Happy Birthday Balloons

The challenge this week at the Kraft Journal is to make a project with garden green, pumpkin orange, and olive green.  What I came up with is about 180 degrees from what I had in mind but I kept it.  In fact, it is a birthday card for my SIL.

I started with Light Kraft Cardstock and found a piece of flocked designer paper which I used on the side.  Orange and Olive - check.  But what about the garden green?  I tried backing the HB balloon die cut with the dark color - not.  So maybe three balloons.  Yes, I think that is a keeper.  I tied three cords of hemp twine, two of them from the Dark Jewel Hemp and the Bright Hemp Cord packages and joined them together with a garden green bow.  The Stickles look really cool on the bow because as it reflects the light, the sparkles look orange.
The balloon die cut isby die-Mensions.  The two green balloons and bow are Silhouette files.
Oh, last thing - I put a piece of Buff Ivory Text paper behind the two green balloons to help the highlight.
So are you up for the challenge?  Let us see what you come up with.

Challenges:
Word Art Wednesday - anything
Allsorts - Autumn colors
Paper Sweeties - olive, pumpkin, brown
Simon Wednesday - anything
DLArt - November challenge

Last Day of November

So many people get ready for Christmas in November.  I'm one of those who refuses to put up any decorations or do anything before December 1.  But I did make a few Christmas cards and here is one of them.

This adorable little girl all bundled up is a stamp by GKD.  The hugs bingo card is a digital stamp by Diane's Daydream Designs.
I cut out the stamped image with a Die-namic Circle Stax die.  The sentiment is cut with a Spellbinder Labels and Tags die.
This is my last card for the Die Cut Diva's November challenge of warm and cozy.  Dies R Us has been the sponsor.  This is also my last card  for Die Cut Diva's.  I made the hard decision to resign from the DT.  A big thanks to my team members for their support while I was with them and now that I am stepping down.   Be sure to visit the DCDC blog for the new challenge tomorrow - two sponsors for December.

Challenges:
Come and Get It - anything with sentiment
Inspiration Destination - anything
Word Art Wednesday - anything
Pink Gem - Christmas Carol (Frosty the snowman)
Simon Wednesday - anything 
DLArt - November challenge

Warm and Toasty Holiday

What a cute image by Trudy Sjolander.  I have used this for several winters.  I think it is so cute, especially for kids.

This time I added a little campfire cut out with a Cuttlebug die.  The sentiment is also cut out with a die,  a Spellbinder Labels and Tags die.
We are almost at the end of the Die Cut Diva's Challenge, Warm and Toasty.  If you haven't joined us yet, there are a few more days.  Come play.

Challenges:
Inspiration Destination - anything
Word Art Wednesday - anything
Simon Wednesday - anything
Simon Says Work It Wednesday - holiday card
Di's Digis - cute and cuddly

Negative Cut Tag

 Our family has always kept gift giving to a minimum for Christmas.   This year I am making most of the gifts again and one of the things I am making for the women is hot pads.  I found a really cute apple shaped one which I made for my sister.  Her husband is one of the major apple orchardists in their area of the state. How about an apple theme tag to go with it?

       
Pretty easy.  Cut out the apple with a Spellbinder die from a piece of red cardstock.  Backed it with Christmas designer paper, then backed both with green cardstock.  I punched a hole and added ribbon.
The negative cut idea came from some of the darling tags at In My Creative Opinion, especially Michelle's.

Challenges:
Papertakes - red and green
Die Cuttin Divas - tag
Inspiration Destination - anything
Word Art Wednesday - anything
Simon Wednesday - anything

Unusual Christmas Card

Recently I bought a Spellbinder 3-d embossing folder.  Playing around with it, I came up with this.

I wish you could see the detail in the embossing better.  It is really beautiful.
I experimented with several inks but finally used Tea Dye distress ink to first ink the embossing folder  and then run it through the Cuttlebug with a piece of Buff Ivory in the inked folder.  A Copic #E70 gave similar color to the berries and pine cones after it was embossed.  There are so many colors of twine in the Kraft Outlet store.  I love the Earth Hemp Cord and used two strands to wrap around and tie a bow.  The base of the card is Light Kraft. 
The challenge at the Kraft Journal is CAS Christmas card.  Give it try this week.  We would love to see your entries. 

