Belle Papier {pretty paper}

It’s been a while since I’ve done a pink Christmas card. Love them…they are so fun! When I found t his gorgeous Websters’ Pages in a pile on my desk yesterday, I really wanted to have a little fun with it. It is beautiful, heavy, double-sided paper and it was so easy just to pull my color combo directly from the striped paper. When you create a color combo, decide on the one color you wish to feature. I chose pink for a fun look. Pink card base, pink layers that are just a little wider to make them stand out, some gorgeous pink ribbon and a pink button ties it all together.

A Pile of Presents

I love this stack of presents from the Lizzie Anne Designs High Hellos set. I think it is really meant to be for a birthday but I thought they’d be super cute for Christmas. After the amount of presents I’ve had to buy so far (and I’m nowhere near finished - the joys of large families!) I think I could pile up quick a few of these stacks around here. Actually, I’ve had to cart them all over to my Dad’s house as this old house has very little storage. I paired up the presents with a couple other Lizzie Anne Designs sets to emphasize the Christmas theme…Holiday Cheer for the Merry Christmas Sentiment and Celebration Frames for the holly and frame layer. My images were all colored in with my Copic Markers..so quick and easy. My circle stamped layer was punched out with two EK Success punches… 1 1/2″ and 1 3/4″. I just picked up the larger of the two the other day. I’ve been wanting one of these for a while…perfect for extra layering and they both work really well with this set.

As I mentioned above, I was inspired by the Webster’s Pages patterned paper. I just love this Ting a ling line! The striped paper is called Ribbon Candy (yummmm) and I used another paper from the same line with beautiful olive candy canes. A simple layout gives a clean look that works well with this image and color combo.

I couldn’t use pink and not use my favorite pink velvet May Arts ribbon…love the warmth of velvet on Christmas designs. I ran a strip of it over the seams where my patterned paper met and then tied a scrap of it to highlight the sentiment. An Autumn Leaves button is tied with some aqua stitched ribbon for a simple embellishment. I’m soooo into buttons these days. They are a fabulous embellishment…easy to use and not too expensive.

Wishing you a Pinkalicious day!

Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends this morning! I’m wishing you all a fabulous day. We have so much to be thankful for. In Canada we celebrated early in October. I always love Thanksgiving…taking the time to get together with family and friends and most of all, to remember my many blessings…health, love, family, friends, home, forgiveness. Being thankful is something I try to make part of every day. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Psalm 136:1

I decided to make a Thanksgiving card today to wish those who are celebrating a happy Thanksgiving. Also, today is Thursday so it is time for another Ways to Use It Challenge. I’ve decided to do a rerun challenge today…one of my favorite things. Probably shouldn’t be too hard to guess this one…STITCHING! Pull out those sewing machines, do a little hand-stitching, or some faux stitching…if your design has stitching on it, it will be perfect for today’s challenge. Now I know that many of you are busy today. I know the work involved with getting a large dinner together so….if you can’t play along today…feel free to design something anytime this week. Hey…if you’re really into it, make a card or project every day! I’d love to see your ideas! Check out the challenge at WT141 If you’d like a stitching tutorial…check out my All Stitched Up.

Thanksgiving Cornucopia

This design uses some of my new Cornish Heritage Farms stamps that I got in the mail on Tuesday. I was so excited to get stamping with them! The Cornucopia is from Kim Hughes darling set, Let’s Get Stuffed. Is that appropriate for today or what?! LOL The image was colored in with my Copic Markers and then overstamped with the Weave backgrounder stamp, also by CHF. I am totally loving these backgrounders!They are so fabulous for adding texture.

My main card base is Chocolate Chip cardstock layered with this stunning Webster’s Pages patterned paper. Love the vintage look of it. I added a row of machine stitching around the panel after adhering. My sentiment panel is Kraft cardstock and is stamped with another CHF backgrounder, Weathered Wood in Real Rust ink. I decided to try stitching the May Arts ribbon down in stripes across this layer with a zig zag stitch. I think I see more ribbon stitching in my future.

For my final touches, I added a little corner definition with a little free-style stitching on the bottom left corner of my image panel before adhering to my design. The little corner treatment uses a corner punch embellished with a Fancy Pants Harvest Pin tied with a scrap of that ribbon.

I hope you find some time to take me up on the challenge! Wishing you a safe and happy and thankful day!

