Day 5

This is my interpretation of Day 5. I used an evergreen spray in the upper right corner and for trim, instead of German dresden trim, I used a MS punch from gold paper! I am loving the soft red color of Aged Mahogany distress ink. It's like a beautiful rose and when mixed with some gold it's gorgeous. For the ornaments I popped on some K&Co. trims and the JOY is a MS stamp. Be sure to check out Tim's blog. It is full of ideas and I know Sherry Cheever is following along with this tag challenge as well. Lots of fun!

Day 4 - My Own Thing

Well it's SNOWING to beat the band here and I got caught up with my Tim Holtz tags. I should say Tim Holtz inspired tags because I did not have all the doo dads he has available to me so I did my own thing. This is day 4 with the collaged background and then I used this huge button with a rhinestone bauble on the end as the centerpiece. Not as fancy as Tim's but it serves the purpose and I am having fun with this challenge!

In Between Tags.....

I have Sharon Johnson to thank for this inspiration. She did one of these on her blog last year and I wanted to try it and never go to it. So I finally made time the other day and it was great fun to put together. This would be a great little gift for someone. Make a special box for it! I used Real Red and various designer papers, stamps and punches. I couldn't photograph it in its entirety or it would have been too far away. Hope you get the idea. It looks very nice standing on a mantle or windowsill.

Day 3....one tag

Tim showed us two tags today demonstrating this plaid background technique done with alcohol inks. I didn't have his santa stamp but I used this one instead and the other tag which has trees I haven't finished yet. This is so much fun!

Tim Holtz Day 2.....Day 3 is coming

I had pretty much everything Tim suggested for this card. I have a lot of his Ranger products but not a lot of his stamps. You'll see on the next tag.

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas Day 1

I don't know if you are familiar with Tim Holtz annual 12 days of Christmas Tags. I decided to play along this year, although I can't promise I will be able to do them all but I'm gonna try. I had no snowman stamp....can you BELIEVE that. I wanted to finish so I used this little foam snowman and distressed him up some, along with the star. Everything else I pretty much did as Tim directed. His products are so wonderful. If you want to learn a lot and play along check out Tim's blog http://www.timholtz.typepad.com/. Thanks and have a great evening!

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In The Christmas Mood

Be sure to click on the pictures to see them up close and personal. I have been dying to do one of these and today I took the time. What fun!! The template is a Lauren Meader called Home Made and PTI's stamp set is called the same. My daughter gave it to me for my birthday and I set right to making this house. I used SU Naturals White for the whole house and all the windows and doors etc. They were stamped inTim Holtz Vintage Photo. I used Art Institute Designer Dries Clear Adhesive and sprinkled the whole thing with MS Snow Glitter. Glitter makes such a mess-yuk! But nothing else gives you that fresh snowly look. I hope you enjoy seeing it.....it sure was fun to make and I'm ready to start another with more color this time. I recently saw houses like this in Lancaster and they were $60!!!!

On Dasher......

Hasn't this little guy captured everyone's heart this season? This is Dasher, for those of you unfamiliar with Stampin' Up! stamps. He is one of our individual stamps. You can have him for a mere $8.95. This is an all white card but I have shown it for camera purposes on a red background. I embossed the first layer with the Swiss Dots CB folder, the second with the Snowflakes folder and the third is plain with Dasher embossed in Carnelian EP. He's such a cutie!

Quickie Card Tonight

I don't care for the reindeer in this set and the elves are just "ok" but I love this snowman line up! These guys are so cute. I colored them with Copics and cut them out with the Nestabilites Labels Four. I edged the Nestie shape with a Spica glitter pen ( not sure if you can tell that or not) and then finished with a Create a Flake One die from Nestabilities. On the snowflake I used Crackle Accents and while it was wet sprinkled it with the new MS Tinsel Glitter. It's actually like small shards of cut up tinsel, linear in shape, rather than round like most glitter. Really cool!

Home for Christmas

Remember to click to enlarge this image and hopefully you can see the Rock Candy stickles on the ground and the Liquid Pearls/Icicles Stickles on the tree. I am enjoying coloring these detailed images with my Copic markers. I am by no means an expert but it is so easy to shade with these things! The card base is Whisper White, Paper is Wassail from K&Co. and the background red is Bravo Burgundy behind both image and sentiment which are from ta da! Home for Christmas by SU. I used some gold ribbon to pick up the gold in the DP. Hope you like it!