From Our House to Yours

Can you believe I don't have a stamp that says that?  I thought for sure I did.  Oh well.  Easy enough to print one up on the computer.

So MANY tiny pieces but it is so fun to put these holiday houses together.  The set of dies is by Elizabeth Crafts.  I used a piece of the GKD digital paper (same one I used for the Joy tag), some Kraft, and a few other scraps to cut out all the pieces.  I put Stickles on the wreath and lights.  The roof is cut, embossed and then using the die as a stencil, I sponged a darker color on.

I love the tag by MaryBeth Lopez and originally was going to have my house extend over the edges like hers but changed my mind after I printed out the sentiment.

Challenges:
Pile It On - any holiday
Crafty Sentiments - anything
Word Art Wednesday - anything
Simon Wednesday - Christmas
Crafty Calendar - sparkle and bling
In My Creative Opinion - tags
DLArt - November challenge
Allsorts - at least three die cuts

Get Well

One of my young grandsons has been home from school all week with illness so I made him a quick card using Doodle Pantry per-colored images and the sketch at Sketch Saturday.

This is one of those super quick, super easy cards but I had only a few minutes today to make one and get it into the mail.
Sketch:

 This is one of those super quick posts too! Have a great weekend.

Challenges:
Sketch Saturday
Word Art Wednesday - anything
DLArt - November challenge

Special Baker

One of the gifts I am making this year is a Cookie Recipe Book for one of my granddaughters.  She loves to bake, especially cookies.  So I made this tag to go on her gift.

It was inspired by Wendy Ramlkhan's tag:

Adorable!

For my tag, I used an image by Paper Makeup Stamps and colored it with Copics. 
I added more "steam" by stamping little "swirlies" with an old SU stamp.
I love that ribbon on the tag I cased, so I used lot of ribbon for a tie and bow on top my tag.

Challenges:
Come and Get It - winter holiday
Pile It On - any holiday
Crafty Sentiments - anything
Word Art Wednesday - anything
Simon Wednesday - Christmas
In My Creative Opinion - tag
Allsorts - anything but a card
DLArt - November challenge

Joy Tag

 For my tag, I printed "Joy", a digital image by Digital Delights, onto digital designer paper by GKD.  I used more sparkly cord from my stash and another sparkly foam star.
 Inspired by Tracey McNeely's tag:

Challenges:
Come and Get It - winter holiday
Pile It On - any holiday
Crafting Sentiments - anything
Allsorts - anything but card
C.R.A.F.T. - Christmas
Simon Wednesday - Christmas
In My Creative Opinion - tags
Word Art Wednesday - anything
DLArt - November challenge

Another Warm and Cozy Card

As I have mentioned before, I have two grandchildren that have beautiful red hair.  This card goes to my darling granddaughter who loves stuffed animal toys so I chose this image by Paper Shelter, coloring her hair as close as I could to her color.  (It really is this bright!)

 Those cute slippers of hers reminded me of Doodle Pantry's Bunny Slippers so I used that image and the sentiment, cutting them out with a Spellbinder Grommet Tag.  The BG paper is also by Doodle Pantry.
The challenge at the Die Cut Diva's Challenge is to create something with the Warm and Cozy theme and it  runs until the end of the month.  Our wonderful sponsor is Dies R Us.

Challenges:
Word Art Wednesday - anything
Simon Wednesday - thinking of you
Pennys Paper Crafting - 3 of something (3 gems)
Sweet Stampin' -  wrap up warm (slippers)
V's Sweet Ideas - bling
Crafty Calendar - sparkle/bling
Crop Stop - anything

Determination

So glad I made the determination and commitment to make Christmas tags.  I am really enjoying it.  Spurred on by the challenge at the Kraft Journal, which is Anything Tags, I made several more.
Here are two I made using my new tree dies by Spellbinder.

