Mark’s Finest Papers Christmas Blog Hop - Ornament Ball

Welcome to the Mark’s Finest Papers a Heinrich Co. Christmas/Holiday Blog Hop. We have some great tutorials for you to make some fun and easy projects for this Holiday Season. We will be giving away two stamps sets during this hop, so two lucky people will go home with both of these fabulous stamp sets. Be sure to comment on all the designers’ blogs. Our hop will run from November 19-22 . Our two winners will be announced on November 23, 2013. 

November 19th - Christmas Crackers

November 20th - Paper Ball Ornaments

November 21st - Countdown Calendar

November 22nd - Pine Cone Frames

Here is a direct link to today's tutorial, 3D Ornament Ball.

I was really worried about getting this ball right but I am pleased with the outcome and just need to find somewhere appropriate to hang it for Christmas.  Adding the sparkly nailvarnish was a great idea but I learned quite quickly to apply it carefully over my images to stop them smudging.

Be sure to check out all of our designers who participated in our hop. The more you comment the more chances you have to win one of these great stamp set give aways! 

Thrifty Stamper
Lois 

Janine

Jane (please check out Jane's blog next)

FOSTV90 - Decorated Corners

Another Monday, another new week and it is it time to decorate the corners!  I seem to have spent the whole weekend dealing with corners but more about that below.  First I need to share with you my card for Friends of Speedy TV challenge 90 which is to make a card with decorated corners.  They can be decorated in any way you like, but I chose to stamp mine and then add the poinsettias. You might want to check out what the others in the FOSTV team did with their corners too.

I started the card by spongeing with distress inks - Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint.  I then stamped the fern from Joyous Season in Peeled Paint and Pine Needles.  The centre Poinsettia is from Poinsettia Blooms and the small corners ones are from Christmas Selections - they were separately stamped, coloured with Copics, cut out and added.   The sentiment is from Poinsetttia Blooms and I used a Spellbinders die for this.

The card was completed amongst an awful lot of clearing and cleaning so I have checked corners of rooms, cupboards and appliances!  It was a physically and emotionally exhausting weekend.  We have been doing the clear and clean of my Mother in Law's house as it is has sold.  It has been empty since November when she went into a care home and we needed to sell it in order for there to be enough funds to keep her there and well looked after.  She has dementia so there was a lot of cleaning to do and in shifting things we found all sorts of odd bits - sadly no treasure!  We scrubbed, polished and cleaned and hopefully the new owners will be happy there.  The house belonged to Dave's grandparents and his Dad lived there from a baby so quite a lot of history.  We hired a carpet cleaner to use as part of the process so I need to find the strength this week for some others - 2 or 3 here and at least one for my Mum. 

Hope you all have a great week and get your corners sorted! The FOSTV challenge can be found here as challenge 90 from about 14:00 UK time on Monday.

July Blog Hop Day 4 - Presents

July Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

 Featured July 9th - Lotus Blossoms

Featured July 10th - Shello

Featured July 11th - Be Virtuous
 

Featured July 12th - Presents

My cards using today's set all use sketches from Sketch Challenges on Splitcoast. Three more Christmas cards for my collection.  All images are coloured with Copics.  On the 2nd card I have replaced the cardinal with a poinsettia from the set called Christmas Selections as cardinals are not a bird associated with Christmas in the UK (we don't get them here) and people would wonder what it was doing on a parcel!  I have also used the same set on my last card.
Don't forget to check out the last day's post by the rest of the team and hope you have enjoyed this week's hop.

Using SC435

Using SC437

Using SC422

Please hop along with us! You have a chance to win one of the above stamp sets! Just comment on the following blogs (don't forget this one), each day for more chances to win! (You do NOT have to comment on all the blogs each day! The names are drawn randomly!) All four winners will be announced on July 13, 2013 on the Mark's Finest Papers blog. You can go back and comment if you missed a day. (HINT: The more you comment, the more chances you have to win and comments on the MFP blog count twice!) The deadline for commenting is 11PM EST on Friday July 12, 2013.

 The special stamp set we have for you this month is:

"Dino News"

 The mini stamp set we have for you this month is

"Dragonflies"  

Here's the Design Team:Patty
Lois
Jane C
Debbie
Pam
Pat G
Thrifty Stamper
Marilynn
Karen K
Bonnie
Kathy
Angela
Cathy C
Toni
Sue W
Janine
An'Jenic
Kate Z
Shirley Q
Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Co.

FOSTV54 - Thank You card

Well I don't know about you but I have quite a few Thank You's I need to write after Christmas. We never take our tree down on 12th night - only when all the gifts are gone and I make mine last - LOL!!!  I need at least 9 or 10 thank you cards so I have two to share with you today as part of this week's Friends of Speedy TV challenge - we would love you to join in too.  Even if you have been super efficient and done all your Christmas Thank You cards you are going to need another for something else soon!

My first card uses an Inchie on a Twinchie surrounded by some glitter.  I have used the small poinsettia from Christmas Selections and the Thank You from Nature's Pansies Mini.   

 
My second card, again with glitter, uses the sets called Just a Note and Peaceful Nuthatch, a beautiful set. 

Don't forget to check out the rest of the teams cards this week and if you play along with us (Challenge 54) you could win the set called Be Wild and Free which Gail used.



Thanks for checking this out.  Back soon....