A call for prayer.....

I find myself on this dreary rainy morning here in Maryland wondering about life. I know God has a plan and I know His ways are not our ways but I have to wonder all the same. A very good Christian family we have known for years, our kids even went to school together, have recently been going through a bad time. Their youngest son who was in my son's class, has a brain tumor that is malignant and because of where it was, they were only able to remove 70%. He will undergo chemo and/or radiation. Tough, you are thinking, no doubt. Well they have already lost a daughter to malignant melanoma when she was a high school senior approx. twenty years ago and the father in this case had cancer last year. I can't begin to guess what they are going through, can't even come close. But what I can do is ask you to uphold this young man, Jeff, and his family in prayer. Many people are doing just that and hopefully this will have a good outcome down the road. I certainly hope so because I would like to put an end to my wondering and instead rejoice in God's goodness and mercy. Please join me.

The Christmas Tree Dilemma

For the last five years or so we have given up putting up a Christmas tree. My children are all adults, there are no grand children, and it just seemed like too much work. And You Know WHO does the work! But this year I inherited a multitude of old glass christmas balls from my Mother In Law. I had quite a few myself from my parents. So now I am debating about purchasing a tree, probably artificial because they are so nice now, and displaying these lovely ornaments. While pondering if I really want to do that or not, I made this little card with an Outlines tree stamp. I stamped two layers, colored them with Copics, and layered every other triangle and added stickles to the stars for bling. The band was done with a new Martha Stewart border punch called pines. The sentiment is SU Home for Christmas stamped with Bravo Burgundy ink and I added two small pewter tree brads. Hmmm, if only the artificial one was this quick and easy..........

Thanksgiving Candles

It's a cloudy day here and not good for pictures but I thought I'd show you the candles I have done for my neighbor's Thanksgiving table. She is doing a candle for each couple so I have done 9. Michael's had these on sale for $1.50 and I dressed them up with some bands of paper and ribbon, a tag from Labels 8 Nestabilites and a few punched leaves. Lastly, I added a few dots of Stickles here and there for bling. I think they turned out very well. Quick and easy!

Veteran's Day

Dragging out the soap box today for a short reminder: please never forget the service our veterans as well as our current military personnel have given to our country. Their sacrifices and their devotion have made it possible for each and every one of us to live the life we enjoy today. I take my hat off to every vet, especially those who served in foreign wars, and honor them as they deserve. Our country has forgotten many of our former soldiers. Many are homeless, some languish in outdated facilities, many have problems that seem unsolvable. Do what you can, even if it is just a quick prayer today, to see they remain our heroes.

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Let the Image Shine

This is a recipe for a quick and elegant card. Let your image be the shining element. No ribbon, no flowers, no glitz (unless the pearls qualify) and no trouble. Stamp a beautiful image in one color ink, mount it on some DP and your base. Quick, less than 5 minutes. This beautiful image is from Serendipity Stamps called Winter Walk. Enjoy!

I'm Liking Neutrals Here!

Here's another christmas card with neutrals, creamy whites, beiges and tans. This is another 5 x 7 card with Anna Griffin paper and ribbon from Michaels. The stamps are from Inkadinkadoo. The only problem I had was the Stickles seemed to "spread" for some reason. I shook them well as I always do but maybe this bottle is going bad or something. Anyway I am loviong these beautiful whites and creams. Elegant. Understated.

Creamy Christmas

Be sure to click on this picture to see the enlarged version so you can see all the details. This is a 5 x 7 card on cream stock with the DP from Anna Griffin's Chrismas Pack. The large tan snowflake is on grungeboard, painted with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I rubbed on some stickles and then added iridescent stickles on the points. On top of that is layered a Poinsettia from Nestabilities. I used two each of the middle and small sections. I edged each with Ranger Glossy Accents and dipped it in glitter. The center is a snowflake brad with the same treatment. I used an EK Success fancy corner punch on all four corners and highlighted those with Liquid Pearls. Fancy schmancy!!!

What a Wreath!!!

From soft and pretty to bold and classic! I just bought this stamp from Flourishes called simply Christmas Wreath. I couldn't wait to color it with Copics. It was so much fun. When I finished, I "sugared" the fruit with Stickles as well as dotted the red on all the berries on the background paper and dots on the sentiment which is from Inkadinkadoo. This card is 5 x 7 on a cream background. The DP is DCWV. It's a big stamp which made it wonderful to color.