O Christmas Tree

Pulling out the Holiday stamps and supplies is so much fun.

 I wanted to make another tag for the CAS-ology Festive challenge so I actually went to one of my newest purchases, a set of Tim Holtz stamps.  I picked up the mini set at our recent stamp convention.  

 First of all I created a background on a manila tag.  I used a stencil and some Distress Stains.  The tree was stamped on a separate piece of cardstock.  I colored it in with Copic markers.  I stamped that same tree again so I could cut out portions and add them over the original tree with foam tape.  The red strips under the tree piece are pieces of paper tape.  

 Here is the CAS-ology Festive challenge.

This also fits the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of Seeing Stars.
AND....

This is what I made for dinner tonight, Simple Chicken Tortilla Cassorole.  Go here for the recipe.  Let me tell you, make it TONIGHT!!!! You will want to drink the sauce.  The recipe does call for canned chicken.  I used chicken tenders for mine.  I cut them in thin strips and fried them, then added them to the mix. I could also see this spooned over rice or mashed potatoes.  

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Silver Snowflakes

No getting around it, that time of year is quickly approaching!

 By no means do I want all of the hustle and bustle of Christmas yet but I sure do like pulling out my winter related stamps to work on fun projects.  I used the CAS-ology challenge for a tag that is Festive.  

 I used my new Distress Spray in Broken China with a Tim Holtz sweater look stencil.  I wanted it to be messy with just a little bit of the stencil design showing.  I also used some Distress Spray in Brushed Pewter.  This has to be the best silver spray ever!!!! I sprayed paper and then cut out the Simon Says Stamp snowflake.  A cute, metallic puffy star finishes off the snowflake.  The star makes it fit the Wednesday Simon Says Stamp challenge. That sentiment is from a set by Wplus9 Designs.  I liked the red contrast for that. 

 Here is the CAS-ology challenge.

Here is the Wednesday Simon Says Challenge "seeing stars".
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Some Flower Soft and a Color Combination

The Flower Soft team is taking this week to focus on some of the Flower Soft card toppers.  I LOVE the toppers. They come completely colored, ready to use.  Of course, they work great on a card but really they can be used for other kinds of projects and that is what the team wants to show off.

 For Christmas this year, Flower Soft released some great toppers that are Santa related. I used this one from the set to create an envelope/gift bag.  I just too some kraft colored cardstock and created a simple envelope. 

 I wanted to show off what adding some white Flower Soft does to this great looking Santa.  I added it to the rim of his hat, his cuffs and the bottom edge of his jacket.

I added some of the gold Flower Soft to some of the stars. I LOVE the gold Flower Soft.

Be sure to visit the Flower Soft blog and the other team members projects.  From here go to Deb Felt's blog.
Another project to share is my card using the Dynamic Duo Color combination and the retro sketch.

 I am always in love with black/white and green so I had to play along.

 I pulled out my little star die cut from Memory Box. LOVE this die! Plus I used some Unity stamps, I always have loved this set with trees in it. I stamped a flourish stamp over the tree after I colored it with some green Copic markers.

 Here is the Dynamic Duos combo.

Plus the great retro sketch.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Almost time for Santa

If you have a minute, will you vote for my card at Scrapbooks, Etc.? You can vote everyday this week, THANKS!!!

And I have just enough time to share a couple more projects with you. 

First off, my Card Postioning Systems card for this week.  I turned the sketch on it's side and used a brand new stamp set I have from Pink Persimmon.  I cut a little bit off of a piece of the "loopy" shaped paper for an edge. 

 I started out stamping the tree image on white cardstock with white ink and I embossed that with white embossing powder.  Now I could apply various color mediums over this stamped image and the image will act as a resist.  I rubbed it with stamp pads first.  Next I created a mask for the tree image itself and sprayed the paper with Glimmer Mist.  The reason I did this was that I wanted the area where the words were to be a lighter blue and the area around that to be a little bit darker blue.  The masking protected where the white words are and since my mask is in a tree shape, I helped further the thought that the words were in a tree shape. 

Another project I wanted to share is this very simple little accordian fold album.  We did a little photo shoot with our youngest grandson and of course, every photo was adorable!!

The album base was purchased, 4"x6" photos fit on each piece of the folds perfectly.  What is nice about that is that all that was then required was a very simple amount of additional accents. 

 I just added rub-ons and sticker letters here and there.

What a fun way to remember our Santa Baby. 

One more Disneyland Castle photo with the Christmas fireworks show.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

And may you all have an amazing holiday with family and friends.

Holiday Time

Holiday time means so many things and one of those things is Christmas cards and Christmas presents.  I so love creating them so I, of course, want to share them with you.

For this first project, I used a great download from Flower Soft.  It has little round designs, one for each of the 12 days of Christmas but it is called the 12 Bears of Christmas.  Each one comes with a matching round design that has the words for each day on it.  These are so easy to print out and then I just punched mine out.  I decided to create one card with one of them but I could see making ornaments and having each one 2 sided or creating a really cute banner. 

