Thanks for the Fab Gift!

Today it is time for a new challenge over at the ShowCASe Your Style challenge blog!  The theme is to use a die cut on your project...pretty easy for me since I rarely make a card without a die on it!

With Christmas being over, some of you may be working on thank you cards for the gifts you receive.  With this in mind, I created the card below.

For this card I created the wavy strip by die cutting the orange cardstock with one of the dies from Clearly Whimsy's Stitched Trio dies.  It seemed to fit in with the precariously stacked gift boxes.

The gifts were die cut and stamped with the Thanks a Million stamp & die set.  I die cut the thanks with the Thanks Large Word die.  The stamped sentiment is also from the Thanks a Million stamp set.

I hope that you'll play along with this challenge!  It runs for 2 weeks!  

Thanks for stopping by!  

Merry Christmas & a Song (or two)!

Merry Christmas!!  After all the preparations for this day, it is finally here.  My heart is reflective not only on my loved ones but on the One who loved me first.  The One who came to this earth a tiny, humble baby, who gave up the comforts of heaven to come to earth to save me.  What a wonder. What a gift.  Sometimes I find it hard to give up the comforts of my home for just an hour or two to go somewhere when I'd rather be doing something else.  It's almost impossible to imagine that Jesus gave up His heavenly home to come to earth, to be born in a feeding trough made for animals.  To be persecuted, hated, mistrusted, misunderstood, beaten and killed.

So today I felt it appropriate to share one last Christmas card for the season that focuses on the true meaning (the truest, purest gift) of Christmas.

You know how much I love the Nativity Creche die from Frantic Stamper.  Well, this die is similar, only in an ornament shape.  I started by cutting out the Teardrop Christmas Bauble Background die from gold glitter paper.  Then, I die cut the Nativity Christmas Bauble with black cardstock to stack on top of the gold glitter ornament.

The frame was die cut with the Elementals #1 Basic Shapes die set.  The sentiment and the little stars are from Hero Arts Heavens Rejoice stamp set.   I used Zing Gold Glitter Embossing Powder to emboss them with.  I love the look of this embossing powder with a glitter finish!

I hope that you have a very Merry Christmas!  I'm going to leave you with a song that I have listened to over and over this Christmas season.  It is my absolute favorite Christmas song and has been for several years now.  It is called "How Many Kings" by Downhere.

And if you're still with me a new rendition of the popular Hallelujah song only this time Christmas style and performed by a Kansas band called Cloverton.

Merry Christmas!!

Shine!

Hey everyone!  Today I am stopping in to share I card I made with the latest stamps & dies from Lil' Inker Designs!

I started by die cutting the fabulous Girl's Best Friend Diamond Die with holographic paper (saved off the back of a package!).  I stamped the "shine", from the Alphabet Gems stamp set in VersaMark and then embossed it with white embossing powder.  I took out my pearlescent watercolors and lightly colored the letters.  I also added one lone sequin to the diamond die to mimic that shine and sparkle that you often see when diamonds catch the light.  Super quick & simple card!

Thanks for stopping in today!  I'm off to do some last minute Christmas shopping.  I'm SO close to being done! :)

Friendship Hop for Simonne :)

Welcome to a very special blog hop!  Today the Whimsy design team members are hosting a  friendship hop in honor of a special member of the Whimsy Stamps family, Simonne Clay. Simonne has been a fixture here at Whimsy for many years and we all just wanted to show our appreciation for all that she does for each of us and for sharing her amazing talent as an illustrator.

I've only recently become acquainted with Simonne and she is just the sweetest person!  I have enjoyed getting to know her a little better over the months.  She is so just as talented as she is sweet too.  She does so much for our team so I am so happy to be able to help honor her and thank her for all of her contributions!

I chose the sentiment "a million wishes" because that is what I wish for Simonne...that her hopes & wishes will come true!  

To create the card I used stamp sets all created by Simonne.  I started by stamping the chevron background from Basic Backgrounds & Borders in Fresh Ink Slate ink.  I used two stamp sets to create the sentiment.  "A million" is from the Thanks a Million stamp set & "wishes" is from the Happy Everything stamp set.  The circle bursts are also from Happy Everything (that set has so many components that I have a hard time NOT using it on every card, it is just that versatile).  The little gold dots are from the Scandi Christmas set.

Be sure to visit everyone on the hop!

Whimsy Blog 

Alanna Moses

Debbie Eastman

Ellie Stover

Amy Kolling

Iris Wiechmann

Danni Bindel

Heather Pulvirenti

Jen Carter -- You are here!

Louise Roache -- Your next stop!

Shannah Bartle

Shelby Thomas

Becky Carafa

Bev Rochester

Deb Routledge

Jacque Beddingfield

Crissy Armstrong

Denise Lynn 

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps: Clearly Whimsy Happy Everything, Basic Backgrounds & Borders 1, Thanks a Million, Scandi Christmas

Dies: Lil' Inker Designs Anytime Tags 2

Ink: Fresh Ink Slate, Sugar; Avery Elle Mint to Be; Delicata Golden Glitz; PTI True Black

Twine: Garn & Mehr Mint & Copper

Be Beautiful!

