Thinking Outside the Box

Hello friends!  I'm back today with another new stamp set from Stamp Simply!  This is our new All Seasons Decor bundle!  It is such a fun stamp set that can be used in lots of different ways.  

This set is designed with a box for displaying a variety of decor items, but the box reminded me so much of one of the cute Christmas signs that I put out when I decorate every year that I decided to color and embellish it as a wall-hanging.  

The  sign I've modeled my card design from is a small plaque with routed letters and a narrow wood border nailed on as a frame. Stars, hearts, and snowflakes embellish the edges.  Here I used a small wooden heart along with stamped and die cut greenery and rhinestone berries.

There are lots of interchangeable stamps, sentiments, and dies in this bundle and some of our other seasonal sets work well with it too, so the ideas and combinations are endless!

I love getting extra mileage from my stamps and supplies, so I decided to continue to think out of the box (pardon the pun!) for this set, and used the die for the olive oil bottle to make a tall pillar candle for the candle stick.  I outlined the edges with a multi-liner and colored it in with Copic markers, adding sparkle with a gold gel pen.  The flame is actually one of the leaves from the little floral fruit/flower cluster.  You could actually use the jelly jar die upside down to make a smaller pillar candle in a similar fashion.  

If you follow me on Instagram or if you've read much of my blog, you might know that I spin my own yarn and usually spin with either a spindle or wheel every single day, so of course I *had* to use the ball of yarn from this new set on my card!  There is almost always a spindle or a ball of yarn on our table!  

On the inside of my card I stamped a sentiment from another one of our Christmas stamp sets that has the same lovely font.  I love using shimmering gold ink and usually stamp off with some brown ink first so that the gold ink shows up a little more clearly.  

Supplies:

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - All Season Decor Bundle
• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Christmas Peace
• Spellbinders Nestabilities - Standard Ovals SM
• Echo Park The First Noel 6x6
• Memento Full Size Dye Ink Pad - Tuxedo Black
• Delicata Non-Tarnishing Ink Pad - Golden Glitz
• VersaFine Clair Full Size Ink Pad - Acorn (stamped off under Golden Glitz)
• Zig Wink of Stella Brush - Clear Glitter Marker
• May Arts Burlap String - 400 Yard Spool - Natural
• Kaisercraft Self-Adhesive Round Rhinestones - Lippy Red
• Copic markers
• gold gel pen
• white acrylic paint
• wooden heart
• tiny gold bells
• small holly leaves are an old Tim Holtz Sizzix border die

Be sure to visit the Stamp Simply blog for more ideas on how to use this fun new set!

The Wonder of Christmas

When you're making multiples for mailing, something fast, flat, and easy is the name of the Christmas card-making game!  It is so nice to find some amazing paper so that meeting those criteria does not mean skimping on style!

Today's Stamp Simply project uses a combination of spectacular Graphic 45 papers, simple traditional stamps (no coloring required!) and beautifully scripted sentiments for a fun Christmas greeting from Santa's North Pole perspective.  There's even a gift tag that could be removed and used to top a gift for Christmas morning.

Inside features Santa's smiling face on a lovely vintage advertisement.

Supplies, all from Stamp Simply:

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - A Godly Man
• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Wonder of Christmas Sentiments
• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Farmhouse Christmas
• Stamp Simply Steel Dies - Fishtail Sentiment Banners
• corner punch
• Cropadile 
• Prima Christmas in the Country 8x8
• Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink Reinker - Iced Spruce
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Tattered Rose
• Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink Pad - Vintage Photo
• Ranger Mini Ink Blending Tool
• Pink May Arts Burlap String - 10 yard Bundle
• paintbrush for splattering
• gold gel pen
• Rhinestones - Split Pea
• Scrapbook Adhesives-3L 3D Self-adhesive Foam Squares - Mix

Drape-fold card front

My friend, Kendra, is hosting a "Pin-spired Christmas Celebration" on her blog, and she has invited me to play along.  We're hoping you'll play along too!

