Today is my brother-in-law’s birthday and a week from today is my brother’s birthday. I almost always do duplicate (or almost) cards for them. When Simon Says hosted it’s STAMPtember event where they offer exclusive designs from major stamp companies, I caved only once. As soon as I saw the Gina K Stay Cozy set, I knew it would be perfect for masculine cards. 

Since these are winter birthdays, I decided on an ink blended background splattered with white for snow. The Gina K Master Layout #5 was the perfect window for the scene.

I die cut the window frame with the larger die in Gina K’s Master Layout #1 (one of the most used dies in my collection) and adding some foam tape for dimension. The sentiment came from Honey Bee’s Stay Still set of sentiments. 

There are several NBUS items used on this card. The Gina K Stay Cozy, the Gina K Master Layout #5, as well the Pinkfresh Studio 1″ blending brushes which I received as part of the August Create and Connect event. I’ve had the Master Layout #5 for a couple of years, and why I haven’t used those brushes before is beyond me! They are fabulous, and I just ordered three more during Simon Says Black Friday sale. 

As luck would have it, this card fits three challenges: The Paper Players: Be A Deer, Shopping Our Stash: Masculine, and Seize the Birthday: Masculine. I’ll also send these off to Darnell’s NBUS challenge. 

This post was made possible by the kindness and generosity of a fellow blogger–Darnell. When I commented on the beautiful papers she had used to create some lovely Christmas cards featuring an ornament, she sent me an envelope full of patterned paper pieces. What a surprise it was to come home from Wisconsin, and the very next day find this gift in my mailbox! Then I wondered if I had an ornament die that would work. Yes, thanks to the NBUS box, there was a Nordic Ornament die from Spellbinders. Thankfully, it included a solid ornament shape without all the intricate die cuts for the Nordic pattern.

I’ve created eight cards–all the same design, with a variety of the patterned papers, and card bases to match. All the cards have a premade sentiment from Memory Box’s Open Studio line–Greeting Tabs. Last year I found “Merry Christmas” tabs, but was unable to find those this year. These have a variety of sentiments–Happy Holidays, Merry & Bright, and Warm Wishes. Each come in three different fonts. I added a strip of dimensional tape to each, but wish I hadn’t as they would have been much easier to mail without it. Hindsight is almost always better!

Addicted to CAS has the perfect challenge that opened up just I started to create these cards: Ornaments. I’m also sending them off to AAA Cards: Anything CAS, Optional Christmas/Winter, and to Darnell’s NUBUS.

It’s not unusual for me to purchase a Christmas stamp, or in this case, a hot foil plate one year, and not put it to use until the following year. This Spellbinders hot foil plate, Flourished Tree, is one of those products. I spent an afternoon with my hot foil machine earlier this month, and am now getting them made into cards. I foiled three panels, so have three more cards in my stash.

It’s so pretty it didn’t need any embellishment. I die cut it so I could have a red metallic border around it, and added one of Memory Box’s Black Greeting Tabs. which work with so many designs and are a great time saver.

I’m adding this to the gallery at AAA Cards: Anything Goes/Christmas and Festive Friday where I’m using red, green, glimmer, trees, and Christmas sentiment from the Inspo List. (It hits a lot of the boxes there!)

The Paper Players have a challenge that is right up my alley: CAS Christmas! I’m running close to the end of the challenge, but we were in Wisconsin for ten days helping Sarah while Adam was away for a week. 

I purchased the foiling plate and dies for these Triangle Trees from Waffle Flower last year, and never got around to using them. They are perfect for a CAS Christmas card, but they are definitely a challenge to photograph. I have three variations on the theme:

This one has an embossed gold sentiment from The Greetery’s Tagged Elegance.

The sentiment here is also from The Greetery, Sentiment Suite: Christmas.

Just the same as above with two trees and a gold star punched with a very old punch and bumped out with a bit of dimensional tape.

I was happy to be in Wisconsin, and enjoyed being with Sarah, Caleb, and Hannah, but have to admit being away for 10 days in November puts a time crunch on getting ready for the holidays. I only have to provide pies for the Thanksgiving dinner, but Christmas looms in the not too distant future, and I am NOT at all prepared!

I’ve done a pretty good job resisting all the new holiday stamps and die cuts that have been released this year. I did break down and purchase the Festive Friends die cuts from Spellbinders. It was the October Die of the Month Club set so it was a great value. I just could not resist this cute bear wrapped in lights and his happy penguin friend. This is the first card, but it definitely won’t be the last.

I die cut most of the pieces from scraps of card stock. The bear’s sweater was die cut with some patterned paper in my stash (no longer sure of the manufacturer,) 

The background was created with Lifestyle Craft’s tiny star embossing folder on gray cardstock. I added some dimension between it and the card base. The bulbs for the strings of light were die cut from silver glitter paper. 

The star was die cut from gold metallic paper. All that glitter and gold led me to the Sparkling Holiday sentiment banner from Pinkfresh Studio which I embossed in silver.

I’m sending this off to the current Tic Tac Toe Challenge, where I went across the bottom row: Die Cut, Metallic Element, Festive Sentiment.