When I made the card for the current Color Hues Challenge I made a second one, and inlaid the leaves in green metallic paper–couldn’t do that for a two-color challenge. But I forgot to add my Color Hues card to The Colorful Options Challenge (RED), so I wanted to get this one posted as well.

Since I gave more detailed information here, I won’t go over it all again. The lovely ornament is from The Greetery, The Jumbo Curiosity Ornament: Round. All the papers for the ornament are metallic, and the sentiment is a premade one from Memory Box.

It’s been raining all day (and cold) so it doesn’t seem like Christmas is right around the corner, but I know how fast the time flies, so I need to be focused the next couple of weeks if I’m to have the cards, baking, and gifts wrapped in time for the holiday. I’ll be glad to take the day off on Thursday to celebrate Thanksgiving with Tracy’s family. I’m the “pie lady” so I do have to make three pies, but that’s far easier than roasting a turkey and getting all the elements of a traditional dinner together. 

Here’s the lovely moodboard for this month’s RED challenge at Colorful Options.

The Paper Players have the perfect color combination for holiday cards:

Recently, Altenew notified me that I had reward points that ought to be used. It didn’t take long for me to order their Festive Greenery 3D Embossing Folder and Stencil set. It seemed like the perfect time to break it out, and after playing with some possibilities I ended up with two cards. 

This card is pretty much the way Altenew shows it in the layering stencil guide. I use Simon Says Pawsitively Saturated Cherry ink for the berries and two new Pinkfresh Studio ink colors: Spruce Tips  and Lush Forest. I trimmed the edges so I could add a thin gold frame before adding it to a red cardbase.

The sentiment is a prefoiled one from Pinkfresh, Foiled Sentiments 4 Holiday which I adhered with dimensional tape. I added just three gold pearls as a final accent.

For this card, I embossed Evergreen cardstock from Concord & 9th. I wasn’t sure how it would work, but I lined up the first stencil for the berries and ran a VersaMark clear embossing pad across the berries. Then I sprinkled some Zing Red Glitter embossing powder on the berries and heat set them. Aside from red glitter on the desk and on me, it worked out great.

It sometimes happens that a mistake is the first step in creating a card with a different design. I over-trimmed the long edges of the panel but didn’t want to cut it down any more. In my stash where I keep folded cards I didn’t end up using for a project I found one with an off-set front panel. It worked out perfectly for the embossed panel to which I again added a narrow gold frame. The sentiment is the same style as the one above, but this one I gold foiled on black cardstock which I liked much better for this card than the versions on white cardstock.

This card was finished yesterday, but it gets dark so quickly now that I had to wait until this morning to photograph it. Thus I am getting these into the challenge just in the nick of time.

I’ll be sending another card over to Darnell’s NBUS Challenge. Another new item used (rather quickly this time!)

 

*Note: if you’re here to see today’s Color Hues Challenge post (more Christmas, of course), click here.

It may be a bit early for the sentiment in the title of the post, but definitely NOT too early to be thinking about Christmas cards. Last year at this time all the cards that I needed were completed. There’s a long story behind the fact that I am not nearly ready, but I’ll save it for later if the original plan pans out in the end. In the meantime, I’m making Christmas cards when I can. Work on our house last week and the fact that volunteer work always seems to increase at this time of year, has meant crafty time has been diminished for the last couple of  weeks. I’ll be working with our Dining Room Ministry program Saturday, but there appears to be a good amount of time for crafting as well. I have big plans . . .

For today, I’m sharing two cards that were quick to make since the gold foiled backgrounds were already prepared. I’m entering them in the Peace On Earth Challenge where they have a lovely mood board for inspiration, but where any Christmas themed card is welcome. This time I’m not focused on anything on the moodboard.

The beautiful foiled background is Pinkfresh Studio’s Lush Vines which I’ve used over and over. This time it was foiled on Concord and 9th’s Evergreen cardstock.

Both of the sentiments were die cut once from gold metallic paper and layered on four green die cuts for dimension. This JOY is from Savvy Stamps and has been in my collection for years. 

The die cut for this sentiment ended up in the envelope with the Savvy die. I haven’t (yet) figured out where it came from. The sub-sentiment is from Papertrey Ink’s Sending Joy set. 

The sun is shining here and we’re due for possibly 60° temperatures, possibly the last day this fall. I’m hoping to get out for a long walk after lunch.

Ella’s birthday is coming up, and I designed her birthday card not only with her in mind, but also a couple of challenges. She’s having a splatter party (I asked for, and received an explanation, but still can’t describe it for you.) I thought the Concord and 9th Celebration Turn About stamp would be close to splatters (and more festive). I’ve had this stamp for months but this is the first time I’ve used it. While I had it out, I made three extra panels with different color combinations.