If you hang out over at Paper Craft Planet, you might've seen this card posted for Monday's Tutorial!  It is a fashion/home-decor inspired project that is elegant and yet very simple to make.  Here's the pin of a vest from Saks that inspired this look, and some beautiful drapes that influenced my choice of colors and designer paper.  

While the tutorial I shared features this fold on a card front, it can be easily adapted to use on the front of a pretty gift package!  That's why I really wanted to share this technique for the holidays.  I hope you'll try it!

Notes:

Gourmet Rubber Stamps Made of Snow

Carta Bella Winter Fun designer paper (the 6 x 6 is sold out, but the 12 x 12 collection kit is still available)

Memento Espresso Truffle ink

Ranger ink

Copic markers

crocheted lace trim

Stickles

pearls

Flower Soft Fun!

All of us at Flower Soft have been in The Christmas Spirit this past week!  That's the name of a brand new sentiment set that goes with another new Christmas set, Santa and Pals!  They're both from the Wine Buffs series.

This diorama card was so fun to make...just a little different than the usual fold, and perfect for showing off how these stamps can work together to make a silly, three-layer scene!  I adjusted the measurements of Diana's tutorial just a little, so that when laid flat, my card is 4.25 x 5.5 inches and fits into a standard envelope. It needed that extra height to fit Rudolph on that snowy torn paper hill!  I'm sorry that you can't see his shiny ruby red sparkly nose in this shadowy photo!  Mornings have been foggy, and it has rained nearly every afternoon, so this picture was taken indoors with the help of my Ott light.  I suppose we have needed the rain, so I am not complaining, but I'd much prefer a picture in natural light, so I'll try again when the weather is better!

Notes:

Santa and Pals

Diamond Range Ruby Red Flower Soft

Ultrafine White Flower Soft

Memento ink

Copic markers

Spellbinders classic oval dies

The Twinery twine

heart-shaped button

Be sure to visit the Flower Soft blog to see what WCMD fun is going on there!  Happy stamping!

New from GRS!

Gourmet Rubber Stamps is releasing a new set of stamps today called Holiday Season Sampler!  It is a great set which features images for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

i {heart} papers has a Christmas/Winter sampler version of this set. I used the mittens and one of the small frames from Simple Stories' Handmade Holiday designer paper to create a card with a warm homespun feel.

You can see more great designs with Holiday Season Sampler on the GRS blog!

Notes:
ihp Christmas/Winter sampler
Olive Grove Memento ink
Ranger tea dye and frayed burlap distress ink
Simple Stories Handmade Holiday designer paper
elastic lace trim
ivory twill
button
jute thread
i {stick} papers tape
dimensional adhesive

The First Day of Christmas...

...and it is so nice to have a really relaxed pj day! We said this morning that we'd go to the movie this afternoon, but after staying up half the night Christmas Eve (I think I finally went to sleep at 3:15) we are truly not motivated to do much of anything!

I finally finished a little Christmas thank-you card. That was a feat within itself because my craft room is in total chaos. I had brought quite a bit of stuff down to the dining room so that I could stamp but still be sorta on the fringe of Christmas movies, and even stamp with a friend, during the last week or so. Of course, all that had to be hauled back upstairs to clear the table for Christmas dinner last night, and it was done in a hurry and not put back into its proper places (not that any of it really has a proper place...we're still working on furnishing this room!).

This little cutie is Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps' Birthday Party Emma. My friend Julie's Christmas Day birthday was the inspiration for the papers and colors...this week's Sweet Stop sketch provided a starting point for the layout, which is constructed of CutCardStock's textured card stocks and Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses designer paper in both 12 x 12 and 6 x 6 inch sized prints. I love the smaller scale of the 6 x 6 for card-making, especially when using it for paper-piecing as I did for her dress, here. The thank-you sentiment from another SNS set, I'd Pick You. The frayed giant rick-rack reminded me of the fringe of a scarf, so I added some snowflakes and buttons...Emma appears to be better at braving winter than I am because she must've been willing to part with her sweater when she arrived at the party! ;)

I hope you're enjoying all of your Christmas goodies and some yummy Christmas dinner left-overs! Wonder when we'll finally venture out to the movies! Doesn't look like today's the day!

