping and clear embossing the image onto Bristol Paper. I had already pulled out to use as a background a pretty paper I picked up in a magazine. I ended up blending, over the image, 3 different oxide inks to mirror the colors in the paper. I splattered a white opaque ink to create the appearance of snow.

I cut the paper down into four pieces and glued the onto white paper. I cut that down and used foam tape to adhere to the background paper. I then stamped with purple and embossed a sentiment from Frantic Stampers Christmas Greeting Lines using a sparkly powder. A perfect complement to the image, I thought! I added a circle with a snowflake metal embellishment and white enamel dots to complete the card! Love how this one turned out!

For the second card, I relied on beautiful Mintay papers from the White Christmas collection. This was so easy to pull together. I cut the paper down and mounted it on red paper. I used another sheet from the collection and mounted that on deeper red cardstock. I cut another circle from the collection to use as a circle embellishment and added color coordination sprigs and berries using a Sizzix die set. I added a white embossed sentiment from a SSS Holiday Cheer kit. Love how the paper’s Merry Christmas sentiment plainly appears. Because the papers are so beautiful, I felt no more embellishments were needed!

Note, there’s another Linky Party coming up October 20 - 27 with giveaways from a variety of vendors! Sketch or no sketch, all holiday cards and cardmakers are welcome!

Hope you have as much fun as I did using this cute sketch! Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting till next time!