I added some Sunshine Yellow Flower Soft to the little bears skirt, shoes and hair bow plus around the other circle as an accent. Add the Flower Soft with a generous layer of Aleene's Tacky Glue.  It is so fun what a little bit of Flower Soft adds to an image. 

For my next project, I used one piece of scallop circle patterned paper from Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker's Christmas collection, Holly-Jolly.  I cut the one scallop circle in half and then folded each of these two pieces in thirds and glued the bottom edge.  How cute are these for holding a gift of candy or even some money or a small gift.

This cute nutcracker is a die cut that is cut out of one of the pieces of patterned paper. 

This set of trees is cut from the same piece of paper. 
And, get ready for this!!!

Our youngest grandson is irresistible all of the time but I don't know if it can get better then this with his stylin' sunglasses and his new hat. 

His Aunt Mandi captured this look!

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Happiness reigns!

And that happiness came in the form of a new 50mm 1.4 lens for my Canon 50D camera! If you don't already know this, this lens is one of the answers for taking indoor photos so it helped make my Christmas photos for this year pretty nice. I'll show you a couple but first of all I need to share an ornament I created and somehow I forgot to share it earlier.

The foundation for my ornament is a wooden snowflake. I painted it a creamy brown color to match the cardstock that I used. That way the back and sides matched. The Core'dinations cardstock was embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and then cut to shape.

The Santa image is from The Vintage Workshop. You purchase a set of prints from them and then you can print them as many times as you want. I just love their selection.

I pulled out my chunky glitter again. I love this stuff! It is from Impress Rubber Stamps store. I put a line of Aleene's Paper Glaze around the edge of my prepared snowflake and then sprinkled the glitter over that while it was still wet. I just love how much of the glitter the paper glaze holds. Notice the white dot accents too. That is Tulip's 3-D Fashion Paint. Such an easy way to add a little additional interest.

***

On to those photos. I love the look that I got by using my new lens. It is great for up close photos like this and great for indoors photos.

Can you see that anticipation!? All of those filled stockings just waiting to be explored.

And here our youngest grandson is with that overfilled stocking. He is looking for his mom to help him find out what is inside.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

VINTAGE SNOWFLAKE ORNAMENT
Materials: Cardstock – Core Essentials/Core’dinations

Vintage image – The Vintage WorkshopCuttlebug embossing folder

White 3-D Fashion paint – Tulip

Clear Paper Glaze – Aleene’s®

Chunky glitter – Impress Rubber Stamps

Ribbon

Scallop scissors – Fiskars

Santa's Workshop

This is a very simple Christmas decoration. It is about 10" tall and has a ribbon so that it can hang on the wall or a doorknob.
It is a wonderful, vintage image that I purchased at The Vintage Workshop. I love that place! They have so many great images for all occasions. You buy a set and then download that. You can now print the images as many times as you want which is great for mulitiple cards. One way you buy them is that you print them in their actual size, the other way to buy them lets you be more creative with the images.

I printed this image on Worldwin's Treasures paper. The reason I picked this particular paper is it has a slight texture so my finished project looks like it is printed on canvas and the inks from my home printer look just amazing on this paper. I did glue that to chipboard to stiffen it.

You can see in this little snippet, that I then took Stickles and Tulips, Glitter 3-D Fashion paint and accented the features on my picture. I used the Glitter 3-D Fashion paint on most of the images where I just wanted some sparkle but I still wanted the image and the details to show through. I used that on his hat, the window frames, the sleigh, his shoe buckles and more.

Thanks for visiting, Linda

Materials:

Vintage image - The Vintage Workshop (online)

Stickles - Ranger

Glitter 3-D Fashion paint - Tulip

Ribbon

What a FUN way to give a gift!

There are so many ways to put together a "wrapping" for that little gift. Just that extra touch that says you care. I wanted to pull out some of my new JustRite stamps and incorporate them in a project.
I cut out two pieces of red paper in a stocking shape for each Christmas stocking. To add to the details, I machine sewed around each stocking. The snowflakes on the toes are a punch to which I added some Glitter 3-D Fashion Paint by Tulip (you can find this at Michaels and Walmart). I love this glitter because it adds some great sparkle right where you want it and still lets the underneath project show through. The snowflake is attached with a brad that is also coated with the 3-D Glitter.

The JustRite stamps I used are from the Christmas Stamp Ensemble that goes with 3 1/4" Harmony Circle Stamper III. What is so cool about this set of stamps is that the set comes with 6 choices for a border and 6 choices for the centers of the circle. You can also just use the border or the inside making this set even more versatile. The Harmony Circle Stamper III is designed to hold the rubber stamps you want to use - one handle for all of these various stamps. Pretty cool!!!