Merry Christmas!

May you be joyful and blessed this Christmas Day and always!

March of the Snowmen Blog Hop

Welcome to the very first ANNUAL March of the Snowmen! I'm so excited to be part of this fun blog hop! I can hardly wait to see what everyone has created! It is wonderful to see a few familiar faces and to have the opportunity to make new friends!

My card is made with Our Craft Lounge's adorable set, Tweet Winter Wishes and card stock from CutCardStock. I stamped the snowman, then masked him to stamp the fence. The images were colored with Copic markers and glitterfied with Spica pens. I tried to catch some of that sparkle in this photo...

...but it is much prettier in real life! I had so much fun coloring! My card qualifies for the current Copic Creations challenge and for By the Cute and Girlie Let's Go to the Movies challenge (Frosty the Snowman!).

I think it is so appropriate for me to have this snowy image on my blog this weekend...my hometown of Westlake, Louisiana is supposed to get 3 inches of snow! It never snows there, but now it has snowed there two years in a row! Here in Florida we are just getting lots of rain! I don't particularly like the rain, but it is good weather to stay inside and stamp!

I absolutely *love* Our Craft Lounge images, and I'll bet you do too! How would you like the chance to win Reindeer Kisses?! Leave a comment on this post and I'll draw a random winner on Monday morning.

A little birdie told me that there's some more blog candy somewhere along the way...don't know what or where, so you'll have to hop all the way through to find out! ;) You would want to hop anyway...wouldn't wanna miss all of the fabulous creations these girls have made!

Angella Crockett

Barb Foster

Jen Carter

JenMarie Taylor

Jodie Heuser

Kelly Landers

Latisha Yoast

Laurie Unger

Laurie Willison

Linda Duke

Melisa Waldorf

Michelle Bartnett

Mona Pendleton

Pam Imholz

Stacy Rogers

Calendar Bits Blog Hop

It was an adventurous weekend in the Felts household! Because of Patrick's upcoming work schedule we decided to try to get some holiday decorating done. For me, that is like an extra Christmas in itself, bringing in boxes and unwrapping each decoration to put it in its special place! We've got a LOT of decorations because before I became a card-maker I was a tole-painter...each piece has a story behind it and many special memories. I just LOVE this time of year! Here's a picture of our hallway with some of my hand-mades.

I don't know how it is for you but it seems that for us, nearly every year, there is some little decorating fiasco! Sometimes it is something small, like a button coming unglued...this year, the fellas got the pre-lit Christmas tree light cords tangled up in the mechanism of the attic ladder, so...heheh, we'll be shopping for a new tree sometime this week! ;) (This tree is history! LOL!)

My calendar stamp set arrived Saturday afternoon, but with all the excitement of an upcoming Thanksgiving dinner with guests, and Christmas decorating, I didn't get to stamp until this afternoon. I had this idea loosely organized in my head, and I'm wishing the daylight hours were longer so I could have gotten a brighter picture (re-take in the morning!).

Each year our community has a Messiah Sing where local church musicians of all ages, denominations and skill levels gather to sing the Christmas section of Handel's Messiah. The feature soloists prepare in advance, but the choir has a single impromptu rehearsal before the crowds appear to listen to their performance. With Tami's Calendar Bits and Pieces, Nina's Vintage Borders, and Melanie's Festive Frame I had the perfect combination of images to make a special invitation to this event. I used Pure Luxury Card Stock (tan leather and cranberry tart), a Nesties Labels 4 and some pretty satin ribbon, but kept the design very simple. Loved adding that tiny embossed crown for The King of kings down in the corner! There are even a couple of treble clef flourishes! The details of the performance are hand-written on the pull-out tag that is tucked into the pocket on the front of the card. Plenty of room inside to include directions and a scripture or Christmas greeting.