Frantic Stamper has a new die release out that many of you will find very interesting!  A vast majority of the release is WORD DIES!!  

Today I have a card to share featuring two of the new dies and a beautiful snowflake panel.

I used Frantic Stamper's Reverse Snowflake Panel which is very unique!  It cuts the design out of the card front while leaving the panel attached to the card base.  I love that!  The snowflakes in this die are so pretty too!  I placed a piece of aqua glitter paper behind the panel.

I love so many of the word dies in this release!  The "be" is part of a die set called Accessory Words that allows you to build phrases with your dies!  How cool is that?  The beautiful die is also new.  You will be seeing me use these new dies a ton!  

Accessory Words

Beautiful Word Die 

Reverse Snowflake Panel

Want to see a few more of my favorite Frantic Stamper word dies? :)

And there are SO many more to choose from! :)

Happy shopping!

A Whole Lotta Happy!

It's time for another challenge from the ShowCASe Your Style Challenge blog!  This week the challenge is based on a sketch. 

I used this adorable penguin from the Penguin Fun stamp set & coordinating Penguin Fun die set for my focal image.  I colored his feet & beak with copics.  I really like how this set includes several options for things to put on his head: earmuffs, hat & antlers! 

The sentiment is from the Happy Everything stamp set which is so very versatile!  Here I embossed it in white.  My snowflake background was created with embossing paste and a Heidi Swapp stencil.  My patterned paper is from the Basic Grey paper pack Evergreen.

I hope you join us this week for the ShowCASe Your Style Challenge!

Christmas Apron Card

Hey everyone! I have a fun shaped card to share with you today!  Last year for Christmas one of my good friends gave me an apron for Christmas that I wear all of the time when I'm cooking.  I love it! What a perfect gift!  My daughter even has one to match.  

As I was thinking about that, I thought about one of the dies that Frantic Stamper has that is so very cute and I came up with this Christmas Apron card!

This die is so much fun!  It is called the Kitchen Dress A2 Card Maker.  It comes with so many options on how to decorate your dress and/or apron.  Since I used so many patterns in my paper, I kept the extras to a minimum.  I first cut out my dress and then chose a complimentary paper for the apron.  I really like how the Christmas song on the paper talks about chestnuts roasting!  What a perfect song to have on an apron!  

I decided to use the same paper for the pocket that was in the dress...one less pattern to compete with an already busy dress.  I cut the spoon out of another paper that was in the same paper pack.  I chose the red paper because it was bold and would stand out from the other patterns.  I also tied a ribbon around the middle.  This would look cute without the bow on the front too.

I almost always put a sentiment on the outside of my card.  It usually doesn't feel finished to me without the sentiment.  But for this card I put the sentiment inside where it fit.  I could have gone crazy and decorated the inside more, but I kept it very simple.  I used three of the dies that were left over from the accessories in the dress die and used the Happy Holidays die for the sentiment.

I should mention that I cut the dress card base from cardstock to make the dress sturdy and then attached the patterned paper to it.  Here's how:

Cut your card base to 5 1/2 x 11.  Score it in half. Place your die so that the very top of the die is hanging over the top of the cardstock.  This will allow the die to cut the cardstock except for the collar of the dress (as shown below).   

Roll it through your die cut machine several times.  The cardstock I used was very thick so I had to trim around the inside layer with a scissors so that it would cut all of the way through.  Attach the patterned paper to the front of the card base.  Your collar piece will stick slightly up above the white cardstock.

Kitchen Dress A2 Card Maker

Happy Holidays

Thanks for visiting today!  Have a great week!

Supplies:

Dies: Frantic Stamper (listed above)

Patterned Paper Pack: Jolly Good by Chickaniddy Crafts

Gold & Silver Crafty Kits

Hello!  Today I am sharing cards that I made for the Crafty Peeps Card Kit Club.  This is the last kit from our group!  Cheryl Knutti sent us a great package of products filled with gold & silver!  I made three CAS cards to share with you today.

Cheryl sent us some beautiful papers to work with.  Everything on this card was already cut out and ready for me.  All I had to do was use the various pieces in some way.  

I love the gold against the black background!

I really like pink & gold together so I was thrilled to see that Cheryl had included a piece of pink cardstock in the kit! 

I embossed part of the vellum snowflake with a gold glitter embossing powder.  I love how that turned out!

And for my last card I took the gold & silver striped cardstock pieces and cut them into thin stripes.  Then I assembled them in various patterns on my cardbase.  It made an interesting pattern for this card.  

I put some glittery gold enamel dots from my stash on top of the vellum stars to help hide the adhesive.  Sometimes hiding that adhesive can get a little tricky!

Thank you for vising today!  I hope you have a wonderful day!

Hello, Awesome: Lil' Inker Designs Release Day 3

Welcome back to day 3 of the Lil' Inker Designs release!  If you are following along in the blog hop you should have come from Erin Schreiner's blog and if you'd like to start at the beginning, visit Laura's blog!  There are three $15 gift certificates to the LID store up for grabs, so the more blogs you comment on, the better your chances are of winning!

