Repurposing

When I received my new Sale-a-Bration book from Stampin' Up, I opened that paper cover and discovered beautiful DP on the inside. I don't know if that was what Stampin' Up intended but WOW, 2 free 8 1/2 x 11 sheets. When layered against solid cardstock, you cannot see the images that are on the cover.

I pulled some solid colors from my scrap file, punched out some ovals, and stamped with a Thank You sentiment from SU. Easy peasy fast card!

Good Thoughts

I am back from a fun trip to Texas to spend Christmas with daughter & family. Our son from Chicago and his 2 daughters joined us. There were 5 adults and 5 children ages 6mo.-10yrs. Full house!! First time we had all been together at the same time for about 18 months.
But it is great to be back home in the quiet with the opportunity to craft again.
I am joining in the Curtain Call photo inspiration challenge

My card isn't particularly winter themed but I used the neutral colors.

So maybe we can say the good thoughts are for a short winter season if you are in one of those really cold climates--or at least for you to stay warm.

Gift Bag

Cards are done and mailed. Gifts are wrapped. Except for 2 that I did not have a box to fit. So I decided to decorate a gift bag.

I was inspired by the color challenge at The Kraft Journal They have so many gorgeous colors in the photo

I had some scraps of blue and purple "jewel" tone papers that are colors in the wreath. The gold metallic is also from the scrapbox.. I used SU's Star Framelits to die cut all the stars. I cut a star in black to put behind the larger one for a shadow effect. The tag sentiment is from SU.

I have also used a sketch challenge from Freshly Made Sketches for my design.

That was really easy and probably a lot faster than actually wrapping.

White Christmas

I love the elegance of white-on-white cards. So I had to try my hand at  The Kraft Journal challenge this week.

I dry embossed snowflakes on the Kraft cardstock and then rubbed a white ink pad lightly to highlight the snowflakes. Then used the same Cuttlebug impression folder on the long white strip.  I first stamped the SU sentiment in red and then used the polka dot folder on the rectangle piece. I like that the words fit between the rows of dots so it shows up better. The tree is from SU Festival of Trees, stamped with VersaMark and embossed with white embossing powder. There are tiny flowers on the tree so each one got a pearl center.
I used this sketch from Mojo Monday

Creative Mess

I have really been challenged with this week's sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches

I knew I wanted to do stars for the circles and a tree where the banner is but could not decide on the right DP. Once I finally decided on the DP here is what my workspace looked like

So fess up--I bet you all have had a desk top looking like this at some time! LOL!!  Well, as  the saying goes, "A messy desk is the sign of a creative mind,"
So here is a clearer picture of the actual creation.

Now I have some cleaning to do. The other half of that saying has to be "too much mess stifles creativity."

Merry & Bright

I love this inspiration picture from Curtain Call and knew I'd have to make a card.

I used the SU stars framelit dies to make the stars. The sentiment also from SU is heat embossed with silver but that sure didn't photograph well. Embossing the white background stars gave some texture. The blue and green glitter tape is from Michael's. It has a clear peel off strip on the back and I think it took longer to get that peeled away than to make the whole card!.
I also used  the tic-tac-toe grid from The Paper Players for the design. I did the diagonal row: star, embossing, white. Also sneaked in extras on the bottom row: die cut & glitter.

Inky Hands

I really got inky hands for Just Us Girls wild card challenge. I love the cards I see with sponged on ink and wanted to see if I could do it without making it look just messy. So here goes:

I used a green, sky blue, royal blue, and violet, streaking it across the card. Then a clean sponge to blur the lines and blend a little, The stamps are DaNami. The star is a sparkly sticker although that doesn't show well here.. I think I will go back and add a gemstone to the center for more sparkle.
I am pleased with how this looks and it was very easy, The card doesn't look too messy but my hands sure were. Had to stop and clean up before stamping the images.

Productive Day

Since I didn't have time to stamp yesterday, I am making up for it today. This is my second post. This one using the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.
I found this tan/white polka dot paper in my scrap box. It just whispered to me, "gingerbread cookies"

I used Kraft cardstock for the base. The sentiment and images are from Lawn Fawn. The cookies are stamped on a scrap of Kraft and cutout. I think it gives a better look stamping them on Kraft than on white and then coloring them brown. I used a white gel pen to color in the frosting.I used a Q-tip and white ink to give them a little "dusting" of sugar. Sweet package all tied up with candy cane ribbon.
Here is the sketch

Tuesday Morning

I know! I know! Today is Wednesday but my card is for Tuesday Morning Sketches I didn't have time to do one yesterday so here is Tuesday on Wednesday.
I did this one first

Then noticed on the sketch the sentiment was at the bottom. Since I had the papers already on my desk, I did another one in the same color scheme.

The DP, Peace sentiment and star dies are from SU. The Merry Christmas sentiment is The Angel Company.
Here is the sketch

Starting Over

When my kids were young, their cousin would shout out "Starting Over" if she didn't like how a game was going (i.e. she wasn't winning). I feel like that. Woot!, I had 2 really successful craft shows but yikes!, I sold all of my Christmas cards. So it is starting over for my own use. And I am low on Christmas paper so the challenge of "leftovers" from The Kraft Journal is just the thing for me.

The papers are actually 2 years leftovers from some DCWV Christmas packs. The stars are a die from Sizzix for SU. I traced over the snowflakes in the stars with a green gel star pen to give a little sparkle. And for some texture to the background ran the cardstock through Big Shot with a star embossing folder.
I have enough scraps to whip out about 4 more of these and then just 30+ more to go.
Because following a sketch is faster than deciding something on my own, I used this sketch from The Paper Players