Muse: ChristmasVisions Free-For-All!

Have you ever noticed that the majority of year-round Christmas card challenge blogs close down for the month of December? Not Muse: ChristmasVisions! I don't know about you, but I never have all the cards I need by the end of November, so this can come in handy if you're looking for inspiration. Not only that, but we make it a "free-for-all" challenge, so any holiday-themed card can be linked up. Cornelia offered her inspiration last week, and I'm offering mine below. If you need more ideas, simply stroll through the link-up cards! Something is sure to jump-start your creativity. 

As I often do, I went for clean and simple and cute. I coloured my little snow guy with markers, and did the same with my die cut sentiment, as I'd originally cut it in white. The sentiment also has sparkle thanks to a Wink of Stella marker. Just for fun, I used a swiss dot embossing folder for the backing panel for an easy hint of snow. 

Supplies: Neenah white and Stampin' Up real red cardstock, Neat & Tangled Santa's Wonderland stamps & dies, Versafine onyx black ink, Ranger clear embossing powder, Neat & Tangled Be Merry & MFT diagonal stitched frame dies, Copic Markers, Cuttlebug swiss dots embossing folder, foam tape

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Winter with the Snarky Sisters

We know, it's not officially winter yet, but it feels like it where I live! And so the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers has a new challenge, W is for Winter. For some reason, even though I am definitely not a fan of winter, I couldn't seem to summon up any snark for my card...

Perhaps my lack of snark is due to all the Christmas tags I made last month? Whatever the reason, I went for this serene winter scene, not dissimilar to this tag (scroll down) I made. I started with a smooshed distress ink background for a wintry afternoon, then added all the different die cuts. A red frame and embossed white sentiment were all I felt were needed to finish the card.  
I'll add this to the current Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Wednesday challenge. 

There are lots more wintry creations to admire on the Snarky blog, by my sisters in snark as well as our returning queen, Donna! Snarky or not, why not join us with your own winter project? 

Supplies: Neenah white, Papertrey Ink smokey shadow & Stampin' Uo real red cardstock, Canson watercolour paper, Versamark & tumbled glass, stormy sky & spun sugar distress inks, Sunny Studio rustic winter, CUTplorations stitched snow hills & MFT diagonal stitched rectangle frame dies, foam tape

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Christmas Tags, the Aftermath... and a Card!

While there are still a few more days to comment or make tags, for me Tracey's 25 Days of Christmas Tags is essentially done. But I thought it would be fun to show just what almost a month of tag-making looks like... 

I think I have more than enough tags for the upcoming season. 😂 
Without tags, I had time to get back to Christmas card making! Jingle Belles' current challenge, "Bring Us Some Figgy Pudding", wants to see festive food on our projects. In stamp form, not sloppy eating. Here's mine: 

That may even be a figgy pudding in my grouping of traditional holiday treats! It's some kind of traditional Christmas pudding, at any rate. There's also Christmas cake (I'm a fan, although I don't need the marzipan icing) and a yule log. I made mine chocolate. All treats are coloured with Copic markers for Kathy Racoosin's The Daily Marker 30 Day colouring challenge. I'm also going to add this to Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies challenge. 

         

Supplies: Neenah white & Recollections dark red cardstock, Pink and Main Sweet Christmas stamps & dies, Versafine onyx black & Colorbox Kismet inks, Ranger clear & Hero Arts sparkle embossing powder, Copic markers, MFT stitched rounded rectangle die, Gelly Roll white gel pen, foam tape

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25 Days of Christmas Tags: Day 26!

Hooray, I'm back! With a tag, that is. I know Tracey McNeely calls it the 25 Days of Christmas Tags event, but we've got a bonus 26th day today! Our final guest and sponsor is A Jillian Vance Design. 

Jillian and her mom sent the tag team a couple of sweet stamp sets to work with. I managed to incorporate a few different stamps on this final tag for the event: 

Why yes, I did manage to use three different embossing powders on the bell image. :D This Christmas embossing powder does not come out too often, but I thought it would be fun for the main body of the jingle bell. Then I inked the outline over top in black with clear embossing powder, and lastly added the red glitter bow. (Next time, I would be more likely to just use silver ink with the black stamped over top and emboss them together, but this was fun to try.) Even though I was pretty sure the embossing would resist, it was easy to cut a circle mask to cover the bell while I added the music notes to the tag base. To finish, I added the red topper. 

But wait, there's more! I decided to make this a tag that opens, this time with the fold on the back tag: 

I used a stitching die where I wanted the fold to be, matching the stitching on the tags themselves. 

I even added a bit of stamping to the back of the tag: 

And there you have it... the very last day of Tracey's tag event. If you're still making tags and/or commenting on designers' blogs, don't worry, you still have a few days before things wind down and Tracey announces the winners. Thanks for joining us on this tag-making journey, and thanks to Tracey for organizing this amazing month of creativity! 

Thanks, too, to these amazing sponsors!

Supplies: Neenah white & Stampin' Up real red cardstock, A Jillian Vance Design Jingle All the Way & To & From stamps, Versamark, Versafine onyx black & Stampin' Up real red inks, Ranger clear, Zing red glitter & Christmas silver embossing powders, CUTplorations manila tag & Paper Smooches stitched dies, twill ribbon, glitter cord, $ store jingle bells

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25 Days of... Oh No!

I am tagless today. 😭 Sadly, Canadian postal disruptions have left me empty-handed for supplies to make tags for today's guest and sponsor at Tracey McNeely's 25 Days of Christmas Tags, Hello Bluebird. So instead, I've made a couple more Christmas cards! 
Somehow, for all of my Christmas card making, ABC Christmas Challenge has flown under my radar until now. But a friend let me know that they are currently looking for new design team members (thanks, Carol!) and so I'm joining in now! 

The current challenges are W is for Wishes and X is for Xmas. I've made one for each. First, my Xmas card: 

I made a galaxy sky background using a number of distress inks. It's also spritzed and spattered with shimmer mists and white acrylic paint. My reindeer is watercolored with distress ink for Kathy Racoosin's The Daily Marker 30 Day colouring challenge. I couldn't resist giving him a red nose with Nuvo glitter drops - it also gave me an excuse to add a red sentiment and card base. 

Next up is my wishes card:

I used a Hero Arts layering wreath with three different green inks. The scoring, I hope, subtly suggests a door frame. The wreath is decorated with red, gold and silver confetti sequins and a die cut bow. The red foil cardstock? A dollar store find! 

I am back tomorrow with the last day of the 25 Days of Christmas Tags! (Yes, there are actually 26 days. 😉) Hope to see you back here then! 

Supplies: (merry xmas) Neenah white, CTMH navy & Stampin' Up real red cardstock, Canson watercolour paper, STAMPlorations Christmas Reindeer stamps & dies, PinkFresh Studio Christmas Wishes stamp, Versamark, Stampin' Up real red & many distress inks, Ranger clear, Hero Arts sparkle & Wow superfine white embossing powder, Tsukineko clear sparkle shimmer mist, Claudine Hellmusth blank canvas acrylic paint, white confetti Perfect Pearls, CUTplorations stitched snow hills & MFT blueprints 24 stitched rectangle dies, foam tape; (warmest wishes) Neenah white, Stampin' Up real red & $ store red foil cardstock, Hero Arts Colour Layering Wreath stamps, Versamark, Memento bamboo leaves, Simon Says Stamp green leaf, Stampin' Up garden green & real red inks, Hero Arts sparkle embossing powder, Paper Smooches baby bow die, Studio Katia classic Christmas confetti, Martha Stewart scoring board

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