Merry Everything - PPA230

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Welcome to another Pals Paper Arts Challenge! This week we have a fun color challenge for you:

This color combination said "Christmas" to me so that's the direction I went. One more Christmas card done...check!

I had a fun and busy weekend, celebrating the holiday and cyber-shopping and decorating the house. Fun! It's that busy time of year so I hope you are able to make some time to play along with us!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

 

Merry & Bright

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Hello friends and Happy Thanksgiving to you!

As we celebrate our blessings today, we can't help but think of what comes next...Christmas! And all the busyness that entails. I've been busily creating Christmas cards and using challenges as my inspiration. Today's card was inspired by this sketch over at The Paper Players:

I kept my card fairly simple and definitely monochromatic. All the red just makes me happy:)

I hope you have a wonderful holiday full of joy and memories.

Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Many Merry Stars - Freshly Made Sketches 162

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I just received this stamp set, Many Merry Stars, in the mail last week and have been itching to ink it up so I found an excuse! lol This sketch from Freshly Made Sketches was just the ticket!

The size of cardstock I had to work with, and stamp my images in, wasn't very large but no problem! I simply stamped off with the two largest star stamps and the filled them both in with the next sized stamp and then filled in with the smallest snowflake...ez peasy!! And since they're clear, placement of stamps was a breeze. They even gave us a curvy sentiment to work with....I L O V E this stamp set!!

There is no die to go along with the sentiment but it was really easy to cut out freehand. I popped it up on Stampin' Dimensionals to give it a bit more 'oomph'. I laid a thin layer of Soft Sky Seam Binding down and then placed a sparkly snowflake on top. The snowflake is from last year but it was the perfect accent. A few snowflake sequins add a bit to the design and accentuate the falling snow look I was going for. And all this from a girl who has been a Southern California girl for xx years! Let's leave it at that, it's been awhile!

I hope you have enjoyed today's card and that you are inspired to get inky!!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

A Sweet Thank You - Retro Rubber Challenge #1

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Today I'm excited to participate in a brand new challenge called Retro Rubber! And it's a fun and different challenge...using our much-loved-even-though-they-are-retired Stampin' Up! supplies!!

How cool is that?!?

The challenge this week is to ink up your oldest Stampin' Up! stamp set. I can do that as I still own it and will never part with it...just sentimentally attached:) It's a stamp set called Watercolor Trio. I chose it because it was pretty and I thought it looked fairly mess-up-proof...it was after all, my first stamp set!

I pulled out all the stops for this challenge, digging into my supplies for the Floral District Designer Series Paper, featuring a much loved retired color, Baja Breeze!

I just love the look of this stamp, to acheive it, I simply stamped in the center with full coverage ink in Rich Razzleberry, then immediately stamped off to on side without re-inking, and then again on the other side, also without re-inking. So I've stamped the same image three times without adding ink to the stamp. It's helpful if you huff on the stamp before the third stamp to get all the last remaining ink to transfer.

I also inked up the butterfly stamp in Baja Breeze and fussy cut him out. I had a hard time deciding which way was up, so I hope he's not flying upside down!!

When I was done...I wasn't quite ready to be done so I decided to keep going!

I kept this one very clean and neat. I couldn't resist using Baja Breeze again. I actually had to re-ink the stamp pad as it has been so long since I used it! I'm so glad I still have it. It's like re-reading a favorite book, warm and comfortable :)

Retired paper, retired ink, retired ribbon retired buttons...yep, I think I have this challenge covered! so much fun to play along with!!

I hope you've enjoyed this detour into Stampin' Up!'s past...which was your first stamp set? Or the one you'll never be able to let go of??