For more inspiration, please visit Calendar Bits and Pieces' illustrator, Tami Mayberry, then to the following Blog Hop Participants from the GinaK Designs team:

Carolyn, Erika, Donna, Jessica, Lee and Nina

{the GinaK Designs CSS team}
Deb, Sharri, Sue, Melissa.

{Tami's Guest designer}
Jennie Harper

Make sure you stop by Gina's blog to leave your comment for a chance to win this amazing stamp set for free! Remember to check our Idea Center for even more samples, tutorials, and links!

Baby's First Christmas!

I am lovin' Asela's set, First Christmas! I thought it would make a cute little onesie card for someone with a new wee one! This was so easy to make using punches, the Cuttlebug, embossing folders and nesties. I added a little snowflake border on the collar, then sponged, faux-stitched, and comma-stroked with a white gel-pen to give it the look of an eyelet border. Love that plaid ribbon bow!

Are you ready for some more Eye-Candy tonight!? Stop in at Asela's blog (our featured Illustrator tonight) and see what she has prepared for us.

Then, check out these GinaK Designer's blogs for their projects:

Carolyn, Donna, Erika, Jessica, Lee, Melanie, and Theresa

as well as my Center Stage Spotlight Designer team mates' blogs:

Diana, Karen, and Sharri

Remember, the Idea Center has lots of tutorials, photos, and links that will provide even more ideas for you with this stamp set!

And, if you haven't already done so, be sure to leave a comment on GinaK's blog for a chance to win this stamp set tonight too! If you have already purchased this set, you may swap it out for any other GinaK stamp set valued at $23.95.

LSC240

My friend Silvie hosted yesterday's SCS Limited Supplies Challenge, and I finished my card so late that I wanted to wait until this morning to get a picture of it with some decent light. The challenge was to use a Christmas tree on your card, and I thought (especially since we live in Florida) immediately of this cute little sea tree from the set, Sea-son's Greetings from Our Craft Lounge, available at i {heart} papers (having a BIG SALE NOW!). I colored the image with Copics, cut it out using square Nestabilities, and then used a scrap of SEI Hiccups for a bubbly ocean background with a little wavy border of blue at the bottom. It will make a fun little card for one of my Florida friends, or maybe for my Michigan in-laws who might wish for warmer weather! ;)

Happy World Card Making Day! Hope you get to play lots of fun challenges! That's what I'm hoping to do!

Have a Very Merry Christmas!

My Treehouse Stamps design team mate and newly found friend Michelle got her gift from me, her Secret Santa, just in time for Christmas, so now I can share it with you! I wanted it to be something that was appropriate for the holidays that she would also be able to leave out beyond Christmas if she liked. I found this beautiful designer paper in soft, muted colors, so I covered a little chipwood box with it and topped it with this adorable pair of owls from Treehouse's Owlentine. I watercolored the image, embossed it with a mixture of clear EP and Iridescent Ice, embellished it with punched ferns and primas, and then tucked some delicious Peterbrooke chocolates inside. The matching 3 x 3 card also uses a new TreeHouse stamp, Live Life Passionately... and my new nesties label die.

To complete Michelle's gift, I enclosed some of my favorite designer paper, brads, and fibers...Basic Grey is one of my very favorite brands of stamping and scrapping supplies. I can't wait to see what she makes with these new goodies!

While Thanksgiving is a very long, drawn-out day (actually, several days) in the kitchen, Christmas Day is much more relaxed. We open presents in the morning, then enjoy a late breakfast. For dinner Patrick cooks a delicious standing rib pork roast stuffed with mushroom sauce. I am usually in charge of dessert (traditionally a cheesecake that takes 40 oz of cream cheese to bake!). We just relax and enjoy being together.

Christmas in the Felts household only begins on Christmas Day! We celebrate the 12 days of Christmas from Christmas Day through Epiphany...I'll be sharing more of that with you as the days go by.

