Just had to throw in these last four. If there are any questions on them...feel free to contact me. I love comments and would love to hear from you. Happy Holidays to you.

Happy Holidays!

Paper Poinsettia

The paper poinsettia is made from a Sizzix 3 pak of flower layers and trimed with gold. All of the papers used are Graphic 45.

Bells, bells, bells...

I loved the bell paper that Graphic 45 has this year. I made two cards with it and both are quite festive. This one has a Hero Arts Cling stamp embossed on a Spellbinders scalloped circle. I used a Martha Stewart loop punch under the red ribbon.

Blizzard...

The snow has to be 14-15" deep now. It's blowing around so much, you can't find where my husband already blew out the driveway. Visibility is not so great either. It's a good day to stay in and get a lot of nothing done. Watched a movie, gave the dogs a bath and am just now sitting down to do something in my room. It's been a snowing month so far. I think they said the fourth snowyest in history. So we got it, that's for sure. Today I'm featuring a card I made some time ago and I don't the photo does it justice. There's a lot of stuff going on in it, but it was fun to do and I love the colors. The image is stamped on glossy paper with Ranger Distress Ink and Ink Blending Foam.

Warm Wishes

This card has a embossed background of snowflakes, then dusted it with some white chalk dusted over it and a misting of Sparkle Shimmer Spritz.The rest was fairly simple with the tree stamp getting embossed in white and a few dabs of Stickles. So easy.

Winter Birds...

My two favorite winter birds are Cardinals and Chickadees. I also love a good plaid printed paper for a background.

This was a fun card to make and very easy, if you like alcohol inks. I found these really neat stickers at a show that was in the Twin Cities this late summer. I picked these ornaments not knowing what I would be doing with them for sure, but always saw these beautiful cards with the attention being the ornaments. These had a slight sparkle to them even thou they were clear. Easy enough...I just stuck them onto a background card I made using Ranger Alcohol Inks, cut them out and added the ribbons. They came out rather nice. Thanks for looking.

Snowy Lake Scene

My husband and I have found a new love...camping. No, this isn't anything like we camp in, but it caught my attention when I saw it in watercolors in a stamp show. I embossed this frame, A2 Embossing Folder, GraceÕs Frame, Provo Craft onto a rich brown cardstock. It turned out so nice that I thought it needed something special on it. I had this stamp from Stampscapes Inc. Lakeside Cabin and decided to emboss it in Judi-Kins White Diamond Powder. I used Ranger Perfect Pearls, Perfect Pearl color to buff up along the edges with a cotton ball. A quick misting of Glimmer Mist Coffee Shop, and it stays put. The snowflake is an altered flower from Making Memories. and the pearls are from Mark Richards. The brown is laid onto a piece of white bling cardstock.

Winter Pines

I think I had to do this stamped image three times before I got it right, and I ended up using the first one for the card. It's a Tim Holtz Collection, Reindeer Fight stamp that has these beautiful pines. I used a glossy cardstock and stamped it with Ranger Clear Resist Ink Pad. The distressing is done in Ranger Distress Inks, Broken China and Peeled Paint. I had some green glitter from a Barbra Trombley's Art glitter Pee Wee Kit in Raggae Transparent, that I used to fill in the trees with. Some Craft Lounge Crafty Sparkles in Chunky Crystal for snow crystals in the air around the trees. The cut is done with Spellbinders, Big Scalloped Ovals Lg. It fit perfectly into this Provo Cuttlebug A2 Embossing Folder, Scrollwork on green foil. I used a bit of Ranger Stickles, Diamond to fill in a few of the enclosures of the scrollwork and got a fun 'stained glass windows' look. I also lined a few of the lines with some green and red gems. I stamped the sentiment from Craft Lounge, Crafty Clear Stamps in Merry Wishes onto another die cut form the Spellbinders set. The ribbon was added and that seemed like enough for me. I don't have the best camera for this much glam. This was the best of about five or six photos I took. Hope it will do.

