Bright Merry Cafe ~ CCMC488, Merry Monday269

Hello friends!  It's Create with Connie and Mary Challenge time again!  Sketch week has rolled around and here's our sketch....

I've never been a fan of repeated patterns so I tried to come up with something that went together and had three different sizes.  I was first going to go with the Jar of Love set and then I spied the Coffee set.  I thought that I could do something fun with this!  It fit in with the color challenge from Merry Monday where we could choose any three colors to use in a Christmas card.  I chose Melon Mambo, Real Red, and Wild Wasabi.  

I'm interested to see what everyone else does with this sketch!  It was kind of a hard one for me!

Thanks for taking a peek and have a blessed day!

Jenny

Two for One Sketch ~ CCMC480, Merry Monday 261, SIP121, GDP109

Hello stampers!  Another week has rolled around which means a brand new Create with Connie and Mary challenge.  This week is a sketch.  I actually created two cards for this sketch.  I first made this card, which sort of reminded me of an ornament, so I'm sharing it on Merry Monday's ornament challenge #261.  After I finished it I wasn't sure about the addition of the red and brown colors I added to the houses.  I tried to tie the colors into the sentiment and the card base.  I also colored basic rhinestones with my new Blends alcohol ink marker in red.  I love that the alcohol ink markers can do this!  After I finished this card I was determined that I needed to make a different card to complete my commitment to the challenge, but I'd need to to that the next day.  When I came back the next morning and saw this card laying on my desk I thought that it really wasn't so bad!  Sometimes all you need is a little time and space away from your creation to appreciate it!  In the end I actually enjoyed the way this came out!  HAHA!!! 

It's not seen in the photo, but all the white space in the ornament is covered with wink of stella and super sparkly!  It's really pretty!

And now for card number two.  I looked around for some inspiration and found it at Stamp Ink Paper #121 Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge and Global Design Project #109.

I've been itching to use this big Old Olive and Black Plaid and I think it looks superb with the wood textures paper.  For the tic-tac-toe part I used twine, wood, and die cuts.  

I put snow on the trees with my white gel pen and then thought there needed to be white on the wood medallion too.  I think I got a little carried away with the snowflakes and it looked weird, so I added piles of snow to the tops of the letters.  All in all I like the way it turned out.....minus a few snowflakes.

Thanks for taking a peek and have a blessed day!

Jenny

Plaid Deer ~ HSS249, Merry Monday 218

Hello everyone!  What a wonderful sketch we've got for you this time over at Hand Stamped Sentiments!   As usual our challenge runs for two weeks, so you have plenty of time to play along...or enter a few times if you'd like!

I went with a Christmas theme again this week and used the inspiration from Merry Monday 218 to help me along.  I'm a sucker for plaid and I especially love plaid at Christmas.  Another thing I love is this now retired deer head image from the set called {Remembering Christmas}.  I stamped the image of the reverse side of the red plaid and fussy cut it out.  I thought the coordinating tree DSP made a complimentary background from my deer.   

The sparkle snowflake is a packaging decoration I've been hanging onto since last Christmas.  I though it was too pretty to toss in the garbage and I figured I could recycle it onto a card someday.  It fits on this one nicely, I think.  I layered one of the wooden snowflakes from last year's holiday catalog on top of it as well.  

A few layered banners and my card is complete.  I just couldn't manage to place the doily element into this theme, but for the most part I adhered to the sketch pretty well!

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

Stamps: Remembering Christmas

Ink: Black, Versamark

Paper: Warmth and Cheer, Black, Real Red, Very Vanilla

Accessories: Wooden Snowflake, Burlap Ribbon, White EP, Sparkle snowflake (recycled)

Goldie Deer Joy ~ CCMC423, Merry Monday #212

Happy Thursday stampers!  It's Create with Connie and Mary time again!  I've combined this week's sketch with the inspiration challenge at Merry Monday 212.

My version of the sketch is mirror flipped....but I'm not sure why.  Maybe it's because I prefer everything to flow from left to right???  Could be.  Anyway, I switched up the sketch just a tad bit!  

I've always been a fan of black, gold and white for Christmas, so I was all about the Merry Monday challenge.  I'm also a sucker for deer images, so this cute little reindeer fit the bill nicely.  I just think he is super cute!