I am looking forward to this week in between Christmas and New Year's Day. Life moves at a much slower pace, a welcome respite after the frenzy of all the holiday preparations. I am hoping that I'll get to play with some of the new rubber that arrived here on Christmas Eve! There are several design team projects I plan to work on. I've missed the challenges lately also, and would love to go back and make up a few!

Merry Christmas! I hope you're enjoying the traditions and heritage of your family and friends on this most blessed day! Peace be yours!

'Twas the Night Before Christmas...

Are you ready? I am pulling my typical up until the last minute crafting frenzy...I just love this time of year and work up until and through not only Christmas but Little Christmas because I just can't stand for it to be over so quickly. I've spent this week making gifts, addressing and mailing cards. I'm wondering whether my little Secret Santa gift made it to its destination yet!

Here are the little nugget boxes I made yesterday and today. I'm giving these to our choir between our 5:30 and 11:30 services tonight. Just a little something to say thank you and show my appreciation for all of their hard work.

May your Christmas celebrations be filled with the wonder and awe of Emmanuel, God with us! Blessings through this holiday season! Let Christmas remain in your heart all the year through!

More...with measurements

Yesterday's post featured a single of the project that I finished working on today...here are 20 (minus one already gifted) of the little emery board sleeves that I made for my Bible study ladies. My prayer is that these will be something they'll come across often that will let them know how much I appreciate them. I love them all so much and they play such an important role in my life. They encourage me and hold me accountable in my Christian walk, and they're also just plain fun to be with!

Here are the measurements, if you'd like to make one of these yourself:

• pink cardstock, 3" x 7.5", scored parallel to the long edge at 1, 1.25, 2.25 and 2.5 inches
  
• 2 pieces of patterned paper, 7/8" x 7.25", only one of which is notched at one end with the 3/4" circle punch
• scraps of coordinating patterned paper to layer for a belly band (mine were approximately 1" x 3" and 1.25" x 3")

Fold the scored lines using a bone folder. Next, put some mono multi glue along the inside of the length of the narrow edge...the longer piece will butt inside all the way to the corner and help keep the box square with this shorter piece glued to the top on the outside. Glue the decorative pieces of paper on top, then glue the bottom shut and crimp just a couple of clicks. Wrap the belly band around, gluing the edges together. Tie with ribbon.

Pink Paisley

Just a really quick post to show you what I've been working on today...I came across some pink emery boards at the $1 store and thought that they'd make a nice little thinking of you gift for my Bible study ladies (I hope they aren't peeking!). I bought 20 of them, and came up with this little sleeve to slide them in so they look pretty and won't scratch the other things in your purse. Michael's had this paper on sale...hopefully it will pass for a holiday print that will also gracefully transition to every-day as the year progresses.

I am still working on finishing up my holiday cards and gifts...I usually end up working on them right up until the last minute. I especially love crafting during this time of year! I'll keep you posted on my progress!

Tracy's Challenge

My design team mate, Tracy, has issued our first i {heart} papers DT challenge, to make a Christmas thank you card. I had so much fun playing around with this!

This MME paper is so yummy! (I first saw it at LSS before being invited to join Kate's team, and just *HAD* to have some!) I love the surprise of the non-traditional colors, how soft and yet bright and cheerful they are. I decided to try to fashion a tiered paper tree...so I cut 1, 1 1/2, 2, and 3 inch squares of river rock cardstock, then tore the edges in an arc from corner to corner, inked and ruffled them up and gave them some bling ornaments. (If I had had any liquid applique I would have added some snow!) The pink background is stamped with pirouette snowflakes from the SEI Alpine set, and the sentiment is actually from Stampendous' Changito the Monkey! I added a MS Stewart snowflake with a pretty jeweled center, and tied a bow with some luscious two-toned satin ribbon (which matches perfectly...sometimes colors freak my camera out!)

Such a fun challenge! I'm looking forward to finding out what' s next!

Trees and More Trees!