I added some of the Glitter 3-D Fashion Paint by Tulip to the white snowflake on the first stocking and some red Stickles to the holly berries on the second stocking. A ribbon tie allows the stockings to be hung on the tree. I added in some candy canes but I could so see this being a fun way to give a friend a gift card.

Thank you for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Materials for stockings:

Patterned paper - Making Memories (2 sided paper)

Snowflake punch - Martha Stewart

Glitter 3-D Fashion Paint - Tulip

Brads

Red Stickles

Ancient page stamp pads in Coral Reef and Pine

Ribbon

JUSTRITE Circle stamps

"DRESS" up their gift!!!

Gift cards have so become one of the best ways to remember a friend with a gift. Kind of that "one size fits all" type of thing. Here are a couple ideas for "dressing up" those cards. They say "it's all about the packaging", so making fun holders adds to the gift.
This cutie is a Maya Road chipboard doll. She is about 8" tall and there are so many things that can be done with her. I decided to make her some clothes and on the front of her little apron, I added a row of punched lace and it isn't glued down all of the way so that I could slip my gift card into it.

When the gift card is removed, she is still dressed up and CUTE. This could also have a ribbon for hanging it on the tree as an ornament.

Here is a close-up of the apron. I used my Martha Stewart embossing border punch to create my lacey looking edge and that is the pocket.

I started out by painting the front, back and sides of the chipboard doll. I like to start these kinds of projects that way so that the areas that aren't covered with paper still look finished. The apron is one whole piece that fit over her head and I created a little belt to wrap around her. You can see the back in the above photo to get a better idea of how the apron really does "dress" her.

This is a very simple little card with a pocket. I started out with a chipboard accordian album that has a couple pockets in it. I just cut the accordian sections apart so that I ended up with a couple cards, the pocket is on the front. I then created a little tag that slips in the pocket and that holds my gift card. The ribbon bow makes it easy to remove the tag.

For the inside of the card, I simply cut a matching piece of the patterned paper and made a little insert where I added some rub-on words. This leaves space for me to write a message.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

DEAR SANTA gift-card card

Materials:

Chipboard doll shape – Maya Road

Paint – FolkArt/PlaidPatterned paper – Holly and Mistletoe/Deck the Halls/KaiserCraft

Fluid Chalk stamp pad – Clearsnap

Embossed border punch – Martha Stewart

Christmas rub-on phrases – Making Memories

Ribbon

HOLIDAY gift-card card

Materials:

Chipboard “exposed” library card – K&Co.

Patterned paper – Icicles/Jack Frost/Lasting Impressions

Fluid Chalk stamp pad – Clearsnap

Rub-on Christmas greetings – Deja Views

Ribbon – Creative Impressions

Did you get a peek!?

Did you get a peek at this project at Cut Card Stock? Go on over now and see the whole creation.
I only wish you could see how amazing the photo is printed on this paper, Curious Iridescent CRYOGEN WHITE cardstock. This paper is so soft and has the slightest sparkle - amazing IRL!!!

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Some GOOD stuff!!! Homemade rolls and Tattered Angels

I have some good stuff to share but first of all.......
My grandkids all LOVE my homemade rolls that are part of our holiday gatherings. This year was this little guys first try and I think he has joined the official cheer team for Grandma's rolls!!! He is just learning to hold things and so this picture is just too cute of him pretty much saying, "don't even try to take this away from me"!

The next piece of good news! Do you recognize the above logo? If not, you sure need to get acquainted. I seem to go through phases and my newest obsession is Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels. My joy for December is that they ask me to do some guest design creations. Check out that page here.

Throughout this month, I am going to give you some close-ups of the creations I did for that feature. This first project is a simple mat for a picture that you would mount in a frame. I love the little opening with the large amount of matting. I thought it would be a fun holiday accent and it uses my favorite color of Glimmer Mist, Key Lime Pie.

I had just picked up a package of the Glimmer Screens and I thought this one looked similar to a wreath. I placed the screen on the mat, centered over the cut out opening. I sprayed the entire piece with the Key Lime Pie Glimmer Mist. (BIG HINT: the screen is covered with the Glimmer Mist and you can lift it off of your project and wash it but I just can't waste that wonderful spray, so I lifted it off and laid it out on a piece of plain white cardstock. That gave me a great green design, part of which I used on my CPS card for last week)

Now my next super cool discovery is how amazing the Coffee Shop Glimmer Mist is when it is sprayed on black cardstock. I ended up with a wonderful rusted look. The snowflakes were punched out of that sprayed paper.

Here is a good close-up of the green, the screen design and the rusted looking snowflake. I just wish you would really see the amazing GLIMMER or GLEEM the finished project has.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Materials:

Mat - craft store

Glimmer Mist and Glimmer Screen - Tattered Angels

Rub-on greeting - Making Memories

Snowflake punch - Martha Stewart

Rhinestones - Mark Richards, Inc.