A little more holiday cheer….a Christmas card design to share with you today. Sorry I totally missed yesterday. There are only so many hours in the day and I tell you…I’ve been burning the candle at both ends trying to keep up. There was just so much housework to catch up on, sometimes you just have to do that and forget about stamping. I’m sure many of you are busy cooking and cleaning as well with American Thanksgiving coming up tomorrow. I wish you all a fabulous day with lots of food, friends and family. It will be same old, same old for us as we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving weeks ago in October. Truth be told…although I wouldn’t turn down a turkey dinner, I like celebrating in October…gives me a little more time to get ready for Christmas. I’ve been busy shopping and sorting and making lists. I like to get my shopping done before now to avoid the crowds but I’m just going to have to brave them this year I’m afraid. I AM doing really well with the Christmas cards this year as you can see. I have lots stocked up…I just have to decided which ones go where.

Holiday Cheer

This is a little design I created with the Lizzie Anne Designs Holiday Cheer stamp set. So darling…love the fun look. I decided to have a little fun with some acetate and stamped the stylized snowflake onto it with white Stazon ink. I love this opaque ink and if you haven’t tried it…the white is one of the most flexible ones to get. To add to the frosty look, I also swiped the edges of the layer with the ink pad and allowed to try.

My background design is very simple and uses a 5.25″ square card base in Real Red cardstock. The patterned paper layer is a gorgeous Olive color. It is more of that awesome Webster’s Pages designer paper by Terri Conrad. After adhering my layers, I stitched around the design with my sewing machine to frame it and attach my transparency layer.

To create a fun hanging ornament, I stamped my Happy Holidays circle onto whisper whit cardstock and punched it out with a Marvy Maga circle punch. After sponging the edges, I adhered it to a scalloped circle punched with my Giga Circle punch, also by Marvy. The hip tree is stamped with Always Artichoke and cut out, matted and adhere to the center of the ornament. A little Making Memories gemstone brad adds some glitz and a little scrap of May Arts ribbon adhered with a glue dot add the tie for the ornament.

Quick Tip: When using Marvy Punches, they make it easy to layer …the Giga punch will perfectly mat a Mega size punch and so on.

Webster’s Pages, May Arts ribbon and stamps available from Jacksonbelle Embellishments.

Wishing you a fabulous day! Enjoy Thanksgiving and find a little holiday cheer in getting ready for Christmas.

I love Webster’s Pages patterned paper and their new Christmas line is stunning! Very fresh and a little vintage…this paper is just my style and I’ve had so much fun designing Christmas cards with it this year. This paper is double-sided and a great heavy weight which I love. Now I don’t have a {C’est Bon} entry for you today but this design IS part of a product spotlight for Jacksonbelle Embellishments featuring this gorgeous paper. Seeing as {c’est bon} (It’s good) I guess this is just a shorten variation of my usual Sunday entry. Check out the Product Spotlight and see the other designs featuring the beautiful Webster’s Pages Christmas line.

Noel

This design uses a simple clean design to allow the beauty of these patterned papers to be the focus of the design. I started with a 5.25″ square card base using Very Vanilla cardstock, layered it with Purely Pomegranate cardstock adn then added my pattered papers. To create the strip across the design, I stamped my Lizzie Anne Designs Glad Tidings holly stamp in white craft ink across it and zig zagged the design. The top of my pale blue Websters is also stitched with a machine straight stitch for a little definition. Also on the light blue paper, I stamped Noel from my same stamp set with Purely Pomegranate ink.

For my main image part of the design, I punched a large circle with my mega Mary circle punch, sponged the edges and then stitched around in a circle. To add my image, I stamped my circle from LAD Celebration Frames set in Pomegranate and stamped the holly and berries in the center. The image was really quick to color in with my Copic markers. I think carefully punched out my circle using my 1 1/2 inch circle punch from Stampin Up…fit perfectly…and adhered it to my circle. YES…the circle IS meant to be off-center. A little gemstone stickers bling finishes it all off for a festive look!

Want a little more Christmas cheer? If you missed it, make sure enter to win one of blog little Christmas card kits I’m giving away … Spreading a Little Christmas Cheer. Have a great day and blessings to you!

Simply Saturday. Saturdays should be simple right? It is always such a busy week rushing around. So this is a simple little design I created using a Thomas Kinkade stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms. I love these stamps! So intricate but really easy to use in many ways. Really! This design went together very quickly with a little watercoloring, the Make a Wish Cottage Vignette stamp and some patterned paper by Webster’s.

