Hostess Gift Tags

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas!  We had a lovely Christmas with family, friends and lots of joy.  I, like many of you, have been MIA enjoying the Holidays.  I have sustained my crafty fix with packaging but have not yet gotten into the swing of making cards again.  I have missed my blogging pals but have continued to visit my favorite blogs as time allows.  Today I would like to share the tags I made for hostess gifts.  I used the same design for wine bottles and packages of spiced nuts and homemade Chai tea.  I based the tags on the color challenge at Cupcake Inspirations but added just a touch of green.

Creating a background with a variety of word stamps has been a popular technique and I wanted to give it a try.  I mounted a number of holiday words and sentiments on a clear block and stamped it in light blue on white card stock  I added a green snowflake and red die cut sentiments.  The panel was added to a green base and embellished with red pom-pom trim.  It was easy to mass produce the tags and I liked the consistency when I shared multiple treats with our Host and Hostess.

Here is a close up of the tag so you can see the details better.

Happy Stamping,

Dana

Poinsettia Tag

Tag It! is the challenge this week at Simon Wednesday Challenge.  I just so happen to need some tags.  I decided to make a tag for a bottle of RumChata.  I liked the idea of the white and gold bottle as a backdrop for a red poinsettia.  I stamped the poinsettia and leaves twice, embossed them in gold, water colored and then fussy cut them.  A bit of white glitter glue was added to the berries.  They were layered on a tag which I lightly stamped a dictionary page in light tan.  The sentiment was die cut from gold foil paper.  I am really pleased with how it looks on this fun bottle.

Happy Stamping,
Dana

Red Tree

The cue word this week at CASology is Tree.  I needed a few more Christmas cards so I went that direction with this card.  I wanted to use this fabulous tree die, but in a different way so I used red foil.  It was layered on a small panel and centered over a panel of patterned paper.  The sentiment was stamped in green, flagged and layered with a green border and a touch more of the red foil.

Happy Stamping,
Dana

Ornament Trio

STAMPlorations has a Theme & Sketch challenge.  This month the theme is Stamps and a Holiday and the sketch is shown below.  The design team has created fabulous inspiration cards.  Darnell is the guest designer and she is a terrific lady who has been so supportive as I started this blogging adventure.  I encourage you to visit her blog at djkardkreations for some great inspiration and a few laughs.

I decided to use both the theme and the sketch.  I lightly stamped the script on a white panel then added the greenery along the left side.  I used a Versamark pen and Cherry Cobbler embossing powder for the berries.  The ornaments were stamped, embossed and either die cut or punched.  They were layered up at different heights.  I tucked the sentiment up against the red ornament as I liked how they nested into each other.  A thin border of Cherry Cobbler card stock was added before mounting to a white card base.

Here is a close up.  Hopefully you can see the script background and the embossed berries and ornaments.

Happy Stamping,

Dana

Whoo Hoo, A Bit More Plaid!

Fab Friday has another great sketch and I thought it would work well for another deer Christmas card. The main panel is Cherry Cobbler Core'dinations paper which I distressed a bit to mimic the sketch.  I die cut a couple of deer and the sentiment in Soft Suede but I needed a home for the deer to rest.  I flipped through some patterned paper pads and this lovely little scrap surprised me.  I thought I used it all up on a card a few days ago.  It was the perfect choice for these deer.  The stars were given a little crystal effects and prisma glitter for a little shine and dimension.  Everything was layered up on a Very Vanilla card base.

Happy Stamping,

Dana

Blue Deer?

This week CAS Colours & Sketches has a fun challenge to use one of their 2015 color challenges as a Christmas project.  I decided to use color challenge 144 which is Night of Navy, Metallic Gold and Soft Sky.  I started with a white panel and sponged it with Soft Sky, then added some Night of Navy.  I heat embossed the star-like image in gold.  I cheated a little and embossed the deer in Pool Party (closest I had to Soft Sky) on gold foil paper.  IRL it is amazing, it looks like it has been enameled - pretty cool.  The deer was die cut and layered on the sponged panel which was trimmed in more gold foil before adding to a Night of Navy card base.  The  final touch was a rhinestone in the center of the star.  I felt something was missing but couldn't put my finger on it.  The more I looked at it, I like it just as it is as nothing detracts from the 2 main images.

