Christmas Spirit at Eureka Stamps

It's my third challenge as the December Guest Designer at Eureka Stamps, and this week we want to see your Christmas Spirit. I mixed classic with silly with these sweet Holly Doggies:

It's such a silly sentiment, but I couldn't resist! It and the little bone stamps from a polymer set. I stamped them onto a precut tag, added the border with a PITT artist pen, and inked it with Vintage Photo distress ink. I colored the image with Copics and then added texture with the three colors of Flowersoft's Teddy Bear collection, using a ZIG glue pen.


Inspiration/Challenges:

1. Come and Get It Challenges - Anything Christmas
2. Eclectic Ellapu - Anything Goes 
3. Everybody-Art-Challenge #217 - Anything Goes
4. Here Come the Boys - Anything Goes
5. Lia Stampz Challenge - Winter holidays
6. The Squirrel & the Fox - Christmas 
7. Sunny Challenges - Winter holiday card 
8. Unique Crafters Challenge - Christmas 
9. Visible Image Monthly Challenge - Christmas

 
Hope you'll join in on the "Christmas Spirit" at Eureka Stamps this week. The challenge will end on Dec 23, and we'll be taking a break fro the Christmas Holidays, and then we'll return with a new challenge on the 31st.

Thank you for visiting,

Piling on the Embellishments

click photos to enlarge

Our theme at the Pile It On! Challenge for the month of December is "Pile On The Embellishments," so I used a bunch of long-hoarded embellishments to make this very shiny and fairly heavy card. I cut the matching envelope on my Cricut.

The big tag is an actual gift tag that I saved from last year (it reads, "Nice List... You made it!"), complete with pretty ribbon. The mauve-and-gold Santa ribbon is from my mom's stash.

As I plan to give this card to a family member, I decorated the inside with photos of my dogs in the little plush antlers Mom gave me. The antlers on Percy (our Iguana) and on me were PhotoShopped on! You can see another photo of Allen in his antlers on my post for the OSAAT blog hop.

Inspiration/Challenges:

1. ATCs and Cards with Attitude - Always Anything Goes
2. Aud Sentiments Challenge - Anything goes with seasonal sentiment
3. Card Crafter's Circle - Red, White and Green
4. CCEE Stampers - Santa Claus is coming to town
5. Crafting for all Seasons - Green, red, and glitter/sparkle
6. Crafts 4 Eternity Recipe Challenge - Blingtastic
7. Crafty Ribbons - Tag/label big or small
8. Jellypark Challenges - Tag it
9. Pixie Dust Studio - Christmas Traditional Colours
10. Use It Tuesdays - All About Christmas/Hannukah (the tag came with a gift from "Santa" last year, and I've been hoarding the light bulbs & Santa hat brads forever!)

In the "small world" category, on my way home from visiting my parents last week, I sat next to the nicest woman, who ended up being CAKath from Splitcoast Stampers! I told her that I seem to be meeting crafters everywhere, so there must be a lot of us... She replied that there might not so many of us, but we tend to find each other. Isn't that too true! 

This story ties in to Pile It On because we started talking about BCA cards and it ends up that she also made & sent a card to Jennifer Scull from our Design Team! Jennifer has been such an inspiration during the past year, and I'm so pleased that she's going to be coming back as a regular DT member in January. 

Hope you'll join us this month at Pile It On!  Thank you for visiting,

Final OSAAT challenge of the year... and a Blog Hop!

Over at One Stitch at a Time (OSAAT), the challenge blog for the StitchyBear Digital Stamps (SBDS), we're celebrating the end of the year with an easy "Use a Digi" Challenge & Blog Hop! 

If you're hopping along, you should have arrived here from the talented Tracey's blog. Your next stop is the crafty Karen. You can see the entire hop list & rules at OSAAT (because otherwise the next sentence will seem really weird; otherwise, you'll know you'll need it!)

"Lucky Lady/Gent, Let me Lend you a Letter: L."  

Besides collecting letters, be sure to leave a comment on every blog post, including this one, for a chance to win the product we used. I used Christmas Day Tiny Tickets and Christmas Paper VI by Stitchy Stamps to make this Christmas photo album.

My generous mom gave me the die-cut pages, and I covered them with the DP and added Stitckles to the pages (and some liquid pearls to the front).

I ink-distressed the tickets and added color detail with colored pencils & Sakura glaze pens. The precut frames are from Studio Calico (although I did have to trim them a little bit), and I bought them at my favorite craft shop in Arizona, Scraps of Love. I made this for my parents, but I made it while I was visiting them so I put the frames on with re-positional glue, and added photos once I returned home... and then sent the book back to my folks. It went across the country twice! I especially wanted to take photos of my dogs in the little plush antlers Mom gave me. As you can see, they were good sports but weren't too excited about it!

 

I'm entering this into the following fabulous Challenges:
Avadares: Anything with a digi
Bloggers: Holiday Gifts

Just Add Ink: Just add Christmas

Little Miss Muffet Challenges: Christmas Related  
Simon Says Stamp: Your Favorite (2nd Entry) Favorites: Stickles & Pearl Pen
Totally Stampalicious: Anything Goes

Thank you for visiting & for participating in the OSAAT Blog Hop!  Your next stop is the talented Karen.

Sweet Spirals with The Lollipop Ladies

You may remember the Chupa Chups-themed card I made last month, inspired by a challenge at The Lollipop Ladies; Well, I won a GDT spot for their 6oth Challenge! The theme is Candy Canes with the extra challenge of Spirals.

I made a "vintage" Telescoping Card, using some beautiful Graphic 45 papers:

I distressed on the pieces with Vintage Photo distress ink, and coated all the pieces with Creative Medium for a vintage texture. I pulled all the candy-cane-themed paper from my mom's Christmas stash (yeah, I had lots of crafting fun during my visit!) and realized later that it was all (with one possible exception) Graphic 45 brand! 

I added red Stickles and cream Liquid Pearls.

The Lollipop Ladies Challenge #60

Inspiration/Challenges:
The Lollipop Ladies: Candy Canes/Spirals
Card Makin' Mamas: Happy Holidays
Charisma Cardz #49: Christmas Makes
Craftymess Challenge #23: Vintage Christmas
Creative Belli #158: candy/sweets
Fab 'n' Funky Challenge #151: Vintage Christmas
Fat Pages & Cards with Attitude: Always Anything Goes 
Simon Says Stamp: Your Favorite (Paper: Graphic 45; Tool: BigShot & Spellbinders Dies) 

Thank you for visiting,

Sparkle & Shine at Eureka Stamps

Whoop, it's my second week guest designing with the talented group over at Eureka Stamps! This week the theme is "Sparkle and Shine", and I used their Shadow Holly Square digi stamp:

I changed the black on the image to yellow, and printed it on a shiny paper. I colored the image with Sharpies and then covered it with Stickles. I just spent a fabulous two weeks with my parents (well, mostly fabulous...Why do I insist on reverting to 15 when I go back home?!), and I totally raided my mom's craft stash to make this card. We got the pretty paper at Michaels, and I found this lovely blue-and-gold ribbon at an estate sale...for a dime!

Inspiration/Challenges:
Card Crafter's Circle - December Celebrations
Dilly Beans - Traditional Christmas Colors
Merry Monday - Any Past Sketch / Challenge #5
Robyn's Fetish - Christmas Cards
The Ribbon Girls - Christmas Projects + ribbon
Speedy and Friends #136 - A Christmas Card, use Red and Green
Stamp your Life - Anything goes
Sweet n' Sassy Digi Challenge - Christmas

Thank you for visiting,