As for my news…I’m so excited to share it with you! Cornish Heritage Farms has offered me the position of Design Team Coordinator. I’m so excited to be working for Richard and Liz and to be working closely with Lisa Strahl and Keri Sereika. I can’t wait to start on Monday, working with the very talented designers of both CHF Design Teams, the Fresh Faces Design Team and the Thomas Kinkade Design Team. When Lisa phoned me a week ago, I have to tell you I was just blown away. Some of you may know that Lisa held the position of Design Team Coordinator until now. Lisa now holds the position of Art Director for CHF…perfect for her creative genius. Congrats Lisa!

Watercolor Wishing Well

For this design, I started with a very simple 4.25″ square card base in Very Vanilla cardstock. The patterned paper is layered over top and is by Webster’s Pages…their paper is so gorgeous! You need to check it out! for my simple image, the Make a Wish Cottage vignette was simply stamped onto some more Very Vanilla and watercolored in with my Stampin Up dye inks. Because of all the beautiful shaded detail in this stamp, the image pretty much shades itself…just roughly add in the color. To add in some simple embellishments…I added an eyelet at each corner of the matted vignette and then tied a piece of beautiful Cream May Arts ribbon and inserted a little circular clip when I was tying it.

Wishing you a fabulous weekend!

Another Take Two challenge today! A Take Two challenge is a little fun challenge myself and three of my friends take every few weeks. We pair up a Stamp set or line and a paper line and see what we can come up with. I love seeing the difference in the styles with the same/similar product. Today’s we’ve paired up some great Inkadinado stamps (fairly new to me but I’ve just totally fallen in love with them) and the new Websters Pages. Oh wait! LOL It is new to me too and it is gorgeous! I think I’m now hooked on both!

Look below for my design and make sure you check out the other designs as well. Lindsey, Michele and Trudee never disappoint. As I write this, I haven’t seen their designs either, I just can’t wait!

Sailing Birthday Design

I’ve been looking for some great sailing stamps for a very long time! I just love this new sketches line by Inkadinkado! Gorgeous and so easy to color and use! I just had to make this card for my son’s birthday…actually it is not until December but you know how busy that month can be!

The main image was so quick to do. I used my Prismacolor colored pencils and quickly colored it in. Because of the sketchy nature of the image, you really don’t need any Gamsol to blend. Over top of the image, I stamped my sketched shell three times without reinking in Close to Cocoa ink. To add a little shading to the shells, I lightly shaded them with a light grey colored pencil.

The patterned paper is by Webster’s Pages. I used Picnic and Shortbread….don’t you just love the names?! My son loves blue so I pulled out a little Bashful blue…the color is in one of the stripes and the water of course, and matted the layers with it. Card base is 5.25″ square of Very Vanilla.

For my embellishments, I decided to use some bold hardware. The buckle is from the SU Hodgepodge Hardware set. Can you believe I’ve never used one of these before. I’ve been sorely neglecting them and as I’m really getting down in my remaining selectionm I thought it was time to start using them! The buckle is held with strips of chocolate Chip cardstock to “hold” it all together. The huge brad is one of my recent favorites. I just LOVE the big bold look of this Karen Foster Designs Really Big Brad. Actually…I’m looking for a source for more. If you know of one that ships to Canada without huge fees…I’d be VERY intersted! A little distressing, a Happy Birthday sentiment and a little paper piercing finishes it off.

Hope you enjoyed our challenge!

Supply List:

Cardstock: Bashful Blue, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip - Stampin Up

Patterned paper: Picnic, Shortbread - WEbster’s Pages

Stamps: Shell and Sailboat - Inkadinkado, It’s Your Birthday - SU

Ink: Basic Black, Close to cocoa - SU

Other: buckle (Hodgepodge Hardware) , Mat Pack- SU, Really Big Brad - Karen Foster Designs, colored pencils - Prismacolor

Ooh La La… I have to tell you…what a great name for such a darling stamp set! I just love this new stamp set from Lizzie Anne Designs. I’ve been wanting some time to find some time to ink it up an have some fun. This morning’s Color Challenge….Groovy Guava and Always Artichoke seemed like the perfect time! This stamp set will be released September 10th…just less than a week now to wait! You can take a peek at the new releases right on their web-site.