I'm not sure what Glen will think of a blue deer.  He really likes the cards I make with deer or other wildlife images and he is definitely my biggest fan.  He often asks if I have a card for this person or that and very proudly lets the recipient know that I made the card.  Isn't he sweet?!

Happy Stamping,
Dana

Simple Christmas

I love light blue and red together for a Christmas card, well any card for that matter.  I think the blue brings a soft elegance and the red a bit of fun to a project.  The color challenge this week at TGIF Challenge drew me in right away.

I wanted a card that was primarily white with touches of soft Pool Party and a couple of punches of Real Red to liven things up.  I stamped a bit of Pool Party splatter to a Whisper White panel to ground the sentiment panel.  The panel was then dry embossed it with this lovely large leaf EF.  The sentiment was stamped on a bit of Pool Party card stock and a bit of white baker's twine was added.  I die cut a portion of a frame in Real Red card stock and added it to the sentiment panel.  Finally, the sentiment was added to the card base with a few dimensionals.  This is the short version of how this card came to be.  I did do a little playing around with elements before I landed here, but the result is just what I was looking for.

Happy Stamping,

Dana

Blue Reindeer Tags

I was excited to see the challenge at City Crafter Challenge this week was tags!  I'm finishing up my Christmas cards and will be moving on to packaging an other projects and this was the perfect opportunity to begin that process.  I used this terrific foil wrapping paper as the inspiration for my tags.

I plan to use these tags and the gifts will be distributed at different times so I wasn't too concerned that the tags coordinate with each other as much as with the paper.  I did carry a common theme of reindeer, rhinestones, color and ribbon for all of them.  I used a dark blue and white card stock as well as silver foil paper.  I heat embossed in white, silver and Pool Party.  Some sponging and die cutting and a bit of layering was also involved.  I did adhere the center tag to the blue base, but left the layers to move freely on the other two for a little bit of fun.

Week 290 ~ 123 TAG!

Happy Stamping,
Dana

Christmas Sleigh

I immediately thought of this sleigh image by Tim Holtz when I saw the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  It was stamped on Very Vanilla in Cherry Cobbler.  I love the retro look of this greeting and it was heat embossed in Cherry Cobbler on Very Vanilla and the end flagged.  I wanted a patterned paper on the bottom of the card and landed on this plaid as I thought it would stay in keeping with the retro feel of the images.  I love this plaid paper and have used it on a number of holiday cards and outdoor themed cards (fishing specifically).  This was my last remaining bit, so I'm also joining in at Pixie's Crafty Workshop as I am using this treasured snippet.  I played with a number of options for the horizontal trim and the winner was this strip of Basic Gray.  A few rhinestones bring a little bling and repeat the touch of gray.

Happy Stamping,
Dana

Merry Noel

My card today is based on the color challenge at Pals Paper Arts.  I recently purchased this super cute stamp set by Stampin' Up and haven't yet inked it up and I thought it was about time.  The plaid images in the stamp set led me to the plaid embossing folder used on the main panel of Crumb Cake.  I stamped the noel and trees multiple times to create a vertical panel.  The Merry Christmas was heat embossed in white and cut with a circle die.  A few Real Red borders were added and a touch of gold foil paper was used for the ornament hanger.

Happy Stamping,
Dana

Pink Stocking

I've missed blogging, I have been away far too long.  I have a cold and it has taken me down but I'm finally back in the craft room again.  I fell in love with the gorgeous inspiration photo at The Challenge and am glad that I had an opportunity to play along.  The challenge is to make a non-traditional Christmas card and I have been on a non-traditional kick so this is perfect for me.  By the way, there are a ton of a-maz-ing design team and challenge submissions - take a look if you have some time.

I contemplated using images that were non-traditional but couldn't really land on something that I liked.  So, I went back to the inspiration photo that I liked so well and decided to focus on the colors and the stockings.  My card is more on the sassy side than the sweet inspiration photo, but I am happy with how it turned out.