Vintage Santa

Graphic 45 Paper had some great papers this season. I found a vintage Santa in my favorite color, purple on the Christmas Past Collection, Visions of Sugarplums. I cut his face out with a Spellbinders Classic Scalloped Circles Lg and framed it with a larger cut in DCWV Glitter Cardstock. The reverse side of the Santa had the purple and gold stars on it, so I used it as a background paper on the darker kraft paper. All the edges were distressed with Ranger Vintage Photo Distress Ink. "Happy Holidays!" from Craft Lounge Crafty Clear Stamps Merry Wishes, is embossed with Gold Metallic Zing. The bow is a thin twine.

Frosty Glow

This was a very time consuming project. I started out just experimenting. The stamp is Penny Black's, "Before the Snow" and I stamped it using a Ranger Clear Resist Pad on a glossy paper. The distressing is done in Ranger Distress Inks, Mustard Seed and Broken China. I actually cut the image out with Spellbinders Curved Rectangles, but felt it still needed something else. I had used the Martha Stewart Snow Flurry punch earlier, so I had all these little flakes that I had left over. I used them to border the edge of the cutout. Lots of them. The entire image and border is on a paper from my stash and added a pearl gold paper under that. I detailed the tree with spots of Rangers Stickles Rock Candy to give it an icy effect and then added Crystal to that for the sparkle. Red balls are Hero Arts Metallic Decor and the gems were from stash.

Before the Snow

Here's another background using Ranger's Alcohol Inks. I think I used just three colors, Oregano, Aqua and Lettuce with the Gold Metallic. The background is K & Co. Christmas paper from last year and it's framed with a red foil card stock. The stamp is a Penny Black and is actually called, "Before the Snow". I stamped it with Versa-Mark and embossed it in Judi-Kins Pine Twinkle. I had Stickers Candy Bonbon's by Mark Richards in dark green stars, so I used that and covered it in Xmas Red Ranger Stickles. Simple as that!

Poinsettias

I did this card last week and like how it turned out. I was a bit reluctant to finish it after I did the stamp. The background is done with Ranger Alcohol Inks, Red Pepper, Lettuce, Cool Peri, Oregano and Bottle in a drop technique with the Blending Ink. That creates the edgy margins and color contrast. I cut it with the Spellbinders Grand Labels. The background paper is g.c.d Cranberry Sauce from the Christmas Sleigh Collection. The bottom edge is punched across with Martha Stewarts Doily Lace Edge Punch, using the punch 'outs' to create the lower border under it. The poinsettia is Northwoods Rubber Stamp and I used the Staz-On in jet Black. I filled in the red with Ultra Fine Flower Soft in Strawberry for the bracts and Ranger Stickles in Pine Needles for the leaves and Golden Rod for the centers. My home made flower is made out of red cardstock cut with Sizzix Sizzlits Flower Layer three pack and a punched out snowflake from Martha Stewart's Snow Flurry Punch Around the Page, in yellow. As for the ribbon, gems and two red brads, all were from my stash.

Merry Christmas Wish...
I love it when a project goes really quick and easy. This one did. I suppose it was because is was such a simple scetch. I wanted it to have a bit of a vintage look. The papers are Graphic 45 from the Botanicabella Collection. I bought the musical paper for the reverse side, which are all dragonfly images. The musical side did nothing for me at the time. Same thing with the images on the back of the memo printed side. That's the greatest thing about double sided patterned paper. I used a heavy piece of manilla parchment for the base and a solid brown for a background. Before stitching the memo paper down on the brown paper, I scraped the edges with a distressing tool. I embossed the tree with an Inkadinkado rubber stamp in clear powder. Once that was done, I used Ranger Dristess Ink in Peeled Paint to distress the backgrownd like a glow around the tree. By holding the Spellbinders frame around the stamped paper, I was able to avoid hitting the edges with the distress ink. Lime Green Stickles accents the ribbon around the tree and a simple gem for the tree top. Attach a sentiment near the top and it's done.

