Snowman Sparkle ~ CCMC438

Hello fellow stampers!  It's time for a color challenge at Create with Connie and Mary!

Our fun colors are Flirty Flamingo, Pool Party, and Silver or Smokey Slate.  I went with Silver.

This is pretty much my last post for Christmas cards.  I'm sorry to see the Christmas card making season come to an end....although, I guess you can make Christmas cards all year long if you prefer, but it's much more fun when you're in the holiday spirit!  

Anyway, I die cut the snowman from Snow Friends framelits in Silver Glimmer paper and placed him on a snow embossed oval.  I gave him a pool party die cut tie to dress him up a little.  I continue to LOVE the Cable Knit embossing folder, so I had to incorporate that in there too!

I hope you'll get a chance to play along with us this week!  

Thanks for taking a peek!

Jenny

Bright Butterfly ~ HSS254, JAI342

Hello stampers! It's time once again for another Hand Stamped Sentiments challenge.  This time it's a sketch!

I'm also adding Just Add Ink's #342 inspiration of Just add N.  My N is for Night of Navy.

 I trust everyone has recovered from Christmas.  I have.  Ours was nice and relaxing this year.  I felt like I wasn't ready for it as it approached, but I was able to pull everything together at the last minute.  I seem to be a really good procrastinator.  To top it off, my youngest son's birthday is the 23rd (he turned 12 this year), so that gets thrown in there as well.  

The only thing I didn't get done, ironically, was my Christmas cards!  

I SO enjoy creating Christmas cards, too.  In fact I'm usually not ready to be done with the Christmas card making season after it's over.  It was a little tough for me to get out of the Christmas card mode and create something else, but I did it....thanks to some Christmas DSP!  Yep, that green polka dot piece is from a retired Christmas stack called Merry Moments.  I love the big bold polka dot and bright green color.  I paired it with a Night of Navy butterfly thinlit topped over a silver glimmer butterfly.  These two butterflies have been laying around my desk since last spring!  I'm glad to finally give them their moment in the spotlight!  I wanted to incorporate a nice bright pink as well, so the sentiment from {Sunburst Sayings} is stamped in Melon Mambo and I added a Melon Mambo banner.  The Night of Navy background piece is stamped with the Brushstrokes background stamp in Night of Navy ink.  Lastly, I added a little silver thread to tie into the silver butterfly.  I'm pretty pleased with my first attempt of a "regular" card after Christmas card season! 

I hope you'll be able to play along with us at Hand Stamped Sentiments!  Remember, our challenges last for two week, so you have plenty of time to create!

Thanks for taking a peek and have a blessed day!

Jenny

Pink Flurry Penguin ~ CCMC437

Hello stampers!  It's time for another Create with Connie and Mary sketch challenge!  This one is sweet and simple and can go many different directions!

I used some discarded items laying around my desk.  The snowflake oval and Cable Knit embossed portion were cast offs from other projects, so my card came together fairly fast!  Penguins are my very favorite animal ever and have been since I was a little kid.  I'm not sure why I became so infatuated by them but I have quite a collection of penguin stuff.  I thought this little guy would look cute in his black and white suit against the pink snowflake background.  His gold bowtie with rhinestone center dresses him up nicely!  The strip of gold sequins and scattering of sequins add a bit of holiday sparkle!  

I hope to see you join us for this fun challenge this week!  We sure love browsing thru your creations.  As usual our design team has created some real showstoppers so hop over and leave them some comments!  

Thanks for taking a peek and have a blessed day!

Jenny

Brightly Colored Snowflakes ~ HSS253

Hi stampers!  It's time for another Hand Stamped Sentiments Challenge.  This time we have a cheerful color challenge for you. 

These aren't colors you normally think about when you think Christmas, but that's what I've done with them.  The purple and blue are nice cool colors and lend themselves nicely to a snowflake theme.  The green....not so much, but I threw it in there anyway!  I actually like the way it turned out!  I'm such a fan of making Christmas cards and can't seem to stop myself this time of year.  I'm usually sad to see Christmas card season go.  

I started by stamping the snowflakes from {Snow Friends} in white craft ink on watercolor paper and then embossing with white EP.  I then covered the entire piece with water and added the Eggplant, Bermuda, and Pear inks with my Aquapainter.  After it dried, I added some extra snowflakes in the challenge colors.  I spritzed it with water to make the snowflake ink run some more.  Finally, I spritzed the entire piece with glimmer spray for extra shimmer and shine.  I layered the main panel on a piece of Elegant Eggplant and then a base of Bermuda Bay.

I finished the card off with a die cut circle snowflake and sentiment from {Flurry of Wishes} and a sliver of silver glimmer paper and silver ribbon.  

A trio of rhinestones scattered around add a touch more bling.  

I hope you'll find time to play along with us in our two week challenge!  

Thanks for taking a peek and have a blessed day!