Happy Stamping,
Dana

Blue Snowflake

Today's card is based on the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  I kept it very true to the sketch and used very subtle colors.  I heat embossed the large snowflake in Pool Party on Very Vanilla card stock and die cut it.  I adhered some Lost Lagoon washi tape on a panel of Pool Party card stock and mounted the large snowflake with dimensionals.  I punched a couple of small snowflakes out of Very Vanilla and added them to the panel.  A few rhinestones and a sequin are the final decoration before mounting everything to a Very Vanilla card base.

Happy Stamping,

Dana

Jolly Retro Flakes

Today I'm playing along with the color challenge at Stamp Ink Paper Challenge.  The other day I was looking through the drawer where I keep my dies (originals, bigz, etc).  I tend to forget them as they are in a drawer.  All of my thinlits and framelits are out where I can see them.  At any rate, a die caught my eye.  It is an older Stampin' Up snowflake die and one of the images is kind of a retro star.  When I saw the bold colors in the challenge, I thought this could be a fun combo.  I cut out a number of the snowflakes in Cucumber Crush and Watermelon Wonder and positioned them on a white panel.  I die cut "Jolly" in black glimmer paper and also created a thin frame with the glimmer paper and mounted everything on a Watermelon Wonder card base.  I felt like something was missing so I cut a few small circles and layered them on top of the centers of the larger snowflakes.

Happy Stamping,
Dana

Soft Christmas Greetings

When I saw the CAS sketch at Can You Case It, I was excited to play along.  I chose to use snowflakes rather than stars on my card.  Apparently, I have a lot of snowflake images and it took a while to find the right scale to coordinate with the sentiment I wanted to use.  I love the retro feel of this sentiment.  I stamped and heat embossed it in Island Indigo.  The snowflakes were stamping in Pool Party, Mint Macaron and Pistachio Pudding.  I wasn't sure if there would be enough contrast with this color, but I LOVE the end result.  I splattered a little watered down glue and added some glitter.  Oh how I love the look of glitter, but not I'm not sure I'm down with the after effects.  I have a very festive floor around my craft space :)

Happy Stamping,
Dana

Thanksgiving Meets Christmas

My wishes for a very Happy Thanksgiving to my US friends and a perfectly wonderful day to my non-US friends!

Today I'm sharing 3 cards. The first two are based on the color challenge at Fab Friday.  These are lovely colors for a Thanksgiving card.  My first attempt was using a technique I learned many moons ago and I have seen it come around again recently as Joseph's coat technique.  I added an embossed panel that reminds me a bit of a blanket, a die cut sentiment and a few borders.

While the first card was pleasant, I didn't get the contrast I wanted so I took another go.  I chose to use a lot of white and add punches of the featured colors.  I started with a Blackberry Bliss card base in which I strategically placed squares of Cajun Craze and Hello Honey.   I die cut the squares with rounded corners from the main panel in which I stamped the sentiment.  This panel was mounted to the base with dimensionals.  The leaf was stamped in the 3 challenge colors, fussy cut and placed on the corresponding colored square.

My 3rd card was inspired by the challenge at CAS-ual Fridays.  This week's challenge is precious metals.  I thought why not go big.  I embossed a red metal sheet with a terrific 2 sided embossing folder by Spellbinders.  The design leave little room for embellishment, perfect for a CAS challenge.  I added a strip of silver glimmer paper to the top and bottom of the card to tie in with the sentiment which was also die cut from silver glimmer paper.  A silver rhinestone dots the "I".

Happy Stamping,
Dana

Nordic Skates

Today I am submitting my card to Pixie's Crafty Workshop as everything but the card base were snippets (even the bit of stitchery cotton was a left over bit).  It's been way too long since I played along.

I love the skates I used on this card.  Skating makes me happy but it's been many moons since I have skated, I may need to change that.  I selected the red patterned paper as it reminded me of a Nordic sweater and highlighted the bit of blue in the paper as my accent color.  I love red and light blue together.

