Mix It Up Challenge - Use Ribbon

 It's time for the first Mix It Up Challenge for 2026.  This month's challenge is to use ribbon on your project.  Ribbon is something I don't use much anymore; I tend to go with twine if I need a bow or a tag.  But I had some blue ribbon in my stash, so I used it and an old faux bow technique on this card.

For the bow technique, you punch two holes close to each other, wherever you want the bow center to be placed.  Then you feed one end of the ribbon through each hole, front to back.  Then cross the ribbon ends in the back and feed them to the front, through the opposite hole.  Trim the ends and you have a neat little bow without a lot of bulk.  The sentiment on the card is from The Greetery and the frame die is from Papertrey Ink.

I hope you get a chance to join in this month's challenge at Mix It Up Challenge blog!  We'd love to see your creative uses for ribbon.

Jingle Belles "Holiday Leftovers" challenge

 The current challenge at Jingle Belles is all about holiday leftovers....those bits and pieces that are left over from other projects.  Maybe it's an unfinished project, or some extra diecut or stamped pieces that you've saved.

The "joy" diecut was leftover from a layout I made a few months ago.  I also had a couple of stamped evergreen branches and a red and white foiled panel that had been diecut into two different size arches.  I layered those on a card front, popping up one of the arches with foam tape, and also using foam tape on the sentiment.  The holly was a leftover diecut piece from a Simple Stories collection.  I think it all came together for a bright cheerful card!

November Mix It Up Challenge - keeping it clean & simple

 Well it's that time of year again, when we're focused on creating Thanksgiving and Christmas cards.  So it's appropriate that our challenge this month for the Mix It Up Challenge Blog, is to keep it simple.

Here's my card for the challenge.  At first glance, you might not think this is a simple card, but it really is and only took about 10 minutes to make.

 Taylored Expressions: Merry Blooms stamp & die set, Right At  Home: Peace Love Joy stamp set

This card has no layers, no die cutting, no coloring and no heat or dry embossing.  The trick to making it a simple and quick card is the stencil & stamp set used.  The greenery is one stamp with one color green ink, then I stenciled the poinsettias in one color of red ink, and stamped the veins and centers in a slightly darker red ink.  The sentiment was stamped in black ink and you end up with a card that was quick to make, but looks more intricate than it really was.  You could easily make several cards like this, assembly line style.  You could also dress it up a bit by heat embossing the sentiment or added some bling to the flower centers.  

I hope you have some time this holiday season to join us at the Mix It Up Challenge blog for our clean & simple project challenge.

Simple Snowman card

 This Christmas card uses the Warm Thoughts stamp set, which was a gift with purchase from Simon Says Stamp.  This snowman is too cute!  I stamped the image, then masked it off to do some light blue ink blending around it.  The image was colored with Olo markers and I added a little bit of stickles to his hat and the snow. 

This card fits two challenges:

AAA Cards Challenge #302 - Follow My Lead, which is a scraplift of Karen Rogers' card

and ABC Christmas Challenge for U & V - Uncluttered or Vertical

Peace on Earth Christmas village

I'm joining a couple of Christmas card challenges with this card:

Jingle Belles - Dashing through the Snow

Christmas Kickstart - Snow Alert

I used an old stamp set from Power Poppy for this card.  I stamped it on white cardstock, then masked off the image and ink blended the blue sky.  I stamped stars with Lisa Horton's metallic ink in Platinum (her metallic inks are awesome!).  Then I colored the village scene with Olo markers and added stickles for the snow.

 Thanks so much for stopping by!

Jingle Belles Cardstock Christmas challenge

 The current challenge at Jingle Belles is to use only cardstock on your project; no pattern paper allowed.  This was a perfect challenge for some stamps and stencils.

I used a stamp and stencil set from Taylored Expressions for the poinsettias and leaves, and a sentiment from Simon Says Stamp.  The poinsettia centers were embossed in gold, and the sentiment was embossed in clear over red ink.  I added a very narrow gold cardstock mat and then a larger red cardstock mat.  I love the large images on this card, and it was really very easy to put together.

Mix It Up Challenge Blog - fun fold challenge

 Here we are in September, with another challenge for the Mix It Up Challenge blog.  This time, the challenge is to create a fun fold card.  I made a variation on a z-fold card for my project.

I found a tutorial for this card on Splitcoast Stampers.   It's called a "Building Block" card and the instructions are in the tutorials section of the Splitcoast site.

The card starts out like a z-fold card, but then you cut slits into part of the card, which creates pop up folds.

I used kraft cardstock for the base, and added patterned paper panels that I matted with brown cardstock.  The images were stamped and colored to create a Fall card.  I'll add a cream cardstock panel to the far right so I can stamp a greeting and sign the card before mailing.  This creates a card that stands up well and can end up being a decorative piece, too.

We can't wait to see your fun fold cards for the challenge.   Hope you have a chance to create and share a project this month at the Mix It Up Challenge blog!