 The tag on the left is a Large Manilla Shipping Tag on which I added a piece of Vintage Sheet Music (Mackie Robertson's card used sheet music - loved it) I used a bit of distress ink on the top of the tag and torn sheet.  I love this Christmas tree.  After cutting it out, I sponged a bit of ink on the edges.  The garland is die cut from the Spellbinders Happy Birthday Garland.  Worked great for the tree, don't you think?  The ornaments are brads. The tags come with strings but I added green Baker's Twine. "Gift for you" is a GKD stamp.
The tag on the right is a Grungy Prim Shipping Tag.  With the stain already on the tag and the color of the tag itself, I decided to stay with earth tones.  The trees are cut from Lunch Bag Kraft and Light Kraft cardstocks.  I made a new re-inforcer with dark brown cardstock and added a piece of Earthy Hemp Cord.   The same GKD stamp was used at the top but this time I left off the word "you" and cut out "you" with a MFT die.  I really love how both tags turned out.
Love tags? Check out the challenge at the Kraft Journal.  

Challenges:
Creative Moments - anything winter
CASual Chick - metals
Come and Get It - winter holidays
Pile It On - any holiday
Word Art Wednesday - anything
All Sorts - anything but card
Stamploration - sketch or theme
In My Creative Opinion - tags

Inspired by Many

For tag #5, I combined several ideas and sources of inspiration.

I knew I wanted to use this months digital image by From the Heart.  I also wanted to use the sketch at I (heart) card sketches.  So while I was looking at the tags at In My Creative Opinion, I saw Michelle Henderson's tag, and put the ideas all together.
Here is the sketch which I used for a tag instead of a card:

and Michelle's tag:

I liked her idea of the ornament hanging off the circle so I hung one at the top and printed one hanging off the "s" at the end of "halls".

 Challenges:
In My Creative Opinion - tag
From the Heart progressive challenge
i (love) card sketches
Pink Gem - Christmas critters
Paper Takes - Christmas critters
Penny's Paper Crafting - 3 colors twine
C.R.A.F.T. - Christmas

Tag # Four

There was a time when I did not like Kraft Cardstock.  The more I work with it, the more I love it. 

I started with a piece of Lunch Bag Kraft , cutting it into a tag, copper embossed the pine cone and green embossed the pine branch (GKD stamps).  The to and from stamp is a dollar stamp from a local craft store.  Originally I was going to ink the edges with white ink but the ink was too dry so I ended up embossing the edges in white which was okay since I had embossed the to and from image.
My inspiration for this tag was Julia Alterman's tag:

Challenges:
In My Creative Opinion - 25 Days Christmas Tags
Creative Moments - anything winter
Pile It On - leaves (pine needles?)
Penny's Paper Crafting - use three of something (3 embossing powders)
C.R.A.F.T. - Christmas
DLArt - anything 
Word Art Wednesday - anything 

Tag # 3

Tags three days in a row.  So nice to have my commissioned cards done so I can play.

Some time ago I was sent some ornament die cuts for a project.  As it worked out, I did not use them for the project, so  I used one for this tag.  The stamp in the center is a Great Impression stamp.  After cutting that out with one of the Die-namics Circle Stax dies, I cut out a metallic paper with the next size up.  Because I put some silver and gold glitter pen on the ornament, I used silver and gold cording on top.
Tracey McNeely's tag was my inspiration.

Challenges:

Come and Get It - sparkle
Pile It On - leaves
In My Creative Opinion - 25 days of tags
C.R.A.F.T. - Christmas
Crafty Calendar - sparkle, bling
DLArt - anything 

Tag # Two

Time for a cute snowgirl. 
This is a digital image by From the Heart.  Isn't she sweet?

I was inspired by Lorraine Aquilina's soft colors and ribbon on her card:

Challenges:

Creative Moments - anything goes winter
Time Out -  Christmas, pink optional
Simon Says Monday - "N"- nontraditional colors
Word Art Wednesday - anything
All Sorts - ribbon and bows
In My Creative Opinion - tags

First of Many Tags

You are probably going to hear this more than once on my blog - I am a procrastinator.  Ginger's House has a downloadable sentiment: " I put the pro in procrastinator".   That always applied to my husband, but 47 years has rubbed off on me.   Not in everything, mind you.  But big time when it comes to getting ready for Christmas.  I am really trying to change that.  I have three out of the 27 gifts I need.  Don't laugh!  That is a big deal for me!  One thing I have started on is Christmas tags.  I have always wanted to make cute and beautiful tags but run out of time.  I never use store-bought but the ones I make are 1 minute tags - stamp to and from and cut in a shape.   Trying to change that this year.
One of the challenge blogs, In My Creative Opinion, is showing Christmas tags for 25 days.  So much eye-candy and inspiration - just what I need.
So here is the first tag, inspired by Jennifer Ingle's tag.