The Holidays are here!

I used some paper from K&Company that I got a year or two ago for both the red and the blue pattered paper. There is a blue foil between them to frame the front. I think the Tim Holtz reindeer from Reindeer Fight for the image that I stamped with Hampton Art a' la mode in Royal Blue. Then used Art Glitter glue with a narrow tip to get Royal Wink glitter ready to sprinkle on the deer. I also stamped the word celebrate on the side , but no glitter with that. The entire card is distressed with Ranger Distress Ink pads, Faded Jeans and Worn Lipstick, then sprayed with Glimmer Mist's Moonlight. I finished the image with some Stickles and red gems. The snowflake is K&Company's Swell Noel after switching out the gem for a blue one. The inside is embossed with JudiKins White Diamond powder, reading "The snow falls softly, quietly-And winter beauty fills the air", by Northwoods Rubber Stamps.

Halloween Time...

This is my favorite time of the year. We've been so lucky with weather, I can't even say. The sky was the most beautiful color blue behind all the different colored leaves that remain on the trees. The low sun casts the finest shadows on the rooftops. The colors inspired me to pick up the alcohol inks and make some fabulous backgrounds for Halloween cards. I love working with this stuff, because you can do so much with creating skies and leaves. I decided there was no reason not to carry the same idea into any type of greeting card. After having a few stray backgrounds I did in different colors, I stamped them, using jet black StazOn. These turned out pretty cool to.

Seasons

I always tell people that I don't know why I live in this state. I despise the cold of Winter and the hot humidity of Summer. The two reasons, I guess, I love living here, are the Autumns and the Springs. Wayne and I have been gone for the past two weeks with our camper. We drove to Cambridge Maryland, where my sister lives and then drove north to Copake, New York. No reason to go to NY. We just wanted to go north, where it was cooler, than south where it was still too warm. Of course we loved New York state. We hadn't been there before and both of us absolutely loved it!. This is the time of year to watch the hillsides change into beautiful contrasting colors. There really is no way to duplicate this in anything outside of a photo, and even that won't reveal the textures and dimensions that your eyes catch in real life. It was a beautiful drive and a vacation much needed. This was our first trip out in our camper that we bought a couple of months ago. Camping has never been my thing, but now, it seems so relaxing. I think it may have something to do with my age. The new camper is very comfortable and even better, once we figured everything out. We finally had hot water two days before we got back home. Thank goodness for KOA campground showers! We would still like to do one or two more trips up north before the colors are gone. They just don't last long enough.

Happy Monday! Things are starting to look up. Everything is in place and I'm a bit more relaxed. I wish I could say the same for Ollie, my Blue Headed Pionus! He just doesn't seem to be real happy here. Lots of back talk coming from him. With more time and peanuts, I can only hope he settles down a bit. I'm also hoping I can find a thread of creativity here. Even Ollie knows things are a bit different, seemingly so, my creativity seems to be a bit up in the air as well. I've started several Halloween ideas and a few wedding cards. I just need to finish them. It won't be long. Until then, I'll be stamping and coloring away. Stay tuned...
TJxxxxx

The Move...

The move has been done. We're now in a different house that is much nicer. The only problem is that it's smaller. Not that we need all the extra space, but it's an adjustment. After moving everything into a room that is only 9 x 12 square feet...I realize I need a bit more space and will be transferring everything into a larger room right next to this one. So...once more... another move. That's ok. I can make it work. In the meantime, we are still dealing with ninety degrees and well over seventy percent humidity. Lousy weather for a move! The worst is over with. I just want to sit down and relax with some more constructive time in my scrap room. I'm trying to stay with watching my blogs and more classes and workshops in the mean time. At least I can do that until I'm all set up. I'll be back before too long with some more things to look at.

Penny Black Cards