Jenny

Sugarplum Snowflake ~ CCMC436, RS241, PP324

Hello fellow stampers and happy Thursday!  It's time for Create with Connie and Mary again!  This week we have a sweet color trio for you to play with!  I used Retro Sketches 241 and The Paper Player snowflake challenge to help me along with my card this week.  

To start my card I stamped the snowflake background in versamark, embossed it with clear embossing powder, and then sponged Soft Sky ink over the entire thing.

The middle panel is last year's silver snowflake vellum layered over white cardstock and then flanked on the top and bottom with a sliver of silver glimmer paper.  The whole thing is anchored with some sweet sugarplum ribbon. 

Instead of a tag I used my layering circle framelits to create a nice base for the focal snowflake.  I added a nice little PEACE banner  and sprinkled around a few silver sequins.  

Thanks for taking a peek!  

Jenny

Chalkboard Warmth and Cheer ~ CCMC435

Hey everyone!  It's Thursday again and time for a Create with Connie and Mary sketch challenge!  

This sketch, to me, was deceptively simple.  I really had to put on my thinking cap.  I had a totally different idea that incorporated the chalkboard background, only using the Hardwood stamp.  The design I had in my head just didn't work, so I set to work using the {Wrapped in Warmth} set.    I really like the sentiments that this set has but have not yet used any of them.  I like the cozy feel of it all.  The calkboard inspiration came from Inspired by the Little Things #34.

I also used inspiration from the Card Concept 63.  I consider this style Clean and Layered.

I didn't stamp anything on the inside, but Warm Christmas Wishes would probably be appropriate, don't you think? 

Here's a list of my supplies...

Stamps: Wrapped in Warmth

Ink: White 

Paper: Real Red, Black, Warmth and Cheer DSP

Accessories: Star and Heart confetti punches, circle thinlits\

Thanks for taking a peek and have a blessed day!

Jenny

Peaceful Watercolor Window ~ HSS252

Hello!  Hand Stamped Sentiments has a brand new inspiration challenge starting today!  It's all about the trees for the next two weeks.  

I chose the bottom right photo for my main inspiration.  I really had a fun time creating this card, too!  Watercolor is such a fun and easy medium to use and always looks great.  I started by spritzing a piece of watercolor paper with water and then stamping the tree trunk in Daper Denim and the tree leaves in Marina Mist.  The snow was stamped in Marina Mist as well.  I let the paper dry and stamped the birds in the trees with no water.  I then spritzed the entire piece with glimmer mist!  I wish it would photograph well, but it just doesn't. It's so shimmery in real life and just so beautiful!

For the card front, I cut the center out with the retired Deco Labels framelits.  I then ran it through the big shot with my Woodland EF.  I used my wink of stella clear pen and colored over the raised trees to make them glimmery as well.  

I framed out the opening with a Real Red frame and added the Dapper Denim ribbon to each side.  Lastly, I add the Peace sentiment from {Reason for the Season} set.  

Here's a list of my supplies....

Stamps: Thoughtful Branches, Reason for the Season

Ink: Dapper Denim, Marina Mist, Real Red

Paper: watercolor, white, Dapper Denim, Real Red

Accessories: Circle framelits, Deco Labels Framelits, Woodland EF, Wink of Stella, Glimmer mist, Dapper Denim ruched ribbon

I hope you can join us at HSS!  Remember our challenges always run for two weeks!

Thanks for taking a peek and have a great day!

Jenny

Simple Poinsettia ~ CCMC434, PP322, WWYS91

Wow!  Another Thursday has rolled around and you know what that means....Create with Connie and Mary!!!  Yay! (It's also Thanksgiving, but that's a whole other topic!)

This week is an interesting color trio that can go many ways...elegant, fun, masculine, fall, or Christmas! 

I chose to use gold instead of Delightful Dijon and went in the Christmas direction.  I wanted to use The Paper Players Clean and Simple Challenge 322 as inspiration and heck, why not throw in WWYS#91 using Teeny Tiny Wishes as well!

I'm not sure if this is anyone else's idea of clean and simple but it is for me!  My "white space" is the stamped tone on tone crumb cake background. I know it's not that clean, but to me it's simple.

Here's a list of my supplies....

Stamps: Reason for the Season, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: Versamark, Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake

Paper: Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Gold Foil

Accessories: Lace ribbon, Linen Thread, Nesting circle thinlits, Gold EP

I hope to see many participating this week!  

Thanks for taking a peek and have a blessed day!

Jenny

Chill Out Penguin ~ CCMC433

Hello!  It's Thursday and that mean Create with Connie and Mary has a brand new challenge!  This week is sketch week and here it is....

I knew I wanted to use the penguin from Snow Place as my main focal image and I wanted to incorporate some plaid from Warmth and Cheer DSP pack.  

