Simply Santa

Sharon Johnson's Stamp Simply Challenge this week is to make super simple, easy to mass produce cards for Christmas or any occasion that suits your fancy. I love the simplicity of the Thanksgiving card in my last post, so I decided to turn on its side and try it with a Christmas theme. Well, I would not say that this is super simple, but it will be easy to make many of them. I love the vintage look and I am pleased with this one. Thanks Sharon for inspiring me to get started!!!

Here is the recipe...

Stamps~Clear Art Stamps - Vintage Christmas

Ink~Versa Mark, Riding Hood Red, Ranger Antique Linen.

Paper~Riding Hood Red, Buttercream from Taylored Expressions, Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip.

Accessories~Nestabilities, Ribbon from May Arts, Fiskars Border Punch, Dimensionals, SU Gold elastic cord, SU Button Bouquet Button, Scor-Pal, Cuttlebug and Swiss Dots EF.

Thankful

Our Creative Corner hosted a color challenge this week. The challenge colors are: Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Pumpkin Pie and White. I am in a big Thankgiving card mode, so here is my take on the challenge. I love this Bramble Wreath stamp from Memory Box. I bought it online at Stampin' Treasures where I saw it used in some samples with Autumn Flower Soft. It looked gorgeous. I stamped the wreath image with VersaMark and then Chocolate Chip ink on Choice Buttercream card stock from Taylored Expressions (it is delicious!) and embossed it with clear embossing powder to give it a little texture and shine. (Thanks for that trick Lucian!!). The ribbon is May Arts - it's so lucious. The sentiment is from Clear Art Stamps Thanksgiving set. Happy Thanksgiving to you and thanks for stopping by!

Look Who's Coming!!

I am so inspired by Sharon Johnson, and I have been wanting to do a card with her famous "ribbon treatment" forever. Now that I finally did it, I can't stop myself! Sharon has a wonderful store on her website that is full of wonderful things for stamping simply... or not. Her ribbons are luscious, and there are so many other wonderful things. As far as this card goes, I have to laugh at myself - it is VERY simple, but it sure took me a loooooooooooooooooooong time to get it right. I have to learn how to be a quicker whipper upper!! I love these Crafty Secrets Cotton Scraps vintage images on fabric. You can get them from Sharon's store! I am in need of Thanksgiving cards, so I decided to use my inspiration and goodies from Sharon and do this card today. This one cracks me up. I love it!

Thankful For You

Here is another card that I made today with Crafty Secrets Cotton Scraps that I purchased from Sharon Johnson's Ribbon Store. It's funny, I started out to do the Stamp Simply Challenge which was to do a Matchbook Fold card. My main image was too big to make the matchbook work, so I tore it all apart and put it back together as a regular card. I did a lot of laboring on this card that was meant to be "simple". Ha Ha Ha! I like the way it turned out anyway, and I did use Sharon's famous "ribbon treatment" on this one too! The sentiment inside is "Happy Thanksgiving".

Find Yourself a Cup

Today is a beautiful fall Sunday here in NJ. The leaves are gorgeous! I played along with Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday Sketch today, and you can see the influence of the day in my card. I really loved working this sketch. Here it is...

and here is my card. I turned the sketch sideways to make it work with the sentiment.

I really love the way it came out. I have had this fabulous sentiment stamp from Quietfire Design for a while, and I finally inked it up and used some new papers that I got recently. I love the warm colors and the lace in this card... makes me want to call my sister and invite her over for tea and a talk...

Here is the recipe ~

Stamps: Find Yourself a Cup~Quietfire Design, Cup Collection~Stampington & Company.

Paper: Dusty Durnago, Chocolate Chip, More Mustard, Brushed Gold, Grapevine and Cornucopia~Creative Imaginations, Almond Dot~Bo Bunny, Buttercream Choice Cardstock~Taylored Expressions

Ink ~ VersaFine Vintage Sepia

Accessories ~ Dimensionals, Nestabilities, Mat Pack & Piercing Tool, lace, Gold Zig Painty, gold mini brads.

Geometric Halloween

This week's challenge over at the Crazy 4 Challenges Blog is to create a card using at least three different geometrical shapes........Squares, Circles, Rectangles, Octagons, Triangles.......you name it, just make sure that you have three of them on! I decided to use Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday Sketch #40 for the layout for my creation, and it took shape with circles, diamonds and rectangles. Fun!

Here is the recipe:
Paper ~ Elegant Eggplant, Pumpkin Pie, Black, Cast-A-Spell DSP, Imaginisce Hallowimsy - Lollipop Lizzy, black glitter paper.
Stamps ~ Autumn Apparitions
Ink ~ VersaMark
Accessories ~ White embossing powder, MS spider punch, Nestabilities, 1" circle punch, dimensionals, 1/2" orange polkadot grosgrain ribbon from Sharon Johnson's ribbon store.

Happy Birthday Mom!

We celebrated my mother's 87th birthday yesterday... we are blessed that she is in good health and still going strong. I used this week's Crazy for Challenges sketch - C4C7 - for the layout for this 5.25" card. This week's challenge from Our Creative Corner was a color challenge. I really loved the combination of Blush Blossom, Sage Shadow, Handsome Hunter and Soft Suede. My mom is a bird lover, so I used Verve's Birthday Surprise for the main image. A little pink bling for the birthday girl, and voila! Happy Birthday Mom!

Here is the recipe:

Stamps ~Verve's Birthday Surprise.
Paper ~ Handsome Hunter, Blush Blossom, Soft Suede, Sage Shadow, White, Autumn Vine DSP (retired).
Ink ~ Soft Suede, Memento Tuxedo Black, VersaFine Onyx Black.
Accessories ~ Copics, Nestabilitites, Soft Suede 1/2" polka dot grosgrain ribbon, Nestabilities, Hero Arts crystals, Dimensionals, Cuttlebug, Sponge Dauber, Crystal Effects.