Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Now that the sun comes up so late, I'm able to watch the sunrise.  Even if I can just catch a glimpse of the sun under the cloud cover before a dreary day, I am set.  Yesterday was exceptional because the sun stayed out all day.  Looks like that's going to be true today too.  Yay!

For this one layer card I created a mask using the Seattle skyline die from Savvy Stamps.  I then sponged the sunrise around the skyline and the black of the reflected city in the water.  Lastly I stamped and embossed the sentiment.

The Details:  Savvy Stamps Seattle Skyline die, Impress sentiment, Memento Tuxedo Black, Cantaloupe, Angel Pink, & Danube Blue, Hero Arts Passion Flower, VersaMark, Recollections Detail Fine silver embossing powder and 110 lb white cardstock

I'm entering this in CAS(E) This Sketch #104 and Simon Wednesday Anything Goes

Quick Penguin Card

I was commissioned to make a couple of penguin cards for the holidays.  Cute although I would like to push the sentiment 1/8" to the left or so.

The Details:  Memory Box die in the back, Mama Elephant Arctic Penguins, Jolly & Merry, and Landscape Trio, Spectrum Noir DR3, DR4, blender, GB1, OR1, Distress Ink Festive Berries, Tumbled Glass and whatever the heck blue was left on my sponge from before, Memento Tuxedo Black, stash sequins, Scotch foam tape, Glossy Accents

I'm entering this in The Male Room #25 Christmas,  Simon Says Winter Inspiration, Addicted to Stamps & More #126 w/o Optional Twist of Love, Papertake Weekly Festive 

Coffee Lovers Blog Hop Candy Winner

Woo hoo!
Becca Cruger is the winner of the Memory Box Darling Poppies die.

Becca, I've sent an email to you asking for your deets.

And Frankie is leaping for joy for you!

Coffee Lovers Blog Hop & Candy

Have you heard about the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop?  Well, you certainly have now!  I had some serious fun with these coffee/hot beverage-inspired cards.  Mmm...I do love me some cocoa during cold weather but so rarely indulge.  It is a gateway drink after all.  ;-)

With the first card I reworked a design I made for Caring Hearts but never got around to blogging about.  This time I wanted to use non-traditional colors.  I really like how this turned out tho wonder if I should have left off the bottom washi strip.  Ribbon candy?  With the second, I used the same layout but added a shadow Space Needle behind the scene.  I love the pop of blue.  Very modern.

 

The Details Card 1:  PTI Fresh Snow hybrid ink and aqua mist cardstock base, Flavours Gourmet Smoked Sea Salt 12 pt coverstock, washi tape, vellum, Impress stamps, Versamark onyx black

The Details Card 2:  Memento Tuxedo Black, London Fog, Danube Blue, Impress mug, stars and interior sentiment, Lawn Fawn Love You a Latte saucer

Thanks to Amy et al for setting all this up and to the fab sponsors.  Have you checked all of them out?  Talk about candy!  You can see the full listing below.  But before you do that,  I'm offering up some of my own--my first!  

One of the lucky commenters will win a Memory Box Darling Poppies die.  Apparently I like what I like because I accidentally purchased two.  Just leave a comment on this post by Sunday, December 14th, at midnight PST for a chance to win.  Please leave contact info or I won't be able to reach out to you if you're the winner and will have to choose another.  You wouldn't want that, would you?  So comment here, there and everywhere to increase your chances of winning additional prizes.  It would be great if you're not already a follower to go ahead and follow me; there's a variety of choices to do so on the sidebar.Woo hoo! 

17Turtles	Veronica Zalis	Chris Franco
Add a Little Dazzle	Butterfly Reflections Ink	Color Cast Designs
Create a Smile	Hero Arts	Kraftin' Kimmie
Kreative Kymona	Latina Crafter	Neat & Tangled
Newton's Nook	Pickled Potpourri Designs	Poppystamps
Reverse Confetti	Stamp Academy	Stamp Simply Ribbon Store
STAMPlorations	SugarPea Designs	Sweet 'n Sassy
The Alley Way Stamps	Two Paper Divas	Verve Stamps
Whole Wild World	Your Next Stamp	Paper Smooches

17 Turtles:  $15 Store Gift Card

A Muse Studio/Chris Franco:  Cup of Good Cheer stamp set

Add a Little Dazzle:  $25 Store Gift Card

Butterfly Reflections Ink:  Prima Coffee Break

Color Cast Designs:  Coffee Lovers kit

Create a Smile:  Monster Party stamp set

Hero Arts:  A Little & Today's Special stamps/Cup 'O Joe Shadow ink

Kraftin' Kimmie:  $25 Store Gift Card

Kreative Kymona:  Fancy Mug Giveaway

Latina Crafter:  Cafe Wood Veneers + $25 Store Gift Card

Neat & Tangled:  Warm Wishes stamp set

Newton's Nook:  $15 Store Gift Card

Paper Smooches:  $25  Store Gift Card

Pickled Potpourri:  $7 Store Gift Card

Poppystamps:  Tea Cup Stack Die

Reverse Confetti:  $15 Store Gift Card

Stamp Academy:  2 classes

Stampin' Up/Veronica Zalis:  $20 Store Gift Card

STAMPlorations:  $10 Store Gift Card

Stamp Simply Ribbon Store:  Coffee Cup Prize Pack

SugarPea Designs:  $20 Store Gift Card

Sweet 'n Sassy:  Pick Me Up Clear stamp & die set

The Alley Way Stamps:  Tea Par-tea stamp set

Two Paper Divas:  Your Warm My Heart stamp set

Your Next Stamp:  $20

Verve Stamps:  $25

Whole Wild World:  Coffee before Talkee mug

●●Sponsorship prizes are eligible via random draw from linked hop participants only●●

Update 12/11/14:  added pic of blog candy

A Panda Christmas to You

 

Not a lot of time to craft lately :( but I did fit in some time this weekend between decorating inside and out.  I seriously need a set of elves!

