FMS654 Peaceful Pines

Yay!  It's Friday!  My sweet friend Jen at Freshly Made Sketches has a fun sketch this week:

Normally I try to think outside the box with sketches, but this one just screamed "trees" so I went in search of a die that I got last year but I don't know that I ever used it!  So here we go:

I began with a Soft Succulent card base, then I diecut my Memory Box trees in Evening Evergreen and Thick Basic White cardstocks; I added an Adhesive sheet to the back of the white to make it easier to adhere.  I found some pretty "tree" paper from Tidings of Christmas in my retired stash, but it was too busy with the diecuts, so I added a layer of vellum to soften it.  Here's what it looks like under the vellum:

I adhered my trees to the vellum, added a silver sequin:

And added a couple of horizontal panels, one another piece of the Tidings of Christmas under the vellum, and Basic White on top.  The sentiment is from Impression Obsession, stamped in Evening Evergreen:

The die actually cuts three trees, so I adhered the last one to the inside, along with a sentiment from Flonzcraft, a company from New Zealand:

So happy you visited today!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Christmas Words (Impression Obsession), Vintage Christmas (Flonzcraft)
Card stock & Papers	Thick Basic White, Adhesive Sheet,  Evening Evergreen (ret), Soft Succulent (ret), Tidings of Christmas DSP (ret), Vellum (ret)
Ink	Evening Evergreen
Accessories	Silver Sequins (ret)
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Layered Narrow Pines Dies (Memory Box)

52CCCTD28 Fussy Cut Vintage Christmas Deer

Hello everyone!  I was thrilled to be chosen as a 52 Christmas Card Throwdown winner recently, so I am guesting this week for their current challenge!  This week we're concentrating on fussy-cutting, where you cut out an image rather than use a die!  Here's the prompt:

I had several ideas for this challenge but in the end, I decided to use a little retro deer image because I found some retro deer papers that I thought would be fun to use!  So here we go:

These cute retro papers were some I got last year in a Simon Says Stamp kit.  I have no idea the name of the papers, though, sorry!  Anyway, the deer reminded me of a little deer stamp I got years ago from Artistic Outpost, so I stamped the image three times: once in Soft Sea Foam (for the trees), once in Pebbled Path (for the shadows), and once in Pecan Pie (for the deer).  After coloring in the deer with some ink and an aquapainter, and adding the spots with a white gel pen, I fussy-cut everything out and adhered the elements to the Pebbled Path image, which I had diecut with a Stylish Shapes die.  Before adhering, I did use a blending brush to add some Soft Sky to the background:

I added a glimmer paper scallop piece behind it, which is prettier in real life than shows here, and an Impression Obsession sentiment at the bottom:

For the corner embellishments, I added some subtle sequins so as not to detract too much from the central image.

Everything was mounted on a Pistachio Pudding card base, and I stamped this retro sentiment from Flonzcraft in Mint Macaron ink:

I love how this turned out, even though it took a little extra time for the fussy-cutting, it was still a fun card to create!  I hope you'll get out your sharp scissors and do a little fussy-cutting for the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown challenge!  Share it over at the blog, so we all can enjoy it!  Thanks for visiting today--enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Frosty & Friends (Artistic Outpost), Christmas Sentiments (Flonzcraft), Christmas Words (Impression Obsession)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Pistachio Pudding (ret), Glimmer Specialty Paper (ret), Vintage Deer DSP (unknown)
Ink	Pebbled Path, Pecan Pie, Soft Sea Foam, Soft Sky (ret)
Accessories	Sequins from my Stash, Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Stylish Shapes Dies, Layering Circles Dies (ret), Bitty Banner Dies (ret), Aquapainter, White Gel Pen (Posca), Wink of Stella, Real Red Marker

TH Vintage Santa Christmas

Happy Thursday, peeps! I have another Christmas card for you; I have SO many Christmas stamps and I just can't get to them all in one year...but I'm trying!  This one uses a Tim Holtz embossing folder that I didn't even know I HAD!  I paired it with a TH vintage Santa, tree and star, along with some other vintage-y looking doo-dads!  Here we go:

I started by embossing a piece of Cherry Cobbler cardstock and sponging it with some Cinnamon Cider ink, then stamped a Crumb Cake panel with a Cornish Heritage Farms sheet music stamp and the tree from Tim Holtz's Holiday Things set in Evening Evergreen.  I stamped the Santa and star on Basic White in Cherry Cobbler and also sponged them.  In hindsight, I wish I had used Very Vanilla!  I added some gold glimmer paper diecuts in the corners:

and a sentiment from a fun company called Flonzcraft, headquartered in New Zealand!  Isn't that a pretty font?

One of their sentiments for the inside too!  Thanks for popping in today!

I promised some more pictures of Longwood; here you go:

This is the view as you walk into the conservatory, with my favorite tree in the background!

This tree was made of succulents!  Check out the "stars" at the top!

This tree was decorated with all kinds of natural things--pine cones and dried foliage and lots and lots of lights!

