Memory Box Holiday Greetings.

I did a lot of Christmas cards using my distress oxide inks after I saw a couple of videos by Dave Brethauer. I like this design because there is texture and dimension without the bulk. We have several single male friends so I like to do cards that are a little more masculine for them. I will enter this in the Memory Box Holiday Greetings Challenge,  I also cut the PTI sentiment from the same paper, 

Memory Box Deer Grove Oval

Lawn Fawn Stitched Frames

TIP   I decided when I got Lawn Fawn Stitched die to leave it attached. When I cut with it, I get the stitched frames but I also get the frames in between the stitched frames. So when I cut with this die, I get the three stitched frames and three that have no stitching. Since I use frames on my cards frequently, I have a variety of sizes to use for different projects. 

Double D Baby It's Cold Outside

This is our last challenge of the 2017 at Double D Challenge Blog and Darlene has inspired us with all things winter. Don't you love the upside down snowman?  I did not take inspiration from one photo, but when I saw this board, I realized I had a new die that was perfect for the challenge.

 My goal for this year was to make my Christmas cards flat and easy for mailing and this Amy Design Wintertide  made that easy. 

I cut the Amy Design scene from heavy white card stock. I added a little bit of color to door window and lamp post, backed it with some PTI paper and added a  tree in the center...quick and easy. I did add a few gems to the snowflakes since this card was going to become the top of a box and not be mailed. 

If you have never visited the Amy Design Page at Dies R Us and you like this frame, you should visit. There are several frames in this line covering multiple themes including  tools, vehicles and wild animals.

Here is the prize for this challenge. 

The team has create fabulous designs for your inspiration so head on over and check them out at Double D Challenge Blog.

I hope all of you have a fun-filled, memory- making holiday filled with all things that make you happiest.  MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Anything but a Card

I belong to an international group of women called P.E.O. (Philanthropic Educational Organization). Our primary purpose is raising funds to help women with their college educations. This year I was involved in several fund raisers for that cause. One of the fund raisers was making and selling gift card boxes. They also are perfect for candy and jewelry.  I made 200 boxes and the ladies of my group helped decorate them using some ideas that I showed them. We had fishing, golfing, sewing, cooking ,movie, coffee, tea, cowboy,along with traditional Christmas themed boxes. I used dies from several companies including Poppy Stamps and Memory Box. This month the challenge at Poppy Stamps is Anything but a Card so I decided to enter one of my boxes.

I started with the Lawn Fawn Fancy Box in white. I cut another white piece the same size as the top of the box and used pne of the PTI Make Market Mini Holiday Tag Along kit dies to cut the sides of the white panel and then put some blue glitter paper underneath.  A Spellbinder's die cut in glitter paper in the center and  topped with a Poppy Stamp Batavia snowflake.

I started with the Lawn Fawn Fancy Box in white. I cut another white piece the same size as the top of the box and used one of the PTI Make Market Mini Holiday Tag Along kit dies to cut the sides of the white panel and then put some red  glitter paper underneath.  A Poppy Stamps Perfect Pine Needles topped with Spellbinder's poinsettia completes the box.

The second  box uses lots of gold glitter paper, Poppy Stamps  Perfect Pine Needles and Gina Marie Pine Cones. 

Poppy Stamps Perfect Pine Needles

Memory Box Batavia Snowflakes

Lawn Fawn fancy Box

 

Here are some of the others we made at one of our fun workshops.  I had the boxes made and tons of die cuts, decorative papers, stamped sentiments and several samples for them. Some of them just copied my ideas but others found their MOJO and did their own thing.

Dies R Us White on White

Can you believe that this is the last Dies R Us Challenge  for 2017? The challenge is White on White and it does not have to be Christmas, but this year I got behind on my Christmas cards so I welcomed the opportunity to make my white on white card a Christmas card. Nothing unusual about how I put this together except I did use some glue and glitter to make a snow mound under the church. 

Here are the dies I used that are available at the Dies R Us Store. 

 IO Snowflake Background

IO Evergreen Trees

                                                                                   Frantic Stamper Snow Globe Church

                                                                           

                                               IO Holiday Bottom Word Edgers

The rest of the team has some fabulous inspiration for you  so go check out their designs at  Dies R Us Challenge Blog. We can't wait tosee your white on whit cards.

Double D It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Another amazing mood board from Diane at Double D Challenge Blog.   Darlene and Diane put a lot of thought to prepare this wonderful challenge blog for all of us. The designers love each and everyone of the boards and from the amount of participation we get, many of you are inspired too. I love the red and white combination of this board, but when I saw the big snowflake with the red background I knew what I wanted to do.