We went to the Home for the Holidays concert by the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra last night, and when we got home I was tired but wired...I was actually up late enough to see the Inspiration Challenge posted before going to sleep. Immediately when I saw this image, (and since I don't have these cute Unity trees) I thought of stamped thumbprints, so this morning when I got up I had to try it, and this is what I ended up with.


Over on the Sweet 'n Sassy blog, there is a challenge posted by the DT every Monday. This week's was to make a card using Christmas print designer paper, and I had this MME paper just begging to be used. The only Christmas SNSS images I have that are Chris' Snowflakes, so I decided to paper piece a tree and use the smallest snowflake of the set to spruce it up (hehehe...Matthew hates puns like this so I have to use 'em just to tease him!). I sponged, stamped, and embellished with some silver cord, buttons tied with linen thread, a punched/stickled star, and a spiral clip of fabulous fibers...I really love the colors of this card and am quite happy with the way it turned out.

I am spending today stamping and trying to get caught up with some other Christmas projects! Hope you're having a relaxing weekend too!

A Baker's Dozen!

Today is the last of PCP's 12 Days of Christmas challenges. I really hate to see them come to a close. I have enjoyed them so much and they have added some fun cards to my Christmas and every-day card stashes. I was very happy to be able to combine today's PCP challenge with SCS's Color Challenge for this card.

Season of Friendship is probably my favorite set from this year's holiday mini. It's so versatile! Today I sponged in some clouds using a mask, then stamped the tree in chocolate chip and added some taken with teal snowflakes. PCP's challenge called for 12 embellishments, but there's an extra snowflake here! I stamped the bird in real red, cut it out, and tucked him in the bare branches. The sentiment was stamped in two colors using markers directly to the stamp, and the card was finished off with some punched snowflakes, pretty ribbon, and lots of bling and stickles. A simple design, but I really like how it turned out!

I'm off to the first Christmas party of the season! Blessings!

Harmony!

I have been having so much fun with the PCP 12 Days of Christmas challenges, and I think, so far, this is probably my favorite of all the cards that I've made for them. Y'all know how much I love music! Today's card is very simple, but all the iridescent papers and gold/bronze inks make it elegant, and I just adore how lovely the image is in the first place. I wish I could have captured the shimmer in the photo...maybe I'll try again later in the day to see if I can get a better shot.

I colored Stampendous' Harmony Angel stamp with a combination of prismas with baby oil, gold and bronze gel pens, and markers. This Basic Grey Wassail paper from i {heart} papers is so beautiful, but it was a challenge to color-match! I think that this mix of colors worked out in the end! The sketch is Mojo #64. The muted colors of the paper, the simplicity of the design and the elegance of the shimmery embellishments make this a very serene and peaceful card. I hope you like it!

Day 10 at PCP

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps is sponsoring today's 12 Days of Christmas challenge over at Paper Craft Planet. The theme is 10 Lords a Leaping, and we were challenged to use a boy stamp on our cards. This fun fella is the scientist from Korin's set, You're a Genius. I stamped him in Palette Noir ink, then colored him with prisma pencils and baby oil. I wanted him to be neon bright and wacky fun! Most of what I used is from deep in the dark recesses of my stash...I have had those dingbrads for over a year! Do you do that? Buy something you just *HAVE* to have and then hoard it forever!?

I am delighted to tell you that I have been given another award! My friend and fellow challenge stalker, Jackie, has blessed me with the Kreativ Blogger Award! I hope, Jackie, that you and Riley (see yesterday's post) understand how honored I am to be given awards by stampers whose work I love and admire and whose friendships I treasure!

I will have the pleasure of nominating 5 of my friends for this award, but right now I am dashing off to take Matthew to meet the church youth for a benefit concert. Please whisper a prayer for a young man named Jacob who was injured in a freak accident several weeks ago. He is a foster child with no medical insurance, and suffered a cervical fracture...he currently has no motion in his lower extremities and also has limited sensation. He needs a miracle...