O' Christmas Tree...

O' Christmas Tree...How lovely are your branches.

This weekend we are putting up our Christmas tree. It seems that as my kids have gotten older, they've lost their interest in helping with the tree.  Everyone is doing their own thing...work...friends...school. I miss my little girls running boxes from storage to the living room just bursting with excitement and thrilled to get the Christmas decorations out. So I'm going to borrow my granddaughter, Jourdan for the afternoon on Saturday or Sunday and that's when the tree is going up. I know she will bring back that childhood wonder that her mom, Tricia and her Auntie Hannah used to have over Christmas. Not that my girls don't love Christmas! Tricia had her own home decorated since the weekend after Halloween and Hannah is a stickler for twinkling Christmas lights which she has in her bedroom year round. I guess what I'm trying to say is that no one brings out the wonder and joy of Christmas like children do!

Anywhoooo...speaking of Christmas Trees...here's a lovely one from MelJen Designs. Another digital stamp shop full to the brim with FUN designs!

Birdies and Owls and Trees...OH MY!

Lisa over at Ink and Whimsy Digital has an awesome set called Modern Forest. There are so many great ways to use the set...the options are endless! When I got my grubby little hands on it, my imagination when into overdrive and I could hardly keep up. I'll show you what I came up with in a minute but first...if you want to see what Lisa has available or if you want to get YOUR hands on the Modern Forest set, be sure to check out http://www.inkandwhimsy.com/.  And now...here they are...

Here's To a Beautiful Day! - I used MS Word to insert, size and rotate the trees to set them in this order. The large tree in the center is actually the branch that comes horizontal in the digital set. I rotated it and did the same for the tree on the right so that the branches are on the opposite side. I wanted them to sit together in an eye appeasing way and I think I succcesded in that. Once arranged and sized, I printed the trees 4 times, once on white and then once on each of the papers I used to do the piecing. I colored the branches using Copics and shaded around the trees and added the grass using Prismas and OMS. I cut out the leaves and Xyron'd them, then applied them to the white panel. They needed a bit of shading so I used Prisma and OMS on the leaves to give them some depth. Punched the polka dot green edge, layered and added ribbon. Finally, I added the glitter to and around the center tree and stamped the sentiment. I love this look, it's clean and glitzy and just looks sharp to me!

For the birdy card, I started with a celery green background that matched the beautiful blue\green patterned paper I used from my scrapbox. I added the brown which really made it all pop. I used MS Word again on this one to position and size the branch and bird. Again, printed as many copies as I needed on white and decorative paper. Colored the image (Copics) and then cut, Xyron'd and added the leaves and birdy. I added a touch of shading with Primas and OMS to the bird and leaves. Stitched the layers together and taped it all up. I also added a touch of glitter to the bird and the leaves. I love this color combo. It's so peaceful. Lastly, I added the buttons with just a touch of hot glue.

Mr Owl didn't take long to put together. I printed and colored him up and using Copics and Prsimas. I added some brown stickles to give him dimension and some glitz (of course)! Then I layered the papers and stitched them all with a zigzag stitch and put them all together making sure the brown ribbon was taped behind them. I cut the branch freehand from brown cardstock and added a bit of stickles to it also for texture. I printed the sentiment and punched them and layered with the same color cardstock I used on the card. I used foam tape to attach both the owl and the sentiment circle.

Isn't it amazing how just turning a stamp\image can rended a completely different picture than what you ever imagined it would! Think outside the box...you will be pleasantly surprised!

Have an AWESOME day!

Let it...SNOWMAN!

Let it snow...let it snow...let it snow!!

Isn't this the cutest snow family you've ever seen?! This came from sillydillybeans.blogspot.com, where you can find tons of cute digital stamps. I was thrilled when I came upon this site - another treasure found through Etsy! This image is a freebie to be used for the Snowfamily Challenge\Giveaway that sillydillybeans has going on until Dec 19th. I'll be entering this card. The photos don't do it justice (I have yet to master taking good photos of cards)! I put 2 photos up because they show a little bit different view, which will give you a better idea of where I applied the glitter.

I'm also going to enter this card in The Pink Elephant Challenge 128    The theme for TPE128 is Snowflakes and Sparkles! I can't wait to see all the beautiful enteries!

This image colors up so quickly and can be used in so many ways! I have tons of ideas running through my head...now I just need MORE TIME!!



I used tons of glitter on this cute snowfamily, added a glitter trim to the snowman panel, chunky glitter to the ground below the family, glitter snowflakes falling from the sky, glitter to the snowflake embellishment and to the snowpeople's hats and scarfs. I found the cute little snowflake buttons at Wal-Mart and have had them sitting on my desk for just the right card! Well, I found it!  To apply those darlin little buttons I actually sewed them right to the cardstock using red thread. I used green for my cardbase, layered it with a bright red with crosshatch texture and then wrapped it up with beautiful striped paper and some ribbon. The sentiment is from The Angel Company.  I used my Cricut to cut out the layered paper snowflakes, ran the white one through my Xyron and then glittered it up! The Snowman fam is Colored with Copics and shaded Gamsol\OMS.

Hope this one makes you smile!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Holidays

I can never say enough good about Mo Manning's beautiful images. I wish I had the creativity that she does, but since I don't, I'll just take advantage of hers and keep coloring up what she creates! Bella and Bronte continue to be my Mo favorites. I just love the whimsical duo and all the fun things they do. I made this card for my sister who I know will smile when she see's Bella and Bronte skating across the pond! I mean, who wouldn't? They are do darn cute!

I colored them up with Copics and then added shading with Prismas and OMS. I really like the depth the shading gave this image and the vividness I got out of the colors. It doesn't show well in the photo but it's there. I glittered up Bella's handmuff, hatband and the white edge on her coat and slip so she will sparkle like the skating star she is! I used cherry red as the cardbase and layered green and then that beautiful Holly and Berry design paper (I just love that paper). I ran a straight stitch over the green and design paper with my beloved old Brothers sewing machine to add that special touch.  Then, I added ribbon and those beautiful faux baubles. I can't remember where I found those shiney little gems, but I think I should have bought more! I wish I could get them in all colors because they are so glitzy and I LOVE GLITZY! And lastly, I added the finishing touch - Happy Holidays!

I'm entering this in Mo's Digital Challenge 111 The Great Outdoors  

Santa Claus is coming to town!!

 It's hard to believe it's the 5th of Decemeber already. It seems like we were just mowing the lawn and running the AC. So far, I have two Christmas gifts bought and I have no idea what to get for everyone! We did do some shopping yesterday but all I ended up with was two sweaters for myself!!  I do have a list of a few things that need to be bought but boy...I sure need to get going on it!

Here are a few Christmas cards that I've made in the last few weeks. These are made with digital images from http://www.cuddlybuddly.com/. They have many cute digitals and these are some of my favorite Santa's. Adorable and easy to color up for cute Santa cards.

Have you started your Christmas cards yet? I only have a few done so I better cut this short and get moving!!


                             

                                                         

I didn't spend a great deal of time coloring these up because I made quite a few of them. I used Copics on them, except for the outline in grey, which I did with Tombows. Add glitter and a few other embillishement and WA LA...I really like the way these turned out. The sentiment tickets are also from Cuddly Buddly.

Remember Santa is coming! Better good!