I embossed the black strip with the Gently Falling EF and then lightly sponged some white ink over the top to make it look like snow.  

For the gold trees I stamped one of the tree images from {Foxy Friends} onto the backside of the gold foil paper and then fussy cut them out.  I added stars punched from Gold Glimmer paper with the confetti star punch.  

The whole thing is layered on a white Woodland embossed "forest".   

I hope you'll hop over the Create with Connie and Mary and play along with us....and make sure you take inspiration from my fellow designers!

Thanks for taking a peek and have a blessed day!

Jenny

Pink Penguin ~ The Challenge 53 & Merry Monday 182

Hello stampers and happy Friday!  

Today's card is for The Challenge #53 and Merry Monday #182.

One calls for non-traditional christmas and the other includes birds.  I used this cute little penguin (my bird) from Avery Elle stamp company.  I colored him up in pink and green, like the challenge inspiration photo, and added a little yellow in there to accommodate his beak and feet.  

Very rarely do I used non- Stampin' Up supplies, but I couldn't resist this little penguin stamp set with the matching dies.  I especially liked this guy with the deer head on his sweater!  

All the colors and paper are Stampin' Up products though!

I combined a little patterned paper, designer vellum, and silver cord to finish off my project.

Thanks for taking a peek and have a blessed day!  

Jenny

Pretty Pink Poinsettia ~ CCMC381 & Merry Monday179

Happy Thursday stampers!  It's time for another Create with  Connie and Mary sketch Challenge!  I flipped the sketch on it's side.

Oh my, my, my how I love the soft colors with the white sparkle!!!!  I was totally inspired by the photo over at Merry Monday 179. 

I stamped and embossed two poinsettias from {Reason for the Season} with white EP.  I fussy cut them out, colored on the back of the top flower and mounted them together with dimensionals.  I love the super subtle color on the flower along with the delicate lace trim and the girly white glitter ribbon.  The little dots of Iridescent Ice glimmer paper add just a bit more pizzazz to the whole project.

Make sure you take a gander at all the other amazing projects over at the Create with Connie and Mary blog!  We've got a super batch of talented designers on this team!

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

Stamps: Reason for the Season

Ink: Blushing Bride, Mint Macron, Versamark

Paper: Mint Macron, Blushing Bride, Naturals DSP stack, Iridescent Ice glimmer, Vellum, White

Accessories: 1 3/8"circle punch, White EP, Mint Macron Lace ribbon, White glitter ribbon

Thanks for taking a peek and have a blessed day!

Jenny

Rainbow Penguins ~ Merry Monday 173

How fun is this challenge for Merry Monday#173!  It really made me think outside the box!  One doesn't usually thing rainbow when thinking about Christmas.  

I love penguins, of course, and I just dug through my OLD stash of stamps and pulled out a few from way back when.....this was one of them.  I bet I purchased it in 1997.  It's called Three Penguins and it's made by Hero Arts.  

 I stamped the image twice, using my Stamp-a-ma-jig and colored the feet and beaks of the penguins orange.  Next I colored the body of each penguin using my alcohol ink markers.  I also added some Dazzling Details to the snow and snowflakes around the penguins. 

The sentiment is from {Happy Scenes}.

I added the main panel to a piece of Dazzling Diamonds glimmer paper after snipping each left hand corner with the corner rounder punch.  Lastly, I added some white string.

I also stamped a few snowflakes from {Flurry of Wishes} on scrap white, embossed them with Irridescent Ice and punched them out with the Snow Flurry punch.  I scattered them around the background after running it through the Big Shot with the Softly Falling EF.   

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

Stamps: Happy Scenes, Flurry of Wishes, Three Penguins by Hero Arts.

Ink: Tuxedo Black Memento

Paper: White, Dazzling Diamonds glimmer

Accessories: Iridescent Ice EP, Softly Falling EF, Dazzling Details, Snow Flurry punch, Corner Rounder punch, white string

Thanks for taking a peek and have a blessed day!

Jenny

Love & Joy Swing Card ~ Merry Monday 171

Hello!  I'm finally getting around to playing with Merry Monday again, which I love!  It seems like I have a little more time now to play around with more challenges....yay!!!  