I printed a digital image by Doodle Pantry from the All Is Calm set.

Where all the printed ornaments are on the image, I added brads, gems, and colored pearls.  The red star is a foam sticker.  To keep the sparkle going, I backed the tag with blue metallic cardstock and added silver cording for the tie.
Here is Jennifer's beautiful tag

 Challenges:
Creative Moments - anything goes
Time Out - Christmas
In My Creative Opinion - tags
CASual Fridays - metals
V's Sweet Ideas - bling
Crafty Calendar - bling, sparkle, embellishments
Come and Get It - sparkle
Little Scrap Pieces - anything
Doodle Pantry -monthly challenge 

Choosing Three for November

At the Kraft Journal, the new challenge this week is to choose three from the posted list.  My picks:
top fold, seam binding, stamped.

I love this yummy seam binding; two colors of  Rose Beige and Oatmeal.  The layers of cardstock that I used are SU Vanilla as the base, Lunch Bag Text, and Buff Ivory Cardstock for the top layer.  The leaves are cut out and embossed with Impression Obsession dies and the sentiment is stamped with a chocolate brown ink.
The DT at the Kraft Journal would love to see what you pick and post.  Challenge ends 11/15 pm.

Challenges:
Pile it On - leaves
Simon Wednesday - Thanksgiving
All Sorts Challenge - ribbon and bows
Sweet Stampin - leaves
Little Scrap Pieces - anything
Dies R Us - Fall
DLArt - November Challenge
Papertakes - anything 
Simplicity - Thanksgiving

Pigs in November?

Yes, but only because one of my granddaughters loves pigs and her birthday is next week.

I usually don't do sketches like this with lots of pieces, but this was fun (and I used up lots of little pieces in my container!)  The sketch is at i (heart) card sketches and this is a digital stamp by From the Heart.

Challenges:

Papertakes - anything
Creative Moments - anything
DLArt - November challenge
i(heart) sketches

So Many Blessings

Years ago, while I was working my way out of decades of depression, I was challenged to develop an Attitude of Gratitude.  That was a HUGE step in my recovery.
Most everyone lists family, friends, health, etc when they count their blessings and those are on the top of my list.  But to actually become grateful for little things did change my attitude.  I am so thankful for so many things - electricity, sunshine, hot water, colors, flavors, coffee(I just had to throw that last one in there!)  But seriously, how much we take all the every day blessings for granted.  So I am passing on the challenge to you to develop an attitude of gratitude.  You will be amazed at how better you feel and how much more you enjoy life.
Now on to my card (finally!).  The challenge at the Kraft Journal is "Blessings".  With Thanksgiving Day coming up, it should not be too hard to make a "blessings" card.

I apologize for the poor quality of the photo.  I tried several locations and light sources but this is the best I could come up with.  Such is the plight of our cloudy days.  For the card, I used Unity stamps (3) to stamp onto Buff Ivory Cardstock with brown ink and then added a bit of colored pencil.  The main stamp is a tree and house so I masked and stamped an additional tree.  The list of blessings is part of another stamp so I did some masking for that one too.
Because I had trees on my mind, I embossed a piece of Lunch Bag Text paper with a Cuttlebug wood grain EF and layered that onto a Buff Ivory card base.  The twine is from the Dark Jewel Hemp Cord at the Kraft Outlet. 

Challenges:
Cuttlebug Mania - trees
Simon Wednesday - anything
DLArt - November anything

Warm and Cozy

Warm and Cozy is the theme this month at the Die Cut Divas.  I tweaked that a bit and used a sentiment depicting warm and FUZZY but I think this little guy looks warm and cozy too.

This little bear on his pillow is a digital image which I printed three times: one for the white BG, one for the yellow pillow and one for the bear.
The sentiment is cut out with a Spellbinder die from the Labels and Tags set.  The lace strip is cut and embossed with a die (Marianne, I think).
Base is Warm Brown Kraft from the Kraft Outlet.

The Die Cut Diva's Challenge starts today and runs until the last day of November.

Challenges:
Sweet Stampin - dies and punches
Inspiration Destination - anything
Word Art Wednesday - anything
Stamp and Create - use Kraft
Simon Wednesday - anything