In my last post I mentioned that I had been using a lot of blue lately and was going to try my hardest not to use blue in this project.  Well, as you can see I failed.  I decided to go with blue for the snowflakes in the background.  To tie that in I added a blue embossed panel.  In hindsight I wish I had left the blue panel off and used the color scheme differently.  I'm OK with the way the card turned out, but I think I could have done much better.  I shouldn't have waited until the last minute to get my card done.....LOL!

Anyway, I hope you'll get a chance to play along with us this week!  

Thanks for taking a peek and have a blessed day!

Jenny

Sparkling Peace, Love, and Joy ~ HSS251

Hello stampers! Today's card is for the next Hand Stamped Sentiments Challenge #251.  It's a sketch challenge designed by yours truly!  I hope to see you play along with us!

I seem to be drawn to blues these days.  The majority of my cards the last few posts have had blue in them.  It hasn't been a conscious decision, but has just happened organically.  I think I'll put some effort for to not use blue in my next card! 

Anyway, for this card I started by stamping Dapper Denim snowflakes onto white cardstock.  Next, I layered a piece of striped vellum foil over the top.  For my main panel, I stamped the Joy & Love  and snowflake and stars from {Holly Jolly Greetings} in Dapper Denim. I added the Peace the silver glimmer Peace diecut after that.  For the snowflake, I sponged Dapper Denim ink onto one of the wooden snowflakes I had left over from last years holiday catalog. I also added the rhinestone snowflake embellishment which is from two holidays ago.  I'm happy to be using up some of my older supplies!

lastly I scattered some rhinestones around for extra bling!

The whole front panel is mounted on extra heavy weigh cardstock just because that snowflake embellishment carries so much weight.

Make sure you hop over the the HSS blog and check out my fellow designers projects.  They are awesome as usual!

Thanks for taking a peek and have a blessed day!  

Jenny

Pretty Pines Wreath ~ CCMC432

It's Thursday and that means a new challenge at Create and Connie and Mary!  This week we have a handsome color trio for you.  

I chose to use the Mint as a wreath and built my own out of Pretty Pines die cuts.  I added in some copper die cut accents from the same set.  Copper is pretty hard to photograph.  It looks kinda gold, but it's really striking in real life.  

For the background, I applied Night of Navy ink directly to my Sparkle embossing folder, carefully laid the navy cardstock on top and ran it through the big shot.  I like the effect it gave.  I gives much more depth to the embossed piece.  

I fussy cut the sentiment banner and adhered it with dimensionals to compensate for the bulk of the wreath.  Lastly, I added little bunches of pearls to the wreath and scattered pearls around the background.

I hope you get a chance to play along with us!  

Thanks for taking a peek and have a blessed day!

Jenny

Fleece Navidad ~ CCMC431, PP319

Hi fellow stampers!  Create with Connie and Mary Thursday Challenge has rolled around again and it's sketch week!  

I'm really excited about this card!  I've wanted to do a sheep Christmas card ever since I got this{Barnyard Babies} set and just never got around to it for one reason or another.  I really love the punny sentiment that goes with the sheep.  Fleece Navidad!  It make me chuckle!  

When I saw the challenge sketch I thought this would be my chance to make one santa sheep stand out among the rest!  I'm thrilled with the outcome.  I also worked in The Paper Players Tic-Tac-Toe challenge.  You know I love a tic-tac-toe!  My card can go two ways, actually!  It takes in the three down the left side: red, Santa, and Diecut, and across the top with red, glitter and snowflakes.  

Ok, ok...the only diecut on the card is the little sentiment banner, but hey, it's still a diecut!

I used my Warmth and Cheer DSP again on this project because the sweater motif goes so well with the sheep.  

The little tiny holly is from the {Christmas Pines} set.  I stamped it in garden green, fussy cut it out, and punched the teeny tiny holy berries out of red glimmer paper.  I ran my black marker around the edge of the holly leaves to make the image look outlined to coordinate with the sheep.

I hope you'll be able to join us for this week's challenge at CCMC!

Thanks for taking a peek and have a blessed day!

Jenny 

Blue Christmas ~ HSS250, FabFri99

Hello stampers!  It's time for another fun color challenge at Hand Stamped Sentiments.  This one was chosen by your truly.  

I also used the Fab Friday #99 sketch to help me complete my card.

Don't you just love a blue poinsettia?  I think they are so pretty and a little bit of a diversion from the regular Christmas colors.  

I actually had the Pretty Paisley's embossed vanilla piece laying on my desk that was discarded from a previous project.  I thought it would make a nice frame for the Merry Christmas sentiment.  I added some gold accents in there to make the card a little more festive and elegant.  

The one thing I'm not too keen on is the splattering...which is very hard to see in the pictures.  I tried using my Wink Of Stella gold pen to add a few spritz to the background.  In hindsight I wish I had left it plain.  Oh well!

I also added a bit of clear Wink Of Stella to the flower petals.  It adds so much nice glimmer!

I hope you'll find time to play along with us!  Remember, HSS is always a two week challenge!

Thanks for taking a peek and have a blessed day!

Jenny