FOSTV50 - Christmas Project

Challenge number fifty for this year - where has the year gone?  We are into the Christmas swing here at Friends of Speedy TV with Christmas Cards last week and Christmas Projects this week.  We would love to see what you make - don't forget to post your link over at the challenge 50 page.

I have a few things to show you - firstly some little tags I have made using Christmas Selections.

I also have a solo candle that I decorated with the Poinsettia from Poinsettia Blooms - simple but quite effective with the cream candle and red saucer.

My last item is a tray of candles I have decorated and will go on my dining table over the Christmas period.  The candles are from Ikea and actually came as a set.  The red saucer came from B&Q last year.  The holly round the bottom is made using the Cricut and the MFP stamp sets I used are called Poinsettia Blooms and Christmas Selections.

Well that is it from me today.  Don't forget to play along - you could win the Christmas Selections set that I have used

FOSTV49 - Christmas Card

Happy Monday to you.  We are into Advent now and Christmas will be upon us before we know it.  I started writing our cards last night and I think I now have enough made - two of them are shown here as today's FOSTV challenge is Christmas cards.  We would love you to join our challenge and the prize set for one lucky entrant is Christmas Greetings.  It is a lovely set so worth getting your creative juices flowing for!


My 1st card uses the window from Enjoy the View, the tree from Tree Selections (I think) and the brick from Brick Wall Mini.  I used acetate for the window and embroidery silk plus gems on the tree.

My second card uses an embossing folder for the brick work, my Cricut for the stockings, a punch for the garland and MFP sets called Christmas Selections and Holly Jolly Greetings.  I hope you like these two.

Please check out the other FOSTV team members blogs and also the challenge on Friends of Speedy TV.  Have a great week.


Janine

MFP October Set - Enjoy the View

Sometimes living in the UK has its disadvantages and this week I was reminded of one of them - post takes longer to get here from the USA than you would like!  The stamps I have used on this card, well the window one, didn't get here in time for me to use it for the hop but it has now arrived so I am showing it off a bit late.  I have combined Enjoy the View with the set called Christmas in the Country, carefully positioning the window to hide the moose (we don't see many of them here!!!).  The robin (well almost a UK robin) and the poinsettias are from Christmas Selections. 

Today is one of those days when you are happy to be in the warm, with your loved ones, looking out on the wintry scene.  It is not snowing here, but it is up north, and even here it has turned cold and windy.  The damp in the air makes it cold.

The little photo on the wall is a scaled down digital image and the little frame is one of my original Spellbinders dies.  Thanks to Angie, one of my DT members for this idea.

The sentiment on my card is from All is Calm stamp set.

Thank you for checking this out.  Have a great weekend.

MFP October Blog Hop - Poinsettia Blooms

Welcome to Mark's Finest Papers a Heinrich Company's 

   October Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

Christmas Selections Featured October 23
Poinsettia Blooms Featured October 24
Cracked Hello Featured October 25
On The Fly Featured October 26

This set is one I loved from the word go and I have had fun with it too.


For all the cards I used Splitcoast sketch challenges.  I used Spellbinders dies on the first two and an embossing folder on the second.  On the first card I grabbed the gold embossing powder and on the others my Copics.  I took some sponges and inks to the second card.  The eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed an appearance or two of the poinsettias from yesterday's stamp set.

SC357

SC359

SC336

Please hop along with us! You have a chance to win one of the above stamp sets! Just comment on the following blogs (don't forget this one), each day for more chances to win! (You do NOT have to comment on all the blogs each day! The names are drawn randomly!) 
All four winners will be announced on October 27, 2012 on the Mark's Finest Papers blog. You can go back and comment if you missed a day. (HINT: The more you comment, the more chances you have to win and comments on the MFP blog count twice!) 
The deadline for commenting is 11PM EST on Friday October 26, 2012.

MFP October Blog Hop - Christmas Selections

Welcome to Mark's Finest Papers a Heinrich Company's 

   October Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

Christmas Selections Featured October 23
Poinsettia Blooms Featured October 24
Cracked Hello Featured October 25
On The Fly Featured October 26

This month I offered to make one of the additional cards and was asked to use this set.  To be honest I was panicking about having to make more than one card with tiny little stamps, which incidentally I often lose track of, but once I got the stamps and started there was no stopping me!

This first card uses SC235 for my layout and the santas from the set plus the Ho! from Holly Jolly Greetings

This second card uses the sketch SC321 and I remembered my little Cuttlebug strips when it came to the little red strip.  The santa and snowmen are from the set (I think one is a snow woman!) and the sentiment from the set we are showing tomorrow - Poinsettia Blooms.

For this card I used my Spellbinders mittens die and two of the little birds.  The sketch I used was SC329.  I coloured the mittens with Copics doing the background first so I could give it a little texture.

My last card uses the technique from TLC399 but instead of water I used a pearl mist.  I used the poinsettia, pine cone and church from the set.  I may make some more of these and use them as little "thank you" cards.  

This is a great set!

Please hop along with us! You have a chance to win one of the above stamp sets! Just comment on the following blogs (don't forget this one), each day for more chances to win! (You do NOT have to comment on all the blogs each day! The names are drawn randomly!) 
All four winners will be announced on October 27, 2012 on the Mark's Finest Papers blog. You can go back and comment if you missed a day. (HINT: The more you comment, the more chances you have to win and comments on the MFP blog count twice!) 
The deadline for commenting is 11PM EST on Friday October 26, 2012.