                                    


I have gone more CAS with my Christmas cards this year. They are a real challenge for me,but I think I am learning. I used a red glitter paper background on a white card base. The IO snowflake cover plate is so pretty on its own not so not much else is needed. Next, I cut MFT  DieNamics Blueprints  from red glitter paper and white card. I cut the red in half so I could make a border for the top and bottom. The IO sentiment filled that space nicely so I just added a few sequins.

Here is the prize that one random person who plays along with the challenge will win.




With Christmas only 19  days away,  this is a chance to get another Christmas card done. So go get creative and link up your project at Double D Challenge Blog.

Dies R Us Christmas Carols

The challenge at DIES R US is perfect for adding to your Christmas card stash. Do you believe it will be time to put them in the mail soon? This is an easy challenge just make a card with a Christmas carol in mind. As a child and teenager growing up in Western Pennsylvania, a white Christmas was always a possibility but not a given. I always loved the idea of a snow for Christmas so that may explain why many of my winter and Christmas cards are filled with snowflakes and of course, I love oval dies so this new one from Memory Box became a "Must Have"  for me.

  

                                   

After watching  Dave Brethauer create some beautiful backgrounds for Memory Box dies, I decided to pull out my oxide inks and create several backgrounds for cards. The photo does not show it, but I splattered the background with some watered down glue and added some white glitter and I also added some glitter on the tree.   In this closeup, the background still does not show off the glitter but you can see some on the tree. 

Even though it has seven layers, it will mail with regular postage.  

Here are the dies I used from the Dies R Us Store. 

Memory Box Batavia  Snowflake Oval

Memory Box Batavia Snowflakes

Impression Obsession Fir Trees

Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Frames

Why don't you create a Christmas Carol card and join us over at Dies R Us Challenge Blog ? One random player will get a gift certificate from the store. 

PTI Challenge

                                                   

This weeks challenge at PTI is to Create a project using inspiration you have seen during the November release. You can find the challenge HERE There are so many wonderful projects, but I love snow flakes so I chose this card by Betsy Veldman. 




  

Betsy's card has a stenciled background and a layered tag on top. One of my good friends owns a winery and a wine tasting room. I have been busy making some wine tags for her to give to customers. Most of them are holiday tags, but I did some generic ones, fall and Thanksgiving and birthday. I decided I would make one more tag and copy some of Betsy's features.

My tag.

Betsy started by stenciling a background. I did not have the stencil so I used a Spellbinders die and made one of my own. and sponged on some blue and green ink and added some splatters. I used last month's kit from PTI and made a tag for the top of my wine bottle tag. Betsy used green parakeet which I don't have  so I came as close as I could with green leaf and aqua mist for the IO snow flake.I added some blue glitter paper under my die cut tag for some shine. I added some twine from the kit and a sequin to finish my project. The wine bottle tag is also from PTI.

Dies R Us Snow

It is the 15th of the month which means that it is time for a new challenge at Dies R Us Challenge Blog.

Anything SNOW related . . .

(snowman, falling snow, etc.)

I decided to make a snow shaker card. If you have never made a shaker card, you can find many videos on You Tube explaining the process. I sponged a background then layered the beautiful Frantic Stamper Church in the Wildwood which makes it easy to create a scene.   I used the following dies from the Dies R Us Store on my card. 

Frantic Stamper Church in the Wildwood

Poppy Stamps Ava Snowflakes

Impression Obsession Fir Trees

Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Frames

We are looking forward to your snow themed designs.  

Double D Here Comes Santa

Darlene has created a fun filled Santa Mood Board for our challenge this time. These Santa images are so much fun and filled with Christmas Cheer. Need some more inspiration? Visit  the Double D Challenge Blog.

Here Comes Santa Claus

(Use SANTA on your card/project)

                                                



It has been awhile since I created a double Z fold card so I decided to create one using a Cottage Kutz Santa I have had for awhile. I cut him from red glitter paper and white card stock. At this time of the year, I try to keep a stash of  snowflakes on hand. I used wuite a few IO and Poppy Stamp snowflakes to add texture to the background.  I also added an IO Merry Christmas cut from glitter paper and created presents by cutting squares and using some ribbon dies I had.

Of course, Dar made the prize fit the challenge. How cute is this Santa and sleigh? 

                                          
So what are you waiting for? Pull out your Santa stamps, papers, pictures dies and join us at  Double D Challenge Blog.