First up is a very colorful card made with several more new awesome products! :)  I started by creating my background and die cut several different sizes of patterned paper with the Long & Skinny Rectangles dies.  I LOVE all of the options that you get with this die set!

I cut out one of the Pinking Edge Sentiment Flag dies from vellum and then heat embossed the "hello" from the new Hello Awesome stamp set. I also used the single stitched die in the Long & Skinny Rectangles die set to create the stitches in the vellum to match the stitched sides of the card. And the die that many of you have been waiting for is here!  This Awesome Word Die is now available for only $5.95!  For this card I used the die with glitter paper to pack some punch.

For this last card I went big...big jewels that is!  I started by creating the card base.  I used the previously released Border Builder Dies to create the rounded gold and cream pieces.  I also added a gold stitched stripe to the top of the card that I made using the single die that cuts only the stitches from the Long & Skinny Rectangles set.

For the sentiment I started by using the Alphabet Gem stamp set and embossing it in gold.  I then stamped the first part of one of the sentiments included in the Girl's Best Friend stamp set and then stamped the confetti/sparkling image with a clear glitter embossing powder around it.  

New Products Used: 

Previously Released Products Used:

We do have a sad announcement.  

Thank you so much for visiting this week!  Don't forget to leave a comment to win!  The more blogs you comment on, the better your chances are of winning!  There's plenty more inspiration to see using these sets today!  Your next stop on the hop is over to Karen's blog!

We do have a sad announcement to make.  This will be Mary Dawn Quirindongo's last blog hop with us.  We are all so sad to see her go, but wish her all the best in her new adventures!

Laura Pryor

Amy Kolling

Chrissy Larson

Erin Lee Schreiner

Jen Carter -- You are here!

Karen Baker

Kristen Foreman

Laura Williams

Lea Lawson

Lisa Henke

Mary Dawn Quirindongo

Maureen Merritt

Sarah Jay

Lil' Inker Store

Supplies:

Dies & Stamps: Lil' Inker Designs (all listed above)

Hello, Awesome

Patterned Paper: PTI Aqua Mist, Harvest Gold, Raspberry Fizz, Orange Zest, Smokey Shadow, New Leaf

Glitter Paper: Core'dinatios Glamorous Glitter

Vellum: PTI

Enamel Dots: My Mind's Eye (various)

Sparkle & Shine:

Gold Paper: SU!

Patterned Paper: Oh, Deer! by Fancy Pants Designs

Jewels:  Jillibean Soup Wood Sprinkles

Gold Embossing Powder: Super Fine Detail Gold by Ranger, Judi-Kins Iridescent Sparkle

Ink: Avery Elle Cherry

All About Ampersands with Lil' Inker Designs: Release Day 2

Hello again and welcome to Day 2 of the Lil' Inker Designs December Release!  All of the products being shown today are currently available in the Lil' Inker Designs store!  If you are following along in the blog hop you should have come from Erin Schreiner's blog and if you'd like to start at the beginning, visit Laura's blog! There are three $15 gift certificates to the LID store up for grabs, so the more blogs you comment on, the better your chances are of winning! 

First up is one of my favorite cards I made for this release.  This new All About Ampersand die is pretty cool!  It has 3 options for the "&" symbol which seems to be popping up all over the place.  I cut the die from corrugated cardstock which gave it that wrinkled look.  I then stamped two of the sentiments from the coordinating stamp set, All About Ampersand stamps, with VersaMark and then embossed them in gold and popped them up with dimensionals.  

I really liked the sentiment "we go together like" that is included in the All About Ampersand stamp set.  I thought it would be perfect to use with the Donuts die & the Eat More Donuts stamp set released last time and the frosting die and stamp from the same sets. All of these are adhered to one of the Stitched Mats: Rounded Rectangles. I cut out the pink stripe with one of the stripes in the Long & Skinny Rectangles die set.  And then I used the single stitched die piece (it doesn't cut, it only stitches the line wherever you place it) to make another line next to it.  

I also die cut another one of the All About Ampersand dies in a shiny foil like cardstock.  I distressed the donut to make it look more realistic.  The center of the plain donut was cut out using one of the small dies (for the hang hole) from the Anytime Tags die set.  I added glossy accents to the top of my frosting die cut and then sprinkled some small "sprinkles" on top.  After everything dried, I adhered the donut pieces with dimensionals.  

New Products Used: 

Previously Released Products Used:

Thanks for stopping by today!  We'll be showcasing more products tomorrow! Don't forget to leave a comment to win!  The more blogs you comment on, the better your chances are of winning!  There's plenty more inspiration to see using these sets today!  Your next stop on the hop is over to Karen's blog!

Laura Pryor

Amy Kolling

Chrissy Larson

Erin Lee Schreiner

Jen Carter -- You are here!

Karen Baker

Kristen Foreman

Laura Williams

Lea Lawson

Lisa Henke

Mary Dawn Quirindongo

Maureen Merritt

Sarah Jay

Lil' Inker Store