Holiday cards

It's the end of another year and many bloggers and Instagram posters are sharing their top projects. I've not shared the following cards this season because I wanted to make sure the recipient saw their card before it was shared here and my Instagram "grammylovesherboys" spot.

Distress Ink Oxide blended background grounded the Hero Arts October MMH kit figures and sentiment. I used Copics on the fawn and Altenew's watercolors on the tree which was embossed first in white. This happens to be in my top five favorite cards of the season mostly due to the background and tree.
Linked to A Blog Named Hero Challenge: Winter

PTI's Botanical Blocks IV poinsettia and sentiment were embossed in gold, flowers colored with Altenew watercolors and framed with a PTI Pierced Feature Frame cut from wood pattern paper which was added to a dark green card.

These two cards were cased from Karen's Random Reflections card shared earlier this month. I silver embossed an old 2011 Penny Black "Adorned Tree" twice on PTI weathervane paper. One panel was cut with PTI's Scallop Stacker: Large die and the other with PTI's Mix & Mat: Plaid die. A PTI Peace sentiment was silver embossed on vellum with the strip tucked around the panels before gluing to a silver shimmer paper covering white side-folding cards.

 An old wood Hero Arts Christmas stamp was inked with navy ink, spritzed with water and stamped on a panel shared by Greta recently and glued to a navy card front. PTI Christmas Faith sentiment was added. I made a variety of this card for our church friends with "Christ is Born" inside. Linked to A Blog Named Hero Challenge: Winter

The final card of this post uses funky Distress Ink oxide colors and a new Tim Holtz tree stencil. The PTI Treetops Glisten sentiment was white embossed on aqua paper and backed with a vellum PTI Tag Sale #12 die. "Stella" did a lot of winking on the sentiment stitched circle. The stenciled panel and tag were added to a mint green card. Linked to 

SSW Challenge: Anything Goes

Thanks for dropping by. I love reading your comments. 

Happy New Year

Many Thanks

Papertrey Ink December Blog Hop Challenge

It may be December but PTI's inspiration photo looks

forward to card crafters next holiday focus - Valentines Day.

I think it's time to grab my embroidery thread and fabric again 

as this photo reminded me of my first love of handiwork.

 I decided to build a wreath thank you note. The long swag from PTI's older Make it Market: Holiday Folk kit was stamped in classic kraft and olive twist inks to form a heart wreath. Tiny pink dots, light green leaves, and two different Friendship Jar Flowers dies finished the decor. Penned Elegance II provided the sentiment. The wreath was stamped on a Scallop Stackers: Small panel given to me by my friend Greta and glued to a soft stone pattern paper covering a white A2 card.

I'm barely making it into this month's PTI Blog Hop

With our son on the road back to his home, I plan to tour 

the other hop entries. Thank you for stopping by to visit.

Joy

"I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day"

I love Christmas music! Any other time of the year canned music irritates me but not in December. When browsing in a store, I hum and sing along with the tunes playing over the speakers.  I can't help myself.  Not having any large Christmas sentiments, I chose my new-to-me Enclosed: Bell with the "Joy" sentiment for this week's MIM #344: Deck Your Dies inspired by the incomparable Melissa Phillips. A piece of white card stock was covered with several Heidi Swapp gold washi tapes and the solid bell cut from it. The top bell outline with "Joy" was cut from textured gold paper. The bell hangs from a Pierced Feature Frame which was cut three times, the top layer from cream shimmer paper. A Holiday Greens border was stamped with Delicata Golden Glitz ink on the card front within the confines of the frame before the frame and bell were attached. This was a quick and easy card!

PTI Card Supplies:

Stamp: Holiday Greens Borders

Dies: Enclosed: Bell; Pierced Feature Frames 

Linked also to Time Out: #124

Thanks for stopping by! 

grammylovesherboys

Christmas poinsettias

  I have eyed the Hero Arts Color Layering Poinsettia for awhile and on a recent sale ordered both the stamp and die sets. These two cards use the set in different orientations and colors along with help from a variety of paper crafting companies. 

            



               Card #1






  I cut two Altenew Cozy Flannel Cover dies from white 110 lb. card stock and backed them with a dotted pattern paper from MME Christmas (very old stash) which was directly glued to an A2 white card. The poinsettias were stamped with DI inks, centers dotted with gold stickles and added to the card fronts. 
  Card #1 with a horizontal profile has one poinsettia which was accidentally gold embossed before the previous layer dried thus covering almost the entire surface with gold instead of only the veins of the leaves. So it was tucked under the pinkish red bloom on the left side of the card and the tiny "peace" and "joy" words from PTI's Winter Fox were stamped vertically on the white plaid squares. 
  Card #2 uses a vertical orientation with one bloom and its leaves smudged with Nuvo Gold Expanding Mousse. A PTI "joy" die was cut from gold paper and added at the bottom of the card.