Dies R Us Fall

It's the first of the month so that means another challenge at Dies R Us Challenge Blog. This challenge is

Anything pertaining to FALL

(Fall Harvest, Fall Colors, etc)

I always need a stash of Birthday cards so for this challenge I decided to use fall colors as my starting point. My orange is PTI Canyon Clay layered behind some Gina K heavy base white card stock.  I used the Cheery Lynn floral for my flowers. I love how these flowers shape. You can get a variety of sizes depending upon  how much you shape and pinch them at the bottom. I used the IO stamp and die set for the sentiment. 

Sue Wilson Australian Collection

Impression Obsession Wishes

Cheery Lynn Floral

Frantic Stamper Fern

If you want a chance to win a gift certificate to the fabulous Dies R Us store, just link up your fall design at Dies R Us Challenge Blog. Remember you must use at least one metal die on your card. 

I will also enter this at the Crop Shop Challenge

Double D Feeling Fallish

Once again, Diane has a fabulous mood board for our inspiration. The Double D teams are divided into two groups,Team Diane and Team Darlene. We are asked to create a project on either the first or third Wednesday depending upon our team assignments, but the boards are so beautiful that most of us create cards for both challenges because we can't resist.

Feeling Fall-ish

Here is prize for this challenge  

My eye was drawn to the fame and leaves so I tried to recreate it. I started with my favorite wood panel technique and covered it with a chicken wire cover plate and  added some Cheery Lynn leaves, IO birdhouse and Die-Namites cat tails.  The team has some wonderful inspiration for you at Double D Challenge Blog so pay a visit to the blog then create your own design using the mood board for your inspiration.  

Double D Leave it to me... Challenge

'LEAVE' it to me . . .

(Use leaves on your card/project.)

We have another fabulous mood board for you over at Double D Challenge Blog . For some reason  the picture of the kraft and white leaves kept drawing my eye so I decided to use that for my inspiration. 

I started by embossing pieces of kraft and orange card and then swiped the top of the embossing with a white ink pad. Then I cut the two pieces diagonally and put them on a green card base. I actually got two cards by doing this. I glued some white card to double sided adhesive and cut out the PTI thanks ,Frantic stamper leaves,and Memory Box flower border. Then I burnished them with some guilding flakes glued them to my card. 

Inside of the card

Both Darlene and Diane try to match the prizes for the challenge with the theme of the challenge.This IO leaf die is a perfect prize for this challenge. We hope you will join us for this challenge. 

Dies R Us Leaves

The challenge this week at Dies R Us Challenge Blog is all about leaves. Sometimes when I look at my designs, I feel like I am in a rut....doing the same card in different colors. I love the shape of the oval and when I look at my cards, I recognize how often I use one somewhere on my card so I decided no ovals on this card. Almost all my cards have flowers and or butterflies and lots of layers. I decided to take some inspiration from my team mate, LAURIE, who knows how to layer die cuts and still be CAS.  I  admired Laurie's designs long  before we were on a team together so I was thrilled to join the DRU Challenge Blog Team when she did.  CAS is soooo difficult  for me, but for this card I decided to challenge myself and create a CAS card with no butterflies, flowers, or ovals. I did, however, use a lot of embossing powder on  the leaves, the sentiment, the background dots, and the mat.

 The team has lots of leaf inspiration for you at  Dies R Us Challenge Blog, and don't forget one random entry will be selected for a Dies R Us  gift certificate so create your leafy design and join us. YOU inspire us.



I used the following dies on my card.

IO pine branch



        IO Thoughts and matching stamps


                                         

  Cheery Lynn Leaves









                                                

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Double D Fright Night

Fright Night

Use the colors or the patterns or the images

or anything YOU see in the mood board

Diane created a fun mood board for us for this time of the year. I noticed that the dominate colors are orange,yellow, black and white. There are also several patterns checks, dots and stripes and triangles.   

For my card, I decided to go with the colors and patterns. I used Tim Holtz dies to get patterns and PTI canyon clay for the orange card.  A PTI Wet Paint words and PTI Feather Finery, which I have not used for a while, for the feathers. 

Z fold cards are one of my favorite because they are easy but impressive.  Here the card is partially open. 

I don't have any spiders so I added some IO black birds and the IO typewriter alphabet finished the sentiment. 

As usual, the Double D Team Blog has fabulous inspiration for you. Diane and Darlene have managed to assemble a group of designers that always create such different twists on the same mood board.  We are looking forward to your designs. Thank all of you who participate for making this blog so successful.