Here is a close up of the skates to try to show the shine of the shimmer paper I used.  I had just enough to get these two skates out of my scrap, it was meant to be!

Happy Stamping,
Dana

Merry Ornament

The challenge at Uniko is Christmas with an optional twist of a CAS creation, just what I was looking for as my other cards lately have been a little fussy.  I heat embossed the ornament in gold.  Merry was cut 3 times and layered to give it some dimension and Christmas was stamped in green.  I dug out the old Stampin' Up set Perfect Plaids again to create the green stripes. Thin strips of gold foil paper were added to repeat the gold in the ornament.  The "M" in Merry gets a little lost in the photo, but the card is quite lovely IRL.

Happy Stamping,
Dana

Joy in the Forest

My card today is based on the sketch at Pals Paper Arts.  I just received the Stampin' Up Wonderland stamp set and was excited to use it. I stamped the pines in Mossy Meadow and a few times over the top with white craft ink. I cropped the panel and layered it on a trim Cherry Cobbler border and edged it with a zig zag trim of Tip Top Taupe.   I mounted it to a Mossy Meadow card base.  The reindeer was stamped in Tip Top Taupe and then die cut.  He was mounted to the panel with dimensionals and I added a bronze pearl for his eye.  I die cut 3 Cherry Cobbler circles and topped them with Whisper White die cut letters.  They were added to the card with extra thick foam squares.  I love how the white letters pop on the card.

Happy Stamping,
Dana

Blue & Gray Christmas

I'm excited to play along at City Crafter Challenge, it's been a while since I have had an opportunity and I always enjoy their challenges.  I was drawn to the winter barnyard scene in the inspiration photo and thought this lovely stamp of a wintery house would be a good choice.  This was another card that took a lot of twists and turns.  It ended up with more gray than my original plan but I'm on a non-traditional Christmas color roll so it works for me.  My nod to the silver is the silver embossed sentiment and trio of rhinestones.  I've been doing a lot of heat embossing lately, maybe it's the Christmas card spree?  I had gotten away from it for quite a long time, but have really enjoyed the effect lately.

Happy Stamping,
Dana

Chocolate at Christmas

I love blue and brown together so when I saw the inspiration photo at The Challenge I knew I wanted to play along.  I hadn't fully formulated what I wanted to do, but I thought it would include snowflakes.  I have enjoyed using non-traditional colors on Christmas cards this year so this would fit right in.  I tucked that away and was working on the sketch challenge at Mojo Monday.  While considering the elements I wanted to use, I decided to use a snowflake for the circle shape in the sketch.  So the stars aligned and I realized this would be a great sketch to use with the colors I planned for the inspiration challenge.

I used Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy and Whisper White for my colors.  The brown panel was dry embossed.  The sentiment and snowflake were heat embossed.  Everything was layered up and a rhinestone was added to the snowflake and a lovely snowflake charm added to the flags.

Happy Stamping,
Dana

Wine Tag

I recently came a across a challenge called Nacho Average Challenges.  The name just made me giggle, isn't it awesome?  They had a color challenge this week but I must have missed the close time to link up my project.  Oh well, I had fun with the colors and they were the inspiration I needed and that's why I do this. (Update: I was able to load my project to the linky - yeah!  For some reason the tool wasn't showing in my browser, so I switched browsers) I was drawn to the colors as I thought they would be perfect to accent the bottle of wine I plan to bring to Thanksgiving dinner for our hosts.  It's a Malbec, so I thought the Rich Razzleberry would be a nod to the wine color plus the bottle has accents of Early Espresso.

I stamped the wood grain pattern in Early Espresso on Very Vanilla card stock.  The leaves were heat embossed in Old olive and Rich Razzleberry then fussy cut.  The sentiment and acorn were heat embossed in Early Espresso.  I did sneak in a touch of Delightful Dijon to highlight the acorn.  Everything was layered up with a touch of jute and some card stock layers.  I'm so glad to have this done ahead of time and not rushing around on Thanksgiving trying to embellish the bottle.

Happy Stamping,
Dana