Linking Card #2 to Time Out Challenge #124

Card #2

  

My mother's oldest sister turned 91 today. Many of my aunt and uncles celebrate birthdays this month so I'm always looking for new ideas. The HA Color Layering Poinsettia was used again in soft red and pink inks and gold embossing on the sentiment.  I stamped two blooms with red inks and fussy cut only the center leaves on one to add an extra layer to the other. Again gold stickles were used for the flower centers. Concord & 9th's Tree Ring was stamped on a white SSS stitched rectangle panel providing a base for the blooms. The panel was added to a pale pink card front. The birthday card linked to SSS Monday Challenge "B is for ?" - birthday in this case. 

Card #3

It's been fun sharing these cards with you today! Thanks for visiting!

Jesus the Reason for the Season

Last minute entry for Papertrey Ink's MIM #205: Love of Layers

We reviewed Laurie Schmidlin's past MIM instructions for inspiration. I put together two cards with slight differences. 

Card #1

PTI Card Supplies:

Stamps: Beautiful Berries: Winter, Corner Adorner: July, Inspired: Jesus

Dies: Beautiful Berries: Winter, Corner Adorner: July, Pierced Feature Frames, 

          Scallop Stackers: Large

 Card #2

PTI Card Supplies:

Stamps: Beautiful Berries: Winter, Inspired: Jesus

Dies: Beautiful Berries: Winter, Pierced Feature Frames, Scallop Stackers: Large

Entering also SSS Wednesday Challenge

grammylovesherboys

Season's Greetings

Papertrey Ink November Blog Hop Challenge

Only 31 days until Christmas and our inspiration for this month's hop launches the season!

I like tags and focused on the package with the 

 peppermint stick candy dressing up the package.

Tag Supplies:

PTI Basic Bookmark 2, Circle Scribbles, Tinsel & Tags

Renke washi tape, Glossy Accents 

And then since I still need more holiday cards I created two inspired by the photo. It's been a long time since PTI's Wrap It Up die has seen my Big Shot. With this photo of gifts under the tree, I happily recreated a package on a Christmas card. While the die was off its magnetic sheet I made another with slight variations!

Card Supplies:

Stamp: PTI Framed Out #9   
Dies: PTI Wrap It Up, SSS Pine Needle Trio
Paper: PTI Bitty Big: Pure Poppy paper, My Mind's Eye Necessities Wood, 

            Neenah Solar White 110 lb

Card Supplies:

Stamp: PTI Love Lives Here: Holiday, Tinsel & Tags Sprigs

Dies: PTI Tinsel & Tags Sprigs, Wrap It Up

Paper: PTI Bitty Big: Pure Poppy, Kraft, Neenah Solar White 110 lb

Misc: Sizzix Tim Holtz Woodgrain Embossing Folder & Wink 'O Stella

Thanks for the visit. I plan to drop by your posts asap!

grammylovesherboys

Christmas cards

Holiday Season Arrives

Well, the turkey is thawing and fresh cranberries are ready to sauce at my house this Sunday. I love the traditions of an American Thanksgiving holiday especially all the choices for the special meal. Our family is small so we limit our menu somewhat but always include one new veggie side dish. But we're not here to discuss food, are we? It's "make more Christmas cards" time and here are a few to add to the stash this week.

My fantasy folk style tree was inspired by Stephanie's card on PTI's first release day. I stamped small images from the Make it Market: Holiday Folk and Tinsel & Tags sets on a white tree die cut from a SSS stitched rectangle panel, added a sentiment from Love is Here: Holiday, and a gold bell die cut from Bells & Boughs, all older PTI products. The tree was wrapped with gold raffia and offset in the panel to show the kraft shadow. Black Soot DI was splattered on the background panel before assembling the scene.

Linked to: Create Along with Us

Using a SSS Falling Snow stencil and Ranger Texture Paste, a scene with snow was created on this top-folding card. A PTI Noted Scalloped: A2 stitched frame encloses the sentiment and a trio of aqua shimmer paper snowflakes were added for sparkles.

My friend Greta shared the SSS forest die cut panel which is backed with pattern paper and directly glued to a white card front. PTI's Winter Fox stands guard with a stamped Bells & Boughs sentiment.