Merry Monday 171 asks to make the main focal part of your card the sentiment.  Right away I thought of a single stamp that came out last year called {Love and Joy}.  I really love it!  I've also never done a swing card, so I took this opportunity to make one.  

I used the new Winter Wonderland Designer Specialty Paper for the front of the card, as well as a retired die called Stocking Accents.  For the sentiment, I inked it up in VersaMark, embossed it with Heat and Stick powder and then sprinkled it with red glitter.  

The other sentiments on the card are from {Flurry of Wishes}, new in this year's holiday catalog.

Thanks for taking a peek and have a blessed day!

Jenny

Purple Penguins ~ Merry Monday166, CTD351, & FMS195

Ohhhhh, I just love Penguins!!!  You might be able to tell that by my watermark :)

I was thrilled to find out that Merry Monday's Penguin challenge was a two week challenge!  I didn't have time to participate last week, but wanted to sooo bad! 

I used the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches and the color combo from Color Throwdown as well.

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My little penguin is from an old set from 2006 called {Polar Pals}.  I just love it!

Thanks for taking a peek and have a blessed day!

Jenny

Joy to the World in Silver and Gold

December is flying by in a flash already!  Is everyone ready for Christmas?  We are in the middle of a major kitchen remodel, so my house is in disarray and we have no Christmas decorations up at all.  I've been busy in my stamping space creating lots and lots of cards for a relative to sell at a craft show.  They are trying to raise money to adopt a baby (or babies) from Ethiopia.  This is my donation, of sorts. Anyway, here's one I created and it plays along with The Friday Mashup 188, Stamping Royalty 257, The Paper Players 225, and Merry Monday 138!

Stamping Royalty asked us to use a favorite stamp set.  I chose {Come To Bethlehem} because I just love the message behind it.  I really like the silhouetted image too.

The Friday Mashup and Merry Monday are all about silver and gold.  Merry Monday asks to add one more color to the mix, and my added color is black.  The Paper Players challenges us to make a fancy holiday project.  To me, you can't get more fancy than silver and gold, plus there are tons of elements that make it black tie like the silver gimmer, heat embossing, frosted finishes snowflake, the sequins and the gold metallic ribbon.  The font on the sentiment also adds a touch of class.

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

Stamps: Come to Bethlehem, Joy to the World

Ink: Versamark

Paper: Very Vanilla, Black, Silver Glimmer, and Newsprint DSP

Accessories: gold sequin trim, Frosted Finishes, rhinestone, gold EP, 1/4" gold ribbon.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Jenny  

Merry Monday Fusion

Today's card is for Fusion Challenge and Merry Monday 136.

I used the sketch (kinda loosely) and sparkle from Fusion and did the red, green, and white from Merry Monday.  I added in a little Early Espresso to tie in my sentiment.....I consider Early Espresso a neutral, I guess!

The wreath is from last years holiday catalog...the one that doesn't have a matching die!  I didn't purchase this years wreath.    

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

Stamps: Wonderful Wreath

Ink: Garden Green, Early Espresso

Paper: Real Red, White, Trim the Tree DSP, Red Glimmer

Accessories: Expressions Thinlits die, Owl Builder punch, Woven Satin ribbon

Silver Ornament ~ Merry Monday 134 & NAC115

This card is for Merry Monday 134, which challenges us to use an ornament and silver and blue colors.  I also used the sketch from Nacho Average Challenge 115.

I flipped the sketch around on it's side.  

For the blue colors, I went with Island Indigo and Pool Party DSP from the last years Winter Frost pack. Island Indigo and Pool Party sound more summery than winter, LOL!

I looked around to see what I had for ornament stamps and the only thing I could come up with was the little one that comes in the Ornamental Pine set.  I embossed it with silver embossing powder and hung it from some Smokey Slate ribbon with a Frosted Finish embellishment at the top.  I used a sentiment from More Merry Messages that I thought went perfect with an ornament card. 

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

Stamps: Ornamental Pine, More Merry Messages

Ink: Island Indigo, Versamark

Paper: Island Indigo, Winter Frost DSP, White, Silver Glimmer

Accessories: Silver EP, Frosted Finishes, Smokey Slate 1/4" ribbon, Scallop Border punch

Thanks for taking a peek!

Jenny