The balloon and sentiment were CASEd from a card Laura Bassen posted awhile ago. The large sentiment was just what I needed for the challenge at AAA Birthday’s challenge: use a large sentiment and came from Simon Says Life is a Party set. I knew I wanted a shaker so after die cutting the balloon-shaped window with Simon Says Balloons die, I filled it with an assortment of jewels and sequins, staying as close to the color combination as I could.

The balloon string was die cut with black cardstock with a die from The Greetery that was part of a thank you gift on their 4th anniversary. 

I’m sending this to AAA Birthday and also to Seize the Birthday: Anything Goes and NBUS since I finally broke out the turnabout stamp.

 

A good friend is having back surgery next week. I need to get a card in the mail so it will arrive shortly after the surgery and thought the Just Us Girls Challenge: Use the Center of the Card for CAS Week would be a good design for it. 

I had two sets of the pumpkins from Papertrey Ink’s Friendship Jar already colored with Copics so the card came together quickly. I used my last piece of Bazzil Prismatic cardstock in cream (purchased years ago) for both the card base and the Stitched Square by Simon Says. I love the subtle texture of the Prismatic papers, and still have a folder with many other colors. I need to remember to pull it out more frequently.

I put some dimensional tape under the square as well as behind the front pumpkins and the sentiment from Foiled Card Phrases by The Stamp Market. Quick and easy–and a good card design to remember. I think the card ticks all the requirements for Clean and Simple on the Challenge logo.

 

 

The calendar page has turned again. Because we were away for 11 days, the month sped by more quickly than ever. But today marks the beginning of a new Color Hues Challenge–chosen by Julie B. this time around and it’s a very lovely combo.

This combo lends itself to so many options, and I had a lot of ideas for a card. As it sometimes happens, it ended up being an unusal card design for me: it’s a one layer and no embellishment card. I didn’t intend it to be a shaped card but after I had die cut the image with Reverse Confetti’s Pierced Round Top die, I couldn’t find.a card base that really pleased me, so I created an arched card. 

The inspiration for the card came from Gina K–an older card she created to put behind a beautiful window frame. I have just one window frame, but it hid too much of the design. After ink blending a panel with one of Pinkfresh Studio’s new inks, Hydrangea and Concord & 9th’s Harbor inks, I stamped the silhouette from Gina K’s Friendly Silhouettes. Although I’ve used the florals in this set, I never used this lovely stand of trees.

The sentiment is from The Greetery’s Arched Sentiments. I’m a real fan of Betsy’s choice of fonts when it comes to her sentiment designs, and this is no exception.

Please hop over to the Color Hues blog where you’ll find beautiful cards created by Linda, our Guest Designer and the rest of the Design Team. 

I’m sending this to Seize the Birthday challenge where the Topping is: Add a Sky.

The first two Halloween cards have been created and will go in the mail today. There’s just one week for them to reach their destination. Wisconsin doesn’t seem so far away, but the time for delivery of a letter or card varies widely. I try to make sure there’s at least a week before the event.

The first one is for Caleb, and the color choices came from The Addicted to CAS Challenge: Black, Purple, and Green. I hope the spider web doesn’t disqualify the card from being CAS, but I enjoyed using those colors regardless. I’m also sending this off to the Festive Friday Challenge where I used: Black, Spider, and Ghost from the list.

I started with a Royal Purple card base (Simon Says) and added a black web from Papertrey Ink’s, “Caught in the Web.” Last year I bought these creepy spider stickers by Jolee, but never used any of them. I decided Caleb would enjoy it. The ghost is from the only new Halloween set I purchased this year, Ghost, from The Stamp Market. The sentiment cut from a green scrap is also from that set.

I die cut a larger ghost for the inside and stamped my sentiment from PTI’s Sentiment Staples: Halloween.  I gave this ghost some green eyes

Hannah’s card uses the more traditional orange and black colors. 

I used a lot of different products to create this card: the ghost is from Ellen Hutson’s Ghost Hugger. The ghost is holding a pumpkin stamped, fussy cut, and shaded with Copic markers from Grateful Home by right at home. The card base is my favorite orange-Orange Zest by PTI to which I added a Circle Cover Die by Reverse Confetti in black. 

I added some dimensional tape behind the pumpkin so the ghost’s “hands” also had some dimension. The cute die cut sentiment is from PTI’s To Die For Sentiments: Halloween. 

I used two stamp sets for the sentiment: Happy Halloween from The Stamp Market and Sentiment Staples: Halloween from Papertrey Ink. The little ghost is also from the Happy Halloween set.

 I’m sending both cards to another challenge: Inspired By: Ghosts.