John "warming" himself by the fireplace....the swag was probably 6' across!

And this was such a cool display: a whole wall of wreaths and everything you can think of with which to decorate them!  I could have just looked at it all day!

Thanks for visiting today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Holiday Things (Tim Holtz), Vintage Christmas Sentiment (Flonzcraft), Aged Sheet Music (Cornish Heritage Farms)
Card stock & Papers	Crumb Cake, Basic White, Evening Evergreen, Cherry Cobbler, Gold Glimmer (ret)
Ink	Cherry Cobbler, Evening Evergreen, Cinnamon Cider
Accessories	Dimensionals, Sponge Daubers, Blending Brush
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Stylish Shapes Dies, Detailed Deer Dies (ret), Deckle Edge Dies, Christmas Words EF (Tim Holtz)

AYSI280 My Favorite Christmas in July

Happy Friday, peeps!  Time for a new As You See It challenge, and we're challenging you to fill in the blank!  Tell us what you like to create most for a Christmas in July project!

It could be a card, a 3D item, a hand-created gift item....anything!  I love making Christmas cards, that's why I began stamping, and I especially love vintage images!  I have had some gorgeous vintage papers that I've been hesitant to use because they are 6"x8", so I decided to make a tall card so that I could highlight a couple of them!  So here we go: 

This card is a whopping 8 1/4" x 4 1/8" and fits nicely into a business size envelope.  I fussy-cut the Santa image and adhered him atop some vintage ephemera paper and adhered it to my Naturals White card.  

I used a vintage sentiment, stamped in Cherry Cobbler on a piece of paper from the same pad, and created a mat from the print on the opposite side.  I added some large holly leaves cut from some Be Dazzling specialty paper SU had from last year, along with some Cherry Cobbler glimmer paper berries and swirl:

Finally, on the inside, another vintage sentiment from Flonzcraft along with some stamped holly:

I hope you'll play along with our Christmas in July "Fill in the Blank" challenge and share your favorite Christmas creation over at As You See It!  Can't wait to see it! And be sure to  check out what the DT created as well...they're pretty awesome!

Yesterday was my birthday, and I want to thank everyone who sent cards and well wishes!  I'll share some pictures of the cards in the coming days!  John and I went to see Jersey Boys on Sunday as my birthday present, and on the way, we stopped at Burger King---not my favorite fast food place, but it was convenient.  When I saw this big emblem as we walked in, I made John take my picture with it...now you know how old I am!  As old as BK, obviously!  

Thanks for popping in -- enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Vintage Christmas (Flonzcraft-inside sentiment), Vintage Christmas (No-name mfg, holly & outside sentiment)
Card stock & Papers	Be Dazzling Specialty Paper (ret), Cherry Cobbler Glimmer Paper (ret), Naturals White (ret), Simple Vintage Christmas DSP (Simple Stories)
Ink	Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, Sahara Sand
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Holly & Berry Branch Die (Penny Black), Cardinal Dies (ret)

Holly & Ivy Christmas

 Happy Saturday, peeps!  The Jingle Belles "Holly & Ivy" challenge this week conjured up a plethora of gorgeous Christmas papers that I have in my stash!  These papers are from Simple Stories' Simple Vintage Christmas line:

I used the sketch from TGIF for my layout:

and simply cut layers from the papers in the pad!  Aren't they pretty?  All paper---no stamping!

I used a retired SU die to create my "sentiment", three layers of Mossy Meadow cardstock adhered together.  A few sequins to embellish:

And a Flonzcraft vintage sentiment for the inside:

Thanks for popping in today! And be sure to stop back tomorrow for a new Paper Players challenge!

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."  Philippians 3:6-7

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Vintage Christmas Sentiments (Flonzcraft)
Card stock & Papers	Naturals White (ret), Mossy Meadow, Simple Vintage Christmas DSP (Simple Stories), Adhesive Sheets
Ink	Mossy Meadow
Accessories	Sequins (Pretty Pink Posh)
Tools	Big Shot, Christmas Greetings Dies (ret)

Retro Santa

Happy Monday, peeps!  Hope you had a good weekend...was it hot where you were?  It was hot here!  How about a Christmas card to cool you off?  The Christmas Card Throwdown challenge wants to see Santa, and the Less Is More challenge wants a one-layer Christmas card!  Coming right up!

This retro Santa flying by on his reindeer is a favorite of mine; it's from a company from NZ called Flonzcraft!  So here we go:

I used my stamparatus to get a good inking of Real Red, and the sentiment is Shaded Spruce.  To jazz him up a bit, I added some Dazzling Diamonds glitter to his beard and trim:

The sentiments are from the same company; I love the vintage/retro feel to them!  Here's the inside:

Thanks for popping in today! 

A little pool volley ball:

Oops!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Dashing Santa, Vintage Sentiments (both Flonzcraft)
Card stock & Papers	Thick Whisper White
Ink	Real Red, Shaded Spruce
Accessories	Dazzling Diamonds Glitter (ret)
Tools	Stamparatus, Glue Pen