I actually had to make this card in stages. This morning it was back to school here with two going to high school this year and two in grade school. It certainly is going to be busy in the mornings but a lot quieter during the day and though I will miss them, I’m really looking forward to a concrete schedule again. Makes life so much easier! I just had to share…. not everyone was happy that the school bus came this morning. This is Joshua pouting after the bus left. LOL Just click on the pic if you want to see if full-size.

Not sure if you’ve noticed but I have so much to share this past few days that I’ve been posting twice a day. Expect this to keep up for the next week.

Bonjour Ooh La La

I was so excited to find that this color challenge (Groovy Guava and Always Artichoke) worked with some of my new Webster’s paper. I just love it when that happens! I decided to layer the patterned paper onto the Always artichokes and use a Guava card base. For the main images, I simply stamped them onto four 1.5″ squares and then colored them in with pencil crayons…quick and easy. Oops! I guess that would be colored pencils! I found out over the weekend that Americans don’t call them pencils crayons! LOL I’m glad most of you figured it out for my challenge last Thursday! After sponging their edges I grouped them closely into a square and adhered them to the smaller panel. To add interest, I stitched around that layer and then distressed the edges for a little texture.

On my outer panel…I added a little brad corner treatment to frame the inner panel. This is so easy to do and brads are such an inexpensive embellishments. To add in the sentiment…I stamped Bonjour onto a little scrap of Guava and then tucked it into the main layer at the top right of the design.

Quick Tip: After inserting brads, use the end of your paper piercer to spread the tabs. This is much easier on the fingers!

The design still needed a little something. Hmmmm…I found this K & Company (retired ) charm in my stash. It worked perfectly to center in the focus of the card and add a little stamped fleur de lis to the center of the design.

Want to know the other sentiments for this set?! You’ll love them! I’m always providing a little translation for those of you who don’t know basic French.

Bonjour - hello

mon amie - my friend

merci - thank you

je t’aime - I love you

ooh la la - roughly wow

Supply List:

Cardstock: Groovy Guava, Whisper White, Always Aritchoke

Patterned Paper: Webster’s

Stamps: Ooh La La - Lizzie Anne Designs

Ink: Black, Close to Cocoa - Stampin Up

other: sewing machine, charm - K & Company, brads - Making Memories, colored pencils - Prismacolor, circle punch - EK Success

I love sketch challenges! They always make me think a little outside the box and that is a good thing. I love today’s SCS Sketch challenge. You can find it at SC if you want to play along.

This card features two things I wanted to tell you about. Flourishes has paired up with Gina K on the Make a Wish Stamps for a Cause set to help promote this fabulous cause. Flourishes does not profit in any way from this venture, except by helping out a wonderful charity. I know you’ve seen samples of this great set before here. I was on the original special design team for this project and I’m excited to help promote it again. I love this very flexible set and I love the fact that $7 from each set goes to the Children’s Make a Wish Foundation.

The other thing I wanted to tell you about is the gorgeous Webster’s papers. I LOVE them! These papers are fairly new on the market…I had never heard of them before until Jacksonbelle came back from CHA. Honestly…you really can’t get a great feel for them by looking at them on-line but I took Lindsey’s word for it and I love them! ABsolutely stunning in person.

Spring Wish

For this design I used the sketch as my jumping off point and pulled out my stamp set and my new papers. After looking through them, I thought this gorgeous print would work great with my image and I pulled my color combo direct from the paper….bashful blue and mellow moss. I tell you, it has been ages since I last used Mellow Moss but it looks so subtle and beautiful…I must rethink that color!

I actually tweeked the sketch just a tad and used a square card layout instead…you know how much I like the added design space! The main image was inked up with my SU markers and then stamped twice onto a scrap of very vanilla cardstock. After sponging all my layers, I adhered them down and started my embellishing. I also adhered a beautiful gold/green May Arts satin ribbon over the seam on the right hand side.

The image needed a little definition at the top left and I was itching to use my new Making Memories textured tape that I picked up at Michael’s yesterday. I cut off a small scrap, folded it over to create a tab and then stitched on top of the image. The Prima flower worked as the lower element to the sketch and I added a large copper eyelet with my Crop-a-dile as the flower center. To finish it off and to add another copper element, I added a row of eyelets under the center panel to add to the design.

Wishing you a fabulous day!