I finally inked up the October Hero Arts My Monthly Hero kit with all its vintage style images and dies. This card is a one-layer stamped panel with the skater masked to stamp the icy pond around her foot. Several snowflakes and light blue ink shadow her. This scene reminds me of childhood fun at a city park in Nebraska.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Wishing you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Season's Greetings gift bag

For the latest PTI Make it Monday challenge, Lexi Daly showed non-engineering me and other talented crafters how to make envelope bags with pattern paper. After two failed attempts with PTI pattern papers where I scored folding lines too heavily and cracked one corner or the other, I surrendered and used a pink Hallmark envelope from the drawer. Of course, in decorating the handmade bag, I didn't count on the tag's heaviness making it impossible to stand without a lining of rocks! LOL. Live and learn and that's what it's all about, right?

PTI Card Supplies:

Stamps: Tinsel & Tags, Winter Fox

Dies: Basic Bookmark 3, Tinsel & Tags, Winter Fox

grammylovesherboys

a Beautiful Life

Papertrey Ink October Blog Hop Challenge

For the second month in a row an autumn scene is our inspiration. 

I'm glad because October's colors are rich and ever changing.

Each autumn I send my aunts and uncles a Thanksgiving card but this weekend a sympathy card was needed for a church family whose 92 year-old mother recently died in a nearby memory care home. Nell was known for her love of flowers, painting and a

beautiful spirit. I wanted her family to remember that before the dementia set in she was a vibrant, strong woman and thus the sentiment for this card.

Card Supplies:

Autumn Pumpkins, Botanical Bounty, Forest Floor: Autumn, 

Meadow Greens (sentiment), Mix & Mat: Plaid die, 

Pierced Feature Frames die, Spruce & Sprigs

The color of the side-folding A2 card is more greenish gray than 

blue. I'm not sure what PTI color it is as it came in a pack.

Thanks for stopping by today and take a look at the other entries in the PTI blog hop!

This will be on my instagram site also - grammylovesherboys

A Leaping Deer for Christmas

I'm adding another Christmas card to the pile with this week's

Create Along With Us challenge on the PTI blog.

While there are many cards to admire, my eyes were drawn

 to the October Release - Day 1 with the Fawn & Flora set,

 and especially a card Laurie Schmidlin created. 

 Laurie's darling card

I focused on her colors, water color stripes, a black sentiment and of course, the deer. Basically I copied her with my current supplies. 

Papertrey Ink supplies:

Stamps: Bells & Boughs, Tinsel & Tags Sprigs, Watercolor Wonder

Dies: Dash Away All, Tinsel & Tags Sprigs

Christmas in the City

Simon Says: Cityscape

Today I made a Christmas card using City Scene, an older Papertrey Ink stamp & die set with Momento and Hero Arts inks. An old wood "Rectangle Background" stamp by Embossing Arts was inked in light blue providing a faint frame to ground the scene. Finished this top-folding A2 card with a line of Ranger Holly stickles on the taxi's tree.

Linking to SSS Monday Challenge

MIM #339: Patterned Frames

It's not very often that Ashley hosts a MIM challenge but this

 past week she shared her ideas for adding patterns to frames

by stamping or using pattern paper.

I used Noted: Scalloped A2 dies to create the frame, stacking two for more definition and stamping Fancy Flourishes in VersaMark ink to create a tone on tone pattern. The frame was centered on a white Scallop Stackers Large die cut and then directly adhered to a PTI Weathervane side folding card. A scene was stamped and die cut from Winter Village along with the sentiment. This was my first time using this vintage stamp and die set. I found a snow detail die among the WV dies and cut it from shiny silver card stock to add a layer of snow on the house roof. What a cute detail they included with this set!

Thanks for stopping by my neighborhood~

Merry Christmas

Finally had some time to work on this week's MIM #338 challenge with Lizzie Jones!

She demonstrated how to incorporate packaging dies on cards i.e. tags. Using her tips

and colors I crafted two similar cards using preprinted tags from last years Make It 

Market Mini Kit: Holiday Tag Along. No stamping done on either card surprisingly.

Card Supplies:
  PTI MIM Holiday Tag Along die &
  preprinted tags; bow die from Tinsel & Tags
  Sprigs die set; Bitty Big Aqua Mist & Pure
  Poppy paper; large Scallop Stacker die;
  sequins, Wink of Stella

Since I have more of these preprinted tags I may adapt this
design, use other colors, and add to the Christmas card stash. 
Thanks for your visit to my blog!

grammylovesherboys