I really mixed up the old and the new with these.  The panda stamp set arrived earlier this week and the Stampin' Up sentiment I've had for over a year but was originally released in 2003.  It would be interesting to see the SU catalogs over the years. This particularly still seems fresh to me.

The Details:  Stampin' Up Crazy for Christmas sentiment, Sweet Stamp Shop Pho You, Distress Ink Peeled Paint, Festive Berries, Shabby Shutters, Mowed Lawn, & Tumbled Glass, Spectrum Noir DR2 & DR3, Scotch foam tape, Mama Elephant Arctic Penguins (hat), Simon Says Falling Snow stencil, Recollections white 110 lb cardstock, PTI Pure Poppy cardstock

I'm entering Fantasy Stampers #25 CAS Christmas, CASology #124 Old, Crazy for CAS #59 Something Old, Simon Says Christmas/Holiday, Addicted to Stamps & More #124 CAS

Fair Isle Panel

 

I've got a bit of a theme going with all the knitting-related goodies, don't I?  'Tis the season!

The Tim Holtz Holiday Knit stencil (love!) reminded me of a toddler sweater I had knit a few years back in the traditional method (steeking, e.g.).  The pattern of the main body is called lice (best not to think too hard about it) so I used a Swiss dots embossing folder to mimic that in the card.  I sponged the stencil using Distress Ink in ombre fashion and mounted the panel on a couple layers of re-purposed stamp packaging.  I stamped the sentiment prior to embossing, of course (don't ask me how many times on how many cards I've forgotten to do that!).

Note:  Please please please ignore the horrible sweater pic from back in the day.  I learned a valuable lesson with this sweater; it was supposed to be a red and white sweater but when I hand-dyed the red yarn I didn't rinse it sufficiently.  Even my beloved Synthrapol didn't help.  Oops!  Girlie sweater it is!

The Details:  Tim Holtz Holiday Knit stencil, Recollections white 110 lb cardstock, Hero Arts CL722 sentiment, Memento Tuxedo Black, Cuttlebug swiss dots embossing folder, Distress Ink Festive Berries

I'm entering this in Virginia's View #10 All Things Distressed, Cardz 4 Guyz #47 Fav Xmas Color Combo (red/white), Simon Says Anything Goes  

Update:  entering this in Addicted to CAS #53 Dots as well

HOC December Blog Hop!

Hi, friends!  Can you believe we've come to the end of our third term at House of Cards?! We are saying a fond farewell to some of our DT members and feel so grateful to those staying on.  To say goodbye and thank you, we're celebrating with a blog hop! 

Here's our photo inspiration~

You should have arrived here from Daen'Ys' blog.  If you haven't, and you'd like to hop with us, please make sure you start there and continue through the whole thing for the most chances to win!  Speaking of winning, we have some amazing sponsors!

Here are all of our fabulous sponsors.  Our team will be using a variety of products from these amazing companies!

Daydream Designs
Prize: $20 to their digital store

Deedee's Digis
Prize: Gift Card to the online store.

Eclectic Anthology
Prize: $50 gift voucher to the shop.

Great Impressions
Prize: Prize Package with 5 Stamps

Paper Sweeties
Prize: $20 gift voucher to the shop.

Stitchy Bear
Prize: $10 gift voucher to the shop.

I couldn't resist working with two of the sponsors.  I must say it was incredibly hard to narrow down my choices because there' s such a fab variety!

With this first card I worked with Deedee's Digis Ugly Sweaters.  Isn't it fab?  There are actually 3 different sweaters in this set along with sentiments but I stuck with the deer one in keeping with our challenge image. I've included a quick and dirty tip sheet on how I worked with these digital images.

The Details:  Deedee's Digis Ugly Sweaters, Simon Says Sweater Words & Appliques (main sentiment), Christmas Crafts Christmas Words sentiment (Fa La La), Spectrum Noir markers, VersaFine Black Onyx, Memento Tuxedo Black, Neenah 80 lb solar white, Pop Tone Wild Cherry cardstock, Recollections 110 lb white cardstock base, Stickles, Sakura white pigment pen

My next card uses a Stitchy Bear's Skating Snowman Family.  So cute!  I brought in the blue and brown from the challenge image and, of course red.  It is Christmas after all!  I hadn't intended to add the snowflake dies but otherwise you'd see my inky fingerprint in the upper right.  LOL.

The Details:  Stitchy Bear Skating Snowman Family, Mama Elephant Jolly & Merry sentiments, Spectrum Noir markers, Neenah 80 lb solar white, Recollections 110 lb cardstock base (I so appreciate that the Neenah & Recollections ideas of white are so similar), Black Enamel Accents, Lawn Fawn Stitched Snowflakes die, Sakura white pigment pen, My Favorite Things stitched rectangle die, Scotch foam tape, Glossy Accents, Dreamweaver embossing paste, Simon Says Falling Snow stencil, Stickles

I hope you'll find these inspiring and will join our challenge this round!

Now get to hoppin'!  Your next stop is Donna's blog!  Don't forget to link up a project with us after completing the hop for an extra chance to win a mystery prize from one of our fabulous sponsors, too!

House of Cards Challenge Blog

Mynn

Sue T.

Cornelia

Daen'Ys

Toni  <-----You're here

Donna

Anita

Angi

Judy

Mrs Duck

Pat

Tammy

Vannessa

Emily

Katy

Monika

Rocky

Ang

Cohenna

Graciela

Merethe