Jingle Belles Here Comes Santa Claus challenge

The new challenge @ Jingle Belles is to use a Santa image on your card.  I had some vintage Santa transparencies and glitter backing transparencies that I've had in my stash for a couple of years and decided to use one of those on my card.

I dry embossed the red cardstock background and added a few paint splatters of white paint.  I also added a piece of acetate of the Santa image, and inked and embossed the edges of the acetate with white to get a snowy look.  It's hard to photograph this without getting glare from the acetate and glitter; it looks much more sparkly in real life.

Fusion card challenge

Here is the inspiration for this week's Fusion card challenge.

I used the sketch for my card, for also took inspiration from the pastel colors in the photo, although I used silver instead of gold on my card.  Definitely a little bit different from my normal Christmas card colors, but I really like the softness of the colors, with the silver embossed sentiment.

Muse: Christmas Visions July challenge

Here is the inspiration card for the July challenge at Muse: Christmas Visions.  This card is by
Jessica Frost-Ballas.




I love the gorgeous poinsettia and the touches of gold on this card, so used those as the inspiration for my card.

I used my Cricut and some pearl and shimmer paper for this card.  It's hard to see in the photo, but the subtle shimmer is really pretty!

more one layer cards

I thought I would try my hand at a couple more one-layer cards for the AAA Cards and Less Is More combined challenge.

For this one, I stamped the spider web background partially on the grey card, then stamped the spider and sentiment.  I sponged a little purple distress oxide ink around the edges.  

On this card, I used a Paper Smooches curved stitched die for the "hill", then sponged green Distress Oxide ink in that area for grass.  The tree, leaves and sentiment were stamped, and then I sponged a little blue Distress Oxide ink in the sky area.  I wasn't sure how the Distress Oxide inks would work on kraft cardstock, but they showed up pretty well.

Combined challenge at AAA Cards and Less Is More

AAA Cards and Less Is More are holding a combined challenge:   one layer cards with a colored cardstock base.  While most of my cards are pretty much clean and simple, I rarely make a one-layer cards, so this was a real challenge, especially when trying to use a colored cardstock base.  The first couple of attempts weren't too great, but the third one turned out okay.

The floral background stamp is from Brutus Monroe.  I stamped it on the top portion of the card with white pigment ink, then embossed with white embossing powder, and added some touches of color with colored pencils.  I added a score line at the bottom, accented with a white gel pen and a stamped and embossed sentiment at the bottom.

It's always good to challenge yourself to try something new that might not necessarily be in your comfort zone.  This was fun!

July 15th challenge @ CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration

I've enjoyed being a guest designer at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration this month.  Here is the 2nd challenge for July, Case File #234.

I used triangles, stamps, sun, and check pattern as my evidence, and wrote my journaling in list format as my testimony. 

Photos are of my youngest grandson on one of our (many) summer trips to a local ice cream stand.  Most of the time he chooses the blue raspberry ice cream but he ALWAYS chooses sprinkles!  

You have until the end of July to join in the challenges at CSI.  We hope to see you there!

PawPaw's Buddies

Our two grandsons just adore their Grandpa (and the feeling is mutual!)  It's hard to get a photo of all three of them, though, because the little guys like to squirm around, or else do their superhero poses for the camera.  These photos aren't the best, but they'll have to do for now!

I used the July single page sketch from Stick It Down for this layout.  Here's a look at the sketch:

You have all month to play along with the sketches at Stick It Down.  They also have a double page sketch and a card sketch, so there are a lot of choices!