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